Coronavirus: what Canadians need to know

What's New

Practicing safe social distancing on Winnipeg Transit in light of COVID-19

March 24, 2020 – We are asking our passengers to take the following steps to practice safe social distancing on Winnipeg Transit buses, effective immediately:

• Please maintain a distance of two metres or six feet between yourself and others at bus stops and while riding the bus.
• Consider riding in off-peak hours if possible to help make sure there’s space for everyone who needs it.
• Don’t board buses that don’t have enough room for you to keep a distance between yourself and others.
• Our operators are covered by shields that are to remain fully deployed at all times to stop the spread of COVID-19. We ask our passengers to stay back from the shield and to move away from the operator once fare is paid.
• If you are sick and experiencing flu-like symptoms; please refrain from riding transit.

NDPP wrote:

Re Trump Administration to Station Troops at Canadian Border

https://twitter.com/cattunneycbc/status/1243216928837177344

"Much stronger language from Freeland just now. 'Canada is strongly opposed,' she said..."

yeah right...

Now they've dropped it:

A U.S. proposal to station troops across its border with Canada as a defence against a virus invasion appeared to be off the table Thursday night, just hours after Canadian took offence and voiced objections.

The federal government came out swinging earlier in the day, declaring that it strongly opposed a proposal by the White House to deploy American troops to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by illegal border-crossers.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/03/26/white-house-looking-at-placing-troops-along-canada-us-border-justin-trudeau-says.html

Silence from the NDP -- still no interest in the issue of the people who were already unemployed being excluded from consideration for help. The NDP folded on thei initial promise of small support for everyone and cannot even offer a willingness to fight for people who were already unemployed. They are not talking about it publicly.

BTW most NDP twitter accounts do not accept messages. I appreciate those who do. This is the message I was sending:

People who were already unemployed when Covid19 started have been abandoned.

Condition for #Covid19 support: "without employment or self-employment income for at least 14 consecutive days in a four-week period, for reasons related to COVID-19." This is true even if you get sick. If your EI runs out now or ran out already you have no job market to look for work, no EI, if you are in a home you cannot sell to impoverish yourself- no social assistance. The government pretends you are not affected. 

Even the Trump administration is giving $1200 to all Americans. 

I approached @theJagmeetSingh the day before this was to be debated in Parliament, he referred me to my Liberal MP who confirmed this. At least he said he would follow up with others as he recognizes it is a problem. 

I had hoped the NDP would have been there to advocate for the support of the most vulnerable after having supporting the party believing this all my life. 

I am 55 and now hoping for work on the front lines of the virus as a grocery store clerk, knowing my age means I have a greater chance of becoming very sick with this.  I worked for years in communications but despite trying, I cannot find a job and this makes that prospect impossible. 

Thank you for accepting messages as many NDP accounts are set up so they do not.

EPA Indefinitely Suspends Enforcement of Environmental Laws

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced a sweeping and indefinite suspension of environmental rules, telling companies they will effectively be allowed to regulate themselves during the coronavirus pandemic. Under the new rules, big polluters will no longer be punished for failing to comply with reporting rules and other requirements.

Cynthia Giles, the EPA’s former head of enforcement under President Obama, told The Hill newspaper the move “tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way 'caused' by the virus pandemic. And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was.”

MegB wrote:

Sean, I'm so sorry that this pandemic is hitting you hard. I hope you get some kind of assistance. I'm most concerned for the financially vulnerable, the homeless, people with disabilities, the older population and Indigenous communities who are always the worst affected during viral outbreaks and the least protected by government measures. 

thank you -- yes this is certainly true. There are people worse off.

I am dismayed by the lack of interest from the leader of the NDP that the only package for people from the feds is for those who were employed when this hit. Absolutely nothing else as if they do not know that people have been affected.

I expected the plan to have problems. It was rushed as we all can understand. But the parties charged with being opposition are showing no interest. I reached yesterday to the media, the BQ and the Greens. A little interest from the media but not enough to think a story would be written. Nothing from anyone else. Today 14 direct messages to New Democrats on Twitter. Most NDP members cannot be messaged as they block twitter from allowing that. 

Andrew Cash was interested. He is not even an MP now. We will see if any others. Shocked at the reaction from the leader.

It is more expensive for many people who are poor, marginal, unemployed, seniors, disabled - the costs of the extra mitigation efforts disinfecting is significant. I live in a house with a person working in a clinic and I have to spend money to mitigate the chance of the spread of this. the cost of getting things needed has gone up. This is happening to many other people.

“Total System Failure”: Congress Pushes $2 Trillion Pandemic Bill. Will Dems Allow “Corporate Coup”?

quote:

MATT STOLLER: Well, I mean, it’s not really a $2 trillion bill. It’s more like a $6 trillion to $10 trillion bill. So, one of the reasons you can tell that the bill is packed with corporate goodies is that, you know, Congress is debating and trying to figure out, oh, you know, is it $2 trillion, a bunch of money for hospitals or money for cities, and meanwhile, a couple days ago, Larry Kudlow is on a press conference and says, “Actually, this is a $6 trillion bill.” And it’s like, how does a bill go from $2 trillion to $6 trillion without anyone really noticing? And the answer is, there’s a bunch of stuff in there — and, you know, there are people on Wall Street chattering about how it’s actually going to be $10 trillion, because, you know, what’s another four? And that’s how you know that the bill is just packed with stuff for Wall Street, for large monopolists.

And it’s done through a variety of opaque slush funds — the Federal Reserve, the FDIC guarantees a bank debt. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that, you know, some of us who worked in the financial crisis noticed, paid attention to, said, “Oh, that’s where they’re stealing all the money.” And so there’s a bunch of stuff in there that’s going to get to Boeing and airlines, that we know about, has been reported. There’s also a bunch of stuff that’s going to get to the hedge fund guys that are bunkering down in their underground wine caves or whatever. And meanwhile, the stuff that we need, for normal people — the ventilators, the unemployment — you know, that’s going to dribble out. Small business is going to dribble out.

And so, what you’re going to see is the $4 trillion to $6 trillion to $8 trillion of basically no-cost or low-cost guaranteed credit is going to be used by Citibank, JPMorgan, and then any big monopolist or large company that can get access to it, to buy up their competitors and buy up small business, who are obviously now in a really distressed state because they don’t have any revenue. So that’s what’s going to happen. And I look forward to all of the progressives who are supporting this, like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, supporting a wealth tax later on for all the wealth that they are right now transferring to Wall Street. That will be fun.

quote:

AMY GOODMAN: This is what he said.

JIM CRAMER: We come out of this sooner, then other small businesses can open. If we come out of this later, David, there’s going to be three retailers in this country. There’s going to be Amazon, there’s going to be Walmart, and there’s going to be Costco. And that is something that the government cannot afford to have happen.

quote:

MATT STOLLER: I don’t think that this is actually — I don’t want to leave this on Trump. Honestly, this is the fault of the Democrats, this is the fault of Nancy Pelosi, it’s the fault of members like Ilhan Omar, who just spoke about this, not paying attention to what’s in the bill. It’s the fault of Bernie Sanders. It’s the fault of Elizabeth Warren. These are the people that had leverage, that had the ability to make an argument about what this bill is. And instead of saying that this bill is a handout to corporate America and a roll-up of power, they decided to stay quiet, let Chuck Schumer organize the whole process, you know, and do some moral grandstanding. And it’s really embarrassing, and it’s really a problem, because they’re lying to the progressive movement, they’re lying to the Democratic Party. And so now we have no debate about what is effectively probably a more significant bill than TARP in 2008.

And all of this stuff that’s happening, the handover of power to Wall Street, is happening under the really cynical guise of helping people in a pandemic. A lot of this money is going to go to — some of the money is going to go to hospitals. Some of the money is going to go to help people in the pandemic. So there’s some good stuff here. That, of course, is going to dribble out on the rickety infrastructure of the Small Business Administration and unemployment insurance. Our government has been hollowed out, so this stuff isn’t going to get out quickly, but — quickly enough.

