| Police dog Quanto’s killer jailed but Ottawa still hasn’t tabled ‘Quanto’s Law’ Posted: 02 Mar 2014 07:30 AM PST  The man who stabbed Quanto to death last fall is going to prison but the promised federal law, named after the Edmonton police dog he killed and aimed at protecting law-enforcement animals, has yet to break cover. The question is, … Continue reading →
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| Dozens in Vancouver gather to protest Russian occupation of Ukraine region Posted: 02 Mar 2014 08:34 PM PST VANCOUVER - Dozens of protesters wearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag marched in Vancouver Sunday to voice their disapproval of Russia's military action in the eastern European country, where many said they have family and friends. Demonstrators dressed in yellow and blue brandished signs comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler as they made their way through downtown streets toward the Russian consulate. Russia recently captured the Crimean Peninsula and Ukrainian authorities have put their military on high alert fearing a wider invasion while appealing for international help. Many at the Vancouver rally said they had personal ties to the crisis.  |
| Where do people want to go right now? 'The hot places' Posted: 02 Mar 2014 06:41 PM PST  This year's long, cold and relentless winter is motivating people to put down the money to get out of town.
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| Backlash against unpaid internships growing in Canada, called 'exploitation' Posted: 02 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PST  OTTAWA - Nicholas Smith is a 22-year-old Torontonian, working on his second unpaid internship after graduating from the University of Toronto last year with an ethics degree. "I am working with people who've done their masters degrees, and definitely there's an emotional toll in having to work for free," said Smith, whose current unpaid internship is at a Toronto-based think-tank as a foreign policy analyst. "And no one is picked up anyway at the end of the internships. Unpaid internships are on the rise in Canada, with some organizations estimating there's as many as 300,000 people currently working for free at some of the country's biggest, and wealthiest, corporations.
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| Cost of violent crimes topped $12 billion in one year: Justice Canada study Posted: 02 Mar 2014 10:49 AM PST  OTTAWA - Violent crimes in Canada come with a huge financial cost, to victims and to the justice system, says a new Justice Canada report. Five types of violent crimes that occurred in 2009 had an economic impact of $12.7 billion, says the detailed accounting of dozens of factors, from medical care and lost wages to court and social welfare costs. The study is the department's fourth since 2011 to examine the grim price tags associated with crime in Canada, all of them focused on the burden placed on victims. The latest research, completed in December, looked at every case of assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences, that occurred in 2009.
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| Rob Ford gets celebrity treatment in L.A., will be on late-night TV Posted: 02 Mar 2014 04:05 PM PST  Rob Ford touched down in Tinseltown on Saturday and was greeted by late-night talk show jokester Jimmy Kimmel, who wore a chauffeur's cap and held a sign reading "FORD." Doug Ford and Randy Ford, joined him on the trip. The mayor told reporters he'd "love to" to attend the Oscars on Sunday, and will also appear on Kimmel's show — which has repeatedly ribbed the headline-grabbing Ford — Monday night. When asked if he was taking Ford as his Oscar guest, a chuckling Kimmel replied "absolutely, wherever he wants to go."
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| Grief-stricken Edmonton family gets message of sympathy from Guinea Posted: 02 Mar 2014 04:23 PM PST  EDMONTON - A family grieving the death of a husband and father who was stabbed during a rampage at an Edmonton grocery warehouse has received condolences from government officials in the West African country of Guinea. Thierno Bah, 41, was originally from Guinea and had only been in Alberta with his wife and four young children for a few months when he died along with Fitzroy Harris, 50, on Friday. Abdoulaye Barry, a friend of Bah's since childhood who is president of the Guinean Association of Edmonton, said he spoke Sunday morning with the government minister responsible for Guineans who live abroad. He said the minister and other officials wished to pass along condolences, not just to Bah's immediate family, but to all Guineans in Canada.
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| Ottawa reduced to 'gestures' on Ukraine response, say former top envoys Posted: 02 Mar 2014 12:30 PM PST  OTTAWA - The Harper government's response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis smacked of empty gestures from a country that has become increasingly marginalized on the world stage, two retired Canadian ambassadors charged Sunday. Those scathing reviews came from two of the county's most distinguished ex-diplomats: Jeremy Kinsman, who has served as Canada's senior envoy to Russia, Britain, Italy and the European Union, and Paul Heinbecker, the former ambassador to the United Nations and an adviser to past Conservative and Liberal prime ministers. They were highly critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision Saturday to temporarily withdraw Canada's ambassador to Russia, and of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for not ruling out the expulsion of Russia's ambassador to Canada, Georgiy Mamedov, in a later televised interview.
