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Ontario tables legislation to reverse city and regional land boundary changes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

Ontario Housing Minister Paul Calandra has tabled legislation that will reverse course on urban and regional boundary expansions.Calandra has said the previous housing minister’s staff was too involved in the expansions that were introduced in late 2022 and early this year.The province had changed official plans for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and Peterborough as well as the regional municipalities of Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York, and Wellington County.The expansions were part of the government’s suite of changes that included removing land from the protected Greenbelt in an effort to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years.Two legislative watchdogs found the process to select Greenbelt land for removal was flawed and favoured certain developers.After public outcry, Premier Doug Ford reversed course on the Greenbelt removals and the then-housing minister, as well as another cabinet member, resigned.The RCMP have launched a criminal investi...

Nathaniel Veltman guilty on all counts in London, Ont., attack

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

Nathaniel Veltman has been found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the killing of four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont.The jury delivered its verdict less than one day after receiving final instructions from Justice Renee Pomerance.It was the first case where Canada’s terrorism laws were put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.The 22-year-old had pleaded not guilty to deliberately hitting the Afzaal family with his truck on June 6, 2021, while they were out for a walk. Related: What the jury didn’t hear at the trial of the man accused in the London, Ont., attack Forty-six-year-old Salman Afzaal; his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman; their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna; and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, were killed in the attack, while the couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously hurt but survived.Prosecutors argued that Veltman carried out a terrorist act and should be convicted on all char...

Chicago commuter train crashes into rail equipment, injures at least 19, 3 seriously, official says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago commuter train collided with rail equipment Thursday morning, injuring at least 19 people, three of them seriously, a fire official said.The Chicago Fire Department said a Chicago Transit Authority train crashed into a piece of equipment that was on the rails just before 11 a.m. on the city’s North Side.Three people suffered serious injuries while 16 others had non-life-threatening injuries, fire department spokesman Larry Langford, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s probably going to go up,” Langford said of the injured.At least 15 ambulances were dispatched to the scene of a train collision, located near the Howard CTA station.Train service on CTA’s Red, Purple and Yellow lines had been temporarily suspended due to the crash, the commuter service said on its website.The Associated Press

In Montreal, a visual competition between pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrators

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

MONTREAL — In Montreal, symbols of the war between Israel and Hamas are everywhere. Jarring signs and graffiti demonstrating support for the Israeli or Palestinian causes have become part of the cityscape: on sidewalks, lamp posts and bus shelters.The rivalry between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps is unfolding as a visual competition not only in Montreal but across North America, raising questions about the role these images are playing in escalating local tensions tied to the distant conflict.And the intensity of that rivalry distinguishes it from other cultural and political disputes in recent history, says Aidan McGarry, an international politics professor at Loughborough University, in England, who studies visual elements in protest movements.Protests spur counter-protest movements, he explained in an interview. Often, he said, those counter-protests manifest in more subdued or latent messaging.“What’s different this time is that you have two groups that are ab...

Puerto Rico signs multimillion-dollar deal with Texas company to build a marina for mega yachts

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s government on Thursday signed a multimillion-dollar contract with a Texas-based company to build a marina for mega yachts in the capital of the U.S. territory.Currently, two docks in San Juan are available to yachts and mega yachts, but there is limited space and basic services are not offered, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said.The new marina to be built by Safe Harbor Marinas, LLC will cover more than 180,000 square feet (67,000 square meters) and will be located in the two docks that currently accept yachts. It will be able to accommodate roughly six yachts at a time and will offer shore power and water connections, sanitary pumping and high-speed internet, Pierluisi said.Safe Harbor Marinas will invest between $12 million and $15 million, the governor said.The 40-year concession lease agreement calls for Puerto Rico’s Port Authority to receive $200,000 a year in rental fees. Safe Harbor Marinas also will share 5% of its gross income with the aut...

Violent protests break out ahead of Bulgaria-Hungary soccer qualifier

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of Bulgarian football supporters on Thursday took to the streets of the capital, Sofia, in protest over the management of the national football union, a demonstration that eventually turned violent.The qualifying match between Bulgaria and Hungary for next year’s European soccer championship fell victim to a bitter dispute between the management of the Bulgarian Football Union and soccer fans from across the Balkan country.Minutes before the kickoff, fans began to throw makeshift bombs, stones and plastic bottles at the police. After trash cans were set on fire, police responded with water cannon. Media reported that several protesters were injured.The last straw that infuriated the fans, whose anger had been simmering for a long time, came with the union’s decision to play Thursday’s match in front of empty stands at the national stadium in the capital.Some 1,600 police in riot gear were dispatched to secure the area around the empty sta...

Judge hands down 27-month sentence in attack on congresswoman in Washington apartment building

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to assaulting Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota in the elevator of her Washington apartment was sentenced to more than two years behind bars Thursday.Kendrid Khalil Hamlin, 27, apologized to Craig and said he wants to get mental health and substance abuse treatment. He was sentenced to 27 months for the February assault. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg acknowledged Hamlin’s difficult upbringing and “frequently unaddressed” mental illness was behind much of his behavior. Still, “some of this conduct has been extremely problematic,” he said. Craig said Hamlin trapped her in the elevator, then grabbed her neck, slammed her against a steel wall and punched her before she fought him off by throwing her coffee at him. Afterward, she was targeted with death threats and forced to move amid public commentary about her assault, she said in court papers. “While my physical recovery was days, my mental and emotional recovery has taken m...

Amazon will allow US customers to buy cars on its site from local car dealers starting next year

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Want to buy a car on Amazon? Well, now you might get your chance.The e-commerce giant will launch vehicle sales in the U.S. next year and allow local car dealers to sell directly to customers on its site. In a joint announcement with car manufacturer Hyundai on Thursday, the two companies said Amazon will begin by offering Hyundai vehicles. In turn, Hyundai will name Amazon’s cloud computing unit AWS as its preferred cloud provider and integrate its next-generation vehicles with Alexa, Amazon’s popular voice assistant. The idea, according to Amazon, is to have customers purchase a new car online and pick it up – or have it delivered – from their local dealer. Amazon did not say how many dealers would be participating in the program or if customers across the U.S. would be able to make purchases. An Amazon spokesperson said the company would release more details as it builds the program, which is expected to begin with Hyundai franchised dealers and launch during the ...

A cannabis worker died on the job from an asthma attack. It’s the first reported case in US

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

The U.S. cannabis production industry’s first reported occupational asthma death took the life of a worker in Massachusetts, federal health and safety officials said.The woman, 27, was working in a cannabis cultivation and processing facility when she experienced worsening work-related respiratory symptoms that ended in a fatal asthma attack in January 2022, officials said in a federal report published Thursday. The report states that allergic diseases such as asthma are a growing concern in the U.S. cannabis industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to a wave of state-level legalizations.The report said the worker’s death “illustrates missed opportunities for prevention, including workplace exposures, medical surveillance, and treatment according to the current asthma guidelines.” The report does not name the worker or the Massachusetts facility.However, the report does state that evaluation of workers with new-onset or worsening asthma is essential in cannabis...

Key GOP lawmaker calls for renewal of surveillance tool as he proposes changes to protect privacy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee called Thursday for the renewal of a key U.S. government surveillance tool as he proposed a series of changes aimed at safeguarding privacy.The proposals by Rep. Mike Turner are part of a late scramble inside Congress and the White House to guarantee the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows spy agencies to collect emails and other communications. They emerged from a congressional working group and are expected to form the basis of a legislative package that Turner hopes can be passed before Section 702 expires at the end of the year.“We believe that before the end of the year, we will have a significant package of reforms that will be unprecedented, and at the same time, we will have the renewal of 702,” Turner told reporters.The section of law at issue permits U.S. officials to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners who are ...