Laval-based Neptune Wellness Solutions, which produces naturally-sourced health products, says it is accelerating production of its hand sanitizers to more than 1 million units per week, while responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
In a statement issued April 23, Neptune said the production scale-up will allow the company to meet strong demand from its North American retail and government customers, and begin shipping product the following week, including fulfilling a purchase order from a large North American retailer.
Neptune Wellness says it will be soon be shipping one million units of hand sanitizer per week, as production is scaled up to meet COVID-19 demand.
“I could not be more proud of how our entire team has mobilized to leverage our collective expertise in procurement, manufacturing, product innovation, supply chain management and regulatory affairs to bring significant and continuous supply of hand sanitizer gel to market ahead of schedule during this critical stage in the battle against COVID-19,” said Michael Cammarata, Chief Executive Officer of the company whose headquarters are located at the Centropolis in Laval.
“We are rapidly responding to the needs of North Americans and playing a key role in meeting customer demand for safe and effective hand sanitizer to help prevent the spread of germs and protect consumer health,” added Cammarata.
Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Laval News, marty@newsfirst.ca
The CISSS de Laval’s committee overseeing the health of staff doctors and other professionals has launched a new program to tend to the needs of MDs, dentists and pharmacists in Laval who may be finding they need personal support during the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the CISSS, three levels of assistance are being offered: Group Peer Support (GPS), one-on-one counselling from a psychiatrist, and ethical guidance, given the difficult life-and-death decisions that many doctors are finding themselves having to make as the coronavirus continues to generate so many fatalities.
The City of Laval’s executive-committee has sent a recommendation to city council to vote in favour of granting a $1 million subsidy to the Cité de la Santé Foundation, which raises money for the hospital on René-Laennec Blvd., payable in installments of $200,000 annually over the next five years.
The Cité de la Santé Foundation, which raises additional funding for the hospital on René-Laennec Blvd., will be receiving $200,000 annually from the City of Laval over the next five years.
According to a statement issued on April 23 by Mayor Marc Demers’ office and the city administration, the money will be used by the Cité de la Santé Foundation to help fulfill its mandate, which consists mostly of maintaining and improving services at the hospital as well as within the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de Laval.
“The health of our citizens is one of our big priorities,” said Demers. “We are delighted to participate in this collective effort by supporting the CISSS de Laval and all health professionals. In fact, we are very grateful to them for their commitment and we wish to acknowledge their courage.”
Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Laval News, marty@newsfirst.ca
The son of an elderly woman who was among the many people who have died of COVID-19 at CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée in Laval is seeking permission from a Quebec court to file a class action lawsuit against the long-term care residence.
CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée is on the short list of Quebec long-term care residences where the most deaths from COVID-19 have occurred.
Jean-Pierre Daubois, whose mother Anna José Marquet died at the age of 94 on April 3 after she contracted COVID-19 at the CHSLD, has filed initial paperwork in Quebec Superior Court for the suit against CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée. The suit also names CISSS de Laval, the regional health authority that oversees the residence on Samson Blvd. in Laval’s Sainte-Dorothée neighbourhood.
The application accuses CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée and CISSS de Laval of failing to provide employees with adequate protective equipment, while neglecting to quarantine residents who had symptoms of the virus. The pending class-action is claiming $1 million in exemplary damages, as well as tens of thousands of dollars for deceased or living residents, whether they caught COVID-19 or not.
Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Laval News, marty@newsfirst.ca
McDonald’s Canada has announced that after finding out an employee at a Laval location was COVID-19-positive, the company decided to close the location temporarily and until further notice.
According to the company, on April 20 an employee working at the 2715 des Aristocrates Ave. McDonald’s location (just off Autoroute 440 in eastern Laval) informed management of having recently received a confirmation of having tested positive for COVID-19.
“As a measure of extreme prudence, McDonald’s Canada decided to immediately close the restaurant so that an in-depth cleaning and sanitation by experts in WINMAR cleaning could be carried out,” McDonald’s Canada spokesperson in Montreal Ryma Boussoufa said in a statement.
According to Boussoufa, all employees at the McDonald’s location who might have been in contact with the infected employee were asked to put themselves in isolation until further information was made available to them. The employee in question last worked on April 11 from 1 pm to 4:15 pm.
The Trudeau Liberal government’s wage subsidy legislation to counter the effects of the COVID-19 crisis moved swiftly through to passage in the House of Commons last weekend during a rare holiday session that saw MPs congratulating one another for their multi-partisan cooperation.
Help on the way
Passage of the legislation, followed by examination by the Senate and royal assent by the Governor General, cleared the way for $73 billion in immediate assistance to companies, families and individuals across Canada whose livelihoods remain seriously disrupted by COVID-19.
Although the Conservatives still had issues with the way the wage subsidy will be implemented, they agreed to allow the legislation to be passed anyway so that the recovery could get underway.
A war-like situation
In a speech to the relatively small gathering of MPs who were called together for the historic parliamentary sitting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau compared the situation Canada now finds itself in to a war, with the enemy being a virus that is spreading everywhere silently.
“Without reservation, without pause, we must fight for every inch of ground against this disease,” said Trudeau. “We must be there for one another as we spare no effort to safeguard our collective future.”
$73 billion in aid expected to start flowing to businesses and citizens
Trudeau alluded to the battle of Vimy Ridge while speaking about the current battle being waged in Canada and around the world against COVID-19. During his address, the prime minister noted that the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy is the “largest Canadian economic policy” since World War II.
Like Vimy Ridge
“As our generation faces its greatest challenge yet, we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and saw our nation through difficult, tumultuous times in our history,” he said. “One hundred and three years ago today, young Canadian soldiers found themselves in the trenches in France. The next day they took part in the final battle for Vimy Ridge.”
“On the eve of this somber anniversary we remember their courage and sacrifice. These were trials that shaped our country, and more, its citizens, and now, once again, we are being tried. Every one of us has role to play in shielding our country from the threat it now faces.
‘Modern day heroes’
“And while the battle against COVID-19 isn’t a war in the traditional sense of the word, that doesn’t make this fight any less destructive, any less dangerous,” Trudeau added. Instead, “the frontline is everywhere; our homes, hospitals, care centres, grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations,” he continued, calling the people who work in these places “modern day heroes.”
‘While the battle against COVID-19 isn’t a war in the traditional sense of the word, that doesn’t make this fight any less destructive,’ said Trudeau
The workers, he said, “are separated from their family, and risking their own health, they head to work every day so that we can eat, heal, and do our part.”
In hard times, said Trudeau, “courage and strength are not defined but what we say or do loudly in public, but by the actions we take quietly in private, like staying home. Even as we stand apart, we stand united in our resolve to do what we must until COVID-19 is defeated.”
CEWS program enacted
The bill puts into place the CEWS, whose purpose is to encourage companies to rehire workers by offering a 75 per cent wage subsidy over the next three months to businesses that have lost 30 per cent of their revenue as a result of the crisis. Finance Minister Bill Morneau said businesses that qualify for the subsidy should start receiving money within a few weeks.
Among the Conservatives’ suggestions for future amendments to the new law would be to reduce eligibility hurdles that still stand in the way of some businesses receiving the subsidy. The NDP and the Bloc Québécois also agreed to fast-track the bill in exchange for consideration of their ideas for eventual changes.
Bill gained NDP support
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said his party supported the legislation necessary for the subsidy to become a reality. He said that his calls to improve access to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit were reflected in the bill that ended up being tabled by the Liberal government.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said that the bill included “some very good things” for workers. In a letter to the prime minister, he wrote that he welcomed several aspects of the legislation, but noted that it did not include support for businesses struggling with operational costs.
