Morning Update: With a mass expansion of the COVID-19 vaccine program just weeks away, are provinces ready for the rollout?

Good morning,

Pharmacies, doctors and other key health care providers say they aren’t fully included in some provincial plans for COVID-19 vaccination efforts, adding to concerns that when vaccine shipments do ramp up in the coming weeks health systems could soon become overwhelmed.

Provinces are beginning to prepare for the mass inoculation campaign. Vaccination sites will include stadiums and drive-thru clinics at amusement parks. People in professions such as massage therapy and acupuncture will be trained to deliver jabs.

With millions of vaccine doses set to arrive in Canada over the coming weeks, experts say the provinces will have to move to get needles in arms as fast as possible, with particular attention to those at highest risk.

Read more:

COVID-19 vaccinations could allow toughest restrictions to lift before September, Dr. Tam says

Ottawa must address mistakes regarding COVID-19 pandemic preparedness, experts say

Thunder Bay grapples with COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional facilities, homeless population

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Federal prisons still use solitary confinement, report says

Nearly two years after Ottawa declared an end to unlawful prisoner isolation tactics, federal prisons continue to practise solitary confinement and torture, according to the latest report from two government-appointed researchers.

Using data supplied by the Correctional Service of Canada, or CSC, criminologists Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott have examined how well the penitentiary system is conforming with new laws that grant isolated prisoners more time outside their cells to align with court decisions and international standards.

The findings offer a bleak assessment of progress at the national jailer as it struggles to comply with prison legislation that many civil liberties advocates consider inadequate to protect the Charter rights of inmates.

Schools inconsistent in teaching students about sex trafficking in Canada

Efforts across the country to teach students about sex trafficking are inconsistent even though schools are a prime target for perpetrators to recruit kids.

Experts who work with victims and survivors say students need to learn how to recognize recruitment techniques so they can get help, and also need to learn about gender inequity and poverty, which may lead people into the world of trafficking.

Most provinces said their curriculums do not specifically name “sex trafficking” as an issue to be addressed in their schools and no province guarantees through education legislation that the topic is covered.

Read more:

How Canada’s sex traffickers evade capture and isolate victims to prevent their escape

Ontario tables legislation aimed at ending human trafficking

Video: How a sex-trafficking survivor is now helping others to break free

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Trudeau, Biden pledge to tackle climate change, fight for release of two Michaels: Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden will unveil more aggressive targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions within the next two months as they forge a North American alliance to battle climate change. And Mr. Biden is vowing to fight for the release of two Canadians imprisoned in China, warning Beijing that “human beings are not bartering chips.”

MPs urge Ottawa to act on China genocide motion as Beijing lashes out: MPs from the Liberal Party and opposition politicians are calling on the government to create a refugee program to provide safe haven for Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, to toughen rules preventing the import of goods made with forced labour and to impose sanctions on top Chinese officials responsible for the repression following a parliamentary motion declaring China’s persecution of Muslim minorities to be genocide yesterday.

Also: Canadians’ impressions of U.S. improve, while sentiment toward China worsens, poll shows

Tiger Woods undergoes surgery for leg injuries sustained in car accident: Tiger Woods was seriously injured Tuesday when his SUV rolled over and ended up on its side in suburban Los Angeles, authorities said. The golf superstar had to be pulled out through the windshield, and his agent said he was undergoing leg surgery.

MORNING MARKETS

Europe starts higher: European shares opened generally higher on Wednesday but world shares remained in the red after a weak Asian session, even after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against inflation fears. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.05 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.77 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.61 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.99 per cent. New York futures edged higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.52 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Gary Mason: “At the end of the day, though, churches can’t be exempt from laws put in place to protect broader society. Churches have caused superspreader events that have infected multitudes of people. Many of those who attend church are older, and thus more vulnerable to having a deadly response to COVID-19 should they contract it. Surely, our faith leaders don’t want that. And surely, no government would just sit back and allow that to continue just because churches insist it is their God-given right.”

Robyn Urback: “Those who don’t find a loophole will be forced to oblige by Canada’s half-baked, leaky and largely performative three-day hotel program, which is at once not strict enough to meaningfully control the potential influx of infection but still intrusive enough to raise serious constitutional questions, particularly amid a lack of public-health evidence for its construction. This program might be successful in deterring a few spur-of-the-moment trips to Palm Springs, but based on its many apparent opportunities for contagion, that might be about all it will do.”

Rob Carrick: “In the pandemic hothouse, we’ve reached a level of intensity and disruption that has taken us very far from the usual rhythms of personal finance and investing. A quick review of what’s normal and abnormal might be useful to the young adults who are getting the money lesson of their lives right now.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Globe Craft Club: Get your needle and thread ready – it’s time to learn to embroider

For our fourth Craft Club class on March 2 at 7p.m. ET, we will learn embroidery from Neda Toloui-Semnani, a writer and journalist who lives in New York City. Watch the livestream embroidery class on March 2 at 7 p.m. ET at tgam.ca/craftclub or on Facebook, and join the conversation on our Craft Club Facebook group.

MOMENT IN TIME: FEB. 24, 1942

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Internment of Japanese Canadians begins

My grandfather, Masanari Yokoyama, didn’t know how long he would be away, so he left his horse with a neighbour. Then he and his pregnant wife, Tamae, and four children had to abandon their house and berry farm near Langley, B.C., and set off for an Interior ghost town called Sandon. That summer of 1942, they were among the 22,000 Canadians of Japanese heritage interned after a fateful February decision by the Mackenzie King government. British Columbia politicians had been pushing for laws restricting Japanese-Canadians for decades, limiting immigration, reducing their participation in various industries and denying the vote. Fears of a fifth column during the Second World War prompted calls for mass evacuation, despite the RCMP and military insisting the measure was unwarranted. King ceded to fear. Everyone “of the Japanese race” living within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of the coast had to move, including those born in Canada and including my grandfather, who had immigrated here in 1919. Land and belongings were seized by the Custodian of Enemy Property and sold cheaply without the owners’ permission. Ultimately, no Japanese-Canadian was charged with sabotage. In 1988, the government apologized and offered $21,000 to survivors. My grandfather had died the previous year. Joy Yokoyama

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