International

Canada's effort to fast-track careers of foreign-trained doctors to meet growing patient numbers during the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in only about two dozen licenses approved in Ontario and none in British Columbia, according to medical colleges in both provinces. As Canada faced the prospect of the pandemic swamping the country's healthcare system, British Columbia created a new class of license that would allow overseas-trained doctors to practice under the supervision of a fully licensed doctor, similar to licenses that exist in other provinces, such as Alberta. In Ontario, the medical college activated a short-term license program that would allow hospitals to hire internationally trained doctors on short notice. But the programs have had very little uptake since being launched in May in British Columbia and February in Ontario. Immigrant doctors and their advocates say this is because requirements for the new license categories did almost nothing to allow more physicians to apply, and the licenses were poorly communicated to both applicants and hospitals. The overburdened healthcare system is frequently an election issue in many Canadian provinces. A 2019 report from the Canadian Institute of Health Information found that Canada had 241 physicians per 100,000 people. Ontario had 234 physicians per 100,000, and British Columbia had 250. The OECD average is roughly 350 physicians per 100,000 people, according to a 2020 report by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health foundation. Amir Bajehkian, a co-founder of Trained to Save Lives, a Vancouver-based advocacy group for international medical graduates, said he was optimistic when British Columbia initially announced the new class of license. He hoped it would fulfill requests foreign-trained doctors had been making for years. But the requirements - at least two years' postgraduate training, strict English fluency and a specialty in acute care - barely moved the needle on who was able to apply, Bajehkian said. "A lot of physicians are like, what's the point? Why are you doing this?" he said. Ontario doctors face a similar situation, said Ahmad Al-Khatib, 33, an Iraqi who practiced in the United Arab Emirates before coming to Canada four years ago. "When the pandemic started I felt so helpless, even useless," Al-Khatib said. "I have all this experience and I'm seeing people dying around me and this is where I used to work - I used to work in the emergency." The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario said that if applicants met all the requirements, including confirming employment with the hospital, they would be granted a license. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia declined to comment. Even in Alberta, which has had a pathway similar to that in British Columbia for over 10 years, the challenges are steep. Claudia Avila, 39, an obstetrician and gynecologist with 11 years of experience in her home of Venezuela, emigrated to Canada with her husband and daughter four years ago. For Edmonton area-based Avila, it took years of saving to pay for the costly exams and its preparations. Then the regulations changed and she had to start over. Avila came to Canada on a skilled worker visa, she said. "Then we come here and we see that they don't even care... It is very sad. I would say I wouldn't be here if I knew it was going to be that hard." 

An armed member of the Canadian military who drove a truck through gates protecting the part of Ottawa where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lives was acting alone and now faces numerous charges, police said on Friday. Trudeau was not at home when the incident occurred on Thursday morning. Trudeau and his family live in a large house on the grounds of Rideau Hall, which sits on an 0.35 square km wooded estate. The man's truck broke down after he hit the gates and he was later arrested without incident. "There is no risk to the public and from what (information) we have, he was acting alone," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme told a news conference. Duheme said the suspect - who had been armed with several weapons, including a rifle - would appear in court later on Friday but gave no details of the charges. There is little history of serious violence targeting officials in Canada. Trudeau, however, donned a bulletproof vest for an election campaign rally in October last year after officials detected a security threat. 

A young humpback whale that swam up one of Canada's major rivers, delighting Montrealers who packed the shores for a glimpse of the first of the species in local waters, has died. The pilot of a passing commercial ship spotted a "whale carcass" near Varennes in Quebec province, about 20km east of Montreal, Marie-Eve Muller of the Quebec Emergency Network for Marine Mammals (RQUMM) told AFP on Tuesday. The body was towed by the Canadian fisheries department to Sorel, 80km east of Montreal, where it was lifted onto shore with the help of a giant crane. "It is very likely that it is the same whale observed near Montreal a few days ago," Muller said. The giant creature had been seen last week swimming in the Saint Lawrence river, diving against the backdrop of the Montreal skyline. The two- to three-year-old cetacean had appeared healthy from a distance, and scientists hoped it would head back to the estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, more than 400km away. The pilot of the boat, who discovered the carcass, told Radio Canada he had not "seen any blood or deformation", which would indicate the possibility of a collision with a ship. A team comprised of RQUMM, federal fisheries and University of Montreal veterinary medicine officials was headed to the site "to learn more." A necropsy has been planned to determine the cause of death. Local media, citing experts, speculated that the whale may have been struck by a cargo ship or ran aground in shallow waters. Humpback whales live near both the Arctic and Antarctic, with adults growing up to 17 meters and weighing up to 40 tonnes. Each pod spends the summer near the poles and travels to tropical areas in their respective hemispheres during the winter to breed. The Montreal visitor was likely led astray while chasing prey, or made a navigation error, Muller said on Sunday. It was the first humpback whale to be observed in these parts. "There have previously been reports of minke whales or beluga whales, but never for this species," said RQUMM.

In Ottawa’s ByWard Market neighbourhood, shopkeepers were busy readying for an influx of shoppers, dusting off wares and adjusting to new rules.  “I’m smiling behind the mask,” declares the owner of a clothing store in the popular outdoor market, which was permitted to reopen on Tuesday along with many shops across Canada as authorities began easing a two-month lockdown. Ontario — Canada’s most populous province — is allowing stores with street access to reopen, along with hospital surgery rooms, dog parks and golf courses. Pat Phythian, owner of Ottawa clothing store Frou Frou, said she was “eager to get back to work” after two months off. The lockdown was “so boring,” she told AFP. Like others, Phythian also took a financial hit over the temporary closure of her store. But, she added, “I just really missed the people.”  “It’s like the first day back at school.” Schools won’t actually reopen in Ontario until September, Premier Doug Ford announced on Tuesday. “I’m so happy you’re back. We missed you,” says a passerby. Standing at the door of her shop, Phythian asks Paul Clarmont — who sells vintage clothes next door — for help figuring out regulations in this new retail landscape: can she set up a table and two chairs out front for customers, or only one chair? “I don’t want to get fined,” she comments. Each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories is lifting restrictions at different paces and to varying degrees. British Columbia allowed restaurants and pubs to reopen on Tuesday, for example, while Saskatchewan went further, giving the greenlight to shopping malls, barbers and farmers’ markets. Hardest-hit by the pandemic, Quebec’s largest city Montreal won’t allow retailers to open until next week. The province has recorded nearly half of all 80,000 Covid-19 cases and 6,000 deaths in Canada. At the entrance to Frou Frou, there are complimentary wipes and hand sanitisers on a table. A plexiglass shield for the checkout counter hasn’t arrived yet; the latest FedEx delivery estimate is 5pm. Phythian says she’s torn about asking customers to wear masks, which is recommended but not a rule. She has a few available to sell if they don’t bring their own, but says: “It’s like selling water during a drought.” Only three shoppers will be allowed in her store at a time. Taped Xs on the floor indicate to customers where they should stand to stay six feet apart, per social distancing guidelines. Customers wishing to try on clothes will prove troublesome, as handled items must be put away for 72 hours before being put back on racks, to reduce risk of virus transfer. “For a small shop like mine, that’s a challenge. I only have one size in each item, it’s not like a big store with 20 size 6s or size 8s,” Phythian says. Helping with fittings may also be problematic: “Doing up a button, or adjusting a garment so that it fits better, this normally involves a lot of touching.” Next door, Clarmont is overheard telling his first potential post-pandemic customer that he has “some new Hawaiian shirts in stock, if you’re interested.” At the other end of the row of shops, Adorit owner Emma Inns is working up a sweat setting up for her reopening. “My life is complete chaos,” she says, explaining that her husband has been absent a lot recently as he is a policeman — an essential worker.

The Canadian coronavirus death toll yesterday passed the 5,000 mark and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said major reforms were needed to seniors’ residences, where more than 80% of the victims lived. The public health agency said the number of deaths edged up by 2.9% to 5,049 from 4,906 on Monday, one of the smallest daily gains so far. Canada is the 11th nation to record more than 5,000 deaths from the outbreak. Long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec — the two most populous of the 10 provinces — have been particularly hard hit. Officials have detailed poor conditions in some residences, where employees earn just the minimum wage. “We’ve seen heart-breaking tragedies in long-term care facilities and nursing homes right across the country — overworked staff, understaffed residences, grieving families,” Trudeau told a daily briefing. “There are serious underlying challenges facing these facilities and in the coming months the federal government will be there to help the provinces find lasting solutions.” Officials earlier announced Ottawa would give seniors living on a fixed income a one-time payment ranging from C$300 (US$215) to C$500 to deal with increased costs linked to the outbreak. Seniors Minister Deb Schulte said the tax-free payments would help seniors who need money for food deliveries and other services. It will also aid those taking taxis to avoid using public transport. She side-stepped questions about whether Ottawa should call a national inquiry into seniors’ homes. “What we are experiencing in Canada is unprecedented and unacceptable,” she told a briefing. “Going forward there will be time to reflect on the lessons that we’ve learned and the work that needs to be done. But right now (we are) focused on dealing with the issue at hand.” The total value of the payments — which will help 6.7mn people — is C$2.5bn. Ottawa has already committed more than C$160bn in direct spending — more than 7% of gross domestic product — on a range of programs to help businesses and people deal with the outbreak. Ottawa was focused on short-term measures to support people “so that we can come out the other side and restart the economy soon and we won’t need to look at what we might need to do in six months if we’re still, heaven forbid, all locked down”, Trudeau said, adding that programs would be extended if needed.

Investigators yesterday scoured crime scenes from the worst mass shooting in Canadian history to determine why a dental worker with no criminal past killed at least 18 people. The gunman, identified by police as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, began his rampage on Saturday night in the seaside village of Portapique, Nova Scotia, dying 14 hours later in a hail of police gunfire 100km away outside Halifax. “Just how could this happen, we may never know why,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference yesterday. “But we do know this: no one man’s action can build a wall between us and a better day, no matter how evil, how thoughtless, or how destructive.” The death toll, initially put at 16, rose to 18 yesterday, Trudeau said, with police warning that more bodies could be found. Among the victims were a veteran constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nurse, an elementary school teacher and a retired firefighter. “This happened in small towns — in Portapique, Truro, Milford and Enfield — places where people have deep roots, places where people know their neighbors and look out for one another,” Trudeau said. He evoked communities in mourning and said the whole of Canada was “mourning with them.” Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil told public broadcaster CBC the investigation and the grieving process would be “complicated” by the coronavirus pandemic. A “virtual vigil” has been planned for Friday.  Forensic investigators fanned out to multiple “chaotic” crime scenes across the province that is home to Canada’s Atlantic navy fleet. “It’s going to be a while before all these scenes are processed properly,” said RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. After the first gunshots rang out in Portapique, where the gunman owned two properties, police found casualties inside and outside a home and also responded to a series of fires. Neighbors told The Globe and Mail newspaper that Wortman set fire to homes and shot residents as they ran out. At least some of the victims did not appear to be known to the shooter. “It’s too early to tell what the motivation was,” said RCMP Superintendent Chris Leather. “It appears to be, at least in part, very random in nature.” An acquaintance said Wortman drove to his house in a mock squad car, wearing police uniform, and banged on the door clutching a rifle and a pistol. “He came here to kill me,” said the man, who hid with his wife and called the police. “He wasn’t killing enemies, he was killing his friends,” he said. “He was trying to beat down our door. It was beyond terrifying.” Police said Wortman, still posing as a policeman, later stopped a vehicle near Debert and shot the occupants. Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force and a married mother-of-two, died at the scene. A male officer was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. “A monster murdered my mother today,” Darcy Dobson wrote in a Facebook post about victim Heather O’Brien, a nurse in Truro. “At 9.59am (on Sunday) she sent her last text message to our family group chat. By 10.15 she was gone. She drove down the same street in the same town she drives through every single day. She was kind. She was beautiful. She didn’t deserve any of this.” An RCMP tactical team, a dog unit and officers from other police agencies eventually caught up with Wortman — who had swapped cars — at a gas station in Enfield, near Halifax airport. Leather said the gunman exchanged fire with police, who “were involved in terminating the threat.” He said police would be investigating if there was any connection to the coronavirus, which forced the closure of all non-essential businesses. “That certainly is an aspect that we will look at, we’ll examine, but we have not yet determined if there is any link to the Covid-19 crisis,” he said. Media reports said the shooter was a denturist with clinics in Halifax and Dartmouth that were closed as part of the pandemic lockdown. Wortman was also reportedly obsessed with policing, having refurbished several old squad cars, and struggled with alcoholism. “He was one of those freaky guys, he was really into police memorabilia,” Nathan Staples, who once sought to buy one of the vehicles, told the Globe and Mail, describing Wortman’s home as a “shrine” to the RCMP.

Police in the Atlantic Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday were hunting for a 51-year-old man who they said was suspected of shootings that had resulted in "several victims". The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the shootings occurred in the small coastal town of Portapique, about 130 km north of the provincial capital Halifax. The police identified the suspected gunman as Gabriel Wortman and initially said he was driving what appeared to be a police car and was wearing a police uniform but later reported he was at the wheel of a Chevrolet sports utility vehicle in Milford, about 80 km further south. "Gabriel Wortman is the suspect in our active shooter investigation in Portapique. There are several victims. He is considered armed and dangerous," the police force said on Twitter. It did not give details. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, which has tighter gun control laws than the United States. In August 2018, a man in the neighboring province of New Brunswick shot dead four people, including two police officers, in an apartment complex. 

Canada has recorded almost 12,000 cases of the new coronavirus and the death toll jumped by almost 20% from Thursday, according to data posted by the country's public health agency on Friday. The agency said on its Web site that cases gained by about 16% to 11,747 from 10,132 a day ago, and deaths climbed to 152 from 127 on Thursday. 

Passenger operator VIA Rail Canada said yesterday it would soon resume partial services between Quebec City and Ottawa while the government sought to end anti-pipeline protests that are blocking rail freight in eastern Canada. VIA Rail said passenger services between the two cities would start tomorrow after it received a notification from Canadian National Railway Co, the country’s biggest rail road. Protests opposing the construction of a gas pipeline project in British Columbia have disrupted passenger trains and goods transportation in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to address legislators later yesterday about the disruption caused by the blockades, his office said. Earlier in the day he met a group of cabinet ministers which is addressing the crisis. “We would obviously like to find a way to move forward in a peaceful manner,” Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said before the meeting. Meanwhile, Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted support for the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people of British Columbia and their campaign against the C$6.6bn ($4.98bn) Coastal GasLink project. The demonstrations spread as environmentalists joined the campaign, arguing that Canada — a major energy exporter — should do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Perry Bellegarde, head of the Assembly of First Nations umbrella group, called for calm and constructive dialogue. “The Wet’suwet’en peoples have asked that they be given space for their own internal dialogue...they have told me they want to create their own approach to formalise discussion with federal and provincial governments,” he told a news conference yesterday. Police in British Columbia have mounted a series of operations to clear the protests, angering aboriginal groups who complain the country’s indigenous population is marginalised. Some bands insist they can veto on projects on their land, a stance rejected by Canadian courts.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cancelled an official visit to the Caribbean at the last minute due to indigenous protests that have paralysed railways in eastern Canada for more than a week, his office said on Sunday. Following a tour of Africa and Europe, which wrapped up on Friday, Trudeau was scheduled to visit Barbados yesterday and today as part of Canada’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council. “The Prime Minister will no longer attend the CARICOM Intersessional Heads of Government Meeting this week,” his office said in a statement. Foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will go in his place. Trudeau called for a crisis meeting yesterday morning with the ministers of finance, public safety, transport and indigenous services, among others, to try and find a peaceful solution. The prime minister has been criticised by the opposition for his repeated absences while protesters have blocked roads, rails and ports across the country and occupied government offices in a bid to “shut down Canada.” Canadian National Railway (CN), the third largest railroad in North America, moves an estimated C$250bn (US$190bn) worth of goods across Canada each year. The demonstrators support certain leaders of the indigenous Wet’suwet’en First Nations people, who are fighting construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline through their traditional lands in westernmost Canada. The pipeline is part of a C$40bn natural gas export project that also includes a new Pacific coast terminal. Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller visited one of the roadblocks in Ontario on Saturday. He spent all day talking with protesters and Mohawk First Nation officials. He said the discussions had produced modest progress, but no blockades were lifted. Several authority figures, including Conservative opposition leader Andrew Scheer, have called for law enforcement to intervene and lift the blockades, but Trudeau’s administration has rejected this option. The ongoing protests are an important test for Trudeau’s efforts for reconciliation with First Nations people, which he has said is a priority.

Canada’s Liberal government has said it is deeply concerned about protests by aboriginal activists that are blocking some key railway lines but rejected a call to send in the police. Indigenous communities opposed to the construction of a gas pipeline project in British Columbia started interrupting rail traffic last week. Canadian National Railway Co, the country’s biggest railroad operator, is shutting operations in Eastern Canada. “I am deeply concerned about protests that deliberately prevent the operation of railways through illegal activity,” Transport Minister Marc Garneau told a news conference late last week. “It is about people’s jobs and livelihoods and about the transport of key supplies like food, propane, heating oil and chemicals for water treatment, (and) agricultural products for export,” he said. The Association of Canadian Port Authorities said some ports were turning away vessels and shippers were beginning to reroute some cargo to the United States. Superior Propane, Canada’s largest provider of propane, forecast critical supply shortages would start in the coming days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged what he said had been “a really difficult week” but dismissed opposition calls to deploy the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to end the protests. “Obviously we are not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters,” he told reporters. “We will ensure that everything is done to resolve this through dialogue and constructive outcomes.”  Trudeau came to power in November 2015 promising to improve relations with Canada’s indigenous bands, many of whom complain they are marginalised and economically deprived. Although some groups claim to have a veto over economic development on their lands, a court said last month they had no such right. The two cabinet ministers in charge of aboriginal affairs are preparing to meet with local indigenous bands in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Garneau noted that blockades in British Columbia and Manitoba had already been removed. The most damaging protest is near Belleville in the Ontario, the most populous of Canada’s 10 provinces. Canadian National has won court injunctions to end the action but the Ontario provincial police, responsible for enforcing the measures, has so far not acted. Andrew Scheer, leader of the official opposition Conservative party, said that unless the government ended the protests it would “be setting a dangerous precedent that a small few can have a devastating impact”.

The wife of Canada’s first novel coronavirus patient has tested positive for the virus at a public health laboratory, the province of Ontario’s health ministry said in a release yesterday. The patient has been in self-isolation and is being monitored, the ministry said. “Given the fact that she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low,” said Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams in the release. “From what we know, Wuhan novel coronavirus transmits through close contact — and there’s no closer contact than a husband and wife,” said Ontario’s health minister Christine Elliott in a tweet. The first confirmed Canadian patient, a man in his 50s, had mild symptoms while on a flight to Toronto from Guangzhou, Canada’s chief health officer Theresa Tam told reporters on Sunday. The man arrived in Toronto on January 22 from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, and is currently being treated in isolation in a public hospital, Ontario health officials said on Saturday. Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday it had not recorded any new confirmed cases of a new coronavirus overnight since its last update of five, and said as many as 110 potential cases were under investigation. Of the investigated cases across 26 states, 32 people had tested negative, the CDC said. There is no evidence so far that the coronavirus is transmitted through imported goods, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a briefing with reporters. US President Donald Trump yesterday offered any help China needed to control the outbreak which has also left tens of millions stranded during the Lunar New Year, the biggest Chinese holiday. The CDC had on Thursday raised its travel alert for the coronavirus outbreak to a level three, recommending people avoid all nonessential travel to the Chinese province.

A striking sight, the Royal Standard flaps against the dark skies and unrelenting rains of Vancouver, Canada’s Pacific coast metropolis. Monarchist Raymond Greenwood raised the Queen’s banner atop his house just days ago to welcome Prince Harry and his wife Meghan after learning that the royal runaways were considering moving to his oceanside Kitsilano neighborhood here. Locals surveyed by AFP are giddy about their move. Tourism groups are even more excited about the prospects of a boost from the global attention on the couple. “I’m very, very happy,” said Greenwood, president of the local branch of the Canadian Club and a volunteer at Tourism Vancouver; he is also known as “Mr Fireworks” for having brought an annual international fireworks show to the city. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to run into Meghan walking her dogs in the neighbourhood,” he said, referring to pictures published of Meghan out for a stroll in North Saanich, where she and Harry are now staying. He quipped that he might set up a stand to sell royal memorabilia on the street, where Chip Wilson, founder of the Lululemon yoga-wear chain, also lives. Canadian sales of the Union Jack and Saint George’s Cross flags have already jumped, according to Susan Braverman, president of The Flag Shop. She admits to being “a big fan” of Meghan from the days when the former American actress appeared in the television series Suits, shot in Toronto. Braverman, like others here, was quick to dismiss criticism of the duke and duchess of Sussex for their shock exit from their royal roles. “We all want our kids to grow up and become independent, don’t we? They’re just spreading their wings,” she said. Where Harry and Meghan settle in Canada will likely depend on where they have the most support. Megan’s mother Doria Ragland lives in Los Angeles, and Vancouver is the closest Canadian city with direct daily flights. But her best friend Jessica Mulroney — married to the son of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney — is in Toronto, where Meghan spent years shooting Suits. Canada’s Atlantic Maritime provinces are arguably the most vocally pro-monarchy. If Harry craves flavors of Britain, the island city of Victoria on the Pacific (named after Harry’s great-great-great-great-grandmother), with its multitude of tea rooms and double-decker buses, might feel more at home. But, said Vancouver lawyer and royal commentator Edward Wang, “I wouldn’t say British Columbia (overall) is very British anymore, it’s become very multicultural, with large South Asian and Chinese communities.” Canadian monarchists, often on guest lists for functions hosted by Governor General Julie Payette and provincial viceregals, are champing at the chance to rub shoulders with the prince and his wife. “Selfishly, it’s our hope that even if Prince Harry and Meghan are doing fewer royal duties overall, if they’re doing them in Canada there’ll be more for us,” Bruce Hallsor, head of the Victoria chapter of the Monarchist League, told AFP. “So that’s a plus for us.” He rejected critics, including Meghan’s estranged father Thomas Markle, who assailed the couple for bowing out from representing the British monarchy. “The idea that every member of the royal family should have a full-time role, be a patron of things and a ribbon cutter, is relatively new,” Hallsor said. “It’s not part of royal tradition. It started in the media age.” As Greenwood said, “Let’s be honest, there’s enough members of the royal family over there (in Britain) for official duties.” Of greater concern might be whether their presence in Canada overshadows the Queen’s official representatives, including former astronaut Payette. “A charity or other organisation would certainly be more interested to have Prince Harry as their patron than the viceregals,” acknowledged Hallsor. But, he added, “I don’t see it as a competition.” Wang, meanwhile, warned of potential political pitfalls should Prince Harry and Meghan choose to use their newfound freedoms to be more forthright. He noted Meghan’s “strong feelings” about a number of issues, pointing to her public thrashing in 2016 of Donald Trump, which risks putting an unwanted spotlight on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own sometimes strained relations with the US president. The couple are also big proponents of climate action, which is in line with the values of most Canadians, but offside with its oil industry; Canada is the world’s fourth largest oil exporter. “There’re certainly risks of stepping into political landmines,” Wang said. “If they start attacking the oil industry, for example, I don’t think the premier of Alberta would be too happy about it.” He also offered this bit of advice to the couple to help them better fit in: work on their French — which, along with English, is one of Canada’s two official languages.

Canadian searchers on Friday found the body of one of five French snowmobilers whose machines fell through the ice of a frozen lake, police said. A spokesman acknowledged that the chances of finding the group alive had dimmed, but police were “keeping up hope” of recovering their bodies. The search for the snowmobilers includes divers, sonar operators and police backed by helicopters in the area about 225km north of Quebec City, and is expected to resume again at daybreak. Quebec provincial police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said the body discovered Friday “was found more than 2km from the initial search area in Grande Decharge River” at the mouth of Lake Saint-Jean where the accident happened. “At the moment, we can’t identify the body,” French Consul General in Quebec Laurent Barbot said during a press briefing. “The process is underway and the families have of course been informed,” he added. The group included eight French tourists, who were snowmobiling on Tuesday evening in an area that is off limits to snowmobiles because the ice is thinner there. Three snowmobilers survived with minor injuries. They returned to France on Thursday evening, according to the consulate. Their 42-year-old Canadian guide had died on Wednesday in a hospital after trying to rescue members of the group. Police have recovered six snowmobiles at the bottom of the lake near where the accident occurred, and provincial authorities have pledged to tighten safety measures on the use of the machines. Investigators do not know why the group left the approved paths to venture “off-piste” at nightfall, but some experts believe they may have been trying to take a shortcut to their destination.

The head of a Canadian food giant appeared to blame US President Donald Trump for the deaths of Canadians, including an employee's wife and child, in the downing of a jetliner in Iran. The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 was shot down by a missile shortly after taking off from Tehran before dawn last Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board. Fifty-seven of the victims were Canadian. Maple Leaf Foods chief executive Michael McCain said late Sunday in a Twitter message that a colleague lost his wife and child to a "needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran." "US government leaders unconstrained by checks/balances, concocted an ill-conceived plan to divert focus from political woes," he said. Without naming Trump, the head of Canada's largest meat packing company pointed the finger at "a narcissist in Washington" for destabilizing the Middle East region. "The world knows Iran is a dangerous state, but the world found a path to contain it; not perfect but by most accounts it was the right direction," McCain said. By Monday morning, the message had been shared by more than 14,000 Twitter users. Long-standing US-Iran tensions have soared since January 3 when missiles fired from a US drone killed a top Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, near Baghdad's airport. Iran responded with a barrage of missiles at two US bases in Iraq, inflicting no casualties in what was seen as an attempt to prevent a spiral of escalation. But hours later, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet, in what Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called a "human error".

The Canadian province of Ontario on Sunday apologized for wrongly raising the alarm about an incident at a massive nuclear power station near Toronto and blamed a training exercise mistake. Angry local mayors demanded an inquiry, saying the emergency message about the ageing Pickering plant had caused unnecessary distress. At around 7:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT) cell phone users across Ontario - the most populous of Canada's 10 provinces - received an alert about the supposed incident. Less than an hour later the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) authority said the message had been a mistake. "The alert was issued in error to the public during a routine training exercise," Ontario's Solicitor-General Sylvia Jones said in a statement. "The government of Ontario sincerely apologizes for raising public concern and has begun a full investigation to determine how this error happened." The initial message said there had been no abnormal leak of activity from the plant, which is located on the shores of Lake Ontario some 50 km east of downtown Toronto. Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan said on Twitter that locals had been very troubled and added: "I have spoken to the province, and am demanding that a full investigation take place". Toronto Mayor John Tory complained that many of the city's 3 million residents had been unnecessarily alarmed and also pushed for a probe, citing what he said were "far too many unanswered questions". Human error during a training exercise was also blamed for an incident in Hawaii in January 2018 when authorities issued a false alert about an impending ballistic missile attack. OPG was not immediately available for comment. The plant came online in 1971 and has a power-generating capacity of 3,100 megawatts when fully active. It is scheduled to be shut down in 2024. "OPG has reminded everyone that they're running an unneeded and aging nuclear station next to Toronto," said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a program director at Greenpeace Canada. Some social media users posted images from the hit cartoon series the Simpsons, which features a nuclear power plant plagued by safety violations. Cam Guthrie, the mayor of Guelph, a city west of Toronto, said "sending out a 'hey there was an issue at a nuclear plant but we're not going to tell you about it specifically and it's not a big deal' emergency text, is terrible". 

A newlywed couple that had traveled to Iran to get married were among the 63 Canadians killed when their Ukrainian Airlines flight crashed early Wednesday, according to a community leader in the western Canadian city where 30 victims came from. All 176 people on board the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 were killed when the plane crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran. It had been heading for the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Arash Pourzarabi, 26,and Pouneh Gourji, 25, were graduate students in computer science at the University of Alberta and had gone to Iran for their wedding, said Reza Akbari, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton. They were on the plane along with four members of their wedding party and another 24 Iranian-Canadians from Edmonton, Akbari said. "Oh god, I can’t believe this," Akbari told Reuters. "It’s shocking to the whole community." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that the government will reach out to international partners to ensure the crash is thoroughly investigated "and that Canadians' questions are answered." The flight was a popular transit route for Canadians traveling to Iran, in the absence of direct flights, and carried many students and academics heading home from the holidays. Canada broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012. "I've had family take the Tehran to Toronto route via Kiev in the past year. It's been a new affordable route for many Iranian-Canadians who don't have direct flights from Canada," Mahsa Alimardani, a student at Britain's Oxford University, said on Twitter. Among the victims was Mojgan Daneshmand, a professor in electrical engineering - "a brilliant, brilliant lady, very smart," the Heritage Society's Akbari said. Other victims included Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, both professors at the University of Alberta, according to the university's website. The university declined immediate comment. "Our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims, including many Canadians. I have been in touch with the government of Ukraine," Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Twitter. The disaster was the largest recent loss of life among Canadians since an Air India Flight blew up in 1985 over the Atlantic Ocean, killing 268 Canadians. According to a 2016 census, around 210,000 of Canada's 38 million inhabitants are of Iranian descent. 

The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft took its inaugural test flight, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and offering hope that airlines may one day end their polluting emissions. “This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Seattle-based engineering firm magniX. The company designed the plane’s motor and worked in partnership with Harbour Air, which ferries half a million passengers a year between Vancouver, Whistler ski resort and nearby islands and coastal communities. Ganzarski said the technology would mean significant cost savings for airlines — not to mention zero emissions. “This signifies the start of the electric aviation age,” he told reporters. Civil aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emissions as people increasingly take to the skies and new technologies have been slow to get off the ground. At 285 grammes of CO2 emitted per kilometre travelled by each passenger, airline industry emissions far exceed those from all other modes of transport, according to the European Environment Agency. The emissions contribute to global warming and climate change, which scientists say will unleash ever harsher droughts, superstorms, and sea-level rise. The e-plane — a 62-year-old, six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver seaplane retrofitted with an electric motor — was piloted by Greg McDougall, founder and chief executive of Harbour Air. “For me that flight was just like flying a Beaver, but it was a Beaver on electric steroids. I actually had to back off on the power,” he said. McDougall took the plane on a short loop along the Fraser River near Vancouver International Airport in front of around 100 onlookers soon after sunrise. The flight lasted less than 15 minutes, according to an AFP journalist on the scene. “Our goal is to actually electrify the entire fleet. There’s no reason not to,” said McDougall. On top of fuel efficiency, the company would save millions in maintenance costs, as electric motors require “drastically” less upkeep, McDougall said. However, Harbour Air will have to wait at least two years before it can begin electrifying its fleet of more than 40 seaplanes. The e-plane has to be tested further to confirm it is reliable and safe. In addition, the electric motor must be approved and certified by regulators. In Ottawa, Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters ahead of the maiden flight that he had his “fingers crossed that the electric plane will work well.” If it does, he said, “it could set a trend for more environmentally friendly flying.” Battery power is also a challenge.

Operations resumed at Canada's largest railway, Canadian National Railway Co. , on Wednesday, a day after company and union officials reached a tentative deal to end an eight-day-long strike that had triggered a severe propane shortage and left many Canadian exports stranded. A CN spokesman said on Wednesday that there were no hiccups in the return to work and that trains were resuming operations as expected. The company had said Tuesday operations would resume across Canada at 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The some 3,200 striking conductors and yard workers had been demanding improved working conditions, including rest breaks. Reuters reported on Tuesday that union's release of recorded pleas of an exhausted rail worker wanting a break after a 10-hour shift helped deliver a critical breakthrough in securing the preliminary agreement. That deal help the end of the country's biggest railway strike in a decade. The CN spokesman would not comment on Wednesday about the duration of any backlog or the recovery process. Shippers had warned on Tuesday it could take weeks before service normalized. Canada relies on CN and Canadian Pacific Railway Co. to move crops, oil, potash, coal and manufactured goods to ports and the United States. About half of Canada's exports move by rail, according to industry data. Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday the government would be monitoring CN's return to operations, saying it would take a few days for the railway to ramp its operations back up. CN, he said, would "get going as quickly as possible." "CN is a very experienced large company and, yes, they're very aware of all the goods that we need to be moving," Garneau said. CN shares rose 0.4% in early Wednesday trade, adding to Tuesday's 1.3% gains. The benchmark Canadian share index was steady on Wednesday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals held onto power after a closely fought election on Monday but were reduced to a minority government that will need the support in Parliament of a smaller left-leaning party. The vote showed a deeply divided country with the defeated Conservatives winning the popular vote, while a resurgent separatist Bloc Quebecois made big strides in the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec. The Liberals had won or were leading in 156 out of 338 seats in Monday's vote, according to Elections Canada. That put the Liberals far short of the 170 seats needed for a second straight majority government. "You did it, my friends. Congratulations," Trudeau told supporters in Montreal early on Tuesday, speaking as his main opponents were giving concession speeches. Trudeau, who took power in 2015 as a charismatic figure promising "sunny ways," saw his popularity drop over old photos of him in blackface and his handling of a corporate corruption case. He will now have to rely on the New Democratic Party (NDP) to push through key legislation. Although the NDP had a disappointing night, with the 24 seats it had won or was leading in down sharply from the 2015 election when it won 44, the party could exercise significant influence over Trudeau's next government. "I think a Liberal government supported by the NDP is likely going to lean farther left," said John Manley, a former Liberal finance minister who now works in the private sector. "It raises a series of issues about what are the demands that an NDP party would make. What's the price of governing going to be? I think businesses are going to be reluctant to make any moves until they get some satisfaction around that." NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he had spoken with Trudeau and told him his party would be "working hard to deliver on making sure we deliver the priorities that Canadians have." Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 2-1/2 years. Ahead of the vote, opinion polls showed a tight race between Trudeau and his main rival, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. "Tonight we have put him on notice," Scheer said in Regina, Saskatchewan, of Trudeau. "His leadership is damaged and his government will end soon and when that time comes, we will be ready and we will win. "We are the government in waiting," added Scheer, 40, whose party won 122 seats. Trudeau, 47, who has championed diversity as prime minister, was endorsed by former U.S. President Barack Obama in the final stretch of the campaign and is viewed as one of the last remaining progressive leaders among the world's major democracies. But the son of the late Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau also had to overcome a sense of fatigue with his government. U.S. President Donald Trump, whose relationship with Trudeau has been testy at times, congratulated him "on a wonderful and hard fought victory" via Twitter. The Bloc Quebecois saw its support jump in Quebec, the only place where the separatist party contests elections. It was elected or ahead in 32 seats, more than three times what the party won in 2015. "Dear Quebecers, I heard your message tonight," said Trudeau, who also addressed voters in two western provinces where Liberals were shut out of seats. "To Canadians in Alberta and Saskatchewan, know that you are an essential part of our great country. I've heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you. Let us all work hard to bring our country together," he said. The Greens, who have assailed Trudeau for not doing enough to combat climate change, also made gains on Monday. The Canadian dollar was little changed after the Liberal win, holding at near three-month highs. "Markets don't like uncertainty so it will all depend on what coalition they can come up with and how sustainable that will become," said Greg Taylor, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments in Toronto. "The bigger problem is it seems that Canadians have never been more divided and the next government really needs to work to correct that. Alberta is at risk of a broader separatist movement and that would be a major negative for Canada." Two Liberal Cabinet ministers lost their seats in western Canada, including veteran Ralph Goodale, the public safety minister. Anger at Trudeau has mounted in the oil-producing region over federal environmental policies that the energy industry says will harm output. The oil industry’s top lobbying group has blamed Trudeau’s policies for throttling investment in the sector, and some global energy companies have shed assets in the oil sands region of Alberta, the country's main oil-producing province. Canada's economy, however, has been on a general upswing in 2019. The Canadian dollar has been the best-performing G10 currency this year, rising more than 4% against its US counterpart, as the economy added jobs at a robust pace and inflation stayed closed to the Bank of Canada's 2% target. The six-week official campaign period was a rough and meandering ride with dirty tactics on both sides in the G7 country. The liberal image of Trudeau, whose father opened the country to mass immigration, took a severe blow when pictures emerged early in the campaign of him wearing blackface in the early 1990s and in 2001. Trudeau had already been wrestling with the fallout from accusations he pressured his justice minister to help shield engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc from corruption charges. In August, a top watchdog said Trudeau breached ethics rules. Scheer also proved to be a determined opponent, although his hopes for a major breakthrough were dashed. He had promised to balance the federal budget and eliminate a "carbon tax" on fossil fuels. "The Tories made a fundamental mistake by being opposed to the carbon tax," said Hugh Segal, who was chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. "I've often heard it said the worst mistake a party can make is to get sucked into its own low expectations of the population," he said.