This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. What runs through your mind when you’re deciding which toilet paper to buy? Sale price, roll size, pitiful single-ply or luxurious triple? Climate change might not make your list of considerations, but it should: According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the toilet paper industry is among the most egregious climate offenders in Canada. In its latest report on tissue products, the NRDC evaluated the sustainability of 44 toilet paper brands, giving each product a score from A-plus to F. Who Gives a Crap and Green Forest were ranked highest, while Angel Soft and Charmin brought up the rear with critically low scores. “The companies with the largest market shares have the power to make a significant difference for the future of our world’s forests,” the authors have written. “Instead, they largely adhere to decades-old tissue formulas that have taken a devastating toll on forests.”
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A new fast food franchise in Kitchener has been greeted by many customers as well as protesters. The Chick-fil-A on Fairway Road officially opened its doors to the public Saturday morning, with roughly 100 people lined up beforehand waiting to get in. Later in the morning, about a dozen protesters showed up at the location to demonstrate. The restaurant chain has attracted opposition from LGBTQ2S+ grounds whenever a new store has opened, including the two locations in Toronto.
A new report has ranked Canada’s health system second last, ahead of the United States, among high-income countries. The report, released on Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund, ranked 11 high-income countries on key health-system measures, including equity, access to care, affordability, health-care outcomes, and administrative efficiency. The report found that the top-performing health systems overall are in Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia, while Switzerland, Canada and the U.S. were the countries with the worst health-care systems, respectively. However, the report noted that the U.S. performance falls “far below” Switzerland and Canada’s, despite these countries being ranked directly above it.
A Colorado mom claims she was nearly arrested at an amusement park because a security guard took umbrage with her short shorts. Bailey Breedlove — who says she is autistic — took to Facebook complaining that her family’s vacation to Frontier City Six Flags in Oklahoma City on April 30 was ruined by the guard’s “body shaming.’ “I was terrified I was about to go to jail over a pair of shorts,’’ she said. “My daughter was yelled at by a park police officer for rolling down a hill on her heelies right next to me, I was holding her hand. “Then (the guard) proceeded to follow me and grabbed my shoulder to turn me around and proceeded to tell me my shorts were ‘too short,’” Breedlove wrote on her post.
Two Hitler Youth flags flying on separate rural Alberta properties last week have prompted police investigations. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, a Jewish organization based in Toronto, filed a criminal complaint with the RCMP Sunday after being notified of Hitler Youth and Confederate flags displayed side by side, high in the air at a property near Breton, southwest of Edmonton. “It’s very disturbing for us. The swastika is the ultimate symbol of hatred, and for our community symbolizes terror and genocide,” the group’s policy director Jaime Kirzner-Roberts told VICE World News on Wednesday. “Our country went to war to defeat the Nazis. Canadians made unspeakable sacrifices to defeat the Nazis. So this man, to be flying these symbols, is such a profound slap in the face to our whole country and our values.” Kirzner-Roberts said police have spoken several times to the man who put up the flags and he’s refused to take them down. RCMP Const. Chantelle Kelly confirmed police have spoken to the man–whom they have not identified–and, to her knowledge, the flags have not been removed. Local Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon called for their removal in a statement Tuesday.
Ontario paused the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose against COVID-19 Tuesday due to increased concern over blood clots. Ontarians who have already received a first dose have yet to be told whether they should switch to a different vaccine for the second shot or even if they’ll have the option of sticking with AstraZeneca. There have been eight cases in the province of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), a still rare but potentially serious side effect of the vaccine. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution as new data suggested the risk of clots was higher than first thought. “We know that those that made a decision before to get it — it was a good decision,” Williams said.