Police say a woman died in hospital after a motorist ran into a bus shelter on Kingston Road Wednesday.

Quebec's Health Ministry says it's on the verge of declaring its measles outbreak over, just as cases reach new heights in other parts of the country.

Yellowknife RCMP issued a public appeal for help identifying a suspect in the alleged assault of a taxi driver last month.

When the ground started shaking, a herd of African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park formed a protective barrier, known as an "alert circle," around their youngest. Experts say it's a demonstration of their sharp instincts, effective communication skills and strong family connection. 

The Tache Fire Department responded to a school bus crash Wednesday afternoon.

Fire Chief Allan Rau says they were called to the intersection of Highway 59 and Prefontaine Road, which is two miles north of Provincial Road 311. Rau says a school bus and SUV collided there.

"There was luckily no children on the school bus, simply the driver," says Rau.

He notes the driver of the school bus, as well as the lone occupant of the SUV were checked on scene by EMS. He adds that nobody was transported to hospital. 

According to Rau, it appears the school bus was travelling north, and the SUV was travelling south when it swerved into the northbound lane, striking the bus. He notes the bus was struck on the driver's side, behind the rear axle. The SUV was struck on the front of the driver's side. 

"A glancing blow on the sides," he explains.

Rau says initially they closed the highway completely. However, he notes traffic backed up in both directions very quickly and they decided to reopen one lane. 

Rau says both vehicles needed to be towed away. He notes by shortly after 4 pm they were able to reopen the highway completely.

The City of St. John's is ordering everyone out of Cochrane Pond Park, located just off of the Trans-Canada Highway on the outskirts of the city.

City councillors split down the middle over efforts that could keep minimum parking rules in the suburbs but united behind a move that could further raise building heights, as Ottawa’s new zoning bylaw came up for debate Wednesday.

A grassroots campaign to put Palestine on the ballot has garnered support from 181 candidates running for a seat in the House of Commons. According to a post from the “Vote Palestine” campaign’s Instagram, 124 candidates from the NDP, 44 Green Party candidates and 13 Liberal Party candidates have provided full platform endorsement as of April 11. 

The platform’s organizers say their calls are guided by Canada’s obligations under international law. The platform has five key demands, including a two-way arms embargo, the end of Canadian involvement in illegal Israeli settlements, a plan to address anti-Palestinian racism, the recognition of the state of Palestine and proper funding of relief efforts in Gaza. 

Canada is heading towards a federal election on April 28, and Canadians have a multitude of demands amidst economic instability exacerbated in part by a trade war with the U.S. Ahead of the debate taking place this week, Abacus data showed that Canadians most want to hear politicians’ plans for handling U.S. relations and the country’s administration headed by Donal​​d Trump. Other top concerns are housing affordability and healthcare access. 

READ MORE: Worker’s agenda for the federal election

While international conflicts like the violence in Gaza are not top of mind for voters, Vote Palestine organizers maintain that this issue should remain in Canadians’ consciousness. In fact, how the government reacts to attacks on Gaza is related to those top–of-mind issues Canadians are concerned about. 

Hassan Husseini, a member of Unifor and an activist on the national steering committee of Labour for Palestine, said working people should support efforts for justice in Palestine because it aligns with their class interests. 

“I​​ work in the labor movement and I negotiate collective agreements for workers across the country,” Husseini said. “Often when we get to the bargaining table, they tell us there is no money, even when you bargain with governments. Yet we turn around and see that they are giving money to regimes that do nothing but violate their own people’s rights.” 

This money should be going to essential public and social services, Husseini said. This could address the need for housing and health care. Money divested from arms could also fund protections for laid-off workers amidst Donald Trump’s tariffs. 

Polling from the Angus Reid Institute shows the Liberals are currently leading the polls closely followed by the Conservatives. How parties handle the issue of violence in Gaza could affect voter intentions from progressives. 

A Leger poll done for the National Post shows 45 per cent of Canadians agree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, while 23 per cent disagree, and 32 per cent don’t know.

Some concerned voters are looking at the mistakes of the Democrats’ campaign in the 2024 US presidential election as an example of why candidates should take a clear stance on Palestine. 

An article by Mohammed Sinan Siyech, a researcher with a PhD in Islamic and Middle East Studies from Edinburgh University, argues that the Democrats, led by Kamala Harris, lost votes in part because of their lukewarm support of Palestine. 

