Canada
column for Sunday, June 2/13
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THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
The
staff exodus continues from the office of embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who
denies reports he is a drug user.
Now, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has waded into the controversy that
has made international headlines and is daily fodder for TV talk show hosts.
“The mayor needs to deal with his personal issues,” Wynne said, adding:
“It would be better if he were able to deal with them, confront them and allow
the city to move on.”
Wynne said the provincial government is “monitoring it very carefully,”
but said there was “no clear path of action” where it could intervene.
Ford has said little aside from disputing claims about a purported
cell-phone video that appears to show him smoking crack cocaine.
Drug dealers offered to turn over the video to the new media, asking $200,000
for it.
The U.S. website Gawker, said the money has been raised but the video,
which Ford said doesn’t exist, can’t be found.
In
another development, two men have been arrested for the murder of one of the alleged
drug dealers shown in the video.
After Ford fired his chief of staff Mark Towhey, five other members of
his staff have quit but the mayor said business continues as usual.
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Dr. Arthur Porter, former head of Canada's spy-agency watchdog, has been
arrested in Panama in connection with the Quebec corruption scandal.
Named by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to head the Security Intelligence
Review Committee, Porter was also earlier the director general of the McGill
University Health Center.
His arrest is in connection with alleged kickbacks in the construction
of a $1.3-billion hospital complex in Montreal.
Porter, who denies the allegations, said that he and his wife, Pamela,
will fight a bid to extradite them to Canada and seek bail.
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News in brief:
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Canadian abortion crusader Dr. Henry Morgentaler, called a “lifelong champion
of women’s rights,” has died in Toronto. He was 90. The tribute by the Quebec
government noted the courageous work by Morgentaler who began his
abortion-rights movement in Montreal and opened his first clinic there in 1969.
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Ontario’s Court of Appeal has rejected a bid by 14 foreign tobacco companies to
have a $50-billion lawsuit by the Ontario government thrown out of court. The
three-judge panel unanimously said there is no legal reason to overturn a lower
court ruling that the case should proceed. The provincial government launched the
lawsuit in 2009 to try to recoup past and current health-care costs related to
smoking.
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Facts and figures:
Statistics Canada said the country’s economic growth at 2.5 percent in
the first quarter was the fastest in more than a year.
Exports
were the largest contributor to growth while domestic demand was the weakest in
four years.
Canada’s
dollar is lower at 96.49 cents U.S. while the U.S. greenback returns $1.0363 in
Canadian funds, 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 12,642 points and the
TSX Venture index at 961 points.
Lotto 6-49: (May 29) 21, 28, 34, 35, 48 and 49; bonus 18. (May 25) 9,
17, 32, 41, 42 and 44; bonus 3. Lotto Max: (May 24) 9, 19, 21, 24, 39, 43 and
48; bonus 6.
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Regional briefs:
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It has long been a joke that Florida is Canada’s 11th province but a sitting
politician shouldn’t receive his pay for being absent there, a Nova Scotia
government committee ruled. It called for docking the salary of Liberal politician
Manning MacDonald for the 20 days he was “absent without permission.” It’s not
known what will happen now as MacDonald, who represented the riding of Cape
Breton South for 20 years, abruptly retired from politics.
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A Regina man tried to speed up the process of clearing water from his
eavestroughs after a major storm by using a blowtorch. Things got out of hand
and the result was he set the roof of his condominium on fire. Investigators
did not name the man and estimated the damage at $200,000.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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