National News
May 15, 2008CRANBROOK, B.C. - The family of a Kenyan student killed this week in a helicopter crash in Cranbrook, B.C., were planning a big homecoming party for him when they received news of the tragedy.
Twenty-year-old Isaiah Otieno was on his way to the post office to mail letters to family and friends when the helicopter crash-landed on him, his father, Kenya's Public Services Minister Dalmas Otieno told Kenya's Nation newspaper on Thursday.
TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers has reached a tentative contract with General Motors of Canada that freezes wages for three years but will keep workers on the job at car and truck plants in Oshawa, Ont.
The agreement reached Thursday morning secures production commitments for the car plant and postpones the shutdown of a second shift at the facility from September until 2009. The union also said Thursday it was close to reaching a deal with the last of the Big Three automakers, Chrysler. Existing contracts between the CAW and the automakers do not expire until September.
TORONTO - There is now convincing evidence that Canada's housing market has come off the boil, Bank of Nova Scotia economists say.
Home resales have fallen for four consecutive months, and the inflation-adjusted average resale home price registered its first quarterly decline in seven years during the first three months of this year, Scotia Economics noted in a report Thursday.
OTTAWA - Manufacturers gave back some of their recent gains in March as factory sales retreated 1.6 per cent to $49 billion, their first decline of 2008.
The scope of March's slowdown was extensive as 18 of the 21 manufacturing industries, representing 76 per cent of total sales, posted declines.
VANCOUVER - There is no uniform policy among municipal police forces in British Columbia on the use of the Taser, says the president of the B.C. Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police.
Bob Rich, who is also deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department, told a B.C. public inquiry into the use of Tasers that steps are being taken to address that, but right now policies on the use of force are left to each municipal department.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada's painfully patient strategy of letting the fledgling Afghan army take the lead in the field is paying dividends and could soon expand to include more troops and territory, said the outgoing commander of Canadian troops in the region.
Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche said the development of Afghan National Army units has come along quicker than he expected during his 10-month tour.
VANCOUVER - Corrections Canada has launched an internal investigation to find out how prison pictures of notorious child killer Clifford Olson made their way onto the social networking website MySpace.
A profile on the popular website under the name Clifford Olson contains photographs, personal essays, and news stories, many of which are available on other websites devoted to the convicted murderer - including a letter that is almost 20 years old.
VICTORIA - Ottawa is suggesting B.C.'s children's ministry may become involved in a polygamy-related investigation in the United States on behalf of a teenaged B.C. girl who is currently being held by Texas authorities, Attorney General Wally Oppal said Wednesday.
The federal Foreign Affairs Department contacted the province regarding the 17-year-old girl apprehended by U.S. child welfare authorities last month at a polygamist community in Eldorado, Texas, Oppal said.
MONTREAL - The father of a 16-year-old girl can't believe a simple viral infection has ended up putting his daughter on a waiting list for a new heart.
"It is something I would not have dreamed of," Robert Seguin said Wednesday. "That same virus that can give you a runny nose can attack the heart."
TORONTO - The case of a Tim Hortons worker in Toronto fired almost nine years ago for allegedly stealing a toonie was put over again Wednesday as lawyers for the defendant lamented that the former employee's "frivolous" lawsuit continues to waste time and money.
Charlene Walsh, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and Amanda MacNeil were fired in June 1999 after store managers viewed surveillance video and alleged the workers were seen taking money from a cash register.
TORONTO - An expensive drug used to minimize severe bleeding during heart surgery actually significantly increased the risk that patients would die during surgery or in the 30 days following, a Canadian study comparing the drug to two far cheaper alternatives shows.
Called the BART trial, the study found people who received Trasylol or aprotinin (its generic name) were 53 per cent more likely to die than people who received the other anti-bleeding agents, tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid.
HALIFAX - Gerry Wrigley was one of several drivers across the country who pulled up to the pumps Wednesday expecting to shell out for high gas prices but got an unexpected refund instead.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation surprised Wrigley and drivers at nine gas stations across Canada by reimbursing the amount of gas tax they paid to highlight what the group says is government "gouging."
TORONTO - Nearly one-fifth of the nurses in hospitals across the country acknowledge making errors when giving patients medications, with understaffing and working too much overtime primarily blamed for the likelihood of those mistakes occurring, a report by Statistics Canada says.
In its report released Wednesday, Statistics Canada said that in settings in which nurses ended up working beyond their regular shifts due to understaffing and inadequate resources, patients were more likely to receive the wrong medication or dosage.
OTTAWA - Quebec Premier Jean Charest said Wednesday the time is right for Canada to strike a free-trade deal with the European Union.
Charest, who was addressing a conference on transatlantic trade, said Canada represents a choice entry point for trade from the European Union, which has its eye on the huge U.S. market.
TORONTO - After a dramatic spike in reports of lost and stolen passports over the past two years, Passport Canada is giving additional scrutiny to passport applications across the country and warning travellers to protect their travel documents.
In 2007, 37,650 passports were reported lost or stolen, compared to 24,792 in 2005. The numbers, obtained by The Canadian Press, were recently circulated in a memo warning staff to double-check applications for new passports when the old document is reported missing.
VANCOUVER - Canadian mayors say there's no way they'd turn down a chance to host the 2010 Olympic flame, despite the protests dogging the current torch relay to Beijing.
Letters are going out to 200 places chosen by Vancouver's Olympic organizers as celebration sites for the Winter Games torch relay as it makes its way across the country.
OTTAWA - Protesters hit a lot closer to home than they could have hoped for as they took their message of Chinese human-rights abuses to Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
The Global Human Rights Torch relay ran right into the middle of scores of Chinese tourists.
TORONTO - A largely symbolic gesture supporting compensation for Steven Truscott will play out Thursday through a private member's motion in the Ontario legislature as the government sits on formal recommendations on the matter.
The government tasked former Appeal Court Justice Sydney Robins with reviewing the issue of compensation and while Attorney General Chris Bentley now has his recommendations in hand, he said he's not yet prepared to discuss them publicly, even though many in the house are expected to endorse the idea in a free vote.
