Highlights from the news file for Friday, May 26
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CANADA PUSHING FREE TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE AT G7: Canada will fight for the Paris agreement on climate change at the G7 summit in Sicily, even though President Donald Trump could back the U.S. out of the agreement. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says climate change is hugely important and Canada will fight for action to address the problem. She also says Canada is a trading nation and will always stand up for that.
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CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CANDIDATES MAKE FINAL PITCH FOR VOTES: The 13 Conservative leadership hopefuls make their final appeal to party members before this weekend’s voting deadline. Most party members have already likely voted by mail-in ballots, though some people can still cast ballots in person Saturday at the Toronto convention site and at polling stations across the country.
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NOVA SCOTIA ELECTION IN HOME STRETCH: It’s the final weekend of campaigning in the Nova Scotia election. The governing Liberals are sharpening up their attacks on the Conservatives, accusing them of not providing a fully costed campaign platform. The Conservatives meantime dismiss the accusation as a fabrication. Some polls suggest the possibility of a minority government, but all three major party leaders speculated little on the possibility.
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ALBERTA WOMAN HELD AGAINST HER WILL CRASHES THROUGH WINDOW TO ESCAPE: Police in South Carolina say an Alberta woman who was being held against her will in a trailer crashed through a plate-glass window to escape. The woman had been enticed to the United States with the promise of modelling work. Police allege she was held captive and sexually assaulted after the man who persuaded her to come to the U.S. threatened her safety and the safety of her family in Canada. They said the ordeal lasted five days.
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ONTARIO COMMUNITY LAUDED FOR PROTECTING TURTLES: An Ontario community is being held up as a good example of finding a way to prevent endangered reptiles from being killed. A causeway connecting Long Point on Lake Erie to mainland Ontario was ranked as the world’s fourth deadliest site for turtle road mortality in 2003. But the community has built roadway fencing and culverts to reduce the numbers of turtles and snakes dying on the causeway.
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NEWFOUNDLAND TOWN TRIES TO GET RID OF WHALE REMAINS: Municipal officials in Outer Cove are trying to come up with a plan to get rid of the remains of a humpback whale that washed ashore this week. Officials in the town just north of St. John’s had hoped the remains would be washed out with the tide, but the carcass is beached. Mayor John Kennedy says disposing of the whale requires approval from different government agencies, but the smell is becoming a problem.
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WOMAN WHO CARED FOR BABY MOOSE HEARTBROKEN ANIMAL WAS PUT DOWN: A Newfoundland woman who bottle-fed a baby moose after it got lost in the woods without its mother is heartbroken the local SPCA put the animal down. Brandi Calder said Friday she watched over the animal and contacted the SPCA, but once the agency picked up the moose, Calder said it was put down because a local nature park couldn’t take the calf.
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GRANDE PLANS RETURN CONCERT IN MANCHESTER: American singer Ariana Grande says she will return to Manchester for a benefit concert to raise money for attack victims and their families. A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded scores of others minutes after Grande’s concert at the Manchester Arena ended on Monday night. Grande says details are still being finalized.
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28 DEAD IN ATTACK IN EGYPT: The Vatican says Pope Francis is “saddened” by the “barbaric” attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt. In a condolence message sent on Friday to the Egyptian president, Francis said he’ll continue his “intercession for peace and reconciliation” throughout Egypt. Masked militants fired on a bus filled with Coptic Christians south of Cairo, killing at least 28 and wounding 22, the Egyptian Ministry said.
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TREASURE HUNTERS SUSPECTED OF DIGGING HOLES IN B.C. CEMETERY: Some digging has been detected in the cemetery of a ghost town in southern British Columbia and a member of the local historical society believes it’s the work of misguided treasure hunters. Bob Sterne has tended the cemetery in the former gold rush town of Granite Creek for more than a decade and says it’s disturbing. He says he checked the area after the Victoria Day long weekend and was surprised to find 16 new but familiar shallow holes where the ground had been dug up and replaced.
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