Juno News - March 26, 2020


True North Update: Troops at our border?


Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

187.62845

Word count

4,017

Sentence count

226

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Candice and Andrew discuss the latest on the coronavirus outbreak in Canada and the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed near the border with Canada. They also discuss the impact this could have on Canada's relations with the United States.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hi, and welcome to True North Update.
00:00:07.600 I'm your host, Candice Malcolm,
00:00:08.840 and I am joined by co-host Andrew Lawton.
00:00:11.520 Andrew, thanks so much for being here.
00:00:13.280 Yes, absolutely.
00:00:14.840 So we are doing something special today.
00:00:16.940 We are recording this broadcast live.
00:00:19.400 We usually pre-record it,
00:00:20.960 but we decided to do it live today to get you all of
00:00:23.680 the facts and all the information as fast as possible.
00:00:26.680 So before we get into today's news,
00:00:28.760 let's just go through the latest statistics on coronavirus.
00:00:32.320 So as of today, Thursday at 2 p.m.,
00:00:35.880 there are 3,845 confirmed cases in Canada,
00:00:40.880 which has resulted in sadly 37 deaths.
00:00:44.520 So that cumulative number continues to grow,
00:00:48.080 not quite at the same rapid pace that we are seeing
00:00:50.660 in other parts of the world,
00:00:51.660 but it's still alarming nonetheless.
00:00:53.520 So the big news story at the press conferences today,
00:00:57.200 the prime ministers, and then the COVID-19 response team,
00:01:00.760 the cabinet there.
00:01:02.760 The thing that everyone is focusing on and in the media
00:01:05.120 is a story of global news.
00:01:06.680 So Mercedes Stevenson over at Global had the scoop today 0.96
00:01:09.960 that Donald Trump and the U.S. administration
00:01:12.280 is looking to put troops near the Canadian border amid coronavirus fears.
00:01:17.320 So Andrew, what happened with this story at these press conferences?
00:01:22.880 Yeah, it was interesting because I was seeing that headline earlier and thought,
00:01:28.120 okay, you know, whatever seems like a pretty sensible thing when we know that border containment
00:01:32.880 efforts are pretty much the priority for a lot of jurisdictions with blocking COVID-19.
00:01:37.880 But then to see how quickly this escalated to be the huge story that everyone's focusing
00:01:43.600 on today, I found a little bit odd.
00:01:45.960 The details of it are, and it's important to note that the U.S. hasn't made a final decision
00:01:50.360 on this by what we've heard so far, we'll be using military to patrol a perimeter about
00:01:56.020 30 kilometers from the border.
00:01:57.780 Now, military cannot operate on U.S. soil.
00:02:02.340 So they're there strictly in a monitoring capacity.
00:02:05.160 If they detect people, they engage the nearest border officials who will then come, detain,
00:02:09.960 deport if need, remove, be, whatever the process is.
00:02:13.640 The military will be more there to just turn it over to the border guards.
00:02:18.340 But what's interesting here is that despite this being a matter of America trying to secure
00:02:23.280 its border, Canada has been very resistant to this.
00:02:27.000 Chrystia Freeland said that Canada strongly opposes this, that it could damage the relationship.
00:02:32.720 She said it's not necessary.
00:02:34.920 She said that, yes, the U.S. has the right to do it, but this is harming Canada's relationship.
00:02:39.720 It's a point of pride, as we all know, that Canada and the U.S. share the longest unprotected
00:02:44.680 border in the world.
00:02:46.740 This doesn't threaten that.
00:02:48.160 It's simply a measure, well, there is this restriction in place that blocks Canadians from
00:02:53.880 going to the U.S. for non-essential purposes.
00:02:57.420 This agreement that blocks people from illegally going from Canada to the U.S. and vice versa.
00:03:02.220 So this really doesn't seem to be all that controversial an idea, but the Canadian government
00:03:08.180 is viewing it very negatively.
00:03:10.180 Right.
00:03:11.180 And I just feel like, I don't know if this is an example of, like, Trump derangement syndrome
00:03:14.980 in the media or just, you know, the tone of anti-Americanism that runs through the sort
00:03:20.860 of center-left elite in Canada.
00:03:23.280 But I mean, the story is speculative.
00:03:25.420 It's based on, you know, unnamed sources, and it says they might, they're thinking about
00:03:30.560 it, they're in talks about it.
00:03:32.040 So there's nothing, you know, in concrete that this is going to happen, and yet it really
00:03:37.520 did dominate the press conference.
00:03:40.380 And I mean, this is just a small point of contention, but you can just tell how sort of anti-Trump
00:03:46.100 and anti-American the media are in Canada just by the way that they pose the questions.
00:03:50.560 Like they make this seem like it's somehow an act of war.
00:03:53.280 One journalist said, you know, Donald Trump has announced that he will be opening the economy
00:03:58.640 for Easter.
00:03:59.880 Does that make you worried?
00:04:01.480 Should we close the border even further?
00:04:02.640 And it's like, well, hold on a second.
00:04:05.200 Trump didn't say that they're opening the border at Easter.
00:04:07.160 He said that he hopes that they did in a sort of aspirational way.
00:04:10.740 So the very premise of the question is, is based on sort of a deliberate misreading and
00:04:15.400 bad faith.
00:04:16.440 So that, that was the big story that dominated today.
00:04:19.440 And again, I think it's more of a non-story, but we'll have to, I guess, wait and see what
00:04:23.660 comes out in the days and weeks.
00:04:25.260 The story that I thought dominate, that should have dominated, there's a big, big story came
00:04:29.560 from the Globe and Mail.
00:04:31.140 Steve Chase writes a story about how Ottawa's facing criticism for sending 16 tons of personal
00:04:37.040 protective equipment to China back in February.
00:04:40.380 Really interesting.
00:04:41.380 So Canada was sending personal protective equipment, including clothing, face shields, mask goggles,
00:04:46.940 all the stuff that we're really in short supply of and in need of right now.
00:04:51.560 We sent that to China back in February, February 4th.
00:04:54.820 Just as a point of reference, Canada had already had its first positive case of coronavirus in
00:05:00.500 January, January 25th.
00:05:01.500 So this is after we already had the virus in Canada.
00:05:04.160 We began shipping equipment to China.
00:05:06.660 And it's interesting to note that our colleague, Anthony Fury, writing in the Toronto Sun reported
00:05:11.560 on the same story a week ago, but somehow the Globe re-reported today and it became a
00:05:16.000 big story on social media.
00:05:17.880 So Andrew, was this really a story that was focused on at all during those press conferences
00:05:22.000 today?
00:05:23.000 Is there, did we get more answers or more of an explanation as to why Canada is sending
00:05:26.480 gear to China when we're in such short supply here?
00:05:29.280 No, it was very, I mean, there were a couple of questions here and there.
00:05:34.740 The one case that really came out was the health official, the senior public health official,
00:05:40.460 Dr. Theresa Tam saying that, basically defending it, saying that at this time China was the
00:05:46.160 epicenter and it's important to deal with basically all hands on deck, throw everything
00:05:50.800 you can at the point where it is really becoming the biggest problem.
00:05:55.780 And at that point it was China, specifically Wuhan.
00:05:58.880 So very much defending it, saying at that time the gear was needed in China, it wasn't
00:06:03.260 needed around the world.
00:06:04.800 Now I guess the problem with that is that if Canada was at that point in time so aware
00:06:10.580 that China was the problem, why were travel restrictions not put in place from China at
00:06:16.400 that point?
00:06:17.400 And I think it reinforces the double standard here, that when it came to foreign aid, Trudeau
00:06:22.080 realized, yes, China's the problem, we've got to put everything we can there. 0.99
00:06:26.260 But when it came to the domestic story, Canada wasn't paying any attention to the very same
00:06:31.320 reality that it had acknowledged in the different context.
00:06:34.180 Well, and I think it's also worth noting that report that came out that said that basically
00:06:38.660 China sat on this information, that they knew, like right up to the highest levels of the 0.86
00:06:42.860 government, they knew that this disease was caused by human-to-human transmission.
00:06:47.600 They lied about that, kept it secret.
00:06:49.900 An analysis of the situation found that if they had released the information that they
00:06:53.700 had when they had it, the global spread could have been contained and reduced by 95 percent.
00:06:58.640 So China really is a bad actor in all of this. 0.97
00:07:01.680 And I don't really see them facing the kinds of consequences that they should.
00:07:05.580 The fact that, again, Canada's facing shortages is really difficult to justify after sending
00:07:13.120 this.
00:07:14.120 In the report, I believe it was Evan Solomon, said that senior government sources told him
00:07:18.020 that China was going to be sending back this equipment.
00:07:21.020 So I guess now that China has sort of contained the virus outbreak over there, they're going
00:07:25.500 to be returning the favor.
00:07:26.860 I mean, I'll believe that when I see it.
00:07:29.700 But it's really kind of jarring to hear that Canada's kind of giving away all the say and
00:07:35.860 sending money to all these other places when we really have a problem here at home.
00:07:40.120 Yeah, and certainly for the numbers that China has seen, it's unclear how they even have
00:07:46.180 that much equipment left over to share.
00:07:49.520 But I mean, of course, I'm optimistic and hopeful.
00:07:52.140 But you're right.
00:07:53.140 I mean, believe it when you see it.
00:07:54.460 Yeah.
00:07:55.460 And so likewise, I think on a similar strain, we're seeing stories today.
00:07:58.960 There's a story in iPolitics about hospitals anticipating shortages.
00:08:03.320 So despite repeated assurances from the federal and provincial governments, frontline workers
00:08:08.320 in Ontario are growing increasingly weary of the dwindling supply of the same personal
00:08:15.820 protective equipment.
00:08:17.420 At least Toronto hospitals have begun rationing the protective gear as the COVID-19 crisis
00:08:23.340 deepens.
00:08:24.340 And I mean, we're also hearing of a lot of frontline workers being infected.
00:08:28.240 I know that in British Columbia, there was a report that said that 55 healthcare workers
00:08:33.100 in British Columbia have been infected.
00:08:35.120 In Toronto, there was similarly over a dozen, I believe I saw, that had been infected.
00:08:40.260 So I think this all results in really like a lack of proper preparation.
00:08:45.600 We know that there's going to be a big increase.
00:08:47.760 We know that there's going to be a lot of people coming in with symptoms.
00:08:50.640 And we need to have our healthcare workers prepared and having the right equipment that
00:08:54.840 they need.
00:08:55.840 Was this something that any of the ministers specifically discussed or explained during the press conferences
00:08:59.820 today, Andrew?
00:09:00.820 Yeah, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott had actually denied that there is any rationing
00:09:06.720 taking place when it comes to equipment.
00:09:09.100 I mean, she's just reiterating what I think a lot of the hospitals have said, which is that
00:09:13.740 there are very specific criteria about who needs which personal protective equipment or PPEs
00:09:19.180 and those people are getting them.
00:09:21.100 Now, there's also another aspect in Ontario, which is rationing care itself.
00:09:25.560 We've heard reports of cancer surgeries being bumped back, so not just non-elective things,
00:09:31.000 but very essential, in many cases, life and death surgeries that are being bumped back as
00:09:37.080 hospitals deal with it.
00:09:38.280 Now, this isn't to say that these decisions aren't going to be, aren't few and far between
00:09:43.240 at this point, but we've seen in Italy what happens when the system does get overwhelmed.
00:09:47.680 In Ontario, where a lot of these stories are coming out, as of an hour ago, the government
00:09:52.320 still says that the system is not overburdened at this point.
00:09:55.680 I mean, that's certainly not the story that we're seeing in some cases like the ones you
00:10:00.400 mentioned, but overall, the government is still saying it's on track.
00:10:04.640 But at this point, we are still looking at, in Ontario in particular, numbers rising pretty
00:10:11.760 rapidly.
