COVID-19 Ottawa:
Ottawa Public Health is reporting nine new COVID-19 cases Friday.
That sends the city’s total up to 2012, with 83.5 per cent of patients now recovered. No new deaths were reported, leaving the total at 257.
COVID-19 Ontario:
Ontario is reporting the smallest increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases since late March.
The province reported 182 new cases of the virus Friday, along with eleven new deaths. The new cases brings Ontario to a total of 31,726 cases.
Social Circles:
Ontario’s Top Doctor says families can now expand the number of people they have close contact with to ten.
The new public health advice from Dr. David Williams means physical distancing does not need to be practiced between members of the same so-called “social circle.” The province says if a household has less than 10 people they can add to their circle, but a person can only be part of one group.
PM Responds to Assault of Alberta Chief:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he knows the violent arrest of a chief from a northern Alberta First Nation is not an isolated incident.
Trudeau says RCMP dash-cam video of Allan Adam’s arrest in Fort McMurray is “shocking” and he’s calling for an independent, transparent investigation. The video shows a Mountie tackling Adam, knocking him to the ground and punching him in the head.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is calling for the officers involved to be punished. The video is part of a court application to get criminal charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer stayed against Adam. Alberta’s police watchdog agency is investigating the incident.
CMHC To Address Lack of Diversity:
The federal housing agency is promising to make changes to its policies and practices to try to eliminate discrimination.
There are currently no Black or Indigenous people in the senior management ranks at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It plans to set specific targets for changing that situation and to provide mandatory anti-racism training for all staff.
Coyote Put Down:
The coyote believed to have been involved in a number of attacks on humans and dogs in Riverside South and Barrhaven has been put down.
It reared its head again Friday morning, when it was spotted around homes near Shoreline Drive. Police managed to steer it into Claudette Cain Park, where it was safely put down, and taken away for testing.
Grocery Stores Stopping Wage Premiums:
Two of the country’s biggest grocery store chains are ending wage premiums for their employees as of this weekend.
Loblaw and Metro have been paying front-line employees an extra two-dollars per hour since mid-March. Loblaw plans to pay out a total of 25-million-dollars in one-time bonuses to employees.
Metro is paying a one-time bonus of 200-dollars to each full-time employee and 100-dollars to each part-timer.
Carleton Journalism Promises Changes:
The leaders of Carleton University’s journalism program have committed to a number of changes meant to address systemic racism within the school.
The moves come in response to an open letter signed by current and past students of colour, who said they experienced microaggressions, along with broader structural racism, while attending the program. Leaders of the journalism program say they’ll redesign some courses to make sure they have a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion, with professors also participating in unconscious bias training.