Ontario News

TORONTO — Ontario's explanation that ongoing tests are delaying the launch of its vaccine-booking web portal doesn't carry water for experts, who said Thursday that the province should have begun those trials months ago.

MONTREAL — As Quebec began booking appointments Thursday for its expanded COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the province's health minister said he's in favour of vaccine passports for those who have been fully inoculated.

TORONTO — Proposed changes to Ontario's election laws introduced Thursday by the Progressive Conservatives were slammed by the Opposition as an attempt to silence critics amid mounting failures in the province's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TORONTO — More infectious COVID-19 variants will likely make up 40 per cent of new cases in Ontario by mid-March, an expert group said Thursday, calling it a "minefield" the province will need to navigate very carefully.

TORONTO — Eight schools in Toronto now have at least one case of a more contagious COVID-19 variant. In a letter to parents, Toronto Public Health says the discovery is not unexpected as the variants are known to be spreading across Ontario.

TORONTO — Ontario had no updated plan for dealing with a pandemic when COVID-19 began cutting a deadly swath through the province last spring, a public commission was told.

TORONTO — Ontario's Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation Thursday that would reform the province's election laws.

TORONTO — Ontarians can't yet access an online system for booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments because the province wants to ensure it won't crash when it's launched.

HAMILTON — Police say they've arrested and charged a 39-year-old man accused of stabbing two female co-workers at a workplace in Hamilton. Maple Leaf Foods says the incident took place at its facility in the city.

A fourth provincial police officer has been charged in a two-year long probe into alleged crimes in the tow-truck industry. Ontario Provincial Police say 62-year-old Insp. Steve Grosjean with the force's highway safety division in Mississauga, Ont.