In The News is a summary of articles from The Canadian Press designed to start your day off right. Here’s what’s on our editors’ radar for the morning of June 18 …

What we watch in Canada …

OTTAWA – A parliamentary committee has called for a freeze on all promotions and salary increases for senior military personnel until they can be reviewed for past incidents of inappropriate behavior.

The request is one of many requests from the House of Commons Committee on the Status of Women, which recently completed a months-long study into military sexual misconduct triggered by allegations against several senior commanders.

Committee members also called for the creation of an independent office that would investigate and report on the military, and that the RCMP investigate allegations of sexual misconduct when there are concerns about possible interference from the military. chain of command.

The committee was one of two panels examining military misconduct, with the defense committee investigating the government’s handling of allegations involving former defense chief Jonathan Vance and his successor, Admiral Art McDonald.

His report coincides with an independent review launched by former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor, who will spend the next year making recommendations with the same goal: to end military sexual misconduct.

He also intervened after a House of Commons motion, introduced by the Conservatives, passed by 169-151 on Thursday evening, expressing the opposition’s disappointment with Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan.

Sajjan has come under heavy criticism since former military ombudsman Gary Walbourne revealed he first reported to the minister an allegation of sexual misconduct involving then defense chief Jonathan Vance , to the Minister in March 2018.

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Also this …

OTTAWA – The National Immunization Advisory Committee said on Thursday that people who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as their first dose should be given Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna for their second injection.

On June 1, NACI said AstraZeneca beneficiaries “could” get Pfizer or Moderna for their second injection if they wanted, but Thursday went further by saying an mRNA vaccine was the “preferred choice.” “.

“Since the NACI first looked at mixed vaccination schedules, new evidence is starting to emerge suggesting that immune responses are better when a first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine is followed by an mRNA vaccine as the second dose. Said NACI Vice-President Dr. Shelley Deeks. , in the new guidance documents.

NACI also updated its previous recommendation that people at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 or severe illness from it could opt for AstraZeneca rather than wait for Pfizer or Moderna. Now NACI says everyone should always get mRNA vaccines first, unless they’re allergic to them.

Deeks said the advice was based on the growing supply from Pfizer and Moderna and the risk of vaccine-induced blood clots in combination with AstraZeneca. But she still tries to reassure people who have received one or two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that they are nevertheless well protected.

“Anyone who has ever received two doses of AstraZeneca / Covishield can rest assured that they are protected, especially against serious illness,” she said. “There is no need for a third dose at this time.”

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said new evidence supporting mixing different types of vaccines included four studies in Germany.

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What we watch in the United States …

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has dismissed a third major challenge against ‘Obamacare’, preserving health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

Although the court has become increasingly conservative with judges appointed by former President Donald Trump, it nonetheless left the entire law intact on Thursday. The court ruled 7-2 that Texas, other Republican-led states, and two individuals did not have the right to sue in federal court.

The main provisions of the law include protections for people with pre-existing health problems, a range of free preventive services and the extension of the Medicaid program which insures people with low incomes, including those in low-paying jobs or provide health insurance.

The Biden administration says 31 million people have health insurance because of the law, which also survived two previous challenges to the Supreme Court.

“The affordable care law remains the law of the land,” said President Joe Biden, celebrating the decision and calling for building on the law that was enacted in 2010 when he was vice president.

There also remains in place the now toothless requirement in the law that people have health insurance or pay a penalty. Congress made this provision moot in 2017 when it reduced the penalty to zero.

Eliminating the penalty had become the hook that Texas and other GOP-led states, as well as the Trump administration, used to attack the law as a whole. They argued that without the mandate, a pillar of the law when it is passed, the rest of the law should also fall.

And with a Supreme Court that includes three people appointed by former President Donald Trump, opponents of “Obamacare” hoped that a majority of judges would finally kill the law they have been fighting for more than a decade.

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What we watch in the rest of the world …

LONDON – The latest wave of coronavirus infections in the UK is accelerating.

New confirmed cases topped 10,000 for the first time in nearly four months due to the spread of the more contagious delta variant. Government figures on Thursday showed a further 11,007 cases were reported, the highest daily number since February 19.

The development has cemented the rhetoric that the country with the highest number of virus-related deaths in Europe is in the midst of a third wave of the pandemic.

Professor Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, said the extent of the current outbreak was “still uncertain”, but that it “would certainly result in more hospitalizations and, unfortunately, that will undoubtedly result in by new deaths “.

Daily cases have risen quite sharply in recent weeks after fluctuating around the 2,000 mark earlier. The delta variant, which was first identified in India and is considered by government scientists to be between 40 and 80% more transmissible than the previous dominant strain, accounts for around 95% of all new cases in the UK .

Most of the new confirmed cases are from younger age groups, who have not yet received COVID-19 vaccines. The widely hailed UK vaccine rollout is being extended to all adults over 18 from Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed.

The spread of the variant has upset the government plans to lift all remaining restrictions on social contact in England from next week. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday delayed the decision until July 19, saying it was now “time to let go of the accelerator” so more people can get vaccinated and prevent thousands more deaths.

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On this day in 1985 …

An election in Ontario ended 42 years of Conservative rule in the province. David Peterson’s Liberals came to power through an alliance with the New Democrats.

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In entertainment …

VANCOUVER – An Indigenous-owned and operated production company has purchased the option of Joshua Whitehead’s famous debut novel, “Jonny Appleseed,” for the screen.

Stories First, a Vancouver-based company, claims to have purchased the rights to the coming-of-age story from Indicator.

Published by Arsenal Pulp Press, “Jonny Appleseed” follows a two-spirit young man who leaves the reserve to make his way into the big city.

The 2018 title was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Award, and won a Lambda Literary Award. The book also won CBC’s Canada Reads competition earlier this year.

Whitehead, a doctoral student at the University of Calgary and a member of the Peguis First Nation, says he’s “ready for this crazy adventure”.

“Jonny is already such a lively parent to me, and so many people loved and cared for him on the page,” Whitehead said in a press release.

“I can’t express how delighted I am that it’s potentially animated onscreen as well.”

Writer oji-nehiyaw wrote the 2017 collection of poetry “full-metal indigiqueer” and his next book “Making Love with the Land” is expected to be published by Knopf Canada.

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ICYMI …

OTTAWA – The judge who is about to be the first person of color to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada says he experienced discrimination “as a fact of life” while growing up.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday appointed Mahmud Jamal, a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, to the highest court to replace retired member Rosalie Abella.

Born in 1967 in Nairobi, Kenya, to a family from India, Jamal moved two years later to Britain.

In a questionnaire submitted as part of his Supreme Court application, Jamal said that because he attended Anglican schools, he received a hybrid religious and cultural education.

“I was brought up in school as a Christian, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and absorbing Church of England values, and at home as a Muslim, memorizing the Arabic prayers from the Quran and living in within the Ismaili community, ”Jamal wrote.

“Like many others, I have experienced discrimination as a fact of everyday life. Child and young, I have been taunted and harassed because of my name, my religion or the color of my skin.”

In 1981, Jamal’s family moved to Canada, settling in Edmonton where he completed his high school education.

Jamal was the first in his family to attend university, spending a year at the London School of Economics before earning a degree in economics from the University of Toronto. He then studied law at McGill University in Montreal and at Yale Law School in the United States.

Members of the House of Commons justice committee and the Senate legal committee, as well as a member of the federal Green Party, will soon participate in a question-and-answer session with Jamal.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 18, 2021.

The Canadian Press