- NewsThe Canadian Press
Activists take step to recall judge in sex assault case
Activists seeking to recall a judge who sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman say they believe voters will still support the effort even if it appears on the ballot two years after the trial. The case drew national attention when critics decried the sentence as too lenient. The activists, led by Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber, filed paperwork Monday with the Santa Clara County registrar — the first formal step toward winning the removal of Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky.
- NewsThe Canadian Press
Judge to decide who gets comic com naming rights
Settlement talks have broken down between the organizers of two pop-culture conventions in California and Utah known for guests' elaborate costumes, Salt Lake Comic Con officials said Tuesday. Both sides are asking a judge to decide the contest over naming rights, said Bryan Brandenburg, co-founder of Salt Lake Comic Con. "They want us to change our name," Brandenburg said.
- NewsCBC
Self-governing First Nations can keep all revenues, Ottawa says
Ottawa is suspending a policy that saw transfer funding clawed back from self-governing First Nations that generate their own revenue. The moratorium will last "up to three years", while a new self-government fiscal policy is developed. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett made the announcement in Carcross, Yukon on Tuesday afternoon, where the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) is holding its annual general assembly.
- NewsCBC
Elmvale Acres mall redevelopment plan gets committee approval
A new secondary plan for a revamped Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre with lower building heights and improved traffic measures was approved by the city's planning committee Tuesday morning. Unlike many meetings of this sort, most residents who spoke commended city staff, developer RioCan and area Coun. Jean Cloutier for consulting with residents and being open to change.
- NewsCBC
Downtown Ottawa traffic stalls with Wellington Street closure
Closing a portion of Wellington Street a few days early in preparation for this year's Canada Day has snarled traffic in downtown Ottawa during rush hour, as detouring Ottawa and Gatineau buses clogged the downtown. Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill is usually closed the morning of Canada Day, but this year the street closed on Tuesday so that security checkpoints for the Canada 150 celebrations could be set up on the road. Just one block of Wellington was closed — from Bank Street to O'Connor Street — with the westbound lanes opening up in the afternoon.
- NewsCBC
Ryan Reynolds is back in Vancouver for Deadpool 2
Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds has returned to his hometown to film Deadpool 2, the sequel to Marvel's wildly successful superhero movie released last year. Reynolds' wife, actress Blake Lively, has also joined the actor on the West Coast.
- NewsCBC
AHS firings over racial slur sends strong message, says target of derogatory text
Big Head is the principal of Tatsikiisaapo'p Middle School in Stand Off, Alta., which is on the Kainai First Nation southwest of Lethbridge and about 200 kilometres south of Calgary. An AHS employee intended to send a text message to a colleague following a training exercise that included Big Head, but instead accidentally texted a member of the Kainai Board of Education. In that text, Big Head was referred to as a "rabid squaw," she said.
- NewsCBC
Legal Aid Ontario lends support to black youth facing suspension from school
Legal Aid Ontario, the non-profit group of lawyers that specializes in representing low-income clients, is providing a major financial boost to a program designed to help black students who are in conflict with the education system. The one-time grant of $100,000 will fund an initiative run by TAIBU Community Health Centre in Scarborough and the Rexdale Community Health Centre. At a Tuesday news conference, Field flagged troubling Toronto District School Board data that revealed almost half of TDSB students expelled over last 5 years are black.
NewsReutersSpaceX plans expansion of rocket refurbishing facilities in Florida
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX wants to expand facilities in Florida to refurbish and store its reusable rocket boosters as it increases the pace of launches, documents filed with authorities show. The privately owned rocket company, operated by entrepreneur Elon Musk, proposes building a 67,222-square-foot (6,245-square meter) hangar just south of its Cape Canaveral launch sites to prepare recovered Falcon boosters for reflight, according to the documents. The Port Canaveral Board of Commissioners is scheduled to consider SpaceX's proposed lease on Wednesday.
NewsReutersDrive.ai raises $50 million in funding; Andrew Ng joins board
Self-driving startup Drive.ai said on Tuesday it raised $50 million in a second round of funding as the Silicon Valley company prepared to deploy its technology in pilot vehicles later this year. The company, one of a handful of startups building fully autonomous systems for cars, also said it had added to its board Andrew Ng, a prominent figure in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Ng is the husband of Drive.ai's co-founder and president Carol Reiley, a roboticist.
- BBC News
German WW2 pilot flies in Spitfire
German ace Hugo Broch took to the skies over Kent to achieve a long-held ambition.
- NewsCBC
Tenants 'in the dark' on fire inspection results in apartment buildings
After spotting potential fire safety issues in his North York building — including a blocked fire exit — Mark Legate wanted to see the results of a fire inspection for himself. What came next, Legate said, were dozens of emails and phone calls to city staff, all of which came back with the same answer: privacy legislation overrides the fire act. Legate was told he would have to file a freedom of information request to find out what happened in his own building, something he called "incredibly" frustrating.
- NewsCBC
Residents comb Fernie, B.C., for orphaned baby moose
The community of Fernie in B.C.'s East Kootenay region is on the lookout for an orphaned moose calf after its mother and sibling were killed in two separate road accidents in the past few weeks. Resident Colleen Bailey, who volunteers in animal rehabilitation, is working with conservation officers to help coordinate the search. The trio were spotted by locals between Fernie and the Lizard Creek bridge over the past few weeks.
