'She didn't hesitate': The untold story behind a Black Canadian woman's wartime portrait

Story by Ashley Burke • 

Thousands of people have seen it over the past 70-plus years: a dramatic oil portrait from 1946 of a Black Canadian woman in a military uniform, standing behind a canteen counter.

Her arms are crossed. Her face is stern. Decades later, the portrait still conveys an image of strength.

It's one of the most famous canvases to come from the brush of Molly Lamb Bobak, Canada's first female war artist. It's been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world.

But while the painting itself is familiar, the story behind it — of its subject, Eva May Roy — is far more obscure.

"This painting of Private Roy has been part of the public imagination for decades," said Laura Brandon, a retired curator of war art at the Canadian War Museum. "It's well known, but Private Roy's story is not."


Sgt. Eva May Roy's photo remains in storage at the Canadian War Museum.© Pierre-Paul Couture/CBC News

Roy died in 1990, having retired from the military with a sergeant's rank. She's one of many Black women who served in the Canadian Forces during the Second World War — people whose stories are largely missing from the public record.

Roy was a trailblazer, serving overseas at a time when it was rare to see a Canadian military woman working in Europe.

"She was right in there with everybody else doing the same thing," said her granddaughter Shannon Roy. "She didn't hesitate...She commanded respect."

Stacey Barker, Canadian War Museum historian of art and military history, recently combed through Canadian Forces records to uncover more about the person behind the painting.

She learned that, after the war broke out, Roy left her job as a presser in a laundry to become a machine operator and fuse assembler at the General Engineering Co. munitions plant in Scarborough, Ont.

Roy enlisted in 1944 and joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC), a new division created just three years earlier. CWAC had 50,000 women in its ranks during the Second World War in support roles ranging from cooking to decoding.

Historians say that before the CWAC was created, the only option available to Canadian women looking to get involved in the war effort was to serve as a nurse — and it was nearly impossible for Black women to get that training.

Roy trained as a cook and served in military canteens in Canada, the United Kingdom and Holland.

"That was pretty unusual," said Mélanie Morin-Pelletier, the acting director of research and chief historian at the Canadian War Museum.

"Only one in nine Canadian women in the army served overseas. So it was amazing that she was able to do that."

Related video: 'She commanded respect': A Black Canadian woman's untold wartime story (cbc.ca)

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Roy's military records show that the stern image presented by her portrait was a little misleading. She had an outgoing personality, was enthusiastic about the army and loved to sing.

She was posted for a month to audition with the Army Show, an in-house performance troupe that entertained Canadian soldiers overseas. But no one would teach her the routines, the museum said.

"There's no official reason why she didn't make it, but we have to remember she would have been the only Black woman in the chorus," said Morin-Pelletier. "So it's easy to read behind the lines."

After returning to Canada in January 1946, Roy worked as government postal clerk in Toronto, the museum said. Almost a decade later, when CWAC launched another recruiting campaign, Roy re-enlisted, served from 1955 to 1965 and attained the rank of sergeant.

Shannon Roy said her grandmother wasn't the type to be pushed away from something she wanted to do.

"It was a different time back then, and unfortunately there was a lot of racism," she said. "So the fact she was able to make the rank of sergeant is just incredible in my mind.

"You think they may hold her back, but I'm sure she wouldn't have let them because that's just the type of person she was. She would have stood her ground."

She has another painting of her grandmother hanging in her house. Her photo albums are filled with black-and-white images of Roy in her uniform and doing track-and-field.

Those photos show a side of her that Bobak's portrait does not — confident, calm, always smiling.

"People would gravitate toward her," said Shannon Roy. "Just for her smile alone."

Her family describes Roy as an outgoing, determined and hard-working single mother who lived in Cobourg, Ont. for more than 25 years. Roy worked at the Queen's printing shop and was known for having the "best laugh," said Marney Massy.


Molly Lamb Bobak's preliminary sketches of Roy, which are still in the Canadian War Museum archives.© Ashley Burke/CBC News

Massy's grandmother, Joan Cork, lived with Roy. They were both single mothers with military experience. Cork served in the reserves, her family said.

"They had a lot in common and helped each other out during tough times," said Massey.

Roy's son Peter was known in town for his support for the Royal Canadian Legion and for helping with the annual poppy campaign in his mother's memory.

Before he died in 2018, he travelled to Ottawa to see his mother's portrait in person.

"He was so happy to have another picture taken with his mother," said his wife Hilda Roy.

That painting of Roy is so evocative, so filled with life, it casts a spell on almost everyone who sees it.

Tanya Lee, who runs a national book club for high-risk teens, first saw a photo of the painting in a book 20 years ago. She said she couldn't believe she hadn't known before that Black Canadian women served in the Second World War. It was never taught in school, she added.

"When I looked at that first, I was looking at her and wondering what it must have felt like to fight for your country ... knowing that at home you're still considered a second-class citizen," said Lee.



Tanya Lee runs a book club in Toronto for high-risk teen girls who can't afford books of their own.

© Ashley Burke/CBC News

Lee spent years learning about Roy and is now working on a pitch to make a documentary about her life. She said plans are also in place to bring Black veterans in to meet her book club in the new year, to ensure Roy's story is shared with a new generation.

"It was a missed opportunity back then, but it's an opportunity now," said Lee. "Only certain people's stories are honoured and we need to revisit that conversation."

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‘We’re doubling down’: how abortion advocates are building on midterm wins

Story by Melody Schreiber • YESTERDAY

Renee Bracey Sherman answers the phone and apologizes – is it OK if we speak while she drives? Like many abortion advocates, she tends to keep a packed schedule and talk at lightning speed – the next initiative, the next law, the next policy on the horizon. Ask advocates how they felt in June after the Dobbs decision sharply curtailed reproductive rights across the US, or in November after wins in the midterm elections signaled strong public support for abortion, and they’ll answer immediately: We knew this was coming; but the fight’s not over.


Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

What Bracey Sherman – founder and executive director of We Testify, a group focused on the leadership and representation of people who have abortions – and her colleagues in the pro-choice movement don’t spend much time doing is elaborating on the past, or how they mourned or celebrated, because it’s already in the rear-view window. Their eyes are laser-focused on the future.

“We’re doubling down,” Bracey Sherman said.

Abortion was a central issue in a midterm election that saw Democrats retain the Senate and relinquish only a narrow majority in the House. In Kentucky and Montana, voters rejected anti-abortion initiatives on the ballot; and in Michigan, California and Vermont, voters chose to establish reproductive rights in state law. Over the summer, Kansas voters similarly rejected a ballot measure to remove abortion rights from its constitution.

“When abortion was on the ballot, it won, so that was fantastic,” said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, an organization that helps access abortion medication. Those wins “really demonstrate that legislators are out of touch with what the majority of Americans want. They support abortion access, and understand that it’s basic, common medical care.”

So pro-choice advocates are taking the fight to new areas, principally access to abortion care, which is now heavily restricted in many places, and support for abortion seekers in states that have criminalized it.

