Canadians evacuated from the coronavirus-affected region of China will be quarantined for two weeks at a military base to prevent the virus from spreading, Global Affairs Canada said on Sunday.
The department said the government has chartered a plane to airlift stranded Canadians out of Wuhan, China.
The plane is standing by and will fly to Hanoi, Vietnam, before heading to Wuhan once it receives the necessary authorization from the Chinese government.
The plane will take passengers to the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont., where they will remain for 14 days under medical observation. Government officials and flight crew involved in the repatriation will also be quarantined.
“To protect the health and safety of Canadians — both those who are coming to and those already in Canada — the returning individuals will undergo a thorough health screening before boarding, during the flight and upon arrival at CFB Trenton,” Global Affairs said.
325 departure requests
The department said it has received 325 requests from Canadians who want to leave Hubei, the Chinese province hardest hit by the recent outbreak.
That’s up from the 196 requests Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne reported on Friday.
The increase shows the growing desire of many Canadians to get out of the region, where the number of confirmed cases and the death toll is increasing daily. Many Canadians have expressed concerns about loved ones caught in the lockdown of the area imposed by China’s government.
There are at least 543 Canadians in Hubei who have registered with Global Affairs Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad service. However, there could be more because registration is voluntary.
“The Government of Canada takes the health and safety of Canadians, both at home and abroad, very seriously,” Champagne said. “We are taking action to return Canadians home from Wuhan, China, while ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to prevent and limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
Chinese authorities have clamped down on travel in the central cities of Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus, turning normally bustling urban centres with populations in the millions into ghost towns.
China reported 17,205 confirmed cases of coronaviruses as of late Sunday, with the death toll there rising to 361. The world also saw its first case of a person dying from the virus outside China — a 44-year-old man in the Philippines.
In Canada, there are four confirmed cases. Three are in Ontario and the fourth in B.C.
Military to assist repatriation effort
The government has asked the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to help with the repatriation effort, the Chief of the Defence Staff confirmed on Sunday. The CAF will send medical teams to accompany government officials and will prepare a “reception and integration centre” where evacuees will stay upon returning.
Gen. Jonathan Vance sought to reassure the families of Canadians Forces members and neighbours in the Trenton area that the risk of transmission is low.
“My senior leadership and I have been fully engaged throughout the planning process,” Vance said. “We have full confidence in the protocols identified, and the measures put in place, to safeguard all CAF members and returning Canadians.”
“To our CAF Families: As the CAF helps Canadians returning from China, I want you to know that I have full confidence in the protocols & measures in place to safeguard CAF members & Canadians.” JV <a href=”https://twitter.com/CFOperations?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CFOperations</a> <a href=”https://t.co/uLd2G98NhP”>pic.twitter.com/uLd2G98NhP</a>
Canada has already deployed a specialized unit of emergency response officials to China to co-ordinate the logistics of the planned airlift.
Global Affairs said officials from the Standing Rapid Deployment Team are on the ground in Hubei to help co-ordinate the arrival and departure of the evacuation flight, but did not say when the plane will take off from Canada or when it will land in China.
Several other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Germany, France and Turkey, have successfully completed airlifts of their own citizens out of the region.
Nearly 200 Americans have already been evacuated, and U.S. health officials ordered that they be quarantined for two weeks. It was the first time a federal quarantine has been ordered in that country since the 1960s, when one was enacted over concern about the potential spread of smallpox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Canadians in Hubei should contact Global Affairs
Global Affairs said space on the evacuation flight to Canada will be limited and not guaranteed, and seats could be confirmed with little notice. Canadians in Hubei who want to get on the flight need to contact the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa to make arrangements.
The statement said Ottawa has been informed that only Canadian citizens who have entered China with a Canadian passport will be allowed to board the plane. Canadians with relatives who are Chinese nationals will have to decide whether to leave without some family members.
The department noted that only those with a valid Canadian passport would be allowed to board.
It’s unclear what kind of plane the government has chartered, and if there are even enough seats available for all the people who have requested an airlift.
“We try to keep families together whenever possible, and we have raised this with the government of China,” the statement said.
Canadians who have symptoms will not be allowed to board the aircraft.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said earlier this week that China has diagnostic tools to determine if someone is infected. Because the incubation period is anywhere from one to 14 days, she said there are “meticulous” measures in place to isolate individuals from other passengers if they develop symptoms during the flight.
Watch: Wait continues for Montreal family stranded in China
Montrealer Megan Millward worries her family of four may not be able to leave China’s Hubei province together 4:40
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.
