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Military to support vaccination efforts in northern Ontario Indigenous communities

The Canadian military is set to help with COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Indigenous communities in northern Ontario.
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces are being sent to northern Ontario after a request from the province for assistance in getting vaccines to First Nation communities. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

The Canadian military is set to help with COVID-19 vaccine distribution in northern Ontario, as officials investigate the death of a teenager who had the virus and worked at a long-term care home in the province's southwest.

Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair tweeted Sunday that the Canadian Armed Forces will support vaccine efforts in 32 communities of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. The move came after a request from the province for assistance in getting vaccine to First Nations communities, he wrote.

"Our government will always be there to support the fight against .COVID19," he wrote on Twitter.

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation, whose territory comprises 49 remote communities in northwestern Ontario, did not immediately comment on the pending deployment.

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