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West mulls military action in Syria as outrage mounts over suspected gas attack

A closer look at the day's most notable stories with The National's Jonathon Gatehouse.

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This image released Sunday by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets reportedly shows a child receiving oxygen following an alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, Syria. (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

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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.

In this image from a video reportedly shot in Douma, Syria, a child is bathed following an alleged chemical weapons attack Sunday. (White Helmets via Reuters)
Video footage showed the contorted bodies of men, women and children lying in a basement bomb shelter. Local emergency rooms were filled with survivors experiencing breathing difficulties and foaming at the mouth.

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.

This image from a video released by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows medical workers treating toddlers following an alleged poison gas attack in Douma on Sunday. (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)
Following another suspected gasing in February, Macron had vowed that "France will strike" in the event of more chemical weapons use by the Assad government.

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.

An Israeli F-15 fighter jet takes off during an exercise in May 2017. There are reports that Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian airbase overnight. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
Today is the first day on the job for John Bolton, Trump's hawkish new national security advisor -- a past proponent of a U.S. military intervention in Syria's civil war.

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.

Mourners comfort each other Sunday at a vigil at the Elgar Petersen Arena, home of the Humboldt Broncos, to honour the victims of a fatal bus accident in Humboldt, Sask. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
I was in the lobby of Elgar Petersen Arena, the home rink of the Broncos, when it started. A man in a hockey jacket walked by and said, "Thank you for covering our story."

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?

Flowers lie on the ice at the Elgar Petersen Arena on Sunday. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
Politeness, for sure. Wanting their team's story told, of course. But it's also something about Humboldt.

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.

A Humboldt Broncos team jersey is seen among notes and flowers at a memorial in Humboldt, Sask., to those who died in the team bus crash. (Matt Smith/Reuters)
Now a community, province, and an entire country mourn.

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.

Fifteen died in the crash of the Broncos team bus. (CBC)
Canada has also experienced other hockey tragedies.

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 wreckage of the fatal crash outside of Tisdale, Sask., is seen Saturday. A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team crashed into a truck en route to Nipawin for a game Friday night. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
The single greatest loss of life remains the September 2011 crash of the plane carrying the KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslaval. Forty-four of the 45 people aboard died, including the entire roster, save for one-player who had not made the trip. Head coach Brad McCrimmon, a Saskatchewan-born former NHLer, was among those killed, as was Slovak star Pavol Demitra, once a standout centre for the St. Louis Blues.

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.

Drew Wilby, spokesman for Saskatchewan's Justice Ministry. (CBC)


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.

Comedian Rick Mercer ends his 15-year-long run as host of the political satire show the Rick Mercer Report on April 10. (Albert Leung/CBC)

"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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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.

A soldier returns to Vimy 75 years after the battle

33 years ago
Duration 6:17
Vimy Ridge veteran John Close revisits the site for the 75th anniversary of the battle.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonathon Gatehouse

Investigative Journalist

Jonathon Gatehouse has covered news and politics at home and abroad, reporting from dozens of countries. He has also written extensively about sports, covering seven Olympic Games and authoring a best-selling book on the business of pro-hockey. He works for CBC's national investigative unit in Toronto.