| Wednesday, June 15, 2022 – by John McHutchion | | Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | 'No regrets': A Canadian volunteer wounded in Ukraine is coming home | | Maybe it's luck, or some kind of divine providence. According to the capricious nature of life in a war zone, JT should not be alive.
Yet there he is — a Canadian military volunteer in Ukraine who beat the odds.
The former military combat engineer fought through the bloodied grape fields of Kandahar during Canada's war in Afghanistan. He first came within a whisker of death in 2006, when he and his fellow soldiers were strafed accidentally by an American A-10 ground attack jet.
He unwittingly stepped out of the way at the last minute. One of the shells from the jet's cannon smashed into a fuel can behind him.
Just a few weeks ago, JT cheated death a second time.
This time the occasion was a cool, clear night in mid-May in southern Ukraine. He said he and a group of Ukrainian soldiers — with artillery rumbling in the background — were trying to establish an observation post on the outskirts of a Russian-occupied town in the hotly contested Zaporizhzhya region.
He said he barely survived driving over an anti-tank mine while trying to rescue two comrades — one badly wounded, the other already dead.
The 50-year-old Ottawa resident spoke to CBC News by phone from his hospital bed at an undisclosed location in western Ukraine. He said he's hoping to be evacuated back to Canada.
When he was injured, JT had been in the country for several weeks — drawn to Ukraine by President Volodomyr Zelensky's appeal last winter for foreign military veterans to help push back the Russian invasion.
CBC News has agreed not to use his full name for security reasons as friends at home scramble to raise money for his medical transport. | | | | Rise of the 'Strawberry Moon' | | | (Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters) | | The "Strawberry Moon," so-called because it's the full moon at strawberry harvest time, rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday. The moon also reached its full stage during a phenomenon known as a supermoon because of its close proximity to the Earth. | | | | | | In brief | | Effective June 20, passengers no longer need to be fully vaccinated — with two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine or one of Johnson & Johnson's — to board a plane or train in Canada. The federal government is also lifting vaccination requirements for federally regulated workers, allowing airline and airport employees on unpaid leave because of their vaccination status to return to work. Ottawa will bring back the mandates if the COVID-19 situation changes for the worse, according to Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc. Vaccinated Canadians returning from abroad must still meet entry requirements, including using the ArriveCAN mobile app or desktop version to submit their travel- and COVID-19-related information within 72 hours before their arrival in Canada. The unvaccinated must still meet additional testing and quarantine requirements or face a fine up to $5,000 or criminal prosecution. Masks remain mandatory for those boarding planes or trains. Read more on this story here.
As part of its report into last summer's heat dome, the B.C. coroner called for updates to the building code to require cooling systems in homes. But with most buildings having a lifespan of anywhere from 50 to 100 years, experts say it would take decades to "future-proof" existing dwellings. Andrew Pape-Salmon calls updating building codes "necessary but insufficient action." An adjunct professor of civil engineering at the University of Victoria, Pape-Salmon has expertise in energy efficiency and building and safety standards, and says changing codes would probably be the most impactful way of tackling the issue — since it would be a way of ensuring that specific technical standards would be universally applied for new construction. But it's certainly not the quickest, he said. The City of Vancouver recently approved a plan that would require new multi-family dwellings of a certain size to have mechanical cooling to keep temperatures indoors at no more than 26 C with the windows closed, though it doesn't go into effect until January 2025. Read the full story here.
As the number of confirmed monkeypox cases continues to rise in Canada, infectious disease and public health experts are providing vaccinations to those at risk of infection. Since monkeypox and smallpox are both part of the orthopox family of viruses, experts say some vaccines will work against both. But the vaccines being recommended for use against monkeypox today are different from those used in the last century's global effort to eradicate smallpox, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. "Some countries have maintained strategic supplies of older smallpox vaccines from the Smallpox Eradication Programme (SEP), which concluded in 1980," said the WHO's interim monkeypox vaccination guidance issued on Tuesday. "These first-generation vaccines held in national reserves are not recommended for monkeypox at this time, as they do not meet current safety and manufacturing standards." Monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, and spreads through close contact. Read more here about monkeypox vaccinations.
Rod Rossmo spent weeks planning what he would say to Saskatchewan's health minister during their private meeting Tuesday. Rossmo, 70, who is clinically deaf and relies on cochlear implants to hear, is lobbying the provincial government to fully fund technological upgrades to the devices' external portion, known as the sound processor. "Hearing problems are health problems. These are medical devices," said Rossmo, who is on the hook for buying a new sound processor for about $11,000 in order to hear. The retired psychologist says a person's ability to hear shouldn't depend on their ability to pay. When he received his cochlear implants in 2014, the province covered the initial device and surgery. What Rossmo didn't realize then is that the external sound processor — the device behind his ear that sends sound signals to another device inside his head so he can hear — would become obsolete within eight to 10 years. Companies like Cochlear Americas stop providing parts or service for old processors, essentially forcing people with cochlear implants to upgrade to newer versions. A new processor isn't covered by the Saskatchewan health plan. Read the full story here.
It's under four months to go before United Conservatives pick a new leader and Alberta's next premier on Oct. 6. But in reality, much of the contest gets sorted out well before then. It's less than two months before Aug. 12, when anybody who wants a leadership ballot must become a UCP member, and less than seven weeks before July 29, when any leadership candidate must have paid the party $100,000, plus a $25,000 "good conduct" deposit, plus another $50,000 due shortly thereafter. And it's five weeks plus a day before July 20, when candidates must hand in a petition signed by at least 1,000 party members, equally distributed throughout the province's regions. In other words, this is a race well-deserving of the term race. Short and small, with the bar to entry set deliberately high. Read more analysis here.
The matchup pretty much sells itself. The Tampa Bay Lightning, a team trying for the first Stanley Cup three-peat in 40 years, takes on arguably the most exciting squad in hockey — the Colorado Avalanche. The heavyweight tilt opens Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET in Denver and can be watched live on the CBC TV network, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app. Read here for a quick primer as the Lightning and Avalanche go head-to-head for Lord Stanley’s mug.
Now for some good news to start your Wednesday: After a long journey with her mother fleeing their war-ravaged country, a young Ukrainian girl who turned eight on Monday was able to celebrate her first Canadian birthday in style at the Halifax Common thanks to welcoming Haligonians. Masha Stadinchuk and her mother recently arrived on a federal chartered flight and are spending a few days in Halifax before taking another plane to Saskatchewan on June 16 to be resettled. Word got out on social media that Masha might be having a disappointing birthday on Monday and Haligonians were having none of it. Read more on the birthday party here. | | | OPINION | How clean do the Saudis expect to get by sportswashing with men's golf? | | I did not imagine that golf would be the centre of heated debate about reckless sportswashing, writes Shireen Ahmed. Read the column here. | | | | | Jacob Hoggard and consent in Canada | WARNING: This episode contains graphic allegations and details of sexual assault.
On June 5, after six days of deliberation, a jury found former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard guilty of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman.
The jury also acquitted Hoggard of sexually assaulting a fan who was 16 years old during a separate encounter, and of a sexual interference charge related to accusations he touched her when she was still 15.
What happened in the jury room is a secret, but consent and the credibility of the accusers were key points in the proceedings. Today, a summary of what happened at the trial, and a conversation with lawyer Megan Stephens about the tensions that continue between criminal justice and accusations of sexual assault. Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: June 15 | | 1846: The United States and Britain sign the Oregon Boundary Treaty, declaring the 49th parallel to be the Canada-U.S. boundary from the crest of the Rockies to the middle of the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
1944: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation wins a sweeping majority in a Saskatchewan provincial election, taking 47 out of 52 seats. Tommy Douglas led Canada's first socialist government, which launched groundbreaking public health insurance and other social policies.
1992: The House of Commons approves sexual assault legislation that became known as the "no means no" law.
1993: Rookie Alberta Premier Ralph Klein leads his Conservatives to their seventh consecutive provincial election victory. He remained premier until his retirement in 2006.
Have your say! Join us for a brief online research session and tell us what’s important to you in how you get local news. Click on the link here to participate. | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news Breaking news alerts Local, national & world news In-depth coverage | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was forwarded to you. | | | |