- NewsCBC
Demo beds show Charlottetown residents ways to maintain a pesticide-free lawn
The city developed the beds and put in different plants and grasses using different gardening techniques and applied harmless nutrients to the soil. "It'll be moving around the city so as many residents as possible can get a chance to update themselves," said Duffy.
- NewsCBC
Ontario announces $85M to clean up mercury near Grassy Narrows, Wabaseemoong First Nations
Ontario will spend $85 million to clean up industrial mercury contamination that is poisoning the people at Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations in northwestern Ontario, Environment Minister Glen Murray announced on Tuesday. The mercury was dumped into the river by Reed Paper, upstream of the First Nations in Dryden, Ont., in the 1960s and early 1970s.
- NewsCBC
Edmonton mayor backs away from city hosting 2022 Commonwealth Games
The flicker of hope for Edmonton to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games is getting closer to being snuffed out, if the mayor gets his way. "The time has come for us to be honest with ourselves that it's not the right time to be pursuing mega-events on our own," Don Iveson said Tuesday. Edmonton had dropped its initial bid in February 2015 after the provincial government wouldn't financially back the event.
- NewsThe Canadian Press
Kinderdijk windmills a must-see on any trip to Holland
The windmills at Kinderdijk were built in the mid-1700s as a way to clear water from the low-lying landscape of the western Netherlands. Sometime in the 1950s, the millers and water board members started seeing visitors in sneakers carrying cameras. The Dutch embraced the visitors and the Kinderdijk windmills have since become one of the country's most popular tourist destinations while continuing to help manage the Netherlands' ongoing fight to stay above water.
- NewsThe Canadian Press
N.S. information czar wants law to put onus on province to comply with rulings
Nova Scotia's government should obey an oversight body's recommendations to release documents or have to convince a judge why they're justified in refusing, the province's information and privacy commissioner recommended Tuesday. Catherine Tully made the proposal for changes to the province's freedom-of-information laws in an annual report that includes 33 other recommendations she said are needed to bring the province's information and privacy laws into the 21st century.
- NewsCBC
Toronto's newest bike sharing program loosens the rules for riders
Dropbike is a new ridesharing system that recently launched a pilot program around the University of Toronto. What makes it different from existing bike share models is that it allows the user to lock the bike and leave it anywhere. Dropbike founder and chief executive Qiming Weng had always imagined a life without needing a car.
- NewsCBC
Only 2 investors left in controversial Shediac mega-campground project
A proposed campground of up to 750 sites in Pointe-du-Chêne has lost five of its original seven investors, says the former lead developer of the project. Michel Boudreau, who founded Shediac Camping Ltd. with a longtime friend, Liberal cabinet minister Victor Boudreau, says he pulled out of the controversial project a few weeks ago. Boudreau, the regional sheriff for Moncton, said he made the decision after the health minister announced he was walking away from his 20 per cent share in the mega campground after months of controversy surrounding his involvement.
- NewsCBC
Barbara Frum inducted into CBC News Hall of Fame
Barbara Frum, known best to Canadians as co-host of CBC Radio's As It Happens and later for CBC Television's The Journal, has been inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame. "Barbara was half Lois Lane, half Jewish mother. Starowicz remembered when Frum announced — despite battling a bad case of the flu — that she was ready to go on air for The Journal the night of the bombing of Baghdad was about to begin on Jan. 17, 1991 and how she had to be replaced because her voice was too hoarse.
- NewsCBC
OSEG posts $14M net loss for 2016 Lansdowne operations
It's a lesson learned in 2016 by the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which operates the stadium and commercial district of Lansdowne and owns the RedBlacks and Fury. OSEG posted a whopping $14.4 million net loss in 2016, even worse than its 2015 loss of $12.6 million. Attendance at Lansdowne jumped 41 per cent year-over-year to 3.4 million people, according to the 2016 annual report.
- NewsCBC
P.E.I. students seek votes in Young Citizens video competition
Twelve Island students with outstanding school heritage projects have created videos about their projects and are now are competing with other Canadian students in a national Young Citizens video competition.
- NewsCBC
RedBall Project costs Calgary $33K for weeklong Canada 150 celebrations
It took five years and $33,000, but the City of Calgary managed to wrest a giant, 115-kilogram inflatable ball away from other Canadian cities for the lead up to Canada Day 150. The world famous travelling RedBall Project is a playful, temporary public art installation that has appeared in 30 cities worldwide since its creation in 2001, including Barcelona, London, Taipei and Abu Dhabi.
NewsReutersTrump brand to exit Toronto skyline after buyout deal
The name Trump will be removed from a high-rise hotel and condo development in downtown Toronto after the project's new owner, JCF Capital ULC, reached a deal with Trump Hotels to buy out its management contracts for an undisclosed amount. U.S. President Donald Trump never owned the project, but his company had signed a long-term branding and management deal with the building's developer, Talon International Development Inc, which defaulted on its construction loan last year. JCF Capital ULC earlier this year bought units in the 65-story Trump International Hotel & Tower that were not owned by individuals in a court-run sale.
