Can you vote with a crayon? Play true or false to find out
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Let's play true or false, election style. CBC Kids News contributor Maya Endale explains five surprising facts about voting as Canadians prepare for a federal election.
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Calgary Herald
2 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Calgary climate protestors call carbon capture 'pipe dream'
For Dr. Joe Vipond, climate change isn't just an environmental concern; it's a health hazard. Article content He believes, as past president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, those in medicine can help translate tangible impacts to Canadians. Article content Article content 'You can see right now in the parts of the country that are burning, how much wildfire smoke — or even the displacement of people from their homes, is a significant health issue, ' Vipond said. Article content Article content 'We have that ability as physicians in interpreting the climate issue in a way that Canadians can understand how it impacts them.' Article content Article content He said that tangible understanding was a great boon in the effort to phase out coal usage in Alberta. Now, he wants to instill a different tangible understanding into Canadians; tax dollar investments losing money. Article content Protestors gathered at the steps of the Harry Hays federal government building in downtown Calgary. They had begun setting up in the buildings entryway courtyard, before security from the building moved them down to the city-owned sidewalk. Article content Despite chants by the crowd of 'hey-ho, pipelines have got to go,' Vipond says that the they were not there to say they should not be built, only that 'there shouldn't be public money going into pipelines.' Article content Article content Article content Pipelines have been a hot-topic at both federal and provincial levels of government. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre — recently restored to a seat in the house of commons — called for two pipelines to be under construction by the one-year anniversary of Prime Minister Mark Carney taking office. Article content The governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario recently announced a search looking for companies to conduct a feasibility study into a possible pipeline from Alberta to Ontario. Article content Vipond says he's worried that, if funded by tax dollars, a pipeline won't payback its initial investments. Article content 'China will never burn as much oil as it burned last year,' Vipond said. Article content 'At a time where building a pipeline is a a risky endeavor, that risk should be taken on by private capital,' Vipond said. Article content The International Energy Agency has previously confirmed a plateau in Chinese oil fuel demand. However, just last week the organization said that global oil demand will increase by about 700,000 barrels per day this year and in 2026.
3 hours ago
Poilievre calls on Canada to designate Bishnoi gang a terrorist group
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has added his voice to the list of politicians calling on the federal government to declare a gang based in India a terrorist organization in Canada. Speaking in Surrey, B.C., on Wednesday, where police say they've received 10 extortion reports in six months, Poilievre asked for the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to be added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations. There's evidence now that their violence is linked to terror and to political motivations, Poilievre said. Police in B.C. have said members of the province's South Asian community are being extorted for cash under threat of death or violence, and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang has been linked to some of those threats. For example, a Surrey businessman has received threats demanding $2 million (new window) while businesses he's associated with have been targets of gunfire three times. The Bishnoi gang is also tied to cases of extortion and targeted shootings in Ontario's Peel Region, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown previously said. WATCH | Bishnoi gang has 'terrorized communities,' Poilievre says: Poilievre said designating the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity will give police greater authority to crack down on the group's activities. Law enforcement has spoken out about the organized chaos and violence this group has done in our country, and that is why mayors across the country, premiers have also said … this organization should be put on the list of banned terrorist entities, he said. Other political leaders calling for the terrorism label include Brown, B.C. Premier David Eby and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. The Conservatives asked for the designation last week, but Wednesday was the first time Poilievre has addressed the matter publicly. There can be serious criminal and financial consequences to any group labelled a terrorist entity. Banks can freeze assets and police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports such a group. Enlarge image (new window) Police officers escort Lawrence Bishnoi, right, inside a courthouse in New Delhi, India, on April 18, 2023. Photo: (Rahul Singh/ANI/Handout via Reuters) Simon Lafortune, press secretary for the public safety minister, didn't say if the Bishnoi gang is being considered for inclusion on the terrorist list, explaining the government's "national security experts independently evaluate and provide recommendations on whether any entity meets the thresholds set out in the Criminal Code. That process is rigorous and ongoing, and all potential threats are continually assessed to ensure we are keeping Canadians safe, he added. The federal government has taken similar action against seven criminal organizations including cartels and street gangs involved in fentanyl trafficking (new window) . Among them are the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, two of Mexico's largest and most powerful organized crime groups. Canadian police sources have told CBC News (new window) the Bishnoi gang is one of a number of criminal enterprises in northern India that have spread into North America in recent years. The group's founder, 32-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi, has been in Indian prisons since 2014, but his network is wide and vast to this day, Poilievre said Wednesday. His organization takes orders from him and carry out extortions and other crimes around the world, the Conservative leader said. Indian media outlets have described extortion as one of the gang's biggest sources of income, at home and abroad. Wednesday's news conference was Poilievre's first media availability since winning a byelection Monday in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot. He used his stop in Surrey to condemn the Liberals' response to crime. Poilievre supports mandatory jail time for people found guilty of extortion. He also wants the government to repeal Bill C-5 (new window) , which expanded the availability of conditional sentences (new window) , allowing some convicted criminals to serve time under house arrest, and Bill C-75 (new window) , which requires judges to release some people charged with a crime while on bail at the "earliest reasonable opportunity (new window) and with the least onerous conditions."