Sinan Siyech pointed to polling which showed that in three of the seven swing states, between 30 to 39 per cent of voters were more likely to vote Democrat if the US were to withhold aid to Israel as a result of the genocide in Gaza. 

The post Vote Palestine platform aims to put Gaza on the ballot appeared first on rabble.ca.

The leaders of Canada’s four main federal political parties are squaring off in a French-language debate in Montreal Wednesday night.

It’s the first of two debates ahead of the April 28 vote.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre for the Conservatives, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh will go head-to-head.

The co-leader of the Green Party was initially slated to take part in the debate, but was disinvited hours before the start time; organizers said the party failed to meet its participation criteria.

The debate will be livestreamed on CityNews 24/7. Omni Television will have debate translations in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Tagalog, Arabic and Italian on their YouTube page.

The two-hour French-language debate will be moderated by Radio-Canada’s Patrice Roy and will focus on five themes: the cost of living, energy and climate, the trade war, identity and sovereignty, and immigration and foreign affairs.

It will be the first federal debate for front-runners Carney and Poilievre. Blanchet and Singh previously debated other party leaders in 2019 and 2021.

The debate was originally scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT but was moved two hours earlier because the Montreal Canadiens are playing a crucial hockey game Wednesday night.

The candidates will be back on the same stage Thursday for the English debate.

–With files from The Canadian Press

Nova Scotia is among the first three Canadian provinces to sign reciprocal trade agreements that will lower provincial trade barriers and open up new markets for companies delivering goods and services.

The post Nova Scotia premier signs free trade agreement with Ontario appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

'We've never obviously experienced anything like that with the active shooter or anything at to that dynamic,' said Kingsclear First Nation Chief Gabriel Atwin.

Facing American tariffs and taunts of becoming the 51st state, Canada can look inward for inspiration, humour and reassurance.

On social media, many arts figures or associations have shared versions of Canadian artist Greg Curnoe’s (1936-92) Map of North America.

As seen on accounts that include the Arts Canada Institute, the Banff Centre’s Derek Beaulieu, filmmaker Stephen Broomer, the Embassy Cultural House, the Curnoe estate and others, the map erases the United States from the continent. It re-imagines the longest border to lie between Canada and Mexico.

Curnoe’s Map of North America, first created in 1972, is inseparable from his hometown of London, Ont. The work, artist and city offer valuable insights for navigating this new relationship with our nearest neighbour. My recent doctoral dissertation explores the cosmopolitan outlook of London’s artists and arts publishers, both historic and present. This includes their incisive commentary on Canada-U.S. relations.

London as test market

London is a leading test market for Canadian and American retailers. This is thanks to its moderate size, demographic composition and proximity to major cities, highways and the border.

Test marketing involves localized experience with a concept or product before incurring large-scale expense. A landmark example for London was the development of Wellington Square, North America’s first enclosed shopping centre, in 1961.

A 1967 cover of the London arts publication 20 Cents Magazine satirically celebrated this “test market” status. It also chided the reader: “Are you getting your share of the business, for fair?” Artists of London have long played with the local flavour of their city, and the city has a distinct arts scene.

Distinct arts scene

Curator and author Barry Lord profiled the city in a 1969 Art in America feature entitled “What London, Ontario Has That Everywhere Else Needs.” Lord positioned London as “younger than Montréal, livelier than Toronto, vying with Vancouver in variety and sheer quantity of output [and] in many ways the most important of the four.”

This scene included the burgeoning London Regionalist movement — an art movement of which Curnoe was a feature — and the birth of Canadian Artists’ Representation (now Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens). Lord lauded London artists as “indelibly Canadian, and perhaps among the first global villagers.”

Nationalist with wicked humour

What would Curnoe make of the present dynamic between Canada and its closest neighbour?

“I think he would be fired up,” says Jennie Kraehling, associate director of Michael Gibson Gallery, which represents the Curnoe estate.

Kraehling continues: “Greg would be making a lot of statements, and I think he’d be very passionate. Just knowing his devout patriotism, his interest in the local and his pro-Canadian sentiments, I think that he would be trying to get a movement going.” Rather than anti-American, however, Kraehling describes Curnoe as a nationalist with a wicked sense of humour.

As the late journalist Robert Fulford wrote in a 2001 column, in the early 80s Curnoe noted: “My work is about resisting as much as possible the tendency of American culture to overwhelm other cultures.”

