More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Fly-in communities will be exempt from a federal requirement that air passengers be vaccinated against COVID-19, Canada's transport minister said Friday, a day before the mandate comes into effect.
Residents who leave their remote communities to access essential services need not be vaccinated to board a plane, Omar Alghabra told a news conference outside Toronto International Pearson Airport.
"We are putting in place some exceptions with guardrails and with measures, as well, to protect the health and safety of everyone," he said. "But again, those are communities that have very little if no access to the outside world, other than travelling by plane."
Ottawa said earlier this month that it was eyeing exceptions for 182 communities that Transport Canada or the provinces and territories have deemed "remote" and largely inaccessible by car.
Alghabra said the government consulted with First Nations, provinces and territories to develop the exemption.
Alghabra also announced a months-long grace period for unvaccinated foreign nationals hoping to leave the country without getting their shots.
They'll have until Feb. 28 to board a plane or boat leaving Canada with only a negative COVID-19 test if they choose to remain unvaccinated.
After that, he said, they'll be subject to the same requirements as everyone else.
There's a similar grace period for other unvaccinated Canadians, when they can travel with just a negative molecular test result for COVID-19, but it lasts only until Nov. 29.
"We know that Canadians who have not been vaccinated are now thinking about getting vaccinated and hopefully they will go out and get vaccinated, so they will be required to get tested prior to departure," Alghabra said.
He noted that the testing mandate is still a step up from existing policies for domestic air travel, which require neither a vaccine nor a negative test.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced in August that all travellers by plane, boat or interprovincial train would need to be vaccinated, and the pledge became a pillar of his successful re-election campaign.
Alghabra said the mandate will help protect workers and travellers alike.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2021.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.