Sep 4 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — A region west of Toronto comprising roughly three per cent of Ontario's population currently accounts for nearly half of the province's new COVID-19 diagnoses, Premier Doug Ford said Friday as he raised the prospect of rolling back reopening measures to contain the situation. The latest figures showed Peel Region, a long-standing hotspot for the novel […]
Sep 3 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — A pair of newly released reports collectively argue Canada was failing to provide healthy, safe childhoods prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, setting kids up to be hit particularly hard by the global outbreak. New rankings from the Canadian chapter of UNICEF say Canada's children have worse physical and mental health than their peers in most […]
Sep 2 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Veronica Gerber was set to go before Ontario's human rights tribunal on Monday in a bid to see her mother more often during the COVID-19 pandemic. But three days before the case was to be heard, Dorothea Gerber, 82, died at the Toronto long-term care facility where she had lived for more than […]
Sep 1 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — Police forces across Canada have already begun using technology to predict who may become involved in illegal activity or where crimes might take place, an expert group warned Tuesday as it called on the federal government to protect residents from the potential perils of such tactics. A report developed by the University of Toronto's Citizen […]
Aug 29 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — The technical glitches and occasional outages that will almost certainly be part of this year's virtual school experience in Ontario may also prove to be teachable moments for educators and students alike, according to various experts in the field. School boards, teachers and researchers say recent failures of key online learning platforms demonstrate the volatility […]
Aug 26 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's controversial back-to school plan received an infusion of cash from the federal government on Wednesday, with at least $381 million being added to what Premier Doug Ford has already earmarked for the upcoming return to class. The federal contribution met with widespread praise, but provincial opposition critics continued to take Ford to […]
Aug 7 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's child-care centres will be receiving about three per cent of a major influx of cash from the federal government meant to help cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the province's premier said Friday. Doug Ford said $234.6 million would start flowing to licensed daycare providers, First Nations Child and Family Programs […]
Aug 7 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's premier dove into the simmering trade battle between Canada and the United States on Friday, slamming the American president for disloyalty while urging the province's residents to join the fight by supporting local industry. Doug Ford's comments came on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to reinstate 10-per-cent tariffs on aluminum […]
Aug 6 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's overworked and underpaid personal support workers will soon be receiving government assistance, the province's premier said Thursday as he heaped praise on a group who have been on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 in long-term care homes. Doug Ford said recent conversations with PSWs at his mother-in-law's long-term care home in Toronto […]
Aug 5 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — Politicians and teachers are calling on the Ontario government to revisit its back-to-school plan as the premier continued to assert the strategy to reopen classrooms does enough to keep students and staff safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. Doug Ford stood firm in the face of mounting criticism about the provincial plan, which does not impose maximum […]
Aug 4 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's premier stood by the province's back-to-school plans on Tuesday as federal officials offered up COVID-19-prevention guidelines that appeared to contradict those revealed by provincial officials last week. Doug Ford's comments came as Ontario's 72 publicly funded school boards worked on firming up their proposals to welcome students back to class. While most […]
Jul 19 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — While school boards across Canada are quietly developing plans for bringing students back to class in September, the largest such organization in the country has taken things one step further by laying out a variety of scenarios in stark, costly detail. Some of the models under consideration at the Toronto District School Board […]
Jul 14 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — A system that disproportionately targets racialized and Indigenous families by alerting authorities about the pending birth of children believed to be at risk will cease in Ontario later this year, the provincial government said Tuesday as it joined other Canadian jurisdictions doing away with the controversial practice. Jill Dunlop, Ontario's associate minister of […]
Jul 9 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Ontario's effort to scrap an educational practice that has historically discriminated against students from marginalized communities will get underway next fall, the province's education minister said Thursday. Stephen Lecce offered scant details about the plan, first announced earlier this week, to eliminate "streaming" for those entering high school. But he indicated the province's math curriculum […]
Jul 8 2020 — Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press — In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada's chief medical officers were hailed as the nation's rising stars. Their regular public briefings made them familiar faces and household names to thousands of Canadians, and their scientific expertise helped shape government policies that gradually flattened the domestic curve over the past four months. But how have Canada's top doctors coped […]