As North America prepares for a once-in-a-lifetime solar event, school districts across eastern Canada are weighing potential learning opportunities against possible risks, with most coming down solidly on the side of safety.
Many school boards are making arrangements to ensure students are not at school during the total solar eclipse on April 8, cancelling classes or opting for early dismissal. They cite concerns that kids might damage their eyes by looking directly at the sun, or that the mid-afternoon darkness will make their trek home dangerous.
The path of totality — an approximately 200-kilometre-wide swath where the moon fully blocks the light of the sun — stretches through cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. While the full eclipse will only last from one to three minutes, the event is expected to last for more than two hours during mid or late afternoon.
In Toronto, which falls just outside the path of totality and will only experience a partial eclipse that will peak at 3:19 p.m. ET, the city’s biggest school board rescheduled a professional development day for teachers from April 19 to April 8.
“As the eclipse will occur around the dismissal times of many schools, there were concerns that children would be outside and possibly looking directly at the sun, which without appropriate protection, can lead to serious problems such as partial or complete loss of eyesight,” reads a letter to parents, signed by Toronto District School Board director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.
Painless in the moment
The safety issues aren’t to be taken lightly, according to a Toronto ophthalmologist who specializes in retinal diseases.
When a person looks at the sun, it’s typically so bright that their eyes will reflexively close from irritation, said Panos Christakis. But during an eclipse, only a fraction of the light comes through, so your eyes can tolerate looking for a longer period, increasing the risk of damage.
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It would be painless at the moment, so a person would not realize until it was too late that they had permanently lost a significant amount of central vision, a condition called solar retinopathy.
That puts a heavy burden of responsibility on teachers in a classroom setting, he said.
“It just might be hard if a class is looking at this eclipse, having people monitoring to make sure that kids are not looking around the special glasses or are not using the right protection,” Christakis said.
A photo of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, shows the sun’s outer atmosphere — a white ring called the corona — peeking out behind the moon. (Philippe Moussette)
Eclipse-safe eye protection, such as the ISO 12312-2 glasses, are specifically developed and tested to prevent eye damage during an eclipse. But they’re not effective if they’re not being worn, he said.
“They’re thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses, so really, you can’t see anything except an extremely bright light,” he said.
“Kids may be underwhelmed by that experience and start peeking around them.”
Learning opportunity of a lifetime
Tracy Webb, an astrophysicist with the Trottier Space Institute at Montreal’s McGill University, worries the school closures are depriving kids of a valuable learning experience.
Montreal is in the path of totality, and most schools and daycares — including the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, one of the city’s three major French language school boards in the city — will be closed on April 8.
“It is their job to keep the kids safe during school hours and I appreciate that,” Webb said.
“But at the same time, it’s important to be reasonable and not blow it into something that it’s not.”
On April 8, a total solar eclipse is set to pass through parts of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Andrew Chang explains what makes a total eclipse so special, and why this is likely the only one you will ever experience.
Webb said the approximately minute-and-a-half of darkness in Montreal — which will not be pitch black, but rather similar to dawn or dusk — is “not going to cause chaos in the city.”
Webb plans to bring her kids to work with her that day to watch the eclipse. Ideally, she said, everyone would get the day off to view the rare spectacle together.
“My worry about closing schools is that only the kids whose parents can take time off work will be able to experience the eclipse now, whereas maybe school boards and the government could have organized something with the schools so that those kids had a chance also to see the eclipse,” she said.
Why are P.E.I. schools closing early for a solar eclipse?
Students on the Island will get out of class two hours early on April 8, the day the province will experience a full solar eclipse. Find out the reasons behind the move and where it’s left parents.
Montreal scientists Pierre Chastenay and Camille Turcotte penned an open letter in Le Journal de Montreal stating the Quebec government was fuelling hysteria and causing confusion by recommending closures.
Discover the Universe, a program run by Canadian astronomers that offers astronomy training for teachers, encouraged schools to offer opportunities for viewings, writing on its website that enabling students to engage with the eclipse “is the safest and most productive course of action schools can take.”
Proceeding with caution
In the United States, some schools are cancelling classes while others are organizing group viewings, even busing students into the path of totality. Teachers in Dallas were told at a teaching workshop that it would be “almost criminal” to keep students inside during the eclipse, according to the Associated Press.
In Canada, most major school boards are erring on the side of caution.
While most Ontario boards are rescheduling a professional development day, Ottawa’s biggest school board didn’t have a spare day to move so it’s simply eliminating a teaching day.
