Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
The recent successful rescue of two miners trapped in a mine in the Dominican Republic for more than a week was made possible thanks to support from the international community including direct assistance from the Royal Canadian Air Force, according to the president of the company at the centre of the incident.
Paul Marinko, head of the Dominican Mining Corporation known as Cormidom, said Canada played a critical role in transporting equipment that was ultimately used to help liberate the men from the Cerro de Maimón operation.
The miners' ordeal saw Gregores Mendez and Carlos Yepez spend 10 days trapped 31 metres under the surface from July 31 to Aug. 9.
Marinko said domestic support for the rescue effort was strong, with Dominican President Luis Abinader calling every day to check in on the status of the rescue and various government departments providing direct support on the ground.
But he said experts from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. were also involved, and the Canadian government played a key role in obtaining and providing equipment for the rescue operation.
"It was heartwarming to actually see that response," Marinko said in a Zoom interview.
Marinko said the company swung into action immediately after the "fall of ground" that left the miners confined in a 400-square-meter space. Within 15 hours of the incident, he said crews involved in the rescue had established a hole through which they delivered water, food, walkie-talkies, entertainment and a light source.
Nonetheless, Marinko said the experience would have been terrifying for the two men.
The miners eventually reported rising water levels that eventually reached waist level, but Marinko says they were able to pump the water out at a speed six times the rate of the inflow.
"You could imagine being trapped, seeing rising water and knowing that rescue is not going to be quick. So they went through some terrifying moments," he said.
After assessing what equipment would be needed to safely rescue the miners, Marinko said the company began trying to track it down abroad.
Machines Rogers International, a mining company based in Val D'Or, Que. agreed to lend the necessary machinery to Cormidom and the Dominican government got in touch with Ottawa for assistance in transporting the gear.
"The problem for us was to transport ... was just beyond our resources, we didn't have the capacity to do that," Marinko said.
The Royal Canadian Air Force transported the mining excavation system to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo on Aug. 7. Two days later, the miners were rescued with assistance from a team sent over by Machines Rogers International.
Defence Minister Anita Anand issued a tweet on Tuesday thanking the Royal Canadian Air Force personnel involved in the mission.
"To our aviators – you make Canadians proud, and we are grateful for your service," Anand wrote.
Marinko said the two miners were released from hospital on Thursday and are now with their families.
The rescue comes after the collapse of a coal mine in Mexico that left 15 miners trapped, with five escaping with injuries. Rescue divers' first attempts to reach the remaining 10 miners failed, Mexican authorities said on Thursday.
"I think of those poor men trapped in Mexico," Marinko said. "We were lucky."
The cause of the incident at Cerro de Maimón is currently under investigation and the underground mine is temporarily closed.
"When the authorities and more importantly, when I'm satisfied it's safe, we'll go back in," Marinko said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2022.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.