Environment Canada estimates eight centimetres of snow fell overnight Saturday to Sunday in Hamilton.

As the focus of Ontario’s election shifts from threats south of the border to issues at home, some parties are trying to woo voters by promising to ease their daily commutes by making Highway 407 more accessible.

Parks Canada says it has found a confirmed case of bird flu in a Canada goose at Rouge National Urban Park and suspects five more. Here’s how you can protect yourself and your pets.

Edmund Lui made ginseng the focus of his academic research and now he's sharing his passion for the herb at his London market and eatery.

Eight years after the plan to reinvigorate a north Toronto green space was launched, it's back to square one for Baycrest Park — and that's left locals frustrated and angry.

Newcomers to Canada are making up a bigger part of Ottawa's homeless population, while a smaller portion of homeless Ottawans are using the city's shelter system, according to a new detailed look at the situation in the nation's capital.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford touted his party's border security measures amid the threat of U.S. tariffs, as the NDP focused on pocketbook issues Saturday with the promise of a monthly grocery rebate for millions of people.

Ontario's police watchdog has charged a Toronto police officer in relation to a collision in Whitby, Ont., last year.

The Ontario PCs and Liberals will be going head-to-head with duelling campaign ads during Super Bowl Sunday. 

Several Canadian news outlets are reporting that Governor-General Mary Simon has rescinded the Order of Canada designation from singer-actor-composer Buffy Saint-Marie. A small notice to that effect appeared in the Canada Gazette in January. The move came after a CBC documentary in 2023 provided overwhelming evidence that Saint-Marie had manufactured the narrative that she was of Cree origin, was born on a reserve in Saskatchewan and that she had been taken from her parents in the so-called “Sixties Scoop” that saw many indigenous children separated from their families.

It is a crushing fall from grace for a performer who at one time was mentioned in the same breath as Bob Dylan during the 1960’s protest music wave. Her anti-war composition “Universal Soldier” became a No 5 hit for Donovan and was later successfully revived by Glen Campbell. Her lovely “Until it’s time for You to Go,” was recorded by multiple artists including Michael Nesmith, Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack and Elvis Presley. She won the Academy Award in 1982 for Best Original Song with her composition of Up Where We Belong, performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for the film “An Officer and a Gentlemen.”

Saint Marie garnered more than 15 honorary doctorate degrees from mostly Canadian universities in honour of her musicianship but also for her work promoting aboriginal causes and awareness. In 1996, she started the Nihewan Foundation, a philanthropic non-profit fund for American Indian Education devoted to improving Native American students’ participation in learning. The word nihewan comes from the Cree language and means “talk Cree”, which implies “be your culture”. Sainte-Marie founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project in October 1996, with projects across Mohawk, Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, Coeur d’Alene, Navajo, Quinault, Hawaiian. She produced a multimedia curriculum CD, Science: Through Native American Eyes.

Throughout her career she honored First Nations people and culture, but hanging over her, was the fact that her claim to aboriginal heritage was false. She was born Beverley Jean Santamaria in Massachusetts to an Italian-American father and an American mother. It was 1941 and the family changed their name to the French-sounding Saint-Marie to avoid the anti-Italian sentiment that was emerging with WWII. Some members of the Sainte-Marie family had attempted to clarify her European ancestry in the 1960s and 1970s, but the singer threatened them with legal action for doing so.

Buffy Saint-Marie will be 84 later this month. She has not performed since 2023 when the CBC story broke. One can only wonder what prompted her to create the fiction about her origin. Was it something she made up as a struggling young folk singer in her 20’s, and then was trapped, unable to take it back as her career took off? Only she knows. We do know she wrote some iconic songs, and despite non- existent aboriginal heritage, she championed first nations education and causes throughout her life.

Hamilton’s pigeon population played a not insignificant role in a tense exchange during Friday’s budget deliberations that brought into question how effectively city staffing resources are being managed. It started with a motion by Councillors Kroetsch and Nann to add $130,000 to the Public Works Budget to clean up pigeon feces and other garbage in the city’s 14 railway underpasses—most notably the TH&B underpasses running through the central city. The motion noted that “Hamilton currently does not have an annual underpass cleaning program with an established level of service,” for underpass cleanup and as “the city is making a series of capital investments including repairing and replacing vital underpass infrastructure, putting up bird netting, installing new and brighter lighting, and painting that require regular maintenance,” the extra money is needed to ensure regular cleanup in the underpasses.

The motion came near the end of a long day marked with heated exchanges over budget amendments submitted by councillors that generally fell along ideological lines. Motions that would have denied funding to activist groups opposing the city’s encampment policies were ruled out of order. A Cameron Kroetsch motion to slash $12 Million from the police budget was defeated. Councillors were in a bad mood when the underpass cleaning motion hit the floor and several wanted to know why, in a corporation with some 8,000 employees, an extra $130,000 has to be found to clean up pigeon poop? Councillors Jackson and Clark as well as Mayor Horwath all weighed in.

Staff were left scrambling to provide answers to councillors’ questions. The episode carries potential ramifications that go well beyond the relatively small dollar amount of the proposal. It calls into question the effectiveness of the organizational structure of the corporation, the commitment to cost containment, the deployment of human resources and overall leadership. In the three budgets passed or under consideration by the current council that was elected in 2022, the city staff complement has increased by approximately 390 positions, excluding police. There is a sentiment among long-time council observers that city managers have had their way with a green, idealistic council hell-bent on showing how stupid and miserly previous councils were. Since 2022 Hamilton City spending has increased by 25 percent, masked in part by a more than $200 million raid on reserves. The skill set to try to reorganize or restructure the organization does not appear to exist, and, to be fair, does not in other cities in Ontario.

Residents of Hamilton and Burlington should brace for significant snowfall overnight. Environment Canada is calling for a mainly cloudy day with periods of snow beginning this afternoon. Amount 2 cm. Wind becoming east 20 km/h gusting to 40 early this afternoon. High minus 4. Wind chill minus 13 this morning and minus 7 this afternoon. UV index 2 or low.

Tonight, Hamilton can expect periods of snow amounting to 5 to 10 cm. Wind east 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light early this evening. Wind becoming north 20 after midnight. Temperature steady near minus 4. Wind chill near minus 10.

For tomorrow, expect periods of light snow ending in the morning then cloudy. Wind becoming west 20 km/h gusting to 40 in the morning. High minus 1. Wind chill near minus 10. UV index 1 or low.

It is a similar situation in Burlington except that the overnight snowfall may be closer to the 10 cm level.

Burlington MPP Karina Gould has successfully met the Friday deadline to raise the $125,000 that was due at 5PM. The payment allows Gould to stay in the running for the Liberal Leadership. The next and final milestone will come February 17^th when all candidates must come up with another $125,000, bringing the total required from each candidate to $350,000. As of Friday’s deadline, all five candidates have raised the $125,000, allowing them to stay in the running.

The former House leader, Gould thanked her supporters in a post on X published Friday.

“I can officially report that, after another record-breaking day yesterday, we’ve reached today’s fee deadline,” she wrote.

Along with Gould and perceived frontrunners Mark  Carney and Chrystia Freeland Montreal businessman and former MP Frank Baylis  met the funding deadline as did Former Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla.