The two confirmed cases are a couple from Durham Region in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada. The couple have no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts…reports Asian Lite News
Canada has confirmed two cases of the highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first detected in Britain.
The two confirmed cases are a couple from Durham Region in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada. The couple have no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts, Xinhua news agency reported.
“This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including the province-wide shutdown measures beginning today,” the Ontario government said Saturday night.
Similarly, the Public Health Agency of Canada said as the two identified cases did not travel outside Canada, it is important to follow public health measures and limit contact with others, to reduce the transmission of the virus and any of its variants in communities.
The Canadian government banned all flights arriving from Britain on December 20 until January 6, 2021, in response to concerns over the Covid-19 variant.
“In addition to the significant measures we already have in place, we acted quickly on additional travel restrictions in response to the situation in the UK,” said Trudeau…reports Asian Lite News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that his government will extend the ban on passenger flights from the UK until January 6 in the wake of the discovery of two new coronavirus strains in Britain.
The ban was initially set to expire in 72 hours, reports Xinhua news agency.
“In addition to the significant measures we already have in place, we acted quickly on additional travel restrictions in response to the situation in the UK,” Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“Our government temporarily suspended all commercial and passenger flights from the UK to Canada.
“Today I can announce that we will extend this temporary suspension of passenger flights for another two weeks so we can prevent this new variant of Covid-19 from spreading to Canada,” he said.
Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Canada is one of many countries across the globe to impose a ban on UK flights due to the new variant of the virus, which is reported to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the previously dominant one which was discovered a week ago.
Enhanced screening has been reportedly put in place at all Canadian airports and at all points of entry for travellers who may be arriving from Britain indirectly.
Canada has not yet detected the variant in an analysis of samples already gathered in the country.
However, Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBC News he “would not be surprised” if the variant was already present in Canada and America.
Canadian Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said the Public Health Agency of Canada will be conducting more testing and genomic sequencing on known cases of the variant in the coming days.
Update: To prevent the new variant of COVID-19 from spreading in Canada, we’re extending the temporary suspension of passenger flights from the UK for another two weeks, until January 6th. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and do whatever it takes to keep you safe.
“It wouldn’t surprise me that this variant is in many different countries,” Tam said, adding the new variant will likely eventually make its way to Canada.
Prior to Trudeau’s announcement, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Wednesday said that more areas of the East and South East of England will be put into Tier Four restrictions, the highest level, while revealing that two cases of another new variant of the novel coronavirus have been identified in Britain.
Canada became the latest nation to take action against the spread of the mutant strain of coronavirus after several countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Saudi Arabia, announced restrictions on passenger planes to and from from the UK….reports Asian Lite News
Canada is set to halt the entry of passenger flights from the UK for 72 hours amid fears over a highly infectious new mutant strain of the novel coronavirus which has been discovered in Britain, authorities announced.
“Given the high number of cases of a variant Covid-19 virus observed in some areas in the UK, the decision has been made to suspend entry into Canada of all commercial and private passenger flights from the UK for 72 hours,” Xinhua news agency quoted a statement from Canadian health authorities as saying on Saunday.
The temporary ban came into immediate effect on Sunday.
Canada became the latest nation to take action against the spread of the mutant strain of coronavirus after several countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Saudi Arabia, announced restrictions on passenger planes to and from from the UK.
On December 19, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced that the newly identified strain of the virus may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible.
According to British Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the new variant was “out of control”.
By the week ending December 9, the new variant accounted for 62 per cent in London, 59 per cent in eastern England, and 43 per cent in the South East.
At a video news conference on Wednesday, Bains unveiled the Gateway Treaty, which formalises Canada’s involvement in the US-led effort to build a new international space station above the moon surface to allow for exploration and future missions to Mars…reports Asian Lite News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUNE0ZEoOIU
Canada has signed an agreement with the US to send a Canadian astronaut around the moon in 2023, Navdeep Bains, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, has said.
At a video news conference on Wednesday, Bains unveiled the Gateway Treaty, which formalises Canada’s involvement in the US-led effort to build a new international space station above the moon surface to allow for exploration and future missions to Mars, Xinhua reported.
The treaty includes a commitment to having a Canadian on board when the US conducts a flyby of the moon in 2023, as well as a second flight to the future station. It will not include a moon landing.
“Launching in 2023, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut will be part of Artemis 2, the first mission to carry humans to lunar orbit in over 50 years. This will make Canada only the second country after the US to have an astronaut in deep space,” Bains told the news conference with a few Canadian Space Agency astronauts.
Under the treaty, Canada will contribute a new robotic arm to help with the construction of the Lunar Gateway, which will orbit the moon and allow for exploration of the lunar surface and assist future missions to Mars.
