EDMONTON — A grassroots advocacy group is calling on the city to step up when it comes to COVID-19 safety measures.

Act for Edmonton will appear at city hall tomorrow, appealing to councillors to reinstate the city’s mandatory mask mandate.

“We’re really concerned about kids, we’re really concerned about frontline workers. A lot of children are going to be taking ETS to school every day so we think that a mask mandate is the least that our cities can do and Edmonton has an opportunity to do that,” said Bradley Lafortune from Act for Edmonton.

The group says a lot has changed since council repealed the mandate at the end of June; cases are on the rise, the delta variant is becoming more prevalent, and the province is scheduled to end all of its pandemic health measures within days.

“We just really think that the city can step in where the province has chosen to step away, we have kids who are going to be riding the bus to school, we have kids in daycare and they can’t get vaccinated yet so while we see cases on the rise as a result of delta we’re looking for the civic government to step in.”

He says they’re hoping the item will be brought up in tomorrow’s special meeting and brought before council next week.

“There’s definitely a renewed opportunity for the city to step in,” said Lafortune. “We remain hopeful that council will do the right thing.”

EDMONTON — The number of patients in Alberta hospitals and intensive care units continued to grow on Wednesday as the province reported 138 coronavirus patients in hospital, including 31 in ICU.

The province has had over 100 COVID-19 patients in hospital every day since Aug. 3 and more than 20 patients in intensive care since the start of the month.

The 31 patients in ICU is the highest count in nearly a month, since July 13. The 138 in hospital represents an increase of two over the day before, pending future data adjustments.

Alberta reported 501 new cases Wednesday as active cases rose for a 25th consecutive day, up to 3,769 — about where the active case count was the second week of June.

There was one new death due to COVID-19 reported, bringing the province’s death toll to 2,331.

Among eligible Albertans, 76.5 per cent have received a first dose of vaccine and 67.2 per cent have had two doses.

The province reported a 5.31 per cent test positivity rate on about 8,600 tests. 

Alberta is ending routine COVID-19 testing next week, with testing no longer recommended for those with symptoms unless the result is needed to direct future care. 

In addition, the province’s testing facilities will close down at the end of the month, leaving primary care settings such as hospitals and doctor’s offices as the main venues for testing. 

Alberta has already closed routine testing to asymptomatic individuals including close contacts to those who test positive.

Those limits on testing mean the daily case counts will lose much of their meaning without routine screening. 

The next data update is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

EDMONTON — A coalition of doctors has sent a letter to the prime minister, asking the federal government to provide funding to Alberta schools to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Most Alberta parents feel completely abandoned by the provincial government, the direct result of their change in policy is that our kids are going to be super vulnerable in our schools,” said Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician.

“Not only will kids be able to go to school with COVID, they won’t even know they have COVID because we aren’t doing testing anymore.”

The group of five doctors is asking for $80-million to go directly to schools, bypassing the provincial government. The letter calls decisions to remove testing, tracing and mandatory isolation by the provincial government “reckless and irresponsible.”

“Although kids are less affected, they don’t tend to die from COVID… a certain number of them endure long COVID,” said Vipond. “Even if the percentage of hospitalizations is pretty low, if you get a whole bunch of infected kids, there’s going to be a substantial number of people that are hospitalized or in the ICU.

“If we can get help from the school boards, the feds, even our municipal governments, we’ll take help wherever we can, since the provincial government has abdicated their responsibility.”

The money would go towards air filtration units, high quality masks, and CO2 monitors, according to Vipond, who is also a parent.

“It’s pretty clear this is an airborne-transmitted disease, so unless we recognize how it’s transmitted, it’s very hard to see how we’re going to mitigate that transmission.”

The letter to the prime minister claims the government of Alberta failed to provide schools with funds previously allocated by the provincial government.

According to a statement from Alberta Education, school authorities have had access to $1-billion in funding for COVID-19.

“Alberta’s government provided school divisions $250-million in accelerated capital maintenance funding for things like HVAC and mechanical upgrades,” said Alberta Education in the statement. “School divisions chose to only spend approximately $44 million on H-VAC and ventilation upgrades in schools.

“We are confident that all school authorities have been provided the supports they need to provide a safe, world class education to their students.”

Alberta Education added that an additional guidance document is being finalized and is due to be released in mid-August.

EDMONTON — An Edmonton restaurant is requiring patrons be double vaccinated in order to dine indoors, something experts say falls in a somewhat legal grey area.

Since the provincial mask mandate in Alberta lifted on July 1, business were left to decide whether patrons had to continue wearing masks inside or not.

One restaurant, Fleisch, announced it will require customers to have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if they want to dine inside the restaurant.

“If that’s their prerogative then, by all means, we support any business and their choice to do so,” said Ernie Tsu, the president of the Alberta Hospitality Association.

The decision on whether businesses can legally require proof of vaccination is a grey area, according to experts.

“It really depends on the type of business… it could be contrary to certain pieces of legislation and certain considerations that are in place,” said Lauren Chalaturnyk, an associate lawyer.

“Businesses do need to be quite careful that they’re balancing (health and safety) obligations with privacy and human rights considerations.”

Private businesses are able to decide who they provide services to and who they don’t, but they can’t discriminate on the basis of something protected in the Alberta Human Rights Act, according to Chalaturnyk.

Religion, physical and mental disabilities are covered in the act, things that might prevent someone from getting vaccinated.

“Human rights law requires that those businesses accommodate individuals who can’t get vaccinated due to, for example, health reasons,” said Dr. Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor with the faculty of law at the University of Calgary.

“We don’t know, yet, what reasonable accommodation of those who cannot get vaccinated will look like.”

The Human Rights Act doesn’t protect people who simply don’t want to get vaccinated, added to Hardcastle.

When the mask mandate ended on Canada Day, a provincial human rights tribunal issued guidance for businesses. Further guidance on businesses requiring proof of vaccination is something experts are hoping for.

“I hope we do see guidance, it is certainly possible that allowing people to dine outside over inside would be viewed as a reasonable accommodation,” said Hardcastle.

In addition to human rights concerns, there could also be privacy concerns depending on how information on proof of vaccination is taken.

“If a record is being provided, then you’re holding onto personal information, and it’s personal health information, which has some pretty stringent requirements attached to it in terms of how it’s collected, used, disclosed,” said Chalaturnyk.

If businesses require being shown a record of vaccination, but don’t record the information, “there isn’t that same risk of having those same records disclosed or having that data accessed,” according to Hardcastle.

If a business is found to be in violation of the Human Rights Act, there could be a financial impact.

“It’s very dependent on the impact on the complainant and the response that the business is able to give that would determine how significant that financial impact could be,” said Chalaturnyk.

“The Alberta Human Rights Commission can also issue some very unique remedies like requiring a business to put in a non-discrimination policy, or require their employees to do something akin to sensitivity training.”

The financial penalty can range from a couple thousand dollars to $25,000, added Chalaturnyk.

“We would recommend seeking out some legal advice to make sure that all of those considerations are being properly balanced before going down that path,” said Chalaturnyk.

“We’re really going to have to see the cases play out, and in some ways that’s what makes it hard to be those pioneering businesses passing these requirements,” said Hardcastle.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Ryan Harding 

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Police Service has created a TikTok account to better engage with the community, but its most recent video is being met with mixed reviews. 

The popular social media platform is used by its community engagement unit as a way to connect with more people, but one of the videos is gaining attention for the wrong reasons, with some calling it unprofessional and misogynistic.

The video showed an Edmonton police officer performing Stone Cold Steve Austin’s famous beer can smash while heading out to intercept his daughter’s date, it has since been removed from the EPS account.

“I’m really confused what that specific TikTok has to do with their mandate of community engagement,” Brittany Hodges, a communications consultant, told CTV News Edmonton.

“It’s just such an old school mentality.”

“They’re supposed to be role models and watch out for people who do drink and drive and they’re kind of promoting it in a way here,” Brittany Sanson, an Edmonton resident added.

In a statement to CTV News on Tuesday, Cheryl Sheppard, from the EPS media relations unit, said no alcohol was used in the making of the video and acknowledged it “missed the mark.”

However, Hodges told CTV News she takes issue with the overall tone of the post.

“It plays into the narrative of women’s bodies being controlled by men, going from being owned by her father to maybe being owned by a husband,” she explained.

“I think you could do it less problematic,” Chloe Baumgartner, an Edmonton resident, added.

“Many people felt the video promoted outdated gender norms, violence and intimidation as inappropriate problem solving tools, and drinking and driving — this was not the intention, but unfortunately the impact,” Sheppard said in a statement.

‘THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS’

Hodges explained an organization the size of EPS would have to go through a number of channels to have the video approved.

“It just shows that the voice saying, ‘Hey guys, there might be something wrong with this…’ That voice was missing every single step of the way.”

While the EPS feed is generally filled with lighthearted content or behind the scenes insights, one Edmontonian said this video was a swing and a miss.

“I like what they’re attempting to do,” Bree Baumgartner explained.

“But I would say let’s come back to the drawing board.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson