Shannon Battersby and Paul Hoy, Canadians stranded in South Africa by travel bans designed to limit the spread of COVID-19, were told by the Canadian government that a flight home could cost $5000.
Battersby, from Langham, Sask., went to South Africa to visit her partner’s family. Hoy, from Bowmanville, Ont, went for a modelling contract.
Both scrambled to rebook their flights when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to return home when the novel coronavirus pandemic worsened, but couldn’t find a way out.
“Once we heard Trudeau was telling Canadians to come home, then started the nightmare,” Battersby said, via a Skype call from Standerton, South Africa.
Battersby and her partner Tim were originally scheduled to return to Canada at the end of March. She tried to find earlier flights after Trudeau’s announcement and finally found one that left a few days earlier.
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Hoy was looking, too, and told Global News flights cost more than $2,500.
They both said the messages they received from the airlines were confusing — that is, when they received messages.
“I had been bumped onto a separate airline and I wasn’t provided with this email until two hours after the departure [time],” Hoy said, speaking via Skype from Cape Town.
“I booked through Lufthansa,” Battersby said, “so I tried emailing them.”
Both showed tickets and emails to Global News showing flights had been suddenly cancelled. In Hoy’s case, he only found out his itinerary had been changed after a flight had left.
Eventually they both found flights — Battersby and her partner on the morning of March 27 and Hoy on March 28th. But the South African government imposed a 21-day lockdown, preventing all flights in or out of the country at midnight on the 26th.
“That night,” said Hoy, “the panic set in.”
1:34 Coronavirus: More Canadians return to B.C. on repatriation flights
Battersby said she then registered with the federal government and reached out to the federal and provincial governments for help. She received automated responses. She said the lack of communication was worrying.
“If we knew we could leave in three weeks, fine. We can live with that,” she said, “but it’s the not knowing”
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Then, late Sunday evening in South Africa, Battersby and Hoy heard back from the High Commission of Canada in South Africa.
An email said the government is looking into organizing a flight and “is working towards a departure date … however this will be dependent on obtaining sufficient interested travellers.”
It also said the estimated cost is anticipated to be $5,000 for Canadian citizens and that non-citizens, like Battersby’s partner, who is a permanent resident, would need to pay $6,700.
The email also said they needed to respond by 10 a.m. the next morning — giving them less than 12 hours to decide.
Both told Global News they accepted the offer.
Battersby said they were worried “it may be our only chance out,” she said via email when Global News followed up.
“But if we knew we could leave after the lockdown we’d just wait. That’s a lot of money.”
In a statement, Global Affairs Canada told Global News it is aware of Canadians unable to book flights from South Africa due to the “unprecedented crisis” caused by COVID-19.
It said Global Affairs “is working closely with the Government of South Africa to organize flights, as well as to clarify procedures and requirements to allow Canadians access to the point of departure.”
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The statement also said “[t]he Government of Canada is working with Canadian airlines to ensure that stranded Canadians are offered a reasonable commercial price for their return ticket home,” and that it is working to help as many Canadians as possible, “but some may remain outside of the country for an indeterminate amount of time.”
Global News has learned there are more than 2,200 Canadians in South Africa registered with the Canadian government. However, there could be more Canadians in the country who aren’t registered.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
