Canada

A new report commissioned by an industry lobby group on the federal government's proposed emissions cap stirred up strong reactions from both oil and gas supporters and environmental groups on Monday.

The report, by S&P Global Commodity Insights, was commissioned by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to examine the impact of various proposed emissions-reducing policies on Canada's conventional (non-oilsands) oil and gas producers.

Its conclusions Monday were used to support the industry argument that legislating an emissions ceiling will inhibit investment and growth, even as opponents argued the report's methodology was flawed.

The commissioned report concludes that if oil and gas drillers were required to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, industry could see $75 billion less in capital investment over the course of the next nine years compared with current policy conditions.

Alberta's police watchdog recommended laying charges against three Lethbridge officers who used police databases to improperly access the personal information of two people, including NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, but the Crown's office has declined to prosecute, CBC News has learned.

Details of two recently completed Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigations come from a letter sent by ASIRT director Mike Ewenson to Phillips's lawyer, Michael Bates.

Despite calling the Crown's refusal to pursue charges "quite regrettable," Phillips says she is feeling vindicated after years of pursuing police accountability.

"I think it sends a message to the public that in order to get even a sliver of accountability, even a tiny little ray of light on transparency and accountability in a police service, you have to fight, you have to pay a personal cost, you have to wait years, and even then it will be partial," said Phillips in a phone interview.

"The system overall is quite broken."

Pride groups and some health-care providers are harshly criticizing the Alberta government's latest attempt to get feedback on its proposed gender identity policies — a private invite that requires participants to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

"If [Premier Danielle Smith] really wants to hear what we have to say, she can schedule a public hearing where those of us who are part of the medical community can be on record to say what we think about this," said Dr. Jake Donaldson, a Calgary family physician who provides gender-affirming health care.

"I understand there are people who feel strongly about this and people who may not feel safe being vocal about these issues ... but at the end of the day, this needs to be a public conversation."

In an email obtained by CBC News, the provincial government invited 40 organizations and individuals to participate in virtual focus group sessions about its proposed policies. The new rules would affect student gender identity, youth gender-affirming surgeries and health care, and trans women's participation in sports.

The email is signed by a senior policy adviser for Alberta Health. It notes that if invitees want to participate, they must sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

A BC Conservative Party government would walk away from the province’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of its land base by 2030, party leader John Rustad told The Narwhal in an interview.

“The Conservatives would absolutely axe doing that,” Rustad said. “That’s nonsense.”

“It’s 30 per cent of all of our ecosystems,” he said. “What are we going to do if we have 30 per cent less food production? What are we going to do if we’re going to have 30 per cent less forestry production? What are we trying to achieve here as a province?”

Rustad’s comments come as the BC Conservatives surge in the polls five months before the provincial election, with Premier David Eby calling the Conservatives “a real threat” to the NDP’s chances of regaining power. An Abacus Data poll released May 14 showed the Conservatives only eight points behind the BC NDP, which has been in government since 2017. A Pallas Data poll released May 16 put the two parties in a dead heat, with the BC Conservatives leading the NDP by one point at 38 per cent of the vote.

Rustad has led the upstart BC Conservatives for just over a year, after being kicked out of the opposition BC Liberal caucus in 2022 for promoting a social media post that expressed doubt about climate change science. Since Rustad’s acclamation as party leader, and as the popularity of federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre grows, support for the BC Conservatives has steadily climbed.

According to Raven Chaboyer, if people want to drive in or out of Cumberland House, Sask., they're doing so at their own risk. Now, the community that is already running low on groceries and supplies could remain isolated for another week due to the rains in forecast.

"The roads are mushy and muddy. The trucks get stuck all the time. There's no cell service on that road, so if you get stuck, you're stuck there," the 17-year-old said.

Highway 123 is the road the community relies on when food, mail or fuel is transported in, and it's the road emergency services must travel to help those in need. If it isn't passable, then the community is essentially cut off from the rest of the province.

"Where is Scott Moe driving up and down our highway? This should not be happening in 2024. It's absolutely horrible," she said. "It's not a highway. It's a trail with mud."

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s lawyer has said there are still numerous other legal procedures to come, and the deportation process could take months or years.

A town councillor running for the Conservative nomination in an Ontario riding that was already the source of controversy earlier this month says she was unfairly blocked from carrying the party banner because the top Tory brass wanted another candidate instead.

