‘Pipes are breaking all over the city,’ says Halifax fire official Gavin Hankin of Halifax Plumbing and Heating wasn’t looking forward to Sunday. “[Sunday] is going to be catastrophic because these [water] lines that have frozen, you know, they’re likely to split and then leak and then flood,” he said late Saturday afternoon. Hankin was on call and said he received around 100 calls for service to deal with frozen pipes that happened because of the extreme cold that gripped the province. Temperatures dipped as low as –28 C inRead more

Quebec passed similar bill in December removing allegiance requirement for MNAs Town council in Prescott, Ont., is set to consider a motion calling on the Ontario government to follow Quebec’s lead by scrapping a requirement that elected officials swear an oath of allegiance to King Charles III. The motion is being brought forward by Coun. Lee McConnell, and if it receives a seconder, it will be discussed by council on Feb. 27. If passed, council in the town roughly 90 kilometres south of Ottawa would then call on Minister of Municipal Affairs and HousingRead more

City data shows 99 per cent of warming centre spaces occupied on Friday during extreme cold warning Councillors in Toronto are set to consider keeping warming centres open 24-7 for the rest of the winter amid growing calls for homelessness to be declared a public health crisis in the city. Most of Ontario was under extreme cold warnings late last week, with frigid temperatures presenting greater risks for those without proper shelter. Calls to keep warming centres open around the clock in Toronto have been growing, with community workers andRead more

Jury deliberated whether tweet artificially inflated automaker’s share price A U.S. jury has cleared Elon Musk of wrongdoing for 2018 tweets in which he declared he had financing to take Tesla private. The nine jurors found the Tesla Inc. CEO his company were not liable for misleading investors when he tweeted in 2018 that he had lined up funding to take the electric car company private. Plaintiffs had claimed billions in damages and the decision also had been seen as important for Musk himself, who has aggressively defended his ability toRead more

Magistrate says offence was at low end of seriousness for common assault, was not premeditated Nick Kyrgios had suffered severe depression, suicidal ideation and insomnia in the past, a psychologist told a court on Friday when the Australian tennis star pleaded guilty to pushing a former girlfriend to the ground two years ago. The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up pleaded guilty in the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court to assaulting Chiara Passari during an argument in his hometown of Canberra in January 2021. Magistrate Jane Campbell didn’t record a conviction against KyrgiosRead more

Spanish designer spent most of his life in France and rose to prominence in the 1960s Paco Rabanne, the Spanish-born pace-setting designer known for perfumes sold worldwide and his metallic, space-age fashions, has died, the group that owns his fashion house announced on its website Friday. “The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honour our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88. Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain,” the statement from Puig said. Le Telegramme newspaperRead more

Soundtracks for Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty titles among the nominees Long relegated to the margins, video game score soundtracks are finally getting recognized with their own category at this year’s Grammy Awards. Five nominees will compete at Sunday’s show, out of the 70 original scores submitted for the category’s maiden year. The nominees are composers Austin Wintory for Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Stephanie Economou for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, Bear McCreary for Call of Duty: Vanguard, Richard Jacques for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Christopher Tin for Old World. The success of video game music coincides with the overall growthRead more

Jafar Panahi among several artists, sports stars detained for speaking against regime Acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi was released on bail Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment last summer, his supporters said. Panahi was arrested last July and later ordered to serve six years on charges of propagandizing against the government, a sentence dating back to 2011 that had never been enforced. He is among a number of Iranian artists, sports figures and other celebrities who have been detained after speaking out against theRead more

A gay man is taking the federal government to court, challenging the constitutionality of a policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. “[It’s] like you’re undesirable because of your gayness as a donor … It feels like such an arbitrary rule,” said Aziz M, the man who is pushing to change the rules. Out of concern for his privacy, CTV News has agreed not to use his full name. Currently, a Health Canada directive prohibits gay and bisexual men fromRead more

A Quebec woman said she was very surprised to find her stolen Audi had been used in what’s being described as an “absolutely insane” Ontario mall theft. Taylor-Anna Kobinger, a resident of Laval, Que., listed her 2011 Black Audi A4 on Facebook Marketplace in January as a means to raise the funds needed for a down payment on a home. On Jan. 29, Kobinger said a man responded to her ad and came to her home in order to test drive the vehicle. She said he took the car outRead more