Russian advance on Kyiv and Canada’s safe haven: In The News for Feb. 25

The nature of the explosions was not immediately clear, but the blasts came amid signs that the capital and largest Ukrainian city was increasingly threatened following a day of fighting that left more than 100 Ukrainians dead.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the government had information that “subversive groups” were encroaching on the city, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Kyiv “could well be under siege” in what U.S. officials believe is a brazen attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to install his own regime.

The assault amounts to the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. After weeks of denying plans to invade, the autocratic Putin launched his attack on the country, which has increasingly tilted toward the democratic West and away from Moscow’s sway.

His grasp on power increasingly tenuous, Zelenskyy appealed to global leaders for even more severe sanctions than the ones imposed by Western allies and for defence assistance.

“If you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door,” said the leader, who cut diplomatic ties with Moscow, declared martial law and ordered a full military mobilization that would last 90 days.

As air raids sirens sounded in Kyiv early Friday, guests of a hotel in the city center were directed to a makeshift basement shelter, lined with piles of mattresses and bottles of water. Workers, all local university students, served tea and cookies to the guests. Some people ducked out to a courtyard to smoke or get fresh air.

“We’re all scared and worried. We don’t know what to do then, what’s going to happen in a few days,” said one of the workers, Lucy Vashaka, 20.

Zelenskyy said in a video address that 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded.

While some nervous Europeans speculated about a possible new world war, the U.S. and its NATO partners have shown no indication they would send troops into Ukraine, fearing a larger conflict. However, NATO has reinforced its members in Eastern Europe as a precaution.

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What we are watching in Canada …

OTTAWA — Europe is facing a massive new migration crisis because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Canada should prepare to provide asylum to those fleeing the violence, says a Canadian security expert.

“This would be a chance for Canada to really, really step up to the plate,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian in Ukraine who served as the spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe during the height of tensions following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

“Telling Ukrainians: you are welcome in Canada. And, you know, easing of visa rules, temporary stays, that sort of thing.”

Canada has promised to prioritize immigration applications from Ukraine to bring people fleeing the country to safety as quickly as possible.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced the creation of a new hotline Thursday, “for anyone at home or abroad with urgent Ukraine-related immigration questions.”

“We have worked over the past many weeks to prepare exactly for such eventualities,” the prime minister said in a sombre address Thursday.

Bociurkiw spoke Thursday from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where the day started quietly with an orderly procession of local residents lining up at ATM machines and stocking up on supplies at shops before giving way the blast of air raid sirens and “organized panic.”

He said many of the residents of Lviv, described as the cultural capital of Ukraine, could be well-suited to new lives in Canada.

Indeed, more than a million Ukrainians already call Canada home, and in 2016, about four per cent of people in Canada who responded to the census identified as being of Ukrainian descent.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, gravely concerned about the fast-deteriorating situation in Ukraine and the devastating humanitarian consequences it will have, has urged neighbouring countries to keep their borders open to people from Ukraine who seek safety outside the country.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it has prepared extra resources in anticipation of a large influx of requests to come to Canada.

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Also this …

OTTAWA — Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says he plans to put paid sick leave on the agenda for a meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts to resolve a patchwork system of policies and workplace culture that may dissuade workers from staying home when ill.

In late December, Parliament gave its approval to create 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated workers, who make up less than one-tenth of all workers in Canada.

Work on the actual regulations is set to begin in early March with invites to consultations set to go out Friday, just as O’Regan is scheduled to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts.

O’Regan is being urged by one of the country’s largest labour organizations to push provincial and territorial governments toward replicating the federal policy.

In an interview, O’Regan said he plans to listen to what his counterparts have to say on how such a policy could work in their jurisdiction, but also potential price tags for governments and employers.

But in making a public call for O’Regan and other labour ministers to create more paid sick days for workers who don’t already have them as part of their contracts, the Canadian Labour Congress also noted another problem with the nascent federal policy.

