Marco Bélair-Cirino — Le Devoir
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About Marco Bélair-Cirino — Le Devoir
Marco Bélair-Cirino coordinates the work of Le Devoir parliamentary correspondents in Quebec City and Ottawa. He himself was a parliamentary correspondent in Quebec City (2014-2022), in addition to assuming the responsibilities of president of the Press Gallery of the Quebec Parliament during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Marco Bélair-Cirino also co-authored with his colleague Dave Noël the book Les lieux de pouvoir au Québec (Boréal, 2019). He joined the newspaper's team in 2008.
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Global News
10 hours ago
- Global News
RFK Jr. removes all 17 members of U.S. vaccine advisory panel
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines and pledged to replace them with his own picks. Major physicians and public health groups criticized the move to oust all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy, who was one of the nation's leading anti-vaccine activists before becoming the nation's top health official, has not said who he would appoint to the panel, but said it would convene in just two weeks in Atlanta. Although it's typically not viewed as a partisan board, the Biden administration had installed the entire committee. 'Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,' Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. 'A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.' Story continues below advertisement Kennedy said the committee members had too many conflicts of interest. Committee members routinely disclose any possible conflicts at the start of public meetings. Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Kennedy's mass ouster 'a coup.' 'It's not how democracies work. It's not good for the health of the nation,' Benjamin told The Associated Press. 0:37 RFK announces COVID vaccine removal from immunization schedule for pregnant women and children Benjamin said the move raises real concerns about whether future committee members will be viewed as impartial. He added that Kennedy is going against what he told lawmakers and the public, and the public health association plans to watch Kennedy 'like a hawk.' Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'He is breaking a promise,' Benjamin said. 'He said he wasn't going to do this.' Dr. Bruce A. Scott, president of the American Medical Association, called the committee a trusted source of science- and data-driven advice and said Kennedy's move, coupled with declining vaccination rates across the country, will help drive an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases. Story continues below advertisement 'Today's action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,' Scott said in a statement. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who had expressed reservations about Kennedy's nomination but voted to install him as the nation's health secretary nonetheless, said he had spoken with Kennedy moments after the announcement. 'Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,' Cassidy said in a social media post. 'I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I'll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.' 9:34 RFK Jr. and Elizabeth Warren get into heated debate over vaccine question at confirmation hearing The committee had been in a state of flux since Kennedy took over. Its first meeting this year had been delayed when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abruptly postponed its February meeting. Story continues below advertisement During Kennedy's confirmation, Cassidy had expressed concerns about preserving the committee, saying he had sought assurances that Kennedy would keep the panel's current vaccine recommendations. Kennedy did not stick to that. He recently took the unusual step of changing COVID-19 recommendations without first consulting the advisers. The webpage that featured the committee's members was deleted Monday evening, shortly after Kennedy's announcement.
Winnipeg Free Press
11 hours ago
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RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
South Dakota is on track to spend $2 billion on prisons in the next decade
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Neighbors Minnesota and North Dakota have rates of under 250 per 100,000 people, according to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit. Nearly half of South Dakota's projected inmate population growth can be attributed to a law approved in 2023 that requires some violent offenders to serve the full-length of their sentences before parole, according to a report by Arrington Watkins. When South Dakota inmates are paroled, about 40% are ordered to return to prison, the majority of those due to technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a parole officer. Those returning inmates made up nearly half of prison admissions in 2024. Sioux Falls criminal justice attorney Ryan Kolbeck blamed the high number of parolees returning in part on the lack of services in prison for people with drug addictions. 'People are being sent to the penitentiary but there's no programs there for them. There's no way it's going to help them become better people,' he said. 'Essentially we're going to put them out there and house them for a little bit, leave them on parole and expect them to do well.' South Dakota also has the second-greatest disparity of Native Americans in its prisons. While Native Americans make up one-tenth of South Dakota's population, they make up 35% of those in state prisons, according to Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit public policy group. Though legislators in the state capital, Pierre, have been talking about prison overcrowding for years, they're reluctant to dial back on tough-on-crime laws. For example, it took repeated efforts over six years before South Dakota reduced a controlled substance ingestion law to a misdemeanor from a felony for the first offense, aligning with all other states. 'It was a huge, Herculean task to get ingestion to be a misdemeanor,' Kolbeck said. Former penitentiary warden Darin Young said the state needs to upgrade its prisons, but he also thinks it should spend up to $300 million on addiction and mental illness treatment. 'Until we fix the reasons why people come to prison and address that issue, the numbers are not going to stop,' he said. Without policy changes, the new prisons are sure to fill up, criminal justice experts agreed. 'We might be good for a few years, now that we've got more capacity, but in a couple years it'll be full again,' Kolbeck said. 'Under our policies, you're going to reach capacity again soon.'
