National News
May 16, 2008VICTORIA - A weeping Willow Kinloch hugged her mother in the courtroom moments after a jury returned a verdict Thursday that found Victoria Police officers violated the teen's rights when they restrained her in a padded police cell.
The jury at a B.C. Supreme Court civil trial awarded Kinloch $60,000 for the incident in May 2005 when Kinloch, then 15, spent four hours in handcuffs and leg restraints, leashed to the door of the cell.
CALGARY - A Canadian paramedic who was killed in action in Afghanistan earlier this month will be remembered by family and friends at a funeral service in Calgary on Friday.
Corp. Mike Starker died in an ambush west of Kandahar city on May 6th. Friday he will remembered at a full military funeral at the Calgary Roundup Centre, where more than three-thousand people are expected to attend. His sister, Carolyn Straub, said it was important to let the public be part of the grieving process. She said he deserves to be remembered.
VANCOUVER - Her faith in the RCMP "shattered" following the death of her son at the Vancouver airport, the mother of Robert Dziekanski called for a moratorium on the use of the weapon Thursday at public inquiry into the use of Tasers.
Zofia Cisowski made a brief and tearful appearance before the inquiry.
OTTAWA - News that the prime minister will apologize June 11 for rampant abuse in native residential schools was bittersweet for former students living a legacy of trauma and cultural losses.
"It's going to be a very emotional time when he does stand up for all Canadians and finally take responsibility and say they're sorry for what they did," says Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society.
TORONTO - Imposing a deadline to settle a long-standing aboriginal land-claim dispute in the southwestern Ontario town of Caledonia is not the way to go despite provincial calls to speed up the process, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Thursday.
"Frankly, negotiation - rather than ultimatums - I think is a better way to go," Strahl said after delivering a speech to a Toronto business audience.
EDMONTON - The Alberta government took a major step Thursday to reshape health-care delivery by dissolving nine existing regional health boards and creating a new super board.
"What we are attempting to put in place is a governance model ... that can give us better access (to care) and a more sustainable system," Health Minister Ron Liepert said at a news conference.
OTTAWA - The exact cost of the federal government's new defence strategy remained unclear Thursday, although it appeared to be much higher than the $30 billion announced three days earlier by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The opposition pounced on the lack of clarity to accuse the government of making an announcement without any substance.
TORONTO - Deflecting mounting criticism over a Liberal proposal that would tax carbon emissions, party leader Stephane Dion said Thursday the country needs bold changes so it can adapt to climate change and the rising cost of fossil fuels.
While he stopped short of staking his party's next election platform on the tax, Dion told a Toronto business audience that the Conservative government has so far avoided a frank debate on the issue and is deliberately trying to confuse the public.
VANCOUVER - Tibetan rights activists are split over whether to protest the 2008 Paralympic Games torch when it arrives in Vancouver.
One group says they're not ruling it out, while another says the Paralympic Games torch relay has no connection to the issue of Tibet and should not be the target of protest.
MONTREAL - One year after a lengthy labour dispute forced him to wait all summer before he could bury his deceased 90-year-old mother, Paul Caghassi still relives the painful memories.
He says he's reminded of his ordeal every time he hears radio ads Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery is running to brag of the caring service it provides customers.
OTTAWA - Trade Minister David Emerson is telling Europeans they are missing out on a great opportunity in the future development of the North by not moving aggressively to strengthen economic ties with Canada.
Emerson told a conference on transatlantic trade Thursday that Europe and Canada have not paid close enough attention to trade and investment links, and interest is especially lacking in Europe.
TORONTO - Expert recommendations on whether Ontario should support compensation for Steven Truscott has yet to be disclosed, but the province voted in favour of the idea in a symbolic motion Thursday.
A private member's motion from Guelph Liberal Liz Sandals to support compensation received all-party support during the debate, although some suggested the free vote was premature.
VANCOUVER - A lawyer for the Vancouver Police Department says allegations of a coverup and racism in an aboriginal man's freezing death have rocked the force.
In testimony before a public inquiry Thursday, Sean Hern blamed a senior lawyer from the Office of the Police Complaint Commission for taking the Frank Paul case "wildly off course," including at a legislative committee hearing.
TORONTO - Canada's cooling real-estate sector is slowly moving toward a more balanced market, but there won't be any bust like that seen in the U.S. following the subprime mortgage crisis, Scotiabank economist Adrienne Warren said Thursday following the release of several housing reports.
"We have been anticipating lower sales this year and more modest price increases," said Warren, senior economist at Scotia Economics, after the bank forecast overall sales 15 per cent below last year's record levels, with home prices increasing on average about five per cent.
TORONTO - The Big Three North American automakers have all signed on to three-year agreements with Canadian workers designed to help rescue the country's crumbling auto sector.
But one analyst says the plan ignores a key risk to the industry: growing wage disparity with U.S. workers.
OTTAWA - Spending on prescribed and over-the-counter drugs in Canada outpaced overall health spending last year, and grew faster than the rate of inflation, new figures show.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported Thursday that drug spending reached an estimated $27 billion in 2007. That's up 7.2 per cent from the $25 billion spent the previous year.
OTTAWA - Opening the offices of cabinet ministers to scrutiny under freedom-of-information legislation could compromise sensitive material that ought to remain private, the Harper government is telling Federal Court.
The argument is a sharp turnaround for the federal Conservatives, who complained bitterly in opposition about Liberal secrecy and vowed to reform the Access to Information Act to fix the problem.
TORONTO - The Ontario government's focus on reducing wait times in key areas such as hip and knee replacements is leaving people with bad backs, shoulder problems and other health issues farther behind, the president of the Ontario Medical Association said Thursday.
Dr. Ken Arnold said all patients deserve speedy access to medical care, not just those with problems that the government has identified as a priority.
