Canada announced Wednesday it won’t block access to the popular video-sharing app TikTok but is ordering the dissolution of its Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind it.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said it is meant to address risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content. The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Champagne said.
Champagne said it is important for Canadians to adopt good cybersecurity practices, including protecting their personal information.
He said the dissolution order was made in accordance with the Investment Canada Act, which allows for the review of foreign investments that may harm Canada’s national security. He said the decision was based on information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said. “The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.
Canada previously banned TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. TikTok has two offices in Canada, one in Toronto and one in Vancouver.
Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said in a blog post that “banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened.”
Canada’s move comes a day after the election in the United States of Donald Trump. In June, Trump joined TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House. It has about 170 million users in the U.S.
Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned” by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued.
Both the U.S. FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked.
Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that would force ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. company within a year or face a national ban. It’s not clear whether that law will survive a legal challenge filed by TikTok or that ByteDance would agree to sell.
Canadian police dismantled what they said Thursday is the largest, most sophisticated illicit drug “super lab” in the country, saying they had seized “a record number of illegal firearms, synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they believe organized crime ran the operation where there was mass-production and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada and internationally.
Officers served search warrants last week on the drug lab in Falkland, British Columbia and associated locations in Surrey, in Metro Vancouver. The RCMP released multiple photos of the operation showing officers in protective suits retrieving items from the “super lab.”
Police said they seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl, “massive” amounts of precursor chemicals, 390 kilograms of methamphetamine, and smaller amounts of cocaine, MDMA and cannabis.
Canadian police dismantled what they said is the largest, most sophisticated illicit drug “super lab” in the country.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
They also found a total of 89 firearms, including handguns, AR-15-style rifles and submachine-guns — “many of which were loaded and ready to be used.” They also found small explosive devices, ammunition, silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armor, and $500,000 Canadian (US$359,000) in cash.
Investigators said a suspect, Gaganpreet Randhawa, was arrested and is in custody facing numerous drug and firearms-related charges.
“This is undoubtedly a major blow to the transnational organized crime groups involved, and a great step towards ensuring the safety of Canadians, and the international community,” said Jillian Wellard, Officer in Charge of Federal Policing Pacific Region.
Fentanyl is a main ingredient in much of the toxic illicit drugs that have killed nearly 48,000 people across Canada between January 2016 and March 2024, according to the Canadian government.
The bust comes about two weeks after Canadian police said had made arrests linked to another transnational organized crime group. The RCMP said it had worked with the FBI for over a year to target a Mexican cartel-linked criminal network which had been moving large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine from Central and South America via the United States to Canada and overseas.
Canadian authorities said that network had also has been commissioning murders across North America, and laundering significant amounts of money. The alleged leader of that network, Canadian Ryan Wedding, remains at large, and is wanted by the United States and Canada, authorities said.
What is slowing Canada’s economy down? What’s growing?
The manufacturing sector was the largest drag on the economy, followed by utilities, wholesale and trade and transportation and warehousing. The Stats Can report noted shutdowns at Canada’s two largest railways contributed to a decline in transportation and warehousing.
A preliminary estimate for September suggests real gross domestic product grew by 0.3%.
Statistics Canada’s estimate for the third quarter is weaker than the Bank of Canada’s projection of 1.5% annualized growth.
Are there more Bank of Canada rate cuts to come?
The latest economic figures suggest ongoing weakness in the Canadian economy, giving the central bank room to continue cutting interest rates. But the size of that cut is still uncertain, with lots more data to come on inflation and the economy before the Bank of Canada’s next rate decision on Dec. 11.
“We don’t think this will ring any alarm bells for the (Bank of Canada) but it puts more emphasis on their fears around a weakening economy,” TD economist Marc Ercolao wrote.
The central bank has acknowledged repeatedly the economy is weak and that growth needs to pick back up. Last week, the Bank of Canada delivered a half-percentage point interest rate cut in response to inflation returning to its 2% target.
Governor Tiff Macklem wouldn’t say whether the central bank will follow up with another jumbo cut in December and instead said the central bank will take interest rate decisions one a time based on incoming economic data.
The central bank is expecting economic growth to rebound next year as rate cuts filter through the economy.
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Flags flew at half-staff in Minnesota and at national parks across the country Tuesday for a Voyageurs National Park ranger who died while trying to rescue a family of three stranded by high waves on a lake.
Kevin Grossheim, 55, of Kabetogama, died Sunday while responding to a call for assistance for a father and two sons who were trapped on an island in Namakan Lake after their boat became disabled. Winds gusting over 40 mph (64 kph) had whipped up waves of 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters) Sunday morning.
“One of the rangers that was out there said he has never seen conditions as wild as they were,” St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said.
Grossheim reached them with his boat, but it overturned after he picked them up, the National Park Service said.
“The front kind of nosedived, the boat listed, and flipped over upside-down,” Ramsay said. An initial report by the park that the ranger was towing the family’s boat proved to be inaccurate, he said.
The three family members were able to swim to shore, but Grossheim disappeared. His body was recovered that afternoon after a roughly three-hour search. A cause of death was not released.
The remote Voyageurs, established in 1975, covers 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of lakes, forests and streams on Minnesota’s border with Canada. Namakan Lake is one of four big lakes in the park, which also has smaller lakes. Namakan is 16 miles long and 7 miles wide at one point (16 by 11 kilometers). The park is known for boating, camping and snowmobiling; its dark skies; and abundant wildlife, including wolves, bald eagles, moose and beavers.
Grossheim had served as a ranger there for 23 years and was an experienced boat operator, familiar with navigating the lakes, the park service said.
“Kevin was much loved by all and always known to go above and beyond,” park Superintendent Bob DeGross said in a statement.
National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands ordered American flags lowered at national parks through sunset Wednesday in Grossheim’s honor. Gov. Tim Walz issued a similar order for state buildings in Minnesota and encouraged people, businesses and other organizations to lower their flags, too.
“Kevin Grossheim was a dedicated ranger and public servant, known for his unwavering commitment to helping others,” Walz tweeted Tuesday.
TORONTO (AP) — Three large tobacco companies would pay nearly $24 billion to settle a long-running legal battle in Canada, according to a proposed deal.
Philip Morris International said Friday that a court-appointed mediator had filed the proposed settlement with its Canadian affiliate, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, over tobacco product-related claims and litigation in Canada. Similar deals were also filed covering JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.
“After years of mediation, we welcome this important step towards the resolution of long-pending tobacco product-related litigation in Canada,” Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said in a statement.
The three tobacco companies had sought creditor protection in Ontario in early 2019 after they lost an appeal in a landmark court battle in Quebec.
The Canadian Press reported that under the $32.5 billion Canadian dollar ($23.53 billion) deal, Canadian provinces and territories would get a combined CN$24.8 billion; members of the class action would get CN$4.25 billion; Canadian victims from provinces outside Quebec would receive CN$2.5 billion; and the three tobacco companies would also pour more than CN$1 billion into a foundation to fight tobacco-related diseases — that amount includes CN$131 million taken from the money allocated to the Quebec plaintiffs.
JUST eight years after euthanasia was legalised in Canada, some doctors there say the result is “horrendous” as more and more people are driven to it by a failing health-care system.
Assisted deaths have risen at an alarming rate, while the criteria to be given a lethal injection has been relaxed.
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Alicia Duncan, left, with her late mother Donna, who was helped to take her own lifeCredit: Supplied
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Pro-assisted dying supporters at WestminsterCredit: EPA
Now experts warn it would be disastrous to allow a system like Canada’s Medical Assistance In Death (Maid) in the UK, after the families of some of those who opted for it revealed they did so because they could not access medical help.
Professor Leonie Herx, a Canadian palliative medicine consultant based in Calgary, Alberta, described the outcome as “horrific from a medical perspective”.
In 2017, the first full year the legislation was in place, one per cent of deaths in Canada were from euthanasia.
By 2022, it was four per cent, as 13,241 people opted for Maid.
Supporters insist the bill is strictly to help the terminally ill.
Ms Leadbeater said: “I believe that, with the right safeguards in place, people who are already dying and are mentally competent should be given the choice of a shorter, less painful death on their own terms and without placing family and loved ones at risk of prosecution.
“It will not undermine calls for improvements to palliative care. Nor will it conflict with the rights of people with disabilities to be treated equally and have the respect and support they are right to campaign for in order to live fulfilling lives.”
But this is very similar to how Canada’s law was introduced — and now the rules there have softened and the numbers resorting to euthanasia have soared.
My parents held hands as they passed away by assisted dying – we supported ‘beautiful’ decision, it wasn’t a surprise
When Maid was introduced in Canada in 2016, it was limited to the terminally ill.
But following a legal challenge in 2021 it was made available to those whose death was NOT “reasonably foreseeable”.
A further change due to come into force in March 2027 will open up the service to people whose sole medical condition is MENTAL illness.
Doctors in Canada have approved assisted dying after just ZOOM calls, and some politicians want to extend the practice to CHILDREN old enough to make an “informed” choice.
Requests for Maid are now much more frequently approved in Canada than in 2019, when eight per cent of requests were denied.
In 2022, that figure fell to 3.5 per cent, a Health Canada report says.
I believe that, with the right safeguards in place, people who are already dying and are mentally competent should be given the choice of a shorter, less painful death on their own terms and without placing family and loved ones at risk of prosecution
Kim Leadbeater
The report adds that 17 per cent of those who applied cited “isolation or loneliness”, while nearly 36 per cent believed they were a “burden on family, friends or care-givers”.
The number of Canadians ending their lives via Maid — usually given in the form of an injection administered by a physician — has outpaced other nations with similar laws.
And its legislation has grown far looser than those of other countries offering assisted dying, such as Belgium and the Netherlands.
One expert claimed that what has happened in Canada could happen in the UK because both countries have a struggling health system and an ageing population.
Canadian-born Alexander Raikin, a researcher at the Ethics And Public Policy Centre in Washington DC, said: “Euthanasia in Canada was meant to be rare and last resort, but it isn’t. It has become routine.
“Assisted deaths have seen dram-atic rates of growth in all the places that have legalised it, like the Netherlands, Switzerland and Oregon in the US, but in Canada that rate has been quite unprecedented. The similarities between Canada and the UK . . . suggest the UK is likely to follow Canada’s route.
“I don’t think it is a coincidence that this massive surge happens at the same time our health system is collapsing. It should ring alarm bells in Britain.”
In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Canadian Alicia Duncan told, from her home in Mission, British Columbia, how her “active and happy” mother was given a fast-track death in 2021. She opted for it because she could not get the healthcare she needed.
Alicia, 41, an interior designer, now warns the UK about the perils of following Canada’s lead.
Her mum Donna, a psychiatric nurse, suffered a brain injury in a minor car crash but despite not facing immediate death, and receiving treatment for mental health symptoms, the 61-year-old’s Maid request was granted.
Despite protests by her daughter and long-serving GP, she was helped to take her own life just 48 hours later.
Alica said: “People in Britain should be very worried about this.
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Now, in the UK, a bill to legalise the early ending of life has been introduced in Parliament by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater
“It won’t stop at terminal illness alone. The UK needs to look at what happened in Canada.
“People think, ‘This will never happen to me’. I never thought my mother, who was active and happy, would have chosen to end her life because of a mental illness, and been helped to do so.
“I would say to Britain, you need to be cautious because once you decide to open this door you don’t get to choose who walks through.
“The moment you legalise euthanasia it starts as a crack then it becomes a wide-open chasm and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
Since their mother’s death, Alicia and her sister Christie have been denied key details about the circumstances and believe safe-guards to protect vulnerable people were not followed properly.
She added: “I am so angry. People are choosing to die because they can’t access healthcare in a timely manner.
The moment you legalise euthanasia it starts as a crack then it becomes a wide-open chasm and there is nothing you can do to stop it
Alicia Duncan
“My mum was waiting to see a specialist for 18 months and her appointment was the week after she died.
“It’s easier to die in Canada than to access healthcare.”
Ms Carr — who has rare genetic condition arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, which affects her joints and muscles, and uses a wheelchair, warned: “These laws will put lives like mine, marginalised lives, at risk and those risks will be fatal.
“All because of the dangerous assumption some of us are better off dead. Let’s be aware, maybe it’s going to be like Canada, and that is terrifying.”
This week in Canada, a 51-year old gran from Nova Scotia told how doctors offered her Maid while she was in hospital about to undergo a mastectomy for breast cancer.
These laws will put lives like mine, marginalised lives, at risk and those risks will be fatal
Liz Carr
Before she went in for what she hoped was life-saving surgery, the doctor sat her down and asked: “Did you know about Medical Assistance In Dying?”
She was then asked again before undergoing a second mastectomy nine months later, and a third time while in the recovery room after that procedure.
Around three quarters of Brits support assisted dying, a survey this year from advocacy group Dying With Dignity found, while just 14 per cent of us oppose it.
“If I decide my own life is not worth living, please may I ask for help to die.”
But the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said of the bill: “This approach is both dangerous and sets us in a direction even more dangerous.
All I’m asking is that we be given the dignity of choice. If I decide my own life is not worth living, please may I ask for help to die
Esther Rantzen
“In every place where it’s been done, it has led to a slippery slope.
“The right to end your life could too easily, all too accidentally, turn into a duty to do so.”
‘BRITS, BE WARNED OF PERIL’
By Prof Leonie Herx, Professor of Palliative Medicine at the University of Calgary
IN Canada, a doctor-administered lethal injection has become the solution to almost any suffering, which is horrific from a medical perspective.
Any adult with a disability or chronic illness can get an “assisted death”.
There is no requirement to receive any treatment for even a reversible condition and sometimes it is the only “intervention” provided.
I have seen a person’s worst day become their last.
We are seeing people getting Maid for poverty, social isolation or deprivation.
It is routinely offered to any potentially eligible person as they access a care home, at time of surgery or during hospital admission for a health crisis.
It has altered the practice of medicine here and is leading to the premature death of many vulnerable people.
It has become something it never started as, something no Canadian could have imagined.
The UK should take warning.
Keep medicine invested in helping people restore their health and live well.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. court has given two top associates of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman until early November to start turning over any evidence in a lawsuit from a former senior Saudi intelligence official who says he survived a plot by the kingdom to silence him.
The order is among a spate of recent rulings suggesting U.S. courts are becoming more open to lawsuits seeking to hold foreign powers accountable for rights abuses, legal experts and advocates say. That is after a couple of decades in which American judges tended to toss those cases.
The long-running lawsuit by former Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri accuses Saudi Arabia of trying to assassinate him in October 2018. The kingdom calls the allegation groundless. That’s the same month the U.S., U.N. and others allege that aides of Prince Mohammed and other Saudi officials killed U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose columns for The Washington Post were critical of the crown prince.
Al-Jabri’s lawsuit asserts that the plot against him involved at least one of the same officials, former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, whom the Biden administration has sanctioned over allegations of involvement in Khashoggi’s killing.
The ruling is among a half-dozen recently giving hope to rights groups and dissidents that U.S. courts may be more open again to lawsuits that accuse foreign governments and officials of abuses — even when most of the alleged wrongdoing took place abroad.
