In today’s news: LCBO workers strike after talks fail

This deadline passed and led to an official strike. The LCBO is disappointed that the OPSEU leadership initiated this.

The LCBO says its stores will now be closed for 14 days, but online ordering and free home delivery will still be available.

If the strike lasts longer than 14 days, the LCBO says 32 of its stores will reopen for in-person shopping, with operations continuing three days a week during limited hours.

Here’s what else we’ll be looking at…

Former minister criticizes Trudeau’s foreign relations

Former Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau says Canada has lost its standing in the world under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, criticizing him as an ill-prepared leader who prioritizes politics and makes big announcements without following through on them.

“I think Justin Trudeau overestimated Canada’s influence abroad,” Garneau writes in his autobiography, “A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream,” to be published in October by Penguin Random House.

While much of the book is a journey into Garneau’s military and astronaut career before his political career, the final third is devoted to his time as a member of parliament.

Garneau was first elected in 2008 as a Liberal MP for the Montreal constituency of Westmount-Ville Marie, which became Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount following boundary changes in 2015.

In 2013, he ran unsuccessfully for party leadership, eventually withdrew from the race and supported Trudeau, who won a landslide victory.

After the Liberals came to power in 2015, Garneau served in Trudeau’s cabinet for six years, including more than five years as transport minister. He spent the last nine months as foreign minister until Trudeau removed him from cabinet entirely after the 2021 election.

Calgary residents ready for stampede after water problems

Calgary residents can happily take a break from their water problems as the annual Stampede summer festival begins today with a parade downtown.

The parade comes exactly one month after a key water main burst in the northwest of the city, flooding streets and cutting off 60 percent of the city and surrounding communities’ drinking water supplies.

Crews worked hard to repair the line and found five more weak spots that needed to be fixed.

An order encouraging Calgary residents to reduce their indoor water use by 25 per cent by showering and flushing the toilet less often was lifted earlier this week.

The ban on outdoor watering remains in place as the water system is running at reduced capacity to maintain sufficient water in reserve for firefighting and the backup line is being tested.

The Stampede – a combination of fair, entertainment festival and rodeo competition – attracts thousands of visitors to the city every July.

Request for investigation into pollution by shipowners

Investigators from an international environmental organization want to examine whether Canada is violating its own laws by failing to stop the discharge of toxic waste into Pacific waters.

The body, created under the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, says there is evidence that Canada, despite having laws in place, is failing to stop the release of millions of tonnes of contaminated water from fuel scrubbers.

The concerns stem from the use of seawater to wash exhaust gas scrubbers, devices that remove acids, heavy metals and carcinogens from engine exhaust gases.

These chemicals end up in the wash water, which is then discharged into the sea.

According to Environment Canada figures, 88 million tonnes of washwater were lost overboard along the coast of British Columbia in 2022.

Researchers: Orphaned orca calf not seen since May 10

A whale research group involved in rescue efforts for an orphaned orca calf from a Vancouver Island lagoon said the animal had not been seen since May 10, although its family members had been sighted several times recently.

In a statement Thursday, Bay Cetology said the two-year-old female killer whale, nicknamed “kwiisahi?is,” or “Brave Little Hunter,” may have been traveling with an unseen pod, moving between orca groups, or “she may have disappeared.”

The statement said there have been several documented sightings of the calf’s maternal family and related groups of Biggs’ killer whales since the calf was released from the lagoon near the village of Zeballos on April 26.

But neither Bay Cetology, Fisheries and Oceans Canada nor other whale watchers have sighted Kwiisahi?is for almost eight weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press