The pandemic purgatory heard around the world
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The slow speed of vaccinations in Canada was a prime-time story on CNN, to the apparent despair of Jake Tapper, whose great-great-grandfather was once mayor of Winnipeg. But the sights of life returning to normal elsewhere persist, especially as shops and pub gardens reopen in England, while Montreal continues policing a curfew.
The new age of hesitation
Jason Kenney expressed his concern that Albertans will take a pass on the AstraZeneca vaccine, corroborated by Angus Reid numbers that show just 41 per cent of poll respondents are comfortable due to the uncertain headlines. Johnson & Johnson is now raising alarm due to blood clots, but Canada hasn’t received its order.
“I really believe COVID has created a window of political opportunity and maybe an epiphany…” Chrystia Freeland said this about a child care program, but the 11-second clip from the Liberal policy convention is still making the rounds.
The language of mug shots
An investigation of the proposed Highway 413 route in Ontario brought on a report from the National Observer and Torstar detailing the associations that land developers who own thousands of acres nearby appear to have with Doug Ford’s government. The portrayals led a group of Italian community leaders to take issue with the insinuations:
Toronto will get its next big screen time in mid-January. Ater being postponed from its second American Thanksgiving, Kevin Hart’s vehicle The Man from Toronto is slated for release on the MLK Day weekend that previously rewarded Hart’s Ride Along pictures. It was also slated for filming in New York before the production moved north.
Finally, you can’t fight city hall
Barenaked Ladies scheduled an April 17 show from Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, promotion for which now admits it was already taped, because such livestreams are currently prohibited under stay-at-home orders in Ontario. The next BNL album was announced with a tour postponed to 2022, and a throwback to earlier hopeful times:
