Ottawa has a “high degree of confidence” that Israel did not strike the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday after an independent review by the Canadian military, Defence Minister Bill Blair said in a statement late Saturday evening.
Canada believes the more likely scenario is that the strike was caused by an “errant rocket” fired from the Gaza Strip, Blair’s statement said.
The pronouncement from Ottawa came days after the United States said its own review found that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast, which the Gaza Health Ministry said killed hundreds of people.
President Joe Biden said during a visit to Israel on Wednesday that he was confident the “other team” bore responsibility.
On Thursday, facing pressure to provide Canada’s position on the matter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was taking “all necessary steps” to form its own understanding of what happened.
The Canadian Forces Intelligence Command conducted its own “review and analysis” at the prime minister’s request, Blair’s statement said.
A statement from the Department of National Defence on Saturday evening said that the analysis was based on open source and classified reporting.
“This assessment is informed by an analysis of the blast damage to the hospital complex, including adjacent buildings and the area surrounding the hospital, as well as the flight pattern of the incoming munition,” the statement read.
Reporting from Canada’s allies corroborates the findings, the Defence Department added.
The defence minister promised the government would “continue to provide updates as new information becomes available,” and reiterated Canada’s “sincere condolences” to all who lost loved ones in the explosion.
In the wake of the blast on Oct. 17, Hamas had quickly blamed an Israeli military airstrike for the carnage. But Israel subsequently released images that it said proved it was caused by a misfire from Gaza.
A senior French military official told The Associated Press on Friday that its own review of the intelligence also found Israel was not responsible, while the United Nations called for an independent investigation.
The latest conflict had begun 10 days earlier when Hamas militants crossed the border into Israel and conducted a series of brazen attacks on civilians.
Israel retaliated, raining airstrikes down on the Gaza Strip and putting the territory under siege. Its military is said to be preparing for a ground assault.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 4,300 people have been killed in Gaza in total. More than 1,400 in Israel have been killed, most of them slain in the surprise Oct. 7 attacks.
The Canadian government has deemed Hamas a terrorist entity since 2002.
Earlier on Saturday, the Canadian government announced it would provide an additional $50 million for humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip as the region’s border crossing with Egypt opened to let in a trickle of desperately needed aid.
International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen issued a statement from Cairo, Egypt, saying the federal government will ensure none of the money goes to Hamas.
Hussen said the money will be used to provide the Palestinian population with food, water, medical assistance, protection services and other life-saving aid.
“The critical and immediate needs of civilians affected by the crisis become clearer with each day that goes by,” Hussen’s statement said.
“As Canada’s partners make their growing needs known, this new assistance will allow us to provide them funding quickly so they can scale up their efforts to help people in urgent need.”
The pledge, on top of $10 million Canada already committed, is expected to be sent to humanitarian organizations already in the war-ravaged area.
On Saturday, Hussen was attending a peace summit in Cairo with Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.
The ministers issued a joint statement saying they planned to reiterate Canada’s condemnation of the Hamas attacks on Israel while also highlighting Canada’s concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people.
“We are gravely concerned by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, which continues to deteriorate,” Joly told the meeting.
“We are encouraged by the news this morning that food, fuel and water being able to enter Gaza, but we need to see more.”
Just 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt on Saturday. Aid agencies say their loads won’t be enough to address the needs of the population, which is now rationing food and drinking dirty water.
More than 200 trucks carrying aid have been waiting at the border for days.
About half of Gaza’s residents have fled their homes. Hospitals are running low on medical supplies and fuel for generators amid widespread blackouts exacerbated by waves of Israeli airstrikes. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets into Israel.
Israel had insisted nothing would enter Gaza until Hamas released all the captives from its Oct. 7 attack on towns in southern Israel. Hamas freed its first captives, an American woman and her teenage daughter, late Friday.
Joly said both sides in the conflict must respect international humanitarian law.
“Even in times of crisis, there are principles. Even in times of war, there are rules,” she said Saturday. “Palestinians and Israeli civilians are equal and both must be protected.”
As well, she said the 400 Canadians still in Gaza must be able to return home.
“In the fog of war, it is always hard to see the light of day on the horizon, but we need to see it,” Joly said. “We should not be scared about talking about the next steps. Canada will always stand up for human rights.”
Joly said she plans to meet with staff at the Canadian embassy in Cairo to discuss their efforts to support Canadians in the region, including their work to help Canadians leave Gaza.
The peace summit includes dozens of regional leaders and other senior western officials, with a focus on de-escalating the fighting and seeking a ceasefire.
Tensions have been rising as the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since the war began, even threatening to join the fight if the Israeli military goes ahead with an expected ground invasion of Gaza.
About 14,500 Canadians are registered with the federal government as being in Lebanon. Global Affairs Canada is urging all of them to get out of the country while they still can. Meanwhile, the Canadian Armed Forces is preparing for possible evacuations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2023.
— With files from The Associated Press and Michael MacDonald in Halifax.
We are deeply saddened by the loss of life caused by the explosion at Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17.
In order to determine what happened, the Prime Minister asked me to task the @CanadianForces with preparing an independent analysis. Today I am releasing its findings.
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
