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Monument has long been a source of tension between Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora and Jewish and Polish communitiesA controversial memorial to Ukrainian soldiers who served in a Nazi unit during the second world war has been removed from a Canadian cemetery following years of protests by community groups who described the shrine as “painful” and offensive.The cenotaph, which had stood in the privately owned St...

Cruise ships offer crucial income to poverty-hit village of Pond Inlet but opponents say it is vicious cycleAn increase in “last chance tourism” in Canada’s melting Arctic is causing a row between those who warn of the devastation it is causing to the environment and those who rely on income from tourists to survive as hunting becomes increasingly difficult.Pond Inlet, a village of about...

Man, 19, charged with six counts of first-degree murder as police condemn ‘senseless act of violence’ in Barrhaven neighbourhoodPolice in Canada say two adults and four young children, the youngest of whom was less than three months old, are dead in a mass killing in what Ottawa’s mayor described as “one of the most shocking incidents of violence” in the city’s history.A 19-year-old male...

Spavor was one of two Canadians detained in China in 2018 amid a broader diplomatic feud between the two countriesCanada’s federal government has reached a million-dollar compensation settlement with Michael Spavor, a businessman who was held by China for nearly three years amid a broader diplomatic feud between the two countries.Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who became known as “the two Michaels”, were detained by...

Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative PM, ‘never stopped working for Canadians,’ Justin Trudeau says after his deathBrian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who struck a landmark free trade deal with the US and signed breakthrough environmental accords, but whose legacy was marred by revelations of improper business dealings with an arms dealer, has died at the age of 84.His daughter announced the death in...

Chong Ke, from Vancouver, under investigation after allegedly using ChatGPT to cite case law – but those cases did not existA lawyer in Canada is under fire after the artificial intelligence chatbot use she used for legal research created “fictitious” cases, in the latest episode to expose the perils of using untested technologies in the courtroom.The Vancouver lawyer Chong Ke, who now faces an...

Decision by premier Danielle Smith further pits Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energyAlberta will block renewable energy projects on “prime” agricultural land and limit the placement of wind turbines to preserve “pristine viewscapes”, a decision that increasingly pits the western Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy – and the companies investing in it.The decision, announced by the premier, Danielle Smith,...

Senior church officials in Rome decline to act, citing worsening health of French clergyman known as ‘devil priest’A French clergyman dubbed the “devil priest” who stands accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Canada’s north will not be dismissed from his congregation after senior church officials in Rome declined to act, citing the nonagenarian’s declining health.Johannes Rivoire, a priest with the Missionary Oblates of...

Canada has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in the world, with 4.1% of deaths aided by doctors, but moves to make it more accessible are being questionedWhen Canada’s justice minister announced plans to legalise medically assisted dying nearly a decade ago, she acknowledged the proposed law might prove divisive. “For some, medical assistance in dying will be troubling,” Jody Wilson-Raybould told reporters...

University of Waterloo dispenser displays facial recognition message despite no prior indication it was monitoring studentsA malfunctioning vending machine at a Canadian university has inadvertently revealed that a number of them have been using facial recognition technology in secret.Earlier this month, a snack dispenser at the University of Waterloo showed an error message – Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognition.App.exe – on the screen. Continue reading...

Chronic wasting disease, which affects deer and other cervids, confirmed in Canada but experts divided over risk to humans‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in YellowstoneThe Canadian province of British Columbia has released a strategy to combat the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) as it continues to move across North America.Officials in the westernmost province this week ordered the testing of any road-killed deer,...

Eli Ndatuje of Royal Canadian Mounted Police was charged with accessing police records and passing information to the Rwandan governmentA member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been arrested and charged with accessing police records and passing information to the Rwandan government.The federal police force said on Tuesday that its integrated national security enforcement team (Inset) had arrested Constable Eli Ndatuje, who...

