Canadian charter flights leaving Lebanon have hundreds of empty seats, Global Affairs says
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) says two flights chartered by the federal government to bring Canadians out of Lebanon left Beirut for Istanbul Thursday with just 275 passengers and 379 empty seats.
In Paris on Thursday for the Francophonie Summit, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters there were 654 seats on those two flights.
“Please take the seats,” Joly said. “At this point, not all seats are taken by Canadians.”
Shortly after Joly’s media availability, her department issued a press release saying those two flights collectively carried 275 passengers, not all of them Canadian. The department said the passengers included citizens of “like-minded countries” like Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the U.S.
GAC officials said the exact number of Canadians flown out Thursday will be available Friday after the department reviews the flight manifests. Officials also confirmed the number of empty seats.
“Global Affairs Canada has increased its surge capacity at the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa to ensure we contact all Canadians in Lebanon who have accepted our offer for seats on commercial flights,” the department said in its release.
“The team is working around the clock and has reached out to more than 2,300 individuals to offer flight options,” it added, an increase over the 1,700 people contacted as of Tuesday.
Earlier this week, GAC officials at a technical briefing told reporters that of those 1,700 people in Lebanon it had contacted at the time, only one-third of them had taken up the offered seats.
The department said there will be nearly 900 seats available between Friday and Sunday.
‘We’re not getting anywhere with the embassy’
The push to get Canadians out of Lebanon comes as Israel warns residents of more than 20 towns in the country to evacuate, and as it continues its military operations in the country.
Israel bombed central Beirut in the early hours of Thursday after its forces suffered their deadliest day on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least six people were killed.
Some Canadians in the region told CBC News they’ve tried in vain to contact the Canadian embassy in Lebanon to get seats on the flights.
“We’re not getting anywhere with the embassy. I’ve written to them multiple times. And just, nothing,” Ferial Elkadri told CBC News Network’s Andrew Nichols on Wednesday.
She said she is in Lebanon with her husband, one-year-old son and six-month-old daughter.
Elkadri said she and her daughter are Canadian citizens but her husband and son — who was born in Lebanon — have Lebanese passports.
Ferial Elkadri and her family are trying to leave Lebanon through Canadian government-assisted commercial flights as Israel steps up its military operation in the country. But she says the fact that her husband and one of her children don’t have Canadian citizenship is complicating matters.
“I can go and my daughter can go, but my husband and my son can’t go,” she said.
“I was asked yesterday, ‘Why don’t I go?’ And I said, ‘Well, why would I go? I can’t leave them behind.’ So, we all stick together.”
Global Affairs Canada says Canadians and their immediate families can qualify for seats on the government-arranged charters — though all passengers are responsible for the $330US airfare.
GAC deferred CBC’s questions on its definition of “immediate family” to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which did not immediately respond.
An 8-day trip to safety
Some Canadians in Lebanon have been taking matters into their own hands.
Kumayl Takache said he flew to Lebanon to help his parents, his sister and his two nephews flee the country.
The family spent eight days travelling through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey to get to France. They arrived Monday.
Takache said his nephews were traumatized by what they experienced.
“Whenever they hear any loud noises — even if a door shuts suddenly — they think it’s an airstrike,” he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal on Wednesday.
As It Happens7:30Canadian family safe in Paris after fleeing their home in Lebanon
Kumayl Takache and his family are safe in Paris after fleeing their home in Nabatieh, Lebanon, as fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalated. Takache tells As it Happens host Nil Köksal some extended family members were killed in airstrikes, and they’re not sure if they’ll ever be able to return home.
“They like to draw, so all their drawings at the moment are buildings getting blown up. That kind of stuff.”
He said the drive to Beirut, which usually takes about an hour, took them 13 hours.
“There were airstrikes while we were on the road. Like next to the road, [and] on the road,” Takache said.
“I actually know a a Canadian couple who was living there, and they both died in the airstrike. They were trying to take an alternate route, and building was bombed where they were passing and they didn’t make it.”
He said the journey has cost his family between $10,000 and $20,000. The family even had to ditch their car in Syria. He said they’re renting in France for a month, hoping the situation stabilizes enough to allow them to return home. If it doesn’t, they’ll continue on to Canada.
“At the moment we’re just thinking, ‘We’ve got to get out of here with our lives. The car doesn’t matter,'” he said.
“We’re probably not going to have a house when we go back.”
Published at Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:38:40 +0000
U.S. port workers and operators reach deal to suspend strike
The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract.
The union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is to resume working immediately. The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, also reached a tentative agreement on wage increases, but no details were given, according to a joint statement from the ports and the union Thursday night.
A person briefed on the agreement said the ports raised their wage offer from about 50 per cent over six years to 62 per cent. The person didn’t want to be identified because the agreement is tentative. Any wage increase would have to be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.
In a statement welcoming the news, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract.”
“With the grace of God, and the goodwill of neighbours, it’s gonna hold,” Biden told reporters Thursday night.
Automation and wages at stake for workers in strike
The union went on strike early Tuesday after its contract expired in a dispute over pay and the automation of tasks at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas. The strike came at the peak of the holiday shopping season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming into and out of the United States.
The walkout raised the risk of shortages of goods on store shelves if it lasted more than a few weeks. Most retailers, though, had stocked up or shipped items early in anticipation of the dockworkers’ strike.
As dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast go on strike, analysts say the disruption could cost billions of dollars if it persists. Andrew Chang breaks down the potential domino effect on the U.S. economy, and why despite the high stakes, it may not be as severe as it seems.
Images supplied by Getty Images and Reuters.
The union’s membership won’t need to vote on the temporary suspension of the strike. Until Jan. 15, the workers will be covered under the old contract, which expired on Sept. 30.
The union has been demanding a complete ban on the use of automation at the ports, which they see as a threat to their jobs.
Both sides also have been apart on the issues of pension contributions and the distribution of royalties paid on containers that are moved by workers.
Just before the strike had begun, the Maritime Alliance said both sides had moved off their original wage offers, a tentative sign of progress.
Published at Thu, 03 Oct 2024 23:17:12 +0000
