Canada's first 30-degree day felt in B.C. with more heat coming this weekend
Forecast Centre

Fri, May 10, 2024 

It's official! Canada's first 30-degree day of the year has been reached, and the lucky winners are Lytton and Squamish, British Columbia.

Both communities saw temperatures soar well above seasonal values on Thursday, with an early taste of summer-like weather arriving just in time for the Mother's Day weekend.

DON'T MISS: Canada’s long weekend forecast may switch up your outdoor plans

The pattern change has forced a ridge to build over the province, bringing a long stretch of very dry and unseasonably warm weather across the region this week. Things will continue to heat up on both Friday and Saturday, with the likelihood of even more communities hitting that 30°C mark.

Baron - Atmospheric heights BC

Remember it's May however, a month that comes with varying extremes, so don't count on this blast of high heat to stick around for the unofficial kick-off to summer next weekend.
More 30-degree days likely this weekend

Temperatures began their steady climb on Thursday, with some areas seeing daytime highs about 10-12°C above normal for this time of year. Lytton hit 30.1°C on Thursday, while Squamish just barely made the threshold, sitting at exactly 30°C.

Highs soaring into the upper 20s will continue to be pretty widespread away from the coasts. Places like Squamish, Lytton, Kamloops and Osoyoos are all forecast to see a daytime high of 29°C on Friday, making it likely for more communities to reach those 30°C temperatures -- some for the second day in a row.

Baron - Friday BC temps - May 9

Temperatures will increase a degree or two more into Saturday, which will lock in the chance for several locations to hit 30°C, especially across the Interior.

Saturday will be the peak of the heat however, as the ridge begins to slowly break down on Sunday and into Monday.

Baron - BC Saturday temperatures

This pattern will certainly dry out many locations that saw a stretch of gloomy and wet weather at the end of April. Though welcomed by summer lovers and heat-seekers alike, it's not the best news to have such dry and hot weather this early in the fire season.

The only bright side to this pattern is that the warmest temperatures will likely miss northern B.C., which has been hardest hit by the ongoing drought conditions.

CANADA'S WILDFIRES: Visit The Weather Network's wildfire hub to keep up with the latest on the active start to wildfire season across Canada.

A cooler pattern is expected to take shape for next week, though much of southern B.C. will remain within a few degrees of seasonal.

Southern B.C. will also be mostly dry in the long range, with an active and wet pattern likely for the northern and central coast.

YOUR MAY OUTLOOK: Spring into summer or a stalling spring ahead, Canada?

Even though temperatures will remain around where they should for the middle of May, changeable conditions are possible across Western Canada for the long weekend. Don’t rule out the chance for showers if you’re heading outdoors, especially if you’re camping or hoping to catch some fireworks.

Stay tuned to The Weather Network for your latest forecast across British Columbia.

WATCH: 4 steps to protect your home and prepare for wildfire season

• Click here to view the video

Temperatures to soar above 30 C in parts of B.C. this weekend

CBC
Thu, May 9, 2024 

Temperatures could climb above 30 C in some parts of B.C.'s Interior this weekend. (Winston Szeto/CBC - image credit)

Time to bust out the sunscreen and a wide-brim hat.

Environment Canada meteorologist Ken Dosanjh said while last week brought cool, standard spring conditions, temperatures are expected to soar across the province in coming days, reaching above 30 C in some parts of the Interior.

Environment Canada is forecasting sunny days and warmer nights through Monday, when things are expected to cloud over and cool off.

A high of 32 C is forecast for Kamloops on Saturday, which is about 12 C above normal and would break a daily heat record stretching back to 1971.

Communities including Kelowna, Penticton, Clearwater, Lillooet and Cache Creek could also see highs above 30 C.

Prince George is looking at highs of 26 C on Friday, more than 10 C above the seasonal average, according to Environment Canada.

It'll be cooler on the South Coast, with temperatures of 21 C forecast for Vancouver on Saturday, climbing to 27 C further inland.

While it may seem tempting to go for a quick dip in a lake or river to cool off, Dosanjh is reminding British Columbians that bodies of water are still cold, and there is a risk of hypothermia for people exposed to cold for a long time.

Dosanjh said this time last year temperatures were well above average, which contributed to early wildfire activity.

"While this weekend definitely will be warming above seasonal, so far it's not packing the same punch as compared to May 2023," he said.

Wildfire risk

Nevertheless, the spike in temperatures comes as many parts of the province continue to deal with drought conditions, which forecasters worry could mean a long, challenging wildfire season.

Open burning bans are in effect for much of the province. And as camping season kicks off, officials are reminding campers to be cautious when it comes to campfires.

On Thursday, Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston said the heat over the weekend could lead to an increase in wildfires.

Ralston said the northeast, particularly around Fort Nelson, is most at risk because of high temperatures and wind. The vast majority of wildfires burning in B.C. right now are in the Prince George Fire Centre, which comprises the province's northeastern quarter.

He said additional firefighting resources are being sent to the region to assist existing crews should new fires begin.

Minister of Emergency Management Bowinn Ma is asking residents in the Fort Nelson area to be prepared for evacuation orders or alerts, and to pay attention to conditions through the weekend.

The B.C. River Forecast Centre is scheduled to release its latest snowpack information on Thursday.

Wildfire forces partial evacuation order in County of Grande Prairie

CBC
Fri, May 10, 2024 

Some residents in County of Grande Prairie are being told to evacuate their homes due to the threat of a nearby wildfire. (County of Grande Prairie - image credit)

Some residents in the County of Grande Prairie in northern Alberta need to immediately leave their homes due to the danger posed by a nearby wildfire.

The county issued an evacuation order at 8:46 p.m. MT, stating a fire is located four kilometres east of Teepee Creek near Range Road 31 and Township Road 740. The fire is moving away from the community, the alert states.

According to a post on Facebook from the county, the order is in effect from Kleskun Creek north to Township Road 742. The order is also in effect for the Riverstone Golf Course.

The alert says residents should travel north to Township Road 742 and west onto Highway 733. Evacuees should register at the Pomeroy Hotel and Conference Centre located at 11633 100 Street in Grande Prairie.

In addition to the area that is under evacuation, all residents from Township Road 744 to 750 and Township Road 744 to 730 and Range Road 32 are on evacuation alert, the county said. Residents should be prepared to leave, but no evacuation is required at this time.

Evacuees are advised to bring pets, important documents, medication, medical devices and enough food and water to be away from your home for seven days.

According to the Alberta Wildfire map, the fire was estimated to cover about 40 hectares as of 5:44 p.m.

'Risk has risen' in Fort Liard, N.W.T., after wildfire crosses river west of community

CBC
Fri, May 10, 2024 

A photo of the Fort Liard sign. The highway south of the community in northern B.C. has been reduced to single lane traffic due to poor visibility from smoke. (Alex Brockman/CBC - image credit)


What you need to know about the N.W.T. wildfires as of 7:00p.m. Friday:

Evacuation notice put out for Fort Liard, telling residents to prepare in case they need to evacuate


N.W.T. Fire says fire has crossed Liard River, increasing risk to Fort Liard


High winds preventing firefighting aircraft from taking off


Highway 7 closed due to B.C. wildfires


Highway 35 in northern Alberta closed due to fire near N.W.T. border


Highway 1 closed due to wildfire between Jean Marie River access road and Highway 3 junction

A wildfire burning west of Fort Liard, N.W.T., jumped the Liard River on Friday evening, posing a greater threat to the community that's under an evacuation notice.

"Risk has risen to the community of Fort Liard," reads an update from fire officials, issued just before 6:30 p.m. MT.


Fire information officer Mike Westwick said the river was a natural fuel break that the fire has now breached.

"That puts it on the same side of the river as Fort Liard," he said, early Friday evening.

"It's classified as out of control, it is uncontained, it is growing, and we are not able to suppress that growth directly at this time due to the safety conditions."

The fire had been burning to the west of Fort Liard and the Liard River earlier on Friday. Strong winds from the west through the day pushed the fire eastward, and across the river, Westwick said.

As of Friday evening, firefighters were unable to directly attack the fire because of unsafe conditions. Westwick said high winds and poor visibility meant that firefighting aircraft couldn't be used.

It was also hard to say how far the fire was from the community, he said.

"There's no road access, we can't fly. So we don't have an exact location," he said.

An evacuation notice was issued earlier Friday afternoon for Fort Liard as the wildfire was then burning about 22 kilometres away.

Westwick said fire crews are in Fort Liard, setting up sprinklers and focusing on "critical infrastructure" and protecting the perimeter of the community.

Fort Liard under evacuation notice

The evacuation notice posted earlier Friday on the N.W.T.'s public safety website said residents should keep vehicles fuelled and prepare an emergency kit.

"It's a notice to just be prepared," said John McKee, Fort Liard's SAO.

"You can't wait until the last minute."

McKee said a lot of people in the community have cleared brush from their properties, and the hamlet has done the same around different municipal buildings.

McKee said in the case of an evacuation order, the destination for residents would be determined by highway conditions. He said as of Friday, it wouldn't be in B.C. because of the closure or Highway 7.

Highway 35 was also closed late Friday afternoon, just south of the Alberta/N.W.T. border.

Sean Whelly, mayor of Fort Simpson, told CBC News the community is listed as the evacuation centre in case Fort Liard residents are told to leave.

An evacuation notice is the first of three levels of emergency. The second would be an evacuation alert and the final is an evacuation order.

The hamlet of Fort Liard said on its website that a fire ban was implemented on Thursday and it also posted a list of necessities in the case of an evacuation.

Highway 7 closed

Two separate active wildfires have closed Highway 7 at the N.W.T./B.C. border, the territory's Department of Infrastructure said on Friday.

The department said residents and travellers should know that conditions in the area can change with little to no warning, and that they should expect smoky conditions and poor visibility in the area.

Residents should also stay out of the bush in the areas surrounding Highway 7.

"High winds are expected to continue through this region. Under these conditions, there is a high chance of tree fall - which is a serious danger to those on the land," the update said.

An evacuation alert has also been issued by the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality for the area stretching from southeast to the northwest of Fort Nelson, B.C. That's due to fires located near Nogah Creek and Patry Creek.

An evacuation alert map that was posted on the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality website.

An evacuation alert map that was posted on the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality website. (Northern Rockies Regional Municipality website)

N.W.T. fire officials are also warning that high winds and dry conditions could mean extreme fire activity in the South Slave and Dehcho regions. They said winds could gust from 50 to 85 km/h.

The Town of Hay River posted on Facebook that it was implementing a full-fire ban until after the wind event on Saturday. The town also said that the fire department is responding to an underground fire on Patterson Road, but that it is contained to an area that's been previously burned.

"There is no risk to the public but smoke will be visible," the post reads.

New fire detected east of Sambaa K'e

A holdover fire has also flared up near Sambaa K'e, roughly one kilometre southeast of the community. It is not considered a threat to the community. Winds were expected to push it away from the community, N.W.T. Fire said in an update.

Storms are also in the forecast for numerous areas, including the northern Dehcho and southern Sahtu, increasing the likelihood of lightning-caused fires.

Winds are expected to come from the west around Hay River and Fort Smith, and from west to northwest around Fort Simpson.

The M.V. Lafferty ferry at the Liard River crossing in Fort Simpson was briefly suspended Friday due to high winds.

But Jacqueline Demers, the regional superintendent for the Dehcho region with the Department of Infrastructure, said it reopened around 12:30.

The high winds are expected to end Saturday in most areas, the post reads, with some higher moisture levels returning to the Hay River and Fort Smith areas.

"However, Dehcho is expected to stay very dry and hot with continuing brisk winds," an N.W.T. Fire Facebook post reads.


Highway 1 partially closed east of Jean Marie River, N.W.T., as fire grows to 1,500 hectares
CBC
Fri, May 10, 2024 

Highway 1 in the N.W.T. is closed between the Jean Marie River access road and the Highway 3 junction. (Francis Tessier-Burns/CBC - image credit)


What you need to know about the N.W.T. wildfires as of 7:00 p.m. Friday:

Evacuation notice issued for Fort Liard, telling residents to prepare in case they need to evacuate


N.W.T. Fire says fire has crossed Liard River, increasing risk to Fort Liard


High winds preventing firefighting aircraft from taking off


Highway 7 closed due to B.C. wildfires


Highway 35 in northern Alberta closed due to fire near N.W.T. border


Highway 1 closed due to wildfire between Jean Marie River access road and Highway 3 junction

A wildfire that is now 1,500 hectares in size has closed part of Highway 1 about 72 kilometres southeast of Jean Marie River, N.W.T.

The fire is about 100 kilometres west of the Enterprise junction at Highway 1 toward Fort Simpson.

"It's grown really, really quickly," fire information officer Mike Westwick told CBC News on Friday afternoon.

The fire is from a previously undiscovered holdover fire from last year.

Westwick said his team is "working to assess that and take the right actions."

He said the quick growth was driven by extreme wind.

Westwick said no communities are currently under threat.

The fire comes after N.W.T. fire officials warned of a "major wind event" expected in some areas of the territory on Friday, along with warm, dry conditions — significantly raising the risk of wildfire.


Fort McMurray residents told to be ready to evacuate on short notice due to wildfire threat

CBC
Fri, May 10, 2024 

This photo shows a wildfire burning near Fort McMurray at 3:30 p.m. on May 10. (Alberta Wildfire - image credit)


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Alberta residents in the Fort McMurray area are being told to be ready to leave their homes due to the threat of an out-of-control wildfire in the region.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo issued an evacuation alert at 6:38 p.m. MT for Fort McMurray and Saprae Creek Estates as the MWF-017 wildfire burns nearby.

The alert states the fire is southwest of Fort McMurray, and smoke could affect visibility on Highway 63 south of the northern Alberta community that was devastated by wildfire in 2016.

An evacuation order has not been issued at this time. Residents are advised to keep essential items like medications, important documents and emergency kits ready for a quick departure.

The municipality provided an update on the situation just before 8 p.m.

Wood Buffalo Regional Fire Chief Jody Butz told media the community is more prepared to deal with wildfires compared to 2016.

"From our experiences, we've continued to recognize that wildfires are the number one hazard in the region. And it's clear our community is prepared and more responsive to that reality," Butz said.

"When you're dealing with ... the powers of Mother Nature and the forces of wildfire, I'll take any advantage I can get," he said when asked whether the burned area from 2016 could play a factor in battling the current blaze.

Butz said the wind is also favourable as it is pushing the fire away from the community. He also said that neither Fort McMurray nor Saprae Creek were in imminent danger, but the municipality issued the alert out of an abundance of caution.

According to Alberta Wildfire's latest update, the wildfire is currently classified as out of control at 1,000 hectares and is about 16 kilometres away from Fort McMurray. It's located on the south side of the Athabasca River valley and is moving east.

The update states the fire danger in the area is extreme and fire restriction remains in effect for the Fort McMurray region.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation said Melissa Story, provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire.

"There is a cold front that's passing through the province which generated some elevated wind for us today, which made the fire grow," she said.

There are four crews working on the fire with about 40 people on the ground, she said.

