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Canada upgrades to silver, still seeks gold after Day 3 of Paralympics

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PARIS – Canada upgraded its medal colour at the Paralympics on Saturday, but is still searching for its first gold in Paris after Day 3.

Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C., swam to silver in the men’s S14 200-metre freestyle before Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., placed second in the women’s SM7 200-metre individual medley.

The double silver brings Canada’s medal haul to six after the country totalled four bronze medals through two days of full competition.

Routliffe won her second Paralympic medal, earning the same result eight years ago at Rio 2016. The 25-year-old missed the Tokyo Games with a broken back.

Despite returning to the podium, Routliffe wished she could’ve dug a little deeper.

“When we race, all I want is to be able to max out my potential, and I don’t think I fully maxed it out this time,” she said after touching the wall in two minutes 57.17 seconds. “That’s a little disappointing, but it’s how life works.

“I went out there and I raced, and I did the best I could tonight.”

Bennett won his first Paralympic medal. He finished in 1:53.6, but Britain’s William Ellard set a world record in 1:51.30.

“It’s a friendly rivalry between us,” Bennett said. “He’s a good friend and also just an amazing athlete to race against.”

Canada didn’t have the same success in track and field. Wheelchair racing veteran Brent Lakatos placed seventh in the men’s T54 5,000-metre final.

The 44-year-old from Dorval, Que., who owns 11 career medals at the Paralympics, was in second place late in the race before falling off the pace down the stretch.

‘’I’m extremely proud of the whole race,’’ Lakatos said. ‘’I didn’t make any mistakes and executed the plan perfectly. It was just a little bit at the end. Maybe it was the injury, maybe the race, I don’t know.

‘’All I know is that it was just so much fun to be part of that.’’

Elsewhere, Amanda Rummery of Sherwood Park, Alta., was fifth in the women’s T47 400 final and Guillaume Ouellet of Victoriaville, Que., ran to fifth in the men’s T13 5,000 race.

Track cyclist Mel Pemble fell just short of securing her first Paralympic medal with a fourth-place result in the women’s combined C1-3 500-metre time trial. The 24-year-old from Victoria, who competed in alpine skiing at the 2018 Paralympics, finished 0.3 seconds off the podium.

With a qualifying time of 38.512 seconds, Pemble set a C3 category record in the event. The previous world record of 39.093 seconds was set by Australia’s Aniek Van Den Aarssen in 2022.

“It’s pretty cool to come here and realize I’m at my second Games,” Pemble said. “It felt more real coming into these Games with medal potential.

“The world record is going to make that fourth place sting a little less in the end, but I think it’s going to take a little while for me to get over that … it would have been amazing to win a medal, it just wasn’t in the cards this year.”

Jacob Wasserman of Humboldt, Sask., didn’t qualify for the medal race in men’s PR1 single sculls rowing. The Humboldt bus crash survivor, making his Paralympic debut in Paris, was fourth in the repechage heat with a time of 11:28.31.

Arinn Young of St. Albert, Alta., scored 26 points to lead the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team to a 63-54 win over Great Britain. Cindy Ouellet of Rivière-du-Loup, Que., added 19 points as Canada improved to 1-1 with group play wrapping up Sunday against Spain.

“We really needed this win today to set us up for the rest of the pool games. I’m so proud of my team. That was a massive team win,” Young said.

“Yeah, I scored the most, but I relied on everyone on court — my whole bench. Everyone was my hype man, and that’s why we got that win today.”

On the men’s side, Great Britain got the best of Canada with an 88-58 victory. Britain’s Philip James Pratt scored 20 points, while Colin Higgins of Rothesay, N.B., led the 1-1 Canadians with 14. Canada next plays Germany on Monday.

In wheelchair rugby, Canada finished group play with a 1-2 record and fell out of medal contention after a 50-46 loss to Japan. Edmonton’s Zak Madell carried the Canadians with 27 tries in the losing effort. Yukinobu Ike’s 15 led Japan.

“It’s pretty miserable — just the way we kind of did it. We showed a lot of fight to come back, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t win. Yeah, it feels awful,” Canada’s Cody Caldwell said.

“We trained for four years to get to the medal round and hopefully win gold, or to compete for gold, and to not even give ourselves a chance, it’s probably one of the worst feelings.”

Canada’s top-ranked women’s sitting volleyball team dropped a four-set decision to Brazil, falling 25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19. The Canadians are now 1-1 in the tournament and take on Rwanda on Monday with hopes of reaching the semifinals.

In wheelchair tennis, Rob Shaw of North Bay, Ont., earned a 6-2, 6-1, win over Ymanitu Silva of Brazil in the first round of the men’s quad singles tournament. He advanced to the quarterfinals.

Montreal boccia player Alison Levine was eliminated by top-ranked Leidy Chica Chica of Colombia in the BC4 quarterfinal. Levine took a 2-0 lead, but ultimately lost 3-2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2024.



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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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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 Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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