How to fix Canada's ER crisis

Plus, Toronto's proposed 2024 budget and a jail guard cover up [Get This Offer]( [The Star] First Up [By Manuela Vega] By Manuela Vega Good morning. The UN’s top court has begun hearings for South Africa’s allegation that Israel’s war with Hamas amounts to genocide against Palestinians. [You can find live updates here]( the latest on a crisis in emergency departments, Toronto’s proposed 2024 budget and jail guards violating the Charter. DON’T MISS Andrew Francis Wallace/The Star Health care [Canada’s doctors say our ERs are in crisis]( “Woefully underfunded,” understaffed and overcrowded, emergency departments across the country are struggling to care for an “avalanche of patients” with respiratory illness, the Canadian Medical Association says. The latest data shows patients admitted to hospital are waiting 22.4 hours on average for a bed and only 23 per cent of patients admitted to hospital from the ER got a bed within the target time of eight hours, Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace report. “I don’t think it’s ever been as bad as it is in each of the provinces as it is right now,” one Medicine Hat, Alta., emergency physician said. [Here’s what Canada’s doctors say is needed to change the “truly dire” landscape](. - By the numbers: Signs of struggling emergency departments can be seen across the country. In Quebec, for example, the average occupancy rate sits well above 100 per cent. Last week, an Ottawa hospital emergency department told patients it would take nearly 20 hours to be assessed by a doctor. - Why it matters: Excessive wait times can have deadly consequences. In B.C., a 55-year-old woman with a kidney condition died in December after waiting 14 hours for care. In Winnipeg, a hospital patient died in November after spending 33 hours in the emergency department hallway waiting to be transferred to an in-patient bed. Andrew Francis Wallace/The Star city hall [Toronto’s budget proposes current tax pain for future gain]( It’ll be a painful year for Toronto taxpayers but one city staff say will leave the city in better shape after years of neglect, Alyshah Hasham, Ben Spurr and David Rider report. The budget committee approved a plan for a historic 10.5 per cent property tax increase as Mayor Olivia Chow said “we have to fix the things that are broken.” She didn’t disclose what she thinks of the proposed hike, but said she’ll listen to what residents say in public consultations before releasing her version of the budget on Feb. 1. [Here’s where taxpayer money could be going](. - Go deeper: If Ottawa doesn’t contribute $250 million for the city to house an increasing number of vulnerable refugee claimants arriving in Toronto, the budget chief will be proposing an additional six per cent “federal impacts levy” to bring the total tax hike to 16.5 per cent. - More: The proposed operating budget also freezes TTC fares for the year, slightly increases police funding (though not as much as requested by the police board) and invests more into a mental health crisis response service. [Here are more key takeaways](. Supplied Photo/Ontario Superior Court policing [Toronto jail guards’ “cover up” of a pepper-spray incident resulted in gun charges being tossed]( A judge found this week that Toronto jail guards co-ordinated a “shocking and disturbing” coverup of a colleague’s use of force — but video evidence proved their account was “obviously untrue.” Ontario Superior Court Justice Jennifer Penman ruled that an unwarranted use of pepper spray, the 15 days’ solitary confinement the inmate was subjected to afterwards and the guards’ collective “cover up” efforts amounted to a serious violation of Charter rights, Emily Fagan reports. [Here’s what the video shows — and how the factors at play led the judge to toss the inmate’s gun charges](. - Go deeper: “There was really no fear of consequence for writing these reports and then coming to court and then clearly lying on the record,” the lawyer for the pepper-sprayed man said of the guards’ actions. - More: The now-former inmate had been charged with possessing a loaded firearm without a license. The then-19-year-old with no criminal record was held at the Toronto East jail ahead of trial. He was pepper-sprayed on Nov. 21, 2022. WHAT ELSE Justin Trudeau and his Liberals have hit new lows in support. [Take a look at the data in a new poll](. Here’s how Justin Trudeau is responding to [calls for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault by Hamas](. International students angered by failing grades say they were exploited. [Now the university is giving them a second chance](. Journalist Brandi Morin was among those arrested in an Edmonton encampment raid. [Here’s what we know](. [Efforts in the U.S. to restrict transgender health care endure in 2024]( with more adults targeted. It’s been four years since the downing of Flight PS752 — [Iranian-Canadians are still waiting for action](. Police say there is “no evidence” a break-in at a [beloved Jewish-owned bakery in North York was hate-motivated](. After the Raptors coach’s rant, the NBA admitted it missed two calls in the final minutes of the Raptors game. [But both hurt the Lakers](. Toronto’s financial district still hasn’t recovered from the pandemic — [with one glaring exception](. “Significant snowfall” is forecast to begin Friday in the GTA. [Here’s what to expect](. Dune: Part 2, Back to Black and more: [These are 10 movies we can’t wait to watch in 2024](. Here’s why you might want to [stop making your bed in the morning.]( POV Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick [Pierre Poilievre will defend the media — but only when it suits him.]( CLOSE-UP Earvin Perias/AFP via Getty Images PHILIPPINES: Catholic devotees jostle with each other as they try to touch a glass-covered carriage carrying the so-called Black Nazarene during an annual religious procession in Manila on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful swarmed a historic statue of Jesus Christ as it was pulled through the streets, in one of the world’s biggest displays of religious devotion. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_206917). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. 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