Laid-off workers feel they've lost a sense of control due to COVID-19

Scott Schieman, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
·5 min read
<span class="caption">Hilton Metrotown hotel employees hold signs and posters during a news conference outside the hotel in Burnaby, B.C., in February 2021. The employees' union urged prospective guests not to stay at the hotel as a job action after dozens of workers were laid off. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
Hilton Metrotown hotel employees hold signs and posters during a news conference outside the hotel in Burnaby, B.C., in February 2021. The employees' union urged prospective guests not to stay at the hotel as a job action after dozens of workers were laid off. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Do you sometimes feel like you’re being pushed around in life?

The sense of control is a fundamental human goal. Possessing it is better than believing that fate or other powerful forces determine the outcomes in your life. And it provides a protective shield for mental health.

Stressors can erode the sense of control — and 2020 was the motherlode. Job disruption is among the most potent threats. On that score, it doesn’t get much worse than April 2020. The unemployment rate spiked at 13 per cent, with total unemployment increasing by almost 1.3 million from February to April. Almost all of the newly unemployed — 97 per cent — were classified as “temporary layoffs,” which means they anticipated returning to their former jobs once the shutdown restrictions were lifted.

People wearing face masks walk past a boarded-up storefront.
People wear face masks as they walk by a boarded up storefront in MontrĂŠal in August 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

How did this holding pattern affect the sense of control? With the help of the Angus Reid Forum, we surveyed thousands of Canadians before and during the pandemic. Our sample was designed to provide a broadly representative portrait of Canadians across socio-economic characteristics, job sectors, occupations and skill levels.

To measure perceived control, we asked their level of agreement or disagreement with statements that included “you have little control over the things that happen to you” and “you often feel helpless in dealing with problems of life.”

Compared to Canadians who remained stably employed, those who became temporarily laid off felt more powerless. And those with a greater sense of control were more optimistic about being recalled back to work or about finding a new job if the layoff became permanent.

Personal experiences

To understand these survey results, we conducted in-depth interviews with people who had been temporarily laid off. A theme emerged: the effects of chronic uncertainty on problem-solving.

For Oliver, a fundraising manager, being laid off was “beyond stressful” because “there were so many variables that it felt impossible to plan.” He continued:

“The feeling of uncertainty was coupled with losing the concrete pillars in my life. A lot of the stress comes from the inability to actually address those concerns. It’s still difficult to plan. You feel like you’re spinning your wheels.”

“The first few days were just shock,” explained Kendra, a business development manager. “I’ve lost jobs before, but it wasn’t really that sense of agency, that this is something in my control.” This loss of control intersected with her job search efforts:

“With every interview, with every networking thing that I went to, it was more of a ‘wait and see’ approach. There was a sense of powerlessness, of being stuck in the same place.”

The uncertainty was crushing for Greg, who worked in business event sales:

“Not having a schedule, interacting with people like I used to, using my brain on a daily basis, on top of that not eating or sleeping well. I feel completely out of control. It feels like I’m on this downward spiral and it’s just affecting everything.”

When we asked Ellen, a manager in technical safety, to rate the stress of being laid off on a scale from one to five, she replied:

“It was like a seven! All I could do at the beginning was sit on a stool at work and shake, and cry. It was such an unknown and scary feeling for me because nothing like that had ever happened to me. In a stressful situation, I’m usually kind of like the cool cucumber. This one, I definitely was not.”

Silver linings

While we heard countless tales about the loss of control, many also identified a silver lining in the experience: a mindset shift.

A dark cloud with a silver lining
Many respondents looked for the silver lining in their employment circumstances. Unsplash

“The only control I had was of my own personal surroundings,” said Shawn, an aircraft maintenance engineer. “I started to learn how to simplify things and not get stuck on timelines and deadlines. Things will just happen. I have learned a lot from it in terms of just relaxing.”

Some expressed an “it is what it is” attitude mixed with proactive problem-solving. Earl, an architectural technologist, described the uncertainty: “Every day, when I woke up out, I had to breathe.” He wondered: “Am I going to get a pink slip today?”

Eventually, he redefined the situation. “That’s the hand I was dealt with,” he said, “so you have to play your cards the best you can.” He decided to develop his skills, asserting that “when something’s taken from you outside of your control, you’re going to try to get it back and be a little innovative in how you do it. That was the only way I could fight back.”

Peter, an engineering technician, echoed this can-do attitude: “I come from the stock that doesn’t like to sit around and whine about stuff.” He’s playing the same card game as Earl: “The hand you’re dealt is the hand you’re dealt. You play it.” And, when the temporary layoff started to feel permanent, Peter decided to start his own business “to have a little more control.”

“It’d be nice to row my own boat! It’s a Maritimer term.”

He added: “I’ll take my fate into my own hands. I can’t blame you, can’t blame anyone else … it’s all on me.”

Ryu Won Kang, an undergraduate studying biochemistry and immunology at the University of Toronto, co-authored this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Scott Schieman, University of Toronto.

Read more:

Scott Schieman receives funding from the University of Toronto COVID-19 Action Initiative.

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    Nearly three-quarters of Health PEI's 6,000 staff members have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Prince Edward Island's premier said in the legislature Wednesday. A Summerside native who's managing a health-care team at a west Toronto hospital says fears of not being able to cope with COVID-19 patients were not realized last year, but the third wave of the pandemic is proving they were justified. COVID-19 logistics have led to too many moves for Queen Elizabeth Hospital patients living with dementia, says a Liberal MLA. The North Shore community of North Rustico is cancelling most of its major Canada Day events this year to comply with public health restrictions. This year's UPEI nursing graduates have a lot of options to choose from as they enter the workforce. Michael MacKinnon, who is about to graduate from the UPEI nursing program, has accepted a job at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Unit 1.(Submitted by Michael MacKinnon) Nurses in Atlantic Canada are being asked to help as the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hits Ontario hard — and some on P.E.I. are starting to step forward. The child who was hospitalized due to COVID-19 has been discharged, the Chief Public Health Office confirmed. It also reported one new case of COVID-19. The 2021 edition of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival has been cancelled, after organizers decided public health requirements would still not permit a large-scale event by the time the July 9-11 weekend rolled around. About 25,000 people attended the Cavendish Beach Music Festival in 2019.(Tracy Lightfoot/CBC) Nova Scotia is placing new restrictions on who can travel to the province, with exceptions for residents of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, where COVID-19 case counts are low. A P.E.I. tourism operator is concerned that the federal budget is decreasing support for the industry. Liberal MP Sean Casey says the support will be there if it is needed. The Island has seen 174 cases of COVID-19. Thirteen are considered active. There have been two hospitalizations and no deaths. Elsewhere in the Atlantic region Wednesday: Also in the news These Islanders are currently eligible for a vaccine People over 50. Frontline workers over the age of 40 who interact with the public and cannot work virtually. People providing health care services to the public — including optometrists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists — and their support staff. Non-frontline health care workers needed to maintain health care system capacity Firefighters, police officers, power-line workers. Residents and staff of long-term care homes. Adults living in Indigenous communities. Residents and staff of shared living facilities. Truck drivers and other rotational workers. You can find more information about how to get a vaccine here. Further resources Reminder about symptoms The symptoms of COVID-19 can include: Fever. Cough or worsening of a previous cough. Possible loss of taste and/or smell. Sore throat. New or worsening fatigue. Headache. Shortness of breath. Runny nose. More from CBC P.E.I.

  • PC motion to suspend Bruce Chaulk defeated in House, all-party committee to update Elections Act

    A PC motion to investigate Newfoundland and Labrador's wildly controversial election —and for Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk to be suspended while it would have been held — went down to defeat late Wednesday afternoon in the House of Assembly. The motion, moved by Conception Bay South MHA Barry Petten, was rejected by a vote of 21-17. Petten wanted an independent investigator appointed "to determine what went wrong" during an election that took 10 weeks to complete, and which saw the province move into a pandemic lockdown and toward mail-in voting on the night before the vote would have been held. There are three challenges of election results currently before the courts, launched by defeated candidates Jim Lester, Sheila Fitzpatrick and Alison Coffin. Earlier in the day, Justice Minister John Hogan announced an all-party committee will help modernize the Elections Act from 1991. Justice Minister John Hogan will lead the committee charged with reforming the Elections Act.(CBC) It will be made up of four Liberals, two PCs, one NDP and one Independent. The committee, which will be chaired by Hogan, "will review the facts of the 2021 general election and provide input in relation to making voting as accessible as possible for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians," according to a media release issued Wednesday afternoon. It was one of Premier Andrew Furey's first promises, and one that PC Leader David Brazil said was much needed: an overhaul of the Elections Act, following an election unlike any other, one that included a 10-week campaign and a largely mail-in vote. But NDP House leader Jim Dinn said the committee is nothing short of "window dressing." "In what world would we come out of the election we just had, called by the government in power for their political gain, and then entrust all of the decision-making on reforming the Elections Act to that same group of people?" Dinn said in a media release issued Wednesday. The 2021 Newfoundland and Labrador election included a 10-week campaign. (Josee Basque/Radio-Canada) "Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should be outraged at this blatant attempt to control the outcome and recommendations that come from this committee. I am." Dinn said the committee should be chaired by an Independent MHA to ensure the process is non-partisan. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

  • In Quebec religious symbols decision, Canada confronts consequences of controversial constitutional clause

    In the mythology of Quebec nationalists, the "night of the long knives" refers to an all-night bargaining session at Ottawa's Château Laurier hotel during the constitutional talks in the fall of 1981. That night, provincial representatives reached an agreement among themselves to support Pierre Trudeau's wide-ranging reforms. Then Quebec premier René Lévesque, for reasons that are still debated, was not present and felt betrayed, and ultimately refused to sign the Constitution. But it was at that meeting that the provinces made their support for the reforms contingent on the inclusion of a "notwithstanding clause." Leery about losing autonomy to a federal charter of fundamental rights, the provinces extracted a compromise from Trudeau allowing them to override parts of the charter for renewable, five-year periods. Jean Chrétien, who was then Trudeau's justice minister, downplayed its importance at the time. It would only be used to "correct absurd situations," he told the House of Commons. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau stretches to shake hands with Quebec Premier René Lévesque at the start of the meeting of the first ministers in Ottawa Nov. 2, 1981.At this set of talks, the provinces made their support for constitutional reforms contingent on the inclusion of a 'notwithstanding clause.'(Bill Grimshaw/The Canadian Press) Indeed, at one point in the 1990s, the clause was so little used that some jurists wondered if it was, effectively, dead. Since then, however, it has been invoked occasionally. Fast forward to June 2019. Quebec's nationalist premier, François Legault, passes his government's flagship piece of legislation, a ban on religious symbols in large parts of the civil service. Muslim women, in particular, feel targeted. Civil rights groups accuse the government of discriminating against minorities. But in passing the Laicity Act, Legault invoked the notwithstanding clause, hoping to protect it from claims the ban violated rights now protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And if the law, cherished by Quebec's nationalists, is mostly still intact today, it is largely because of the notwithstanding clause — that bargain agreed to behind Lévesque's back. Legally violating rights, or saved by the clause On Tuesday, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled on the first set of constitutional challenges launched against the Laicity Act, widely known as Bill or Law 21. In a 240-page decision, Justice Marc-André Blanchard upheld most of the provisions that ban public employees such as teachers, police officers and prosecutors from wearing religious symbols at work. But at several points, Blanchard also says the law violates the basic rights of religious minorities in the province. "[Bill 21] brings about serious and negative consequences for all people who display religious symbols in public," he writes at one point. WATCH | A Sikh teacher reacts to the ruling: Elsewhere he notes, "the evidence undoubtedly shows that the effects of Law 21 will be felt negatively above all by Muslim women," adding that it violates both their religious freedom and freedom of expression. The notwithstanding clause, however, prevents the plaintiffs from appealing to those charter rights that protect religious freedom, freedom of expression or gender equality. As Blanchard explains, it doesn't matter what rights are overridden by the clause. All that matters is that proper procedure is followed when invoking it, which Quebec did. Among supporters of the law, there was a sense that had it not been for the clause, the ban on religious symbols would have been declared unconstitutional. "Thanks to the notwithstanding clause, it's the choice of legislator that won out. It's a victory for the notwithstanding clause," said Guillaume Rousseau, a law professor who advised the government on the legislation and represented a pro-secularism group at the trial. The one, albeit significant, set-back for the pro-Bill 21 side was Blanchard's decision to exempt English schools from the religious symbols ban, citing their minority language education rights. Those rights, Section 23 in the charter, can't be overridden by the notwithstanding clause. Law at 'all costs' Blanchard deferred to legal precedent in his interpretation of what the notwithstanding clause permits. But he also underscored, at length, his reservations about how the Quebec government used it in this case. In the past, the notwithstanding clause has usually been invoked in cases where a provincial legislature disagreed with a court decision, and a limited number of charter rights were overridden. Bill 21, however, invoked the clause preemptively, meaning a court is blocked from first determining if a basic rights violation has occurred. And the law also contains a blanket suspension of all rights in Sections Two and Seven to 15 in the charter, even those rights that have nothing to do with secularism. Blanchard calls this "troubling," pointing out the law suspends things like the right to an attorney and attorney-client privilege. In seeking to ensure the law applies at "all costs," the government displayed an "indifference toward the rights and liberties of those affected," he said. Some readers of the decision were left feeling that Blanchard exposed, whether deliberately or not, the far-reaching consequences of the notwithstanding clause. In passing the Laicity Act, Premier François Legault invoked the notwithstanding clause, hoping to protect it from claims the ban violated rights now protected by the charter.(Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) "He seems to invite … closing some of the holes that he points to in his decision," said Louis-Philippe Lampron, a professor of constitutional law at the Université Laval. Robert Leckey, a constitutional expert and dean of the McGill law faculty, said the decision highlights the fragility of minority rights in Canada when "a legislature doesn't have the instinct to check its power." He said adding limits to the use of the notwithstanding clause wouldn't necessarily require a constitutional amendment. Courts could, for example, be more willing to issue injunctions against laws that use the notwithstanding clause too broadly. But altering the scope of the notwithstanding clause would endanger that bargain at the heart of the constitutional compromise struck in 1981, said Patrick Taillon, a law professor at Université Laval who testified for the Quebec government at the Bill 21 trial. At its core, that bargain was about giving elected legislators — not judges — the final say over how society should be governed. "We might be in an era when public trust in politicians is eroding. But what's the alternative? The judge is always right in all circumstances," Taillon said. "We have to think twice about that."

  • Police kill Ma'Khia Bryant, 16, who attacked 2 with knife

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — The fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, a Black teenager seen on video charging at two people with a knife, came within minutes of the verdict in George Floyd’s killing — causing outrage by some over the continued use of lethal force by Columbus police. Officials with the Columbus Division of Police released initial footage of the shooting Tuesday night just hours after it happened, a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recent high-profile police killings that have led to clashes. Body camera footage from the other officers on the scene was released during a briefing with city officials on Wednesday. Bryant was identified by Franklin County Children Services and police to be 16 years old and in foster care at the time of her death. “It’s a tragedy. There’s no other way to say it. It’s a 16-year-old. I’m a father,” Interim Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods told reporters Wednesday. “Her family is grieving. Regardless of the circumstances associated with this, a 16-year-old lost her life yesterday.” He added, “I sure as hell wish it wouldn’t have happened.” The killing has caused an outcry in the community and nationwide as Bryant's killing is the second high-profile fatal shooting of a teenager by police in the last month. Body camera footage released last week showed an officer shoot and kill 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the Columbus shooting “tragic” and said President Joe Biden has been briefed on it. “She was a child. We’re thinking of her friends and family and the communities that are hurting and grieving her loss,” Psaki said in a statement. She added that the White House’s focus is “to address systemic racism and implicit bias head on” by passing legislation on “much-needed” police reforms. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also watched the footage of Bryant's killing, calling it a tragedy. “Any time anyone is killed, it’s a tragedy. Any time a teenager, a child, is killed, it’s a horrible tragedy," the Republican governor said during a briefing. He added that while the public has the video evidence, “we need to let the investigation play out.” The 10-second body camera clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after some had called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Woods said. It remains unclear who called the police. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when Bryant starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down. Bryant then charges at another girl or woman, who is pinned against a car. From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and Bryant slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her. A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!” The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.” The race of the officer wasn't clear and he was taken off patrolling the streets for the time being. Bryant was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Police did not say if anyone else was injured. In the moments after the shooting, people living or visiting the street filmed as police roped off the area with yellow tape in front of the house where the shooting took place. A neighbour's video shows an officer performing CPR on the teenager while a man can be heard yelling, “You all just jumped out of the (expletive) car and shot her!” Neighbours stood in open doorways filming and behind cars shaking their heads, eyewitness footage showed. Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now reviewing the killing following an agreement with the city last summer for all police shootings to be handled by the independent investigators under Attorney General Dave Yost's office. While Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim Tuesday night, he defended the officer’s use of deadly force. “We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters. The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. It also took place less than 5 miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by another Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year. The officer in Hill's case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder, with the next hearing scheduled for April 28. Less than three weeks before Hill was killed, a Franklin County Sheriff's deputy fatally shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation. Last week, Columbus police shot and killed a man who was in a hospital emergency room with a gun on him. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting. On Wednesday, DeWine detailed upcoming legislation to boost police accountability in the state and overhaul policing. The effort was initially introduced in another form with Attorney General Yost in the days after Floyd's killing. The new bill, to be introduced by GOP State Rep. Phil Plummer, of Dayton, would, among other things, establish an oversight board for law enforcement in the state. DeWine said the goal of the legislation is to increase transparency in the profession. ___ Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Farnoush Amiri And Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Associated Press

  • Reigning Mrs World resigns weeks after pageant controversy

    The reigning Mrs World, Caroline Jurie, has resigned her title, the organisation running the pageant said late on Tuesday, weeks after she was involved in a controversy at the Mrs Sri Lanka event. Jurie was arrested and released on bail this month after a fracas at the Mrs Sri Lanka pageant in Colombo, where Jurie forcibly removed the winner's crown, claiming the other woman was a divorcee and not qualified to win the title. "Her voluntary resignation decision was made solely by Caroline herself," Mrs World Inc said late on Tuesday, in a news release on social media.

