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The federal government’s long-awaited ban on assault-style rifles may finally be coming soon.
The move, which was promised after the fall election, comes after another deadly mass shooting in Nova Scotia earlier this month.
Sources tell The Globe and Mail that key gun-control measures have already been approved by the Liberal cabinet. A formal announcement is expected in the coming days.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
A Canadian military helicopter taking part in a NATO mission crashed off the coast of Greece, killing six people. The first person identified was Sub-Lieutenant Abbigail Cowbrough, of Nova Scotia, well known back home for playing the bagpipes.
As Quebec prepares to reopen schools and many businesses next month, it’s not clear that the province’s hospitals will be able to keep up with a surge of new coronavirus cases.
The Ontario government tried to get 100-million new medical masks earlier this month as its supplies were about to run out – and this is how that deal fell apart.
Former Ontario cabinet minister Glen Murray is running for leader of the federal Green Party.
Conservative MP Derek Sloan is facing push back in his caucus over his comments about the Chief Public Health Officer.
Questions about the coronavirus, where it came from and how the early days of its outbreak were handled are further fueling tensions between China and western countries.
The CFL players’ union says it’s not happy with the league’s request for up to $150-million in federal funds because, the union says, the plan leaves out other workers around the game, such as those who sell tickets at the stadiums. It is looking likely that the football league’s 2020 season will be cancelled because of COVID-19.
And the City of Ottawa is walking back its ban on families talking to relatives at long-term care homes through windows. City bureaucrats had ordered the ban because they said families were not respecting physical distancing outside the facilities. Many Ottawa residents said the ban was cruel because it would sever some much needed human connection.
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail) on whether we will learn lessons from this pandemic: “But time will inevitably dull our collective recollection of the pain we’re experiencing now, and textbooks and discussion papers for future generations won’t be able to convey the visceral urgency we now understand only by living through a deadly pandemic. Indeed, if collective anxiety could translate through generations, anti-vaxxers wouldn’t exist 70 years after parents watched a polio epidemic take out their children.”
Ian Mosby and Sarah Rotz (The Globe and Mail) on the pressures to the food supply chain: “Throughout the food chain, extreme corporate concentration has seen the slice of the economic pie grow dramatically in these companies’ favour, while only the largest farm operations have been able to stay profitable. Even then, these farms have gone into millions of dollars of debt while continually being pressed to overlook their lands’ soil and environmental health, cut labour costs and become dependent on temporary foreign workers and undocumented labourers.”
Diane Francis (National Post) on tensions within the United States: “Today, the ‘two Americas’ are more incompatible and, in policy terms, irreconcilable. This led to the unprecedented declaration of independence by blue state coalitions from federal pandemic efforts, in order to access equipment, initiate research, test, track and plan strategies to safely reopen their economies. As they move out from under Washington’s thumb, it’s important to note that these states are the financial underpinning of the United States and their increasing alienation represents an existential threat to a united country.”
Kathleen Finlay (Ottawa Citizen) on the toll the pandemic is taking on mental health: “Just as test kits, masks and other personal protective equipment are vital in combatting the spread of the virus, one-on-one, compassionate mental health counselling is absolutely essential in combatting its toxic impact on our emotional wellbeing. Canada needs a game changer in the way it is answering its national mental health crisis.”
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