Cameron Ortis was convicted of passing secret material in a case that shocked the Canadian intelligence community
The former head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence unit has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, months after he was found guilty of leaking state secrets.
Justice Robert Maranger delivered what he said was a “a fit and just” sentence on Wednesday after a jury convicted Cameron Ortis for violations of the country’s Security of Information Act.
Continue reading...New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium will host the final of the 2026 World Cup, which will take place across North America in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The 82,500 capacity MetLife Stadium is in New Jersey but is five miles from New York City and is the home of the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants. It hosted the Super Bowl in February 2014 and the final of the Copa America Centenario in 2016.
Continue reading...Mammal ‘made contact with equipment’, disrupting a subway line and shutting off water in latest escapade of city’s ‘trash pandas’
A lone Toronto raccoon was able to cut power to nearly 7,000 people in the city’s downtown core on Thursday night, highlighting the fraught coexistence between residents of Canada’s largest urban centre and the divisive “trash pandas”.
Hydro One, Ontario’s power utility, said a raccoon “made contact with equipment” at a downtown station on Thursday night, plunging swaths of the city in darkness. The loss of power also temporarily disrupted service on a key subway line and shut off water. Toronto’s fire service said the power outage also left residents trapped inside elevators.
Continue reading...Brandi Morin was charged while reporting at encampment authorities arrived at to dismantle and could face two years in jail
A journalist in Canada who was arrested and charged while reporting on a police operation to clear an encampment for unhoused Indigenous people says she fears the charges will chill further reporting of marginalized groups.
Brandi Morin, an Indigenous journalist, was arrested on 10 January while documenting police efforts to dismantle the camp in the city of Edmonton.
Continue reading...Kenneth Law now faces 14 counts in Ontario of first-degree murder and 14 counts of counselling and aiding suicide
Prosecutors in Canada have upgraded murder charges against the man who allegedly mailed “suicide kits” and is allegedly linked to more than 100 deaths in several countries.
Kenneth Law, who is due to appear in court on Thursday, now faces 14 counts in Ontario of first-degree murder and 14 counts of counselling and aiding suicide in the province. Canada’s criminal code punishes anyone who “counsels or abets” a person to die by suicide with a sentence of up to 14 years in prison. The victims range in age from 16 to 36.
In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Thieves haul off taxidermy animal from resort hotel in northern Alberta that had previously lost two stuffed raccoons
As temperatures in western Canada recently plunged to -30C, most residents retreated indoors to wait out the blistering cold snap. But one group of thieves saw opportunity.
On one of the coldest nights of the winter, they gained access to a hotel north of Edmonton, where security patrols had been cancelled because of the weather.
Continue reading...Residents of tiny coastal community of Cape Ray excited by discovery of what appears to be 19th-century vessel
A coastal community in Newfoundland has been left baffled and excited by the sudden and unexplained appearance of a centuries-old shipwreck on the sands of a nearby shore.
Gordon Blackmore, a local resident, was hunting seabirds on the sandy shores of Cape Ray when he spotted a dark shadow under the turbid waters. It had not been there when he visited the spot just a few days earlier. He rushed back into the family home, shouting about about the discovery, his mother told the Canadian Press. She grabbed her jacket and hurried to the beach to see it for herself. “It’s amazing, there is no other word for it.”
Continue reading...Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as Canada says UK was unwilling to give access to agricultural products
Shares in US chipmaker Intel have slumped in pre-market trading after it revealed a weaker forecast of earnings.
Chipmakers have been flying in recent years as shortages followed by the huge hype over artificial intelligence – which is hungry for processing power – prompted investors to pile into the sector.
Although Intel beat estimates, investors’ disappointment in Intel’s datacentre GPU story’s growth can be primarily attributed to the slower-than-expected product delivery and ramp-up.
Continue reading...Call for companies to ‘clean up their mess’ as Athabasca oil sands emissions vastly exceed industry-reported levels
Toxic emissions from the Canadian tar sands – already one of the dirtiest fossil fuels – have been dramatically underestimated, according to a study.
Research published in the journal Science found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca oil sands in Canada exceed industry-reported emissions across the studied facilities by a staggering 1,900% to over 6,300%.
Continue reading...Foreign minister draws comparison to similar claim in Canada and says India must be held to account
Pakistan has said it has credible evidence that Indian agents carried out two assassinations on Pakistani soil, and drawn comparisons to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.
In a press briefing on Thursday, the foreign secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, said India was running a “sophisticated and sinister” campaign of “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” inside Pakistan.
Continue reading...Private equity firm Onex Corp partly owns company that makes mask for use in untested nitrogen hypoxia execution method
A Canadian company is facing criticism for allegedly supplying the equipment for a state execution in the United States, in a case that has drawn outrage for the reliance on a seemingly untested method of execution.
On Thursday, Alabama plans to kill inmate Kenneth Smith by suffocating him with nitrogen gas, a method never before used in the country.
Continue reading...Canadian court rules government was ‘unreasonable’ when it used sweeping powers to block truckers protesting against Covid rules
A Canadian court has ruled that Justin Trudeau’s government was not justified when it used sweeping powers to break up what the prime minister called “illegal and dangerous” protest blockades across the country two years ago.
A federal court found on Tuesday the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the so-called freedom convoy protests “was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration”.
Continue reading...Survivors taken to hospital after aircraft carrying group of heli-skiers went down in rugged backcountry on Monday afternoon
Three people have been killed and four others left in critical condition after a helicopter carrying a group of skiers crashed in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The downed aircraft was one of three helicopters carrying heli-skiers into the rugged backcountry, when it went down around at about 4.15pm PT on Monday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Betty Brussel sets records in the 100- to 104- year-old age class in Saanich, while inspiring members of local swim club
By the time an exhausted Betty Brussel finally swims to the finish and pulls herself from the pool, an Olympic athlete could have covered the same distance at least three times. But the 99-year-old Canadian’s quiet determination has led her to shatter world records and transformed her into an unlikely celebrity within the amateur swim community.
At a weekend swim meet in the British Columbia city of Saanich, Brussel broke the existing world record in the 400-metre freestyle, knocking nearly four minutes off the previous standard in the 100- to 104-year-old age class. She repeated her record-breaking performances in 50-metre backstroke and the 50-metre breaststroke that same day.
Continue reading...G77 president Pedro Pedroso warns deal risks failing if polluters like UK, US and Canada don’t rethink plans to expand oil and gas
The credibility of the Cop28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels rides on the world’s biggest historical polluters like the US, UK and Canada rethinking current plans to expand oil and gas production, according to the climate negotiator representing 135 developing countries.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Pedro Pedroso, the outgoing president of the G77 plus China bloc of developing countries, warned that the landmark deal made at last year’s climate talks in Dubai risked failing.
Continue reading...Dalton Clark Stewart, 22, accused of lighting Canada’s Barrington Lake fire, which burned for one month in 2023
A Nova Scotia man has been charged for allegedly starting the eastern Canadian province’s largest-ever wildfire.
The charges against Dalton Clark Stewart, 22, come only days after a Quebec man, inspired by conspiracy theories, pleaded guilty to 14 charges of arson after deliberately lighting forest fires.
Continue reading...The country saw record-breaking blazes during the summer and Brian Paré pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen fires
A Canadian man who claimed forest fires were the result of a government conspiracy has pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen blazes during the country’s record-breaking wildfire season, as nearly 100 fires persist in drought-stricken regions.
Brian Paré admitted to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at the courthouse in central Quebec, an act that drew away key firefighting resources from nearly 700 fires in the province last summer.
Continue reading...At least 24 reports of adverse events related to products recalled in December but no illnesses confirmed linked to foods, FDA says
The Quaker Oats Company has added two dozen additional types of granola bars, cereals and snack foods to a December recall over possible salmonella contamination.
The company, which is owned by PepsiCo, announced the additional recall in the US and Canada on Thursday.
Continue reading...Extreme cold warning issued in Canada as US forecasters warn of wind chills in Texas and major snow in midwest and east coast
A “bitter” blast of cold Arctic air is set to bring dangerously frigid temperatures to swaths of North America, forecasters have warned.
In Canada, frigid Arctic air is being pushed from the Northwest Territories down into the province of Alberta, where Environment Canada has issued an extreme cold warning. The largest city, Calgary, could see temperatures plummet to -34.6F (-37C) on Friday, reaching a daytime high of -23.8F (-31C). This would mark the coldest January day in two decades for the city. Over the weekend, strong winds could make temperatures feel closer to -58F (-50C). In these conditions, experts say exposed skin can succumb to frostbite in less than a minute.
Continue reading...Maria Kartasheva’s in-absentia conviction over blogposts about Ukraine war threatened application for Canadian citizenship
Canada has reversed course after initially blocking a Russian anti-war activist from receiving citizenship because she had run afoul of Moscow’s harsh laws criminalizing dissent over the invasion of Ukraine.
Maria Kartasheva’s plight had baffled immigration lawyers and exposed the confusing reality of Canada’s immigration bureaucracy. Last year, the 30-year-old was charged and convicted by Russian prosecutors of violating a law barring criticism of the military. And even though her opinions mirrored Canada’s foreign policy, the conviction threatened to derail her application for Canadian citizenship.
Continue reading...