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Vancouver Canadians Baseball proudly supported by 980 CKNW – GlobalNews Events

Vancouver Canadians Baseball proudly supported by 980 CKNW - GlobalNews Events

The Vancouver Canadians are excited to bring baseball back at the Nat. There will be weekly events/giveaways you won’t want to miss! Who doesn’t love winning? BCLC and the C’s want to make you a winner on Tuesdays with all sorts of games, contests and more. Plus, local groups can enter to win a night in their honor.

The Canadians have partnered with RBC to recognize local organizations who go above and beyond to show they care about our community. 11 different charities will be highlighted throughout the season for their effort, impact and inspiration. We’re turning back the clock for every Thursday home game as the C’s don throwback jerseys from 1996 that were inspired by the original Canadians uniform from the late 70s. It’s a blast from the past!

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Democracy threatened if aggressive protesters make Canadians feel unsafe: Trudeau

Democracy threatened if aggressive protesters make Canadians feel unsafe: Trudeau

OTTAWA –


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the safety of Canadians participating in democracy should never be jeopardized by the kinds of racist insults and threats of violence lobbed at people attending a Liberal fundraiser in British Columbia on Tuesday.


Trudeau says all governments should be seized with the issue amid a rise in the presence of aggressive or hateful protesters appearing at political events.


Trudeau did not say why specifically he chose to appear at the Surrey, B.C., fundraiser virtually rather than in person but it is at least the second time in less than 10 months that he changed his plans in the presence of unruly protests.


Outside the event in Surrey, B.C., about four dozen protesters used expletives and reportedly also hurled racist slurs at attendees who were mostly South Asian.


One protester carried a noose attached to two flat sticks printed with the words “treason” and “Trudeau.”


An aggressive anti-Israel protester confronted Justice Minister David Lametti in Montreal today, forcing Lametti to temporarily leave his news conference.


Two weeks ago, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was harassed by protesters and aggressively chased into his car outside an provincial NDP campaign office in Peterborough, Ont.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2022.

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Upcoming Canadians Events: April 11-16

But never fear, we’re here to keep our loyal fans up to date with everything happening at the Bell Center, as well as a quick and easy way to enter various competitions related to the Hab Moon.

There are four matches on the schedule this week, so let’s delve into the weekly Habs action!

Monday 11 April: WPG @ MTL

The Canadians will start the week with fanfare when they take on Nick Eilers and the Winnipeg Jets at Retro Night at Bell Centerbrought to you by Lenovo.

Tickets: WPG @ MTL

Over $26,000 in prizes will be awarded during this nostalgic evening. Arrive at 5:00 PM ET to catch an outdoor performance of the ’80s band at Place des Canadiens, which will be streamed live on Twitch. Then, upcycle one of your old electronics at our drop-off point for a chance to win a brand new Lenovo PC.

Thanks to college evenings, provided by Desjardins, students can purchase tickets in Section 400 for just $45. Each ticket purchased includes a free drink. It’s the perfect evening for a group of friends.

The Jean Couto’s family section Allows all young Canadian fans to have their first experience at the Peel Center in a safe and friendly environment. Tickets cost only $25 for teens age 16 or younger, and include a variety of competitions and activities.

Canadians will also pay tribute to the women’s hockey team Concordia Stingers, who won their first national championship in more than 23 years.

Wednesday 13th April: MTL @ CBJ

The team leaves Bell Center for a quick trip to Columbus. You can catch all the action on Sportsnet and RDS.

Friday 15th April: NYI @MTL

With only a few home games remaining for the 2021-22 season, be sure to watch a game live from the Bale Center.

Tickets: NYI @ MTL

Who knows, you might see Cole Caufield He did what Cole Caufield does best.

Tweet from @CanadiensMTL: March rookie continues its April momentum! March’s starter of the month hasn’t slowed down in April! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/lAG1lcqRXP

Molson has partnered with Montreal Canadiens and other Canadian teams to introduce the Molson Fan Hall of Fame! This temple will honor the loudest and proudest fans who best represent their team. Three recruits will be presented during the game, during which the beloved T-shirt will be thrown to the fans.

Saturday 16 April: WSH @ MTL

Finally, there is nothing better than Saturday night’s game at the Bell Center last Saturday at home when the Canadians host the Washington Capitals.

Tickets: WSH @ MTL

We’ll celebrate LGTBQ+ Night, presented by Scotiabank. The team will warm up with Pride T-shirts and ribbons, which will be auctioned off to benefit GRIS-MONTREAL Based on you can play.

You can have fun long before the confrontation thanks to Great Saturdayswhich includes an interactive question-and-answer session with Marc Dumont, a dynamic DJ Lykx concert and a chance to win $500,000 thanks to the “Tirs d’élites” contest offered by ESSOR Insurance.

big win

Last but not least, we have some contests coming to an end soon, so don’t miss your chance to win some great prizes!

Competition stars every day, presented by Bill, gives you the opportunity to nominate someone you know who has helped make your world a better place. To win: A couple of tickets to the Canadiens game on April 19, an exclusive shopping tour at the Tricolore Sports Store at Bell Center and a $1,000 donation from Bell to the organization of your choice. Contest ends Sunday, April 17th.

We also encourage you to participate in Best seating experience, provided by the Ford Company. The grand prize winner will receive two game tickets on April 21, a pre-match dinner for two at a Bell Center restaurant, a personalized T-shirt, and a Habsmobile round-trip! Contest ends Monday, April 18th.

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What is an ‘adverse event?’ Inside the recently released report on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine

What is an 'adverse event?' Inside the recently released report on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine

A document circulating on social media and elsewhere is being cited as a smoking gun to suggest Pfizer knew its COVID-19 vaccine causes more “adverse events” than previously stated, a claim some experts say requires a more nuanced look.

Released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of a recent U.S. court order, the one-year-old, 38-page report of post-marketing data from Pfizer includes an appendix listing hundreds of reported adverse events from its COVID-19 vaccine, all of which are defined as being of “special interest.”

Whether the data is being, or can be, accurately interpreted is a point some experts are flagging as an issue with the document, particularly given the amount of real-world data gathered since then.

Experts say not every adverse event cited in the report can be chalked up to the vaccine, while others are consistent with the vaccine’s known side-effects.

CTVNews.ca spoke to two infectious disease specialists about the report to better understand what the data does, and does not, show.

ADVERSE EVENTS

The document itself is an accumulation of post-authorization adverse event reports from Dec. 1, 2020, through to February 2021, taken from the U.S. and other countries, of which there were 42,086 cases in total.

An adverse event is defined as “any untoward medical occurrence that follows immunization,” including an unfavourable or unintended sign such as a skin rash, an abnormal lab finding, symptom or disease.

Dr. Dale Kalina, an infectious disease doctor at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ont., told CTVNews.ca in a Zoom interview on Tuesday that Pfizer is required to report any adverse events.

However, just because someone reports an adverse event doesn’t mean it was caused by the vaccine itself.

As the document states, adverse event reports do not necessarily mean they were caused by the drug in question, but could be due to an underlying disease or other factor.

During the Pfizer vaccine trial for those between five and 11-years-old, Kalina says one participant swallowed a penny, which was reported as an adverse event.

“And I think we can all agree that swallowing a penny isn’t related to the vaccine itself,” he said.

“But of course, it highlights the fact that it needs to be reported and that’s what we’re seeing, and that’s the type of data that we’re getting.”

During Modern’s vaccine trials, a 72-year-old participant with arrhythmia, who died after being struck by lightning 28 days post-vaccination, was reported as experiencing a severe adverse event.

Dr. Martha Fulford, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University, says it’s also unclear in the list whether the adverse events were actually linked to the vaccine or if it was by coincidence.

“I look at this document and I think I sort of come away thinking it’s a little uninterpretable to me,” she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Wednesday.

One of the events listed is hantavirus pulmonary infection, which can occur after coming into contact with rodent urine, droppings or saliva.

“Product availability issue” also is another adverse event on the list.

“Some of that stuff strikes me as highly improbable as doing anything with the vaccine,” Fulford said.

Reporting of adverse events, generally, is underreported, Fulford says, which is something the Pfizer document notes, as well.

But she says it’s unclear how many actual cases of each adverse event were reported or if they appeared at higher rates than what you would see by random chance in the general population.

“The key is whether or not there’s a link and so people reporting something that’s happened, we would need to look at what the overall reported rates would be across a population in a normal period of time,” Fulford said.

THE DENOMINATOR

Both Kalina and Fulford pointed to the lack of a denominator in the document, or in this case how many people received the vaccine at that point in time.

Near the end of February 2021, the United States was vaccinating as many as 1.7 million Americans on average per day, with 63 million Modern and Pfizer vaccines administered.

Looking at the more common adverse events in the Pfizer document, seen in two per cent of cases or more, all are what one would expect after getting a vaccine and when the immune system is excited, namely sore arm, mild fatigue and headache, Kalina says.

The “heaps” of data produced since then around the world have underscored that, he says.

“But to label it as adverse, I think, is a bit of a misnomer because it is actually exactly what you would expect,” he said.

“You’re expecting that reaction and although it’s adverse, it’s not pleasant, it is what you would expect from the medication itself.”

Kalina says any suggestion of a cover-up by Pfizer is being made for “nefarious purposes.”

“It’s a pharmaceutical company, they’re here to make money and I recognize that, there’s no doubt in my mind about that, but the product works,” he said.

While the initial optimism around transmission, for example, has certainly waned as more vaccinated individuals became infected with the Omicron variant, that doesn’t take away from the power of the vaccine to prevent serious disease, hospitalization and death, Fulford says.

“I think most of us, myself included, feel very strongly that for vulnerable people who are at risk from COVID, the vaccines have fundamentally changed what we were dealing with,” she said.

“We saw a huge difference in hospital admissions and severe disease mortality in people who had been vaccinated, this is unquestioned. The risk-benefit conversation obviously changes very much depending on the baseline risk of the person receiving the vaccine, it’s just not an absolute answer.”

WHAT DO WE KNOW NOW?

The Public Health Agency of Canada says that as of Feb. 25, 2022, a total of 40,011 adverse events following immunization have been reported, out of nearly 80.8 million doses administered, for a rate of 0.05 per cent. Most of the adverse effects are classified as non-serious.

At the time the Pfizer report was made, many of those who got the vaccine initially were generally older and potentially vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.

Since then, vaccines have been administered to more, and younger, age groups, providing further evidence to back certain adverse events.

As Fulford says, what needs to be monitored with any medication or vaccine is whether certain signals present at a higher rate than what you would normally see.

This proved to be the case with blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Although blood clots can emerge from sitting too long due to travel and certain birth control, their presence after receiving AstraZeneca, while rare, made it distinct, Fulford says.

A similar situation has played out with myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and lining around the heart respectively.

While also considered rare, people have reported cases after receiving a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, with higher rates observed following a second dose, among young and adolescent males, and with the Moderna vaccine, the latter possibly due to it being a higher dose than Pfizer.

A report on adverse events from Public Health Ontario shows that rates of myocarditis and pericarditis in males 12-17 and 18-24 after receiving a second dose was 157.9 and 199.4 respectively per million doses, which is roughly two to 13 times higher compared to other age groups.

One recent study also points to the need for individual strategies for vaccinating adolescent boys, due to the elevated risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, and depending on their health and history of COVID-19 infection.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended in December 2021 that Pfizer be the preferred COVID-19 vaccine over Moderna for those 12 to 29-years-old.

Some studies also have looked into the potential effects of COVID-19 vaccines on women’s menstrual cycles.

Ultimately, Fulford says conversations around the risks and benefits of getting the vaccine will vary depending on the individual.

“It’s not to say that people should or should not be vaccinated, it’s simply acknowledging that yes, we have seen in some people adverse events, and acknowledging that there’s an adverse event is not an all or nothing, and we’ve sort of made it an all or nothing,” Fulford said.

“One can be in favour of vaccines while acknowledging this is the risk in this age group of this adverse outcome, and have that risk-benefit conversation.”

With files from CTV News

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Canadians proud of results in Beijing 2022 two-woman bobsleigh event

Team Canada’s Cynthia Appiah and Dawn Richardson Wilson compete in the 2-woman bobsleigh heat 3

COC/Dave Holland

Led by the duo Christine de Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski, two Canadian sleds finished within the top eight of the two-woman bobsleigh event at Beijing 2022.

de Bruin and Bujnowski entered the final day just 0.42 back of a spot on the podium but couldn’t make up enough time in their third and fourth runs, placing them fifth overall with a total time of 4:06.37.

Team Canada’s Christine de Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski compete in the 2-woman bobsleigh heat 3
Team Canada’s Christine de Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski compete in the 2-woman bobsleigh heat 3 during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Saturday, February 19, 2022. Photo by COC/Handout Dave Holland

“I think we really put down four solid runs, four solid pushes” said de Bruin, who won bronze in the women’s monobob earlier in the Games. “It all just came down to we couldn’t gain.”

“I’m really, really proud of us and what we’ve done.”

The Germans continued their domination of sliding sports in Beijing with Laura Nolte winning gold with a time of 4:03.96 and Mariama Jamanka taking the silver with a time of 4:04.73. American Elana Meyers Taylor took the bronze with a time of 4:05.48 and another German, Kim Kalicki, finished fourth with a time of 4:06.28.

The fifth-place finish is an improvement for de Bruin in the two-woman event from PyeongChang 2018 where she finished seventh. Bujnowski, taking part in her first Olympic Games, was happy to team up with de Bruin for Beijing.

“I think it was really exciting,” Bujnowski said of her Olympic experience. “I think we worked really well as a team and really supported each other. We each made mistakes at certain times and we were really great at certain times and we both stood by each other. I think that’s a really important part of a strong team.”

Canada’s Cynthia Appiah and brakewoman Dawn Richardson Wilson, meanwhile, entered the day in eighth and would finish there with a total time of 4:07.52. It certainly could have been a much worse result given that the two had a crash near the end of their third run. Although clearly frustrated, both would be okay.

Appiah said the crash looked much worse than it actually was.

“I think I was more upset that the crash happened than anything,” she said. “I got a little bit of a shoulder bruise but, all things considered, it could have been worse and I’m glad that’s the worst of it.”

In their fourth and final run, Appiah had difficulty with one corner but this time recovered nicely to keep the sled on its tracks. Being able to quickly rebound from a rough result is part of the sport, she said.

“In this sport you really have to live in the moment, process the mistakes as quickly as possible and move on because you’ve got another run. I knew that, for Dawn, I couldn’t let her Olympic experience end on such a bad note and for myself as well. I knew that the fourth run was go big or go home.”

Both Appiah and Richardson Wilson were taking part in their first Olympic Games. Appiah was an alternate brakewoman four years ago in PyeongChang but made the move to pilot soon after.

The third Canadian sled in the two-woman event, featuring pilot Melissa Lotholz with brakewoman Sara Villani, finished 12th with a time of 4:08.37. The duo entered the final two heats in 16th position but had a good, clean day of sliding to move up the standings.