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Canada considers Quebec woman with six children in Syria a security risk, lawyer says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

OTTAWA — A lawyer says Canada will not repatriate a Quebec woman being held in Syria with her six children because officials believe she poses a security risk.Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who has been working to bring the woman home, says he was advised of the decision recently by Global Affairs Canada.He says the department wrote June 21 that the woman has “extremist ideological beliefs” that may lead her to act violently, and the government cannot ensure no such conduct occurs.Greenspon says the excuse is untrue and unacceptable, arguing the government could deal with the woman as needed through Canada’s justice system.He says the federal decision means the woman must decide whether to send her children to Canada alone or keep them with her in Syrian detention.The family is among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps run by Kurdish forces that took back the war-torn region from the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. This report by The Canadian Pre...

Forest fire centre declares 2023 already worst year ever for Canadian wildfires

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

MONTREAL — Canada surpassed the record for area burned by wildfires in a single year Monday as hundreds of fires continued to blaze in almost every province and territory.The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday afternoon that 76,129 square kilometres of forest and other land has burned since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometres, according to the National Forestry Database.Last week federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said he wasn’t “looking to break any records” but acknowledged it was likely coming. “Unfortunately the fire season this year started earlier and has been more widespread across the country than in recent memory,” he said.It took less than six months to surpass the previous record for an entire year. And in 1989, more than 11,000 different fires combined to create the total, with an average size of about seven square kilometres. This year, there have been less than 3,0...

David Johnston files final report on foreign meddling, done as special rapporteur

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

OTTAWA — David Johnston has filed his final — and confidential — report on foreign interference to the prime minister, ending his controversial term as special rapporteur.Johnston had announced his plans to resign the role earlier this month, saying the atmosphere around his work had become too partisan. The former governor general was appointed to the role in March, as the Liberal government faced increasing pressure to tackle allegations that China meddled in the last two federal elections.Johnston’s initial report in May concluded that a public inquiry would not be a constructive way forward — angering opposition parties, who accused him of being too close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.In a news release today, the office of the independent special rapporteur says Johnston has sent Trudeau a “supplement to the confidential annex” of his earlier report, meaning it will not be made public.Opposition party leaders had been in negotiations last week to decide on t...

Stratford fest expands digital theatrical offerings to Apple, Android, Amazon, Roku

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

The Stratford Festival is growing its digital reach while working towards rebuilding live audiences that withered in the early days of the pandemic.The southwestern Ontario theatre company says stage fans can now find highlights of its past seasons on iOS/tvOS, Apple TV, Android/Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku.The app Stratfest@Home costs $7.99 per month for access to stage productions, behind-the-scenes content, audio plays and original programming.The tool expands a web-only version launched in October 2020 that cost $10 per month.It comes as the festival continues efforts to rebound from a $4-million loss in 2020, when pandemic restrictions cancelled 15 planned productions just as previews were about to start.The festival’s publicity director says they hope to lure 400,000 audience members this season, which features 13 shows across all four venues.Ann Swerdfager said Monday the company expects a gradual, years-long rebuild to reach the pre-pandemic norm of roughly 500,...

Toronto mayoral byelection 2023 results with interactive map

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

Find real-time results across Toronto from the 2023 mayoral byelection.Click the map below starting at 8 p.m. to search by ward to find election results. Get all your need-to-know information for the election here.Toronto election ward map

Book Review: ‘White House by the Sea’ tells storied Kennedy tale through family’s compound

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

“White House By the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port” by Kate Storey (Scribner)The history of the Kennedy family is so well-chronicled — from the modern Camelot legend surrounding John F. Kennedy’s presidency to the series of tragedies that marked the family throughout the 20tb century — that it’s hard to imagine new ways to tell their story.But Kate Storey does just that in “White House By the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port” — revisiting the family’s history through their time at the famed Kennedy compound on Cape Cod.Storey, the senior features editor at Rolling Stone magazine, weaves a fascinating narrative about the Kennedy family using Hyannis Port as the backdrop. The book traces the family’s ties to the compound back to the 1920s, when Joseph Kennedy bought Malcolm Cottage, what became known as the Big House.Many of the stories feel so familiar, from Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s death during World War II to John F. Ken...

Trudeau taking cautious reaction to revolt to avoid fuelling Russian propaganda

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — Canada is monitoring the situation in Russia after a short-lived armed rebellion by a mercenary leader this weekend, Prime Minister Justin said Monday, adding a cautious approach is needed to avoid fuelling Russian propaganda.A revolt staged Saturday by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary paramilitary organization known as the Wagner Group, loomed large over a two-day gathering of Nordic leaders in Iceland, which Trudeau attended as a guest.The events in Russia pushed security to the top of the agenda, which was organized around the theme of “societal resilience” at the site of a 1973 volcanic eruption. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trudeau said the recent upheaval under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s watch was an “internal issue for Russia to work through,” and pledged his continuing support for Ukraine. Later in the day he elaborated on why he took that cautious approach. “We are watching, of course, and we are...

Groups decry ‘punitive,’ ‘coercive’ drug policies amid worsening overdose crisis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

VANCOUVER — A coalition of eight advocacy groups is decrying Canada’s “devastating” drug policy that advocates say is doing more harm than good in the country’s fight against the illicit drug overdose crisis.The groups sent a co-written letter to three federal ministers on Monday, criticizing the country’s drug policy as “punitive” and “coercive” and urging Ottawa to “issue a public statement denouncing all forms” of involuntary care aimed at drug users across Canada.Corey Ranger, president of co-authoring group Harm Reduction Nurses Association, said while programs such as mandatory treatment of overdose patients infringe on individual rights, there is an equal amount of concern over how effective they are in the first place. “The reality is that involuntary care, punitive approaches, simply do not work,” said Ranger, who has worked in harm reduction for a decade. “And that is one of the most import...

Guatemala voters send 2 presidential candidates on opposite sides of political spectrum to a runoff

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala voters sent two presidential candidates from opposite sides of the political spectrum to an Aug. 20 runoff, giving hope to many disenchanted citizens that change might be possible, according to preliminary results Monday. With 98% of the votes counted from Sunday’s election, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said former first lady Sandra Torres for the conservative UNE party had 15.7% and Bernardo Arévalo for the leftist Seed Movement had 11.8%.Irma Elizabeth Palencia Orellana, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, said at a news conference Monday that the results were “practically unchangeable.”Miguel Conde of the ruling VAMOS party sat in a distant third with 7.8%, ahead of the other 19 presidential candidates. The two leaders didn’t come close to the 50% threshold needed to win in the first round. A cluster of other candidates hovered between 6% and 7% of the votes. There was 60% turnout, and nearly 1 million invalid ballots from a ...

Colombia honors searchers and sniffer dog that helped find 4 children who survived plane crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:12 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president handed out 86 medals Monday to soldiers, Indigenous volunteers and government officials who helped in the rescue of four children who spent 40 days on their own in the jungle after a plane crash.President Gustvao Petro described the search that captivated world attention as an example of how Western technologies and traditional knowledge of Indigenous people can work together in the “preservation of life.” The children, Indigenous siblings, were on a small plane with their mother and two other adults when it crashed in the Amazon on May 1. The three adults died.Some 70 Indigenous people worked with more than 150 soldiers to look for the children in difficult terrain, using helicopters and GPS devices but also drawing inspiration from traditional knowledge of the jungle. The children, aged 1 to 13, were found June 9 by four volunteers from the Muruy people. The children are still recovering at a military hospital in Bogota.“The milit...