Euthanasia in Canada (oops) MAID

"While the data suggests that the number of annual MAID [medical assistance in dying] provisions is beginning to stabilize, it will take several more years before long-term trends can be conclusively identified."

"[People who receive MAID don't disproportionately come from lower-income or disadvantaged communities; they're] more likely to be represented in higher income neighbourhoods."

"Loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities was the most commonly reported source of suffering]." 

Health Canada's 6th annual report on MAID

According to the latest update, 95.6 per cent of Canadians who died by MAID last year had a "reasonably foreseeable" death. Photo by Getty Images

 

Health Canada was in receipt of 22,535 MAID requests last year of which 16,499 were approved to proceed. Of those not having been approved, 4,017 of those requesting medical assistance in dying, did so before MAID could be provided, while 1,437 people were found to be ineligible and another 692 changed their minds, withdrawing their request for MAID. In that same year of 2024, 2,255 doctors and nurse practitioners were actively involved in providing MAID. Of that total it was a small group of medical volunteers who were responsible for providing 38 percent of all requests (6,185).

 

In 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called for a repeal of the 2021 law in Canada expanding MAID eligibility to those whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable, concerned that people with disabilities seek MAID as a result of "unmet needs, a systematic failure of the State party". Groups representing the rights of those with disabilities lobbied government not to include those with disabilities in the expanded eligibility list for MAID, fearing the expansion would take the place of workable medical interventions.

 

Altogether MAID deaths in Canada account for 5.1 percent of all deaths in the past year, representing a small increase from 2023 of some 0.4 percent. Since the introduction of MAID in 2015, 76,475 MAID deaths have been registered, according to Health Canada. In 2024 alone, a total of 16,499 people died by MAID. The vast majority (85.6 percent) of hose who died by MAID (averaging 76 years of age and older) last year qualified for 'Track 1' deaths, representing the category of a 'reasonably foreseeable' death qualifying them for MAID approval.

 

Questions are being raised around how MAID is being approved in Canada for people with dementia. Photo by Getty Images

 

Doctor-assisted deaths where natural deaths  were not reasonably foreseeable, saw a majority of women (56.7 percent), slightly younger qualifying, with autoimmune conditions and chronic pain, along with neurological conditions were most often cited among people asking for MAID, who were not on the verge of dying. There was some controversy linked to MAID requests by individuals suffering the effects of mental conditions making their lives impossible, where medical intervention might make a difference.

 

Concerns that some MAID deaths are driven by loneliness, hopelessness and isolation and that some physicians are stretching the qualification provisions of the law have also emerged. The principal criterion of MAID qualification is that a person must be experiencing intolerable and "enduring physical or psychological suffering". Those applying for MAID approval often report multiple sources of suffering impacting their lives.

 

The most common in 2024 was loss of capacity to engage in meaningful activities, as well a loss of ability to perform daily routines such as eating, drinking, dressing and moving about. Track 1 applicants were likelier to report inadequately controlled symptoms, "while Track 2 MAID recipients were more likely to report isolation or loneliness and loss of dignity". Other findings indicate that MAID applicants are less likely to live in remote areas, thus lack of access to health services is not an issue. 

 

The most frequently reported condition in most all age groups of those who died by MAID in 2024 was cancer, in particular lung, colorectal, pancreatic and blood cancer. With the exception of those 85 and older "for whom 'other conditions' were the most frequently cited". 

 

A screen displays a patient's vital signs during open heart surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore on Nov. 28, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Patrick Semansky (Patrick Semansky)

 

"We Will Achieve This By Force"

 

Photo montage, Getty Images

"We need to sit down and discuss this seriously."

"[President Donald Trump's plan is] a set of issues put forward for discussion [rather than a draft agreement]."

"If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease."

"If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by force."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews the honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at Yntymak-Ordo in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, November 26, 2025. Igor Kovalenko/EPA/Shutterstock

 

Force, of course, is what this revanchist imperialist employed with his 'special military operation' launched against a sovereign Ukraine, with the intention of dragging the nation back into the fold of the Soviet Union that Vladimir Putin is planning on reconstructing. It is the reason Russia's near neighbours shudder at the Kremlin's actions in Georgia, Moldova, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

 

Speaking of Ukraine in holding its own territories as 'occupied' is typical Putian logic. It is, of course, Russia/Putin that 'occupies' Ukrainian territory starting with the coveted Crimean Peninsula and going on six years later to add Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts. Even that is not enough for Putin, vowing to fight on 'until the last Ukrainian dies'.  

"Putin does not want an agreement." 

"The only agreement he wants is diktat -- a Ukrainian surrender. Otherwise, he wants to continue fighting."

"I suspect if Ukraine had accepted those dreadful 28 points, Putin would come back for more."

"He realizes those 28 points reflected great flexibility moving his direction on the part of the United States, and he would say, 'See what else we can get'."