  • Nurse begs B.C. residents to take pandemic seriously after tear-filled night on COVID-19 unit

    A B.C. nurse is pleading with people to do a few "simple things" to get the pandemic under control after an emotionally crushing shift in the COVID-19 ward. Kendall Skuta, who works at Abbotsford Regional Hospital, posted a photo of herself sobbing to Instagram on Tuesday morning after what she described as a "particularly hard shift." She explained that she had just watched a patient die of COVID-19 not long after he was transferred out of the intensive care unit. She described watching the patient go into cardiac arrest and people running from all over the hospital to take turns doing CPR. "After his death was pronounced, we all stood there for a minute. Silent. Exhausted. Heartbroken. Lumps formed in our throats, tears filled our eyes. We looked at each other, trying to find the words — any words. There wasn't a thing anybody could say," she wrote. "The amount of death I've seen in the last year weighs on me every day." Skuta said she constantly asks herself when the B.C. public will begin taking the pandemic seriously. "Please, I'm begging you all. Stay home, wear a mask and get vaccinated if you're eligible. We are all exhausted, and I don't know how much more pain my heart can take," she wrote. Heartbroken by person's age In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday evening, Skuta said this death hit her harder than most. One reason is the patient's age — not yet 60 years old, and with no major underlying conditions. She said her parents are around the same age, and it breaks her heart to think of them getting sick and dying from the novel coronavirus. "A lot of people ... think everybody who's got COVID or is dying from COVID is old. He wasn't," Skuta said. She'd also thought the patient was out of danger once he was transferred from the ICU. It was a reminder that during this pandemic, even positive developments can quickly turn into bad news. Skuta said she felt compelled to go public with her experience after watching Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announce the extension of B.C.'s "circuit breaker" restrictions and hearing Premier John Horgan say restrictions on travel are coming later this week. "I feel like every time Dr. Henry comes on and announces things, people either argue it or they want something different or they just blatantly ignore the things that she's saying," Skuta said. "I just don't think people realize that the simple things she's asking for, like wearing a mask and staying home and not travelling if you don't need to, really will fix the problem. It's very simple, [they're] small things to ask, and I just wish more people would be able to see that."

  • NDP calls on Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to dire COVID-19 situation in Ontario

    NDP leader Jagmeet Singh repeated his call Wednesday for the prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act in Ontario to get the needed vaccines for the province as it continues to face a dire situation from the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Singh said he’s calling for a public welfare emergency to be declared in Ontario as hospitals are flooded with COVID-19 patients.

  • Recommended staking moratorium in Yukon land use planning areas misses the mark, critics say

    Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation's chief disagrees with a recommendation included in the Yukon Mineral Development Strategy that suggests staking moratoriums in land use planning areas should be capped at 20 per cent. Roberta Joseph said the recommendation doesn't go far enough, adding that too much staking in a given area runs the risk of prioritizing mining before land use plans are completed. "This recommendation is not really a balanced approach," she said. "There's no fairness in a plan that's already being dictated by all of the permits and licences that are being issued," she said, referring to the regional land use plan that's underway in the Dawson area. The mineral development strategy includes 95 recommendations that seek to balance environmental stewardship, First Nations rights and industrial development. In the coming years, the Yukon government is tasked with implementing recommendations that include streamlining land use planning, improving the royalty system and modernizing mining legislation. The strategy states that identifying staking prohibition areas at the start of land use planning will "reduce a major source of uncertainty for the industry and a significant concern for First Nations, non-governmental organizations and Yukoners in general." "A proactive approach will also provide economic stimulus by allowing exploration and development to proceed in areas that are deemed to have low sensitivity while regional land use planning is underway," it says. Panel member Math'ieya Alatini said the recommended 20 per cent staking moratorium seeks to target specific environmental, social and cultural attributes rather than institute a blanket ban. "It's that balancing piece again," she said. "It's really allowing the conversation to happen around what are no-go zones and what are sensitive areas that you really want to identify upfront, so that there's not this ambiguity." A day before the territorial election was called, the Yukon government announced that staking would be off-limits in about 12 per cent of land included in the Dawson planning area. Tombstone Territorial Park brings total staking withdrawals in the region up to 17 per cent, according to a Yukon government news release. Environmental groups question recommendation Randi Newton, the conservation manager with the Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the staking moratorium is too small to ensure mineral development doesn't predetermine the outcome of land use planning. "It makes much more sense to put a full withdrawal in place at the beginning of planning, so you're making sure you're protecting these areas that are ecologically and culturally valuable but that we just haven't mapped out yet," she said. Don Reid, a conservation zoologist with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, said region-wide staking moratoriums would give land use planning commissions a fair shake of completing their work. Staking needs to be reined in to prevent complicating land use planning down the line, he added. "It prejudices the future use of that staked land in favour of mining and results in the need to compensate the staker should a different choice be made for that land," Reid said. Opportunity to get things right: Chief Among the many recommendations the strategy outlines, one stands out for Joseph, in particular — revamping the quartz and placer acts. She says modernizing mining legislation presents an opportunity to address longstanding concerns. "I think that we need to be able to sit down and identify the most immediate issues at this time and move forward in working with the government," she said. Joseph said she's going to continue to review the strategy to ensure it aligns with Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin's final agreement.

  • Nevada inmate fighting execution seeks firing-squad option

    LAS VEGAS — A convicted killer who is fighting a possible June execution date that would make him the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years is calling for the state to consider the firing squad as an option, a rare method in the United States. Attorneys for Zane Michael Floyd say he does not want to die and are challenging the state plan to use a proposed three-drug lethal injection, which led to court challenges that twice delayed the execution of another convicted killer who later took his own life in prison. “This is not a delaying tactic,” Brad Levenson, a federal public defender representing Floyd, said Monday. But a challenge of the state execution protocol requires the defence to provide an alternative method, and Levenson said gunshots to the brain stem would be “the most humane way.” “Execution by firing squad ... causes a faster and less painful death than lethal injection,” the attorneys said in a court filing Friday. Nevada once allowed firing squads, but state law now requires the use of lethal injection in sentences of capital punishment. Three U.S. states — Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah — and the U.S. military allow capital punishment by gunfire. The last time that method was used in the United States was in Utah in 2010. Floyd's attorneys are asking a federal judge in Las Vegas to stop Floyd from being put to death until prison officials “devise a new procedure or procedures to carry out a lawful execution.” Levenson said he and attorney David Anthony are fighting multiple issues in state and federal courts, with the possibility that Floyd’s death could be set for the week of June 7. Prosecutors will seek an execution warrant at a state court hearing next month. The 45-year-old was convicted in 2000 of killing four people with a shotgun in a Las Vegas supermarket in 1999 and badly wounding a fifth person. Floyd appeared to exhaust his federal appeals last November, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear his case. Floyd wants a chance to seek clemency at a June 22 meeting of the Nevada State Pardons Board, Levenson said. Floyd's attorneys argue that a three-drug injection combination the state wants to use — the sedative diazepam, the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl and a paralytic, cisatracurium — would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of his constitutional rights. Anthony made similar arguments on behalf of Scott Raymond Dozier before Nevada's last scheduled execution was called off in 2017 and 2018. Dozier killed himself in prison in January 2019. A judge blocked the first date after deciding that use of the paralytic might cause painful suffocation while Dozier was aware but unable to move. Pharmaceutical companies that made the three drugs stopped the second date with arguments against using their products in an execution, an issue several states are facing. Floyd would be the first person executed in Nevada since 2006, when Daryl Mack asked to be put to death for his conviction in a 1988 rape and murder in Reno. Nevada has 65 inmates awaiting execution, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman said. ___ This story was first published on April 19, 2021. It was updated on April 21, 2021, to correct the number of Nevada inmates awaiting execution based on information from the Department of Corrections. There are 65 inmates, not 72. Ken Ritter, The Associated Press

  • Sask. RCMP charge 4 people in connection with 11-month North Battleford murder investigation

    RCMP have charged four people in connection with the murder of Damian Moosomin after an 11-month investigation. Moosomin, 20, was found dead in the backyard of a home in North Battleford on May 16, 2020, five days after he was reported missing. Tye Patridge of the Moosomin First Nation has been charged with first-degree murder. Jannay Blackbird of the Saulteaux First Nation is charged with second-degree murder. Stormy Wapass-Semaganis of Edmonton and Melissa Semaganis of the Sweetgrass First Nation are facing charges of accessory after the fact to a murder. Patridge, Blackbird and Semaganis are scheduled to appear in North Battleford Provincial Court on April 27. Wapass-Semaganis is scheduled to appear in North Battleford Provincial Court on April 28.

  • This Hamilton man stuck in hospital with COVID-19 is months behind on rent and car payments

    When Delio Delgado turns 51 on Wednesday, he'll be inside a Hamilton hospital battling COVID-19. "I was hoping that tomorrow would be a happier day," he said. But his birthday almost didn't come. Since mid-March, he's been fighting a virus that nearly killed him. And while he's on a long road to recovery now, when Delgado leaves the hospital, he'll have another uphill battle — the Dominican-born Hamiltonian is months behind on rent and car payments. "I'm not doing very well," Delgado said about his finances from his hospital bed during an interview on Tuesday morning. "I had to stop the lease of the car, I had to stop insuring the car ... I'm an industrial and residential painter ... my car gets me my income." Delio Delgado lives in a hotspot in Hamilton and wishes vaccines could have come sooner. Now, he's in the hospital with COVID-19 and will return home in debt.(Submitted by Delio Delgado ) And Delgado said his driver's license was suspended because he was unable to do a required physical exam, which he worries will jack up his insurance when he's ready to drive. But Delgado said he is thankful to be breathing, even if it doesn't come easy. From home to induced coma in a matter of days Delgado said he worked at Hamilton General Hospital as a painter during most of the pandemic, which allowed him to learn a lot about the virus and staying safe. He eventually stopped working there and was on unemployment insurance before his life changed in March. Delgado isn't sure how he got the virus, but he lives in one of Hamilton's hot spot neighbourhoods. His area, with the L8N postal code, was recently given vaccine priority. WATCH: Hamilton man describes emotional moments in ICU with COVID On March 13, after feeling a few symptoms he thought could be COVID-19, Delgado said he had uncontrollable diarrhea. That's when he said he decided to go to the emergency room at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Delgado said he was immediately given oxygen and put into the intensive care unit (ICU). "I got into ICU and it was like a hurricane, I got like four or five nurses around me and everyone is doing a different task, and I remember, 'What is his oxygen level? What is his oxygen level? He's not doing very well,' that's what I'm hearing," Delgado recalls. "I spent three or four days like that." Staff at Hamilton Health Sciences don personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.(Hamilton Health Sciences) While he was in the ICU, Delgado said he had a quiet moment with his doctor. "My doctor at the time, she stopped at the door of the ICU, it was all glass, she can see through ... I was just passing out almost and I put my hand on my heart and I tapped it like ... 'I appreciate what you're doing, saving my life,'" Delgado said, tearing up. "The beautiful thing, that gave me a smile on my heart, was she [pulled down] her mask and gave me a smile and she also tapped her heart back." Shortly after, Delgado entered an induced coma. He's unsure when he woke up, but Degaldo said he was on a ventilator and a liquid diet. Then he said doctors told him he'd be leaving the ICU and beginning his road to recovery. Delgado said his cousin came to visit him that day and said they heard on March 27 he only had half an hour to live. "Miraculously, I got out of the dark days," he said. Province should've rolled out vaccines sooner, Delgado says Now he's thinking about leaving the hospital — but he'll have to deal with those missed payments, which he said are roughly $1,250 a month. In Delgado's case, a group of friends and local artists started a fundraiser to help him avoid being overwhelmed with debt when he leaves. Ingrid Mayrhofer, one of his friends who started the GoFundMe page, said it's been four days and they've raised nearly $4,000 of their $5,000 goal. "He's the first person I actually know who was infected ... it's definitely hit home," she said. "I'm really grateful for how the arts community has come together in support of Delio." WATCH: Ford blames lack of vaccines for COVID-19 crisis, should he? Delgado said the Ford government needs to do more to help COVID-19 survivors avoid financial hardship. "I don't know what the measures could've been because everybody's situation is different ... I don't think they're doing the best job with this pandemic either," he said. One thing he wishes happened sooner was lowering the age limits for people to get doses of vaccines like AstraZeneca and reaching hot spot communities sooner. "We know this pandemic is affecting more marginalized and people of colour than any other demographic," he said Tuesday. "Everything should've happened sooner." Family, painting and religion fuel for recovery Delgado said he became religious because of his time in the ICU. After he's back home, Delgado said he wants to spend time with his mother, who plans on coming from the Dominican Republic. He also said he's excited to see his American bulldog, Useey, his 10-year-old son, Samuel, and start painting again. "That's my fuel," Delgado said.

