COMMODITY FETISH 

The mint's one-kilogram platinum coin fetches more than $1.2 million at auction


OTTAWA — A one-kilogram platinum coin encrusted with hundreds of diamonds fetched more than $1.2 million at auction.



The Heffel Fine Art Auction House says an anonymous buyer took the Royal Canadian Mint's "The Ultimate" piece after heated bidding Tuesday.

Heffel says the price, which includes auction house fees, exceeded the pre-sale estimate of between $700,000 and $900,000 to set a new record for a coin offered at auction in Canada.

"The Ultimate" has a face value of $2,500 is made of 99.95 per cent pure platinum and has a rose-gold-plated rim.

The piece is engraved with a cherry blossom design by Canadian artist Derek Wicks.

A total of 462 pink diamonds embellish the petals of dozens of flowers that converge into a central bloom.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

Coyote Hung Out Poolside During A Power Outage In Ottawa & It Started A Meme (PHOTOS)

NARCITY- Canada Edition (EN) - Yesterday 9:29 a.m.


One Ottawa woman is sharing some serious laughs after an unexpected visitor hung out at her poolside over the weekend.


© Provided by Narcity

In an edited Facebook cover photo, a wet creature is seen sporting sunglasses with a flamingo pool floaty and a cocktail. But the joke started after a bit of an ordeal on May 28.

It was a noisy wake-up call for Nicole Van De Wolfshaar on Saturday morning. She was getting ready to put her morning coffee pot on the barbeque, following Ottawa's storm power outage, when she heard a familiar sound.

Crows started cackling at a predator but she wasn't sure what kind.

"I hear it all the time," Van De Wolfshaar told Narcity. "When they're in the area you know there's something in the backyard."

Maybe it's a fox, she mused to herself, since the creatures sometimes visit her backyard. Other times dogs wander onto her property. That's when she saw it.

"We made eye contact," Van De Wolfshaar says. It was a coyote and it was hanging onto the ledge of her inground pool.

To Van De Wolfshaar, the creature looked tired. She says she talked to it in hopes of coaxing it out of the pool by taking the steps in the pool's shallow end.

"I thought, he just looks like, 'I'm either drowning here or this human is gonna get me out and that's how I imagined the one photo where I really got in close on his eyes," she said. "I didn't feel afraid. I just felt concerned because he seemed under so much stress."

After about 20 minutes, and nonstop commentary from crows, Van De Wolfshaar says she saw the coyote pass through the cedars on her fence line.

It's not the only surprise backyard visitor

According to Van De Wolfshaar, there is at least one coyote that frequents her Glabar Park neighbourhood. Neighbours sometimes remark on seeing it around their properties.

"This is the first time I had an uninvited creature in the pool." So, she shared her photos in a neighbourhood Facebook group. "People were like, 'it was a nice distraction.'"


© Provided by NarcityEdited photo of coyote in the pool.Edited photo of coyote in the pool. Nicole Van De Wolfshaar | Facebook

Someone made a joke and responded, "Looks like they need a poolside drink." The jest took off from there.

At the time Van De Wolfshaar shared her post, she and others in Glabar Park were without power. It was after the May 21 derecho storm that rolled through the province. About 180,000 hydro users in Ottawa were without power immediately after the storm, according to Hydro Ottawa.

Neighbours were posting about how they were charging their devices and where they were going to access the internet.


© Provided by NarcityRacoons on a trampoline.Racoons on a trampoline.Nicole Van De Wolfshaar | Facebook

On May 30, Van De Wolfshaar shared a video to the Facebook group of raccoons running around on her trampoline.

"Never a dull moment in our backyard, it seems! At least someone uses the trampoline," she wrote.

A neighbour responded jokingly, "I assume you are going to declare your backyard a "Wildlife Park" and charge admission? "

Now, Van De Wolfshaar has power again. In the future, however, she says she's she'll be keeping a closer eye out on her backyard for the sake of her two cats.

What My 23-Year-Old Cat Taught Me About Love And Loss

Emma Gilchrist - Tuesday
Chatelaine

Cleo’s journey to me began on a summer’s day in 1995. It was just like every other day that summer, except a field mouse made an appearance in the bathroom while my mum was perched on the toilet.


© Provided by Chatelaine

Cleo in 2015.

Much commotion ensued. It was decided then and there: We needed a cat.

My dad asked around at work and, luckily, a secretary was harbouring a batch of kittens in her barn. We agreed to take the runt of the litter.

When Cleo arrived at six weeks old, she weighed barely half a pound. I was 10, about to enter Grade 6, and remember snuggling her under my shirt, trying to feed her a bottle.

In hindsight, it’s obvious why I was such a sucker for her underdog story. A decade earlier, I was born to a young, single mother unable to care for me. She relinquished me to the state, which placed me up for adoption. My new family lived 800 kilometres north of where I was born, but just a few miles from the barn where Cleo would end up duking it out with her brothers and sisters.

If she was disadvantaged at all from her start in life, you wouldn’t have known it. In her younger years, Cleo pulled down the Christmas tree and the curtains with a regularity that made my parents question their decision to adopt her.

She roamed free around our house on the edge of a remote Alberta town, regularly dropping mice on the front step, thus fulfilling her assigned duties (aside from that one time she dropped a half-dead mouse on the shoe rack). My dad was convinced she fought off a hawk, based on the talon wounds she ambled in with one morning. In those days, it was a rare treat to wake up to her head on my pillow.

Cleo was spirited, affectionate, enigmatic, but really she could be anything we wanted her to be. Later in life I came to realize pets have a way of filling whatever voids we need them to. If we’re lonely, they offer us companionship. If we’re misunderstood, they offer understanding. If we fear we’re unlovable, they love us anyways. As a teenager, I was all of those things.


© Provided by Chatelaine 
Emma and Cleo in the backyard in Victoria on Cleo’s 20th birthday.

Cleo had an uncanny way of appearing on my bed and licking clean my tears. She was by my side when I realized I may never look into the face of someone who shares my blue-green eyes or learn the origin of my olive skin. In a world in which so much felt slightly off, it seemed Cleo was made just for me.

We spent 10 years apart when I went off to college, but we were reunited for what I like to call “the retirement years.”

Cleo was 17 at the time. We had both grown up and had more love to give. She moved in with me, her head now a constant on my pillow. Soon she needed stairs to get onto the bed.

In our decade apart, I’d turned into a busy professional, pragmatic to a fault—and yet, I thought nothing of her waking me up countless times a night.

Like so many people, I had become stuck in the cycle of being “busy”; life somehow turned into a steady string of commitments. Though I had a hard time envisioning how children could fit into the chaos, my life readily morphed to fit a geriatric cat.

I found myself turning down social events, wanting nothing more than to be at home with Cleo asleep on my chest, snoring lightly in my ear. I’d stay still for impossible periods of time as my neck stiffened and my bladder filled. She’d burrow her nose under mine and I’d inhale her exhales.

Soon, the incline of Cleo’s stairs became too steep, so my dad built her a new set from scratch in his shed. They stuck out about half a metre from the bed. We dubbed it “the royal staircase,” which seemed to soften the blow every time my boyfriend stubbed his toe on the way to the bathroom.

"Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love." —Stevie Wonder

As Cleo’s age crept up—21, 22, 23—I spent many hours committing her to memory.

Her smell: a mix of cat food and fur and duvet cover. Her nose felt like velvet. She had this way of collapsing perfectly into the nook of my arm and exhaling with a heavy purr.

I knew the sound of her entering a room off by heart. First, the click-click-click of her right hip—like a tired grandfather clock that occasionally skips a beat. Then the whistling, her lungs heavy, gurgling and growling, almost like a gremlin lived inside of her.


© Provided by ChatelaineCat perched on rocky ground with water and tree-line in the background

In her final months, I started taking Cleo with me everywhere, and this was the first time she saw the ocean, in Port Renfrew, B.C.

Our vet was continually amazed by Cleo’s good health, saying if she didn’t know any better she’d have guessed she was 12 in her 22nd year. I looked up the Guinness World Record for oldest living cat and as recently as 2013, a 23-year-old feline held the title. We had a chance.

But on the day Cleo turned 23, everything changed. She started having seizures and, after a flurry of vet visits, we learned they were likely caused by a brain tumour.

I cancelled a back-country hiking trip, stayed home for the rest of the summer, and tried every alternative therapy under the sun: acupuncture, Chinese herbs, CBD oil.

We eked out a blissful three-month seizure-free period, and then she relapsed. I came home from a surf trip and she was a different cat—weak, confused, barely able to ascend the royal staircase.

