TORONTO —
The Canadian Armed Forces will be assisting in receiving Canadians who will be taking a federally chartered plane out of Wuhan, China, according to a statement from Chief of the Defence Staff General J.H. Vance.
CAF medical teams are also being tasked with going with government officials and helping Canadians once they are repatriated at the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont.
Vance assured Trenton, Ont. residents that “while we host our fellow citizens, as they are undergoing medical observation and evaluation, there is no risk to you and your families.”
The plane was chartered after Global Affairs Canada received 325 requests from Canadians who wish to leave the Chinese province Hubei, which at the centre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The plane will arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam first before it’s deployed to Wuhan, according to Global Affairs Canada on Sunday.
Airspace to the locked-down city Wuhan is currently closed, but the plane will land once the government of China gives authorization. Global Affairs gave no indication on the status of that flight.
Both government officials and military personnel are en route to Hanoi, Global Affairs Canada said. And the group is in the process of obtaining visas from the Chinese government to enter Wuhan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also convened the Incident Response Group to determine next steps in assisting the group being repatriated. The group discussed actions that would be taken, including health screenings and a period of observation at the base.
The department said it consulting with the U.S. and Britain for co-operation in the endeavour, as it said it was exploring all avenues to help Canadians leave Wuhan and that it would be providing updates to those affected.
“We take the safety and security of Canadians abroad very seriously and provide credible and timely information in our ‘Travel Advice’ to enable Canadians to make well-informed decisions regarding their travel abroad,” Global Affairs spokesperson Sylvain Leclerc said, adding the department “was monitoring the situation.”
“It is important to note that individuals should not present themselves to the airport unannounced as they will not be permitted to board the aircraft,” Leclerc said.
The death toll in China climbed to 361 on Sunday, and the number of cases worldwide surged past 17,205, according to China’s National Health Commission and other nations.
FAMILES GROUNDED
Canada has four known cases — three in Ontario and one in British Columbia. The Canadian government has not said whether Canadians arriving from China would be quarantined.
Health officials in Canada said that despite widespread fear of the virus, the chances of contracting it in Canada is exceptionally low. But people should take normal cold- and flu-season precautions
On Jan. 29, Global Affairs Canada increased its risk level to avoid non-essential travel to China due to the coronavirus outbreak. The next day, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the new virus from China a global health emergency.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters the main reason for the declaration is because of how the virus could affect other countries. “Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it,” he said.
The spread of the coronavirus has grounded scores of Canadian families in the region who’ve been affected by flight cancellations in and out of the country. But the issue is compounded for families with Chinese relatives.
The Chinese government has told Canada only those who have entered China with a Canadian passport would be allowed to board the chartered plane, so Canadian families — with relatives who are Chinese nationals — are being forced to decide whether to leave or stay put.
Leclerc urged Canadian citizens elsewhere in China “that wish to leave should do so while commercial means continue to be available and provided it is safe to do so.” But warned citizens they “must carefully check entry and exit requirements for the countries they may be transiting through.”
OTHER COUNTRIES CHARTER FLIGHTS OUT OF CHINA
On Sunday, a second French-chartered plane carrying 300 citizens from China touched down at a military base in Bouches-du-Rhone, in southern France. The first plane landed in France on Friday.
Close to 200 Americans were previously evacuated from Wuhan and will be quarantined for two weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said is the first time a federal quarantine has been implemented in the U.S. since the 1960s At the time, health officials were worried about the potential spread of smallpox.
South Korea is following the lead of the U.S. and is also quarantining its evacuees who arrived on Friday. Facilities have been set up in Asan and Jincheon, where residents have protested evacuees being put in their neighbourhoods.
Residents there threw objects, including eggs at government officials.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has been defending its plan to send its evacuees to Christmas Island. Facilities there house banished asylum seekers and convicted criminals.
The Canadian Press reported some Australians said they preferred to stay in China.
With files from CTV News’ Parliamentary Bureau Reporter Annie Bergeron-Oliver, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
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.
