Canadians continue to show support for Ukraine and its fierce and urgent battle against a Russian invasion that has tossed life there into sudden chaos.
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It has also prompted people across Canada to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Ukraine by attending various rallies and demonstrations against the invasion, which began on Thursday.
Keeping watch ‘so far from Ukraine’
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday afternoon to show their support for the Ukrainian people. Many in the crowd chanted “Stand with Ukraine!” in unison.
Demonstrators shout “Stand with Ukraine” at the Vancouver Art Gallery <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Ukraine</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vancouver?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Vancouver</a> <a href=”https://t.co/q1eikqrdnf”>pic.twitter.com/q1eikqrdnf</a>
In Eastern Canada, another gathering in Saint John saw scores of people meet at City Hall on Saturday to take part in a rally that was organized by local members of the Ukrainian community.
Their signs urged people to stand with Ukraine and to stop the conflict the democratic nation in eastern Europe has been forced to confront.
People gathered at Saint John’s city hall on Saturday to attend a Ukraine rally, as the eastern European nation tries to fend off an ongoing Russian invasion effort. (Julia Wright/CBC)
Rally organizer Oksana Posatska said all had gathered “to make our voices heard loud and clear” and to call for support for Ukraine.
“We are so far from Ukraine,” said Posatska, who used to live in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. “But we can ask for help.”
In Halifax, Nadia Timoshenko said the crisis in Ukraine has hit her hard because of her deep connections to the country’s people and the culture. (Haley Ryan/CBC)
At a Halifax rally that drew hundreds of people on Saturday, Nadia Timoshenko said her family had roots in Ukraine and she still had distant relatives living there.
“I think it’s important for Ukrainians and all humans to come together and stand against this,” Timoshenko told CBC News.
“This shouldn’t happen in Ukraine or anywhere in the world.”
A view of some of the people who gathered in St. John’s on Saturday in support of Ukraine, its people and those fighting against the ongoing Russian invasion. (Henrike Wilhelm/CBC)
A Saturday rally in St. John’s saw members of the local Ukrainian community speak about how the conflict’s has impacted them. Hundreds attended the event, including local politicians.
It ended with the Ukrainian flag being raised in front of St. John’s City Hall, and the singing of the Ukrainian national anthem.
“I just want to say: ‘[Russian President Vladimir] Putin stop this, regain your sanity,'” said Hiroshi Sawada, when speaking to Reuters at a protest in Tokyo on Saturday.
The Associated Press reported small street protests occurring in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities on Saturday.
‘Hard for us to be here’
In Ottawa, dozens of protesters wearing the thick blue and yellow stripes of the Ukrainian flag gathered Saturday afternoon on a snowy sidewalk outside the Russian Embassy.
Dozens of protesters wearing the thick blue and yellow stripes of the Ukrainian flag gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon. (CBC)
Carrying signs full of anger toward both Russia and Putin, the protesters — some originally from Kyiv, with family members still in the Ukrainian capital — chanted as passing cars honked in solidarity.
“It is hard for us to be here and not to be able to help them in any way, [other than] with our own love and support,” said protester Irena Abramova. “I’m afraid that my people will die.”
A candlelight vigil was also held Saturday evening outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa.
Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags are seen on display during a demonstration outside the Russian Consulate in Montreal on Saturday. (Daniel Thomas/CBC/Radio-Canada)
In other provinces, a group of demonstrators gathered outside the Russian Consulate in Montreal on Saturday.
“We want the world to not just look upon us and say, ‘We’re sorry this is happening to you,'” said attendee Halyna Shtoyko, who came to Canada from Ukraine as a teenager more than 20 years ago. “We want the help, all the help that we can get.”
Fears for loved ones
Varvara Shmygalova now lives in Toronto, but previously lived in Kyiv. She has loved ones still living in Ukraine and the peril they are facing is constantly on her mind — particularly with the shelling of buildings near the apartment where her grandparents live in the Ukrainian capital.
A Ukrainian serviceman takes position at the military airbase Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday. (Maksim Levin/Reuters)
“It’s really awful and heartbreaking,” she told CBC News Network on Saturday morning. “All of that is very, very scary.”
Shmygalova thanked all the people in Canada offering support for Ukraine and urged them to continue to do so.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s health minister said that at least 198 Ukrainians have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded.
And more than 150,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries since the launch of the invasion on Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi tweeted Saturday.
The invasion came after a prolonged Russian troop buildup along Ukraine’s borders and a series of escalating warnings from Western leaders that such an action was increasingly likely.
Drone-gathered footage provides a glimpse of a long line of vehicles in Ukraine heading toward the Sheyni border crossing with Poland on Saturday. (Natalie Thomas/Reuters)
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.
