adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

News

Canadians urged to leave Lebanon as flights cancelled amid growing tensions

Published

 on

 

MONTREAL – Lara Salameh was supposed to be flying out of Beirut Thursday en route to Montreal with her husband and two daughters, but the night before, their flight was cancelled. She said Air France told her service out of the Lebanese capital was suspended because of the unstable security situation — one that Ottawa has been warning Canadians about as fears of war between Israel and Hezbollah grow.

Salameh is one of the 21,399 Canadians registered as being in Lebanon, a country the Canadian government is urging its citizens to leave. It says they can’t rely on government evacuation flights if war engulfs Lebanon.

Canada has been planning since October for a possible evacuation of its citizens and sent military personnel to Lebanon and Cyprus in preparation.

Salameh hopes that her rescheduled flight on Aug. 10 will take off as planned, but she has no regrets. Travelling to her native country is more than a vacation, she said in an interview Thursday from Beirut. It is a chance for her children to spend time with their elderly grandparents, some of whom are ill.

“We expected that we might get stuck here, but we came anyways for family,”the Laval-Que. resident said, adding that the turmoil in the Middle East did make her hesitate before booking the trip this year.

“You can’t leave your parents. They’re getting old and we need to see them.”

The fear that her young daughters might witness violence does cause some concern, she said, but so far she has not personally seen any sign of conflict. If the situation does sour, she said, she can take refuge with family who live in the northern part of the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has urged Canadians in the country to fly back to Canada immediately.

“If you are in Lebanon, come back home. If tensions escalate, the situation on the ground may not allow us to help you, and you won’t be able to leave,” Joly posted on X on Wednesday. The Canadian government noted that some airlines have already suspended service to Beirut. “Additional travel disruptions are likely, including airspace closures and flight cancellations and diversions,” it said on X.

Hezbollah’s leader warned Thursday that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Israel alleges the commander was behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah has denied the charge.

Not all Canadians in Lebanon are scrambling to get back, however.

Stephani Moukhaiber was born in Lebanon and returned there from Montreal last year after being laid off from her job. She said Thursday she has no intention of fleeing Lebanon, even as tensions rise.

Moukhaiber is a Canadian citizen, and she has been receiving regular messages from the Canadian government warning her to leave while flights are still available. “I’m not going to lie. I did have a moment of insecurity where I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should go back,'” she said in a phone interview.

But she said the atmosphere where she lives in the mountains outside Beirut is calm, in part because locals have lived through many conflicts in recent decades, including a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

And Moukhaiber, who traces some of her roots to the Palestinian territories, cannot forgive Canada for its stance in the Israel-Hamas war. She said she does not want to return to Canada because she feels the country is not doing enough to stop Gazans from being killed.

“I’d rather be here in a state of war than be in a country that doesn’t believe in my existence or (my) right to exist,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 2, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

News

Bank of Canada to release interest rate decision, economic forecast today

Published

 on

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada is set to make its latest interest rate decision this morning.

The central bank has lowered its key policy interest rate three times so far this year to bring it to 4.25 per cent.

Economists and financial markets widely expect another rate cut today, but the question remains by how much.

Most observers are expecting a half-percentage-point cut, but some expect the central bank to stick with a more measured quarter-point cut.

The Bank of Canada will also release is updated forecast for the economy in its monetary policy report.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the annual inflation rate fell to 1.6 per cent in September, dropping below the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Furstenau to speak as prospects loom for minority government in B.C.

Published

 on

VICTORIA – Green Leader Sonia Furstenau is set to meet the media for the first time since British Columbia’s indecisive election on Saturday, amid speculation about a possible minority government.

The Greens announced Tuesday that Furstenau is staying on as leader despite losing her seat in the legislature, saying she was “instrumental” in B.C.’s 2017 minority government and her guidance of the party’s new caucus will be “critical.”

The Greens say their two elected members, Jeremy Valeriote and Rob Botterell, support Furstenau’s leadership as they “navigate the prospect of having the balance of power in the legislature.”

Initial vote counting shows neither the NDP nor the B.C. Conservatives won enough seats to form majority, and the result will hinge on manual recounts in two ridings and a final tally of absentee and mail-in votes that are all set to begin on Saturday.

Premier and NDP Leader David Eby says the Greens have told his party that it’s too early to begin talks on a minority government agreement.

The NDP is elected or leading in 46 ridings and the Conservatives in 45, both short of the 47 ridings required for a majority.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Poll suggests more than half of Canadians unaware of gridlock in House of Commons

Published

 on

OTTAWA – A debate has ground work in the House of Commons to a halt for weeks, but a new poll suggests that most Canadians are not even aware it’s happening.

In a new survey from polling firm Leger, 55 per cent of respondents said they had not heard about the procedural issues that have gridlocked Parliament for more than 12 sitting days.

The issue stems from a privilege motion that was raised by the Conservatives about a green-tech fund that was found to have misspent government money.

The Tories have vowed to continue debate on their motion until the Liberals hand over unredacted documents about the fund to Parliament and the RCMP.

The government provided redacted versions of those documents to the House of Commons in August, and the RCMP say they also have that information.

However, the Mounties have raised doubts about whether they could legally use documents given to them by Parliament as part of an investigation, and the Liberals are so far refusing to release the unredacted versions.

Matters of privilege take priority over all other business in the House of Commons until they are settled.

The poll suggests that roughly the same amount of people think the Liberals and the Conservatives bear responsibility for the issue, at 27 per cent each. However, 26 per cent of those who took the poll said they do not know who is responsible.

The governing Liberals could end the debate if they had the support of another party for a motion of their own.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Wednesday his party would support such a motion if the government finds a way to pass two Bloc bills on old age security and supply management.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the Liberals continue to talk with both the Bloc and the NDP about bringing forward a motion to curtail the debate.

A plurality of people who took the Leger poll, 39 per cent, said the government and opposition parties should work together to solve the issues. That was the most popular option among people who said they were supporters of the Liberals and the NDP.

Holding an election to break the gridlock was the most popular option among Conservative voters who took the survey.

Despite a majority of respondents signalling that they were unaware of the procedural issues in the House of Commons, 61 per cent of indicated that they think Parliament is not working efficiently.

Even after the debate on the current motion has been settled, a second matter of privilege raised by the Conservatives is awaiting debate in the House of Commons.

Question period and committee meetings have still been happening but the government is not able to advance its own agenda and opposition parties cannot proceed with opposition day motions during the debate.

The Leger poll gathered input from 1,500 Canadian adults in an online survey between Oct. 18 and 21.

The poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending