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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,A ugust 25,2022 insidehalton.com Become a YMCA Child Care Educator today. Positions are available in Halton, including Mississauga, Milton, Georgetown, Acton and Limehouse. ymcagta.org/bethespark We are hiring. Apply today to join our team. ANITA ANAND Member of Parliament, Oakville @AnitaAnandMP@AnitaAnandMP@AnitaOakville anita.anand@parl.gc.ca While COVID-19 hospi- talizations in Halton are down, a rise in deaths relat- ed to the virus are being re- ported over the past week. The region's health de- partment reported the deaths of four Burlington residents and two others from Oakville. The region has reported 14 deaths re- lated to COVID-19 this month, which is twice the number in July. COVID-19 hospitaliza- tions in Halton dropped by more than 25 per cent over the previous weekend, with 21 people currently being treated at Halton's four hospitals, down from 27 when the region re- leased its previous update on Aug. 12. Halton's hospitals dropped below capacity, with 99 per cent of acute care beds occupied during the middle of last week, down from 107 per cent on Aug. 12. Capacity in inten- sive care units also saw a significant decrease, drop- ping from 69 per cent to 58 per cent. The region also report- ed 143 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Halton since the last update. There were 59 new cases in Bur- lington, 52 in Oakville, 22 in Milton and 10 in Halton Hills. Ontario's chief medical officer of health recently es- timated the actual number of cases to be three to four times higher due to the lack of available testing. The number of CO- VID-19 outbreaks in Halton fell from 11 to nine. Two new outbreaks were re- ported at Oakville's Chart- well Waterford retirement home and a congregate liv- ing setting. Outbreaks at the Georgetown Hospital and the Bennett Centre were declared over as were out- breaks at two long-term care homes: the Village of Tansley Woods in Burling- ton and West Oak Village in Oakville. WEEKLY ROUNDUP: REGION REPORTING RISE IN COVID-RELATED DEATHS REETI ROHILLA rrohilla@metroland.com Here's a weekly look at Halton's COVID cases and news. Graham Paine/Metroland NEWS The church also said Saturday that they have adopted a "widely recog- nized" definition of sexual abuse from the Mennonite Central Committee, which states that sexual abuse by a church leader refers to "any sexualized behaviour that occurs within the church context and where one party has more power than the oth- er." The perpetrator can be anyone in a leadership position, paid or volun- teer, the definition reads. In light of the new defi- nition, the church said it now believed the allega- tions substantiated against Cavey in the first investigation constituted more than just an abuse of power and sexual harass- ment. "We have now conclud- ed as a board that the ac- tions substantiated in the first investigation consti- tute sexual abuse by a church leader," the state- ment reads. "We truly apol- ogize to the first victim for the length of time this has taken." That alleged victim, who is identified by the pseudonym Alanna in a re- cent Star investigation, told reporter Morgan Bocknek that the church's initial statements mini- mized what she experi- enced. Day joined the Meeting House in 2001, according to Peter Schuurman's 2016 doctoral thesis. He left the senior pastor role in 2015, but the Star could not de- termine when he left the church altogether. He was not employed by the Meet- ing House when the allega- tions against him first sur- faced. Schuurman, who is now an adjunct professor of religion at Redeemer University, writes in his thesis that when Day was senior pastor he oversaw much of the day-to-day op- erations of the church and was the more detail-ori- ented yin to Cavey's char- ismatic yang. He writes that Day and Cavey called themselves the "mom and dad" of the Meeting House family. Continued from page 5 CHURCH APOLOGIZES TO ALLEGED VICTIMS