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External review found military’s COVID-19 vaccine policy violated Charter of Rights

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

OTTAWA — A tribunal that is part of the military grievance process has found that the Canadian Armed Forces COVID-19 vaccine policy violated its members’ Charter rights. The Military Grievances External Review Committee reviews grievances that are referred to it by the chief of defence staff, and provides the chief with non-binding findings and recommendations. In all, 157 grievances have been filed with the independent tribunal over the military’s vaccination policy, which took effect in the fall of 2021 and remained in place for nearly a year before being updated to apply more narrowly. Because dozens of similar grievances are being considered at the same time, the committee took the step of releasing three annexes in mid-July that laid out its analysis in order to streamline future cases. The vaccine policy required Canadian Armed Forces members to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face release.By the time the requirement ended last October, 299 people had been releas...

CEO Brendan Quirk narrows the focus of USA Cycling with an eye on worlds and the Olympics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

It would be an understatement to say that Brendan Quirk took over an organization in turmoil when he moved from his spot as USA Cycling’s chairman of the board to the office of the chief executive in December 2021.The national governing body had churned through CEOs for more than a decade, each with their own vision and ideas but never staying long enough to implement them. Some wanted USA Cycling to be a vehicle to get more people on bikes, tapping into the recreational market, while others wanted to build up lower level and domestic racing programs.Quirk wants all of that to happen, of course, but more as a byproduct of a sharpened focus on Team USA’s elite athletes, the ones that will be competing over the next 10 days at the world championships in Scotland and the Paris Olympics next summer.“There was a period where I think the leadership here tried to become the signature cycling organization across America and the truth is that’s not our mission,” said Quirk,...

‘Euphoria’ stars Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney post heartfelt tributes to late co-star Angus Cloud

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

Zendaya has posted a tender tribute to Angus Cloud, her “Euphoria” co-star who died this week at age 25.“I’m so grateful I got the chance to know him in this life, to call him a brother, to see his warm kind eyes and bright smile, or hear his infectious cackle of a laugh (I’m smiling now just thinking of it),” the actor said in an Instagram post Tuesday.Cloud died Monday at his family home in Oakland, California, his publicist said, just days after his father was buried. No cause of death was given.Zendaya said Cloud, who played drug dealer Fezco “Fez” O’Neill on the HBO series, was someone who embodied the phrase “light up any room they entered.”“I’d like to remember him that way. For all of the boundless light, love and joy he always managed to give us. I’ll cherish every moment,” Zendaya’s post said.Fellow “Euphoria” co-star Sydney Sweeney also posted a touching tribute to Cloud on Instagram, along with a photo of her and Cloud hugging.“Angus you were an open soul, wi...

CP NewsAlert: Cyberattack on B.C. health websites may have taken personal information

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

VANCOUVER — A cyberattack on three websites hosted by the Health Employers Association of British Columbia may have seized personal information associated with 240,000 email addresses. Michael McMillian, CEO of the association, says information obtained could include social insurance numbers, home addresses, passport and licence details and other personal information. The Health Employers Association is the bargaining agent for 200 publicly funded health care employers, representing 170,000 unionized workers, including physicians and nurses, to health science workers and paramedics.  More coming.The Canadian Press

An accomplice to convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds gets seven years in prison

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

The man who once headed a highly respected bank in the South Carolina Lowcountry will spend seven years in federal prison for helping convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh steal nearly $2 million from clients’ legal settlements.Russell Laffitte was sentenced Tuesday after a jury found him guilty of six charges related to wire and bank fraud back in November. The ex-CEO of Palmetto State Bank became the first of the disgraced former attorney’s accomplices to face prison time following the June 2021 shooting deaths that stemmed from sprawling investigations into the Murdaugh family finances.The prosecution and defense also agreed that Laffitte will forfeit more than $85,000, local media reported. The former banker has said he will appeal the decision.Murdaugh is serving life without parole for killing his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, at the kennels on their 1,700-acre rural estate. Still outstanding are more than 100 other charges encompassing alleged financial crimes fro...

Tenants rally as eviction notices sent to Thorncliffe Park residents on 4-month rent strike

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

Tenants at three East York buildings are rallying at their landlord’s office, Starlight Investments, demanding fair treatment and affordable housing as they begin the fourth month of their rent strike.Over 100 tenants at 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive stopped paying rent on May 1 to protest an above-guideline rent increase at the buildings owned by PSP Investments and run by Starlight Investments.Their landlord had request a 10 per cent rent increase over the last two years to the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario, 4.2 per cent in 2022 and 5.5 per cent in 2023. The maximum rent increase for 2023 and 2024 was set at 2.5 per cent, but landlords can apply for an above guideline increase (AGI).On Tuesday, dozens of tenants stormed the Starlight offices in the middle of the work day demanding they stop the rent increase that tenants cannot afford.“[We’re] extremely struggling. We understand everything is expensive but we don’t ask them to make it low, we ...

Texas judicial candidate gets her day in court, one of almost 2 dozen cases contesting elections

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Lawyers in a Houston courtroom Tuesday said various problems in last November’s midterm elections cost their Republican client her chance at becoming a district court judge, the first of almost two dozen lawsuits seeking to toss out election results in Texas’ most populous county.Former GOP judicial candidate Erin Lunceford is suing in civil court to throw out the election results and have the court order a do over. The case, which is being live streamed, comes as the Democratic stronghold of Harris County faces unprecedented electoral intervention from the state’s GOP-led Legislature.Andy Taylor, one of Lunceford’s attorneys, used his opening statement to list multiple mistakes by local election officials that he said contributed to his client’s loss or cast doubt over the election’s outcome. He cited paper ballot shortages that he said targeted Republican voting locations and hundreds of other mistakes, including in ballot scanning and with reviewi...

S&P/TSX composite falling, U.S. stocks mixed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index fell almost 100 points with weakness in financials, base metals and utilities helping drag the index lower, while U.S. markets were mixed. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 93.71 points at 20,532.93.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 71.15 points at 35,630.68. The S&P 500 index was down 12.23 points at 4,576.73, while the Nasdaq composite was down 62.11 points at 14,283.91.The Canadian dollar traded for 75.24 cents US compared with 75.89 cents US on Monday.The September crude oil contract was down 43 cents at US$81.37 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was down seven cents at US$2.56 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down US$30.40 at US$1978.80 an ounce and the September copper contract was down 10 cents at US$3.91 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian PressNote to readers: This is a corre...

Henrietta Lacks’ family reach a settlement with biotech company that used her cells without consent

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.Tissue taken from the Black woman’s tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. HeLa cells went on to become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.Lacks’ cells were harvested in 1951, when it was not illegal to do so without a patient’s permission. But lawyers for her family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, continued to commercialize the results long aft...

El Salvador sends 8,000 troops and police officers to comb rural province in massive anti-gang raid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:09 GMT

SAN SALVADOR (AP) — El Salvador sent about 8,000 soldiers and police officers to comb the rural province of Cabañas for street gang members Tuesday, in one of the most massive raids since President Nayib Bukele declared a crackdown on the gangs in March 2022. About 1,000 police and 7,000 soldiers fanned out across Cabañas province to set up checkpoints on all roads leading in or out. The raid followed a weekend shooting attack on a police patrol vehicle that wounded two officers. Bukele claims members of the country’s notorious MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs have fled to the province to avoid the crackdown. He refers to the gang members as “terrorists.”“Cabañas has become the place with the largest number of terrorists, who came seeking to use the rural areas to hide,” Bukele wrote in a tweet. “This massive operation will guarantee greater security for the area, and we will not end it until we find all the criminals.”Police dismantled several camps they described as gang hideouts in Caba...