| Flaherty steps down as finance minister, may be replaced by energy minister Posted: 18 Mar 2014 01:27 PM PDT  After 10 federal budgets, Jim Flaherty is calling it quits. Citing a desire to get back to the public sector, the Harper government's only finance minister made the announcement with a statement on Tuesday afternoon. "Yesterday, I informed the Prime … Continue reading →
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| Rescue underway for teens lost in Coquitlam backcountry Posted: 18 Mar 2014 09:38 PM PDT Coquitlam Search and Rescue are making an eight-hour round trip hike into Buntzen Lake Park, to find two teenage girls who got lost during a hike there Tuesday afternoon.  |
| Last of Edmonton troops to return home from Afghanistan Posted: 18 Mar 2014 09:18 PM PDT  Twenty-six soldiers returned home to Edmonton on Tuesday as part of the final group of Canadian Armed Forces members to leave Afghanistan.
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| CBC says Canada's energy minister to become new finance minister Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:35 PM PDT  Canada's Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, the Conservative government's point man on the Keystone XL pipeline, will be appointed the new finance minister, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported on Tuesday. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty resigned on Tuesday and his replacement will be announced on Wednesday. CBC did not cite any sources in its report and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief spokesman Jason MacDonald would not comment. In his current role, Oliver has been the Conservative government's main proponent of TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline to the United States.
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| Are the Alberta Tories’ problems due to Premier Redford, or do they go deeper? Posted: 18 Mar 2014 01:59 PM PDT  The apparent cracks within Alberta's long-ruling Progressive Conservative party over Premier Alison Redford's leadership seem to be widening. The next few weeks could determine whether Redford, who beat established PC heavyweights for the leadership in 2011 and then led the … Continue reading →
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| Federal changes preventing medical marijuana growing unconstitutional: lawyer Posted: 18 Mar 2014 03:30 PM PDT  VANCOUVER - Changes to the medical marijuana program that will force patients to stop growing their own pot will violate the rights of those who won't be able to afford marijuana under the new system or obtain strains that work for them, their lawyer told Federal Court on Tuesday. More than a decade after a landmark court case forced Ottawa to legalize medical marijuana, a group of patients were in Federal Court on Tuesday asking a judge to temporarily block new regulations that will limit production to approved commercial growers. As of April 1, patients currently licensed to grow or possess medical marijuana under the old system will be breaking the law unless they dismantle their grow-ops and destroy their plants and seeds. The patients' lawyer, John Conroy, urged the judge to issue an injunction to allow those patients to continue growing and possessing marijuana under the old regulations until their legal challenge goes to trial.
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| For-profit clinic opening as Ontario prepares ban on paid blood ‘donations’ Posted: 18 Mar 2014 04:45 PM PDT  A battle is underway in Ontario that could shape the way all Canadians give blood. The Ontario government is preparing legislation to stop private, for-profit companies from setting up blood-donation centres in the province. Despite that, one outfit is going … Continue reading →
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| Ottawa has no special obligation to soldiers, federal lawyers say in court filing Posted: 18 Mar 2014 05:35 PM PDT  OTTAWA - Federal lawyers say Ottawa has no special obligation to those who've fought wars on behalf of Canada and that it's unfair to bind the Harper government to promises made nearly a century ago by another prime minister. The court papers, filed in January, were made public Tuesday, the same day Prime Minister Stephen Harper greeted the last wave of soldiers returning from the now-concluded mission in Afghanistan. At the same time, federal lawyers argue that the lawsuit, if successful, would put disabled veterans ahead of all other Canadians in terms of their compensation and treatment by the federal government. At issue is a 1917 pledge made by Sir Robert Borden, the country's prime minister during the First World War on the eve of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which said:
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| Canadian boys among alleged victims of online exploitation network Posted: 18 Mar 2014 12:27 PM PDT  WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities say 14 men have been charged with operating an online child-exploitation network that preyed upon hundreds of boys in the United States, Canada and overseas. Law enforcement officials say the arrests were part of a worrisome trend in which children are being enticed into posting sexually explicit images of themselves, and then those images are broadly shared online. In this case, authorities say users of an underground network posed online as girls to persuade boys into sharing child pornography images with them. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the alleged perpetrators preyed upon the most innocent, most vulnerable members of the society with no regard to the immediate or lasting harm they caused to their victims and their families.
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| Children of Pickton's victims share $4.9 million in compensation fund Posted: 18 Mar 2014 03:50 PM PDT  VANCOUVER - A man whose mother was the last to be reported missing in connection with serial killer Robert Pickton says $4.9 million in government compensation for the 98 children of women who disappeared provides some recognition for decades of pain. "It's been a long battle to get this far," Troy Boen, 28, said Tuesday after the federal, B.C. and Vancouver governments announced the fund that will provide $50,000 for each of the children of 67 missing and murdered women, mostly Pickton's victims. Boen's mother, Yvonne Marie Boen, went missing on March 16, 2001, soon after they'd planned to spend spring break together. Boen's DNA was later found on Pickton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam, where the killer lured vulnerable women from Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside.
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| Large international study suggests flu drugs saved lives in 2009 H1N1 pandemic Posted: 18 Mar 2014 04:49 PM PDT  TORONTO - A large international study suggests that sometimes maligned flu drugs saved lives during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. And deaths were 50 per cent lower during the pandemic among hospitalized adults with H1N1 who were started on the antiviral drugs early when compared to patients who did not get the drugs at all. The senior author of the study says the findings support the decisions by many governments to stockpile the drugs as part of their pandemic response plans. Jonathan Nyugen-Van-Tam says the work suggests flu antiviral drugs should be given to adults admitted to hospital with suspected or confirmed flu infections.
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| Canada’s new pro-military day sounds awfully familiar Posted: 18 Mar 2014 10:35 AM PDT  A newly-announced national day of celebration to be held this spring to commemorate Canada's military presence in Afghanistan sure sounds a lot like another Canadian military celebration to be held less than a month later. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced … Continue reading →
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| Businesses starting to feel the pinch of Vancouver port strike Posted: 18 Mar 2014 11:45 AM PDT  As positions seem to harden, the Vancouver port strike is starting to bite. Several hundred non-union truckers who move containers to and from Vancouver's three main ports walked out almost a month ago over financially damaging cost-cutting among shippers and … Continue reading →
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| Teen says he was blindfolded, chained to bed, sex assault trial hears Posted: 18 Mar 2014 03:34 PM PDT  The youth was called to the witness stand by the Crown at the jury trial of John Leonard MacKean, who has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18. Crown prosecutor Lloyd Tancock asked him what took place at the cabin in Lunenburg County, about 130 kilometres southwest of Halifax.
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| Slow economic growth is the new norm, Bank of Canada chief says Posted: 18 Mar 2014 01:48 PM PDT  HALIFAX - The loonie fell sharply Tuesday after Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz delivered a gloomy speech saying slow economic growth is probably the new norm, requiring central bankers to keep interest rates low during a long period of stagnation. "The global economy may not be just suffering through a hangover from the financial crisis," he said in a speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. He said some analysts have suggested the country may be facing a long period of weak economic growth. "One specific consequence would be that even extraordinarily low policy interest rates could prove to be less stimulative than in normal circumstances," Poloz said.
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| Canadians spend more on pets than ever before Posted: 18 Mar 2014 01:33 PM PDT It's not that unpleasant to live a dog's life anymore. Canadian pet owners are spending more money today than ever before to ensure their furry friends are healthy and happy.  |
| Toronto mayoral candidates Chow and Ford find safe havens with allied interviewers Posted: 18 Mar 2014 02:27 PM PDT  Toronto's ongoing mayoral campaign could be considered the first to run outside the prying eyes of journalism. It won't, of course. Far from it. In fact, it may be the most-covered election in the city's history thanks to the international … Continue reading →
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| Values charter, Peladeau and controversial candidates hurt the PQ in opinion poll Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:39 AM PDT  If momentum means anything in politics, Quebec's Liberals should be a little happier today. A new CROP/La Presse poll, claims that Philippe Couillard's party now sits at 39 per cent support compared to the Parti Quebecois at 36 per cent. … Continue reading →
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| Clinton says Canada has key role to play as NATO braces for more tests by Putin Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:34 PM PDT MONTREAL - Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Canada has a key role to play as NATO braces for more developments linked to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking in Montreal on Tuesday, Clinton said Canada and the U.S. should work together to find a smart way to prevent more conflicts or a situation that gets out of control. "I think Canada and the United States can inject some real thoughtful analysis as to how we can deter further aggression against free people," Clinton said during a question-and-answer period that followed her speech to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. She said the allies must also make it clear to Ukraine that it have an inclusive government.  |
| Harper looking for new economic harmony, Oliver appears to be new songmate Posted: 18 Mar 2014 07:56 PM PDT  OTTAWA - Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper are the Conservative duo who belted out Taking Care of Business for eight straight years, an economic stability standard that voters came to easily identify. Sources say it appears that Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver might step into the Finance gig, now that Flaherty has decided to resign from cabinet. "Everybody knows that the minister of finance works for the prime minister, but the finance minister is the one who has his or her hands on the economic tiller day in, day out, year after year."
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| Canada's veteran finance minister quits, budget surplus in sight Posted: 18 Mar 2014 07:02 PM PDT  By Louise Egan and Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Jim Flaherty, the long-serving Conservative finance minister who helped steer the economy through the global financial crisis, resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday, leaving the country on track to balance its books by 2015. Flaherty, 64, ends the third-longest stint as finance minister in the country's history. Analysts said Canada's Conservative government was likely to stick with the plan to balance the budget next year, but there was less certainty about who would succeed Flaherty and how the government would spend surpluses projected for coming years. Canada's public broadcaster CBC reported that Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver would succeed Flaherty, without citing sources.
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| Canada January factory sales regain lost ground Posted: 18 Mar 2014 05:44 AM PDT  Canadian manufacturing sales recovered more briskly than expected in January after a weak December and inventories in the sector ballooned to their highest level on record, Statistics Canada data showed on Tuesday. Factory sales climbed 1.5 percent in the month, the fastest pace in nearly a year and well above the market forecast of a 0.6 percent gain, making up for the revised 1.5 percent downturn in December. In volume terms, factory sales rose 0.7 percent and 12 of 21 industries representing just under half of all the sector's sales posted increases, Statscan said.
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