Three helicopters and air tankers and currently deployed with an additional three more night vision helicopters to be deployed overnight.

"Usually overnight, we see more subdued fire behaviour. And we're hoping that the wind speeds will reduce throughout the overnight activity that we can get the opportunity to get in there and hit it with some water."

Residents in Saprae Creek were put on evacuation alert late last month for a separate wildfire.

There are currently 52 fires burning across Alberta.

Weather causes crews to delay using explosives to demolish part of Baltimore’s Key Bridge to help free a trapped cargo ship

Paradise Afshar and Holly Yan, CNN
Fri, May 10, 2024 

A plan to use small explosives on Saturday to break apart a massive chunk of a Baltimore bridge that collapsed on a cargo ship six weeks ago has been delayed due to poor weather conditions.

US Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Ronald Hodges told CNN on Friday the controlled demolition will not happen on Saturday due to the adverse weather forecast. The Key Bridge Response Unified Command will determine if there’s an opportunity for the demolition to take place Sunday, Hodges said.

The plan was set to happen days after the sixth and final body was recovered from the waters where the 213-million-pound Dali cargo ship veered off course on March 26 and plowed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The crash killed six construction workers and destroyed a key thoroughfare, crippling the economy at the Port of Baltimore.

The discovery of the final construction worker lost in the tragedy is allowing crews to proceed with the next step in removing the massive debris and freeing the nearly 1,000-foot vessel.

“The safest and swiftest method to remove the bridge piece from on top of the M/V Dali is by precision cuts made with small charges,” according to Unified Command, which includes state and federal agencies responding to the disaster.

“This is an industry-standard tool in controlled demolition that will break the span into smaller pieces, which will allow the work of refloating the vessel and removing it from the federal channel.”

If the explosives are used this weekend, the ship could be refloated and returned to the Port of Baltimore as soon as early next week, The Baltimore Sun and CNN affiliate WBAL reported.

While the arduous work to clear the debris continues, several investigations are underway to find what caused the disaster and who is responsible.

The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure plans to hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss an ongoing investigation into the catastrophe.

The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, along with officials from the Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Transportation, are expected to testify.

Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay

The Canadian Press
Thu, May 9, 2024 



A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated – and she says she has no intention of paying it.

Michele Campeau and her 83-year-old mother, Ruth Poupard, are caught up in a relatively new law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into nursing homes not of their choosing in order to free up beds. If patients refuse to move, they face a fine of $400 per day as they remain at the hospital.

The bill came from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, where Campeau's mother remains, with instructions to pay at the cashier's office or by phone or online. The hospital charged the family for 21 days in March.


"I'm never paying it because the law is wrong," Campeau said. "It's unfair what they're trying to do to seniors."

Campeau is expecting an even bigger bill to land in the coming weeks to account for all the daily fines that have racked up for April.

"We're expecting another bill for $12,000 soon," she said.

On Thursday afternoon, Campeau found out her mom was accepted into the nursing home that was her top choice. She is set to move next week.

"Then we'll get another bill for $6,000 for May," she said.

The law that allows hospitals to issue such fines – known as the More Beds, Better Care Act, or Bill 7 – was passed by the Doug Ford government in the fall of 2022 in an effort to open up much-needed hospital space.

It is aimed at so-called alternate level of care patients who are discharged from hospital, but need a long-term care bed and don't have one yet.

Hospitals can send patients to nursing homes not of their choosing up to 70 kilometres away, or up to 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario, if spaces open up there first.

Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare said it cannot comment on Poupard's case due to patient confidentiality.

The last few years have been tough for Poupard. Dementia set in, she underwent a heart valve transplant and survived cancer. She moved in with her daughter, who took care of her and became her power of attorney.

Poupard's most recent health-care journey began shortly after Christmas when she hallucinated during the night, fell and broke her hip. Campeau rushed her to hospital, where she had surgery. As part of her recovery, Poupard moved to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare for rehabilitation.

By Feb. 21, Poupard recovered to a point where her physician determined she no longer needed the hospital's specialized care and discharged her.

Campeau and her brother decided that they alone would not be able to manage their mother's needs if she returned to live in her daughter's home.

So the family worked with a placement co-ordinator at the hospital and put five long-term care homes on Poupard's list. But those were full. Discussions about adding more nursing homes to Poupard's list then began, under the provisions of the new law.

Campeau agreed to put more nursing homes on her mother's list and the co-ordinator added homes until one that had a spot available came up. Campeau then had 24 hours to visit the nursing home and make a decision.

If she refused to move her mom into that long-term care home in downtown Windsor, the hospital said they'd begin charging her $400 a day. Campeau said she visited the home and found it "disgusting," refusing to place her mother there.

Several weeks later, the first bill landed.

The hospital also charged Poupard a co-pay rate – the rate she would pay in a long-term care home – of $653.20 for 10 days in March before she refused the move into that one nursing home.

"I paid it like I did the one in February, which I'm more than happy to do," Campeau said of the co-pay. "But I'm not paying $400 a day because I didn't go along with their plan to put her in a disgusting home."

The province said it believes only seven people have been fined under the law and that hospitals are responsible for the administration of fines. Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the government cannot disclose how much those patients were charged due to patient confidentiality.

Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said he supports Poupard and Campeau's refusal to pay the bill.

"It's the right thing to do," he said. "I think that the minister should intervene and try to find a solution."

The family also has the support of the NDP.

"This is a tragedy," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

Stiles said she is also worried about all the patients who have already been moved to nursing homes not of their choosing.

"I'm hearing increasingly about vulnerable people having to leave their communities to go far away to find long-term care beds," she said. "It's sad."

Some 300 patients have been moved into new homes not of their choosing.

Campeau is now in limbo, unclear on what will happen with her unpaid bill.

"I have no idea what happens next," she said. "I really just want my mom in a decent spot, that's all."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2024.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

As summer wildfire season nears, Quebec forest fire workers vote for strike mandate

The Canadian Press
Fri, May 10, 2024 


MONTREAL — Workers with Quebec's forest fire agency have voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate as the summer wildfire season approaches.

The Unifor union, which represents provincial fire service workers including firefighters, communications staff and mechanics, says the mandate allows members to strike "at the opportune moment."

Workers with the fire service — the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu, or SOPFEU — were kept busy last year during a record-breaking wildfire season.


Unifor says that despite the participation of a mediator, negotiations have stalled over such issues as salaries, vacations and workforce mobility.

Quebec law requires SOPFEU workers to maintain essential operations during a strike.

The forest fire protection service, which employs about 450 people, says Quebec saw slightly more fires than average in April, with 52 fires burning about 46 hectares.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Alberta premier 'glad' Gaza protest in Calgary ended as encampments escalate

The Canadian Press
Fri, May 10, 2024



Premier Danielle Smith says she's pleased the University of Calgary moved to have police dismantle an on-campus pro-Palestinian protest and hopes the University of Alberta will take note.

Smith’s comment comes as the head of the University of Calgary said the dismantling of the encampment Thursday night derailed into a clash with police because of counter-protesters.

Also Friday, a similar protest that began with one tent at the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton mushroomed to about 35.

Smith, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Calgary, said her government is on hand to help if asked but will otherwise leave decisions of what to do with the protest encampments up to the universities.

She said peaceful protest is fine, but rules must be followed and students’ education should not be disrupted.

“I’m glad that the University of Calgary made the decision that they did,” Smith said.

“I think what they found in Calgary is that a large number who were trespassing were not students, and we have to be mindful of that.

“Kids are having graduation ceremonies. A lot of these kids didn’t get a graduation ceremony for high school. It’s not fair for them or their families to be disrupted.”

She added, “I’ll watch and see what the University of Alberta learns from what they observed in Calgary."

The Calgary protest began early Thursday, as shelters and fencing were erected as part of the encampment.

The university issued protesters a trespass notice. When they would not disperse, police were called in.

The protest reached a peak of about 150 people in the early evening. By about 11 p.m. most had left, but the small number that stayed clashed with officers. Police set off flashbang explosives and tear gas and made arrests.

“Unfortunately, counter-protesters showed up — also putting themselves in violation of our policies and in a trespass situation," University of Calgary president Ed McCauley said in a statement.

"The situation very quickly devolved into shoving, projectiles being thrown at officers and – ultimately – flashbangs and arrests."

McCauley said the university respects and values protests within the confines of the school's safe operation.

Calgary Chief Const. Mark Neufeld said the protest was peaceful to begin with, but several people there, who were not students, were known to take part in other protests.

"There were individuals from the very start that were saying, 'We're not leaving.' There was every indication there was a group of people that didn't plan to leave," said Neufeld.

He said flashbangs and tear gas were used because officers were being pelted with glass bottles.

"That's where the escalation was at the end, where there was a small group of people that were throwing things and grabbing on to the police," he said.

"People were throwing projectiles at the police, refusing to comply with the lawful direction that had been given.

"Enough was enough."

Neufeld said five people were arrested and three of them were charged. All were released from custody.

About 150 pro-Palestinian supporters returned to the University of Calgary Friday afternoon but there were no tents or barricades.

Many sat in lawn chairs. Others sat on the grass listening to speakers and occasionally chanting "Free, Free Palestine."

A rock, painted in the Palestinian colours of black, white and green, included a number of messages including "70,000 kids killed" and "2.2 million starving."

Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia said on social media that the Calgary police approach to the demonstration was "jarring."

"A terrible message is being sent to generations of Canadians who were taught to believe in our democracy, in our freedoms, & taught to stand up for what they believe in," Amira Elghawaby wrote.

The protest was one of several recent demonstrations on academic campuses in Canada and the United States in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Many protesters have demanded institutions make clear if their investments are helping fund Israel and its military in its conflict with Gaza. If so, they want those investments halted.

In Edmonton, tents were set up on a grassy area of the University of Alberta campus. There were Palestinian flags, both cloth versions and hand-painted cardboard ones.

“At the very beginning yesterday, it was one tent and four people. And it has just grown and grown and grown,” said David Kahane, one of the protest organizers.

Kahane, a political science professor at the university, said the protest is about students holding their institution to account in the “slaughter that is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.”

He said students are inspired by time-honoured protest methods. Campus protests and calls for divestment helped end the racist apartheid system in South Africa, he added.

The university has warned protesters that while it respects free speech, they are trespassing. Edmonton police say they are prepared to respond to matters of public safety.

In St. John’s, about 50 people laid down outside on the chilly concrete at Memorial University for a 76-minute “die-in” demonstration against what organizers say is Israel’s 76-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

During the demonstration, a protester read names of Palestinians killed in the war.

“A die-in like this is minuscule compared to the amount of terror and fear and pain the Gazan people (have been) going through for years and years,” said organizer Aramaria Yetman.

McGill University in Montreal is seeking a court order to have a protest encampment there dismantled. It has been up for two weeks.

University president and vice-chancellor Deep Saini said in a statement the school is concerned about safety, as neither university officials nor firefighters have been able to enter the camp to ensure it is following health and safety regulations.

Saini also said the camp has attracted protesters on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war, and that has increased tensions on campus.

He added the camp is also in an area where graduation ceremonies for most faculties take place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.

— With files from Bill Graveland in Calgary and Sarah Smellie in St. John’s

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

New analysis of Beethoven’s hair reveals possible cause of mysterious ailments, scientists say

Ashley Strickland, CNN
Fri, May 10, 2024



High levels of lead detected in authenticated locks of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair suggest that the composer had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to ailments he endured over the course of his life, including deafness, according to new research.

In addition to hearing loss, the famed classical composer had recurring gastrointestinal complaints thro

It is believed that Beethoven died from liver and kidney disease at age 56. But the process of understanding what caused his many health problems has been a much more complicated puzzle, one that even Beethoven himself hoped doctors could eventually solve.

The composer expressed his wish that his ailments be studied and shared so “as far as possible at least the world will be reconciled to me after my death.”

An international team of researchers set out nearly a decade ago to partially fulfill Beethoven’s wish by studying locks of his hair. Using DNA analysis, the team determined which ones truly belonged to the composer and which were fraudulent, and sequenced Beethoven’s genome by analyzing his authenticated locks.

The findings, published in a March 2023 report, revealed that Beethoven had significant genetic risk factors for liver disease and a hepatitis B infection before his death. But the results didn’t provide any insights into the underlying causes of his deafness, which began in his 20s, or his gastrointestinal issues.

Beethoven’s genome was made publicly available, inviting researchers around the world to investigate lingering questions about Beethoven’s health.

Meanwhile, scientists continue to figuratively go over the authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair with a fine-tooth comb, teasing out surprising insights.

In addition to high concentrations of lead, the latest findings showed arsenic and mercury that remain trapped in the composer’s strands nearly 200 years after his death, according to a new letter published Monday in the journal Clinical Chemistry. And the insights could provide new windows not only into understanding Beethoven’s chronic health ailments, but the complicated nuances of his life as a composer.
A tangled web reveals lead

Christian Reiter, now the retired deputy director of the Center of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, had previously studied the Hiller Lock, a sample of hair long attributed to Beethoven. He authored and published a 2007 paper after determining there were high levels of lead in the hair, and suggested the lead may have contributed to the composer’s deafness, and potentially his death.

In a twist, the 2023 genomic sequencing study uncovered that the Hiller Lock did not belong to Beethoven, and it was actually a hair sample from a woman. But at the time the researchers did not test Beethoven’s newly authenticated hair samples for lead.

So the question remained: Did Beethoven have lead poisoning?

A separate research team used two different methods to search for evidence of lead in two authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair: the Bermann lock, estimated to have been cut between late 1820 and March 1827, and the Halm-Thayer lock, which Beethoven hand-delivered to pianist Anton Halm in April 1826.

It was very common during Beethoven’s lifetime for people to collect and keep locks of hair from loved ones or famous people, said William Meredith, Beethoven scholar and study coauthor of the 2023 genomic analysis and the latest study.

The newer research detected incredibly high levels of lead in both samples: 64 times the expected level in the Bermann Lock, and 95 times the expected level in the Halm-Thayer lock.

“These levels are considered as lead poisoning,” said lead study author Nader Rifai, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of clinical chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital. “If you walk into any emergency room in the United States with these levels, you will be admitted immediately and you will undergo chellation therapy.”
Diagnosing Beethoven

Elevated lead levels such as those detected in Beethoven’s hair “are commonly associated with gastrointestinal and renal ailments and decreased hearing but are not considered high enough to be the sole cause of death,” the study authors wrote. Because the researchers don’t have hair samples from earlier in Beethoven’s life, it’s impossible to understand when the lead poisoning started, Meredith said.

The study authors do not believe the lead poisoning was solely responsible for Beethoven’s death or deafness. But he experienced symptoms of lead poisoning throughout his life, including hearing loss, muscle cramps and renal abnormalities, Rifai said.

Both locks also contained increased levels of arsenic and mercury, about 13 to 14 times the expected amount, according to the study.

Study coauthor Paul Jannetto, associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology and laboratory director at the Mayo Clinic, carried out the analysis of the samples and said he’d never seen such high lead levels.

But Rifai said he saw comparable lead levels when he conducted research in two villages in Ecuador where the main trade is to glaze tiles with lead from batteries. The villagers experienced mental delays, hearing loss and hematological abnormalities, which are common in lead poisoning, he said.
Lead exposure in Beethoven’s lifetime

Currently, there is no understanding of the average amount of lead in the bodies of people like Beethoven who were living in Vienna during the 19th century, Rifai said.

He said he hopes to access old locks of hair people have from their families to determine the baseline level of the population at the time since there is no documentation.

But how did Beethoven end up with so much lead, as well as arsenic and mercury, in his body? The substances likely accumulated over decades of the composer’s life through food and drink, Rifai said.

Beethoven was known to favor wine, sometimes drinking a bottle a day, and he drank plumbed wine. A common practice dating back at least 2,000 years, the creation of plumbed wine involves adding lead acetate as a sweetener and preservative, Rifai said. At the time, lead was also used in glassmaking to give glassware a more clear and appealing appearance.

Beethoven also loved to eat fish, and at the time, the Danube River was a great source of industry, meaning waste ended up in the same river that was a source of fish caught for consumption — and that fish likely contained arsenic and mercury, Rifai said.

The report marks the first time lead levels have been established for Beethoven and points to another possible cause for Beethoven’s kidney failure in the months before his death and the liver failure he experienced at the end of his life, Meredith said.

Lead poisoning appears to be the fourth factor that contributed to his liver failure, apart from genes that predisposed Beethoven toward liver disease, his hepatitis B infection and his penchant for drinking alcohol, Meredith said.
Linking Beethoven’s health and music

The composer wrote a letter to his brothers in 1802 asking that his doctor, Johann Adam Schmidt, determine and share the nature of his “illness” once Beethoven died. The letter is known as the Heiligenstadt Testament.

But the documents kept by Beethoven’s favorite doctor, who died 18 years before his patient, have been lost.

In the 1802 letter to his brothers, Beethoven admitted how hopeless he felt as a music composer struggling with hearing loss, but his work kept him from taking his own life. He said he didn’t want to leave “before I had produced all the works that I felt the urge to compose.”

“People say, ‘the music is the music, why do we need to know about any of this stuff?’ But in Beethoven’s life, there is a connection between his suffering and the music,” Meredith said.

May 7 marked the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s famed Ninth Symphony, largely regarded as his greatest work and his final symphony. Completely deaf at the time, Beethoven was onstage as one of the conductors, but the orchestra was instructed to follow the conducting of Beethoven’s friend, who was also onstage. The concert marked one of the most triumphant moments in Beethoven’s life, and the female singers turned him to face the crowd as they clapped and waved their handkerchiefs at the beloved musician, Meredith said.

Three days later, Beethoven gathered with three of his friends who helped him organize the concert. What first seemed like a dinner to reward his friends actually resulted in Beethoven yelling and accusing them of cheating him out of money.

The outburst was ironic, considering that Beethoven had been inspired as he worked on the Ninth Symphony in part by Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” and the concluding themes of the symphony include living in peace and harmony with one another, Meredith said. But above one sketch Beethoven did for the Ninth Symphony, he included the French word for despair.

“When you look back at his life, it’s a life that is so full of despair. He went deaf. He never found a woman that he could settle down to love. He had terrible abdominal problems ever since he was a child. He really had a hard time sustaining relationships with people,” Meredith said. “If you understand how much pain he was in and the paranoia he experienced from the deafness, it makes that whole story of the Ninth Symphony much more complex.”

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'This is bananas': Canada's labour market blows past expectations, adding 90k jobs in April


Alicja Siekierska
Fri, May 10, 2024 


Canada’s labour market added 90,000 jobs in April.

 (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) (The Associated Press)

Canada’s labour market added a net 90,400 jobs in April and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1 per cent, blowing past analyst expectations. But underlying weakness means a June rate cut is still on the table for the Bank of Canada.

The April increase soared past analyst expectations, and marked the largest gain since January 2023. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast an increase of 18,000 jobs in April, and for the unemployment rate to rise to 6.2 per cent.

While a June cut remains on the table for the Bank of Canada, money markets trimmed the bets of a rate cut from 54 per cent to 48 per cent. They are now fully pricing in a cut in September compared to July before the report was released.


"Today's showy headline jobs increase will give the Bank of Canada some pause, since it reinforces the point that the economy is clearly not rolling over," BMO chief economist Douglas Porter wrote in a research note.

"Still, the reality is that economic slack is still rising... Our call is for a rate trim, but that will require a seriously cool core CPI result."

The employment gains were driven by an increase in part-time employment, Statistics Canada said, with 50,000 part-time jobs added in April. Jobs were added in the professional, scientific and technical services, accommodation and food services, health care and social assistance and natural resources, while employment fell in the utilities sector.

The unemployment rate held steady amid a surge in Canada's population. CIBC economist Andrew Grantham noted that the headline jobs increase "appears to largely reflect a further surge in the base population, as the labour force count catches up with the quarterly population tally." At the same time, average hourly wage growth – closely watched by the Bank of Canada – slowed slightly, rising 4.7 per cent year-over-year in April, following an annual growth rate of 5.1 per cent in March.

"With the unemployment rate remaining higher than it was at the start of the year and wage pressures easing slightly, the data is still consistent with a gradual loosening of labour market conditions," Grantham wrote in a research note on Friday.

"We continue to forecast a first interest rate cut at the next meeting in June, although after today's data that call relies even more heavily on core measures of inflation remaining subdued within the next CPI print."

Desjardins managing director and head of macro strategy Royce Mendes said the details of the April report "suggest that the labour market is actually exhibiting some evidence of slack."

"Still, after an increase of 90K jobs, the upcoming CPI report will take on even more importance in the Bank of Canada’s decision-making process, as policymakers debate whether or not cut rates in June," he wrote in a research note.

"But we’re not convinced that this report will materially change the Bank of Canada’s assessment of the labour market. So we’re sticking with our call that the central bank cuts rates in June."
'This is bananas'

The slowdown in wage growth and the fact that more than half of the total jobs added were in part-time work "suggests that slack in the Canadian economy is still growing," Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay, wrote in a note on Friday. But the strength could potentially mean fewer rate cuts from the Bank of Canada.

"Taken in combination with other releases showing a mild acceleration in growth, today’s data could limit the extent to which the central bank cuts borrowing costs over the next year, and could contribute to a more optimistic rhetorical stance from policymakers in the weeks and months ahead," Schamotta said.

TD director and senior economist James Orlando wrote in a research note that the report is "likely to raise eyebrows at the Bank of Canada."

"Even for this notoriously volatile data, this was a shocker. Our own Chief Economist's immediate reaction was that 'this is bananas!'," Orlando said. TD expects the Bank of Canada to begin cutting rates in July.

"The central bank has been looking for evidence that inflation will continue moving towards the 2 per cent target. With the labour market showing renewed strength, there is potential for consumer spending to rise in the coming months, forcing inflation higher. This will be a concern for the BoC, which has seen this narrative play out in the U.S. over 2024."

With files from Reuters.

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

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Israeli whistleblowers allege abuse of Palestinians at Sde Teiman military base: CNN

Tara Suter
Fri, May 10, 2024 


Israeli whistleblowers alleged abuse of Palestinians at a military base in Sde Teiman that also serves as a detention center, according to a CNN report.

Three Israeli individuals who worked at the base, in which Palestinians are detained amid the war in Gaza, alleged that at the facility, doctors have occasionally amputated prisoners’ limbs and performed medical procedures they were not qualified to conduct.

