From the Philippines to Peru, scores of Canadians who are worried they’ll be stranded abroad for weeks, or even months, as countries close their borders amid the COVID-19 pandemic are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do more to help bring them home.
Toronto resident Lauren Ianni, 30, spoke to Global News from the town of Cusco in the Peruvian Andes, where she and hundreds of Canadians are currently stuck after Peru issued a nationwide state of emergency declaration, effectively stopping people from travelling in or out of the country.
“Every day, I wake up waiting for something to be solved, but that doesn’t feel like it’s going to happen.”
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Ianni is confined to a hotel with her American boyfriend where there are concerns people may run out of food as movement inside the country has been limited under martial law to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
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0:44 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau urges Canadians to donate blood
The couple travelled to Peru last Thursday after getting confirmation from their tour company that they were safe to go before travel advisories were issued. On Sunday, the company announced mid-trip that the tour was cancelled, and later that evening, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra announced the country was closing its borders.
She and other Canadians who contacted Global News say they’ve received little to no help from Global Affairs and that they haven’t been able to reach staff at the consulate in Lima, Peru. A Facebook group for Canadians stranded in Peru now has over 500 members.
“Nobody has actually followed through with anything or provided any information,” Ianni said. “I have even heard the American embassies and others, they’re really talking about sending a plane for their citizens.
“I just have not heard anything about Canada,” she said. “And that’s kind of shocking to me because there are so many of us here. I don’t know; I would think that it would be important to them.”
Lauren Ianni and her boyfriend Jester Weah are stranded in Cusco, Peru.
(Supplied)
Margaret McKellar, who is stuck in Cusco with her 15-year-old daughter, said Canada should follow the lead of other countries, like Israel, that have sent flights to help rescue stranded travellers.
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“The only way we can get home is for our government to co-ordinate that. It’s really frustrating and it feels like we aren’t a priority at all.”
McKellar said people are beginning to run out of critical medication and that police were entering hotels searching for tourists who have a fever.
1:57 Canadians stranded in Peru amidst coronavirus pandemic
Canadians stranded in Peru amidst coronavirus pandemic
She is worried Canadians may be stuck in the country until May or later. She said the federal government’s promise of a $5,000 emergency loan isn’t helpful for Canadians stuck overseas if there are no flights leaving the country.
“There is panic starting to set in,” she said. “We are hearing rumours there is a military lockdown and we aren’t even allowed out to buy groceries. There is no one to contact for information.”
Trudeau has said there are about three million Canadians working and living abroad at any given time and that many of them will be stranded as borders close and airlines ground planes.
“We’re going to work very, very hard to bring Canadians home,” Trudeau said Thursday. “I spoke yesterday with the heads of our two large airlines at WestJet and Air Canada to talk about how we can work with them to ensure that there are flights to bring Canadians home. We will continue to respond to the overwhelming demand by Canadians for support.”
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1:45 B.C. high school kids stuck in Peru after country takes drastic measures to control COVID-19
B.C. high school kids stuck in Peru after country takes drastic measures to control COVID-19
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that consular support is being provided to people in Peru and Morocco and urged them to keep trying to get in touch with Canadian diplomats there.
“We are working urgently to find a way to help those people come home,” Freeland told reporters. “It’s a very complex situation. We understand how frightening it is for people. And we’re working to get through it.”
Global News contacted Global Affairs with questions about how it was working to help Canadians in South America but has not received a response.
The agency said in a previous statement that it can’t comment on individual cases and that it respects “the decisions of local health authorities as they manage this public health emergency.”
“Some countries have put measures in place, including closing land borders and shutting down their airspace. In some cases, measures taken have led to the complete cancellation of flights,” the statement said.
“These instances could well mean that Canadians will not be able to return home for an indeterminate period of time.”
Melissa Woolfson and her boyfriend Devin.
Melissa Woolfson
The situation for Canadians stranded in Asia and Africa is also troubling.
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Toronto resident Melissa Woolfson and her boyfriend, Devin, are stranded in the Filipino city of Bacolod after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced an executive measure quarantining everyone in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“We are essentially stuck here,” Woolfson said early Wednesday.
In Morocco, Canadians Susan Simon and her best friend Lillian Pajic are unsure of when they might return home.
“I am scared right now because things are shutting down, and if things shut down, then what?” Simon told Global News. “We get some false hope, and then it shuts down again. I just, I just can’t keep up. I’m like an emotional roller-coaster.”
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Coronavirus outbreak: Ford says Ontario children stuck in Peru are coming home
B.C. resident Oliver Chapman is also stuck after travelling to the island of Panglao in the Philippines last week. He said local travel restrictions mean he might not be home until mid-April.
“It is a bit of a ghost town in this part of the Philippines,” he said. “I’m a little frustrated because, basically, it is supposed to be just a quick two-and-a-half-week trip and it is turning into an almost two-month trip. Nobody really knows what’s going on.”
For Ianni, she said it’s important people understand that many people who are stranded went abroad before Canada’s travel restrictions were announced.
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“I feel like a lot of people think it’s our fault for being here. But people have to have that empathy because what if it was one of their family members?” she said. ”I don’t think anyone deserves to be in this situation at all. It’s a horrible situation.”
— With files from Global News’ Jamie Maraucher, Megan Turcato and Morganne Campbell
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
