A St. John’s woman was presented with a life-changing gift today from the Collision Clinic.

The annual Enriching Lives Car Giveaway took place this morning at Collision Clinic on Topsail Road.

For the initiative, Collision Clinic employees donate their time to restore a damaged vehicle, and give it to someone ahead of the holidays.

Marsha McEvoy is this year’s recipient, and has been gifted a Nissan SUV.

She says she’s been working two jobs to try to make ends meet, and the new car is “life changing.”

McEvoy has four kids, and when seven-year-old Natalie was asked where she wanted to go first, she told VOCM News, “ice cream.”

Collision Clinic says that in its 21st year, demand has tripled this year for the car giveaway compared to last year.

A new panel of civilians and officers meant to help the Ottawa Police Service reduce its number of use-of-force incidents — and the disproportionate amount of force used against racialized people — is expected to announce its members soon and launch in early 2025.

A quick three-car crash happened at noon today in Swift Current. 

At the intersection of Chaplin Street East and Second Avenue North East, in the right hand turning lane, a slippery bit of braking results in three vehicles colliding. 

Happening just outside the Swift Current Fire Department, the incident was already resolved with all parties departed by the time firefighters went outside to check. 

Motorists are reminded to take extra caution and break early when on icy or snowy roads. 

George Joseph Kresge Jr., who was known to generations of TV watchers as the mesmerizing entertainer and mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, has died at age 89.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee inmate has died and five others were injured after fights erupted at a privately run state prison, the facility’s operator said.

The fights broke out early Saturday at Hardeman County Correctional Facility in Whiteville, according to Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, the company that runs the prison. Todd said the altercations were separate but likely related.

Todd said staffers intervened to break up the fights and provided emergency medical treatment until paramedics could arrive. Six inmates were taken to hospitals, where one of them was pronounced dead.

Two remained hospitalized on Wednesday and three others were treated and returned to the prison, Todd said. No prison staff members were injured.

The Tennessee Department of Correction’s Office of Investigations and Conduct is handling the ongoing investigation, Todd said.

Another of the four prisons run by CoreCivic in Tennessee, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation after years of “reports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” according to U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis.

It’s unclear whether the upcoming change of administration to President-elect Donald Trump will affect the completion of that investigation.

Tennessee’s corrections agency has fined CoreCivic $37.7 million across four prisons since 2016, including for understaffing violations. Records obtained by The Associated Press also show the company has spent more than $4.4 million to settle about 80 lawsuits and out-of-court complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at four Tennessee prisons and two jails since 2016.

The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company has said the corrections industry generally has had staffing issues and has pointed to CoreCivic’s hiring incentives and strategies to backfill with workers from other facilities nationally.

Last month, Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told a panel of lawmakers that CoreCivic has been a “very good partner for the state” that helps with “population management,” noting that the department staffs people at CoreCivic facilities to monitor them.

The Associated Press

As the Canada Post strike drags on, some business owners in London say increased shipping costs are starting to hurt at a time when they should be making money. 

GENESEO, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man has been charged with murder after he tried to drop his father’s bullet-riddled body off at a sheriff’s office, authorities said.

Richard Fluegel Jr., 30, called 911 late Monday to say that he had a body to turn in at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Geneseo, said Sheriff Thomas Dougherty.

“As far as the call into dispatch saying that they wanted to turn in a deceased body, that’s very abnormal, as you can imagine,” Dougherty said at a news conference Tuesday.

Deputies met Fluegel in the parking lot and found the body of Richard Fluegel Sr., dead from gunshot wounds, in his son’s car, Dougherty said.

The elder Fluegel, 60, had been reported missing on Sunday, the sheriff said.

Fluegel Jr. was initially detained on a charge of tampering with evidence and was later charged with murder and criminal use of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment late Tuesday and was being held without bail. He is due back in court on Dec. 16.

The investigation was ongoing and authorities did not immediately provide details of how or when they believe Fluegel killed his father.

No attorney for Fluegel was listed in court papers, and the district attorney’s office did not respond to questions about who was representing Fluegel.

Dougherty said he wanted to reassure the public that Livingston County in New York’s Finger Lakes region is safe.

“This stuff doesn’t happen,” he said. “We don’t have people just show up and say they have a dead body with them and they’d like to turn it in. It’s not common.”

The Associated Press

Officials with London Health Sciences Centre say a recent expansion of its pediactric emergency department, funded by donors and the provincial government, has helped reduce wait times for more than 2,500 patients over the last several months.

The Dene Nation says it has "grave concerns" over the N.W.T. government's decision to turf a leadership council responsible for managing the territory's health authority and appoint a public administrator instead. The leadership council says it wasn't consulted on the decision.

As the Canada Post strike drags through its fourth week, people are being reminded to check on any essential mail they may be missing.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $144 million in grants to fund 13 projects in California to help the state wean off fossil fuels and phase out big rigs that run on diesel.

The money will go to the state transportation department, cities and school districts, among others, to purchase some 480 zero-emission vehicles to replace diesel-powered trucks, school buses and other large vehicles. It is part an EPA program that provides a total of $735 million to 70 projects across the country, officials announced Wednesday.

The grants are paid for by the 2022 climate law approved by congressional Democrats. The law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, includes nearly $400 billion in spending and tax credits to accelerate the expansion of clean energy such as wind and solar power, speeding the nation’s transition away from the oil, coal and natural gas that largely cause climate change.

The funds, to be delivered in early 2025, “will reduce air pollution, improve health outcomes in nearby communities, and advance the campaign to tackle climate change,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.

California and local agencies will have the next two to three years to implement the grants for zero-emission trucks.

Nationwide, the transportation sector contributes the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the EPA, with medium- and heavy-duty trucks contributing nearly a quarter of those emissions.

Heavy-duty vehicles make up about 3% of vehicles on the road in California, but they generate more than half of nitrogen oxides and fine-particle diesel pollution, according to the California Air Resources Board. That’s because these trucks have diesel engines that, while more powerful, produce more pollution than gasoline engines. They also travel many more miles than passenger vehicles.

California is trying to rid itself of fossil fuels, passing new rules in recent years to phase out fossil fuel-powered cars, trucks, trains and lawn equipment in the nation’s most populous state. But those rules still require waivers from the EPA, which typically sets standards for emissions from passenger cars, trucks and other vehicles.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, in anticipation of the incoming presidency of Donald Trump, traveled to Washington urge the Biden administration to grant waivers to eight climate rules, including those on zero-emission vehicles and emission standards for pollutants. The issues have been targeted in the past by President-elect Trump.

The Associated Press

MadeGood is warning customers to check their cupboards for granola bars that may contain a piece of metal.

The company says it is voluntarily recalling certain products due to “a very small risk” involving specific bars made between January and November 2024.

It says they have addressed the source of the issue and that there have been no reports of injury.

It advises customers to check product codes and return recalled products to the store where it was purchased for a full refund.

Affected products include 10 flavours as well as variety packs, with various package sizes and best before dates.

A list of affected products is on the company’s website, madegoodfoods.ca.

“We’re initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution and commitment to the well-being of our valued customers,” it says in a statement on the site.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press

With the Canadian postal strike now in its fourth week, some helper elves in P.E.I. are working hard to make sure Santa Claus gets children’s letters in time for Christmas. 

Closing arguments at the weeks-long inquest examining the drug-related deaths of six men who were in custody at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre have wrapped up. The jury is now tasked with deliberating to reach its conclusions, which may involve making recommendations to prevent similar deaths.

In light of recent events, I was inspired to dig through Hansard for the musings of now-former Liberal cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault in regards to claims, implicit or otherwise, about his Indigenous heritage.

I found this:

"Mr. Speaker, miyotôtâkewin tatawaw. That is Cree for ‘Guests, you're welcome, there's room here.’ If my great-grandmother Lucy Brown Eyes, a full-blooded Cree woman, had been able to be elected to this place, she may well have extended the same greeting in the House from the peoples of Treaty 6.”

And this:

"I'm non-status adopted Cree from Alberta, my great-grandmother Lucy Brown Eyes, was a full-blooded Cree woman. Everybody thinks my mum is Mexican because she goes out and tans for a half hour to two hours and it's like she's been outside all summer. She's one-quarter Cree."

Oh, and this:

"I can see her at 85, with gnarled hands, making an apple pie because she married a Dutchman. She never lived on reserve. She once said to me: ‘Randy, we come from the land. We will someday go back to the land, and one day we will all be one people again.’"

As has recently been discovered — all of this is turned out to be bunk. Boissonnault’s adopted great grandmother was not, in fact, a full-blooded Cree woman. However, no malice was intended on Boissonnault’s part, we’re told. This was a simple case of mistaken self-identity: a terrible error that Mr. Boissonnault innocently believed thanks to his own misapprehension of his family heritage. The now-demoted former cabinet minister was forced to confront the truth in "real time" when the National Post found the records not of "Lucy Brown Eyes," but rather a "Lucy Brenneis" who was listed, along with her husband, as German in census documents from 1931. Boissonnault now claims that Brenneis was not Cree, but, rather, Metis.

Okay.

Read more

You’ll forgiven if you wake up tomorrow morning wondering if you’ve suddenly arrived down south.

Temperatures are on the rise right across the province, with double-digit temperatures in the offering for most areas.

St. John’s and Happy Valley-Goose Bay will be the same temperature as New Orleans Louisiana tomorrow, with a forecast high of 13 degrees.

The balmy temperatures won’t last however, the mercury will dip back down to more seasonable values on Friday.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has announced that the Molson Brewery site is going to be developed into a new neighbourhood, spanning roughly 1.2 million square feet between Old Montreal and the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

The area will feature off-market housing (and a total of 3,200 housing units), green spaces, parks and a riverfront promenade with access to the river. A consortium formed by Groupe Sélection, Groupe Montoni and Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ bought the land in question in 2019, for $126-million.

“The iconic Molson Brewery site is beginning its transformation.”

For our latest in news, please visit the News section.

The post New Montreal neighbourhood on Molson Brewery site to feature off-market housing, parks, riverfront promenade appeared first on Cult MTL.

A group of 100 people took their oaths of Canadian citizenship in Saskatoon on Tuesday.