National News – Page 14 – Local Skim St. Catharines

Assisted-dying bill makes progress at Senate

The Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee accepted the assisted-dying bill on Wednesday.
However, it is expected that the Senate will make a number of amendments to the bill.
After the amendments, the bill would need to be approved by the House of Commons before receiving final approval at the Senate.
Finding consensus may be difficult as some Senators believe the bill goes too far while others think the bill doesn’t go far enough.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada has a tentative deal with U.S. based Novavax to manufacture millions of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
However, the vaccine still needs approval from Health Canada.
If approved, production of the vaccine could start before the end of the year in a new Montreal facility.
It is believed that the new facility could produce around two million doses per month.

Brian Bigger, the mayor of Sudbury, is asking for highway checkpoints to discourage non-essential travel to northern Ontario.
The checkpoints would allow for a northern bubble to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the north.
The idea isn’t new as Quebec successfully instituted highway checkpoints last fall to discourage travel.
However, the provincial government has said it is not considering highway checkpoints at this time.