Category Archives: Canada

Coronavirus pandemic reaches world leaders and disrupts global sporting events

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Justin Trudeau’s wife and diplomat at the UN test positive as Australian Grand Prix is cancelled and Arsenal and Chelsea teams affected

The coronavirus has reached the highest levels of government and the sporting world, with Canada’s prime minister isolating himself when his wife tested positive, the Arsenal manager and a Chelsea player being diagnosed and the Australian Grand Prix cancelled just hours before the event was due to start.

On Thursday night, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s wife, announced she had been diagnosed with Covid-19 after returning from the UK. Her symptoms were mild and she began two weeks of isolation. Her husband also began isolation and was “in good health with no symptoms”.

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Russian hoax raises questions over Sussexes’ security

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Royal expert sounds alarm after Prince Harry seemingly duped into thinking he was talking to Greta Thunberg

Russian hoaxers who apparently tricked Prince Harry into offering help to take penguins to the North Pole have raised serious questions over security and screening measures for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they leave the royal fold, a royal expert said.

Posing as the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and her father, hoaxers Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov managed to reach Harry on his landline at his rented Vancouver Island mansion on New Year’s Eve and on 22 January, it has been reported.

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Woman in Russian ‘sex spy’ scandal fights deportation from Canada

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Ottawa judge to hear case of Elena Crenna, who denies allegations she shared classified information with Russian officials

A woman at the centre of a three-decades-old Russian “sex spy” scandal is fighting her deportation from Canada, denying allegations she ever shared classified information with Russian officials.

An Ottawa judge was due on Wednesday to hear the case of Elena Crenna, a Russian American woman who married the former Canadian civil servant David Crenna.

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When assisted dying means you have to go before you’re ready

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Grappling with Alzheimer’s, Leila Bell decided to end her life. She used her final days to call on Canada to change its rules

Leila Bell, an 85-year-old great grandmother in Vancouver, decided the circumstances of her death warranted one last act of advocacy.

She told a handful of close friends, her psychologist and her doctor about her plan. Her long-time confidante Sarah Townsend made the arrangements.

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Ethiopia detains 13 Canadians accused of improperly practising medicine

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Canadian Humanitarian members deny distributing expired medication or acting without approval

Authorities in Ethiopia have detained 13 Canadian healthcare workers and volunteers, alleging the group were improperly practising medicine in the country.

Canadian Humanitarian, a non-profit organisation based in the province of Alberta, confirmed the detentions but denied allegations it had distributed expired medication or was offering medical services without prior approval.

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Canada: Wet’suwet’en and ministers agree tentative deal in land dispute

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Resolution follows days of intense negotiation but falls short of agreement over controversial natural gas pipeline

Indigenous leaders in Canada have reached a “milestone” agreement with government officials in a land dispute that has sparked widespread protests and railway blockades throughout the country.

The tentative resolution follows three days and nights of intense negotiations between hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en nation in British Columbia and federal and provincial ministers – but falls short of addressing concerns over a controversial natural gas pipeline project.

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Canada mining firm accused of slavery abroad can be sued at home, supreme court rules

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Case brought by three Eritreans against Nevsun Resources can continue as companies operating overseas face new legal risk

A Vancouver-based mining company can be sued in Canada for alleged human rights abuses overseas including allegations of modern slavery, Canada’s supreme court has ruled.

The decision means three Eritreans who filed a civil suit against Nevsun Resources in British Columbia can continue their case in a lower court.

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‘Revolution is alive’: Canada protests spawn climate and Indigenous rights movement

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An unprecedented movement has been triggered by police raids on Indigenous land – and dialed up the pressure on Justin Trudeau

Since a police raid on an Indigenous territory at the start of February, a wave of civil disobedience has surged over Canada.

Mohawks in Ontario and Quebec have erected rail blockades that paralyzed passenger and freight travel on some lines. Other protesters – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – have followed suit, blockading tracks across the country. Thirty-seven people were arrested in Toronto this week for standing on commuter tracks during evening rush hour, paralyzing the city’s Union Station.

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Jenny Vernon obituary

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My friend Jenny Vernon, who has died aged 75, was a museum curator who worked at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire and later became keeper of Lincoln Castle. But she also had a keen interest in, and knowledge of, Arctic Canada, which she nurtured throughout her adult life.

Jenny was born in Bromley, Kent, to George Vestey, a metallurgist, and Violet (nee Grant), a clerical worker. She spent most of her childhood in Hertfordshire, where she went to school in St Albans. After studying geography at Manchester University she landed a job in 1966 as a geographer with the Canadian government, carrying out field work in the maritime provinces and publishing reports on settlement patterns.

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Canada’s government seeks to expand access to assisted dying

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Proposal would include for the first time people who are not in immediate risk of dying

Canada’s government has proposed broadening a 2016 law on medically assisted death to include for the first time people who were not at immediate risk of dying.

Ottawa made the announcement after a court in the province of Quebec last September said part of the law on physician-assisted suicide was too limited and should therefore be considered unconstitutional.

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Canada: police clear rail blockade by Indigenous anti-pipeline activists

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Several members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk nation arrested in growing political crisis for Justin Trudeau

Police in Canada have removed Indigenous activists from a railway line in Ontario, where a two-week protest against a contentious natural gas pipeline has blocked train traffic and fueled a growing political crisis for prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The Wet’suwet’en nation have lived on their territories in what is now British Columbia for thousands of years. They have never signed treaties or sold their land to Canada. 

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Justin Trudeau tells Canada protesters: ‘The barricades need to come down’

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PM demands end to ‘untenable and unacceptable’ rail blockades erected in support of Indigenous activists fighting gas pipeline

Justin Trudeau has demanded that protesters lift railway blockades that have been erected across Canada in support of Indigenous activists who are fighting a natural gas pipeline.

“The situation as it currently stands is unacceptable and untenable,” the prime minister said on Friday afternoon. “Canadians have been patient. Our government has been patient. But it has been two weeks, and the barricades need to come down now.”

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Canadian police had ‘no authority’ to search pipeline activists, says watchdog

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Letter offers scathing criticism of police’s tactics against Wet’suwet’en people amid growing protest over gas pipeline

Canadian federal police had “no legal authority” to make ID checks and searches on activists seeking to block a pipeline project on Indigenous territory, according to newly released correspondence from the force’s oversight body.

The nine-page letter written by Michelaine Lahaie, chair of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, offers scathing criticism of the police’s continued use of tactics against Indigenous people which she had previously warned against.

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Nearly 70 injured as 200 vehicles involved in pile-up in snowy Montreal

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  • Two people trapped in cars hours after accident
  • ‘Pretty much everything with four wheels was involved’ – police

Nearly 70 people have been injured in a pile-up involving about 200 vehicles on a busy highway in a suburb of the Canadian city of Montreal.

Two people were still trapped in their cars hours after the crash, which happened at 12.30pm on Wednesday in La Prairie, Quebec, said Sgt Marie-Michelle Moore with the Sûreté du Québec, the province’s police force and highway patrol authority.

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New train blockade piles pressure on Trudeau in Wet’suwet’en pipeline fight

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Group of about 20 blocked Canadian National Railway Co rail line near Edmonton, capital of the western province of Alberta

Demonstrators opposed to a Canadian gas pipelinehave blockaded another railway line in the west of the country, adding to pressure on Justin Trudeau to solve a two-week protest.

Freight traffic in eastern Canada has already been stopped for days after campaigners blockaded a main line in Ontario. Protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people who are seeking to stop the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project in British Columbia.

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Justin Trudeau urges ‘dialogue and mutual respect’ to end rail blockade

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  • Canadian prime minister: ‘I know patience is running short’
  • Indigenous activists are protesting against C$6.6bn gas pipeline

Justin Trudeau has called for patience and dialogue as his government seeks a peaceful end to a rail blockade that has shut down freight and passenger traffic. But the Canadian prime minister is under increasing pressure from the Conservative opposition to clear the tracks.

For almost two weeks, protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people of British Columbia in their campaign against the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) 40-mile Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project.

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Opioid vending machine opens in Vancouver

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MySafe scheme for addicts aims to help reduce overdose deaths in Canadian city

A vending machine for powerful opioids has opened in Canada as part of a project to help fight the Canadian city’s overdose crisis.

The MySafe project, which resembles a cash machine, gives addicts access to a prescribed amount of medical quality hydromorphone, a drug about twice as powerful as heroin.

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Iran under growing pressure to hand over Ukraine jet black box

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Canada, Ukraine, Britain and others ask for box to be sent to third country for examination

Canada and other countries whose nationals were killed in the Iranian strike on a Ukrainian civilian jet leaving Tehran have stepped up their requests for Iran to hand over the black box to a third party for examination.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has suggested specialist equipment should be sent to Tehran to help the Iranians decrypt the contents of the black box and has given a commitment the box will not be opened except in the presence of all interested parties. But with an impasse looming, western aviation experts have said it is not possible to send the cumbersome equipment to Tehran.

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Canada driver captures rare sighting of mother lynx and her kittens

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The wild cats which are larger than bobcats spend much of their life hidden in thick forest and are rarely seen in groups

It is one of Canada’s stealthiest predators, so spotting a single lynx is rare enough for travelers in the country’s hinterland.

But a driver in the western province of Manitoba recently managed to capture on video an entire family of the wild cats as they crossed the road.

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