Nanaimo rugby project is steering kids away from gangs
Parents and coaches say a project in Nanaimo to steer kids away from gangs is paying off. The city teamed up with several groups to help build safer communities. Claire Palmer hit the rugby pitch with one of the eight programs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
New Halifax plan examines how downtown soccer stadium fits with neighbouring projects
A new plan considers what a permanent soccer stadium could look like in downtown Halifax, but says using the same location as the current pop-up facility would bring compromises for the stadium and other nearby groups. Municipal staff presented a functional plan for the Wanderers Block to the city's community planning and economic development committee on Wednesday. The area is mostly municipal land and part of the Halifax Common. The plan considered what it would look like to accommodate all the requests from current and possible future tenants of the area, including two professional soccer teams, a horse riding school, lawn bowling club and municipal parks staff. "Now we can say, yeah, it is very crowded," said Carolle Koziak Roberts, municipal landscape architect. The Halifax Wanderers professional soccer team and the new Halifax Tides women's team want a permanent 8,500-seat stadium with running water, locker rooms and concession areas that could expand seating in the future. They suggested a turf field that would allow amateur and school teams to play year-round, and could handle concerts with a 13,000-person standing capacity. In 2023, the Wanderers suggested such a stadium would cost about $40 million, and asked Halifax to build and operate the facility with the team as the lead tenant. The Halifax Lancers horse riding school wants to build more stables for additional horses, increase the size of its outdoor riding ring and build a second indoor riding arena to expand their membership and programs. The Wanderers Lawn Bowling Club, which has been on the site since 1887, would like more public visibility and a larger clubhouse that could be rented. The Public Gardens Foundation has asked for a Victorian-style conservatory that would showcase plants year-round. There is also a municipal parks depot on the site housing sports field maintenance staff and equipment, as well as a horticulture facility servicing the Halifax Public Gardens and other parks. The plan offers three different options for how the projects could fit on the site, but all require trade-offs or compromises from everyone. The plan said some options allow a stadium field that could be used for both soccer and rugby, but there is no room to accommodate football without removing one of the other tenants. The seating capacity could also not be expanded unless the province provided land from the Museum of Natural History property. In that case, a stadium of 9,000 to 10,000 seats could be possible. "I don't think this is the right plan — too many compromises and we need to think a bit bigger," said Coun. Patty Cuttell. Cuttell said a larger stadium should go elsewhere that could accommodate more sports and commercial space. Coun. Trish Purdy brought up Ottawa's Lansdowne Park as a better model. The home of the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Redblacks includes a stadium, playgrounds, shopping area, public lawn and skatepark. "No matter how we position it on the block, [this] wouldn't ever be able to accommodate CFL, so I think that's a big negative," said Purdy. Coun. Tony Mancini said the pop-up stadium, where the Wanderers have played since 2019 and the Tides launched this year, has been a "huge success," drawing about 6,000 people for games. "It's had a huge impact to the downtown and it's been great," Mancini said. He also said it's not ideal for drawing more soccer events like the 2023 match between the Canadian women's national team and Brazil. "Two of the best teams in the world here. They're changing in shipping containers, they had to use [portable toilets], there's no running water, there's not a real stadium. So a real stadium is definitely needed," Mancini said. With a second soccer team now using the pop-up stadium, the report said Halifax recently took over rental of the existing metal bleachers and bought "most of the assets" on the Wanderers field "in order to increase public control over the Wanderers temporary stadium site." It is unclear how much this move cost. Koziak Roberts said this report was just the first step and it's now up to councillors to discuss which development projects make sense on the block. The costs for all developments could range from $116 million to $123 million, but Koziak Roberts said those are high-level figures that assume construction starts in 2029 and include a 15 per cent estimate for inflation. Regional council will consider the plan at a future meeting and decide whether to ask for a staff report that would provide a recommended approach for the Wanderers Block, and confirm funding commitments from other levels of government and the tenants themselves. "It is not envisioned that the municipality should assume primary financial responsibilities over these interests," the report said. Staff said public consultation will come once there is additional clarity over what could actually happen on the block.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
As Toronto teen lay dying, witness says health centre ignored cries for help
Moments after he was shot in Toronto's Weston neighbourhood Saturday night, a teenage boy lay bleeding out in front of a local health-care centre — and one witness says her repeated cries for help at the facility's front door were ignored. Now, Dacota Carriere says she is speaking out to draw attention both to the lack of assistance the teen — identified by police Wednesday evening as Jakhai Jack — received at West Park Healthcare Centre, and to join other witnesses in lamenting long 911 wait times that night as the life slipped from the 15-year-old's body. "The boy was fighting up until his last moments," Carriere told CBC News Wednesday. "I truly believe if first responders had come immediately when they were needed, or he got the attention he needed right away, I truly believe he would have survived with the amount of fight he had in him." Carriere was at the health-care centre at 170 Emmett Ave. Saturday night around 10 p.m. She and some friends, who are car enthusiasts, were taking photos of their vehicles in the parking lot because of its recently renovated lighting. The University Health Network-run facility is not a hospital, but instead provides specialized rehabilitation care after life-altering illness or injury like amputation, stroke and lung disease, according to the UHN website. A spokesperson told CBC News in an email the facility doesn't have emergency care facilities and during evening hours nurses provide care to inpatient units, while doctors are on call but not routinely on site. "Should there be an emergency on the property, our first response would involve the attendance of security personnel and/or a call to 9-1-1," Ana Fernandes said in a statement. WATCH | Neighbour recounts trying to help shooting victim: Neighbours say they were on hold for several minutes while shooting victim was still alive 2 days ago Duration 2:35 Carriere said she and her friends were hanging out in the parking lot when they first heard five gunshots in the distance. Shortly after, a young male came running past and said he had been filming a music video down the street when a shooting happened. He asked for a ride, but the crowd declined without knowing if the situation was safe, and the male ran off, she said. Then, about five minutes later, a grey Nissan abruptly pulled into the parking lot with an injured teen in the back seat. Cries for help ignored The driver and two other teens got out and pulled the injured boy onto the ground. The driver said he didn't know the boy and then drove away, Carriere said. A neighbour previously told CBC News that he had helped get the victim into a vehicle so that he could be driven to a nearby health facility. Panic broke out, and Carriere and her friends started pulling microfibre towels out of their trunks in an effort to stop the bleeding. While the boy's friends applied pressure to his chest wound, she ran to the front door of the health centre hoping to find help. "I understood that it was a health-care centre and not a hospital who has an emergency department — but still, putting two and two together, there has to be nurses there," Carriere said. "I see nurses in the lobby, I see security guards. I even made eye contact with many of them. And despite me clearly being in distress, none of them — not one — came outside to help." Fernandes, UHN's spokesperson, referred questions about the situation to Toronto police, citing the ongoing investigation. "UHN joins the community in expressing our deepest condolences to the young man's family and loved ones mourning this heartbreaking loss," she said. Emergency crews arrive One of Carriere's friends was eventually able to wave down a passing police car, and emergency crews arrived soon after, she said. Toronto police confirmed Wednesday that paramedics transported Jack from the health-care centre to a trauma centre on Saturday night, where he was later pronounced dead. No suspect information has been released. Jack was still conscious, talking, and trying to stand when he was first dropped off at the health centre, Carriere said. "He had honestly a surprising amount of energy," she said. But by the time Jack was loaded into an ambulance, he appeared to be unconscious. "His eyes were closed and his mouth was open. He was no longer moving, but the police informed us when they loaded him in the ambulance that he was still breathing," she said. City to review incident Carriere said that days later, she still can't stop thinking about the incident — compounded by the fact that she was also stuck on hold with 911 for several minutes that night. A neighbour previously shared a similar story with CBC News. "I believe the aid to this boy was primarily by bystanders, which saddens me, especially because we are right outside a health-care centre," she said. In a statement, Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer told CBC News that the first call about gunshots linked to this incident came in at 10:01 p.m. Saturday night after waiting on hold for six minutes and 43 seconds. Emergency responders found the boy by 10:11 p.m., she said. "This was too long, and we're not suggesting otherwise. But it's also important to understand the broader context," Sayer said, adding that "major incidents" can cause a surge of 911 calls about the same event and cause "temporary delays" in the call queue. Toronto police's 911 communications centre is the busiest in Canada, Sayer said, and police are trying to improve response times through hiring and modernizing its systems. So far this year, the average wait time to reach an operator is one minute and two seconds, according to police. "We understand the concern and are committed to ensuring that emergency calls are answered and actioned as quickly as possible," Sayer said. City of Toronto officials have pledged to review the emergency services response in the wake of the incident.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
3 plead guilty in network of temp agencies that hid asylum seeker's work accident
Three people accused of running fraudulent temp agencies that exploited asylum seekers — and who attempted to conceal a work accident later uncovered by a 2018 CBC investigation — have pleaded guilty. Quebec's Labour Ministry has called the scheme the "largest fraud ever committed" against it and has estimated government losses at about $635,000 as a result of the operation. Hector Hair Rodriguez Contreras, 56, Hector Lopez Ramos, 51, and Beatriz Adriana Guerrero Munoz, 45, were all initially charged with fraud of more than $5,000 against the Quebec and Canadian governments and conspiracy to commit fraud of more than $5,000. Rodriguez Contreras pleaded guilty to those charges in April, roughly three weeks before his trial in Quebec Court was set to begin. The trio, led by Rodriguez Contreras, ran a number of temp agencies that hired asylum seekers without work permits and paid them below minimum wage in cash or cheques addressed to false identities they assigned to them. Court documents filed after the guilty pleas state that Quebec's Labour Ministry launched probes into the temp agencies following CBC's investigation. Asylum seeker still in pain The story had revealed an asylum seeker was severely injured on the job after being recruited at a Montreal Metro station by a shadowy network of temp agencies. He was given a former worker's name and social security number to work under the table at a meat processing plant outside the city. Prosecutor Geneviève Bélanger said part of the group's operations were legitimate, making it difficult for the government to detect the fraud. "That was part of the scheme. For part of their business, if you will, they would do things in order, while for another part, they wouldn't — which also allowed them to fly under the radar," Bélanger said in an interview last week. The asylum seeker testified at the trial of Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz in May before Quebec Court Judge Rose-Mélanie Drivod. The top of his hand was sliced off by a meat slicer, that, he told CBC at the time, he had not been properly shown how to use. In an emergency surgery, doctors performed a skin graft taken from his thigh to reconstruct his hand. He told the court that years later, he's still in pain. The temp agency that hired him did not declare the accident to Quebec's workplace health and safety board, until the latter intervened following CBC's story and forced the company to compensate him. The man, who is now 39 years old, said in court he'd planned to work in construction in Quebec, when he came to Canada in August 2017 and would have made a good wage that way, but instead has been working as a commercial security guard for more than five years. He and his wife have three children with them in Montreal. 2 pleaded guilty to reduced charges Three days into the trial and soon after the worker's testimony, Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz pleaded guilty to reduced charges of using forged documents, including tax statements, against the Quebec government. Bélanger said the worker's testimony was emotional and powerful. "It clearly demonstrated the risk this type of thing poses when agencies don't respect [work] standards," she said. The statements of facts filed in court say that the Labour Ministry's probe, dubbed TARMAC, revealed that more than 400 of the companies' workers had also been claiming some form of unemployment benefits — many of them new immigrants who had little knowledge of Quebec's work standards and protections. "The leaders of the network took advantage of the vulnerability of some of the workers," the facts read. Martin Subak, Lopez Ramos's lawyer, says pleading guilty after a trial has begun "is commonly done to kind of test a little bit the evidence." He said part of the reason his client and co-accused ended up being handed lesser charges was because "their roles were subservient" to Rodriguez Contreras. The charges against them could lead to a maximum of two years in jail, while the fraud charges against Rodriguez Contreras carry a 14-year maximum imprisonment.
