Archive

Cabinet Ministers Call It Quits

A source in the Prime Minister's Office says there are no immediate plans for a cabinet shuffle.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis and Heritage Minister Shelly Glover picked Good Friday to announce they won't be seeking re-election this year.

They'll hang on to their jobs for now.

Paradis calls it a personal decision to give up his Quebec seat, while Glover says she plans to return to her career as a police officer in Winnipeg.

---

Saskatchewan Man Killed In Southern Manitoba Collision

Farm Canada Wins Big At Coding Competition

A farming themed mobile app designed by a former Dauphin man has won a top prize at a national coding competition.

Adam Michaleski's Farm Canada app won the "Commerce: Business Opportunity" category at the Canadian Open Data Experience event in Toronto.

Michaleski says he always shoots for the best, and thought Farm Canada was going to win the top prize.

With the win, Adam and his cousin Steven take home $5,000, and legal representation from a company that specializes in start-ups.

---

Dredge Efforts Paid For By Volunteers

A volunteer who spearheaded last year's dredging of the Red River in Winnipeg for missing women has paid for a boat out of her own pocket for this year's search.

Bernadette Smith, whose sister Claudette Osborne went missing seven years ago, says the group is also fundraising for another boat and rain gear through a GoFundMe web page.

The group wants Winnipeg police to join in the search.

So far, police have declined, saying only that they will support the group ``from a safety standpoint.''

---

Transportation Network Tested By High Yielding Crops

The head of the Canadian Wheat Board says higher-yielding crops will continue to test the ability of Canada's transportation network to move Western Canadian grain.

Ian White says growth in Western Canadian grain production means improvements in logistics are needed to ship the crop from the Prairies to customers.

The wheat board, which is in the process of developing a privatization plan to be implemented in the next two years, is investing up to $200 million to buy new Great Lake ships and grain-handling terminals.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced last month that the government wouldn't extend the unprecedented step taken a year ago to impose minimum grain volumes.

---

Damage Not Observed On Rocky CWB Voyage

A ship owned by the CWB is the first of the season to travel up the St. Lawrence Seaway, but it hasn't been a calm voyage.

A spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board says the Canadian bulk carrier CWB Marquis went aground 35 kilometres southwest of Montreal on Friday after hitting a large ice floe.

A pair of tugboats freed it later in the day and no immediate damage was observed.

According to a post issued earlier this year by the ship's management company, it was loaded with more than 29,000 tons of Labrador iron ore.

A news release from the CWB last fall said the ship was expected to carry both grain and ore and play a strategic role in an integrated grain handling system. 

---

Restrictions Imposed On Poultry Movement

Canada has restricted travellers from bringing raw poultry and poultry products, as well as raw pet food, across the border from avian flu affected areas of the US.

The highly contagious poultry influenza has reached Montana and South Dakota.

The disease was also found in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.

BC's Fraser Valley was hit by an avian flu outbreak that began last December but has not been detected in BC since early February.

---

Duffy Trial Kicks Off Tomorrow

A trial opening in Ottawa this week could breathe new life into a political scandal just as the Harper government gears up for a fall election.

Suspended senator Mike Duffy faces fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges, and the Crown will start laying out the details in a courtroom tomorrow.

Duffy's lawyer is expected to launch a counter-attack that could focus on the behaviour of key figures in the Prime Minister's Office and Conservative Party.

Several weeks have been set aside for the trial.

Thompson Mine Back In Operation

A nickel mine in Thompson is expected to be back in full production today after a fire over the weekend.

Thirty-nine miners at the Vale facility had to be temporarily moved to refuge stations after fire broke out Sunday.

The last eight were safely brought back up to the surface yesterday.

Vale says the fire started in a piece of remotely operated machinery 850 metres underground.

There were no injuries.

---

Assaulted Teen Remains In Coma

Relatives of a teenage girl who was found badly beaten last week in downtown Winnipeg say she is still in a medically induced coma.

They say they're hopeful she will make a full recovery but don't know how long that could take.

Police have charged a boy with aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault.

Both 15-year-olds were under the care of Manitoba Child and Family Services and were being housed in the same downtown hotel.

---

Manitoba First Nation Adjusts Welfare Policy

A Manitoba First Nation says it will turn parents, not children, out of troubled homes under its new child welfare policy.

The change makes the Misipawistik First Nation the second reserve in the province to enact such a policy.

The first was the Nisichawaysihk Cree Nation in Nelson House, which did it in 2002.

Misipawistik band councillor Heidi Cook says procedures are still being developed to put the policy into practice, adding each decision must be made on a case-by-case basis.

Workers with the local child and family services agency now have the authority to show parents the door and keep the kids in place, rather than moving them to foster homes.

---

Avian Influenza Detected On Ontario Farm

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says H5 avian influenza has been confirmed on a turkey farm in southern Ontario.

The agency says the farm and a neighbouring farm in the Woodstock area have been placed under quarantine to control disease spread, and the industry has been notified to adopt enhanced cleaning and disinfection measures.

Further testing by the agency is underway and results are expected within days.

Avian influenza does not pose a risk to food safety when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked.

---

Duffy Trial Starts Today

The Senate expense scandal will be back in the spotlight today as the long-awaited trial of suspended Conservative senator Mike Duffy begins in the nation's capital.

Duffy is facing 31 criminal charges, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

Scheduled to last more than 40 days, this trial will give Duffy a chance to clear his name.

At the centre of the bribery allegation is Prime Minister Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who resigned after it was revealed he provided a $90,000 cheque that was used to repay Duffy's ineligible expenses.

---

Shoppers Warns About Expired Birth Control Meds

Shoppers Drug Mart is urging women in Alberta to check the expiry date on their birth-control medication as it may be expired.

The retailer said it dispensed the expired drug Alesse 21 to about 100 women in Western Canada between March 16 and April 1st.

Shoppers says it has contacted everyone who was given expired product in BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba but did not connect with all affected Albertans.

It says human error at its distribution centre in Calgary resulted in incorrect data entry to the inventory system, and then the expired product was shipped to stores.

Crown Paints Duffy As Corrupt Senator

The Mike Duffy trial resumes in Ottawa today with testimony expected from a former Senate law clerk who will explain some of the chamber's rules.

The suspended Conservative senator faces 31 charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust and has pleaded not guilty.

Opening day saw Duffy accused by the Crown of skirting expense rules for his own benefit and painted him as an allegedly corrupt senator.

Duffy's lawyer replied with allegations of a conspiracy by Prime Minister Harper's most senior staff to force a senator to repay expenses he never believed were wrongly submitted in the first place.

---

---

Killed Pedestrian Had Right Of Way, Say Police

Winnipeg police say a 72-year-old woman who died after being hit by a city transit bus had the right of way.

The woman was crossing the street on a green light when she was hit by the bus, which was turning right. She was knocked under the wheels and died at the scene.

A friend speaking to media said the woman was on the way to a doctor's appointment.

She called her a careful person who was always telling her to stay on the sidewalk until it was safe to cross.

Police continue their investigation.

---

H5N2 Confirmed In Ontario

Health officials say a bird flu outbreak at a southwestern Ontario turkey farm is caused by the same virus that triggered outbreaks in BC and nine US states in recent months.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the culprit is a highly pathogenic H5N2 virus.

The agency has quarantined the affected farm near Woodstock, as well as eight other surrounding farms as a precaution.

The CFIA says more than 10,000 turkeys have died so far and the remaining 34,000 birds will be euthanized in an effort to arrest any spread of the virus.

---

Prep Begins For Manitoba Summer Fair

There's no rest for the wicked.

Organizers from the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba are only just wrapping up this years Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

General manager Ron Kristjansson says now it's time to get ready for the Manitoba Summer Fair.

Kristjansson says attendance for this years Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is estimated at about 102,000, which he says is slightly down from the year before.

---

Saskatchewan Group Wants Grain Backlog Issues Resolved

The president of Saskatchewan's general farm group says something needs to be done to resolve a backlog of grain shipments this crop year.

Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Assocation of Saskatchewan, is unhappy with removal of the federal minimum grain volume regulations.

He says it would have been nice to have a stronger Bill C30, but without it, farmers will have to show patience and make sure the transportation review gets done properly.

Hall says the railways are running about 11 per cent behind in hopper car delivery since the start of the crop year, last August first.

---

Ukraine Pianist Still Set For Calgary Performance

A Ukrainian-born pianist who has been barred from performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra over what it called her "deeply offensive'' comments will still be playing with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra later this year.

Healther Slater of the CPO says their agreement with Valentina Lisitsa is as a guest artist, regardless of her political views.

Lisitsa, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine who now lives in the United States, said she had been accused by the Toronto orchestra of inciting hatred on Twitter because of her comments on the conflict in Ukraine.

She said she had been exercising her right to free speech as she spoke out against the atrocities of the civil war in the country, particularly those committed against the Russian minority in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions.