Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Two weeks ago, Shaun Heaps realized that a lot of kids from B.C.’s flood ravaged Southern Interior were going to be without presents on Christmas morning. The highways and bridges to remote communities such as Siska, Spence’s Bridge, Nooaitch and Nicomen were wiped out by last month’s horrific flooding. With engineers focused on repairing the Coquihalla, Highway 1 and other key routes, many smaller communities were still trapped, six weeks after the storms.
So, the jolly, six-and-a-half-foot tall pilot with mischievous eyes and rose-coloured cheeks decided a little Christmas magic was in order.
Heaps, a gentle giant who wears shorts and a tuque all winter long, rallied a dozen pilots with the West Coast Pilot Club. This week, they launched “Operation Elf,” flying hundreds of pounds of toys to flooded communities. “Pilots love nothing more than a mission,” says Mr. Heaps, who has a little round belly, and an X-rated image of his wife, Theresa, tattooed to his right calf.
There was no Dasher or Donner or Prancer in sight. But there were Pipers and Cessnas and a helicopter or two.
Siska emergency coordinator Dennis Pierre helps unload toys and supplies in Langley, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2021.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
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Salmon swept off course by B.C. floods rescued by Sumas First Nation members, volunteers
As mopping up from B.C.’s extensive flooding in November continues, Sumas First Nation members and other helpers are hauling nets through soggy fields in the hopes of rescuing salmon that were swept off course on their way to spawning grounds.
To date, they’ve collected just a few dozen fish, but volunteers hope their efforts will make a difference by allowing those rescued fish to spawn, improving the odds for species whose numbers were already in decline.
As waters receded and the extent of the damage began to be tallied, Murray Ned and others were thinking about fish. Wild salmon were facing challenges in British Columbia before the floods, with populations of several species dwindling to critical levels over the past few decades.
Members of the salmon rescue crew pulling a net out of the flooded fields in Abbotsford. Photo courtesy of the Pacific Salmon Foundation.Pacific Salmon Foundation
Eighty years on, Battle of Hong Kong veteran recalls how Canadian soldiers ‘never surrendered, never let our country down’
On Christmas Day 80 years ago, 19-year-old George MacDonell and his fellow soldiers from D Company of the Royal Rifles of Canada buttoned a bullet into their shirt pockets after losing a battle against the invading Japanese forces on Hong Kong Island.
MacDonell was among the 1,975 Canadians sent to the colony in the fall of 1941. The Canadians from the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were volunteers with no battle experience or proper front-line training.
For Canadians who survived the battle, including MacDonell, the nightmare was far from over: They were subjected to nearly four years of brutal Japanese prisoner of war camps where they were forced into slave labour. Some of them were held in Hong Kong, but the rest, including MacDonell, were shipped to the Japanese mainland.
MacDonell is one only four Canadian veterans of the Hong Kong battle who are still alive, and relatives of the dead fear interest in the history of the Battle of Hong Kong will fade away when the last of the veterans dies.
These weary and emaciated Canadians were prisoners of war from December of 1941, when they fought the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, to August of 1945, when Japan surrendered.The Canadian Press
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Arts workers scramble as federal support fund not coming until spring: The beleaguered performing arts sector has been hit once again with COVID-19 restrictions as many provinces impose capacity limits in indoor venues such as theatres to battle a surge in cases from the Omicron variant.
Their rent doubled since the pandemic – how will they save for a house down payment?: Rent at The rent at Melinda Johnson’s old home, where they had lived for six years, was $850 a month. The best price they could find for a five-bedroom house for her husband and four children in October, 2020, was in nearby Trenton, Ont., at $2,080 a month (which rises to $2,150 in the new year).
Joan Didion, author and essayist, dies at 87: Joan Didion, the revered author and essayist whose precise social and personal commentary in such classics as The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking made her a uniquely clear-eyed critic of turbulent times, has died.
Indian government’s bill to raise age of marriage for women faces criticism: The Indian government has introduced a bill to raise the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, bringing it on par with the age for men. The move has been met with heavy criticism from multiple quarters.
The Globe’s giant holiday crossword puzzle is almost here: Do you have what it takes to solve the 1,073-word puzzle? Test your knowledge with a downloadable version available online now, or in print with the Friday Dec. 24 issue of The Globe and Mail.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index posted a third day of gains Thursday after Statistics Canada said the economy grew by 0.8 per cent in October to match expectations.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 148.88 points at 21,218.93 with broad gains across sectors.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 196.67 points at 35,950.56. The S&P 500 was up 29.23 points at 4,725.79, while the Nasdaq composite was up 131.48 points at 15,653.37.The Canadian dollar traded for 78.03 cents US compared with 77.73 cents US on Wednesday.
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TALKING POINTS
Money is oxygen – don’t let anyone control your supply
“If you count on a spouse to control your finances, you leave yourself vulnerable to divorce, their death or possible mismanagement. Remember, what you appreciate, appreciates. Matters of money and health are too important to ignore or abdicate to others.” – Rob Carrick interviews Kelley Keehn to discuss her first personal finance book
Making sense of humanity’s fascination with the elusive true blue
“It may seem extraordinary that producing such a small amount of blue food colouring is an achievement worthy of a scientific paper in this day and age. But at the moment, food chemists largely rely on two synthetic dyes to create blue candies, cereals and drinks: “Brilliant blue,” known in the language of licensing authorities and ingredient lists as E131; and indigotine, or E132. With consumers’ appetite for synthetic ingredients waning, scientists have long been looking for an alternative – and it has proven a difficult quest.” – Kai Kupferschmidt
Despite our differences on COVID-19, let’s call a Christmas truce this year
“Who can say who will emerge in the long run as the ultimate victors in the war with the virus and the divisive conflicts it has generated on numerous fronts? Perhaps there will be no victors, only victims. But how about the short run? How about striking a genuine truce – just over the Christmas season – as those First World War soldiers did so many years ago?” – Preston Manning
An old problem returns to haunt Ottawa as asylum seekers rush to the border
“The Trudeau government is caught between its desire to preserve order in the refugee system and calls from advocates who want Canada to withdraw from the Safe Third Country Agreement altogether on the grounds that the United States is not a “safe” place for refugees to file a claim.” – Konrad Yakabuski
LIVING BETTER
Food safety tips to keep holiday meals merry
With so many of us planning holiday meals this week, now is a good time to brush up on food safety rules.
If the turkey isn’t cooked enough, the gravy sits out too long or leftovers aren’t stored properly, your food-centered celebration could be a source of food-borne illness. Here are some safety tips to keep in mind.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Porcelain Christmas trees were popularized in the 1970s. A Moncton couple is bringing them back
Ceramic Christmas tree samples on the shelves of the Aherns' studio space in Moncton, NB, on Dec. 7, 2021.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
Inside their Moncton workshop, Carol and Martin Ahern create ceramic Christmas trees by hand, scrambling like Santa’s elves to get all their orders filled before Christmas. (They’re only taking orders for next year now.) They started making them in 2018 and were floored to see their retirement project turn into a year-round business. They rise at 5 a.m. and craft, wrap and pack trees for 16 hours in the studio attached to their two-storey home. Their three kilns are firing around the clock. The dining room table is a makeshift glazing area. Ceramic trees in cardboard boxes are stacked high by the door, ready to ship across the country.
The operation is like going back in time for the couple, who once owned a ceramics studio in the village of Rexton, N.B., in the 1980s. Mrs. Ahern used to teach people how to pour and fire their own ceramic creations, many of which were Christmas trees. After the two retired – Mr. Ahern from a plastics factory in Burlington, Ont., and Mrs. Ahern from the Halton District School Board – they tracked down vintage plaster moulding blocks for a specific tree design from 1958 and the 1980s. They bought a few kilns and off they went.
The Aherns say they hear over and over how much the ceramic trees inspire nostalgia. “It triggers a memory of their mother or their grandmother, and their Christmas when they were growing up,” said Mr. Ahern. “All they want to do is recreate that atmosphere.”
The demand for their handcrafted trees has revealed interesting demographic trends, says Mrs. Ahern. Newfoundlanders love the Atlantic tree, made from the 1958 mould, with no snow. British Columbians love Frasier firs. Forty-somethings are the biggest customers, though people of all ages are placing orders, such as Doug and Lori Russell of Oakville, Ont.
Evening Update is written by Emerald Bensadoun and Caora McKenna. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.