The Asian Star - May16, 2020

www.theasianstar.com

Vol 19 - Issue 16

Saturday, May 16, 2020

China ramping up bullying and intimidation of activists in Canada, report says Chinese government officials and supporters of the Communist Party of China are increasingly resorting to “threats, bullying and harassment” to intimidate and silence activists in Canada, including those raising concerns about democracy and civil rights in Hong Kong and Beijing’s mistreatment of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners, a new report says.

A coalition of human-rights groups led by Amnesty International Canada says a timid response by Ottawa to this foreign interference is exacerbating the problem. “Chinese state actors have almost certainly become emboldened by the inadequate responses of Canadian officials,” the coalition writes.

The report, Harassment & Intimidation of Individuals in Canada Working on China-related Human Rights Concerns, also sounds the alarm over what it calls escalating intimidation and interference at Canadian schools and universities. “Consequently, academic freedom

Continued on page 7

Woman gives birth, then walks 160km with her newborn to reach home amid COVID-19 A pregnant woman traveling through India by foot interrupted her journey to give birth and then kept walking for another 160 kilometers (99 miles) with her newborn baby. The woman, whose identity is unknown, was walking with her husband and their four other children from the city of Nashik, in Maharashtra, to the town of Satna in the adjoining state of Madhya Pradesh. Somewhere along the trip, the woman stopped and gave birth to a baby girl. A few days later, she was stopped by an official Kavita Kanesh at a checkpoint in Madhya Pradesh. “She just rested for about one and a half to two hours after she delivered. The family had no money, no means of transport, no one was giving them a lift,” Kanesh said. Kanesh said the baby was born on May 5, four days before they reached the checkpoint.

Continued on page 6

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COVID-19 update

BC urged to ‘stay local’ over long weekend as COVID-19 recoveries near 80% British Columbians are being urged to stay close to home over Victoria Day long weekend, as the province records another three deaths and 15 new cases of COVID-19.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry made the plea on Thursday briefing as she said nearly 79 per cent of BC’s 2,392 test-positive cases have now completely recovered. “This weekend less travel is incredibly important, we’re asking that of everyone,” said Henry. “Whether in a car, on a boat, even by foot.

There are many activities and places we can go safely and safely enjoy close to home.” Henry asked British Columbians to spend the weekend thinking and talking over their plans for safe social interaction once the province moves to Phase 2 of its coronavirus recovery plan on Tuesday. “This weekend the best place to be in B.C. is right where we live, we are in a good place because people have been 100 per cent

Continued on page 6

How BC aggressively ‘flattened’ its curve The 271 beds with their clean white pillows, spaced metres apart in neat rows, are empty. The four nursing stations are unused. The temporary showers are dry. Such is the scene inside the shimmering glass walls of the large building that looks out onto Vancouver Harbour. In normal times, the Vancouver Convention Centre was a bustling hub for thousands of people attending large events, day in, day out. Now, it is an overflow medical facility. One that may never be used. The city itself is quieter than usual. Runners and cyclists get their exercise on quiet residential streets and in Stanley Park, where roads are shut. The sound of city traffic never fully wanes. On sunny days, the warmer weather draws clusters of two or three who sit on blankets at the beach, drinking from Thermoses, two metres apart. The idea that a lone dog-walker could be fined just for walking through a park, as one man was in Ottawa in April,

Continued on page 7

THINKING OF BUYING OR SELLING YOUR HOME ???

The coronavirus slayer! How Kerala’s rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19 On 20 January, KK Shailaja phoned one of her medically trained deputies. She had read online about a dangerous new virus spreading in China. “Will it come to us?” she asked. “Definitely, Madam,” he replied. And so the health minister of the Indian state of Kerala began her preparations. Four months later, Kerala has reported only 524 cases of Covid-19, four deaths and – according to Shailaja – no community transmission. The state has a population of about 35 million and a GDP per capita of only £2,200. By contrast, the UK (double the population, GDP per

capita of £33,100) has reported more than 40,000 deaths, while the US (10 times the population, GDP per capita of £51,000) has reported more than 82,000 deaths; both countries have rampant community transmission. As such, Shailaja Teacher, as the 63-year-old minister is affectionately known, has attracted some new nicknames in recent weeks – Coronavirus Slayer and Rockstar

Health Minister among them. The names sit oddly with the merry, bespectacled former secondary school science teacher, but they reflect the widespread admiration she has drawn for demonstrating that effective disease containment is possible not only in a democracy, but in a poor one. How has this been achieved? Three days after reading about the new virus in China, and before Kerala had its first case of Covid-19, Shailaja held the first meeting of her rapid response team. The next day, 24

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www.theasianstar.com

Vol 19 - Issue 16

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Big spending on COVID-19 now should mean smaller government later, Stephen Harper argues in essay In a rare newspaper column, former prime minister Stephen Harper argues that the massive public spending — and the subsequent massive public debt — in response to COVID-19 right now must lead to smaller government action so the economy can recover and debt levels can recede.

If spending doesn’t go down as soon as possible, governments could face a debt crisis down the road that requires “brutal” austerity measures, he says.

“What has happened in this crisis so far is not an indicator of the future,” Harper writes in the Wall Street Journal. “A new era of big government in the economy is unlikely, undesirable and far from inevitable.”

Harper was prime minister from 2006 to 2015, including during the 2008/09 global financial crisis when he brought in a major economic stimulus package in response to the recession. He now runs a consulting firm called Harper & Associates.

In the column he takes aim at “leftists” who see the pandemic measures as a sign that bigger

government spending should be the new normal, and that taking on high levels of public debt will be easily manageable down the road.

The social distancing measures brought in by governments around the world may be necessary now, he writes, but they are “economically ruinous,” and the “underlying assumption — that the economy can be restarted later as quickly as an idle automobile — is dubious.”

Another problem, he says, is that public-sector balance sheets will be an “unholy mess,” exacerbated by the fact public debt levels were already “dangerously high” before the pandemic hit.

Canada’s parliamentary budget officer recently estimated that the deficit this year could top $252 billion; by comparison, Canada’s biggest deficit during the financial crisis was $55.6 billion in 2009/10. “‘Modern monetary theorists’ will prattle on about how with low interest rates and monetary expansion this does not matter,” Harper writes.

“Their core belief — that governments can never really run out of money — is nonsensical.”

He notes that Mexico faced default and Canada came close in the 1990s due to public debt, and many countries faced major debt problems in the 2008/09 financial crisis.

“This time will probably be much worse,” he

Tel:604-591-5423 writes. “Governments began this episode with poorer balance sheets, and central-bank actions effectively nationalized much corporate debt…

If they fail to practice mild austerity proactively, a brutal kind will be thrust on them.”

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OPINION

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Stop admiring China’s basic dictatorship Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pursuit of a temporary seat on the UN Security Council is not worth it, if the price is Canada’s silence on China’s responsibility for the global spread of COVID-19. Trudeau must speak up for all Canadians on this issue, including the more

than 63,000 sickened by COVID-19 and the more than 4,000 who have died.

China’s dictators hid that COVID-19 was capable of human transmission in the early weeks of the pandemic, when it could have been stopped at its source. They arrested

doctors in Wuhan for telling the truth and hoarded global pandemic supplies prior to admitting the truth.

The U.S., U.K., Australia and many countries in Europe and Africa have called for China to be held to account. There are valid reasons to suspect Canada has not because Trudeau believes it would jeopardize his campaign for a two-year seat on the UN Security Council, where China is a permanent and powerful member. Criticizing China would also mean criticizing the UN’s World Health Organization for being a cheerleader for China’s dictators during the pandemic.

Trudeau says his concern is the wellbeing of Canadians, not pointing fingers until the crisis is over. That would be a fair argument except Trudeau’s government has been pointing fingers away from China and garnering praise from its dictators.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu not only complimented China during the pandemic but accused a reporter of perpetuating internet conspiracies for asking her about the accuracy of China and WHO data.

Two weeks later, China increased the number of dead in Wuhan by 50%.

International Development Minister Karina Gould praised WHO DirectorGeneral Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for his commitment to “full transparency and accountability” in examining the WHO’s actions.

Since then, the WHO has twice rejected requests from the Commons committee on health to have a Canadian expert who led the WHO mission in China’s Hubei province testify by video link from its Geneva headquarters.

We understand Trudeau must be careful in what he says because of China’s unjust incarceration of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor for 516 days, so far.

But it’s time Trudeau demonstrated to Canadians that when he said he admired China’s “basic dictatorship”, he was joking.

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6 From page 1

Saturday, May 16, 2020 Woman gives birth, then walks 160km with her newborn to reach home amid COVID-19

Desperate to go home, Indian migrant workers face tough choice amid world's largest lockdown Desperate to go home, Indian migrant workers face tough choice amid world’s largest lockdown The family had left Nashik because they had no place to live and the country’s coronavirus lockdown had left them without any means to earn money, according to Kanesh.

Kanesh said she arranged for the woman to

be taken to a quarantine facility and receive medical treatment. Thousands of migrant workers have attempted to leave Indian cities and return to their migrant villages since the country’s coronavirus restrictions came into effect. Due to widespread closures of public transport, some have been forced to make the journeys on foot. India has so far recorded more than 78,000 coronavirus cases and 2,551 deaths, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.

From page 1

BC urged to ‘stay local’ over long weekend as COVID-19 recoveries near 80%

cent committed up to now,� added Health Minister Adrian Dix. “We have to make it a strong start, not a false start.� How quickly the province moves to the next phase of its plan — and what the summer will look like — will depend largely how well British Columbians do at keeping their social “bubbles� small, safe and close to home. “It will take us the next 14 to 28 days to understand the impact of the measures that we’re taking in the coming week,� said Henry. “So I want that as a caution for people, that we will not be moving into the next phase until we are confident that the measures we have taken so far have not resulted in a dramatic increase [in new cases.]�

The virus has claimed the lives of 135 people in the province. Out of the remaining 372 active cases, 58 were in hospital Thursday, a dozen of them in intensive care. Henry said there were no new community outbreaks on Thursday.

An outbreak at Coquitlam’s Superior Poultry processing plant has been declared over, and the facility has been given the green light to reopen, with safety precautions, Henry added.

Henry said more than 165,000 people have now taken an online survey to better understand the people’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Saturday, May 16, 2020 From page 1China

ramping up bullying and intimidation of activists in Canada, report says

and freedom of expression of university students in Canada speaking out on China has been increasingly stifled, as many individuals fear that Chinese government or consular agents are monitoring their speech or their activities.”

The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China is calling for a public inquiry into threats at Canadian educational institutions and recommends that Ottawa set up a monitoring office to collect complaints of harassment and refer incidents to police. “It takes place on social media, through surveillance, monitoring and hacking of phones, computers and websites ... on university and college campuses, at public rallies and cultural events,” Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said.

“Individuals responsible for the threats often remain anonymous or invisible, but make it clear that they are strong backers of the Chinese government, often leaving no doubt that they are directed, supported or encouraged by the Chinese government.” He said the threats are “bullying,

racist, bigoted and frequently involve direct threats of violence, including sexual violence and even death.” The coalition is asking the federal government to expel Chinese diplomats where necessary or enact sanctions on them if the evidence warrants. The coalition’s report documents incidents of Chinese harassment between July, 2019, and March, 2020, aimed at “suppressing dissidents and mobilizing overseas Chinese communities to act as agents of China’s political interests. “The Canadian government must treat this issue with increased urgency, as it has resulted in insecurity and fear for humanrights defenders in Canada working on Chinese human-rights issues.” Gloria Fung, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, speaking Tuesday, recalled an Aug. 17 protest in Toronto last year in support of civil rights in Hong Kong, where more than 100 counterprotesters showed up, blocking the activists and chanting “One China.” They began insulting the demonstrators and taking photos in an apparent attempt to intimidate.

When Ms. Fung and the activists sang O Canada, the counterprotesters booed them and sang China’s national anthem in return.

“Our protesters needed a police escort to leave safely,” she said.

In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the government welcomed the report and would study its recommendations closely. “Reports of harassment and intimidation of individuals in Canada are deeply troubling and allegations of such acts being carried out by foreign agents are taken very seriously,” Mr. Champagne said. “Chinese government representatives in Canada, like all foreign govt representatives in Canada, have a duty under international law to respect the laws and regulations of Canada,” the minister said.

“Canada will continue to use every opportunity to call on China to uphold its international human-rights

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bcleg.ca/FGSbudget Toll-free in BC 1.877.428.8337 How BC aggressively ‘flattened’ its curve

and laughable. But although British Columbia has held back from some of Canada’s strictest social distancing rules, the province, guided by much-exalted provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, has so far succeeded in the elusive goal of “flattening the curve.” The now-familiar line on the graph that tracks the trend in COVID-19 cases is noticeably more horizontal, and more stable, for B.C. than for more-populous Ontario and Quebec. In late April, about 2,100 people

had tested positive for COVID-19 in B.C., and more than half of them had recovered. As in other provinces, B.C.’s elder-care facilities have been harder hit. Of the 109 who had died at the time of writing, a majority were residents of longterm care homes. The province is far from out of the woods. But the feeling—and the growing evidence—that B.C. has weathered this global storm more comfortably than its Canadian neighbours has left many wondering why.

8 From page 1

Saturday, May 16, 2020

The coronavirus slayer! How Kerala’s rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19

January, the team set up a control room and instructed the medical officers in Kerala’s 14 districts to do the same at their level. By the time the first case arrived, on 27 January, via a plane from Wuhan, the state had already adopted the World Health Organization’s protocol of test, trace, isolate and support.

As the passengers filed off the Chinese flight, they had their temperatures checked. Three who were found to be running a fever were isolated in a nearby hospital. The remaining passengers were placed in home quarantine – sent there with information pamphlets about Covid-19 that had already been printed in the local language, Malayalam. The hospitalised patients tested positive for Covid-19, but the disease had been contained. “The first part was a victory,” says Shailaja. “But the virus continued to spread beyond China and soon it was everywhere.”

In late February, encountering one of Shailaja’s surveillance teams at the airport, a Malayali family returning from Venice was evasive about its travel history and went home without submitting to the now-standard controls. By the time medical personnel detected a case of Covid-19 and traced it back to them, their contacts were in the hundreds.

Contact tracers tracked them all down, with the help of advertisements and social media, and they were placed in quarantine. Six developed Covid-19.

Another cluster had been contained, but by now large numbers of overseas workers were heading home to Kerala from infected Gulf states, some of them carrying the virus.

On 23 March, all flights into the state’s four international airports were stopped. Two days later, India entered a nationwide lockdown.

At the height of the virus in Kerala, 170,000 people were quarantined and placed under strict surveillance by visiting health workers, with those who lacked an inside bathroom housed in improvised isolation units at the state government’s expense.

That number has shrunk to 21,000.

“We have also been accommodating and feeding 150,000 migrant workers from neighbouring states who were trapped here by the lockdown,” she says. “We fed them properly – three meals a day for six weeks.”

Those workers are now being sent home on charter trains.

Shailaja was already a celebrity of sorts in India before Covid-19. Last year, a movie called Virus was released, inspired by her handling of an outbreak of an even deadlier viral disease, Nipah, in 2018. (She found the character who played her a little too worried-

looking; in reality, she has said, she couldn’t afford to show fear.) She was praised not only for her proactive response, but also for visiting the village at the centre of the outbreak.

The villagers were terrified and ready to flee, because they did not understand how the disease was spreading. “I rushed there with my doctors, we organised a meeting in the panchayat [village council] office and I explained that there was no need to leave, because the virus could only spread through direct contact,” she says. “If you kept at least a metre from a coughing person, it couldn’t travel. When we explained that, they became calm – and stayed.”

Nipah prepared Shailaja for Covid-19, she says, because it taught her that a highly contagious disease for which there is no treatment or vaccine should be taken seriously.

In a way, though, she had been preparing for both outbreaks all her life.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), of which she is a member, has been prominent in Kerala’s governments since 1957, the year after her birth. (It was part of the Communist Party of India until 1964, when it broke away.)

Born into a family of activists and freedom fighters – her grandmother campaigned against untouchability – she watched the socalled “Kerala model” be assembled from the ground up; when we speak, this is what she wants to talk about.

The foundations of the model are land reform – enacted via legislation that capped how much land a family could own and increased land ownership among tenant farmers – a decentralised public health system and investment in public education. Every village has a primary health centre and there are hospitals at each level of its administration, as well as 10 medical colleges.

This is true of other states, too, says MP Cariappa, a public health expert based in Pune, Maharashtra state, but nowhere else are people so invested in their primary health system. Kerala enjoys the highest life expectancy and the lowest infant mortality of any state in India; it is also the most literate state. “With widespread access to education, there is a definite understanding of health being important to the wellbeing of people,” says Cariappa.

Shailaja says: “I heard about those struggles – the agricultural movement and the freedom fight – from my grandma. She was a very good storyteller.” Although emergency measures such as the lockdown are the preserve of the national government, each Indian state sets its own health policy. If the Kerala model had not been in place, she insists, her government’s response to Covid-19 would not have been possible.

That said, the state’s primary health centres had started to show signs of age. When Shailaja’s party came to power in 2016, it undertook a modernisation programme.

One pre-pandemic innovation was to create clinics and a registry for respiratory disease – a big problem in India. “That meant we could spot conversion to Covid-19 and look out for community transmission,” Shailaja says. “It helped us very much.”

When the outbreak started, each district was asked to dedicate two hospitals to Covid-19, while each medical college set aside 500 beds. Separate entrances and exits were designated. Diagnostic tests were in short supply, especially after the disease reached wealthier western countries, so they were reserved for patients with symptoms and their close contacts, as well as for random sampling of asymptomatic people and those in the most exposed groups: health workers, police and volunteers.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

BC health officials adamant Canada-USA border should remain closed to visitors BC health officials are adamant the Canada-U.S. border should not reopen to visitors anytime soon as the clock ticks down on the agreement currently banning non-essential travel set to expire May 21. Canadian and American officials are in ongoing talks over an expected increase in cross-border travel as economies begin to restart. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says traffic over the shared border is bound to increase as states and provinces reopen shuttered businesses, even if the Canada-U.S. ban on non-essential travel remains unchanged. But those discussions are being met with growing calls from the provinces not to open up the flow of tourists across the line. “Absolutely, we have concerns about opening the border,” said B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Speaking to reporters during the province’s daily COVID-19 news briefing, she acknowledged there is room for leeway with some exceptions aside from tourists. “We need to look at family reunification, for example; I know it has been very hard on some families who have members on either side of the border,” she said. “But broad reopening of the borders is not in our best interest in the coming weeks.” It is our view that the [U.S.] border should

not open to visitors at this time.- B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix agreed that, for now, only essential travel should be allowed. “It would make no sense to have visitors travelling either from Canada to the United States and returning — or to have visitors, not essential traffic, but visitors — coming from the United States to Canada,” he said.

Dix said he’ll continue appealing to his federal counterpart to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.

“The premier has also repeatedly made this point to the prime minister: it’s our view that the border should not open to visitors at this time,” Dix said, adding he would address it again at the next health ministers meeting. He noted the success of B.C.’s move to enforce the federal Quarantine Act by following up with tens of thousands of returning travellers to ensure they’re complying with self-isolation orders.

Police make 500 home visits to enforce quarantine orders for returning travellers. B.C.’s pushback mirrors that of other provinces like Quebec and Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford has said screening at airports and border crossings would need to increase “tenfold” if restrictions are lifted.

What you need to know about COVID-19 in BC on May 14, 2020 British Columbia has recorded a total of 2,376 COVID-19 cases with 16 new cases reported till Wednesday. In all, 132 people have died from COVID-19 in the province. Of those who have tested positive, 1,859 people have recovered.

Provincial parks to reopen.

Provincial parks are reopening today, the first of a handful of restrictions to ease over the next few days as B.C. continues to record only a handful of new COVID-19 cases daily.

B.C. Parks is set to reopen facilities like front and backcountry trails, beaches, picnic areas, washroom facilities and boat launches for day use. Campgrounds are set to reopen June 1.

The change isn’t meant to encourage British Columbians to travel outside of their communities, however. Health Minister Adrian Dix says any travel this weekend should only be for essential purposes. The federal government is also poised to announce a gradual reopening of national parks and heritage sites. However, during his daily briefing on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said they would not reopen in time for the long weekend.

Trudeau also announced $470 million for the Fish Harvesters Benefit to support fish harvesters affected by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Vancouver city councillors passed motion for staff to explore ways to ease restrictions for patios in order to help restore business for restaurants and breweries while maintaining physical distancing rules.

90,000 jobs lost in Vancouver A poll commissioned by the City of Vancouver shows 84 per cent of respondents say they paid their rent this month, a 14 per cent increase from the start of April. Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart attributed the increase to provincial and federal relief programs. As for homeowners, 78 per cent said they intended to

pay their full property tax, a 13 per cent increase from April.

Vancouver lost 90,000 jobs, or 22 per cent of its entire workforce, since the pandemic began. More than 13,000 businesses have closed, a number Stewart called “staggering.”

As restrictions begin to loosen, women and people over the age of 55 reported feeling less comfortable returning to businesses like salons, restaurants and gyms without regular cleaning.

The city is looking at a shortfall of between $110 to $330 million depending how long closures last and whether property taxes are paid, Stewart said. “While the situation looks a little better in the city … it’s still a very serious situation,” Stewart said.

Dental offices remain limited in services offered Dental offices will not be offering full services on May 19, according to a statement from the B.C. Dental Association (BCDA).

Instead, the association says services including hygiene care will be introduced gradually when it’s deemed safe. The BCDA says WorkSafeBC and public health officials have begun to develop guidelines for various sectors to extend services, including dentistry, but those guidelines have not yet been published. Dental offices have been limited to emergency care since March 23.

“Dental patients should contact their dentist to schedule an appointment, but please understand that until further direction is provided by the provincial health officer and the College of Dental Surgeons of B.C., dentists are only permitted to provide emergency and urgent services,” BCDA spokesman Dr. Alastair Nicoll said in a statement. Pandemic puts ICBC in ‘challenging position’ On Thursday morning, Attorney General David Eby said ICBC, the provincial auto insurer, has no financial buffer.

He said it is in a “challenging position” because

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COVID-19 throws ICBC’s financial projections into disarray as claims, premium revenues decrease British Columbia’s public auto insurer says COVID-19 has thrown its budget projections into disarray as people decrease or cancel their insurance and fewer people are on the roads.

Attorney General David Eby and ICBC CEO Nicholas Jimenez said on Thursday morning that a decrease in collision claims has resulted in $158 million in savings. But they also said ICBC has generated hundreds of millions less in revenues from fees and insurance premiums.

Eby said traffic, and thus collision claims and insurance premiums, were beginning to increase as the province slowly moves toward reopening its economy but it’s still too soon to tell how the next few months will play out.

“We simply don’t know how the year will

end,” Eby said. “It could be terrible or there could be a surplus.

ICBC allowing drivers to put off payments for 90 days, renew licences by phone Eby said the province is reserving any decisions about premium changes or rebates until the end of the year.

The NDP government has been working toward improving ICBC’s financial situation after calling it a “dumpster fire” in 2018.

Jimenez said ICBC’s finances had been tracking more positively than projected until the public health emergency was declared at the end of March.

But Eby and Jimenez said the pandemic and the sweeping changes that have come along with it have put all of that progress into question.

According to a report ICBC released on Thursday, some of the impact of COVID-19 includes: A 46-per-cent reduction in accident claims compared to this time last year, resulting in about $158 million in savings.

More than 150,000 customers reducing or cancelling their insurance, resulting in a $283 million decline in revenues.

A potential loss of more than $1 billion from ICBC’s investment portfolio, which it uses to offset premiums.

Eby used the media briefing to take another jab at the previous Liberal provincial government, saying it was their fault that ICBC had no finances set aside for a rainy day.

“There are no savings to cushion potential impacts,” he said.

ICBC has temporarily waived some fees amid the pandemic. For instance, drivers who choose to suspend their insurance won’t have to pay the usual $30 cancellation and $18 replating fees.

Can I lower my car insurance rates if I’m working from home? Some practical tips to consider The public auto insurer has also reminded drivers to adjust their insurance if they’re now driving less or not at all to work. Changing coverage and risk levels could lead to lower premiums.Drivers can now renew their insurance over the phone.

ICBC waives fees and offers money saving tips during pandemic.

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Saturday, May 16, 2020

Khalsa Business Centre

128th Street, 84th Ave., Surrey, BC

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Guidelines for reopening restaurants, hair salons WorkSafeBC guidelines are expected to be ready as part of BC. govt’s phased relaxing of pandemic restrictions.

The worker safety guidelines are a key measure needed for businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and physiotherapists to reopen potentially as early as May 19, after the Victoria Day long weekend.

The WorkSafeBC guidelines will help industry sectors develop their own individual worker safety plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While WorkSafeBC does not have to sign off on individual plans, businesses are expected to have them in place before opening.

Groups such as the B.C. Restaurant

and Food Services Association and the Beauty Council of Western Canada have been working with WorkSafeBC and the province to create industry-specific guidelines.

“It’s been surprisingly straightforward and uncomplicated,” said B.C. restaurant association CEO Ian Tostenson. “I think it’s a smart idea that the province has put in: here’s the guidelines, they don’t have to be approved in advance, (businesses) don’t have to do anything except to follow the guidelines and have a policy.”

The province already has guidelines for grocery stores and industrial camps that have stayed open during the pandemic, some that were put out by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and others directly by the B.C. government.

Two ‘chronic offenders’ face 70 charges in string of Metro commercial break-ins When Port Coquitlam’s Gillnetter Pub was broken into in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was an inconvenience more than an economic hit.

Employee Leisa Popove said Wednesday that not much was taken during the March 23 break and enter.

Two ‘chronic offenders’ face 70 charges in string of Metro commercial break-ins But she was still happy to learn that two chronic offenders had been arrested and charged with hitting dozens of businesses, including the riverfront pub.

“It’s taking advantage of the COVID situation. And so we’re happy about the arrest,” Popove said. “Apparently he had been… very prolific in Vancouver, we had heard.”

Vancouver police announced Wednesday that Burnaby residents Shane Duhamel, 44, and Jesse Palanio, 33, are facing 70 charges after an alleged break-in spree that lasted months and criss-crossed the Lower Mainland.

Some, but not all, of the charges are joint.

“We believe that the arrest of these two suspects and the subsequent charge approval will have a major impact on commercial break-ins around the city,” VPD Sgt. Aaron Roed said. “However, police efforts to target property-crime offenders will continue.”

While the offences that led to charges date back to November, “the majority of them happened since the pandemic started on March 12.”

Duhamel, who was arrested April 3, is facing 14 counts of break-and-enter, 23 counts of breaching court orders, two of possessing break-in tools and one of disguising himself.

Palanio, who police picked up March 29, is charged with seven counts of break-andenter, 13 of failing to comply with court orders, one of possession of a prohibited weapon, seven counts of possession of credit-card data, identification documents and stolen property and two of theft under $5,000.

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Vancity Pesident & CEO Tamara Vrooman moving to Vancouver Airport Authority Longtime president and CEO Tamara Vrooman is disembarking from Vancity and will hop on-board the Vancouver Airport Authority.

On Wednesday, it was announced Vrooman would be stepping down from the credit union after 13 years at the helm, to succeed Craig Richmond as president and CEO of the airport authority.

Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman leaves credit union to head up Vancouver Airport Authority She will also be the first woman to lead the Vancouver airport.

Vrooman will remain at Vancity until June 30, at which point an interim CEO will take over.

“Leading this amazing institution these many years has been a privilege,” said Vrooman in a statement issued through Vancity. “From our innovative and talented employees to the commitment of our members, Vancity’s values-driven purpose and culture makes it a very special place.”

Vrooman isn’t entirely new to the Vancouver airport, having served on its board of directors for the past nine years. She will begin her new role with the airport authority July 1.

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“By applying deep strategic, operational and financial abilities, matched by bold positions on sustainability and inclusion, (Vrooman) has led transformative change resulting in global recognition and commercial success, all while doing good,” said Annalisa King, chairwoman of YVR’s board of directors. “This … will enable her to reimagine YVR as a benchmark airport

of the future. With a career-long commitment to the betterment of British Columbia, she is the ideal person to lead YVR forward.”

Vrooman steps into the airport leadership role at a challenging time. In November 2019, it was announced that Richmond would be leaving the airport after seven years of overseeing its massive growth. The announcement came just months before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 that has effectively halted YVR’s multi-year, $9.1 billion expansion, cut passenger forecasts for the coming years by more than half, and grounded airlines and travel providers around the world.

Last year, the airport welcomed a record 26.4 million passengers. Earlier this spring, Richmond forecast a 40-to-70-per-cent drop in air-passenger traffic over the next three years. In recent days, the airport authority has also begun issuing layoff notices to a quarter of its 550-strong workforce, after concluding an earlier round of voluntary departures.

“Our current workforce is sized to operate a 26-million passenger airport, and that is simply no longer sustainable,” the airport authority said in a written statement this week.

However, Vrooman appears wellequipped to handle the challenge, having first assumed leadership of Vancity in 2007 at the start of the global financial crisis.

“I look forward to working with (YVR) as we reimagine our business and how we operate

Suspect identified in April bus attack died week later of drug overdose A man who ripped out a woman’s hair before wrestling her to the ground and punching her has been identified as having died due to a drug overdose a week after the assault last month.

On Tuesday, Transit Police sought the public’s help in finding the attacker behind the April 15 bus assault. The man had been harassing two Asian passengers wearing masks on a bus after boarding near Main and Hastings streets in Vancouver, making a comment to the effect of, “Go back to your own country, that’s where it all began.”

Suspect identified in April bus attack in Vancouver died a week later of overdose When a third woman intervened and told him to stop the harassment, the man kicked her in the

leg before pulling out a fistful of her hair and then pinning her to the ground and punching her. The woman fought back and he ran off the bus near Commercial Drive and Hastings.

The plea from police was spread widely in the news media and on social media, which prompted a number of tips to Metro Vancouver Transit Police.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Transit Police Const. Mike Yake said the man has since been identified as a 48-year-old Vancouver resident of no fixed address.

The man, who was well-known to cops, was identified as having died about a week after the assault, apparently from a drug overdose.

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Nearly 90,000 lost their jobs in Vancouver during COVID-19 pandemic, data shows Data released by the City of Vancouver is shedding some light on how many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and when residents will start to feel comfortable returning to certain activities during the pandemic.

Newly released data from the city shows nearly 90,000 people have lost their jobs, which is equivalent to 22 per cent of the workforce. The hardest-hit sectors include health care, social assistance, accommodation, food services, tourism and retail.

Businesses have also seen a revenue drop of $27 billion, with about 13,400 businesses that have closed. Among those, 2,000 are in the hotel and food service industry and more than 3,000 are in health care and social assistance. The results of a recent survey of Vancouver residents also showed more than 50 per cent of respondents would not feel comfortable going to a music venue or visiting a live sports venue until there is a vaccine. More than 30 per cent of respondents said they would

feel comfortable going to a barber or salon now, but nearly 40 per cent said they would only visit if there was regular cleaning and physical distancing.

The details from the survey conducted by Research Co. were revealed in a news conference held by Mayor Kennedy Stewart on Thursday.

The survey was conducted online from May 8 to 11 and has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in the City of Vancouver.

When it comes to eating at indoor restaurants, about 40 per cent of those who responded to the survey said they would only feel comfortable dining-in if there was regular cleaning and physical distancing, compared to about 30 per cent who said they would only go if there was a vaccine.

About 30 per cent of respondents said they would feel comfortable visiting a gym, library or community centre right now, however, nearly 40 per cent said they would only visit a gym if there was a vaccine.

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New places offering take-out and delivery in Vancouver More and more Vancouver restaurants are re-opening their kitchens to serve up dishes available for pick-up or delivery as a means to carry on during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Plus, there have been some exciting openings of new ventures boldly stepping into the marketplace, despite how challenging things are right now for the restaurant industry.

This is great news for Vancouver food fans, who can bring home tiki vibes with fresh new cocktail kits, get their hands on some serious burgers, or turn date night at home into something next-level with fresh west coast fare.

Over the last few weeks, Vancouver restaurant owners have approached operations from a number of new models - some are focusing on take-and-make kits, while others are rounding out their offerings with pantry and grocery items to help keep your fridge and cupboards stocked. While many restaurants are on board with existing food carrier companies, others are keeping it in-house, which means they’re limited to pick-up, or they’re trying out doing their own deliveries. If you’re looking for a few places that have just launched new food takeout or delivery programs - including some new on the scene spots - here are a handful of note.

One of Vancouver’s favourite sweet snacks is now available for curbside pick-up. Mini waffles can now be ordered in packs of 7 or 21 to be picked-up from Nero’s Seymour location. All the classic flavours are available as well as some new and creative flavours that will rotate every week.

Pickup is available from Wednesday through Sunday, from 2 to 7 p.m. Limited quantities of mini waffles will be available for take-out as well. Nero Belgian Waffle Bar - Seymour St. One of Vancouver’s favourite sweet snacks is now available for curbside pick-up. Mini waffles can now be ordered in packs of 7 or 21 to be picked-up from Nero’s Seymour location. All the

classic flavours are available as well as some new and creative flavours that will rotate every week.

Pickup is available from Wednesday through Sunday, from 2 to 7 p.m. Limited quantities of mini waffles will be available for take-out as well.

Pastificio di Luigi Launched May 1, Pastificio di Luigi is operating out of Pourhouse, offering house-made pasta, take-home pasta and sauces, grocery staples, and specialty Italian items (think canned tomatoes, olive oils, and sliced meats and cheese).

Lil Bird Sandwich Co. A take-out window for sandwiches has moved into Kafka’s Coffee at their Main Street location. Here, customers can safely order-up nourishing eats on house-made sourdough bread. To get things started, Lil Bird will be offering four sandwich options and fresh lemonade.

Honolulu Coffee Vancouver Their new ‘Aloha to Go’ offerings feature an array of warm-weather favourites like iced Hawaiian Lattes, açaí bowls, cold brew and fresh-fruit smoothies as well as fresh-baked pastries, cookies and more available by phone for contactless, cashless pickup or delivery through Doordash and Uber Eats.

Dixies BBQ Dixies has had a roller coaster few months. Last year they closed their Hastings Street restaurant, but continued to offer catering and delivery for their Texas-style eats. Since the COVID-19 crisis, they continued to deliver but focused on things like burgers. Now they’ve put BBQ back on the menu via UberEats and Doordash or direct pick up by ordering online.

BRGR BRGR A burger joint that launched just a few months ago out in Abbotsford is expanding its reach with the recent addition of take-out and delivery service from a Gastown restaurant. Now BRGR BRGR is firing up their burgers made with fresh, regionally sourced ingredients out of the kitchen of Noodlebox in Gastown (108 West Hastings Street), offering pick-up and delivery (via DoorDash and UberEats).

Canadian-approved N95 mask targeted by Chinese counterfeiters A Chinese-made mask approved by Health Canada is the subject of a counterfeit warning issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. The Associated Press has reported that counterfeit masks, intended to mimic medicalgrade N95 masks made by the Shanghai Dasheng company and approved for use in Canada, already have been distributed to frontline medical staff at some U.S. hospitals.

And a separate Chinese mask maker also licensed by Health Canada has seen its approval pulled by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

The Guangdong Golden Leaves Technology Development Co. Ltd. was one of 65 Chinese manufacturers whose authorization to sell in the U.S. was withdrawn following tests by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The manufacturer remains approved in Canada, but its product has not been distributed to health care workers here, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada told CBC News.

Both cases illustrate the difficulties faced by governments in trying to procure reliable masks when a flood of fake, shoddy and deceptivelylabelled products is pouring out of China.

All masks approved for use in U.S. hospitals must have a Testing and Certification (TC)

number issued by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The CDC has warned that the TC number issued to the Shanghai Dasheng Co. for its masks — TC 84A-4329 — has been misappropriated by other Chinese makers seeking to sell substandard products in the U.S. market.

U.S. government agencies like the National Park Service have been warning their workers to watch out for the fake masks.

Tim Dinh catalogs a donated Moldex N95 mask and nitrile gloves during a donation drive for personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to benefit long-term care homes, shelters, family physicians and hospitals in Ottawa last month.

(Justin Tang/The Canadian Press) Health Canada approved Shanghai Dasheng’s DTC3X N95 masks by interim order on April 27. That interim order process has been used during the pandemic to fast-track approval of medical devices for use in Canada.

West Virginia distributed 50,000 fake DTC3X masks to first responders — and kept them in use after the CDC warned the state they might be counterfeit, and after the real Shanghai Dasheng Co. warned that its products were being faked.

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BC’s active COVID-19 cases outside the Lower Mainland nearly in single digits There’s often a big difference in British Columbia between the Lower Mainland and the rest of the province — and it has become the same in terms of active COVID-19 cases.

In the three health regions outside the Lower Mainland — Interior, Northern, and Island Health — there are now just 14 active cases of the virus in total — six in Northern Health, five in Island Health and three in Interior Health — even with more than 5,500 tests conducted in those areas over the past week.

That’s compared to 270 active cases in Fraser Health and 113 in Vancouver Coastal Health. It’s a big change from the beginning of April, when there were 187 active cases in the Fraser Health Authority, 105 cases

in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), and 143 cases in the rest of the province.

With the p o t e n t i a l of the virus being virtually contained in large areas of B.C. well before its most populated area, some politicians are calling for the government to consider regional approaches in the province’s restart strategy.

Subscribe to the Metro Matters column “We’re kind of used to policies that

Man pleads guilty to 22 counts of fraud A man accused of scamming several seniors across Metro Vancouver has been sentenced, Mounties in North Vancouver say.

Donald Robert Quinnell pleaded guilty to 22 counts of fraud, the RCMP said in a brief news release Thursday.

He received a sentenced of 5 ½ years.

The charges stemmed from offences reported in Vancouver, Port Moody and West Vancouver, the RCMP said.

Quinnell was the subject of several previous warnings from police.

In an update in January, Mounties said Quinnell was 52, and a resident of Chilliwack. He was arrested in September on an unrelated Canada-wide warrant, and has been in custody since that time.

Officers in multiple municipalities

warned elderly residents to be wary of Quinnell, whom they described as well-dressed and well-mannered.

It was alleged in last year’s warnings that he approaches lone elderly people under the pretense of offering help. Many of the victims were targeted in grocery store parking lots and outside residences, police said.

“In some cases he says he has locked his keys out of his car and needs help, in others he offers to help carry groceries,” North Vancouver RCMP said in a warning issued in the summer.

“His goal is to win the trust of his victims.

Once he has their trust, he works his way into their car or home, and then quietly steals their wallets, purses and other valuables.”

BC Liberals call for PPE funding to protect workers Press release Official Opposition Leader Andrew over $2 billion surplus to keep workers safe Wilkinson is calling on the provincial from COVID-19. WorkSafe should reimburse government to help with funding to provide employers for the cost of PPE because safety access to Personal Protective Equipment is critical to restoring the confidence of (PPE) and safety upgrades necessary for customers and employees alike,” concluded small businesses to reopen and protect their Wilkinson. “Hundreds of thousands of workers and customers. “People all across people are out of work in this province and B.C. stayed home to help stop the spread of countless businesses are at risk of closing their COVID-19. We need to make sure they all doors forever. Government needs to focus have jobs to return to as soon and as safely on getting businesses up and running again as possible,” said Wilkinson. “We’re calling and protecting the safety of both workers on the government to help with costs of and customers needs to be the top priority.”

PPE and safety infrastructure upgrades, like Wilkinson sent a letter to the Premier plexiglass shields, needed to keep workers also calling for clarity on WorkSafeBC and customers safe. Without these, many guidelines for the reopening of businesses local small businesses and non-profits will and organizations, a retroactive rebate be unable to reopen and countless British or credit on WorkSafeBC premiums and Columbians will remain jobless.” “Now is payroll taxes, and the creation of a hub to the time to take advantage of WorkSafeBC’s expedite the sourcing of PPE and protective infrastructure to prevent price gouging.

are created that are really effective within 100 miles of the 49th parallel, and then after that you have to work around them,” said Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman.

“There’s a lot of frustration here about not being able to get out … we have short summers up here.”

Little desire to accelerate Because B.C. has only released COVID-19 cases on a health authoritywide level, there has been debate in many municipalities over whether the virus is circulating within their community.

Nelson Coun. Rik Logtenberg said a regional approach might have merit if certain health regions get to zero active cases,

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Saturday, May 16, 2020

Calgary father recovers from Coronavirus after 16 days in medically induced coma When Jay Chowdhury woke up in a hospital bed at the Peter Lougheed Hospital on April 3, he was sure he’d only been there for 24 hours.

To his complete shock, the nurse taking care of him said more than two weeks had passed.

“She said you have been sleeping here for 16 days today,” recalled the 51-year-old. “It is the 16th day you have been on ventilation.

“You have been actually struggling between life and death.” All Chowdhury remembers is falling ill and his wife Jyoti dropping him off at the hospital after his family physician confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19.

She was not permitted to go inside with him due to restrictions implemented by the province to prevent the spread of the virus.

Exhausted at the time, Chowdhury vaguely recounts receiving an emergency room bed, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Chowdhury’s time in hospital was remarkably different for his wife.

Jyoti says the 16 days were the longest, and some of the most agonizing, days she’s ever experienced. She recalls her husband’s appetite diminishing days prior to his hospitalization and that he had a stubborn cough that wouldn’t go away.

Once she brought him to hospital she would not be able to see him while he was in ICU. Jyoti says she learned he was on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma and she could only receive updates of her husband’s progress by phone. She says while her Christian faith gave her strength, she worried about the future of her family.

“I thought ‘What is my next step? What am I going to do with my three boys?’,” said Jyoti. “And I have no idea because he was the only rock in our house. Like a standing rock.”

Jyoti says for the most part she received positive news of his condition but remembers the 14th day when it didn’t look like her husband would pull through.

Elected Wet’suwet’en chief blasts closed-door land title deal The land title agreement signed by federal and provincial officials in a “virtual” ceremony in Smithers May 14 is invalid and should be done in court, an elected chief of the Wet’suwet’en community at New Hazelton says.

Cynthia Joseph, Chief Councillor of the Hagwilget First Nation, says the memorandum of understanding between Ottawa, the province and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs was only shared with her community members May 9 in a Zoom video conference. The community consultation has not been done and the agreement should not go ahead, she said.

Joseph said the terms of the memorandum, obtained by Black Press and published May 7, should be filed in B.C. Supreme Court, not in a virtual ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That ceremony took place May 14, with federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser representing the Crown.

The agreement was hastily reached by federal and provincial officials as railway and roadblocks

spread from northwest B.C. across the country, and the B.C. legislature was besieged by self-proclaimed supporters of the Wet’suwet’en in early February.

“The disconnect between the hereditary chiefs and the Wet’suwet’en people, in my view, arises as a direct result of the comfortable mess that the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have in negotiating treaty deals behind closed doors for 23 years, with no accountability, and being wined and dined by the federal government, provincial government and all of the industries,” Joseph said in a phone interview from New Hazelton May 13.

“The lack of integrity that we see in operation now is the result of signing bonuses of some hereditary chiefs having the misconception that they have the authority to make a unilateral decision on behalf of the clan membership who they have not consulted.”

Joseph said she has sent a letter to Bennett and Fraser calling for a similar agreement to be filed in court. Hagwilget supports the hereditary land system, and is the only Wet’suwet’en community that has not signed a benefits agreement for the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, which they alone among Wet’suwet’en elected councils oppose.

“Hagwilget first saw a copy of the MOU at approximately 11:10 Friday, May 9, when all the elected band councils and the office of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs had a meeting via Zoom,” Joseph said. “We advised all of the participants that our attendance on the call could not be construed as a consultation process.”

Wet’suwet’en hereditary rights and title were first established in 1997, in a Supreme Court of Canada ruling known as Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa.

“It is my understanding that the DelgamuukwGisday’wa case is currently in general abeyance, pending these unfruitful and waste-of-time treaty negotiations that they have been involved in for the past 22 years on behalf of the Wet’suwet’en,” Joseph said. “So bringing back the DelgamuukwGisday’wa, the federal government and B.C. then file a declaration affirming the Wet’suwet’en aboriginal rights and title to its traditional territory.

It’s a simple legal procedure, and this step is seen as a last step in the current MOU as drafted.”

A drug industry veteran on why we should be optimistic about COVID-19 “No one in our industry has ever seen anything like the scientific mobilization now taking place.”

In 1971, Judah Folkman, then a pediatric surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, suggested a new way to treat cancer: block the blood vessels feeding tumors. Tumors trick the body into growing new blood vessels for bringing in oxygen and taking out waste, just like we lay down pipes when we build a new home. Blocking those pipes might halt the growth of the tumors.

Folkman’s idea was criticized and rejected for nearly 32 years.

The only accepted approach to treating cancer at the time was chemotherapy: flood tumors with poison, the more the better.

The idea of interrupting some mysterious communication channel between tumors and their surrounding tissue was ridiculed.

Plus: the experts all came from the cozy club of biologist insiders, PhDs. What could they possibly learn from an MD, a pediatric surgeon? (In fact, Folkman was inspired by what he saw during surgery: blood vessels surrounding every tumor.

Biologists working in labs never saw that.)

At scientific meetings Folkman would get up to speak and the room would empty out. It was as if “everybody had to go to the bathroom at once,” he said.

“You can always tell a leader from the arrows in his ass.”

One year the criticism was so intense that the hospital convened an external committee to review his science.

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BC home sales plummet but prices up over last year April home sales were off 50.8 per cent from the same time last year, but list prices were up 7.8 per cent Peter J. Thompson/National Post files B.C. home sales in April were down more than 50 per cent from 2019 numbers, but house prices remain higher than they were a year ago.

According to monthly data released by the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA), the average listed price for a home in B.C. in April was $737,834, a 7.8 per cent increase from the $684,430 recorded in April 2019.

Total sales in April, however, were off 50.8 per cent from the same time last year.

“We expected to see a sharp drop in sales for April as we confronted the COVID-19 pandemic,” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson.

“However, buyers and sellers are adapting to a new normal, and activity should pick up as the economy gradually reopens.”

Although the BCREA is touting the yearover-year listing price increase, April prices were down significantly compared to the previous month. The average MLS residential price in B.C. was $789,548 in March.

The BCREA says there were 29,515 active MLS listings in April, compared with 38,673 in 2019, while the monthly residential sales volume was $2.43 billion, down 46.9 per cent from the $4.565 billion recorded in April 2019.

However, thanks to a busy start to 2020, B.C.’s year-to-date sales dollar volume is still up 9.6 per cent to $15.3 billion, compared with the same period in 2019

Rental costs for Vancouver two-bedroom units drop by over 15 per cent The cost to rent a twobedroom apartment in Vancouver dropped by more than 15 per cent last month, according to the latest data from Rentals.ca.

In its monthly national report, the househunting website said average rents were down in April over March in most major Canadian cities — evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the rental market. Month over month, average rental costs nationwide remain unchanged. But costs fell sharply in many prime, downtown markets — areas that had plenty of Airbnb activity until travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders hit the short-term rental industry hard.

To that end, Rentals.ca has seen an influx in

furnished apartment listings. Fifteen per cent of all B.C. listings on the site were furnished last month.

“When looking at rental apartments and condo apartments only, monthly average rental rates declined by six per cent or more in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Edmonton,” Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting, said in a news release. Average rents in Canada’s two biggest markets, Toronto and Vancouver, declined by six per cent and 6.8 per cent month over month, respectively.

One-bedroom apartment costs decreased 5.6 per cent in Vancouver, and two-bedrooms

Not enough evidence for charges in BC political fundraising probe: prosecutor A special prosecutor appointed to look into criminal allegations around political fundraising in British Columbia has wrapped up his report and concluded there is insufficient evidence to lay charges.

David Butcher was appointed in 2017 to advise the RCMP on claims made by whistleblowers and in media reports of indirect political contributions and other potential contraventions of the Elections Act. B.C.’s chief electoral officer asked the RCMP to investigate in March 2017, saying the office wanted to appear neutral in the period leading up to the May 2017 provincial election.

The BC Prosecution Service says in a

news release issued Monday that RCMP delivered a report concluding there is no substantial likelihood of a conviction of any of the violations they examined.

The report says where violations have occurred, the RCMP has determined that it is not in the public interest to pursue a prosecution because the cost of doing so would be disproportionate to the value of the donations under investigation.

The allegations were that the absence of contribution limits made it easy for corporations to appear to attempt to buy influence with the government and that the rules were being circumvented by lobbyists

CRA claiming $4.4B from Canadian companies and individuals suspected of tax evasion The federal government is claiming $4.4 billion from Canadians and corporations suspected of cheating the taxman by hiding their money, notably in offshore tax havens.

“The gross number is $4.4 billion at this moment. It’s many years ahead of schedule, but it remains the gross number,” said Ted Gallivan, assistant commissioner of international, large business and investigations branch at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Gallivan was responding to a question from Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola during a virtual meeting of the House of Commons Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on Monday.

Vignola asked both CRA and the Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier to detail the results of over $1 billion in investments by the Liberal government to fight tax fraud and offshore tax evasion since 2015.

How many Canadian companies and individuals does that $4.4 billion involve? And how far back do those claims go? And what were the CRA’s claims targets that the agency is now “many years ahead of schedule” on?

Gallivan wasn’t asked to answer any of

those questions by MPs, and the assistant commissioner was not available for an interview in the hours following the meeting.

But that $4.4 billion is far from won for Canada’s tax agency. Tax evasion cases, particularly when they involve wealthy individuals and corporations, often lead to notoriously long and difficult court fights for the CRA. And that’s no different today, said Gallivan, who emphasized many times that $4.4 billion remains the gross amount, not the amount ultimately recouped by the agency.

“We still have a lot of cases that are in front of the courts, over 3,000 of them in fact.

A lot of these inquiries will be resolved by the courts, but as of now, the gross amount is $4.4 billion,” Gallivan explained to MPs. We definitely need stronger legislation on this and reform of international corporate rules In many court cases, judges will end up awarding the government less than it asked for — when it wins.