But I think we really have to take some responsibility as Democrats — I’m a Democrat — as progressives, as conservatives, as Republicans. You know, this is a total system failure. This is a handover of power to Wall Street. And in a month or two or three, people are going to get confused. They’re going to say, “Wait a second. Why isn’t this working? What’s happening?” And like, this is the moment. The moment was this week, when the House and Senate are voting on it. And you have a whole bunch of largely clueless, either stupid, corrupt or cowardly members, who won’t actually look at what’s in the bill, won’t organize, won’t think about it, won’t debate. And so they’ve handed over — you know, I didn’t think that Bernie Sanders was going to hand the country over to big business, but that is effectively what he did. I didn’t think Elizabeth Warren was going to do that, but that is effectively what she did.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re attributing a lot of power to them.

MATT STOLLER: Absolutely. The leverage point here was about the public debate. Last week, when Mitch McConnell was coming up with a bill — you know, and I wrote about this, but others wrote about it —

AMY GOODMAN: Not including the Democrats in this.

MATT STOLLER: Well, yeah, but the Democrats didn’t make an argument about what was in that bill. They said, “Oh, OK, trillions of dollars for Wall Street, sure, we’ll call that pandemic relief,” instead of saying, “That’s trillions of dollars for Wall Street. What we need is immediate pandemic relief.” Instead, they conceded to Mitch McConnell and Steve Mnuchin that giving a trillion, $2 trillion, $3 trillion, $4 trillion to Wall Street was pandemic relief. And that’s just nonsense. And even today they’re not saying what is in this bill. They don’t even know that the bill is $6 trillion versus $2 trillion. I mean, the whole thing is just embarrassing and dishonest. Now, I could see them saying, “Yeah, you know, it is a $6 trillion bill” — I mean, I’ll also say, I have to — you know, we have to get money out to hospitals. We have to get money out to small business. We have to get money out to ordinary people that are suffering right now. It’s a real — we have to do it. And it will happen. If the Democrats had gotten together and blocked this bill, then, you know, Mitch McConnell and Mnuchin and Kevin McCarthy and Trump would have had no choice but to accept any deal that the Democrats put on the table.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me play presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking Wednesday night about the unprecedented, well, more than $2 trillion emergency relief bill.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I am very, very, very concerned about a $500 billion that will go out to the corporate world without — let me underline, without — the accountability and transparency that is needed. We do not need, at this moment in history, to provide a massive amount of corporate welfare to large profitable corporations. I think as many of you are aware, you have industry like the — industries like the airlines industry, among others, that have provided for stock buybacks, billions and billions of dollars for stock buybacks. They spent all their cash rewarding themselves and their stockholders. And lo and behold, today they need a major bailout.

So, the concern here is: A, do we trust the Trump administration to effectively decide which company will get the loans or the grants? The answer is, no, I do not. Do we think that these loans and grants during a political season will be used to benefit the president’s election prospects? Absolutely, I do.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Matt Stoller, that’s Bernie Sanders. I also want to ask about the 0% interest loans, then buy bonds and stocks that yield 2 to 6% interest. Who gets to do this?

MATT STOLLER: So, first of all, that $500 billion that Bernie was talking about, it’s actually more like $4.5 trillion. So, just an FYI.....

This is my entire exchange with Peter Julian one of the MPs who voted for this bill:

Me: People who were already unemployed when Covid19 started have been abandoned. Condition for #Covid19 support: "without employment or self-employment income for at least 14 consecutive days in a four-week period, for reasons related to COVID-19." This is true even if you get sick. If your EI runs out now or ran out already you have no job market to look for work, no EI, if you are in a home you cannot sell to impoverish yourself- no social assistance. The government pretends you are not affected. Even the Trump administration is giving $1200 to all Americans. I approached Jagmeet Singh the day before this was to be debated in Parliament, he referred me to my Liberal MP who confirmed this. At least he said he would follow up with others as he recognizes it is a problem. I had hoped the NDP would have been there to advocate for the support of the most vulnerable after having supporting the party believing this all my life. I am 55 and now hoping for work on the front lines of the virus as a grocery store clerk, knowing my age means I have a greater chance of becoming very sick with this. I worked for years in communications but despite trying, I cannot find a job and this makes that prospect impossible. Thank you for accepting messages as many NDP accounts are set up so they do not.

11:28 AM

Me: I have just learned that you voted for this bill that only provides support to those who were employed when this started. The NDP should have demanded that the legislation acknowledge that all Canadians are affected. It should not have voted for a bill that excludes support to those Canadians who had lost their jobs before the crisis, seniors, disabled... when these people can get sick too. They face additional costs. Can you please explain what you thought this bill did and your vote. I ask as a NDP supporter of 35 plus years wondering how the party could have done this.

