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B.C. in court against pharma companies in bid to certify opioid class-action lawsuit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government goes up against dozens of health care and pharmaceutical companies in court today in a bid to get certification for a class-action lawsuit over the costs of the opioid crisis.It comes even after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed this month to hear a constitutional challenge by four of the companies who say a law allowing B.C. to recover costs on behalf of other governments is an overreach.Those companies then went back to the Supreme Court of B.C. to seek a delay of the certification hearing while the high court rules, but the judge said an adjournment wasn’t in the interests of justice.The province began the legal odyssey in August 2018 by passing the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, seeking costs from firms alleged to have contributed to opioid addiction. B.C. declared a public health emergency in 2016 over the crisis, and since then nearly 13,000 people have died of overdoses in the province. The certification h...

Buyer beware: porch piracy set to ramp up with holiday season fast approaching

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

TORONTO — You’ve been tracking your online shopping haul for days. It’s finally the day your package is set to arrive at your doorstep. But when you get home in the evening, the package is not there.A recent FedEx survey shows porch thefts have risen over the last two years, with 28 per cent of respondents reporting they’ve had packages stolen by so-called porch pirates in the past. That compares to 24 per cent of respondents in 2022 and 20 per cent in 2021.Seventy per cent of surveyed respondents expressed worries about their unattended packages being stolen after delivery.“It’s a natural concern,” said James Anderson, a spokesperson with FedEx Express Canada. “It’s always in the back of your mind — ‘What happens with my package (when I’m not home)?'”Despite the increase in thefts, the survey found only seven per cent of respondents reported it to police. “Look — you’re a victim of a crime. Contact the po...

Search for answers underway after Winnipeg shooting left three dead, two injured

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

Winnipeg residents are waiting for more information as investigators work to piece together what led up to a downtown shooting Sunday that killed three people and left two others in hospital with critical injuries.City Police Const. Jason Michalyshen has said officers were called to a home shortly after 4 a.m., where they found five people wounded.Michalyshen said a man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene, while three were taken to hospital. One man later died, and a man and a woman were receiving medical care.He said the investigation is in its infancy, as no arrests have been made, a motive or possibility of a gang connection is still unknown and suspects are still being determined.It is also unknown if a weapon has been recovered, and Michalyshen said investigators can’t say how any of the victims may be related or known to each other until they have been identified.He did note there appeared to be multiple suites in the building where the shooting happened.In state...

Poor Inuit housing ‘direct result of colonialism’: federal housing advocate

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

OTTAWA — A federal housing advocate is accusing every level of government in Canada of failing to uphold the Inuit’s right to housing — and therefore denying their human rights. “The housing conditions that the Inuit inhabit are the direct result of colonialism and a staggering failure by successive federal, provincial and territorial governments over many decades,” says a new report from Marie-Josée Houle.“The level of distress cannot be understated, nor can the toll that being unhoused or precariously housed has on one’s physical, mental and emotional health.”To research the observational report about Inuit housing released on Monday, Houle travelled to northern communities on the invitation of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization that represents Inuit in Canada. The nonpartisan watchdog made the trip to hold discussions with community members and leaders in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut, in Labrador, in October of last year. Her report ...

Montreal to spend nearly $200M on snow removal as winter costs rise across Canada

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

MONTREAL — There’s a saying in municipal politics: win snow removal, win the day. But as inflation takes a toll on tight city budgets, the price of winning that battle is rising.Take Montreal, where a combination of high snowfall and dense streets result in the city running one of the biggest snow-clearing operations in the world. Every year, an army of workers head out to salt, plow and haul away snow from the city’s roughly 10,000 kilometres of streets, as well as sidewalks and some bike paths. The upcoming winter season is estimated to cost the city $200 million, according to executive committee member Maja Vodanovic.Earlier in November Mayor Valérie Plante cited the rising cost of snow removal — of up to 100 per cent year over year in some boroughs — as one of the reasons she had to increase property taxes by an average of 4.9 per cent in 2024. “That’s enormous,” she said, “but we’re not going to stop removing snow.”In an interview...

Wilders ally overseeing first stage of Dutch coalition-building quits over fraud allegation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A party ally of far-right Dutch election winner Geert Wilders on Monday quit his role in the building of a new governing coalition over fraud allegations, throwing the process of creating a new government into turmoil before it had begun.Gom van Strien, a senator for Wilders’ Party for Freedom, was appointed last week as a “scout” to discuss possible coalitions. He was set to meet Wilders and other party leaders on Monday, but those meetings were canceled.“It is annoying to start the exploration phase like this,” Vera Bergkamp, president of the lower house of the Dutch parliament, said in a statement. She added that “it is now important that a new scout is quickly appointed who can start work immediately.”Van Strien has denied wrongdoing after Dutch media reported that he was embroiled in a fraud case. But on Monday morning, he issued a statement saying that “both the unrest that has arisen about this and the preparation of a response to it”...

What's the authentic Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company's site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” he said ahead of Monday's announcement of this year's word. “What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”Sokolowski and his team don't delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words. Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate. This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased inte...

EU trade of goods with Russia remains low

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

EU trade with Russia has been strongly affected by import and export restrictions imposed by the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Both exports and imports have dropped considerably below the level prior to the invasion. Seasonally adjusted values show that Russia’s share in extra-EU imports fell from 9.5% in February 2022 to 2.0% in September 2023, while the share of extra-EU exports fell from 3.8 % to 1.4% in the same period.  Source dataset: ext_st_eu27_2020sitcIn March 2022, a peak trade deficit with Russia amounted to €18.6 billion due to high prices of energy products. This deficit was brought down to €0.1bn in March 2023 and did not change much until September 2023 when it amounted to €1bn. This change was heavily influenced by the drop in the monthly value of imports from Russia.Russia’s share in extra-EU imports has decreased for the majority of key productsAltogether, natural gas, petroleum oils, nickel, iron and steel and fertilisers account for around two-third...

Commission and High Representative/Vice-President reinforce their commitment to protect women and girls from violence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, the European Commission and the High Representative/Vice-President issued the following statement: “Globally, the rights of women and girls have faced threats, reductions, or complete elimination, significantly impeding progress achieved over decades. The European Union continues to stand up against all forms of violence against women and girls. We maintain our unwavering support for women and girls who have suffered from violence, as victims and survivors, and condemn the use of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war. Violence against women and girls is a scar on all societies. The facts are shocking: in the EU and across the world, one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence, including abuse, harassment, rape, sexual exploitation, genital mutilation, forced marriage and femicide. Invisible despair is what many women and girls have to live with. Protecting t...

Smokers’ lives at risk when they’re denied alternatives to cigarettes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:45 GMT

When dogma replaces science in public health policy, people pay with their lives. That was the stark warning from experts who took part in an online discussion hosted by the Italian cultural and political journal Formiche. There are more than a billion cigarette smokers in the world and if they don’t stop, half of them will die as a result. So it’s vitally important to adopt the most effective methods to get them to give up, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.Smoke-free nicotine products, such as vapes are 90% safer than smoking cigarettes and have proved highly effective at helping smokers to give up a habit that is likely to kill them. Nicotine is addictive but it’s the smoke that kills. Yet the only nicotine product the World Health Organisation is not currently trying to ban outright is cigarettes.That shocking observation was made by Dr Anders Milton, president of Sweden’s Snus Commission. Snus is a tobacco product almost unique to Sweden, which is not lit but simply placed un...