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The Canadian Armed Forces has arrived in British Columbia to assist with recovery from this week’s catastrophic flood and is expected to begin construction Friday on a levee in the agricultural hub of Abbotsford, much of which is underwater, with more heavy rain in the forecast.
Days after a torrential downpour, flash floods and mudslides battered southern B.C. and destroyed critical infrastructure, some major highways have opened in a limited capacity to move essential goods and hundreds of stuck passenger and commercial vehicles. However, movement throughout the region remains largely halted, and supply-chain worries have resulted in panic buying at grocery stores and hour-long waits at gas stations.
- How Operation Lentus pulled off a tricky rescue mission: The effort to rescue hundreds of motorists trapped between two massive mudslides on Monday prompted the largest mission of search and rescue forces in British Columbia.
- Opinion: After a year of disasters, it’s urgent that we address Canada’s climate-caused water crisis
- Editorial: Rebuilding B.C.’s infrastructure must be a national priority
- Sikh temples draw on tradition of community service to help B.C. flood evacuees
- Pipeline companies scramble to restore service after B.C. floods, natural gas prices spike
- B.C. races to get vets to flooded farms to avoid agricultural disaster
- Flood-damaged Vancouver, southern B.C. railways expected to remain impassable for days
Flood water flowed over a road in the Sumas area on November 18, 2021 in Abbotsford. Record rainfall this week has resulted in widespread flooding forcing residents to be evacuated from the area.Rich Lam/Getty Images
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Trudeau wins no concessions on Buy America from Biden
U.S. President Joe Biden was unwilling to offer concessions to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico on controversial Buy America provisions when the three North American leaders met yesterday to discuss major irritants to continental trade, climate change and immigration issues.
Despite Canada’s warnings that Biden’s proposed electric vehicle incentives for U.S. cars violated the renegotiated North American free trade agreement, the U.S. President was non-committal about whether his administration would allow the tax credits to apply to Canadian-made vehicles too.
Canadian army stops delivering supplies to Afghan translator stranded in Ukraine
For the past few months, Jawed Haqmal has harboured deep disappointment in the Canadian military he once served.
He felt let down when the army, with whom he worked as a translator in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, did not evacuate him ahead of the Taliban’s takeover of the country this summer.
Later, after he was fortuitously rescued from Kabul by Ukrainian special forces, he wondered why he wasn’t welcomed onto the Canadian military base in western Ukraine – which seemed like an obvious place for a former military translator and his family to wait while their application for resettlement in Canada was being processed.
Now, the army has told him it will stop delivering groceries to his family, ending the only support it was providing to an Afghan who risked his life alongside Canadian soldiers – and who is now a refugee because of it.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Approval of vaccine for children expected today: Canada’s health regulator is expected to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 – bringing a welcome sigh of relief to families across the country. Three sources told The Globe and Mail yesterday the decision from Health Canada is expected today.
Senator critical of O’Toole remains member of Tory Senate caucus: Denise Batters remains a member of the Senate Conservative caucus, even though Erin O’Toole ousted the Saskatchewan senator from the national Conservative caucus earlier this week for challenging his leadership of the party.
- Robyn Urback: With Denise Batters’ expulsion, Erin O’Toole finally finds his voice as leader – two months after the election
Shaw takeover, debt main concerns for new Rogers CEO: Tony Staffieri’s first priority, as he takes the helm of Rogers Communications Inc. after a heated public battle for control of the telecom and media giant, is to close the $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. His next job will be to pay down the deal’s roughly $20-billion debt load.
Canadian lobbyist seeks deal with Sudan’s military regime: Ari Ben-Menashe says he is negotiating a contract with the military-dominated regime that took power after Sudan’s latest coup, even as Sudanese-Canadian activists launch a protest campaign to demand a ban on such contracts.
Legault has plans to increase number of Quebec-born NHL players: Faced with declining interest in hockey among young people in Quebec, Premier François Legault yesterday unveiled a strategy to increase the number of Quebeckers in the National Hockey League – and to boost Quebeckers’ pride in their nation.
MORNING MARKETS
Global stocks struggle: Concerns over slowing China growth and a spike in COVID-19 cases in Europe stymied the global equity markets rally on Friday. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.20 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.09 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.50 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.07 per cent. New York futures were mixed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.06 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Tanya Talaga: “Instead of righteously upholding the canon of CanLit, [Lee] Maracle demanded it be torn down. She believed the history of racism in colonial literature needs to be taught.”
Cathal Kelly: “Between the Uyghurs, the two Michaels, disappeared journalists, COVID-19 cover-ups and the threats on Taiwan, it’s beginning to seem as though China doesn’t care what we think of it. It’s almost as if it believes it can go and do whatever it likes and that there won’t be any consequences. Maybe because there aren’t any. If people cared – I mean, really cared – there wouldn’t be a Beijing Olympics. But they don’t care.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Four ways to help out your favourite charity with life insurance
Tim Cestnick has some creative ways to use life insurance – maybe a policy you already own – to help your favourite charities.
MOMENT IN TIME: NOVEMBER 19, 2004
Ben Wallace #3 of the Detroit Pistons and teammates are kept apart from Ron Artest #91 of the Indiana Pacers by Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle and official Tommy Nunez Jr. on November 19, 2004 during their game at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan.Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Infamous Malice at the Palace NBA brawl
The most notorious brawl in NBA history began as a skirmish, turned into a donnybrook and finally a melee. On this day in 2004, at the Palace at Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit, the Pacers were ahead of the hometown Pistons by 12 points with 45.9 seconds left when Indiana’s Ron Artest smacked Detroit’s Ben Wallace in the back of the head while the latter was taking a layup shot. Wallace wheeled around and gave a two-handed shove to Artest’s face. Both benches emptied as the fighting spread. Peace was briefly restored, but as Artest was trying to recover at the scorer’s table, a spectator threw a soft drink on him. The enraged Artest charged into the stands. Several of his teammates, enacting basketball’s unofficial version of the NATO principle (an attack on one is an attack on all) followed. The bad combination of liquored-up fans, lax stadium security and angry athletes pounding on angry spectators led to injuries, arrests and a huge black eye for the league. Fans and players faced assault charges. The league levied multimillion-dollar fines on the teams and heavy suspensions on the players (Artest was banned for the season). It may have been the NBA’s ugliest hour. Philip King
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