Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
The pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics will be like no other when they open on July 23. And they'll have an idiosyncratic Olympic Village to match.
Start with the aptly named "Fever Clinic," a prefabricated complex of isolation rooms inside the sprawling village on Tokyo Bay. This is where PCR tests will be given to athletes or staff suspected of carrying COVID-19.
It is a spot nobody will want to visit, unlike the massive dining hall, or the fitness center, or a special "casual dining area" that will serve famous Japanese dishes from okonomiyaki (a savory pancake) to rice balls to teppanyaki (dishes cooked on an iron grill).
Athletes will be tested daily in the village, after being tested at least twice before leaving home, and again upon arrival. Any test anomaly in the village could land athletes or staff in the hands of Dr. Tetsuya Miyamoto, senior director of the Medical Services Department for the organizing committee.
"If they test positive, then they will be brought over here," Dr. Miyamoto explained, standing during a media tour on Sunday outside the gun-metal gray walls of the clinic.
"This person will undergo another series of tests, taking a sample from the nasal membrane. Then we will analyze the nasal membrane test and confirm if that person really is infected or not."
If so, patients who are asymptomatic or with minor symptoms will be moved to an "isolation hotel" outside the village. The seriously ill will be moved to a hospital.
"We are hoping that there won't be so many people," Dr. Miyamoto said. "Of course, its going to be a range in the number of people. This is an infectious disease we are talking about. It has the possibility of spreading. So once that happens. the numbers could start to explode."
The village is a gigantic, somewhat featureless array of newly built apartment blocks on Tokyo Bay that are being sold off for occupancy after the Olympics and Paralympics close.
The village opens officially on July 13, just 10 days before the Olympics are to open. Athletes will be required to wear masks in the village -- even if they are vaccinated -- and be warned constantly with signage about social distancing, washing hands and ventilating room areas.
The International Olympic Committee has said more than 80 per cent of the occupants of the village will be fully vaccinated. This contrasts with the Japanese population, where about 6-7 per cent are fully vaccinated in a slow rollout that is now speeding up.
More than 14,000 deaths in Japan have been attributed to COVID-19, numbers good by world standards but not as good as other Asian neighbors.
The village consists of 21 residential towers varying from 14 to 18 floors with a total of 3,600 rooms. They're equipped with 18,000 beds, famously with disposable cardboard frames and spartan furnishings.
Apartment sizes vary from 110 square metres that could sleep eight, down to smaller units. Officials have said teams will decide how many athletes will sleep in the rooms, likely spreading them out when possible.
About 11,000 athletes are expected for the Olympics and 4,400 for the Paralympics, which open on Aug. 24. Arrivals will be staggered, and athletes are being asked to arrive as late as possible and leave almost as soon as they finish competing.
The two-floored dining area will have plastic panels to separate diners. Previous Olympics have used largely self-service, but food in Tokyo will be handled only by cooks and servers. Officials say diners can choose from about 700 options.
Athletes will be allowed to grab their own soft drinks from a huge refrigerator. But officials say the metal handles will be covered with "anti-virus film."
The official cost of the Tokyo Olympics is $15.4 billion, but government audits suggest it is twice that. All but $6.7 billion is public money. The IOC contributes about US$1.5 billion to the total cost.
The IOC has pushed ahead with these Olympics, which have generally faced disapproval in Japan, partly because it stood to lose US$3 billion-US$4 billion in broadcast income if the games were canceled.
Officials on the Sunday tour reiterated the policy on alcohol in the village.
Drinking alcohol will be prohibited in public spaces in the village, including park space. Takashi Kitajima, the village general manager, said athletes could only drink in their rooms.
"When you drink alcohol you are requested to drink alone," he said.
Organizers are distributing 150,000 condoms in the village. But Kitajima said they were being distributed mainly to "raise awareness about HIV and AIDS."
"So the purpose of distributing condoms is not (just) to use in the village, but to ask athletes to cooperate for the awareness of the issue by bringing the condoms back home to their countries."
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women in Winnipeg, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be tabling legislation on Monday aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada. Federal officials have scheduled a technical briefing on the incoming bill for Monday afternoon.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during the Second World War because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
An Ontario MPP was asked again to leave the Ontario legislature on Monday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that was banned by the Speaker last month due to its political symbolism.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial fined him US$1,000 on Monday for violating his gag order once again and sternly warned the former president that additional violations could result in jail time.
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.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.