1:53 PM

Me: I have also learned now that the EI hotline is telling some MPs that people whose EI ran out in the last year are covered and telling others that they are not. The government response hotline is confused about what will happen when the applications open. The legislation seems to be the best guide.

Peter: The bill we voted for gives the Gov’t the ability to provide a universal basic benefit. They are choosing not to do it. We are pushing them to change their mind.

2:56 PM

Me: The bill contains wording of eligibility that excludes vulnerable people. I do not understand how the NDP could have supported it. It is not enough for an opposition party who did not demand this as a condition of support to say the Liberals are choosing not to do it. I am sorry but your answer should not be to rely on the Liberals to do something that you did not make them do in a bill you voted for. There may be news reports you will have to face of people sick and maybe dying without coverage. In a minority parliament you needed to do more than ask them nicely. NDP votes are meaningful that is why we vote NDP even when we know we will not get an NDP government. I say this as a longtime NDP supporter. Others probably will be less kind. The NDP should do everything to fix this and publicly stand up for those you promised to stand up for.

3:22 PM

Me: You need to push publicly. You should have done this before voting for this bill. I read it and saw how bad it was in minutes. I am sure you had longer. I am not trying to be mean. I am writing this privately to someone I respect. This is only a preview of what those who do not respect the NDP will say in the future. You will be contrasted with the US Democrats who were able to get more. I am sorry to say this but this all needs to be said.

What is your advice for people like me now?

3:25 PMPeter: I could not disagree with you more. Your interpretation is simply wrong. I’m sorry. I cannot help you when you say things that are not true. I will keep pushing for the universal basic benefit that people need but I will no longer be responding to you here.

3:32 PM

Me: Ok thanks for reading. This is how it looks from my side of the problem - I am sorry that you cannot see it.

Here is the eligibility as written in the bill:

Eligibility

6 (1) A worker is eligible for an income support payment if

(a) the worker, whether employed or self-employed, ceases working for reasons related to COVID-19 for at least 14 consecutive days within the four-week period in respect of which they apply for the payment; and

(b) they do not receive, in respect of the consecutive days on which they have ceased working,

(i) subject to the regulations, income from employment or self-employment,

(ii) benefits, as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Employment Insurance Act,

(iii) allowances, money or other benefits paid to the worker under a provincial plan because of pregnancy or in respect of the care by the worker of one or more of their new-born children or one or more children placed with them for the purpose of adoption, or

(iv) any other income that is prescribed by regulation.

 

The NDP leverage was before voting not asking politely after. So folks guess I wasted my vote in the last 10 elections huh? 

He did not bother to even try to convince me how I am wrong about this or what he is claiming is not true. You could say that he wrote off any future support for him or his party.

No, I will not apologize for sharing a private conversation. He is a public person who was communicating with me related to his work. It was not a private matter of opinion.  He is one of just 3 NDP MPs who have to explain their votes. It was his job to do so and he is one of the many people in Canada who is still getting paid.

As for the truth I am quoting from the Bill as it has received Royal assent. My interpretation is that of my MP that I am not eligble. My interpretations about the behaviour of the NDP I am willing to defend now and in the next election.

Pondering wrote:

Sean I echo Meg's message. I will add that I too am disappointed in the NDP's actions or rather lack thereof. I don't want to hear partisan rants against what the Liberals are doing. I do want them to point out what is lacking strenuously. Your situation is exactly the sort of things they should be bringing up. People slipping between the cracks. 

 

Thank you. This is exactly my point. I found his response to be defensive in a partisan way. My criticism was harsh but understandable. It was not impolite.

The fact that he did not bother to point out what he considers untrue about my statements is indefensible in my opinion. I have provided the entire exchange here without editing (other to add names so people can see who said waht). I think he could have thought a little more about what I was talking about and a little less about his problem having to hear it.

I can only supect that he feels the NDP is trying but he is unwilling to allow for criticism about the decision to vote for the bill or that they did not try enough. As it is, they seem not to fully understand what they voted for.

