Obituary: Beverly Spanier, 78, became an advocate for patients’ rights during the pandemic
“She had the courage to keep being angry for all the right reasons,” her friend recalls.
‘Freedom is sometimes a messy business’: The Freedom Convoy’s former spokesman Benjamin Dichter’s view of three weeks that paralyzed Ottawa
Benjamin Dichter became a national news figure as spokesman for the Freedom Convoy which paralyzed Ottawa for three weeks in the winter of 2022—long enough to become the subject of fascination beyond these borders on Fox News and elsewhere, but also the target of some criticism.
Private schools have lost a legal battle to claim a share of COVID safety funding in Ontario
An Ontario Divisional Court has dismissed a claim by three private schools, including a Toronto yeshiva, that federal COVID safety funds for public education should have been similarly distributed to independent schools. In a case heard on an emergency basis in August 2021, the schools—including the Toronto Cheder, a yeshiva in North York—sought judicial review […]
El Al blames COVID’s impact on airlines for shuttering Toronto: spokesman
El Al Israel Airlines blames the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on airline companies for its decision this week to suspend direct service to Toronto. A company spokesman in New Jersey, who did not wish his name used, told The CJN on Friday that he didn’t know the specific reason why Toronto is being […]
It’s wedding season, finally—and couples are eager to tie the knot after many COVID delays
When Zane and Baden Colt finally stand under the huppah this summer, it will be the fifth date they’ve set to get married. The Toronto couple became engaged in 2018 and planned to marry 18 months later in 2020, but several plans were dashed by pandemic restrictions. While they waited and planned, they were married […]
Kitra Cahana talks about how COVID lockdowns led to her making an award-winning film about her disabled father
A film about a quadriplegic rabbi’s experience being isolated in a long-term care facility during pandemic lockdown recently won the Hot Docs award for Best Canadian Short Documentary. Perfecting the Art of Longing was written and directed by Kitra Cahana and intersperses security camera footage of her father, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, in his Montreal facility […]
Love My Neighbour movement has the Canadian Jewish community fundraising to send COVID vaccines to poorer nations
A national initiative to get COVID vaccines to people in countries that lack them—and to challenge the systemic failures that led to such a disparity in the first place—has encouraged Jews fundraise in original ways. Love My Neighbour (LMN), the name of the movement, is supported by 37 Canadian organizations and multi-faith communities including the […]
Snowstorms in Winnipeg—not to mention COVID everywhere else—threaten to disrupt Canadians’ seder plans for the third year in a row
Happy Pandemic Passover from The CJN!
Will the newest mahjong cards mean springtime for in-person games? Canadian Jewish players aren’t so sure right now
Any day now, Shirley Hanick will be receiving a highly anticipated shipment of new mahjong cards at her home in Toronto. The cards come from the National Mah Jongg League in New York. And, as the officially accepted version of this year’s possible winning hands, the delivery represents some serious fun for this teacher of […]
Simkin Centre nursing home in Winnipeg slammed by COVID outbreak among staff
Winnipeg’s largest Jewish long-term care home, the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre, is dealing with a substantial COVID outbreak. It started before Christmas, with a couple of staff members who worked in different parts of the facility, including the kitchen and two of the residents’ wings. This latest wave saw the number of positive cases […]