00:10:12.240 So over, I think, three or four days ago, we were averaging maybe 40, 50 new cases a
00:10:17.520 day in Ontario.
00:10:18.880 That went up to, I think, 100 new cases were added yesterday, and 170 new cases were added
00:10:24.960 today.
00:10:25.840 Now, you have to take this with a bit of a grain of salt, because Ontario is trying
00:10:29.600 to boost its testing capacity, so you never know if more people are getting sick, or if
00:10:34.000 they're just testing more people and reporting it more accurately.
00:10:36.720 But we are still seeing an increase that looks to be getting to exponential in Ontario, which
00:10:44.080 is something that, I mean, as you're in my province, is certainly of interest to me.
00:10:48.320 But we're seeing in other provinces as well, numbers continue to rise as well.
00:10:52.000 It's good, at least, that the government is giving that assurance, because you have to
00:10:57.120 trust that they are monitoring it and trying to keep ahead of it.
00:11:00.960 I mean, the thing that we're trying to avoid is the situation like we saw in Italy, like
00:11:05.200 we're now seeing in Spain, and to some extent in New York City, where it's just such a massive
00:11:10.240 surge that it's not really about, you know, the rate of transmission or the death rate,
00:11:14.720 but just a vast sheer number of how many people in one specific area get infected.
00:11:19.440 We know this thing is just incredibly contagious.
00:11:21.840 I'll give you an example.
00:11:23.120 There was a funeral in Newfoundland.
00:11:25.440 So according to health officials in Newfoundland, there are now 67 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
00:11:31.920 And so health officials said that of those 67 cases, 44 of them could be traced to one
00:11:37.120 individual who was overseas and he came home to St. John's to attend a funeral.
00:11:42.320 So at that funeral and then beyond, he is connected to 44 of the cases.
00:11:48.160 So that just kind of shows how quickly this thing can spread and how one individual
00:11:52.480 can really multiply and lead to cases.
00:11:54.880 There's a bunch of other examples of similar things.
00:11:57.360 There was a dental conference up in Vancouver.
00:11:59.840 You've got to wonder why these things weren't canceled because, you know, by the time this
00:12:03.040 thing was held, same with there was a curling tournament in Edmonton, March 11th to 14th.
00:12:08.240 I mean, that was just last week.
00:12:09.840 I can't I can't believe this thing was allowed to be held at that curling tournament.
00:12:15.200 11 people who happened to all be medical professor professionals
00:12:18.800 have all been tested positive for coronavirus.
00:12:22.160 So, Andrew, you know, it just shows how quickly things can change
00:12:25.920 and how prepared we need to be in order to get ahead of this curve.
00:12:30.960 Yeah, and I think all of these numbers are really reinforcing why
00:12:35.120 governments are starting to switch to more of that enforcement mentality,
00:12:39.680 because despite the fact that a lot of people are being responsible and doing what they're supposed to,
00:12:44.640 we're also seeing more and more stories of this where people are going around what the advice is,
00:12:50.800 and now it's no longer advice, but rather an order.
00:12:54.320 Right. So why don't we go through some of the initiatives and announcements that provinces have made?
00:12:58.800 I know that a bunch of provinces have now announced fines for people who don't self-isolate and self-quarantine.
00:13:06.960 So, yeah, I'm just pulling up the list here.
00:13:10.080 The one that happened in Ontario, individuals can be $1,000.
00:13:15.280 Corporations can be fined up to $500,000 for defying emergency orders.
00:13:21.520 Vancouver businesses can be fined $50,000, individuals $1,000.
00:13:26.320 $1,000 seems to be the going rate in Alberta, PEI, and Montreal.
00:13:30.800 Now, these are provincial fines.
00:13:32.960 It's worth noting that as of yesterday, as we talked about,
00:13:35.920 the federal government has decided to invoke the Quarantine Act, which means there will be
00:13:40.400 further measures that can be applied if people coming back from another country do not quarantine
00:13:46.320 themselves for 14 days. And Trudeau acknowledged this morning that the penalty for breaking that
00:13:53.280 is a fine that could range to tens of thousands of dollars or even jail time.