I emphasize: he is being paid to respond to me. He could have offered a little more before being too fed up with a person calling saying they are in trouble to continue. The NDP is not so popular as to write off long time supporters like this. This is not the first time they have done this with me but it is the worst time.

What we needed from the NDP was not insistance on getting their chosen solsution but instead a real stand that some solution be found. It looks like the NDP did some serious virtue signaling here about what they wanted to do -- well and good. And then they folded without putting up any effort to find another solution. They did perhaps what they needed to do politically but not what the needed to do in human terms.

They could have looked at the Liberal proposals and proposed changes to make sure people were not left behind. It looks like they just advertized their desired program to the public; Took the adoration they could get; and then signed on to the Liberal plan without taking the time to understand or propose more minor improvements that could have made a difference.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

This is my entire exchange with Peter Julian one of the MPs who voted for this bill:

3:25 PMPeter: I could not disagree with you more. Your interpretation is simply wrong. I’m sorry. I cannot help you when you say things that are not true. I will keep pushing for the universal basic benefit that people need but I will no longer be responding to you here.

You can say that you disagree with voting for him in the next election and that you will no longer be donating. I wonder how he would respond to that?

I wasn't very impressed with Julian when he ran for the leadership. I specifically asked him what his plan was to win back Western Canada from the Conservatives. He went on about the pipeline fight. I found that answer to be tone deaf as the pro-pipeline people were framing the discussion as Ottawa interfering with Western interests. That his response was this horrible doesn't come as a surprise.

I think his response was terrible but I do not think that he was too stupid to understand that he was writing off any future support. Surely, he would have spent a little effort as politicians do to get my support if he thought it was possible? He probably decided that I was angry enough that there would be no recovery of support and that I was just not enough of a value as a human being to engage with further. I think he looked at me as a vote and decided that he could not save that vote and wrote me off.

I think if I continued he would see it as harassment as he had clearly closed the conversation.

I will not harass him but I also will not respect him for this.

The NDP's political problem may be that with all their high rhetoris they burn too many people in ways that can never be forgotten.

People often are willing to vote Liberal in part becuase they expect less from them and are not as dissapointed.

Now the NDP is facing a crisis as there coudl be a new game in town -- the Greens -- a party that could raise the standard and expectation to the same level and perhasp not burn as many people.

If the Greens became a social democratic Green coalition -- the NDP's arrogance will bury them.

I do not know now if I will vote in the next election although typically I feel obligated.

I could vote Liberal becuase my MP is responsive even if policy wise I expect nothing great. I could vote Green in the hope of contributing to expanding that party into something stronger. The election will have to be a long time from now for me to consider the NDP. That long time might not be this lifetime.

Those here who complain that central Canada does not vote NDP and the NDP cannot grow here: You need to think about the fact that the NDP has to stop betraying people if it wants to grow.

BC Government: social distancing is working so far

Quote:

Health officials say physical distancing restrictions in B.C. are successfully beginning to slow the number of new COVID-19 cases in the province, perhaps by as much as half.

But despite the "glimmer of hope," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and other officials stressed that the province is not out of the woods and the health-care system still needs to be prepared for an inevitable surge in hospitalizations.

"I'm trying not to over-call it, but I do believe we've seen a flattening, a falling-off of that curve," Henry said Friday, referring to the growth of new COVID-19 patients in B.C.

"What we need, though, is for everybody to continue to pay attention to these [physical distancing] measures so we can continue to prevent transmissions in our communities ... for the coming weeks."

Misfit wrote:

The NDP has reduced itself to hollow optics.

I am very sad about this on top of my personal situation - there has been a lot of personal investment in this party by many people and to see it reduced to this is tragic.

Manitoba marks a sad milestone:

Quote:

Manitoba has seen its first fatality related to the COVID-19 pandemic: a Winnipeg woman in her 60s, who died after she was admitted to an intensive care unit in critical condition last week.

"It's a tragic loss. It's a Manitoban that we lost, and our hearts go out to their friends and family," chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Friday morning. 

"But this is our time to act now. Stay home if you can."

Health officials would not answer questions about whether the woman had any underlying medical conditions, citing privacy laws. Roussin said he was not aware of any other COVID-19 patients being in the hospital as of 9:30 a.m. Friday.

CBC News contacted an immediate family member of the deceased. The family requested privacy.