How one Saint John woman helped her mother flee the war in Ukraine
CBC
Olena Tykhonovska and her mother Nadia Demydenko grasp tightly to one another's hands as they sit side-by-side in a tidy kitchen in east Saint John.
"I have only one of my parents now," said Tykhonovska, 36, who emigrated from Ukraine to Saint John in 2017. Her father died of cancer last year.
"They did so many things for me when I was a kid. My goal is to defend her, to give her food, house, everything. Everything I have, I am happy to share."
Simply sharing a moment like this, together, seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.
On Feb. 24, Tykhonovska woke up to the news the city where her mother lived was being bombed. Chernihiv, which has population of just under 300,000, is located 150 km northeast of Kyiv.
"I opened the internet and saw the messages that the war start," said Tykhonovska. "I immediately called my mom." Demydenko, 60, reassured her daughter that "everything was fine." The bombing was hundreds of kilometres away, she said. She could still go to her job as a nurse and get to the grocery store.
By later in the day, that optimism was shattered.
"In a couple of hours they started to bomb the city suburbs, buildings, big stores. It was unexpected for everyone," said Tykhonovska.
"Even if you see it, and you hear it, you can't believe that this would happen," said Demydenko.
Nearly 7,000 kilometres away in Saint John, Tykhonovska and her husband, Oleksii Tykhonovskyi, started contacting anyone they knew who was still in Ukraine, trying to find someone to drive her mother to the Polish border or at least to a safer part of the country.
"After a couple of days I realized all my friends were gone, they just moved out of the city, and I did not have anyone to call, to ask, to pay," Tykhonovska said.
She managed to get her mother's name added to a waiting list for emergency transportation out of Chernihiv. But when the moment finally arrived for her to go to the rendezvous point, Demydenko's phone was dead.
By "a miracle," as her daughter calls it, Demydenko stopped a stranger on the street who let her use her phone. She sent a message to her daughter: "I am alive. I am fine."
Tykhonovska called the number and begged to speak to her mother.
The province and district social services administration boards say plans are in place to ensure people on social assistance do not miss out on benefits as a result of the strike by Canada Post employees.
Near the exit to Truro, N.S., a cluster of colorful tents and a lone RV can be seen alongside Highway 102, some tucked under the overpass for shelter from the elements.
Police and Public Trust, a project of the CBC News Atlantic investigative unit, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access to information laws and, in some cases, court challenges to obtain discipline records and data.
Toronto police have arrested a GTA woman who they allege scammed dozens of Taylor Swift fans out of more than $70,000 by promising them tickets that never materialized.
Montreal was, in years past, considered a haven for renters. But those days are long gone.
WARNING: This story details violent events surrounding a fatal police shooting.
It took Gordon Frentz over 14 hours to drive through the snow from Grande Prairie, Alta., this past weekend to compete at this year's Canadian Western Agribition in Regina.
The coroner's inquest into the drug-related deaths of six men in custody at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre will revisit 2018 recommendations relating to eight other inmate deaths to determine what's been done to implement them, the inquest's lawyer said Monday on the first day of hearings.
Emily Walstrom was expecting to lay her father to rest this month, but instead, she says his cremated remains are stuck in a Canada Post facility in B.C., delayed by the ongoing national postal strike.
A Friday night fire hasn't caused any impact to operations at the Dryden mill, the company said.
With around 55,000 Canada Post workers on strike since Nov.15 and no deal in sight, Toronto businesses say they're gearing up for a tough holiday season.