Prince Edward Island students will be dismissed two hours early “out of an abundance of caution,” the provincial government said in a news release. Alberton, P.E.I., will have one of the longest viewings in Canada, lasting for three minutes and three seconds when it happens at 4:35 AT.
When the sun, moon and Earth line up on April 8, Hilding Neilson will be outside looking up — even if it’s pouring rain. Neilson is hosting the Solar Eclipse Soiree in Gander, a four-day festival celebrating the science, culture and fun of this stellar moment.
Students in New Brunswick may be sent home early so they can “safely arrive at their after-school destination before the eclipse begins,” said the province’s education department.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has not announced plans to dismiss early, though it will experience the eclipse later in the day, hitting Gander at 5:12 p.m. NT. The eclipse will just skim the northern tip of Nova Scotia, where it can be viewed in Meat Cove.
Map of the path of totality in Canada for the April 8 solar eclipse. (Canadian Space Agency)
Tips for safe viewing
Even if schools are opting out, Webb urges parents to seek out viewing events in their communities.
In Montreal, McGill University will host an eclipse fair where 20,000 pairs of protective glasses will be available for the public.
If you have eclipse glasses, Christakis said you can test them by looking at a bright, uncovered light bulb. You should just be able to see a “very faint dot.”
He emphasized that it’s only safe to remove the glasses during the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely eclipsed by the moon and only the sun’s corona is visible as a faint halo.
You will know this is happening when you no longer see anything through the glasses, he said. Once even a sliver of sun reappears, the glasses need to go back on.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience our kids probably should participate in, or consider participating in, but obviously in a safe manner — using the right glasses and supervised by an adult,” he said.
FORT ST. JAMES, B.C. – A British Columbia First Nations leader says the province must rethink its approach to the forest industry in light of Canfor Corp.’s decision to shutter two sawmills and leave 500 workers without jobs.
Nak’azdli Whut’en Chief Colleen Erickson says First Nations must play a bigger role in the industry’s future in B.C. because Indigenous entities would not be “sending our profits elsewhere” as corporations not headquartered locally would.
Erickson’s comments Friday come after Canfor announced it will close mills in Vanderhoof, B.C., and Fort St. John, B.C., by the end of the year.
The Vancouver-based company says the challenge of accessing economically viable timber for fibre, ongoing financial losses, weak lumber markets and a big increase last month in U.S. tariffs all played a role in the decision.
But Erickson says most First Nations members in the area weren’t surprised Canfor could not access affordable fibre anymore due to what she calls “unsustainable” harvesting practices.
She also says an industry with heavier First Nations involvement would not shutter mills in B.C. and invest elsewhere because local community members “are not going anywhere.”
“I think most people have come to that (conclusion) because of the fact that they can just close their doors and go elsewhere to log, and everybody’s basically left on their own (here),” Erickson says.
“There’s no remediation on their part. There’s nothing to compel them to use some of the profits to help people diversify into something else. If things were local, then it would be a local discussion.”
The call for more local management of forest assets has been echoed by unions, including the Prince George, B.C., local of United Steelworkers whose members comprise 325 of the 500 positions lost in the closures.
“There needs to be a better effort by government to decide what vision they have for the industry in B.C.,” Scott Lunny, director of the union’s Western Canada district, said in a previous statement.
“If Canfor won’t do it, find a company that will invest in B.C.”
Public and Private Workers of Canada national president Geoff Dawe says while members of his union are not directly impacted, he agrees that companies that are not invested in local communities should lose their forest tenure rights.
“The government needs to step in and say, ‘Look, if you’re not going to use this tenure, then we need to give it to somebody that is,'” Dawe says. “Because we have a community here, and they should be looking after that community’s best interest.”
Provincial industry group BC Council of Forest Industries has said in light of the Canfor closures that advancing new agreements with First Nations is one key priority the province should have in safeguarding the sector’s future.
“New approaches to First Nations stewardship, forest tenure, treaty, and equity and investment will support economic reconciliation and build stronger partnerships with Indigenous communities,” council CEO Linda Coady said in a previous statement.
But the group also says the province also needs to be “providing a reliable supply of fibre to the industry.”
Erickson says that is where the province need to talk to First Nations more because she feels her community is more knowledgeable about sustainable management of forests locally than others from elsewhere.
“It’s very frustrating that we’ve come to this point,” she says. “But for sure we need to look at the remaining resource that we have and see how we can do better.
“We definitely need to do something different.”
— Chuck Chiang in Vancouver
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
U.S. authorities and the RCMP say a Canadian resident has been arrested in Quebec over an alleged Islamic State terror plot to kill Jewish people in New York around the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel last year.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that Pakistani national Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested Wednesday in relation to a planned mass shooting that wasto take place around Oct. 7.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland said Khan was alleged to have had the goal of “slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible.”
He said Khan was arrested thanks to “quick action” by Canadian law enforcement.
The department alleged in a news release that Khan intended to use “automatic and semi-automatic weapons” in a shooting at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn.
It said he was arrested in or around Ormstown, Que., on his way to New York.
He was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization.
The RCMP said it conducted an investigation into Khan in partnership with the FBI and, “that as his actions escalated, at no point in time was Khan an immediate threat prior to his arrest.”
It said Khan was to appear in the Superior Court of Justice in Montreal on Sept. 13, and that the U.S. would be seeking extradition.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said in a statement that “violent extremism” is on the rise around the world, including Canada.
“This planned antisemitic attack against Jewish people in the U.S. is deplorable and there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada,” he said.
The U.S. complaint against Khan says that starting around July, he told undercover officers of his intention to to carry out mass shootings at Jewish religious centres in the U.S.
It alleges he told the officers of his desire to create “a real off-line cell” of the Islamic State, directing them to obtain assault rifles and ammunition and “some good hunting [knives] so we can slit their throats.”
Oct. 7 was chosen as the date for the attack because there would likely be protests, the complaint says, while the Oct. 11 Yom Kippur holy day was also considered.
It says undercover officers told Khan last month they had secured weapons and, at 5:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Khan got in a vehicle in Toronto and set off for Napanee, Ont., picking up “additional passengers on the way.”
In Nepanee, they switched to a second car and drove to Montreal, where Khan and an “unidentified female” changed vehicles again, with another person at the wheel, the complaint says.
At 2.54 p.m., about 19 kilometres from the U.S. border, the vehicle was stopped by police and Khan was arrested.
The complaint alleges Khan wrote last week: “If we succeed with our plan, this would be the largest attack on US soil since 9/11.”
“The defendant was allegedly determined to kill Jewish people here in the United States, nearly one year after Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
“This investigation was led by the FBI, and I am proud of the terrific work by the FBI team and our partners to disrupt Khan’s plan.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
PARIS – Canada has surpassed its total medal count and gold medal count from the Tokyo Paralympics with two days remaining in Paris.
Wheelchair racer Cody Fournie earned his second gold of the Games, while discus thrower Jesse Zesseu took silver, both at Stade de France. In the pool, Sebastian Massabie struck gold for Canada’s 11th swimming medal and fourth gold.
Canada is now up to 23 medals and eight golds, having won 21 in total and five golds in Tokyo three years ago.
Fournie won the men’s T51 100-metre final while setting a personal best of 19.63 seconds after triumphing in the 200 on Tuesday. The 35-year-old from Rimbey, Alta., is making his Paralympic debut after years on the Canadian wheelchair rugby program.
“I feel wonderful, it feels great to get two gold medals at the Paralympics. I am going to bring back everything I learned from this event and apply (it) to my training back home in Victoria.”
For Zesseu, a 25-year-old from Toronto, it was redemption from his last performance in Paris a year ago.
He triple faulted in the discus, a moment he says was tough on him.
“I guess it was relief. I was here last year in exactly the same city, Paris, at the Stade Charlety (for the world championships) and I triple faulted. It was the worst moment in my life and I cried,” he said.
“I cried again now in Paris but for a different reason, a good reason.”
Zesseu threw 53.24 metres in the men’s F37 discus throw to place behind Tolibboy Yuldashev from Uzbekistan, whose gold-medal throw travelled a personal-best distance of 57.28 metres.
In the pool, Massabie set a world record in the men’s S4 50-metre freestyle just hours after setting the Paralympic record in the heats.
He set the Games record with 36.95 seconds earlier Friday and proceeded to swim a time of 35.61 seconds in the final to smash the previous world record of 36.25 by Israel’s Ami Omer Dadaon, who earned bronze on Friday, in 2022.
“I feel really, really happy, excited, and proud of myself,” said Massabie, who is one of 10 rookies on the Canadian Paralympic swim squad.
In women’s wheelchair basketball, Canada fell 72-61 to the Netherlands in the semifinals.
Arinn Young paced the Canadians with 29 points, while Kady Dandeneau had another 24.
Canada will next play China in the bronze-medal game on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