Rachel Gilliland, who sits as a member of Aurora, Ont.'s town council, told CBC News Wednesday she was denied the chance to run for the nomination in the Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill riding and was "given no reason for the denial."

"I did ask for clarity and I didn't get any. It seemed to me like there's a candidate that has a little bit more favouritism from the party, let's just say that," she said in an interview. "There were quite a few things that didn't seem kosher."

"I've worked my butt off for almost a year and I made a lot of personal sacrifices. If the party was adamant about having a specific person win then by all means ... but pick up the phone and tell me. They could've thrown me a bone," she said.

A Quebec court judge has issued a scathing decision identifying major long-standing problems in youth protection services for Inuit children in Quebec's North, in a case where a teenage girl was sent to 64 different foster homes in less than 10 years.

For most of that time, the teen was placed in foster homes and rehabilitation centres in the South because of a shortage of services in the North.

In a decision April 24, Quebec Court Judge Peggy Warolin ruled the teen — who can't be identified due to youth protection laws — "was thus deprived of her right to the preservation of her cultural identity."

"The child had been so cut off from her culture that she found herself in a very advanced process of assimilation," Warolin said.

A new study from the University of Western Ontario suggests mercury contamination in northwestern Ontario's English-Wabigoon River has been made worse by ongoing industrial pollution.

Contamination of the river system dates back to the 1960s and 70s, when the pulp and paper mill dumped an estimated nine tonnes of mercury into the water.

The mercury has impacted generations of people living in Grassy Narrows First Nation, also known as Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek, a community about 150 kilometres from Dryden near the Ontario-Manitoba border, and Wabaseemoong Independent Nation.

However, the new study, published Thursday, has found that discharge of wastewater from the Dryden Paper Mill, combined with existing mercury, has created high levels of methylmercury – an even more toxic compound.

"Other forms of mercury don't accumulate as strongly as methylmercury, but because it accumulates, it builds up to high levels in organisms, presenting that greater risk," said Brian Branfireun, a biology professor at the University of Western Ontario. "It's actually more serious than I even imagined."

It is estimated that 90 per cent of Grassy Narrows' population has symptoms of mercury poisoning, which causes problems including tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction.

A Toronto daycare that signed on to the national childcare program is now in such financial difficulty that its board is considering closure, a plight that advocates say reveals flaws in how Ontario funds the system.

Sunnyside Garden Daycare, a non-profit that serves nearly 150 children in Toronto's west end, is appealing to the province and city for emergency funding to stave off a shutdown by the end of the year.

Ontario's funding model — in place since the province agreed to join the national program in 2022 — has had "devastating consequences" for the daycare centre, says Wannan in the letter, a copy of which was provided to CBC News.

She says without an infusion of cash, its board will have to choose between dropping out of the program or shutting down.

Carolyn Ferns, policy co-ordinator of the advocacy group Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, says Sunnyside Garden's situation is not unique.

Canada's Competition Bureau has launched investigations into the parent companies of grocery chains Loblaws and Sobeys for alleged anti-competitive conduct, court documents reveal, with Sobeys' owner calling the inquiry "unlawful."

The Federal Court documents show the commissioner of competition launched the probes on March 1, saying there's reason to believe the firms' use of so-called property controls limits retail grocery competition.

The commissioner claims the controls that the grocery giants have baked into lease agreements are designed to restrict other potential tenants and their activities and are hampering competition in the grocery market.

The Competition Bureau revealed its investigation into the use of property controls in the grocery sector in February.

This is one of best commentaries I've heard recently about indigenous fraud. I've stopped referring to it as "Pretendians" because this isn't a cute joke, this is serious fraud and can sometimes add up to tens, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars worth of lifelong fraud.

At first I watched this woman's video as a laugh because I watch lots of indigenous video blogs. At first I thought she was messing around but soon realized she was completely serious ..... as she was doing her hair and makeup.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller tabled legislation Thursday that would extend citizenship to some children born outside of Canada.

The group says food security is rising in all 10 provinces and one in four Canadians have inadequate access to food

The philanthropist behind the University of Manitoba's largest-ever personal donation — $30 million — has denounced a speech made by a valedictorian for medicine grads and admonished the university for letting it happen.

