Joy in Newfoundland after ‘Lucky 7′ fishers survive harrowing days lost at sea
By: Sarah Smellie
NEW-WES-VALLEY, N.L. (CP) – There was a powerful word being repeated in the joyful Newfoundland community of New-Wes-Valley on Sunday: “Miracle.”
Over and over, residents out walking or chatting to one another in local stores described the rescue of seven fishermen from the area who had somehow survived two days in a life-raft on the Atlantic ocean as nothing short of miraculous.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for returning our men,” Betty Lou Pollett told a crowd of hundreds at the end of a community parade held to celebrate the fishers’ return.
The Elite Navigator fishing boat and its crew seemed to vanish on Wednesday night after several days at sea fishing for turbot. The craft was reported missing on Thursday after transmitting its final signal at around 8:30 p.m. the night before, the Canadian Coast Guard said. The vessel had caught fire, forcing the crew to abandon the ship and wait for rescue on the life-raft.
In New-Wes-Valley, which is an amalgamation of three small fishing communities along Newfoundland’s northeast coast, people braced for the worst. Fishing is among Canada’s deadliest professions, and tragedy is a common thread linking coastal communities across Atlantic Canada.
But on Friday night, out on the ocean, searchers saw a light from a flare. It brought them to a life-raft, where the seven fishermen — who people are now calling the Lucky 7 — were waiting.
The men spent about 50 hours adrift in the raft about 220 kilometres away from land, said Eugene Carter, the crew’s captain. The fire broke out on Wednesday night in a locker on the main deck when they were just a couple of hours into a 25-hour journey home, he said.
Canadian killed near Gaza border after threatening forces with knife: Israeli police
OTTAWA (CP) – Israeli police say a Canadian citizen was killed Monday after threatening Israeli security forces with a knife near the Gaza border.
The Israeli military says the man drove to the entrance of an Israeli town close to the border, left his vehicle and approached the security forces with a knife.
The forces opened fire and killed the man. There were no other injuries.
The attack, which comes amid a wave of stabbings across the country during the nine-month war in Gaza, took place at the entrance of the Israeli town of Netiv HaAsara, which is just 300 metres north of the Gaza border.
Canada’s airports, hospitals begin returning to normal after global IT outage
By: Joe Bongiorno
MONTREAL (CP) – Airports, hospitals and police services across Canada continued their gradual return to normal operations on Saturday as they recovered from a global technology outage caused by a defective update to computers using Microsoft Windows.
And as systems around the world continued to come back online, one security expert warned Canadians can expect more disruptions down the road unless industry practices change.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said Friday’s glitch felt round the world occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, adding the resulting outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
The glitch also reared its head in the Canadian health care sector. Staff at British Columbia’s hospitals and health facilities had to pivot to paper to manage everything from lab work to meal orders during the outage.
By Saturday, health-care organizations like Toronto’s University Health Network and the provincial health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador all announced regular operations had been restored.
Meanwhile in Edmonton, police say 911 lines have been restored after a major disruption to emergency communications.
Second B.C. university issues trespass notice to pro-Palestinian protesters
VICTORIA (CP) – The University of Victoria in British Columbia says it has told the pro-Palestinian protesters at an on-campus encampment that they are trespassing, setting the stage for the camp’s removal.
The protesters say on their group social media page that the university administration has told them to “vacate by 8 a.m. Monday,” but add in a separate post that they are planning a rally at the camp instead.
The university says in its latest encampment update that it has “taken a calm, measured and reasoned approach” to the protest since it was set up on May 1, but administrators “see no further prospect for a successful dialogue.”
In response, protesters naming themselves “People’s Park UVIC” confirm on social media that the school has issued them a trespass notice, but add that the group is planning a “trespass breakfast” at the deadline time and calling for supporters to attend.
The latest development comes about a week after Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C. launched legal action against protesters there for allegedly ignoring a deadline to leave their camp after issuing a trespass notice on July 11.
Trudeau and family head to British Columbia for vacation in unnamed location
OTTAWA (CP) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will head to British Columbia on Sunday, where he will be on vacation with his family until Aug. 1.
A government official says the Prime Minister’s Office is not disclosing the specific location for security reasons.
Spokesman Mohammad Hussain says in an email that Trudeau travels on government aircraft as required, and will reimburse the equivalent of a commercial airline ticket for himself and his family.
Hussain says Trudeau will also pay for his family’s stay.
The PMO has consulted with the Ethics Commissioner’s office about the trip.
Trudeau and his family vacationed in B.C. last summer and in Costa Rica in the summer of 2022.
Proposed class-action lawsuit filed over Calgary water main break
By: Bob Weber
CALGARY (CP) – A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the City of Calgary, claiming businesses needlessly lost significant revenue due to a water main break.
In a statement of claim filed Wednesday, Angel’s Cafe, located near the June 5 water main rupture, alleges the city knew the failed pipe was made of lower-grade materials and should have moved to prevent the failure.
The break in the pipe, which carries 60 per cent of the city’s water, caused major disruptions for the city’s 1.6 million residents and those in surrounding communities. It flooded a neighbourhood and forced a boil-water advisory in that part of the city.
All residents were asked to cut their water use by 25 per cent. They were urged to flush toilets less often and take shorter showers. Watering lawns and gardens was forbidden for weeks, unless it was from rain barrels.
The lawsuit has to be certified by the courts to proceed as a class action. Angel’s Cafe is currently the only plaintiff named in the claim.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Police seize over 30 stolen vehicles, thousands of dollars in Montreal area
MONTREAL (CP) – Quebec provincial police have announced the seizure of more than 28 vehicles and thousands of dollars in the Montreal area this week as part of their fight against organized vehicle theft in the province.
Police spokesperson Nicolas Scholtus says that following an investigation that began in March investigators searched buildings and vehicles in the Montreal area on Thursday targeting a criminal gang exporting stolen vehicles.
In addition to the vehicles, police also found over $17,000 in Canadian currency, over $35,000 US and a half dozen cellphones.
The busts were carried out by a mixed squad of officers from various police forces – including provincial police and Montreal police – tasked with fighting organized crime.
Canada’s second-largest port has become a key transport hub for stolen vehicle exports, with police finding nearly 600 stolen vehicles, most of them from the Toronto area, in the shipping containers at the port between December 2023 and March 2024.
