Border to reopen with limited exemptions

Trudeau said Marco Mendicino, minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship will provide further details about the policy at a press conference later today.

Trudeau addressed the Black Lives Matter protest that took place over the past week and continuing to support the lockdown measures.

He said it’s important public health directions are followed during any protests and to strike a balance between those directions and protesting.

Speaking outside Rideau Cottage, the prime minister said that as businesses reopen across the country people and the government must step up in other ways such as physical distancing, wearing masks and contact tracing and testing to ensure the country can handle a potential resurgence.

“All this is difficult and frustrating, and longer than we’d hoped it would be in many ways,” he said. “But at the same time, we know that the cost of having to return into social isolation, return into lockdown because of a massive resurgence is not one that anyone wants to bear. Which is why we are being very cautious going forward and continue to encourage people to follow all public health advice and guidance.”

Trudeau attended a large rally in Ottawa on Thursday.

On the protests themselves, Trudeau said, “The reality is many people in this country simply do not feel protected by the police. In fact, they’re afraid of them. That alone would be bad enough.

He said systemic discrimination and racism in Canada goes much further than policing.

“It’s about poverty and mental health. It’s about the fact that people are all too often treated like criminals instead of receiving the support they need. We as governments need to work together. We as leaders need to recognize these problems are tied to economic inequality and poverty. We need bold measures to do this.”

Following conversations with the RCMP commissioner in recent days, the prime minister said he is committing to raising the adoption of body cameras with the provinces this week to move forward as quickly as possible.

Trudeau also spoke about some of the other programs the country has introduced in response to COVID-19. More than 8 million Canadians have applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and received a total of $43.5 billion. Nearly 200,000 employers have applied for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, from which more than $9 billion has been paid out to help cover the pay of employees.

As of Monday morning, Canada had 95,699 confirmed cases and 7,800 deaths. There have been 1,896,822 Canadians tested.

As of the Saturday update, in Alberta, there are 7,138 cases and 146 deaths. A total of 259,031 Albertans have been tested. There are 336 active cases in Alberta.

by Chris Brown

Border to reopen with limited exemptions

Our Community