Good morning. Wendy Cox in Vancouver today.
On Tuesday, B.C. Education Minister Rob Fleming made the obvious choice: He declared that students would not be returning to classes at the scheduled start of the school year on Sept. 8.
For anxious British Columbia parents trying to figure out what the next few months look like for their students, the choice was sensible. How could they possibly start on time when districts have until Aug. 26 to alert parents to exactly when during the day their kids will be in class, how they will be sorted into “cohorts” of 60 other students in the lower grades and 120 in senior grades, whether subjects will be offered year-round or whether students will be put on a semester system, how classrooms will be re-arranged to account for physical-distancing measures, among other details.
Teachers have been arguing they need more time to figure all this out and last week, the group representing principals and vice-principals issued a statement agreeing that more time was needed before students are welcomed back.
But Mr. Fleming didn’t say when, exactly, the new start date would be.
In the meantime, parents must still sort through for themselves whether to outfit their kids with masks and when to suggest they wear them. B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry says masks are recommended for students when they are in common areas and physical distancing is difficult. That’s consistent with federal guidelines issued over the weekend by the Public Health Agency of Canada recommending kids aged 10 and up wear masks in places like shared hallways.
Ontario has already announced that students in Grade 4 and up will be required to wear masks, including in class, while younger students will be encouraged but not mandated to do the same. Alberta is requiring masks for students in Grade 4 and up in common areas, but not in class if students are working at their desks. Nova Scotia is requiring them for high-school students in common areas, but not in class.
Saskatchewan is leaving it up to districts to decide if masks will be mandatory.
British Columbia, however, is leaving masks optional, though recommended in certain scenarios such as when students take public transit. Last week, the transit authority in the Vancouver area made them mandatory.
Dr. Henry was repeatedly asked Monday about British Columbia’s decision to avoid making masks mandatory in schools. She disagreed with any suggestion that B.C. was out-of-step with the federal guidelines.
“As I said several times, there is a role for masks and there is absolutely permissive roles for children to wear masks. We know, though, that masks are the least effective part of our layers of protection and we will be building all of those into our school system,” she said, noting that for younger children, masks can inhibit learning.
“What we are saying aligns completely with what [Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer] Dr Theresa Tam was saying; it’s recommended for older children in those situations where it’s important and I think we also need to remember, where some physical distancing can’t be. She did not in any way say it should be mandated in any school situation.”
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.
AROUND THE WEST
ALBERTA DOCTOR KILLED: Investigators believe the murder of an Alberta doctor who was killed in his walk-in medical clinic was premeditated and that he knew his attacker. Walter Reynolds was killed on Monday after a man alleged to be carrying a machete visited the Village Mall Walk-In Clinic in Red Deer, located about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton. A patient who was in the clinic described hearing banging noises and screams from an examination room, which prompted two other patients to hold the door shut to keep the suspect inside until police arrived. Deng Mabiour, 54, has been charged with first-degree murder, as well as assaulting another doctor and a police officer. Supt. Gerald Grobmeier of the RCMP says investigators believe Dr. Reynolds knew his attacker through the clinic but he did not describe a potential motive.
Dr. Reynolds’s death has prompted an outpouring of support from his colleagues and the broader community in Red Deer. A GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his daughters has brought in more than $100,000. People who knew Dr. Reynolds have described him as a devoted father and husband who was dedicated to helping his patients. He grew up in South Africa and moved to Canada shortly after university. Carin Booysen, a family friend who lives in South Africa, said the doctor was smart, a good piano player and also very athletic. “He was an extremely loving father and I think he did the best for his children by going to Canada.”
VPD’S MENTAL HEALTH UNIT: A sergeant in the Vancouver Police Department’s mental-health unit says she could use double the personnel to respond to the number of calls requiring her 13-member team’s specialized skills. However, the mayor says the police department will have to get creative in how it approaches a continuing mental-health crisis because new funding is unlikely as protesters in Vancouver and across North America call for less – not more – police resources. The VPD says it is impossible to add officers to the unit, which formed in 2012 with three members, without more funding because it is one of “many front-line teams that are in need of more resources.” Increasing staff there would also deplete the patrols needed to keep the city safe at all hours, the department added.
NHL RAFFLES: A record-setting Edmonton Oilers 50/50 draw won’t have a winner for several more days as officials work out problems with the online raffle. Ascend Fundraising Solutions, which ran the online draw, said its servers were overwhelmed with requests to purchase tickets. At certain points, it said, demand exceeded $100,000 in tickets per minute, causing slow loading times, geolocation errors and duplication of some orders.The community foundation said all tickets for the Friday draw, which hit more than $15-million, remain valid. But Alberta fans who want to void any ticket purchases will have until noon Thursday to make those requests and get a refund before a final total is determined and a winning ticket is drawn.
Meanwhile the Calgary Flames are having raffle problems too. They have temporarily halted their online 50/50 game-day raffle due to “unforeseen circumstances.” The National Hockey League team announced the move Tuesday in an e-mail sent to season-ticket holders. The team didn’t say whether the postponement was related to the problems experienced by the Edmonton Oilers, but Flames officials confirmed the two teams use the same software provider for their raffles.
YOUNG COUPLE KILLED BY TORNADO: People in a small town in southwestern Manitoba are trying to cope with the loss of a young couple killed by a tornado that touched down on a highway and tossed their vehicle into a field. Shayna Barnesky was with her boyfriend, Carter Tilbury, when the twister hit the area near Virden, Man., on Friday night. RCMP said they were ejected from vehicle and died at the scene. The pair, both 18, had known each other their entire lives growing up in Melita, about 68 kilometres south of where the storm hit. Ms. Barnesky had just finished high school and Mr. Tilbury graduated the year before. She planned to work for a year before furthering her education, while he planned to go to Assiniboine Community College to become an automotive technician.
NATURAL GAS DEAL: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is buying Painted Pony Energy Ltd. for $111-million to beef up its position in a natural gas-rich region of British Columbia at a fraction of what it would have paid three years ago. In the friendly deal, Canadian Natural, one of the country’s biggest producers, has agreed to pay 69 cents a share in cash for Painted Pony, representing a premium of 17 per cent over the target’s closing market price on Friday. Canadian Natural will also assume $350-million of debt, bringing the total value to $461-million. [for subscribers]
LAWSUIT: A chain of hair salons is at the centre of a lawsuit that their lawyer hopes will become a class action with more businesses suing to force insurance companies to pay out claims for the cessation of business as a result of the pandemic. The claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court was launched by Great Clips, which owns and operates eight hair salons across British Columbia and sought insurance relief in March as the pandemic gained momentum and temporarily shut down their business. However, the claim says, Intact Insurance Company, which provided Great Clips with business-interruption insurance, refused to pay out in May “on grounds that the requisite loss or damage to insured property had not been satisfied.” Great Clips lawyer Tony Merchant said that he would welcome other plaintiffs as part of the suit because it would underline the seriousness of the matter, and that many businesses have lost millions of dollars during the pandemic, and are searching for some means of getting compensation. He said his firm has been contacted by more than 500 business owners raising concerns about the issue.
CONTACT-TRACING APP: The Alberta government will adopt the federal COVID-19 exposure app, after earlier insisting Ottawa should help the province fix its own smartphone contact-tracing system that had been beset by technical limitations and user complaints. ABTraceTogether, released in May and based on a system already in use in Singapore, was hampered by technical issues on iPhones that made it less effective and opened up potential security risks. Ottawa recently released its COVID Alert app in Ontario with plans to roll it out in other provinces. The app uses a system designed by Google and Apple that avoids the problems encountered in Alberta.
SHANNON PHILLIPS: Shannon Phillips, a member of the legislature with the New Democratic Party, has appealed to the Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) to throw out temporary demotions against two members of the Lethbridge Police Service in favour of relieving Sergeant Jason Carrier and Constable Keon Woronuk of their duties. The officers were sanctioned last month after targeting her and people meeting with her in a diner in 2017.
THREATS TO MOE: Police in Regina have charged a man after he allegedly left threatening voice mails for Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. They say Moe was aware of the messages and carried on with his schedule under the watch of security from RCMP. Officers also added that similar messages were left at a non-government agency on Saturday and, later that day, a suspect was arrested. Ernest Miller of Regina, who is 48, is to appear in Regina court in September on a charge of uttering threats.
TEN YEARS AFTER THE MV SUN SEA ARRIVED: As this week marks the 10-year anniversary of the ship’s arrival, Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Multiculturalism, said the event is an “important learning experience” for Canada. But after a decade, some of these Tamil asylum-seekers are still waiting to be granted permanent residency in Canada. However, they feel grateful to the country for offering them a new life.
TESTING TROUBLES ON SET: Production on the high-profile U.S. TV series The Good Doctor, shot in the Vancouver region, has been suspended because of a dispute over testing crews for COVID-19. The fourth season of The Good Doctor, about a California surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, played by Freddie Highmore, was supposed to start Aug. 10. But it was suspended on July 31, affecting hundreds of workers. A Sony Pictures Television spokesperson linked the shutdown of the show to “an issue with COVID-19 testing” and said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that Sony was trying to resolve the matter with the British Columbia Council of Film Unions. The development follows the B.C. government touting the resumption of work in the province’s production sector.
Wendy Cox
James Keller