Canada News is a roundup of stories to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Feb. 10 …
What we are watching in Canada …
Statistics Canada is set to release its latest reading on the labour market this morning.
The federal agency will release its labour force survey for January.
The December report showed a gain of 104,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.0 per cent, slightly above the record-low of 4.9 per cent reached in the summer.
RBC is forecasting the Canadian economy added 5,000 jobs last month while the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.1 per cent.
The latest reading of employment levels comes as the Bank of Canada takes a conditional pause from hiking its key interest rate further as it assesses how the economy is responding to higher rates.
The Bank of Canada says the tight labour market is a sign of an overheated economy and needs to ease in order for the country’s annual inflation rate to come down.
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Also this …
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is expected to discuss the next steps in an effort to search a landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two Indigenous women.
The group has called a news conference today following the federal government’s commitment of $500,000 for a feasibility study on the proposed search.
Police believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were sent to the Prairie Green landfill last spring.
The two women are among four alleged victims of Jeremy Skibicki, who has been charged with first-degree murder.
Police initially rejected the idea of a search, citing the passage of time, the lack of a precise location within the landfill and the tonnes of material that have been deposited in the area.
After public pressure, an Indigenous-led committee was put together to examine the possibility of a search in conjunction with forensics experts.
Skibicki is also accused of killing Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were found in a different landfill, and an unidentified woman whose remains have not been found and whom Indigenous leaders have named Buffalo Woman.
Skibicki did not enter a plea during a court appearance in December, but his lawyer said he maintains his innocence and a trial is likely some time away.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
WASHINGTON _ Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions.
But Austin’s effort Saturday fell flat, when Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe declined to get on the line, the Pentagon says.
China’s Defence Ministry says it refused the call from Austin after the balloon was shot down because the U.S. had “not created the proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange. The U.S. action had “seriously violated international norms and set a pernicious precedent,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued late Thursday.
It’s been an experience that’s frustrated U.S. commanders for decades, when it comes to getting their Chinese counterparts on a phone or video line as some flaring crisis is sending tensions between the two nations climbing.
From Americans’ perspective, the lack of the kind of reliable crisis communications that helped get the U.S. and Soviet Union through the Cold War without an armed nuclear exchange is raising the dangers of the U.S.-China relationship now, at a time when China’s military strength is growing and tensions with the U.S. are on the rise.
Without that ability for generals in opposing capitals to clear things up in a hurry, Americans worry that misunderstandings, false reports or accidental collisions could cause a minor confrontation to spiral into greater hostilities.
And it’s not about any technical shortfall with the communication equipment, said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of Indo-Pacific studies at the German Marshall Fund think tank. The issue is a fundamental disparity in the way China and the U.S. view the value and purpose of military-to-military hotlines.
U.S. military leaders’ faith in Washington-to-Beijing hotlines as a way to defuse flare-ups with China’s military has been butting up against a sharply different take _ a Chinese political system that runs on slow deliberative consultation by political leaders and makes no room for individually directed, real-time talk between rival generals. And Chinese leaders are suspicious of the whole U.S. notion of a hotline. They see it as an American channel for talking their way out of blowback for a U.S. provocation.
China’s resistance to military hotlines as tensions increase puts more urgency on efforts by President Joe Biden and his top civilian diplomats and security aides to build up their own communication channels with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese political officials, for situations where military hotlines may go unanswered, U.S. officials and China experts say.
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey _ Rescue workers in Iskenderun, Turkey said six people were pulled from a collapsed building Friday morning after spending 101 hours beneath the rubble after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 20,000.
The six people, all relatives, were helped to survive by huddling together in a small pocket left within the collapsed structure, said Murat Baygul, a search and rescue worker.
Earlier, relatives celebrated as rescuers pulled a teenager from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building,
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the border region between Turkey and Syria, an area home to more than 13.5 million people, early Monday morning. With morgues and cemeteries overwhelmed, bodies lay wrapped in blankets, rugs and tarps in the streets of some cities.
Temperatures remain below freezing across the large region, and many people have no place to shelter. The government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but was still struggling to reach many people in need.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said 18,342 people had been confirmed killed in the disaster so far in Turkey, with nearly 75,000 injured. No figures have been released on how many have been left homeless, but the agency said more than 75,000 survivors have been evacuated to other provinces.
More than 3,300 have been confirmed killed on the other side of the border in war-torn Syria, bringing the total number of dead to more than 21,600.
Engineers suggested that the scale of the devastation is partly explained by lax enforcement of building codes, which some have warned for years would make them vulnerable to earthquakes. The problem has been largely ignored, experts said, because addressing it would be expensive, unpopular and restrain a key engine of the country’s economic growth.
Before dawn in Gaziantep, near the epicentre of the quake in Turkey, rescuers pulled Adnan Muhammed Korkut from the basement where had been trapped since the temblor struck Monday. The 17-year-old beamed a smile at the crowd of friends and relatives who chanted “Adnan,” “Adnan,” clapping and crying tears of joy as he was carried out and put onto a stretcher.
“Thank God you arrived,” he said, embracing his mother and others who leaned down to kiss and hug him as he was being loaded into an ambulance. “Thank you everyone.”
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On this day in 2003 …
The World Health Organization’s Beijing office received an email describing a “strange contagious disease” in Guangdong province that killed dozens within one week. The disease was later identified as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.
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In entertainment …
SANTA FE, N.M. _ Ukrainian relatives of a slain cinematographer are seeking damages in her death from actor Alec Baldwin in connection with a fatal shooting on the set of a Western movie, under a civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles.
The new lawsuit against Baldwin was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of Hutchins’ parents and younger sister, who works as a nurse on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and is married to a Ukrainian man fighting in the war against Russia.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during a rehearsal in the movie “Rust” in October 2021 at a film-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when it discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
The new lawsuit alleges negligence and the depravation of benefits, based on the emotional or financial support that Hutchins previously provided to younger sister Svetlana Zemko and parents Olga Solovey and Anatolii Androsovych. The lawsuit also names as defendants a long list of “Rust” crew members, an ammunition supplier, producers of the film and affiliated businesses.
Separately, Baldwin and weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are confronting felony criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter in New Mexico District Court, with a remote first appearance scheduled later this month in which pleas may be entered. Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have vowed to dispute the charges, while an assistant director has agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as legal costs. Allred declined to quantify possible demands.
Matthew Hutchins, widower to Halyna Hutchins, reached an undisclosed settlement with Baldwin and other producers of “Rust” late last year. Part of the settlement calls for Matthew to be a producer on “Rust” as it potentially resumes filming.
Baldwin has sought to clear his name by suing people involved in handling and supplying the loaded gun. Baldwin, also a co-producer on “Rust,” said he was told the gun was safe.
In his lawsuit, Baldwin said that while working on camera angles with Hutchins, he pointed the gun in her direction and pulled back and released the hammer of the weapon, which discharged.
The new lawsuit against Baldwin, though filed in California, relies on provisions of New Mexico state law regarding the depravation of benefits, also known as “loss of consortium.”
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Did you see this?
ZEBALLOS, B.C. _ A First Nation on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island has declared a state of emergency over what its leadership describes as the “unrelating impact of drugs and alcohol” on its members, particularly children and youth.
A statement from the Ehattesaht First Nation says six young people have died from drug overdoses in the small village over the past few months.
It says the nation’s chief and council are calling on officials from the British Columbia and federal governments to sit down with them to help find the resources necessary to create a “survival plan.”
The nation’s council has been trying to develop a comprehensive plan, it says, but they’ve had little success in breaking through “institutional barriers to find programs that can meet the desperate needs of the people.”
Chief Simon John says the nation gets a call or letter every few weeks related to land-use issues and other government priorities, but it “can’t seem to get the attention of the social service ministries.”
He says Ehattesaht has reached the end of its ability to cope with the crisis with the “Band-Aids” it patches together.
Ehattesaht is one of 14 Nuu-chah-nulth nations on Vancouver Island, with more than 500 registered members.
The nation is asking the governments of B.C. and Canada to be “creative and flexible and meet a small and isolated (community’s) needs in its own way.”
In the meantime, it says Ehattesaht will try to stabilize the crisis by focusing on outreach to its most vulnerable members.
The overdose crisis has claimed more than 11,000 lives in B.C. since the declaration of a public health emergency in 2016.
The top doctor at the First Nations Health Authority has said Indigenous people are dying from toxic drugs at five times the rate of the general population.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2023.
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
