Fewer than 30 per cent of Canadian doctors trained abroad are matched to residency positions The country’s health-care system is suffering from an acute shortage of doctors — even as hundreds of qualified Canadian physicians trained abroad are turned away each year because of a tangle of red-tape and bias, experts say. Canada is passing up a chance to add hundreds of these Canadian doctors to a strained system because, critics say, tight-fisted provincial governments have restricted the number of residency spots — and because the system explicitly privileges students who went to CanadianRead more

Verdict delivered in Supreme Court on Friday afternoon WARNING: This story contains distressing details. Krysta Grimes, a St. John’s substitute teacher accused of having sex with her underage student in 2018, has been acquitted. Justice Vikas Khaladkar dismissed the sexual exploitation charge against her in Supreme Court on Friday afternoon. Reading from his decision, Khaladkar said he couldn’t accept the complainant’s credibility because of a series of “serious, significant inconsistencies” in his testimony. Grimes leapt from the dock, hugging her lawyer, Rosellen Sullivan. She dodged a question from a reporter, surrounded by familyRead more

Tory had just begun 3rd term in office as Toronto’s mayor Toronto Mayor John Tory announced on Friday that he will step down from his office after admitting to a relationship with a former staffer. “During the pandemic I developed a relationship with an employee in my office in a way that did not meet the standards to which I hold myself as mayor and as a family man,” Tory said during a brief statement at city hall. Tory said the relationship ended by “mutual consent” earlier this year. TheRead more

City to add bike lanes, explore closures for special events this summer Ottawa city councillors voted in favour of reopening Wellington Street to vehicles Wednesday with a motion that leaves the door open to making the downtown roadway pedestrian-only for special events as soon as this summer. City councillors voted to take down the concrete barricades “as soon as is operationally feasible” but no sooner than March 1. Capital Coun. Shawn Menard and Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley dissented. Phil Landry, director of traffic services with the city, said he couldn’t give a precise date cars would be able toRead more

Alberta’s energy regulator has given Imperial Oil until the end of the month to figure out how to deal with ongoing seepage at a tailings pond at its Kearl oilsands mine. On Monday, the regulator issued an environmental protection order to Imperial to clean up ongoing seepages of industrial wastewater at the mine, located in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. The company also needs to submit plans for wildlife protection, environmental remediation and notifying the public. The order covers two separate contamination incidents that took place over nine months.Read more

The company failed to treat effluent for selenium and nitrate, Ministry of Environment says. A Canadian mining company has been fined more than $16 million for polluting waterways in B.C.’s East Kootenay. The B.C. Ministry of Environment has imposed three administrative penalties on Teck Coal Limited, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, citing the company’s failure to have water treatment facilities ready by a required date to limit emissions of nitrate and selenium from its Fording River operations in the Elk Valley. The ministry says administrative penalties are monetary fines issued by theRead more

It isn’t just about high interest rates. When rent goes up, it often goes up most dramatically in major urban centres. And, sure enough, Toronto and Vancouver have consistently been in the spotlight as rental prices have skyrocketed over the last year. A two-bedroom apartment in the Ontario capital averaged $1,765 a month in 2022, while the same place in Vancouver soared to $2,002, according to the latest Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). But it isn’t just a problem for Canada’s biggest cities. Across the country, high interest rates have left would-beRead more

Driver charged with 1st-degree murder after crash kills 2 children, injures 6 others A 51-year-old man drove a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que., on Wednesday morning, killing two children and injuring six more. Pierre Ny St-Amand, a bus driver with the Société de transport de Laval (STL), was arrested at the scene. He has been charged with several crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm. Around 8:30 a.m., the Laval city bus crashed into the Garderie Éducative de Sainte-RoseRead more

Premiers ‘disappointed’ by lack of new funding but want time to assess Ottawa’s proposal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday the federal government is prepared to spend an eye-popping $196.1 billion on health care over the next decade — including $46.2 billion in new spending on top of funds already budgeted. The deal, which is being pitched by the federal government as a generational fix for an ailing system, would begin with provinces and territories getting an unconditional $2-billion boost to the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) to address what the federalRead more

Organization says it provided assistance to over 96,000 households in wake of devastating storm New numbers released by the Canadian Red Cross show the organization provided assistance to nearly 100,000 households, more than any other natural disaster in Canada. “With Fiona, it impacted hundreds and hundreds of communities scattered throughout all of Eastern Canada,” said Bill Lawlor, the Atlantic director of governance and stakeholder relations with the organization. Fiona resulted in wide-scale impacts, including massive destruction of property and lengthy power outages. Thanks to the generosity of Canadians who contributedRead more