Ontario

Canadians will get a double-barrelled blast of grim news today, April 9, 2020: the first jobless numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered businesses from coast to coast as well as the first national picture of how bad the crisis could get and how long it could last.

Canada's confirmed cases of COVID-19 surged past 19,000 on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, with more than 500 deaths ascribed to the raging global pandemic as Quebec became the province with the most fatalities attributed to the disease.

Children with special needs face specific challenges as Ontario schools launch online back-to-school learning. So do their parents, who are now being asked to take on roles as teachers and personal support workers where school once offered respite.

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to grow in Canada, different provinces and cities have set up different rules meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

Data experts are cautioning already on-edge Canadians against taking Ontario's dire predictions about COVID-19 deaths literally, even as the revelation of stark data coincided with more physical distancing measures and impassioned pleas by government and health officials to stay home.

The Region of Peel in Ontario is apologizing after it "accidentally" mailed letters to 16 residents saying their COVID-19 test results were negative when, in fact, they were positive.

Police forces in Canada are getting extra powers, more flexibility and even help from citizens reporting on one another as governments seek to enforce decrees aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be updating Canadians again today, March 22, 2020, on the latest measures being taken to try to protect the country against the steadily escalating COVID-19 threat.

As just one example of how the virus is already impacting local flood preparedness activities, the community centre near Ottawa that became a staging ground for the regional flood response last year and was toured by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, closed on March 16 due to COVID-19 and moved its flood preparedness meeting online.

While Canada's response to the COVID-19 outbreak has taken off drastically in the last week, some have found it lopsided across the country.

Ontario is struggling to deal with a surge in people seeking COVID-19 testing that has pushed wait times for laboratory results out to four days, which the province’s health minister called unacceptable on Wednesday.

Some legal experts are warning that the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on the Canadian justice system.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in the province on Tuesday in a bid to combat the spread of COVID-19. Hours later, Ontario’s first presumptive COVID-19 death was reported.

The Supreme Court of Canada has postponed until at least June hearing a constitutional challenge of the federal government's carbon tax.

Ontario’s energy ministry and the premier won’t say whether the government will push utilities to drop peak electricity rates for the next three weeks of extended school break, when daytime residential usage is expected to spike, despite holding a surplus of funds for rebates.