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In today's Morning Brief, Mansour Shouman, a Canadian citizen, received an email from Global Affairs Canada on Monday night saying that his family were on a list of Canadian nationals and people with ties to this country who had been given pass to leave Gaza. His wife and children left, but he decided to remain in Gaza.
A Calgary family is among those who left Gaza. Their father chose to stay behind
At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, about 17 kilometres away from the Rafah border, Mansour Shouman hugged and kissed his family as they were set to leave Gaza through the Egyptian crossing on Tuesday morning.
Rafah is the only exit for foreign nationals who wish to leave the Palestinian territory, which has been under constant bombardment since Oct. 7.
On that day, Hamas attacks on southern Israel killed 1,400 people and resulted in 240 people taken hostage, according to statistics from Israeli officials. Israel's military response has killed 10,328 people in Gaza, including some 4,237 children, according to Palestinian health officials in the enclave.
WATCH |Mansour Shouman explains his decision to remain in Gaza:
A Canadian who is on the approved evacuation list explains why he decided to stay in Gaza
Shouman, who has been a Canadian citizen since 2006, received an email from Global Affairs Canada the night before. It said that he, his wife and five children were included on a list of Canadian nationals, and people with ties to this country, given a pass to leave the Palestinian territory.
His family, with children ages four to 16, left through the crossing at 9 a.m. However, Shouman decided to stay put.
"We said, 'We'll see each other very soon,'" Shouman said of the conversation with his children.
"My kids told me, 'Stay steadfast, stay here, this is our land, it's just that now we don't have any food, any water, we're getting sick and there's no medication.'"
Shouman's decision to stay during the ongoing war was based on a number of things.
Having lived in the West and being able to communicate in English, he said he felt a need to remain in Gaza and communicate with the outside world about what's going on. He has spoken with several media outlets across the world and has set up social media channels, where he reports what he sees on a day-to-day basis.
Shouman also said he felt an obligation to help those stuck in the territory — medically or in any humanitarian way possible. Read the full story here.
Acrobatic score
(Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)
AC Milan's Rafael Leão scores a goal against Paris Saint-Germain with an overhead kick during the Champions League match on Tuesday in Milan, Italy.
In brief
Alberta is planning to dismantle its provincewide health provider and may sell off its publicly owned continuing-care facilities, say leaked cabinet briefing documents released by the Opposition NDP. Party Leader Rachel Notley said Tuesday the proposal to break up Alberta Health Services would give complete political control over all health decisions to Premier Danielle Smith's cabinet. Notley released to reporters photocopies of a computer slide deck outlining details of the government's promised revamp of the health system. She said the documents were sent to the NDP anonymously. A senior government source told CBC News the slide deck is authentic and about six weeks old. "Is the premier actually committed to what's outlined in these leaked documents?" Notley asked Smith during question period. "One hundred per cent committed," Smith replied. "We embarked on a process over the last year to try to work within the existing framework to get performance improvement, and we succeeded to a measure," Smith added. "But we need to do so much more if we're going to be able to make greater progress." Health Minister Adriana LaGrange told the house that the government would release its health reorganization plan Wednesday. Read the full story here.
Canada is among a group of top fossil fuel-producing countries that are on pace to extract more oil and gas than would be consistent with agreed-upon international targets designed to limit global warming, according to a new analysis. The report, released on Wednesday by the United Nations in collaboration with a team of international scientists, found that countries still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be required to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The findings are at odds with government commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as with projections by the International Energy Agency that global demand for coal, oil and gas will peak within this decade. The report's authors said more money needs to be allocated toward the transition to clean energy and that the top producers need to work together to limit production. "We find that many governments are promoting fossil gas as an essential 'transition' fuel but with no apparent plans to transition away from it later," Ploy Achakulwisut, a lead author of the report and a scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said in a statement. Read the full story here.
WATCH | Federal environment minister defends policies:
Environment minister defends Canada's progress on reducing emissions
The Mohawk Legion Branch 219 in Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal, was the first and remains the only First Nations-operated Royal Canadian Legion in Quebec. Now, the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community is honouring the legacy of the Legion's 15 founding members with a hometown heroes banner project for its 70th anniversary. The banners, each bearing the name and photo of the 15 original members, line the road between the Legion hall and cenotaph, marking the route of the Legion's annual parade. Read the story here.
When a tiny black beetle crawled out of a small white jar and onto the branches of a majestic Nova Scotia hemlock, it was a big moment — a potential solution to a huge problem. "We think they're probably our best bet," said Lucas Roscoe, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. The beetles — officially Laricobius nigrinus — have been shipped across the country from their native British Columbia in a race against time to try to control the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive species killing Nova Scotia's hemlock trees — some of which are hundreds of years old. The beetles are coming to Nova Scotia as part of a new research program to see how effective they are in containing the invasive insects, and whether they are hardy enough to survive the East Coast winter and establish their own population there. Read the full story here.
WATCH | Nova Scotia bets on B.C. beetles to help save hemlocks:
Nova Scotia hopes this B.C. beetle can save its hemlock trees
Now here's some good news to start your Wednesday: The life and legacy of Calgary's Norman Kwong are the focus of a new Heritage Minute documentary, 75 years after he became the first Chinese-Canadian professional football player. After winning four Grey Cups with the Stampeders and Edmonton, Kwong became Alberta's 16th lieutenant-governor — the first of Chinese heritage. The short film will explore the racism Kwong faced in his youth, with actors recreating the 1955 championship game in which Kwong ran for two touchdowns. Historica Canada president and CEO Anthony Wilson-Smith said the videos typically reach eight or nine million viewers within a month of release. "We like to tell stories about people and events who, in one way or another, help shape the Canada in which we live today," he said. "Normie Kwong did that, of course, in breaking through some barriers and establishing a name." .
First Person: I'm a long-distance dad. So I went to Taylor Swift's movie alone, for my daughters
Jordan Kawchuk had promised his daughters that they'd watch Taylor Swift's movie together. And they did — even if it wasn't in the same theatre sitting side-by-side. Read his column here.
Front Burner: A carbon tax carve-out, or cold feet?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax exemption for home heating oil has renewed criticism of the entire scheme. How will the Liberals weather a political storm of their own making?
Front Burner21:46A carbon tax carve-out, or cold feet?
1873: Winnipeg is incorporated as a city. At the time, it had about 3,500 residents.
1960: John F. Kennedy narrowly defeats Richard Nixon for the presidency of the United States.
1974: William Eustace, a signal worker helping build the CN Tower, leaps off the top of the structure with a smuggled parachute. Shortly after he landed, he was fired from his job.
2001: Canada 3000, the country's second-largest airline, is granted creditor protection by the courts. The airline ceased operations and cancelled its flights, leaving travellers stranded. It went bankrupt three days later.
With files from The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters
