 | Tuesday, March 08, 2022 – by John McHutchion | | Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Ukrainian video shows evacuation underway in safe corridor | | | A new evacuation effort to get Ukrainian civilians away from the Russian invasion began Tuesday as people filled buses leaving the eastern city of Sumy.
The route from the city, which is about 50 kilometres from the Russian border, is one of five promised by the Russians to give civilians a way to escape.
Ukraine’s state communications agency posted video of people with bags boarding buses, but it was not clear how long the effort would last. Previous attempts to lead civilians to safety collapsed due to renewed attacks.
"The Ukrainian city of Sumy was given a green corridor, the first stage of evacuation began," the agency tweeted.
With the invasion into its second week, Russia has made significant advances in southern Ukraine but stalled in some other regions. Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers fortified the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of checkpoints and barricades designed to thwart a takeover. Shells and rockets fell on other population centres, including the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where the mayor reported heavy artillery fire.
"We can't even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn't stop day or night," Mayor Anatol Fedoruk said.
In the encircled port city of Mariupol, an estimated 200,000 people — nearly half the population of 430,000 — were hoping to flee as Red Cross officials waited to hear when a corridor would be established. | | | | | Ukraine's young cancer patients fight double battle of disease and war | | |  | (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC) | | | | Anna, 12, left, with her grandmother, Tetiana, at the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children's Medical Center in Lviv, Ukraine. Anna said she arrived on a special train from Kyiv with 40 other sick children. Doctors say they fear the patients will become "indirect victims" of Russia's aggression against Ukraine as cancer drugs are running out. Read the story here from CBC foreign correspondent Chris Brown. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec, will be a candidate to succeed Erin O'Toole as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He will make the official announcement on Thursday, two sources confirmed to Radio-Canada. On Monday, he won the endorsement of columnist Tasha Kheiriddin, who will not be running. Kheiriddin was one of the anticipated candidates for the Conservative leadership race, but after careful consideration and discussions with Charest, she said he is best placed to advance their shared vision for the party. After meeting with MPs and senators in Ottawa last week, Charest has strategic meetings scheduled for this week. Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative MP for Carleton, is the only candidate to have formally declared his candidacy to date. Prospective candidates have until June 3 to enter the race. The party will declare its new leader on Sept. 10. Read more on this story here.
A Toronto woman is questioning TD Bank after she was charged — then later reimbursed — a $50 fee for donating to Ukrainian relief efforts several days after Russia unilaterally invaded the country. Krystyne Rusek, who is Ukrainian Canadian, went to her local TD branch on March 1 to contribute $1,600 to a special fund set up by the Ukrainian government. The donations are to support Ukraine's military as it defends against Russia's attempts to take control of the country. Rusek's donation, and those of other Canadians supporting the fund, were being collected by a downtown Toronto BMO branch before being transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine, the central bank, and then sent to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. After arranging the transaction, the teller told Rusek she had to pay a $50 wire transfer fee — the standard charge for customers sending a wire payment from a TD branch to a non-TD account in Canada or abroad. "I paid it and I wasn't upset about it," Rusek told CBC Toronto. "But the next day, I started to think about it and realized that this was not right." Read the full story here.
Some of Canada's top bobsleigh and skeleton athletes are calling for the resignations of the president of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, Sarah Storey, and high performance director Chris Le Bihan. A group of more than 60 athletes has penned an open letter to the organization, alleging Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) is still riddled with toxicity — despite the organization touting a culture shift following the departure of Kaillie Humphries in 2019 amid harassment allegations. The full list of signatories to the letter has not been disclosed by its organizers. However, CBC News has spoken to a dozen current and former athletes, and has verified the letter's authenticity. The athletes who spoke with CBC News say while the culture shift was generally successful in repairing relations between athletes and coaches, BCS' administration didn't hold up its end to bring about positive change to the organization. Read more on this story here.
