Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 25, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2024 B4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA / WORLD THE Justice Department sub- mitted an agreement with Boe- ing on Wednesday in which the aerospace giant will plead guilty to a fraud charge for misleading U.S. regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people. The detailed plea agreement was filed in federal district court in Texas. The American aero- space company and the Justice Department reached a deal on the guilty plea and the agree- ment’s broad terms earlier this month. The finalized version states Boeing admitted that through its employees, it made an agree- ment “by dishonest means” to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) group that evaluated the 737 Max. Because of Boeing’s deception, the FAA had “incomplete and inaccurate information” about the plane’s flight-control software and how much training pilots would need for it, the plea agreement says. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor can accept the agree- ment and the sentence worked out between Boeing and prosecu- tors, or he could reject it, which likely would lead to new negotia- tions between the company and the Justice Department. The deal calls for the appoint- ment of an independent compli- ance monitor, three years of pro- bation and a $243.6-million fine. It also requires Boeing to invest at least $455 million “in its com- pliance, quality, and safety pro- grams.” Boeing was accused of mis- leading the Federal Aviation Administration about aspects of the Max before the agency certi- fied the plane for flight. Boeing did not tell airlines and pilots about the new software system, called MCAS, that could turn the plane’s nose down without input from pilots if a sensor detected that the plane might go into an aerodynamic stall. Max planes crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia after a faulty reading from the sensor pushed the nose down and pilots were unable to regain con- trol. Boeing avoided prosecution in 2021 by reaching a $2.5- billion settlement with the Jus- tice Department that included a previous $243.6-million fine. It appeared that the fraud charge would be permanently dismissed until January, when a panel cov- ering an unused exit blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Air- lines flight. That led to new scru- tiny of the company’s safety. In May of this year, prosecu- tors said Boeing failed to live up to terms of the 2021 agreement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws. Boeing agreed this month to plead guilty to the felony fraud charge instead of enduring a pot- entially lengthy public trial. The role and authority of the monitor is viewed as a key provi- sion of the new plea deal, accord- ing to experts in corporate gov- ernance and white-collar crime. Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, has said that families of the crash victims should have the right to propose a monitor for the judge to appoint. In Wednesday’s filing, the Jus- tice Department said that Boe- ing “took considerable steps” to improve its anti-fraud compli- ance program since 2021, but the changes “have not been fully implemented or tested to demon- strate that they would prevent and detect similar misconduct in the future.” That’s where the independent monitor will come in, “to reduce the risk of misconduct,” the plea deal states. Some of the passengers’ rela- tives plan to ask the judge to re- ject the plea deal. They want a full trial, a harsher penalty for Boeing, and many of them want current and former Boeing exec- utives to be charged. If the judge approves the deal, it would apply to the criminal charge stemming from the 737 Max crashes. It would not resolve other matters, potentially includ- ing litigation related to the Alas- ka Airlines blowout. — The Associated Press Prosecutors file Boeing’s plea deal to resolve felony fraud charge tied to 737 Max crashes DAVID KOENIG JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS A reception centre in Calgary is readied for wildfire evacuees forced from Jasper National Park on Tuesday. Venables Valley residents facing possible losses from wildfire RAMANATH Das said he is aware that the eco-village he and his family are building in Venables Valley, B.C., may no longer exist when they return after being evacuated due to an encroaching wildfire. “We’re ready to go back and every- thing is as it was with ash all over it, or nothing’s there,” said Das, who is the general manager of Vedic Eco Village. Das, his wife and their two dogs have been camping an hour away in the Nic- ola Valley since July 17, after being forced from their home by the Shet- land Creek Fire, the same blaze that triggered evacuation orders or alerts in communities such as Ashcroft and Spences Bridge in the B.C. Interior. He said evacuated valley residents, many of whom live in the Saranagati Hare Krishna village where the Vedic Eco Village belongs, have pieced together that they may have lost their homes and other structures. Local government officials have said the “aggressive” blaze burned more than 20 structures in the Venables Val- ley, including at least six homes. Several B.C. communities are in the path of the fire, which measured about 225-square kilometres on Wednesday. It is one of the most threatening active blazes in the province, although 60 per cent of the more than 430 wildfires burning in B.C. remain out of control. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma told a news conference that there are about 550 people under evacu- ation order and another 5,000 on evacu- ation alert as of Wednesday. She noted the number of people under evacuation alert dropped by about 2,000 since Tuesday after the alert cov- ering Williams Lake was lifted. That change came after crews were able to contain the River Valley Wildfire that crept into the city on Sunday and it is now classified as “being held.” “It is the case that our evacuation numbers right now are manageable for us, but that can change very quickly, which is why we continue to work close- ly with communities (and) continue to work around the clock on preplanning for potential evacuations,” she said. She noted the province is seeing “no- where near” the number of evacuations it did in 2023. “However, for those individuals who are evacuated, the impacts are equally as harrowing when you are away from your home and you do not know wheth- er your home and all of your prized possessions and your memories have survived,” she said. B.C. also saw an influx of travellers from Jasper, Alta., after a fire forced park visitors and 4,700 residents to es- cape from the town with little notice on Monday. Ma said the only safe route for 25,000 evacuees was to travel along Highway 16 into B.C. “Alberta has directed evacuees to three emergency reception centres, one in Grand Prairie, one in Calgary, and another in Edmonton,” she said, noting B.C. has worked closely with Al- berta to assist them in their evacuation efforts. The BC Wildfire Service reports that 80 per cent of the current fires were started by a series of lightning storms that swept across the province in the last few weeks. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said during the news conference that B.C. is facing storms, wind, lightning and drought, and “it is clear climate change is arriving faster than predicted.” But, he said, some respite is on the way in the north, where rain and cooler temperatures are forecast. The BC Wildfire Service also said in its report on Wednesday that much of the province is returning to more sea- sonable temperatures with the excep- tion of the southeast, where hot and dry conditions persist. “By Thursday, we will be seeing the coolest temperatures in over a month across B.C.,” it said. At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Premier David Eby said the province is doing everything it can to adapt and apply lessons learned from last year’s record wildfire season. “We are seeing more extreme fire seasons every single year,” he said. “We had a bunch of fires burning underneath the snow in British Colum- bia, something I didn’t even know was possible, and it underlines some of the scale of the challenge that our firefight- ing crews face out there in order to be able to learn from last year’s record season and be ready for this year — as ready as we could be.” On the line fighting the Shetland Creek fire, crews were using heavy equipment on the mountain slopes above Spences Bridge to prevent the blaze from burning toward the south- ern Interior community. Jeff Walsh, an incident commander with the BC Wildfire Service, said in a video posted Tuesday that hot and dry conditions coupled with gusty winds have fuelled erratic and aggressive be- haviour on the fire, driving its spread to the north. Ma said during the news conference that the province is focused on the wild- fire fight and returning people, like Das, safely to their communities. Until then, she said, the province won’t be able to assess the damage, but regional districts may release their own infor- mation. Das said that once he is clear to go home, he plans to take matters into his own hands. He said the group had already been preparing to build homes “in the ground with living roofs,” and any structural loss would only speed up that process. “The structures come and go,” he said. “I had plans to dig in and make an earth home, and as soon as they let us back, I’m going to be digging in the earth.” — The Canadian Press BRIEANNA CHARLEBOIS AND CHUCK CHIANG Multiple structures ablaze as wildfire roars into Jasper townsite E DMONTON — One of two raging, wind-whipped fires menacing Jas- per, Alta., has roared into town and begun burning buildings. Park officials said the fire entered the southern edge of the community at about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday. They said crews were battling mul- tiple structural fires and working to protect key infrastructure. Officials said wildland firefight- ers and others without self-contained breathing apparatuses were told to evacuate to the nearby town of Hinton, with structural firefighters staying be- hind. A few hours earlier, all first respond- ers were ordered out of Jasper National Park for their safety and to give fire crews more room to operate. “If you have not yet evacuated town you must leave now,” Katie Ellsworth, with Parks Canada, said in a statement posted on Facebook. “Our hearts go out to all of the affect- ed community members, their families and their friends, many of which in- clude our local first responders.” The northern fire was spotted five kilometres from Jasper earlier in the day. The southern fire had been reported eight kilometres distant from the town, but Ellsworth said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong as fire perimeters changed minute by minute. Ellsworth said bucketing efforts by helicopter failed. Crews using heavy equipment to build fireguards couldn’t complete the work before having to pull back for safety. Water bombers couldn’t help due to dangerous flying conditions. A last-ditch effort to use controlled burns to reroute the fire to natural barriers like Highway 16 and the Atha- basca River failed due to “unfavourable conditions.” The hope was that up to 20 mm of rain, forecast to begin falling in the area later Wednesday night, would bring some relief. Ellsworth said the decision to re- locate all first responders to the town of Hinton, just outside the eastern edge of the park, “has not been made lightly.” She said, “Given the intensity of fire behaviour being observed the decision has been made to limit the number of responders exposed to this risk.” Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen asked the Canadian Armed Forces for help. “We are requesting firefighting re- sources, aerial support to move wild- fire crews and equipment and more,” Loewen wrote on the social media plat- form X. About 5,000 people live in Jasper. They, along with about 20,000 park visitors had to flee on a moment’s notice Monday night when the fires flared up. The order to go went out around 10 p.m. Monday as fires cut off road ac- cess to the Jasper townsite from the east and the south, forcing evacuees to drive west into British Columbia in a long, slow midnight cavalcade through swirling smoke, soot and ash. The following day, evacuees in B.C. who didn’t have a place to stay were directed to make a long, looping U-turn around the fires back to Alberta to evacuation centres in Grande Prairie and Calgary. B.C., dealing with its own multiple wildfires and evacuees, did not have the capacity to help Alberta, officials said. At the Grande Prairie evacuation centre, Addison McNeill recalled lit- erally just arriving in Jasper when she was told to get out. McNeill said she had just put her bags down after moving from Edmonton for her new job as a line cook when she got an alert on her phone that she needed to leave immediately. “I moved there two hours before the evacuation notice,” the 24-year-old said in an interview. McNeill said she went to a nearby ho- tel, one of two meet-up points for those without transportation. She hopped in a recreational vehicle with others and headed out — at a snail’s pace. “Every single person in town was beelining to one exit from about six dif- ferent routes and so you get bottleneck, backups and congestion,” she said. McNeill said as she sat inside the vehicle, she felt so close to the wildfires that the windows seemed like they were going to shatter from the pressure of the red, hot, smoky air. She saw acts of kindness amid the swirling ash: neighbours loaning their cars to those without; people knocking on doors to see if everyone inside was OK. “It was far from a panic,” she said. Jasper National Park, the largest in the Canadian Rockies, is considered a national and international treasure. The United Nations designated the parks that make up the Canadian Rock- ies, including Jasper, a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its striking mountain landscape. It has hosted glitz and glitter. In 1953, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe vis- ited to make the movie River of No Re- turn. More recently, the TV show The Bachelor was filmed there. Jasper is famous for hiking, skiing, kayaking and biking. — The Canadian Press LISA JOHNSON Structural firefighters stay but crews without breathing apparatuses told to evacuate ;