Canada’s vaccine flood and North Vancouver tragedy: In The News for Mar. 29

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Mar. 29 …

What we are watching in Canada …

OTTAWA – Canada is scheduled to receive a flood of new COVID-19 vaccine doses this week.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says pharmaceutical companies are expected to deliver around 3.3 million shots over the coming days.

That would mark the single-largest week of vaccine doses into Canada since the start of the pandemic.

Pfizer and BioNTech are scheduled to ship nearly 1.2 million doses this week, as the two companies continue pumping out shots at a rapid pace.

Another 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are set to arrive by truck from the United States on Tuesday.

And the government is expects Moderna to make good on its promised delivery of 600,000 shots this coming Thursday, which is about a week later than expected.

Moderna was supposed to have shipped around 846,000 shots to Canada last week, but only a fraction actually arrived due to what the company and government have described as a backlog in its quality-assurance testing.

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Also this …

REGINA – There is some new research on what Canadians think life will be like when the pandemic is over.

A study suggests most people believe COVID-19 will have negative consequences on mental health, travel and the economy.

Others feel the pandemic will bolster online shopping and make public mask-wearing more common.

The findings are from a phone survey by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan. 

Director Jason Disano says people are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel because of vaccines.

He says some of the data he found most interesting were about children’s education. 

Despite 63 per cent of people feeling like the pandemic will have a positive effect on the delivery of online education, 54 per cent thought it would be bad for children’s learning. 

Overall, the survey suggests there is a lot of uncertainty about what communities will look like once they are no longer threatened by the novel coronavirus. 

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And this …

VANCOUVER – Police are expected to release more details today in their investigation of a stabbing rampage that left a young woman dead and injured six others in and around a library on Saturday in North Vancouver, B.C.

A 28-year-old man was charged Sunday with second-degree murder.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Yannick Bandaogo is in police custody after undergoing surgery for self-inflicted wounds. 

Police have not named the woman who died, but said she was in her 20s. Six others were injured in the attack at the Lynn Valley Public Library. 

Police said their injuries vary in severity and all six are expected to survive. 

In a written statement, Sgt. Frank Jang said police planned to hold a news conference today. IHIT investigators spent Sunday combing the area for evidence and interviewing witnesses, he said.

Supt. Ghalib Bhayani of the North Vancouver RCMP said the department shares “the community’s grief and outrage.” 

The pile of flowers and wreaths left just outside the caution tape cordoning off the crime scene grew throughout the weekend as residents stopped by.  

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis police officer goes on trial Monday in George Floyd’s death, and jurors may not wait long to see parts of the bystander video that caught Derek Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck.  

Prosecutors have not said when they will play the video, but legal experts say they expect it to be early as part of an effort to remind jurors of what is at the heart of their case. 

The widely seen video sparked waves of outrage and activism across the U.S. and beyond.   

And while it will have an impact, the key questions at trial are likely to be whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and whether his actions were reasonable.

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And this …

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden will lay out the first part of his multitrillion-dollar economic recovery package this week focusing on rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure.   

A separate plan in April will address child and health care.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Sunday the administration’s plans to split the package into two legislative proposals, though she says the White House will “work with the Senate and House to see how it should move forward.”   

Biden will release details in a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh about his proposal for federal investments in physical infrastructure.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

SUEZ, Egypt — Engineers have partially refloated the container ship that is wedged across the Suez Canal.  

But the massive ship is still blocking traffic and there are no details about when it might be fully freed.   

The canal services firm says the ship was partially refloated after tugboats pushed and pulled while the full moon’s tides raised the water level.   

Dredgers are also removing mud and sand around the ship. Satellite images show the vessel’s bulbous bow still wedged in the canal’s eastern bank.   

The skyscraper-sized Ever Given became stuck in the canal last Tuesday and has held up $9 billion in global trade each day.      

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And this … 

BEIJING — A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak of the coronavirus is “extremely unlikely.”   

A draft copy was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.   

The findings were largely as expected, and left many questions unanswered.   

The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis.   

The report’s release has been repeatedly delayed, raising questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew the conclusions.   

The AP received what appeared to be a near-final version from a Geneva-based diplomat from a WHO-member country.

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ICYMI …

HALIFAX – Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan paid tribute Sunday to Canada’s only all-Black unit to serve during the First World War, saying the 600 members of No. 2 Construction Battalion and their descendants are owed an apology for the racism they faced despite their willingness to serve.

Sajjan told a virtual event plans are in the works for a formal apology from Ottawa, which will highlight the fact that hundreds of Black men in Canada were turned away when they volunteered to fight overseas in 1914.

“They stepped forward and volunteered for our country, only to be denied because of the colour of their skin — denied to fight in a so-called ‘white-man’s war,'” Sajjan said in a brief speech from British Columbia.

After two years of protests, the Canadian military was granted approval in 1916 to establish a segregated, non-combat battalion that would be tasked with building roads, railways and forestry operations as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Established July 5, 1916, in Pictou, N.S., the battalion was the last segregated unit in the Canadian military.

Only a few of its members would see combat, mainly because the battalion was repeatedly told its help wasn’t wanted on the front lines.

Members of the unit were shipped home in 1918 and the battalion was disbanded in 1920.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 29, 2021

The Canadian Press