Cities consider mask mandates as province set to cancel most pandemic tracking
Some Calgary city councillors and mayoral candidates are publicly suggesting a return to mask mandates as COVID cases climb yet again.
Councillors Gian-Carlo Carra and Druh Farrell have both voiced support for an emergency meeting, as has current councillor and mayoral candidate Jyoti Gondek. Fellow sitting councillor and mayoral candidate Jeff Davison has also expressed support as well as disbelief at the provincial government's latest policy to abandon virtually all testing as well as contact tracing and isolation requirements by Aug. 16.
"I think we've been put in a terrible position by this provincial government," Gondek said. "They're not tracing. They are not testing, they're not asking people to isolate [. . .] they are not taking this seriously."
Mayoral candidate Jeromy Farkas disagreed, saying chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw's advice should stand for all jurisdictions in Alberta.
"Dr. Hinshaw has made the call, it's very clear that vaccines are effective and they work, so I think that that we need to stick to the science here," said Farkas. "Public Health is a provincial responsibility."
Edmonton city council will revisit its mask mandate in an emergency meeting Aug. 12, with the endorsement of outgoing mayor Don Iveson.
The consideration comes as infections continue to rise. While doctors say the unvaccinated make up the vast majority of new cases and experience the most severe outcomes, roughly 1.3 million doses of vaccine are sitting in AHS freezers as demand has stalled out.
Children under 12 still cannot be vaccinated because trials have not been completed.
For the fifth day in a row protestors gathered in front of provincial government buildings in Calgary and Edmonton to demand a change in policy.
About 200 assembled in front of the MacDougall Centre Tuesday. One counter protestor was arrested according to Calgary Police.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.