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Thousands in Haiti march to demand safety from violent gangs as killings and kidnappings soar

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El Roi Academy students march down on the street after a press conference to demand the freedom of New Hampshire nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter, who have been reported kidnapped, in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Several thousand people — their faces covered to conceal their identities — marched through Haiti’s capital demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond. Haitians’ daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force. The crowd chanted, “We want security!” as it marched for two hours on Monday from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister’s official residence. The lives of tens of thousands of Haitians have been disrupted by incessant gang violence. Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton A police officer pats down a motorcyclist at a checkpoint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, July 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) Home CCTV Camera in Brampton A leading human rights group in Haiti warned about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings as the U.N. Security Council met Friday to discuss the country’s worsening violence. In a report issued Thursday, the National Human Rights Defense Network also condemned what it called the government’s inaction. It noted that from May 1 to July 12, at least 75 people were killed and another 40 abducted. Among those killed are an attorney, a schoolboy, two morticians and at least six police officers. Those kidnapped include a female journalist from Radio Vision 2000 who was later released. Her husband, the former president of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, was abducted in mid-June and is still being held by gang members. Gangs are also accused of breaking into a hospital in the community of Canaan in the northern part of the capital, Port-au-Prince, stealing medical supplies and abducting at least six security guards. In addition, armed criminals last month set fire to the building that housed the Jamaican consulate in Haiti. The violence recently forced Doctors Without Borders to suspend treatment at one of their hospitals in Port-au-Prince after the group said some 20 armed men burst into an operating room and abducted a patient. Earlier this year, the human rights group said that kidnappings and killings had diminished amid a violent uprising targeting suspected gang members, but noted that gangs have since resumed their attacks. The group urged authorities to disband all armed gangs and restore order and security. Haiti’s National Police is under-funded, under-resourced and largely overpowered by gangs, who have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and are now estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince. The department has only some 9,000 active duty officers for a country of more than 11 million people. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has insisted on an international force to help Haiti’s National Police, with one U.N. expert estimating that Haiti needs up to 2,000 additional anti-gang police officers. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry requested the urgent deployment of such a force in October, but the U.N. Security Council so far has opted to impose sanctions on gang members and others. On Friday, it gave the secretary-general 30 days to report back on options to fight Haiti’s gangs, including a possible U.N. peacekeeping force and a non-U.N. multinational force. Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton A girl carries a sign that reads in Creole, “Free school is broken. Release the nurse,” during a march to demand the freedom of New Hampshire nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter, who have been reported kidnapped, in the Cite Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) Best CCTV Security Services in Brampton Chants of “freedom” echoed through the streets outside an aid facility in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Monday where just days earlier an American nurse and her daughter were kidnapped by armed men. Hundreds of Haitians marched through the gang-ravaged zone, bursting with anger at the abduction, which has become a symbol of the worsening violence plaguing the Caribbean nation. New Hampshire woman Alix Dorsainvil had been working as a community nurse for the religious and humanitarian aid group El Roi Haiti when she and her daughter were taken from its campus on Thursday, the organization said. She is the wife of its founder, Sandro Dorsainvil. Witnesses told the Associated Press that Dorsainvil was working in her organization’s small brick clinic when a group of armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax. “When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Louima said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.”‘ Other members of the community said the unidentified men asked for US$1 million in ransom, something that’s become standard as Haiti’s gangs turn to slews of kidnappings to line their pockets and bleed the country dry. Hundreds have been kidnapping in Haiti this year alone, figures from the local non-profit Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights show. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, gangs have taken over much of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty. The same day that Dorsainvil and her daughter were taken, the U.S. State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” for Haiti and ordered non-emergency personnel to leave amid growing security concerns. In its advisory, the State Department said that “kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.” The violence has stirred anger among Haitians, who say they simply just want to live in peace. Protesters, largely from the area around El Roi Haiti’s campus, which includes a medical clinic, a school and