Social critique

Historian Judith Rodger emphasizes Curnoe’s Map as “tongue-in-cheek” even as it levies sharp social critique. Observing the negotiations between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico that would lead to the North American Free Trade Agreement, Curnoe revisited the work through the 1980s and 1990s in lithographs and clay.

Curnoe’s Nihilist Party of Canada (NPC), an absurdist political movement formed in 1963, advertised regularly in 20 Cents magazine. One ad encouraged the reader to “STOP the American takeover of Canada,” and to “Stop Pollution, Stop Killing, Stop Exploitation … Get off your Butt – Do Something! THINK NEGATIVELY.”

Rodger notes that despite its strong politics, the party had “no platform and no candidates.”

The NPC preceded the Nihilist Spasm Band, an internationally lauded, multi-member noise band that inspired a second generation of artistic collaboration. Members have included performers John Boyle, Murray Favro, John Clement, Bill Exley, Art Pratten, Aya Onishi, as well as the late Hugh McIntyre, Archie Leitch and Curnoe.

The track “Destroy the Nations” opens their 1968 No Record album. It begins with Pratten railing: “Destroy the nations! Destroy America! England is dead! Destroy America! AHHHHHH!” The NSB’s performance is a howl against imperial servitude and corporate greed.

In a city forever mimicking the topography and titles of an older London, and so close to the U.S., Ontario’s Londoners are aware of an implied second-fiddle position. Yet Curnoe volleyed his pro-Canadian attitude at the border, just 200 kilometres south. In one of his bicycle series paintings, Mariposa 10 Speed No. 2 (1973), the words “CLOSE THE 49th PARALLEL ETC.” are emblazoned across Curnoe’s bike’s top tube.

Canada, U.S. markets and fine art

Yet the situation is not entirely insular, nor is it comparable with the “Buy Canadian” encouragement seen at supermarkets, liquor stores and other retail outlets today.

Canada’s art market is, in the words of Mackenzie Sinclair of the Art Dealers Association of Canada, “a fragile ecosystem.” Canada’s GDP (including its art) is deeply integrated with the U.S.: many Canadian artists have American dealers, show in American galleries and use American-made materials.

With ongoing threats of American tariffs and export restrictions, Canadian collectors and galleries are abstaining from American art fairs and seeking stronger connections with European markets. Canada’s only international art fair, Art Toronto, is fostering a special new partnership with Mexican galleries, enacting a version of Curnoe’s Map of North America in real time.

Curation about nationalist rhetoric

Curnoe’s nationalist perspective is an important one right now. However, nationalism can quickly devolve into dangerous and exclusivist rhetoric.

Until recently, London-based artist Angie Quick was in a group exhibition curated by Andil Gosine for Washington’s Art Museum of the Americas. The show was abruptly cancelled. Speaking with the Globe and Mail, Gosine speculated this was due to due to the museum pre-emptively bending to the new political order in D.C. in light of the exhibition’s queer perspectives.

For Quick, this cancellation signals a transnational warning. She notes that The Museum of the Americas is an arm of the Organization of the American States, a regional organization that brings together North and South American governments including Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

The call to cancel, she says, far exceeds a phenomena happening only in the U.S.:

“It is a reminder of what role funding has in liberation politics when it comes to the arts. And as we [Canadians] like to other ourselves from the U.S. it’s just as important to remember we are just as much at risk to nationalism dictating values in the arts.”

Ruth Skinner has received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the London Arts Council (LAC).

Scientists have identified fossil dinosaur footprints from a new species in B.C. and Alberta. They're believed to be the first tracks found in the world that were left by club-tailed ankylosaurs, offering new insights about gaps in the fossil record.

As Liberal MP Pam Damoff prepares to leave politics, she joins other Canadian women MPs in warning that growing threats and harassment are driving them out of politics.

Their call adds to the voices of other politicians in Australia and the United Kingdom who caution that misogyny and threats of violence, especially on social media, have caused them to refrain from seeking re-election.

With the Canadian federal election approaching, campaigns expose politicians to increased online incivility and abuse. Nearly 19 per cent of tweets analyzed by the Samara Centre for Democracy during the 2021 campaign contained harassment.

Harassment undermines democracy and threatens the equal participation of women in politics. When women politicians don’t seek re-election, we lose key voices advocating for a more equitable future.

Despite threats to our democracy being a key theme of the ongoing federal election campaign, barely anyone is talking about the threat harassment poses.

Harassment is a threat to representation

Women remain underrepresented in Canadian Parliament. Canada currently ranks 70th out of 190 countries for representation of women in politics. Following the federal election in 2021, women held only 30.9 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons.