The end is a blur of memories, most of which I wish I could forget. Giving her a bath in the middle of the night after she peed herself (she purred as the warm water hit her skin), watching her struggle to walk (I cried), covering the mattress in absorbent pads (anything for Cleo), hearing her hiss at me for the first time (the moment I knew it was really over).

Cleo had reached 111 in cat years, and it appeared our extraordinary run was over.


© Provided by ChatelaineCleo and Emma

One of Cleo and Emma’s last photos together, in the week before they said their goodbyes.

The morning before we said goodbye, she bounded up the royal staircase onto the bed, landed her wet nose on mine and cleaned my face. I’ve never savoured a moment more in my whole life.

The next day, after another seizure, I called our vet and asked her how to decide when it was “time.” She said to just be with her and listen to what she wants. I signed off from work, curled up in bed with her on my chest and asked if she was ready. About an hour later, she projectile vomited and had the most horrifying seizure I’d ever seen. It was time.

I spent the afternoon on the bedroom floor with her. I put on my thickest socks, filled a hot water bottle I’d had since childhood and tucked her under the blanket on my chest. I’m not sure who I was comforting—me or her.

When I packed her into the car, wrapped in warm towels, she mercifully didn’t wake up. The song “Shallow” from A Star is Born started playing on the radio as I pulled up to a traffic light. “I’m off the deep end/watch as I dive in /I’ll never meet the ground.” The light turned to green. “We’re far from the shallow now.”

And then it was over, just like that. The moment I’d been dreading for a third of my life. I came home and robotically cleared away her things. No more water glass on the floor by the bed. No stairs to stub our toes on. No Chinese herbs on the counter. No hip clicks or the sound of her breathing. I could barely eat for four days.

In the days after Cleo died, I clung frantically to the physical evidence of her. I backed up all my photos twice. I texted my parents, asking them to remove her litter box and then panicked at the thought of them discarding it, realizing I could use it as a flower planter. I woke in the middle of the night, gripped by the realization I didn’t have a video of her dipping her paw in my water glass.

She was everything I’d ever loved. She was homemade chocolate chip cookie dough and the feeling of sun on my face and the faint memory of my mum singing to me in her rocking chair.

I dreamt of Cleo night after night—her wet nose dabbing my face; finding her in the guest room and realizing she hadn’t died after all; giving a eulogy for her at a memorial hosted in my high school gym.

Most of my friends empathized with how hard it can be to lose a pet, but others didn’t get it. Some people didn’t even acknowledge my loss, which left me reeling not just from losing my companion since childhood, but also questioning my right to feel sad in the first place. I knew the world was full of such greater tragedy, but I also knew that losing Cleo felt like cutting my heart out of my chest.

My grief was disorienting and alienating. And yet, I found myself feeling clearer than ever about what I wanted in my life. I became kinder to myself and felt my heart opening to friends and family in new ways.

Three months after Cleo’s death, on a gloriously sunny spring day, I was sitting in my doctor’s office. After 20 years on the birth control pill, I was finally ready to talk about going off it. All the messiness and hardship of having children had begun to look less daunting and more worthwhile in Cleo’s wake.

Cheryl Strayed, the author of Wild, said on her advice podcast that the gift of grief is how it changes you.

It was hard to see at first, but it’s clearer now. Loving Cleo—and losing her—changed me in all the very best of ways. She taught me to slow down, to be tender, to make time for the people who matter. She taught me that when we run out of heartbeats, how much we loved is all that counts.

When it came time for Cleo and I to say our final goodbyes, all I could say was: thank you. Thank you for 23 years and six months. Thank you for comforting me through some of the ugliest moments of my life. Thank you for showing me the best parts of myself. Thank you for teaching me how to love.

I LOST MY LONGTIME PAL DHARMA, THIS REMINDED ME OF HIM

Meet Frank, the Boston terrier from Calgary competing at prestigious Westminster dog show

Wed, June 1, 2022,

Frank the Boston terrier is heading to the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show later in June.

 (Lisa Wysminity/Jumpstart Imagery - image credit)

A Calgary pup will strut his stuff on one of the world's biggest dog show stages later this month.

Frank the Boston terrier, 6, is looking to take home a ribbon for "best of breed" at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on June 21.

It's just the latest challenge for this well-decorated dog, says his handler, Courtney Penner. She bred Frank and has competed with him several times before.

"He's very excited. He goes crazy when he gets to the dog shows," she said.

"He loves to show. He thinks that the world is there to see him. He's just a very big character."

The event runs from June 20 to 22 at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, N.Y. Frank will compete against 29 other Boston terriers.

Cathy French/Cathy French Photography

Frank's owner, Dr. Tricia Knowler, is a veterinarian in Calgary. She describes him as a "fun, cuddly" dog who loves to play fetch.

As for whether he is nervous for competition day, probably not, she said.

"We don't have any expectations. We're just going to have fun.… He hasn't been in a show for a couple of years with COVID. So we'll see how he does," Knowler said in an interview on The Homestretch.

"It's kind of a once in a lifetime experience."

Frank the show pup

Penner — who lives in Chilliwack, B.C., but spent a couple years in Calgary — has been showing dogs since she was just four years old and fell in love with the Boston terrier breed.

She met Knowler after breeding her previous dog. Penner remembered Knowler loved red brindle Boston terriers, which have a certain type of colouring.

When Frank was born, she knew she had another match.

"He was super handsome, a very well put together puppy," Penner said.

"We got Frank out to her and ever since then they have been doing the shows with him all the time, bringing him for me to show, and he won the Canadian national and has placed quite highly very consistently over his life."

Tricia Knowler

Westminster will be Frank's biggest competition yet, Knowler said. She's been ensuring he gets lots of exercise and has taken care to keep his coat groomed.

Although Frank is quite good at tricks, this competition will look at his conformation, movements and attitude.

"It's fun to get out and do things with your dogs," Knowler said.

"It kind of gives us a reason to travel and go to different dog shows all over Canada and the United States, and keep your dog busy and into activities. It's fun."

Lisa Wysminity/Jumpstart Imagery

The atmosphere of the show is also exciting to Penner, who's looking forward to seeing thousands of top dogs from across the world competing.

She's been to the Westminster show before but never with a dog she bred.

"Hopefully, he just stays and looks handsome for us, but he always has. So I'm not too worried about him."

Opinion: Ontario’s Soviet-style cannabis monopoly

Special to Financial Post - Yesterday 7:21 a.m.

Ontario’s latest budget was pitched as a “Plan to Build.” Unfortunately, when it comes to the over $1.5-billion annual sales of cannabis in Ontario, what the Ford government has built is a monster monopoly that is eating up profits, stifling innovation, and slowly strangling the new cannabis industry, especially its small operators and independent retailers.

All the many cannabis stores that have popped up in the last few years, whose proliferation has itself become an election issue, are forced to buy their cannabis products from a single government wholesaler. For their part, cannabis producers can only sell to this big government monopoly. This all-powerful gatekeeper, to pick a term from the headlines, is a Crown corporation, the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, which does business as the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS). It has over 200 staff, 103 of whom made over $100k in 2021, according to the Government of Ontario salary disclosure list . It directly limits what retailers can buy and producers can sell and it takes a massive average markup of 42 per cent — just to be a middleman warehouse and also run a small online retail portal responsible for only 3.7 per cent of industry sales.

The criteria the OCS uses to decide whether or not to accept a producer’s product are neither clear nor well documented, according to the most recent Ontario Auditor General report on the issue. But if a producer is lucky enough to have a cannabis product accepted by the OCS and agrees on a price of $5, which has to cover all the costs of manufacturing, packaging and shipping to the OCS, then the OCS will sell it to a private retailer for at least $7.50, who will then have to price it even higher when selling it to the public. This huge markup, before HST or excise duty, is often more than the producers or retailers themselves make — though they do all the important work. Essentially, the OCS is the world’s most profitable publicly funded warehouse. The Ford government has built an entity that communist Russia would have been proud of.

Even if we accept that governments need to be involved in the cannabis value chain (and they are in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec), how does Ontario justify its massive margins? Quebec’s government is also a middleman in the cannabis industry, but manages to run all of the province’s cannabis retail stores for a margin of only 14.9 per cent on dried flower, compared to the 39.4 per cent margin OCS takes on dried flower sold online. Alberta’s government, like Ontario’s, only runs warehousing but it has an average margin of approximately 30 per cent on dried flower and employs no more than 40 staff in selling over $700-million worth of cannabis per year.

