Category Archives: Canada

Canadian minister dismisses suggestion to block Huawei CFO’s extradition

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Chrystia Freeland said move would set a dangerous precedent while Meng Wanzhou will challenge extradition request

Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, has dismissed a suggestion that Ottawa block the extradition of a top executive from China’s Huawei to the US, saying it would set a dangerous precedent.

Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested on US fraud charges in Vancouver last December, will challenge Washington’s extradition request at hearings that are set to begin next January.

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Briton mails severed toes to Canada for use in notorious cocktail

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Nick Griffiths sent two digits lost to frostbite to Yukon hotel renowned for Sourtoe special

The amputated toes of a British endurance athlete are to be given new life, as the centrepiece of a notorious Canadian cocktail.

As Nick Griffiths lay in a hospital bed last year after succumbing to frostbite in the Yukon Arctic race in northwest Canada, the world’s coldest ultra-marathon, his mind drifted to an advertisement he had seen earlier in a hotel in the territory.

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Two Canadian women abducted in Ghana rescued by security forces

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Eight people arrested in connection with kidnapping of Lauren Tilley and Bailey Chitty, authorities say

Security forces have rescued two Canadian women who were abducted in Ghana earlier this month and arrested eight people in connection with their kidnapping, authorities said on Wednesday.

The pair were named as Lauren Tilley and Bailey Chitty by Youth Challenge International, an international development organisation headquartered in Toronto.

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Grocery store urges customers to rethink plastic with embarrassing bags

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East West Market hopes humorous bags like ‘Wart Ointment Wholesale’ will persuade shoppers to shun single-use plastic bags

If concern over the climate crisis or revulsion over the contamination of the food chain are not enough to change consumer behaviour, one grocery store is hoping that another emotion may persuade people to shun single-use plastic bags: shame.

Related: Canada will ban 'harmful' single-use plastics as early as 2021

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Canada will ban ‘harmful’ single-use plastics as early as 2021

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Justin Trudeau said his government is drawing inspiration from EU in planning ban on water bottles, plastic bags and straws

Canada will ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, Justin Trudeau said on Monday.

The prime minister said the specific items to be banned will be determined based on a science-based review, but the government is considering items such as water bottles, plastic bags and straws.

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Two Canadian volunteers missing in rare kidnapping in Ghana

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The women were abducted in Kumasi, and security sources have suggested it was a kidnapping for ransom

Two Canadian women who were volunteering with an international development organisation have been abducted in Ghana, a rare attack in a country seen as one of the most secure in the West African region.

The Canadians, who are ages 19 and 20, were taken on Tuesday evening in Kumasi, Ghana’s second city, some 200km (125 miles) north-west of the capital Accra.

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Museum visitor cracks code to unlock secrets of mystery safe

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Tourist hails ‘lucky guess’ after random numbers open 900kg container sealed for decades

When Stephen Mills spotted a dusty old safe in a museum in Canada, he thought he’d try to crack the code, “just like in the movies”. But when he began turning the dial, he wasn’t expecting a Hollywood ending.

For years, anyone who visited the Vermillion Heritage Museum in Alberta would have passed by a large, black metal box. Staff knew it had come from the long-gone Brunswick hotel and was donated to the museum in the 1990s. But its code and contents remained a mystery for decades – until Mills unexpectedly cracked the combination.

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‘Surveillance capitalism’: critic urges Toronto to abandon smart city project

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Project with Google’s Sidewalk Labs comes under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting

A “smart city” project in Canada has hit yet another snag, as mounting delays and privacy concerns threaten the controversial development along the Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

The 12-acre Quayside project, a partnership between Google’s Sidewalk Labs and the city of Toronto, has come under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting.

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Canada must not ignore Indigenous ‘genocide’, landmark report warns

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  • Up to 4,000 Indigenous women and girls killed or missing
  • Justin Trudeau: ‘We have failed you. We will fail you no longer’

Canadians can no longer turn a blind eye to the “genocide” of Indigenous peoples in the country, a landmark report on missing and murdered women has concluded.

Indigenous communities across the country have for decades attempted to convey the depth and scope of a tragedy that has haunted thousands of families.

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Decades of missing Indigenous women a ‘Canadian genocide’ – leaked report

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Government’s inquiry into disappeared women and girls to be published Monday

Three decades of missing and murdered Indigenous women amounts to a “Canadian genocide”, a leaked landmark government report has concluded.

The document, titled Reclaiming Power and Place, was compiled over more than two and a half years. Canada’s CBC News was given a copy of the report, which is due to be released on Monday, on Friday. Its contents were confirmed to the Guardian by an individual working within the inquiry.

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Philippines puts 69 containers of rubbish on boat back to Canada

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Container ship M/V Bavaria, with tonnes of garbage on board, has left Subic Bay on a 20-day journey to Vancouver

The Philippines has made good on a threat by President Rodrigo Duterte and put 69 containers of what its officials called illegally transported garbage on a ship that is heading to Canada.

The nation is one of two in south-east Asia that have protested being treated like dumpsites by wealthier countries.

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Ex-Trudeau ministers to run as independents after Liberal scandal

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Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould were expelled from Canada’s ruling party in April

Two former ministers in Justin Trudeau’s administration will run as independent candidates in this year’s federal election, reopening wounds from a recent political scandal that has damaged the prime minister’s popularity and cast doubt on the Liberal party’s ability to form a government in October.

In separate events held on either side of Canada on Monday, former ministers Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould announced they would hold no party affiliation as they run for parliament.

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Guardian spurs media outlets to consider stronger climate language

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Use of terms ‘climate crisis’ and ‘global heating’ prompts reviews in other newsrooms

The Guardian’s decision to alter its style guide to better convey the environmental crises unfolding around the world has prompted some other media outlets to reconsider the terms they use in their own coverage.

After the Guardian announced it would now routinely use the words “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” instead of “climate change”, a memo was sent by the standards editor of CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, to staff acknowledging that a “recent shift in style at the British newspaper the Guardian has prompted requests to review the language we use in global warming coverage”.

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Matthias & Maxime review – Xavier Dolan’s heartfelt tale of male longing

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Two friends’ playful kiss rekindles suppressed feelings in a film swept along by rattling dialogue and simmering tensions

Xavier Dolan’s unstoppably garrulous, sweet-natured new movie is a coming-of-age film, or possibly an approaching-thirtysomethinghood film. Or perhaps it’s a portrait of a bunch of friends for whom things would never be the same again after that summer. It is not exactly a sexual awakening tale because the sexuality in question never really went to sleep. But it is a love story.

Related: Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood review - Tarantino's dazzling LA redemption song

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Canadian Arctic fossils are oldest known fungus on Earth

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Fungus is half a billion years older than previous record holder found in Wisconsin

Tiny fossils found in mudrock in the barren wilderness of the Canadian Arctic are the remains of the oldest known fungus on Earth, scientists say.

The minuscule organisms were discovered in shallow water shale, a kind of fine-grained sedimentary rock, in a region south of Victoria island on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

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Honduras plane crash: five foreign tourists killed shortly after takeoff

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Conflicting accounts say victims travelling on private plane off Roatán island were from US or Canada

Five foreign tourists died on Saturday after a private plane they were traveling in crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from the island of Roatán, near the Atlantic coast of Honduras, local authorities said.

Related: Australian man one of six dead after midair seaplane collision in Alaska

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Trump cools trade war by lifting North American metal tariffs

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  • Steel and aluminium imports from Mexico and Canada affected
  • Trump pauses implementation of auto tariffs on EU and Japan

The Trump administration moved to cool the simmering trade war with its major trading partners on Friday, ending tariffs on metal imports from Canada and Mexico and announcing a pause on planned tariffs on cars and car parts.

“I’m pleased to announce we’ve just reached agreement with Canada and Mexico,” Donald Trump said. “We’ll be selling our product into those countries without the imposition of tariffs.”

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Australian man one of six dead after midair seaplane collision in Alaska

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Four Americans and a Canadian also among those killed after crash involving cruise ship sightseeing planes

An Australian man has been confirmed as among six people killed after two sightseeing seaplanes crashed midair in Alaska.

Four Americans and one Canadian were also among those killed when two planes carrying 16 people – including the two pilots – collided and plunged into the icy cold waters of a inlet near the south-eastern Alaskan town of Ketchikan on Monday, the US coast guard said.

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Australia to import wheat for first time in 12 years as drought eats into grain production

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Biosecurity concerns raised over import from Canada as Australia’s winter crop forecast to drop 20% below 20-year long-term average

Australia is planning to import wheat for the first time in 12 years after drought across the eastern states saw grain production fall 20% last year.

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources confirmed this week it had issued a bulk import permit to allow wheat to be brought in from Canada to be processed for the domestic market.

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US senator asks Canada to protect Erdoğan critic Kanter during NBA finals

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  • Trail Blazers player is an opponent of Turkish president
  • Blazers could travel to play Toronto Raptors in finals

The NBA playoffs have been swept up in diplomatic drama, with US senator Ron Wyden expressing concern for the safety of Portland Trail Blazers player Enes Kanter if his team play the Toronto Raptors in the NBA finals.

Kanter is a fierce critic of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him the “Hitler of our Century”. The Turkish authorities in turn have accused Kanter of having links with an armed group behind a failed coup in the country in 2016. Last year, Kanter missed a trip to London with his then team the New York Knicks, saying he feared he could be “killed by Turkish spies”.

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