| Harper says he didn't OK call to Deloitte about Duffy audit Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:54 PM PST  Prime Minister Stephen Harper says neither he nor anyone in his office gave Senator Irving Gerstein the green light to contact the auditing firm of Deloitte about Senator Mike Duffy's expenses audit.
 |
| Redford addresses PC convention ahead of leadership review Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:56 PM PST Premier Alison Redford puts her leadership to the test this weekend. Watch her speech to delegates at the PC convention in Red Deer on Friday.  |
| Provencher byelection candidate under fire by taunted teen Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:22 PM PST The Conservative candidate in a Manitoba federal byelection race has angered a local teenager by openly questioning whether the taunting he experienced in front of a CBC News camera was real or not.  |
| StatsCan hauls another census refusenik in front of a judge Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:16 AM PST  Another elderly census refusenik is facing charges after balking at filling out the 2011 census form over fears the information could wind up in American hands. Janet Churnin of Toronto has been charged with violating the Statistics Act, one of … Continue reading →
 |
| Canadians remember where they were the day JFK was assassinated Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:25 PM PST  TORONTO - It was just another Friday in 1963 with all the time in the world for Canadians to struggle through school classes, go for a walk or even skip work to shake off a winter bug. Men and women across the country still recall the precise moment at which they heard that U.S. President John F. Kennedy had been struck by an assassin's bullet. Rodger Campbell, 64, distinctly recalls the flu that kept him back from work that day. From a couch in his Toronto home, Campbell said he unwittingly wound up watching history unfold in something very close to real time.
 |
| PM touts Tory candidate Larry Maguire in Brandon byelection Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST Prime Minister Stephen Harper is singing the praises of Conservative candidate Larry Maguire, who is running in the Brandon-Souris byelection. Voters go to the polls Monday in two Manitoba ridings, and one each in Toronto and Montreal.  |
| How depressing: Canadians among the biggest antidepressant users in the world Posted: 22 Nov 2013 12:21 PM PST  Canadians are among the biggest users of antidepressants in the world, according to a recent study that suggests use is on the incline in most, if not all, developed nations. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has found that … Continue reading →
 |
| Will the Senate scandal stick to Stephen Harper? Posted: 22 Nov 2013 10:20 AM PST  Another day, another twist in the ongoing Senate scandal. In an 80-page court filing by the RCMP, exchanged emails suggest Prime Minister Stephen Harper's staff and top senators worked together to cover up information on Senator Mike Duffy's contested living … Continue reading →
 |
| Nigel Wright had no love for Mike Duffy, despite paying his $90K expense claims Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:49 PM PST  OTTAWA - It's the $90,000 question in the Senate expenses scandal: Why would the prime minister's chief of staff go to such extreme lengths to protect Sen. Mike Duffy? The question became all the more perplexing this week after documents filed in court by the RCMP revealed that Nigel Wright — and other senior staff in the PMO — thought Duffy was a liar, a loose cannon and a troublemaker. Yet Wright gave $90,000 out of his own pocket so that Duffy could reimburse his dubious expense claims at no cost to himself. If Duffy was so much trouble, why would Wright not simply have insisted that Duffy repay his expenses or have his Senate salary garnisheed, as was done with fellow alleged miscreant Patrick Brazeau?
 |
| Omar Khadr war-crimes appeal in U.S. hits 'troubling' legal snag Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:48 PM PST  TORONTO - An American military court has thrown a wrench into an attempt by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr to appeal his war-crimes convictions, The Canadian Press has learned. "It's terribly unfair to Khadr," Sam Morison, Khadr's American lawyer, who works for the U.S. Defence Department, said in an interview Friday.
 |
| Accidental destruction of sperm leads B.C. man to class-action lawsuit Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST  The University of British Columbia has lost another round in a long-running lawsuit over the accidental destruction of frozen sperm belonging to hundreds of men. Cancer survivor Howard Lam is the lead plaintiff in a class-action suit against the university … Continue reading →
 |
| Lack of hotel rooms has football fans bringing RVs to Grey Cup in Regina Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:38 PM PST  REGINA - Huddled together in a parking lot near Mosaic Stadium are 100 recreational vehicles, which will be home to football fans who plan to camp for the 101st Grey Cup. The temperature was in the -20 C range, and even colder with the wind chill, when Michael Bruce backed his RV into place this week. He decided to camp because there was a shortage of hotel rooms in Regina. Fans have also booked hotel rooms in Moose Jaw, about 45 minutes west of Regina along the Trans-Canada Highway, and south of Regina in Weyburn and Estevan.
 |
| B.C. judge finds woman not guilty of human trafficking of young African woman Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:34 PM PST  VANCOUVER - A wealthy British Columbia businesswoman accused of luring a young Tanzanian woman to Canada and forcing her to work as a virtual domestic slave in her multimillion-dollar West Vancouver mansion has been found not guilty of human trafficking. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said in announcing her decision Friday that the testimony of Mumtaz Ladha's accuser was simply not credible. "I wish to emphasize that this is not a case in which I am left with only a reasonable doubt about whether the offences occurred," Fenlon said. "I am left, rather, with the conviction that the allegations made by (the complainant) are improbable.
 |
| Rattled senators disturbed by RCMP tale of upper chamber meddling by PMO Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:08 PM PST  OTTAWA - Rattled Conservative and Liberal senators say they're trying to come to terms with the RCMP's description of meddling by the Prime Minister's Office in the upper chamber's business. The 80-page court filing by the Mounties became required reading around the Senate this week. Emails back and forth suggest Harper's staff and his top senators helped to manipulate a Senate committee and its report into former colleague Mike Duffy's contested living expenses. The group also tried to quash an independent audit commissioned by the Senate.