You might expect an operation that charges such a big markup to at least be world-class. But the OCS has been plagued by problems, including the loss of thousands of packets of cannabis according to CBC, bad customer service (with over 1,000 cases investigated by the Ontario Ombudsman), serious data leaks , performance pay and bonuses not being based on robust performance measurement and non-competitive sole-sourcing of procurements.

Bottom line? Producers and retailers are making less, consumers are paying more, and taxpayers are losing millions in revenues, just to feed the beast of the big government OCS monopoly. Letting a state-run monopoly keep its foot on the neck of small cannabis producers and retailers is anything but progressively conservative. Whichever Ontario party wins Thursday’s election needs to reform — and preferably disband — the OCS so that a competitive cannabis industry can replace a grotesque government cartel.

Shane Morris runs a global cannabis consulting company and Deepak Anand consults in the cannabis and pharmaceutical sect

Opinion: Half-baked cannabis regulations need fixing

David Clement: Three years on, we need to relax cannabis regulation

Opinion: Deregulate cannabis three more ways

Ottawa should make it easier to export and import marijuana so our cannabis companies can thrive

ANOTHER REACTIONARY NATIONALIST

Bouchard pitches sovereignty as statue of former Quebec premier Parizeau unveiled

QUEBEC — As a statue of former Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau was unveiled Wednesday in Quebec City, his successor in the province's top job declared that separation remains the solution for the province.


© Provided by The Canadian PressBouchard pitches sovereignty as statue of former Quebec premier Parizeau unveiled

Lucien Bouchard spoke after the statue of Parizeau, wearing a trademark three-piece suit with his hand in the vest pocket, was revealed outside the national assembly in the presence of his widow, Lisette Lapointe, Premier François Legault and other dignitaries.

Quebec sovereignty remains a “necessity,” Bouchard told reporters. “It is still relevant because it is in the hearts of a large number of Quebecers, (but) not a majority. In mine too. I am convinced that this is the solution."

Lapointe, also a former PQ member of the legislature, told the crowd that her late husband always urged people not to be afraid of their dreams. "His was immense, the greatest of dreams, to make Quebec a country," she said, "and he very nearly realized it. Until the end of his life, he never gave up on his dream."

Parizeau was premier from September 1994 until he resigned after suffering a narrow defeat in the Oct. 30, 1995, sovereignty referendum. He was replaced by Bouchard, who stepped down in 2001.

A senior civil servant in the 1960s, Parizeau helped establish the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province's pension fund manager, before entering politics and serving as finance minister in the government of René Lévesque from 1976 to 1984.

He left the party when the PQ took a chance on supporting federalism but made a comeback as PQ leader in 1988, winning the 1994 election with the aim of achieving sovereignty.


He announced his resignation the day after the 1995 referendum defeat, which he had blamed on money and ethnic votes in a referendum-night speech.

(HIS ANTI-SEMITIC ANTI-MIGRANT TROPE)

Parizeau remained a spiritual leader of the sovereigntist movement and a spoilsport for the Parti Québécois with his occasional interventions before his death on June 1, 2015.

For Bouchard, the need for a sovereign Quebec is clear when considering the endless debates with Ottawa.

“Everything becomes a problem in the management of the Quebec state because of its extremely difficult, probably impossible, relations with the federal government as it is designed," he said.

But Bouchard acknowledged his former party is in a difficult position ahead of the October provincial election.

"It's clear that things are not going well at the PQ, we agree with that, but things are not going well in other parties too,” he said, adding that political parties are “vehicles" in politics, “which can be replaced, which last as long as it is useful.”

The imposing bronze statue by Montreal sculptors Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau faces Jacques-Parizeau Street in Quebec City and was created through a $120,000 fundraising campaign.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Union: Driver fights off attempted hijacking of Mississauga bus


MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Peel Regional Police say they've arrested a man after he tried to hijack a Mississauga transit bus and stole another transit vehicle.


© Provided by The Canadian PressUnion: Driver fights off attempted hijacking of Mississauga bus

Police say they were called to the area of Burnhamthorpe Road West and Erindale Station Road early Tuesday morning after the suspect approached a driver and began damaging that vehicle.

The Amalgamated Transit Union and police say the suspect then boarded a bus and began to grapple with the driver, trying to take control of the transit vehicle. While wrestling with the assailant, the driver was able to bring the bus to a safe stop.

Officials say the attempted hijacker left the bus as a MiWay transit supervisor arrived on the scene. The suspect then stole the supervisor’s vehicle and fled.

A spokeswoman for the City of Mississauga says that MiWay's transit control supervisors used GPS to track the vehicle and a short time later police arrested the suspect.

Police say the suspect damaged several poles as he fled, but no other vehicles were hit and no one else was injured.


The force says he was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation, and mischief over $5,000.

John Di Nino, ATU Canada president, called for immediate action to provide greater protection for transit users and operators.

Late Wednesday, the city said MiWay is looking at ways to prevent such incidents, including installing barriers that offer protection for the drivers from violence and harassment.

The city said it was already working with manufacturers on what driver protection systems can be put in place and hopes to be able to move forward with a system in the near future.

"The safety of our staff, including bus operators, as well as our passengers, is our top priority," the city said in a release.

"We have been in contact with the MiWay operator who was impacted by this incident and will ensure they are supported during the investigation and beyond."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Toronto's $13M in hotel shelter overspending could have paid for 52,000 room nights for homeless people

CBC/Radio-Canada - Yesterday 



The City of Toronto overspent by $13.2 million over two years on emergency hotel shelters, according to a fiscal audit by the city's auditor general.

Money intended for housing support instead went to pay a host of hotel fees, the auditor general says. That's despite the fact the contracts preclude such fees.

In two years, $5.4 million was spent on hotel room vacancy fees, $5.3 million was spent on facility surcharges on meal invoices, and $2.4 million was attributed to "DMF" charges, although there was disagreement among those interviewed during the audit as to whether that was a tourism tax or some other unclear hotel fee. The audit notes hotels stopped including this charge in January 2022.

"Every dollar and every room matters," said Auditor General Beverley Romeo-Beehler in her report, which is expected to be discussed by the audit committee next week. It is expected to reach city council on June 15.

The misspent millions could have covered the cost of 52,000 room nights for homeless city residents, the audit found, as well as meals and support services "for an entire year."

Instead, hotels tacked the add-ons onto their invoices and city officials paid them out, the audit found. According to the audit, "some staff" handling the invoices didn't seem aware of the contracts or what charges were appropriate.
'My jaw dropped,' shelter hotel resident says

"You need to make sure you're being charged in accordance with the contract otherwise what's the point of having one," said City Coun. Stephen Holyday, who chairs the audit committee.

"Everyone understands that during COVID it was a time of duress for the city, but there is an old saying… haste makes waste," he said. "We need to understand how to best manage contracts across the city."

While the pandemic was certainly a complicating factor, the auditor general was careful to note that in some cases: "These incorrect amounts were being charged even before the pandemic."


"My jaw dropped," Gru, a shelter hotel resident whose legal name is Jesse Allan, told CBC News.

"Fifteen million dollars gets a lot of apartments for an entire year," he said — "actual apartments, which is what most people on the streets need."

Among her recommendations, Romeo-Beehler suggests the city develop a proper system for reviewing its invoices to make sure payments match contract terms. She also suggests that the city's Corporate Real Estate Management division take over the responsibility of contracting with hotels so that the Shelter, Support & Housing Administration division "can focus on core service delivery."

The audit notes its recommendations are focused on helping "make sure money goes toward providing more shelter spaces or creating permanent housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness."
'This is why we have an Auditor General': Tory

In a statement, Mayor John Tory said, "This is why we have an Auditor General" and that city staff "will be acting" on her recommendations.

"I will be making sure that … we are doing everything we can to recoup any costs that shouldn't have been charged to the City," he said.

While the auditor general does serve as an important accountability check, Cathy Crowe, a long time street nurse and housing advocate, says it's ultimately up to senior city officials "to do a better job."

Last year was one of the deadliest for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto since Toronto Public Health began tracking in 2017. In 2021, 216 people died — 132 of whom were residents of homeless shelters.

To cope with the physical distancing requirements of the pandemic, the city opened 42 temporary shelters, including in hotels.

But COVID-19 outbreaks, food quality concerns, and other issues rendered some shelters not "suitable" for living, led some homeless residents to seek shelter in municipal parks. Attempts to clear some of those encampments last summer turned violent.


© Evan Mitsui/CBC

Encampment supporters defend a group of tents while Toronto police enforce an eviction order in Trinity Bellwoods Park, in Toronto, on Jun. 22, 2021.

