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Aug 16 2023

COVID rising. Ford’s phone. Polish parade.

Aug 16, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
COVID-19 activity showing early signs that it may be increasing, new PHAC data says
COVID-19 infections may be slowly starting to rise again in Canada, new data from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) suggests. [CP]
The report shows the number of unfilled health-care jobs in Canada reached an all-time high in 2022 and that staff are missing an extra week on average due to illness. [Global]
At 48.1 per cent, Quebec had the highest percentage of people who considered the environment impact of their food choices and Saskatchewan had the lowest at 26.4 per cent. [Global]
Warren Kinsella: For quite some time, the country has been saying: Trudeau, go. But the country has also been saying: Pierre? No. [Tor Sun]
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation forecasts a need for 3.5 million more homes by 2030 than the country is on track to build.  [Global]
The Liberal government's Housing Accelerator Fund is intended to incentivize home construction, but is this the best way to get municipalities to build more homes? [Global]
OTTAWA - The federal government has remained without a conflict-of-interest and ethics watchdog for more than six months — a vacancy that the most recent commissioner says is putting investigations [CP]
From the provinces
‘No transparency’: Premier Doug Ford faces questions over use of personal phone
Doug Ford made accessibility part of his brand, handing his personal number to voters and CEOs. Now, questions are being raised about him using the device for government work. [Global]
NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara claims the Progressive Conservative government has, since coming into power in 2016, underspent on the health-care budget by millions. [Global]
The Saskatchewan government has approved the mandate of how its new police agency will operate. The opposition NDP is concerned about the reporting structure and independence of the force. [CBC]
The New Brunswick government’s “performative” changes to its school gender policy violate several provincial laws and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and have left teachers, school administrators, and the province “legally vulnerable,” according to Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock. [National Post]
New evacuation orders have been issued by the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District amid record breaking temperatures. [Global]
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Elsewhere
The Taliban seized Kabul 2 years ago. Those who escaped still struggle
Two years ago, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan when Kabul fell. Now, millions of people are displaced or remain in the country where they likely face poverty and famine. This report is from my colleague Shogofa Danish, an Afghan journalist working now in our Parliamentary Bureau. [Global]

NATO member Poland displayed its state-of-the-art weapons and defense systems at a massive military parade as war rages in neighboring Ukraine and ahead of parliamentary elections in two months. [ABC]
Faced with new legislation, Iowa's Mason City Community School District asked ChatGPT if certain books 'contain a description or depiction of a sex act.' [Popular Science]
Sci/Tech
Gmail makes it very simple to create and reuse templates to make it easier to send boilerplate communications, so you don't always have to type the same information over and over. [ZDNet]
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Media
Last month, Americans spent less time watching traditional TV than they did streaming services and other platforms, according to Nielsen data. [WSJ]
Threads app usage plummets despite initial promise as refuge from Twitter
Social media app, launched in the wake of Twitter chaos, recorded 576,000 active users in August, down 79% from 2.3 million in July. [The Guardian]
Expect the biggest media companies to use their market power to cut better deals with OpenAI and its peers. [Nieman Journalism Lab]
Issued this day ...
Issued this day in 1933: Scott #207: King George V “Medallion” Coil Stamps. 
The specimen here from my collection (all the stamps you see in this space, FYI, are from my collection) is a rather poor one. The stamp is so off-centre that you can see the ink from the stamp printed above it bleeding on to this one. Canada Post printed more than 28 billion of these stamps with technology that was not so precise as printing presses we use today. 
As a result, this stamp might have a catalogue value of a nickel. That said, coil stamps are particularly valued by collectors and are usually collected in pairs (don’t ask me why). A pair of this stamp in excellent “very fine” condition that had never had a collector’s hinge on it would have a catalogue value of more than $40.

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