The focus is squarely on the states. For the next two years, with Congress divided, it’s understood that little will get done at the federal level.

“The state level is probably where abortion rights advocates will need to work, and have had some success in the last year,” said Shana Kushner Gadarian, professor of political science at Syracuse University.

Ballot initiatives were one of those real successes. It’s important for organizers “to get things directly in front of voters, because they seem to be winning on that side”, she said.

They were successful in two ways. First, reproductive health can be an issue that stretches across partisan lines, with Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike voicing some level of support for abortion – especially when it comes to opposition to total abortion bans.

But the Dobbs decision also drove a surge in voter registration, especially for Democrats, and it made abortion rights a more salient voting issue, even beyond ballot initiatives, Gadarian noted.

That translated into results. Voters opposed anti-abortion candidates in several states: Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin elected Democratic governors who could veto anti-abortion legislation, while Republicans in Arizona, North Carolina and Wisconsin failed to reach a supermajority in both the state senate and house, making it impossible to override such a veto.

That’s a strong message to candidates in future elections. “Politicians care about re-election,” Gadarian said. “They want to make sure that they’re not going so far ahead of the public that they are going to get punished during the next election cycle.” That could mean instituting less-encompassing laws in conservative states, such as Florida’s 15-week restrictions, she said.

Anti-abortion advocates went too far by creating state-level bans, which are extremely unpopular, and even pushing for a nationwide ban, said Bracey Sherman. “They overplayed their hand on everything.” There was also an unprecedented number of candidates and elected officials who were open about their own abortions – “a historic moment” for abortion support, she said.

Advocates in at least 10 states with restrictive abortion policies are now considering ballot initiatives. In Oklahoma and South Dakota, abortion advocates have asked to add initiatives to 2024 ballots; while several key leaders in Missouri, which has a near-total abortion ban, are up for re-election in two years, and the state could also see ballot initiatives in 2024.

New ballot initiatives could enshrine abortion rights into state law in New York, New Jersey and Ohio, a proactive move that several states have taken. In some states, citizens can put forth the proposals to be added to the ballot, or they may ask their state lawmakers to add them.

Next in Kentucky is a legal challenge to the near-total abortion ban after six weeks that has no exceptions for rape or incest and that only allows abortions under a licensed physician’s care and if life-saving organs are threatened. Even if that challenge is successful, the next ban in place is on pregnancies after 15 weeks – so the fight would need to continue, advocates say.

One important takeaway from places like Kansas, the first state to put abortion rights to a vote this summer, is that long-term community organizing and education was highly effective. Other grassroots organizations are taking note. The Afiya Center, a reproductive justice organization in Texas that had to stop its work as an abortion fund due to new state law, is focusing more on community mobilization, voter registration and education campaigns.

“We are actually launching a voter engagement campaign at the top of the year, called ‘I am a reproductive justice voter,’” said Cerita Burrell, director of programs at the Afiya Center. “We need to educate folks more on the electoral process. It really comes down to policy and lawmakers – getting the right people in office that understand the right to full bodily autonomy.”

Elsewhere, the pro-choice movement is not just entrenching but pushing as many laws as they can, “and they’re sticking”, Wells said. “So why don’t we go on the offensive?”

Some groups are focusing on shield laws to protect providers who prescribe abortion medication via telehealth. In July, Massachusetts passed a sweeping law that shields providers who offer care to residents of states where it’s restricted. “With this new law in place, we’re helping get a group together of providers who would then be able to legally provide telehealth care into states that restrict access,” Wells said. Other states should do the same, she said.

Plan C advocates for exactly that, as well as pushing to remove federal regulatory limitations on medication abortion. Some international organizations like AidAccess already ship to places where state law restricts abortion.

Abortion pills are “safer than Tylenol, safer than Viagra – it doesn’t need to be as highly regulated and medicalized as it is”. Wells said. “Why are these restrictions still standing on this extremely safe and effective technology? It’s politics.”

She would like to see abortion medications available over the counter. “Our philosophy has always been you really need to push the envelope and try these things, because they might stand up,” Wells said.

Courtrooms, not coat hangers

With medication and self-managed abortion, safety is not the concern it was in pre-Roe America. The current challenges are not about back-alley abortions and coat hangers, advocates say.

“Self-managed abortion now does not look like what it looked like in the 70s,” said Jennifer Lim, the communications and media director of Indigenous Women Rising, a reproductive justice organization that runs an abortion fund. “We don’t lean in towards, ‘We won’t go back’, because we don’t have to – the future looks very different than what it used to. Abortion pills are very safe, they’re very effective. But the criminalization aspect is a whole different part of it.”

Criminalizing pregnancy was a rising threat even before Roe was overturned, and the Dobbs decision could see prosecutions jump.

So legal assistance in a rapidly changing and often confusing landscape has become a huge new area of focus.

“We need to stop criminalizing people for their pregnancy outcomes,” Wells said. “We need to not have criminal charges falling on a person who needs healthcare in our country.”

And those who have been marginalized – people of color, people living in poverty, gender-variant folks, younger people, immigrants – are the most likely to experience challenges like these. “It’s people who lack access and resources and face obstacles who are left with fewer options,” said Jill Adams, executive director of If/When/How, a legal resource for reproductive justice.

The organization’s Repro Legal Helpline has seen a 14-fold increase in inquiries since the Dobbs decision. “We expect that higher level of interest to maintain, and we have been staffing up,” Adams said. The jumble of reproductive laws in the US is puzzling to anyone attempting to navigate care, Adams said, and many callers at first “need to understand what the legal landscape is – what, if any, legal risks they face so that they can make the decision that’s best for them,” she said.

If/When/How also has a Repro Legal Defense Fund to provide financial assistance to people who have been criminalized for abortion, including partners, friends and family members. The fund supports pre-trial release, with bail bonds and bail alternatives, as well as the full costs of legal defense. More money is going into that, too, Adams said.

Abortion was a “hot topic” in the midterm elections, with politicians relying on the issue to turn out voters, Lim said. “How do we get folks to stay engaged and understand that this is a long-term battle?” she asked. “​​We don’t want to lose momentum.”

On the brink: Why abortion access in Ontario is under threat

Story by Jasmine Pazzano • Tuesday

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion rights earlier this year, Canadians speculated that this country would become a destination, if not a safe haven, for Americans who could no longer get care in their home states.


A collage showing a silhouette of a woman, a map of Ontario, a calendar, a health-care worker holding someone's hand, and a ovary diagram.© Janet Cordahi/Global News

As it stands, though, the system in Canada is struggling to provide for its own patients.

Experts on abortion access highlight a rural-urban divide: in remote parts of the country, surgical abortion providers can be few or non-existent. As a result, patients resort to a domestic kind of medical tourism, travelling hundreds of kilometres at a considerable cost to a city where access is presumably more reliable.

But in reality, the divide is more of a blur.

“People discuss abortion access issues in Canada as a rural versus urban problem,” said Dr. Geneviève Bois, a Quebec abortion provider and activist. “This dichotomy, this notion that access is resolved in urban settings – that is not correct.”

To test that argument, Global News used the Greater Toronto Area as the measure. Canada’s most populous region, the GTA is home to most of Ontario’s independent surgical abortion centres.

A months-long investigation revealed a system at risk. Facing financial neglect, some facilities are fighting every day to stay open. At the same time, the stakes are high: one in six Canadian women say they have had a surgical abortion.

“When we’re talking about abortion, it means it’s under threat,” said Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor focused on researching reproductive justice in health.

Read more:
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Ontario fully funds only half of its eight freestanding surgical abortion clinics, meaning the province pays for rent, salaries and equipment. The four unfunded facilities, however, rely on the province to reimburse them for each procedure covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). But that’s not always enough to stay in business, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some centres without funding say they have no choice but to ask the public for donations. One of them even started a charity last year.

“Trying to get money out of the government is not easy, so this seemed like an easier way to get money to help these patients,” said the clinic’s owner.

The funded surgical centres are mostly clustered in Toronto. Another is in Ottawa. The unfunded businesses are also in the Toronto region.

Sources say this split in financial treatment for these clinics stems from the early-to-mid 1990s, when Ontario fully funded its abortion facilities. But the province later cut its health-care spending across the board – and the newer private surgical abortion centres never received overhead money, experts say.

Staff at the non-funded clinics say they are stretched to their budgetary limits. While they say they will always try to treat every patient and will accommodate same-day requests, they also try to fit in as many people to keep revenue flowing and their doors open. Some of these centres will overbook, so even if people do get appointments, they may have to wait for hours.

"When we're talking about abortion, it means it's under threat."

One unfunded facility Global News spoke with said it can only afford to deliver surgical services a few days a week, so people who call will have to wait until the next available day or try another place. In some extreme circumstances, waiting may mean not getting an abortion at all.

Then comes the tricky issue of fees: who picks up the bill for the procedure? On paper, this service is fully covered by OHIP, but unfunded clinics end up asking patients for money. Payment is optional, and many people can't afford it anyway.

While Ontario insures abortion care, fees charged at clinics go toward maintaining uninsured services, including dispensing medication and running a 24-hour hotline for patients. Without charging fees, some businesses say they would close.

The manager of one of these centres has asked the province for financial help twice, but he says it has never given him firm answers.

“Especially in places like Toronto, if we’re not getting that kind of funding, we are definitely threatening access and the existence of clinics,” said Omar, who asked to conceal his last name and where he works. “If we were forced to shut down, I cannot imagine where all those patients would go.”

Read more:
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As a matter of personal safety, Omar and many other staff members at abortion clinics asked to keep their facilities' names – and at least part of their identities – out of this story. Many of these sources spoke to the media for the first time. Global News has agreed to safeguard these sources' names and has given some of them pseudonyms.

The need for anonymity fits a larger trend of stigmatization and controversy, which are added burdens for people working in this field. Even though a recent poll shows that more than half of Canadians support abortion access whenever it’s wanted, the country has a history of violent attacks against providers. To name just a few examples, the former Toronto Morgentaler Clinic was destroyed by arson in 1992, and two years later, Vancouver gynecologist Dr. Garson Romalis was shot through the window of his home. He was also stabbed in 2000.

Two decades later, many current staffers say they feel unsafe at work, although Ontario has had legislation since 2018 that’s meant to protect abortion providers from potential threats.

A partner of one of Omar’s patients called in this year and threatened his main doctor, he says. A clinician at his facility told him that for more than a year, she was so scared that she wore a bulletproof vest during her commute.

Safety needs set their jobs apart, employees say. But while unfunded clinics Global News spoke with say they can’t afford to pay for a security guard, a funded centre says it can.

Omar’s facility put in a $3,000 security camera and lock system.

“These are the precautions that we have to take,” he said.

Experts say that stigma concerns may prohibit some hospitals from providing abortion services, which is why some freestanding centres opened. They absorb the overflow.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) says almost three out of four Ontario abortions in 2020 were reported from non-hospital settings, including clinics. The actual statistic may be even higher, the institute says, because some abortions are not included in its reporting.

Ontario’s abortion centres provide either medication abortions, surgical abortions or both. But experts say clinics delivering surgical care play an especially critical role: most abortion doctors recommend this procedure for people who want to terminate a pregnancy above 10 weeks. The province is one of the few places in Canada offering abortions for pregnancies that go to or extend beyond 24 weeks.

Read more:
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“There is no replacement for surgical abortions,” Omar said. “This is the most efficient and foolproof way of making sure the procedure is done properly.”

Abortion clinics in the Toronto area face immense pressure to stay open. The GTA's population accounts for nearly half of the province’s and is expected to grow by three million people in the next 25 years.

The investigation raises this question: if reliable abortion care is not guaranteed in a place as big as the Greater Toronto Area, where is it?

How Ontario got its two-tiered system of abortion clinics

Back in the early 1980s, advocate Carolyn Egan campaigned with Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the late leader of the Canadian abortion-rights movement, to help overturn Canada’s 1969 federal abortion law, she says. They were taking aim at a ruling that permitted abortion under two conditions: if a committee of doctors decided that continuing the pregnancy may endanger the person’s health or life and that it be performed in a hospital.

Egan was in the courtroom alongside Dr. Morgentaler in 1988 when the Supreme Court struck down the legislation as unconstitutional. This decriminalized abortion care.

“You win a victory, but it’s not a victory for everyone,” she says. “I don't think there's any doubt that there's better access now than there was then. And the fact that there's no law regulating it is hugely important. But does it mean that everyone has the access they need? It does not mean that.”

She says she has been fighting to make this service accessible to everyone in Canada, and with the spotlight on abortion care right now, “this is the moment to make a change.”

Soon after the 1988 Canadian Supreme Court ruling, Ontario lawmaker Gilbert Sharpe said that while eating pizza, he wrote scribblings on a napkin that would later become the backbone of a law called the Independent Health Facilities Act, or IHFA. The director of legal services for the province’s ministry of health from 1980 to 2000, Sharpe said he wrote this because the private abortion clinics were charging patients fees to help cover the centres’ overhead. He said he wanted to create legislation that would instead require the province to fund these expenses.

“The IHFA was an abortion bill,” said Sharpe, who now teaches law and medicine at the University of Toronto. “The idea certainly was that women do not pay.”

After the act was proclaimed in 1990, Premier Bob Rae’s NDP government rolled out the IHFA. Under this legislation, the province fully funded the five freestanding surgical abortion clinics that existed around that time: four in Toronto and another in Ottawa.

Four other private surgical abortion centres, all in the GTA, have opened since Ontario financed the first handful. But when the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris came into power in 1995, it made sweeping cuts to health care, which Egan says included limiting new IHF licences.

She says she thinks this was a deliberate, ideological decision to curb funding for abortion care.

Harris was unavailable to respond to Global News' questions.

Video: Woman carrying skull-less fetus denied abortion in Louisiana

Only half of Ontario’s freestanding surgical abortion clinics now receive provincial overhead money under the IHFA: those licensed in the 1990s except for Toronto’s Scott Clinic, which has since closed after its main doctor fell ill, Egan says.

Sharpe said he didn’t know about the disparity. “That is disgusting.”

When asked why only some facilities are funded, a media relations coordinator with the Ontario Ministry of Health did not offer a direct response.

What’s similar, and different, about funded and unfunded clinics

Of the four clinics that provided patient volumes to Global News, three reported similar numbers: the weekly averages range from 55 to 64 abortions. This is regardless of whether they receive overhead money or not.

But one unfunded centre says it delivers around 125 abortions a week. This is the only way it can stay profitable. Its owner, Kelly, a pseudonym to protect their identity, says they wanted to hide their business name, too. They say their numbers will probably go up because of the high demand for the service.

Although Omar said his facility is operating fine as is, his head doctor said, “You have to work like a dog.” The doctor did not want to reveal their name.

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Omar says his clinic’s yearly overhead costs are $978,000, his highest number yet. The COVID-19 pandemic saw people worldwide scramble for medical equipment, which inflated prices for everyday materials: tubing, for example, used to cost $5, but now it’s $10.

“There isn’t a lot of money left over,” Omar says.

For funded centres, on the other hand, Ontario sets patient targets and gives them budgets in line with those numbers, staffers say. Choice in Health Clinic, an IHF, says it has an operating budget of $1.6 million to provide abortions to more than 2,000 insured patients a year.

When subsidized abortion centres fall short of making their expected client numbers, they say they face possible budget clawbacks from the province – not the prospect of completely shutting down.

A source connected to Toronto’s Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic, who asked to remain anonymous, says it was having trouble making its patient targets three years ago. And then came COVID-19 lockdowns and isolation requirements, which kept numbers down. It was seeing about 70 per cent of its usual volumes.

By fall of 2021, Ontario started withholding some of Cabbagetown’s money. The source says this felt appropriate given how low its numbers became, and this did not hamper services or staffing. As soon as the centre started seeing an influx of patients in January of 2022, the province stopped the clawback, the source says.

Lee, whose name has been changed to a pseudonym, works at a funded Ontario abortion clinic. They also wanted to keep the facility’s name out of the story to protect the safety of their staff. They did not give details about their overhead, but they said it’s so big that their clinic “wouldn’t exist without government funding.”

Burden of paying for abortion care is “falling on the public”

At unfunded clinics like Omar’s, they bill the province for insured services only – so, the abortion care itself. But there are other expenses his facility needs to cover that the government does not subsidize. Omar says this is why he asks patients to pay a fee of about $60.

“If we don’t charge, we cannot survive,” his main doctor said.

Omar says he considers this to be “more of a donation,” adding his team is explicit with patients that this fee is optional.

But he says, “With the demographic that we deal with, a lot of them are not able to pay.”

“We give … the same level of care for every single patient, whether they pay or they don't pay.”

In contrast, Lee says their facility is so well funded through the province that there are no uninsured services – and there's no need for fees.

“Clinics should not be put in a position to charge anything,” said Jill Doctoroff, the executive director of the National Abortion Federation Canada. “It’s not the clinics. It’s the system that does not adequately fund them to give the care needed.”

"If we don't charge, we cannot survive."

As with Omar's clinic, Kelly also charges patients an optional fee for services that Ontario doesn’t cover. As a business that’s close to breaking even, they said they would have otherwise gone into debt last year.

But they believe health care should be free, so they say they have started a charity to help collect money to cover their expenses. Their hope is that they can take in sufficient donations to stop charging people these fees – a goal that’s proving to be difficult. So far, they’ve raised around $4,000, but to completely get rid of the extra charges, they said they would need to raise a few hundred thousand dollars a year.

Read more:
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Frédérique Chabot, the director of health promotion at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, says because the province neglects to properly finance these clinics, the burden of funding abortion care is “falling on the public.”

When Global News asked the Ontario Ministry of Health to respond through email to Chabot’s claim, a media relations coordinator did not directly answer the question.

Not enough to go around

Many reproductive-rights advocates and clinic staff are now pushing for the ministry to fully finance all of its freestanding surgical abortion centres.

“We have access,” said Gilbert of the University of Ottawa. “We just need to fund it. We just need to make sure it’s equal.”

But this demand comes at a time when Ontario’s wider health-care supports are crumbling. The ministry of health says the system is “extraordinarily strained.” Many hospitals are grappling with upticks in COVID-19, influenza and respiratory virus cases, all while operating at critically low staffing levels. A recently leaked report shows hospital wait times are worsening, and most pediatric centres will be scaling back planned surgeries to try to safeguard critical care beds.

“Everyone is saying they need funding right now, but whose voice is going to be the loudest?” said Abi Sriharan, a health-crisis leadership expert at Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “Who is going to get attention at the end of the day?”

The pediatric problems have to be Ontario’s priority right now, Sriharan adds. “That said, abortion issues are huge issues and women’s health is involved.”

Abortion care falls prey to “all the problems within the health-care system right now – and worse because it can be stigmatized and dangerous,” Gilbert says.

"We have access. We just need to fund it. We just need to make sure it's equal."

If the unfunded abortion centres in Ontario had to close, Omar said, “I don't know where the overflow would go. With only four publicly funded clinics, how could you possibly see all the patients?”

Funded or not, all facilities said they share the same goal: to provide a safe, reliable space for people to receive controversial medical care.

“It speaks to the commitment of those who are providing the service … because they're meeting a need,” Egan said. “They're doing it even though they're being financially stretched to provide it, and that's just unacceptable in today's world.”

“They give me hugs,” Omar’s lead clinician says tearfully about their patients. “I don't do this for the money. I’m an old-fashioned doctor. I love them so much. They need me.”

Omar says he’s unsure how long his clinic’s head doctor will be working in the field. Once that physician leaves, he fears that finding an equally passionate replacement will be tough, as many surgical providers are aging into retirement. He says if he can’t find a replacement, his centre will have to shut down permanently.

“That’s the bleak future we’re looking at unless we receive public funding.”

Newfoundland's fishing towns were built to survive, but Fiona changed the game

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — For generations, Cory Munden's family has been building and living on the same piece of oceanside land in the southwestern Newfoundland town of Port aux Basques.

Newfoundland's fishing towns were built to survive, but Fiona changed the game© Provided by The Canadian Press

The town is a former fishing village, and like many of the houses destroyed by post-tropical storm Fiona on the morning of Sept. 24, the Munden family home was built by fishers. The land on which it stood was bought by Munden's fisherman grandfather because it was close to where he worked, and it was protected by an offshore island.

For 70 years, the houses on that land withstood the worst weather Newfoundland had to offer. Then Fiona hit.

Munden is now among those who worry storms like Fiona — forecast to become more frequent as the climate changes — will change the face of Newfoundland for good, wiping away its historic, weather-hardened fishing communities one by one.

"All of the traditional living-near-the-ocean spots, those are all old properties that dated back since the dawn of time, right?" Munden said in a recent interview. "That's where all the fishermen settled."

The island of Newfoundland is rocky, rough and unforgiving. Most of its communities are former fishing villages, tucked away into coves, bights and bays along the coastline.

"They settled in these secluded places because they were aware of the power of the ocean," said Andrea O'Brien, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial registrar. "They built their homes far enough back from the high tide and from any kind of storm surges so their homes will be protected."

Fiona upended centuries of that wisdom in a single morning, she said. Looking to the future, O'Brien said she's particularly concerned about the fishing stages that often dot the waterside in these communities. A fishing stage is a shed-like building often sitting atop a platform that reaches out over the water, held up by wooden posts. Fishermen would unload their catches there, splitting their fish on sturdy wooden tables.

Colourful fishing sheds have come to define the province's historic allure; they're easy to spot in tourism ads. O'Brien said she doesn't know how they'll ever withstand storms like Fiona.

"I think with those buildings gone, it really does change the face of how this place has been for centuries," she said, adding that she's not sure what, if anything, could be done about it.

Related video: New fishing rope technology could help protect whales (cbc.ca)
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Munden points to the dormant fishing community of Petites, which is about 40 kilometres east of Port aux Basques along Newfoundland's remote southern shore.

Petites was resettled by the provincial government nearly two decades ago. Before then — and before the 1992 cod moratorium that put an end to many of these communities' local economies — the town had been home to fishers since the mid-1800s.

Fiona destroyed buildings and stages in Petites that had withstood over 100 years of ferocious Newfoundland storms, Munden said. "That was a sheltered harbour," he said. "And this Fiona storm came in and levelled it."

Port aux Basques was settled year-round in the 1700s, and it was a thriving fishing town until the 1992 moratorium. The community is now home to about 3,500 people, down from about 4,000 people five years ago. Before Fiona plunged it into the headlines, it was perhaps best known as the place to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia.

A narrow island sits just offshore from the town's most densely populated area. Until Fiona hit, the island shielded those homes from the sea for centuries.

Munden said he worries for those whose homes are still standing but could be hit by the next big storm. Like many whose homes were destroyed by storm surge, his family was denied any insurance coverage for their loss. Storm surge coverage isn't an option with most insurers.

"I mean, what are we going to do, we're going to move every property that's on coastal water? That's impossible," he said. "People need protection from these type of events. We can't leave them high and dry like this."

Amanda Dean, the Insurance Bureau of Canada's Atlantic vice-president, says insurance providers want to partner with the federal government on a program to cover those whose homes are now in harm's way as the climate changes.

That should happen alongside discussions about where people should build in the future, Dean said in an interview.

"Just because we've been building in a certain way for several hundreds of years doesn't mean that that's necessarily the way we should be building going forward," she said. "It's an awfully tough conversation to have."

Meanwhile, the Newfoundland and Labrador government announced plans Tuesday night to help those on the southwest coast denied by their insurance companies. The aid includes compensation for the land on which destroyed houses stood, or help finding a new lot to rebuild on.

Munden said some are simply moving away.

"It's changed the community, it's changed the landscape, and it's going to change the dynamics," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2022.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

Montreal committee says toppled statue of John A. Macdonald should not be put back


MONTREAL — A downtown Montreal statue of Canada's first prime minister that was toppled by protesters in 2020 should not be put back, a city-mandated committee said in a report released Monday.


Montreal committee says toppled statue of John A. Macdonald should not be put back© Provided by The Canadian Press

Montreal should distance itself from the policies of assimilation and genocide against Indigenous Peoples that were championed by Sir John A. Macdonald, the committee of experts, public servants and academics recommended.

"Considering the assimilative and genocidal policies Macdonald implemented against Indigenous Peoples, and the discriminatory acts he perpetrated against several other groups of people, the consequences of which are still painful and palpable for many communities, the committee believes … it is necessary to distance ourselves from this legacy," the committee wrote.

Protesters toppled, beheaded and defaced the statue at the end of an August 2020 demonstration calling on cities to defund police departments, and the base on which the statue stood has been empty since. The statue --- first installed in Place du Canada park in 1895 — has been sitting in a municipal warehouse while the city prepares a new framework for memorials of historical figures.

Macdonald was an architect of Canada's residential school system. Some of his other policies included intentionally starving women and children to clear the path for settlement in the West. The debate in Canada over what to do with public memorials of Macdonald was rekindled in May 2021, after the discovery of the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

The committee — which included Sen. Michèle Audette and Dinu Bumbaru, policy director at Heritage Montreal — suggested that the statue be replaced with an artistic reinterpretation that rejects the colonial vision of Canada put forward by the country's first prime minister.

"The committee does not rule out the use of the bronze statue or its image in a renewed interpretation. If this project does not involve the reuse of the bronze statue, what will happen to it remains to be determined."

On Dec. 7, the committee will hold a public meeting to present its findings and recommendations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2022.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Marisela Amador, The Canadian Press

From jihadism to far-right violence: Montreal anti-radicalization centre shifts focus


Montreal's anti-radicalization centre no longer occupies the same spacious offices that once received high-profile visitors such as then-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.


Louis Audet Gosselin, the centre's scientific and strategic director

To reach its current office, visitors have to navigate the corridors of the concrete pyramid that is the city's former Olympic Village, past pizza and sushi shops, other offices and a grocery store.

The new venue is one of many changes that the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence has undergone since it opened in 2015 to great fanfare. Its creation came as a wave of young Quebecers was leaving to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria and after attacks in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., that were inspired by the terror group.

After a period of organizational turbulence, the centre has continued its work, with a lower profile, a smaller budget, and a focus that has increasingly shifted from radical Islam to the far right and conspiracy theorists.

Louis Audet Gosselin, the centre's scientific and strategic director, said that while the fear of young people leaving for Syria was the "spark" that convinced authorities to fund the centre, the institution very quickly made it clear that its scope wasn't limited to one threat.

"Pretty soon, the centre found it really important to communicate that radicalization was something way beyond that specific moment, and that specific ideology of jihadism, or a form of political Islam," he said.

"Every type of ideology, of social or political idea, can have a radical and an extremist trend and can lead to radicalization."

Audet Gosselin said the COVID-19 pandemic "democratized" the notion of radicalization by making people realize that it could happen to someone of any age or background. Calls to the centre in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic — doubled from the previous year. The centre's annual report credited the spike to "a fraying of the social fabric" that led to violent acts, conspiracy theories and polarized debate.

While demand for its services remains high, the centre is carrying on its work with little of its initial visibility after a turbulent period that left its survival in question. In March 2019, the city abruptly announced that the centre's then-director had been removed from his post. Most of the board of directors also resigned.

While the city has refused to publicize the report that led to the change of management, Audet Gosselin — who was not employed by the centre at the time and says he has not seen the report — believes the issue was largely financial, related to overspending on things not directly related to the centre's mandate, as well as a difference in vision from newly elected provincial and municipal administrations.

In the end, both the provincial and municipal government decided to continue to fund the centre — but with a narrowed focus on Quebec and a reduced budget of $1.3 million in 2021, down from around $2 million at its peak.

Today, the centre's 15-member team includes researchers, people who conduct online training for schools and community groups, and support team members who take calls from people concerned about friends or family who they think are becoming radicalized.

Amarnath Amarasingam, a professor of religion at Queen's University, says most of the network of organizations dealing with radicalization in Canada sprung up to deal with the "foreign fighter" phenomenon. But concern about the far right has been growing quickly, he said, following the election of Donald Trump in the United States as well as the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting, during which a white gunman killed six Muslim men.

"I think there was some critique overall that this entire kind of apparatus was built with minority communities in focus and that there was a blind spot when it came to these far-right movements — which is starting to change," Amarasingam said in a phone interview.

He praised Montreal's centre as a useful resource, noting that it has had success in getting into schools, which can be difficult due to a reluctance on the part of teachers and educators to discuss extremism with young people.

Both Amarasingam and Audet Gosselin say the process of helping someone who is going down the path of radicalization is similar, regardless of what ideology they are attracted to.

Audet Gosselin says that while each radicalized individual is different, many of the root causes of their extremism are the same: a feeling of being marginalized, excluded or deprived, as well as a distrust of democratic institutions.

Currently, Audet Gosselin says he's worried by what he calls the "anti-government and anti-authority trend" that has risen in Canada throughout the pandemic. While it's inspired by the far right, it's less organized, and it's tied to general distrust of institutions, he said.

While this movement hasn't resulted in "big acts of violence" yet, he said, the rhetoric can be violent and include calls for mass executions or violence against journalists, politicians or doctors.

He said he also feels that Canadian authorities aren't concerned enough about rising threats to the LGBTQ community, which have led to violence in the United States with the fatal shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

When working with potentially radicalized people one on one, the centre tries to address the person's needs, whether that means connecting them with a mentor, a therapist or a job. Because radicalized individuals are often isolated, it also means helping them build healthy social connections and ways of expression, he said.

In response to the rise in conspiracy theories, the centre put together webinars, training and a discussion forum for families.

But Audet Gosselin said that just because public attention has shifted to new forms of radicalization, doesn't mean the others have disappeared.

"We have this idea that 2015 and 2016 were more jihadism, 2017 and 2018 were the far right and then 2020 and 2021 were conspiracy theories," he said. "But the jihadists are not gone, the far right is still there, and we still have calls for every one of these broad ideological families."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2022.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

European companies cut jobs as economy sputters

(Reuters) - Decades-high inflation and the impact of war in Ukraine have forced companies across Europe into lay-offs or hiring freezes.


The logo of H&M is on display outside a store in Moscow© Thomson Reuters

Here are some of the companies that have announced cuts:

AIRLINES, AUTOS, TRAVEL

* AIR FRANCE: France's flagship carrier was in talks to shed nearly 300 ground-staff positions through voluntary redundancies, newspaper Le Figaro reported in June.

* FINNAIR: the Finnish airline will cut about 150 jobs, of which 90 are in its home country, as part of a plan to return to profitability.

* MICHELIN: the tyre maker plans to cut up to 1,600 jobs in France, fewer than the 2,300 estimated in its initial voluntary redundancy plan as it seeks to safeguard production.

* STELLANTIS: the world's fourth largest carmaker indefinitely laid off an unspecified number of workers at its stamping plant in Michigan to mitigate supply chain impacts.

INDUSTRIALS AND ENGINEERING

* ALFA LAVAL: the Swedish engineering group launched restructuring drive at its energy and marine units affecting around 500 employees.

* HUSQVARNA: the garden equipment and tools maker will cut 1,000 jobs, the vast majority of them related to the shift from petrol to battery-powered tools.

* SIEMENS GAMESA: the Spanish wind turbine maker plans to cut 2,900 jobs, mostly in Europe, as part of a plan to return to profitability

* VALMET: Valmet launched negotiations in May for temporary layoffs at its valve factory in Helsinki of up to three months, affecting about 340 employees, due to reduced orders caused by the war and China's COVID-19 restrictions.

FOOD, GENERAL RETAILERS AND CONSUMER GOODS

* CLAS OHLSON: the Swedish hardware store chain said it would cut about 85 full-time jobs amongst other measures to deliver cost savings and reduced depreciation.


* H&M: the Swedish fashion giant, which employs roughly 155,000 people, will cut some 1,500 jobs as part of a 2 billion crown ($189.5 million) savings drive.

* ICA Gruppen: the Swedish retailer said it would cut about 200 jobs due to rising costs, inflation and decreases in disposable income in order to save some 1 billion Swedish crowns annually.

* GETIR: the Turkish fast grocery delivery firm plans to cut 14% of its staff globally due to rising inflation and costs, a source told Reuters.

* SALMAR: the Norwegian fish farmer announced temporary layoffs of 851 employees as the Norwegian government plans to hike taxes on salmon farms to aid its fight with inflation.

* HENKEL: the German company behind Schwarzkopf will cut about 2,000 positions due to low demand for its products, as well as rising costs and global supply chain issues.

BANKS AND FINANCIALS

* KLARNA: the Swedish payments company is slashing 10% of its 7,000-strong workforce after rampant inflation and the war in Ukraine hit business sentiment

* MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA: the Italian state-owned bank has agreed with unions to cut 4,125 staff, out of a total of 21,015, by the end of the year through a costly, voluntary early retirement scheme

TECH

* PHILIPS: the Dutch medical equipment maker will cut around 4,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, to counter falling sales and after a massive recall of its respiratory machines

* SINCH: the Swedish cloud communications company will lay off 150 staff, almost 4% of its workforce, as it targets gross savings of at least 300 million Swedish crowns per year.

OTHER

* BASF: the German chemicals maker announced a new savings programme that will include an undisclosed number of job cuts, and later said its European operations needed to be "permanently" reduced.

Source: Regulatory filings, Reuters stories and company websites

($1 = 10.4142 Swedish crowns) (This story has been refiled to fix a typographical error in the headline with no changes to text)

(Compiled by Agata Rybska and Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi and Alexander Smith)

European energy firms capture most leases in California offshore wind auction

Story by By Nichola Groom • TODAY

(Reuters) -The Biden administration's sale of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California drew $757.1 million in high bids, mainly from European developers seeking a foothold in the domestic industry's expansion to the Pacific Ocean.

Related video: Bidding underway for wind energy leases off Morro Bay 

Duration 0:38  View on Watch

Winners of the five leases were primarily divisions of European energy companies that are already developing projects in the U.S. offshore wind market.

The winners included Norway's Equinor ASA, Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Germany's RWE AG, Ocean Winds, which is a joint venture between France's Engie and Portugal's EDP Renewables, and U.S. developer Invenergy LLC.

The auction, which began on Tuesday and stretched into Wednesday, is part of the administration's plan to put wind turbines along every U.S. coastline to tackle climate change and create jobs.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Alexander Smith, Aurora Ellis and Nick Zieminski)

California offshore wind auction bids top $460 million on day two

(Reuters) - The first ever auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California entered its second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping $460 million.


FILE PHOTO: French President Macron visits the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm© Thomson Reuters

The Biden administration's sale is a major milestone in the its goal to put turbines along every U.S. coastline and a critical test of developer appetite for investment in floating wind turbines, an emerging technology necessary in locations where the ocean floor is too deep for fixed equipment.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is auctioning five lease areas equal to a combined 373,267 acres (151,056 hectares) off the state's north and central coasts. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Related video: “Offshore Wind Farm has Massive Gravity-based Foundations” (DeFiance)
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After 22 rounds of bidding, high bids totaled a combined $462.1 million. Two leases off the central coast had commanded high bids of more than $100 million, with the remaining leases attracting high bids in a range of $62.7 million to $98.8 million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site.

The identities of the bidders are not disclosed during the auction, but 43 companies had been approved to participate.

They include established offshore wind players like Avangrid Inc, Orsted and Equinor, which are all developing projects on the U.S. East Coast, as well as potential new entrants including Swedish floating wind developer Hexicon and Macquarie unit Corio.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Five companies will pay the feds $750 million for the opportunity to build huge floating wind turbines off the West Coast

Story by Ella Nilsen • 

The Biden administration’s first-ever offshore wind energy lease sale for federal waters off the West Coast generated more than $750 million, as energy companies competed for five areas that could eventually be home to massive floating wind turbines.

Five companies, including Equinor and Invenergy, bid on five lease areas totaling more than 370,000 acres off the coast of Northern and Central California. The two-day lease sale concluded on Wednesday.

When developed, the leased areas near Morro Bay and Humboldt County have the potential to generate enough green energy for up to 1.6 million homes over the next decade, administration officials said last year.

The deep-water regions off the West Coast – and other coastal areas, including the Gulf of Maine – will require turbines to be installed on floating platforms and tethered to the sea floor. The platforms will also allow turbines to be installed farther from the coast.

In all, floating wind turbines off US coastlines could unlock up to 2.8 terawatts of clean energy in the future – more than double the country’s current electricity demand, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm estimated in September.

This week’s auction was ultimately not as lucrative as February’s offshore wind lease sale off the coast of the New York Bight, which drew a record $4.37 billion from six companies.

Related video: Bidding underway for wind energy leases off Morro Bay (KSBY Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo, CA)

Duration 0:38 View on Watch

The New York lease sale “was just a perfect storm of all the right factors coming together to create a very, very expensive auction,” said John Begala, vice president for state and federal policy at nonprofit the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “I don’t see that happening again anytime soon.”

The lower bids in this week’s lease sale were due in part to the unique challenges of developing wind energy off the West Coast, Begala said. Because of the much deeper waters in Pacific, technology for floating offshore wind platforms is still being developed and tested.

But even with the challenges, Begala said there is massive potential with floating offshore wind – and an opportunity for the US to compete with Europe, which is also starting to develop floating offshore technologies.

“Not only is the potential massive for decarbonization on the West Coast, but there’s a huge economic potential here,” Begala said. “We have a lot of expertise here in the US when it comes to building floating offshore energy platforms; this is something we can do really well.”

The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030, as well as 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035. In addition to the Pacific coast, the Gulf of Maine is being eyed for floating offshore projects.

White House national climate advisor Ali Zaidi said in a statement that the lease sale is part of “an unprecedented expansion in American clean energy production” and a “massive opportunity for the US economy.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

UK
Winter snow warning as Polar Vortex threatens most savage December for 11 years

Story by Nathan Rao • Yesterday

Government forecasters have issued the first cold weather alert of the season amid warnings this week for dangerous Arctic air spreading over the UK. Temperatures could plummet to -15C in the Highlands of Scotland ahead of the weekend while up to four inches of snow is forecast for the region.

VIDEO
Duration 2:43
View on Watch

Britons have been urged to 'take action' to prepare for the cold blast, which threatens to hold out until mid-December.

Jim Dale, a meteorologist for British Weather Services, said: "This is not about panicking, but being ready and prepared in the run-up to Christmas.

"It is important to make sure you are stocked up for the cold weather to prevent a panic when it happens.

"This is especially important this close to Christmas and with other factors that could leave shelves not very well stocked during the cold period."

Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall in parts later this week will lead to icy pavements and dangerous driving conditions, he warned.

He said: "There will be hazards in parts of the country in terms of snowfall and ice on the roads and pavements.

"This will bring the risk of slipping and will make for dangerous driving conditions.

"The key is to be prepared for if this comes off and do things a little bit ahead of time."



‘Polar Vortex' threatens most savage December freeze for more than a decade

© WX Charts


Snow risk this week© WX Charts

Northern Scotland is braced for blizzards on Wednesday to dump up to four inches of snow across the region

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning across Grampian, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland, and Central Tayside and Fife.

Severe cold weather could hamper railway services and other travel networks while triggering delays on the roads.

Elderly and vulnerable people have been warned to take extra care while others have been urged to keep an eye on neighbours as the cold strikes.

The Met Office with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued a level three 'severe weather action' alert which will stay in force between Wednesday and the start of next week.

Dr Agostinho Sousa, consultant in public health medicine at UKHSA, said: "Cold weather can have serious consequences for health, and older people and those with heart or lung conditions can be particularly at risk.

"If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you."



Polar vortex moves across the UK© WX Charts

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Sherwin added: "Temperatures will start to dip this week, with daytime temperatures struggling to get above freezing in many places from mid-week onwards.

"However, the cold air from the Arctic will also bring brighter conditions, with some dry, sunny spells in many areas, particularly away from the coast."

Keep-fitters with underlying health conditions are warned to take extra care exercising in extreme cold.

Health and wellness coach Ryan French, founder of Military Outdoor Fitness (MOFit), based in London, Greenwich, said: "Training in cold weather, as in very hot weather, does carry some risk, so it is important to prepare.

"This is especially true of people with asthma because studies show cold weather can increase bronchoconstriction-a narrowing of the airways.

"If you are training outside in the cold weather, make sure to have your inhaler to hand."

As temperatures plummet, bookies have once more slashed the odds on festive snow with Ladbrokes offering 11-10 from 6-4 on a White Christmas.

Spokesman Alex Apati said: "White Christmas punters look set to get their wish this year, if the latest odds are anything to go by."

Netweather meteorologist Nick Finnis warned a 'chunk of the tropospheric Polar vortex' will 'drip south towards the UK bringing Arctic air'.

He said: "A chunk of the tropospheric polar vortex will push out from the Arctic southwards over Scandinavia and the Norwegian Sea before moving across Britain later [this] week.

"Winds will turn northerly by mid-week and will introduce colder air from the arctic across all parts through the second half of the week."

Exacta Weather's James Madden added: "In addition to the snow, it is also going to become exceptionally cold and widespread frosts will develop across the whole country and deliver problems/warnings for ice in places from midweek.

"This will also allow the fallen snow to persist in many places while temperatures drop as low as -10C or lower in the coldest spots."

The last time Britain was hit by heavy snow in December was 2010 which also brought the last widespread White Christmas.

USA

Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week

Story by Alex Sosnowski • TODAY

A much more dynamic and volatile weather pattern is looming for the United States as the atmosphere begins to shift gears following a quieter start to December. By early next week, numerous small, weak disturbances will be replaced by one massive storm that could wreak havoc on cross-country travel as well as pose a significant threat to lives and property, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.

"The stage is being set for extreme weather conditions over the U.S. next week, especially for the middle of the nation," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.



Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week

© Provided by AccuWeather

The orientation of the jet stream will play a big factor in the development of the major storm.

This week's weather will feature impacts from a series of weak storms that will deliver drenching rain from the south-central region to the Atlantic coast and stripes of snow from the Rockies to the Upper Midwest and interior Northeast.

One of the foundational pieces of next week's storm was located thousands of miles west of North America on Wednesday. A large storm loaded with moisture over the northern Pacific was forecast to swing toward Alaska late this week then southeastward toward the western United States this weekend.


Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week© Provided by AccuWeather


From this weekend to next week, the jet stream will change from its current nearly west-to-east configuration to a very convoluted setup that favors at least one major storm.

The first phase of that storm will unfold this weekend, as it brings a substantial amount of rain to coastal areas and lower elevations and mountain snow to the Pacific coast. As the storm then moves across the Rockies, it will remain potent before it eventually reorganizes into a monstrous system by early next week over the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley.

As warm and moist air begins to flow northward from the Gulf of Mexico, shifting and strengthening winds above the ground to the jet stream level will spark powerful thunderstorms over portions of the South Central states during the first part of next week.

As warm and moist air begins to flow northward from the Gulf of Mexico, shifting and strengthening winds above the ground to the jet stream level of the atmosphere will spark powerful thunderstorms over portions of the South Central states during the first part of next week.





Winter Storm Prompts Blizzard Warnings In Northern Plains

The Weather Channel

"Not only is there likely to be an outbreak of severe thunderstorms with this [weather pattern], but multiple tornadoes are possible," Rayno said. "The setup could bring a greater number of tornadoes, compared to last week's outbreak in the Southern states as it seems there will be just too much energy available in the atmosphere for that not to occur."


Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week© Provided by AccuWeather


There is a significant chance of tornadoes to be on the ground from Tuesday afternoon to Tuesday night over portions of the interstate 20, 30, 40 and 55 corridors, Rayno added.

Severe thunderstorms could occur west of the I-55 corridor late Monday and may extend well to the east from the Great Lakes to the Tennessee Valley on Wednesday.

Outside of severe thunderstorms, the surging moisture can produce locally heavy rain in parts of the same area. While the downpours are likely to bring yet another boost to river levels on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, too much rain may fall too fast for small streams and artificial drainage systems to handle, which could result in some flooding around urban areas.

The dynamic storm will have a cold and wintry side as well.

Frigid air that has been hovering over south-central Canada for days will be pulled southward by the strengthening storm.

As this cold air is injected into the storm, a zone of high winds and heavy snow will unfold from portions of the central Rockies to the northern Plains from the early to the middle part of next week



Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week© Provided by AccuWeather


An all-out blizzard will likely unfold in at least part of the zone from Colorado to the Dakotas and northern Minnesota from Tuesday to Wednesday, Rayno said.

"Portions of the North Central states could be dealing with a doozy of a storm," AccuWeather Long-Range Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said. "Moisture that is transported from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the northern Plains by next Tuesday should be impressive."

The cold component of the storm will result in windswept, powdery snow with accumulation totals ranging from inches to a foot or more. Extensive blowing and drifting and difficult-to-impossible travel conditions in portions of the interstate 29, 90 and 94 corridors could occur.

But even as the storm pivots inland from the Pacific Ocean later this weekend to early next week, areas of heavy snow will break out in portions of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming. Travel via interstates 15, 25, 40 70 and 80 could be adversely affected.



Monstrous storm could bring tornadoes, blizzard conditions to central US next week© Provided by AccuWeather

Strong winds from the storm will also develop in portions of the Southwest and the southern High Plains. These winds could kick up dust, raise the wildfire danger and lead to vehicle rollovers on area highways.

AccuWeather forecasters say where the worst conditions in terms of snow and severe weather, including tornadoes, will occur will be determined by how quickly the storm strengthens and the track it eventually takes. AccuWeather's team of meteorologists will continue to examine the latest weather data available and refine forecasts as needed in the coming days.

Another risk forecasters will be exploring in association with the upcoming massive central U.S. storm will be the possibility of a spin-off or secondary storm later next week along the Atlantic coast. This potential storm could also produce its own zone of gusty winds, heavy rain and inland pockets of ice and snow.

ICYMI
Yellowstone supervolcano due to cause 'mass destruction' when it next erupts

Story by Anugraha Sundaravelu •

The reservoir was approximately twice as large as previously thought, at approximately 1,600 cubic kilometres (Picture: Shutterstock / Lorcel)© Provided by Metro

Scientists have found that the Yellowstone supervolcano is due to cause ‘mass destruction’ when it next erupts.

The Yellowstone Caldera also known as the Yellowstone supervolcano, is a volcanic caldera and active supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

A team of researchers has found evidence that there is way more magma below the Yellowstone Caldera than previously thought.

Prior research has shown the volcano’s last major eruption was approximately 640,000 years ago.

It was also thought that there were two large magma reservoirs below the caldera—one just below the surface, the other a few kilometres down.

Related video: Yellowstone Supervolcano Holds Up To Twice As Much Magma As We Thought (The Weather Channel)
Duration 0:45
View on Watch





Scientists have found that the Yellowstone supervolcano is due to cause ‘mass destruction’ when it next erupts

 (Picture: Barcroft Media)© Provided by Metro

The ratio of melted rock to crystals in the top reservoir is a reliable indicator of how close a volcano is to erupting. Previous estimates showed the ratio of rock to crystal in the top reservoir was approximately 9%, suggesting the volcano was nowhere near erupting.

However, a closer look at the ratio of rock to crystal in this new study suggests that it is much higher than earlier estimates showed, about 16% to 20%.

Analysing 20 years of seismic data for the area with a supercomputer, scientists created a model that simulated the reservoir, showing both the size of the reservoir and its ratios of rock to crystal.

They also found that the reservoir was approximately twice as large as previously thought, at approximately 1,600 cubic kilometres.

While the findings don’t indicate that the volcano will erupt any time soon, the ratio is still well below the threshold believed to be necessary to set off an explosion.

In 2018, a huge crack in the Yellowstone supervolcano sparked concern that it could erupt soon.

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