 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | **Morning Brief will be away on Monday for Thanksgiving. We'll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Top generals warn that allies — Canada included — are running low on artillery shells | | |  | Gunners from D Battery, 2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, prepare to reload during a fire support mission in Shojah, Afghanistan in December, 2010. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press) | | | A leading NATO official and Canada's top military commander have both warned allies within the past week that their ammunition shortages have reached a crisis state, and are calling for urgent action to boost production of critical artillery rounds.
Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff, recently told a House of Commons committee that if Canadian troops were called upon to fire their big guns at the same rate as Ukrainian troops fighting to repel the Russian invasion, their supply of shells would last for only a few days.
At the Warsaw Security Forum this week, Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of NATO's military council, warned that "the bottom of the barrel is now visible" in terms of how much ammunition the alliance has available to transfer to Ukraine.
Most of Canada's major allies have in recent months signed agreements with munitions suppliers to increase the monthly output of artillery rounds — mostly 155 millimetre ammunition, the kind used by Canada's M-777 howitzers.
The federal government has yet to reach its own deal to boost the supply of shells, the Commons defence committee was told Thursday.
"I am very concerned about our ammunition stocks," said Eyre. "NATO high-readiness forces ask us to have what's called 30 days of supply.
"If we were to consume munitions [at] the same rate that we're seeing them [fired] in Ukraine, we would be out in some cases in days and it would take years to restock." | | | | | Iran's Narges Mohammadi awarded the Nobel Peace Prize | | |  | (Reuters) | | | | Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Friday. She is one of Iran's leading human rights activists, having campaigned for women's rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She is currently serving multiple sentences totalling 12 years in Tehran's Evin Prison, a human rights group says. Her most recent arrest came in the wake of nationwide protests over the the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after she was detained by Iran's morality police. Read the full story here. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | Members of the minor hockey community are voicing their opinions on the recent dressing room policy change by Hockey Canada that encourages players to show up to the arena wearing a base layer and wearing "minimum attire" in open-concept shower areas. The policy has been in effect since Sept. 12 and players are still adjusting to the new policy. Hanna Marshall, a 20-year-old hockey player who plays for a team on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, said while she understands the intent of the policy is to be more inclusive, she thinks some of it is a little silly — particularly a rule about wearing swim gear in the shower. "For 15 years, I've never had anyone uncomfortable with it," she said. "I don't know if it's necessarily sanitary to wear a bathing suit in the shower." But others in the community see a benefit. Jack Taylor, a 12-year-old player, said while his age group doesn't use the rink's shower, he does see a benefit to the swimsuit rule. "I think it's good. Some people may not be confident taking off their clothes and some other people might not be comfortable, so I think it's a good rule," Taylor said. Read more on this story here.
A watchdog report released in British Columbia this week said that the province's disaster relief programs were outdated, under-resourced, inaccessible and poorly communicated at the time of extreme flooding and fires in 2021. Unclear and confusing communication, unreasonable delays and a lack of flexibility about how help was delivered left residents navigating an uphill battle at a time when they were already at the end of their emotional rope. Experts say it's a familiar story. "That's not just a B.C. problem," said Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo. "You could take out B.C. and put pretty much any province's name in that report and it would work." Read the full story here.
This week in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, ceremonies marked the start of the "synod on synodality" — essentially church-speak for a global summit on the future of the Catholic Church, with an emphasis on listening. Cardinals, bishops, some clergy and ordinary Catholics from around the world are spending the better part of this month talking about some of the most pressing issues facing Catholicism and the world — including climate change, LGBTQ inclusion and female leadership. Meanwhile, in the shadow of the massive Castel Sant'Angelo, a fortress where a pope once sought refuge during the sack of Rome, an alternative meeting is unfolding. In small, almost-daily gatherings, people hold up black-and-white portraits of sex abuse survivors and unfurl purple banners that read "Ordain Women." These people will not take part in the Vatican synod, but are rather those who, for years, have been showing up at church summits, doggedly reminding its hierarchy who it has shut out. Read the full story here.
Given that building emissions from heating, cooling and lighting account for 18 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many researchers are on the lookout for solutions. "We spend most of our time thinking about how to keep humans comfortable indoors. And right now, the way we do it is with air conditioners and furnaces and electric lights," said Raphael Kay, a research fellow at the Aizenberg Biomineralization and Biomimetics Lab at Harvard University. But Kay and his research team are approaching the problem of regulating the temperature of residential and commercial spaces in a novel way — by taking inspiration from fish. "The hypothesis with our research is that buildings are not actually that different from biological organisms. And biological organisms control their climate mostly at their skin. And so the research output in our case is actually buildings with veins," Kay told What On Earth host Laura Lynch. Read more here.
Now here's some good news to start your Friday: Joy Loveys was just 14 when she received her first letter from Ashikaga, Japan. An organization, International Friendship Club, connected the Carbonear, N.L., resident with a girl her age almost half a world away. Joy and her pen pal, Hisako Suzuki, began exchanging letters. That was in 1981, and the pair has been in contact ever since. Loveys and the pen pal she fondly knows as "Chako" have experienced all of life's big moments together, albeit from afar. When Loveys' daughter, Alana, started planning her wedding in Hawaii, the two pen pals finally got the chance to meet in person. Read their story here. | | |  | Canadian CIA MK-ULTRA victims still fight for justice | More than 50 years ago, the CIA ran a covert mind-control program out of McGill University. Today on Front Burner, why survivors and their families are still fighting for justice.
Listen to today's episode | | | Police and insurers say vehicle theft in Canada has hit crisis levels with $1 billion worth of cars stolen in 2022.
This week, we want to know: how did your car get stolen and what questions do you have about car theft?
Fill out the details on this form and send us your stories. | | | Today in history: October 6 | | | 1866: Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, one of the world's foremost inventors of radio technology, is born near East Bolton, Que. He laid the foundations for AM radio and achieved the first two-way voice transmission by radio across the Atlantic Ocean.
1911: Following an election defeat by Robert Borden, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier’s government resigns after having been in power since 1896. Borden was sworn in four days later.
1948: A delegation from Newfoundland departs for Ottawa to discuss the terms of union with Canada. Earlier that year, Newfoundlanders had voted in a plebiscite to become Canada's 10th province.
2000: NHL player Marty McSorley is found guilty of assault with a weapon — his hockey stick. He was granted a conditional discharge and was told to use his influence to clean up the game. He was charged in February 2000 after his hit to the head of Vancouver Canucks forward Donald Brashear. | | | (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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