4 hours ago
New approaches needed for Canada to prepare for, combat wildfires: experts
As Canada endures another challenging wildfire season (new window) , calls are growing for the country to change how it prepares for, reacts and responds to the natural disasters. Experts say Ottawa needs to rethink how it deals with wildfires, especially in the midst of a season that has seen thousands of Canadians from different parts of the country be forced to leave their homes. As of Aug. 18, 7.8 million hectares have burned in Canada this year, (new window) according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. A national wildland fire situation report states (new window) that, as of Aug. 13, the area burned is substantially greater than the 10-year average. Ken McMullen, the president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, which represents municipal firefighters, has been calling for the creation of a national fire administration. We need that coordinating body at the federal level to work on the coordination, the response, the training, the equipment needed in order to most effectively put those resources around our provinces and territories, McMullen said in an interview. When asked by CBC News if the federal government will create a new entity or program to improve wildfire response, federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said it is one idea under consideration. Olszewski said she was looking at every opportunity and option to do things better so the same difficulties don't emerge next wildfire season. More focus on mitigation needed, experts say While suppression is critical, Yolanda Clatworthy, the interim director of the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative, argues that it does not address the root cause of the wildfire crisis. Clatworthy said there needs to be greater focus on prevention and mitigation. WATCH | Some Canadians are calling on the federal government to re-examine how it deals with wildfires: She said it is important for Canadians to discuss what it means if unprecedented wildfire seasons occur year after year. Spending upfront on mitigation and prevention actually is an enabling factor that amplifies response as well on the ground, and makes it easier for firefighters and front-line folks to be able to anchor in and action a fire to protect communities, Clatworthy said. She said mitigation and prevention work can include choosing where homes are built, how they are built, how communities are protected and how forests are managed. Enlarge image (new window) B.C. Wildfire Service crews are seen performing mop-up activities on the Wesley Ridge fire northwest of Nanaimo on Aug. 9, 2025. Photo: B.C. Wildfire Service While there has been some discussion of creating a national firefighting force (new window) , Robert Gray, a wildland fire ecologist based in B.C., said a year-round contingent would be more effective. Once the snow is gone, you're out there doing cultural and prescribed burning, fuels work, fire season comes along and you've got an extra resource now for firefighting, he said. "And then in the fall, they're either doing post-burn restoration or they're back to doing fuels work. That will enable us to kind of bend the curve on the amount of area that's burning. If we don't start to do more mitigation work, then we're just chasing fires. Size of Canada is a challenge: expert An idea presented by Glenn McGillivray, the managing director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and an adjunct professor of the disaster and emergency management program at York University, is to create a federal ground force made up of Indigenous people. They have millennia-long knowledge in the use of fire and the use of controlled burning and cultural burning, he said. Enlarge image (new window) Smoke ascends from a wildfire near Halls Harbour, N.S., in August 2025. Photo: CBC / Patrick Morrell McGillivray added that the time is ripe for Canada to re-evaluate wildfire seasons, especially with a warming climate. We need to really start thinking differently about this fire problem, he said. "We continue to think in the same ways — and it's obviously not working. However, there is a recognition that ultimately there are circumstances outside of Canada's control, including the country's sheer size. It's a massive country — the second largest in the world … and almost 60 per cent of it is boreal forest, McGillivray said, adding that large swaths of Canada are remote and difficult to get to. The idea that we're going to be able to knock down fire and keep it down across the country is kind of a pipe dream. … I think we really have to be realistic that, again, there's no easy fixes to this thing.
