Hamilton’s public school board is seeing early signs that more secondary students are struggling to pass their first-term courses amid COVID modifications that have them attend school in the morning and shift to online learning in the afternoon.

The latest annual Student Learning and Achievement Report shows the course failure rate on Nov. 16 midterm report cards jumped to 16.4 per cent, up from 9.5 per cent last year.

GUEST: Peter Sovran, Associate Director for Learning Services at the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board

Additional local restrictions put in place by Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, began today for malls and workplaces. Those rules include reduced capacity and limits at shopping malls and stores, screening questions outside workplaces, posting capacity limits based on physical distancing requirements, and designating a manager to develop and monitor a safety plan.

ALSO: London and Middlesex saw 39 new coronavirus cases along with 16 recoveries on Sunday, according to the Middlesex-London Health Unit. This comes as the region prepares to shift to the orange-restrict level of Ontario’s colour-coded COVID-19 Response Framework starting. 

GUEST: Dr. Alon Vaisman, Infectious Disease Specialist, University Health Network

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With first ministers set to meet this week to discuss health care funding and COVID-19 efforts, including vaccine distribution and logistics, the Ontario Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is calling for a more coordinated strategy to ensure that health professionals are ready to administer vaccines when they arrive in Canada. The OPA is also calling for a federal commitment to provide the necessary funding and resources to assist provinces and territories to cover the costs associated with the administration of vaccines by health professionals.

GUEST: Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacist Association

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The Ford government proactively inspected 11 — or less than two per cent — of the province’s 651 long-term care homes from March 1 until October 15 this year, the province’s commission said in a report Friday. 

The government’s 2018 decision to cut proactive inspections meant issues with infection prevention and personal protective equipment (PPE) weren’t identified ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, the commission said. 70% of all COVID19 deaths in Ontario have been in LTC.

Yet, not one person on the newly announced vaccine distribution task force is an LTC physician, nurse practitioner, or nurse - the very people who vaccinate LTC residents.

GUEST: Dr. Amit Arya, palliative care physician and joint faculty member with both McMaster University and the University of Toronto

It's time for Tech Talk with Adam Oldfield!

Ontario car thieves zeroed in on certain Lexus, Honda and Toyota vehicles as their preferred targets in 2020, according to a new Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) study.

GUEST: Bryan Gast, National Director of the Investigative Services Division with the Insurance Bureau of Canada

Ontario is providing additional financial support for young learners and funding to enhance safety and protection in schools. ALSO: Parents welcome asymptomatic COVID-19 tests in schools, even if the news isn't always good. 

GUEST: Stephen Lecce, Education Minister

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A judicial inquiry into the slippery Red Hill Valley Parkway will likely cost more than the $7 million budgeted by the city, say Hamilton’s lawyers.

City council voted in March 2019 to ask a Superior Court judge to probe the circumstances behind the discovery of a troubling safety report on the collision-prone parkway that had somehow been hidden for five years. A prior Spectator investigation showed twice as many crashes on the Red Hill compared to the Linc over five years.

The city originally set aside $7 million from its tax stabilization reserve for the judicial investigation, which is supposed to include public hearings next spring.

GUEST: Lloyd Ferguson. City Councillor, Ward 12, City of Hamilton.

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It was inevitable that the federal government's handling of COVID-19 vaccines would become political. Politics has shaped public perceptions of the pandemic's severity since it began.

But now the vaccines themselves are becoming politically polarized, with divisions emerging between those who want them and those who don't.

GUEST: Dave Scholz,  Executive VP of Leger

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A major step is being taken toward the development of a film studio near Hamilton’s west harbour. Aeon Studio Group (Aeon) has confirmed the purchase of an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing building on Queen Street North, which will open Feb. 1 as Aeon Bayfront Studios.

GUEST:  Mike Bruce, Partner at Aeon Studio Group