“I think it might be reasonable to expect the CRA might get half of that based on past experience,” said Toby Sanger, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness.

“Obviously you need that tougher legislation. We do need stricter enforcement, but as the CRA keeps on losing, or has lost some significant cases, we definitely need stronger legislation on this and reform of international corporate rules,” he said.

A recent example of such a loss by CRA is a ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal three weeks ago overturning a 2018 ruling that found that Loblaw Companies Ltd. used a Barbados bank as a tax shelter.

The CRA claimed $368 million in taxes from the Canadian company, arguing that a bank it owned in the Barbados from the 1990s until 2013 (Glenhuron Bank Ltd.) was really just a subsidiary because it got most of its money from the parent company.

Thus, CRA argued, it had to pay taxes.

But the Court of Appeal finally sided with Loblaw, who argued that Glenhuron was a regulated foreign bank under the laws of Barbados.

“It’s the larger corporations that are most easily able to avoid (paying taxes), and it certainly gives them an advantage over smaller and medium-sized businesses,” Sanger commented, adding he was disappointed by the Loblaw ruling.

During committee, Lebouthillier confirmed that despite the pandemic, CRA is still actively conducting roughly 50 criminal investigations involving offshore tax evasion.

The minister also promised that some cases will soon be brought before the courts, making them public for the first time.

She added that the $1 billion invested by the Trudeau government to fight that sort of tax fraud was used to “rebuild” the CRA’s investigative and auditing capacity.

“Those amounts were used to organize, set up and consolidate the tools used by our bureaucrats, to hire auditors and rebuild

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Ontario will now test anyone with symptoms for COVID-19 Ontario is expanding its testing guidance for COVID-19 to include anyone displaying symptoms of the disease in the community for the first time since the outbreak began, as a sector-wide screen of long-term care residents is nearly finished.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that on Thursday, the Ministry of Health will update its testing guidance for doctors so that people displaying symptoms will be tested, even if they are not tied to a priority sector such as long-term care, hospital or an otherwise vulnerable community group.

Since May 2, testing has been directed at longterm care residents and staff, hospital patients and staff, families of hospital patients and staff, essential workers including first responders,

cross-border workers, Indigenous communities and residents or staff of other congregate settings such as shelters, group homes or correctional facilities. Testing of asymptomatic persons in the community generally does not occur, as asymptomatic testing is only be done on close contacts of confirmed cases in congregate settings or as otherwise recommended by local public health units. capacity for the virus after early criticism from the public about capacity, from a few thousand per day in March to up to 20,000 per day in May. The province has completed 493,000 tests for novel coronavirus infection since Jan. 25, with 21,494 testing positive to date.

Ontario reports lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in more than six weeks Ontario has recorded the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in the province in more than six weeks.

On Thursday, health officials reported 258 new cases of the disease, bringing the total to 21,494.

This is the lowest number of new cases in a single-day since March 29, when 211 new cases were reported. Health officials also reported 33 additional COVID-19 deaths on Thursday. The death toll now stands at 1,798.

The total number of recoveries in Ontario has also increased to 16,204. The number of resolved cases accounts for more than 75 per cent of cases in the province.

There are currently 1,026 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Ontario, with 184 of those are being treated in intensive care. There are 141 people using a ventilator to assist with breathing.

Thursday’s new cases continues a downward trend in the province.

The single-day record for new cases was reported on April 25 when the number jumped by 640.

The decline in cases comes hours before the Ontario government is expected to provide details about the first stage of the province’s reopening plan.

Premier Doug Ford has said that he will be holding a news conference this afternoon to release information about what businesses will be permitted to reopen when Ontario officially enters phase one of its previously announced recovery plan.

Ford, however, has said that the plan will not be formally put in place until he has the support of public health officials.

COVID-19 testing in Ontario To date, Ontario has completed 492,487 tests for COVID-19. On Wednesday, the province completed 17,429 tests.

Currently, 17,578 test samples remain under investigation in Ontario.

Quick facts on all Ontario COVID-19 patients: 42 per cent of all patients in the province are male and 57.2 per cent are female. 2.8 per cent of all patients are 19 years of age or younger. 23.8 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 20 and 39. 30.5 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 40 and 59. 21.4 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 60 and 79. 21.6 per cent of all patients are 80 years of age or older.

LOCAL / NATIONAL

19

Ottawa man allegedly threatens to shoot police over border checkpoints Gatineau Police say an Ottawa man threatened to shoot officers if the police checkpoints continued at the Gatineau-Ottawa border.

A 70-year-old man was scheduled to appear in Gatineau court on Thursday to face a charge of uttering a death threat.

Police say just after 10 p.m. on Tuesday, officers received threats from an individual who said “he wanted to shoot police officers and their vehicles if the COVID-19 road checks continued between Ottawa and Gatineau.”

Gatineau Police worked with Ottawa Police

to investigate the incident, and arrested a suspect in Ottawa on Wednesday evening.

The Quebec Government implemented travel restrictions at the Ottawa-Gatineau border on April 1 in a bid to limit the spread of COVID-19. The government has not said when the restrictions will be eased.

In a statement, Gatineau Police say “threats are not tolerated against anyone, including against its officers.”

Canadian COVID-19 research at ‘elevated’ risk for hacking, intelligence agencies caution The research being conducted by health authorities across the country into COVID-19 faces an “elevated level of risk” for foreignbacked hacking or other malicious activity, say Canada’s central intelligence agencies.

In a lengthy and rare joint statement, The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) say the ongoing pandemic “presents an elevated level of risk to the cyber security of Canadian health organizations involved in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The agencies say that they are already seeing an increased risk of foreign interference and espionage related to the work being done by Canadian researchers, and to the intellectual property and proprietary information of Canadian companies who are focused on combatting COVID-19.

While they would not comment on specific operations, or which foreign actors pose a concern “it is near certain that state sponsored actors have shifted their focus during the pandemic.”

The two intelligence bodies say that Canadian intellectual property “represents a valuable target.”

“This uncertain environment is ripe for

exploitation by threat actors seeking to advance their own interests,” reads the statement, which goes on to state that the bulk of the malicious threat activity observed during pandemic has been criminal in nature such as phishing campaigns.

Both agencies say that they are “tirelessly” working to mitigate threats and have been reaching out to health organizations with tailored advice and guidance about the risks and prevention measures that can be taken such as increasing monitoring of network logs, reminding employees to be weary of suspicious emails, securing any telework practices, and ensuring critical servers are not vulnerable to cyber meddling.

Over the last two months, the federal government has committed more than $1 billion towards a national medical and research strategy to combat the novel coronavirus that will see labs across the country expand their capacity to study the virus, possible treatments or vaccines, and its spread among the population.

The funding has millions of dollars for developing and producing vaccines and treatments in Canada, supporting similar work in other nations, as well as studying immunity and serology testing.

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Saturday, May 16, 2020

Saturday, May 16, 2020 Trudeau says feds chose speed over scrutiny in sending benefit cheques Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the govt made a clear choice to forgo extensive oversight for those requesting funds through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and other financial aid programs amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to reporters, Trudeau said in order to get money to struggling Canadians as quickly as possible, there was no instruction to the public service to wait for security checks, or “we’d still be waiting to get those cheques out.”

“We needed to help them rapidly and efficiently. That means to get the CERB, people needed to simply fill out an attestation to make commitments that they were in a situation that they deserved to get the CERB. Of course there’s going to be a few people that misrepresent themselves and try to defraud the situation,” said Trudeau. This comes amid some media reports of fraudulent claims for government aid and instruction by the government of bureaucrats issuing the funds to ignore warnings or red flags of individuals not meeting necessary criteria.

A spokesperson for the office of the minister of employment, workforce development and disability Inclusion said that bureaucrats sifting through claims were provided with a guidance document on how to triage claims.

“We have been clear that a streamlined process was created to get the Canada Emergency Response Benefit into the hands of Canadians who needed it quickly. The CERB has front-end safeguards that include attesting to the eligibility criteria and providing a valid SIN, and additional safeguards in the backend,” reads a statement from Ashley Michnowski.

She noted the CRA and Service Canada have tools in places to monitor and identify cases of fraud and that in many cases applicants were denied if found to be abusing the system.

“Both departments will continue to conduct file reviews and investigations to identify and address cases of error, fraud, and abuse. We remain committed to supporting workers during these difficult times by delivering the CERB to eligible Canadians,” said Michnowski.

In response alerts of fraud, the CRA is taking additional steps to safeguard the application process. They’ll require more detailed information about an applicant’s previous and current employment status and whether they’ve earned any income during the pandemic. The agency will also implement a stricter alert system to flag suspicious or unusual claims.

Trudeau said on Thursday these measures would be put in place over the coming months. The CERB runs up to 16 weeks

Canada - US border could be closed for another month PM Trudeau Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the current talks underway to extend the Canada-US border restrictions prohibiting all nonessential travel across the border for another month are “going well,” and now’s not the time to talk about terms of loosening the cross-border shutdown.

Last month, Canada and the United States agreed to extend the closure for at least another month. That agreement is set to expire on May 21.

Canada is now looking to see that extended, even as parts of both countries begin gradually reopening. Federal officials are in discussion with Homeland Security about putting off the loosening of crossborder travel restrictions to June 21. While an agreement has yet to be made with a week to go, Trudeau said he is “confident about being able to continue to keep Canadians safe.”

Asked what progress has been made establishing terms or measures for an eventual reopening to tourists, Trudeau said the government is still “making decisions for right now.”

“We are a good week away from the expiry of the current phase of our border restrictions, with the United States.

Conversations are ongoing… I won’t make any announcements today, but I can say that things are going well,” he said.

The agreement, as it stands, exempts the flow of trade and commerce, as well as vital health-care workers such as nurses who live and work on opposite sides of the border.

While agreement on an extension is not guaranteed, last week Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the discussions around keeping travel restrictions in place have remained “very neighbourly.”

Bank of Canada says financial system strong despite shock Canada’s financial system remains resilient even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and moves to keep credit markets functioning have been largely effective, though risks remain, according to the Bank of Canada.

The country’s largest banks remain well capitalized even in the most pessimistic scenario, though some smaller lenders may struggle, and many businesses, especially in the energy sector, face higher funding costs and potential downgrades, the central bank said Thursday in its annual Financial System Review.

Canada entered the crisis with strong banks, the protection of a robust mortgage insurance system and an economy in a solid position, the central bank said. “With these strengths, as well as the aggressive government policy response to the pandemic, the largest banks are in a good position to manage the consequences,” policy makers led by Governor Stephen Poloz said in the 39-page report that nevertheless outlines significant,

across-the-board risks to the financial system.

Small energy firms, lower-rated companies and some alternative lenders were singled out as potential flash points.

It’s the central bank’s first comprehensive statement about the risks to Canada’s financial stability since the economy went into lockdown in mid-March. Since then, policy makers have expanded the bank’s balance sheet by about C$270 billion ($192 billion) in efforts to prevent credit markets from seizing up. Purchases of assets including government bonds, bankers acceptances and commercial paper have been successful and in many cases uptake has declined, the central bank said.

The bottom line from the central bank is things would have been much worse without the massive monetary and fiscal response.

Yet even with that response, the fallout from the economic shutdown will be worse than the 2008-2009 crisis, policy makers said, and the longer the crisis lasts, the worse things could become for households and businesses.

NATIONAL

21

22

INDIA

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Indian troops maintaining ‘posture’ along border with China: Army Chief Indian troops were maintaining their “posture” along the border with China while infrastructure development in the frontier areas was on track, Army Chief Gen M M Naravane said on Thursday, days after personnel of the two countries were locked in two separate incidents of violent face-offs.

Gen Naravane said the incidents in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim involved aggressive behaviour by Chinese and Indian troops resulting in minor injuries to personnel from both the sides.

The Army Chief said both sides “disengaged” after dialogue and interaction at the local level.

“It is reiterated that both these incidents are neither co-related nor

do they have any connection with other global or local activities,” he told journalists when asked about the face-offs.

“All such incidents are managed by established mechanisms where-in local formations from both sides resolve issues mutually as per established protocols and strategic guidelines given by the prime minister after the Wuhan and Mamallapuram summits,” Gen Naravane said.

He said Indian Border troops have always been upholding peace and tranquillity along with the border areas.

“I can say with confidence that the development of infrastructure capabilities along our northern borders is on track.

UN economic experts hail India’s ‘impressive’ stimulus package to revive economy hit by coronavirus Top UN experts have hailed as “impressive” India’s Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package, the largest so far among the developing countries, to revive its economy, which has been severely hit by the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced massive new financial incentives on top of the previously announced packages for a combined stimulus of Rs 20 lakh crore (USD 260 billion).

