There are days in a Canadian winter – when the temperature drops well below freezing and the snow hasn’t yet fallen – that transform any body of freshwater into a glass-like sheet of ice.
But what can bring joy to an adventurous human can prove a nightmare for some wild animals.
Continue reading...Lawyers for customers of an insolvent cryptocurrency exchange have asked police to exhume the body of the company’s founder, amid efforts to recover about $190m in Bitcoin which were locked in an online black hole after his death.
Miller Thomson LLP sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday, requesting authorities “conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy” on the body of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, citing what the firm called the “questionable circumstances” around his death earlier this year.
Continue reading...More than 17,000 have been hospitalized in what officials say is mounting crisis
Nearly 14,000 people in Canada have died from opioid overdoses in the last four years and more than 17,000 have been hospitalized in what officials say is a mounting crisis that shows few signs of relief.
In a report titled Opioid-related harms in Canada released this week, Canada’s public health agency outlined the scope of the crisis.
Continue reading...Andrew Scheer announced intention to step down shortly before reports he used funds for his children’s eduction
The leader of Canada’s Conservatives has resigned, following mounting frustration over a disappointing performance in October’s general election and reports that he used party funds to help pay for his children’s private school education.
Andrew Scheer announced his intention to step down at an emergency caucus meeting on Thursday morning. Shortly after news of his resignation broke, however, Global News reported that he had used party funds to pay for his children’s private school education – allegedly without knowledge or approval from the funding board.
Continue reading...Fishermen on Canada’s Vancouver Island have filmed the moment they rescued a bald eagle from the grips of an octopus’s tentacles after the bird of prey tried to attack it. The footage shows the fisherman removing the bird from the octopus's tight hold, before they release it back to safety
Continue reading...Melting sea ice is prompting fevered dreams of ever-easier access, and a renewed jockeying among Arctic nations for status, profit and ownership
I could not keep my eyes off the graves, could not stop staring at them even as I walked away, turning repeatedly to look over my shoulder at them as I slogged my way across the gravel-strewn shore of Beechey Island until they disappeared from view.
It was profoundly saddening to contemplate their presence on a low-lying, windswept outpost of the Canadian Arctic, to imagine the fear and loneliness those buried here must have felt as they faced death in the harshest of conditions, thousands of miles and a world removed from their homes. And yet, they were the lucky ones, the first casualties of an expedition that vanished 173 years ago while searching for the fabled Northwest Passage between Atlantic and Pacific, whose remaining members met their doom after their ships became frozen in never-yielding sea ice, who perished one by one waiting for a summer that never came.
Continue reading...Company hails start of the ‘electric aviation age’ after 15-minute test flight in Vancouver
The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft has taken its inaugural test flight, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and flying for 15 minutes.
“This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Australian engineering firm magniX.
Continue reading...Canada’s logging industry has a larger and more damaging impact on forest health than previously thought, a new report has found, casting doubt on the sustainability of forestry management in the country.
Related: The last great tree: a majestic relic of Canada's vanishing rainforest
Continue reading...Donald Trump said Justin Truedeau was ‘two-faced’ after the prime minister of Canada seemed to joke about the US president in a video shared widely on social media.
Trudeau appeared to be joking with Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron about Trump in the video, although the US president is never mentioned by name
Continue reading...As the Disney movie earns $1bn at the global box office, the actor says ‘I feel like I’m going to be overlooked and underestimated for a long time’
Mena Massoud, the Egyptian-Canadian actor who played Aladdin in the recent Disney live-action remake, has said he hasn’t had a single audition since its release.
Massoud told the Daily Beast: “I’m kind of tired of staying quiet about it … I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin. ‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I haven’t had a single audition since Aladdin came out.”
Continue reading...The massacre at Montreal’s Polytechnique school, fueled by misogyny, is not a horrifying memory confined to a bygone era – rather it seems like a foretelling of things to come
Late in the afternoon on 6 December 1989, a young man walked into Montreal’s Polytechnique engineering school with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 14 women, injured 14 others (including four men), then killed himself.
Related: Toronto van attack suspect says he was 'radicalized' online by 'incels'
Continue reading...The late film star was a trailblazer for diversity in fashion and film. His loss deprives the growing Chinese entertainment industry of a fine talent
Taiwanese-Canadian actor Godfrey Gao was famous for being the first Asian international supermodel but he was much more than just a pretty face – he had a reputation for being one of the friendliest stars in an intensely competitive industry.
“He was known for being a very nice guy,” says Cecilia Pidgeon, a former celebrity editor at GQ China. “He had a very good reputation among other actors. He was always nice to his fans. All of the colleagues he worked with only had good things to say.”
Continue reading...3,200 Canadian National workers walked out last week, paralyzing freight traffic and prompting fears of a heating gas shortage
Canada’s largest rail strike in more than a decade has paralyzed much of the nation’s freight traffic and prompted fears of a heating gas shortage as winter sets in.
Nearly 3,200 workers at Canadian National, the country’s largest rail operator, walked off the job on 19 November, to protest against chronic overwork and unsafe conditions.
Continue reading...Decision to elevate former journalist reflects level of trust Trudeau has in her and the scale of the task for his government
During the most important week in North American free trade negotiations last year, Canada’s top representative arrived in Washington wearing white T-shirt that read “Keep Calm and Negotiate Nafta” and “Mama ≠ Chopped Liver”.
The message from her children who made the shirt, was clear: Chrystia Freeland was not to be underestimated.
Continue reading...New revelations about party funding are a stain on the country’s reputation for transparency
Complacency can be a nation’s greatest foe.
New Zealanders, buoyed by their country’s high ranking in global transparency measures, see little to learn from other states when it comes to cleaning up politics.
Continue reading...‘Captain Dick’ Stevenson requested all 10 of his toes be donated for use in the ‘sour toe’ whiskey cocktail he invented
The final wish of a Canadian man – that all of his toes be donated to be used in a notorious whiskey cocktail he invented – will soon become a reality.
Dick Stevenson, a bartender in Canada’s Yukon territory, died last week at the age of 89. In his will, Stevenson – known to patrons as Captain Dick – had requested all 10 of his toes be donated for use in the “sour toe” cocktail.
Continue reading...Dan McGarry of the Daily Post told at Brisbane airport the Vanuatu immigration service had barred him from flying back to the island country
The media director of a Vanuatu newspaper whose visa renewal was refused this month has been barred from flying home to Vanuatu from Brisbane with his partner.
Dan McGarry, who has lived in Vanuatu for 16 years, applied to have his work permit renewed earlier this year but it was rejected. McGarry believes his visa was refused due to articles he had published about China’s influence in Vanuatu.
Continue reading...Hunters and government biologists searching for explanations after unusual sounds recorded in forests of north-western Ontario
A series of howls and shrieks recorded in the Canadian wilderness have left a hunter and government biologists searching for explanations.
Gino Meekis was out hunting grouse with his wife and grandson in the forests of north-western Ontario – more than 50km from the closest town – when they heard a series of eerie noises in the distance.
Continue reading...A French doctoral student has been denied residency in Quebec after officials in Canada’s francophone province ruled that she had an inadequate command of her mother tongue.
Emilie Dubois, a graphic designer who has lived and studied in Quebec City for eight years, was stunned to find her recent residency application denied on the grounds that she failed to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of French.
Continue reading...Workers’ buses hit near Semafo’s Boungou mine in Est province, as military struggles to control Islamist violence
Thirty-seven civilians were killed and more than 60 wounded when gunmen ambushed a convoy transporting workers of Canadian gold miner Semafo in eastern Burkina Faso, regional authorities have said.
The attack on Wednesday is the deadliest in recent years as the military struggles to contain Islamist violence that has overrun parts of Burkina Faso, located in west Africa. Semafo tightened security last year following armed incidents near two of its mines in the country.
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