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.'
A small playground in Toronto has become a safe haven for a group of Ukrainian children and their mothers.
There is laughter and joy as the kids play on the slide and toss a ball. The great outdoors seems to offer a place of comfort since their arrival in Canada.
“I like nature,” says Ivan, “the forest, lake and river.” The 17-year-old is one of nine children receiving cancer treatment at the Hospital for Sick Children. Many Ukrainian children arrived at the end of March, through a special evacuation program, with their mothers and siblings.
CTV National News met with five of the families, now that they’re feeling settled in Canada.
“I’m grateful to be here,” Invaka said through a translator. She arrived herewith her three sons.
Her son Ruslan had difficulty getting cancer treatment once Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started.
“It was a great fear,” she said. “They couldn’t anticipate what would happen.”
She said being in Canada brings her great joy, and that her boys can make new friends and learn a new language.
Dr. Sarah Alexander, a pediatric oncologist treating one of the Ukrainian patients, says the group is doing well and all medical care is proceeding as planned. But it’s the community support and resiliency of the families that has touched doctors the most.
“I think the highlight is twofold. One is the profound example of the resiliency and ability to navigate complicated things by kids and families,” said Dr. Alexander. “And the community in the hospital and outside the hospital really rallying to support and I think both those things have been amazing things to watch and be part of.”
That community support is made possible from organizations like the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and Megan’s Hug, which focuses on awareness and fundraising for pediatric brain tumour research.
Meagan’s Hug raised more than $90,000 to help support the families and partnered with other groups to help provide housing, food and clothing.
“It warms my heart to see the families settled, to see that they’ve made special friends and their moms have united in a very lonely difficult journey,” said Denise Bebenek, the founder of Meagan’s Hug.
Bebenek has spent time with the families since their arrival, through her own tragic experience of losing her daughter, Bebenek knows firsthand the importance of community support.
“I think the best medicine for these families is love and help and knowing they are not alone.”
The children certainly feel that support, with many speaking positively of their time here so far.
Many are enrolled in school and enjoy attending class.
“I like the subjects,” said Maria, whose brother is receiving cancer treatment. “I have friends at school.”
It’s those new relationship that offer care, compassion and hope to these families. Ivan’s face lit up with excitement as he shared that his math teacher speaks Ukrainian.
When asked about the staff at Sick Kids hospital he said “they work very hard and are friendly.”
Most families say they intend on returning to Ukraine, but for now, are focused on their children’s health and maintaining some sense of normalcy while in Canada.
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.