Blanchet said that Finance Minister Morneau had acknowledged those concerns. However, he also expressed concern that temporary foreign workers arriving in Canada were not being tested for COVID-19.
MPs dealing with COVID
In Laval, two local MPs have been dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on a personal level. Laval-Les Îles Liberal MP suggested constituents continue to stock up on food and other necessities for up to two weeks at a time.
“If you go out, don’t go out until it is absolutely essential,” he said. “And, you know, once people start applying those rules it will be the best way to fight the COVID-19.
“That and social distancing: doing your job from home. And this is something that is no longer very difficult, with the technology that we have now: the e-mail, the internet and everything else. Everyone can make a large contribution by doing business from home.”
Koutrakis doing her part
For her part, Vimy Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis offered the following advice to people in her riding. “I would say stay close to each other, whether it’s through a virtual hug or daily telephone calls or texts,” she said. “Obviously none of this is easy for anyone. What I am doing personally, as well as all our family members, is to social-distance ourselves, especially because we do have elderly people in our family. The number one thing that I would say is basic for everybody is handwashing first and foremost.”
Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Laval News, marty@newsfirst.ca
Not sure I’m seeing this clearly but it seems to me the federal government and our politicians in general should have been much better prepared for COVID-19.
As we know, more than one visionary, Bill Gates for one, predicted a destructive free roaming virus would strike the world. Google Gates, and watch it if you haven’t seen it. It’s only 8 minutes long and is bang on to what we are experiencing today. It’s called “The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready”. I got chills when I saw it. It was the future. Now it’s the present. But the founder of Microsoft did not deliver his address a few months ago. It was in 2015, five years ago. Didn’t anybody listen to this visionary? Apparently not. Why not? Because our politicians are too busy planning for re-election and concerned with image. Example, Justin Trudeau. You have of course noticed the beard but have you noted our Prime Minister is now dying his hair? Image. We elect and pay them for this?
So some kind of a road map should have been in the works years ago. A committee of epidemiologists, a group of consulting doctors, something, ready to go in the event it happens. It did. But no plan. Our Prime Minister was too busy trying to get a seat at the UN security council, too busy taxing and spending, stopping pipelines, applying the rule of law on the west coast (Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou) flaunting it in the east (SNC Lavalin) etc. To be fair, preceding governments can also take the blame. And here’s the result. We were (still are for some) short of N95 masks, short of ventilators, short of ventilator technicians, short of nurses, short of brave and exhausted front line workers. We had no solution for the most vulnerable people in seniors’ home, knee jerk reaction to international travelers. Remember it was first
Newsfirst columnist Robert Vairo is critical of the political establishment’s approach to combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No, we will not ban travelers from China into Canada because that is downright racism” from Canada’s Chief Public Health officer Dr Teresa Tam. We finally did close our all our airports to commercial international travel, but too late. Thousands had already entered the country eventually traced to many having already contracted the Covid virus. And it was the same Tam who said in January “this virus will have a minimal effect in Canada”. And we believed her. We are living our worst nightmare today.
Parliament was recalled a second time to correct a confusing finance package blunder that young Trudeau and his Finance minister got wrong the first time. What an embarrassment for Canada.
There is just a lot of essential tactical and logistical planning that never took place. The result is politicians making decisions on the fly. Not only zero planning but dumb decisions like shipping 16 tonnes of protective equipment including N95 masks to China in January.
We elect politicians and pay them to plan. But they don’t plan for us but for themselves and their re-election. That is wrong.
And did you hear correctly when you first heard or read it? I wasn’t sure myself. Canada’s members of Parliament, including Trudeau, voted themselves a raise effective April Fool’s day. What! Over a million Canadians unemployed (more to come) and our political leaders chose to give themselves a raise. Empty stores, empty restaurants, empty airports and empty streets. Are you kidding me? This is disgusting, disgraceful. Thankfully, some MP’s donated their raise to charities responding to the COVID 19 virus.
And the carbon tax grab, a 50% increase on April 1, could have been stopped. Many argue this tax will mean higher costs to us, kill jobs, and drive up payroll. Is this really the right time? Does this all make sense from supposedly clear and forward thinking elected officials?
This mystery virus is a surprise but what should not and never should have been a surprise, is irresponsible government unpreparedness. And that has consequences my dear friends that we are living now and will continue, in likely worsening conditions. Social distancing and isolation will be nothing to what’s about to happen. Recession will be more a depression. Are you ready for this second financial virus? This one coming not from bats in a live animal market in Wuhan, but created right here in Canada by our elected politicians.
Senator Housakos talks about COVID-19 having a unique perspective. As a politician, being a senator in the Canadian parliament and as the husband, of a respiratory therapist fighting daily in double and triple shifts at the Jewish General Hospital during the coronavirus escalating crisis.
Parliament during COVID-19
According to Housakos there has been a revolutionary change in the Senate.
“The Senate is a very archaic body.Just to give you an idea, for committees to meet via Skype and digitally, the House of Commons had to pass special motions for those committees to have the right to do that.Same thing for the senators” said Housakos.
Senator Leo Housakos working in isolation at home during the current COVID-19 crisis.
Caucus meetings are still going on at a distance trying to support the government in this period of crisis. Senator Housakos however stressed that by the same token, as an opposition senator hehas a constitutional responsibility to provide oversight and to basically make sure that the government is kept in check.
The Greek Community
According to Sen. Housakos right now the Hellenic community of Montreal is of a certain age since the vast majority came here in the 50s and 60s. His message to his fellow Canadians of Greek descent is that they are particularly susceptible. He wished that they heed the advice of public health care officials and leaders in our country when they say stay home and isolate yourselves.
Senator’s wife in the eye of COVID-19 cyclone
“These measures have been taken to defend some of the vulnerable and susceptible members of our society, like the elderly and those that are facing other various health challenges” said Housakos. At the same time, he insisted that fear should be kept in check. As the Hellenic community celebrated Greek Independence Day on the 25th of March one must remember that Hellenes have faced many challenges as a people and they are more than capable of weathering this storm.
Spouse in the eye of the cyclone
Senator Housakos’ wife is a respiratory therapist at the Jewish General hospital. Leo Housakos has, therefore, a unique situational awareness of the crisis as it unfolds.
“I’m very proud of my wife because I see firsthand her commitment to her work as a professional and helping other human beings in time of need”.Housakos describes a new schedule with an increased number of shifts. “They’ve doubled and tripled over the last two weeks. She’s out of the house at 7:00 and she’s not home before 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening”.
On top of that, Leo Housakos described the looming immense problem that the lack of supplies could cause as they increase the risk to the lives of the health care providers.
Leo Housakos said it publicly since January – February, thatthe government had been behind the curve. “I very angry at the fact that I’m hearing now,in April, the prime-minister saying that they are ramping up production to start manufacturing masks and gowns.Two months ago, we had 5000 ventilators in Canada. It didn’t take a genius to realize that in the countries that have been hit by this virus hadtens of thousands of people being hospitalized on ventilators” added Housakos.
The Canadian Industry to the rescue
Housakos spoke with great admiration and gratitude about the Canadian industry and how it came forth to assist in the fight against COVID-19. “I trust always the private sector and their energyin times of need. They make hospital supplies, they make masks. There are companies right across the country that are transforming their industrial manufacturing capacities to make ventilators. So, I am certain, given the industrial strength of the United States and Canada and Western Europe, we will ramp up and get it done.But my question still begs to be asked, why did it take so long? And again, why are we behind the curve?”
Trudeau’s economic plan
The Canadian parliament voted on a series of economic measures meant to help Canadians during this crisis. Senator Housakos admitted that it was the best possible plan as long as it’s a short-term crisis. “They’re sort of praying that this thing somehow miraculously resolves itself within the next three months. If this goes on for four months, five months and six months, then it becomes a whole different ball of wax.”Housakos’ concern is that “the government didn’t show enough fiscal restraint in the last four years to be ready for this.My second concern is if this crisis lasts a longer period of time than just two or three months, we’re going to see hard economic difficulties and I’m afraid also of social unrest.”
Dimitris Ilias, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for Newsfirst Multimedia
Officers with the Laval Police Department have been busy lately issuing tickets for at least $1,000 each to individuals seen gathered while not obeying the mandatory two-metre distancing rule decreed by the province in the ongoing struggle against the COVID-19 virus.
Up to Monday April 6, according to Laval Police spokesperson Cst. Évelyne Boudreau, the force had handed out 56 such tickets, with an equal number at least expected to be issued during the following week as the COVID-19 situation continued to evolve.
Must be approved
But as she pointed out during an interview with The Laval News, those initial tickets were issued pending their analysis and confirmation by the office of the provincial director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP).
Keep your distance, or run the risk of catching this – as well as a costly ticket from the police.
“They will be the ones analyzing the information and figuring out if the tickets will be given out or not,” she said.
Since the first tickets were issued, however, the Laval Police Department received an unconfirmed directive from Quebec, effectively enabling the LPD to issue tickets in much the same way that other types of citations (for speeding etc.) are handed out, Boudreau added.
Waiting for ruling
“As of this morning, I did not have information that we were able to give a single ticket out right there and then,” she said last week. So they were still handing out the other type of tickets and waiting for word from the DPCP on how to proceed on a ticket-by-ticket basis.
“We’re supposed to be able, like Montreal and the Sûreté du Québec, to give out citations [tickets] directly to the offenders. The authorization was given out by the government to the cities and the cities must decide and then transfer the information to the police department.”
Weekly ticket updates
Boudreau said the Laval Police Department expects to issue ticket count updates on Twitter each Monday while the distancing rules are in place and the police have a mandate to enforce them.
Failure to comply brings a fine ranging from $1,000 to $6,000
According to Boudreau, the LPD’s patrol officers have been issued specific instructions on how to identify situations in which people are failing to comply with the distancing rule. The provincial government’s decree regarding gatherings and events states:
Gatherings forbidden
“In order to protect Quebecers, the Gouvernement du Québec is from now on prohibiting indoor and outdoor gatherings. The prohibition applies to all indoor and outdoor gatherings, except:
Those required in a workplace that is not subject to a Québec government suspension, provided that the employees maintain as far as possible a minimum distance of 2 metres between them;
In a public space in order to obtain a service or goods such as stores and government services and that is not subject to a Québec government suspension, provided that the customers maintain as far as possible a minimum distance of 2 metres between them;
In a means of transportation, provided that the users maintain as far as possible a minimum distance of 2 metres between them;
A gathering that assembles the occupants of a private home or a site that serves this purpose and any other person who offers a service or whose support is required. Individuals who offer a service or support must maintain as far as possible a minimum distance of 2 metres between them and the occupants.
Minimum two metres
Outdoor gatherings are permitted in the case of the occupants of the same residence or a site that serves this purpose or when one person receives from another person a service or support. Individuals must maintain, as far as possible, a minimum distance of 2 metres from each other.”
Boudreau said the LPD’s officers have been advised to evaluate each situation after intervening and questioning those they suspect are not obeying the rules. She noted that some situations can be complex. For example, parents with shared custody of children with whom they are not currently living may have to provide an explanation if stopped by the police.
Non-compliant businesses
She said the force has also been turning up at businesses in Laval where the owners aren’t respecting the general shutdown decreed by Quebec, except for those businesses regarded as “essential services.” As well, she continued, more LPD officers than ever are now out on active patrols after being requisitioned from internal or administrative duties in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Laval News, marty@newsfirst.ca
