Falls sending more Canadians to hospital, report shows

A protester opposed to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is lowered to a police boat after spending two days suspended from the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver.

Greenpeace Canada says a protest that saw a dozen protesters dangling from a Vancouver bridge to block a tanker carrying crude oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline ended Wednesday night.

The environmental group says the climbers who spent more than 35 hours on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge were “peacefully removed from their positions” and taken to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment.

The RCMP had earlier said all would likely be charged with mischief and jeopardizing the safety of a vessel.

North Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong said an aerial extraction team began removing and arresting the protesters in the afternoon in what he called a methodic and safe operation.

The protest began Tuesday morning when activists rappelled off the side of the bridge to block the Serene Sea, a vessel loaded with crude oil that had left from Kinder Morgan Canada’s Westridge Marine Terminal.

The protest was focused only on the Serene Sea but authorities responded by closing all tanker traffic in the area, said Jesse Firempong, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.

Deep-sea vessels and vessels with a high air draft, including sail boats with a high mast, were unable to safely pass under the bridge due to the location of the protesters, banners and connecting lines, said Danielle Jang, a spokeswoman with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

Smaller traffic such as tugs, barges and small commercial vessels were still able to transit under the bridge, she said.

Will George was among those arrested on Wednesday after occupying the bridge for more than 35 hours, said Kwekwecnewtxw Protect The Inlet, a group formed to oppose the Trans Mountain expansion.

“I will remain the fierce opposition. It is in my blood to protect the water. Our Indigenous rights are being completely ignored, the safety of our water is being ignored, and most of all, my son’s future is at stake,” said George, the group’s spokesman and leader.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect the water and my family and your family.”

Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, said it respects the right to peacefully demonstrate and there are many ways to express opinions in a safe and legal manner.

“It is unfortunate that the actions of these individuals have caused disruptions to vessels and individuals that transit to and from the waters east of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, including customers from our terminal and the other marine cargo terminals,” it said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, Premier John Horgan said he was concerned that authorities had closed a rail bridge in response to the protest, resulting in the blockage of a different tanker loaded with refined fuel destined for Vancouver Island.

“The protesters, as long as they’re abiding by the law, that’s their right in a free society. But when they start to impact on the business of other people when they start to infringe on the laws of the land, then there’s a concern,” he said.

“At this point, as I understand it, it’s a question of the rail bridge is down and that’s the problem.”

A raised bit of concrete on a sidewalk. An icy patch on the road. A misstep on the stairs at home. All of these can lead to accidental falls — landing a person not only on the ground, but often also in hospital.

Unintentional falls are the most common form of injury across the country: every day last year, falls resulted in almost 1,800 reported emergency department visits and 417 hospital admissions, says a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

In 2016-17, nearly 654,000 — or about one-third — of the more than two million injury-related emergency department visits were due to accidental falls, CIHI reported Thursday. Injuries from falls led to about 152,500 hospital admissions, up from more than 146,600 the previous year.

The average length of a hospital stay after a fall was 14.3 days, compared to 7.5 days for other medical reasons, the data showed.

Falls are the scourge of growing older, said Geoff Fernie, a senior researcher at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI) who is independent of CIHI. He notes that seniors have a higher risk of taking a fall and tend to have more serious injuries as a result.

“But it’s not exclusively older people,” he said. “We see a lot of young children falling down stairs and having serious head injuries.

“We see middle-aged people running up and down stairs and Toronto police say they’ve found more human remains near a property where accused serial killer Bruce McArthur worked as a landscaper.

Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga says the remains were found in a ravine and have been sent for testing, but they have not yet been identified. Investigators had previously found the remains of seven men hidden in large planters at the home in midtown Toronto in the winter months. McArthur, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of eight men with ties to Toronto’s gay village. Police resumed digging near the home on Wednesday after cadaver dogs found several hot spots. Police have also searched about 100 other properties with links to McArthur’s landscaping business, but found nothing. HUDSON BAY, Sask. — Via Rail Canada says two locomotives and a baggage car in a train headed having indoor stair accidents quite commonly. And we see a lot of workers having falls — and not just construction-type workers. People in the winter, people working in coffee shops and falling over in the car park when they get there in the morning.”

In fact, almost 8,800 of fallrelated injuries across Canada occurred as a result of people slipping on ice, CIHI data showed.

Falls within the home accounted for more than 114,000 emergency department visits last year, making it the most common place that people take a tumble.

“You keep seeing the incidence of falls going up and you see the injuries continuing to increase,” said Fernie, who has been researching falls and ways to prevent them for 30 to 40 years.

CIHI found hip fractures were the most common injury sustained in falls.

“The ones that we most worry about are hips because they’re extremely common and they are really difficult to get over if you’re an older person,” said Fernie, noting that studies have shown that between 20 and 40 per cent of seniors who break a hip die within a year.

CIHI found the second most common injuries were lower leg fractures — including 16,135 broken ankles — and head injuries (13,997).

“Head injuries are a big worry, too, because they can be very serious,” said Fernie. “You can have long-standing effects from head injuries and people can be off work for one to two years and become quite significantly affected.”

from Winnipeg to The Pas in northern Manitoba derailed overnight in a remote area of eastcentral Saskatchewan.

The Crown rail company said Train 693 was carrying 16 passengers and five crew members when the accident happened shortly after 3 a.m. central time, about 37 kilometres north of the town of Hudson Bay. Preliminary information shows two crew members suffered minor injuries. It also indicates no passengers were hurt, although that had yet to be confirmed by medical authorities. SQUAMISH, B.C. — Police say the bodies of three hikers who slipped and fell into one of the pools of a waterfall north of Vancouver were recovered from the area Wednesday evening. The RCMP says in a statement that they have turned the case over to the B.C. coroner, adding that the names of the hikers will not be released. Squamish Search and Rescue spokesman John Willcox says a young woman was swept into one of the pools and her boyfriend and another man tried to save her and all fell in.