John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine  

Vladimir Putin's idea of an end to war and the arrival of peace, is that Ukrainian forces must vacate the areas they 'occupy', for if they insist on remaining in defense of Ukrainian territory, Russian troops will roll right over them. With Russia's larger military, generously equipped, the original Ukrainian defensive swiftly turned into an offensive, demonstrating the courage and determination of a unique social/political order and historical culture to protect its inalienable sovereignty from the malign grasp of a warmonger.

 

Russia is demanding territory from Ukraine it has devastated throughout the course of the nearly four-year war (AFP/Getty)

 

The U.S. president's confidence that his status as the reigning world leader would convince two warring parties to submit to reason; enough blood shed, enough material destruction, enough displacement, enough refugees, and more than enough madness in the fog of war, greed, revenge, fear and misery. The tactics employed to date; strong-arming and verbally abusing and threatening the defender, while deferring to the offender have failed in their aberrant and clumsy overtures.

 

What is obvious that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not bow to the unreasonable pressures he has been plied with, while acknowledging the need to placate to a certain measure some of the demands impressed upon him. Putin, on the other hand, remains fixated on the enterprise he set out to accomplish; acquiring by limitless force as much of the geography of Ukraine for a Greater Russia that the sacrifice of lives on both side can accomplish.

 

Andriy Yermak (right) said Ukraine’s Zelensky (left) would never give up land before he resigned on Friday amid an anti-corruption probe.  Reuters

 

Ukraine, as far as Putin is concerned, must withdraw completely from all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to make way for Russian annexation. Until this demand is satisfied, Moscow has no interest whatever in 'peace negotiations'. Nor can Ukraine be permitted to join NATO. Much less be permitted to host NATO troops for security reasons. 

 

European leaders, in their support of Ukraine while regarding the scenario that has been unfolding for the past three years in that country to be a potential prelude to what they too might experience should Russia prevail, are anxious to be consulted along with Ukraine for any alterations to the draft peace plan the Trump administration has pieced together. 

 

Europe is well aware that their adversary in Moscow plans to outwait their commitment in supporting the Ukrainian war effort. They are also acutely aware that it wouldn't take much for this irascible president who does not take kindly to opposition, to walk away from American past obligations in upholding the world order. Ukraine shudders at the prospect of being left adrift without any support at all from the U.S., whether it be badly needed military arms, or intelligence.  

"I see nothing at the moment that would force Putin to recalculate his goals or abandon his core demands."

"He feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia's well-known terms."

"If the Americans can help move things in that direction -- fine. If not, he knows how to proceed anyway." 

Tatiana Stoyanova, founder, R.Politik, senior fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center  

 

"What Is Being Done About It?"

"We are extremely concerned about such a phenomenon. We understand the rules of democracy, the freedom of speech and all of that. But as I said earlier, we are in a new reality. In this new reality, these kinds of incidents have an impact, and so it's different than just having a broad discussion and allowing people to come up with extreme views."

"Such acceptance may give rise to expressions of hatred by other parts of the public and repeating messages that are inflammatory, that are hateful, that are discriminatory."

"[While people should be able to speak freely] within the law [there are ongoing discussions how to preserve democracy while protecting] citizens from hateful speech, from brainwashing, from misinformation and disinformation."

"This is one of the biggest challenges of these times, and we face that, and I would only say that the best way to do it is to do it together and share our experiences." 

Israeli ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada said he was unnerved by rising anti-Semitism here. “Some of the things I’ve witnessed here to me are mind-boggling,” Ambassador Iddo Moed testified at the Senate human rights committee: “When it comes to attacking Jews here, that’s very troubling.”  Blacklock's Reporter

 

"Last week, a Global News investigation uncovered that roughly 450 individuals with various roles inside Hamas have ties to Canada. These include Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and others with relatives or associates here. CSIS did not confirm if these individuals are currently under scrutiny. Global reported the agency “was investigating Canadians in Middle East terror groups, but declined to elaborate.”

The exposé yet again confirms a long-running trend: Canada remains one of the most vulnerable western jurisdictions for infiltration by Hamas-linked operatives, and the aftermath of October 7 has deepened the country’s exposure."

"Hamas and its ideological progenitor, the Muslim Brotherhood, have spent decades cultivating networks across western democracies, exploiting charitable sectors, legal systems, immigration frameworks, and political sensitivities. A series of international cases that have come to light this month alone illustrates how widespread and deep-seated this threat ecosystem has become."

"A full audit of asylum, refugee, and citizenship cases from the past decade must be conducted to identify any fraud or irregularities, and denaturalization and deportation measures should be enforced wherever the law permits."

Joe Adam George, Middle East Forum  

"I think that there is a total lack of law enforcement of these marauders who are on the university campuses, who are in the streets of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and so on."

"And I think this lack of law enforcement, plus the statements that are made by faculty associations, by unions, has created an environment of absolute permissiveness, so that it is socially acceptable right now to be an antisemite."

"[The recognition of the Palestinian state by the Canadian government is what has opened] Pandora's box against Israel, against the Jewish community in Canada." 

Talia Klein Leighton, president, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism 

 

News that the Senate of Canada in mid-November hosted a Palestinian tribunal came as a surprise and a shock to many. It shouldn't have; 'Palestinian' sympathizers, choosing to be oblivious to the lethal violence Palestinians inflict on their neighbours in Israel, lingering instead on the populist narrative of Palestinian victimhood, see the current Israel-Gaza conflict in terms that Palestinian public relations pose as an aggressive 'occupier' dominating and abusing the human rights of an Arab population struggling for recognition as a sovereign nation.

 

The history of that population is that of refusing in 1947 the United Nations plan for Partition, and refusing ever since to recognize the reality of the Jewish state, while taking very opportunity to turn down negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to reach an agreement of mutual recognition, peace and assured security, in favour of destroying Israel and taking possession of the entire Judaic ancestral geography. For three-quarters of a century those calling themselves Palestinians have launched suicide missions with a goal to kill as many Israelis as possible.

 

In that same period of time, Israel has absorbed two million Arab Palestinians as citizens able to take full part in the nation's politics, social life and business in every sphere of activity. Where Palestinians represent a full 20 percent of Israeli society, no Jews are permitted to live among Palestinians within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, yet the world accepts the Palestinian Authority's charges that Israel is an apartheid society and that it is Israel to whom charges of 'genocide' must be attributed. Not the Palestinians whose focus is killing Jews, much less the abhorrent October 7 slaughter by Palestinian terrorists committing mass murder on a grand scale.

 

Supporters stand in front of an anti-Israel encampment on McGill University campus, in Montreal, Monday, June 17, 2024. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

Canada, which the Liberal governments of the past decade have transformed in every conceivable way, including an open-doors invitation to immigrants, refugees, migrants and illegal entrants to Canada, resulting in the notable fact that circulating within the population are members of the Iranian IRGC, and terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, given entry visas, landed immigrant status, even citizenship. Enabled to infiltrate Canadian society, politics, institutions, academia, unions to support the 'Palestinian cause'. To the extent that the rot of their anti-Israel, antisemitic slanders have taken deep root.

 

The Senate's two-day Palestinian tribunal featured panelists who in the past were refused entry to Canada by the Canada Border Services Agency, for their denials of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that the Charlie Hebdo  atrocities were arranged by French authorities, and that all the lethal attacks targeting Israel were fictions; their truth rather charging Israel of intentions of genocide against the hapless, helpless Palestinians, the world's most pitiable refugees.

 

Israel's ambassador to Canada spoke before the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, along with other invited participants. A Jewish law student at the University of Alberta, Rachel Cook, described for the committee "an institutional coddling of people who have views that the administration (of universities) agree with". Her own experience of asking her university to display a menorah for Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights occurring the same time as Christmas, was telling.

 

In a speech to protesters on Oct. 28, Adil Charkaoui, speaking Arabic, denounced "Zionist aggressors" and called on Allah to "kill the enemies of the people of Gaza and to spare none of them." Charkaoui's speech drew broad condemnation from politicians like Premier François Legault and groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X)

"As a Jewish student on a university campus, I did not conflate my menorah with Zionism. My institution did when they chose not to put it up."

"I'm a Canadian Jew. I'm not Israeli. I asked to display a menorah and because the institution was worried about showing support for Israel, they took the (Christmas tree) down instead of doing it (displaying a menorah alongside the Christmas tree)."

"It wasn't me that conflated Zionists and Jews. It was them."

Rachel Cook 

"[Recognizing a Palestinian state at this point, where Palestinian leaders still refuse to recognize Israel goes against the Canadian government's foreign policy that has existed for years] which is, we will recognize the state of Palestine when and only when there is a negotiated settlement, when there is a path toward democracy."

"I'm not sure that [recognition] actually has any impact on foreign policy or has any impact on what actually goes on in Israel or in Gaza."

"And it certainly doesn't help the Palestinian people. All it does is open up the Jewish community to greater hatred, to greater targeting."

Talia Klein Leighton

Senator Leo Housakos of Quebec pointed out that despite ongoing conflicts worldwide, the only one that has disrupted Canada's social peace to the extent it has, has been the war in the Middle East, sparked by Hamas terrorists slaughtering 1,200 in southern Israel, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 hostages, on October 7, 2023. Following which he asked Ambassador Moed where Canada stands on the global scale of combating antisemitism.

The ambassador responded that Israel is interested in knowing how official Canada is responding to the viral antisemitism being openly displayed in public. "What is being done about it?" 

