Arkansas-born showman – known as ‘The Hawk’ – cut his teeth on the South’s tough 50s circuit but settled in Canada where he nurtured local talent
Ronnie Hawkins, the Arkansas-born rock’n’roll legend who mentored the young Canadian and American musicians later known as the Band, has died.
Hawkins, described in tributes as the most important rock’n’roller in Canadian history, died at the age of 87 after an illness, his wife, Wanda, said on Sunday.
Continue reading...Video shows incident in which driver says he had to kick his way out because the doors and windows wouldn’t open
Canadian authorities are investigating an incident in which a Tesla caught fire in Vancouver, reportedly forcing the driver to smash his way out of the vehicle.
Transport Canada, the Canadian auto safety agency, said in a statement on Friday that it had learned of the incident in Vancouver on 23 May and that it had “notified Tesla … and is currently making arrangements for a joint inspection of the vehicle in an effort to determine the cause of the fire”.
Continue reading...Five local schools were placed under lockdown after several 911 calls about a man walking with a rifle in Canadian city
Investigators have recovered a pellet gun from the scene where Toronto police shot and killed a man suspected of carrying a rifle, an incident that prompted five nearby schools to be placed under precautionary lockdowns.
Police went to the Scarborough neighbourhood on Thursday after receiving several 911 calls about a man walking with a rifle and located him shortly after, Ontario province’s special investigations unit (SIU) said in a statement on Friday. The man, 27, was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.
Continue reading...Decision setting parole eligibility at 25 years could give hope to at least 18 mass killers serving multiple life sentences
Canada’s supreme court has ruled that life sentences without the chance of parole are both “cruel” and unconstitutional, in a landmark decision that could give more than dozen mass killers who committed “inherently despicable acts” the faint hope of release in the future.
The court unanimously determined on Friday that sentencing killers to lengthy prison terms with little hope of freedom risked bringing the “administration of justice into disrepute”.
Continue reading...Officers responded to reports of a man in his late teens or early 20s carrying a firearm in Scarborough’s Port Union area
Police in Toronto have shot and killed a man after he was spotted carrying a rifle near an elementary school, prompting an emergency lockdown for hundreds of students.
Officers responded to reports of a man, described as being in his late teens or early 20s, carrying a firearm in Scarborough’s Port Union area of the Canadian city about 1pm.
Continue reading...Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action
Quebec’s government has successfully passed sweeping French language protections that critics warn will reshape all aspects of public life.
Bill 96, which passed on Tuesday afternoon in the province’s national assembly, will require new immigrants and refugees to communicate with provincial officials exclusively in French six months after arriving or face a loss of services. The bill also limits the use of English in the legal system and caps enrolment at the province’s English-language schools.
Continue reading...Mary Simon, first Indigenous person to hold post, attends service at Kamloops school to honor thousands of children who died
Canada’s governor general has described the country’s residential schools as places of unimaginable cruelty, in a eulogy to honour the thousands of Indigenous children who died while attending the institutions.
“Today, we make ourselves heard across the country. Although it is hard, we are telling Canadians and the world about our wounds and pain,” Mary Simon, the Queen’s representative in Canada, told hundreds gathered on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian residential school.
Continue reading...The Canadian director made the comments at a press conference for his latest body horror film Crimes of the Future
David Cronenberg, director of Crash, The Naked Lunch and A History of Violence, has said that “the US is completely insane”.
Speaking to the press at the Cannes film festival premiere of his new film Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg referred specifically to attempts to overturn Roe v Wade. “In Canada … we think everyone in the US is completely insane. I think the US has gone completely bananas, and I can’t believe what the elected officials are saying, not just about Roe v Wade, so it is strange times.”
Continue reading...Huge clean-up after Ontario and Quebec hit by tornado-like weather, felling trees, uprooting utility poles and cutting power to more than 500,000
The death toll from powerful thunderstorms in Canada’s two most populous provinces has risen to at least eight, authorities said on Sunday, as emergency crews continued a massive clean-up to restore power to half a million people.
The storms, which lasted more than two hours Saturday afternoon and packed the power of a tornado, left a trail of destruction in parts of Ontario and Quebec. Wind gusts as strong as 132kmh (82mph) felled trees, uprooted electric poles and toppled many metal transmission towers, utility companies said.
Continue reading...Some media portrayals of cases among African and LGBTI people fueling blame, agency says, as infections reported in Europe, US and Australia
The United Nations’ Aids agency has called some reporting on the monkeypox virus racist and homophobic, warning of exacerbating stigma and undermining the response to the growing outbreak.
UNAIDS said “a significant proportion” of recent monkeypox cases have been identified among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
Continue reading...Labour says the case for the British government to follow Ottawa’s lead is ‘extremely strong’
The British government is under pressure to impose sanctions on Alexander Lebedev after Canada targeted the former KGB agent in a fresh wave of restrictions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The billionaire Russian businessman, who little more than a decade ago bought the UK’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers, was named in Ottawa’s latest sanctions announced on Friday.
Continue reading...Move brings Ottawa into line with intelligence allies that have excluded Chinese tech firms from cutting-edge phone networks
Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G network, a move that puts it in line with intelligence-sharing allies, but risks further chilling relations with China.
The federal government made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after signalling for months it intended to block China’s flagship telecommunications companies from accessing 5G networks in Canada.
Continue reading...Conservative Jason Kenney, Alberta premier, leaves province’s top job after barely surviving a leadership review
The abrupt resignation of Alberta’s premier has shocked the western province and raised questions about the ideological direction of Canada’s conservative movement amid a surge in far-right and populist influences.
Jason Kenney announced late on Wednesday that he was leaving the province’s top job after barely surviving a leadership review. A slim majority of party members – 51.4% – had voted in favour of keeping him in power but Kenney said that support wasn’t enough to justify remaining head of the governing United Conservatives.
Continue reading...Poor seed harvests have led to empty shelves at supermarkets in France and global shortages
Climate change and rising costs are causing supermarkets in France to run out of dijon mustard, raising questions over whether the shortage could spread to other countries.
French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they said had been brought on by the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada – the second largest mustard seed producer in the world.
Continue reading...Roger Bilodeau and his son Anthony Bilodeau believed that Jacob Sansom and Maurice Cardinal were thieves, court hears
Two white Canadian men followed and then shot dead two Indigenous hunters because they believed they were thieves, prosecutors have told a court at the start of a murder trial in Alberta.
Roger Bilodeau, 58, and his son Anthony Bilodeau, 33, have both pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder over the deaths of Jacob Sansom and his uncle, Maurice Cardinal in March 2020.
Continue reading...Maud Lewis sold her paintings on Nova Scotia roadsides but found a larger audience after a documentary chronicled her life and work
A Canadian painting that was swapped 50 years ago for a grilled cheese sandwich has sold at auction for an “astounding” C$350,000 (US$272,000).
Black Truck by the folk artist Maud Lewis sold for 10 times its assessed value, setting a new high mark for a painter whose popularity has surged in recent years.
Continue reading...Conservationists and Inuit community relieved at decision on Canadian iron mine that threatened ‘extirpation’ of cetacean
The expansion of an iron ore mine in the Arctic that would have increased shipping and led to the “complete extirpation of narwhal” from the region has been blocked.
After four years of consultations and deliberations, the Nunavut Impact Review Board rejected a request from Baffinland Iron Mines Corp asking to significantly increase mining on the northern tip of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. The area is home to one of the world’s richest iron ore deposits, and the densest narwhal population in the world.
Continue reading...People accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense
Canada’s supreme court has ruled that defendants accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense, striking down a federal law supported by women’s advocacy groups.
The supreme court said on Friday a law passed by parliament in 1995 that prohibits the defense was unconstitutional and violates the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Continue reading...Breakaway ice waters caused floodwaters to surge near Hay River, with 4,000 residents at risk
All 4,000 inhabitants of a small town in Canada’s Northwest Territories have been ordered to evacuate as parts of the country struggle with some of the worst flooding in decades.
Chief April Martel of the Kátł’odeeche First Nation ordered her entire community to leave Hay River after breakaway ice sent floodwaters surging into the centre of the town on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Thousands of locals in Miramichi, New Brunswick, have been swept up in the hunt – and Friday’s clue promises $1,300
It started in early May with a post on a Facebook page for second-hand goods in the Canadian town of Miramichi, New Brunswick. A hundred Canadian dollars had been hidden somewhere near the town’s harbour, it said.
The following days brought more clues for other locations. Some made sense. Most were maddeningly vague.
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