| Bitter cold prompts windchill warnings in parts of Canada Posted: 30 Dec 2013 03:33 PM PST  A number of provinces are facing some bitter cold temperatures, with Manitoba, parts of Saskatchewan, northern Ontario and Quebec all under extreme windchill warnings.
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| Two-year-old Canadian girl among 8 dead in St. Vincent storm Posted: 30 Dec 2013 09:08 PM PST KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent - Police in the east Caribbean island of St. Vincent say a two-year-old girl from Montreal was among the eight people who died in a Christmas Eve storm that led to widespread flooding and landslides.  |
| Saskatoon condo residents return to suites after gas leak Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:32 PM PST  Saskatoon residents have been allowed to return back to their apartments after a condominium in the city's west end was evacuated due to a ruptured natural gas line.
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| Plane and cube van collide on tarmac at Calgary International Airport Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:42 PM PST  - There's been a bizarre collision between a plane and a cube van at the Calgary International Airport. The incident happened Monday morning on the tarmac near Gate 11 on the Air Canada side of the airport. Jody Mosely of the Calgary Airport Authority says it appears the aircraft was pushed off the gate and bumped the vehicle, knocking it over. Alberta Health Services says one person was assessed on site and didn't require further care.
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| Year in cartoons: Things we got sick of this year Posted: 30 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST  The year-end gallery cartoon 1  |
| Quebec corruption inquiry set for another busy year in 2014 Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:29 PM PST  MONTREAL - Quebec's fight against corruption snared some high-profile personalities in 2013, including two well-known mayors who were slapped with serious criminal charges. Whether 2014 is just as dramatic is unclear as the Charbonneau Commission resumes its public hearings and the province's anti-corruption unit continues to probe criminal activity at various political levels. Besides then-interim Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum landing in the legal spotlight and gangsterism charges being filed against former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, 2013 saw: — The province's largest labour federation put under the microscope as its construction wing was shown to essentially be under the control of organized crime.
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| Replacing spoiled food one small step in Ontario ice storm recovery Posted: 30 Dec 2013 12:21 PM PST  For residents of Toronto who lost power – some for as long as nine days – during a recent powerful ice storm that wreaked havoc across Central and Eastern Canada, replacing spoiled food may be top of mind. But the … Continue reading →
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| Rizzuto funeral held in church where his son and father were remembered Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:32 PM PST  MONTREAL - Police, bystanders and hundreds of mourners were on hand Monday for Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto's funeral in the same church where his son and father were remembered after their violent deaths. Bells pealed as Rizzuto's gold-coloured casket was carried out of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Defense Church in the heart of Montreal's Little Italy. Elaborate flower arrangements, including one in the shape of a golf bag — a nod to one of Rizzuto's favourite pastimes — were tied to the bumpers. Nick Rizzuto was gunned down on the street, while Nicolo Rizzuto was shot by a sniper in his Montreal mansion.
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| B.C. government ordered to pay logging company $1.75M over aboriginal blockade Posted: 30 Dec 2013 04:38 PM PST One lawyer involved in the case says the judgment, which follows several years of legal proceedings that included a trip to the Supreme Court of Canada, should serve as a yet another warning to the provincial government about the need to meaningfully consult with First Nations over resource development. Moulton Contracting Ltd. sued the government, as well as the Fort Nelson First Nation and several band members, over a non-violent blockade that began in October 2006 and stretched on until the new year. George Behn and members of his family launched the blockade after Moulton Contracting obtained timber sales licences from the provincial government. Moulton planned to sell the timber to lumber giant Canfor.  |
| Toronto ice storm: 290 in dark as power slowly returns Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:03 PM PST About 290 customers are still without electricity in Toronto, more than a week after an ice storm hit Eastern Canada and knocked out electricity to about 300,000.  |
| Conservative government lost ground, voter confidence in 2013: polls Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:48 AM PST  It hasn't been a banner year for the governing Conservative Party of Canada. The reasons are myriad and well-known at this point – starting with a man named Justin Trudeau and a re-awakened Liberal opposition, progressing through a variety of … Continue reading →
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| Religious freedom chief backs diplomats, aims to make Canada a rights leader Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST  OTTAWA - Canada's first religious freedom ambassador says his job advancing and promoting religious liberty around the globe has an equally important role: to support Canadian diplomats as they work abroad. Andrew Bennett's vote of confidence in the Canadian foreign service comes despite years of tension between diplomats and the very Conservative government that created his job early last year. Canada's foreign service is "one of the best in the world" and diplomats have been working tirelessly for decades in nations where religion plays a critical role in the lives of their citizens and the politics of their governments, Bennett said in a recent interview. "The Canadian foreign service, and Canadians abroad, have been focusing on religious freedom for a long time before I arrived, so really our office is a way to support them in what they're finding in the countries they're engaged in," said Bennett, himself a longtime public servant.
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| Christopher Peloso, husband of George Smitherman, found dead Posted: 30 Dec 2013 11:22 AM PST  Politicians from all parties and levels of government are paying tribute to Christopher Peloso. The husband of Ontario's former deputy premier was found dead after a long struggle with depression.
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| New Brunswick winter storm hits during ice storm recovery Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:51 PM PST  Efforts to restore heat and light to New Brunswick homes and businesses still without power after last week's ice storm were not made any easier by a winter blast that dumped 30 centimetres in some areas of the province overnight.
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| Toronto ice storm: province, retailers offer gift cards Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:31 AM PST Ontario retailers and the provincial government are offering gift cards to compensate residents who lost food to spoilage during power outages caused by last week's ice storm.  |
| Job vacancies in Alberta outstrip available labour Posted: 30 Dec 2013 03:50 AM PST  Alberta's hot economy is generating so many jobs that many are going unfilled. Businesses in the province reported nearly 53,000 job vacancies in September.
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| What apps are most used by Canadians? Weather tops the list: poll Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:23 PM PST  TORONTO - Is it any surprise that in a global comparison of what apps mobile users keep going back to again and again Canadians ranked high for checking the weather? In an online survey with more than 19,000 respondents in 27 countries conducted by Ipsos, users were asked what kinds of apps they regularly used. Forty-seven per cent of the Canadians polled said they most often loaded a weather app, which was eight percentage points above the global average. By comparison, only 22 per cent of the users in Saudi Arabia regularly used a weather app and on the high end, 56 per cent of South African users pulled up a weather app often.
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| Lawsuits in Greyhound bus beheading drop Canadian government, RCMP as defendants Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST  WINNIPEG - The Canadian government and the RCMP have been quietly dropped from lawsuits filed after the beheading of a young man aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba. Victim Tim McLean's father filed a claim soon after his son was killed in the summer of 2008 against Greyhound, perpetrator Vince Li and Canada. The Canadian Press recently discovered that the file was amended in April 2012 to drop the federal government as a defendant and to add 22-year-old McLean's "infant son" as one of 15 people who have "been deprived of Tim McLean Jr.'s guidance, care and companionship." Lawsuits filed by two separate bus passengers, Debra Tucker and Kayli Shaw, have also been amended to drop the RCMP.
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