 

Canada remains one of the most vulnerable western jurisdictions for infiltration by Hamas-linked operatives, and the aftermath of October 7 has deepened the country’s exposure. An anti-Israel protest in Toronto, Ontario, May 8, 2024.   Shutterstock

 

Indoctrinating Children Through 'Queer' Nature

 

"Within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, “queering” is a phrase that, as part of reclamation of the term “queer,” has come to mean looking at ideas sideways, eschewing boundaries, disrupting the status quo, and facilitating the rise of something new and beautiful from the ashes of the old. It speaks to taking up space, doing things in ways that feel and are authentic and inclusive, always asking questions, and staying rooted in participatory and practical intersectionality."

"Working within the current backlash against SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) in schools, and against 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, it’s essential that we demystify and move SOGI work out of the silos of humanities and physical health and into our day-to-day teaching, inclusive practice, and relationship building. This also means a critical examination of some of the performative allyship and pink-washing that affects activists working for fundamental social change."

"In May 2025, the Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators’ Society hosted a workshop on drag pedagogy featuring Daniel Gallardo a.k.a. Gaia Lacandona to encourage teachers to take on the work of queering their pedagogy. The workshop invited participants to consider the history and political context of drag, and consider it as a concrete methodology for recognizing and undoing binary thinking, while engaging in glorious celebration of the opportunities, agency, choices, and power in naming and creating oneself."

"Drag pedagogy imagines a world where we each define ourselves and learn to use that lens on the world around us, including on our structures and in our schools."

"Drag pedagogy is the result of the work of queer and trans academics, teachers, and drag practitioners, who have recognized drag as a portal to possibility and the decentring of static, binary, colonial, and imposed categories such as male/female, cis/trans, right/wrong, and inside/outside. It brings concepts of play, invention, creativity, and creation to the forefront, not only for student identity but also to the whole system (or cis-tem) for the purpose of shifting or destroying it."

By Jody Polukoshko (she/her), teacher, Vancouver -- Teacher Magazine

British Columbia Teachers Federation  -- Queering Outdoor Education

Queering Environmental Education
Constance L. Russell, Lakehead University, Tema Sarick, & Jacqueline Kennelly, Canada
Abstract
"We wish to initiate discussion on the possibilities for queering environmen-
tal education. As a verb, “to queer” means more than simply adding gay/les-
bian/bisexual/transgendered content to environmental education. Rather,
queering has, at its heart, the project of problematizing heteronormativity,
essentialized identities, and the heterosexualization of our theories and
practices. In this paper, we provide a brief introduction to queer pedagogy,
point to the unique ways in which environmental education can contribute
to the disruption of heteronormativity and the problematization of identity
and of experience, and describe efforts to queer environmentalism in new
social movements and cultural productions."                                                                    Canadian Journal of Environmental Education

The teachers' union in British Columbia has a vital mission and it passionately feels the need to instruct schoolchildren in the ways of the natural world by viewing the birds and the bees, and of course, the verdant landscapes surrounding us in the splendour of nature through the lens of the Queer society. Thematically emphasizing being gay, trans and the acute enjoyment to be had in the presence of drag queens in the natural world of biological otherness. The BC Teachers' Federation appears fully committed to "queering their pedagogy".

 

And with that mission clearly uppermost in mind when steering children's minds toward the really important issues of life, existence, and nature, Queering Outdoor Education published in their official magazine -- Teacher -- targets the 50,000 public school teachers in the province, to regard foliage, seeds and clouds for example, as useful metaphors for teaching nature while "debunking the universality of heterosexuality in nature".

 

In their responsibility to expose young minds to the grandeur of nature in all her sublime manifestations, teachers are exhorted to "consider the harm of essentializing and naturalizing heteronormativity", and to break away from the harmful tradition of merely viewing nature's landscape and geology as nature's gift to the world. Teaching moments abound -- fertile teaching minds invested in exciting awe and enquiry in their students must be creative and use outdoor excursions to the advantage of freeing youngsters from the traditional constraints of biology's trap of binary sex.

 

 

 

Animal family structures, as an example, addressed in a manner that "silence queer narratives and organization". Outdoor settings in the clean and clear and natural world should be regarded as a venue heaven-sent to abandon "imposed categories" that "male/female" and "right/wrong" social verities cling to. Vancouver teacher Jody Polukoshko, past-president of the Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators' Society, wrote the article published in Teacher, linking to a 40-page Queering Outdoor Education curriculum prepared by the B.C. Teachers' Federation.

 

Emphasizing that outdoor education offers itself as a vehicle for committing to a "decolonial tool", it is imperative for teachers to make use of the opportunity to break with "cis-heteronormative assumptions", while planning and acting upon the need to firmly commit to "intentionally centering queer identities". "The current backlash against SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity)", particularly in Alberta where SOGI policies in the public school system have been facing pushback from parents and government.

 

Where school board rules requiring teachers to affirm any gender identity their students choose and to ensure that identity and the wording that accompanies it, is concealed from parents if the child wills it so. This remains firmly in place in British Columbia, but Alberta in 2024  introduced the Education Amendment Act requiring schools to obtain parental consent prior to permitting students under age 16 to select new names and pronouns.