Doctors amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries from consistent handcuffing, according to the whistleblowers.

The facility is made up of two parts — one has enclosures where about 70 Palestinian detainees are put into intense physical restraint. The other is a field hospital, where injured detainees are strapped to beds, wearing diapers, and are fed via straws, according to the report.

“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” one of the whistleblowers who worked in the field hospital said, according to CNN.

Another whistleblower said “(the beatings) were not done to gather intelligence.”

“They were done out of revenge,” the second whistleblower continued, per CNN. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”

Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, carried out the October 7 attacks on Israel, which left more than 1,100 people dead.

In response to the CNN report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the outlet that it “ensures proper conduct towards the detainees in custody.”

“Any allegation of misconduct by IDF soldiers is examined and dealt with accordingly,” the IDF said, according to CNN. “In appropriate cases, MPCID (Military Police Criminal Investigation’s Division) investigations are opened when there is suspicion of misconduct justifying such action.”

“Detainees are handcuffed based on their risk level and health status,” the IDF continued. “Incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities.”

The Hill has reached out to the IDF.

Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center

CNN's International Investigations and Visuals teams
Fri, May 10, 2024

At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.

Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights.

A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves.

“We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.”

Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added.

A leaked photograph of the detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head. - Obtained by CNN

CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.

They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.

According to the accounts, the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws.

“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.

“(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” said another whistleblower. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”

Responding to CNN’s request for comment on all the allegations made in this report, the Israeli military, known as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said in a statement: “The IDF ensures proper conduct towards the detainees in custody. Any allegation of misconduct by IDF soldiers is examined and dealt with accordingly. In appropriate cases, MPCID (Military Police Criminal Investigation’s Division) investigations are opened when there is suspicion of misconduct justifying such action.”

“Detainees are handcuffed based on their risk level and health status. Incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities.”

The IDF did not directly deny accounts of people being stripped of their clothing or held in diapers. Instead, the Israeli military said that the detainees are given back their clothing once the IDF has determined that they pose no security risk.

Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman have already surfaced in Israeli and Arab media after an outcry from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups over conditions there. But this rare testimony from Israelis working at the facility sheds further light on Israel’s conduct as it wages war in Gaza, with fresh allegations of mistreatment. It also casts more doubt on the Israeli government’s repeated assertions that it acts in accordance with accepted international practices and law.

CNN has requested permission from the Israeli military to access the Sde Teiman base. Last month, a CNN team covered a small protest outside its main gate staged by Israeli activists demanding the closure of the facility. Israeli security forces questioned the team for around 30 minutes there, demanding to see the footage taken by CNN’s photojournalist. Israel often subjects reporters, even foreign journalists, to military censorship on security issues.
Detained in the desert

The Israeli military has acknowledged partially converting three different military facilities into detention camps for Palestinian detainees from Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, in which Israeli authorities say about 1,200 were killed and over 250 were abducted, and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, killing nearly 35,000 people according to the strip’s health ministry. These facilities are Sde Teiman in the Negev desert, as well as Anatot and Ofer military bases in the occupied West Bank.

The camps are part of the infrastructure of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, an amended legislation passed by the Knesset last December that expanded the military’s authority to detain suspected militants.

Patrick Gallagher/CNN

The law permits the military to detain people for 45 days without an arrest warrant, after which they must be transferred to Israel’s formal prison system (IPS), where over 9,000 Palestinians are being held in conditions that rights groups say have drastically deteriorated since October 7. Two Palestinian prisoners associations said last week that 18 Palestinians – including leading Gaza surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh – had died in Israeli custody over the course of the war.

The military detention camps – where the number of inmates is unknown – serve as a filtration point during the arrest period mandated by the Unlawful Combatants Law. After their detention in the camps, those with suspected Hamas links are transferred to the IPS, while those whose militant ties have been ruled out are released back to Gaza.

CNN interviewed over a dozen former Gazan detainees who appeared to have been released from those camps. They said they could not determine where they were held because they were blindfolded through most of their detention and cut off from the outside world. But the details of their accounts tally with those of the whistleblowers.

“We looked forward to the night so we could sleep. Then we looked forward to the morning in hopes that our situation might change,” said Dr. Mohammed al-Ran, recalling his detainment at a military facility where he said he endured desert temperatures, swinging from the heat of the day to the chill of night. CNN interviewed him outside Gaza last month.

Al-Ran, a Palestinian who holds Bosnian citizenship, headed the surgical unit at northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, one of the first to be shut down and raided as Israel carried out its aerial, ground and naval offensive.

He was arrested on December 18, he said, outside Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, where he had been working for three days after fleeing his hospital in the heavily bombarded north.

He was stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where, he said, the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert.

The details in his account are consistent with those of dozens of others collected by CNN recounting the conditions of arrest in Gaza. His account is also supported by numerous images depicting mass arrests published on social media profiles belonging to Israeli soldiers. Many of those images show captive Gazans, their wrists or ankles tied by cables, in their underwear and blindfolded.

Al-Ran was held in a military detention center for 44 days, he told CNN. “Our days were filled with prayer, tears, and supplication. This eased our agony,” said al-Ran.

“We cried and cried and cried. We cried for ourselves, cried for our nation, cried for our community, cried for our loved ones. We cried about everything that crossed our minds.”

Dr. Mohammed Al-Ran headed the surgical unit at Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, one of the first to be raided and shut down by Israel. - From Social Media

Al-Ran is pictured on the day of his release from a detention camp, in a visibly worse physical condition. - From Social Media

A week into his imprisonment, the detention camp’s authorities ordered him to act as an intermediary between the guards and the prisoners, a role known as Shawish, “supervisor,” in vernacular Arabic.

According to the Israeli whistleblowers, a Shawish is normally a prisoner who has been cleared of suspected links to Hamas after interrogation.

The Israeli military denied holding detainees unnecessarily, or using them for translation purposes. “If there is no reason for continued detention, the detainees are released back to Gaza,” they said in a statement.

However, whistleblower and detainee accounts – particularly pertaining to Shawish – cast doubt on the IDF’s depiction of its clearing process. Al-Ran says that he served as Shawish for several weeks after he was cleared of Hamas links. Whistleblowers also said that the absolved Shawish served as intermediaries for some time.

They are typically proficient in Hebrew, according to the eyewitnesses, enabling them to communicate the guards’ orders to the rest of the prisoners in Arabic.

For that, al-Ran said he was given a special privilege: his blindfold was removed. He said this was another kind of hell.

“Part of my torture was being able to see how people were being tortured,” he said. “At first you couldn’t see. You couldn’t see the torture, the vengeance, the oppression.

“When they removed my blindfold, I could see the extent of the humiliation and abasement … I could see the extent to which they saw us not as human beings but as animals.”

A leaked photograph of an enclosure where detainees in gray tracksuits are seen blindfolded and sitting on paper-thin mattresses. CNN was able to geolocate the hangar in the Sde Teiman facility. A portion of this image has been blurred by CNN to protect the identity of the source. - Obtained by CNN

Al-Ran’s account of the forms of punishment he saw were corroborated by the whistleblowers who spoke with CNN. A prisoner who committed an offense such as speaking to another would be ordered to raise his arms above his head for up to an hour. The prisoner’s hands would sometimes be zip-tied to a fence to ensure that he did not come out of the stress position.

For those who repeatedly breached the prohibition on speaking and moving, the punishment became more severe. Israeli guards would sometimes take a prisoner to an area outside the enclosure and beat him aggressively, according to two whistleblowers and al-Ran. A whistleblower who worked as a guard said he saw a man emerge from a beating with his teeth, and some bones, apparently broken.

That whistleblower and al-Ran also described a routine search when the guards would unleash large dogs on sleeping detainees, lobbing a sound grenade at the enclosure as troops barged in. Al-Ran called this “the nightly torture.”

“While we were cabled, they unleashed the dogs that would move between us, and trample over us,” said al-Ran. “You’d be lying on your belly, your face pressed against the ground. You can’t move, and they’re moving above you.”

The same whistleblower recounted the search in the same harrowing detail. “It was a special unit of the military police that did the so-called search,” said the source. “But really it was an excuse to hit them. It was a terrifying situation.”

“There was a lot of screaming and dogs barking.”

Strapped to beds in a field hospital

Whistleblower accounts portrayed a different kind of horror at the Sde Teiman field hospital.

“What I felt when I was dealing with those patients is an idea of total vulnerability,” said one medic who worked at Sde Teiman.

“If you imagine yourself being unable to move, being unable to see what’s going on, and being completely naked, that leaves you completely exposed,” the source said. “I think that’s something that borders on, if not crosses to, psychological torture.”

Another whistleblower said he was ordered to perform medical procedures on the Palestinian detainees for which he was not qualified.

“I was asked to learn how to do things on the patients, performing minor medical procedures that are totally outside my expertise,” he said, adding that this was frequently done without anesthesia.

“If they complained about pain, they would be given paracetamol,” he said, using another name for acetaminophen.

“Just being there felt like being complicit in abuse.”

The same whistleblower also said he witnessed an amputation performed on a man who had sustained injuries caused by the constant zip-tying of his wrists. The account tallied with details of a letter authored by a doctor working at Sde Teiman published by Ha’aretz in April.

“From the first days of the medical facility’s operation until today, I have faced serious ethical dilemmas,” said the letter addressed to Israel’s attorney general, and its health and defense ministries, according to Ha’aretz. “More than that, I am writing (this letter) to warn you that the facilities’ operations do not comply with a single section among those dealing with health in the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.”

An IDF spokesperson denied the allegations reported by Ha’aretz in a written statement to CNN at the time, saying that medical procedures were conducted with “extreme care” and in accordance with Israeli and international law.

The spokesperson added that the handcuffing of the detainees was done in “accordance with procedures, their health condition and the level of danger posed by them,” and that any allegation of violence would be examined.

Whistleblowers also said that medical team were told to refrain from signing medical documents, corroborating previous reporting by rights group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI).

The PHRI report released in April warned of “a serious concern that anonymity is employed to prevent the possibility of investigations or complaints regarding breaches of medical ethics and professionalism.”

“You don’t sign anything, and there is no verification of authority,” said the same whistleblower who said he lacked the appropriate training for the treatment he was asked to administer. “It is a paradise for interns because it’s like you do whatever you want.”

CNN also requested comment from the Israeli health ministry on the allegations in this report. The ministry referred CNN back to the IDF.
Concealed from the outside world

Sde Teiman and other military detention camps have been shrouded in secrecy since their inception. Israel has repeatedly refused requests to disclose the number of detainees held at the facilities, or to reveal the whereabouts of Gazan prisoners.

Last Wednesday, the Israeli Supreme Court held a hearing in response to a petition brought forward by Israeli rights group, HaMoked, to reveal the location of a Palestinian X-Ray technician detained from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in February. It was the first court session of its kind since October 7.

Israel’s highest court had previously rejected writs of habeas corpus filed on behalf of dozens of Palestinians from Gaza held in unknown locations.

The disappearances “allows for the atrocities that we’ve been hearing about to happen,” said Tal Steiner, an Israeli human rights lawyer and executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

“People completely disconnected from the outside world are the most vulnerable to torture and mistreatment,” Steiner said in an interview with CNN.

Satellite images provide further insight into activities at Sde Teiman, revealing that in the months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, more than 100 new structures, including large tents and hangars, have been built at the desert camp. A comparison of aerial photographs from September 10, 2023 and March 1 this year also showed a significant increase in the number of vehicles at the facility, indicating an uptick in activity. Satellite imagery from two dates in early December showed construction work in progress.

CNN also geolocated the two leaked photographs showing the enclosure holding the group of blindfolded men in gray tracksuits. The pattern of panels seen on the roof matched those of a large hangar visible in satellite imagery. The structure, which resembles an animal pen, is located in the central area of the Sde Teiman compound. It is an older structure seen among new buildings which have appeared since the war began.

CNN reviewed satellite images from two other military detention camps – Ofer and Anatot bases in the occupied West Bank – and did not detect expansion in the grounds since October 7. Several rights groups and legal experts say they believe that Sde Teiman, which is the nearest to Gaza, likely hosts the largest number of detainees of the three military detention camps.

“I was there for 23 days. Twenty-three days that felt like 100 years,” said 27-year-old Ibrahim Yassine on the day of his release from a military detention camp.

He was lying in a crowded room with over a dozen newly freed men – they were still in the grey tracksuit prison uniforms. Some had deep flesh wounds from where the handcuffs had been removed.

“We were handcuffed and blindfolded,” said another man, 43-year-old Sufyan Abu Salah. “Today is the first day I can see.”

Several had a glassy look in their eyes and were seemingly emaciated. One elderly man breathed through an oxygen machine as he lay on a stretcher. Outside the hospital, two freed men from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society embraced their colleagues.

For Dr. Al-Ran, his reunion with his friends was anything but joyful. The experience, he said, rendered him mute for a month as he battled an “emotional deadness.”

“It was very painful. When I was released, people expected me to miss them, to embrace them. But there was a gap,” said al-Ran. “The people who were with me at the detention facility became my family. Those friendships were the only things that belonged to us.”

Just before his release, a fellow prisoner had called out to him, his voice barely rising above a whisper, al-Ran said. He asked the doctor to find his wife and kids in Gaza. “He asked me to tell them that it is better for them to be martyrs,” said al-Ran. “It is better for them to die than to be captured and held here.”

Credits
Executive producer: Barbara Arvanitidis
Senior investigations writer: Tamara Qiblawi
Chief global affairs correspondent: Matthew Chance
OSINT reporter: Allegra Goodwin
Photojournalist: Alex Platt
Reporters: Abeer Salman, Ami Kaufman, Kareem Khadder, Mohammad Al Sawalhi and Tareq Al Hilou
Visual and graphic editors: Carlotta Dotto, Lou Robinson and Mark Oliver
3D designer: Tom James
Photo editor: Sarah Tilotta
Video editors: Mark Baron, Julie Zink and Augusta Anthony
Motion designers: Patrick Gallagher and Yukari Schrickel
Digital editors: Laura Smith-Spark and Eliza Mackintosh
Executive editors: Dan Wright and Matt Wells

Editor’s note: Tamara Qiblawi wrote and reported from London. Matthew Chance, Barbara Arvanitidis and Alex Platt reported from Sde Teiman; Ami Kaufman and Allegra Goodwin reported from London; Abeer Salman and Kareem Khadder reported from Jerusalem; and journalists Mohammad Al Sawalhi and Tareq Al Hilou reported from Gaza.

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U$A

Encampments cleared from at least 3 university campuses early Friday as pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue

 
Isabel Rosales, Paradise Afshar and Ray Sanchez, CNN
Fri, May 10, 2024 


Pro-Palestinian encampments were cleared from at least three college campuses early Friday as schools across the country continued to call in law enforcement to quell demonstrations in recent weeks. Here are the latest developments:

Police broke up an encampment at the University of Pennsylvania Friday morning and arrested nearly three dozen people.

The student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that protesters received a two-minute warning to disperse shortly before 6 a.m. The encampment had been up for 16 days.