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Hamilton city staff apologize for ‘minimizing’ health impacts of insect and rodent infestations

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Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton’s medical officer of health, apologized for comments her staff made that minimized the health impacts of pest infestations on residents. (Samantha Craggs/CBC) Best CCTV Camera in Brampton Public health staff have apologized to residents for not enforcing the city’s pest rules for over four years and recently making comments that minimized the health impacts of living with insect and rodent infestations. Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city’s medical officer of health, made the apology on Thursday, following CBC Hamilton’s story. “I want to apologize on behalf of the City of Hamilton as well as public health services to those in the community who felt our level of service for not addressing pest control complaints was not up to their expectations,” Richardson told reporters. Public health manager Matthew Lawson previously told CBC Hamilton there’s little evidence to suggest rats, cockroaches and bedbugs carry diseases.  Lawson also apologized Thursday, acknowledging pests can affect people’s physical and mental wellbeing, and cause allergic reactions, infections related to scratching, as well as anxiety and insomnia. “I take the health and wellbeing of those in Hamilton very seriously,” Lawson said. “That’s why I’m here today to extend an apology to those who felt pain based on my comments in a recent media story minimizing the negative impacts pest infestations can have on community members.”  Earlier in the day, Mayor Andrea Horwath urged city staff to apologize.  Home CCTV Camera in Brmapton Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton Following their apology, she told CBC Hamilton she was shocked when she read the story and said residents felt diminished and insulted. “I want to articulate how sorry I am,” Horwath said. “People need to know the city is on their side. When they call with issues, we need to respond and if we’re not able to, we need to know why.”  A bylaw officer will be in charge of responding to new pest complaints starting next Tuesday, while also working through hundreds of cases the city has yet to respond to, Richardson said.  Horwath said she expects the city to contact every resident who has lodged a complaint and find ways to expedite the process.  Kevin McDonald, a city public health director who oversees the healthy environments division, previously said Hamilton’s public health division paused pest control in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started.  That means landlords who fail to keep buildings free of cockroaches, bedbugs or rats, as required under the city’s property standards bylaw, haven’t faced bylaw orders or fees. Public health says enforcement paused during the pandemic and a bylaw officer will pick it up next month CBC Hamilton is investigating the living conditions that tenants face and what responsibility the city has to uphold property standards. This is Part 1 of a three-part series. Parts 2 and 3 will run in the coming weeks. The cockroach and bedbug infestations in Tammy Brown’s Hamilton apartment have all but destroyed her life, she says. Roaches have taken over her fridge and stove, contaminating her food and making it impossible to cook for her two adult daughters, one of whom lives with a disability, and her four-year-old grandson.  Brown has thrown out nearly all their clothes and furniture in an effort to rid her home of the pests. “We have nothing left,” she said.  Brown, a member of the tenant advocacy group ACORN, has called the city four times in under a year, begging for it to order the landlord at 221 Melvin Ave. to fix the pest problems. She said neither public health nor bylaw has ever responded.  “Nobody from the city gives a shit,” she said. “Pardon my French, but the job is not being done.”  There’s a reason she hasn’t heard back. The City of Hamilton isn’t enforcing its own pest control rules — and hasn’t for over four years, staff told CBC Hamilton. That means landlords who fail to keep buildings free of cockroaches, bedbugs or rats, as required under the city’s property standards bylaw, haven’t faced bylaw orders or fees. Kevin McDonald, a city public health director who oversees the healthy environments division, said in an interview the decision to pause pest control happened in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, when staff were reassigned to respond to the emergency.  Pest control was determined to be a low priority at that time, McDonald said. The public was notified of the change through a report prepared for the Board of Health and the previous mayor in June 2020. In that report, it does not list services — like pest control enforcement — that were put on hold, but rather services that would continue. Pest control was not on the list. Public health lifted its state of emergency related to COVID-19 over a year ago. “We appreciate and are not trying to minimize the presence of pests in someone’s home can be extremely stressful, frustrating and concerning,” said McDonald. “And depending on the type of pests, that can have a mental and physical impact on individuals.”  Best CCTV Security Services in Brampton Brown and her family live at 221 Melvin Ave. in Hamilton’s east end. (Samantha Beattie/CBC) Best CCTV Camera in Brampton However, according to public health manager Matthew Lawson, there’s little evidence to suggest rats, cockroaches and bedbugs carry pathological diseases, and the idea that residents could experience negative mental health impacts is a “novel, developing notion” that began in 2008 when bedbugs started making a resurgence in Hamilton. “I couldn’t agree with you more that nobody wants to live with pests,” said Lawson. “But pests in the modern form aren’t necessarily presenting a health hazard.”  Hamilton public health received 1,365 pest complaints from 2019 to this month, as shared with CBC Hamilton. There were fewer than five orders issued by the city in that time. A corporate landlord found guilty of violating the city’s pest control rules may face fines of up to $100,000. McDonald said enforcement will begin again by mid-August, after one bylaw officer is reassigned and trained. The bylaw officer will respond to pest control complaints, which residents can file by calling the city’s customer contact centre, he said.  “Everyone deserves

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How Indigenous services leaders are teaching youth on reserves to help their communities cope with disasters

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Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton A group of mentors and mentees stand together at the Preparing Our Home gathering in Osoyoos, B.C., on Oct. 18, 2022. The program approaches emergency preparedness from Indigenous services perspectives, accounting for the unique needs of First Nations communities. (Devin Naveau) Best CCTV Camera in Brampton In the face of Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, a national program that teaches Indigenous youth to become emergency preparedness leaders is more important than ever, say its founders. The Preparing Our Home program aims to improve disaster management on reserve by sharing practices geared towards Indigenous services communities – communities that are increasingly and disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. “With Preparing Our Home, there’s been a real awareness and education [about] disasters and evacuations, how to work with your community when those incidents happen,” program co-founder and mentor Darlene Yellow Old Woman-Munro told CBC’s What On Earth. As part of the program, Yellow Old Woman-Munro shares lessons learned during the climate-linked disaster that struck her own nation: the 2013 flood that hit the Siksika Nation and other parts of southern Alberta. In its aftermath, Yellow Old Woman-Munro developed the Dancing Deer Disaster Recovery Centre to support evacuees spread out around the large reserve. Evacuees were usually expected to travel to a central location for support, but Yellow Old Woman-Munro said she knew her community needed a different approach. She put together a team of health-care workers and youth to visit evacuees in the temporary sites where they were living instead. Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton Yellow Old Woman-Munro, centre, stands with members of the Dancing Deer Disaster Recovery Centre, a team created to assist evacuees from the flood that struck the Siksika Nation in Alberta in 2013. (Dancing Deer Disaster Recovery Centre) Home CCTV Camera in Brampton “For evacuees, to travel was an issue,” Yellow Old Woman-Munro said. “So it was easier for us … to go out and meet with the evacuees, find out what they needed, bring food, bring water, blankets, tents to them.” The Preparing Our Home Program, which has been running for seven years, shares these kinds of community-focused practices with Indigenous youth across Canada. Program co-founder and director Lilia Yumagulova said conventional disaster response is inappropriate for many living on reserve. For example, being taken on a bus and housed in evacuation centres, such as gymnasiums with rows of cots and bright lights, can be a “traumatic triggering event,” for residential school survivors, she said. “There is a lot … that needs to be changed to make it much more culturally safe,” she said. When it comes to emergency preparedness, Yumagulova said, conventional messaging is aimed at middle class, able-bodied people who can afford an emergency preparedness kit and a vehicle. “There is this silent majority that actually falls outside of those spaces and that’s where a lot of preparedness efforts should be directed,” she said. Preparing Our Home holds an annual gathering in Osoyoos, B.C. in the fall, during which youth learn from elders and emergency management professionals. “We really begin with understanding why communities are at such a disproportionate amount of risk,” said Yumagulova. “So you begin with the Indian Act and the forced displacement that many communities went through.” Then, she said, they explore solutions from Indigenous services communities across the country. “The youth say that it’s just amazing to know that you’re not alone facing these issues,” she said. Michelle Vandevord, a Muskoday First Nation firefighter and associate director for Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management, is a mentor with the program. She teaches youth about wildfire management and Indigenous-led evacuation practices. Best CCTV Camera in Brampton Michelle Vandevord, a Muskoday First Nation firefighter and associate director for Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management, is a mentor with the Preparing Our Home program. (Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada) Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton One example: a cultural camp held in Prince Albert, Sask., in May for evacuees from the fire that threatened the community at Deschambault Lake in the province’s northeast. “When you think about our First Nation people going to hotels and the foods that are being served, it’s not something that people are used to,” Vandevord said. Fast food can have health impacts for people from remote communities, especially diabetics, she added. The cultural camp in Prince Albert, she said, served fish, caribou, and moose, offering evacuees a familiar meal of traditional foods. “[It was] very First Nations-led, solving a problem that we see on the ground,” Vandevord said. Such practices are vital for community wellbeing during disasters, say Preparing Our Home mentors. The goal of the annual gathering is for youth to return to their communities and teach others what they’ve learned about emergency preparedness. The event can also lead to careers in emergency management for some of the young participants. Home CCTV Camera in Brampton Brent Boissoneau, 24, has attended the Preparing Our Home gathering and was hired as the emergency management co-ordinator for his community, Mattagmi First Nation in Ontario, earlier this year. (Preparing Our Home) Best CCTV Camera in Brampton Brent Boissoneau, 24, is one of them. He attended the gathering several years ago and was hired as the emergency management co-ordinator for his community, Mattagami First Nation in Ontario, earlier this year. It’s a federally funded role that many, including Canada’s Auditor General, say is critical for Indigenous services communities during disasters. “You learn so much from other people that are there,” Boissoneau said of the gathering. “And building that relationship to see what [disaster management strategies] can we take from them and what can we give to them as well?” A 2022 Auditor General’s report said the federal government is failing to provide the support First Nations need to manage emergencies. The report says many problems were identified a decade ago, but Indigenous Services Canada has not solved them. Lilia Yumagulova said there has been some progress. “Indigenous peoples within these colonial structures … are making [an] enormous difference in moving these files forward,” she

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“UN begins complex oil tanker salvage operation to avoid ‘catastrophic’ spill in Red Sea”

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Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton An international team began siphoning oil out of a decrepit oil tanker off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday, the United Nations chief said, a crucial step in a complex salvage operation. In a statement, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the operation a mission “to defuse what might be the world’s largest ticking time bomb.” For years, many organizations have warned that the neglected vessel, known as FSO Safer, may cause a major oil spill or even explode. “In the absence of anyone else willing or able to perform this task, the United Nations stepped up and assumed the risk to conduct this very delicate operation,” Guterres said.  The tanker carries four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska, one of the world’s worst ecological catastrophes, according to the UN. Now, the more than 1.1 million barrels of oil stored in the tanker will be moved to another vessel the UN has purchased, Guterres said.  The Safer is moored six kilometres from Yemen’s western Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa, a strategic area now embroiled in the country’s civil war. The vessel has not been maintained for eight years and its structural integrity is compromised, making it at risk of breaking up or exploding. Seawater has entered the engine compartment, causing damage to the pipes and increasing the risk of sinking, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press in June 2020. For years, the UN and governments of other countries as well as environmental groups have warned that if an oil spill — or explosion — occurs, it could disrupt global commercial shipping, causing untold damage to the global economy. In total, the Safer salvage operation is expected to cost about $144 million US — an estimate that also includes finding a permanent storage solution for the oil. The UN says that figure is a fraction of the estimated $20 billion US it would cost to clean up an oil spill from the tanker. The United States contributed $10 million US for the transfer and urged other countries to chip in more needed for the operation, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. Canada has contributed $2.5 million Cdn to the salvage mission. The oil transfer came after months of on-site preparatory work and is scheduled to be completed in 19 days, the UN said. The tanker Nautica that is to receive the oil, now renamed the Yemen, reached Yemen’s coast earlier this month and the salvage team managed on Saturday to safely berth it alongside the Safer. “The transfer of the oil to the Yemen will prevent the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill in the Red Sea, but it is not the end of the operation,” David Gressly, UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, said Monday. After transferring the oil, the Yemen vessel will be connected to an undersea pipeline that brings oil from the fields, said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Program. Steiner said the Safer tanker would be towed away to a scrapyard to be recycled. The UN chief said about $20 million US is still needed to finish the salvage operation, including cleaning and scrapping the tanker and removing any remaining environmental threat to the Red Sea. Home CCTV Camera in Brampton Best CCTV Camera in Brampton United Nations Development Program Administrator Achim Steiner, seen speaking during a Thursday news conference, says a deal has been signed to secure the purchase of a large crude carrier that can help get oil off a rusting tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen. (Mary Altaffer/The Associated Press) The United Nations (UN) announced Thursday it signed an agreement to purchase a very large vessel that can transfer more than 1 million barrels of crude now stranded in a rusting tanker off the coast of war-torn Yemen. The deal is the first step in an eventual operation to evacuate the cargo and eliminate the threat of massive environmental damage from a possible oil spill or explosion. Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Program, told a news conference that the deal was signed with Euronav, the world’s largest independent tanker company, to secure the purchase of a large crude carrier for the endeavour. The double-hulled carrier, found “following an intense search on an extremely stressed global market,” is expected to sail within the next month to Yemen’s Red Sea waters and park alongside the FSO Safer, he said. “If all things go according to plan,” the ship-to-ship crude transfer would start in early May,” Steiner said. The Japanese-made Safer was built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels of oil pumped from fields in Marib, a province in eastern Yemen. The impoverished Arab Peninsula country has for years been engulfed in civil war. Yemen’s conflict started in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition entered the war to fight the Houthis and try and restore the internationally recognized government to power. No annual maintenance has taken place since 2015 on the ship, which is is 360 metres long with 34 storage tanks. Most crew members, except for 10 people, were pulled off the vessel after the Saudis entered the conflict. In 2020, internal documents obtained by The Associated Press showed that seawater has entered Safer’s engine compartment, causing damage to pipes and increasing the risk of sinking. Rust has covered parts of the tanker and the inert gas that prevents the tanks from gathering inflammable gases, has leaked out. Experts said maintenance was no longer possible because the damage to the ship is irreversible, according to an Associated Press report. The situation has raised fears of a massive oil spill or explosion that could cause an environmental catastrophe. The UN has repeatedly warned that the tanker could release four times more oil than the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster

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“40 years on, Shakespeare in Toronto’s High Park keeps casting the magic of open-air theatre”

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Dream in High Park, a series of William Shakespeare plays presented in an open-air amphitheatre in Toronto’s High Park, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. In 2019, pictured, the company staged a production of Much Ado About Nothing. (Dahlia Katz/Canadian Stage) When Guy Sprung launched an outdoor theatre program in Toronto’s High Park 40 years ago, the dream was to bring accessible Shakespeare to all. “I believe in theatre for the people. That’s what has always been my mantra,” said Sprung, founding director of Dream in High Park, an annual showcase of William Shakespeare’s plays in Toronto’s west end. “I didn’t want the kind of monochromatic Shakespeare with expensive tickets at Stratford [Festival in Ontario]. I wanted something that was affordable and was distinctly ours and for everybody in Toronto.” So in the early 1980s, Sprung went looking for the perfect place to stage a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He envisioned a spot where audiences would walk through the woods — “so you can smell the trees a little bit” — before arriving at the stage. Thousands of people watch a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Dream in High Park in 1983. Guy Sprung, the show’s director, says the theatre event regularly saw nightly audiences of 2,000 people. (Canadian Stage) In July 1983, in a small clearing off the park’s main road, Sprung and a cast that included Canadian actors Lucy Peacock and Peter MacNeill performed for an audience of around 3,000 — roughly the capacity of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Elizabethan England. A typical night could see 2,000 visitors. “All we had was a basin with grass and trees,” said Peacock, who played Hermia in that debut production.  “We all remember the poison ivy, I think, and the mosquitoes and the heat. And of course, we were all dressed in Elizabethan something or other and wondering, whose idea was that?” Over its four-decade run, Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park has featured some of Canada’s biggest performers, including Paul Gross and Diane D’Aquila, at its forest amphitheatre. Actors rehearse for the debut 1983 performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at High Park in Toronto. (Canadian Stage) Open-air productions of Shakespeare go back centuries, to the days the playwright was staging his own works in London. The Globe Theatre, built by Shakespeare’s theatre troupe, opened on the Thames River in 1599. The theatre had no roof and was a place for all Londoners — not just the wealthy. Fast forward a few hundred years, and Dream in High Park is billed as one of Canada’s “largest and longest-running outdoor professional theatre events.”  For its 40th anniversary, director Jamie Robinson — whose first professional gig was in a High Park production of Romeo & Juliet — is taking Dream back to its roots. Performers rehearse for the 2023 production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as part of Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park in Toronto. From left to right: director Jamie Robinson, Steven Hao, Louisa Zhu, on the floor, Julie Tepperman, Aaron Willis, Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin and Angel Lo. (Althea Manasan/CBC) His production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream imagines the kind of world we want to live in. “How do we want to see our future?” said Robinson. “Is it a chaotic world where forest fires are normal, and all of these things that we’re seeing in our face are normal?” “Or do we want the future that is very hopeful and dream-like, but also very happy?” From left to right: actors Shelly Antony, Louisa Zhu and Steven Hao rehearse a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Althea Manasan/CBC) He says outdoor theatre, and Dream in particular, offers audiences — even those who may not frequent stage shows — a Shakespearean experience. “It brings back what I think Shakespeare had in his audiences, in Elizabethan times in England, where you came as an event. It was as normal as going to a sports event,” he said. “It’s kind of a breeding ground for just reinventing theatre, especially coming out of the pandemic where we all are craving being together again.” Similar open-air companies have popped up around the country since Dream in High Park began in 1983. Winnipeg troupe Shakespeare in the Ruins started in 1993, and Halifax’s Shakespeare by the Sea began entertaining audiences in Point Pleasant Park the year after. And in Vancouver’s Vanier Park, Bard on the Beach has used British Columbia’s North Shore Mountains as a backdrop since 1990. Actor Jennifer Lines starred as Dame Frances in the 2023 Bard on the Beach production of As You Like It. In the background, the North Shore Mountains are visible beyond English Bay. (Tim Matheson/Bard on the Beach) “We’re in a park that overlooks the sea … the mountains are directly behind that and the sun is going down. So these are the natural beauty of our natural world, which Shakespeare talks about a lot,” said Christopher Gaze, the company’s founder and artistic director, who began his career in outdoor theatre a decade before starting Bard. “You get this extraordinary backdrop behind the actors, ever changing. You might see a kite flying up here for a while. You may see a sailboat going by.” Pre-pandemic, Bard on the Beach would welcome 100,000 people each year, Gaze says. Part of its success is the “casualness” of outdoor theatre, which invites audiences for more than just the show. Theatre patrons walk in and out of the tents at Bard on the Beach in Vancouver. (Tim Matheson) Earlier in the festival’s run, Gaze would ask visitors how they enjoyed the show. Often, they praised the beauty of the surroundings rather than the performance itself, somewhat offending Gaze.  “But now I understand,” he said. “A lot of people come and see our shows that perhaps don’t normally go to theatre, but they come because of the experience,” which can include a pre-show picnic and catch-up in the park. Using the natural world as a stage is part of the magic that comes with programs like Dream in High Park. The stage originally sat

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“Emergency Alert: Ontario Regions Struggle with Ambulance Pressures”

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Paramedics unload patients from ambulances at the emergency department of a Toronto hospital. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) Several Ontario municipalities say their paramedic services are under immense pressure, with worrying stretches of times during which no ambulances are available to respond to calls — but the province doesn’t track the problem. The government does have data on the hours paramedics spend waiting in emergency rooms to transfer patients to the care of a hospital, which are often a key factor in ambulance availability, but won’t disclose it. Some emergency officials and community leaders say more needs to be done to help paramedic services, but the lack of publicly available provincial information makes it hard to assess the scope of the problem. “We just want to be able to have a baseline to say, ‘Oh, things have improved since 2020, since 2018,’ and being able to quantify the data so that when we do go to the province, or to our employers, we want to be able to go with solutions,” said Niko Georgiadis, chair of the CUPE Ambulance Committee of Ontario. Ambulance dispatch centres are mostly operated by the province, so they should be keeping track of how often there are no ambulances available — situations known as code zero or code black — said Georgiadis. A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province doesn’t track that because municipalities are responsible for ambulance deployment strategies. Ontario generates monthly reports based on data from ambulance dispatch centres, including time paramedics spend waiting in ERs to transfer patients — known as offload delays — by hospital. But requests for the figures, including a specific request for the most recent report went unacknowledged. Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, shown during a 2022 announcement at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, says the province has implemented and expanded various programs to address ambulance availability issues. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press) Jones has implemented and expanded various programs to address ambulance availability issues, from increasing funding for nurses to monitor ambulance patients so paramedics can get back on the road, to allowing paramedics to take patients somewhere other than an ER. “Our government’s four-part strategy to tackle ambulance offload time issues is focused on: returning ambulances to communities faster, providing timely and appropriate care in the community, facilitating non-ambulance transportation for stable patients, and increasing health care worker capacity,” spokesperson Hannah Jensen wrote in a statement. Several communities say offload delays and the lack of ambulance availability skyrocketed from 2021 to 2022. Some say it’s looking a bit better for 2023, but more needs to be done. Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter has been combing through his own region’s data, and found that from January to May, code blacks and code reds — when there were either no ambulances or one or two — tended to happen between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. He ties that to the lack of availability of urgent care clinics and primary care during those hours, and has asked Jones to fund those services for extended hours. “If we get some better urgent care, primary care, those code reds and blacks should come down,” he said. Jones’s spokesperson said the minister is working with health-care leaders in that region on “innovative solutions” to increase ambulance availability. The County of Essex declared an emergency in the fall due to long offload delays and code reds and blacks. On one day preceding the declaration there were no ambulances available for almost three hours as 26 paramedic teams were delayed at hospitals. There has been some improvement since then, Krauter said. In October there were a total of 629 minutes during which no ambulance was available. In May that total was 173 minutes. But the local emergency remains in place until there are no more code reds or blacks, Krauter said. More funding from the province for dedicated offload nurses — who can manage ambulance patients in the ER so paramedics can get back on the road — has helped, Krauter said, as has EMS putting a “navigator” into the dispatch centre to help direct movement of ambulances. Reprioritizing ambulance calls under a new dispatch algorithm is also expected to help, Krauter said. “Right now if you call for 911 … and you say, ‘Hello, I hit my nose on something and it’s bleeding,’ you automatically get an ambulance, lights and sirens to your house,” he said. “We’re over-responding to calls and all that does is drain resources.” In hospitals, Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said even with the increased funding for dedicated offload nurses — $51 million extra over three years — the money can’t always be put to use because of general nursing staff shortages. The health minister’s spokesperson noted the province expanded that program last year to allow paramedics, physician assistants and respiratory therapists to assist. Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, says ambulance dispatch centres are mostly operated by the province so should be keeping track of how often there are no ambulances available. (Amy Dodge/CBC) Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has asked the province to pay for 51 new paramedics to act as offload paramedics. Normally, paramedics are funded 50-50 by the province and municipalities, but Sutcliffe argues offload delays are a provincial responsibility. Last year, Ottawa’s paramedic service spent 93,686 hours in offload delays. In Toronto, that number was about 300,000 hours, according to a paramedic services report. In Waterloo Region, the amount of time no ambulances were available increased by 571 per cent from 2021 to 2022. Offload delays are a factor, as are an increase in call volumes and paramedic staff shortages, said John Riches, chief of paramedic services. The region has increased ambulance resources and 2023 is so far looking a little better, he said, but it’s “not significant enough to celebrate.” Waterloo Region paramedics and its three area hospitals are hoping to introduce a “fit to sit” program this fall, in which paramedics can leave certain stable patients to wait in

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