Raids by rival hives aren’t rare after a dry, hot summer, but Christine McDonald was surprised to find her store besieged
A Canadian beekeeper has described fending off thousands of “robber bees” as they raided her shop in a brazen attempt to steal honey.
Christine McDonald, who owns Rushing River Apiaries in the British Columbia city of Terrace, said she entered her shop to find it overrun by the swarm.
Continue reading...New home secretary will be joined in London by counterparts from US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand
Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, will host a meeting of the Five Eyes security alliance to discuss how to stop people-smuggling, as the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the channel topped 30,000 in record time on Sunday.
Mahmood is to be joined in London by Kristi Noem, the US secretary of state for homeland security, as well as interior ministers from Australia, Canada and New Zealand – the other member countries of the intelligence-sharing pact.
Continue reading...LGBTQ+ people in the US contemplate heading north as they wrestle with the president’s assault on the community
The number of LGBTQ+ Americans inquiring about moving to Canada has soared since Donald Trump’s re-election, campaigners have said, as people across the US wrestle with the fallout of rising anti-gay rhetoric, anti-trans executive orders, and the more than 600 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights.
“So much is happening in the US right now and a lot of it is terrifying,” said Latoya Nugent of Rainbow Railroad, a North American charity that helps LGBTQI+ individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries.
Continue reading...Prime minister cautions Canadians as Ottawa moves to curb spending to balance near-record military expenditures
Mark Carney has told Canadians to prepare for austerity measures and his finance minister warned of “tough choices” in the coming months, as the government attempts to balance near-record defence spending, cuts to government programs and a trade war with the United States.
Carney, the former central banker and economist turned politician, has been meeting senior ministers before the fall budget, and hinted cuts were coming to the federal bureaucracy.
Continue reading...Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspect who attacked Hollow Water First Nation has also died
One person has been killed and six others injured in a mass stabbing in an Indigenous community in central Canada, according to federal police who said that the the suspect also died in the incident.
The violence occurred in Hollow Water First Nation, a remote community with about 1,000 residents, 217km (135 miles) north of Manitoba’s provincial capital, Winnipeg, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told AFP.
Continue reading...Author quipped she wrote ‘suitable’ piece after Alberta school ban included her novel The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood has released a new short story critiquing elected officials for a wide-ranging book ban in the Canadian province of Alberta. The controversial decision to remove books purportedly containing “explicit sexual content” has seen numerous works of literature swept up in the dragnet, including Atwood’s dystopian work The Handmaid’s Tale.
In a social media post, Atwood wrote that since her famed work was no longer permissible in Alberta schools, she had written a “suitable” short work for teens, adding the work was necessary because the province’s minister of education thought students were “stupid babies”.
Continue reading...Announcement follows statements from Quebec premier, who expressed frustration over public prayers in Montreal
Quebec says it will ban prayer in public, a move that civil rights groups described as an “alarming measure” that targets religious minority groups and would infringe on “basic democratic freedoms”.
The province’s secularism minister, Jean-François Roberge, said the move had been prompted by the “proliferation of street prayer” which he described as “a serious and sensitive issue” adding that the government had watched with “unease”. Roberge said the government would introduce legislation in the fall.
Continue reading...Stretch of Lake Huron shore was promised to Saugeen people in 1854 treaty with crown but was wrongly omitted from map
A stretch of beach will be returned to a First Nation in Canada 170 years after it was mistakenly omitted from its reserve. The sandy sliver of land measures less than two miles long, but has nonetheless sparked an outsized battle, with a nearby resort town claiming the case sets a foreboding precedent for property rights in the country.
Canada’s supreme court said on Thursday that it would not hear a challenge from the town of South Bruce Peninsula, which is contesting a lower court’s ruling that the Saugeen First Nation’s reserve was erroneously smaller than promised.
Continue reading...The Progressive Conservative party of Ontario reportedly paid C$278,910.71 on the viral hats during the province’s election campaign
Dealing with the unprecedented threats from Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty have required unconventional strategies from federal and provincial leaders, including barring liquor sales and cancelling contracts with Tesla.
But among the more unorthodox strategies to hit back against the US is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on novelty hats.
Continue reading...Two such groups claim they persuaded Alberta to institute sweeping public school book ban
Socially conservative “parents’ rights” groups that have emerged as powerfully political lobbying groups in the US are quickly gaining ground in Canada, academics and free speech advocates say, after two such groups claimed they had persuaded Alberta to institute a sweeping public school book ban.
Alberta recently directed schools to purge library books from shelves that fit its definition of “explicit sexual content” by 1 October. If the policy is applied precisely as outlined, a host of books face being purged, including George Orwell’s 1984 due to passages in the text that discuss sexual intercourse and rape.
Continue reading...Mark Carney says change will go into effect on 1 September but tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos will remain
Canada will drop its counter-tariffs on some American goods in the coming days, Mark Carney has said, as the country’s prime minister looks to end a protracted trade war with longtime ally the United States.
From 1 September, the Canadian government will remove some levies on US goods that comply with the North American free-trade pact, a move meant to “match” how the White House treated Canadian goods. Levies on steel, aluminum and autos will remain in place.
Continue reading...Pierre Poilievre returns to House of Commons after shock April loss and narrower margin in Tory stronghold
Canada’s Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, has won a closely watched byelection in the province of Alberta, giving him a chance to return to parliament after suffering a shock defeat in April’s federal election.
Poilievre finished with 80.4% of the vote after Monday’s election in the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, in the deeply Conservative western province.
Continue reading...Arbitrator orders 10,000 striking staff back to work after government intervenes – unconstitutionally, union says
Union leaders representing 10,000 striking flight attendants have said they would be willing to go to jail rather than comply with an order to return to work, as Canada’s federal government seeks to end a bitter contract dispute that has halted hundreds of summer flights and stranded travellers around the world.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said members would remain on the picket lines as part of a work stoppage that has halted Air Canada’s national and international operations during its busiest season.
Continue reading...Pierre Poilievre has chance of winning House of Commons seat after losing riding he had held for more than 20 years
Canada’s federal conservative leader will have a second chance of winning a seat in parliament when residents of a rural Alberta district cast their ballots in a closely watched byelection on Monday.
Pierre Poilievre’s bid to take the safe seat of Battle River-Crowfoot comes four months after the Conservatives’ defeat in April’s federal election, in which the party leader lost the riding he had held for more than 20 years.
Continue reading...Canada’s response to the extreme weather threat is being upended as the traditional epicentre of the blazes shifts as the climate warms
Road closures, evacuations, travel chaos and stern warnings from officials have become fixtures of Canada’s wildfire season. But as the country goes through its second-worst burn on record, the blazes come with a twist: few are coming from the western provinces, the traditional centre of destruction.
Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how Canada responds to a threat that is only likely to grow as the climate warms.
Continue reading...Union to challenge order issued less than 12 hours after start of action that has left more than 100,000 travellers stranded
Air Canada’s flight attendants plan to remain on strike, their union has said, defying government efforts to force them back to work and into binding arbitration over a dispute that has left more than 100,000 travellers stranded around the world during the peak summer travel season.
About 10,000 flight attendants who work for Canada’s largest airline walked out on the job early on Saturday amid a bitter dispute over what the union has described as “poverty wages” and unpaid labour.
Continue reading...Canada’s largest airline expects full shutdown as workers protests over claims of ‘poverty wages’ and unpaid labour
Canada’s largest airline has started cancelling flights during the peak summer travel season ahead of a strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants over what they say are “poverty wages” and unpaid labour for work when planes are not in the air.
Air Canada said it would start suspending flights on Thursday ahead of full shutdown on Saturday after the flagship carrier and the union representing the flight attendants failed to resolve a months-long dispute over pay and working conditions.
Continue reading...More than 470 Canadian fires classified as ‘out of control’ as scientists say climate change exacerbating the burning
With hundreds of wildfires burning out of control, Canada’s 2025 fire season is already the second-worst on record, as scientists report climate change is prolonging and exacerbating the burning, leading to more destruction, evacuations and smoke-filled skies.
More than 470 fires across the country are currently classified as “out of control”, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
Continue reading...Academic Heather Scott has been told by Home Office that being ‘acutely ill’ is not an exceptional circumstance
The Home Office is threatening to ban a Canadian academic from the UK after she was unable to renew her visa in time during a mental health crisis.
Dr Heather Scott has lived in Britain since she came in 2011 on a study visa. The renowned academic, whose area of research relates to Victorian cemeteries including Highgate, Brompton and Abney Park, is required to be based in London.
Continue reading...Hundreds of fires across Canada and parts of the US prompt alerts in 14 states from Great Lakes region to the north-east
Hundreds of wildfires continued to burn across Canada and parts of the US on Tuesday sending smoke from the blazes across the region and reducing air quality in both countries.
US air quality tanked from the Great Lakes region to the north-east, making skies hazy from Minneapolis to New York City and even prompting a ground stop at Boston’s Logan international airport due to “low visibility” on Monday. Detroit, New York City and Chicago continued to record some of the worst air quality in the world on Tuesday, according to IQAir, ranking fourth, 10th and 11th respectively.
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