The last stretch for the mandatory masks
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While he kept his face covered as Ontario law requires until March 21, leading the province out of mask mandate mode is the current role for Doug Ford. But universities plan to retain those policies until the end of this term. Some public school boards are aspiring to extend the mandate, but a suggestion of segregating kids based on their mask status didn’t end well.
What a political fight looks like
The prior Conservative campaigning against “barbaric cultural practices” and a proposed ban on niqabs provided the first fighting fodder from leadership rival Patrick Brown. Pierre Poilievre’s reaction involved showing off a consensual kiss. And as for Jean Charest, testing positive for COVID-19 means being stuck even more indoors than he was before.
Unifor was investigating its president when he announced his retirement. Jerry Dias had been on medical leave before stepping down for what was explained as health issues. A day later, the head of Canada’s largest public sector union was revealed to have been under scrutiny for an alleged constitution breach.
The aftermath of a scarf scandal
Controversy surrounding a black-and-red scarf Chrystia Freeland was holding in Ukraine solidarity photos regretted later led to a report being corrected by iPolitics. After that, reporter Rachel Emmanuel tweeted she was leaving the outlet for reasons related to the edit. And that’s how outlier media characters get made:
Eric Mercury dead at 77. The musician who moved from Toronto to New York released his debut album, Electric Black Man, in 1969, followed by a string of U.S. major label releases through 1985. His eventual return to Canada in the late-’90s had him reflecting on his experiences on the fringe of the industry.
Finally, your blinging ringtone
Timmy Thomas died at age 77 on March 11, a half century after the Vietnam War inspired him to write “Why Can’t We Live Together.” The song’s legacy was extended in 2015, when it was heavily sampled for Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” Thomas was working as a teacher in Miami when his keyboards came back to life: