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Traveller describes pouring water, falling ceiling tile at storm-hit Calgary airport

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CALGARY – The rat-a-tat of hail was echoing through the terminal as Quinn White made her way to a gate at the Calgary International Airport on Monday evening.

As she rounded a corner, there was a more disconcerting sound: running water.

White posted a video to social media showing water raining from the ceiling and what appears to be sodden pieces of ceiling tile in a puddle by a boarding gate.

“There were pieces of ceiling tile, kind of drywall ceiling tile, that were quite literally falling and hitting the ground,” she said Tuesday from Calgary, where she was stranded and trying to get home to Campbell River, B.C. She was en route from Chicago after going to to the Lollapalooza music festival.

“I was talking to a young girl who said she could feel dripping on her head, and she stood up. And as she stood up, the piece of the ceiling fell where she was sitting. So she was really lucky to get out of the way in time.”

Part of the domestic terminal building at the airport remained closed Tuesday due to water damage from hail and heavy rain that pummeled the area a day earlier. But the airport said flights were still operating out of other gates.

“We understand the impact this weather event has had on our guests and partners and are working closely with partners to adapt and minimize disruptions,” the airport said in a social media post.

“We continue to assess damage and thank everyone for their patience and co-operation as we adapt operations. A huge thank you to the operations staff who responded quickly to ensure impacted areas were evacuated.”

White said there were about 100 people standing around the terminal wondering what to do and it took about half an hour before they got any instruction.

“At one point, the fire alarm started going off, so we were wondering if we were going to get evacuated,” said White, adding she had to pay out-of-pocket for a hotel stay until a flight home Tuesday evening.

“But even then, when you would ask staff, who were standing around essentially watching it happen with us, all they would say is, ‘We don’t know.'”

Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of south-central Alberta late Monday. The weather agency warned of powerful wind gusts, baseball-sized hail and torrential rain.

Monday’s torrent ranks among the top three most impressive storms that Brittany Kennedy, a storm chaser with the Canadian division of a group called Team Dominator, has experienced in her seven-year career.

She and other chasers perched on a hill at Cochrane, northwest of Calgary, as the storm gathered.

“The rotation was spectacular and the hail core was incredible. So we were waiting for a tornado to drop,” she said. There were no reports of a tornado, but it was a formidable storm nonetheless, she added.

The chasers dispersed and Kennedy said she headed south toward Calgary in her Mazda 3, successfully dodging hailstones along the way.

“The further east I went, I noticed that more houses were missing pieces of siding,” she said.

She also saw cars with dents and broken windows, piles of hail and lakes of water on the road. Some hailstones were bigger than golf balls where she was, she said, but she suspects there were even bigger chunks further east.

“There were car accidents, because once you’re driving on hail, it’s like ice. So if you don’t slow down, you’ll drive all over the place,” she said.

Monday’s storm aside, it’s been a quiet few months, said Kennedy.

“This is kind of like the big one of the summer.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2024.



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

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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