More Canada-bound COVID vaccine and extending voting rights: In The News for Apr. 26

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 Apr. 26 …

What we are watching in Canada …

OTTAWA — The federal government says it expects Canada to receive around 1.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week, including its very first shipment of shots from Johnson & Johnson.

The government says the country will receive about 300,000 of the single-dose jabs in the coming days, in addition to more than 1 million Pfizer-BioNTech shots and around 650,000 doses from Moderna.

But Canada is not currently expecting any more deliveries of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Those doses have been in heavy demand after the eligible age for the shot was dropped to 40-plus in several provinces.

Federal Public Procurement Minister Anita Anand said last week that Canada is in talks with the U-S for some of its AstraZeneca supply after President Joe Biden suggested it might share the shots.   

The U-S has stockpiled tens of millions of AstraZeneca shots, but health officials there have not approved the vaccine for use.

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Also this …

MONTREAL – Montreal officials are looking into extending voting rights to more than 100,000 non-citizens in order to better integrate immigrants and encourage more racialized people to participate in municipal politics.

The idea isn’t new: for years, Canadian cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Saint John, N.B., have debated or proposed giving the vote to permanent residents — but none have succeeded in convincing provincial or federal governments to modify citizenship and voting laws.

Montreal can “show leadership” on this issue and rekindle the debate in the country, according to an April 19 report by the city’s committee on social development and diversity. 

“Granting voting rights to permanent residents is one of the ways to foster political participation and ensure better representation of the various groups that form society,” the report said. 

The committee, composed mostly of elected officials from the two main parties at city hall, wants Montreal to publicly affirm its desire to grant voting rights to permanent residents who have lived “for at least 12 months on the territory of the city of Montreal.” It also wants the city to lobby the provincial and federal governments to change laws to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris will make the case before United Nations members today that now is the time for global leaders to begin putting the serious work into how they will respond to the next global pandemic. 

The virtual address will be Harris’ second to a U.N. body since her inauguration. 

It will come as the United States makes progress on vaccinating the public and much of the world struggles to acquire vaccines. 

In excerpts from the speech, Harris says, “At the same time that the world works to get through this pandemic, we also know that we must prepare for the next.”

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

NEW DELHI, India — With life-saving oxygen in short supply in India, families are left on their own to ferry people sick with COVID-19 from hospital to hospital in search of treatment as India is engulfed in a devastating surge of infections. Too often, their efforts end in mourning.

On social media and in television footage, desperate relatives plead for oxygen outside hospitals or weep in the street for loved ones who died waiting for treatment.  

One woman mourned the death of her younger brother, aged 50. He was turned away by two hospitals and died waiting to be seen at a third, gasping after his oxygen tank ran out and no replacements were to be had.  

For the fourth straight day, India on Sunday set a global daily record of new coronavirus infections, spurred by an insidious new variant that emerged here. 

The surge has undermined the government’s premature claims of victory over the pandemic.

The 349,691 new infections brought India’s total to more than 16.9 million, behind only the United States. The Health Ministry reported another 2,767 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing India’s fatalities to 192,311.

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In entertainment …

Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman — and the first woman of colour — to win best director. 

“Nomadland” also earned Frances McDormand an Oscar for her lead performance in the wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West. 

Anthony Hopkins took the best actor award for the dementia drama, “The Father.” 

Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah, while best supporting actress went to Youn Yuh-jung, who played the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender Korean-American family drama, “Minari.””

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ICYMI …

TORONTO – Canadian filmmaker Gary Lang says he hopes his documentary about a member of the “hacktivist” group Anonymous reminds viewers of their own power to effect change.

The Toronto-based writer and director says that while his film “The Face of Anonymous” focuses on one member of the shadowy internet organization, it’s also a testament to a larger cultural shift led by Anonymous’ teachings.

He points to the George Floyd marches last summer as one way activists have harnessed strategies used by Anonymous to spread word quickly through social media and get feet on the ground at protests.

“The Face of Anonymous” takes a more granular look at the movement by zeroing in on Christopher Doyon, known online as Commander X, a mysterious internet personality who spent time in Toronto and Mexico while on the run from the U.S. government.

Lang’s film attempts to sift out fact from fiction in Doyon’s seemingly outlandish claims to Anonymous activities.

“The Face of Anonymous” makes its world premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which runs from Thursday until May 9 online at hotdocs.ca.—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Apr. 26, 2021

The Canadian Press