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Pandemic travel rules have nurse facing immigration to Canada without her child – CBC.ca

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Katie Hilton is about to move to Alberta from the United Kingdom to take a job as a nurse, but current COVID-19 rules on travel mean she’ll have to leave her son behind. 

Hilton and 10-year-old Ben have been granted permanent residency and she was issued special permission to travel as an essential worker to Canada during the pandemic, but she says the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian embassy in London told her that Ben doesn’t qualify for that same travel exemption.

She is, however, allowed to bring her cat. 

“In a pandemic situation when you’re thinking about health-care, the two groups of people you need more than anything are going to be your nurses and your doctors … But if you want those licensed health-care professionals to come to Canada and to use the exemption, well, then you need to allow their families to come with them,” Hilton told CBC News. 

“At the moment, I just can’t understand the rationale for not allowing my child to come with me.”

Ben could come to Canada at a later date after Hilton has landed and gone through customs, thereby completing the family’s permanent residence process. He could then apply for an exemption to the pandemic travel restrictions as the dependent of a landed permanent resident.

Until then, her options for childcare among relatives in the UK are limited. 

Katie Hilton says her 10-year-old son Ben has been granted permanent residency, but the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Canadian embassy in London told her that Ben doesn’t qualify for a travel exemption she was issued. (Katie Hilton)

COVID-19 travel rules

In March, the federal government changed travel rules in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. People who had been granted permanent residency after that date were asked to delay arriving in the country, unless they qualified for a travel exemption.

Currently, federal travel regulations do allow for family reunification with permanent residents already living in Canada. Because Hilton hasn’t arrived in the country yet, she says officials have said her son doesn’t qualify for that protocol.

The federal government and immigration department did not provide comment, despite multiple requests for one. 

Because Ben is a minor, getting him to Canada to be reunited with his mother means one of three expensive options: A family member would have to fly the round-trip from the UK to Canada to accompany him, Hilton would have to return to get him or she would have to pay for an airline to escort him. 

Hilton said increasing the number of people who have to make that trip elevates the COVID-19 transmission risk and increases the costs.

She has a plane ticket to Canada booked for the early days of December, a home, a car and a start date for work.

Ben also is registered to begin school in Alberta. She said she’s concerned that delaying her arrival to stay with her son instead could cost her job offer or her visa could expire. 

“I’m a health professional, I’m a specialist worker, I’m a key worker. I’m needed. Please, just let my child come with me,” she said. Hilton has already given up her job and sold her home in the U.K.

She’s called several federal politicians with her plight, who have informed her they’re looking into the issue. 

“I’ve never in all my life been so speechless. What kind of a government separates a mother and child?”

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A linebacker at West Virginia State is fatally shot on the eve of a game against his old school

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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.”

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AP college football: and

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Hall of Famer Joe Schmidt, who helped Detroit Lions win 2 NFL titles, dies at 92

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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.’”

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Coastal GasLink fined $590K by B.C. environment office over pipeline build

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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