Canada's Trudeau says evidence indicates Iran shot down Ukraine jet

OTTAWA—Canada has intelligence from multiple sources indicating a Ukrainian airliner that crashed on Wednesday near Tehran was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

US officials had earlier said the airliner was most likely brought down accidentally by Iranian air defenses. All 176 people on board, including 63 Canadians, were killed.


"We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile," Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa.

"This may well have been unintentional. This new information reinforces the need for a thorough investigation into this matter," he continued.

Trudeau said his government would not rest until it had obtained closure, transparency, accountability and justice.

He also said he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who told him that Iran would allow investigators from Kiev into the country.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Canada erupts as Raptors capture first ever NBA championship

Canadians erupted from coast to coast and all the way up to the Arctic on Thursday as the Toronto Raptors captured their first NBA championship in a country that is traditionally known as the home of hockey.

The Raptors clinched the series in Oakland, California in six games by beating the Golden State Warriors by 114-110 points, sealing a nationwide love affair with basketball.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets in downtown Toronto, the Raptors' home, well past midnight to celebrate the historic win.

Fans set off fireworks as confetti rained down, creating a carnival-type atmosphere on the streets of Canada's biggest city. The landmark CN Tower was bathed in gold light as cheering people walked by.

"And that is how we do it in the North," tweeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Raptors captured the hearts of Canadians as they progressed through the playoffs and into the final round against the two-time defending champion Warriors.

Jurassic Park, a public space outside Scotiabank Arena for viewing parties, was filled to its maximum capacity of 5,000 fans for every game in the best of seven series.

For Game 5 in Toronto, fans lined up for two days to get inside the park and set up camp.

As Toronto whipped itself into a frenzy the rest of Canada joined in, with cities across the country setting up their own "Jurassic Park" fanzones.

In Mississauga, just west of Toronto, 30,000 fans regularly attended viewing parties, while bars, restaurants and fanzones were packed from Vancouver to Halifax.

In Montreal, a city known for its passionate sports rivalry with Toronto, authorities closed off two downtown streets to allow fans to watch Game 6.

The fever spread as far as Rankin Inlet, a small Arctic town some 2,280 km (1,415 miles) north of Toronto, where children played well into the night under a sun that never sets in the summer.

LOSING STREAK

The Raptors snapped a long losing streak for Canadian teams in top North American leagues.

The Montreal Canadiens was the last team to win the Stanley Cup hockey championship in 1993, the same year the Toronto Blue Jays captured the baseball World Series.

The Raptors frenzy also set records for ticket prices.

Game 1, won by the Raptors in Toronto, posted an average ticket price of $1,400, a record for the first game of an NBA Finals, and the most expensive live event ticket in Toronto, according to ticket platform SeatGeek.

Tickets for Game 5 in Toronto soared as high as C$10,000 ($7,496.81) on Ticketmaster.

Game 5 set record viewership numbers in Canada for NBA games, the league said, with an average of 6.4 million viewers.

That means Game 5 was the most watched broadcast of 2019 in Canada.

"Nelson Mandela said how sport unites, and it's true," said Laurel Walzak, professor of sports media at Ryerson University.

"It's a moment in time where we can see the Toronto Raptors and basketball unite us as a country and brings us to feel like they're sharing experiences with one another," she said. ($1 = 1.3339 Canadian dollars)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Canada lawmakers vote to legalize cannabis

The Canadian parliament passed a bill Monday to legalize cannabis that would make Canada the first G7 country to allow free consumption of the mind-altering drug.

The bill was passed by 205 votes to 82 in the House of Commons. The legislation must now pass the Senate, and receive royal assent by the governor general before becoming law, likely by September.

The Senate could still delay its implementation, but not block it.

"We're probably looking at a date of implementation (of legalization) somewhere toward the beginning of September, perhaps mid-September," the Liberal government's pointman on the pot file, Bill Blair, told broadcaster CTV on Sunday.

Last week, the government rejected 13 out of 46 amendments to the bill proposed by the Senate after several months of study, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's health minister rising to defend home cultivation of cannabis and branded pot swag.

"Canadians are allowed to make beer at home, or wine," Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said Friday.

"It is already possible for Canadians to grow cannabis for medical purposes and we absolutely believe the legislation should be consistent when it comes to recreational cannabis."

The government, she said, would follow its expert panel's recommendation to allow at-home cultivation of up to four pot plants for personal use.

As for the proposed advertising restrictions, she said the bill already contains limits such as a requirement for plain packaging.

Legalizing weed was a 2015 campaign promise of Trudeau, who has admitted having smoked a joint with friends "five or six times."

An initial July 1 target was set for ending the pot prohibition that dates back to 1923.

Despite political setbacks, Trudeau has insisted his government would move to legalize the production, sale and consumption of the psychoactive drug this year.

Statistics Canada has estimated that the market will be worth Can$5.7 billion ($4.5 billion US), based on last year's consumption data.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bracing for Trump, some in Canada see 'nothing good'

OTTAWA - Canada is one of America's closest allies and its largest trading partner but observers there worried Wednesday that a Donald Trump presidency might change that.

The real estate mogul, reality TV star and now US president-elect campaigned on isolationist and protectionist policies that horrified many Canadians.

But a lack of detail in his plans has made it hard to pin down the nature of the monster under the bed.

There is "nothing good" for Canada in any of it, according to Louis Belanger, a political science professor at Laval University in Quebec.

"The overall impact is likely to be negative," agreed Charles St-Arnaud, an analyst with Nomura Global Economics. "But it depends on the policies that will be put in place."

Canada sends about 75 percent of everything it produces south, amounting to a huge US$1.8 billion in daily trade with the United States.

So Trump's call to renegotiate, or if that fails, to nix the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that binds 530 million consumers in Canada, the United States and Mexico, has caused alarm among many Canadians.

The unfettered flow of goods and people across the 49th parallel that separates the two nations "is vital for bilateral trade" and "critical to our economic health," said Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Canada's exports to the US account for 20 percent of its gross domestic product.

Most analysts predict a drop in trade if Trump follows through with protectionist measures, with Desjardins Bank in Montreal last week predicting a recession in Canada if the US withdraws from NAFTA.

St-Arnaud, however, noted that the trade agreement is also important for the US, which sends 12.5 percent of its exports to Canada.

A drop in overall trade may also be mitigated by increased oil exports to the United States.

Canada's oil sector, which accounts for about 10 percent of its GDP, has been hit hard in the last year by plunging prices and a temporary halt in operations due to wildfires in May.

A transcontinental pipeline had been proposed in 2008 to move oil from the Alberta oil sands to US Gulf Coast refineries and greatly expand Canada's oil output, but US President Barack Obama, under pressure from environmentalists, has blocked the Keystone XL project.

Trump has vowed to relaunch it.

"People (in Canada) are appalled that the United States would elect a man who is a misogynist and a racist, but there is new hope for the Keystone XL pipeline," said Stephen Randall, a history professor at the University of Calgary and co-author of the book "Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies."

Others insisted the US would never seek to curb trade with Canada since their economies are so heavily intertwined.

Auto parts built in Detroit, Michigan, for example, may be sent to a plant in Windsor, Ontario, for assembly before the finished cars are sent back to the US for sale to consumers.

Thirty-four US states rely on trade with Canada, which supports nine million American jobs.

"On a day-to-day basis, billions of dollars in trade cross the border back and forth and that isn't going to change," said Randall.

Either way, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who traveled to the US to observe the election, told AFP: "Canada will need to engage actively (with the US), including with the general public, and be prepared to explain the benefit of both our countries that flow from security and economic cooperation."

Good relations between leaders have in the past helped smooth over differences.

"I can't see Trump and (Canadian Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau being particularly amiable with each other on a whole range of issues," Randall said. "Trump's social agenda runs completely counter to everything Canada's Liberal government stands for, including same-sex marriage, legal marijuana, abortion."

But, he added, "There's always been some disparity" between US and Canadian leaders, both in policy and personal terms.

And the two nations have remained close partners throughout the years.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Trudeau seeks climate consensus from natives and Canada's 10 provinces

VANCOUVER, Canada – Canadian aboriginal leaders demanded Wednesday a bigger role in the country's fight against climate change, on the eve of a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial leaders, as a self-imposed national deadline looms to start cutting CO2 emissions.

"It was a good start. Climate change and clean energy are issues that must be dealt with," Metis National Council president Clement Chartier told reporters. "But we want to be included in a meaningful way, not just as bit players." The council represents indigenous Canadians.

"We need more input," said Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "Indigenous people know how to protect the land and the water."

Trudeau started Wednesday with the "sunny ways" theme his Liberal government has promoted since winning last fall's election after 10 years of a Conservative government that resisted climate change measures.

"We begin from the common goal we all share," Trudeau said. "We want a low carbon economy (...) and we need to make smart, strategic investments in clean growth and new infrastructure."

But bringing together the fractious leaders of the sprawling and diverse nation to make those "smart investments" will test the new prime minister's ability to broker change.

Trudeau has pledged to at least meet the previous government's promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

But one goal of the First Ministers meeting in Vancouver is to convince all levels of government, who share jurisdiction over the environment, to make deeper cuts.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said that by the end of March she hopes Canadian leaders will agree to help keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Each province has vastly different economic circumstances and goals, and many have already started taking their own tailored approach to reducing emissions, which Trudeau has encouraged.

British Columbia and Alberta, for example, have carbon taxes, while Ontario and Quebec are members of a fledgling continental cap and trade system started in California.

Newfoundland and Labrador premier Dwight Ball, chairman of the Council of the Federation -- a congress comprising the premiers of Canada's provinces and territories -- told a Wednesday press conference that carbon management mechanisms can range from the use of new technologies that mitigate or capture ask store carbon, to policies that encourage the market place to reduce or eliminate emissions. That would include setting a price on carbon.

But hopes for a nation-wide carbon tax are threatened by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall's vow to reject a carbon tax, which he says will cost the prairie province's economy up to Can$1 billion.

"Now is not the time, and I’m not sure the time is going to be right anytime soon," he told reporters Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Premier Christy Clark of British Columbia -- which introduced North America’s first carbon tax eight years ago -- lauded the success of the provincial tax but warned against raising it at a time of global economic weakness.

"The last thing government should do is to add to (people's) tax burden," she said before meeting with the other premiers.

Clark also pushed her government’s controversial campaign to establish a Liquified Natural Gas industry on Canada’s west coast, beset by plunging energy prices and opposition from environmentalists and some aboriginal groups.

Wide variations in current carbon prices -- from Can$15 per metric ton in Ontario to Can$30 in British Columbia -- could also impede attempts to reach consensus.

On Wednesday, Trudeau pledged tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for research into alternative energy and to help municipalities adapt to warming, including revising building codes to boost energy efficiency.

Alluding to Quebec seeking an injunction to block a pan-Canadian pipeline from Alberta to Atlantic Coast refineries, Trudeau said "the choice between pipelines and wind turbines is a false one."

He said Canada, which is the world's fifth largest oil producer, must continue to exploit its vast natural resources in order to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Addressing climate change "is one of the great global projects of our time, and I know Canada is ready to take it on," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Good looks, hot body: Meet Canada's new PM Justin Trudeau

Liberal Party's Justin Trudeau, 43, won Canada's general elections with a landslide victory last Monday, ending the nine-year rule of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

While a young politician’s victory over a more seasoned one is enough to get wide media coverage, Trudeau got more than what he was asking for.

Soon after the announcement of his victory, the Internet and the social media were flooded by netizens gushing over the new prime minister's good looks and hot body. Some even said Trudeau is good reason enough to move to Canada.

These photos of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau show why netizens are gushing over the new world leader.

Mobile users can view the desktop version of this slideshow here.

 That smile. Trudeau walks on the tarmac after arriving in Saint John, New Brunswick, October 17, 2015. Photo by Chris Wattie, Reuters

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Canada officially enters recession

OTTAWA - Reeling from low oil prices, Canada fell into a recession in the first half of the year, government data confirmed Tuesday, putting Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the defensive in the run-up to October elections.

According to Statistics Canada, the economy contracted 0.5 percent in the second quarter after retreating 0.8 percent in the previous three months.

