Courtney Greenberg - Yesterday
© Patrick Doyle/Reuters
Police officers stand in front of trucks as truckers and supporters continue to protest COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa, February 4, 2022.
An American man who allegedly made a bomb threat to police in Ottawa, Ohio confused it with Canada’s capital, where a group of truckers have been protesting against COVID-19 mandates for weeks.
Ohio police said the 20-year-old suspect meant to target Ottawa, Ontario to waste the time and resources of local authorities.
The man called the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on Monday and said he was going to set off a bomb in Ottawa, according to Captain Brad Brubaker. After tracing the call, police determined it was coming from the Akron, Ohio area.
“He called back a second time claiming he had been shot. When he found out he was talking to Ohio and not Canada, he said he hadn’t been shot but was simply trying to waste (Canadian authorities’) time and resources because he didn’t agree with their mask mandate,” Brubaker told The Lima News.
He later admitted there was no bomb.
The suspect apparently found the Ohio phone number after an online search for the Ottawa Police Department.
“You’d think with him being from Ohio the ‘419’ area code might have rung a bell,” said Brubaker.
He is writing a report about the call to submit to a prosector to determine whether charges will be laid.
The incident was not the first time the two police departments were mixed up. In a Facebook post , the Ohio department said they received calls from Canadian citizens who had also mistaken them for authorities in the Ontario city. Ohio police wanted to ensure the “messages and concerns are heard by the correct agency,” the post explained.
This comes as the Canadian protests sparked by COVID mandates for truckers continue to make headlines in the United States. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are just a few of the high-profile supporters of the so-called Freedom Convoy and its aftermath.
Hundreds of truckers remain in Ottawa, while blockades across the country have shut down three U.S.-Canada border crossings.
FIRST READING: Should the Americans invade to break the trucker blockades?
An American man who allegedly made a bomb threat to police in Ottawa, Ohio confused it with Canada’s capital, where a group of truckers have been protesting against COVID-19 mandates for weeks.
Ohio police said the 20-year-old suspect meant to target Ottawa, Ontario to waste the time and resources of local authorities.
The man called the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on Monday and said he was going to set off a bomb in Ottawa, according to Captain Brad Brubaker. After tracing the call, police determined it was coming from the Akron, Ohio area.
“He called back a second time claiming he had been shot. When he found out he was talking to Ohio and not Canada, he said he hadn’t been shot but was simply trying to waste (Canadian authorities’) time and resources because he didn’t agree with their mask mandate,” Brubaker told The Lima News.
He later admitted there was no bomb.
The suspect apparently found the Ohio phone number after an online search for the Ottawa Police Department.
“You’d think with him being from Ohio the ‘419’ area code might have rung a bell,” said Brubaker.
He is writing a report about the call to submit to a prosector to determine whether charges will be laid.
The incident was not the first time the two police departments were mixed up. In a Facebook post , the Ohio department said they received calls from Canadian citizens who had also mistaken them for authorities in the Ontario city. Ohio police wanted to ensure the “messages and concerns are heard by the correct agency,” the post explained.
This comes as the Canadian protests sparked by COVID mandates for truckers continue to make headlines in the United States. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are just a few of the high-profile supporters of the so-called Freedom Convoy and its aftermath.
Hundreds of truckers remain in Ottawa, while blockades across the country have shut down three U.S.-Canada border crossings.
FIRST READING: Should the Americans invade to break the trucker blockades?
CANADA
The COVID Alert app cost millions. Was it of any use?
MobileSyrup- Thursday
The COVID Alert app was presented as the solution to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus when released in July 2020.
But almost two years later, it hasn’t been as helpful as initially thought, policy experts told CBC’s radio show Cost of Living.
“I don’t think the COVID Alert app made much of a difference in our fight against COVID,” Peter Loewen, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, told the show.
The outlet notes the app cost $21 million to develop and promote. More than 371,000 notifications were sent between its launch and January 31.
The app uses Bluetooth signals to exchange codes with other phones that have the app. Users who spend 15 minutes near another positive user are alerted.
It doesn’t track personal information, like names or locations. It also doesn’t track if those who received a notice of exposure completed any further testing.
“It’s simply impossible to say that the app did anything of significance,” Jason Millar, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, told Cost of Living.
“You should be extremely skeptical of anyone who claims they can measure the app’s success in preventing cases or saving lives… There is no data that I’ve seen to support the claim that it did anything of the sort.”
Source: CBC/Cost of Living
The COVID Alert app cost millions. Was it of any use?
MobileSyrup- Thursday
The COVID Alert app was presented as the solution to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus when released in July 2020.
But almost two years later, it hasn’t been as helpful as initially thought, policy experts told CBC’s radio show Cost of Living.
“I don’t think the COVID Alert app made much of a difference in our fight against COVID,” Peter Loewen, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, told the show.
The outlet notes the app cost $21 million to develop and promote. More than 371,000 notifications were sent between its launch and January 31.
The app uses Bluetooth signals to exchange codes with other phones that have the app. Users who spend 15 minutes near another positive user are alerted.
It doesn’t track personal information, like names or locations. It also doesn’t track if those who received a notice of exposure completed any further testing.
“It’s simply impossible to say that the app did anything of significance,” Jason Millar, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, told Cost of Living.
“You should be extremely skeptical of anyone who claims they can measure the app’s success in preventing cases or saving lives… There is no data that I’ve seen to support the claim that it did anything of the sort.”
Source: CBC/Cost of Living
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