Premier Doug Ford lost his composure Wednesday over Ontario’s lack of widespread testing for COVID-19. “What is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable, is the number of testing we’re doing,” Ford said at his now-daily press conference in Toronto. “I may not understand health, but ... what I understand are numbers. And we also understand countries that have tested and ramped up testing have shown results.” Ontario’s labs are processing about 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day even though they have...

After waiting nine months for a hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board, Joseph was supposed to find out his fate on Friday. Instead, he found out in late March that his hearing would be postponed indefinitely because of COVID-19. “You feel your hopes in the future are kind of shattered,” Joseph, whom HuffPost Canada agreed not to identify by his real name because of the risk of deportation, said in an interview. “We came with some hope … And then when this happens, you don’t know...

The people running Ontario’s clinics, nursing homes and grocery stores during the COVID-19 pandemic “deserve more than a ‘thank you,’” one group of front-line workers said Thursday. “The government refuses to implement basic paid sick leave protections for the very same people they deem heroes,” Carolina Jimenez told reporters at a virtual press conference. She is a registered nurse and the coordinator of the advocacy group Decent Work and Health Network. “I’m a nurse at a clinic in Toronto...

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that schools will be closed longer than three weeks as the province responds to COVID-19. “The kids won’t be going back to school on April 6,” he told reporters at a Queen’s Park teleconference about the novel coronavirus pandemic. “I think everybody in this province knows ... April the 6th is not realistic. We are in a state of emergency.” Education Minister Stephen Lecce will have more to say in a day or two, Ford added. Earlier: Ontario rolls...

TORONTO — Social distancing will “absolutely” save lives and could work in time to avoid overwhelming Ontario’s health-care system, according to one scientist who has been predicting potential COVID-19 pandemic outcomes. “This weekend, early next week, we will hopefully see what the effect is from all the social distancing measures,” said Beate Sander, one of the Toronto scientists who has been publishing models to forecast how long it will take for Ontario to deplete its hospital...