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The indiscriminate devastation of Canada's raging wildfires – BBC

Published

1 year ago

August 27, 2023

Harry Miller

By Wyre Davies

BBC News, British Columbia

Joanna Kelly is a barrister in the Kelowna law courts – this week she’s been given permission to appear in legal cases by video-link partly because she has very few formal clothes to wear. They, and most of her other possessions, went up in flames last week.

On her mobile phone, Joanna watches a grainy video of what used to be her house with Duncan Vickers – her friend and neighbour for decades. They’re now evacuees in Canada’s worst ever wildfire season.

Joanna says they had never seen anything like the inferno that tore through their Okanagan valley community, in the western province of British Columbia, destroying almost everything in its path, including their homes.

“It was blindingly bright and then it would get into a house,” says Joanna, as she describes watching the wall of fire from a vantage point on the other side of the lake. “There was a raging fire going through a skeleton-like building and it went from one to the next until there were dozens of destroyed structures.”

Her next-door neighbour Duncan, who emigrated to Canada in the 1970s, lost most of what he had built and owned – including his father’s World War Two medals. But, says Duncan, showing some of his native Yorkshire stoicism, his family is safe and everything else has to be put into perspective.

“I got my cars out, which is important,” he says. “It’s terrible, but you’ve got to be philosophical about these things.”

It’s still too dangerous and risky for Duncan, Joanna and other residents who lost their homes to return and pick up the pieces. But, from the vantage point of a boat on the lake, the devastation is clear to see.

What’s apparent is the indiscriminate nature of the wildfires. In parts of the waterfront communities, where houses back onto the forests, several homes have been completely destroyed by fire. House after house has been gutted. But then, all of a sudden, you come across buildings only yards away that have been barely touched by the blaze and are completely habitable.

Via security cameras, streamed to devices or phones in safe locations, some residents could watch and listen, helplessly in real time, as their houses burned. It’s a testament to local rescue services that no lives were lost. Jason Brolund is the local fire chief and was on the frontline with his crews in often perilous situations.

“There were times when our staff were surrounded on all sides by fire,” says the chief. “They would not say they were ‘trapped’ but there’s no question it’s been dangerous. We saw dramatic fire behaviour, with winds ripping up trees by their roots and laying them down like toothpicks.”

Most alarmingly, Chief Brolund wonders about how his relatively small department can cope with an ever-expanding fire season. Normally the team would be dealing with a relatively small number of blazes in July and August. Now, he says, they can be fighting wildfires from March to November.

He and many others with years of experience in this field are in no doubt that the increasing impact of human activity on the environment must bear much of the blame.

There have been more than 1,000 wildfires across Canada in the last week – a record number. As he toured a local evacuation centre I asked the province’s premier, David Eby, if he thought that climate change might be partly responsible for the spike in such incidents.

“Without a doubt,” said Mr Eby. “The ferocity of the fires and the extent of the burning, not just here in British Columbia, are clearly linked to human-caused climate change. We’re in the fourth year of drought here and that’s making the fires so much worse.”

The biggest fires may have been tamed, but there is still a significant threat as new seats of fire start up at various places in the tinder-dry forest. I watched as a small team of helicopters swooped over a local lake, scooping up water in huge buckets to try and douse a big fire on the other side of the valley that was clearly of concern to the authorities.

The helicopters flew and dropped water virtually from dawn till dusk and were back again the next day.

This crisis has undoubtedly strengthened the bond between the fire crews and a grateful public, who gather at fire houses in Kelowna to cheer home the firemen and firewomen after another exhausting day in the forest.

But most people here are under no illusion that the number and frequency of wildfires will become more common in the future.

Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

Published

6 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

Published

6 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

Published

6 hours ago

November 9, 2024

Anne Joseph

The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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