Focus Saskatchewan

Some news from me today: It's my last day at @GlobalSaskatoon. I'm moving to Toronto to join Global's Online National Breaking News team. It's been an intense few years in Sask and I'll miss the province. Thank you to everyone who trusted me to tell your stories

Greg Fertuck, on trial for the first-degree murder of his ex-partner Sheree Fertuck, will be allowed to reopen his voir dires (trial within a trial). A judge ruled Fertuck must be allowed to ask more questions of a firearms expert and his ex-girlfriend. #Sask

Humboldt Bronco, families, say it doesn’t feel like 5 years since bus crash | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/9605768/h…

Here’s my report from yesterday. In question period, he said the Gov’t made the best decisions they could with the info they had at the time. Global News requested to speak to Merriman after question period. We were told he wasn’t available. globalnews.ca/news/9566089/s…

He did answer questions from the Sask NDP’s health critic. Merriman said the government “made the best decisions we could with the information we had at that time.”

An update to my previous thread. Health Minister Paul Merriman was at question period today and Global News requested to speak to him afterwards during scrums. We were told he isn’t available.

There’s a lot more to this story. You can read it here And @FocusSask returns tonight at 6:30 with an eight-minute broadcast piece on this. globalnews.ca/news/9559647/s…

The health ministry said Shahab was away until the end of the month and that they’ll check on an interview with him when he returns.

Global News asked for an interview with health minister Paul Merriman. The government did not agree to a one-on-one interview. The health ministry's statement that said the government’s measures “were proportionate and helped to reduce pressures on the acute care system.”

The Sask Gov’t implemented a mask mandate on Sept. 16, 2021 and a vaccine passport or proof of a recent negative test mandate on Oct. 1, 2021. Many medical experts said those were needed sooner and that the province also needed capacity limits to stop the spread.

The red font in the photo in the previous tweet shows the government’s redactions under the FOI Act.

A Sept. 7, 2021 note states “Provincial vaccination coverage… is insufficient to prevent acute care collapse in absence of province-wide and targeted local measures to blunt spread." An email from the same day shows that note went to the health minister’s office.

The records came back more than a year later. They show Shahab’s office warned the health care system would be overwhelmed more than a month in advance of patients being transferred.

For months medical experts had called on the province to implement more restrictions to prevent the disease from spreading. Global News wanted to know what Dr. Shahab had recommended to the government, so we used a freedom of information request.

In October 2021 Saskatchewan’s ICUs were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and started transferring them to Ontario for care. The province’s top doctor Dr Saqib Shahab had repeatedly asked the public to wear masks and get vaccinated. During a COVID briefing, he started crying.