Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says he is concerned provinces that are lifting COVID-19 restrictions could lead to a Delta-driven fourth wave among Indigenous people.
Miller says many areas of the country opened too quickly last year during the second wave and it was "dangerous and devastating to many Indigenous communities."
"It's of great concern to me," Miller said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Prairie provinces, where there are high populations of Indigenous people, are moving away from most of their COVID-19 restrictions.
Manitoba announced earlier this week it would end its mask mandate and remove many restrictions on businesses and group sizes this Saturday.
Saskatchewan has also dropped most restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic, while Alberta is facing criticism from health-care experts after lifting all of its public health orders.
Miller said a proper health strategy involves vaccines, awareness and continued public health measures.
"But that's all for not if economies open up too quickly and provinces open up too quickly," he said.
First Nations leaders sounded the alarm last fall when it became clear the second wave of the pandemic was having devastating effects on Indigenous people. Many reserves went into lockdown and put in measures to stop the spread.
In Manitoba, the median age of death from COVID-19 is 80 for non-Indigenous people but it's 63 for those who are First Nations. First Nations people also made up 20 per cent of the province's deaths due to COVID-19, despite making up about 10 per cent of the province's overall population.
There have been more than 33,000 positive cases on reserves -- the vast majority on the Prairies.
Miller said Indigenous people are three to five times more susceptible to getting COVID-19 because of crowded living conditions and other socioeconomic determinants of health.
Some provinces prioritized getting doses of the vaccines to Indigenous people and Miller said there has been a good uptick due to the efforts of Indigenous health experts and leaders.
But, he said, there are still significant risk factors.
Federal officials warned last week that Canada could be on the brink of a fourth wave of COVID-19 driven by the Delta variant if the country opens too fast before enough people have been vaccinated. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said the more infectious variant, which first became prominent in India, is expected to gain steam among younger unvaccinated people.
Miller said a large proportion of the Indigenous population, especially on reserves, are children under the age of 12, who are not eligible to get a dose.
"That puts the community at risk for their mass immunization," he said.
"There is a real, real risk that the Delta variant ... gets into communities and spreads among the unimmunized."
Some outbreaks have begun to pop up on reserves in recent weeks. Black Lake First Nation in northern Saskatchewan went into lockdown last month amida Delta-fuelled spread in the community of about 1,600.The Athabasca Health Authority, which is responsible for the First Nation, said this week it resulted in more than 200 people being required toself-isolate.
Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said he hoped the plans to lift restrictions would have been more cautious and involved added input from Indigenous health professionals and community leaders.
"I think it's really irresponsible. I think we should know better," Dumas said.
Dumas continued to urge caution as restrictions loosen. He saidit'snot worth the risk when children's health is at stake.
"I feel that there's light at the end of the tunnel," Dumas said.
"I feel there's an opportunity for all of us collectively to move forward but I think we need to be strategic and as careful as we can be."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2021.
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
An Airbnb in Montreal's Verdun borough was the source of much frustration from neighbours who say there were constant parties at the location. It has been taken down from the app, but housing advocates remain upset about short-term rentals.
He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela. 23 years later, they're still in love.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
RCMP say the fire that prompted a state of emergency in a Labrador town is now under control.
Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza's southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
Iraqi authorities said Saturday that they were investigating an explosion that struck a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iran-allied militias, killing one person and injuring eight.
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.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.