Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denounced “symbols of hatred and division” that were on display during mass demonstrations by anti-vaccine truckers and their supporters in the capital, Ottawa.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trudeau said that while people have a right to protest, “hate can never be the answer”.
“Over the past few days, Canadians were shocked and frankly disgusted by the behaviour displayed by some people protesting in our nation’s capital,” Trudeau said during a news conference.
“I want to be very clear: We are not intimidated by those who hurl insults and abuse at small business workers and steal food from the homeless. We won’t give in to those who fly racist flags. We won’t cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonour the memory of our veterans.”
Participants in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” began arriving in Ottawa on Friday from across the country, and a crowd of thousands marched through the city the next day to denounce a coronavirus vaccine mandate for truckers driving across the Canada-US border.
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While some protesters raised grievances with the vaccine mandate and wider COVID-19 policies in Canada, experts last week pointed out that known far-right activists who espouse Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and other hateful views were among the event organisers.
Images shared on social media during the weekend showed protesters waving flags with swastikas on them, as well as US Confederate flags – which civil rights groups say is a symbol of white supremacy.
Global News journalist Marc-Andre Cossette also tweeted a photo of a flag of the Three Percenters, a far-right, anti-government militia that Canada designated as a “terrorist” organisation last year, that was draped to the hood of a truck parked near Parliament Hill.
“To anyone who joined the convoy but is rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display: join with your fellow Canadians, be courageous and speak out – do not stand for or with intolerance and hate,” Trudeau said on Monday.
Far more concerning are the extremists leading this protest and their supporters among the crowd. The Nazi and Confederate flags were flown in Ottawa this weekend. The flag of the Three Percenters, a listed terrorist entity, was draped over the hood of a truck parked by the Hill. pic.twitter.com/XMLz4gINWB
Many Canadians also were angered when demonstrators parked vehicles on the site of a monument to fallen soldiers, as well as defaced a statue of Terry Fox, a widely revered, late Canadian athlete who ran across the country in the 1980s to raise money for cancer research after one of his legs was amputated.
Meanwhile, Ottawa residents have complained of incessant honking and restrictions on movement in the downtown area, where many of the protesters have parked their vehicles, while others said they were verbally harassed and intimidated.
“People live in the downtown; they’re sick and tired of the diesel fumes and the honking of the horn. Their kids can’t get to sleep. They feel fearful,” Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said in an interview with CBC News on Monday morning.
“We’ve had a number of occasions where people have been intimidated and yelled at for wearing a mask outside,” Watson said. “It just is illogical. Even their theme of coming here to fight for freedom – you’re fighting against some of the rare tools we have to fight COVID-19.”
A person carries a Confederate flag in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, January 29 [Patrick Doyle/Reuters]
Shepherds of Good Hope, a homeless shelter in downtown Ottawa, said in a statement on Sunday that staff and volunteers in its soup kitchen were subjected to “verbal harassment and pressure” from protesters seeking meals.
One member of the shelter community was assaulted by protesters, the shelter said, and a security guard who went to the person’s aid “was threatened and called racial slurs”.
A reporter at the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, Elizabeth Payne, also cited a spokesperson for the Ottawa Paramedic Service as reporting that rocks were thrown at an ambulance and racial slurs were made against the paramedic from a truck that was part of the protest convoy. “Paramedics working downtown asked for police escorts because they didn’t feel safe,” she tweeted.
Catherine McKenney, an Ottawa city councillor, tweeted on Monday morning that she had heard from hundreds of residents “who are tired & frightened at what they are experiencing in their neighbourhoods”.
She said she would attend a meeting with city and police officials to raise those concerns. “And I will say that we need to call on the provincial and federal governments for help. We have been patient but we are fed up. It’s time to get our city back,” McKenney wrote.
Some Ottawa residents have criticised police for their response to the demonstrations.
In a statement on Sunday, the Ottawa Police Service said the cost of policing the protest is estimated at more than $800,000 Canadian ($628,000) per day, but said “police have avoided ticketing and towing vehicle[s] so as not to instigate confrontations with demonstrators”.
Illegal & disturbing activity continues throughout our residential neighborhoods. I’ve heard from 100s of residents who are tired & frightened at what they are experiencing in their neighbourhoods. I am hearing reports of trucks driving through red lights without pausing. /1
“Police are aware that many demonstrators have announced their intention to stay in place. This will continue to cause major traffic, noise and safety issues in the downtown core. We urge all residents to avoid travel” to the area, it said.
Even before protesters began arriving in Ottawa, organisers openly said their intention was to disrupt day-to-day life in the Canadian capital.
Organisers also said the demonstration went beyond the vaccine mandate for truck drivers, a vast majority of whom are vaccinated, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), a federation of provincial trucking associations that has denounced the protests. Some participants have vowed to remain outside Parliament Hill in Ottawa until all coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
“This is no longer about the mandate any more,” said Jason LaFace, the convoy’s main organiser in Ontario, who is not a trucker, as reported by CityNews last week. “This is about Canada, this is about our rights and how the government’s been manipulating the population and oppressing us all the time.”
Barbara Perry, a professor at Ontario Tech University and director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, told Al Jazeera last week that the convoy has brought together “anti-vax sentiment, anti-lockdown sentiment, anti-government sentiment – and then even beyond that, the far-right [is] coming into play”.
The protesters began arriving in Ottawa on Friday afternoon [Patrick Doyle/Reuters]
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars, it could further clog the city’s already gridlocked streets.
Swift’s shows collide with other scheduled events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Toronto Raptors game on Friday and a Toronto Maple Leafs game on Saturday.
Some locals have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals, until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Ultimately, everybody agreed they just didn’t want to deal with that,” he said.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window.”
Dayani says the group rescheduled the birthday party for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, has suggested his employees stay away from the company’s downtown offices on concert days, since he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” he said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been preparing for over a year to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to the transit routes around the stadium, while the TTC has consulted with the city on how to handle potential emergency scenarios.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts has incorporated the Professional Women’s Hockey League into its NHL 25 video game.
The six teams starting their second seasons Nov. 30 will be represented in “play now,” “online versus,” “shootout” and “season” modes, plus a championship Walter Cup, in the updated game scheduled for release Dec. 5, the PWHL and EA Sports announced Wednesday.
Gamers can create a virtual PWHL player.
The league and video game company have agreed to a multi-year partnership, the PWHL stated.
“Our partnership with EA SPORTS opens new doors to elevate women’s hockey across all levels,” said PWHL operations senior vice-president Amy Scheer in a statement.
“Through this alliance, we’ll develop in-game and out-of-game experiences that strengthen the bond between our teams, players, and fans, bringing the PWHL closer to the global hockey community.”
NHL 22 featured playable women’s teams for the first time through an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Toronto Sceptres forward Sarah Nurse became the first woman to appear on the video game’s cover in 2023 alongside Anaheim Ducks centre Trevor Zegras.
The Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens round out the PWHL. The league announced team names and logos in September, and unveiled jerseys earlier this month.
“It is so meaningful that young girls will be able to see themselves in the game,” said Frost forward Taylor Heise, who grew up playing EA’s NHL games.
“It is a big milestone for inclusivity within the hockey community and shows that women’s prominence in hockey only continues to grow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. continued to navigate weaker consumer demand in the third quarter as it looked ahead to the spinoff of its pork business in 2025.
“This environment has a particularly significant impact on a premium portfolio like ours and I want you to know that we are not sitting still waiting for the macro environment to recover on its own,” said CEO Curtis Frank on a call with analysts.
Frank said the company is working to adapt its strategies to consumer demand. As inflation has stabilized and interest rates decline, he said pressure on consumers is expected to ease.
Maple Leaf reported a third-quarter profit of $17.7 million compared with a loss of $4.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of four cents per share a year earlier. Sales for the quarter totalled $1.26 billion, up from $1.24 billion a year ago.
“At a strategic level … we’re certainly seeing the transitory impacts of an inflation-stressed consumer environment play through our business,” Frank said.
“We are seeing more trade-down than we would like. And we are making more investments to grow our volume and protect our market share than we would like in the moment. But again, we believe that those impacts will prove to be transitory as they have been over the course of history.”
Financial results are improving in the segment as feed costs have stabilized, said Dennis Organ, president, pork complex.
Maple Leaf, which is working to spin off its pork business into a new, publicly traded company to be called Canada Packers Inc. and led by Organ, also said it has identified a way to implement the plan through a tax-free “butterfly reorganization.”
Frank said Wednesday that the new structure will see Maple Leaf retain slightly lower ownership than previously intended.
The company said it continues to expect to complete the transaction next year. However, the spinoff under the new structure is subject to an advance tax ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency and will take longer than first anticipated.
Maple Leaf announced the spinoff in July with a plan to become a more focused consumer packaged goods company, including its Maple Leaf and Schneiders brands.
“The prospect of executing the transaction as a tax-free spin-off is a positive development as we continue to advance our strategy to unlock value and unleash the potential of these two unique and distinct businesses,” Frank said in the news release.
He also said that Maple Leaf is set on delivering profitability for its plant protein business in mid-2025.
“This includes the recent completion of a procurement project aimed at leveraging our purchasing scale,” he said.
On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf says it earned 18 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 13 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
The results were largely in line with expectations, said RBC analyst Irene Nattel in a note.
Maple Leaf shares were down 4.5 per cent in midday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $21.49.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
A person carries a Confederate flag in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, January 29 [Patrick Doyle/Reuters]
The protesters began arriving in Ottawa on Friday afternoon [Patrick Doyle/Reuters]
