Partnership could produce up to 90 icebreaker ships to counter Russian and Chinese inroads into region
Canada, the United States and Finland say a newly announced “Ice Pact” to build a fleet of polar icebreaker ships will challenge China’s control of the market as nations scramble for influence in the Arctic.
The deal, announced during the Nato summit in Washington, could see as many as 90 icebreaker ships produced by the three countries in the coming years.
Continue reading...Conservationists say it’s a ‘slap in the face’ to those who are trying to save the threatened species
The Canadian province of Alberta has quietly reversed a two-decade ban on hunting grizzly bears, in what conservations described as a “slap in the face” amid continuing debate over the future of the threatened species.
Alberta first banned the hunting of grizzly bears in 2006 after the population of the species, which once reached as many as 9,0000 bears, collapsed due to generations of overhunting, agriculture development and urbanization.
Continue reading...Andrea Robin Skinner says her stepfather sexually assaulted her when she was nine, but her mother said she ‘loved him too much’ to leave him
The daughter of Nobel prize winner Alice Munro, Andrea Robin Skinner, has alleged that her stepfather sexually abused her as a child, and that her mother stayed with him even after he admitted to the abuse.
Skinner revealed the allegations in an essay and a news article in Canada’s Toronto Star on the weekend, writing about how her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, began sexually assaulting her in 1976 when she was nine years old and he was in his 50s.
Continue reading...Ministry of foreign affairs forced to say sorry to Canada, Gabon and Burkina Faso embassies after incident
Brazil’s ministry of foreign affairs has been forced to apologise to the embassies of Canada, Gabon and Burkina Faso after three diplomats’ teenage children – all of whom are Black – were searched at gunpoint by police officers.
The incident emerged when the mother of a Brazilian boy in the group posted a security camera video online, prompting outrage – but also a weary recognition that such experiences are all too typical for Black youths in Rio de Janeiro.
Continue reading...After a shocking electoral upset the public is growing increasingly weary of his tenure – and of his Liberal party
A Canadian prime minister who has outstayed his welcome, persistent inflation, a government bumped and bruised by scandal and a fired-up opposition leader itching for a public showdown.
It was against this backdrop, four decades ago, that Pierre Trudeau took his apocryphal “walk in the snow” and decided not to contest the next federal election.
Continue reading...Chart-topping singer cancels remainder of 2024 tour dates but says she hopes to return next year
Ann Wilson, the lead singer of rock band Heart, has announced that she has been diagnosed with cancer.
The 74-year-old wrote in an Instagram post: “I recently underwent an operation to remove something that, as it turns out, was cancerous. The operation was successful & I’m feeling great but my doctors are now advising me to undergo a course of preventive chemotherapy & I’ve decided to do it. And so my doctors are instructing me to take the rest of the year away from the stage in order to fully recover.”
Continue reading...Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed over C$150,000 in benefits for Inuit residents, pleaded guilty in February
A Canadian woman who fraudulently claimed her daughters were Inuit has been sentenced to three years in jail, in what is believed to be the first ever custodial sentence for a “Pretendian”.
Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed more than C$150,000 in benefits intended for Inuit, was sentenced on Thursday, after pleading guilty to fraud in February.
Continue reading...Félix-Antoine Hamel ran in federal election to protest the country’s lack of electoral reforms
A Canadian man has made history by receiving zero votes in a contested federal election, after running as part of a protest over the lack of electoral reforms in the country.
“When I saw the result, I was like: ‘Well, I am the true unity candidate. Everyone agrees not to vote for me,’” Félix-Antoine Hamel told CBC News.
Continue reading...Inquiry into possible violations of provincial law after TC Energy executive claims company influenced government
British Columbia’s attorney general has called for an investigation into possible violations of provincial law after a Canadian oil and gas executive claimed the company improperly used political connections to “dramatically’’ weaken the province’s environmental policies.
In leaked audio recordings first published by the Narwhal and heard by the Guardian, the executive, Liam Iliffe, claimed that TC Energy, a Calgary-based pipeline company with operations spanning the continent, had ghostwritten ministerial briefing notes and planted employees “next to the strawberries or the romaine lettuce” at a Costco supermarket to choreograph seemingly impromptu meetings with senior bureaucrats in order to push the company’s agenda.
Continue reading...Months-long fires spewed about the same amount of carbon dioxide that 647m cars put in the air in a year, data shows
Catastrophic Canadian warming-fueled wildfires last year pumped more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than India did by burning fossil fuels, setting ablaze an area of forest larger than the US state of West Virginia, new research has found.
Scientists at the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland calculated how devastating the impacts of the months-long fires in Canada in 2023 that sullied the air around large parts of the globe. They figured it put 3.28bn tons (2.98 metric tons) of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air, according to a study update published in Thursday’s Global Change Biology. The update is not peer-reviewed, but the original study was.
Continue reading...Demand far outstripped supply for six lotteries amid rising rents in city with scarcity of affordable options
Toronto inhabitants fed up with rising rents are flooding city-run lotteries for affordable housing in new developments, but the chance of being selected for a subsidized unit is often less than 1%.
One new development in the city’s West End recently offered a random public draw to allocate 135 units with rents pegged to income ceilings that would cost hundreds of dollars less than market rates. Nearly 12,500 people entered the draw for the homes aimed at middle-income earners in the Galleria on the Park development.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Prof Samuel Weiss said in leaked email that government halted efforts to tackle mystery illness
A senior Canadian federal scientist has alleged that the government shut down an investigation into a mystery brain illness in New Brunswick that he believes may have affected 350 people.
He is the second federal scientist to accuse the government of deliberately halting the investigation and to say that the caseload is higher than the government has acknowledged.
Continue reading...Missisauga officials have twice forcibly cut Wolf Ruck’s grass and billed him, after he decided to rewild his garden
Most mornings, Wolf Ruck walks the mown paths in his yard in Mississauga, Ontario, watching for insects landing on the goldenrod, birds feeding on native seed heads, and chipmunk kits playing in the tall grass.
The septuagenarian artist, film-maker and former Olympic canoeist began rewilding his garden with native plants three years ago, as part of a growing movement across Canada towards replacing water-thirsty lawns with “naturalised gardens”.
Continue reading...The prolific actor appeared in more than 190 films and TV shows and was a vocal anti-war activist
Donald Sutherland, whose acting career spanned six decades and included starring in such highly acclaimed films as Don’t Look Now, M*A*S*H and The Hunger Games, has died aged 88.
He died in Miami after a long illness, confirmed by his representatives.
Continue reading...Move comes five years after US did so and will add to pressure on European governments to follow suit
Canada has listed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, joining the US and adding to pressure on European governments to follow suit.
The move means police can now charge people who materially or financially support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and requires banks to freeze any assets linked to the organisation.
Continue reading...Environmentalists hail decision to end practice in five years but aquaculture industry warns of 6,000 jobs at risk
Canada will ban open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia coastal waters in five years, the government has announced, a decision that has been welcomed by environmental groups but opposed by the aquaculture industry.
The Liberal government made the decision in 2019 to transition to closed containment technologies to protect declining wild Pacific salmon populations.
Continue reading...Zionist group claims antisemitism as McGill students advertise ‘revolutionary’ summer program at protest camp
A pro-Palestinian student encampment at a prominent Canadian university has announced a “revolutionary youth summer program” with posts featuring photos of masked, armed guerrillas reading communist literature, drawing criticism from a Canadian Zionist organization decrying what it said was metastasizing antisemitism.
The student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill called for students to sign up for “revolutionary” trainings to be held on the university campus this month. Since April SPHR McGill has been occupying part of the Montreal campus to protest against Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
Continue reading...Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy hold a joint press conference just over two hours behind schedule
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni has just arrived at the venue.
This is the scene at the Borgo Egnazia resort as G7 leaders are scheduled to begin arriving.
Continue reading...Black bear apparently opened the vehicle by lifting door handle with its mouth, after breaking into same car last year
After a string of vehicle break-ins in a north Canadian town, local residents have identified the culprit: a black bear with a taste for upholstery foam.
Awoken by a noise near midnight on 11 June, Kayla Seward, who lives in the Ontario township of Larder Lake, went outside to investigate – and found the sleepy black bear locked inside her car.
Continue reading...US wants show of strength with planned sanctions for helping Russia, but group will also discuss migration, Middle East and AI
A dramatic expansion of entities exposed to US sanctions for helping the Russian economy and an EU-led $50bn loan to ease the financial burden on Ukraine will be at the centre of discussions at a summit of the leaders of wealthy G7 nations in Puglia, Italy, starting on Thursday.
The leaders, facing unprecedented challenges from discontented electorates, will be under heightened pressure to provide concrete results as their three days of discussion range across an interlinked agenda encompassing the war in Ukraine, migration, Africa, the Middle East, the climate crisis and harnessing artificial intelligence (AI).
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