Invasive and toxic hammerhead worms make themselves at home in Ontario
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Roughly 50 children will gather in a St. John's classroom for the first time on Saturday for unique lessons on Ukrainian language, culture and history.
The weekend program — called a Ridna Shkola — is the first of its kind in Newfoundland and Labrador, but joins a rich history of similar classes across the country.
"For us, it gives us feeling that we are part of this community," said Liubov Hrysiuk, who is teaching one of the program’s three age groups.
"We can talk, we can celebrate our holidays together. Maybe we can help each other."
For Hrysiuk — who trained and worked as a teacher in Ukraine — the Saturday classes bring back familiar and friendly memories.
"It was like, 'I'm back in my past, and I'm in Ukraine with the best students ever,'" she said.
She arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2023, one of the many Ukrainian citizens who’ve moved to St. John’s since her country was invaded by Russia in 2022.
Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial government went to great lengths to attract Ukrainians who were considering leaving their country.
Staff at the provincial immigration office established a support desk in Poland to advertise directly to people seeking asylum, and the province also directly organized four airlifts of Ukranians in 2022.
About 700 people immigrated to Newfoundland and Labrador in those airlifts. Sofia Dubyk, who works with the Ukranian National Federation in the province, now estimates the Ukranian population has grown to about 3,500.
Her group organized the Saturday lessons, pushing to put the classes together after a few weeks of organizing.
"Two years ago… we [were] not ready to come to another country and start from zero," she said, adding Ukrainians like her received many "gifts" from provincial officials and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
"Now I think a big part of Ukrainians here have a job, have a place to live, and we can start to give something back to the local community."
The program will cement the link between Ukrainian children, some as young as five, to Ukrainian culture. Dubyk said she'd like to expand with a pre-school program in the future.
Similar Ridna Shkolas across the country have served as a crucial link between Canadians with Ukrainian heritage, and new Canadian residents fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Olena Shyian helped create a program in Regina in 2009, re-establishing a class that had gone dormant in the 1970s.
Lately, it's been a place where her children can learn from Ukrainian children, and vice-versa.
"Both are benefiting," she said. "The kids who were born here, or second or third generation, are learning Ukrainian, building friendships, integrating and communicating together."
In St. John's, Hrysiuk is teaching her students about some Canadian icons with Ukrainian roots.
"You have so many talented and famous people," she said. "Like Wayne Gretzky, for example."
With files from NTV
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'oesn't get' the global phenomenom.
Tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Neb.
Although it's still unclear how much damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy can do to either Joe Biden or Donald Trump this election, Washington political columnist Eric Ham says what is clear is both sides recognize the potential threat.
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
The first criminal prosecution of a former president began in earnest with opening statements and testimony in a lower Manhattan courtroom. But the action quickly spread to involve more than half a dozen cases in four states and the nation's capital. Twice during the week, lawyers for Trump were simultaneously appearing in different courtrooms.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”