“More and more … it seems like the U.S. courts are an opportunity to directly hold governments accountable,” said Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director at Freedom House, a U.S.-based rights group that advocates for people facing cross-border persecution by repressive governments.
“It’s an uphill battle,” especially in cases where little of the alleged harassment took place on U.S. soil, Gorokhovskaia noted. “But it’s more than we saw, definitely, even a few years ago.”
Khalid al-Jabri, a doctor who like his father lives in exile in the West for fear of retaliation by the Saudi government, said the recent ruling allowing his father’s lawsuit to move forward will do more than help recent victims.
It “hopefully, in the long run, will make … oppressive regimes think twice about transnational repression on U.S. soil,” the younger al-Jabri said.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington acknowledged receiving requests for comment from The Associated Press in the al-Jabri case but did not immediately respond. Lawyers for one of the two Saudis named in the case, Bader al-Asaker, declined to comment, while al-Qahtani’s attorneys did not respond.
Past court motions by lawyers for the crown prince called al-Jabri a liar wanted in Saudi Arabia to face corruption allegations and said there was no evidence of a Saudi plot to kill him.
The Saudi government, meanwhile, has said the killing of Khashoggi by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was a “rogue operation” carried out without the crown prince’s knowledge.
Khashoggi’s killing and the events alleged by al-Jabri took place in a crackdown in the first years after King Salman and his son Prince Mohammed came to power in Saudi Arabia, after the 2015 death of King Abdullah. They detained critics and rights advocates, former prominent figures under the old king, and fellow princes for what the government often said were corruption investigations.
Al-Jabri escaped to Canada. As with Khashoggi, the lawsuit alleges the crown prince sent a hit team known as the “Tiger Squad” to kill him there but claims the plot was foiled when Canadian officials questioned the men and examined their luggage. Canada has said little about the case, although a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigator has testified that officials found the allegations credible and said they remain under investigation.
Saudi Arabia detained a younger son and daughter of al-Jabri in what the family alleges is an effort to pressure the father to return to the kingdom.
Until now, efforts to sue Saudi officials and the kingdom over Khashoggi’s and al-Jabri’s cases have foundered. U.S. courts have said that Prince Mohammed himself has sovereign immunity under international law.
And judgments in civil cases against foreign governments and officials can have little effect beyond the reputational hit. Courts sometimes find in favor of the alleged victim by default when a regime or official fails to respond.
U.S. courts noted the alleged plot against al-Jabri targeted him at his home in Canada, not in the United States, although al-Jabri alleges the crown prince’s aides used a network of Saudi informants in the U.S. to learn his whereabouts.
Late this summer, a federal appeals court in Washington reversed a dismissal of al-Jabri’s claims by a lower court. He is legally entitled to gather any evidence to see if there is enough to justify trying the case in the U.S., the appeals court said.
Federal courts ordered al-Qahtani and al-Asaker last month to start turning over all relevant texts, messages on apps and other communication in the case by Nov. 4.
It’s an “exciting development,” said Ingrid Brunk, a professor of international law at Vanderbilt University and an expert in international litigation.
Courts in the U.S. and other democracies have been favorite venues to bring human-rights cases against repressive governments. But rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court since 2004 had choked off such lawsuits in cases involving foreign parties, which often have little link to the U.S., Brunk said.
Lately, however, particularly strong lawsuits against foreign officials and governments have been gaining footholds in U.S. courts again, she said.
“There’s been some very good lawyering here,” Brunk said of al-Jabri’s long-running case.
Other lawsuits also have pushed ahead. A U.S. appeals court in San Francisco last month allowed the revival of a case by Chinese dissidents accusing the Chinese government of spying on them.
Rather than suing China, however, the dissidents targeted Cisco Systems, the Silicon Valley tech company they accused of developing the security system that allowed the spying.
U.S. courts also have allowed human-rights-related lawsuits naming Turkey and India to move forward recently.
Some of the uptick in human-rights cases — those naming foreign officials and governments or targeting U.S. corporations — in U.S. courts again stems from plaintiffs “pursuing really promising, really creative” legal approaches, Brunk said.
Khalid al-Jabri said the family isn’t seeking money in its lawsuit. They want justice for his father, he said, and freedom for his detained sister and brother.
Canadian comedian and former talk show host Mike Bullard has died at age 67. His family confirmed to Global News that Bullard was found dead of a suspected heart attack.
Bullard got his start in comedy doing live standup at comedy clubs across Ontario, before moving to television on the back of his success with standup.
He shot to prominence in 1997 as the host of the late night talk show ‘Open Mike With Mike Bullard’ on CTV, which he hosted until 2003 when he was hired away by Global Television to host ‘The Mike Bullard Show.’ That program lasted 13 weeks.
Radio host and comedian Mike Bullard charged with harassment
After his television show was cancelled, Bullard turned to radio. After a few cancelled shows and a brief return to TV, he found success as the host of ‘Beyond The Mic with Mike Bullard’ on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto, where he stayed from 2010 to 2016.
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He departed Newstalk 1010 after he was charged with criminal harassment of a former romantic partner. In 2018, Bullard pleaded guilty to one count of harassing communication.
During his career Bullard won two Gemini awards for his show ‘Open Mike With Mike Bullard.’ In 2013, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his volunteer work. In 2022, Bullard travelled to Ukraine to volunteer with humanitarian organizations in the country following Russia’s invasion.
Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley is alleging in a new memoir that he was groomed and sexually abused by the band’s former manager Greig Nori, when he was a teenager and Nori was in his 30s.
The claims, first reported in a feature by the Los Angeles Times, appear in Whibley’s book Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell. In it, Whibley writes that Nori kissed him without consent and instigated sexual encounters during Sum 41’s formative years in Ajax, Ont., and into the early 2000s.
Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 performs on stage at Brixton Academy, London, 2001.
Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
Whibley never told his bandmates about the alleged abuse, and only confided in then-partner Avril Lavigne and his current wife Ariana Cooper, who helped him understand the relationship between himself and Nori as abusive. After years of reflection and learning about the MeToo movement, Whibley told the L.A. Times he realized he had been groomed.
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“As excited as I am to share this open and honest memoir of my life story, I’m equally just as terrified,” a post on the Sum 41 Instagram page reads.
Nori, a musician from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., denies the claims in the book as “false allegations.” He told the Globe and Mail that he has retained a defamation lawyer.
Greig Nori (R) photographed with Ludacris (L) backstage at ‘Saturday Night Live’ on Jan. 21, 2005.
Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic
The allegations
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In Walking Disaster, Whibley describes meeting Nori for the first time when he snuck backstage at a Treble Charger concert when he was 16. At the time, Whibley was in high school trying to make his music dreams come true, and Nori, the frontman of Treble Charger, was his hero.
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Whibley invited Nori to one of Sum 41’s upcoming performances, sparking a mentorship that would eventually grow into Nori managing the band.
Greig Nori, lead singer of the rock band Treble Charger, cheers on the crowd as the band plays to more than 50,000 people celebrating the new Dundas Square in Toronto at its grand opening evening, Friday May 30, 2003.
Tannis Toohey/Toronto Star via Getty Images
One night when Whibley was 18, he and Nori were at a rave when the older musician asked Whibley to come to the bathroom to do ecstasy with him. Inside the bathroom stall, Whibley writes that Nori grabbed him and “passionately” kissed him.
Nori allegedly told the Sum 41 frontman that the pair shared a “special” connection and the relationship was worth exploring. Nori would have been around 36 years old at the time.
At the time, Whibley tried to brush off the encounter because Nori was a trusted figure in his life.
