Canada’s inflation fears and targeting Ukrainian civilians: In The News for Mar. 18

Some three-quarters of respondents told the firm they planned to cut spending on household items and eat from local restaurants less frequently.

About one in two were already using their vehicles less to save on gasoline as prices at the pumps get pushed ever higher and a further one in five respondents planned to do the same in the near future.

Almost one-third were looking at buying an electric vehicle.

Overall, four-fifths of respondents said inflation was having a serious impact on their households, and the financial squeeze may only worsen as inflation rates are expected to go even higher.

The poll of 1,515 Canadians was taken between March 11 and March 13, but cannot be assigned a margin of error because online panels are not considered truly random samples.

Statistics Canada reported this week that the annual inflation rate in February was 5.7 per cent, a year-over-year increase in the consumer price index not seen in 31 years.

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Also this …

CALGARY — WestJet Airlines Ltd. is preparing for an “immediate and dramatic” uptick in demand in the wake of the government of Canada’s decision to remove pre-entry COVID-19 testing requirements for vaccinated travellers.

Ottawa announced Thursday that as of April 1, travellers arriving in Canada by air, land or water from any country no longer have to provide a negative COVID-19 test result to gain entry, as long as they’ve had at least two doses of an accepted vaccine.

The move comes after months of lobbying by the Canadian travel industry, which had argued that the requirement to seek out and pay for a rapid antigen test before boarding a flight home was an unnecessary barrier to family and business travel.

“Our view is that the desire to travel has remained throughout COVID, but it hasn’t translated into booking demand because of the restrictions that have been imposed on the industry,” said WestJet chief commercial officer John Weatherill in an interview Thursday.

In February, the federal government announced that double-vaccinated air and land travellers no longer need to present a negative result from a molecular test, such as a PCR test, before departure for Canada.

The government also lifted a mandatory self-isolation requirement for unvaccinated children under 12 returning to the country, as well as a blanket travel advisory against trips abroad.

Weatherill said WestJet has seen a dramatic jump in bookings as a result of these changes, meaning that March break is shaping up to be the airline’s busiest period since before the pandemic began.

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And this …

OTTAWA — Canada has designed a system with the potential to welcome millions of Ukrainians fleeing war to Canada, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Thursday, as the government opened applications.

The program, which marks a major departure from Canada’s typical refugee policy, allows an unlimited number of approved Ukrainians to find refuge from Russian aggression in Canada for three years while they decide their next steps.

The allowed stay was extended to three years from two before applications opened. The government has also offered eligibility to family members of Ukrainian nationals, regardless of their own nationality.

The program is based on Canada’s tourism stream, which can accommodate more than two million visitors per year.

“This is the kind of thing that will allow us to adjust in response to increasing demands,” Fraser said in an interview.

It’s hard to predict what the uptake will be, since many refugees have said they want to remain close to their country to wait out the outcome of the war. Fraser’s best guess so far is that there will be tens of thousands of applications.

So far 9,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada since January, after their applications were expedited.

The government says more details about settlement plans for those people fleeing to Canada will be released soon, but so far have set up a job board where employers can post jobs available to the temporary refugees.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s attack on the country began, and the vast majority are women, children and older adults.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are set to speak today as the White House warns Beijing that providing military or economic assistance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will trigger severe consequences from Washington and beyond.

Planning for the call has been in the works since Biden and Xi held a virtual summit in November, but differences between Washington and Beijing over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s prosecution of his three-week old war against Ukraine are expected to be at the center of the call.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would question Xi about Beijing’s “rhetorical support” of Putin and an “absence of denunciation” of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“This is an opportunity to assess where President Xi stands,” Psaki said.

The U.S.-China relationship, long fraught, has only become more strained since the start of Biden’s presidency. Biden has repeatedly criticized China for military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

But the relationship may have reached a new low with the Russian invasion.