In a letter dated Monday, Ernest Rady says he was hurt and appalled by the remarks by valedictorian Gem Newman at the May 16 convocation for students from the Max Rady College of Medicine. The school was renamed in honour of Rady's father after the 2016 donation.

"Newman's speech not only dishonoured the memory of my father, but also disrespected and disparaged Jewish people as a whole," said Rady's letter, sent to U of M president Michael Benarroch and college of medicine dean Dr. Peter Nickerson.

Approximately two minutes of Newman's nine-minute address focused on the war in Gaza and called for a ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, which began after an Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel led by Hamas that killed roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage.

In a statement emailed to CBC News on Wednesday, college dean Nickerson confirmed the video that included the speech had been taken down.

Bell Media could lose its bid to have former television personality Patricia Jaggernauth's human rights case thrown out, after a Canadian Human Rights Commission report noting her complaint raises "serious human rights issues that are systemic in nature."

In a confidential report seen by CBC News, the commission said it found "reasonable basis" to support that the allegations of pay disparity and racial discrimination made by the once-familiar face on CP24 may be linked to sex, race, colour or other prohibited grounds of discrimination.

"The complaint raises serious human rights issues that are systemic in nature, involve significant power asymmetries and potentially long-lasting harms, disproportionately affect a historically disadvantaged group," it says, adding there is a "strong public interest" aspect to Jaggernauth's case.

The report recommends the case be referred to the human rights tribunal if it cannot be settled within four months. It will now be up to the commissioner to decide whether to take up the recommendation.

The son of a man who was accused in the Air India bombing of 1985 has been officially warned by the RCMP that his life could be under threat, CBC News has learned.

Hardeep Malik, a businessman in Surrey, B.C., is the son of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to a pair of bombings in 1985 that killed 331 people.

Singh Malik was gunned down outside his office in Surrey on July 14, 2022. Two men have since been charged in his murder.

CBC News has learned RCMP investigators have been probing whether the government of India was behind the killing of the wealthy and controversial businessman. They believe India's government was involved in last year's targeted killing of prominent Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

A federal public servant at Global Affairs who is being sued by a female former Afghan interpreter has now been charged criminally in relation to allegations in the lawsuit.

Galal Eldien Ali, a 64-year-old resident of Ottawa, has been charged with 11 counts, including multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a young person, assault, uttering threats and extortion.

The charges are related to the former interpreter's claim that Ali sexually assaulted her multiple times between 2011 and 2013. Her name is under an automatic publication ban because of the nature of the charges.

The woman says she met Ali at Camp Nathan Smith in Afghanistan. She says he helped her come to Canada under a special immigration program for Afghans.

She claims Ali began assaulting her almost immediately after her arrival in Canada, when she was 17. She also says Ali threatened her to convince her not to speak out about the abuse.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/15967176

Today, the LockBit ransomware gang claimed they were behind the April cyberattack on Canadian pharmacy chain London Drugs and is now threatening to publish stolen data online after allegedly failed negotiations.

For decades, Alberta has been one of North America’s most important oil producers. Today, only Texas pumps more oil than Alberta.

However, Alberta’s oil producing stature has camouflaged the province’s emergence as a green energy leader.

One Alberta energy regulator observed that renewable electricity production was growing “by leaps and bounds.” The Canadian Renewable Energy Association reported that 75 per cent of the country’s new renewable electricity generation came from Alberta in 2022.

Rystad Energy, the international energy consultancy, predicted Alberta would be Canada’s largest wind and solar electricity producer by 2025.

The biggest contributors to Alberta’s revolutionary potential? A mixture of industry-wide technical changes and a market where generators are paid only for the power they generate. These changes in the solar sector drove down solar costs by more than 80 per cent between 2009 and 2023 and electricity sector greenhouse gas emissions fell by 51 per cent from 2015 to 2021.

The data seems clear, renewables have a secure, and growing, position in Alberta’s electric grid.

The family is moving to find more financial flexibility. Owning their current home is a financial burden, and the stress would only get worse with a mortgage renewal coming up soon.

...

Proceeds from the sale plus a cash top-up will mean they can live mortgage-free in their new three-bedroom townhouse. Current mortgage costs are $3,965 per month.

As well, Ms. Deane has estimated that her family will save on electricity, heating, insurance, property taxes and maintenance. Even with strata/condo fees of $710 per month at the new place, Ms. Deane calculates overall savings of $4,640 per month.

Props to them for making a smart move.