DENVER — A wildlife team from the United States has begun an operation to capture grey wolves in British Columbia for release in Colorado.

The operation by Colorado Parks and Wildlife comes after an agreement with the B.C. government to “translocate” up to 15 wolves a year over the next three to five years.

Colorado Parks says in a statement that the capture operation follows work to adopt measures that will minimize conflict between wolves and livestock.

It says the operation is expected to last up to two weeks, with the goal to “recover and maintain a viable, self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado.”

The state says the B.C. wolves will be tested and treated for disease before they are relocated, and collars will be placed on the animals to monitor their behaviours.

Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative in 2020 to reintroduce the animals as a way of restoring ecological balance.

The state began the process by bringing five wolves from Oregon in late 2023.

Eric Odell, Colorado’s wolf program manager, says in a news release issued Saturday that they were “excited to be working with B.C. to bring together our combined experience and expertise while ensuring the safety of animals and staff.”

“This new source population of grey wolves will provide additional genetic diversity to Colorado’s wolf population,” he says.

The state says the B.C. wolves will come from areas where no livestock is present, “so there are no concerns about reintroducing wolves that are from packs that are involved in situations of repeated livestock depredations.”

The B.C. government says grey wolves are not an endangered or threatened species in the province, with an estimated population of 8,500.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The first carbon rebate of 2025 is being paid out today to households in provinces that use the federal carbon pricing system — even as the future of the rebate program itself remains uncertain.

For a family of four, the rebate will pay out anywhere from $190 in New Brunswick to $450 in Alberta, with people in small and rural communities receiving a 20 per cent boost to their rebates.

With the Liberals’ keystone climate policy under sustained political attack, the federal government has attempted to improve its communications on the file by arguing that most Canadians get more money back from the program than they pay.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to “axe the tax” if elected, and even Liberal leadership prospect Mark Carney told a Senate committee in May the carbon tax had “served its purpose, until now.”

It’s unclear whether Carney’s leadership platform will support the measure.

Whether the carbon tax has contributed to Canadians’ increased cost of living has been the subject of rigorous policy debate.

While some academics have linked the carbon tax to a rise in the cost of goods, due in part to higher fuel costs in the transport sector, others argue it has had a minimal impact. They say global factors, like surging energy prices and supply-chain disruptions, have pushed prices higher in Canada.

Wednesday’s payment is the first of four instalments planned for 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

The Canadian Press

CBC News is planning to boost coverage in nearly two dozen underserved communities across Canada by hiring up to 30 permanent journalists.

The public broadcaster says it’s making the investment using funds expected from Google as part of a compensation deal made under the Online News Act.

The act compels tech giants to pay news outlets for using their content. Google agreed to pay $100 million to be exempt from the act for five years.

CBC/Radio-Canada is set to receive about $7 million of that payout, which will be distributed to news outlets by a designated journalism collective.

The broadcaster says jobs are being added in 22 communities and postings will be published in the coming weeks, with a focus on Western Canada.

Six journalism jobs will be posted in B.C., nine in the Prairies, along with one in the North, three in Ontario, and one each in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to provide underserved news markets across the country with the local journalism they need,” said Brodie Fenlon, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, in a statement.

“These additional roles will ensure that more Canadians have access to crucial information about their community and the world around them, and share significant stories from these communities with national audiences.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Peter Simonsen says buds on the peach trees at his farm in Naramata, B.C., are already starting to swell early.

But that makes him nervous.

“They seem healthy and good, but I’m a little worried, because it’s been very similar to last year,” he said, referring to the warm spell last winter that preceded a catastrophic cold snap that decimated crops across the Okanagan and elsewhere in B.C.

“And if you look at the fruit buds, they are starting to swell a little bit. They are breaking their dormancy, which is way too early for that to be happening.”

This week marks one year since the deep freeze that sent temperatures plummeting to about -30 C in some fruit-growing regions.

With plants already budding because of the previous warmth, a year’s worth of crops, including peaches and nectarines, were wiped out, along with the vast majority of cherries, and grapes used in B.C. wines. The loss cost hundreds of millions of dollars and left many farmers scrambling to stay afloat.

Farmers now say they’re crossing their fingers for 2025, but with the end of winter still two months away, it’s too soon to know for sure if the weather will co-operate.

Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says a “hint” of colder weather is coming for the Okanagan over the next week or so but it’s not forecast to be nearly as cold or as prolonged as it was last year.

Proctor said temperatures could dip to -15 over the weekend in the region but that the cold won’t last long, adding that the weather pattern is moving farther east than it did this time last year.

Simonsen, who is also president of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, said he’s hopeful for a harvest this year but adds that any sort of extreme cold over the next few months could cause damage if buds are not dormant.

He said the closer it gets to spring, the more sensitive fruit trees are to temperature.

“Last year it was -27, which was terrible. But, if we have one (cold snap) in February or March, if they keep breaking dormancy, it only has to go to -10 or -15 or something, to have damage.”

Alan Gatzke, a third-generation farmer about 100 kilometres north in Oyama, B.C., lost his entire crop of peaches and nectarines last year, and about 85 per cent of cherries.

He said he’s also started to see some buds beginning to swell but remains optimistic that 2025 will yield healthy crops.

“Cautiously optimistic would be a good description of how I’m feeling, because the orchard looks great right now. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a good flush of buds out there, so we anticipate a full crop, if nothing goes wrong,” he said.

Gatzke said that ideally the weather in the region would get slightly colder overnight to slow the process of buds waking up.

“Minus five at night and plus five at day would be perfect right now. But we haven’t been getting the minus fives,” he said.

“I see in the forecast that we might be getting down to minus eight or nine, and that would be a good thing, just to slow things down for a little bit so that bloom happens when there is no frost.”

The cold snap also destroyed almost all of grapes used to make B.C. wines.

The B.C. government responded by committing extra funding of up to $70 million to replant and strengthen fruit orchards and vineyards.

Michael Bartier, owner and winemaker at the Bartier Brothers Winery near Oliver, B.C., said the vineyard lost all of its fruit last year and about half of its vines were killed.

He said this year looks like it is going to be “an awful lot better” than what they went through in 2024.

“We have those buds, they’re there. They look healthy right now. We haven’t had any cold events this year, and there’s nothing in the forecast that looks even remotely alarming. So we’re almost through the danger period,” he said.

In Kelowna, Jennifer Deol, co-owner of There and Back Again Farms, said she hasn’t seen buds developing on her peach trees yet, but like so many others, she’s holding her breath that a dramatic cold snap won’t happen again.

“We know with climate change, weather events are just becoming more frequent and severe, and their impact to farming is also becoming more frequent and severe. So we are cautiously optimistic, but anything can happen. We’re still in winter,” she said.

The devastation of last year left many small farms like Deol’s struggling to make ends meet.

She said they have deferred payment on the farm for the last three years because they are not making enough money. They’ve also decided to put the apple orchard portion of their farm up for sale.

“We’re operating at a loss, and I have to work a full-time job on top of farming just to pay for our food, pay for our electricity,” she said.

She said last year the farm lost all of its peaches and cherries and 80 per cent of its table grapes, and were left to rely on vegetable sales to stay afloat.

“If we can just have a decent year, it can kind of fill up our account again. But we barely made it, and we only made it because of community support and really trying to advocate for farming,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Andrew Brooks ordered three school buses from Lion Electric Co. on Nov. 20, just before American Thanksgiving.

As superintendent of a school district in Illinois, Brooks had been working with the Quebec-based electric-vehicle maker for more than a year to apply for U.S. federal grant money to buy the electric buses. He didn’t realize the company was in financial trouble until after the holiday, in early December.

That’s when he reached out to his contact at Lion Electric, only to discover he’d been laid off. “Had we known … then we probably would have held off on sending those orders through,” he said in an interview.

Now Brooks is one of many clients in the U.S. and Canada waiting to see what Lion Electric’s future will mean for their own efforts to electrify their fleets. Some have taken steps to distance themselves from the struggling manufacturer, while others are worried about whether their buses will still get the maintenance they need.

A flagship of Quebec’s mission to become an electric-vehicle powerhouse, Lion Electric’s star has fallen fast in recent months. The company, which builds electric school buses and trucks, entered creditor protection in December after going through several rounds of layoffs last year and shutting down production at a plant in Joliet, Ill. With US$500 million in debt, it is now seeking a buyer with a restructuring plan to focus solely on buses and return all manufacturing to Quebec.

Lion Electric has been one of the major players in the push to electrify school buses in Canada and the U.S. The company says it has about 2,200 electric vehicles on the road and a 33 per cent market share of electric school buses across North America, with deliveries in 28 states and six provinces.

But now, some of its customers are worried. In Prince Edward Island, the government recently cancelled a public tender to purchase 12 new electric buses, and the province’s pledge to fully electrify its school bus fleet by 2030 seems to be in doubt.

The tender “was cancelled as there was only one bid, and due to the uncertainty of the Lion Electric Company’s future, the province elected to not pursue the purchase of more electric buses at this time,” said Vicki Tse, a spokesperson for P.E.I.’s Education Department, in an email.

P.E.I. already has 107 electric buses, making up nearly one-third of the 357 buses in its fleet — the highest proportion of any province in Canada, according to Miriam Ponette, a co-ordinator of the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance. Ponette said all of P.E.I.’s electric buses are from Lion.

Tse didn’t directly respond to a question about whether the province still plans to electrify its fleet by 2030. “While the news from Lion Electric does not support the net-zero goal to electrify its entire school bus fleet, we are confident that manufacturers will continue to invest in and expand the production of electric school buses in the coming years,” she said.

There are currently about 1,900 electric school buses on the road in Canada, Ponette said. The vast majority are in Quebec, which offers grants for electric school bus purchases. The federal government also offers funding for operators to buy electric buses, but Ponette said the program has been slow to get money out the door.

Lion has pointed to the slow rollout of federal subsidies as one of the major challenges it’s been facing.

Back in Illinois, Brooks said his school district is locked into its order while Lion Electric is in creditor protection. If the company can’t find a buyer, then he’ll look for another supplier. “It’s sad for them,” he said.

Brooks’s district is one of many across the U.S. that have started electrifying their fleets thanks to a federal program that offers funding for districts to swap out diesel buses for electric models. The clean school bus program includes US$5 billion over five years to replace existing buses, and Lion Electric has been one of the main beneficiaries.

The Quebec company had about 1,600 electric school buses on the road in the U.S. in December 2023, according to the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute, with about 1,800 more on order. Those numbers are higher than its two main competitors, Blue Bird Corporation and Thomas Built Buses, according to the institute’s data.

In some of the districts already using Lion Electric buses, officials are waiting to see what a possible sale of the company will mean for them. Richard Decman, superintendent of a rural Illinois school district south of Chicago, said they’ve been running 25 Lion Electric buses since last summer — about half their fleet. One of the reasons his district chose Lion is because of its manufacturing plant in Joliet, just a short drive away.

But Lion closed that plant in December, and it’s been taking longer to get replacement parts since that happened, Decman said. He’s worried about whether the warranties on his buses will carry over if the company is sold. “That’s just our biggest concern,” he said.

Lion Electric has laid off most of its employees, with the remaining 160 focused on helping clients with vehicle maintenance, the company says.

Decman said he’s been happy with the performance of the buses so far, and has had only minor maintenance issues. But in some other areas, it hasn’t been smooth sailing.

Andrew Dolloff, superintendent of the Yarmouth School Department in Maine, said his district bought two Lion Electric buses in 2023 using federal grant money. To date, he said, they’ve been on the road for less than a month combined.

Dolloff said the buses frequently display messages indicating heating, electrical or battery problems, forcing the district to pull them out of service. It can take weeks or months to get someone from the company to visit the area and fix the issue, he said.

“We’re relying on one individual from Lion to service this region, and they’ve had a difficult time providing that person,” he said. “There’s just been a lot of turnover.”

Dolloff hopes the problems are just “a bump in the road,” and said he’s still trying to work with the company. “I’m not sure if this particular model was ready for prime time, but certainly our experience has been that they’re not ready for our students,” he said.

In P.E.I., drivers have also complained to local media about problems with Lion Electric buses, including issues with their heaters and lower-than-expected range.

In more bad news for the company, one of its buses caught fire in Huntsville, Ont., on Monday, though no injuries were reported. Dean Campbell, owner of the local company that operated the bus, said Lion Electric is investigating the cause, but he said the batteries were not involved. He said his company has been using the bus since 2018, with “satisfactory service.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada’s premiers are set to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet today to talk about U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s vow to impose steep tariffs.

Trump has promised to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports — one of several measures he says he’ll enact on day one of his presidency through an executive order. He assumes that office on Monday.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc met Tuesday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who currently chairs the premiers’ group, to talk about Canada’s response.

“I saw the plan for border security. It’s phenomenal. As I said to Minister LeBlanc, have (Public Safety Minister David McGuinty) get out there and start promoting it, because it’s a solid, solid plan,” Ford said.

Just one day earlier, Ford criticized the Trudeau government for not sharing details of the border plan.

LeBlanc said the finance department and Canada’s major banks have been working on modelling potential job losses from the tariffs. LeBlanc declined to share that information on Tuesday.

“We’re not going to speculate on what exactly are different scenarios. Next week, we think we’ll know the precise details of what these tariffs will mean to the Canadian economy and of course we’ll be ready to respond from a position of strength,” LeBlanc said.

Ford estimated that the tariffs could cost 500,000 jobs in Ontario alone.

Trump’s messaging on tariffs has shifted in recent days, putting greater focus on the U.S. “subsidizing” Canada through trade and suggesting it become the 51st state.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said last week that retaliatory tariffs will be on the agenda for the meeting with the premiers.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend.

She attended as a guest of Canadian businessman and television personality Kevin O’Leary.

Smith urged Canada not to block oil and gas exports to the U.S. as part of the tariff response, warning it could trigger a “national unity crisis.”

When asked about the possibility of blocking energy exports on Tuesday, Ford and LeBlanc said they want to keep all options on the table.

“I think we need to be ready to deploy all of the measures necessary to defend the Canadian economy, but we’re not going to publicly speculate what is or what isn’t an option,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc has met with Trump and members of his administration twice in person since the American election — once with Trudeau and a second time with incoming U.S. cabinet members alongside Joly.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault was seen talking to Trump in December at the reopening of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Smith said she plans on attending Trump’s inauguration next week.

Drew Fagan of the Munk School of Global Affairs said that for Canada to deal successfully with the Trump administration, all leaders and officials need to show a united front.

“It does seem to be right now a bit of a free-for-all, and that’s challenging for us because the way we succeed in negotiations with the United States, as the much smaller party, is to also be the smarter party,” he said.

“And smarts comes from coordination and focus.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The next Liberal leader will need to turn their attention quickly to ensuring the party is ready for an early election once the short leadership race ends in March.

Multiple Liberal cabinet ministers and MPs have said they will not seek re-election over the past year, and the governing Liberals are trailing the Conservatives in nominating candidates.

The Liberals say they have 129 candidates nominated out of 343 federal ridings, while the Conservatives say they have close to 221 and the New Democrats say they have 93.

University of Toronto political science professor Randy Besco says the next Liberal leader will need to quickly sort out their campaign machinery, since senior members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office may be unwilling to stick it out under a new leader.

He says the Liberals won’t have a hard time finding candidates but attracting star talent likely will be tough, with the Conservatives maintaining a solid double-digit lead in the polls.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves after a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A former Newfoundland and Labrador premier says he was alarmed by comments from Quebec’s hydro utility suggesting Canada’s easternmost province has one again signed an unfavourable energy deal.

Former Progressive Conservative premier Danny Williams is urging officials with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to ask Hydro-Québec to pay more as the two public utilities negotiate a final deal on electricity rates from Labrador.

He pointed to recent comments in media reports from a Hydro-Québec official saying the recently announced draft deal offers remarkable prices at rates the province could not refuse.

In response to critics, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro executives have said repeatedly that Hydro-Québec must sell the new deal to the Quebec public — and play up the benefits.

The agreement in principle replaces a 1969 contract that gave Hydro-Québec power rates from Labrador that are far below market value, and it ends that lopsided deal about 16 years before it was set to expire.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro executives have also noted that the new tentative agreement provides for rates to increase with the energy market — something the 1969 contract didn’t have.

Last week, members of the Progressive Conservative Opposition brought up the Hydro-Québec comments during a four-day debate in the legislature about the draft energy deal.

In particular, they pointed to Montreal’s La Presse, which quoted Hydro-Québec vice-president Dave Rhéaume saying provisions in the new agreement to build additional hydro projects in Labrador are similar to the 1969 deal.

Walter Parsons, a vice-president with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, says Hydro-Québec is saving money with the new agreement, compared to the cost of energy from other sources, and that the utility wouldn’t agree to a new contract if it didn’t benefit Quebec.

He says Canada’s easternmost province also stands to reap benefits from the deal, including a $3.5-billion payment from Hydro-Québec for the right to co-develop new dams in Labrador, of which Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro will be the majority owner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Damage from extreme weather in Canada last year pushed the bill facing insurers to an unprecedented CAN$8.5 billion, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said Monday.

Events that cause significant destruction “are escalating at a shocking rate and Canada is simply not prepared,” said Celyeste Power, president of the IBC, an industry association representing Canadian insurers.

The IBC said the insured damage estimate for 2024 was 12 times higher than the annual average of $701 million recorded from 2001 to 2010.

“The summer of 2024 stands out as the most destructive season in Canadian history for insured losses due to wildfires, floods and hailstorms,” the group said in a statement.

In July and August alone, “four catastrophic weather events” caused more than CAN$7 billion in losses, it said.

Those included a wildfire in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies and flash flooding in Toronto.

Previously, the most costly year for Canadian insurers was 2016, when a massive wildfire in an Alberta oil region contributed to insured damage costs of $6.2 billion.

Across the world, excess heat caused by climate change is increasing the severity of extreme weather events.

The US city of Los Angeles is currently battling deadly wildfires that have destroyed thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

“As we watch the devastating wildfires in California where insurability of homes is at real risk, Canada’s property insurers are raising the alarm that regions of Canada could potentially face similar challenges,” the IBC said.

Insurance covering wildfires remains widely available in Canada, but the cost of that coverage could continue to rise, according to the insurance bureau.

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Births in France fell last year to their lowest annual number since the end of World War II in 1945, the national statistics bureau said on Tuesday.

In 2024, 663,000 babies were born in France, INSEE said, a drop of 2.2 per cent from the previous year.

The total fertility rate stood at 1.59 children per woman in metropolitan France, its lowest level for more than a century.

INSEE said 646,000 people died in France in 2024, an increase of 1.1 per cent from the previous year, because of baby boomers reaching old age.

France had a population of 68.6 million as of Jan. 1, 2025, an increase of 0.25 per cent over one year.

Migration flows added a net 152,000 people to the overall population last year, INSEE said.

Life expectancy for people in France has stabilised at a “historically high level,” at 85.6 years for women and 80 years for men.

The latest figures were released as the French government seeks to clamp down on irregular immigration and limit regular immigration.

Last year, President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to revive France’s sluggish birth rate, pledging to offer better parental leave and combat infertility.

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The United States finalized a rule Tuesday effectively barring Chinese technology from cars in the American market, taking aim at software and hardware from the world’s second biggest economy over national security risks.

The announcement, which also pertains to Russian technology, comes as outgoing President Joe Biden wraps up efforts to step up curbs on China, and after a months-long regulatory process.

The rule follows an announcement this month that Washington is mulling new restrictions to address risks posed by drones with tech from adversaries like China and Russia.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels — they’re computers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

She noted that modern vehicles contain cameras, microphones, GPS tracking and other technologies connected to the internet.

“This is a targeted approach to ensure we keep PRC and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads,” she added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

The final rule currently applies just to passenger vehicles under 10,001 pounds, said the US Commerce Department.

It plans, however, to issue separate rulemaking aimed at tech in commercial vehicles like trucks and buses “in the near future.”

For now, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD, for example, has a facility in California producing buses and other vehicles.

National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard added that “China is trying to dominate the future of the auto industry.”

But she said connected vehicles containing software and hardware systems linked to foreign rivals could result in misuse of sensitive data or interference.

‘Nexus’ to China

Under the latest rule, even if a passenger car were US-made, manufacturers with “a sufficient nexus” to China or Russia will not be allowed to sell such new vehicles incorporating hardware and software for external connectivity and autonomous driving.

This prohibition on sales takes effect for model year 2027.

The restriction also bans the import of the hardware and software if they are linked to Beijing or Moscow.

The software curbs take effect for model year 2027 while the hardware controls come into play for model year 2030.

Just a day earlier, Washington announced fresh export rules on chips used for AI, furthering efforts to make it hard for China and other rivals to access the technology.

The restrictions also tightened rules surrounding the sharing of cutting-edge AI models.

Washington has expanded efforts in recent years to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in AI and weapons systems, as Beijing’s tech advancements spark concern among US policymakers.

But the rollout of many plans will fall to incoming President-elect Donald Trump, whose return to the White House early next week promises a raft of changes to government policies.

On Monday, Biden urged the Trump administration not to cede AI dominance to China.

“We must not offshore artificial intelligence, as we once did with computer chips and other critical technologies,” Biden said in an address at the State Department.

“We are in the lead, and we must stay in the lead,” he added, saying it should be Washington and its closest allies at the frontier of this technology.

US efforts to restrict Chinese tech come as American officials work to boost its domestic industries as well.

On Tuesday, Biden issued an executive order to accelerate the pace at which infrastructure for artificial intelligence development can be built in the country.

“We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future,” said Biden in a statement.

But the US actions could attract Beijing’s retaliation, with the Chinese Commerce Ministry already calling Monday’s AI-related export curbs “a flagrant violation” of international trade rules.

“China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry said.

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A survey published on Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League showed 46 per cent of adults worldwide — about 2.2 billion people — hold antisemitic views.

The ADL survey found “anti-Jewish sentiments are at an all-time high globally” and noted antisemitism had more than doubled since the Jewish advocacy group’s first such study in 2014.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the New York-based organization, called the findings “deeply troubling,” describing antisemitism as a “global emergency.”

“We are seeing these trends play out from the Middle East to Asia, from Europe to North and South America,” he said during a press call.

Conducted with global market research firm Ipsos, the survey questioned over 58,000 adults in 103 countries, using representative sampling.

Respondents were asked about stereotypes regarding Jews, their attitudes toward Israel, and their engagement with Israeli businesses and individuals.

Among the antisemitic tropes were claims that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars” or “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the home country they live in.”

Younger respondents showed higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes, with 40 per cent of those under 35 believing Jews were responsible for most wars.

Released ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the survey also explored awareness of the Holocaust — Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews in Europe.

It found 20 per cent of respondents had not heard of the Holocaust, while only 48 per cent recognized its historical accuracy.

In the Middle East and North Africa, 76 per cent of respondents believed most of the tropes about Jews to be true.

In Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, half harboured high levels of antisemitic views, compared with less than a quarter in the Americas and Western Europe.

The highest levels of antisemitic attitudes were found in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip at 97 per cent.

Israel has been waging a war against Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The index score was also 97 per cent for Kuwait, while it was 96 per cent for Indonesia.

Greenblatt attributed the rise to factors like global politics, social media and what he called “the Al Jazeera effect.”

Of the Qatari-owned news channel, Greenblatt said “Al Jazeera is a non-stop fountain of antisemitism and a 24-hour faucet of anti-Israel reports.”

“Antisemitic tropes and beliefs are becoming alarmingly normalized across societies worldwide,” said Marina Rosenberg, the ADL’s senior vice president for international affairs.

“This dangerous trend is not just a threat to Jewish communities — it’s a warning to us all,” she said, adding that even in countries with lower levels of antisemitism, incidents still occurred.

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Furious at the prospect of a US government ban on social media platform TikTok, American users have flocked to another Chinese-owned app in droves, many with a defiant message: “Take my data!”

TikTok has become another battleground showcasing China-US tensions, with President Joe Biden’s administration accusing the app of allowing Beijing to collect data and spy on users — claims denied by China and TikTok’s owner ByteDance.

The United States passed a law last year forcing ByteDance to either sell the platform or shut it down by Jan. 19.

With that deadline looming, Xiaohongshu — a lifestyle-focused Instagram-meets-Pinterest alternative — surged to the top of the Apple App Store downloads on Monday.

The hashtag “tiktokrefugee” had more than 100 million views by Tuesday evening.

“They are trying to ban TikTok because they said China is stealing information. They don’t ban any American company from stealing our information,” user penguinpepperpia, who has more than 264,000 TikTok followers, said.

The content creator downloaded Xiaohongshu rather than return to US platforms such as Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, which they characterised as apps for “older people” that also “steal your personal information and sell it to other companies.”

“That is why many Americans don’t care anymore and we would rather let China have our information,” said the user.

Other “refugees” shared similar sentiments.

New Xiaohongshu user Adham said in a video posted on Monday: “I know our government is a little bit racist, but Chinese people, I love you guys. I don’t care if you take my data. Take it.”

‘Deliciously ironical’

The phenomenon showed how “foolish” the TikTok ban was, Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy who filed a brief in opposition to the ban to the US Supreme Court, said.

“It is deliciously ironical that the threat of a ban is backfiring so quickly, even before it is put into place,” he said.

“It does seem as if the TikTok ban is pushing users towards other apps that have a much less clear division between the Chinese Communist Party and the app itself,” Duke University’s Robyn Caplan said.

Neither Xiaohongshu nor ByteDance commented on the situation when asked.

What the phenomenon showed was that the Biden administration’s strategy towards Chinese technology of “small yard, high fence” was not effective, said the London School of Economics’ Meng Bingchun.

“The yard keeps getting bigger, and the fence is leaky,” Meng said.

“Worse still, in this case, those living within the fence can be migratory in the digital space.”

Short-term reaction?

Until Monday, Xiaohongshu — or RedNote in English — was popular primarily among Chinese-speaking users.

It boasted 300 million monthly active users at the end of 2023.

Unlike TikTok’s sister app Douyin or the micro-blogging site Weibo, Xiaohongshu skews heavily towards lifestyle content.

It is seen as facing relatively less censorship than other platforms: users can be found posting LGBTQ content and discussing the merits of women remaining single, topics often considered sensitive in China.

For “native” Xiaohongshu users on Monday, the influx of Americans was a head-scratcher but also provided an unexpected opportunity for cultural exchange.

Some even asked for help with English homework.

In public group chats on the platform, new users asked for translations of slang terms, as well as keywords to search for content they wanted.

“It’s funny and ironic that the Americans and the Chinese are meeting online under the circumstance that the US government is banning TikTok … similar to what the Chinese government has been doing for ages to American apps,” 26-year-old Amanda Zhang said.

The part-time pet content creator, who studies in the United States, said she was worried the US government might move to ban Xiaohongshu too if it gained enough traction.

It remains unclear what the long-term implications of the shift will be.

Xiaohongshu’s main challenge to retaining these new users is translation, Caplan said.

LSE’s Meng added: “My hunch is that what we are witnessing now is more of a short-term reaction than a long-term trend.”

“The question now is whether there will be a critical mass of these refugees to achieve the desired network effect for the platform, and whether Xiaohongshu will respond quickly enough to harness the new users.”

The post ‘Take my data’: US ‘TikTok refugees’ flock to alternative Chinese app appeared first on CANADIAN AFFAIRS.

London's vacancy rate for downtown office buildings is projected to grow for the third straight year, with the mayor promising new efforts to help reverse the trend. 

Hizb ut Tahrir Canada, a controversial Islamic activist group, says it is cancelling its upcoming Khilafah Conference 2025, which was set to take place in Hamilton on Jan. 18.

Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton have partnered with local drop-in centre The Hub for a pilot program that offers discharged patients a warm place to go.

There are a number of important initiatives underway to build CBC News service and connection in small communities — including a significant expansion of local journalism in underserved markets.

The most immediate risk after next week's U.S. presidential transition isn't to residents of those nations Donald Trump has mused about invading. It's to the millions of undocumented migrants he vows to deport, including young people who don't remember life anywhere else.

A family living in a public housing unit in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., says they've been dealing with an infestation of mice for years, and they've received little help from Housing N.W.T.

Leaders in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., have concerns about the response to an extended power outage in the community on Saturday.

New Mayor Leonard Foster begins the new year still down one council member and facing community concerns

“It’s going good,” said Lakeland Ridges Mayor Leonard Foster as he described the state of affairs within the long-troubled council overseeing the sprawling rural community. 

Foster said the biggest problem he and the council face in the new year is “getting four years of work done in a single year.”

He said the council “has to get on the same page.”

Unfortunately, since taking office on Jan. 1, 2023, the Lakeland Ridges council has failed to work together or gain residents’ confidence. 

The community elected Foster in May 2024 as mayor following the resignation of Lakeland Ridges’ first mayor, Tanya Cloutier, in January 2024, a year after taking office. 

Cloutier and Ward 4 councillors Mike Furrow and Mark Grant—all from Canterbury, one of four wards forming Lakeland Ridges—resigned. The council is suspended, and the municipal government is under the control of a provincially appointed superintendent. 

Foster and Dusty Buckingham, who was acclaimed to one of the empty Ward 4 seats, took office just as the province lifted the council’s suspension. Gary Grant filled the final vacant Ward 4 seat in November.  

The full council lasted only one month, as Buckingham resigned at the end of 2024, citing continuing dysfunction within the Lakeland Ridges council. 

Buckingham said a group of council members, often referred to as “the quorum,” continue to ignore the superintendents’ recommendations and training requirements. 

Foster expressed disappointment with Buckingham’s decision, noting that Elections N.B. will set a date in 2025 to fill the vacant seat. 

In the meantime, Foster wants council members to focus on Lakeland Ridges’ “basic” needs and away from the divisions. 

He said the community’s parks, infrastructure, and equipment require upgrades. He noted that the divergent rural communities that form Lakeland Ridges face challenges that differ substantially from those of more populated New Brunswick municipalities. 

Foster acknowledged Lakeland Ridges still must pass its 2025 budget, but it needs a complete audit to provide the numbers to form the budget’s foundation. 

“We tried to get it (the audit) done, but the province was late in responding,” he said. 

Foster said many smaller communities across the province face similar audit concerns. 

While the council’s goal is to keep the taxes the same or hold them to a minimal increase, he can’t ensure any tax increases until they have the full figures. 

Foster said tax rates vary significantly across the five wards, even within wards, as Lakeland Ridges’ taxes are broken down into eight subunits. 

He said he only learned after taking office that Lakeland Ridges, not the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, is responsible for maintaining some of its roads. 

Foster cited several infrastructure projects on the horizon for Lakeland Ridges in 2025, including moving the municipal offices from Canterbury to Meductic. 

He expects the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to construct a new government garage in Canterbury this spring. They said they will also push the province to keep the garage open all year round. 

Foster said Canterbury has lost a lot over the recent decades and needs a boost. 

“Canterbury used to be a bustling little centre,” he said. “We would love to have (the garage) open year round.”

Foster said the Canterbury Fire Department also requires an upgrade as soon as possible. 

“We need to demonstrate to the people of Canterbury that we’re doing things,” he said. 

He added that all areas of Lakeland Ridges require attention, noting the council must focus on common goals, not division. 

As a small rural community, Lakeland Ridges’ staffing levels are limited to a CAO and a clerk. Foster said it remains the same heading into 2025 but added that the council must establish human resource policies for its staff. 

Foster added that the council wants to add a part-time public works person, preferably a handyman contracted by the job rather than a staff member. 

One issue hanging over Lakeland Ridges’ pending budget is the expected hefty bill to cover the 
The cost of the superintendents who managed the community during the council’s suspension. 

“We will more than likely have to pay for that,” Foster said, “but we’re hoping they will reduce the cost.”

The post Lakeland Ridges mayor and council still facing challenges first appeared on River Valley Sun.

Canadian groups who study and advocate for free expression have mixed feelings on Meta's changes to what is automatically considered "hateful" conduct on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ people and women voice concerns over terms like "whore" being allowed on the platform.

The premiers will gather in Ottawa Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and discuss the looming threat that has the potential to throw the economy into a tailspin: president-elect Donald Trump's promised tariffs on all Canadian goods.

A PWHL Takeover Tour game between Montreal and Ottawa set for Sunday is poised to sell out Quebec City's Videotron Centre, as the city makes a pitch for an expansion team.

A winter vehicle passage has existed for decades where the Ottawa River meets the Lake of Two Mountains west of Montreal, but recent winters have been too warm to open it.

Fencing may have evolved over the centuries from what were once bloody duels to a sophisticated discipline, but its core value remains the same: it is an affair of honour. The Art of Fencing is a short documentary film with John Harvie leading us into the world of fencing at the the Escrime Mont-Royal fencing club. 

The NCC says it's working hard to open the final 400 metres, between Laurier Avenue and the National Arts Centre. The CBC’s Sannah Choi caught up with some happy skaters.

The City of Ottawa is finessing detailed designs for a new events centre and north side stands in the $419-million Lansdowne 2.0, but some issues repeatedly flagged likely won't change in the final rundown.

While many newcomers immigrate to Canada in the hopes of finding safety, a new survey has found nearly a third of Ontario newcomers reported feeling safer in their home countries. 

Dustin Buckingham said dysfunction will continue until council is forced to change

As frustration mounted and dysfunction continued, Lakeland Ridges Ward 4 Councillor Dustin Buckingham tendered his resignation after less than a year in office. 

When he was elected to office in May 2024, Buckingham said he expected to join a council that had learned from its mistakes and would attempt to serve the interests of residents. After all, he was joining a suspended council that was set for reinstatement after months of supposed training. 

He said he soon discovered the dysfunction remained, and most councillors ignored the government stipulations and “never finished the training.”

Buckingham said he and newly elected Mayor Leonard Foster joined where five council members, known as the quorum, overstepped their authority and controlled the council agenda. 

“They stick together in just about everything,” Buckingham said. 

He said Ward 3 (Meductic) Councillors Randy Stairs and Chris Yerxa, Ward 2 (Debec) Councillors Linda Porter and Patrician Budd, and Ward 1 (North Lake) Councillor Perry Bull have most decisions made even before it’s brought up at the council table. 

Buckingham said Ward 1 Councillor Ross Stairs and Ward 4 (Canterbury) Greg Grant want to work as an effective council, but they are shut out. 

The dysfunction within the initial council, which took office on Jan. 1, 2023, upon the formation of Lakeland Ridges, caught the attention of the Department of Local Government. On July 28, 2023, the province suspended the council and appointed a superintendent. 

In January 2024, Lakeland Ridges’ first mayor, Tanya Cloutier, former Canterbury mayor, and the two Ward 4 councillors resigned, citing the deep divisions and personal agendas that remained despite the suspension. 

Buckingham and Foster filled one of the vacant council seats and the mayor’s office in May 2024. Gary Grant filled the second Canterbury seat in November. 

Buckingham said there is a reason all the resignations involve Ward 4 representatives.

“They’re hellbent to exclude Canterbury,” he said. 

Buckingham said council dysfunction means most essential issues get ignored while the council focuses on pet projects and personal interests. 

He cited the 2025 budget as an example, noting that the council called a special meeting on Friday, Jan. 10, to finally approve it.

“That should have been done in October,” Buckingham said.

He said councillors regularly overstep their authority and undermine the duties of the CAO and clerk. When rules and bylaws prohibit their efforts, he said the quorum uses its majority to amend the bylaws. 

Buckingham said only the provincial government can correct the problem. 

“I don’t think we can get rid of the council,” he said.

He said the council ignored many recommendations in the transition plan developed after a provincial investigation, leading to the continuing dysfunction. 

“And people around here are paying for it,” Buckingham said.

The post Lakeland Ridges councillor resigns in frustration first appeared on River Valley Sun.

According to an update on a GoFundMe page set up for the family, a 9-year-old and 5-year-old have now died as a result of the injuries they sustained in the fire.

On Monday, it was reported that a 6-year-old girl who was visiting the family at their Riverside Dr duplex died in hospital after being rescued by responding firefighters.

A 40-year-old man, also rescued by a neighbour, was last reported to be in hospital in stable condition.

A 37-year-old woman and a two-year-old child were able to escape the 3 a.m. fire with no injuries.

On Tuesday, the RCMP reported that their investigation into the fire had concluded, with investigators determining that the fire was not suspicious in nature.

An investigation is ongoing led by Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency (HRFE), with assistance from the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service and the Office of the Fire Marshal.