In case you missed it: Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years.
This will make Canada the second — ever — country to send an astronaut to deep space. 🌖
Bains did not say how much it will cost Canada to participate in the Artemis 2 flight, which will follow an unmanned flyby of the moon that the United States has scheduled for next year.
Earlier this month, Canada committed 22.8 million Canadian dollars to the first phase of developing Canadarm 3, a new robotic arm that will be used on the moon station.
“It’s important to note that we’re a spacefaring nation, and very proud of our space history,” the Canadian minister said. “And this investment with regards to the Artemis 2 program, as well as the overall space strategies is well over two billion Canadian dollars over the next 24 years.”
The Canadian Space Agency is one of several partners in the US-led endeavor along with the European Space Agency and their Japanese counterpart.
Panic struck in the government circles in Canada soon after the Modi government summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi over Trudeau’s remarks and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar announced that he will skip the Canada-led Ministerial Coordination Group on Covid-19 (MCGC)…reports India Daily Newsdesk
Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The Narendra Modi-led government’s tough stand against foreign interference in India’s domestic affairs forced Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to mellow his rhetoric and support to the ongoing farmers’ agitation.
Last week, Trudeau had extended his support to India’s farm protests, claiming that the situation was “concerning” and Canadians were “all very worried about family and friends” in Punjab.
Sources in Toronto told IANS that soon after the Modi government summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi over Trudeau’s remarks and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar announced that he will skip the Canada-led Ministerial Coordination Group on Covid-19 (MCGC), panic struck in the government circles in Canada.
The Indian government had sent a clear message that such behaviour will affect the bilateral trade as it has already happened under the Trudeau government. The bilateral trade between India and Canada declined by around $1 billion from 2017-18 to 2018-19 after Trudeau’s pro-Khalistani approach.
Bilateral trade between India and Canada was worth $7.23 billion in 2017-18. India’s exports to Canada during this period were $2.51 billion and imports from Canada were $4.72 billion. In 2018-19, the trade was worth $6.3 billion.
Canadian investors view India as an attractive destination for investments, particularly in the post-coronavirus period. More than 400 Canadian companies have presence in India, and more than 1,000 companies are actively pursuing business in the massive Indian market.
Canada exports pulses, newsprint, wood pulp, asbestos, potash, iron scrap, copper, minerals and industrial chemicals and wants India to import more. The Canadian businesses would like their government to sign Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and Bilateral Investment Promotion and Partnership Agreement (BIPPA) with India, sources said.
After some deft diplomacy played by the Indian High Commission in Canada, sources said that Trudeau softened his stand when he was asked about the demarche issued by the Indian government. A humbled Trudeau in response said, “Canada will always stand up for the right of peaceful protest anywhere around the world and we’re pleased to see moves toward de-escalation and dialogue.”
Sources said Trudeau’s earlier rhetoric against India on the farm protests was driven by his political compulsions — he runs a minority government in his second term and continually needs to pander to his Khalistani vote bank.
Six lakh Sikh immigrants in Canada constitute a significant vote bank, with everyone from Trudeau’s Liberal Party to the opposition Conservative Party trying to woo them to their sides. Among the Sikhs in Canada, a substantial section is ideologically aligned with the Khalistan movement — a violent separatist Sikh militant movement in Punjab during the 1980s, sponsored by Pakistan. Thousands of innocent people in Punjab were killed by Khalistani militants before the Indian security agencies flushed them out completely.
Though the militancy was wiped out, in the last five years, Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, has been making efforts to revive the movement with the help of Khalistani diaspora in Canada, the UK and elsewhere.
In Canada, Khalistani politics continues to influence the Liberal Party and its foreign policy towards India. In the Trudeau government, Khalistani and Pakistani Canadians have assumed significant positions. While Canada’s Defence Minister, Harjit Singh Sajjan, is a Khalistani sympathiser, the leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, too is a staunch supporter of Khalistanis.
As November nears its end, Canada reported a total of 374,051 Covid-19 cases and 12,076 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to CTV.
Canada has been well into the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and new case numbers grow by thousands each day.
The number of new cases reported daily across the country has increased by more than 2,000 since the beginning of November and is closing in on 6,000 daily, Xinhua reported.
The country is on track to have 4,000 coronavirus patients in hospital by Christmas, a figure that would eclipse the peak of the first wave and put tremendous pressure on a health-care system already pushed to the brink by nine months of battling the pandemic.
A new analysis conducted for The Globe and Mail by researchers at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University projects that the number of Canadians admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 will continue to grow, with the steepest increases in the West, particularly in Alberta province
If Alberta stays on its current trajectory, the province’s physicians and nurses will be caring for more Covid-19 patients than Ontario, which has three times the population.
There were 435 Covid-19 patients in Alberta hospitals on Sunday.
Over the past week, there has been an average of just over 2,000 Covid-19 patients being treated in Canadian hospitals, 420 of them in critical-care units, according to a Globe and Mail tally of provincial data. Both figures have nearly doubled since the end of October.
The Canadian government announced on Sunday to extend a series of travel restrictions and rules meant to stem the Covid-19 spread into the new year as case counts continue their steady rise across the country.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“Canada continues to be concerned by the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting in shelling of communities and civilian casualties said Champagne …Reports Asian Lite News
Canada has suspended its arms export permits to Turkey after it was claimed that Ankara was using drone-sensor technology created by an Ontario company in the fight between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“In line with Canada’s robust export control regime and due to the ongoing hostilities, I have suspended the relevant export permits to Turkey, so as to allow time to further assess the situation. Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Monday
“Canada continues to be concerned by the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting in shelling of communities and civilian casualties.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Champagne has also ordered a probe into a claim by Canadian peace research institute Project Ploughshares that it had evidence a Canadian-developed sensor technology was being used in Turkish military drones, CTV News reported.
Ploughshares researcher Kelsey Gallagher told CTV News the decision showed that “Canada’s arms control regime is working how it should”.
“These arms have posed a risk in Turkish hands for some time now and really should have tripped Canada’s risk assessment a long time ago, this is kind of overdue,” he added.
Also in a briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked Champagne to travel to Europe to work with allies on the “developments in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, particularly in Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but but mostly governed by the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state with an Armenian ethnic majority.
Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the region in 1988-94, eventually declaring a ceasefire. However, a settlement was never reached.
The current fighting is the worst seen since the ceasefire and the two former Soviet republics have been blaming each other.
Earlier this week, Armenia said it stood “ready to engage” with mediators from France, Russia and the US to try to agree a ceasefire.
But Azerbaijan, which is openly backed by Turkey, has demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas seized by ethnic Armenian troops, the BBC reported.
Since the latest conflict erupted on September 27, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities have confirmed that 201 of their personnel and a number of civilians have died.
Azerbaijan has said that 22 civilians were killed, but did not provide information about military casualties.
Friends of Canada- India along with seven other organizations have staged a protest against China infront of Chinese Consulate Office in Vancouver demanding the release of two detained Canadians in China. It also protested against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, raised concerns over China’s new Hong Kong national security law, demanded China to free Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Indian part.
Maninder Gill of Friends of Canada-India said that the law threatens freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Mr Gill strongly condemned China for its irresponsible actions and dictatorship approach. Mr. Maninder Gill, Ashish Manral, Avtar Johal, Paul Braich, Baljinder Cheema, Gurcharan Sarabha, Parmjit Khosla, Dr Hakam Bhullar were leading the protest by raising slogans against China.
More than 500 people participated in the protest.
The organisers said that protesters followed all Covid-19 guidelines issued by the BC Ministry of Health. People were wearing masks and social distancing was maintained, they said.
The protesters were demanding the release of two detained Canadians caught in a diplomatic standoff over Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
The seven other organizations who joined Friend of Canada- India are, Canada Tibet Committee & the Tibetan Community, Friends of Canada India Organization, Vancouver Society of Freedom, Democracy & Human Rights for China, Vancouver Hong Kong Political Activists, Vancouverites concerned about Hong Kong, Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement (VSSDM), Vancouver Uyghur Association.
Mr. Maninder Gill of Friends of Canada- India thanked everyone at the end and said that despite COVID-19, it was a successful event.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the country has signed a deal to secure 20 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses.
Addressing the media here, Trudeau said the agreement was signed with AstraZeneca for access to a vaccine prospect now being developed at Oxford University, CBC News reported.
“We’ve been guided by science since the very beginning and right now, both the Covid-19 vaccine task force and the immunity task force are doing important work to help us identify the most promising vaccine options and strategies,” he said.
Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau.
With the new deal, the Trudeau government has secured access to six leading vaccine candidates so far.
However, none of the candidates has been shown to work so far.
Health Canada has said that it will review the evidence on safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality for each vaccine to determine if individual vaccines will be approved for use in the country before they are made available to citizens.
This latest development came days after Trudeau announced that a second coronavirus wave has started in the country amid concerns over a possible national lockdown.
“In our four biggest provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec), the second wave isn’t just starting, it’s already underway. We’re on the brink of a fall that could be much worse than the spring,” Trudeau said a televised address to the nation on September 23.
The country witnessed a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases, from about 300 per day in August to a record high of 1,248 on September 22.
Canada has so far reported more than 148 coronavirus cases, with 9,242 deaths.
