Here are today’s new developments:
- Canada’s Minister of Transport announced new requirements for the use of face coverings among transportation workers on modes of transport including rail, road, marine, and aviation.
- Trudeau will deliver remarks at a virtual summit of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, and is expected to promise support for developing countries hit hard by the pandemic.
- Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh condemned Trudeau’s failure yesterday to criticize the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump, and called Trump’s actions “reprehensible."
- In Ontario, a day after Doug Ford told reporters that Canada does not have “systemic, deep roots” of racism, Andrea Horwath called on the Premier to issue an emergency order to begin the collection of race-based data when it comes to the province’s health care delivery.
Here are some concerns the I'm working on, and solutions I'm pushing for:
- During question period this morning, Horwath read parts of an anguished letter from Dorothy Rodriques to MPP Faisal Hassan (York South-Weston). Dorothy is the widow of Leonard Rodriques, a Black PSW who died of COVID-19 after not getting proper PPE at work, and after being sent home from the hospital despite his debilitating COVID-19 symptoms. Dorothy has called for the immediate collection of race-based data by the Ford government, a plea that Horwath echoed.
- Ian Arthur condemned the Ford government for wavering on continuing blue-box collection in small communities, schools and parks, as documents obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal.
- MPPs Jeff Burch, critic for Municipal Affairs, and Gilles Bisson are urging Ford to commit to providing emergency operating funding to municipalities right away, so cities and towns left cash-strapped by the pandemic can continue to run day cares, transit, public health units, water treatment facilities and so much more.