New vaccine advice in Canada; Capitol riot inquiry planned: In The News for Feb. 16

The second stage is expected to start this spring after the provinces vaccinate all staff and residents at long-term care homes, adults aged 70 or older, front-line health workers and adults in Indigenous communities.

The list of groups that should receive COVID-19 vaccines in the second stage includes people between 60 and 69 years old, racialized adults from groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19, essential workers, first responders, caregivers and residents and staff of congregate living sittings including homeless shelters, prisons and migrant workers’ quarters.

The committee added a third stage to its immunization recommendations that includes people between 16 and 59 years old with underlying conditions, those who are between 50 and 59 years old with no underlying conditions, and health workers and essential workers who are didn’t got shots in previous rounds.

The new recommendations prioritize racialized adults from groups disproportionately affected by the pandemic ahead of some older non-racialized people.

Health authorities in the provinces and the territories decide who gets vaccinated first.

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Also this …

Now that a lawsuit against him has been dropped, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri says he will continue to fight for equality outside the courts.

Ujiri thanked Raptors players, staff, ownership and fans in a statement Monday for standing with him throughout the lawsuit, which stemmed from an altercation with a California law enforcement officer at the 2019 NBA Finals in Oakland, Calif.

The lawsuit, filed by Alameda County sheriff’s deputy Alan Strickland and his wife, Kelly, was dropped on Wednesday, as was a countersuit filed by Ujiri.

“I have decided my fight isn’t a legal one,” Ujiri said in the statement.

“Now the challenge is this: What can we do to stop another man or woman from finding themselves in front of a judge or behind bars because they committed no crime other than being Black? That is the work that each one of us must commit to, every day.”

A video of Ujiri speaking on the incident recorded in August, around the time videos of the incident were circulating, was posted Monday on the Raptors’ Twitter feed.

“When I look at this I ask: Who are we as people?” Ujiri says in the video. “Who are we as human beings?

“It comes down to human decency.”

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday in a letter that the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex — and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.”

After former President Donald Trump’s acquittal at his second Senate impeachment trial, bipartisan support appeared to be growing for an independent commission to examine the deadly insurrection.

Investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. Pelosi, D-Calif., asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore to lead an immediate review of the Capitol’s security process.

In her letter Monday, Pelosi said, “It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened.”

Lawmakers from both parties, speaking on Sunday’s news shows, signalled that even more inquiries were likely. The Senate verdict Saturday, with its 57-43 majority falling 10 votes short of the two-thirds needed to convict Trump, hardly put to rest the debate about the Republican former president’s culpability for the Jan. 6 assault.

“There should be a complete investigation about what happened,” said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump. “What was known, who knew it and when they knew, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again.”

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport were escorted by security guards to buses that took them to nearby hotels on Monday as Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels received their first guests.

Some of the travellers said they had tried and failed to make it to Britain before Monday to avoid the quarantine, which has been established as the government tries to prevent new coronavirus variants from derailing its vaccination drive.

Zari Tadayon, who flew to Heathrow from Dubai and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said she had hoped she would be allowed to quarantine at her home in London. She said she felt “horrible” about the enforced 10-day hotel stay.

“How I’m going to cope I don’t know. It’s going to be tough,” she said.

Britain has given a first dose of coronavirus vaccine to almost a quarter of its population, but health officials are concerned that vaccines may not work as well on some new strains of the virus, including one first identified in South Africa.

Under the new rules, residents of the U.K. and Ireland arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries must stay in designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, with meals delivered to their door. In Scotland the rule applies to arrivals from any country.

International travel has already been sharply curbed by the pandemic and Britons are currently barred from going on overseas vacations.

Critics, however, say Britain’s quarantine hotels are being set up too late, with the South African variant already circulating in the U.K.

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On this day in 1984 …

Quebec speedskater Gaetan Boucher completed the greatest individual Canadian showing in an Olympic Games. Boucher added the 1,500-metre gold medal in Sarajevo to his gold in the 1,000-metre and his bronze in the 500. Boucher also won the silver in the 1,000 at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

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In entertainment …

Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex will be speaking with Oprah Winfrey in a primetime television interview next month on CBS.

It’s the couple’s first major television interview since Harry and Meghan Markle quit royal duties and bought a home last year in the U.S.

The 90-minute “Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” will air March 7, CBS announced Monday. Winfrey knows the couple well. She attended their wedding in 2018 and lives near them in Montecito, Calif.

“Winfrey will speak with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,” according to CBS. “Later, the two are joined by Prince Harry as they speak about their move to the United States and their future hopes and dreams for their expanding family.”

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry confirmed that they were expecting a second child. Their first son, Archie, was born in 2019.

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ICYMI …

A vegan version of the iconic KitKat candy bar is being developed by Nestle.

The Swiss-based company didn’t spell out in its announcement on Monday the exact formula for the new treat to be known as the KitKat V. But it said it would “soon have a delicious plant-based option that delivers the perfect balance between crispy wafer and smooth chocolate that people know and love.”

The company said it already has launched plant-based alternatives to dairy made from rice, oat, soy, coconut, pea and almonds that are found in its non-dairy ice cream, coffee creamers and other products.

The KitKat V, which it said will be launched later this year in “several countries across the globe,” is certified vegan and uses 100 per cent sustainable cocoa, the company said.

As the product is tested it will only be available in the company’s boutique KitKat Chocolatory shops or online, and through select retailers.

It will be available in Britain, where the KitKat was originally developed in York — and where the research on the vegan version was done — but not in the U.S. where the KitKat is produced under a licensing agreement with Hershey’s, the company said.

Nestle said it is not releasing information on other countries participating in the initial roll-out at the moment.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2021

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

New vaccine advice in Canada; Capitol riot inquiry planned: In The News for Feb. 16

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