A fire that severely damaged a Sydney Street apartment building on March 5 has been determined accidental, caused by 'careless use of a candle,' says a spokesperson for the City of Charlottetown. 

The husband of a daycare owner, which operated the facility at their home, has been convicted of several sex crimes.

Selkirk RCMP are asking for the public’s help to locate a teenage boy who was last seen Sunday night in St. Andrews.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Crews have begun work to remove the large yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street one block from the White House.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change last week in response to pressure from activists Republicans in Congress. The work is expected to take about six weeks and the words will be replaced by an unspecified set of city-sponsored murals.

The painting of those words was an act of government-sponsored defiance during President Donald Trump’s first term. The removal amounts to a public acknowledgement of just how vulnerable the District of Columbia is now that Trump is back in the White House and Republicans control both houses of Congress.

Bowser, a Democrat, ordered the painting and renamed the intersection Black Lives Matter Plaza in June 2020. It came after days of chaotic protests at that location over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Bowser had clashed with Trump over her handling of the protests.

But now Bowser has little power to fend off encroachments on D.C.’s limited autonomy. Bowser said last week on X that, “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference. The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.”

As construction equipment began tearing up the pavement some gathered to witness the moment.

“I needed to be here today. I can’t just let this go away,” said Starlette Thomas, a 45-year old Bowie, Maryland resident who attended the 2020 Floyd protests. At the plaza, Thomas discretely secured a chunk of pavement and said holding it made her both happy and sad.

“For me to walk away with a piece of that means that it’s not gone,” she said. “It’s more than brick and mortar.”

Also on the scene was Megan Bailiff, CEO of Equus Striping, the pavement marking company that originally painted the letters.

Bailiff called the dismantling of Black Lives Matter Plaza, “historically obscene” and said its presence was, “more significant at this very moment than it ever has been in this country.”

The far right celebrated the shift online, with conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk visiting the site to hail, “the end of this mass race hysteria in our country.”

In Trump’s second term, Bowser has worked to avoid conflict and downplay any points of contention. She traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to meet with Trump after the election and has publicly emphasized their points of agreement.

Trump recently revived a frequent campaign talking point about wanting a federal “takeover” of the nation’s capital, describing Washington as being riddled with crime, graffiti and homeless encampments. Bowser has refused to comment on reports that the White House is preparing an executive order targeting Washington. She publicly said that the greatest threat to the so-called Home Rule autonomy was “some of the people in Congress.”

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly threatened to interfere in city affairs in large and small ways. A measure currently before Congress, named the BOWSER Act, seeks to completely revoke the Home Rule Act of 1973, which grants the capital city limited autonomy.

___

Associated Press journalists Nathan Ellgren and Jacquelyn Martin contributed reporting.

Ashraf Khalil, The Associated Press

Michelle Neill will be the nominee for the New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island in the upcoming byelection in District 15 Brackley-Hunter River.

The Yukon Fire Marshal's Office delivered a new truck to the scene safety response unit in Champagne, Yukon. It's equipped with a 300 gallon water tank, and a pump that can pump 300 gallons a minute.

For the first time in a year, the London region has recorded a lab-confirmed case of the measles.

Monday's hearing was almost immediately derailed as Justice Catherine Dawson was informed that Alena Pastuch had fired her lawyers.

Seattle (AP) — Seattle fire officials said a late Sunday fire that damaged four Tesla Cybertrucks is under investigation.

The four Cybertrucks were parked in a Tesla lot in Seattle’s industrial district.

No one was injured, and the four trucks were the only property damaged. The first call came at 11:13 p.m. Sunday, said David Cuerpo, Seattle Fire spokesperson.

Tesla has been a target of protests and vandalism in the U.S. and elsewhere after CEO Elon Musk took a prominent role in President Donald Trump’s administration. People have protested Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been moving to slash the size of the federal government through large-scale layoffs, contract cancellations and other moves.

Police in Oregon last week said they are working with the FBI to investigate gunshots fired at a Tesla dealership. That shooting came a week after federal prosecutors in Denver charged a woman in connection with vandalism against a Tesla dealership in Colorado, including Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on the building.

The Associated Press

Average asking rents across Canada fell year-over-year for the fifth straight month in February to $2,088.

A monthly report by Rentals.ca and Urbanation, which analyzes listings in the former’s network, says rents declined 4.8 per cent last month, marking the largest decrease since April, 2021.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that would put her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees.

Chavez-DeRemer would oversee the Department of Labor, one of several executive departments named in lawsuits challenging the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to order layoffs and access sensitive government data.

The Labor Department had nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion for fiscal year 2025. Some of its vast responsibilities include reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

Several prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. The former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is the daughter of a Teamster, and during her one term in the House earned a reputation as pro-labor.

During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, several Republican senators grilled Chavez-DeRemer about her decision to co-sponsor legislation that would have made it easier for workers to unionize and penalized employers who stood in the way of organizing efforts.

She declined to explicitly state whether she still backed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the PRO Act.

Chavez-DeRemer explained she had signed on as a co-sponsor because she wanted a seat at the table to discuss important labor issues. Under further questioning, she walked back some of her support of the bill, saying that she supported state “right to work” laws, which allow employees to refuse to join a union in their workplace.

The PRO Act did not come up for a vote during her time in Congress. Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored legislation which sought to protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That bill also stalled because it didn’t have enough Republican support.

Chavez-DeRemer walked a fine line during her confirmation hearing, attempting to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. On the subject of whether the federal minimum wage was overdue for an increase, she said she recognized it hadn’t been raised from $7.25 an hour since 2009 but that she would not want to “shock the economy.”

Some Democratic senators and workers’ rights advocates have questioned how much independence Chavez-DeRemer would have as President Donald Trump’s labor secretary and where her allegiance would lie in an administration that has fired thousands of federal employees.

Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press

Adriana LaGrange calls the children’s acetaminophen, manufactured by Turkey-based Atabay Pharmaceuticals, “good quality drugs.” It stopped being used in Alberta NICUs because of a risk that it could clog feeding tubes.

The choice of Mark Carney as newly-minted Liberal Party Leader is being met with applause from many in Manitoba, including a Liberal MP who didn't vote for him.

We need to stop reacting to events and put in place a flexible, effective and feasible income support system. 

The post Canada needs to step up and provide Canadians with sustainable income security appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

ST. JOHN’S — The head of Hydro‑Québec was in Labrador today to tour a massive hydroelectric plant at the heart of an energy deal he says will be a “clean break” from decades of friction.

Michael Sabia says negotiators with the hydro utilities in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have struck a “balanced” agreement in principle about power from the Churchill Falls facility in Labrador.

He used the word again when asked to explain why he felt the new deal was fair to Canada’s easternmost province, which has been trying for decades to get out of a lopsided contract for Churchill Falls energy that ultimately favoured Hydro‑Québec.

The tentative agreement announced in December would see Hydro‑Québec pay much more for power from the Churchill Falls plant, and it offers the utility an option to co-develop new projects in Labrador with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.

Sabia says he is “100 per cent” confident the largest of those — a new hydroelectric plant at Gull Island, which is also on the Churchill River — will go ahead as hoped.

The two utilities are hammering out final agreements, and they hope to have them in place by April 2026.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2025.

The Canadian Press