 

Making it all the more imperative in the service of teaching responsibly and sensitively nurturing young minds to the freedoms inherent in SOGI that teachers must be actively engaged and committed to bringing "anti-colonial" narratives to everything children are exposed to, in the learning environment of the school system. 

 

itakdalee/Shutterstock

  

British Columbia’s public school teacher’s union has proposed a solution to those who object to radical sex education curriculum: just make everything queer – including the outdoors. Children are advised to “Identify species in nature that support or create conditions for others to thrive (e.g. nurse logs, pollinators, etc.).” Then, children can be asked to extrapolate from this: “What does it mean to be an ally? How can people use their voice, actions, and presence to support 2SLGBTQIA+ classmates and communities?” Finally: “How can I be like a nurse log or pollinator in my community?”

 It may be tempting to simply mock this stuff, but the truth is that Jody Polukoshko and her allies are actually shaping the curriculum, and thus they are shaping the minds of the next generation – with the stated intent of destroying “Western values.” LGBT activists see parental rights being respected in Alberta and hear complaints from parents about SOGI and their solution is simple: queer everything, so that no matter what they do, we get the minds of the children.

Jonathan Van Maren, LifeSite News 

 

Take Me Outside

 

 

"The Outcome Could Have Been Much Worse"

"This unprecedented grizzly bear attack occurred without provocation and has resulted in significant trauma to our community."

"We are incredibly proud of our teachers and students who responded heroically in the moment to protect one another."

"The outcome could have been much worse."

Nuxalk Nation Chief Samuel Schooner 

A file photo of Acwsalcta School in Bella Coola, B.C. The school reopened after a grizzly bear attack seriously hurt three pupils and a teacher earlier this week. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

 

"When the kids were getting attacked, one of my cousins who had his skull ripped, ran towards the bear and jumped on it with his bare hands."

"He started punching and kicking it."

"[Another teacher unloaded two cans of bear spray [into the eyes of the animal] never even fazed it, didn’t do anything to the bear."

"Another lady, a teacher with crutches, was whacking it, hitting it [in the] eyes, in the face, in the head, for minutes and then the bear finally took off."

"I’m amazed by the heroism and the bravery they had to protect the kids."

"One of them had 100 stitches, fractured shoulder, fractured elbow, fractured ankle. It’s amazing none of them were killed." 

Noel Pootlass, a hereditary chief of the Nuxalk First Nation  

File photo of a grizzly bear. Photo by Elaine Thompson /AP

 

This past Thursday, teachers were out with twenty of their Grade 4 and 5 students from the Nuxalk Nation's Acwsalcta School on a nature walk close to the Bella Coola river. No one expected that the field trip would result in an encounter with grizzly bears. Despite which the teachers were sufficiently seasoned and steeped in all possibilities leading to a potential disaster and had equipped themselves with bear spray and bangers 'just in case'. Just in case turned out to be just what happened, when a mother bear and her two cubs, unseen by the hikers were in the near vicinity and the sow did not take kindly to the presence of people she judged as a potential threat to her offspring.

 

The school hikers had stopped for lunch along a forest trail, when suddenly they were accosted by a grizzly bear that emerged without warning to attack them. "We all heard a growl, then a lot of the kids were scared", reported ten-year-old Alvarez. There was an immediate reaction by one of the teachers, firing off a bear banger and using bear spray, desperately trying to divert the immense beast from its proximity to the children.

 

Fearful children scattered in panic as the bear circled and attacked. In the end,, a number of teachers and children were injured, four of whom remain hospitalized.  "We are in constant contact with the victims and their families and continue to support them in every way we can. We know they are receiving the best care our medical professionals can offer, and we are grateful for that. We continue to ask for privacy for the victims; these are children and they deserve to recover with their families in a safe and comforting environment", stated Nuxalk Nation elected Chief Samuel Schooner.

 

Paramedics responded to the 911 call for help and soon arrived on scene near Highway 20, where they found four people with serious injuries, two in critical condition and another two whose condition was serious. First aid was given to seven others at the scene, who did not require hospital treatment. In the wake of the attack, RCMP and conservation officers searched the forest on B.C.'s Central Coast overnight for the grizzly, without success, and the search resumed the following day.  

 

Conservation officers said two bears have been captured in the area of an attack last Thursday on a Bella Coola school group. Photo by Facebook/B.C. Conservation Office

 

As a result of inclement weather conditions, the B.C. Ambulance Service called the Joint Rescue Centre in Victoria requesting assistance with medical evacuation. A Kingfisher fixed-wing aircraft was sent from Canadian Forces Base Comox, along with a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter. "Due to inclement weather, both the Kingfisher and the Cormorant were unable to land in Bella Coola and were stood down at 9:30 p.m.", advised the JRCC.

