Canada
column for Sunday, Jan. 13/13
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THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
A
week of native protests that temporarily closed several Canada-U.S. border
crossings and railway lines escalated with a rally on Parliament Hill.
Hundreds of protesters marched and blocked the entrance to Prime
Minister Stephen Harper’s office before his meeting Friday with First Nations’
leaders.
The peaceful protest with singing, dancing, banging of drums and waving
flags and placards was similar to rallies last weekend.
Protesters stopped traffic for several hours at border bridges in
Cornwall, Sarnia, Fort Erie and Queenston, Ontario as well as Surrey, British
Columbia.
They also blocked a Canadian National rail line in Sarnia and the main
line between Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal for several hours near Belleville
disrupting 1,000VIA Rail passengers and freight traffic.
Protesters
say government bills will encroach on their historic treaty rights and the environmental
protection of native land.
“We
shared our lands all these years and we never got anything from it – all the
benefits are going to Canadian citizens,” said Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat
Reserve in northern Ontario.
Her comments followed the release of a federal audit showing a “lack of documentation”
for $104 million given to aid the reserve from 2005 to 2011.
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They’re having a “heat wave” in southern Ontario, freezing in British
Columbia and digging out in Newfoundland and the Prairies.
A
blizzard lashed Newfoundland with about two feet of snow while up to a foot
covered the area from Alberta to Saskatchewan on Friday.
Toronto and southern Ontario have had record-breaking high temperatures
the past few days, reaching into the 50sF this weekend and melted what little
snow had fallen earlier.
There’s an “extreme-weather alert” in Metro Vancouver throughout this
weekend with homeless shelters making additional beds and heated facilities
available to those at risk as temperatures plunged into the mid-20s F at night.
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News
in brief:
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A Toronto man and his wife who spent winters in Florida have been found
murdered in their townhouse in Hallandale, Florida. Police said the bodies
of David Pichosky, 71, and Rochelle
Wise, 66, were found by a neighbor after they failed to show up for lunch.
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An anti-corruption unit of 20 investigators has been established in Montreal
with “far-reaching powers.” Mayor Michael Applebaum said the office will be “autonomous
and independent” and complement Quebec’s own anti-corruption unit. The action
follows investigations into widespread corruption in the construction industry
that led to the resignations of several mayors including Gerald Tremblay of
Montreal and Laval’s Gilles Vaillancourt.
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Facts and figures:
The
Canadian dollar is higher at $1.0168 in U.S. funds while the U.S. dollar returns
98.34 cents Canadian, before bank exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate is 3 percent.
Stock
markets are higher, with the Toronto exchange index at 12,564 points and the
TSX Venture index at 1,239 points.
Lotto 6-49: (Jan. 9) 14, 17, 33, 34, 43 and 44; bonus 5. (Jan. 5) 24,
29, 34, 36, 41 and 42; bonus 45. Lotto Max: (Jan. 4) 3, 6, 16, 23, 27, 28 and
34; bonus22.
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Regional briefs:
- Calgary
hospitals have postponed surgeries due to severe outbreaks of flu and
noroviruses. Seasonal viruses are up about 20 percent over normal years in the
city and throughout Alberta. Across Canada, there is a similar trend with more
flu cases and lingering colds reported this winter.
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Parents were thrown into disarray when a planned one-day strike by elementary teachers
was ruled illegal and schools remained open. The Ontario Labor Relations Board
ruled at 4 a.m. Friday the “day of protest” would violate their contract and
they could be heavily fined. The teachers are upset over a contract imposed by
the provincial government that froze their pay and cut benefits for two years.
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The chic hangout Waldorf Hotel in East Vancouver built in
1947 won’t be torn down and replaced with a residential high-rise, a developer
says. There is a petition circulating urging the city to save the historic hotel.
The new owner, condo developer Solterra Group of Companies, said it currently
has “no intention” of demolishing it.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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