West mulls military action in Syria as outrage mounts over suspected gas attack
Newsletter: A closer look at the day's most notable stories
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TODAY:
- Western powers appear to be gearing up for a military confrontation with Syria as outrage mounts over a suspected chemical weapon attack Sunday
- The National's Ian Hanomansing on the remarkable reactions of people in the grieving community of Humboldt, Sask.
- Ahead of Tuesday's final episode of the Rick Mercer Report, the host laments that society seems to be losing its sense of humour
- Missed The National last night? Watch it here
Outrage over Syria
Western powers appear to be gearing up for a military confrontation with Syria as outrage mounts over a suspected chemical weapon attack this weekend.
Theresa May, the British prime minister, today called the gas attack "barbaric" and said the regime of Bashar al-Assad "must be held to account" if investigations determine that the Syrian government was behind the shelling.
Seventy people are believed to have died from the fumes that spread through a residential neighbourhood in Douma, part of Damascus' Eastern Ghouta suburbs, Saturday night.
Speaking in Copenhagen this morning following a meeting with Denmark's prime minister, May said the U.K. is open to joining its allies in a military response.
She also put Vladimir Putin on notice, saying Russia "should look very carefully" at its ongoing military support for Assad.
"This is a brutal regime that is attacking its own people, and we are very clear that it must be held to account and its backers must be held to account too," said May.
Syria denies that it has used chemical weapons, and the Kremlin has suggested that there will be consequences if the West launches a military response, calling such an intervention "absolutely unacceptable."
But Donald Trump also appears to be leaning in that direction. An initial response, via Twitter, warned of a "big price" to pay for the attack, and those who back "Animal Assad."
The U.S. president and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, spoke on the phone this morning about how to establish who was behind the attack, promising a "strong, joint response" will soon be forthcoming.
Prominent Republicans like Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham are urging the president to take action.
Although, it appears that the U.S. may have already responded through a proxy, with reports that Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian airbase overnight.
Jim Mattis, Trump's secretary of defense, says all options remain on the table.
"I don't rule out anything right now," he said during a Pentagon photo-op today as he met the Emir of Qatar.
The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency debate over the attack for later today. Although with Russia and China holding vetoes as permanent members, there is little chance of a resolution passing.
And Trump dropped broad hints during a cabinet meeting at the White House this morning that he has already made up his mind in favour of retaliation.
"This is about humanity, we're talking about humanity, and it can't be allowed to happen," he told reporters. "We'll be making that decision very quickly, probably by the end of today. We cannot allow atrocities like that."
Grief and gratitude in Humboldt
Ian Hanomansing on assignment:
As we drove into Humboldt, Sask., on Sunday morning, I thought about a question a friend had asked me the day before. Given the magnitude of the tragedy, the grief, how would residents react to all the reporters?
And there were a lot of us. Local stations, networks, journalists from the States. All on the same story, asking the same questions.
For a second, I wasn't sure what he'd said.
Half an hour later, it happened with a different person. And then again, and again.
Maybe sometimes it was a formality, but I could tell many times it was more than that. People here love this team, know the people who were on the bus, and are grieving deeply.
They certainly aren't craving, nor even seeking, attention. So why were they thanking us?
I've been to quite a few communities reeling from disaster, and in more than 30 years of reporting I've never seen this kind of reaction.
It is important to cover moments like this, and I know at times residents must find it overwhelming. So, to those who came up to me, I want you to know I appreciate your kindness and patience. I hope we meet your expectations.
- Ian Hanomansing
Hockey's mournful history
The argot of sports is an emotional language. Players and supporters are "overjoyed" in victory. Left "speechless" by championships. Or said to be "despondent" after a tough loss.
But for all that is written about "devastated" athletes and "heartbroken" fans, life occasionally reminds us of the true meaning of the words.
Such is the case with the crash outside Tisdale, Sask., Friday evening, involving a semi-tractor truck and a bus ferrying the Humboldt Broncos Junior A hockey team to a playoff game. Fifteen people are dead, including 10 of the young players. Fourteen more were injured.
Sadly, the sport has seen it before.
Way back in November 1948, six members of Czechoslovakia's national hockey team, on their way to a play an exhibition game in the U.K., died when the plane they were aboard crashed into the English Channel.
A little more than a year later, in January 1950, 13 players from VVS Moscow — the old Soviet Air Force sporting club — were killed when their plane crashed while trying to land in a heavy snowstorm in Yekaterinburg. (The accident went unreported in Russia, as Vasily Stalin, who ran the team, tried to hide the disaster from his mercurial father.)
In November 1956, an airliner crash in Switzerland took the lives of three players and two club officials from TJ Banik Chomutov, a Czechoslovakian team.
In November 1974, the Sherbrooke Castors team bus skidded off the road and flipped over outside of Chicoutimi, Que., killing 19-year-old centre Gaetan Paradis and injuring 29 of his teammates.
Four members of the Swift Current Broncos — Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka, and Brent Ruff — died in December 1986 when their bus hit a patch of black ice and left the road. A tragedy that still haunts their teammates.
And in January 2005, a bus carrying the Windsor Wildcats Intermediate B girls hockey team collided with a parked tractor trailer near Rochester, NY. Four people died, including coach Rick Edwards, his 13-year-old son Brian, and Cathy Roach, the mother of the goaltender.
The KHL offered to hold a 'disaster draft' in order to let Lokomotiv find new players and continue the season, but the club declined. Instead, they chose to play in a lower league in 2011-12, and then returned to Russia's top tier the next fall.
This year, the rebuilt Lokomotiv finished sixth overall in the KHL, bowing out in the second round of the playoffs.
Quote of the moment
"I can't even fathom. I don't think anything you could ever say would be enough."
- Drew Wilby, a spokesman for Saskatchewan's Justice Ministry, struggling to apologize for a horrible mistake that saw two members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team incorrectly identified as one another. Xavier Labelle, said to be deceased, is in fact alive and in hospital. Parker Tobin, initially reported to be among the survivors, is now counted among the dead.
Rick Mercer's last rant
The Rick Mercer Report signs off for the last time on Tuesday, ending a decade and a half of unique political satire.
Nobody was safe from the host's trademark rants, which saw him walk and bark through Toronto's Graffiti Alley each week calling out everyone from prime ministers to schoolyard bullies.
While he never particularly worried about what he said on his show, Mercer does lament that society seems to be losing its sense of humour.
"I think people are walking on eggshells," he says. "There's an expression in Newfoundland, quick to hurt — you know, 'So-and-so is quick to hurt.' It seems like society is quick to hurt right now.
"Hopefully it's just some sort of phase we're going through, and then everyone will stop being so sensitive. But yeah, we're a sensitive bunch."
At the same time, Mercer says he's encouraged by the rise of political comedy.
"Political satire is only getting bigger. It's amazing and it can only be a good thing … anything that brings eyeballs to politics or engagement to politics has got to be a good thing."
On The National tonight, Rosemary Barton and Mercer talk politics, Canadiana, and what comes next for the articulate and angry 48-year-old. Watch it on CBC Television, or streamed online.
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What The National is reading
- Phoenix chaos sends civil servants into tax tailspin (CBC)
- Russia sanctions take a bite out of oligarchs' fortunes (BBC)
- Nobel prize judges quit over handling of sexual misconduct allegations (Guardian)
- The 10-year baby window that is the key to the women's pay gap (NY Times)
- Japan's new marine unit upsets China (Asia Times)
- For Spain's Letizia, it's not easy being Queen (El Pais)
- Topless protester arrested as Bill Cosby retrial begins (CBC)
- Why whales got so big (The Atlantic)
Today in history
April 9, 1992: A soldier returns to Vimy 75 years after the battle
Thirteen Canadian veterans made the trip to France for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. One of those men, John Close, shares his memories of the muck, death and terror in this profile. The then 95-year-old from Hagersville, Ont., tells a pair of British school girls visiting the memorial what it was like to get shot, and recites a poem over the graves of fallen comrades. Close died in February 1993. The last Canadian survivor of the battle passed in March 2003.
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