TORONTO As the Ontario government walks back their latest measures that gave police the power to stop residents at random, officers can still ticket those they believe are participating in public events or gatherings, which advocates say pose a serious safety concern for people of colour. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the new measures on Friday, but revised them the next day following public backlash. Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said on Saturday that officers will no longer have the right to randomly stop any pedestrian or vehicle to ask why they are out or request their home address.
April 18, 2021 Reading time: 3 min 30 s
Jim McDonell, MPP Jim McDonell.
Over the week, the province’s active cases continue to spike, stretching our hospitals and their intensive care facilities to capacity. Patients are being transported between hospitals, regions, and provinces to access emergency services. While thousands of additional hospital beds have been added, the staff required to operate them has become very difficult to find. The new variants are proving to be much more contagious than the original virus and are now responsible for over 70 percent of the cases across the entire province, including our region. New tighter restrictions were put in place to bring the caseload under control, but we know that it takes three to four weeks to bring this caseload down to acceptable levels. We need everyone’s patience and cooperation. The variants may be new, but the medical experts agree that the key to s
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A record number of Ontarians are in hospital with COVID-19, according to figures released by the province Sunday.
Government figures show that 2,107 people are in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19, a single day record, with 741 of them in intensive care. Of those, 506 are on ventilators, which means theyâre battling severe cases of COVID-19.
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The province reported 4,250 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, down slightly from the previous dayâs total (4,362).
Ottawa reported 239 new cases of COVID-19 to the province Sunday, but Ottawa Public Health will release an updated figure later today. The city recorded 241 new COVID-19 cases in the city on Saturday, plus two new deaths.