Support for vaccine passports and fire line fatigue: In The News for Aug. 20

Quebecers are even more supportive of the measure, with 81 per cent saying they are in favour of the plan, which will apply in places like bars, concerts and festivals where there are lots of people in a confined space.

That’s despite a weekend rally that drew thousands of protesters to the streets of downtown Montreal, calling for Premier Francois Legault to reverse his decision and hold a debate on the matter.

The questions around vaccine passports come as the poll suggests optimism over the pandemic is waning, said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of Leger.

“I look at these numbers, and I get the feeling Canadians are starting to feel a little bit uncertain in terms of where the pandemic is heading,” he said, pointing to tracking the Leger has done of people who believe the worst of the pandemic is over.

“That number has been dropping now for the better part of a month.”

In the latest round of data, 44 per cent of people said they felt the worst of the pandemic had already past. That’s down from a high of roughly 70 per cent in late June.

Enns attributed that to the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which is fuelling the fourth wave of the pandemic.

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Also this …

The federal election campaign will converge in Winnipeg today, where leaders of the two largest parties will be holding events.

Both Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his Conservative counterpart Erin O’Toole will appear in the Manitoba capital for public events and to take questions from reporters.

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh will make the campaign’s first stop at an Indigenous community when he visits the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan — a community which made a preliminary finding of 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school. Singh plans to visit the gravesites.

On Thursday, the leaders battled over the right prescription to help the country’s health-care systems and how much more funding provinces require to meet their needs during and after the pandemic.

O’Toole said he would boost federal funding for provincially run health-care systems by six per cent annually. Speaking in French at a stop in Ottawa, O’Toole left the door open to offering more money if the national economy grows faster than expected, which would give federal coffers extra cash to potentially splash around.

Speaking in Victoria, B.C., where he outlined plans to improve wages and conditions in long-term care facilities, Trudeau said the country needs to invest more in health care and that his government would be there to increase provincial transfers, although he did not detail when or by how much.

Singh took aim at Trudeau over the Liberal government’s track record on health-care spending during a campaign stop in Edmonton where he highlighted his party’s pledge for a $250 million fund to help train and hire 2,000 nurses.

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And this …

VANCOUVER — The B-C Wildfire Service is getting concerned about fatigue setting in on the fire lines.

Operations manager Todd Nessman says they are seeing more slips, trips, falls and other serious incidents and the situation is being monitored to make sure firefighters are safe.

There are currently about 3,800 firefighters from B-C and more than 500 others from out of province on the fire lines. But some will be returning to school shortly, so that number will drop.

More than 8,500 square kilometres of land has burned since the fire season started on April 1st.

Crews are currently battling about 290 fires and there are more than 70 evacuation orders in effect along with some 120 evacuation alerts.

The B-C government earmarked 136-million-dollars for this year’s wildfire season, down from the nearly 650-million it spent in 2017.

But Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth insists the province will spend what it has to on fighting the wildfires, adding “Money is not the issue.”

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are struggling to speed the pace of evacuations of Americans and Afghans at the Kabul airport.

In a hopeful sign, the State Department said it expected a major increase in the number to be airlifted soon. But obstacles remain, including Taliban checkpoints and paperwork problems.

With an Aug. 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remain to be airlifted to safety.

As of Thursday, about 7,000 people had been evacuated in the U.S. airlift, including about 2,000 on each of the past two days. The State Department said it expects another 6,000 to be flown out soon.

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Also this …

LOS ANGELES — California’s wildfires have already made plenty of news this summer and the worst may be yet to come.

Some of the state’s most devastating fires have started in the fall when powerful, dry winds blow out of the desert.

More land has burned this year than at the same point last year, which set the record for most acreage charred.

The largest fire currently burning is the second-largest in state history.

Most of the large fires have been in the northern half of the state. But the biggest fires in Southern California have usually been sparked in September or later in the year.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

TULUM, Mexico — Hurricane Grace has been temporarily knocked back to tropical storm force, but it’s expected to regain hurricane strength Friday as it heads for a second landfall in Mexico.

This time it’s taking aim at the mainland’s Gulf coast after crashing through the country’s main tourist strip.

The storm lost punch as it zipped across the Yucatan Peninsula, but it is regaining energy over the Gulf of Mexico.

The forecast would take it toward a coastal region of small fishing towns and beach resorts tonight or early Saturday. Then it would head over over a mountain range toward the heart of the country.

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On this day in 1992 …

The federal government, provinces, territories and the four major aboriginal groups in Canada reached unanimous agreement on native self-government at constitutional talks in Ottawa.—

In entertainment …

LONDON — Sandra Oh has been dancing with death on “Killing Eve” since 2018, so she could do with a laugh.

That’s one of the reasons the Canadian-American actor took on the role of Ji-Yoon Kim in the Netflix comedy drama series, “The Chair.”

Oh plays the new head of a struggling college’s English department.

As rewarding as she finds “Killing Eve,” Oh says its darker elements made her want to live in a “comedy space” for a change.

The six-episode “The Chair” blends humor with the serious challenges that Ji-Yoon faces at home and at the school facing financial woes and generational clashes.

The series debuts today on Netflix.

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ICYMI …

OTTAWA — Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande says the C-17 military transport planes flying into Afghanistan have been reconfigured to maximize the number of passengers they can carry.

She says the planes are already flying in and out of Kabul and that troops will be given a list of vetted and vulnerable Afghans and will be helping them board the flights.

Lamirande says the flights will carry foreign and Afghan nationals who have been accepted under the immigration programs of other nations.

And she adds that other nations have, and will continue to, extract Canadian citizens or Afghans who are destined for or eligible for immigration to Canada.

The effort to get former Afghan interpreters and their families out of Afghanistan is gathering momentum in the face of complaints about roadblocks in Kabul and bureaucratic hurdles in Ottawa.

Yesterday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau revealed the Canadian military had arrived back in Afghanistan to help with evacuation efforts.

At the same time, he admitted Canada would probably not be able to get everyone out of Afghanistan that it wants to.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2021

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Support for vaccine passports and fire line fatigue: In The News for Aug. 20

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