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Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

MONTREAL — Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December in an effort to accelerate contract negotiations with the provincial government. The four unions, who are negotiating together as a common front, say their 420,000 members will walk off the job from Dec. 8 to Dec. 14 if a deal isn’t reached before then.The unions represent the majority of Quebec’s elementary and high school teachers, as well as education support staff and a range of workers in the health-care system, including patient care aides and laboratory technicians.Workers represented by the four unions were on strike for three days last week and for a single day earlier in the month.The unions say the December strike will be the last temporary strike before their members begin an unlimited strike.A separate Quebec teachers union with more than 66,000 members began an unlimited strike last week.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2023.The Canadi...

Man in incel-inspired murder case gets life in prison, no parole for 10 yrs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

TORONTO — A man who pleaded guilty to the incel-inspired murder of a Toronto massage parlour employee sought out the ideology that led him to commit a “horrific crime,” an Ontario judge said Tuesday in sentencing him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.Though the man was 17 when he carried out the brutal attack with a sword in February 2020, sentencing him as a youth – which would cap the sentence at 10 years behind bars – would be “insufficient” to hold him accountable, Justice Sukhail Akhtar told the court. The stabbing that killed 24-year-old Ashley Noelle Arzaga and seriously injured a woman identified only by the initials J.C. was motivated by a violent and misogynistic ideology, the judge said.The man, who cannot be identified because he was underage at the time of the attack, “committed the crime after extensively researching the incel culture,” Akhar said.“I do not accept his … attempt at avoiding responsibi...

UN warns that gang violence is overwhelming Haiti’s once peaceful central region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Gangs are invading Haiti’s rural central region, suffocating a once peaceful area that served as the country’s food basket but that is now plagued by kidnappings, killings and rapes, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.Only a handful of powerful gangs operate in Lower Artibonite, a region located north of the Port-au-Prince capital, but they have laid waste to numerous communities with sparse police presence and a lack of basic government institutions, said the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.“A climate of fear reigns in Lower Artibonite, where murders, sexual violence, theft, destruction of property and other abuses are committed against the population on an almost daily basis,” the report stated.More than 1,690 people have been killed and more than 1,118 kidnapped in that region from January 2022 to October 2023, according to the U.N. Gang violence has forced another 22,000 people to flee their homes, more than half of them ch...

Customer sues Chopt eatery chain over salad that she says contained a piece of manager’s finger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (AP) — A customer has filed a lawsuit against the fast casual chain Chopt over a salad that she says contained a piece of the manager’s finger.The lawsuit filed Monday by Allison Cozzi of Greenwich, Connecticut, alleges that she bought a salad at a Chopt location in Mount Kisco, New York, on April 7, 2023, and realized while eating it that “she was chewing on a portion of a human finger that had been mixed in to, and made a part of, the salad.”According to the suit, a manager at the restaurant accidentally severed a piece of her left pointer finger while chopping arugula.The manager went to the hospital but the contaminated arugula was served to customers including Cozzi, the lawsuit says.Westchester County health department records show that Chopt was fined $900.Cozzi said in the lawsuit that she suffered injuries including shock, panic attacks, migraine, cognitive impairment, nausea, dizziness, and neck and shoulder pain as a result of eating the contaminat...

Conservative motion seeks support to order senators to pass carbon pricing bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants MPs to order the “unelected” Senate to pass a Tory bill that would take the carbon price off natural gas and propane used on farms. Poilievre introduced a motion in the House of Commons this morning looking to send a message to senators to pass Bill C-234.The House already passed the private member’s bill, and all but three Liberal MPs voted against it.It would remove carbon pricing from natural gas and propane used to heat farm buildings and grain dryers for eight years.It has been the subject of heated debate in the Senate, with one senator saying that online attacks from people who want the bill passed recently led to a threat that forced her to leave her home on the advice of police.Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the Conservatives didn’t think the Senate “was so unelected” when they tried to have the Senate block Liberal bills.This report by The Canadian Press was first published...

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits near Barbados but no damage is reported on the Caribbean island

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck near the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados on Tuesday. No immediate damage was reported.The quake occurred some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south-southwest of the capital of Bridgetown at a depth of 24 miles (39 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.There was no risk of a tsunami, according to Barbados Meteorological Services.Earthquakes are relatively infrequent in Barbados, with only an average annual of 13 tremors greater than magnitude 2.5, according to the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center.Only four small recorded tsunamis have affected Barbados in history, with the most recent reported in 1939, the center said.The Associated Press

Putin accuses the West of trying to ‘dismember and plunder’ Russia in a ranting speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, in a ranting speech before a presidential election campaign, cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia. Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades and is the longest-serving Russian leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, is expected to soon declare his intention to seek another six-year term in a presidential election next March.“We are defending the security and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia — a strong, independent power, a country-civilization,” Putin said, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.Ukraine and its Western allies have condemned the Russian action against Ukraine as an unprovoked act of aggression.“We are now fighting for the freedom of not only Russia, but the whole world,” Putin said in a speech to participants of a meeting organize...

British inquiry finds serious failings at hospitals where worker had sex with more than 100 corpses

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A British government-ordered inquiry said Tuesday it found serious failings at hospitals where an electrician who was later convicted of murder had been able to have sex with more than 100 corpses over a 15-year period without being detected. David Fuller’s necrophilia was uncovered in 2020 when police used DNA to tie him to the 1987 slayings of two women and also discovered millions of images of sexual abuse in his home. The images included videos of him having sex with the dead bodies of women and girls in the mortuaries at two hospitals where he worked in southeast England.“The offenses that David Fuller committed were truly shocking,” the 308-page inquiry report said. “However, the failures of management, governance, regulation and processes, and a persistent lack of curiosity, all contributed to the creation of the environment in which he was able to offend. “This is not solely the story of a rogue electrical maintenance supervisor. David Fuller’s vict...

Post linking Poilievre, Winnipeg shootings ‘inappropriate,’ says Liberal House leader

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

OTTAWA — Government House leader Karina Gould says it was inappropriate for one of her Liberal caucus colleagues to ask whether there is a link between Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and a fatal shooting in Manitoba.But Metro Vancouver Liberal MP Ken Hardie told The Canadian Press that he stands by his social media post and is not sorry he made it.Hardie posted Monday that the weekend shooting, which left four people dead in Winnipeg, was “beyond troubling” and asked if it was connected to a “burn everything down” attitude creeping in from the United States.His post on X, formerly known as Twitter, then referred to “the ‘creep’ on the Canadian side” and mentioned the official Opposition leader by name.Hardie also denies making a direct link to the shooting in Winnipeg, but notes he could have used a better example to make his point. Hardie says he was planting a seed with a series of questions to confront the attitude of the Cons...

Johnson unveils plan to move migrants into churches as tent camp construction to begin

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:41 GMT

CHICAGO — Mayor Johnson addressed Chicago's migrant crisis Tuesday morning and unveiled a plan to move some migrants into churches as a highly-discussed tent camp is scheduled to start construction.Johnson joined faith leaders and other charitable organizations to address the crisis at 10 a.m.A "unity initiative" will move some migrants out of police stations and into 17 churches as construction begins on the winterized tent camp Wednesday. It is planned to open in "mid-December."Buses will be working Wednesday morning to help move the migrants into the churches. Pregnant Women, children and those who have been sleeping outside will be prioritized. Pastor John Zayas said 20 migrants will stay at each church with social services and other needs provided. He added the 17 is only "the start of the network."Zayas also said $350,000 has been raised toward the effort and hope for $1 million by January.The city said around 1,100 are living at police districts across Chicago and around 150 ...