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News Release

Ottawa, May 19 (Canadian-Media): The Ontario government is protecting the health and safety of students during the COVID-19 outbreak by keeping schools closed for the rest of this school year. This decision was made after consulting with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, health experts on the COVID-19 Command Table, and medical experts at The Hospital for Sick Children.

At the same time, the government is planning for the reopening of schools for the 2020-21 school year, the gradual reopening of child care, and the opening of summer day camps subject to the continuing progress in trends of key public health indicators.

Today's announcement was made by Premier Doug Ford, Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, and Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

"Nothing is more important than protecting our kids in this province, bar none over anything," said Premier Ford. "Today's announcement gives parents certainty, knowing that their children can continue to learn safely at home and that we have a plan for child care as we work to gradually reopen more of our economy, when it is safe to do so."

All students who were on track to graduate from secondary school before the initial school closure order was made in March will be able to graduate, and all students will receive report cards.

Later this summer, the government will announce a plan to strengthen learning and safety protocols to enable students and staff to return to in-class instruction for the 2020-21 school year. That plan will be bolstered by an enhanced province-wide virtual learning program that will allow all students to learn, regardless of the challenges that may transpire in the coming months.

Private schools, licensed child care centres and EarlyON programs will also remain closed for the safety and protection of children, families and staff through Stage 1 of the Framework for Reopening the Province. Emergency child care will continue to operate and provide support for health care and other frontline workers. A gradual reopening of child care is expected to begin when the province is ready to transition to Stage 2 based on public health criteria, which will include robust safety protocols for the safety of Ontario's youngest learners and their staff.

"We will never waver from our commitment to keep your child safe, while learning at home," said Minister Lecce. "Our plan will ensure students receive the best educational experience, both inside and outside the classroom, during this difficult time. That is why we are strengthening summer learning opportunities, reopening summer day camps, and it is why we will continue to make the case for synchronous, live, and dynamic learning."

Stephen Lecce. Image credit: Twitter handle

António Guterres upheld the importance of impartial news media at a time when harmful health advice, hate speech and wild conspiracy theories are rising, and “blatant lies” are being spread online at a dizzying rate.

“The antidote to this pandemic of misinformation is fact-based news and analysis. It depends on media freedom and independent reporting”, he said.

The online dialogue was organized by UN educational and cultural agency, UNESCO, to mark World Press Freedom Day, celebrated annually on 3 May. Participants included journalists and media experts from across the globe, as well as representatives from governments and social media companies.

Truth: the ‘first casualty’ of the pandemic

​Paraphrasing a well-known adage, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay pointed out that just as in war, truth could be considered the “first casualty” of the coronavirus pandemic.

She called for people everywhere to defend and respect an independent and free press. Equally important is that media outlets must be responsible for the accuracy of their reports, which also should apply to “digital players” and social media.

“I’m very happy to see as well that more and more social media networks take action against disinformation, as they should, and it should be a rule and not an exception in a time of crisis”, said Ms. Azoulay.

Facebook fights ‘fake news’Monica Bickert, Vice-President for Content Policy at Facebook, outlined how the social media giant is tackling “fake news”, which she separated into two categories: disinformation, or intentionally trying to mislead the public; and misinformation, which occurs when someone shares false information, usually unknowingly.

Disinformation is usually financially motivated, and involves practices such as using fake accounts or buying “likes” to boost posts. Here the issue is finding and removing suspect content because it violates Facebook policies.

However, “misinformation is a much trickier problem”, she revealed.

“We leverage a network of more than 60 fact-checking organizations…but basically the approach is if they tell us something is false, then we label that information, we put the fact-checker’s information next to it, and then we dramatically reduce the distribution of that content”.

In the current context, people who have previously shared or interacted with false COVID-19 information also receive a notification directing them to the respective fact-checking organization, she added.

UN tackles COVID-19 ‘infodemic’

​In his speech, the UN chief outlined how the global Organization is taking action to counter what its health agency, WHO, has labeled an “infodemic” surrounding the new disease.

For example, the UN is working with social platforms to promote messages on keeping people safe and healthy, and countering lies and misinformation with facts and science.

“International organizations as well as governments, have an important role in promoting facts and scientific approaches”, he added, speaking in French.

“But no one during this pandemic can take the place of the media to transmit information and analysis to the public, and to counter rumors and misrepresentation.”

Journalists under threat

The Secretary-General thanked journalists and others working in media, such as those who fact-check stories and social media posts.

He also highlighted that pandemic aside, many journalists around the world have also faced threats, harassment and violent attacks, for doing their jobs, with nearly 60 killed just last year. Women are often targeted, such as Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima, winner of the 2020 World Press Freedom Day award.

Maria Ressa, an award-winning investigative journalist from The Philippines, who co-founded the Rappler website, said the pandemic is also having an impact on the business side of operations. As the country enters its eighth week of lockdown, little money has been trickling in from advertisers.
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“We have to make sure that this extinction-level event does not actually knockout independent journalism”, she said.​

The CIF was taken aback at the exclusion of the international students from the purview of the CESB program, under which the federal government pledged to provide $1,250 per month for eligible students from May through August 2020, and $1,750 for students with dependents and those with permanent disabilities.

Circumstances of international students, said Anil Shah, Chair, CIF was in no way materially different from those of local students, and justifies their inclusion in this CESB.

Shah added that by not doing so, contributions made by international students to Canada's economy and to its post-secondary education system are being overlooked.