China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in recent months over Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minority
A Chinese diplomat has dismissed Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau as a “boy” in a social media attack marking a new low in the fractured relationship between the two countries.
China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in recent months, and last week the two countries imposed sanctions on each other in a growing row over Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minority.
Continue reading...First the Rose family’s former mansion hit the real estate lists – now it’s the 10-room motel they called home
The motel home of the Rose family in the Emmy-sweeping Canadian TV series Schitt’s Creek is up for sale for C$2m.
The Hockley Motel in the Canadian town of Mono, Ontario, was a key filming location throughout the six seasons of the hit CBC sitcom.
Continue reading...Washington says Beijing’s tit-for-tat sanctions will only focus attention on its ‘genocide’ against Uighurs
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has warned that China’s tit-for-tat sanctions against two Americans in the growing dispute over Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs were “baseless” and would only shine a harsh spotlight on the “genocide” in Xinjiang.
“Beijing’s attempts to intimidate and silence those speaking out for human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Blinken said in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...Activists seek ban on flying horses to Japan with thousands sent every year from Canada and France
Tens of thousands of horses are being subjected to long-haul flights, confined in crates with no food or water, to meet demand for horsemeat in Japan.
Since 2013, about 40,000 live horses have been flown to Japan from airports in western Canada. Under Canadian regulations, the journey can stretch up to 28 hours, during which the animals are allowed to go without food, water or rest.
Continue reading...‘Rascal’ or ‘Nickel’ who ended up in station after straying from a nearby marsh was captured and released safely
Lost and confused passengers are a common sight on the Toronto metro system, but a puzzled, fare-evading beaver wandering a subway station is probably a first for the city.
An underground station in Canada’s largest city was shut down on Thursday after a beaver unwittingly ended up on its terrazzo tile floors after straying from a nearby marsh.
Continue reading...The skirt, a traditional Native garment, outshone everything in the Eisenhower building – and there is a story of empowerment and survival behind it
It was a dress that triggered a flood of headlines. Standing in front of Vice-President Kamala Harris with her right hand raised, Deb Haaland was sworn in last week as the secretary of the interior dressed in a long rainbow ribbon skirt adorned with a corn stalk, butterflies and stars.
Related: Making history in style: Deb Haaland wears Indigenous dress at swearing-in
Continue reading...Police in Canada told a grieving Indigenous mother to “get over it” after delivering news that her son had been killed, according to a scathing watchdog report that accused officers of discrimination and inflaming racial tensions during their investigation.
Colten Boushie, 22, was shot and killed in August 2016 after he and four friends drove on to a farm looking for help with their flat tyre. Nearly two years later, an all-white jury found Gerald Stanley, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder amid racial tensions in the Canadian prairies and deficiencies in the justice system.
Continue reading...Canadian official is denied court access as former diplomat faces accusations of espionage in case described by Ottawa as ‘hostage diplomacy’
The second of two Canadians detained in China for more than two years, Michael Kovrig, has gone on trial on espionage charges, days after the United States raised its concerns over the cases during tense US-China talks in Alaska.
One senior Canadian diplomat said he had been denied access to the court in Beijing on Monday, echoing the scenes on Friday, when Michael Spavor was tried in secret in a court process that lasted only a few hours.
Continue reading...Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party members have voted down a proposal to recognize the climate crisis as real, in a blow to their new leader’s efforts to embrace environmentally friendly policies before a likely federal election this year.
Related: 'Climate facts are back': EPA brings science back to website after Trump purge
Continue reading...Michael Spavor has been detained in China since 2018 in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive
Justin Trudeau has reacted angrily to the closed-door trial of a Canadian man detained in China for more than two years on espionage charges, dismissing it as “completely unacceptable”.
Businessman Michael Spavor, whose hearing finished after less than three hours on Friday, is one of two Canadians detained, in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest on a US extradition warrant of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, and formally charged last June with spying.
Continue reading...York University apologises after academic dismissed request for exam deferral from student where internet had been shut down
College instructors are all too familiar with the frantic, sometimes implausible excuses that students offer to get out of taking an exam.
But a university in Canada has been forced to take action after a professor threatened to fail a student who requested an extension because they were in Myanmar, where the military government was shutting down the country’s internet.
Continue reading...Biden administration has come under pressure to share vaccine, which has been authorized in other countries but not yet in US
The United States plans to send roughly 4m doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries.
Mexico will receive 2.5m doses of the vaccine and Canada will receive 1.5m doses, the official said.
Continue reading...Canada criticises pair’s detention as ‘arbitrary’ as Beijing says trial will begin on Friday
China has announced it will begin trials for the two Canadians it detained in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a telecoms executive.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in December 2018, days after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.
Continue reading...Lt Col Eleanor Taylor says in resignation letter: ‘On the issue of addressing harmful sexual behaviour, we have lost all credibility’
One of the most senior female soldiers in Canada has resigned after a string of allegations of sexual misconduct among top brass, saying she was “sickened” by the military’s repeated failures to tackle the abuse.
In a letter sent to her superiors, Lt Col Eleanor Taylor announced her resignation late on Tuesday, in the latestblow to an institution already in crisis.
Continue reading...Canadian Energy Centre, funded by Alberta government, says Bigfoot Family ‘brainwashes’ youngsters and ‘peddles lies’
The animated film Bigfoot Family has come under fire in Canada – but not because of its stilted dialogue or confusing plot.
Instead, a government-funded lobbying group has targeted the movie – a fantasy epic featuring a human family whose father is Bigfoot – on the grounds that it “peddles lies” about the oil and gas industry.
Continue reading...A year after ditching a Google tie-up to create a tech-heavy waterside development, Canada’s largest city is stressing affordability and sustainability
When a Google-backed company first considered 12 acres of industrial land along Toronto’s waterfront, it saw a blank slate that would let it design a hi-tech, futuristic city.
Algorithms would ease congestion on heated roads. Autonomous vehicles would shuttle residents past towering wooden skyscrapers. And by closely studying millions of residents, computers could learn how to make the city more livable.
Continue reading...Editorial in state-run Global Times said Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor would likely stand trial in coming weeks
Two Canadian men detained in China are likely to stand trial in the coming weeks, according to a state-backed newspaper, dimming hopes that a diplomatic deal could secure their release.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been held without bail for more than 820 days, since they were detained soon after the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested on a US warrant in Vancouver.
Continue reading...An insomniac student is haunted by a demonic figure in this flamboyant and stylised waking dream of a film
There is something visionary about this near-nonsensical, kitsch but atmospheric techno-thriller from Canadian director Anthony Scott Burns. Drawn along on dark somnambulic rhythms, it incorporates elements of fantasy, horror and 80s synthwave aesthetics without giving itself over completely to any of them.
A wordless first 10 minutes introduces us to Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone), a runaway student apparently unwelcome or unwilling to return home, waking in spectrally lit parks and falling asleep in coffee shops. Dropping suddenly into surrealistic CGI dreams that track inexorably towards a demonic figure who, if approached too closely, wakes her with a start. Sarah decides to try and climb out of this insomniac bath by enrolling in a university sleep study. It is overseen by Dr Meyer, a Cronenbergian academic in big glasses, but run by a trio of researchers who, like the memory technicians in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, have a loose relationship with scientific protocol. Becoming close to Jeremy (Landon Liboiron), she learns that they are using pioneering technology to observe the subjects’ dreams – and that the same shadowy presence manifests in all of them.
Continue reading...Prince Harry denied he had ‘blindside’ his grandmother, saying he had too much respect for her
One person in the royal family escaped the ire of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their devastatingly critical tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey: the Queen.
Prince Harry’s hurt at being “let down” by Prince Charles; Meghan’s claim that the Duchess of Cambridge made her cry, and not the other way around; Harry’s sadness at his rift with Prince William – all was laid bare.
Continue reading...Raccoon attacks on residents are up 62% as some people act ‘foolish’ but others are enjoying seeing their furry neighbours
Disrupted sleeping schedules, noisy neighbours and a world that looks unrecognizable: the coronavirus pandemic has been tough for Toronto’s raccoons.
And with a lockdown keeping human residents at home in Canada’s largest city, dangerous interactions with Toronto’s infamous urban critters are also increasing.
Continue reading...