Are you prepared to pay, literally, out of your own pocket to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia? It's a question being put to Americans as lawmakers examine new penalties that could, indeed, raise the already high cost of fuel and other goods. Their answer is a resounding yes, according to new polls. These surveys come as American politicians consider new plans to punish Russia economically: cancelling oil imports, suspending normal trade relations and installing new tariffs. Read more on this story from CBC Washington correspondent Alexander Panetta.
Women entrepreneurs, particularly women of colour, receive less funding than their male counterparts. Some Canadian female tech executives are trying to close that funding gap, with a mission to invest specifically in startups led by women and non-binary founders, with a focus on companies led by individuals who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour. A group of 10 women who have held senior roles at Canadian e-commerce company Shopify launched a collective called Backbone Angels in 2021. Co-founder Arati Sharma says the group came together when they saw that their male colleagues were making angel investments — funding startups in their early stages — at much higher rates than they were. "We felt the biggest impact we could make was to invest in women entrepreneurs really early on," Sharma said. Many women who want to start businesses have told Sharma they don't have enough money saved, but she says collectives like hers are an option, and she wants women to know the money is out there. Read the full story here.
Canada's Mark Arendz struck gold in the men's standing 10-kilometre biathlon race at the Beijing Paralympics on Tuesday in China. The Hartsville, P.E.I., native crossed the finish line with a time of 31 minutes, 45.2 seconds, and was the lone competitor to not commit a shooting penalty throughout the race. Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine grabbed silver, while Kazakhstan's Alexandr Gerlits claimed bronze. The podium finish gives the 32-year-old Arendz his 10th career Paralympic medal, having already won bronze earlier in these Games in the standing biathlon sprint event. It's also his second career gold. Read more on Arendz's win.
Now for some good news to start your Tuesday: Most cold mornings at sunrise this year, you can find a Hamilton nurse in the frigid waters of Lake Ontario, swimming in honour of her dying patients. Yulia Shevchenko has pledged to go for an icy swim 333 times this year to raise money in support of palliative care patients, to give them a little more peace in their final moments. The money that Shevchenko hopes to raise will contribute to the 3 Wishes Project at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, where she has worked for the past 12 years. That project gives health-care providers the resources to personalize a patient's care at the end of their lives. "I'm trying to give back so that nurses and other health-care professionals can provide more of that humanistic care and have some more funds to help provide that," Shevchenko said. Read more on her chilly fundraiser. | | | OPINION | This International Women's Day, I want more equality, not coupons and girly GIFs | | | It's that time of year again. International Women's Day. Suddenly, as women, we feel special as there's a flurry of activity from every brand touting their "support" for women, writes Anusuya Datt. Read the full column here. | | | | | FIRST PERSON | My 'incorrect' surname is a tether to my grandpa's traditional values, but I still hold onto it | What’s in a name? As a Lithuanian Canadian and an ardent feminist, Christina Bagatavicius reflects on why she holds onto her family name. Read the full column here. | | | | | | |  | The Ukrainians fleeing and resisting in Lviv | In a flash, a view of Ukrainian civilians fleeing down a street in Irpin becomes only concrete dust.
The scene captured in a video Sunday shows a mortar shell falling in the street, killing three family members and a family friend — including two children.
This is the kind of danger looming over the people of Ukraine. Some have decided to leave their homes and loved ones behind to risk an escape. Others who must stay are helping to ready a resistance to the overwhelming Russian military power.
CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston is in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, where she's been talking to Ukrainians, both those who are fleeing and those getting ready to fight. Today, she brings us to a train station, a border crossing, a bomb shelter and a barricade, and explains how Ukrainians have made these impossible choices — if they had any choice at all.
Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: March 8 | | | 1867: The British House of Commons passes the British North America Act. The act received royal assent on March 29 and Queen Victoria set July 1 as the date for Confederation.
1917: Riots and strikes in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
1939: Sir Henry Pellatt, the millionaire who built Casa Loma in Toronto, dies at age 80. He had the castle built between 1911 and 1914. Based on European designs, it had about 50 rooms and was lavishly decorated. When he found himself in financial difficulties after the First World War, Pellatt was forced to auction off the property.
1994: Rogers Communications succeeds with its $3.1-billion deal to buy Maclean-Hunter. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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