Are Canadians being driven to assisted suicide by poverty or healthcare crisis?

Critics argue laws are being misused to punish the poor but experts say cases represent country’s failure to care for its most vulnerable citizens

After pleading unsuccessfully for affordable housing to help ease her chronic health condition, a Canadian woman ended her life in February under the country’s assisted-suicide laws. Another woman, suffering from the same condition and also living on disability payments, has nearly reached final approval to end her life.

The two high-profile cases have prompted disbelief and outrage, and shone a light on Canada’s right-to-die laws, which critics argue are being misused to punish the poor and infirm. In late April, the Spectator ran a story with the provocative headline: Why is Canada euthanising the poor?

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Ordure! Ordure! Canadian MP sorry for logging on to session from toilet stall

Liberal Shafqat Ali promises never to repeat ‘this error’ after fellow MP deplores affront to ‘cathedral of Canadian democracy’

A Canadian lawmaker has apologized after he was caught logging on to a closed parliamentary session from a toilet stall.

Liberal party member Shafqat Ali participated in a hybrid session of parliament last Friday, joining with a Zoom-like feed visible only to other parliamentarians. But Conservative members grew suspicious of his surroundings.

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Painting swapped in 70s for grilled cheese sandwich serves up windfall

Painting by Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis traded for a meal at Irene and Tony Demas’s restaurant could fetch C$35,000

Working out of the kitchen of their small restaurant in Ontario in the 1970s, Irene Demas and her husband Tony soon learned the value of trading their dishes for the talents of local bakers, craftspeople and artisans.

“Everyone supported everyone back then,” said Irene, at the time a bright-eyed chef in her 20s. In exchange for daily fresh flowers, for example, the couple would take soup and a sandwich to the florist next door.

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Body of a Black girl found in dumpster in affluent Toronto neighbourhood

Homicide investigators are trying to identify the child, whose cause of death is not yet known

Police in Canada are trying to identify a young Black girl whose body was found in a Toronto dumpster, a grim discovery that has shaken the city and seasoned investigators looking into the case.

The Toronto police service announced on Thursday that the body, discovered on Monday in an affluent neighbourhood, was that of a young Black girl, believed to be between the ages of four and seven.

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Canada plane crash mystery deepens with two murder suspects among dead

Investigation into the crash at Sioux Lookout revealed two of four passengers were fleeing murder and conspiracy charges

A plane crash in the rugged hinterlands of Canada during seemingly calm weather has prompted a federal investigation into what could have brought down the small aircraft.

But revelations that two of the passengers were fleeing murder and conspiracy charges and had links to organized crime have only deepened the mystery over the doomed flight.

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For the first time in 200 years, people on this Canadian island will be without a doctor

Fogo Island will lose its only full-time physician in June, leaving the community to journey six hours away to find care

For more than two centuries, residents of a remote Canadian island in the north Atlantic knew they could count on a nearby doctor for relief of most ailments.

But this June, Fogo Island will lose the community’s only full-time physician, a trend mirrored in many of Newfoundland’s towns and villages as the region battles economic decline and a looming demographic crisis. The closest doctor will be a six-hour ferry ride away, subject to the vagaries of powerful maritime storms.

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Drone carrying guns into Canada from US intercepted after crashing into tree

Police in Port Lambton, Ontario, called after device carrying shopping bag of guns flew into tree and operator fled in vehicle

Police in Canada have intercepted a drone which crossed the border from the United States carrying a shopping bag with nearly a dozen handguns – but only after the pilot crashed the device into a nearby tree.

Officers in southern Ontario were called to a home near the town of Port Lambton, north-east of Detroit, after residents reported seeing a stranger maneuvering a commercial drone.

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Canadian police fatally shoot polar bear that wandered into Quebec community

Bear had wandered hundreds of kilometres south of species’ territory in incident experts say could become more common

Canadian police have shot and killed a polar bear that wandered into a Quebec community hundreds of kilometres south of the species’ normal territory, in an incident that experts warn could become more common as sea ice coverage becomes more unpredictable thanks to global heating.

The Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police service, warned residents this weekend that a polar bear had been spotted near the town of Madeleine-Centre – the first time the Arctic’s apex predator had been spotted in the community.

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Square Enix sells its western studios and hits such as Tomb Raider for $300m

Japanese gaming company behind Final Fantasy series secures deal with Sweden-based Embracer

The Japanese gaming company behind Final Fantasy is selling off three studios, including the rights to hit franchises including Tomb Raider, in a $300m (£240m) deal.

Tokyo-based Square Enix has sold US-headquartered Crystal Dynamics and Canada-based Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal to the Nasdaq-listed Swedish gaming group Embracer.

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Four Canadian cadets die after their car drives into water at military college

Investigations under way following the death of the fourth-year students at Royal Military College campus in Ontario

Four Canadian military cadets have died after their car drove into the water at their campus in Ontario.

The incident happened early on Friday on the Royal Military College campus in Kingston, Canada’s Department of National Defence said.

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Canada’s attempt to phase out open-pen salmon farms faces setback

Federal judge says farmers had been blindsided by a government order to shut down

Canada’s effort to phase out open-pen salmon farms has hit a roadblock after a federal judge said farmers had been blindsided by a government order to shut down.

Federal court judge Elizabeth Heneghan ruled earlier this month that former fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan had failed to grant farm operators the right to procedural fairness when she announced plans to phase out the farms, and criticized the minister’s lack of clarity surrounding the controversial decision that companies said would cost them millions in losses.

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Ottawa police chief vows to stop biker rally as city braces for potential protests

‘Rolling Thunder’ rally’s organizer denies event is a protest but prominent anti-vaccine figure is advertised as a ‘special guest’

Ottawa’s police chief has vowed to stop an upcoming biker rally from reaching the city’s downtown core as residents brace for a potential rerun of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” anti-government protests that paralyzed the Canadian capital earlier in the year.

Thousands of bikers are expected to arrive in Ottawa on Friday for the “Rolling Thunder” rally purportedly called in honour of military veterans.

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Global mystery hepatitis outbreak spreads to Asia and Canada

Japan reports child with acute liver disease of unknown origin, and Canada investigating similar cases, with nearly 200 now recorded worldwide

A mysterious liver disease that has infected children in a dozen countries around the world has reached Asia, with a case reported in Japan.

The case in Japan of acute hepatitis – or inflammation of the liver – of unknown origin was flagged by local authorities on 21 April in a child who had tested negative for adenovirus – a possible cause being investigated worldwide – and Covid-19.

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Why are UK supermarkets rationing cooking oil?

Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose have limited sales after concerns over shortages caused by Ukraine war

The latest supermarket data from Kantar shows shoppers have been stockpiling cooking oil due to concerns about the shortage of sunflower oil caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Here we look at what’s behind the shortages, what the situation means for consumers and how long it might last.

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Canada: increase in asylum seekers after Covid restrictions blocked border entry

Numbers ticking up again after Canadian border police had refused entry to all asylum seekers to try to stop Covid spread

Snowy northern winters tend to see a drop in asylum seekers crossing from the United States into Canada at Roxham Road in Quebec. Not this past winter.

In December, the number of asylum seekers entering Canada outside formal land border crossings reached its highest point since August 2017, government statistics show.

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Killers confronted: humpback whale turns on orca pod in rare encounter

Footage shows five-year-old humpback in Canadian waters stalking and ambushing group more used to role of attackers

An aggressive humpback whale appeared to turn the tables on a pod of orcas off the Canadian coast, stalking then ambushing the group that more usually would have been attacking it.

The rare occurrence took place on the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington state and was witnessed and recorded by enthralled tourists on a whale-watching trip.

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Salt spat highlights Canadian national park’s troubling history

Park agency’s order to stop harvesting salts for commercial gain has angered Indigenous community

For years, Melissa Daniels has been travelling to the vast wilds of northern Alberta to harvest naturally occurring salts on lands her ancestors once hunted and fished. She blends the salt with wildflowers from the woods and sells it in small batches.

But Canada’s national park agency recently ordered her to stop, in a move that has angered her community and highlighted the park’s troubling history.

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Canada ignored warnings of virus infecting farmed and wild salmon

Government was in possession of a newly-released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to contagious virus

Canada was warned in 2012 by its own scientists that a virus was infecting both farmed and wild salmon, but successive governments ignored the expert advice, saying for years that risks to salmon were low.

Justin Trudeau’s government has said it will phase out open-pen industrial fish farms off the coast of British Columbia by 2025. But both his government and the previous Conservative government were in possession of a newly released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to the highly contagious Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV).

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Case of Iranian-born woman abducted by fake officers baffles Canadian police

Three months after Elnaz Hajtamiri was taken, investigators have not determined a motive and have not received ransom demands

On a cold winter night, three armed men disguised as police officers arrived at a suburban home in a small Canadian resort town and knocked on the door, claiming that they had an arrest warrant for a 37-year-old woman who was staying there.

After overpowering the homeowner, they seized the woman, Iranian-born Elnaz Hajtamiri, hauled her barefoot through the snow into a vehicle, and sped off into the dark.

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Spiraling housing prices are an ‘intergenerational injustice’, says Canada’s deputy PM

Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as the finance minister, says the issue is her top domestic concern amid affordability crisis

Canada’s finance minister has described the country’s out-of-control housing prices as an “intergenerational injustice”, as political leaders struggle to rein in a spiralling affordability crisis.

Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as Canada’s deputy prime minister, said the issue is her top domestic concern.

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