While research shows women who run for office are just as likely to win as their male counterparts, women require more convincing to step up and put their name on the ballot.

Once women politicians are elected, they face more barriers in Parliament. Some of these barriers include family obligations and fewer promotions to high-profile roles.

However, gender-based heckling, violence and harassment are additional barriers.

Shaping voter behaviour

Violence against women politicians aims to silence and exclude women from participating in politics simply because they are women.

And while men and women politicians receive similar amounts of online harassment, online attacks against women politicians tend to be more personal and sexist in tone.

Online harassment isn’t just driving women out of politics; it’s also shaping voter behaviour.

In fact, research shows that women voters are less likely to participate in political discussions on social media because they fear getting harassed as women politicians are.

These findings align with outgoing Liberal MP Jennifer O'Connell’s letter to her constituents that cites online threats of sexual violence fuelled by misinformation and disinformation as rationale for not seeking re-election.

Increasing security

The rising threats of harassment against all politicians led the Privy Council Office to offer private-sector security services for candidates who feel intimidated and threatened during the 2025 campaign.

The goal of private security is to offer an extra level of protection when the threshold for police protection is not met. Through the program, candidates can get an unarmed guard to watch their surroundings and manage risks.

Which metrics are used to determine if the threshold is met? Private security services should protect all candidates equally. However, the lived experiences and concerns of women politicians are often discounted and not taken seriously.

A new way to measure harassment

Defining and quantifying types of harassment is hard. Hate speech is recognized as explicit harassment, but this raises questions about who gets to decide which less explicit incidents count as harassment.

There are more subtle forms of harassment like sexist microaggressions that threaten women candidates just as much as blatant hate speech. But these subtle microaggressions are often brushed off as not being harassment.

With no single definition or agreed-upon way to measure harassment, I developed a seven-point scale to categorize nuanced forms of online harassment. This scale takes into account more subtle forms of harassment, including social media comments that question the authority of women politicians to explicit hate speech.

I found that 86 per cent of replies to tweets sent to women MPs contained some form of harassment.

We cannot view each incident of harassment such as threatening social media comments, volunteers being screamed at or signs being vandalized as isolated events. Understanding all of these incidents, regardless of their severity, as being connected allows us to track the growing forms and impacts of violence.

Legislation needed

Steps have already been taken at Parliament to fight harassment through Bill C-65, which strengthens federal workplace protections against violence and sexual harassment. But more should be done on the campaign trail.

The Privy Council Office’s new private-sector security service is a start. However, candidates should not be expected to quantify how threats make them feel to receive help. Political parties and the Privy Council Office should proactively offer more support to all candidates.

Social media platforms must take greater responsibility for applying their terms of service to minimize harmful content.

New legislation should be drafted to address threats faced by politicians. Regardless of who forms the next government, all parties need to work together to pass online harms legislation.

Harassment is used as a barrier to stop women from running for office. This is fundamentally about making sure their voices are heard in our democracy.

Inessa De Angelis receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Province of Ontario.

The town of Wabana on Bell Island is looking for more information after they say a significant amount of garbage was dumped near one of its parks.

The video shows two separate piles of garbage dumped within a few feet of each other at the West Dam Municipal Park.

The town’s caption on the video calls the situation “disgusting, disgraceful, (and) disrespectful.”

The town says it is working with the RCMP to investigate the issue.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact the town hall.

The stage will look different than originally planned Wednesday night, when Canada’s major party leaders square off in the first of two nationally televised debates.

Instead of five podiums on the stage, there will now only be four.

The Green Party had its invitation rescinded less than 12 hours before the debate is set to start, with the Leaders’ Debates Commission saying the party no longer met the criteria to be included.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault called the “last minute decision” both “unfounded” and “undemocratic.”

The commission said the decision was made because the party made a strategic decision not to run candidates in every riding after initially telling the commission it would.

Speaking in Montreal, Pedneault said that decision comes seven days after the final candidate list was published by Elections Canada.

“Somehow they decided that what matters most here isn’t a fair debate, it’s a debate, the one that they’re trying to create, that protects the status quo, that keeps the powerful comfortable and silences the rest of us,” Pedneault said.

“This decision from the debate commission today does not protect democracy. It protects those who’ve already had their turn.”

He said his party received a letter from the commission around 7:20 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The decision was announced publicly by the commission just before 8 a.m. EDT.

The Green co-leader said he “fully expects” to be at the debate and for the commission to reverse its decision.

Pedneault did not take questions at the press conference but as he exited, reporters peppered him with questions including asking if he intended to fight the decision in court.

Speaking in French he said he is not excluding any options.

In order to participate in the debates, parties must meet two of three conditions: having one seat in the House of Commons at dissolution, holding at least four per cent national support in polls 28 days before the election, or have endorsed candidates in at least 90 per cent of ridings 28 days before the election.

Four weeks before election day the Greens were only polling at three per cent in national polls, but they did hold two seats when Parliament was dissolved, and submitted the names of 343 candidates they intended to nominate to run in every riding.

But when the official Elections Canada candidates’ list was released last week it included only 232 Green Party candidates.

The commission initially defended the decision to include the Greens after the official candidates list was released, but ultimately changed its mind on Wednesday.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney said it was a surprising move from the commission but ultimately they’re an independent body, while campaigning in Montreal Wednesday ahead of the debate.

“I think what’s important is that the issues around climate change and the energy transition and nature and biodiversity are appropriately aired during the course of the debate. So, I’m sorry they’re not there,” Carney said.

Carney previously declined to take part in a televised debate proposed by French-language broadcaster TVA due to the Green Party not being invited to participate.

Jennifer Howard, NDP national campaign director, said that her party respects the decision of the commission.

“As an independent non-partisan body, it is their job to ensure all political parties follow the same criteria for inclusion in the debates. We reject any attempt to undermine or politicize their decision-making,” Howard said in a media statement.

The Conservatives have not yet responded to a request for comment.

Read More: Decision 2025

The debates, coming less than two weeks before election day, are seen as a pivotal point in the campaign for leaders trying to put on a stamp on their case to voters.

The French debate is the first time Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will meet face-to-face in a debate. Carney’s French-language skills, which he has admitted are still in progress, will be put to the test in the debate Wednesday while Poilievre will be looking for ways to improve his polling numbers, which have trailed the Liberals’ now for weeks.

The two-hour French-language debate will be moderated by Radio-Canada’s Patrice Roy and focus on five themes: the cost of living, energy and climate, the trade war, identity and sovereignty, and immigration and foreign affairs.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Blanchet are the only two leaders with previous federal debate experience, though Carney and Poilievre participated in debates during their respective parties’ leadership races.

“Carney has to do a decent job. He doesn’t have to win it, he doesn’t have to have all the great sound bites,” said Barry McLaughlin, who worked on former NDP leader Jack Layton’s federal debate team and coached former prime minister Kim Campbell for her leadership debate.

“But he’s got to be seen as reasonable and able to handle the debate in the French language. That’s really the bar of the next prime minister of Canada.”

Carney struggled at times during the French debate during the leadership race in February and was saved by opponent Chrystia Freeland when he tripped up while discussing Hamas.

But recent polls have suggested Carney’s Liberals have at least 40 per cent support in Quebec.

“Now that people have been exposed to (Carney’s) French, it’s been criticized a lot, but it has not really affected voters that much, at least their opinion,” said Daniel Béland, a political-science professor at McGill University.

“And I think that’s related to the fact that the focus of the campaign isn’t really about culture, language or Quebec, or even the federalism. It’s about who can stand up to (U.S. President) Donald Trump and who can fight for our economy. In that context, I don’t think that language is that relevant to many voters, including francophone voters.”

Both McLaughlin and Béland said that Poilievre’s goal should be to present a softer, more refined image to appeal to voters beyond his base.

“The thing that I think there’s a discomfort level is, what is he like as a person? What are his true motives? Is he somebody, proverbially, that you’d like to have a beer with?” McLaughlin said, noting he took the same approach with Layton in the 2011 debate before a historic win for the NDP.

“Right now it doesn’t look like he is that person. But the debate can be a really important impression-forming opportunity for him.”

And while the Conservatives have struggled to make gains in Quebec, Béland said Poilievre displayed some poise last weekend while appearing on the popular Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle.

“Poilievre was not only the attack-dog opposition leader, but someone who can be just a bit chill, more relaxed, not so aggressive,” Béland said.

“But I don’t know if at this point it might be too little, too late in that sense to soften his image. But I still think he can score points.”

The debate originally was scheduled for 8 p.m. ET but was moved two hours earlier. Both the Bloc and the NDP had called for the start time to be changed because the Montreal Canadiens play the Carolina Hurricanes Wednesday night.

Story by Nick Murray and David Baxter

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