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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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).
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Hazel McCallion retired as mayor of Mississauga after 36 years in 2014 but the ‘pragmatic populist’ has shown little sign of easing up
When Hazel McCallion retired in 2014 as the mayor of the Canadian city of Mississauga, she was 93.
But while most people her age typically retreat from the spotlight of public life, “Hurricane Hazel” has shown little interest in slowing down. At 101, she recently accepted an offer to extend her role as a director for the greater Toronto airport authority, a contract that will last three years.
Continue reading...Government under pressure after prices climbed by more than 20% last year, while rental rates have also been rising
Justin Trudeau’s government has announced it will ban foreign investors from buying homes in Canada for two years, in a bid to cool off a hot housing market.
The finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, took a number of measures to tamp down speculation and demand amid record home prices in announcing the federal budget for the year.
Continue reading...Conservationists say the farms are a danger to sea lions and other marine mammals, who can become entangled in their nets
Dozens of thieving sea lions in western Canada have spent the last few weeks gorging on fish after brazenly slipping into an industrial salmon farm – and ignoring all attempts to make them move on.
Cermaq, the aquaculture giant with operations in Norway, Chile and Canada, says the wily predators were able to evade netting and electric fences in late March as part of a “breach event” at the Rant Point farm near Tofino in British Columbia.
Continue reading...Perpetrators siphoned syrup from barrels stored in Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserves and replaced it with water
Richard Vallières’s plan to make millions of dollars was deceptively simple: secretly drain the province of Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve and then sell the illicit product.
But the Quebec man’s daring theft fell short after police were tipped off and he and his accomplices landed in jail.
Continue reading...