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--Canada in Brief--(Canadian Press Broadcast Wire (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) JANUARY 2 - The military announced a Canadian soldier had been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a presumed Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. Captain Robert Semrau of Pembroke, Ontario is accused of shooting an unarmed man during a battle to defend the capital of Helmand province from a prolonged attack by insurgents. Semrau is a member of the Canadian army unit that coaches and mentors the Afghan National Army. 7 - Forty-two-year-old Trooper Brian Good was killed and three others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast north of Kandahar City in Afghanistan. The father of two was based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Ontario. 7 - Polygamy charges were laid against two religious leaders of a breakaway offshoot of the Mormon church in Bountiful, British Columbia. Winston Blackmore was alleged to have 19 wives, James Oler three. Their lawyers later filed applications to stay the charges, arguing B-C Attorney General Wally Oppal inappropriately intervened to have charges laid -- despite legal opinions that the polygamy law is unconstitutional. 8 - Three Canadians set a world record for the fastest unsupported journey across Antarctica to the South Pole. Ray Zahab of Chelsea, Quebec, Kevin Valley of North Vancouver and Richard Weber of Alcove, Quebec took 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes to complete the 1,130-kilometre journey from Hercules Inlet to the pole. They travelled on skis, snowshoes and foot. 8 - Vancouver-based Teck Cominco cut 14-hundred jobs globally, including 550 in Canada, because of slumping demand for coal and plunging commodity prices. 10 - Jean Pelletier, a close confidant of former prime minister Jean Chretien, died of cancer. He was 73. Pelletier was known as the "elegant executioner" while he was Chretien's chief of staff from 1991 to 2001. Pelletier was later implicated in the federal sponsorship scandal but a Federal Court cleared him in June, 2008. 11 - Canadian-based Magna International and Ford announced they would team up to produce a fully electric car that would go up to 160 kilometres on a single charge. It was to be introduced in 2011. 11 - Oil and gas pioneer Doc Seaman, best known for bringing the National Hockey League to Calgary, died in the city at age 86. 12 - A Muskoka, Ontario golf club, along with 16 of its directors and employees, was charged with serving too much alcohol in connection with a car crash that killed three young men in July, 2008. The father of one of the men said they and a girlfriend paid for 31 drinks before leaving the Lake Joseph Club. Charges were eventually dropped against 11 employees and two former Clublink executives. 12 - Of the 47 members of the United Nations human rights council in Geneva, Canada was the only one to vote against a resolution condemning the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. Thirteen mostly European countries abstained, citing the one-sided wording of the text. Israel and the United States are not members of the council. 13 - Calgary-based EnCana posted a reward of up to 500-thousand dollars for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for four bombings of its gas pipelines in northeastern B-C since October 2008. The reward was doubled to one (m) million dollars on July 30th after two more bombings that month. Infrastructure was damaged but no one was hurt in the explosions. 13 - Cold weather broke records in six Manitoba towns, with morning lows ranging between -35 C to -40 C in most localities. 14 - Former telecom giant Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors. It later began selling off its global operations piece by piece, including the controversial sale of its wireless network business to L-M Ericsson of Sweden. The filing put the pensions of nearly 17-thousand-500 workers at risk and spurred calls for changes to bankruptcy laws to ensure failed companies make good on underfunded pension liabilities. 19 - Two Alberta men who admitted to helping James Roszko kill four R-C-M-P officers near Mayerthorpe in 2005 pleaded guilty in an Edmonton courtroom to manslaughter. Shawn Hennessey and his brother-in-law, Dennis Cheeseman, had originally been charged with first-degree murder. Hennessy was sentenced on January 30th to 15 years in prison while Cheeseman received 12-years. Both later appealed both their sentences and convictions. 20 - Bell Canada announced plans to cut its workforce by another 15-hundred jobs through a retirement incentive to qualifying unionized employees. 27 - The minority Conservative government delivered a budget promising 40 (b) billion dollars in economic stimulus over two years, including 12 (b) billion for infrastructure spending. The budget also included a home renovation tax credit worth up to one-thousand-350-dollars per household for eligible projects such as kitchen or basement renovations. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the government would have to go deep into the red to help get the country out of recession. He projected a total deficit of almost 85 (b) billion dollars over five years. 28 - An opposition coalition that had threatened to defeat the newly-re-elected minority Conservative government in late 2008 was declared dead after Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff offered to support the January 27th federal budget -- with a condition. Ignatieff said he would move a budget amendment requiring three detailed progress reports to Parliament on the implementation of budget measures. And he said his party would be prepared to defeat the Tories if it was unhappy with that progress. The N-D-P and Bloc Quebecois -- the Liberals' former coalition partners -- refused to support the amendment but it passed on February 2nd with the support of the Conservatives. 29 - The Ontario government passed legislation ordering an end to a 12-week strike at York University in Toronto. The strike by 33-hundred teaching assistants and contract faculty cancelled classes for 50-thousand students. The next day, the two sides announced they had reached a tentative contract agreement. 29 - The City of Ottawa and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 reached a tentative agreement to end Ottawa's 51-day-old transit strike. They agreed to send their dispute to binding arbitration. 31 - Twenty-five-year-old Sapper Sean Greenfield was killed when his armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the volatile Zhari district in Afghanistan. Greenfield had been based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Ontario. (more) (c) 2009 The Canadian Press |