“It seemed like a cool experiment when I was high, but when I was sober, it felt wrong,” Whibley writes. “Greig kept pushing for things to happen when we were together. I started feeling like I was being pressured to do something against my will. It was a strange feeling because for the most part I trusted Greig completely and still thought he was a great human being, which made it all so confusing.”
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Whibley writes that he tried numerous times to end the sexual aspect of their relationship, only to be accused of homophobia by Nori. The Treble Charger frontman allegedly told Whibley he “owed” him for helping to get Sum 41 off the ground.
A photo of Sum 41 from a photo shoot in San Francisco on Jan. 26, 2002.
Steve Jennings/WireImage
In 2004, Whibley started dating Lavigne, a fellow Canadian pop-punk star, and he shared what had happened between him and Nori.
“That’s abuse! He sexually abused you,” Lavigne told Whibley, according to the memoir. Lavigne and Whibley split up in 2009 after three years of marriage. Whibley’s current wife, Ariana Cooper, had a similar reaction when he told her, he said.
Eventually, Whibley says Nori stopped trying to pressure him into sexual encounters after a mutual friend learned of the relationship and said it was abusive. In 2005, Sum 41 fired Nori as its manager.
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Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley in the audience during the 2007 American Music Awards held on Nov. 18, 2007 in Los Angeles.
Kevin Winter/AMA/Getty Images
As Whibley got older, eventually hitting the age that Nori was when they first met, the Sum 41 frontman began to better understand the power imbalance in their relationship.
“It all became so clear,” Whibley told the L.A. Times. “Then about a year later, the Me Too thing started happening. I started hearing stories of grooming, and it all started to make sense.”
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Whibley said he’s not worried about the potential legal fallout of the memoir.
“You can’t sue (someone) for telling the truth,” Whibley said. “If he wants to challenge it, I welcome that. Let’s go to court. Let’s go under oath. That would be f—king great! I welcome that part…. Finally, let’s get it on record!”
Sum 41 is currently touring its last-ever round of shows, and have booked Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 30, 2025 as their final stop.
A rare big cat caught on camera for the first time in years is once again showing up in Vermont, this time in a different area.See the rare cat in the video aboveVermont Fish and Wildlife said they have continued to receive verifiable photos of a Canada lynx that was first spotted in Rutland County back in August. To date, biologists have noted 15 confirmed sightings since then and believe the reports are the same juvenile male.The incredible animal, which was captured walking calmly along a roadside in Shrewsbury by resident Gary Shattuck, has appeared to move about 60 miles north into Addison County, according to the latest images of the cat provided by the department.Video: Rare Canada lynx spotted in VermontFish and Wildlife experts said reports indicate that the lynx is traveling about a dozen miles at a time and then staying in the same area for several days before moving on. This behavior is typical for young lynx, with the department saying that juveniles will often travel long distances as they search for a new territory in what is called “dispersal” by biologists. Brehan Furfey, a biologist with the department, said the lynx’s movements are a “conservation success” thanks to Vermont’s network of protected lands that allow the cat to move safely from area to area. “We’re rooting for this lynx to keep heading north where it will find more young forest habitat and plenty of snowshoe hares to eat,” Furfey said in a statement.To ensure that the lynx continues on its journey and remains safe, the department urged Vermonters to give this federally threatened animal plenty of space if they happen to see it. While the lynx is healthy, biologists say it is skinny and may be stressed by the act of being in unfamiliar territory. They also assured residents that the cat is not a threat to people.“The rule of thumb is always to keep a respectful distance from any wildlife you’re observing. If they are changing their behavior in response to you, then you’re too close,” said Furfey. The department said it previously posted a video to its social media accounts on how to tell a lynx apart from its more common cousin, the bobcat.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife said they have continued to receive verifiable photos of a Canada lynx that was first spotted in Rutland County back in August. To date, biologists have noted 15 confirmed sightings since then and believe the reports are the same juvenile male.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
A juvenile male Canada lynx photographed in late September 2024, in Addison County.
The incredible animal, which was captured walking calmly along a roadside in Shrewsbury by resident Gary Shattuck, has appeared to move about 60 miles north into Addison County, according to the latest images of the cat provided by the department.
Video: Rare Canada lynx spotted in Vermont
Fish and Wildlife experts said reports indicate that the lynx is traveling about a dozen miles at a time and then staying in the same area for several days before moving on. This behavior is typical for young lynx, with the department saying that juveniles will often travel long distances as they search for a new territory in what is called “dispersal” by biologists.
Brehan Furfey, a biologist with the department, said the lynx’s movements are a “conservation success” thanks to Vermont’s network of protected lands that allow the cat to move safely from area to area.
“We’re rooting for this lynx to keep heading north where it will find more young forest habitat and plenty of snowshoe hares to eat,” Furfey said in a statement.
To ensure that the lynx continues on its journey and remains safe, the department urged Vermonters to give this federally threatened animal plenty of space if they happen to see it. While the lynx is healthy, biologists say it is skinny and may be stressed by the act of being in unfamiliar territory. They also assured residents that the cat is not a threat to people.
“The rule of thumb is always to keep a respectful distance from any wildlife you’re observing. If they are changing their behavior in response to you, then you’re too close,” said Furfey.
The department said it previously posted a video to its social media accounts on how to tell a lynx apart from its more common cousin, the bobcat.
A rare big cat caught on camera for the first time in years is once again showing up in Vermont, this time in a different area.See the rare cat in the video aboveVermont Fish and Wildlife said they have continued to receive verifiable photos of a Canada lynx that was first spotted in Rutland County back in August. To date, biologists have noted 15 confirmed sightings since then and believe the reports are the same juvenile male.The incredible animal, which was captured walking calmly along a roadside in Shrewsbury by resident Gary Shattuck, has appeared to move about 60 miles north into Addison County, according to the latest images of the cat provided by the department.Video: Rare Canada lynx spotted in VermontFish and Wildlife experts said reports indicate that the lynx is traveling about a dozen miles at a time and then staying in the same area for several days before moving on. This behavior is typical for young lynx, with the department saying that juveniles will often travel long distances as they search for a new territory in what is called “dispersal” by biologists. Brehan Furfey, a biologist with the department, said the lynx’s movements are a “conservation success” thanks to Vermont’s network of protected lands that allow the cat to move safely from area to area. “We’re rooting for this lynx to keep heading north where it will find more young forest habitat and plenty of snowshoe hares to eat,” Furfey said in a statement.To ensure that the lynx continues on its journey and remains safe, the department urged Vermonters to give this federally threatened animal plenty of space if they happen to see it. While the lynx is healthy, biologists say it is skinny and may be stressed by the act of being in unfamiliar territory. They also assured residents that the cat is not a threat to people.“The rule of thumb is always to keep a respectful distance from any wildlife you’re observing. If they are changing their behavior in response to you, then you’re too close,” said Furfey. The department said it previously posted a video to its social media accounts on how to tell a lynx apart from its more common cousin, the bobcat.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife said they have continued to receive verifiable photos of a Canada lynx that was first spotted in Rutland County back in August. To date, biologists have noted 15 confirmed sightings since then and believe the reports are the same juvenile male.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
A juvenile male Canada lynx photographed in late September 2024, in Addison County.
The incredible animal, which was captured walking calmly along a roadside in Shrewsbury by resident Gary Shattuck, has appeared to move about 60 miles north into Addison County, according to the latest images of the cat provided by the department.
Video: Rare Canada lynx spotted in Vermont
Fish and Wildlife experts said reports indicate that the lynx is traveling about a dozen miles at a time and then staying in the same area for several days before moving on. This behavior is typical for young lynx, with the department saying that juveniles will often travel long distances as they search for a new territory in what is called “dispersal” by biologists.
