🇮🇱 Israel's ambassador to Canada quits in protest of new government

Ambassador Ronen Hoffman tweeted Sunday morning that he has requested the Foreign Ministry to “shorten” his tenure and find a replacement, allowing him to return to Israel by the summer.

A fellow former Yesh Atid lawmaker-turned diplomat, Israeli Ambassador to France Yael German, announced her resignation last month, in protest of the formation of the new Netanyahu government.

#Israel

@maplechronicles

Canada to pay more than $2B to indigenous survivors of abuse

Canada will pay hundreds of indigenous communities more than $2 billion in compensation for nearly a century of abuse suffered by children in residential schools, its government has announced.

A class-action lawsuit brought by 324 Indigenous communities has resulted in the Can$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) settlement, which will be placed in a not-for-profit trust independent of the government.

It will be used to "revitalise Indigenous education, culture, and language – to support survivors in healing and reconnecting with their heritage," according to a government statement.

From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada's government sent about 150,000 children into 139 residential schools mostly run by the Catholic church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.

On the one hand, it’s good to make up for the mistakes of the past. On the other hand, I hope it won’t turn into somewhat-else-lives-matter.

@maplechronicles

🇺🇦 Defence minister won’t say whether Canada is willing to send battle tanks to Ukraine

Defence Minister Anita Anand says she has “no news to share” on whether Canada is willing to send some of its battle tanks to Ukraine following a meeting of 50 allied defence leaders this week.

#Ukraine

@maplechronicles

Ontario pediatric hospitals ask for help to deal with backlog of 12K surgeries

Nearly 12,000 children are on a wait list for surgeries across Ontario, a situation officials at four major pediatric hospitals say is part of a much bigger problem they need help from the province to solve.

A surge of viral respiratory illnesses, driven by a particularly bad strain of the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, overwhelmed the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, the Children's Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre and CHEO, a health care and research facility in Ottawa.

The hospitals say that surge has abated after three difficult months which saw surgeries cancelled and staff redeployed to help out overburdened emergency departments and intensive care units.

#Ontario #healthcare

@maplechronicles

Canada accepts amendments to expand IMO Council

Canada has become the latest country to accept amendments to the Convention on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which will expand the size of the Council from its current 40 members to 52, extend the term of its Members to in general a four-year term, and recognize three additional language texts as authentic versions of the Convention.

The amendments have now been accepted by eight States: Canada, Honduras, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and Spain. The amendments were adopted at the 32nd session of the IMO Assembly held in December 2021. They require acceptance by two thirds of the IMO Membership (117 Member States based on the current number of 175 Member States) for entry into force.

The three additional languages for IMO texts will be Arabic, Chinese and Russian – all already official languages of the current Organization – supplementing the existing English, French and Spanish.

@maplechronicles

⚡️ Police increasing presence in downtown Ottawa ahead of 'Freedom Convoy' anniversary

The Ottawa Police Services Board will receive an update on police preparations for a possible 'Freedom Convoy 2.0' this afternoon, as the city braces for potential events to mark the one-year anniversary of the protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and public health measures.

#Ottawa

@maplechronicles

Post-panamax container ship leaks fuel oil in Vancouver’s English Bay

The Canadian Coast Guard reported that they tracked a slick of approximately 60 to 100 litres from the initial release of fuel from the 8,500 TEU container ship Europe owned by Danaos Corporation. Danaos representative confirmed the incident pointing out that the flow of oil has stopped. The investigations about what caused the oil spill are still ongoing.

According to the latest update, the Canadian Coast Guard said that today they had a helicopter, drones and pollution response vessels searching for any remaining fuel.

#BritishColumbia

@maplechronicles

Newfoundland and Labrador opening legislature for emergency ambulance strike debate

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is gathering today for an emergency sitting of the legislature to deal with an ongoing private ambulance strike. The legislature will open at 10 a.m. so members can debate a bill that would make private ambulance services essential.

About 120 workers with seven private ambulance services owned by Fewer’s Ambulance Service walked off the job early Friday afternoon, seeking higher wages and a better pension plan.

The strike affects significant parts of rural Newfoundland, including the towns of Stephenville, Bonavista and Conception Bay South, which is just outside the capital of St. John’s.

#Labrador #Newfoundland

@maplechronicles

Hotel rooms for asylum seekers have cost the government $94-million since the last election

Since September, 2021, the Immigration Department has paid $93,886,222 for “long leases” with hotels, mostly in Quebec, setting them aside for asylum seekers, including those entering the country through the irregular border crossing at Quebec’s Roxham Road.

The department booked 30 hotels between April and December last year – 10 in Montreal alone.

Quebec Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus said he is concerned not just about the cost of block booking entire hotels, but the fact that many rooms are unoccupied a lot of the time.

The government has also spent millions reserving entire hotels for asylum seekers who move on to other parts of Canada, including in Winnipeg, Lethbridge, Alta. and Surrey, B.C.

@maplechronicles

British Columbia spent $13.6 billion on mineral exploration in 2022

British Columbia had record spending on mineral exploration in 2022 and there are eight new mines or mine expansions in the queue, Premier David Eby said at the opening of the Association of Mineral Exploration (AME) Roundup conference in Vancouver.

Eby said there was C$740 million spent in mineral exploration in B.C. in 2022 – a record – and mineral production in B.C. is also expected to be a record: C$18.2 billion ($13.6bn).

That’s a C$4.3 billion increase over 2021. That increase in value over 2021 was largely due to high metallurgical coal prices, said Gordon Clarke of the BC Geological Survey’s development office. Steelmaking coal prices hit a high of $670 per tonne last year, and remains relatively high at close to $300 per tonne.

#BritishColumbia

@maplechronicles

Bill passed after emergency debate halts ambulance strike in Newfoundland

Nearly 12 hours after an emergency sitting began in Newfoundland and Labrador’s legislature, the government passed a bill that sent striking first responders back to work. Members of all three political parties stood and applauded after the bill passed shortly after 9 p.m.

#Newfoundland

@maplechronicles

Educators call for federal inquiry into 'widespread' abuse in Canadian sports

Dozens of Canadian and global sport scholars have joined the chorus in calling for an independent inquiry into sport in Canada, saying its athletes deserve better.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, Scholars Against Abuse in Canadian Sport urgently asked for the inquiry amid "widespread reports of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of athletes throughout the nation's sport system."

The letter was signed by 91 individuals from 30 Canadian and 17 international institutions.

"[We] stand in solidarity with the over 1,000 Canadian athletes seeking immediate accountability and meaningful change from Sport Canada and the broader system it governs," the letter states.

The letter comes amid growing calls for an inquiry after athletes from bobsled, skeleton and gymnastics, plus several members of Parliament, pleaded with Canada's sport minister Pascale St-Onge for an investigation similar to the Dubin Inquiry into doping in 1989.

@maplechronicles

16,300 francophone immigrants to Canada settled outside of Quebec last year

The number of francophone newcomers who have settled in communities outside of Quebec has climbed steadily since 2006, when 2,800 francophones settled in Ontario and other provinces.

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said that number met Canada's target that 4.4 per cent of French-speaking immigrants settle outside Quebec in 2022.

Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada expresses hopes that the next year the number will rise to 12 per cent.

@maplechronicles

Canada’s economy in for a ‘turbulent’ year

Canada’s associate finance minister says it’s going to be a “turbulent” year for the economy, but Randy Boissonault insists the government still has some spending room for big priorities including a new health-care deal with the provinces.

“There’s lots of uncertainty. So we’re going to be watching this every step of the way as we get ready for budget (2023). We still have fiscal room to be able to do the things we need to do but the fiscal room has tightened.” - Boissonnault said.

@maplechronicles

Record number of French-speaking immigrants coming to Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia attracted more French-speaking immigrants to the province last year than the total number of francophone permanent residents it welcomed in the past decade.

In 2022, 795 immigrants who either spoke only French — or listed French as the language with which they were most at ease — landed in Nova Scotia. That's four times as many as the 180 who came in 2021.

#NovaScotia

@maplechronicles

Union calls for national task force to tackle transit violence that's 'way out of control'

Amalgamated Transit Union Canada, that represents 35,000 transit workers in Canada, wants action after string of violent incidents.

The number of violent accidents is rising on transit systems in Halifax, Saskatoon and Vancouver.

The recent incidents include: a woman being stabbed several times on a TTC streetcar; two TTC workers assaulted on a bus in Scarborough. a TTC operator shot by a BB gun while waiting to begin her shift in Scarborough.

According to the president of the Union, strategies to tackle transit violence could include Criminal Code reforms, interventions, greater visibility of police officers on transit systems, greater deterrence, funding for mental health supports in the community, and worker training in de-escalation techniques.

@maplechronicles

Quebec Innu community seeks $2.2-billion from Hydro-Quebec for Churchill Falls destruction

A Quebec Innu community is claiming the Churchill Falls hydroelectric station has destroyed a significant part of their traditional territory.

The band council says construction of the 5,428-megawatt station in Labrador and its transmission facilities in the 1960s and early 1970s was done without the consent of the community near Sept-Iles, Que.

A 1969 agreement that allows Hydro-Quebec to purchase the majority of the electricity generated at the station and reap most of the profits ends in 2041.

@maplechronicles

⚡️Bank of Canada Raises Rates to 4.50%

The Bank of Canada raised interest rates on Wednesday by a quarter point and said it would now pause to assess the economic impact from sharply higher borrowing costs.

@maplechronicles

Bank of Canada predicts further dip in home prices after delivering quarter-point rate hike

The Bank of Canada is predicting home prices will decline further after it raised interest rates Wednesday for the eighth consecutive time, but it expects sales activity to pick up later in the year.

The typical home price across the country is already down 13 per cent from its peak last February amid the bank’s attempts to rein in runaway inflation by reducing access to cheap loans.

Now, with mortgage rates at their highest levels in years, many would-be buyers have been shut out of the real estate market. Those areas include the Toronto suburbs, smaller Ontario cities and the Chilliwack region of B.C., where home prices jumped more than 50 per cent over the first two years of the pandemic, when the central bank’s overnight rate was near zero. Home prices in some of those markets have fallen more than 20 per cent over the past 10 months.

@maplechronicles

Justin Trudeau swarmed by group of 'angry' protesters as he walked into Hamilton restaurant

The group of protesters can be heard screaming “tyrant” and “traitor,” while demanding Trudeau resign. Many of the protesters could be seen carrying Canadian flags.

The protesters also had an inflatable sheep, that appears to be wearing a mask, that says "99.8% survival rate," a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked about the incident, Trudeau called a group of protesters a “handful of angry people.”

Trudeau is in Hamilton for a three-day retreat with his cabinet.

#Trudeau

@maplechronicles

💵Canadians struggling to keep up with rising costs

Rising prices have affected nearly everyone across the country and some say they’ve now reached their breaking point. New data shows that over 50 per cent of Canadians are having trouble keeping up with inflation.

Findings of a recent Ipsos poll revealed that 32 per cent of people are struggling to continually meet rising costs of everyday essentials.

22 per cent of Canadians state that they’re completely out of money, saying that there is no way that they can pay any more for household expenses.

@maplechronicles