Doug Ford’s eldest daughter, Krista Haynes, announced that she was getting into the face-mask fashion business, but deleted the offer soon after her dad laid down the law about which businesses will be considered essential enough to operate in Ontario for the next two weeks. The list includes the LCBO, the Beer Store, and cannabis retailers.
A tense tweet from the top
Emergency efforts to get money to Canadians impacted by COVID-19 brought on a partisan pushback: Liberals were pressured to modify what was assailed as a grab for extraordinary powers over taxes and spending. There’s also growing concern about digital location data being collected by governments in order to fight the pandemic.
Olympics leap into an odd-numbered year. Team Canada’s stand against proceeding with the 2020 games in Tokyo has been heeded with a postponement until 2021. But arguments for delaying the Conservative leadership race aren’t heeded by candidate Peter MacKay, who wants to accelerate the June 27 vote to be held sooner than later.
The stars are no longer out
Chief medical officers have been declared “a new breed of celebrity” by the Canadian Press, as the briefings provide material for memes. But the nation’s most famous self-isolated man won’t be left out: Drake’s account of a negative test for COVID-19 was followed by a walk through his closet:
Your newspaper astro advice has been officially declared bullshit. A note from the Toronto Star concedes that horoscopes contradicting public health advice continue to appear in its syndicated astrological forecasts, which were written weeks ago. (But the newspaper is still publishing them.)
Finally, reality bites everyone
Big Brother Canada has been a strange newsmaker amidst COVID-19: after contestants were belatedly told about the pandemic, Insight Productions issued an official statement about extra precautions for the already quarantined. Crew members were reportedly less confident. Live viewers could only guess everyone was evicted:
