Category Archives: Canada

Canada’s Tories target Trudeau as they seek seismic shift in political landscape

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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to introduce motion of non-confidence in long-shot bid to force an election

Canada’s Conservative party will make its first bid to unseat prime minister Justin Trudeau this week, the latest attempt in its decade-long aim of restoring the Tories to power.

Buoyed by favourable polls, a cost of living crisis and an increasingly unpopular prime minister, the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, will introduce a motion of non-confidence in the minority government: a long-shot bid to force the government to call an election.

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Michael Kovrig: detention by China amounted to psychological torture, Canadian says

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Former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was taken into custody in December 2018, says he spent months in solitary confinement and was interrogated daily

A former Canadian diplomat detained by China for more than 1,000 days said he was placed in solitary confinement for months and interrogated for up to nine hours every day, treatment he said amounted to psychological torture.

Michael Kovrig, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in his first major interview since his release, also said he had missed the birth of his daughter and met her for the first time when she was two-and-a half years old.

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Justin Trudeau’s future in doubt as party loses crucial Montreal election

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Victory by separatist Québécois candidate in once-safe Liberal seat puts pressure on Canadian PM to quit

Canada’s ruling Liberal party has lost a once-safe seat in Montreal, a result that is likely to put more pressure on the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to quit.

Elections Canada said that with 100% of the votes counted in the parliamentary constituency of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, the separatist Bloc Québécois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé, had beaten the Liberal candidate, Laura Palestini, by a whisker: 28% to 27.2%. The New Democratic party (NDP) candidate received 26.1%.

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Canadian military admits new sleeping bags are not suited to Canadian winters

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Soldiers who used bags, which cost army C$34.8m, reportedly found ‘several critical issues … related to lack of warmth’

The Canadian military has admitted that new sleeping bags issued to troops last year were not suited to “typical Canadian winter conditions”.

According to a briefing note obtained by the CBC, the army issued the new sleeping bags in the autumn of last year in Alberta, where several hundred troops were preparing for a joint Canada-US exercise in Alaska.

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British Columbia shaken by messy election campaign putting progressive policies at risk

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Tumultuous campaign threatens to undo climate policies and Indigenous rights when voters go to polls in October

Canada’s westernmost province has been gripped by a chaotic provincial election campaign, rife with political backstabbing, abrupt resignations and unexpected allegiances.

And as an unpopular premier squares off against a climate crisis skeptic, the October vote could have profound consequences for British Columbia, a province seen as the vanguard for progressive climate policy.

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Ex-fashion mogul Peter Nygard sentenced to 11 years for sexual assault

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Judge says Nygard, 83, ‘used his wealth and power’ to commit four convicted assaults in Toronto

The former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of four counts of sexual assault in attacks on women in his Toronto office building that in some cases date back for decades.

The 11-year sentence is reduced to take into account time he has already spent behind bars. Nygard has about 6.7 years left to serve and will be eligible for full parole after one-third of that.

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Pakistani man in Canada charged with planned mass shooting of Jewish New Yorkers

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Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, arrested near US border after allegedly planning attack with undercover agents

A Pakistani man living in Canada is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly planning to carry out a mass shooting in New York against Jewish people on the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, the US justice department announced on Friday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested Wednesday in Canada and charged with attempting to provide material support as well as resources to a foreign terrorist organization – in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

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Owner of 7-Eleven rejects $39bn takeover offer from Canadian rival

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Japanese group says Couche-Tard plan undervalues firm, but leaves door open to higher offer

The parent company of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has rejected a near $39bn (£29.6bn) takeover offer from a Canadian rival, arguing it “grossly undervalues” the company.

Last month, Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed that it had received a bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard setting the scene for what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.

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Canada: New Democratic party withdraws support for Trudeau’s Liberals

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With possible election looming, Jagmeet Singh calls end to confidence and supply arrangement with ‘weak, selfish’ party

Canada’s New Democratic party says it has “ripped up” a key agreement with prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, sowing uncertainty into the country’s politics as party leaders brace for a possible election.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh made the surprise announcement on social media on Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trudeau of “caving” to corporate greed. “The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance from Canadians,” he said.

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Racial profiling is systemic problem in Montreal police, judge rules

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Advocates say profiling ‘characterized many arrests’ as judge awards millions in damages in class-action lawsuit

Racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force, a Quebec judge has ruled, as she awarded damages in a class action lawsuit that advocates call a “decision that meets with reality”.

Justice Dominique Poulin found that the city bore responsibility for racial profiling committed by its police officers and was obliged to compensate those affected.

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Canada turning away more foreigners amid rise in anti-immigration sentiment

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Ratio of refused visitor visas to approved ones was higher in recent months than any point since height of the pandemic

Canada is taking steps, both official and unofficial, to curb the number of people coming to the country, highlighting the way in which immigration has become a political flashpoint ahead of a federal election.

According to figures obtained by Reuters, the ratio of refused visitor visa applications to approved ones was higher in recent months than at any point since the height of the pandemic. Immigration officials rejected more applications than they approved in January, February, May and June 2024.

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Canada’s 2023 wildfires released more greenhouse gases than most countries

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Had fires been ranked alongside countries they would have been world’s fourth-largest emitter, study finds

Wildfires that swept Canada’s woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries, a study found on Wednesday, calling into question national emissions budgets that rely on forests as carbon stores.

At 647 megatonnes, the carbon released in last year’s wildfires exceeded those of seven of the 10 largest national emitters in 2022, including Germany, Japan and Russia, the study published in the journal Nature found.

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Canada to follow US lead in imposing 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles

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Trudeau also announces 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum and says ‘China is not playing by the same rules’

Canada, following the lead of the United States, on Monday said it would impose a 100% tariff on the import of Chinese electric vehicles and also announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China.

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said Ottawa was acting to counter what he called China’s intentional, state-directed policy of over-capacity. But he did not specify whether tariffs would be softened or would be the same on Tesla, whose shares were down over 3% on Monday after the announcement.

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Canadian government moves to ends nationwide rail strike

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Staff to return to work and trains expected to start running in days after ministers intervene

Canada’s federal government has moved to end a nationwide rail strike that threatened to grind supply chains to a halt, less than a day after it began.

With the government saying it would force the union and rail companies into binding arbitration, picket lines came down and workers at Canadian National Railway (CN) were ordered to return to work on Friday, the Teamsters union said.

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Union dispute shuts down Canadian freight rail amid fears for US trade

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Nearly 10,000 workers locked out at Canada’s two major rail freight firms in dispute over working conditions

Both of Canada’s major rail freight companies have shut down their rail networks in the country and locked out nearly 10,000 workers after unsuccessful negotiations with a major union.

The decision, confirmed by the Teamsters union, sets the stage for an unprecedented rail stoppage that could badly damage the Canadian economy and have a significant effect on cross-border trade with the US.

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US military announces $20m grant to build cobalt refinery in Canada

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Pentagon investment would make North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery as US looks to diversify supply chain

The US military has made its largest investment in Canada’s mining sector in decades, spending millions amid a looming battle among nations to control the supply of cobalt.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced a $20m grant to help build a cobalt refinery in the province of Ontario, saying the investment will “create a more robust industrial base capable of meeting growing demand across both the defense and commercial sectors”.

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Backlash as Canada conservatives’ ‘our home’ video features other countries

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Party deletes video after viewers list gaffes, including scenes of US, Serbia and Slovenia – plus Russian jets

Canada’s Conservative party has deleted a social media campaign video with a heavily nationalist message after much of the video featured scenes from other countries, including Ukrainian farmers, Slovenian homes, London’s Richmond Park and a pair of Russian fighter jets.

The video, titled “Canada. Our Home” was initially posted to X on Saturday, with various scenes overlaid by a speech from the party leader, Pierre Poilievre. The Conservatives, who lead the governing Liberals in the polls, are preparing for what is widely expected to be a bitterly contested federal election.

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Canadian export agency ‘hit by big losses after lending to Thames Water’

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State-backed body EDC has reportedly sold at deep discount two loans made to debt-ridden UK utility

Canada’s state-backed export credit agency is reportedly nursing steep losses after lending debt-ridden Thames Water hundreds of millions of pounds.

The British utility, which has said it could run out of cash by next June, received two loans from Export Development Canada (EDC) in 2018 and 2019 at the behest of the Canadian pension fund Omers.

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Sicily yacht sinking: Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer among missing

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UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter also among six unaccounted for after superyacht was hit by tornado and sank

Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer is among those missing after a yacht carrying UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, an Italian official has said.

Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, said Bloomer and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, were among the six people missing. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, were also unaccounted for as of late Monday.

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‘We didn’t see it coming’: the tumultuous Sicilian night that took down the Bayesian

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Witnesses tell of ‘absurd tragedy’ and a mother describes how she fought to save her child from drowning

The 12 holidaying passengers had come from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, occupying six luxurious suites of Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht boasting the tallest aluminium mast in the world. Among the 10 crew members were people from Sri Lanka.

The award-winning, British-flagged vessel, which was built in 2008 by the Italian shipbuilder Perini and managed by Camper & Nicholsons, left the calm blue waters of the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August, sailing for a few days around the Aeolian Islands and off the historic coastal village of Cefalù.

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