International News
The death toll of the Californian wildfires has risen to 87 with more than 600 people unaccounted for while an area approximately the size of Hong Kong has burned. A massive federal government climate report issued by the Trump administration and criticized by the White House says that the US is currently affected by human-caused climate change, and that climate change’s effects will only worsen as time passes.
The Israeli government will not collapse following Naftali Bennett and the Jewish Home Party’s decision not to leave the ruling coalition after the withdrawal of Avigdor Lieberman and the Israel Home. Lieberman resigned after Israel accepted a ceasefire with Palestinian militants which was made necessary following mutual escalation after a botched Israeli special forces raid on Palestinian territory.
The UK has agreed to a Brexit divorce deal with the European Union amid intense domestic criticism in the UK, acceptance by European leaders, and issues with the British overseas territory of Gibraltar and Spain. The UK’s Prime Minister is facing domestic opposition to her agreed Brexit deal from Brexit hardliners, those within her party who want another vote on the agreed deal, and from the opposition Labour party.
The war in Yemen has entered into a local ceasefire around an important port after Houthi leaders say they are joining a ceasefire begun by the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi leader says that they are ready to move towards a wider ceasefire in upcoming peace talks. Amid the continuing controversy over Jamal Koshoggi’s killing, Saudi royals are plotting to install Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz as King over current Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman partially due to Salman’s involvement in Koshoggi’s killing.
At least 42 people have been killed in an attack on a Catholic refugee camp in the Central African Republic which was sheltering 20 000 refugees. Local rebel group have been clashing in the area and set the camp on fire causing thousands to flee and the UN peacekeeping mission to send additional troops to the area to prevent the loss of more human life.
National News
Liberal Employment Minister Hajdu has tabled back-to-work legislation to force an end to the Canada Post strike and proposed a motion to have a vote on the matter and limit debate. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says that they will fight this legislation as it threatens the right to collective bargaining and that they won a similar challenge in court in 2011.
Indigenous women in Saskatchewan were coerced or forced into sterilization during or after childbirth or while seeking reproductive health services, according to a lawyer representing over 60 Indigenous women in a class-action lawsuit against the Saskatoon Health Region. Lawyer Alisia Lombard spoke to the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva and said that forced sterilization happened in 2009, 2011, and 2017 while the government cannot say with certainty that the process has stopped.
Liberal MP Raj Grewal has resigned due to what the Prime Minister’s Office calls a gambling problem amid a RCMP investigation and a possible Peel Regional Police investigation. The PMOs office is rumoured to call three upcoming byelections in February including former MP Grewal’s riding of Brampton East.
The Ontario government has announced the closure of the child advocate’s office, the French language commissioner, and the environment commissioner in cost-cutting measures that Conservatives say will knock millions off the deficit. Local government representatives, provincial representatives and those who work with children or the environment are all critical of the Conservative’s government’s decision to close these offices saying that the closures will be felt province-wide.
Finance Minister Morneau unveiled $595M of funding and tax breaks over the next five years to support the struggling journalism industry amid Conservative complaints that the measure is essentially a bribe to news media for positive support in an election year. To determine how the funding is allocated an independent panel will be establish from figures in news and journalism and full details on the plan will be revealed in the next federal budget.
Local News
The We’koqma’q First Nation is offering a $100 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the death of Cassidy Bernard, a 22 year old mother. Chief Rod Googoo says that there are too many unsolved cases concerning missing and murdered Indigenous women and wants to make sure that people in We’koqma’q feel safe.
Halifax’s emergency homelessness shelter Out of the Cold is opening a week early because beds at every other shelter in the city are full and people are being left outside in negative 20-degree weather with wind chill. The shelter opened Friday night and is one of multiple groups who have received part of $15 000 to support extreme weather response.
Abortion advocates in Nova Scotia say that access to the abortion pill is a major issue with wait times reaching up to three weeks, about a tenth of the length of a pregnancy. A Canadian Press investigation has shown that only one of six university health clinics will prescribe the abortion pill and that the barriers to abortion in Nova Scotia are both, “agonizing” and “cruel.
The Coast Guard ship, CCGS Corporal McLaren, was released from its cradle by vandals at the shipyard in Sambro where it slid down the slip and is partially submerged. The press secretary for the minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard says that a damage assessment and salvage plan is being established between the shipyard and the coast guard.
Crews are continuing to pick apart the Boeing 747 cargo plane that crashed when t overshot a runway at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport about two weeks ago with about half the plane being removed with heavy machinery. The Transportation Board of Canada is still undergoing their investigation and says that there have been an average of 9 overrun incidents in Canada each year since 2013.