OTTAWA —
Canadian special forces are currently operating outside the walls of Kabul airport, Canadian officials revealed Monday, working to get people on flights out of Afghanistan.
The news comes one day before a special G7 leaders’ meeting is to be held to address the ongoing crisis.
CTV News has confirmed that forces have convened only a short distance away from the airport, in a designated holding zone where Afghans on their way to Canada are assembling.
At one airport entry gate, Canadian troops have scanned the crowd for Afghans wearing red – a colour those accepted for Canadian flights were told to wear.
Once they’ve made it through the danger and chaos on the streets just beyond, Canadians meet them to offer some reassurance.
Officials said Monday that a Canadian C-17 Globemaster took 436 people out of Kabul airport on Sunday night, up from the 121 airlifted the day before. The plane carried Canadian citizens and family members, as well as Afghan nationals who had been approved for resettlement by Canada and its allies.
“We are having success getting folks into HKIA in significant numbers, which has been a significant improvement over the last few days,” one official told The Canadian Press, using the acronym for Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The pace of evacuations out of Kabul is picking up after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last week. The U.S. military says in the last 24 hours 16,000 people were flown out on 89 planes, a combination of military and charter flights. Even so, U.S. president Joe Biden is under tremendous pressure from America’s allies to extend his Aug. 31 pullout deadline.
There are still many thousands desperate to leave Afghanistan. Footage from Afghanistan shows people standing in knee deep water outside the Kabul airport, waving their documents for Germany.
In one clip, a woman is pulled out of the crowd and safely over a wall. The fear is that many other Afghans at risk will be left behind.
Many Afghans who worked as interpreters for Western military forces and news agencies are now in hiding, terrified that they and their families could be targeted by the Taliban. Other vulnerable Afghans include human rights activists, politicians, journalists and others who fear that they could be in the crosshairs for their work in the country over the last two decades. Female journalists and politicians who have been outspoken against the Taliban have been frantically deleting online traces of themselves and trying to stay out of sight.
Thousands have been exposed to the threat of violent retaliation.
“Our forces on the ground have all the necessary authorizations to do what they feel is necessary to save as many people as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said Monday in Halifax during a federal election campaign appearance.
A virtual G7 meeting, convened by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will be held on Tuesday to discuss how to address the crisis.
“When we have our G7 leaders meeting shortly, we will certainly be talking about what more we can do and must do,” Trudeau said.
He has said that Canada’s focus is retrieving our troops, citizens and those with direct connections to Canada, but has said he would like to help more.
“We are also very interested in activists and human rights leaders, journalists and people who over the past many years have fought and delivered improvements for people in Afghanistan,” Trudeau said. “We know those people need to be brought to safety. And we, alongside our allies, will be doing everything we can for all the categories.”
But facing an end of August deadline, there simply may not be enough time to complete this frantic airlift.
America’s allies are pushing the U.S. to stay longer — a topic expected to come up in the G7 meeting.
“If their timetable extends, even by a day or two, then that will give us a day or two more to evacuate people because we are really down to hours now, not weeks,” Ben Wallace, British Defence Minister, said of the situation.
The Taliban have stood back and let the Americans take over the airport thus far.
But a spokesperson for the Taliban has said there is no patience for extending the evacuation.
“President Biden announced this agreement that until 31st of August, they would withdraw all their military forces,” Suhail Shaheen said. “So if they extended, that means they are extending occupation.”
Taliban leaders deny that people are running away out of fear, saying it’s to escape Afghanistan’s wretched poverty.
So far, officials say Canada has evacuated 1,700 people in total across 13 flights, four of which have occurred since last Thursday when the Kabul airport was secured. Around 300 Afghans have completed their COVID-19 quarantine and will be resettling in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
The head of the Canadian branch of the organization Save The Children said Monday that more needs to be done to evacuate young people from Afghanistan, calling on world leaders to step up.
“Though Canada has already announced a resettlement program, it is important that evacuation efforts are not hampered due to bureaucratic red tape as the situation demands urgent action,” Danny Glenwright, the organization’s president, said.
The U.S. still believes it can finish the evacuation by Aug. 31, a little over a week away. But crucially, the U.S. has not entirely closed the door on staying longer.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars, it could further clog the city’s already gridlocked streets.
Swift’s shows collide with other scheduled events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Toronto Raptors game on Friday and a Toronto Maple Leafs game on Saturday.
Some locals have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals, until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Ultimately, everybody agreed they just didn’t want to deal with that,” he said.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window.”
Dayani says the group rescheduled the birthday party for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, has suggested his employees stay away from the company’s downtown offices on concert days, since he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” he said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been preparing for over a year to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to the transit routes around the stadium, while the TTC has consulted with the city on how to handle potential emergency scenarios.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts has incorporated the Professional Women’s Hockey League into its NHL 25 video game.
The six teams starting their second seasons Nov. 30 will be represented in “play now,” “online versus,” “shootout” and “season” modes, plus a championship Walter Cup, in the updated game scheduled for release Dec. 5, the PWHL and EA Sports announced Wednesday.
Gamers can create a virtual PWHL player.
The league and video game company have agreed to a multi-year partnership, the PWHL stated.
“Our partnership with EA SPORTS opens new doors to elevate women’s hockey across all levels,” said PWHL operations senior vice-president Amy Scheer in a statement.
“Through this alliance, we’ll develop in-game and out-of-game experiences that strengthen the bond between our teams, players, and fans, bringing the PWHL closer to the global hockey community.”
NHL 22 featured playable women’s teams for the first time through an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Toronto Sceptres forward Sarah Nurse became the first woman to appear on the video game’s cover in 2023 alongside Anaheim Ducks centre Trevor Zegras.
The Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens round out the PWHL. The league announced team names and logos in September, and unveiled jerseys earlier this month.
“It is so meaningful that young girls will be able to see themselves in the game,” said Frost forward Taylor Heise, who grew up playing EA’s NHL games.
“It is a big milestone for inclusivity within the hockey community and shows that women’s prominence in hockey only continues to grow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. continued to navigate weaker consumer demand in the third quarter as it looked ahead to the spinoff of its pork business in 2025.
“This environment has a particularly significant impact on a premium portfolio like ours and I want you to know that we are not sitting still waiting for the macro environment to recover on its own,” said CEO Curtis Frank on a call with analysts.
Frank said the company is working to adapt its strategies to consumer demand. As inflation has stabilized and interest rates decline, he said pressure on consumers is expected to ease.
Maple Leaf reported a third-quarter profit of $17.7 million compared with a loss of $4.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of four cents per share a year earlier. Sales for the quarter totalled $1.26 billion, up from $1.24 billion a year ago.
“At a strategic level … we’re certainly seeing the transitory impacts of an inflation-stressed consumer environment play through our business,” Frank said.
“We are seeing more trade-down than we would like. And we are making more investments to grow our volume and protect our market share than we would like in the moment. But again, we believe that those impacts will prove to be transitory as they have been over the course of history.”
Financial results are improving in the segment as feed costs have stabilized, said Dennis Organ, president, pork complex.
Maple Leaf, which is working to spin off its pork business into a new, publicly traded company to be called Canada Packers Inc. and led by Organ, also said it has identified a way to implement the plan through a tax-free “butterfly reorganization.”
Frank said Wednesday that the new structure will see Maple Leaf retain slightly lower ownership than previously intended.
The company said it continues to expect to complete the transaction next year. However, the spinoff under the new structure is subject to an advance tax ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency and will take longer than first anticipated.
Maple Leaf announced the spinoff in July with a plan to become a more focused consumer packaged goods company, including its Maple Leaf and Schneiders brands.
“The prospect of executing the transaction as a tax-free spin-off is a positive development as we continue to advance our strategy to unlock value and unleash the potential of these two unique and distinct businesses,” Frank said in the news release.
He also said that Maple Leaf is set on delivering profitability for its plant protein business in mid-2025.
“This includes the recent completion of a procurement project aimed at leveraging our purchasing scale,” he said.
On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf says it earned 18 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 13 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
The results were largely in line with expectations, said RBC analyst Irene Nattel in a note.
Maple Leaf shares were down 4.5 per cent in midday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $21.49.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
