The Harper government’s new no-parole legislation, announced Wednesday afternoon and to be introduced next week when MPs return from some time back in their ridings, is, as it turns out, an opportunity to fall down the rabbit hole of ancient Crown prerogatives.

The legislation will include a provision allowing cabinet to decide on the release of some killers, which caused a bit of a tizzy on Twitter after the prime minister announced the pending bill. Could the Conservative cabinet use this power to its advantage, for political gain, somehow? Is it not troubling for ideological politicians to be given this kind of legal power? Yes, possibly, but to be sure this isn’t anything new.

Basics on the bill

The government is planning to table legislation in the House of Commons that, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, would ensure Canada’s “most heinous criminals” stay in jail for life, without chance of parole.

"Next week, our government will introduce legislation to ensure that for the most

The skyline of Vancouver, British Columbia (Getty Images)

When it comes to quality of life, it seems the West Coast is the best coast.

Vancouver is the most livable city in North America, according to a new global survey.

The list by British-based consulting firm Mercer ranks Vancouver No. 5 in the world when it comes to quality of life, after Vienna, Zurich, Auckland and Munich, in that order.

“This is true for most of the major Canadian cities – they rank highly because of Canada’s favourable political and social environment, as well as medical and health considerations,” Eleana Rodriguez of Mercer Canada told Yahoo Canada News.

“Vancouver tends to score a little bit higher than some of the other Canadian cities because, of course, of the weather. The weather is a bit more favourable in Vancouver than it is in Toronto… or Ottawa, for example.”

Vancouver is the only city in North America to break the top 10. Toronto makes the list at 15, Ottawa at 16 and Montreal at 24.

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Michael Zehaf-Bibeau is shown in a Twitter photo posted by @ArmedResearch. (CP)

With the controversial release of a killer’s video, Canadians may finally get some answers Friday from the mouth of Parliament Hill shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau on his motives for his attacks and whether he had an alternate plan or connections to terrorists.

News of the video comes at a time that Canadians are feeling particularly vulnerable to more terroristattacks, according to a poll released by CBC News.

Terrorist attacks on home soil became a reality last October when two soldiers were killed in unrelated attacks.

On Oct. 20, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was run down in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. by Martin Couture-Rouleau, who was shot dead by police,. Couture-Rouleau’s passport had been seized in July to prevent him from travelling to Syria to fight with the Islamic State, a terrorist group also known as ISIS.

Just two days later, Zehaf-Bibeau attacked and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the War Memorial and then stormed Parliament where he died in a hail of gunfire.

Tomorrow, 8-year-old Sebastian Yanquelevech will undergo brain surgery for the second time in his life.

When he was 4, he was diagnosed with a large brain tumour. Surgery removed most of it, although he recently started suffering multiple seizures a day, making a second procedure necessary.

The North York, Ont., boy says there’s one way people can help him and his family get through this difficult time: hug.

Sebastian and his mother, Nadine Weis, are asking people to show their support by hugging their loved ones on surgery day, March 5.

Sebastian Yanquelevech and his siblings share a hug. (Facebook/Nadine Weis)“I want to tell them so they can hug each other and that will make me feel awesome,” Sebastian told CTV News.

Weis told the Toronto Star that she came up with the hug idea after her son told her, “I don’t want you to be alone while I’m in surgery.”

While she insisted that her husband and family would make sure she wasn’t alone, Sebastian wasn’t reassured — until Weis suggested recruiting the power of the hug.

“I urge everybody…on March 5…to hug the

Winter drags on and Valentine's Day is nearly a month behind us, but a dating event in Winnipeg combining grocery shopping and mixing with other singles brought hundreds of eligible locals together.

Ahead of Tuesday night's big event, Singles Night at Safeway had already gained momentum on Facebook, with more than 1,000 people saying they'd attending (actual turnout numbers weren't available). The event reprised similar singles nights that last took place in 1986 at the same Winnipeg Safeway.

Singles ready to mingle tied a plastic bag to their shopping cart or handbasket as a signal they were willing to be approached, which probably spared some other shoppers a few awkward conversations.

A local radio station hosted, and interactive games company Big Games brought their giant Jenga set as an icebreaker. There was also an on-site donation area for a local food bank.

Local interactive games company Big Games brought out its giant Jenga set as an icebreaker. (Facebook/Instagram/Big Games)

The event's Facebook page was quite lively, particularly one comment thread discussing whether it was OK to message

This is one prank you can try at school, kids.

Last Wednesday, high school senior Emily Jones told her principal to stand in the hallway, holding an old bucket.

Sherman Padgett, who has been principal at North High School in Wichita, Kansas, since 2006, had reason to be apprehensive, but after some encouragement from his secretary, he went along with her strange request.

He’s glad he did.

Members of the senior class started streaming down the hall, each dropping a note of thanks or praise into the bucket.

“Thank you for making high school the best years of my life,” one note read.

“You’ve made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember,” read another.

“Thank you for the shirt you gave me,” read another. “When I didn’t have clothes on my back, you provided.”

Screengrab of James Taylor from KAIT 8

Last weekend, Officer John Shipman of the Jonesboro, Arkansas, police department spotted a young man walking along the shoulder of the road.

It was 2:15 in the morning.

It was below freezing.

Shipman approached the man and asked him his name and where he was coming from.

The man, Arkansas State University pre-pharmacy student James Taylor, replied that he was making his usual 4-mile commute home from his job at McDonald’s.

Because he can’t afford a car, Taylor walks to and from work and school, regardless of weather conditions.

Officer John Shipman (Facebook)"I asked him, ‘So you went to work tonight knowing that you didn’t have a ride home and that it was going to be freezing?’ and he said ‘Yes sir.’" Shipman told KAIT 8. “He says I have to, I don’t have any other choice.”

When Shipman got home, he shared Taylor’s story on social media. He then set up a GoFundMe account to help the student get a car.

The $1,400 goal was surpassed in just three days. To date, $6,500 has been donated, more than enough for Taylor to

(Photo: Thinkstock)

You’ve probably never heard of Karl Ove Knausgaard, unless you happened on the flap he caused in the last few days by trashing the eating habits of Newfoundlanders in a New York Times Magazine article.

Knausgaard is a Norwegian author best known for a six-part, 3,500-page memoir entitled Min Kamp (My Struggle), which should not be connected in any way with an identically titled book by a certain political leader in Germany in the 1920s.

Social media is still rippling with reaction to Knausgaard’s observation that almost everyone he encountered in a restaurant in St. Anthony, N.L., during a trip to visit abandoned Viking settlements at L’Anse aux Meadows was fat, and apparently proud of it.

“Everyone in the place, except the waiter, was fat, some of them so fat that I kept having to look at them,” Knausgaard said, recalling his dinner at a place called Jungle Jim’s.

“I had never seen people that fat before. The strange thing was that none of them looked as if they were trying to hide