Brehan Furfey, a biologist with the department, said the lynx’s movements are a “conservation success” thanks to Vermont’s network of protected lands that allow the cat to move safely from area to area.
“We’re rooting for this lynx to keep heading north where it will find more young forest habitat and plenty of snowshoe hares to eat,” Furfey said in a statement.
To ensure that the lynx continues on its journey and remains safe, the department urged Vermonters to give this federally threatened animal plenty of space if they happen to see it. While the lynx is healthy, biologists say it is skinny and may be stressed by the act of being in unfamiliar territory. They also assured residents that the cat is not a threat to people.
“The rule of thumb is always to keep a respectful distance from any wildlife you’re observing. If they are changing their behavior in response to you, then you’re too close,” said Furfey.
The department said it previously posted a video to its social media accounts on how to tell a lynx apart from its more common cousin, the bobcat.
“Writing is often a lonely, isolating business,” McLachlan told the audience at Toronto’s Massey Hall in her speech.
“But for me, it’s also extremely cathartic.”
Sarah McLachlan gives a speech at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony at Massey Hall in Toronto, on Saturday, September 28, 2024.
Paige Taylor White/The Canadian Press
Her feelings were shared by Cochrane, who acknowledged that songwriting steals precious years away from the people around its creators. He thanked his daughters for their patience with him.
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But the Life is a Highway writer suggested the creation process often leads to miracles.
“Songs have a beginning and an end – like lives,” he said. “And like the people we love, we don’t forget them.”
Tom Cochrane gives an award speech at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Massey Hall in Toronto, on Saturday, September 28, 2024.
Paige Taylor White/The Canadian Press
All of the inductees’ famous tunes punctuated an evening show that saw fans dancing from their seats as Sam Roberts, Metric and Lights joined others in tributes that spanned the emotions.
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Husband-and-wife duo Whitehorse delivered a sombre acoustic-electric take on McLachlan’s Sweet Surrender while a barefoot Brett Emmons of the Glorious Sons threw his voice into a wailing version of Cochrane’s Big League.
Nelly Furtado shared how McLachlan inspired her early in her career as they wound through one of the Lilith Fair tours. She also praised McLachlan’s tireless efforts in raising funds for various charities.
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The two finished by performing a harmonious duet of Angel with Furtado standing near McLachlan’s piano.
Aside from the deeper reflections on the struggle of creation, the night offered a good share of humour, particularly when it came to the induction of Blue Rodeo songwriters Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor.
Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, appearing in a video message, likened the pair to being as inseparable as maple syrup and pancakes.
Keelor kept the jokes flowing when he stepped up to the podium with a thick notepad of his handwritten speech. He assured the crowd it wasn’t as long as it looked.
Shortly after, he pointed out McLachlan as she watched from the crowd beside her daughter Taja.
“I once said, way back, that when I die, I want Sarah McLachlan to sing at my grave,” he said.
“So I think I will die in my seat tonight.”
Country artists Tim Hicks and Tenille Townes gave a colourful tribute to Blue Rodeo that was quite literal.
When they hit the stage to sing a growling take on Til I Am Myself Again, both were dressed in blue – Hicks in a blue jean jacket and Townes in blue leather pants.
Toronto singer Ahi toasted the country-rock band with a bluesy take on Try that earned the praise of Cuddy as he kicked off his induction speech.
The Blue Rodeo frontman said all of the celebration was overwhelming in some ways. He thanked his wife, actress Rena Polley, for her unwavering support.
“Every time we go to a concert, or every time I play her a record, I’m just still surprised by all her enthusiasm, I think really after 40 years? That’s amazing,” he said.
Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo perform together at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Massey Hall in Toronto, on Saturday, September 28, 2024.
Paige Taylor White/The Canadian Press
Other highlights of the evening included French-Canadian chanteuse La Zara, who represented France at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. She was among the performers who toasted Quebec singer Diane Tell with a sizzling rendition of her 1981 song Si J’etais un Homme, which translates as “If I Were a Man.”
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Accepting her honour, Tell recalled how she penned around 50 songs while barely a teenager and would sing them “for anyone who cared to listen.”
She said songwriting was invaluable to her life, and the words she wrote were so important to her that even in her early days she had an “urge to own my music and protect it from the industry.”
“Those songs they are my anchor,” she added.
Gary LeVox of the Nashville band Rascal Flatts closed the evening by joining a harmonica-clutching Cochrane on Life is a Highway. Partway through the song, all of the evening’s performers returned to the stage to rock out together.
“You just always hope and pray that one of your songs is timeless,” LeVox said of showing up for Cochrane’s induction.
Time, elongated and obfuscated by the pandemic, seems cruel. Has it really been that long since we lost one of our country’s most charismatic, beloved musicians? And has it really been almost a decade since the group of guys fondly referred to as “Canada’s Band” ceased to play?
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The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, a four-part docuseries streaming on Prime Video starting Sept. 20, provides an incredibly intimate look at the band, from its humble beginnings in small-town Ontario to its glory days onstage.
Directed by Gord’s brother Mike Downie, all four hour-long segments of the docuseries are unapologetically raw, with vignettes from Gord himself and each of the band members as the plucky bunch of boys grow from teenagers dreaming of becoming rock stars into, well, rock stars in their own right.
Brother of Gord Downie recounts emotional final tour of ‘The Tragically Hip’
Jaw-dropping concert footage is featured throughout — even die-hard Hip fans will see things they’ve never seen before (no spoilers here!) — and there are interviews with family, friends and others who knew them during the journey. Canadian celebrities and fans, including Dan Aykroyd, Jay Baruchel and Bruce McCulloch, among many others, express their love and incredulousness about the band, cementing what any fan already knows: The Tragically Hip were something special, and a certain kind of musical magic Canadians may never see again.
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Global News sat down with Mike Downie and the remaining members of the band — Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay — to talk about what the docuseries means to them, what it was like accelerating to national fame at the height of Canadian rock, and life after Gord’s death.
When revisiting all of the archival footage, reflecting on past performances and everything that you’ve all been through together, how did it feel to watch?
Gord Sinclair: It’s like the drone shot in a lot of ways. We always kept a fairly narrow horizon throughout our careers, getting to the next gig and then the next opportunity to make a record, next opportunity to take some time off, writing and stuff. When you step back and look at it, to me, it’s a feeling of gratitude for the opportunity that we had…. We were never sure whether we were going to be able to make another record after the previous one.
Gratitude to the fans that came along and the guys I played music with. Rewatching it made me really appreciate what Mike went through. Mike moved with Gord from Amherstville when we were only 13, and he’s coming at it not only as a friend, but honouring his family and honouring the group. I think he did a wonderful job. Again, it’s a nice look back, for sure.
The Tragically Hip sits on a couch.
Prime Video
Why did you decide on now as the time to put this docuseries out there?
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Mike Downie: I think timing was a big part of it, and it’s explained in the film.
I know for the guys in the band, the years after Gord’s passing were… a little bit lost. You just kind of retreat into your own sort of experience, and I had a similar experience as well. You know, trying to figure out what it’s all about. But, when we went into our old high school, it was vacant. It had been sold to Queen’s University. Students were all gone, and in October of 2021, we were able to go in there for four days and really just kind of take it over, use it as our set.
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That was almost four years to the day that Gord had passed. And I kind of just realized recently that it was probably the right amount of time, like it was still really close. You see it in the interviews. But there was also enough distance to have some clarity as well, and to start thinking about, or talking about, the band and certainly the early days because it’s what we wanted to do when we were in high school.
I remember that feeling, the lump in my throat, you know, as we started talking about the band and everything. But soon the story takes over. Gord’s not with us anymore, but he’s alive in those stories. It always got me when I’d hear another story, obviously something I didn’t know about my brother that these guys did. They were spending most of their time away together. So, that was really great for me. And a lot of that’s probably not in the doc, but it’s, you know, it’s in here [gestures to his heart] forever now.
Gord Downie, former lead singer/frontman of The Tragically Hip.
Prime Video
Has diving into the film, creating it, looking at everything, having the lump in the throat… has that helped each of you with your sense of grief?
Rob Baker: I think grief is always going to be with you. It never goes away. The good times, you remember them; they’re like a nice cleansing bath or a night out. You have great memories of it. But grief is something that pierces your skin and leaves scars, you have to reform the way you move through life, to accommodate. Time is really just the best way to deal with it. Like we did in the band, you put one foot in front of the other. We never focused on the horizon, conquering the world. It was all about the next gig, the next song we’re going to write. And it’s the same thing with dealing with grief.
We lost a brother. We went through everything that we did together, very collectively and openly together, and then we all went off separately and grieved. Completely alone. And that was really hard.
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The Morning Show: September 6
Watching this footage is just mind-blowing. It’s like you’re right there in the pit. In the ’90s, Canadian rock was such a beast. What was it like to have a meteoric rise during that time?
Johnny Fay: It was fun! I was thinking back to some of the stuff that we had done. We had this one gig we were really excited about, we were opening for 54-40 at the Spectrum in Montreal. And then a year to the day later, 54-40 opened for us at Penguin Park in Saskatoon.
I remember talking to some people and they said to me, “It felt like we were watching a plane take off, and you guys went into the clouds!”
Having a conversation like that afterwards, it was like, “Really?” 54-40, Blue Rodeo, The Northern Pikes… we were all using the same PA companies and stuff. We were touring in the winter, which was pretty treacherous, and the fact that we went through that and lived is a story in itself. It was a pretty exciting time to be a band that was playing rock ‘n’ roll in this country at that time. There were some really, really great bands in this country. And then Great Big Sea out east, and it was like, yeah! We were all doing it and we were all having fun. It was a great time to be making music because it was pre-phones, which at our last show, that’s all you saw. Some people put the phone down and watched it for real, but (back then) was a pretty golden age of people going and listening to music.
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Tragically Hip fans watch the band’s final show from The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.
Prime Video
Canadian success vs. U.S. success: Does it matter if The Tragically Hip were as popular in the U.S. as they were in Canada?
Mike Downie: Certainly, when I was setting out to do this doc, I really wanted to answer this question once and for all. Because, I feel, for a lot of people, there’s this asterisk about huge success in Canada, but not nearly as much in America. I think we really took a good run at it in the documentary, because the truth is, it really wasn’t about measuring country to country. It was really this idea of validation that Canadians, especially in the ’80s and ’90s, we’re looking at our own artists, our own anything and saying, “Yeah, that’s pretty great, but what do the Americans think?”
Back then it was almost a parental approval kind of thing that we needed. And that’s what happened to the Hip. And then of course, it flipped, because then Canadians were like, “Wait a minute, this means everything to us. We love this.” And we realized it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks because it’s ours. That confidence wasn’t really there before. And I think the band had this inherent confidence because of this brotherhood and this partnership and this collaboration. The band had this confidence in their songwriting and in their performance.
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Canadians were coming out of our shells, growing up in the shadow of Great Britain and the United States. It just took us a while to find our footing, and I believe The Tragically Hip helped move that forward in a big way.
The Tragically Hip as young men, when they first started out.
Prime Video
One thing that stood out about the doc, right off the top, is that you were all boys with a musical connection, fantasizing about becoming rock stars. And you grew up to be members of one of the biggest rock bands in Canadian history. Looking back, does it ever feel like a dream?
Gord Sinclair: Very much so, I was just thinking about this yesterday. When (we were teens), Rush played the Jock Hardy Arena, which is a small half-hockey arena, maybe 2,000 people… I know most of you were there with me [gestures at bandmates], as we’re from a small town and this was a big, big concert. I remember they opened up with Bastille Day, and it was the loudest, most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It was truly inspiring.
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And yesterday we’re sitting there, and here’s Ged (Geddy Lee, Rush frontman) on TV talking about our tunes. The 16-year-old me is like, “Wow.” It’s amazing. I still have problems looking that man in the eye because it’s Geddy Lee! It’s pretty incredible, back when we were playing on tennis racquets as kids listening to the Rolling Stones, and then we’re having a pint with them. It’s hard to believe.
It’s kind of like a dream come true, that level of inspiration. It speaks to the power of music for me, because I still hold those memories really, really strongly. Music was the only thing I wanted to do after seeing Rush play, and as a music fan to be able to do that… to be able to appreciate that on a winter’s night in Saskatoon, or Pigtown, there’s a kid out there who’s maybe thinking the exact same thing. You get that sense of community that music creates. Music is a great force for good.
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‘The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal’ is now streaming across Canada on Prime Video.
Get ready, Canada: Corus Entertainment is getting set to launch two all-new, Canadian-owned lifestyle networks, chock-full of everything to satisfy and sate both your design palettes and your culinary palates.
Coming this winter, and designed specifically for Canadian audiences, are the Flavour Network and Home Network, each bringing a slate of exclusive content to the screen featuring new voices and formats as well as familiar faces from proven hits.
Home Network promises to deliver the feeling of “home” beyond four walls with inspiring storytelling, while Flavour Network will provide a fresh take on all things food.
“When the opportunity presented itself to renovate Canadian lifestyle TV, we were pretty excited because it meant building even better networks for our audiences,” Troy Reeb, Co-CEO of Corus Entertainment, told Global News.
“These fresher, younger networks allow us to shake away the old handcuffs and create two amazing, distinctively Canadian brands that reward the same large and loyal audience bases with the best content in the country, all while adding exciting new ideas.”
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Troy Reeb, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Corus Entertainment.
Corus Entertainment
Canadian content will drive programming across both networks, with more than 110 hours of premium original content confirmed for 2025/2026, including six titles currently in production.
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Corus Studios titles originally slated for Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada will air on the new lifestyle networks, including new seasons of Scott’s Vacation House Rules, Pamela’s Garden of Eden and Renovation Resort.
Top Chef Canada has been greenlit for Season 12 to air exclusively on Flavour Network and new seasons of The Great Chocolate Showdown and Carnival Eats will also join the 2025 lineup, along with Season 1 of Pamela Anderson’s Pamela’s Cooking with Love.
The cast of ‘Top Chef Canada,’ Season 11.
Corus Entertainment
Viewers will also be treated to brand-new shows from a mix of new and adored stars, including Building Baeumler with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler and Rentovation with Natalie Chong.
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Bryan and Sarah Baeumler will star in ‘Building Baeumler’ on the Home Network.
On the food side, the Flavour Network will tempt your tastebuds with a new menu consisting of Chasing Flavor with Carla Hall, Adam Richman Eats Britain, and Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts.
Chef icon Gordon Ramsay finds a new seat at the table in Canada with Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, airing exclusively on Flavour Network. Great British Menu, The Great American Recipe, Morimoto’s Sushi Master and many more will also join the network.
“These are new brands but in many ways they’re not that new. They’re from us after all – Corus, the proven expert in lifestyle,” said Reeb.
“These brands have many of the same big hits, and the same programming experts building the schedules. You know us, you trust us, and while the names may be changing, Home Network and Flavour Network offer viewers the same premium Canadian lifestyle programming that they’ve come to know and love from Corus.”
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Additional programming details and shows will be announced later this year, as well as the official launch of HomeNetwork.ca and FlavourNetwork.ca.
Building Baeumler: HGTV Canada host Bryan Baeumler dishes on new series
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Flavour Network and Home Network will replace the current channel position of Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada in 2025. Customers can contact their service provider for more details.
The networks will be available for free preview for two months, from Jan. 3 to Feb. 28, 2025. Viewers will also be able to stream full episodes from both networks on STACKTV.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Air Canada and the union representing its pilots have come to terms on a labor agreement that is likely to prevent a shutdown of Canada’s largest airline.
Talks betwen the company and the Air Line Pilots Association produced a tentative, four-year collective agreement, the airline announced in a statement early Sunday.
The prospective deal recognizes the contributions of the pilots flying for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge while setting a new framework for company growth. The terms will remain confidential until ratification by union members and approval by the airline’s board of directors over the next month, the airline said.
The pilots association said its Air Canada Master Executive Council voted to approve the tentative agreement on behalf of more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots. After review and ratification by a majority of members, the deal is expected to generate an additional $1.9 billion for the pilots over the period of the agreement, the union said in a statement.
“While it has been an exceptionally long road to this agreement, the consistent engagement and unified determination of our pilots have been the catalyst for achieving this contract,” Charlene Hudy, the executive council’s chair, said in the statement. “After several consecutive weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations, progress was made on several key issues including compensation, retirement, and work rules.”
Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon confirmed the agreement on Sunday and lauded the company and the union.
“Thanks to the hard work of the parties and federal mediators, disruptions have been prevented for Canadians,” MacKinnon said in a statement. “Negotiated agreements are always the best way forward and yield positive results for companies and workers.”
The airline and its pilots have been in contract talks for more than a year. The pilots have sought wages competitive with their U.S. counterparts, but Air Canada continues to post record profits while expecting pilots to accept below-market compensation, the union said
The two sides could have issued a 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout beginning Sunday. The airline said the notice would have triggered its three-day wind down plan and started the clock on a full work stoppage as soon as Sept. 18.
Air Canada spokesman Christophe Hennebelle previously said the airline was committed to negotiations, but faced union wage demands that the company could not meet.
The airline was not seeking federal intervention, but cautioned the government should be prepared to help avoid major disruptions from the possible shutdown of an airline carrying more than 110,000 passengers daily, Hennebelle said.
Business leaders had urged the federal government to intervene in the talks earlier in the week, but MacKinnon said there was no reason the sides should not have been able to reach a collective agreement.
In August, the Canadian government asked the country’s industrial relations board to issue a back-to-work order to end a railway shutdown.
Leaders of numerous business groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada convened in Ottawa on Thursday to call for action, including binding arbitration, to avoid the widespread economic disruptions of an airline shutdown.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday his party would not support efforts to force pilots back to work.
“If there’s any bills being proposed on back to work legislation, we’re going to oppose that,” he said.
Ongoing controversy over the documentary “Russians at War” has brought scrutiny to Ontario’s public broadcaster, which has said it will not air the film it helped fund.
One media expert says TVO is getting “the worst of all worlds” by investing in a project that can no longer be shown or monetized.
“TVO created a thing which their audience doesn’t get to see, other audiences will get to see and they’ve footed the bill and gotten no reward for it,” Chris Arsenault, chair of Western University’s master of media in journalism and communication program, said in an interview.
“I can’t think of a worse outcome for a network than what’s happened.”
“Russians at War,” a film rebuked by the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians, was part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s lineup until organizers suspended all screenings this week due to “significant threats” to festival operations. The film, which recently screened at the Venice Film Festival and is headed to the Windsor International Film Festival next month, shows the disillusionment of some Russian soldiers on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
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Canada ‘fully supports’ Ukraine striking Russia with long-range missiles: Trudeau
TVO had planned to air the documentary in the coming months, but the network’s board of directors withdrew support for the film on Tuesday, citing feedback it received. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Ukraine’s consul-general in Toronto and others have called the film Russian propaganda and a “whitewashing” of Russian military war crimes in Ukraine – claims the film’s producers and TIFF have rejected.
The TVO board’s announcement came just days after the network defended the film as “antiwar” at its core. It was an about-face the Documentary Organization of Canada said “poses a serious threat” to media independence and raises questions about political interference.
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TVO has not responded to requests for comment and board chair Chris Day declined to elaborate on the decision to pull the film.
“Suffice it to say, we heard significant concerns and we responded,” Day wrote to The Canadian Press in an emailed response to an interview request.
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Arsenault, who has not seen the documentary and could not comment on its content, said he’s nevertheless worried about the spectre of board intervention in independent editorial decisions, which he said “opens the doors” to further meddling in the production of documentaries and journalism.
“Russians at War,” a Canada-France co-production, was funded in part by the Canada Media Fund, which provided $340,000 for the project through its broadcaster envelope program. A spokesperson for the fund said TVO independently chose to use that money to support the production of the documentary.
One of the film’s producers, Cornelia Principe, said that TVO also had to pay a licensing fee to air the documentary. Such fees can range from $50,000 to $100,000, she said.
Principe, who has defended the documentary and its Canadian-Russian director Anastasia Trofimova, said she was shocked by the TVO board’s decision.
“Anastasia and I have been working with TVO on this for two and a half years.… I was a little bit out of it for hours. I just couldn’t believe it.”
What happens next, she said, is “uncharted territory” for TVO.
“This has, as far as I know, never happened before,” said Principe, who has worked with the broadcaster on various documentaries over the years.
TVO’s board has said the network will be “reviewing the process by which this project was funded and our brand leveraged.”
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Russia-Ukraine: Strike on Lviv kills at least 7, including 4 members from same family
Charlie Keil, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute, said the TVO board needs to explain why it took “kind of a sledgehammer” to a film that seems to have been adequately vetted on the editorial side.
“It seems to me if they were being honest, what (the) TVO board would be saying is: “There’s a lot of pressure now. We don’t really like this … We’re just going to bail,” Keil said in an interview.
Ontario’s Minister of Education Jill Dunlop said in a statement that the decision made by TVO’s board of directors “was the right thing to do,” but did not elaborate.
As a non-profit government agency, TVO has a mandate to distribute educational materials and programs but the ministry is not involved with its broadcasting arm due to CRTC licensing rules.
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Another public broadcaster, British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, has confirmed that it made a licence fee contribution of $15,000 for “Russians at War” so that it can be a “second window” broadcaster for the film.
Asked whether the documentary will still air at some point in British Columbia, a spokesperson for the network said it’s “working on a public response.”
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has denounced the use of public funds for “Russians at War,” saying she shares the “grave concerns” Ukrainian officials and community members in Canada have raised about the film.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has said it will keep protesting “Russians at War” since TIFF has said it will still screen the doc at some point. A peaceful march and demonstration that wound its way to the TIFF Lightbox on Friday afternoon included people who laid sunflowers and photos of Ukrainians killed in the war on the sidewalk.
“Russians at War” is scheduled to screen at the Windsor International Film Festival, running from Oct. 24 to Nov. 3. The festival announced Friday that the documentary is among 10 nominees for its WIFF Prize in Canadian Film, worth $25,000.
“We hope that all our nominees – and all films at WIFF – generate meaningful, critical and intelligent discussion in an environment that is safe, respectful and civil,” festival organizers said in an emailed statement.
The Toronto International Film Festival said Thursday it is suspending upcoming screenings of the controversial documentary Russians At War due to “significant threats to festival operations and public safety.”
The announcement came a day after TIFF stood by the film, which is helmed by a Russian-Canadian director and received Canadian public funding, amid growing backlash from the Ukrainian community and government officials for both Ukraine and Canada.
A large protest was held outside Tuesday’s debut screening and another was planned for Friday.
The protests were organized by Ukrainian-Canadian community leaders who have called the film “Russian propaganda” — a charge denied by the filmmaker and festival organizers — and called for government and criminal investigations and for TIFF to cancel screenings of the film.
“As a cultural institution, we support civil discourse about and through films, including differences of opinion, and we fully support peaceful assembly,” the statement from the festival said Thursday. “However, we have received reports indicating potential activity in the coming days that pose significant risk; given the severity of these concerns, we cannot proceed as planned.
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“This is an unprecedented move for TIFF.”
The festival said it will pause screenings scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday but is committed to showing the film “when it is safe to do so,” adding organizers “believe this film has earned a place in our festival’s lineup.”
A spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service told Global News the decision to suspend the screenings were made by TIFF organizers “and was not based on any recommendation from Toronto Police,” who are not aware of any active threats.
“We were aware of the potential for protests and had planned to have officers present to ensure public safety,” the spokesperson said.
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The film’s director, Anastasia Trofimova, spent seven months embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow’s forces to make the film, which she says was done without the Russian government’s knowledge. She and her financial backers have said the film shows the soldiers losing faith in the fight and seeks to humanize the ordinary men caught up in Russia’s invasion.
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Two Canadian senators, Donna Dasko and Stan Kutcher, announced Thursday it had sent a letter to TIFF organizers calling for the film’s removal, suggesting TIFF “may not have known all the details related to how this film was made and the purpose for which it was made at the time of its selection.”
None of the officials who have spoken out against the film have indicated whether they have seen it in full.
The film’s producers, which includes Canadian Oscar nominee Cornelia Principe, called TIFF’s decision “heartbreaking” in a statement provided by the festival and condemned those who have spoken out publicly against Russians At War, including Freeland, Ukraine’s consul-general for Toronto Oleh Nikolenko and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
“Their irresponsible, dishonest, and inflammatory public statements have incited the violent hate that has led to TIFF’s painful decision,” the producers wrote. “This temporary suppression is shockingly un-Canadian.”
Nikolenko said in a brief statement on Facebook that he welcomed TIFF’s decision but did not address the alleged threats that led to it.
“This project has already done significant damage to the festival’s reputation and given Russia a chance to further undermine democracy,” he wrote.
Earlier Thursday, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress issued a statement calling for TIFF’s board of directors to resign, the suspension of government funding to the festival and for authorities to investigate if federal laws against advocating genocide were violated.
The group also didn’t address the alleged threats, telling Global News in a statement it will “continue to voice our protest” over TIFF’s intentions to show the film in the future. The protest planned for Friday will go ahead, it added.
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Ukraine’s culture minister on Wednesday said he raised the possibility of “legal actions to combat propaganda” in a call with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.
TVO, Ontario’s public broadcaster, announced Tuesday it was pulling its support for the film amid growing scrutiny over the use of public funding and government grants in its production. It had stood by the film a day earlier, calling it “at its core an anti-war film” “made in the tradition of independent war correspondence.”
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TVO used its funding allocation from the Canada Media Fund for the documentary. The Canada Media Fund receives money from both the federal government and Canadian broadcasters, which is then allocated back to those broadcasters for the creation of Canadian content.
The Canada Media Fund has stressed broadcasters make their own decisions on which projects to fund, without any input from the Canada Media Fund or the government, but said this week it was investigating the matter.
A spokesperson for Canadian Heritage declined to say if it would investigate the funding, instead stressing the CMF’s independence.
Trofimova has claimed she is at risk of criminal prosecution in Russia after filming its troops in occupied Ukrainian territory without Moscow’s approval, making claims her film is Russian propaganda “ludicrous.”
Ukraine has questioned those claims, citing her past work with the Russian state media company RT, and said she also violated Ukrainian law by entering Ukrainian territory.
Trofimova has said her work for RT was separate from the RT News division that has been banned from Canadian airwaves and whose employees have been indicted in the U.S. for allegedly spreading Russian propaganda and attempting to disrupt the upcoming American election.
A portrait of Sir Winston Churchill hung on the walls of the famed Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, for years — but in 2022 it was discovered the iconic photo had been replaced with a copy.
More than two years later, Ottawa Police have found the photograph in Italy and said the buyer is planning to hand it back over to Canada during a ceremony in Rome.
A hotel worker discovered something was amiss with the portrait, named “The Roaring Lion,” in August 2022. He noticed the frame of the print did not match the others, the Smithsonian reported, so the hotel called photographer Yousuf Karsh‘s manager. The manager said he took one look at the signature on the replacement photo and knew it was a copy.
“We are deeply saddened by this brazen act,” Geneviève Dumas, the Chateau Laurier’s general manager, said in a news release at the time. “The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998.”
Karsh, one of the world’s most celebrated portrait photographers, took Winston’s photo in 1941 after he took the prime minister’s cigar while he was smoking. Churchill’s resulting scowl made the photo so famous that it eventually made it to the front of England’s five-pound note.
Both Karsh and Winston had stayed at the hotel. Ottawa’s CTV television reported Karsh and his wife lived in the hotel for two decades and even operated his studio in the hotel from 1972 to 1992.
A subsequent police investigation found the portrait had been taken between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022. Police found the portrait was sold through an auction house in London to a buyer in Italy. Both were unaware the portrait was stolen.
Ottawa police said they used “public tips, forensic analysis, and international cooperation,” to track down the thief. A man from Ottawa — whose name the police won’t release due to a publication ban — was arrested on April 25, 2024.
The 43-year-old was charged with theft and trafficking, police said. The portrait’s buyer, who is from Genoa, has been working with Italian police to hand over the photo and “arrangements have been made with the citizen to ceremoniously hand over the portrait to the Ottawa Police Service in Rome later this month,” police said.
“Once in Ottawa Police custody, the portrait will be ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, where it will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait,” police said.
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com
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YES, The Simpsons predicted Covid, Barbie mania and this country being the first to legalizing marijuana – what’s next?
If you want any accurate representation of what’s to come, skip the fortune teller. One show has a spooky way of predicting things which come true. Maybe it is because the writers have a pulse on what’s going on, maybe they have just been around a long time…but it is true. And yes, “the Simpsons” predicted legal weed, so what’s next?
By now it’s a long-standing meme the show has predicted multiple historical events of our time. What was once flippant jokes from the show’s writers have come to pass, including a Donald Trump Presidency, Farmville, the Higgs-Boson particle, Guitar Hero, a submersible disaster, and the Disney-Fox merger.
In the cannabis world, the show foresaw Canada legalizing recreational marijuana. Back in the 2005 episode “Midnight Rx,” Homer, Ned Flanders, Apu, and Grandpa Simpson travel north of the border to acquire cheaper drug prescriptions. At one point, the Ned runs into his Canadian doppleganger, similar in every way except one: Canadian Ned hits the “reeferino.”
“It’s legal here,” the Canadian says, while offering Ned a hit. Flabbergasted by such a suggestion, Ned says to Homer, “They warned me Satan would be attractive. Let’s go!”
As the US waits for a potentially rescheduling of marijuana, the industry is hanging out at Moe’s Tavern to see if their are any hints. Unlike the Canada episode, there’s isn’t any clear predictions, but an episode from 2000 predicted details of what could soon be real-life events. In “Bart to the Future”, Lisa Simpson becomes president and wears a purple suit and pearls that are uncannily similar to what Kamala Harris. Harris has been the champion of rescheduling, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-KY) is not.
With accurate guesses on both Covid and the Ebola outbreak, they also predicted a dark winter of 2025. The episode from Season 33 in January 2023 apparently foreshadowed something called a dark winter. Let’s hope this one is off the mark.
