'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
The federal government is unlikely to challenge Quebec’s controversial proposal to apply a tax on the unvaccinated in the province, says former premier Jean Charest.
Quebec has assured Ottawa that they will follow the principles of the Canada Health Act in implementing the levy – if they didn’t, the federal government could withhold health transfers.
Charest said that won’t happen.
“I’ve been there. In the days when I was premier of Quebec, there were things we were doing, that in certain instances, may have been outside the Act. The federal government won’t move on [this], they’ll let it pass,” he said during an interview on CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday.
“Do they want to be on the side—and that's the dilemma right now for governments—be on the side or be seen as on the side of the anti vaxxers? … Intervening directly within the health-care system of Quebec? That would be frankly, that would be a very bad move on their side.”
Quebec announced the proposal last Tuesday, noting the levy would apply to those without a medical exemption and could be executed as soon as the next several weeks.
Premier François Legault stipulated that $50 or $100 wouldn’t be a “significant" enough penalty for him.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weighed in on the issue during a pandemic update the following day, noting that “incentives and strong measures” have worked in the fight against COVID-19.
He said the federal government is awaiting more details.
In a separate interview on CTV’s Question Period, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said provincial governments are free to act how they see fit in their own jurisdictions.
“What we're supportive of, is to use every available mechanism to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated, to do the right thing. In our own jurisdiction, whether it's federally regulated industries, banks, telecommunications companies, airlines, we've imposed vaccine mandates,” he said.
“So provinces are looking within their own jurisdiction, and what they think is the best way to encourage vaccine uptake.”
MNA Christopher Skeete says the tax proposal stems from the simple fact that there is a financial and societal cost to not getting the jab.
“It's reflected in the contagion, that they propagate the virus, it's also seen in the fact that a lot of people are ill from work, because they’ve gotten COVID. So there is a cost in terms of resources, in terms of money, in terms of society for these decisions, and I think at some point we have to have a discussion about that,” he said.
Skeete reiterated that the bill won’t be a “punitive” one, but rather one that emphasizes the “onerousness” of not getting vaccinated for legitimate reasons.
Charest said there’s been widespread support of the announcement among Quebecers who are growing increasingly more frustrated with the public health ramifications of the unvaccinated.
“People in this province are very, very frustrated with the unvaxxed because there is, in their mind, a very direct link between the fact that they are occupying hospital beds, and they are in emergency units, when in fact there are people who are being deprived of health services and life-depending services because of their decision. So, that's the reason why there's wide support,” he said.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
There is currently a whooping cough epidemic in Europe, with 10 times as many cases compared to the previous two years. While an outbreak has not been declared nationwide in Canada, whooping cough is regularly detected in the country.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
British Columbia's human rights tribunal has awarded a neurodigergent actor, who was diagnosed with sensory and learning disorders, more than $55,000 after finding that a Kelowna theatre company discriminated against him because of his disabilities.
It's not quite clear who is supposed to be regulating so-called sovereign cannabis stores or even ensure they're benefiting Indigenous communities.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.