Government submits new offer to striking federal union
PSAC says it hopes to bargain through the weekend The federal government presented a counter-offer Friday afternoon to striking Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members. Details of the offer have not been released but it covers the larger Treasury Board group of about 120,000 workers. Talks are ongoing for the Canada Revenue Agency group of more than 35,000 workers, the union said in an email. In a statement, the office of Treasury Board President Mona Fortier called the offer “comprehensive.” A union spokesperson told CBC the two sides are talking FridayRead more
Social workers need permission to access parents’ medical records: B.C. Appeal Court
Court gives B.C. government 1 year to bring law into constitutional compliance The B.C. Court of Appeal has struck down a section of the province’s child protection legislation that allowed social workers to access a parent’s medical records without their consent, a search warrant or a court order. A three-judge panel said a section of B.C.’s Child, Family and Community Service Act is unconstitutional, finding the legislation lacked safeguards to protect parents’ deeply personal medical information. The ruling, posted Monday, says the act allowed child welfare workers with the Ministry of Children andRead more
Luge athlete claims life-altering Whistler head injury was culmination of coach’s ‘selfish’ abuse
Garrett Reid, 19, claims coach bullied him for diminished performance after suffering head injury in crash An athlete who was left with a long list of “catastrophic” injuries after a run at the Olympic luge track in Whistler, B.C., more than three years ago has filed a lawsuit claiming the incident was the culmination of years of harassment, bullying and hazing by a coach who put his own goals over a teenager’s safety. Garrett Reid, now 19, has claimed coach Matthew McMurray was abusive towards him while he was racing for the national NextGen team in 2018Read more
‘Disgusting’: Husband of N.S. mass shooting victim outraged after theft from memorial park
2 steel beams were to be used at Heart’s Haven Memorial Park for Heather O’Brien, Kristen Beaton The husband of one of the victims of the Nova Scotia April 2020 mass shooting is disgusted and disheartened after two steel beams were stolen from a memorial park in Debert, N.S., earlier this month. Nick Beaton, the husband of Kristen Beaton who died during the shootings, said the beams were going to be used to construct a bridge in Heart’s Haven Memorial Park. The six-hectare park serves as a memorial for both Kristen and HeatherRead more
Man dies in avalanche in closed-off area of Lake Louise resort
RCMP said victim was 21 years old A man died Saturday after he and two others were caught in an avalanche in a closed-off area of Lake Louise Ski Resort. In a statement, the resort in Banff National Park said the avalanche happened around 2:20 p.m. in the West Bowl area. When crews arrived at the scene, they determined that a group entered the closed-off area and triggered a size 3 avalanche. None of the people were wearing avalanche safety equipment, the resort said. According to AHS EMS, three people were buriedRead more
Canada’s inflation rate cools to 4.3% in March
Bank of Canada is forecasting rate to hit 3 per cent in a few months Canada’s inflation rate decelerated to 4.3 per cent in March, down from 5.2 per cent the previous month and also down to the lowest level since August of 2021. The cooling of the inflation rate was in line with what economists were expecting. Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that gasoline prices fell by 13.8 per cent in the year up to March, which is the fastest decline in the price of gas since July of 2020.Read more
Slow, unreliable and pricey: CRTC gets earful about northern internet
CRTC is holding hearings in Whitehorse through the week Slow and spotty connections, prolonged outages, high prices and few options for service providers. Those were some problems with northern internet that intervenors expressed to the Canadian telecommunications regulator at a hearing Monday on telecommunications in the North. “It’s mostly the Indigenous people who don’t have [internet] services,” Brenda Norris, who directs an Indigenous family internet initiative for the Native Women’s Association of the NWT, told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). “There’s a certain unfairness in the fact that theseRead more
Dangerous use of personal vehicle at play in 2022 deaths of Royal Military College cadets
Drowning confirmed as cause of death for all 4 cadets, few other details released The dangerous use of a personal vehicle was a factor in the deaths of four cadets at the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, Ont., almost a year ago, the Office of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal says. “With the families’ agreement, [investigators] can confirm the cause of the four deaths was drowning,” the office said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. The three-paragraph release comes nearly two weeks shy of the incident’s one-year anniversary and provides no other details aboutRead more
CP Rail, Kansas City Southern merger clears path for more cargo, but hitches remain
Continent’s 1st major railway merger in over 2 decades Under the banner of Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the merger of North America’s two smallest Class 1 railways became official Friday morning as CEO Keith Creel drove home a platinum spike at a ceremony in Kansas City, Mo. Combining Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. with Kansas City Southern Railway Co., the fusion creates the only railway stretching from Canada through to the U.S. and Mexico and marks the continent’s first major rail merger in more than two decades after a U.S. regulatorRead more
To Kill a Tiger, We’re All Gonna Die and BLK emerge as top winners at CSAs’ opening night
Global’s Dawna Friesen wins best national news anchor over Lisa Laflamme, who was nominated by the judges Documentaries To Kill a Tiger, We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) and BLK: An Origin Story emerged with three, four and five awards respectively at the Canadian Screen Awards on Tuesday. That made them lead winners at the ceremony’s first night, which honours news, documentary and factual programming — while a perhaps surprising omission saw Lisa Laflamme passed over. Those awards, along with more than 30 others, were the first given out this year at theRead more