Quebec to roll out Canada's first vaccine passport

MONTREAL - Canadians wanting to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar or gym, or attend a festival in Quebec will have to present a vaccine passport starting September 1, officials announced Tuesday.

The province will be the first in Canada to require such passes, which are increasingly being used across the world to limit entry to public places to those who have been vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 or tested negative.

They are also hugely controversial in some jurisdictions leading to mass protests against mandatory inoculations.

"Our objective with the passport is not to go backwards to a lockdown and, at the same time, to avoid overloading our hospitals," Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube told a news conference.

Health officials have warned that Covid-19 infections are once again on the rise after plunging in June and July, despite more than 60 percent of the Canadian population being fully vaccinated.

The Quebec government is to clarify in the coming weeks which public places will be obliged to require the vaccine passports, which will be in paper or electronic format.

New York was the first American city to announce last week the introduction of vaccine passes for access to public places.

Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada after Ontario, recorded 234 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

Some 84 percent of Quebecers have received a first dose of vaccine and 70 percent are fully vaccinated.

Dube warned that a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections led by the more contagious Delta variant in the fall was "inevitable."

To date, the Delta variant is responsible for a third of Covid-19 cases in Quebec but the minister expects it to increase to 50 percent "in the coming weeks."

Agence France-Presse 

New Quebec law stresses migrants' skills, thousands must reapply

MONTREAL - The Quebec provincial legislature on Sunday approved a controversial immigration bill that will replace a first-come, first-served standard for accepting migrants with one tied to an applicants' skills.

The law is similar to a proposed plan from US President Donald Trump that would shift his country's visa system from family-based immigration towards bringing in more skilled workers.

The law will attempt to more closely match the skills offered by would-be immigrants with the needs of the labor market in Quebec, Canada's second most-populous province.

Under the new law, some 18,000 applications now on file will be shredded, affecting as many as 50,000 people, many of whom already live in the province.

The 18,000 existing applicants will have to restart the immigration process.

The provincial government promised to expedite processing of their new applications, saying qualified workers would have answers within six months rather than the current 36 months.

The 62-to-42 vote on the bill took place around 4 am (0800 GMT) at the end of a marathon session convened by the governing center-right Coalition Avenir Quebec, immigration minister Simon Jolin-Barrette announced on Twitter.

"We are modifying the immigration system in the public interest because we have to ensure we have a system which meets the needs of the labor market," Jolin-Barrette told the National Assembly.

All three opposition parties opposed the measure, calling it "inhuman" and saying the government did not justify dropping the 18,000 pending applications.

"Honestly, I don't think this bill will be seen positively in history," Liberal Party MP Dominique Anglade said, according to the Montreal Gazette. "It's the image of Quebec which gets tarnished."

Premier Francois Legault's government resorted to a special parliamentary procedure to limit debate over the proposal.

His party won power in October with a promise to slash by more than 20 percent the number of immigrants and refugees arriving each year in Quebec.

The assembly reconvened on Sunday and after sometimes-acrimonious debate passed a bill banning the wearing of religious symbols by public servants including police officers, judges, lawyers, prison guards and teachers.

However the new law will only apply to new recruits, with existing employees unaffected.

The proposal, also backed by Legault, puts the premier at odds with the multiculturalism advocated by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

jbe-et/elm/bbk/cs/sah

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Heat wave kills 19 in Canada

MONTREAL, Canada - A heat wave in Quebec has killed at least 19 people in the past week as high summer temperatures scorched eastern Canada, health officials said Wednesday.

Twelve of the dead were reported in the eastern province's capital Montreal, said regional public health director Mylene Drouin.

The Tribune newspaper said five of the deaths occurred in the past 48 hours in the Eastern Townships, a rural area just east of the city. 

And late Wednesday two more deaths blamed on the heat were recorded in a Montreal suburb, Radio Canada reported.

"My thoughts are with the loved ones of those who have died in Quebec during this heat wave," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter.

"The record temperatures are expected to continue in central and eastern Canada, so make sure you know how to protect yourself and your family," Trudeau said.

Drouin said the victims were part of "the very vulnerable population, the elderly or people suffering from chronic or mental illnesses."

Temperatures soared to 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) with a humidity that made it feel closer to 40 degrees, the meteorological service said.

The mercury has regularly topped 30 degrees since Friday in southern Quebec, accompanied by stifling humidity levels.

A government heat warning is in place for the region, but meteorologists are forecasting a drop in temperatures at the end of the week.

No deaths had been reported for the same period in the neighboring province of Ontario, which has also sizzled under extremely high temperatures.

In 2010, a heat wave killed around 100 people in the Montreal area.

ps/sab/jh/oh/dw

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Canada passes law expanding spy agency powers, reach

OTTAWA, Canada - Lawmakers passed a new anti-terror law Wednesday dramatically expanding the powers and reach of Canada's spy agency, allowing it to operate overseas for the first time.

The act was written in response to attacks on Canadian soil last October, when a gunman killed a ceremonial guard and stormed parliament, and a soldier was run over in rural Quebec.

A large number of critics have decried bill C-51 as an unprecedented attack on civil rights, saying it lacks oversight and is overly broad.

It criminalizes the promotion of terrorism, makes it easier for police to arrest and detain individuals without charge and expands the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's (CSIS) mandate from intelligence-collection to actively thwarting terror plots and spying outside Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Tory majority in the House of Commons assured its passage, in a 183 to 96 vote, after several failed opposition attempts to water it down.

However, widespread anger over the changes may linger to harm the Conservatives's re-election hopes in the fall.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com