  • Spain: Parted couple overcome pain of pandemic through glass

    BARCELONA, Spain — Since the coronavirus pandemic struck Spain, a glass pane has separated Xavier Antó and Carmen Panzano for the first prolonged period of the couple’s 65-year marriage. Antó, age 90, appears three or four times a week at the street-level window that looks into the Barcelona nursing home where his 92-year-old wife lives, which closed to visitors more than a year ago to protect residents from COVID-19. Employees from the home provide him with a chair and bring Panzano to the other side of the window. Antó shows her photos of their grandchildren on his phone to try to counteract the effects of her Alzheimer’s disease. Both have vaccines against the coronavirus, but Spain’s nursing homes still are under tight controls after tens of thousands of the country’s oldest adults died in senior care facilities during the early months of the pandemic. The couple met in 1953 and got married in 1955. Except for a spell early in their marriage when he worked away from home, they always were together. “We had never been apart,” Antó told The Associated Press. “Last March, the home’s director told me that when I left I wouldn’t be able to come back because the local authorities had established some very strict protocols,” At first, workers at the home made video calls on a tablet two or three times a week so he and Panzano could see each other, he said. “Then they set up a booth with a transparent divider, but I prefer this window because with the booth you were limited to a certain day, and then only had half an hour,” Antó recalled. “I come to the window since in the booth there is also a screen between you, and I can’t touch her or give her a kiss anyway.” When he comes to visit, the wife and husband put their hands on the glass and blow each other kisses. Although they cannot hear each other speak, at least they don’t worry about how much time they have to share. When he cannot come, a home assistant who worked for the couple for over 20 years comes in his place. “She is like a daughter to us,” Antó said. “I come as often as I can and will keep doing so as long as my body allows me,” he said. “If I were the sick one, she would do the same thing for me, and then some.” ___ AP writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report. ___ Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Emilio Morenatti, The Associated Press

  • Hungary's government spars with mayor over homeless hospital

    BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary's right-wing government and the liberal leadership of the country's capital city are absorbed in a conflict over a hospital for the homeless that may soon be forced to close its doors. The hospital provides medical care, social services and shelter to more than 1,000 people annually. Equipped with nearly 75 beds, state of the art facilities, a temporary hostel and outpatient treatment, it is the only such hospital in Budapest, which suffers from a high rate of homelessness. Yet the Hungarian government has ordered the Budapest Methodological Center of Social Policy, which runs the city-funded hospital, to vacate the state-owned building the facility occupies, creating uncertainty for the hundreds of people receiving treatment there and a clash with the capital's liberal mayor. “If there is no alternative site, we are not moving out. They can send the police after us, they can pull us out by force, but we’re not leaving on our own,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony told The Associated Press. Karacsony, an outspoken opponent of Hungary's central government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, says he spent months asking government officials to allow the hospital either to remain in place or to relocate to another suitable building. The office of Andrea Mager, Hungary's minister without portfolio for the development of public assets, told the AP that an unspecified health care institute will be moved into the property, and that Budapest's government “has known for nearly a year that the building...will be renovated, (but) has not taken any substantive steps to relocate” the hospital. After extending the deadline, the government now says the hospital has until June 30 to relocate. Dr. Franciska Csortos, the head of inpatient care at the hospital, says that Hungary’s public health authority requires homeless patients needing chronic care to be treated at approved facilities that can provided specialized medical attention. But the only other such facility in Budapest is full, she said, meaning her 75 patients and over 150 people staying at the facility's temporary hostel would have nowhere else to go if the hospital has to vacate the building. “(The patients) are in such a condition that they absolutely require hospital care. We cannot release them into temporary shelters,” Csortos said. With Hungary's healthcare system already overburdened by the nearly 9,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19, allowing homeless patients to be returned to the street could have fatal consequences, Karacsony said. "We will simply not leave these people on their own. We would not be sending them to the street, but to their deaths,” the mayor said. Hungary’s government has long taken a hard-line approach to homelessness. After courts struck down two laws that banned sleeping rough, the ruling Fidesz party used its two-thirds majority in parliament to pass a constitutional amendment in 2018 that criminalized “habitual residence in a public space.” Police can issue citations to unhoused people and require them to perform community service. Someone found sleeping in a public place three times can be imprisoned. Dora Papadopulosz, a spokesperson for the From Streets to Homes Association, a Budapest-based housing rights organization, said the decision to evict the hospital is part of a trend of anti-homeless policies enacted by Orban's government that in her view reflect a social agenda that favours the middle and upper classes while ignoring the needs of the poor. “If people in the government think it’s fair to bring homeless people to jail, then we shouldn’t be surprised that they simply don’t care about the most vulnerable people in society,” Papadopulosz said. In a 2020 report, housing non-profit Habitat For Humanity estimated that some 3 million people in Hungary suffer from housing poverty, defined as people with debts who have difficulty affording monthly rent, people who live in overcrowded or very poor quality apartments, or those who struggle to pay household bills. Some estimates place the number of homeless in the country at 30,000. Adding to the strain, rent prices in Hungary increased by 60% between 2007 and 2019, but salaries have not kept pace, according to Eurostat, the official statistical office of the European Union. Andrea Toth, who is being treated at the evicted hospital, said she and other patients are uncertain of where they will go if the facility must relocate, but she trusts the mayor will make sure they are sheltered. “We don’t know what the end result will be. All we know is that no one will go out on the street. Gergely Karacsony said that himself," Toth said. "The government didn’t promise anything. Their motto should be, ‘Live and let live.’” Justin Spike, The Associated Press