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| Alberta law could allow families to ID children who die in care Posted: 02 Mar 2014 12:44 PM PST The Alberta government plans to lift the publication ban on children who have died in foster care, according to the provinces minister of human services.  |
| Nancy Charest, former Liberal MNA, found dead in Matane Posted: 02 Mar 2014 10:08 AM PST  Radio-Canada sources are confirming that a body found Saturday morning in the Matane region of Quebec is Nancy Charest, the former Liberal MNA for the area.
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| Crystal Mountain, B.C. chairlift falls, 4 injured, 2 critical Posted: 01 Mar 2014 05:25 PM PST  Two people are in critical condition and two others sustained minor injuries after an empty chair at the Crystal Mountain ski resort near Kelowna, B.C. hit a ski tower and fell about six metres causing other chairs to fall.
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| Manitoba's white whale; province eyes better beluga protection Posted: 02 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PST  WINNIPEG - Manitoba is promising increased protection for one of the largest populations of beluga whales in the world as shipping traffic is poised to increase through their summer home in western Hudson Bay. NDP Conservation Minister Gord Mackintosh says the beluga population is healthy right now and the province wants it to stay that way. As shipping traffic increases in the North, Mackintosh said Manitoba wants to minimize the impact on the iconic sea mammals. "We are looking at a strategy that's preventative in nature, particularly given in the years ahead we can anticipate more shipping traffic in Hudson Bay and more industrial uses of that water body," Mackintosh said in an interview.
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| Via Rail enthusiasts rally to save Maritime train service Posted: 02 Mar 2014 10:16 AM PST  A series of rallies were held Sunday at train stations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with rail enthusiasts urging Via Rail to continue service in the region.
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| Canada's Paralympic committee monitors Ukraine as athletes arrive in Sochi Posted: 02 Mar 2014 01:02 PM PST  MONTREAL - Canada's Paralympic athletes continue to arrive in Sochi even as a crisis unfolds in nearby Ukraine. A spokesman for the Canadian Paralympic Committee says the organization continues to monitor the situation but has no plans to back out now. Martin Richard says the goal remains to place among the top three nations in the gold medal count. The Paralympic Games are set for March 7 to 16.
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| Elections bill would give incumbents too much power, expert warns Posted: 02 Mar 2014 02:00 AM PST  Harry Neufeld, who wrote a report on problems in the last federal election, is warning of the potential for more abuse at polling stations if one part of the government's proposed fair elections act goes ahead.
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| Ottawa student leader denounces 'rape culture' on Canadian campuses Posted: 02 Mar 2014 10:17 AM PST  TORONTO - A student union leader at the University of Ottawa says an online conversation among five fellow students in which she was the target of sexually graphic banter shows that "rape culture" is all too prevalent on Canadian campuses. Anne-Marie Roy, 24, is going public despite being threatened with legal action by four of the male students, who say the Facebook conversation was private. Nonetheless, Roy — who received a copy of the conversation via an anonymous email — said she felt compelled to speak out, especially since the five individuals were in positions of leadership on campus. "Rape culture is very present on our campuses...I think that it's very shameful to see that there are student leaders who are perpetuating that within their own circles."
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| Molly Lamb Bobak, Canada's first female overseas war artist, dead at 95 Posted: 02 Mar 2014 05:52 AM PST Molly Lamb Bobak, a long-time resident of Fredericton who was the first Canadian woman to be sent overseas as an official war artist, has died.  |
| B.C. researcher part of African dig that may defy timeline on human evolution Posted: 02 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PST  It has been commonly believed that around 200,000 years ago, human ancestors began to become cognitively "modern." "That is, when did we begin to think in ways that are common for humans today and distinct from non-modern humans?" said Karl Hutchings, an assistant professor in sociology and anthropology at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., and a member of a team of researchers on a recent dig in Ethiopia. A research paper published by the team said the discovery is significant "because it provides direct evidence for a highly advantageous, complex technology that pre-dates the emergence of Homo sapiens." Hutchings, however, is doubtful, because the new data would indicate a different date for the emergence of Homo sapiens — a group that includes humans and their ancestors — and because there have been no sites found with similar tools that were used in that time period.
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| Baird rules out military response to Soviet-style intervention in Ukraine Posted: 02 Mar 2014 05:52 PM PST  OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is ruling out western military intervention to force Russia to pull its troops out of Ukraine. But he's not ruling out further sanctions, including expelling Russia's ambassador to Canada. "I don't think there's anyone talking about western military intervention, none of our friends or allies," Baird said Sunday in an interview with Global's West Block. He called the invasion of Russian troops "old Soviet-style" aggression and dismissed Russian arguments that it needs to protect its Black Sea naval fleet, which is based in Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and the Russian-speaking population in that region.
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