“We could not allow further disruption of our academic mission. We could not allow students to be prevented from accessing study spaces and resources, attending final exams, or participating in Commencement ceremonies,” said J. Larry Jameson, interim president, John Jackson, provost, and Craig Carnaroli, senior executive vice president, in a joint statement.

Protesters were given multiple warnings and allowed to voluntarily leave, according to a university spokesperson. At least 33 people were arrested without incident and cited for defiant trespass.

“The arrested individuals were given code violation notices for defiant trespass and were released quickly throughout the morning,” according to a university spokesperson.

The spokesperson said nine of those arrested were UPenn students, up from the seven arrests the university previously reported. Twenty-four others arrested had no university affiliation, according to the school.

The affiliation of encampment protesters had been a point of contention from the outset. Days after tents went up, university officials tried to check IDs but demonstrators resisted. One night, CNN reported that several protesters admitted not being students.

In response to the demand for IDs, encampment organizers had said in a statement, “we are all members of the Philadelphia community whether or not Penn recognizes it with a plastic card.”

Ultimately, UPenn said, the resistance to producing identification was one reason the the encampment was disbanded.

No one was injured, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said in a statement. The university requested help from the city on May 1, and it was agreed police “would provide backup assistance if arrests were made, or if the situation became dangerous or violent.”

Police detain a protester on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia on Friday. - Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/AP

Police with riot gear and batons were seen moving in and dismantling tents as people were taken into custody, according to CNN affiliate WPVI.

After the encampment was cleared, the area closed for clean up.

Philadelphia police, which the university said assisted in the operation, referred questions to Penn police.

The police operation came less than 24 hours after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called for the encampment to be disbanded, saying the situation at UPenn “has gotten even more unstable and out of control.”

“Unfortunately, the situation at Penn reached an untenable point – and as the University stated publicly, the encampment was in violation of university policy, campus was being disrupted, and threatening, discriminatory speech and behavior were increasing,” Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in a statement.

The Philadelphia and Pittsburgh chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the police action. Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia, accused Shapiro of “anti-Palestinian bias.”
MIT encampment dismantled

Law enforcement cleared an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Friday morning, days after the university announced a “set of disciplinary consequences” for students who remained following a deadline to leave.

Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” as police took apart the encampment on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus Friday, video from CNN affiliate WFXT showed.

Police in riot gear walk past officers dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT before dawn Friday in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Josh Reynolds/AP - Josh Reynolds/AP

MIT President Sally Kornbluth said Friday the encampment on Kresge lawn has been cleared. Ten people, a mix of graduate and undergraduate students, were arrested without incident.

Kornbluth said the situation on campus escalated in recent days with “threats from individuals and groups from both sides.”

“It was not heading in a direction anyone could call peaceful,” she said in a statement.

The decision to break up the encampment, Kornbluth said, came after MIT “offered warnings” and “telegraphed clearly what was coming.”

The university tried this week to clear the encampment. On Monday it enacted a “set of disciplinary consequences” for students who remained after being ordered to peacefully clear the area.

On Thursday, fewer than 10 students were arrested on campus, according to the university.

Demonstrators had blocked the entry to a garage into the Stata Center – the biggest access point for deliveries to and from the university and where staff and administration park, said Francesca Riccio-Ackerman, the media liaison for MIT Scientists Against Genocide Encampment.
‘All clear’ at the University of Arizona

“Loud munitions” and “chemical munitions” were used as the school’s police department worked to clear an encampment from campus early Friday, the university said.

“A structure made from wooden pallets and other debris was erected on campus property,” a violation of school policy, officials said. The university is set to hold a commencement ceremony Friday evening, according to its website.

Law enforcement officers last week tore down an encampment on campus. An undergraduate, a graduate student, and two people unaffiliated with the university were arrested, CNN previously reported.

No injuries were reported.

Protest fallout continues at other schools

Harvard University has begun placing students connected to an ongoing pro-Palestine encampment on “involuntary” leaves of absence, the Harvard Crimson reported Friday, citing an Instagram post from the group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine.

It is unclear how many students have been placed on leave.

The move comes after protesters rejected an offer from interim Harvard President Alan Garber overnight to avoid being placed on leave in exchange for taking down the encampment.

Harvard warned protesters on Monday that those in the encampment faced “involuntary leave” and may not be able to sit for exams, CNN previously reported.

Students on involuntary leave also may not reside in Harvard housing and “must cease to be present on campus until reinstated,” according to the interim president.

The Harvard Yard encampment went up nearly two weeks ago.

Garber had previously said Harvard would have a “very, very high bar” before asking police to intervene.

University of Wisconsin-Madison reaches resolution to end encampment: School officials said representatives of Students for Justice in Palestine will clear Library Mall on Friday and commit to “not disrupt this weekend’s graduation ceremonies or other campus functions.”

There was no immediate comment from the student group, which the university said also committed to not reestablishing an encampment and “to following UW–Madison rules in its future activities.”

“This has been a difficult period for our campus, our nation and the world,” said the university, adding it “supports peaceful student protest” and appreciates the encampment “was motivated by understandably passionate feelings about the devastation in Gaza, and was a source of community for many participants.”

But the encampment, the statement said, “made others in our community, especially portions of our Jewish community, feel uncomfortable and unseen.”

“We reiterate our strong condemnation of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and hate and bigotry in all its forms, and we recognize the costs of war and displacement on so many across the globe,” the university said.

Under the agreement with protest leaders, the university said it will facilitate “access for SJP to meet with decision makers to discuss disclosure and investment principles and enhanced engagement with and support for scholars and students impacted by war, violence and displacement.”

University police had earlier reminded protesters any disruption of campus events, including commencement ceremonies Friday and Saturday afternoon, is against state law and will not be tolerated.

Students who disrupt will face suspension and have their degree put on hold, according to CNN affiliate WMTV.

Students and non-students involved in disruptions also face arrest, citation and criminal charges.

University of Massachusetts Amherst commencement speaker withdraws: Author Colson Whitehead will no longer speak at the school’s May 18 commencement due to the “events of May 7 on campus,” the university said in a statement.

On Tuesday night into Wednesday, police cleared an encampment and arrested several protesters at the university, CNN previously reported.

“We respect Mr. Whitehead’s position and regret that he will not be addressing the Class of 2024,” UMass Amherst spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski said. The ceremony will now be held without a commencement speaker, the university said.

CNN has reached out to Whitehead for comment.

Xavier University cancels UN ambassador’s commencement speech: The HBCU in Louisiana is the second institution to reverse course on inviting US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield to speak, according to multiple reports. The decision was made in response to a student-led petition expressing anger at US policy supporting Israel in its war against Hamas and its vote against a ceasefire at the UN, university President Reynold Verret said.

The New School won’t pursue criminal charges against student protesters: More than 40 people were arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the New York City university on May 3, CNN has reported. But school officials have asked prosecutors to drop all charges, interim President Donna Shalala said in a message to the university community that also announced the Faculty Senate has asked to reactivate an Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility.

USC valedictorian shares heavily redacted canceled speech: Asna Tabassum, the University of Southern California valedictorian whose speech was canceled last month after the university cited safety concerns, shared a mostly redacted version of her speech Friday to CNN. The letter begins, “It is my honor to stand before you today as your Valedictorian. I am filled with gratitude to have the privilege of.” The rest is redacted until it ends with, “Congratulations, Class of 2024. Thank you.” Two USC student-run media outlets, the Daily Trojan and USC Annenberg Media, originally published the letter Friday.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Kelly McCleary, Amanda Musa, Andy Rose, Danny Freeman, Sam Simpson, Rob Frehse and Zenebou Sylla contributed to this report.

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