Weather system brings heavy rainfall, strong winds and mudslides. Elsewhere, Nova Scotia declares state of emergencyDuring the first week of February two storms hit California in quick succession, both featuring intense precipitation thanks to the “pineapple express” atmospheric river.Atmospheric rivers are long narrow channels of very moist air that flow through the atmosphere, transporting impressive amounts of water vapour that eventually fall as heavy...

Immigration minister Marc Miller frustrated by impasse over list of about 1,000 people trapped in Palestinian territoryCanada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, has said he is “pissed off” that extended family members of Canadians are being blocked from leaving war-torn Gaza.Ottawa last month provided a list of about 1,000 people approved to come to Canada to Israeli and Egyptian authorities, who jointly control the only...

Cameron Ortis was convicted of passing secret material in a case that shocked the Canadian intelligence communityThe former head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence unit has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, months after he was found guilty of leaking state secrets.Justice Robert Maranger delivered what he said was a “a fit and just” sentence on Wednesday after a jury convicted...

Mammal ‘made contact with equipment’, disrupting a subway line and shutting off water in latest escapade of city’s ‘trash pandas’A lone Toronto raccoon was able to cut power to nearly 7,000 people in the city’s downtown core on Thursday night, highlighting the fraught coexistence between residents of Canada’s largest urban centre and the divisive “trash pandas”.Hydro One, Ontario’s power utility, said a raccoon “made...

Kenneth Law now faces 14 counts in Ontario of first-degree murder and 14 counts of counselling and aiding suicideProsecutors in Canada have upgraded murder charges against the man who allegedly mailed “suicide kits” and is allegedly linked to more than 100 deaths in several countries.Kenneth Law, who is due to appear in court on Thursday, now faces 14 counts in Ontario of first-degree murder...

Thieves haul off taxidermy animal from resort hotel in northern Alberta that had previously lost two stuffed raccoonsAs temperatures in western Canada recently plunged to -30C (-22F), most residents retreated indoors to wait out the blistering cold snap. But one group of thieves saw opportunity.On one of the coldest nights of the winter, they gained access to a hotel north of Edmonton, where security...

Residents of tiny coastal community of Cape Ray excited by discovery of what appears to be 19th-century vesselA coastal community in Newfoundland has been left baffled and excited by the sudden and unexplained appearance of a centuries-old shipwreck on the sands of a nearby shore.Gordon Blackmore, a local resident, was hunting seabirds on the sandy shores of Cape Ray when he spotted a dark...

Talks that began in 2022 halted amid unhappiness on both sides about lack of access to agricultural marketsThe UK has halted trade talks with Canada, with discussions breaking down after a disagreement over beef and cheese.The two countries have been negotiating for the past two years in the wake of Britain leaving the European Union, with trade continuing under the same deal brokered when...

Call for companies to ‘clean up their mess’ as Athabasca oil sands emissions vastly exceed industry-reported levelsToxic emissions from the Canadian tar sands – already one of the dirtiest fossil fuels – have been dramatically underestimated, according to a study.Research published in the journal Science found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca oil sands in Canada exceed industry-reported emissions across the studied facilities...

Foreign minister draws comparison to similar claim in Canada and says India must be held to accountPakistan has said it has credible evidence that Indian agents carried out two assassinations on Pakistani soil, and drawn comparisons to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.In a press briefing on Thursday, the foreign secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, said India was running a “sophisticated and...

Private equity firm Onex Corp partly owns company that makes mask for use in untested nitrogen hypoxia execution methodA Canadian company is facing criticism for allegedly supplying the equipment for a state execution in the United States, in a case that has drawn outrage for the reliance on a seemingly untested method of execution.On Thursday, Alabama plans to kill inmate Kenneth Smith by suffocating...

Canadian court rules government was ‘unreasonable’ when it used sweeping powers to block truckers protesting against Covid rulesA Canadian court has ruled that Justin Trudeau’s government was not justified when it used sweeping powers to break up what the prime minister called “illegal and dangerous” protest blockades across the country two years ago.A federal court found on Tuesday the government’s invocation of the Emergencies...