In the days after Putin deployed Russian forces in Ukraine, Xi’s government tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow. At other moments, Beijing’s actions have been provocative and have included amplifying unverified Russian claims that Ukraine ran chemical and biological weapons labs with U.S. support.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces pressed their assault on Ukraine, world leaders called anew for an investigation of the Kremlin’s repeat attacks on civilian targets, including airstrikes on schools, hospitals and residential areas that led one official to lament that his city had never seen such “nightmarish, colossal losses.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that American officials were evaluating potential war crimes and that if the intentional targeting of civilians by Russia is confirmed, there will be “massive consequences.”

In city after city, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety from the bombardment have been attacked. Rescue workers searched for survivors in the ruins of a theater that served as a shelter when it was blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol. And in Merefa, near the northeast city of Kharkiv, at least 21 people were killed when Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community center, a local official said.

In the northern city of Chernihiv, dozens of bodies were brought to the morgue in just one day.

The United Nations political chief, Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo, also called for an investigation into civilian casualties, reminding the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that international humanitarian law bans direct attacks on civilians.

She said many of the daily attacks battering Ukrainian cities “are reportedly indiscriminate” and involve the use of “explosive weapons with a wide impact area.” DiCarlo said the devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv ”raises grave fears about the fate of millions of residents of Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks.”

In Mariupol, hundreds of civilians were reportedly taking shelter in a grand, columned theater in the city’s center when it was hit Wednesday by Russian forces. More than a day after the airstrike, there were no reports of deaths. With communications disrupted across the city and movement difficult because of shelling and other fighting, there were conflicting reports on whether anyone had emerged from the rubble.

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On this day in 2010 …

John Babcock, the last known veteran of Canada’s First World War army, died in Spokane, Wa., where he had lived since 1932. He was 109. He was the last link to the over 600,000 Canadians who enlisted to serve.

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In entertainment …

TORONTO — Gordon Lightfoot kept his humbled composure on Thursday night as a room of devoted fans toasted the Canadian folk legend at the premiere of “Lightheaded,” an affectionate documentary about the community that’s grown from decades of his music.

Held in-person at the restored 1930’s-style Eglinton Grand venue in Toronto, the modest, invite-only event was centred around one thing: the 83-year-old guest of honour who showed up to receive the loving embrace alongside his bandmates.

“Tonight is very special to us,” Lightfoot said as he took a moment aside from the festivities.

“There are some really great fans in this group here,” he added. “I’m happy to meet them.”

And with that he stepped away to mingle with the group, posing for photographs with the filmmakers and their friends, and sticking around to watch the documentary for the first time.

“Lightheaded” is a love letter to Lightfoot and the meaningful impact his classic songs such as “Sundown,” “If You Could Read My Mind” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to name a few, have on listeners, especially the ones who refer to themselves as Lightheads.

The documentary traces a group of them, led by its producer and lifelong fan John Corcoran, as they traverse the globe in hope of taking another hit of Lightfoot’s live energy. Much of the footage was captured during his tour of the United Kingdom and British Isles in 2016.

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Did you see this?

NEW YORK — Pete Davidson has bowed out of a short ride to space on a Jeff Bezos rocket.

The “Saturday Night Live” star is no longer able to make the flight, which has been delayed for nearly a week, Bezos’ space travel company said Thursday night. No other details were provided.

The company announced earlier this week that Davidson would be one of six passengers on Blue Origin’s next flight. It had been scheduled for next Wednesday, but has now been shifted to March 29 for more testing, the company said.

Davidson would have been the third celebrity to climb aboard a Blue Origin automated capsule for the 10-minute flight from West Texas. Canadian born actor William Shatner and former NFL great and “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan took a flight last year. Bezos was on his company’s first flight with passengers last July.

The company said it will announce Davidson’s replacement to join the five paying passengers in the coming days. Davidson was going as Bezos’ guest. The company has not disclosed the ticket price for paying customers.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 18, 2022

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Canada’s inflation fears and targeting Ukrainian civilians: In The News for Mar. 18

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