While launching the World Economic Situation and Prospect (WESP) report update on Wednesday, Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Branch Hamid Rashid told reporters in response to a question that the stimulus package announced by the Indian government on Tuesday “is a very welcome development.”

He said the Rs 20 lakh crore package, which is 10 per cent of India’s GDP is the “largest so far in the developing countries” because most developing countries have been rolling out stimulus packages that are between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent of the GDP. “India’s stimulus packages are very large. And also India has the domestic financial market and the large capacity to implement that large stimulus package,” he said, adding that impact of the package would depend on the design of the stimulus.

The mega Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package includes previously announced measures to save the lockdown-battered economy, and focuses on tax breaks for small businesses as well as incentives for domestic manufacturing.

Strains in hard-hit Mumbai complicate India’s virus recovery As Indians await details of a huge coronavirus relief package Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to jump-start the economy, the virus outbreak in the financial capital of Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra state is starting to overwhelm hospitals and slums, complicating any economic recovery plan.

About a third of India’s 71,865 confirmed virus cases, and nearly 40% of its 2,415 deaths, have been reported in Maharashtra, the coastal state in the center of the country that is home to Bollywood, a huge agriculture industry and India’s largest stock market. The Sensex has sunk about 25% from its year-to-date high in January.

Health experts have praised Modi’s government for enforcing a stringent weeks-long lockdown that has helped the nation of 1.3 billion so far avoid the kind of catastrophic rates of illness and death that have beset the United States, Britain and elsewhere. But as India’s lockdown restrictions are eased, whether the country can steer its economy back on track will largely depend on how Maharashtra rebounds, experts say.

“It’s a huge impact,” Gurcharan Das, the former head of Procter & Gamble in India, said of the state. “I think the default position should be to open, and you only lock down by exception, because eventually I fear that the cost of the lockdown will be far greater in lives even than the disease.”

‘Work from home’ to be new normal for govt offices post lockdown; draft guidelines issued Asserting that central government employees may have to work with staggered attendance and variable working hours, the Personnel Ministry has come out with a draft framework for ‘work for home’ for the staff post-lockdown.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may provide option for work from home to the eligible officers/staff for 15 days in a year as a matter of policy, it said.

There are 48.34 lakh central government employees.

In a communiqué to all central government departments, the Personnel Ministry said the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated many ministries to operate from home to maintain social distancing.

“Many of the ministries/departments in Government of India have successfully managed and rendered exemplary results in combat against the ongoing pandemic outbreak during the lockdown period by

leveraging e-office and video conferencing facilities of National Informatics Centre (NIC). This was the first-of-its-kind experience in the Government of India,” it said.

It is quite likely that for the near future, the central secretariat will continue to go for staggered attendance and variable working hours to maintain social distancing at workplace, the ministry said.

“Therefore, a broad framework for work from home is important to standardize the operating procedure even post lock down situation and to ensure safety and security of information, while accessing government files and information remotely from home,” it said.

Accordingly, a new set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been finalised for the employees to ensure smooth and seamless functioning of the government for continuity of the office works besides imparting resilience in the ecosystem even post lock down situations.

India unveils major credit line for small businesses India’s government said on Wednesday it will offer nearly $60 billion of loan guarantees for small businesses, shadow banks and power companies as part of measures to combat the economic damage caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the government will set up two debt and equity funds amounting to 700 billion rupees ($9.3 billion) to support stressed businesses, and will contribute to the social security funds of workers for three months.

The measures are part of a 20 trillion rupee fiscal and monetary package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to support the economy, which has been battered by a weekslong lockdown to curb the virus’ spread.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters the government aims to help 4.5 million businesses by October by providing credit guarantees to help them access collateral-free loans from banks.

Expert Views: India unveils $60 billion credit line for small businesses, lenders hit by lockdown “We have a responsibility toward the poor, the needy, the migrants and the disabled,” Sitharaman said, in the first of several daily press conferences on the package.

She also said the government will provide 900 billion rupees ($11.95 billion) for power distribution companies via state-run power finance companies.

Real estate companies will be able to claim relief from regulatory penalties for up to six months when completion of projects is delayed because of the coronavirus, Sitharaman said.

Industry leaders were broadly supportive.

“The measures announced by the finance minister are very well-targeted and meet the immediateaswellaslonger-termrequirements,” top industry body the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) said in a statement.

PUNJAB

Saturday, May 16, 2020 Hockey legend Balbir Sr suffers two more cardiac arrests, remains in critical condition Hockey legend Balbir Singh Senior has suffered two more cardiac arrests and he continues to be critical, his maternal grandson Kabir said, giving an update on his health condition on Thursday.

The triple Olympic medallist had suffered a cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning as well and has been on ventilator support since then.

“Nana ji suffered two more cardiac arrests yesterday. His condition has not deteriorated since then but continues to be very critical

and on ventilator assistance,” said Kabir.

Kabir further said that Balbir Singh is still in ICU of the hospital where doctors are continuously assessing his condition.

The 96-year-old was hospitalised on Friday evening with high fever.

In January last year, he was discharged from PGIMER, Chandigarh after spending 108 days in the hospital, where he underwent treatment for bronchial pneumonia.

Covid-19 cripples sports industry in Punjab The cancellation of sports events across the world amid coronavirus pandemic has cast shadow over the Jalandhar sports industry. In March, Indian cricket saw the series against South Africa abandoned.

IPL was also cancelled. The Indian Super League final (football) was held in an empty stadium in Goa on March 14. The I-League season was called off with 23 matches left.

Similarly, The All England Championships, which concluded on March 15, was the last event in which India’s major badminton stars participated. In tennis also, India was to take on Latvia in a Fed Cup playoff on April 17-18 but that too has been postponed.

The industry, which was banking on demand generated by these events, is clueless about future and foresees no signs of revival in next 1-2 years. The industry, dominated by around 500 units in MSME sector, is battling for survival with payments stuck and virtually no orders in hand.

The lockdown was announced at a time when the industry was gearing up for the demand which is common during March-October.

Especially, summers are considered as the peak season because of summer vacations when many cricket academies open and summer camps are organised across the country.

“Our stocks are lying with us. We are uncertain about the future. Even if we want to commence production, there are no signs of demand as markets are closed, stadiums not accessible to masses and major sports activities have already been cancelled,” said Munish Chopra, proprietor, Chopra Synthetics.

He said the biggest buyers — schools, universities, gymnasiums and sports clubs — are shut, resulting in virtually no uptake of sports goods. The losses of manufacturers are mounting as they are yet to receive payments but have to pay fixed electricity charges despite their units being closed.

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Former Haryana MLA arrested in Chandigarh for liquor theft The police arrested Satvinder Singh, former MLA of Rajaund constituency in Kaithal district, from Chandigarh on Wednesday night for his alleged involvement in liquor theft from a sealed godown in Samalkha.

Satvinder Singh had contested the 2019 Assembly elections from Kalayat constituency in Kaithal district on a Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) ticket. He is considered to be close to Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala.

Singh was arrested from Sector 3 in Chandigarh, near the MLA hostel, said SP Manisha Chaudhary.

A crime team of Panipat police, under the supervision of DSP (Crime) Rajesh Phogat, nabbed the former MLA from Chandigarh on Wednesday night. The team had informed the Sector 3 police in Chandigarh about their raid.

Accused Satvinder Rana had been arrested

on the disclosure of another accused, Ishwar Singh of Shamri village, Sonepat district, who was arrested along with five other accused in a case registered in the Samalkha police station on May 10, the SP added.

The case was registered on the complaint of Rajesh Rohilla, AETO of the Excise Department, on April 28.

Notably, the CIA-2 team of the district police has arrested six persons, including the mastermind — Ishwar Singh — on Sunday night, allegedly for stealing liquor from a sealed godown in Samalkha of Panipat.

It was revealed that during the interrogation of Ishwar that they had stolen 4,500 cases of liquor from the godown, and Ishwar and former MLA Satvinder Rana were partners in the L1-AB godown in Samalkha.

11 new cases of Coronavirus, tally rises to 1,935 in Punjab Eleven more persons contracted coronavirus infection on Thursday in Punjab, taking the total COVID-19 tally to 1935 in the state.

Seven cases were reported in Jalandhar, followed by three in Ludhiana and one in Patiala, as per the state’s medical bulletin.

Twenty-three coronavirus patients - eight from Patiala, three each from Pathankot and Mansa and nine from Jalandhar - were discharged from hospitals, taking the count of cured patients to 223 in the state, as per the bulletin.

Amritsar continued to top the COVID-19 tally in the state with 297 coronavirus cases, followed by 205 in Jalandhar, 158 in Tarn Taran, 151 in Ludhiana, 122 in Gurdaspur, 103 in SBS Nagar, 102 in Mohali, 100 in

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Patiala, 92 in Hoshiarpur, 88 in Sangrur, 65 in Muktsar, 59 in Moga, 58 in Rupnagar, 55 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 46 in Faridkot, 44 in Ferozepur, 41 in Fazilka, 40 in Bathinda, 32 in Mansa, 29 in Pathankot, 27 in Kapurthala and 21 in Barnala, the bulletin revealed.

Of the total cases, 32 have died, as per the bulletin.

One patient is critical and is on ventilator support, the bulletin said.

A total of 47,408 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which, 42,425 samples were negative and reports of 3,048 samples are still awaited.

There are 1,680 active cases in the state, as per the bulletin.

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INDIA

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Lots will depend on how India exits from lockdown: Kaushik Basu India took the right call by announcing a prompt lockdown in March in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a lot will depend on how the country makes an exit from it as the landscape of the global economy will change by then, former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu said on Wednesday.

The basic issues at present are the concerns about the food chain, jobs and migrant workers, which have to be resolved immediately, he said.

“The first move of a quick lockdown made by India was right. It was called for. Now, a lot will depend on how India exits from the lockdown as landscape of the global economy will change by then,” Basu, a professor of economics at Cornell University, said during a webinar

hosted by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce.

He said extending tax benefits might not be enough as the poor need direct support.

“Just giving tax benefits is not enough.

Poor people should be given cash. But, this will not lead to hyper inflation,” the former World Bank chief economist said.

“I am optimistic about the long-run indicators of the economy of India. The problem is with the perception of the people, who perceive more danger and risk than economy. That can jeopardise the entire process of recovery. The issue is how we balance these,” Basu added.

Basu said he is happy that India is now looking at the economic aspect as the country prepares to gradually exit the lockdown.

‘Work from home’ to be new normal for govt offices post lockdown Asserting that central government employees may have to work with staggered attendance and variable working hours, the Personnel Ministry has come out with a draft framework for ‘work for home’ for the staff post-lockdown.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may provide option for work from home to the eligible officers/staff for 15 days in a year as a matter of policy, it said.

There are 48.34 lakh central government employees.

In a communiqué to all central

government departments, the Personnel Ministry said the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated many ministries to operate from home to maintain social distancing.

“Many of the ministries/departments in Government of India have successfully managed and rendered exemplary results in combat against the ongoing pandemic outbreak during the lockdown period by leveraging e-office and video conferencing facilities of National Informatics Centre (NIC). This was the first-of-its-kind experience in the Government of India,” it said.

Covid-19 death toll rises to 2,549; cases cross 78,000-mark The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,549 and the number of cases climbed to 78,003 on Thursday, registering an increase of 134 deaths and 3,722 cases in the last 24 hours since Wednesday 8 am, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 49,219 while 26,234 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

“Thus, around 33.63 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreign nationals too.

A total 134 deaths were reported since Wednesday morning, of which 54 were in Maharashtra, 29 in Gujarat, 20 in Delhi, 9 in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four in Rajasthan, three in Tamil Nadu, two each in Telangana and Karnataka and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.

Of the 2,549 fatalities, Maharashtra tops tally with 975 fatalities, Gujarat comes second with 566 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 232, West Bengal at 207, Rajasthan

at 121, Delhi at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 83, Tamil Nadu at 64 and Andhra Pradesh at 47.

The death toll reached 34 Telangana, 33 in Karnataka and 32 in Punjab. Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir have reported 11 fatalities each due to the respiratory disease while Bihar has registered seven and Kerala has reported four deaths.

Jharkhand, Chandigarh and Odisha have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each while Himachal Pradesh and Assam have reported two deaths each.

Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Puducherry have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

According to the ministry’s website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country is from Maharashtra at 25,922 followed

by Gujarat at 9,267, Tamil Nadu at 9,227, Delhi at 7,998, Rajasthan at 4,328, Madhya Pradesh at 4,173 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,729.

India’s CO2 emissions drop for the first time in 40 years India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, has had its first year-on-year reduction in CO2 emissions in 40 years, according to a study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for Carbon Brief. This is due to an economic slowdown as a result of coronavirus and the growth of green energy.

Emissions in India fell by around 15% in March, and about 30% in April.

Coal sales fell 10% and imports fell 27.5% in March due to reduced demand for electricity.

Cities are reporting much lower levels of particulate matter (PM 2.5) and nitrogen dioxide, which is released by vehicles and power plants.

Studying daily data from

India’s national grid, analysts found that coalfired power generation fell 15% in March and 31% in the first three weeks of April, while renewable energy generation increased by 6.4% in March and decreased by 1.4% in April.

Oil consumption has also been slowing since early 2019, researchers found, but noted that COVID-19 lockdown measures have had a “dramatic impact” on transport oil consumption, which fell 18% in March 2020 compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, natural gas consumption, which increased 5.5% in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, is expected to fall by up to 20% during the lockdown, analysts said.

In the short term, this is wonderful for India’s environment. And Indian residents have been posting photos of clear skies allowing views of the Himalayas that they have not previously seen. But this is short-term good news. How the Indian government acts next in response to the pandemic is what really matters.

Vijay Mallya loses leave to appeal against extradition In a major setback, embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday lost his application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, weeks after the London High Court rejected his appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his nowdefunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 64-year-old businessman had 14 days to file this application to seek permission to move the higher court on the High Court judgment from April 20, which dismissed his appeal against a Westminster Magistrates’ Court extradition order certified by the UK Home Secretary.

The latest ruling will now go back for re-certification and the process of extradition should be triggered within 28 days.

The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mallya’s appeal to certify a point of law was rejected on all three counts, of hearing oral submissions,

grant a certificate on the questions as drafted, and grant permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The government of India’s response to the appeal application was submitted earlier this week.

The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.

“The High Court effectively ruled that even if the approach of the Chief Magistrate was wrong, her decision was not wrong. It is therefore clear that Mallya now faces a significant hurdle in getting it to the Supreme Court,” said Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and an extradition specialist.

As a further step, in principle, Mallya can also apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

SOUTH ASIA

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new High Commissioner to Sri Lanka presents credentials via video link Gopal Baglay, the new High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, on Thursday presented his credentials to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa during a ceremony held here through videoconferencing, a first of its kind conducted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Baglay presented his credentials along with the newly appointed ambassadors of Iran and Brazil during the online ceremony, President Rajapaksaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the first time in Sri Lanka. Instead of postponing the acceptance of credentials in view of the pandemic, President Rajapaksa wanted the ceremony to be conducted electronically,â&#x20AC;?

Rajapaksaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office said in a statement.

The Indian High Commission thanked the office of the Sri Lankan President and praised the use of technology for such affairs. The High Commissioner thanked President Rajapaksa for arranging the traditional ceremony in an innovative manner and stated that the use of technology to overcome challenges, such as those posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the Indian mission.

High Commissioner Baglay recalled that as Sri Lankaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s closest maritime neighbour, India has been the first responder when Sri Lanka faced difficulties, be it natural calamities, or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Myanmar army admits prisoner abuse after beating video emerges Yangon-Myanmarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s military has conceded its troops abused prisoners in Rakhine State after a video of soldiers battering blindfolded detainees spread on social media -- a rare admission of wrongdoing by a force often accused of acting with impunity. The video, which emerged on Sunday, shows plain-clothed men punching and kicking the heads of handcuffed and blindfolded detainees. The five detainees had been arrested on suspicion of being Arakan Army (AA) insurgents and were being transferred to Rakhine state capital Sittwe by boat on April 21 when the incident occurred, according to the army chief â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office website. Myanmarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s armed forces are locked in an increasingly brutal war with the rebels, who are fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. Some security force members interrogated the prisoners in a way â&#x20AC;&#x153;not in accordance with the lawâ&#x20AC;? and action

would be taken against those responsible, the statement said, without giving details on what punishments await. The video, a rare window into the operations of an army routinely accused of abuses, was shared tens of thousands of times, splitting opinion between those outraged and people defending the soldiers.

T h e families of the arrested men deny they have any links to the AA.â&#x20AC;&#x153;He just works

All-party meet on Lanka polls inconclusive An all-party meeting convened by Sri Lankaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election commission to decide whether to hold Parliamentary polls in June remained inconclusive, party members said on Wednesday.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved the opposition-controlled Parliament on March 2, six months ahead of the schedule, and called a snap election on April 25 to elect a new 225-member House.

However, the election commission in mid-April postponed the parliamentary polls by nearly two months to June 20. The Elections Commission on Tuesday convened an all-party meeting to decide whether to hold parliamentary polls in June. However, the talks ended without an agreement, the participant said.

5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Nepal A moderate earthquake of 5.3-magnitude rocked central Nepal late last night, sending panic-stricken people out of their homes and bringing back awful memories of the devastating quake of 2015 that killed over 9,000 people in the Himalayan nation.

The earthquake struck at 11.53 pm on Tuesday with its epicenter located in Dolakha district, 180 kilometres east of Kathmandu, according to National Seismological Centre.

Throngs of panic-stricken residents spilled into the streets in the night, bringing back painful memories of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake for many people.

No damage to property or loss of life has been reported.

The earthquake was also felt in the capital Kathmandu and the surrounding districts.

This tremor was an aftershock of the 2015 earthquake. An earthquake measuring 7.8 hit Nepalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gorkha district on April 25, 2015, killing over 9,000 people and damaging around 5,00,000 buildings.

25

India - US mega trade deals will make comeback after Covid-19 Mega trade deals were once looked down upon by many developing countries as a form of economic imperialism that favoured only a few nations. But these deals are expected to get a fresh lease of life as global supply chains prove to be the lifelines during the pandemic-induced lockdown. In India, which walked out of the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) expressing concerns that such trade agreements take away jobs and widen trade deficits, the Narendra Modi government has now realised the importance of being â&#x20AC;&#x153;integratedâ&#x20AC;? in global value chains and not being â&#x20AC;&#x153;isolatedâ&#x20AC;? as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said in a tweet.

When India had withdrawn from the RCEP in 2019, PM Modi was hailed for taking the â&#x20AC;&#x153;bold moveâ&#x20AC;? even as the previous Manmohan Singh-led government was blamed for joining the negotiations. Modiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reason: It will save â&#x20AC;&#x153;lives and livelihood of all Indians, especially vulnerable sections of the societyâ&#x20AC;?. RCEP member countries had even started saying that they will go ahead and sign the pact â&#x20AC;&#x153;with or

without Indiaâ&#x20AC;?.And India wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t alone in taking such a stand. In 2017, US President Donald Trump walked out of the 12-nation trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was the brainchild of his predecessor Barack Obama.

Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reason: It will save jobs for Americans. But it ultimately gave rise to an allout US-China trade war. But the coronavirus pandemic seems to have changed everything.

Countries such as Australia â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a key partner in the RCEP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; have said that the door is still open for India to join the trade pact. The pandemic and the impact on the economy due to the lockdown is teaching a lesson to all countries that in times of an unprecedented crisis, global supply chains supported by robust value chains are key. During his recent address to the nation, Modi stressed that India will â&#x20AC;&#x153;make the best products, will improve our quality further, make the supply chain more modern, we can do this and we will definitely do it.â&#x20AC;? This is key because in order to be part of the global value chains via mega trade deals, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exports have to be world class and up to global standards.

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26

INDIA

Saturday, May 16, 2020

India follows China’s lead to widen use of coronavirus tracing app India is aggressively pushing a state-backed contact tracing app to fight the spread of COVID-19, raising fears that the world’s second-most populous nation is on its way to Chinese-style methods of high tech social control. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has touted its app, Aarogya Setu, or “Health Bridge,” as a key tool in fighting the deadly coronavirus. With more than 70,000 people already infected, the number of cases in India is expected to exceed China, the origin of

the outbreak, within a week. Like many apps being rolled out around the world, Aarogya Setu uses Bluetooth signals on smartphones to record when people come in close contact with one another, so that contacts can be quickly alerted when a person tests positive for COVID-19. But the Indian app also uses GPS location data to augment the information gathered via Bluetooth and build a centralized database of the spread of the infection—an approach avoided by most countries for privacy reasons.

India to provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers India will provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers hardest hit by a weeks-long lockdown as well as offer employment under a rural jobs program, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. The government will spend 35 billion rupees ($463.06 million) on food for nearly 80 million migrant workers over the next two months, Sitharaman told a news conference.

The allocation is part of a 20 trillion rupee ($266 billion) fiscal and monetary package to prop up the ailing economy. Millions of workers have fled large towns and cities after they lost their jobs during the lockdown, which

is aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus. “The government is concerned about migrant workers,” Sitharaman said, and had provided funds to states to provide shelter, food grain and transport for migrants.

Since April, the government has spent 100 billion rupees to offer work to near 23 million unemployed people in rural areas under the ongoing rural job guarantee program, she said.

The government also plans to extend a bank loan interest subsidy program for affordable housing to rented housing for migrant workers, she said.

2nd tranche of stimulus package to benefit migrant workers, street vendors, farmers - Finance Minister The second tranche of the economic stimulus announced today by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to alleviate the lockdowninduced misery of migrant labour and street vendors, extend more credit to farmers and ease the repayment worries of the smallest borrowers in banks. In monetary terms, the largest announcement was for the farmers.

The government will extend Rs 2 lakh crore of concessional credit to benefit 2.5 crore farmers.

In addition, NABARD will provide emergency working capital fund of Rs 30,000 crore in addition to its budgeted refinance support of Rs 90,000 annually. For the migrants, even with no ration cards, Sitharaman announced free supply of 10 kg foodgrain and 2 kg pulses for the next two months. The government has estimated the number of migrants at 8 crore and the cost for this exercise at Rs 3,500 crore.

However, the onus is on the states for tracing these migrants. She said states have been asked to enrol migrants returning to their villages in MNREGA work for which the government had earlier enhanced the wage floor from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day. MNREGA has already generated work till May 13 which is 40 to 50 per cent more than in May last year, she noted.

However, the other two measures will

benefit migrants when the next calamity occurs. The first is to make ration cards nationally portable which Sitharaman hailed as “one classic example” of the Prime Minister’s accent on technology-driven systems. This would benefit 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states.

But Sitharaman was unable to convincingly explain how this system will work if two out of four people on the ration card migrate and the others stay back. While this portability will be implemented by March 2021, the other proposal of providing affordable housing to migrants is still a blueprint. Sitharaman said the government was considering three options under the PPP mode of building rental, affordable accommodation. For the middleincome group, the government has extended an income credit-linked subsidy scheme for simple, affordable houses by a year to March 2021. Three lakh families have benefited in the three years of this scheme and Sitharaman expects 2.5 lakh families to take up this offer in a Covid-affected year. Sitharaman said the government has allowed states to use Rs 6,000 crore of afforestation funds for providing work.

Vendors will get a special credit facility of Rs 5,000 crore within a month.

The TD Community Resilience Initiative Allocates $25 Million to Organizations Engaged In COVID-19 Response and Community Recover The TD Community Resilience Initiative Allocates $25 Million to Organizations Engaged In COVID-19 Response and Community Recovery Includes both immediate and longterm support for organizations that deliver frontline services as well as longer-term programs critical during and after this time of significant disruption TORONTO, ON and CHERRY HILL, NJ, April 29, 2020 /CNW/ - TD Bank Group (TD) today introduced the TD Community Resilience Initiative, a comprehensive program that includes funding, employee engagement and on-going collaboration with organizations and community groups across TD’s operating footprint that are critical now and into the future. With global economies in historic decline, many of them have been directly impacted just when society needs them the most.

Through the TD Community Resilience Initiative, part of the TD Ready Commitment, the Bank’s corporate citizenship platform,

TD will allocate $25 million (CAD) to help strengthen community resilience today and into the future.

“Across society, lives are being disrupted in unprecedented ways and TD stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities we serve,” said Bharat Masrani, Group President and CEO, TD Bank Group. “Our purpose is to enrich lives, and in this critical moment we want to be there to help those who will deliver the care, services and support that millions will need to overcome today’s challenges and thrive once again.”

Initial funding through the TD Community Resilience Initiative will include: t NJMMJPO UPXBSE QIJMBOUISPQZ efforts across our communities and in alignment with the TD Ready Commitment’s four drivers (Connected Communities, Vibrant Planet, Financial Security and Better Health), including support for: o Existing TD-supported community organizations to fund immediate, shortterm needs and help save not-for-profit jobs at risk due to funding shortfalls

o A redirection of funds to regional community banking offices to allow for a more local response to regional COVID-19 impacts in Canada and in the U.S. o Donation to the United Way Local Love Fund to help fill gaps created by the increased and changing demand for services created by the COVID-19 pandemic o Community initiatives that focus on helping to support individuals’ financial security, including income stability and affordable housing o Community initiatives that help support healthcare workers, including $1 million to The Frontline Fund to assist Canadian frontline healthcare workers with supplies, supports and research funding to fight COVID-19; and $1 million to the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres and the U.S.-based National Association of Community Health Centers to support their work with those most vulnerable in society t NJMMJPO NBUDIJOH HSBOUT QSPHSBN to amplify the impact of TD colleague donations to organizations that support COVID-19 relief t

NJMMJPO through the TD Ready Challenge, an annual program that supports organizations developing innovative solutions for the benefit of society, which will be dedicated to pandemic recovery in 2020. Details to be announced later this Spring.

“COVID-19 has demonstrated how health, social and economic needs are intrinsically linked,” said Andrea Barrack, Global Head, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank Group. “The TD Ready Commitment was built on that premise, recognizing that strong communities will lead to a more inclusive future for all.”

The not-for-profit sector is a significant economic

driver, employing 2.4 million Canadians, according to Statistics Canada, and 12.3 million Americans, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Statistics Canada estimates that the sector contributes 8.5% of Canada’s GDP, more than the Canadian retail trade industry. In the United States, the sector contributes to nearly 5.4% (almost $1 trillion) to its GDP, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics.

About the TD Ready Commitment TD has a long-standing commitment to enriching the lives of its customers, colleagues and communities. As part of its corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, TD is targeting CDN $1 billion (US $775 million) in total by 2030 towards community giving in four areas critical to opening doors for a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow – Financial Security, Vibrant Planet, Connected Communities and Better Health. Through the TD Ready Commitment, TD aspires to link its business, philanthropy and human capital to help people feel more confident not just about their finances, but also in their ability to achieve their personal goals in a changing world. For further information, visit td.com/tdreadycommitment.

About TD Bank Group The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group (“TD” or the “Bank”). TD is the sixth largest bank in North America by branches and serves over 26 million customers in three key businesses operating in a number of locations in financial centres around the globe: Canadian Retail, including TD Canada Trust, TD Auto Finance Canada, TD Wealth (Canada), TD Direct Investing, and TD Insurance; U.S. Retail, including TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, TD Auto Finance U.S., TD Wealth (U.S.), and an investment in TD Ameritrade; and Wholesale Banking, including TD Securities.

TD also ranks among the world’s leading online financial services firms, with more than 13 million active online and mobile customers. TD had CDN$1.5 trillion in assets on January 31, 2020. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades under the symbol “TD” on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

NRI H-1B visa, OCI card suspension prevents several Indians in US from flying back home Several Indians in the US, either on the H-1B work visa or Green Card having children who are American citizens by birth, are being prevented from travelling to India aboard the special repatriation flights being run by Air India amidst the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions.

According to the regulations issued by the Indian government last month and updated last week, visas of foreign nationals and OCI cards, that provide visa-free travel privileges to the people of Indian-origin, have been suspended as part of the new international travel restrictions.

For some of the Indian citizens like the Pandey couple in New Jersey (name and place changed at request), it’s a double whammy. Having lost their H-1B job, they have to go back to India within the stipulated 60 days as required by law. The couple has two kids aged one and six years who are American citizens.

In the wee hours of Monday, they had to return from Newark airport as Air India refused to give their kids a ticket to fly to India along with them, despite them having a valid Indian visa. The young mother and father are Indian citizens.

They said that the officials from Air India and (Indian) Consulate (in New York) were very cooperative.

But they could not do anything as their hands were tied by the latest regulation issued by the Indian government, a shocked Ratna Pandey said .

Can’t afford to return, & can’t afford to stay in UK - stranded students It was Tasmay Oza’s childhood dream to study in London. It did come true for a while too. But the lockdown has left the 21-year-old from Anand, Gujarat, stranded in the city with almost no money. respect that they have given priority to the elderly, but our situation is bad too. We have taken hu- ge student loans and lost our jobs,” said Oza who has “bar- ely one month’s funds left”.

With a £22,500 loan, Oza is doing master’s at King’s College London. He worked as a barista but lost his job when the lockdown was announced, and his parents can’t send him more money. “I can’t afford to go back, and I can’t afford to stay here,” he said. A one-way ticket on a repatriation flight from the UK costs £539, with another Rs 30,000 needed to pay for quarantine.

Sanam Arora, chairperson of the National Indian Students & Alumni Union UK, estimates there are around 8,000 Indian students still stranded in Britain. “They are very anxious. It is not confirmed if the government will send more flights.”

Volunteers from NISAU have been helping the students with food, accommodation and legal aid since the lockdown began.

Pavithra Veeramany, 28, arrived in the UK in January to do a master’s at Kingston University. She left her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter with her parents in Pondicherry as she planned to fly to India in April to collect them after selling a plot of land to pay for their dependant visas. Then India closed its airspace.

27

28

PAKISTAN

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Pakistan eases nationwide lockdown even as COVID-19 cases rise Pakistan began easing the month-long lockdown despite steady rise in number of COVID-19 cases which has now crossed the 28,000-mark with 618 deaths.

The Representative of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the govt observe World Health Organisation protocols and implement strict lockdown.

“We think the number will definitely spike. According to our information, there are five hospitals in Karachi that have a total of 63 beds reserved for coronavirus patients. If this is the condition in a city like Karachi, then you can imagine what it is like in other cities of Pakistan,” said Dr Ikram Tunio of the PMA in a press conference in Karachi.

According to Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab, 289 of 350 people in Pir jo Goth slum in the province has been tested positive for COVID-19.

A three-year-old child died in Karachi on Saturday after contracting the

coronavirus, said Dr Jamal Raza, head of the National Medical Institute for Children.

Officials said that the total number of coronavirus cases jumped to 28,562 with Punjab reporting 10,471 patients, Sindh 10,771, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 4,327, Balochistan 1,876, Islamabad 609, Gilgit-Baltistan 421 and Kashmir 87.

Earlier, the Ministry of National Health Services said 24 new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 618.

So far 7,756 patients have recovered.

The authorities said 2,70,025 COVID-19 tests have been conducted till now, including 12,982 in the last 24 hours.

Chief Minister Sindh, Murad Ali Shah told the media that for the first time more than 1,000 patients were diagnosed with coronavirus in the province in a single day.

Pakistan cricket tour to Ireland postponed amid COVID-19 crisis Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and board of Cricket Ireland announced that T20 internationals scheduled to take place in Dublin, Ireland in summer have been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a press release issued by the PCB, the decision has been taken after the Irish government announced that matches can take place behind closed doors after August 10. The matches had

been scheduled for July 12 and July 14.

“It is sad that due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have to postpone our tour to Ireland,” said PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan.

“We were looking forward to returning to the venue where we featured against Ireland in their inaugural Test in 2018, as well as the country where our players have always been supported and admired by friendly and knowledgeable fans.”

Pakistan reports 1,452 new infections, 33 deaths Pakistan’s total number of coronavirus cases reached 35,788 after 1,452 new infections were reported, while the death toll rose to 770 with 33 fresh fatalities, the health ministry said on Thursday, as the spread of the deadly disease through local transmission showed a dangerous upward trajectory.

According to the Ministry of National Health Services, Punjab province reported 13,561 cases, Sindh 13,341, KhyberPakhtunkhwa 5,252, Balochistan 2,239, Islamabad 822, Gilgit-Baltistan 482 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 91 cases.

With 33 more deaths, Pakistan’s death toll due to COVID-19 reached 770 on Thursday.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 35,788 after 1,452 patients were added in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

A total of 9,695 people have fully recovered, it said.

So far, 3,30,750 tests have been conducted, including 13,051 in the last 24 hours.

Earlier the govt reported 755 cases reaching the total confirmed infections to 20,941 with 476 deaths in the country, the health ministry said.

The Ministry of National Health Services said that out of the total patients, Punjab reported 7,646 cases, Sindh 7,882, KhyberPakhtunkhwa 3,288, Balochistan 1,218, Islamabad 464, Gilgit-Baltistan 372 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir reported 71 cases.

“Pakistan’’s coronavirus cases reached 20,884 after 694 new patients were diagnosed by Monday evening,” said the statement issued by the health ministry.

The new cases came as Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the nationwide lockdown will be lifted gradually, asserting that Pakistan cannot afford an indefinite closure.

Doctors urge govt to review its decision to allow congregational prayers amid COVID-19 crisis Senior doctors based in the county and abroad have urged the Imran Khan government to review its decision to allow congregational prayers in mosques during the month of Ramzan amid the coronavirus outbreak which has infected more than 10,000 people.

The Pakistan government has succumbed to pressure from the hardline clerics and

allowed conditional congregational prayers in mosques during Ramzan, endangering the drive to curb the spread of coronavirus that has killed more than 175,000 people worldwide.

In a letter to the government as well as religious leader, the doctors asked to limit the prayers to 3-5 persons - a practice already going on to check the coronavirus outbreak.

4 killed as brother-duo clash over property Four persons, including a woman and a child, were killed and six others injured in a clash between two brothers over a property dispute in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, police said.

The incident occurred at Wazairabad area of Malakand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The dispute, which was continuing since the last few months, took an ugly turn on Tuesday

when the brother-duo—Niaz Muhammad and Gul Zaman—resorted to firing at each other.

In the firing, four persons, including the wife and a minor son of Muhammad died, police said.

Six others, including three children, were also injured in the firing, they said.

Four of the injured are in critical condition, police said.

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Saturday, May 16, 2020

Fiji marks 141st anniversary of Girmitiya arrival PM Voreqe Bainimarama on 141st anniversary of Indentured laborers in Fiji has given the children of Fiji an assignment.

In his message for the Girmit Remembrance Day, Bainimarama has urged students to conduct research on the lives of our indentured labourers and the history behind the Girmitiyas.

Bainimarama says it’s important for us to pause to think about the grueling trials the Girmitiyas endured, and

also to recognize the sense of hope that got them through their suffering.

He says they were able to find refuge in that sense of a better future.

The Prime Minister says it is the hard work of the Girmitiya’s that has laid the foundation of a number of cities and towns in Fiji.

“Girls and boys of today can still draw inspiration in the resilience and the dedication of the Girmitiyas –– and know that you too can take the path of education

to shape your own future. Because while it still may be some time before school resumes as normal, you don’t need to be in a classroom to learn life-changing lessons.”

Bainimarama says it is not important for children to be in a classroom to learn life changing lessons.

He says these lessons can be learnt through the stories of these indentured laborers which have been made available on their Fijian Government facebook page and website.

The Prime Minister says he has no doubt the Girmitiyas would be proud of the Fiji we have today knowing that they helped lay a foundation for every Fijian girl and boy to receive a free education.

He says many of them had no traditional schooling, and couldn’t even read, but in their foresight, they were wise beyond measure.

Bainimarama says they knew that, by investing in learning, they could make the most out of the life they were given.

Mother and two children reported missing Twenty-four-year old Kinisimere Biuvakaloloma and her two children fiveyear-old Elizabeth Josephine and three year old Nathan Jnr have been reported missing.

The three were last seen at their home in Namadi Heights yesterday.

Education minstry confident about completing all schools syllabus

Anyone who can assist in locating the mother and her two children are kindly requested to call Crime Stoppers on 919.

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The Education Ministry says it is confident of completing all school syllabus for this year, should schools be given the go-ahead to open next month.

Schools have been closed since March due to COVID-19 but a decision on whether schools resume on June 15th is expected this week.

Minister for Education Rosy Akbar says all the plans for the next few months are dependent on the announcement by the Prime Minister, keeping in mind the safety of students and teachers.

Akbar says they are waiting for an all-clear from the Ministry of Health.

“We will have to wait for the decision from the Health Ministry to whether we should open schools or not.”

The Minister says the resumption of classes depends on a number of factors.

“You’ll have to understand that there will be issues with social distancing, obviously we have boarding schools, we’ll have issues with students traveling in buses to school, and we’ll have to look at those classrooms that have more than 30 or 40 children. So those are some of the ground realities that we have to look at.”

She adds they are confident that once schools open they will complete all the syllabus.

“We think that we will be able to normally complete this year and complete all the syllabus for our progressive transition into 2021. But that all depends on whether we open on June 15th or not.”

Students all over the country have been on holiday since the 23rd of March following the confirmation

The matter was reported by her husband after discovering they were missing after returning home in the afternoon.

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Man charged for rape of 11-year-old A 40-year-old man will be produced at the Ba Magistrates Court today charged with allegedly attempting to rape an 11 year old girl.

The alleged incident happened on Tuesday in a settlement in Ba. The accused who is charged with one count of attempted rape is alleged to have taken the 11-year-old victim to a cassava plantation near the settlement where they both reside in.

The victim’s uncle came across the incident and reported the matter to Police.

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