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Thousands of Canadians are thumbing their noses at government advice to stay home and hopping international flights to sunny destinations even as the COVID-19 crisis worsens in many parts of the country, CBC News has found.

Canadian air carriers operated more than 1,500 flights between Canada and 18 popular vacation destinations since Oct. 1, even as caseloads rise and the health crisis deepens.

While international travel is permitted, the federal government has been advising Canadians for nearly a year to avoid all "non-essential travel" outside the country without offering a clear definition or tools for authorities to prevent it.

CBC News tracked Canadian non-stop flights to and from popular resort destinations using data from Flightradar24.com between Oct. 1, 2020, and Jan. 16, 2021. Of the 1,516 flights analyzed, some of the most popular routes departing from Canada included 214 flights between Toronto and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 183 flights between Montreal and Cancun, Mexico. CBC excluded all known cancelled flights, as schedules continue to change.

WATCH |Travel rates 'worrying,' epidemiologist says:

Raywat Deonandan, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, says the data suggests a small portion of the Canadian public is choosing to disregard public health advice, putting themselves and the countries they visit at risk.

"I try not to judge people. Everyone's got their reasons," he said. "Maybe they need, you know, some kind of stress relief." However, for that many people to be knowingly acting against public health advice, there is likely some selfishness at play, he said.Read more on this story here.

(Matias Delacroix/The Associated Press)

Government doctors help each other put on protective gowns as they prepare to give free, rapid COVID-19 tests to residents who volunteer in the El Paraiso neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday.

The military commander leading Canada's COVID-19 vaccine logistics says manufacturers are expected to deliver up to one million doses a week starting in April.Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin said Thursday that the country will shift in the spring from phase one of the vaccine rollout immunizing particularly vulnerable people, such as long-term care home residents, some Indigenous adults and health-care providers to a wider rollout as deliveries become larger and more frequent. The federal government is expecting up to six million doses enough for three million people to be fully vaccinated using the Pfizer and Moderna two-dose products by the end of March. But Fortin conceded the government is still negotiating a delivery schedule. "We have a scarcity of vaccines in the first quarter," Fortin said. April will mark the start of what he's calling the "ramp-up phase."Read more on the vaccine rollout here.

As global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) surges during the pandemic, so has the human cost for those making it overseas, an investigation by CBC'sMarketplacehas found.It revealed that some of the life-saving equipment Canadian health-care workers are using appears to be made in sweatshop-like conditions raising doubts about Canada's commitment to international human rights and its ability to prevent unethically sourced goods from entering the country. "We can say without doubt that the [glove] industry remains a hotbed of systemic forced labour and modern slavery," said Andy Hall, an international migrant worker rights specialist based in Southeast Asia. "[Migrant workers] are not seen as human beings. They're often treated as second-class citizens and systemically abused." Several Canadian companies that have tens of millions of dollars in PPE contracts with the federal government imported goods from the Malaysian manufacturersMarketplaceinvestigated.Read more onthis story here.

WATCH | How unethically sourced PPE could be ending up in some Canadian hospitals:

Planning is now underway in Quebec and Ontario to prepare for the possibility hospitals may have to make a choice between who gets access to critical care beds when the demand for space exceeds capacity.It's a scenario some doctors never thought they would have to face and are still desperately trying to avoid. Staff at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal General Hospital will soon begin "dry runs," in which a group of three staff will decide if a patient is best suited to receive critical care, or if the bed should be left for someone with a better chance of survival, said Dr. Peter Goldberg, head of critical care at Montreal's McGill University Health Centre. Ontario, which also risks being overwhelmed with COVID-19 hospital patients, sent out a memo to ICU doctors on Wednesday to prepare to implement triage protocol if necessary.Read more on the critical care preparations here.

WATCH | Hospitals establish criteria for prioritizing critical COVID-19 patients:

West Vancouver billionaire Frank Giustra has been given the go-ahead to sue Twitter in a B.C. courtroom over the social media giant's publication of a series of tweets tying him to baseless conspiracy theories involving pedophile rings and Bill and Hillary Clinton.In a ruling released Thursday, Justice Elliott Myers found that Giustra's history and presence in B.C., combined with the possibility the tweets may have been seen by as many as 500,000 B.C. Twitter users, meant a provincial court should have jurisdiction over the case. It's a victory not only for Giustra, but for Canadian plaintiffs trying to hold U.S.-based internet platforms responsible for border-crossing content. In a statement, Giustra said he was looking forward to pursuing the case in the province where he built his reputation as the founder of Lionsgate Entertainment.Read more on the court case here.

A Moscow kebab shop owner is facing a backlash after he opened a take-out food shop bearing the name of Joseph Stalin.As CBC Moscow correspondent Chris Brown reports, Russians remain deeply conflicted over the totalitarian wartime leader's legacy and how they should see him today. Some say that using the image of a man responsible for millions of Russian deaths in the last century to sell fast food is a terrible sign that modern-day Russia is forgetting the oppression of its Communist past. The chief cook and creator of Stalin Doner views it differently. Stanislav Voltman, 27, opened his storefront in the middle of the Russian new year holiday last week and celebrated a vigorous first day serving more than 200 customers.Read more on the controversial food shop here.

Now for some good news to start your Friday:A southwest Calgary couple has found an inventive way to skip the lines at the ski resort this winter by turning their backyard into their own ski hill, complete with its own tow rope. It's only about 90 metres, so about the size of a bunny hill, but it still gets the kids up and down in a jiffy. One of the creators, Heather Park, says she suggested the idea so their three young daughters could keep busy this winter since many activities are closed. Her mechanical engineer husband, Ian, designed and built the tow by using a three-horsepower motor, yellow rope and a pulley system. He says it took him about 30 hours and a lot of trial and error to get it working right. "We have a great little slope in our backyard and it's perfect for kids to learn how to ski on," said Heather.Read more and check out the video here.

In the wake of last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Proud Boys a group founded by Canadian Gavin McInnes has been under intense pressure. The FBI is arresting some of its members. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has called for it to be designated a terrorist group, and the federal government is considering it. Today, how the Proud Boys started, and where they ended up, with Jared Holt a visiting researcher at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab who studies domestic extremism.

Front Burner27:33The Proud Boys: A brief history

1892:James Naismith first publishes his 13 rules of basketball in Triangle magazine in Springfield, Mass. The Almonte, Ont.-native devised the game the previous year whileteaching at the Springfield YMCA.

1950:A Royal Canadian Air Force crew arrives in Halifax from Vancouver, ending a record-setting flight in a four-engineNorth Star. At eight hours and 25 minutes, it was then the fastest non-stop, coast-to-coast flight in Canadian aviation history.

1990:Drastic cuts in Via Rail service take effect, eliminating more than 2,500 jobs and half of the railway's 38 routes.

2004:The NASA Spirit rover rolls onto the surface of Mars for the first time since the vehicle bounced to a landing nearly two weeks earlier.

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Get informed on the top stories of the day in one quick scan - CBC.ca