00:13:58.880 So now there is a federal penalty that isn't incorporated in these lists,
00:14:03.440 which are more for the provincial regulations.
00:14:06.080 Well, that's very interesting because I understand that prison populations are the
00:14:10.640 most sort of at risk or one of the most at risk. So the idea of sending someone to prison because
00:14:15.520 they have coronavirus and they didn't self-quarantine, I mean, probably they'd go to a hospital
00:14:19.520 first and get cured. But I can't really imagine the government mass enforcing this. And it's still
00:14:25.520 not clear to me what it would mean to not self-isolate. I mean, are you allowed to go
00:14:31.840 for a walk? Are you allowed to go to the grocery store? I know there's a park across the street
00:14:36.160 from my house and a city of Toronto official was there first thing this morning with tape and he
00:14:40.880 wrapped it all up and basically just cornered off so that no kids can go on the swing. Heaven forbid,
00:14:46.720 a little kid goes on a swing and gets too close to another little kid. It really, at this point,
00:14:52.080 seems that we're overreacting because we didn't react enough weeks and months ago. But that's my personal
00:14:59.360 opinion. So there was also an order out of British Columbia that I saw BC orders hotel operators to
00:15:06.000 provide accommodation services for purposes of self-isolation, supporting essential workers,
00:15:12.720 or other purposes identified for the province. Do we know anything more about that order, Andrew?
00:15:18.480 Yeah. So basically provinces under their emergency powers and the federal government as well
00:15:23.840 can effectively abscond with property if they need it for dealing with the emergency. So this happened
00:15:29.920 in New York City, by the way, where the Four Seasons in Manhattan was converted to by the government
00:15:34.960 to an accommodation facility for anyone who's working in healthcare. So, you know, doctors, nurses,
00:15:41.120 other frontline care workers that the government designates and the hotel has to put them up. Now,
00:15:46.240 I don't know what the compensation structure is. If anything, if the government's paying or if it's just
00:15:50.880 seizing it, as far as British Columbia is concerned, I don't know if you get to choose the hotel, you
00:15:55.760 know, if it's like the Fairmont waterfront or just like the Howard Johnson down by the lake.
00:15:59.840 But we do know that the BC government is basically using that emergency power to say, look, your hotel
00:16:05.920 belongs to us now. And it shows that they're trying to import a lot of healthcare workers from different
00:16:12.080 parts. And we know that healthcare workers are actually exempt from the quarantine when you enter
00:16:17.040 Canada. So if you're a nurse coming back from the United States, and we talked about this a bit
00:16:21.760 yesterday, you don't need to quarantine for 14 days because the expectation is that they can put you to
00:16:27.120 work right away. But the other part of this is that the federal government under this Quarantine Act
00:16:32.800 can also use the same power to turn properties into quarantine centers. So the federal government could
00:16:40.160 take a hotel near the border and say, we're housing people that we don't think are going to go home,
00:16:46.080 or that we don't, or that may not have a home to go to. And we're going to put them in this
00:16:50.640 quarantine facility. So they are stepping this up a fair bit now.
00:16:55.120 Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It really is starting to feel more and more like a war effort. I know
00:17:00.240 Premier Doug Ford referred to this as sort of like a wartime effort. I know US President Donald Trump said
00:17:06.080 that he's now a wartime president. So it really is starting to feel that way. Andrew, okay, we've got,
00:17:11.600 we're going to end the show today on two positive notes. We usually end the show on one positive
00:17:16.480 note, but we have two good news stories today. So the first one is out of Ontario,
00:17:21.520 bars are reopening again or something like that. Andrew, why don't you, why don't you handle this
00:17:25.120 story? They're not reopening in the sense that you can't just like decide to go clubbing now,
00:17:29.920 if that's your jam. But effective immediately, licensed restaurants and bars in Ontario can sell
00:17:36.400 alcohol takeout or delivery between the hours of 9am and 11pm. So restaurants and bars have been
00:17:43.360 shut down in Ontario with the exception of takeout and delivery. Now you can order a glass of wine or
00:17:49.760 maybe a big pink margarita type thing or a Bellini or whatever your beverage of choice is with your
00:17:55.680 order. And this is actually great because now like dinner is served in Ontario, you can get your
00:18:00.880 cocktails as well. So this is one of these things that I hope lives past the pandemic. One of these
00:18:07.200 things that, you know, the alcohol rules across Canada are far too restrictive. I'm not even a huge
00:18:12.480 drinker, but I think if this keeps on the books after the coronavirus crisis is behind us, it'll be a
00:18:18.640 very good thing for free markets. Well, absolutely. And I just will say, you know, one of the things that
00:18:24.640 I do remember from the 2008 financial recession is that, you know, markets tanked, it was really,
00:18:29.760 really bad, but everyone was sort of commiserating at their local pub and local bars. And I know that
00:18:35.040 the sort of, you know, the amount of profits that those companies were receiving was kind of through
00:18:40.000 the roof. So even in that really drastic financial recession, bars and restaurants were doing really
00:18:45.040 strongly. That was part of the reason it helped bridge that initial gap in the economy. So part of the
00:18:49.520 reason that, you know, things have been so dire here in both Canada and the US is because people
00:18:54.880 can't even, you know, go, go have a pint at their local pub. Yeah, you have nowhere to commiserate.
00:18:59.920 That's how bad things are, because what you're commiserating about is the lack of being able to
00:19:03.680 go out and commiserate. It's very meta. Very meta, very meta. Well, that is good news. And then we have
00:19:08.800 another good news story that's coming straight from us here at True North. So I'm actually really excited and
00:19:13.360 proud of this initiative here at True North. Our team has put together a coronavirus assistance map
00:19:19.440 so you can go onto our website and you can see all of the local sort of charities, food banks,
00:19:24.960 meals on wheels, shelters. We did as much research as we can and we put it all together in a map.
00:19:30.080 So we are really encouraging members of True North nation and people tuning in right now,
00:19:34.640 anyone who might have the means to help out your fellow Canadian in their time of need. I know that
00:19:40.080 a lot of people are out of war, people are struggling financially, so I'm not talking to you. But
00:19:44.080 if you are someone who hasn't been adversely affected so far by the economic turmoil that's
00:19:49.440 come as a result of coronavirus and you have some means, you know, you haven't been going out to
00:19:53.200 your local pub, you haven't been going out to restaurants and you have a bit of money left over,
00:19:57.520 consider donating to a local food bank, a shelter, one of the organizations. I mean, this list is by no
00:20:03.360 means extensive. We've probably missed many. And if you know of any good cherry out there that's doing work
00:20:08.240 to help folks in need of the coronavirus, please let us know. We'll add to it. It's sort of a work
00:20:13.600 in progress, but we're really excited. We're calling on everyone in True North nation who has the means
00:20:18.960 to just open up your wallet. You know, it's a time like this that you really need to rely on the
00:20:23.920 community, on individual goodwill of civil society to just be there for one another. Some of the services
00:20:30.720 include grocery deliveries, which is really vital for people who are in the more vulnerable population
00:20:36.640 that are self-isolating. A lot of people are scared to leave their house and they need groceries. They
00:20:40.720 don't have them in the house. So some of these services are just doing really good work. And
00:20:44.400 because of the crisis, they're all short on supplies. They don't have enough volunteers. They don't have
00:20:48.480 enough cash. So again, go check that out. It's on our website, tnc.news. And if you are able, please,
00:20:54.720 please consider making a donation to one of your local groups. Or if you can, go out and volunteer
00:20:59.600 personally. I think that, you know, if you're healthy and you're not someone who's recently returned to
00:21:04.480 Canada, maybe you can go out and deliver groceries or do something like that. So please, please help
00:21:09.360 out if you can. So Andrew, thanks so much for joining me on the update. And we will be back again on Friday.