Two-thirds of the Canadians seeking evacuation from Wuhan as officials grapple with the spread of a new coronavirus are on their way back to Canada.
The flight chartered by the Canadian government has now taken off and is beginning its journey to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, where the 176 evacuees will be housed for the next two weeks in quarantine. Roughly 50 others will also be departing within hours on an American evacuation flight.
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters in a press conference on Thursday that the rest are scheduled to be brought home next week on a second chartered Canadian flight.
Champagne said the second flight is scheduled to leave Wuhan on Feb. 10 and get to the military base on Feb. 11.
Story continues below advertisement
Health Minister Patty Hajdu was also at the press conference and repeated the call given yesterday by Champagne for Canadians who do not absolutely need to be in China to get out now while they can.
“Transportation may get more difficult between the two countries as the situation evolves,” she said, adding that the government does not know how long the quarantines put in place on 50 million people in Wuhan and several surrounding cities in Hubei province will last.
Air Canada and British Airways are among a slew of airlines freezing flights to China as officials grapple with the new coronavirus.
Hajdu stressed the need for anyone who has managed to travel from Hubei province to Canada within the last 14 days to self-isolate.
“It is a critical time in the global efforts to contain and limit the outbreak,” she said.
4:26 Coronavirus outbreak: Hajdu outlines how officials will ensure safe repatriation of Canadians from Wuhan
Coronavirus outbreak: Hajdu outlines how officials will ensure safe repatriation of Canadians from Wuhan
More than 370 Canadians in Wuhan have asked to be evacuated over recent weeks, but officials have said they expect roughly 211 to be on the Canadian flight.
Canadians who are on the flights leaving on Wuhan on Thursday were notified via email earlier in the day following a delay to departure that kept the plane grounded in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Story continues below advertisement
Those who aren’t able to get to the airport or who have decided not to make the trip are being urged to contact consular officials.
3:25 What life is like for a Canadian living in Wuhan amid the coronavirus outbreak
What life is like for a Canadian living in Wuhan amid the coronavirus outbreak
Bin Zhang was one of the Canadians at the airport in Wuhan and spoke with Global News about the experience so far.
“In terms of the whole process, everything was pretty smooth,” he said. “I have to say it was pretty organized. We knew exactly what to do next. When we met with one person, they would say, ‘Go to this spot and next you go to that spot’ and, you know, so on and so forth.”
He said most people at the airport seemed to be wearing masks, and there are things like temperature scanners set up throughout, along with questionnaires provided by Chinese officials asking whether people have had any contact with individuals with symptoms.
One Canadian passenger on the evacuation plane, Megan Millward, also shared several photos with Global News.
Officials wear protective gear in the Wuhan airport as medical screenings take place ahead of two evacuation flights on Feb. 6, 2020.
Shared with Global News by Megan Millward
The inside of an evacuation flight carrying Canadians out of Wuhan in China amid a coronavirus outbreak.
Shared with Global News by Megan Millward
Upon their arrival in Canada, evacuees will be quarantined at CFB Trenton in southern Ontario for two weeks.
Story continues below advertisement
Wuhan has been the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak, which has now sickened more than 28,000 and killed 563.
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 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.
