“Public health measures shouldn’t be optional,” federal NDP health critic and Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies said Friday. “It would seem the effective lobbying and economic interests of the airline industry are holding sway over the competing interests of public safety.”
Health concerns raised as Canadian airlines abandon social distancing
How safe is flying during the pandemic?
On Friday, Don Davies, member of parliament for Vancouver-Kingsway and NDP health critic, called on Transport Canada to immediately impose physical distancing requirements on all passenger aircraft in Canada.
"One must question why airlines are being treated differently than every other business and industry in Canada," said Davies, accusing the federal government of putting commercial interests above the health and safety of travellers.
"We must not jeopardize the progress that Canadians have worked so hard to make in their fight against COVID-19 by allowing these airlines to fly into known hotspots like California, Nevada and Florida without any physical distancing requirements," he said.
COVID-19 warning issued to travellers aboard four flights to Vancouver
The warning comes as federal NDP health critic and Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies demands Transport Canada immediately impose mandatory physical distancing rules on all passenger flights.
“It’s been voluntary up until now. The airlines have indicated they’re not going to follow the voluntary guidelines. When you’re seeing policy by government violate what our public health officers are saying, that’s a pretty good indication that the federal government is wrong and we’ve got to get on this right away and change it before people get sick,” he said.
Let’s Name Our Schools after Vancouver’s True Heroes
Place names mean something: they signify belonging (or exclusion). And when it comes to schools, names can impact how children, families and educators feel about the spaces where they learn. As MP Don Davies recently noted in urging a new name for Gladstone Secondary, now is the time to start looking at the community we want to live in.
Mounting deaths stemming from police wellness checks a ‘wake-up call,’ says Senator
The deaths represent an “inappropriate use of force in mental health situations,” he said, and are a “tragic result” and product of decades of lack of investment.
Training for officers needs to be “overhauled,” said Mr. Davies, his party’s health critic, who said he wants police removed from the front lines when it comes to wellness checks that could be done by someone else.
“A number of the issues that we’re asking police to intervene in are more properly identified and handled as health care or even social issues as opposed to criminal ones,” he said, calling for upstream investment.
Government must treat opioid overdoses as a national public health emergency
Earlier today, NDP Health Critic, Don Davies, issued the following statement:
"The number of Canadian lives being lost to opioid overdoses during the COVID-19 outbreak is staggering, alarming, and growing. Today, I am calling on the federal government to declare the overdose epidemic a national public health emergency, and for national action and leadership.
Champagne says he repaid mortgages owed to state-run Bank of China, after facing scrutiny from opposition
Mr. Champagne dismissed suggestions that he made the decision because of concerns that the optics were “problematic,” responding to a question from NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, B.C.).
“I took out a mortgage many years ago with a bank in London, that’s what I’ve disclosed,” he said to Mr. Davies. “I feel very transparent, because as a lawyer, I take my ethical responsibility very carefully. I read the letter of the law at all times. This is a bank in London, with branches in London.”
Airlines face MPs’ frustration over health concerns, lack of refunds
Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has called the 14-day quarantine for arrivals from abroad a “cornerstone” of pandemic policy, New Democrat health critic Don Davies noted.
“When we start to relax our standards, we may be actually just be walking into a second phase,” he said, citing flare-ups in Australia, New Zealand and multiple U.S. states following looser restrictions.
Baden-Powell, Trutch, Begbie among landmark names with troubling histories
"I think people who are associated with slavery or other odious policies or crimes against humanity shouldn't have buildings named after them," said East Vancouver MP Don Davies, who points out the man never stepped foot in Canada and has no ties to the area. "History does change and our values change and we can't be afraid to change with them. I think we have to be prepared to act because it's not just about words, it's about having the courage as a society."
Change proposed for Vancouver school named after U.K. prime minister with links to slavery
As calls to decolonize B.C. grow against the backdrop of anti-racism and Black Lives Matter movements, NDP MP Don Davies says Gladstone Secondary School needs a new name.
"I think it's time that we looked at renaming institutions of higher learning and other important buildings that have been named after people associated essentially with crimes against humanity and really odious policies," said Davies about the school in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding.
The school's namesake, William Ewart Gladstone, belonged to a family that owned over 2,000 slaves who worked on Caribbean plantations where the Gladstones made their fortune.