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Trudeau announces Sept. 16 byelections in ridings in Quebec, Manitoba

By: Alessia Passafiume

OTTAWA (CP) – A pair of federal byelections will be held in September to fill vacant seats in Quebec and Manitoba, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Sunday.

Voters will go to the polls in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Manitoba and the Montreal-area riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun on Sept. 16.

The Manitoba riding was held by the New Democratic Party until MP Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to go work for the office of the province’s Premier, Wab Kinew. 

Blaikie had held the federal seat since the 2015 election.

The Quebec riding was held by former Liberal justice minister David Lametti, who resigned in January after being excluded from Trudeau’s cabinet during a shuffle the previous summer.

The byelections will mark the first test for Trudeau’s Liberals since losing a June byelection in Toronto-St. Paul, a riding the Liberals had previously held for decades.


Work continues on six significant wildfires near B.C.’s Slocan Lake

B.C. (CP) – The incident commander in charge of the fight to control six wildfires in British Columbia’s Slocan Lake region says changing weather conditions in the area pose a challenge for crews.

Jason Lawler, incident commander with an Australian management team brought in to help, says what occurs in the morning can be very different than in the afternoons on some days.

In a video posted online by the BC Wildfire service, Lawler says layers of smoke are also making it difficult to deploy aircraft to help.

The entire village of Slocan, east of Kelowna, was ordered evacuated Sunday along with hundreds of surrounding properties as multiple fires burn nearby.

Mayor Jessica Lunn says the evacuation has been surreal, but she is comforted by the amount of support her community is receiving.


Intelligence task force to monitor all future byelections for foreign interference

OTTAWA (CP) – The Liberal government says measures to monitor and assess foreign interference threats will be part of all future federal byelections, not just general elections.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force will be watching for signs of meddling in two September byelections, one in Quebec, the other in Manitoba.

The federal body, established in 2019 to protect the electoral process, includes representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s cyberspy agency. 

The SITE task force already has some experience monitoring byelections this year and in 2023.

LeBlanc says the task force will provide intelligence assessments to a committee of deputy ministers. 

In turn, the committee will brief and advise ministers responsible for fighting foreign interference and shielding democratic institutions from harm.


Protesters, advocates worry Quebec is complicating access to health care in English

By: Joe Bongiorno

MONTREAL (CP) – Several dozen protesters gathered in front of a Montreal hospital on Saturday afternoon to protest Quebec’s French language reform law as anxieties deepen over the ability to access health-care services in languages other than French.

Mario Napolitano was one of the Bill 96 opponents demonstrating in front of Santa Cabrini Hospital. As one of the city’s health-care institutions that has bilingual recognition in the province, it is permitted to offer both signage and documents in Italian as well as French.

Sporting a T-shirt that read “English is a crime in Quebec,” Napolitano said he has been in touch with staff who feel they were pestered about the use of English by Quebec language watchdog staff when they visited the hospital earlier this week. 

The Office Québécois de la Langue Française issued a statement disputing both its conduct and mandate. It said the recent hospital visit was part of routine procedures to ensure health-care facilities are complying with the province’s French language charter, adding staff do not impede patients’ ability to access care in languages other than French.


Department of Fisheries untangles gear from humpback whale off B.C.’s coast

VANCOUVER (CP) – Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it has successfully untangled fishing gear on a humpback whale off British Columbia’s coast that was first spotted by a ferry passenger. 

Paul Cottrell, the department’s marine mammal co-ordinator, says a rescue team found the whale off Texada Island after the ferry passenger called it in on Thursday, and managed to free the animal from “recreational prawn gear” that was stuck in its mouth. 

Cottrell says the whale named Smoke was trailing more than 50 metres of line and gear, while still travelling quickly despite the entanglement, and it took them several hours to locate and free the animal. 

He says a team from the conservationist group Straitwatch was in the area when the report came in and attached a satellite tag and buoy to the gear being trailed by the whale, which helped them find the animal and begin rescue efforts.


Canada urges Venezuela to detail election results, Freeland cites ‘serious concerns’

OTTAWA (CP) – Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada has “serious concerns” about Sunday’s election results in Venezuela.

Opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez and incumbent Nicolas Maduro have both claimed victory.

Venezuela was the region’s most developed economy when Maduro took power in 2013, but he has since overseen an exodus of 7.7 million people fleeing hyperinflation and social unrest.

Maduro warned this month of a possible “bloodbath” if he doesn’t win the election by a large margin.

Freeland says Canada is “working closely with our partners” to respond to the election, and said Venezuelans were courageous for standing up to an authoritarian regime.

Global Affairs Canada is calling on Venezuelan authorities to “respect the will of the people” and to publish detailed results for all polling stations.

Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is Canada’s independent national news agency.

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