Roundup: Cautious progress in most places

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For his daily presser, prime minister Justin Trudeau led off by teasing that new federal modelling numbers were on the way, before mentioning the global vaccination pledging conference, and then turned to domestic measures to help seniors, announcing that their additional OAS and GIS payment would go out on July 6th. During the Q&A, there were questions on Huawei (as the US is making more clear threats to limit intelligence sharing with Canada if they aren’t banned), the fact that he hasn’t been more equivocal in denouncing Trump, and recent instances of police violence and misconduct in Canada such as one in Nunavut.

As promised, the new federal modelling numbers were released shortly thereafter, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the two biggest problem areas in the country remain Toronto and Montreal. There remain warnings that we could see another outbreak if testing and tracing regimes aren’t increased. This having been said, I think it was the data released by BC yesterday that was even more interesting.

One is the data around contact tracing (which that province can seem to manage, but Ontario can’t in its epic managerial incompetence), and it shows that once lockdown measures were in place, the number of contacts that infected people made dropped from 10.7 per case to 3.6, which is a pretty effective demonstration of why physical or social distancing matters.

The other is this analysis of the genomic epidemiology of the virus – as in, where it’s travelled from, because there are small mutations based on where it’s come from, and lo and behold, the vast majority of them were from European/Eastern Canadian strains and very few from China. But hey, the Conservatives and others keep insisting that if only we’d closed the border to China sooner, this all could have been avoided. This data proves that simply wasn’t the case (despite what people like Dr. Theresa Tam have been saying already) – not that it will stop their revisionist history. Nevertheless, it’s interesting stuff.

Good reads:

  • “Virtual” citizenship ceremonies are on the way, but that leaves out some of the building of feelings of inclusion that these in-person ceremonies can create.
  • Six weeks later, the promised programme to offer grants of up to $5000 for student volunteers still hasn’t launched.
  • Oh noes! Government ad-spending on the pandemic! What is not mentioned here is that these ad-buys are also de facto support for struggling media outlets.
  • Here is an exploration of the issues around the rent subsidy, including how provinces like Ontario aren’t being helpful enough.
  • Briefing notes show that Bill Blair has been warned that CBSA officers are being targeted by organized crime as part of smuggling operations.
  • Here is a trade lawyer’s analysis of how Canada would be free to tax web giants under the New NAFTA, in spite of any American bluster.
  • Here is a look at the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, and the persistent problem of “hesitancy” in the population.
  • CMHC is tightening requirements for mortgage insurance again to help curtail the excessive demand and unsustainable price growth.
  • Environmental and Indigenous groups are calling on the Alberta government to resume its environmental monitoring, which they suspended “for the pandemic.”
  • Celina Caesar-Chavannes looks at places where the federal government should be tackling systemic racism, including with the basic math of their funding models.
  • Colby Cosh tackles the issue of police body-cams, and the need for very immediate top-end accountability when they are “conveniently” switched off.
  • Heather Scoffield hopes that the sudden moves to supporting the homeless during the pandemic will be kept up once it’s over with.
  • Jesse Kline makes the Conservative case for demilitarizing the police, and calls out their ideological blind spot when it comes to police overreaches.
  • Robert Hiltz has no time for Bill Blair’s hypocritical tweets during protests about police brutality, and wonders about the humiliation of being a powerless minister.

Odds and ends:

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