A medium layer of ice is covering windows of cars parked outside today, so head out a bit early for some serious scraping. TEMPERATURE: Rising from around -9C in Summerside, -6 in Charlottetown up to -3 by noon, then dropping to -4 in the afternoon Below is a live-stream camera view courtesy of Confederation Bridge to give a sense of weather conditions at that location.
Category: Canada
B.C. unveils three-year mental health plan
The B.C. government has committed $140 million in its pre-election budget to increase mental health services for young people, to deal with an increase in cases. The three-year budget is to hire 120 mental health practitioners to work with young people, create “up to 28” specialized substance-use care beds for young people and provide an online counselling service for “youth who are struggling with mild to moderate mental health or substance abuse challenges,” according to a statement from the health and children and family development ministries.
COLUMN: Celebrating our freedom to read
Whether it is a new controversial book or a classic novel that covers topics that were not talked about in depth at the time, schools and public libraries are regularly asked to remove books and magazines from their shelves that are deemed by some to be offensive or inappropriate. Sometimes their efforts are successful, other times they’re not.
Daphne Bramham: Rick Peterson believes policy matters in Tory leadership race
The Vancouver venture capitalist and former journalist is a fiscal conservative with an eye not only on the balance sheet, but a concern about rising levels of poverty and homelessness. Alberta-born and raised, Peterson speaks French.
Canadian Border Town Worries About ‘Confrontations’ After …
A municipal authority in Manitoba, Canada is concerned about the influx of dozens of “asylum seekers” who showed up to border town of Emerson Sunday morning . “I’m scared, the bigger the numbers – if we don’t have enough officials, someone is going to slip through the crack because there’s so many people to process,” Reeve Greg Janzen, a municipal authority, told CBC News .
Federal government abandons Sable Island wind project 15 years after its launch
Horses on Sable Island, N.S., are shown in this undated handout photo. The harsh conditions and extreme isolation of Sable Island has forced Ottawa to abandon a wind project on the iconic crescent-shaped sandbar — more than 15 years after it launched the initiative.
Federkeil back in the fold with Stampeders
After tweeting earlier this week that “No one wants to sign a 33 year old Canadian tackle with 2 or 3 more 9 game seasons left?” Federkeil did in fact sign Friday, cleared to be back in the lineup after undergoing shoulder surgery at the end of the 2016 season. “I wanted to take a step back and evaluate things after my shoulder surgery at the end of last season,” he said in a press release.
Anna Bligh and the Bankers’ Association
On reflection, however, she does know something about politics and she does know something about the economy . More importantly, having come through the Labor side of politics, she should have good inter-personal and negotiation skills.
Guest Column: A heartfelt thanks to organizers of Medicine Hata s STAND rally
I have a confession to make. I am an immigrant. As a child of five years I was a refugee from a war-torn country run by a corrupt and vicious government.
Parks Canada honours black entrepreneur who was one of BC’s founders
Mifflin Gibbs in his later years, ca. 1902. Photograph By CrawfordKilian, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia[Vancouver: Douglas an Mifflin Gibbs wasn’t a father of confederation.
B.C. and Ottawa reach $1.4-billion mental health and home care deal
Federal Health Minister Jane Philipott and B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake announced a 10-year, $1.4-billion agreement for better mental health and home care. Of that, $785.7 million will go to home care infrastructure and $654.7 million will go towards mental health initiatives.
Government to compensate torture victims nine years after inquiry findings
The Canadian Press has independently confirmed a Toronto Star report that the government will settle lawsuits filed by the men over the federal role in their ordeals. In October 2008, an inquiry led by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci found Canadian officials contributed to the torture of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin by sharing information with foreign agencies.
LETTERS: Tracking our political leadership
Hooray! Another big step taken toward the rail-relocation goal. Thanks to Todd Stone, B.C.’s transportation and infrastructure minister, for his letter of support to Marc Garneau, federal minister of transportation, for the next step of moving the railway line off our beautiful beaches on this peninsula.
Documentary Journey to Justice presented at Sheridan College in Oakville
Film for Thought presents the documentary Journey to Justice at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at Sheridan College, Oakville. Journey to Justice, presented in cooperation with the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton, includes a night of discussion and community spirit during Black History Month.
Volunteers sought to help grow Daffodil Days
The Canadian Cancer Society Halton community office is looking for site managers to assist with Daffodil Month pin sale locations. Daffodil Month takes place every April and is one of the Canadian Cancer Society’s largest fundraising campaigns.
Symphony to play dance music
The Okanagan Symphony Orchestra is issuing an invitation to get up and dance during their weekend concerts in Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon. “Our musicians are going to step outside the classical zone and step into a sparkling concert full of Latin rhythms, fantastic cross-rhythms and lots of percussion onstage,” commented Rosemary Thomson, music director.
Google, Facebook argue against ‘punitive’ tax proposal for digital media
Proposals for tax changes aimed at helping Canadian publishers fight for revenues with online news aggregators would result in a punitive “tax on advertisers,” executives from Google Canada and Facebook Canada told a Commons committee studying the country’s media industry. That’s because tax laws currently on the books designed to prop up the industry are archaic and simply don’t apply to the Internet age, Jason Kee, Google Canada’s head of policy and government relations, told the heritage committee Tuesday.
B.C. Appeal Court orders province to give up data in smoking lawsuit
The British Columbia government must hand over information about patients that tobacco giant Phillip Morris International says it needs to fight the province’s efforts to recover health-care costs from tobacco-related diseases. In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a lower court order that Phillip Morris be given access to the raw data used by the province in 2001 when it filed its lawsuit against 13 tobacco companies.
WestJet takes on Air Canada on its home turf by increasing service in Quebec
WestJet is taking on Air Canada on its home turf in Quebec by pursuing one of the largest expansions in the airline’s history after beefing up its service in French. The Calgary-based airline said it’s in a position to grow its reach in Canada’s second-largest province by population after requiring that all flight attendants hired since 2014 be bilingual.
Handling of Thorco Crown distress prevented disaster: Coast Guard commissioner
Team work by search and rescue, environmental response and marine communications and traffic services prevented a disaster in challenging conditions, Canadian Coast Guard Commissioner, Jody Thomas said today in reference to a disabled vessel adrift off the southwest coast of Newfoundland and Labrador last week. On Feb. 7, the MV Thorco Crown, a merchant cargo ship with 13 people aboard, experienced a fire in its engine room.
OPP charges driver after flying tractor-trailer wheel causes highway…
The OPP charged a driver and his employer after a set of wheels flew off a commercial tractor-trailer Friday morning, killing the driver of a van travelling in the opposite direction on Highway 417. Brianski’s son, Dennis, posted a heartfelt message on his Facebook account Friday night breaking the tragic news about his dad, who he described as “the kindest man I’ve ever met in my life.”
Lawyers urge Canada to make changes to Safe Third Country Agreement
On Saturday alone, the RCMP said 21 people were arrested for illegally crossing the border into Emerson, Man. On Saturday alone, the RCMP said 21 people were arrested for illegally crossing the border into Emerson, Man.
Conservatives pause hostilities with Liberals on eve of Trump, Trudeau meeting
The past, present and potential future of the federal Conservative party offered their Liberal rivals an unprecedented show of solidarity Sunday on the eve of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The olive branch, a departure from the usual cut and thrust of party politics, reflects a shared understanding that crosses the traditional partisan divide: that Canadian jobs depend on a strong relationship with the U.S. regardless of who might be residing in the White House.
From polls to protests: the search for a Trump-like political movement in Canada
When chants of “lock her up” – an echo of anti-Clinton vitriol from the U.S. presidential election – erupted last December during a protest at the Alberta legislature, observers quickly flagged it as evidence of the Trump effect in Canada. Witness the struggling town of Smith Falls, Ont., where local residents stood up during a public meeting last month to demand that the town take part in a provincial project that would provide everyone with a guaranteed income.
Universities moving away from allowing students to judge sex assaults
University of British Columbia student Stephanie Hale, 22, poses for photograph in Kamloops, B.C., on Thursday, October 20, 2016. When Stephanie Hale read the University of British Columbia’s new sexual misconduct policy, she had mixed emotions.
‘I’m in Winnipeg and I like it’: Newcomer youth meet to talk job skills, challenges
The Newcomer Youth Civic Engagement Program at the N.E.E.D.S Centre is aimed to equip young people who are new to Canada with leadership skills. Tucked at the edge of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, a classroom of teens was full of laughs on Saturday as participants joked, brainstormed and bonded at the latest meeting of a brand-new pilot program catering to newcomer youth.
Boy with mystery broken bones has gene abnormality linked to pain insensitivity
A British Columbia boy who was seized twice by the Children’s Ministry due to his mysterious broken bones has been found to have a rare gene abnormality linked to a condition that blocks all feelings of pain. The five-year-old boy was returned to his parents last fall after doctors determined his unexplained fractures were not caused by abuse.
Addiction, Arctic and aerospace:how federal politics touched Canadians this week
Well, it’s been three weeks since Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president, and so far, nothing terrible has happened to Canada. That’s the nature of the strained attempt at optimism coursing through the national capital these days as policy makers muddle through the Trump-inspired confusion that is spilling around the world.
Russell Wangersky: That shrinking feeling
It’s a numbers game – and not in the way you think. There’s been plenty of talk over the year about declines in this province’s population, legitimate hand-wringing over an aging population that doesn’t have a strong cohort of young people coming up to pay taxes and fill jobs as an ever-larger portion of residents totter into retirement.
Canada, U.S. hoping for progress on border preclearance for Monday meeting
Canada hopes to cement progress on keeping the border open to trade and travellers when Justin Trudeau visits Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose controversial travel ban measures recently created considerable confusion at the 49th parallel. The two countries have been pecking away for years at a list of measures intended to bolster continental security while ensuring the speedy flow of goods and people across the border.
Canada, U.S. hoping for progress on border preclearance for Monday meeting
Canada hopes to cement progress on keeping the border open to trade and travellers when Justin Trudeau visits Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose controversial travel ban measures recently created considerable confusion at the 49th parallel. The two countries have been pecking away for years at a list of measures intended to bolster continental security while ensuring the speedy flow of goods and people across the border.
Warm the coldest hearts with these distinctly Canadian romantic getaways
It should be simple: Shoot an arrow, hit the target, love conquers all. But the boy with the bow often needs something extra to fan the flames of desire, and if the traditional trappings of Valentine’s Day fall short there’s enough drama, wonder, mystery and adventure across our home and native land to make even the coldest hearts flutter.
Warm the coldest hearts with these distinctly Canadian romantic getaways
It should be simple: Shoot an arrow, hit the target, love conquers all. But the boy with the bow often needs something extra to fan the flames of desire, and if the traditional trappings of Valentine’s Day fall short there’s enough drama, wonder, mystery and adventure across our home and native land to make even the coldest hearts flutter.
Island shut down now, another blast coming Monday
A major storm is still hitting P.E.I. early this morning and, wait for it, another one is all set to smack the Island Monday. While roads are almost impassable, there are no reported power outages early this morning.
Researchers call this year’s flu vaccine effectiveness ‘decent’
This season’s influenza vaccine is estimated to have been more than 40 per cent effective in preventing illness with the dominant H3N2 viral strain in Canadians who got their shots, a national network of infectious diseases experts says. The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network determines vaccine effectiveness by analyzing how many inoculated people tested positive for the flu virus compared to those who were unvaccinated.
Researchers call this year’s flu vaccine effectiveness ‘decent’
This season’s influenza vaccine is estimated to have been more than 40 per cent effective in preventing illness with the dominant H3N2 viral strain in Canadians who got their shots, a national network of infectious diseases experts says. The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network determines vaccine effectiveness by analyzing how many inoculated people tested positive for the flu virus compared to those who were unvaccinated.
Montreal conference highlights growing popularity of winter cycling
A cyclist makes his way down a bike path in Montreal in a February 17, 2015, file photo. While most Canadians still put their bikes away when cold weather hits, a growing number of winter riders has cities switching gears to accommodate the demand for ice-free pathways.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson A cyclist makes his way down a bike path in Montreal in a February 17, 2015, file photo.
Carrie-Anne Moss on joining ‘Humans’ and longing to move back to Canada
Carrie-Anne Moss is shown in a handout photo from the television series “Humans.” Canadian actress Moss has carved out an esteemed career in Los Angeles but admits she thinks about moving back home “like every day, all day.”
Winter wreaks havoc on B.C. roadways
The Ministry of Transportation is placing an advisory in effect for Highway 1 in both directions, between Craigalachie to the Alberta border. Accumulations of up to 30 cm are expected, followed by warming temperatures and rain in some areas, leading to slippery driving conditions.
Some sex workers choose industry due to benefits of occupation: study
Cecilia Benoit, professor and scientist with the University of Victoriaa s is shown in a handout photo. Cecilia Benoit, professor and scientist with the University of Victoriaa s is shown in a handout photo.