Canada July 20th, 2009 (15)

#1 — CBC | Glenrosa wildfire 40 per cent contained

Officials with B.C.’s Wildfire Management Branch say the most harmful wildfire burning in the Okanagan is 40 per cent contained.

The blaze, which broke out Saturday at about 2 p.m. in West Kelowna, is being fought by 125 firefighters, eight air tankers, 10 helicopters and several pieces of heavy machinery.

Approximately 11,000 people in the Glenrosa area remain under an evacuation order, and an additional 6,500 people are under an evacuation alert.

Since the fire started Saturday afternoon, flames have destroyed at least nine buildings, including three houses, and charred 3.5 square kilometres in West Kelowna.

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#2 — CBC | Canadian soldier died after mountaintop blast: military

A Canadian soldier who was killed last week had stepped on an explosive device before falling to his death in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, a military official said Sunday.

The latest news about Pte. Sébastien Courcy was released shortly before the start of a repatriation ceremony for the young man at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario.

Pte. Sébastien Courcy, 26, died Thursday after being knocked from a mountain top, said Lt.-Col. Mike Patrick, chief of operations for Task Force Kandahar. It’s unclear whether the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device or an old landmine, he said.

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#3 — CBC | Edmonton woman hurt by falling concrete during thunderstorm

A woman was injured, thousands were left without power and buildings were damaged Saturday night when a vicious thunderstorm struck at the heart of Alberta’s capital region.

Emergency officials said the woman was hurt when part of a concrete overhang at the front entrance to the 26-storey CN Tower office building in downtown Edmonton came crashing down. There was no report on her condition.

Winds that Environment Canada said reached 106 km/h ripped branches from tree trunks and, according to one homeowner, sent a swing set and trampoline flying through the air.

Meteorologist Blair Morrow said the destruction was probably the work of a “plow wind,” which can be as strong as a tornado, but without the characteristic rotation.

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#4 — CBC | Couples meet up after adoption agency declares bankruptcy

Groups of prospective parents trying to adopt overseas children through an Ontario adoption agency that declared bankruptcy last week met Sunday to figure out what to do.

About 50 people gathered at a downtown Toronto condo to share their frustrations and discuss potential solutions after Cambridge, Ont.-based Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which operated under the name Imagine Adoption, went under July 13. For the last two years, the agency had helped Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, Ghana and Ecuador.

Other parents met Sunday in Ottawa and London, Ont., as well as in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Alberta.

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#5 — CBC | Late-season strawberry bred in Nova Scotia

Strawberry lovers are getting a new type of egg-sized berry to sweeten their summers, a development 20 years in the making that might give Canadian growers a fresh advantage in an increasingly competitive market as well.

Valley Sunset — named because it blooms late in the season — was developed in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley and will be available to growers next spring.

The fruit breeder who created Valley Sunset said it could extend the local season by a week, a substantial boost considering that strawberries are typically only available for four weeks in the summer.

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#6 — CTV | Payette and Thirsk appear live from space

Far above the Earth, with a Canadian flag behind them, astronauts Julie Payette and Bob Thirsk made their first joint appearance Sunday aboard the international space station.

They represent a major landmark for Canada — it’s the first time two Canadians have been in space at the same time.

Payette, a member of the Endeavour crew, joined Thirsk at the space station on Friday. But while Payette is spending 16 days at the ISS, Thirsk is currently on a six-month mission.

Today marked the 54th day for Thirsk, as he answered questions from Gary Goodyear, Canada’s minister of state for science and technology, about what it’s like to live in a giant, hulking metal structure orbiting the planet.

“If you’re the type of person who enjoys camping, you’ll love it here,” he said.

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#7 — CTV | Canadian woman stuck in Kenya seeks Ottawa’s help

OTTAWA – The lawyer for a woman who was stripped of her Canadian passport and is marooned in Kenya will be in Federal Court on Monday morning seeking immediate government help.

Suaad Mohamud Haji has been unable to return to her Toronto home since mid-May after Kenyan airport officials said she didn’t look like her four-year-old passport picture.

Despite having other pieces of Canadian photo ID and offering up her fingerprints, the 31-year-old mother was stripped of her passport by Canadian officials and charged with identity fraud by Kenyan police.

“Just like in Canada, if you misrepresent your identity, that’s a criminal charge,” her lawyer Raoul Boulakia told The Canadian Press on Sunday.

“So what the Canadian government told the Kenyan government is, ‘This lady is not the lady in the passport. She is lying. This isn’t her.”‘

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#8 — Globe | Recession, broken promises posing health disaster: AIDS experts

At one of their most politically charged conferences ever, AIDS scientists are warning of a looming health catastrophe because of the global recession and the “criminal” silence of world leaders on their faltering HIV-AIDS promises.