It is Canada's second recession in seven years and it is the only Group of Seven nation in economic retreat. The figures are the weakest since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The data reflects fears about the health of the global economy as more gloomy evidence emerged of a slowdown in China, a main engine of growth worldwide.

Harper, whose Tories are trailing their rivals in opinion polls ahead of the October 19 election, blamed the overseas turmoil for Canada's woes, and emphasized an expansion in the economy in June.

"We are living, once again, in a time of ongoing global economic instability," Harper said.

"Obviously there has been challenges, particularly in the energy and some commodity sectors because of falling prices. But the fact of the matter is over 80 percent of the Canadian economy has been growing."

Canada, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, has been hit particularly hard by the halving of world oil prices from above $100 last year.

In the second quarter, its mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector posted a "notable decrease" for a second consecutive quarter, said the government statistical agency.

Analysts said the damage however could be limited.

"Despite the weak start to the year, there is good reason to believe that the worst is over," said TD economist Brian DePratto.

DePratto cited the sharp increase in GDP in June, "providing positive momentum to start the second half of the year." He predicted a "sharp rebound" in the third quarter with growth reaching 2.5 percent by year's end.



- Harper under fire -

On the campaign trail, where the economy has dominated the debate, opposition parties pounced on the grim data, urging voters to send the Tories packing.

"Under Stephen Harper, this has been Canada's lost decade," leftist New Democratic Party candidate Andrew Thomson told a press conference in Ottawa.

"Ten years of job losses, continued crumbling of infrastructure, tax breaks for the wealthy and a situation where the middle class continues to struggle to get ahead, 150 billion dollars in new debt and two recessions -- people are telling us they have had enough."

Thomson -- whose critiques were echoed by the Liberals -- said the Conservatives' stewardship of the economy has been a failure.

"We need to bring change to Ottawa," he said.

Harper has insisted that, oil aside, the rest of the economy is doing well, although the figures point to broad declines in a third of sectors.

At a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, he urged voters to support his party's leadership, saying he had "the proven experience to keep us safe and keep our economy moving forward."



- Business investment down -

In the second quarter, business outlays for machinery and equipment, communications and audio and video equipment, furniture, fixtures and prefabricated structures, and intellectual property products fell.

New housing construction decreased, but this was mitigated by an increase in renovations and strong resale activity, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadians also bought more cars and trucks, insurance and financial services, as well as food, beverages and accommodation services in the period.

Overall, exports edged up 0.1 percent after decreasing 0.3 percent in the first quarter. Imports declined 0.4 percent.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

No white Christmas for much of Canada for the first time

OTTAWA - Most Canadians will not wake up to a white Christmas on December 25 for the first time since Canada's weather office began recording snowfalls in 1955, the government agency said Wednesday.

With just days before the Christian holiday, Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips told AFP he has never seen so little snowpack in Canada's cities.

And the forecast for the coming days is sunny and very mild.

"A white Christmas is usually a sure thing in Canada, but not this year," Phillips said.

"We are usually the snowiest country in the world," he said. "But this year, like no other since we've been monitoring in 56 years, there will be many Canadians just dreaming of a white Christmas and not getting one."

For a city to qualify as having a white Christmas, Environment Canada must note at least two centimeters (0.79 inches) of snow on the ground at 7 am on December 25.

This month has been on average six to seven degrees (Celsius) warmer than normal and most snow that has fallen has melted soon after hitting the ground.

Gander, Newfoundland -- usually "the snowiest place in Canada" -- only has a trace of snow on the ground today, Phillips noted.

Winnipeg, Manitoba -- once ranked the coldest metropolis on Earth -- usually has a 98 percent chance of snow at Christmas. But temperatures in the west of the country are expected to hover just above freezing in the coming days.

Other cities in the east like Saint John's, Newfoundland have a few centimeters of snow on the ground but rain is forecast.

Phillips said Canadian winters are generally becoming milder, and starting later, and so the idea of a white Christmas may be something of the past.

He pointed to a combination of climate change and an "urban heat island effect" created by Canada's growing cities. High energy use generates heat that is retained by materials in urban developments, resulting in areas that are consistently hotter than surrounding rural areas. — Agence France Presse

source:gmanetwork.com