• The Snowbirds, the Royal Canadian Air Force air acrobatics team, fly over Montreal in a morale-building tour of Canada called "Operation Inspiration" as Canadians entered their third month of social distancing, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 7. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
    The Snowbirds, the Royal Canadian Air Force air acrobatics team, fly over Montreal in a morale-building tour of Canada called "Operation Inspiration" as Canadians entered their third month of social distancing, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 7. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
  • Manager Rob Lambert cuts Justin Ludwig's hair at Crows Nest Barbershop, Vancouver, May 19. British Columbia began phase two of the reopening of its economy on Tuesday, allowing certain businesses to open their doors to customers if new health and safety regulations were followed. Darryl Dyck / AP
    Manager Rob Lambert cuts Justin Ludwig's hair at Crows Nest Barbershop, Vancouver, May 19. British Columbia began phase two of the reopening of its economy on Tuesday, allowing certain businesses to open their doors to customers if new health and safety regulations were followed. Darryl Dyck / AP
  • Nicole Greer grooms Oogi, a Coton De Tulear dog (left), and Deidre Howard grooms Oliver, a Bichon Frise, at Tail Spin Dog Spa as Toronto begins to re-open, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
    Nicole Greer grooms Oogi, a Coton De Tulear dog (left), and Deidre Howard grooms Oliver, a Bichon Frise, at Tail Spin Dog Spa as Toronto begins to re-open, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
  • Earls restaurant, Vancouver, May 19. Darryl Dyck / AP
    Earls restaurant, Vancouver, May 19. Darryl Dyck / AP
  • An employee at Zara puts up a sign during a phased reopening in Toronto, Ontario, Canada May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
    An employee at Zara puts up a sign during a phased reopening in Toronto, Ontario, Canada May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
  • Nick Abrantes after buying three pairs of shoes once the restrictions were eased in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
    Nick Abrantes after buying three pairs of shoes once the restrictions were eased in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
  • Canadian Armed Forces medical personnel arrive at Villa Val des Arbres, a seniors' long-term care centre to help amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, April 20. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
    Canadian Armed Forces medical personnel arrive at Villa Val des Arbres, a seniors' long-term care centre to help amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, April 20. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
  • Outside the Camilla Care Community in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, May 19, 2020. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
    Outside the Camilla Care Community in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, May 19, 2020. Carlos Osorio / Reuters
  • A Canadian soldier aids a senior citizen at the Vigi Queen Elizabeth Residential and Long-Term Care Centre in Montreal, Quebec, May 10. AFP
    A Canadian soldier aids a senior citizen at the Vigi Queen Elizabeth Residential and Long-Term Care Centre in Montreal, Quebec, May 10. AFP
  • A city park in Montreal, Canada, May 18. Graham Hughes / AP
    A city park in Montreal, Canada, May 18. Graham Hughes / AP
  • A pupil escorted into the schoolyard by a teacher as schools outside the greater Montreal region begin to reopen, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, May 11. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
    A pupil escorted into the schoolyard by a teacher as schools outside the greater Montreal region begin to reopen, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, May 11. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
  • A pupil has her hands sanitised in the schoolyard, as schools outside the greater Montreal region begin to reopen their doors, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, May 11. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
    A pupil has her hands sanitised in the schoolyard, as schools outside the greater Montreal region begin to reopen their doors, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, May 11. Christinne Muschi / Reuters
  • Andre Laliberte with a jar of fruit preserves next to his banner, a play on words in French reading 'let's preserve life', by artist Patsy Van Roos on May 6, Montreal. Artist Patsy Van Roost was brightening up Montreal balconies and putting smiles on pandemic-weary passers-by with a litany of personalised messages on multicoloured banners hung across the city. "The idea is to spread a little love for people during their solo walks," she told AFP. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
    Andre Laliberte with a jar of fruit preserves next to his banner, a play on words in French reading 'let's preserve life', by artist Patsy Van Roos on May 6, Montreal. Artist Patsy Van Roost was brightening up Montreal balconies and putting smiles on pandemic-weary passers-by with a litany of personalised messages on multicoloured banners hung across the city. "The idea is to spread a little love for people during their solo walks," she told AFP. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
  • Artist Patsy Van Roost on her balcony with a banner she created during the pandemic on May 6, Montreal. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
    Artist Patsy Van Roost on her balcony with a banner she created during the pandemic on May 6, Montreal. Sebastien St-Jean / AFP
  • A temporary foreign worker from Mexico plants strawberries on a farm in Mirabel, Quebec, May 6. Graham Hughes / AP
    A temporary foreign worker from Mexico plants strawberries on a farm in Mirabel, Quebec, May 6. Graham Hughes / AP

Hard-hit Canada is springing back to life – or to the already cliched 'new normal'


  • English
  • Arabic

Taking an afternoon stroll in the small park near our house in Montreal, it is tempting to think that normality is within reach. The city has finally shaken off the last vestiges of its long winter. Leaves have sprouted on trees almost overnight.

Grass is filling out patches of brown earth. The warmth of the Sun is invigorating, more so following weeks of confinement and the season’s shift. It feels like the first sip of water after days of fasting and privation.

More restaurant and cafe owners are opening their storefronts for takeout. You can pick up a coffee from Starbucks (at the entrance, after dropping your contactless credit card in a clear box to a masked barista) and sip it on a park bench. Most people walk around in solitude or in pairs, and maybe a third are wearing masks.

There are occasional glimpses of people flouting the rules of gathering too close. Some chat while their children frolic with squirrels nearby.

A young man and a woman sit together on a bench, talking, and then walk off in different directions to their respective homes.
The halting return to normality is startling because the province of Quebec is the scene of Canada's worst coronavirus outbreak.

There are signs that the danger is abating, but until a few days ago, it was one of the hardest hit places in the world, with Montreal at the centre.

There have been over 44,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and over 3,600 have died in Quebec. Over half of the cases, around 22,000, are in Montreal, as well as two thirds of the deaths in the province.

The daily death toll has slowed down but Montreal alone, at 2,200 deaths, accounts for over a third of Canada’s coronavirus fatalities.

There appear to be two main reasons for Montreal's predicament. Last month, the Montreal Gazette published an expose that revealed the deadly mismanagement and abandonment of elderly people at a nursing home in the city where the virus had spread.

I am reading that it is too soon, that there will probably be another wave and another lockdown

Subsequent revelations showed similarly dire conditions in other nursing homes in Montreal and other cities in Canada.

Deaths in those homes account for a scandalous 80 per cent of all deaths in the country, and there are 126 retirement homes and long-term care facilities with at least one confirmed case of infection by the coronavirus in Montreal.

The percentage is much higher than in Europe, and those conditions affect the elderly, the most vulnerable among us.


There is also a class component to the crisis. Lower income areas are more deeply affected, which echoes the inequalities that have come to the fore in the West because of the pandemic, such as the disproportionate number of deaths among African Americans in the US.
Despite all this, somehow, the death toll is stabilising. Quebec as a province has reopened businesses and daycares, and Montreal is supposed to follow suit next week with the reopening of retail stores, and daycares in the beginning of June.

Social distancing is supposed to be observed in all these situations. Emergency services have not been overwhelmed so far.
Montreal is so eclectic that it is hard to really describe it in a way that broadly captures its essence. But there is an unpretentious joy and embrace of living within it (despite the winter months) that is difficult to capture unless you have experienced it.

Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Ontario entered its first stage of reopening many businesses such as retail stores Tuesday, even as the number of new Covid-19 cases rose and the province extended its emergency orders, Canadian Press reported. Cole Burston / Bloomberg
Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 19. Ontario entered its first stage of reopening many businesses such as retail stores Tuesday, even as the number of new Covid-19 cases rose and the province extended its emergency orders, Canadian Press reported. Cole Burston / Bloomberg

The hum of conversation and the giggles of children in the park in the late afternoon in summer, the buzz of the Old Town, an espresso with cannoli in Little Italy, the light show in the Notre Dame cathedral, and the music all around.
The walks in the park, the gardens flowering again in the front yards, the takeout meal from your favourite date night restaurant, the tentative steps that we associate with normal, are seduction incarnate to souls hungry for the evolutionary imperative of social contact.

Is it the right thing to do? I am not an epidemiologist, though what I am reading tells me that it is too soon, that there will probably be another wave and another lockdown.

There are all these conversations happening about the "new normal," a phrase that's already become cliched, about the future of work, about whether we'll ever have offices again, how classes at McGill University and Concordia will resume in the autumn, about handshakes and masks and whether you should worry about delivery packages, if you should order in, and where you can find Lysol wipes, and on and on.

But it is easy to drown out all that for just a moment when you pick up the scent of grass through the haze of hand sanitiser. Because that whiff is a fitful glimpse at the light at the far, far end of the tunnel, and it is a little easier for a moment to have to be so far away from loved ones.
I just hope we take it slow, so we do not have to mourn so many between now and when we get there.

Kareem Shaheen is a former Middle East correspondent based in Canada

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The biog

Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents

Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University

As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families

Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too

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Quick pearls of wisdom

Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”

Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.” 

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying or online bullying could take many forms such as sending unkind or rude messages to someone, socially isolating people from groups, sharing embarrassing pictures of them, or spreading rumors about them.

Cyberbullying can take place on various platforms such as messages, on social media, on group chats, or games.

Parents should watch out for behavioural changes in their children.

When children are being bullied they they may be feel embarrassed and isolated, so parents should watch out for signs of signs of depression and anxiety

The National in Davos

We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.

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UAE v Gibraltar

What: International friendly

When: 7pm kick off

Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City

Admission: Free

Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page

UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

The biog

Favourite film: The Notebook  

Favourite book: What I know for sure by Oprah Winfrey

Favourite quote: “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness” Nelson Madela.           Hometown: Emmen, The Netherlands

Favourite activities: Walking on the beach, eating at restaurants and spending time with friends

Job: Founder and Managing Director of Mawaheb from Beautiful Peopl

DMZ facts
  • The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
  • It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
  • The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
  • It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
  • Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
  • Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
  • Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012. 
  • Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Equinox

Price, base / as tested: Dh76,900 / Dh110,900

Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder

Gearbox: Nine-speed automatic

Power: 252hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: Torque: 352Nm @ 2,500rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 8.5L / 100km

The Gandhi Murder
  • 71 - Years since the death of MK Gandhi, also christened India's Father of the Nation
  • 34 - Nationalities featured in the film The Gandhi Murder
  • 7 - million dollars, the film's budget 
The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

Desert Warrior

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Rating: 3/5