 

Plan B went into effect, when the injured were taken by road ambulance on the 450-kilometre highway to Williams Lake airport, then flown by air ambulance to hospitals in Vancouver. People were asked to avoid the forested area and river, and area residents were advised to remain indoors for the time being. 

 

According to the British Columbia Wildlife Federation, grizzly bear attacks have been on the increase since the province banned hunting back in 2017. "With no hunting pressure, grizzlies and humans will increasingly occupy the same spaces with inevitable consequences", explained Jesse Zeman, B.C. Wildlife Federation executive director. British Columbia has an estimated 15,000 resident grizzlies, a substantial number of the estimated 26,000 grizzly bears in all of Canada.

 

File photo: A grizzly bear is seen fishing along a river in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park near Bella Coola. Photo by Jonathan Hayward/Cp /PNG

 

Almost to a week after the Bella Coola grizzly encounter, two of the animals were located. One of which exhibited no symptoms of having been involved in the bear-human altercation. It now wears a GPS tracker and has been re-located. The second bear is being examined, with no evidence yet discovered of its possible involvement in the episode. The search continues for a third bear. It is unknown what the fate of either of the two bears might be if they are found to have been involved in the encounter. 

 

 

 

Underestimate the Reasoning Potential of Animals

A wild wolf on BC’s coast. Credit: Heiltsuk First Nation and Kyle Artelle

 

"I couldn't believe my eyes when we opened up that camera."

"This wolf showed  up and she just saw a float and she knew the float was attached to a trap. [It was] incredible behaviour."

"She knew how to pull the trap up. She knew if she pulled the trap onto the beach, she could get food...

"Really intelligent, really incredible, sophisticated behaviour. Bears and wolves do swim, but as far as we know, they don’t dive."

"We ultimately don't know, but the two most likely explanations in our minds, one would be that the wolves started doing this with traps that were exposed at a low tide because that's really easy."

"There might've been this incremental learning that started with the trap fully onshore to traps partly submerged, to then associating the line with the trap and then the buoy with the line … It would make a lot of sense, and that's often how we learn."

"Some really special things are happening here, and we want to understand more about that. What else is happening on the ground? What else do these wolves have to teach us? And so that's a focus for the next decades as we explore more about wolves here."

"This is really just the tip of the iceberg." 

Kyle Artelle, environmental biologist, State University of New York   

 

Researchers in British Columbia have discovered wild wolf behaviour that has taken them aback in its unexpectedness. A lesson in how even animal behaviourists and other biologists studying the behaviour of animals in the wild underappreciate in their understanding of the level of intelligence and capable maneuvering of various species in the interests of survival and their never-ending search for sources of food. An episode that revealed itself to researchers recently serves to illustrate the point.

 

The invasive species of European green crabs in the waters off British Columbia occasioned traps being put out, submerged deeply in the coastal water located in a remote area of British Columbia for years. The eradication program saw an intervening and puzzling episode when traps that were placed deep offshore began appearing on the shore, seriously tampered with, bait removed, their living contents absent. Who or what had dragged those traps ashore was a mystery.

 

Interference with the project with which the local Heiltsuk First Nation was involved, was a puzzler. The researchers and the First Nation were faced with a dilemma; traps that had been positioned in deep water, never exposed during low tide were being vandalized and the thought of a marine predator being the perpetrator -- however unimaginable -- was uppermost in mind. They resorted to an obvious solution with the purpose of observing a suspected scenario in action by setting out a closed circuit camera which soon revealed the source of the mystery.

 

A video resulted that more than adequately explained that the culprit (or culprits) involved was a female wolf committing  herself to dive into the water to retrieve the traps with their caught cargo of tasty green crabs. What the scientists saw astonished them; a wolf making use of tools and a sophisticated set of reasoned actions to retrieve the traps and feast on their contents. The female wolf was seen swimming to the buoy's located and dragging it along with the trap attached to it, to shore. 

"What it is is very sophisticated behaviour. What we see is a wolf who is bringing a float to shore, she can’t see the traps there, but she brings the float to shore, she knows that float is attached to a rope, she pulls on the rope, it’s attached to a trap, if she pulls that in sequence she can bring the trap to within her reach, then she can bring the trap to shore and then based on that she can access the bait within."

"It’s the kind of behaviour that is really familiar to us. She is solving the problem the same way that we would."

Kyle Artelle 

The line attached to the trap was tugged until it brought the trap to shore and once there, she purposefully chewed through the netting to take possession of the bait, and presumably the crabs for which the bait was intended. Geographer Paul Paquet of the University of Victoria, involved with the research team, marvelled at the wild wolf's feat of intelligent reasoning and follow-up activities, while admitting they had no idea how common such reasoning feats might be in the wild.