The organization’s president, Bea Bruske, in a statement said some provincial programs were underused by non-unionized staff, which was chalked up to pressure from employers.

O’Regan said he’s looking to get the federal policy enacted as quickly as possible, but noted it may take longer for workers to take the time, and employers to push for it, instead of toughing it out when sick.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The three Minneapolis police officers alongside Derek Chauvin at the scene of George Floyd’s killing offered a variety of reasons why they weren’t to blame: Inexperience. Bad training. Fear of a senior officer. The looming threat of angry bystanders.

A federal jury swept them all aside Thursday, emerging from two days of deliberations that followed a month of testimony to convict Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

All three men were convicted of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care as the 46-year-old Black man was pinned under Chauvin’s knee for 9 1/2 minutes while handcuffed, facedown on the street on May 25, 2020. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders back.

Thao and Kueng were also convicted of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin in the videotaped killing that sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the globe as part of a reckoning over racial injustice.

Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd called the verdicts “accountability,” but added: “There can never be justice because I can never get George back.”

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On this day in 1991 …

The Warsaw Pact, created by the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries as a counter-force to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, voted to dissolve on March 31.

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In entertainment …

NEW YORK — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has struck a sour note with organizers of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Valery Gergiev has been disinvited to serve as a conductor for a five-concert U-S tour that starts tonight at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Gergiev is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has voiced support for him.

The Philharmonic wouldn’t comment on the situation or say who was responsible for the decision to pull Gergiev as conductor.

But a Carnegie Hall spokeswoman says the change was made “due to recent world events.”

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Also this …

LOS ANGELES — The original “Hot Lips Houlihan” has died.

Sally Kellerman who played the character in the 1970 movie about a mobile medical unit during the Korean War died yesterday at her home in Los Angeles.

Her manager and publicist says the cause was heart failure. She was 84.

Though she had a career of more than 60 years in both the movies and on T-V, Kellerman will be best remembered for her role in “MASH” as a straight-arrow Army nurse fending off rowdy doctors in her midst.

The role earned her an Oscar nomination — the only one for any actor in the movie, which also starred Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould.

MASH ended up being turned into a T-V series that lasted 11 seasons with Loretta Swit playing the “Hot Lips” role.

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Did you see this?

HALIFAX — The remains of a massive, woolly beast that once trod on the land that would become Nova Scotia will go on display this weekend at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax.

Curator of geology Tim Fedak says the bones, teeth and a tusk from an elephant-like mastodon were found in 1991 in a gypsum quarry north of Halifax, near Milford.

“They were cleaning out this muddy layer and the excavator operator happened to notice … what looked link chunks of tusk and teeth,” said Fedak. “Then they called the museum.”

Gypsum is among the minerals left behind after an ancient ocean evaporates. As it is susceptible to erosion from water, gypsum deposits can be laced with tunnels, caves and sinkholes.

“Our mastodon was probably coming along and having a drink and fell into the sinkhole,” said Fedak. As glaciers returned to the area, the mastodon’s body was covered by oxygen-starved muck. “It was protected by this muddy archive.”

The paleontologists who exhumed the remains worked for eight months to unearth a trove of fossils, including ancient turtles, frogs, plants and even some mastodon dung.

Using a technique known as electron-spin resonance, researchers determined the remains were 80,000 years old, which means the giant creature died before the last of the ice age glaciers covered the province with ice up to two kilometres thick.

The Age of the Mastodon exhibit opening Saturday will also feature a full, mounted skeleton, which is a composite of previous finds from other parts of the world.

Mastodons were slightly smaller than elephants, measuring about three metres at the shoulder, and their range extended from Alaska and Yukon to central Mexico, and from the Pacific to Atlantic coasts.

The exhibit in Halifax will remain on display until January of 2023, and it will then be taken on a tour of the province.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2022

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Russian advance on Kyiv and Canada’s safe haven: In The News for Feb. 25

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