Canada
column for Sunday, July 1/12
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THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
The Ontario government wants to know if everything possible was done to
rescue people trapped when a shopping mall partially collapsed killing two
women in Elliot Lake.
Premier Dalton McGuinty intervened after hearing rescue workers
suspended their search only hours after hearing someone tapping from within the
rubble.
The search resumed and a huge crane was sent from Toronto to the small northern
town 335 miles away allowing for the recovery of two bodies on Wednesday.
Part of the parking garage collapsed into the mall’s food court at the
Algo Shopping Center last Saturday afternoon.
McGuinty
said his government’s investigation will review if more could have been done to
rescue people and look at emergency procedures across the province.
Angry residents in the town of 13,000 protested in the streets after the
search was suspended when officials said it had become too dangerous for the
work to continue.
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Journalist
Paula Todd has found Karla Homolka, one of Canada’s most notorious child
abductors and killers.
Acting on tips, Todd said she found Homolka living on the island of
Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
Homolka, 42, who goes by the name Leanne Bordelais, lives with her
husband and has three children, Todd wrote in an e-book about her encounter.
Concern about her safety prompted Homolka to leave Canada after serving 12
years for manslaughter in a deal to convict her former husband Paul Bernardo
who is serving a life sentence in prison.
They were convicted in the sex slayings of two teenaged girls and the
fatal drug rape of Homolka’s sister Tammy, 15, in Ontario.
"I
don't know what evil looks like but not for a second did she seem upset or sad
or regretful about what had happened,” Todd said.
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Business
briefs:
-
Once the darling Canadian high-tech company, Research In Motion, based in
Waterloo, Ontario is reducing its workforce by 5,000 people. With revenues and
market share continuing to slide, RIM is trimming its workforce by half and will
delay release of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone until next year. Its stock fell
to $7.56 a share on Friday, down from a high of about $150 in 2008, and cut
2,000 jobs last year.
- Walmart
Canada is on a hiring binge across Canada as it plans to give jobs to 4,000
additional workers this year. The company is converting 39 former Zellers
stores and is completing 73 new stores by year-end. Target will open its first Canadian
stores next year also in former Zellers locations.
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Facts and figures:
A
jump in oil and commodity prices on Friday pushed Canada’s dollar higher to
98.19 cents in U.S. funds while the U.S. dollar returned $1.0183 Canadian,
before bank exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate remains at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate is 3 percent.
Stock
markets were mixed on Friday, with the Toronto exchange index up at 11,582
points and the TSX Venture index lower at 1,191 points.
Lotto
6-49: (June 27) 4, 10, 19, 24, 32 and 35; bonus 1. (June 23) 12, 19, 28, 34, 36
and 41; bonus 1. Lotto Max: (June 22) 1, 12, 20, 22, 30, 34 and 38; bonus 33.
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Regional briefs:
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Six people are now facing trial for the human smuggling of about 492 Tamil
refugee claimants aboard a ship impounded two years ago in British Columbia.
The latest arrest was of Nadarajah Mahendran
as he arrived at the Toronto airport from Sri Lanka. Among the refugees who
paid thousands of dollars for passage to Canada were terrorists and human
smugglers, police said.
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Oil prices topping $100 a barrel in the past year have eliminated Alberta’s
$3.4 billion projected deficit. There’s concern now for Finance Minister Doug
Horner, who announced the good news for the oil-rich province, as prices have
dropped to below $80 a barrel. Alberta loses about $223 million for every
dollar the price stays down for a year.
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It’s costing some northern New Brunswick beer drinkers more for their brew this
Canada Day holiday weekend. The quick trip to stock up in tax-free beer on the
Listiguj First Nation reserve in Quebec has gone up in smoke. The reserve’s
drive-through facility had an electrical fire that destroyed up to 400,000 bottles
of beer. Plans are to bring in some large refrigerator trucks next week while
the facility is rebuilt.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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