City in brief
Forty-three people, 35 of whom were children, were hospitalized after a carbon monoxide leak at École des Découvreurs in LaSalle, according to CTV. Firefighters said a leaking heating system was responsible for the incident. Although Quebec’s building code does not mandate schools to have carbon monoxide detectors, École des Découvreurs did have one, which allegedly failed to be triggered by the leak.
The Town of Mount Royal’s proposed $2 billion dollar Royalmount commercial centre will not serve the public interest, according to a report presented to the city’s Commission sur le développement économique et urbain et l’habitation. As reported in La Presse, urbanist Raphaël Fischler recommended in his report that all levels of government with the power to intervene should do so, including the provincial government and the Montreal Metropolitan Community.
St-Viateur Bagel’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce location will close in March, according to The Montreal Gazette. The owners of the chain were unable to re-negotiate a lease with the building’s owner. The iconic chain, which has had a location in Monkland Village for 18 years, has locations throughout the Greater Montreal area, including the original on St. Viateur Street W. and locations in Dollard-Des-Ormeaux and Plateau-Mont-Royal.
The founder of the homeless youth organization Dans la rue will be honoured by the city with a park in his name, according to CJAD800. The city is still working on plans to honour Father Emmett “Pops” Johns, the Catholic priest and community activist who died last year at 89.
Nation in brief
The RCMP will be overseen by a civilian watchdog board in an effort to address years of sexual assault allegations, according to the CBC. The plan was announced by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Jan. 16, although the board’s composition and details of its functioning have yet to be determined.
A Canadian man has been sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling, according to the CBC. The sentencing of Robert Lloyd Schellenberg is the latest in a series of diplomatic disputes between Beijing and Ottawa, including the arrest of telecom mogul Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec. 1, and the arrest of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in China later that month.
The Ontario government will no longer pay the full cost of university tuition for low-income students, according to The London Free Press. The Conservative government has lowered the eligibility income threshold from $175,000 per family to $140,000, and a portion of the grant has been converted into a loan. The government also cut tuition rates across the board by 10 per cent.
Comedian Mike Ward is appealing a $42,000 fine for a series of jokes he made about a disabled boy between 2010 and 2013, according to The Montreal Gazette. The 2016 decision by Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal states that Ward violated the rights of Jeremy Gabriel, a 22-year-old singer who suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome, by making fun of his disability and joking about drowning him.
World in brief
British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons with 325 votes in her favour and 306 against, according to the BBC. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party, triggered the vote the previous day after the House rejected May’s proposed Brexit deal.
Protests erupted in Pakistan after the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) shot and killed four people on a highway, including a couple and their teenage daughter, according to The Express Tribune. The CTD said the incident was the result of a counter-terrorism investigation into the family. Three younger children who were also in the car survived, although one was injured.
The anti-vax movement is one of the World Health Organization’s 10 biggest global health threats of 2019, according to Newsweek. Four times as many U.S. children are lacking recommended vaccines today compared to 2001. Climate change, non-communicable diseases and a global lack of primary health care were among the other threats on the list.
The mayor of Gdansk, Poland died in hospital after being stabbed in front of a crowd of hundreds at a charity function on Jan. 13, according to the BBC. The 27-year-old man who allegedly stabbed Mayor Pawel Adamowicz had a criminal record and has recently been released from prison, according to police
The 15 hottest places in the world on Jan. 15 were all in Australia, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. As the country was gripped by an ongoing heatwave, temperatures nearing 50 C were recorded throughout the country,—the hottest, in Tarcoola, South Australia, reached 49.1 C.
Graphic by @spooky_soda