 |
| Canadian Greenpeace activist Paul Ruzycki freed on bail in Russia Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:58 PM PST  ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The two Canadian activists held in Russia after an Arctic protest in September have been released from custody. Paul Ruzycki of Port Colborne, Ont., and Alexandre Paul of Montreal were among those from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise released Friday. Nicole Paul, Alexandre Paul's mother, said she wanted to hold her son in her arms as soon as possible. Patti Stirling, Ruzycki's sister, called word of her brother's release the best news her family has had in a long time and said it means part of a nightmare is over.
 |
| Rob Ford’s remaining supporters hold steady as more unseemly allegations surface Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:10 AM PST  More unflattering information about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has come out through a released court document, including inferences to domestic abuse and a suggestion he was once stopped from speaking to the prime minister because he was too intoxicated. But … Continue reading →
 |
| Ontario urged to get act together to save Ring of Fire development Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:42 PM PST TORONTO - The finger-pointing has begun as governments and critics look to assign blame over a big mining company's pullout from the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, a massive mineral-rich area believed to have the economic potential of Alberta's oilsands. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is suspending its operations indefinitely, saying it couldn't keep spending money while the question of whether it would be able to build an all-weather road to the remote site remained in doubt. It's a major setback for cash-strapped Ontario, which may not see the economic windfall the governing Liberals had promised anytime soon. Greg Rickford, the federal Conservatives' lead minister for the Ring of Fire, said he was surprised with the Cliffs decision, because the company was "very satisfied" with the federal government's involvement in the project.  |
| Alberta's Redford delivers pep rally speech ahead of party vote on leadership Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:16 PM PST  RED DEER, Alta. - Alberta Premier Alison Redford, facing a crucial vote on her leadership, delivered a pep rally speech to party faithful on Friday night. "You are the very reason that we won in 2012, and you are the very reason that we will win again in 2016," Redford said to applause from 1,500 Progressive Conservative party delegates at the party's annual general meeting. Redford told them their party is family, one that has grown and adapted through four decades in power, starting with former premier Lougheed on through Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach and then Redford. "The Alberta that we enjoy today comes from the support of generations of Progressive Conservative governments with vision, common sense, and the strength of their convictions," she said.
 |
| Ontario declares victory in battle over generic drugs after Supreme Court ruling Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:35 PM PST  TORONTO - Ontario declared victory Friday in a key battle to clamp down on ever-increasing health-care costs, as Canada's top court upheld a ban on big pharmacies selling their own prescription private-label generic drugs. In a 7-0 decision, justices of the Supreme Court of Canada said the province's 2010 decision to outlaw the practice was consistent with its efforts to ensure transparent drug pricing — a decision that could influence other provinces. "We're very pleased that our program and our initiative has been supported, because there's no reason that people in Ontario should pay more for the same drugs than people in other parts of the country," Premier Kathleen Wynne said during a visit to Leamington, Ont. Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC) issued a short statement, saying while it respects the decision, "it is disappointed with the outcome."
 |
| New cyberbullying law has 'larger agenda,' expands police powers Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:49 AM PST  Legal experts say the Conservative government's cyberbullying law aimed at crack down on online tormenters and helping prevent what happened to Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd also expands police powers on much broader fronts.
 |
| Unplanned shutdown triggers isotope shortage; hospitals warned to use cautiously Posted: 22 Nov 2013 06:23 PM PST  TORONTO - An unplanned shutdown of the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor has the country on the verge of a major shortage of medical isotopes, the president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine said Friday. Dr. Norman Laurin said the forced shutdown of production at the Chalk River facility comes at a time when two of the world's three other major producers of medical isotopes are also out of operation. That's the problem," said Laurin, a nuclear medicine physician at the regional hospital in Trois Rivieres, Que. Laurin said Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has said it would know by late Friday or early Saturday whether it can resume operation of the Chalk River reactor this weekend.
 |
| Toronto's scandal-hit mayor still has 42 percent approval Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:10 PM PST  By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Toronto voters still approve of the job Mayor Rob Ford has done and one-third of them would vote for him again, even after he admitted smoking crack cocaine and city council stripped him of much of his authority. Indeed, support for Ford, who has had much of his authority stripped by city council over the past week, is still comfortably in the 37-49 percent range that polls have shown over the past two years, Forum said. "I think he is going to be viable (in the next election)," Forum President Lorne Bozinoff said in an interview.
 |
| Canada's top court upholds Ontario ban on private-label drugs Posted: 22 Nov 2013 07:54 AM PST  By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada dealt a blow to pharmacy chains on Friday when it upheld the province of Ontario's ban on drugstores' sales of their own private-label generic prescription drugs. Pharmacy companies saw the private-label drugs as a way to reduce the impact of Ontario regulations designed to lower the cost of generic drugs. The Ontario rules have weighed on the earnings of the drugstore chains, including Shoppers Drug Mart Corp, a principal appellant in this case. In the 7-0 decision, Justice Rosalie Abella noted that Canada spends more on prescription drugs per capita than almost any other industrialized country and she highlighted "Ontario's totemic struggle to control generic drug prices." She pointed out the proportion of government health care expenses that went for drugs had risen to 15.9 percent in 2010 from 9.5 percent in 1985.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment