Chinese Canadians and others with family stuck in China’s Hubei province are calling for the federal government to send a third plane to repatriate Canadians, visa holders and permanent residents alike.
The city of Wuhan, China, was locked down in late January, leaving visitors with little or no opportunity to leave.
A group that uses the messaging app WeChat to organize represents at least 50 families with loved ones trapped in Hubei province.
A letter the group has sent to Global Affairs Canada, and plans to send to several Members of Parliament, states people still trapped either didn’t have enough warning to prepare for the two Canadian flights, felt misinformed about who was allowed to board or didn’t sign onto the government’s registry quickly enough.
“We strongly urge the Canadian government to repatriate these families promptly by deploying another chartered flight. The longer this ordeal carries on, and the longer the lockdown continues for these unfortunate individuals, the more danger it will impose on the Canadians stuck there,” the letter reads.
“We cannot bear the thought of losing our family members if something were to happen in the next few weeks.”
One Canadian citizen, Elaine Cheng, said she chose not to board either plane after learning her husband, who only has a Canadian visa, wouldn’t be allowed to leave the country with her. She opted to stay in Wuhan, and thinks Canada can do better.
“I think the way they treat my husband, or someone similar to my husband’s situation in China, is totally inhumane,” she said by phone Saturday. “Inhumane, uncompassionate and unfair.”
The B.C.-resident has been trapped in an apartment for the past month with her husband and limited food.
Although she has no plans to abandon her husband, she’d like to return home.
“That’s why I do not choose to live just for my own sake, for humanity and compassion purpose,” she said. “That’s what we, Canadians, advocate in this country and in this world, to other people in other countries, including China.
“We should not be abandoning anybody that has close ties to us in our life.”
Global Affairs responds
Global Affairs Canada didn’t directly respond to questions about whether the department would send a third plane.
But a spokesperson said those trapped in Hubei province can contact Canada’s embassy in Beijing, call its 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa or send a message to the federal government’s SOS email account.
“We remain in regular contact with Canadians in China and are continuing to provide assistance to those in need to the extent possible,” the spokesperson said.
Vancouver-resident Yaqi Huang says her 63-year-old father, a permanent resident of Canada, was visiting her grandfather over the Chinese New Year when the city’s roads were shut down and planes were grounded.
Not only were her father stuck inside the city, he also became separated from the 89-year-old grandfather.
“Most people feel scared. They feel nervous. They feel trapped by the government,” she said.
While Huang initially heard only permanent residents accompanying Canadian minors were allowed to leave – a decision made by Chinese officials – she was surprised to hear stories of permanent residents without young children being allowed to leave Wuhan.
After the second plane left, the 37-year-old emailed the Canadian government again.
“To say, ‘So what is the policy for letting people on the flight?'” Huang said. “I say, ‘We just need to know the truth.'”
Yaqi Huang and her 89-year-old grandfather, Dao Li Huang, in Wuhan, China, in 2018. Yaqi’s father is still in Wuhan. (Supplied by Yaqi Huang)
In an emailed response to Huang, however, Global Affairs Canada said the Chinese government maintained absolute authority over who could, and who couldn’t, board the planes.
“We advocated strongly for Canadians, [permanent residents] and their families to be eligible,” the email dated Feb. 19 reads.
The emailed response says that even if the Canadian government allowed Huang’s father to travel to the airport, Chinese officials would have prevented him from boarding the flight.
“We share your frustration as well. Your parents are, without a doubt, in a difficult situation right now.”
While Huang wants her father to be repatriated and supports the efforts for a third plane to be sent, she’s not hopeful.
“I know it’s a fat chance for the Canadian government to go help, to send an airplane into Wuhan,” she said. “It’s really hard. We just want to be treated [fairly], like other families.”
Other reasons to stay
Kristina Shramko, of Richmond, B.C., said she’s been living in Wuhan for eight months.
After graduating university, the 21-year-old decided to travel.
She visited Wuhan and, after returning to Canada briefly, had been persuaded to return to China by a romantic partner she started dating.
When the novel coronavirus epicentre was placed in lockdown, Shramko contacted the Canadian government, hoping to leave the city.
When she heard about the strict no pets policy on both flights, however, she decided she couldn’t go.
Kristina Shramko, of Richmond, B.C., says she doesn’t want to leave her pet cat, Kitya, in Wuhan. (Bethany Lindsay/CBC)
She had recently adopted a cat, named Kitya.
“Even if I were to leave my cat with a friend, it’s not certain when I would come back,” Shramko said. “To me, it would be abandoning her.”
Elaine Cheng, likewise, has concerns about leaving her cat behind in Wuhan.
Shramko would like to come home until the outbreak is over, but feels she can’t as long as the pet policy is in place. She said outside of her residence “kind of feels like the zombie apocalypse.”
The Canadian citizen is currently raising money to pay for a plane ticket for her, and Kitya, when travel restrictions on the city are lifted.
“It’s really important for people to know that there are people who have decided to stay in Wuhan,” she said.
Wife is trapped
Most of Simon Zheng’s family is now stuck in Wuhan, including his wife.
The Canadian citizen’s partner, who has a work permit designed for spouses, was also visiting China over the holidays.
Zheng, a resident of Surrey, B.C., planned to come to Wuhan later in January but was held back by work. Now his wife is stranded with his in-laws and parents, Chinese citizens who live in the city.
Simon Zheng says his wife is trapped in Wuhan, China. (Supplied by Simon Zheng)
The small business owner feels if he had been in Hubei province, his wife might have been able to board a plane, like some non-Canadian citizens who were permitted to leave.
“I was not there, so she wasn’t able to [be] included in those kinds of groups,” he said.
Zheng said he’s uncertain how long the lockdown will last and fears his family’s limited supplies could run out.
But he hasn’t given up hope.
The WeChat group he is a part of started with fewer than 10 families, Zheng said, and continues to grow.
He hopes the federal government takes the pleas of families with loved ones still trapped seriously.
“I have good faith, because we’re doing whatever we can,” he said.
Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.
The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.
Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.
The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.
The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.
The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.
The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.
Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.
In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.
“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.
As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.
Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.
REGINA – Saskatchewan’s provincial election is on Oct. 28. Here’s a look at some of the campaign promises made by the two major parties:
Saskatchewan Party
— Continue withholding federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa on natural gas until the end of 2025.
— Reduce personal income tax rates over four years; a family of four would save $3,400.
— Double the Active Families Benefit to $300 per child per year and the benefit for children with disabilities to $400 a year.
— Direct all school divisions to ban “biological boys” from girls’ change rooms in schools.
— Increase the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit to $15,000 from $10,000.
— Reintroduce the Home Renovation Tax Credit, allowing homeowners to claim up to $4,000 in renovation costs on their income taxes; seniors could claim up to $5,000.
— Extend coverage for insulin pumps and diabetes supplies to seniors and young adults
— Provide a 50 per cent refundable tax credit — up to $10,000 — to help cover the cost of a first fertility treatment.
— Hire 100 new municipal officers and 70 more officers with the Saskatchewan Marshals Service.
— Amend legislation to provide police with more authority to address intoxication, vandalism and disturbances on public property.
— Platform cost of $1.2 billion, with deficits in the first three years and a small surplus in 2027.
—
NDP
— Pause the 15-cent-a-litre gas tax for six months, saving an average family about $350.
— Remove the provincial sales tax from children’s clothes and ready-to-eat grocery items like rotisserie chickens and granola bars.
— Pass legislation to limit how often and how much landlords can raise rent.
— Repeal the law that requires parental consent when children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school.
— Launch a provincewide school nutrition program.
— Build more schools and reduce classroom sizes.
— Hire 800 front-line health-care workers in areas most in need.
— Launch an accountability commission to investigate cost overruns for government projects.
— Scrap the marshals service.
— Hire 100 Mounties and expand detox services.
— Platform cost of $3.5 billion, with small deficits in the first three years and a small surplus in the fourth year.
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct .17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – More than a million British Columbians have already cast their provincial election ballots, smashing the advance voting record ahead of what weather forecasters say will be a rain-drenched election day in much of B.C., with snow also predicted for the north.
Elections BC said Thursday that 1,001,331 people had cast ballots in six days of advance voting, easily breaking a record set during the pandemic election four years ago.
More than 28 per cent of all registered electors have voted, potentially putting the province on track for a big final turnout on Saturday.
“It reflects what I believe, which is this election is critically important for the future of our province,” New Democrat Leader David Eby said Thursday at a news conference in Vancouver. “I understand why British Columbians are out in numbers. We haven’t seen questions like this on the ballot in a generation.”
He said voters are faced with the choice of supporting his party’s plans to improve affordability, public health care and education, while the B.C. Conservatives, led by John Rustad, are proposing to cut services and are fielding candidates who support conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and espouse racist views.
Rustad held no public availabilities on Thursday.
Elections BC said the record advance vote tally includes about 223,000 people who voted on the final day of advance voting Wednesday, the last day of advance polls, shattering the one-day record set on Tuesday by more than 40,000 votes.
The previous record for advance voting in a B.C. election was set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when about 670,000 people voted early, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.
Some ridings have now seen turnout of more than 35 per cent, including in NDP Leader David Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding where 36.5 per cent of all electors have voted.
There has also been big turnout in some Vancouver Island ridings, including Oak Bay-Gordon Head, where 39 per cent of electors have voted, and Victoria-Beacon Hill, where Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is running, with 37.2 per cent.
Advance voter turnout in Rustad’s riding of Nechako Lakes was 30.5 per cent.
Total turnout in 2020 was 54 per cent, down from about 61 per cent in 2017.
Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, said many factors are at play in the advance voter turnout.
“If you have an early option, if you have an option where there are fewer crowds, fewer lineups that you have to deal with, then that’s going to be a much more desirable option,” said Prest.
“So, having the possibility of voting across multiple advanced voting days is something that more people are looking to as a way to avoid last-minute lineups or heavy weather.”
Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada said the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
Eby said the forecast of an atmospheric weather storm on election day will become a “ballot question” for some voters who are concerned about the approaches the parties have towards addressing climate change.
But he said he is confident people will not let the storm deter them from voting.
“I know British Columbians are tough and they’re not going to let even an atmospheric river stop them from voting,” said Eby.
In northern B.C., heavy snow is in the forecast starting Friday and through to Saturday for areas along the Yukon boundary.
Elections BC said it will focus on ensuring it is prepared for bad weather, said Andrew Watson, senior director of communications.
“We’ve also been working with BC Hydro to make sure that they’re aware of all of our voting place locations so that they can respond quickly if there are any power outages,” he said.
Elections BC also has paper backups for all of its systems in case there is a power outage, forcing them to go through manual procedures, Watson said.
Prest said the dramatic downfall of the Official Opposition BC United Party just before the start of the campaign and voter frustration could also be contributing to the record size of the advance vote.
It’s too early to say if the province is experiencing a “renewed enthusiasm for voting,” he said.
“As a political scientist, I think it would be a good thing to see, but I’m not ready to conclude that’s what we are seeing just yet,” he said, adding, “this is one of the storylines to watch come Saturday.”
Overall turnout in B.C. elections has generally been dwindling compared with the 71.5 per cent turnout for the 1996 vote.
Adam Olsen, Green Party campaign chair, said the advance voting turnout indicates people are much more engaged in the campaign than they were in the weeks leading up to the start of the campaign in September.
“All we know so far is that people are excited to go out and vote early,” he said. “The real question will be does that voter turnout stay up throughout election night?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said more than 180,000 voters cast their votes on Wednesday.
