
Belgium investigating death of Canadian woman at Tomorrowland music festival
Debby Wilmsen says in an emailed statement that a 35-year-old Canadian woman fell ill at the festival on Friday.
She says the woman was given first aid and then taken to University Hospital of Antwerp, but festival organizers were told Saturday morning that the woman had died.
Wilmsen says the Antwerp public prosecutor's office is investigating the cause of death. The Antwerp public prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for information on the woman.
Global Affairs Canada says it is aware of reports that a Canadian woman has died in Belgium but said it would not release information due to privacy considerations.
Sabrina Williams, spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada, says it is in contact with local authorities.
A massive fire engulfed the main stage two days before the annual music festival began Friday in the town of Boom, north of Brussels.
Tomorrowland draws tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe and runs across two weekends, ending July 27.
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CTV News
9 hours ago
- CTV News
Trump administration weighs fate of $9M stockpile of contraceptives feared earmarked for destruction
Irene A Kerkulah, the health officer in charge at the Palala Clinic, looks at an almost-empty shelf at the clinic that once held contraceptives, in Bong County, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Annie Risemberg, File) BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump's administration says it is weighing what to do with family planning supplies stockpiled in Europe that campaigners and two U.S. senators are fighting to save from destruction. Concerns that the Trump administration plans to incinerate the stockpile have angered family planning advocates on both sides of the Atlantic. Campaigners say the supplies stored in a U.S.-funded warehouse in Geel, Belgium, include contraceptive pills, contraceptive implants and IUDs that could spare women in war zones and elsewhere the hardship of unwanted pregnancies. U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said Thursday in response to a question about the contraceptives that 'we're still in the process here in terms of determining the way forward.' 'When we have an update, we'll provide it,' he said. Belgium says it has been talking with U.S. diplomats about trying to spare the supplies from destruction, including possibly moving them out of the warehouse. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Florinda Baleci told The Associated Press that she couldn't comment further 'to avoid influencing the outcome of the discussions.' The Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which managed foreign aid programs, left the supplies' fate uncertain. Pigott didn't detail the types of contraceptives that make up the stockpile. He said some of the supplies, bought by the previous administration, could 'potentially be' drugs designed to induce abortions. Pigott didn't detail how that might impact Trump administration thinking about how to deal with the drugs or the entire stockpile. Costing more than US$9 million and funded by U.S taxpayers, the family planning supplies were intended for women in war zones, refugee camps and elsewhere, according to a bipartisan letter of protest to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from U.S. senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski. They said destroying the stockpile 'would be a waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars as well as an abdication of U.S. global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths — key goals of U.S. foreign assistance.' They urged Rubio to allow another country or partner to distribute the contraceptives. Concerns voiced by European campaigners and lawmakers that the supplies could be transported to France for incineration have led to mounting pressure on government officials to intervene and save them. The executive branch of the European Union, through spokesman Guillaume Mercier, said Friday that 'we continue to monitor the situation closely to explore the most effective solutions.' The U.S. branch of family planning aid group MSI Reproductive Choices said it offered to purchase, repackage and distribute the stock at its own expense but 'these efforts were repeatedly rejected.' The group said the supplies included long-acting IUDs, contraceptive implants and pills, and that they have long shelf-lives, extending as far as 2031. Aid group Doctors Without Borders said incineration would be 'an intentionally reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere.' Charles Dallara, the grandson of a French former lawmaker who was a contraception pioneer in France, urged President Emmanuel Macron to not let France 'become an accomplice to this scandal.' 'Do not allow France to take part in the destruction of essential health tools for millions of women,' Dallara wrote in an appeal to the French leader. 'We have a moral and historical responsibility.' ___ Leicester reported from Paris. Matthew Lee contributed from Washington, D.C. Lorne Cook And John Leicester, The Associated Press

CBC
a day ago
- CBC
Trump administration to burn $13M worth of female contraceptives, despite NGO's offer to take them
The U.S. State Department plans to incinerate roughly $13.2 million worth of women's contraceptives despite offers from multiple aid agencies to distribute the supplies at no cost. The supplies, which include various forms of birth control, were intended for family planning programs in low-income African nations. Instead, they've been sitting in a warehouse in Belgium for months after President Donald Trump's administration froze most foreign aid in January. MSI Reproductive Choices, a U.K.-based global reproductive health organization, says it offered to take the supplies and distribute them to those in need at no cost to the government, but their offer was rebuked. "To me that sends a really clear signal that this is an ideological position," Sarah Shaw, MSI's director of advocacy, told As It Happens guest host Paul Hunter. "This is just another front on the war on women that we're currently seeing coming out of the U.S., both domestically and internationally." Shaw says MSI was told through an intermediary that the government wants to sell the products at market value, which the charity could not afford to do. The United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, offered to buy the contraceptives outright, also to no avail, according to Reuters. The U.S. State Department did not respond to questions from CBC. But spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday the government is "still in the process of determining the pathway forward." Belgium calls it a 'regrettable outcome' The supplies, valued at $9.7 million US, once belonged to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Trump administration has shut down. During a press briefing on Thursday, Pigott said the supplies do not include condoms or HIV medication, but rather "select products" purchased under the previous administration that "could potentially be abortifacients," meaning products that induce abortion. But aid agencies and media organizations say the supplies slated for destruction are designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies, not terminate them. Reuters, citing seven confidential sources close to the story, reports the warehouse contains contraceptive pills and implants, as well as intrauterine devices, all of which are forms of birth control. Pigott said the products could be in contravention of the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which prevents the government from supporting programs that engage in "coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization," as well as the Mexico City policy, a pact that prohibits the U.S. government from contributing to or working with organizations that provide abortion-related services or information. The latter could explain why the U.S. declined MSI's offer, says Shaw. Her organization refuses to comply with the Mexico City policy, which she and other aid organizations refer to as "the global gag order." But it doesn't explain why they've rejected similar overtures from others trying to prevent the contraceptives from going to waste at taxpayer expense, she said. The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with U.S. authorities and "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation." "Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome," it said in a statement. "Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints." Uproar in France The State Department previously confirmed it will spend $167,000 US ($228,000 Cdn) to incinerate the contraceptives at a facility in France that handles medical waste. That news is not sitting well in France, where lawmakers, reproductive health organizations and feminist groups are calling on the government to call it off. "We are following this situation closely and we support the will of the Belgian authorities to find a solution to avoid the destruction of contraceptives," France's foreign ministry said in a statement published by the Guardian. "The defence of sexual health and reproductive rights is a foreign policy priority for France." WATCH | Global health funding in a state of crisis: U.S. foreign aid cuts fuelling 'era of global health austerity': study 15 days ago After the White House's push to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cancelled billions of dollars in spending for foreign aid, researchers say global health funding is expected to reach a 15-year low. Read more: Shaw says she's grateful to the people in France who are championing this cause. "Even if we can't stop the destruction we're not going to let this go quietly," she said. "If this happens on French soil under a government that has a feminist foreign policy, I think that would be a great shame, a great shame." Doctors Without Borders calls plan 'reckless and harmful' Avril Benoît, the CEO of Doctors Without Borders in the U.S., called the plan a "reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere." "Contraceptives are essential and lifesaving health products," she said in a press release. "[Our organization] has seen first-hand the positive health benefits when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy — and the dangerous consequences when they cannot." Shaw agrees. She says the U.S. has made a big deal about finding government efficiencies as it slashes global aid and its own civil service. But every dollar spent on reproductive health, she says, leads to much greater savings down the road. "It makes no sense to me. If they really want efficiency, investing in family planning is the best investment you can make for development," she said. "You keep girls in schools. You break generational cycles of poverty. You create opportunity for a new generation of young women.


CTV News
25-07-2025
- CTV News
Inquest to investigate death of teen boy in Sask. group home
On November 25, 2022, 14-year-old Brandon Schafer-Kovacs was taken to the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon, where he died three days later. An inquest will examine the circumstances surrounding the death of a teen boy who died in 2022 while in the care of the Ministry of Social Services. On November 25, 2022, 14-year-old Brandon Schafer-Kovacs was taken to the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon, where he died three days later. Schafer-Kovacs' obituary describes him as someone who loved searching for new information and discovering new things. 'Although we cannot understand how this could happen, we are going to do our best to remember all the joy and laughter Brandon brought to our lives. He was one of a kind and he was loved for everything and every part of his being. He was so proud to be a big brother to Leslie and to welcome his first cousin Emmett into this world.' Coroner Blaine Beaven will preside over the inquest scheduled for August 25 to 29 at the Travelodge in Saskatoon. The jury will hear evidence and provide recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.