 

But having studied the incident as closely as they could and surmising that area wolves in that remote region had the leisure to make experiments of that nature, with no natural enemies to restrict and distract them -- including hunters -- wrote  up a paper which saw publication in the journal Ecology and Evolution. The wolf, they noted, likely attempted a variety of approaches to avail itself of the coveted prize, and through trial and error found the winning formula in a practised series of reasoned steps. 

 

This image from the researchers' videos shows how exactly the wolves pulled up the traps. (Submitted by Kyle Artelle and Paul Paquet)

 

"Our crews came in and said that, you know, something had been pulling our crab traps and taking the bait."

"You normally picture a human being with two hands pulling a crab trap, but we couldn’t figure out exactly what had the ability to be able to do that until we put a camera up and saw, well, there’s other intelligent beings out there that are able to do this, which is very remarkable."

"Our crew have gone through hundreds of bait traps, you know, trying to catch these green crabs and getting intercepted by this pack of wolves, so it’s quite remarkable that they’ve been able to pick up on and be able to do it."

William Housty, director, Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department, Bella Bella  

 

A Conflict of Energy Attrition, Demoralizing a Population

 

"[Our generating capacity] is down to zero."

"An unprecedented number of missiles and countless drones – several per minute – targeted the same thermal power plants that we had restored after the devastating attack of 2024." 

Ukrainian state power firm Centerenergo

 

"The enemy inflicted a massive strike with ballistic missiles, which are extremely difficult to shoot down."

"It is hard to recall such a number of direct strikes on energy facilities since the beginning of the invasion."

"Russia is deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe. We call for an urgent meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors to respond to these unacceptable risks."

Kyiv's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha 

Power outages caused by Russian drone attacks have left much of Ukraine in darkness. Photograph: Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

"[Kyiv’s development of its own long-range capabilities] has eroded what started as a near-total Russian advantage [in attacks on the energy sector]."

"If Ukraine can continue expanding its arsenal and can keep up the strike campaign, Russian decision makers will eventually have to ask themselves whether attacking the Ukrainian grid is really worth it."

Eric Ciaramella, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington  

This is the third winter Ukrainians have experienced with  tenuous links to the state power grid, resulting from Russian strikes. The people of Ukraine have braved it through winter after winter with reduced power as outages can occur at any time under Russian barrages meant to cripple the national grid for the very distinct purpose of degrading the Ukrainian population's will to continue the conflict under such circumstances. 

 

Adapting to living in the dark, without reliable heat during the long winter months has been difficult, but Ukrainians were stoic under fire, refusing to become demoralized and thus surrendering to the Russian plan to place their government under pressure to plead for peace under Russian terms of territorial conquest. "Everyone has more or less adapted", stated Oleksandra Kovalenko. "If we can somehow live without electricity, then living without gas -- I'm afraid to even picture it. I don't want to", she said grimly.

 

When the power grid is impacted her family uses power banks; the children  use headlamps to do their homework. The steady flow of gas kept the radiators warm during the wartime winters in the family's Kyiv apartment. Until latterly Russian attacks have expanded, not only striking the nation's power grid, but its gas infrastructure as well. Strikes on wells, storage sites, pipeline and related critical components have become the new reality.

 

Ukrainians are relying on makeshift power sources, such as this reading lamp connected to a power bank, during blackouts caused by Russian drone attacks. Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA

 

For 80 percent of households in Ukraine gas provides heat and cooking fuel, according to chief executive of Naftogaz, Sergii Koretskyi. Centalized heating systems powered by gas provide for most apartment blocks in Ukraine. Because Ukraine's gas network was used to transport Russian gas to Europe, Moscow mostly avoided striking those networks for the first three years of the war. Now, however, Russian gas no longer flows through Ukraine.

 

And drones and missiles destroyed roughly 40 percent of Ukraine's gas production capacity back in February and March. Leaving Naftogaz the summer to repair infrastructure, work that was completed by September with full restoration of capacity. Until last month, when 60 percent of production capacity was once again knocked out when Naftogaz facilities were struck seven times.

 

A person stands by an emergency vehicle as fire and smoke rise around the Shatura Power Station in Shatura, Russia, after Ukrainian drones struck the facility early Sunday, Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said, in this still image taken from a social media video released November November 23, 2025. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS

 

Experts warn that should these assaults continue, millions will struggle to maintain warmth this winter, with fear growing that where Ukraine was not broken by the electrical grid bringing darkness, plunging the population into an unrelievedly cold winter night, the gas strikes might. Naftogaz is involved in the importation of billions of cubic meters of gas, while President Volodymyr Zelensky depends on European leaders to secure gas supplies and funding, while his government contemplates purchasing American liquified natural gas.

 

Cogeneration plants that produce both electricity and heat, some of them operating on gas, have also been struck. According to Mr. Koretskyi, Ukraine needs to import 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas to enable it to get through winter. The cost is almost $2 billion, and Ukraine has managed to secure close to three-quarters of the funding required. President Zelenskyy vows, for his part to give as good as his country gets, and his military has succeeded in hitting Russian heating and power plants in retaliatory strikes. 

"[This winter] could be the harshest [since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022]."

"Since September, Russia has been hitting every kind of energy asset — mines, power stations, substations, power lines, gas production and gas storage."

Maxim Timchenko, chief executive officer of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company  

 

"Acting Out" -- Deadly Psychosis on the Loose -- Posing a Threat to the Public

"On March 22, 2015, Ms. Campbell was parked in a commercial parking lot. Her mother exited the car and walked away with the assistance of a walker. Ms. Campbell drove towards her mother at a high rate of speed causing her mother to be thrown into the air, on to the hood of the car and then on to the ground."

"Closed circuit television captured Ms. Campbell accelerating and reversing over her mother four times. She then exited the car, appeared to check on her mother, and then drove away."

Ontario Review Board, case review 

A Toronto woman is facing a murder charge after police allege she intentionally ran down her mother in a furniture store parking lot. March 23, 2016  Global News / Ben Jonah

 

Now 52 years old, born in Kingston, Jamaica as an only child, Michelle Campbell was raised by her grandparents for the first four years of her life. She moved with her mother at age seven to Toronto when her mother married a Canadian. Ms. Campbell graduated from high school, then attended York University. At 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon of March 23, 2016, she drove her 65-year-old mother Eleanor to a Leon's Furniture store in Pelmo Park, Toronto. As her mother exited the vehicle in the parking lot, her daughter Michelle deliberately rammed her mother, killing her.

 

She was found guilty of killing her mother, but not held to be criminally responsible, at trial in 2017. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She is under constant supervision by an assigned team of medical workers at the Forensic Outpatient Service at the hospital responsible for her well-being, and sees her psychiatrist every six to eight weeks. In the last reporting year she has worked as a cashier and shelf-stocking clerk at both Walmart and Dollarama. 

 

She attends religious services at two congregations, while living in a subsidized apartment where she is supported by the Canadian Mental Health Association. At a recent hearing at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby, Ontario, her psychiatrist informed the Ontario Review Board during a periodic review of her case that the patient incurred judgment lapses of late, citing having made contact with her ex-husband and his son, contrary to court order. 

"The team continues to be concerned that without the support Ms. Campbell has, her presentation and beliefs can shift quite quickly and that could result in a re-offence scenario like that of the index [original] offence."

"Ms. Campbell continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public."

"[Her psychiatrist] also explained that Ms. Campbell is a very religious person, and there are some aspects of the religiosity which cross the line into illness but these are more benign and less threatening now." 

"When she is going to be driving Campbell will list all the places she is going to go that week, and the destinations that are consistent with her schedule. If the itinerary is acceptable, the hospital approves it. The itinerary requests and approvals are done by email."

"[Her psychiatrist] is monitoring the emails  and Ms. Campbell's mental state and advised he would intervene if there were a change in her mental state that would impact her driving."

Ontario Review Board 

 She also undertook, without notifying and discussing the matter beforehand with the hospital treatment team to purchase a car for herself. For the first infraction she is facing a criminal charge. Responding to the board's query of the seriousness of the second infraction, the psychiatrist responded on behalf of the woman's treatment team by reminding them that the acquisition of a personal vehicle was problematic since is was "the murder weapon, so to speak". 

 

The approved method of the woman getting around to running her itemized and approved personal errands was to rent cars and driving only as she was permitted to do in her disposition. That she had self-initiated a car buying expedition for herself without first discussing that decision with her care team was a surprise, since conditions in her disposition limit her driving to an approved itinerary.

 

Querying the psychiatrist with respect to the woman's insight level  of the act of killing her mother elicited the response that her insight is 'limited'. "Ms. Campbell acknowledges she was unwell, but continues to believe that it was partly her mother's fault." The Board decided to continue Michelle Campbell's existing conditional discharge, while stating "Ms. Campbell continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public, since her offence is the most serious criminal offence in the criminal Code". 

 

The Ontario Review Board concluded by discharging Campbell on conditions including that she reside in the Durham Region. 

She has incurred a new charge of breaching her conditions for contacting her ex-spouse. She purchased a vehicle for herself without consultation with her [psychiatric] team. In addition, she has a longstanding history of psychotic symptoms, and past non-compliance with her medication."

"She continues to have limited insight, and beliefs that may be indicative of symptoms of her underlying illness. There is concern that such beliefs have the potential to intensify and cause her to act out, as was the case at the time of the index offence."

"[Campbell] picks up her medications weekly and remains medication compliant. Ms. Campbell is aware she requires treatment and is agreeable to taking her medications."

However, Ms. Campbell was also recently more stressed about the criminal charges which have impacted her mental state."

"The [medical] team will continue to work with her to build insight These are items the treatment team will be monitoring and working closely with her over the next year in order to best support her."

Ontario Review Board 

Toronto traffic on Queen Street West during night time. (Credit: Getty)