As of early March, the audit notes there were still nearly 4,000 people staying in under 3,000 rooms at 29 hotels.

"Someone has to pay for this," said Crowe. "We should be absolutely outraged by this."

Vancouver Public Library scraps overdue library fines permanently

Stephanie Ip - Yesterday 

© Arlen RedekopThe Vancouver Public Library will stop charging overdue fines on borrowed material forever, beginning June 1, 2022.


The Vancouver Public Library will stop charging overdue fines on borrowed material forever, beginning June 1.

Borrowers with existing overdue charges will see those automatically erased from their accounts, though it may take a few weeks to update accounts.

The new policy applies to all VPL material, including fast reads, quick views, musical instruments and interlibrary loans.


“Fines can impact anyone at any time, for many reasons. VPL is for everyone and we don’t want fines to be a barrier,” read a statement announcing the change. “Library fines disproportionately affect those who need the library the most. By eliminating overdue fines, VPL will ensure that critical library services are available to everyone regardless of their socio-economic status.”

Material that is overdue will prompt additional reminders by phone or email to the borrower to return the borrowed item. Anything not returned within 23 days of its due date will incur a lost item charge to the borrowers account, however once the item is returned, that charge will also be erased from the account.

Other charges remain.

Those who insist on paying their overdue fines are encouraged to donate to the VPL Foundation instead.

sip@postmedia.com

Strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza kills thousands of birds in Quebec


MONTREAL — The carcasses of thousands of white gannets have been covering the shores of Quebec's Îles-de-la-Madeleine for the last two weeks, victims of highly pathogenic avian influenza.



"Nobody had to tell me that this was happening; it's obvious — we're talking about thousands of dead birds," Îles-de-la-Madeleine Mayor Jonathan Lapierre said in a recent interview.

"We're not talking about waste or an ordinary situation. We're talking about an extraordinary event outside of our own control. Especially since we don't have an incinerator — we don't have a landfill. We're on an island!"

Quebec's Wildlife Department says that since May 24, it has confirmed several hundred cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 on Îles-de-la-Madeleine, an archipelago of islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Lapierre said the operation to dispose of all the dead animals has begun. The carcasses, he added, have to be moved out by boat.

"All this isn't easy considering our location … the boat also carries people and rare commodities," Lapierre said. "We had to manage all these elements together."

The highly contagious virus has been spreading across the country among wild and domestic birds such as turkeys, chickens and ducks. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has estimated almost two million birds in commercial farming operations have been destroyed because of the virus. The agency has said bird flu is spreading globally and outbreaks have been confirmed in every province except Prince Edward Island.

"This year has been an unprecedented year for avian influenza, globally," the agency said in a statement.

"Birds in an infected barn will all die within days if they are not euthanized. It is also difficult to predict how long the (highly pathogenic H5N1) virus currently circulating will remain in North America. Research in Europe currently indicates … this particular strain does appear quite resilient and able to maintain itself in wild bird populations."

Stéphane Lair, a professor of veterinary medicine at Université de Montréal, says the first highly pathogenic bird flu cases likely arrived in North America at the end of winter, involving birds that migrated from Europe.

"It happened naturally," Lair said. "When a new virus arrives in a new population, animals have no immunity. There's no doubt that, at first, the infection rate is going to be high."

Serge Hubert, a resident of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, said in a recent interview he had never seen so many dead gannets floating in the water before this season.

"We've been seeing them floating for the past two or three weeks — dead. We fish 25 kilometres away from the shores and we see carcasses the entire way through."

The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, which partners with the federal government to monitor wild bird populations, said that while they can't test every dead bird, they can link most cases on the island to H5N1. Marion Jalenques, a veterinarian with the group, said the H5N1 strain is not considered to be high-risk for humans but spreads rapidly among birds.

"We are testing a lot of cases right now, but we can't receive 300 dead birds at once," Jalenques said in a recent interview, adding that Quebec's Eastern Townships and the Mauricie and Montérigie regions have also reported cases.

"If we test 10 out of a few hundred from the same event, for sure it's related."

She said while culling commercial poultry helps to prevent viral spread, it's almost impossible to contain the virus in the wild.

"There's not a lot we can do (to prevent it)," Jalenques said. "We're talking about vast territories with large populations of birds. There's a lot of disease in the wild that we can't control."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 1, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press