On Wednesday, passengers flying back to Toronto were taken to the closed airport to be processed before they took a ferry to Cuba’s mainland. They were then flown out of Havana and arrived in Toronto around 5 a.m. on Thursday.
Ontario woman Chantalle Menchions said she was waiting for the ferry, along with other Air Transat passengers, when a man suddenly dropped to the floor.
The 24-year-old nurse said she ran over to the man but he didn’t have a pulse.
“People started screaming. It was chaos,” Menchions told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. She, along with four other people, immediately began to administer CPR.
“People were yelling and freaking out. I started yelling at people to get out of the way.”
“We checked for a pulse but there wasn’t one. He wasn’t responsive.”
Menchions said about 15 minutes later, a medical team arrived at the airport and took the man away. She said she was never given an update about the man’s condition.
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, Global Affairs confirmed the Canadian died. His name, age and cause of death have not been released.
“We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen who died in Cuba,” the statement released on Thursday said.
“Consular services are being provided to the family of the individual.”
Meanwhile, Air Transat confirmed one of their passengers needed medical attention.
“I can confirm that one of our passengers required medical attention prior to departure from Cayo Largo and was transported to the international clinic by ambulance,” Air Transat said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.
“As is the case for any situation involving our passengers, we will not give out any other information for reasons of privacy.”
“This delay in returning to Canada is the result of a situation beyond our control, and we regret any inconvenience that has resulted, but I can assure you our teams worked tirelessly in collaboration with Cuban authorities to safely bring our passengers home.”
Concerns raised about lack of medication
Travellers stranded on Cuba have expressed concerns that they were not able to access crucial medication while they were stranded.
“There were lots of people who ran out of medication. I know I personally ran out of mine,” Menchions said.
“I had people coming up and saying ‘I’m out of my blood pressure medication.’ But nowhere on the island had anything.”
Air Transat confirmed they received concerns from some passengers about a lack of medication but says additional medication was provided.
“Tour operator representatives on site contacted a doctor on the island and additional medication was provided to clients who requested it.”
Passengers taken on cockroach-infested ferry
Menchions said that after emergency crews arrived and took the man away passengers were put on a bus and taken to a ferry.
She said officials at the airport weren’t interested in speaking with her or any of the other people who performed CPR on the man.
“I was on the bus five minutes later,” Menchions said. “No one stopped to talk with us. We tried to talk to the doctor but they kept going.”
The ferry ride took approximately six hours. Menchions said after the sun went down, cockroaches came out and began crawling around the boat.
After they arrived in mainland Cuba, they were bussed to Havana where passengers eventually boarded an Air Transat flight to Toronto.
“It’s something I’ve never experience before,” Menchions said.
The airport is scheduled to reopen on Feb. 26.
Canadians in #Cuba: #Cayo Largo del Sur airport is closed. Estimated reopening is February 26. Travel to/from the island has been disrupted. Canadians should contact their tour agency for transport by sea to the mainland.
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.
