At a time when long-term care (LTC) residents are still being infected and dying from COVID-19 because of unvaccinated health-care workers, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) says the provincial government's announcement Friday should have been about mandatory vaccination for all health-care workers. Instead, it was about raising capacity limits for sporting events.

RNAO, in collaboration with Healthcare Excellence Canada, are excited to launch the new online Leading Change Toolkit. The toolkit is designed for change agents and change teams whose goal is to create lasting improvement with the uptake and sustainability of knowledge, like best practice guidelines (BPG).

Recent mob events at hospitals and schools represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the threat to health represented by the growth of far-right extremism. As health providers and policymakers, we need to become aware of how the increasing organization, visibility and influence of far-right extremism and their ideas and organizations is a serious concern from a health perspective.

This is a September 21 article by Josh Roose, a senior research fellow at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. It focuses on how far right nationalists, anti-vaxxers, libertarians and conspiracy theorists have come together over COVID, and capitalised on the anger and uncertainty simmering in some sections of the community.

This is a September 19 article by Sibo Chen, an assistant professor at the School of Professional Communication, Ryerson University. It focuses on the worrisome convergence of the anti-vaccine movement and far-right political extremism.

Welcome to our Saturday, September 25 report during this twentieth month of COVID-19 in Ontario. Today we share: (1) an announcement about the launch of RNAO’s Leading Change Toolkit; and (2) RNAO’s response to the easing of capacity limits in indoor settings. The remaining of this week’s Blog focuses on the threat of far-right extremism. This includes: (3) our call to recognize far-right extremism as a serious health threat; (4) an article on how the anti-vax movement is being radicalized by far-right political extremism in Canada; and (5) an article on how anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and the far-right are coming together over COVID internationally. Scroll down for policy updates and action alerts, as well as RNAO’s upcoming webinars.

Spain has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and is experiencing a fifth wave of COVID-19. The opening of the new school year in September 2021 arrives in Spain, however, with more confidence than in many other countries, including Canada. This confidence arises from their positive experience during the past year. Substantial parts of this article are adapted from an August 4, 2021 article in The Conversation by Fernando Trujillo Sáez; Jonatan Castaño Muñoz; Riina Vuorikari, and Romina Cachia, entitled Portrait of the school experience in Spain during more than a year of pandemic (in Spanish).

RNAO sent a questionnaire to each of the major political parties running candidates for their input on RNAO’s 11 recommendations in our policy platform. We received responses from each of the four major parties: the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party, and the Green Party of Canada. You can read the responses under each of the four areas of our platform. We invite you to go through each topic area so you can inform yourself.

Welcome to our Sunday, September 19 report during this twentieth month of COVID-19 in Ontario. In this update we focus on the federal election and on school reopening. We share: (1) RNAO’s media release on the federal elections, and (2) an article on how Spain managed to maintain their schools open during the whole 20-21 school year, and the lessons for us in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. Scroll down for policy updates and action alerts, as well as RNAO’s upcoming webinars.

Multiple issues impacting on health are being discussed in the federal campaign trail, and one of the most prominent has been gun control. RNAO has been concerned for many years about gun violence. The following article by R. Blake Brown, a professor of history at Saint Mary’s University, analyzes the commitments of the main federal parties on gun control.