Canada column for
Sunday, Aug. 12/18
THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By Jim Fox
The idyllic
Atlantic Canada capital city of Fredericton, New Brunswick was shattered with
the shooting deaths of four people including two police officers.
Constables Robb
Costello and Sara Burns were the first two officers to rush to the aid of two
people they found shot outside an apartment building early Friday.
As they approached
the victims, they were shot by someone inside the building.
Police Chief Leanne
Fitch said suspect Matthew Raymond, 48, of Fredericton was seriously injured in
a shooting standoff with police.
At a news
conference Saturday, police said they were investigating a connection between
the shooter and Donald Robichaud, 42, and Bobbie Lee Wright, 32, who were
killed.
Costello, 45, was a
20-year police veteran with four children, while Burns, 43, had been an officer
for two years and was married with three children.
Neighbors reported
shots being fired at 237 Brookside Drive and called the police.
The incident
happened four years after three Mounties were killed and two were wounded in
Moncton, New Brunswick by a man who had a hatred for the police.
Kelly Craft, U.S.
ambassador to Canada, said she was “shocked and troubled” to hear of the
Fredericton shooting.
---
Canada’s economy
created 54,100 net new jobs last month as the unemployment rate fell to a
40-year low of 5.8 percent.
Statistics Canada
reported, however, the country gained 82,000 less desirable, part-time
positions in July while losing 28,000 full-time jobs.
There were 49,600 new public sector jobs and
5,200 new positions in the private sector.
Average hourly wage
growth was 3.2 percent compared with last year, down from 3.6 percent in June
and 3.9 percent in May.
---
News in brief:
- Canada is getting
no support from the rest of the world in its dispute with Saudi Arabia. The
government has no plans to retaliate in the still-unfolding diplomatic feud. It
started when Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland demanded the
release of arrested social activists, including a Canadian. The Saudis then
halted trade and investment deals and withdrew scholarships for 15,000 of its
citizens to study in Canada.
- A statue of
Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, has been removed from the
front entrance of Victoria City Hall as a gesture of reconciliation with First
Nations people. Mayor Lisa Helps said Macdonald was a “key architect” of the
abusive residential school system that took native children from their homes.
The statue is a “physical manifestation of that painful colonial history,” she
said.
---
Facts and figures:
Canada’s dollar has
dipped to 76.04 cents U.S. while the U.S. dollar returns $1.315 in Canadian
funds (before bank exchange fees).
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady
at 1.5 percent while the prime-lending rate is 3.7 percent.
Stock markets are lower, with the Toronto
exchange index at 16,326 points while the TSX Venture index is 693 points.
The average price for gas in Canada is lower at
$1.309 a liter or $4.97 (Canadian) for a U.S. gallon.
Lotto 6/49: (Aug. 8) 9, 18, 21, 22, 29 and 37; bonus 17. (Aug. 4) 3, 9, 11, 21, 24
and 45; bonus 43. Lotto Max: (Aug. 3) 9, 11, 23, 33, 35, 36 and 42;
bonus 6.
---
Regional briefs:
- There are
evacuation orders this weekend for Killarney, French River and surrounding
areas as 49 forest fires continue to burn across northeastern Ontario. The
Ministry of Natural Resources says of the 17 not under control is the largest
north of Parry Sound of almost 50 square miles. In British Columbia, there are
462 fires burning with the major ones of concern in Telegraph Creek in the
northwest and south of Keremeos in the Southern Interior.
- Two police
officers rescued two Toronto workers stranded in their office elevator while
flood waters from an intense rainstorm rose to their necks. Klever Freire and
Gabriel Otrin figured they were about five minutes away from drowning when
officers managed to pull them to safety. The huge downpour drenched the city,
leaving many people stranded in cars in flooded underpasses.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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