Maintaining COVID restrictions, tax cheats by the super rich: In The News for June 22

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of June 22 …

What we are watching in Canada …

A new poll suggests about two-thirds of Canadians believe that governments should not lift all restrictions related to COVID-19.

Sixty-nine per cent of respondents to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies say restrictions should stay in place as people continue to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus. 

Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque says Canadians are still fairly prudent and careful as they wait until the end of the vaccination campaign, or at least until governments say that they’ve reached all their vaccination targets.

He says the pandemic has impacted the wellness of many Canadians as they have been exercising less, gaining weight, drinking more alcohol and smoking more cannabis. 

The survey found that 63 per cent of respondents say their mental health has been bad since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Thirty-six per cent of respondents said their level of exercise has decreased, 39 per cent say they have gained more weight, 16 per cent say they have drunk more booze and nine per cent say they have smoked more pot since the beginning of the pandemic.

Those who gained weight say they have gained 16 pounds on average. 

Respondents who drank more alcohol since the pandemic started say they have drunk 6.3 more servings per week, and those who smoked more cannabis says they smoked on average 5.6 times more per week. 

The poll also suggested that six per cent of Canadians have been spending more money on online gambling including gambling on sports and casino games. 

Those who spent more on gambling say they spent on average an additional $74.8 on gambling per week.  

“It’s not that there’s many more that gamble compared to before, but those who gamble more actually have increased their spending quite significantly,” Bourque said.

At the same time, the survey found 59 per cent of respondents say they feel optimistic about the next year in Canada.

“Optimism tends to be higher among younger Canadians, and among those who live in larger urban areas, so probably a bit more affluent youth are looking forward to getting out there, being more social again,” Bourque said.

“Canadians, anyway, seem to be opting for a more gradual, careful, prudent approach to getting out there and enjoying some of the things that they used to enjoy prior to the pandemic period.”

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Also this …

Data from the Canada Revenue Agency shows its recent efforts to combat tax evasion by the super-rich have resulted in zero prosecutions or convictions.

In response to a question tabled in Parliament by New Democrat MP Matthew Green, the C-R-A says it referred 44 cases on individuals whose net worth topped 50-million dollars to its criminal investigations program since 2015, but only two of those cases proceeded to federal prosecutors, with no charges laid afterward.

The lack of prosecutions comes despite more than 67-hundred audits of ultra-wealthy Canadians over the past six years and a major ramp-up in spending on the agency’s high-net-worth compliance program.

Green says federal authorities avoid pursuing Canada’s biggest tax cheats but go after small business owners who don’t pay their taxes, amounting to what he calls a two-tiered system with loopholes for the ultra-wealthy.

Denis Meunier, former deputy director of Canada’s financial intelligence centre, says the dearth of criminal charges is striking, but notes that authorities may lack the resources to carry out pricey, painstaking prosecutions across international borders and can opt instead for hefty non-criminal penalties.

The Liberal budget in April allotted 2.1-million dollars for a new beneficial ownership registry by 2025 that experts say could be a “game changer” in pulling back the curtain on shell companies and wealth stashed abroad in tax havens.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

The U.S. is reaching a pair of encouraging milestones as the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the nation continues to loosen. 

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the outbreak’s early days in March 2020. Meanwhile, nearly 150 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer. 

Now, however, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that more Americans are dying every day from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer’s disease than COVID-19.

The U.S. death toll stands at more than 600,000, while the worldwide count is close to 3.9 million, though the real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.

About 45 per cent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Over 53 per cent of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine. But U.S. demand for shots has slumped, to the disappointment of public health experts.

Dr. Ana Diez Roux, dean of Drexel University’s school of public health, said the dropping rates of infections and deaths are cause for celebration. But she cautioned that the virus still has a chance to spread and mutate given the low vaccination rates in some states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Wyoming and Idaho.

“So far it looks like the vaccines we have are effective against the variants that are circulating,” Diez Roux said. “But the more time the virus is jumping from person to person, the more time there is for variants to develop, and some of those could be more dangerous.”

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president-elect says he’s not willing to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden or negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional militias. 

Ebrahim Raisi stuck to his hard-line position on key issues at his first news conference Monday after a landslide election victory last week. 

The United States, which is trying to resurrect Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, had hoped to eventually negotiate a stronger deal that addresses America’s other concerns about Tehran. 

Top diplomats, meanwhile, reported progress at talks Sunday in Vienna as they try to restore the accord, which was abandoned in 2018 by the Trump administration.

The news conference in Tehran also marked the first time the judiciary chief found himself confronted on live television about his role in the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Raisi offered no specific response to that dark chapter in Iranian history, but appeared confident and defiant as he described himself as a “defender of human rights.”

Behind a sea of microphones, mostly from media in Iran and countries home to Tehran-backed militias, Raisi took questions ranging from his views on the nuclear talks to relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia. 

The 60-year-old cleric, a protégé of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, swept nearly 62 per cent of the 28.9 million votes in Friday’s presidential election, which saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. 

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On this day in  1960 …

The Liberals won their first Quebec election in 16 years, defeating the Union Nationale and ushering in what became known as The Quiet Revolution under Premier Jean Lesage.

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In entertainment …

NEW YORK — Steven Spielberg, a filmmaker synonymous with big-screen enchantment, has set a new deal with Netflix in which his production company, Amblin Partners, will make multiple feature films per year for the streaming giant. 

The partnership announced Monday is a major get for the company that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold. 

The deal doesn’t specifically include any movies to be directed by Spielberg.

 In December, he’ll release his “West Side Story” in theatres. Amblin, which takes its name from a 1968 short by Spielberg, has helped produce a wide variety of non-Spielberg films, including “1917” and “Green Book.”

The partnership, one long courted by Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, is a major get for the company that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold.

“At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the centre of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started discussing a partnership, it was abundantly clear that we had an amazing opportunity to tell new stories together and reach audiences in new ways,” Spielberg said in a statement.

Amblin, which takes its name from a 1968 short by Spielberg, has helped produce a wide variety of films outside of those made my Spielberg, including “1917” and “Green Book.” The two companies have previously worked together on TV series and the Aaron Sorkin movie “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a film co-produced by Amblin that was sold by Paramount Pictures to Netflix during the pandemic.

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ICYMI …

HONOLULU —Dozens of baby squid from Hawaii are in space for study. 

The baby Hawaiian bobtail squid were raised at the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory. They were sent into space earlier this month on a SpaceX resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Researcher Jamie Foster is studying how spaceflight affects the squid in hopes of bolstering human health during long space missions. 

The squid have a symbiotic relationship with natural bacteria that help regulate their bioluminescence. 

When astronauts are in low gravity their body’s relationship with microbes changes, said University of Hawaii professor Margaret McFall-Ngai, who Foster studied under in the 1990s.

“We have found that the symbiosis of humans with their microbes is perturbed in microgravity, and Jamie has shown that is true in squid,” said McFall-Ngai. “And, because it’s a simple system, she can get to the bottom of what’s going wrong.”

Foster is now a Florida professor and principal investigator for a NASA program that researches how microgravity affects the interactions between animals and microbes.

“As astronauts spend more and more time in space, their immune systems become what’s called dysregulated. It doesn’t function as well,” Foster said. “Their immune systems don’t recognize bacteria as easily. They sometimes get sick.”

Foster said understanding what happens to the squid in space could help solve health problems that astronauts face.

The squid will come back to Earth in July.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2021

The Canadian Press