Investigations

Under a winter’s snow cover on the outskirts of Quebec City, a high-tech greenhouse, set at a balmy 23 C, is growing row after row of a weed that could help end the coronavirus pandemic. It’s called Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant, native to Australia, and it …

Cathy Girard says living in a long-term care home where people have COVID-19 is terrifying. “It’s terrifying to everybody,” said the resident of Pioneer Village in Regina, who told Global News she had requested special permission to come outdoors to do a masked and distanced interview on Wednesday. Read …

The oil and gas industry has left two inactive wells on Verna Phippen’s farmland in central Alberta. She has been waiting for years for someone to decontaminate one of the sites. It changed hands several times, she explained, and no one has confirmed whether the reclamation work was completed. “It …

Mixed messaging, confusion and unclear processes led to days of delay for critical asymptomatic testing to be arranged and deployed at Alberta continuing care homes with an outbreak. Premier Jason Kenney announced the asymptomatic testing for residents and staff of these facilities on April 17. At the time, he said …

Midway into November and well into the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, health experts are increasingly worried about public mistrust over vaccines, and by the lack of a clear communication strategy to address the many questions being asked by Canadians about a vaccine for COVID-19. Karyn Methven, a …

A new program to train desperately needed medical lab workers amid a growing backlog of COVID-19 tests is being rolled out at The Michener Institute in downtown Toronto, Global News has learned. The program will prepare up to 600 lab workers in a condensed, intensive two-day course online followed …

When someone tests positive for COVID-19, a contact tracer is assigned to their case by the local public health authority. They ask questions to get an idea of who the infected person has been around. “They really do try and get a really detailed history of where you’ve been, …

It has been more than two months since the Canadian government launched COVID Alert, Canada’s novel coronavirus exposure app, but federal data obtained by Global News shows less than 10 per cent of Canadian smartphone owners are using the voluntary app. Data from Health Canada also shows that more …

Lisa Bibb tears up thinking of her migrant staff as she stands in the middle of dozens of rows of apples — what her usual workers from Mexico would be tending to right now if they were on her farm. For the past couple of years, she and her family, …

As part of its back-to-school policy, Alberta’s UCP government recently announced students would have to wear masks. As a result, the government is buying 1.7-million reusable masks for children, the vast majority of which will be made outside of Canada. The provincial government normally has to put out a request …