Thousands of people are dying unnecessarily of AIDS every day because of a growing gap between what science demands and what politicians deliver, Canadian scientist Julio Montaner told the conference.

Even as wealthy countries are providing full access to AIDS medicine for their own citizens, up to 12 million people in poorer countries are unable to get the life-saving medicine they desperately need, Dr. Montaner told the International AIDS Society Sunday night.

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# 9 — Globe | Vancouver ranks first for net worth

Vancouver has stolen Calgary’s crown as the city with the highest net worth.

In a soon-to-be-published database that looks at how Canadians handled their wealth during the rapid change of fortunes that marred 2008, Environics Analytics exposes profound changes in the way people approach their wealth.

Canadians have seen their nest eggs shrivel, beefed up their savings, scaled back their borrowing, and embraced caution, an abrupt change in attitude that will likely persist, says Catherine Pearson, vice-president of Environics Analytics in Toronto.

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#10 — Globe | Charge Mounties in taser case, Polish watchdog says

Poland’s top civil-rights watchdog says B.C. prosecutors should reconsider their decision not to charge four Mounties involved in a fatal confrontation with Robert Dziekanski due to “new facts” that have arisen from the provincial Braidwood inquiry into his death.

“New facts call for a reassessment of the previous decision,” a spokesman for Warsaw-based Janusz Kochanowski told The Globe and Mail in one of a series of e-mails, outlining the ombudsman’s view of the case.

“In the opinion of the ombudsman, criminal charges should be laid in this case,” Miroslaw Wroblewski, director of the international law department in Mr. Kochanowski’s office, wrote last week.

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#11 — NP | Prentice excited, exasperated by Mackenzie pipeline review

OTTAWA — Environment Minister Jim Prentice has condemned as “outrageous” the tripling of the time and cost to $18.6-million of an environmental review of the largest construction proposal in Canadian history — the Mackenzie Valley gas project.

At the same time, Prentice expressed excitement in an interview from Yellowknife, N.W.T., that the results of the review, an important milestone in the approval process, appears to be within sight.

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#12 — NP | Alberta MLA To Stay On Despite Being Ejected From Tory Caucus

An Alberta MLA has said he will not stand down, despite being ejected from the Tory caucus. Guy Boutilier spoke defiantly Saturday, saying said he was “shocked” by Premier Ed Stelmach’s phone call late Friday, informing he was out of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative caucus for voicing his displeasure at a stalled nursing home development in his riding. “Let’s be very clear — I will not apologize for doing that, and I will continue to represent the views of my constituents as an independent,” Boutilier said. “I’ve done nothing wrong.” Boutilier’s future isn’t clear, but other parties could embrace him. Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann said he would enjoy a conversion with Boutilier “when he is ready.” “It is increasingly clear that Mr. Stelmach does not tolerate dissent,” he said.

#13 — OC | Central bank not expected to change rate

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada on Tuesday is scheduled to announced a decision on interest rates, but the formality is not expected to result in any change.

Barring unforeseen developments, the central bank has committed to keeping its key lending rate at a minuscule 0.25 per cent until the middle of next year.

Economists say the only thing that would prompt the bank’s policy-makers to reconsider this strategy would be the emergence of a risk for an unacceptable level of inflation.

But that doesn’t look likely after the latest inflation figure released Friday, which showed Canada’s consumer price index for June in the negative for the first time in almost 15 years, at minus 0.3 per cent.

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#14 — MG | Earl Jones’s wife, daughters break silence

MONTREAL – For more than a week, Maxine Jones has kept her silence as the shocking details of her husband’s alleged wide-reaching financial fraud were revealed.

But on Sunday, Earl Jones’s wife and two adult daughters broke their silence for the first time, making public a statement saying they were “devastated” by what the self-styled financial adviser was reported to have done and expressing their “profound regret” for the pain and suffering he caused. They apologized to Jones’s clients, and say they, too, are experiencing “shock, grief, shame and outrage.”

“The Earl Jones we knew was a loving husband, a devoted father and grandfather, and a respected member of the community,” the statement said. “The Earl Jones who has been revealed in recent days is a man we can scarcely believe exists.”

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#15 — Star | Sudden visa change spoils wedding plan

At least 20 wedding guests aren’t coming, and the honeymoon is over.

Katie Murphy and Jose Gonzalez have prepared for their Aug. 15 wedding in Toronto for more than a year, but family and close friends from Mexico – including the groom’s parents and siblings – will miss the special occasion because of new visa requirements imposed by the federal government.

The guests, who booked flights months ago, have been scrambling to put together documents for their visa applications at the Canadian embassy since last Monday, when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made the surprise announcement about the visa restrictions for Mexican and Czech travellers to curb what he called mounting “bogus” refugee claims.

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