Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today the effort to airlift those fleeing Afghanistan out of Kabul will end in the coming days, with a government source confirming to CBC News that last Canadian-operated flight out of the Kabul airport is expected to leave on Thursday.
Earlier today, another government source told CBC News that Canada could have just 24 to 48 hours to get planes in and out of the capital.
The source — who has knowledge of the mission but wasn’t authorized to speak publicly — said only a limited number of flights remain for Canada’s military and they’re running against the clock.”Yes, in the coming days this phase will end,” Trudeau told reporters while campaigning today.
“But there’s a lot more work to do that we will continue to do to keep helping the Afghan people.”
The Thursday departure date was first reported by the Globe and Mail.
In a statement Wednesday evening, the Department of National Defence declined to comment “exactly when the civilian airlift will cease for reasons of operational security.”
“The Canadian Armed Forces will continue working hard to evacuate as many people as possible for as long as conditions permit,” the DND statement said.
Earlier Wednesday during a media briefing, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan would not comment on how much time is left. He said things are moving quickly on the ground.
WATCH | Sajjan offers update on situation in Kabul:
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan provides update on evacuation mission in Afghanistan
9 hours ago
Sajjan says Canadian Armed Forces working hard to get as many Afghans to safety as possible. 1:53
“The situation is changing literally by the hour. I’ll be getting a detailed briefing shortly on the withdrawal plan but one thing I can assure you, we will continue to bring out as many Afghans as possible,” he told reporters.
“As the Americans draw down to meet their deadline, partner nations, including Canada, must draw down our troops, assets and aircraft ahead of the Americans. These moves are necessary for the U.S. to safely maintain control of the airport until they depart.”
Allies are up against similar deadlines. U.K. Defence Minister Ben Wallace said the evacuation effort is “down to hours now, not weeks.”
Tens of thousands of Afghans fearing persecution under the Taliban, which swept to power in recent days, have rushed to Kabul’s airport hoping to escape the country.
It’s like leaving the mouse in the mouth of the lion.– Former Afghan interpreter
Earlier this week, the government said Canada’s special forces are working outside the security zone of the Kabul airport to identify and bring Canadian citizens and eligible Afghan nationals and their families through the security gates to waiting aircraft.
But many advocacy groups and people on the ground have reported problems with reaching officials and have criticized the government for not acting sooner.
One Afghan interpreter who worked for Canada’s military said the the Taliban blocked him from getting onto a military plane and beat him up. CBC News is protecting his identity because he fears for his security and the safety of his three children and pregnant wife.
“They made us wait for two hours then said, ‘You are not allowed to go inside.’ They have plastic pipes and wooden sticks. They just beat you like a stone with a hammer,” he said.
“It’s like leaving the mouse in the mouth of the lion.”
He said the military needs to send buses to escort families like his to the airport. He fears it may already be too late.
“I just count my days until I’m dead.”
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said that as of Aug. 24, Canada had airlifted more than 2,700 people out of Kabul, including Afghan refugees, Canadian citizens, permanent residents and other foreign nationals.
Canada has struck an air-bridge agreement with other countries that allows people bound for Canada to catch rides out of Kabul on allied aircraft while Canada steps up in the same fashion.
In Kabul, our <a href=”https://twitter.com/CanadianForces?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CanadianForces</a> are saving lives. <br><br>Yesterday, a <a href=”https://twitter.com/RCAF_ARC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@RCAF_ARC</a> flight evacuated 506 people from Afghanistan – many of whom are now on their way to their new home in Canada. I know that Canadians will welcome them as we always do.<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcomeToCanada?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WelcomeToCanada</a> ???????? <a href=”https://t.co/rA38Chn3In”>pic.twitter.com/rA38Chn3In</a>
Mendicino said today that close to 1,000 Afghans have arrived in Canada and over 300 have now finished quarantine.
“We are now going to be moving into the next phase of this operation, which is to provide support to Afghans after the coalition withdraws,” he said.
Canada has so far evacuated more people out of Afghanistan than 10 other countries, including Spain, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, according to the Immigration Minister’s office’s tracking numbers, which are based on media stories.
The White House says the airlift overall has flown out 82,300 Afghans, Americans and others on a mix of U.S., international and private flights. Britain said on Wednesday it has evacuated more than 11,000 people from Afghanistan.
WATCH | O’Toole says Trudeau has ‘abandoned’ people in Afghanistan:
O’Toole says Trudeau has ‘abandoned’ people in Afghanistan
8 hours ago
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has abandoned people in Afghanistan — but isn’t saying exactly what he would have done differently. 1:46
Just yesterday, following a virtual G7 meeting, Trudeau said Canada will remain in Afghanistan beyond the Aug. 31 date to help evacuate more Canadians and eligible Afghans — as long as the security situation permits.
“I emphasized that Canada is ready to stay beyond the 31st deadline, if it’s at all possible, because we want to save as many people as possible and Canadians are ready to work to try and do that,” he said.
A PMO spokesperson later clarified that the prospect of Canadian Forces’ remaining in Kabul beyond the end of the month depends on the extension of the U.S. military presence, and that Canada would not remain in Afghanistan after the U.S. pulled out its troops.
“The international community has a few very clear expectations and demands of the Taliban if they want to be even engaged with constructively and positively, whether it’s financially, whether it’s in terms of food security, whether it’s plenty of things that are needed in order to set up a functional society that they have just taken by violence,” he said.
Today, Maryam Monsef, the minister for women and gender equality, made a direct appeal to the Taliban to allow Canada to evacuate people safely.
“I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers the Taliban. We call on you to ensure the safe and secure passage of any individual in Afghanistan out of the country,” she said.
After fielding more questions, she said her use of the word “brothers” was a cultural reference.
WATCH | Maryam Monsef calls on Taliban ‘brothers’ to permit Afghans to evacuate:
Maryam Monsef calls on Taliban ‘brothers’ to allow safe passage to people fleeing Afghanistan
5 hours ago
Monsef, the Liberals’ minister for women and gender equality, says Muslims often refer to each other as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ but she still views the Taliban as a terrorist organization. 1:14
“Muslims refer to one another as brother and sisters,” said Monsef, who fled the Taliban with her widowed mother and two younger sisters in the 1990s.
“But let me be very clear, we do not support the Taliban, we are horrified that the hard won gains of the past 20 years are at stake like this and being eroded like this.”
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said the “language used by the Trudeau government is completely unacceptable.”
“I would never abandon people as Mr. Trudeau has,” he said in Brampton, Ont. today. “We had months to act when it would have been much less of a risk to operate.”
WATCH | Singh says ‘it looks like Canada has failed’ its Afghan allies:
Singh says ‘it looks like Canada has failed’ its Afghan allies
10 hours ago
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says Canada needs to do everything it can to get its allies out of Afghanistan. 1:32
When asked what he would have done differently, the Conservative leader said he would work with the Canadian Armed Forces and allies.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Canada should not recognize the Taliban.
“When it comes to our relationship with Taliban, I am very firm on this is a terrorist organization that we should not be dealing with,” he said during a campaign stop in Windsor, Ont.
“We should not be recognizing but we need to do everything we can to secure the release of our allies.”
Watch | Retired journalist Kevin Newman says Afghans have virtually no way to get into Kabul airport:
‘There is virtually no way to get into the [Kabul] airport’: Retired journalist on Afghan evacuations
2 hours ago
Retired journalist Kevin Newman, who is actively involved in the humanitarian effort to get eligible Afghans out of Afghanistan, told Power & Politics Wednesday that he doesn’t have much hope that Canada will be able to move a significant number of Afghans out of the country in the next 24-28 hours. 7:15
GENEVA (AP) — Two former Olympic champions are in the race to be the next IOC president. So is a prince of a Middle East kingdom and the son of a former president. The global leaders of cycling, gymnastics and skiing also are in play.
The International Olympic Committee published a list Monday of seven would-be candidates who are set to run for election in March to succeed outgoing president Thomas Bach for the next eight years.
Just one woman, IOC executive board member Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe, entered the contest to lead an organization that has had only male presidents in its 130-year history. Eight of those presidents were from Europe and one from the United States.
Coventry and Sebastian Coe are two-time gold medalists in swimming and running, respectively. Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan is also on the IOC board.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain is one of the four IOC vice presidents, whose father was president for 21 years until 2001.
David Lappartient is the president of cycling’s governing body, Morinari Watanabe leads gymnastics, and Johan Eliasch is president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. Coe is the president of track’s World Athletics.
All seven met a deadline of Sunday to send a letter of intent to Bach, who must leave the post next year after reaching the maximum 12 years in office. Bach declined at the Paris Olympics last month to seek to change IOC rules in order to stay in office longer.
A formal candidate list should be confirmed in January, three months before the March 18-21 election meeting in Greece, near the site of Ancient Olympia.
Only IOC members are eligible to stand as candidates, with votes cast by the rest of the 111-strong membership of the Olympic body.
The IOC is one of the most exclusive clubs in world sports. Its members are drawn from European and Middle East royalty, leaders of international sports bodies, former and current Olympic athletes, politicians and diplomats plus industrialists, including some billionaires like Eliasch.
It makes for one of the most discreet and quirky election campaigns in world sports, with members prevented from publicly endorsing their pick.
Campaign limits on the candidates include a block on publishing videos, organizing public meetings and taking part in public debates. The IOC will organize a closed-door meeting for candidates to address voters in January in its home city Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC top job ideally calls for deep knowledge of managing sports, understanding athletes’ needs and nimble skills in global politics.
The president oversees an organization that earns billions of dollars in revenue from broadcasting and sponsor deals for the Olympic Games and employs hundreds of staff in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Coe has been widely considered the most qualified candidate. A two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500-meters, he was later an elected lawmaker in Britain in the 1990s, led the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee and has presided at World Athletics for nine years.
However, he has potential legal hurdles regarding his ability to serve a full eight-year mandate. The IOC has an age limit of 70 for members, while Coe will be 68 on election day. The rules allow for a special exemption to remain for four more years, but that would mean a six-year presidency unless those limits are changed.
Coventry, who turned 41 Monday, also has government experience as the appointed sports minister in Zimbabwe.
The only woman ever to stand as an IOC presidential candidate was Anita DeFrantz, a former Olympic rower from the United States. She was eliminated in the first round of voting in a five-candidate election in 2001, which was won by Jacques Rogge.
Lappartient also is president of France’s national Olympic body and has carried strong momentum from the Paris Summer Games. He leads a French Alps project that was picked to host the 2030 Winter Games and was picked by Bach to oversee a long-term project sealed in Paris that will see Saudi Arabia hosting the Esports Olympic Games through 2035.
Eliasch is perhaps the most surprising candidate after being elected as an IOC member in Paris less than two months ago. The Swedish-British owner of the Head sportswear brand got 17 “no” votes, a notably high number in Olympic politics.
TORONTO – Ontario is proposing to further expand pharmacists’ scope of practice by adding to the list of minor ailments they can assess, allowing them to administer more vaccines and order some lab tests.
But while pharmacists see the proposal as an overdue solution to easing the burden on other aspects of the health-care system by leaning more on their professional expertise, doctors are raising concerns.
The government in early 2023 granted pharmacists the ability to assess and treat 13 minor ailments, including pink eye, hemorrhoids and urinary tract infections. In the fall of that year six more were added to the list, including acne, canker sores and yeast infections.
Now, the government is proposing to expand the list to include sore throat, calluses and corns, mild headaches, shingles, minor sleep disorders, fungal nail infections, swimmers’ ear, head lice, nasal congestion, dandruff, ringworm, jock itch, warts and dry eye.
As well, the Ministry of Health is looking for feedback on what lab tests and point-of-care tests might be required for pharmacists to order and perform as part of assessing and treating those conditions.
The government is also considering funding pharmacists to administer tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, pneumococcal, shingles and RSV vaccines for adults, in addition to COVID-19 and flu vaccines. The province is proposing to allow pharmacy technicians to administer the same vaccines as pharmacists.
“Our government is focused on improving access to care in communities across the province and we have seen the success of our minor ailment program, connecting over 1 million people to treatment for minor ailments,” Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, wrote in a statement.
Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said the minor ailments program has been going well so far, and further expanding pharmacists’ scope can help avoid visits to family doctors and emergency rooms.
“We want to build health-care capacity through looking at pharmacies as a health-care hub and the pharmacists’ trusted relationship with their patients and to leverage that, because they are underutilized when it comes to what scope they can do,” he said.
But doctors are pushing back on the scope expansions.
“The bottom line here is that pharmacists are not doctors,” said Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the Ontario Medical Association. “Doctors are trained for years and thousands of hours to diagnose and treat conditions.”
Nowak said that sometimes the symptoms that would seem to suggest one of those minor ailments are really a sign of a more serious condition, and it takes a doctor to recognize that.
“When I look at a lot of the minor ailments list, I think to myself, there’s nothing minor about many of these,” Nowak said.
“Many of these ailments rely on the patient … one, knowing the diagnosis themselves, so the patient’s own opinion. And last I heard, most of my patients haven’t been to medical school. And then two: it also relies on the patient’s own opinion about whether this is something minor or something serious.”
Bates said he has been “disappointed” at some of the messaging from doctors, and added that any notion that there is an increased risk to patient safety is “misinformation.”
“I want to support OMA and primary care, and I do – in hiring more doctors, solving some of their issues – but it shouldn’t come at the expense of other health professions gaining their … appropriate scope of practice,” he said.
“So it’s not a zero sum game here. We want to have physicians be comfortable with this, but … the way that some of these doctors are responding, it’s almost like hysteria.”
The government’s proposal on its regulatory registry is open for comment until Oct. 20.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – The president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities says communities have billions of dollars worth of infrastructure that will need replacing in the next decade and the province needs to step in with new funding to help.
Trish Mandewo says a call for $650 million in additional infrastructure money each year is one of a series of requests the organization is making to provincial leaders days before B.C.’s provincial election will be called.
They’re also asking for a percentage of the provincial property transfer tax to support housing projects, and a share of the growth in the carbon tax to help pay for responding to extreme weather.
Local politicians are gathering for their annual convention in Vancouver this week and are expected to cover a range of topics including housing, the toxic drug crisis, growing financial pressures, and a host of other issues.
Mandewo, who is on Coquitlam City Council, says the municipalities are looking for a new, flexible revenue stream to help fund an estimated $24 billion in infrastructure replacement that’s expected to be needed in the next 10 years.
She says without the additional money, municipalities won’t be able to build “complete communities” without raising taxes.
“So it’s the individual taxpayers that are going to be paying for that, because local governments have no other way of raising funding,” she said.
Mandewo says municipalities are facing rising costs due to extreme weather events like fires, floods, droughts and heat domes and the scale of what’s required for mitigation and adaptation exceeds their tax base.
“We are asking for a new dedicated revenue source so that we can support emergency planning and risk assessments, which have been asked of us,” she said.
Municipal leaders are going to spend the week discussing more than 200 pages worth of resolutions at the conference. Mandewo says issues surrounding addiction and toxic drugs are front and centre in members’ minds.
Resolutions include calls for more overdose prevention sites, more complex care beds for people struggling with addiction, and more money directed at community safety.
“Local governments have been trying to deal with it as much as we can, because we are the ones that are closest to the communities,” she said.
“That issue is not selective, whether you’re a small community or a large community.”
Premier David Eby is scheduled to address the conference Thursday. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau will speak Friday.
A series of “cabinet town halls” are also scheduled where municipal leaders will get a chance to question cabinet ministers on housing, public service and emergency preparedness.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
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