OTTAWA — Federal spending on financial supports during the height of the global pandemic in Canada greatly outpaced that of other developed countries, enough to actually raise household incomes at a time when the economy was in free fall. A new report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) shows that household incomes in Canada increased by 11 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, while incomes in other developed nations including the U.K., France and Germany decreased. The boost came despite a more than 10 per cent contraction in the Canadian economy over the ..read more

OTTAWA – With Canada on track to see as many as 10,000 cases per day by December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pleaded with Canadians Friday to hunker down before the COVID-19 pandemic starts to exceed government resources. “We have to reverse these trends now,” he said. “We must flatten the curve now before it gets any worse.” Cases have been rising in most parts of the country for weeks and Canada set a new daily record of new diagnoses on Thursday. More than 282,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus and an average of 55 people are dying from it everyday. On Thursday alone, nearly ..read more

Not only is North Korea building a submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles, the hermit kingdom also appears to be training military dolphins to do its underwater bidding. New satellite images obtained by the United States Naval Institute (USNI), a non-profit, appear to reveal dolphin pens off the coast of Nampo, a naval base and port city in South Pyongan Province. The apparent animal pens are floating between a shipyard and a coal loading pier, with naval units based nearby. Satellite images suggest a dolphin training program has existed at Nampo since at least October 2015, USNI repo ..read more

SeaDream 1, one of the world’s smallest cruise ships, departed Barbados on Nov. 7 with 53 passengers and 66 crew — the first cruise ship to venture back to sea in an industry docked since March by the global coronavirus outbreak. But by the fifth day of the cruise, the ship was forced to halt what could have been a ‘watershed moment for the cruise industry’ after a passenger onboard tested positive for COVID-19. “People are shocked,” Gene Sloan, a passenger on the SeaDream Yacht Club cruise, told the National Post. Sloan, who had been writing about cruise and travel for the past 20 years, had ..read more

Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious British serial killer known as the ‘Yorkshire Ripper,’ has died after contracting Covid-19. Sutcliffe, who murdered at least 13 women across the north of England in the late 1970s, died at University Hospital of North Durham, England, a U.K. Prison Service spokesman confirmed to Sky News on Friday. The 74-year-old, who also had a number of other underlying health problems, reportedly refused treatment for Covid-19. Sutcliffe terrorized West Yorkshire and Manchester from 1975, sparking one of Britain’s biggest manhunts which finally concluded in 1981 with his con ..read more

OTTAWA — Industry groups are calling on Ottawa to tailor its COVID-19 emergency support programs, as a new round of pandemic lockdowns could trigger widespread bankruptcies in hard-hit sectors. Speaking to the Senate’s national finance committee on Thursday, business representatives warned that hotels, restaurants, retail and tourism services are getting particularly pinched after some provinces re-introduced stricter social distancing requirements. The lobby groups called for tailor-made supports for those hard-hit sectors, referencing what some economists have called the “k-shaped recovery ..read more

EDMONTON — As pressure mounts on the Alberta government to tackle rising cases of COVID-19, the province has moved towards some further restrictions on socializing and exercise classes that will start Friday and last for two weeks. The announcement comes as more than 400 doctors — joined by health-care unions — have once again called on the government to institute a “circuit breaker” — short, sharp lockdowns — and suggested other measures to bring down surging case counts. “We have reached a juncture where only strong and decisive mandatory measures can prevent our hospitals from becoming ove ..read more

The Republicans may have lost the White House, but it doesn’t mean their party is battered and bruised. With a conservative majority on the supreme court, and potentially retaining the Senate, the Republicans are in a good place to keep president-elect Joe Biden in check over the next four years. But what does a Republican Party look like without Donald Trump? Nicholas Lemann, a staff writer at The New Yorker, joins Dave to talk about what the mentality is behind Trump’s challenge of the results, how party leaders may be looking to move past this election and position themselves for the midte ..read more

Get ready for another pandemic lockdown in Ontario, at least in major cities. The new case projections provincial experts presented Thursday will compel Premier Doug Ford to reimpose severe restrictions, even though he has worked hard to avoid it. Dr. Steini Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the province’s modelling expert, is predicting that Ontario will see 6,000 cases a day by late December, four times the level of today. That’s enough to put significant strain on the health-care system and death counts will spike, especially among older ..read more

OTTAWA — Canada’s immigration minister is opening the doors to people in Hong Kong as the Chinese government continues to clamp down on the formerly independent nation. The Chinese government imposed a new National Security Law on Hong Kong earlier this year in response to growing democracy protests. The law makes it a crime to advocate for secession or independence for Hong Kong and allows for sweeping surveillance. It also allows for people charged with these crimes to be moved to China for trials that could occur behind closed doors. Earlier this week four pro-democracy legislators were ex ..read more