Pet piranhas, a pelican and Green Day at the rink; In-The-News for Oct. 1

Both Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer are making morning announcements in greater Toronto.

Trudeau is spending a second day on gun-control policy, meeting with mayors from Toronto’s suburbs in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Scheer is making an announcement in a lakefront hotel on Toronto’s exhibition grounds.

Green Leader Elizabeth May is talking about her party’s policy on post-secondary education at Ryerson University.

People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier is planning several small-scale appearances with candidates in southwestern Ontario.

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Also this …

An online training program aiming to educate health-care professionals about biases Indigenous women may experience begins today.

It incorporates feedback from 11 Indigenous women’s organizations from across Canada.

“The program isn’t specifically about forced sterilization, but of course the underpinning of understanding trauma and why trauma-informed care is important,” said Dr. Lisa Richardson, a strategic adviser in Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and an associate professor in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Naana Jumah, a professor at Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Thunder Bay, said the idea for the program started in 2011 when she was doing her residency.

It began as a project to understand what residents in obstetrics and gynecology knew about Indigenous women’s health, she said.

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

GLACE BAY, N.S. — Birdwatchers say a pelican that has been feasting at a Cape Breton wharf wasn’t among an early exodus of rare birds swept into the Maritimes by post-tropical storm Dorian.

David McCorquodale, a Cape Breton University biologist, says he has seen other species, including various types of terns, recover their strength and depart south.

The lone brown pelican believed to have been blown in by Dorian in September was reported to be on the wharf in Glace Bay on Friday, feeding on fish provided by locals.

McCorquodale, an avid birdwatcher, says it’s not too late for the pelican to find its way to a warmer climate. But others are expressing concern the animal may be harmed by delaying its departure from Nova Scotia.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

A new revelation underscores the extent to which U.S. President Donald Trump remains consumed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and the ways in which he has used the apparatus of the American government to investigate what he believes are its politically motivated origins.

Trump recently asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe that shadowed his administration for more than two years, the Justice Department said.

Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders — and Barr’s role in those discussions — are under heightened scrutiny now that the House has launched an impeachment inquiry into the president. The probe centres on Trump’s summertime call with Ukraine’s president, revealed by a whistleblower CIA intelligence officer, in which Trump presses for help investigating Democrat Joe Biden.

One official said Trump told Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the attorney general would be contacting his Australian counterpart.

Morrison’s office said in a statement, “The Australian government has always been ready to assist and co-operate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation.”

“The P.M. confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the President,” the statement said, referring to Morrison.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

“We can’t continue to live like this,” said 34-year-old Lestin Abelo as he poured gasoline on a pile of debris that quickly caught fire. “We have a government that’s not doing anything for the people.”

Thousands of demonstrators set fires Monday and chanted calls for Haiti’s president to resign as the opposition to Jovenel Moïse tried to increase pressure for him to leave office.

Protesters said several people were hit by gunfire, including a local journalist.

They are also demanding a more in-depth investigation into allegations that top officials in the previous government misused billions of dollars in proceeds from a Venezuela-subsidized oil plan meant to fund urgent social programs.

Critics accuse Moïse of trying to protect his ally, former President Michel Martelly, and of participating in the corruption himself before becoming president.

Schools, businesses and government offices were closed as protesters gathered chanting, “Down with Jovenel!”

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On this day in 1994 …

The NHL postponed the opening of the regular season and locked out its players in a contract dispute.

The lockout dragged on for months until an abbreviated season began on Jan. 20.

The New Jersey Devils went on to sweep the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final.

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Weird and wild …

NANAIMO, B.C. — This seems a little worse than letting your goldfish go in the local pond.

British Columbia conservation officers say two piranhas found in a Vancouver Island lake were likely unwanted pets.

One red-bellied piranha was reeled in by an angler at Westwood Lake in Nanaimo last week and another was caught during the summer.

The provincial Conservation Officer Service says in a Facebook post that the tropical fish with sharp teeth can’t survive winter climates.

The service says introducing aquatic invasive species can have harmful impacts, including threatening native fish, ecosystems and other species.

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Your travel …

WAYNE, Alta. — Located 15 kilometres south of the southeastern Alberta Badlands capital of Drumheller, Wayne is a link to the not-so-distant past, a town of 29 residents where 2,500 people once lived and worked in a dozen underground coal mines.

Most of those people’s homes have disappeared — moved, burned or destroyed by flooding — since the last working mine, Sovereign, closed in 1957.

Visitors to Wayne are mainly tourists and music buffs these days. The town is about 150 kilometres east of Calgary, making it a perfect motoring day trip with a noon-hour stop for a Harley-themed burger at the Last Chance Saloon.

Visitors from farther afield can rough it at the attached 106-year-old Rosedeer Hotel (seven rooms on the second floor, shared showers and toilets down the hall) or stay in one of two campgrounds.

WayneStock, a three-day annual music festival with musical acts on three stages in and around the saloon, posted record attendance of about 2,000 people in its fifth rendition in September.

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On the stream …

October is shaping up to be packed with must-see programs on streaming platforms.

But if you are looking for something beyond the “Watchmen” reboot (Crave/HBO, Oct. 20), Paul Rudd’s “Living With Yourself” (Netflix, Oct. 18) or “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” (Netflix, Oct. 11), here are some other titles debuting this month:

“Catherine the Great” — Helen Mirren delivers a chilling performance as the titular Russian empress whose reign in the late 18th century amplified the nation’s power. (HBO/Crave, Oct. 21)

“Mrs. Fletcher” — Eve Fletcher isn’t comfortable with the empty nest that’s left behind when her only son enrols in college, but this single mom is about to get an unexpected new lease on life when she enrolls in a writing class. Kathryn Hahn shines as a woman exploring a newfound freedom at middle age. (Crave/HBO, Oct. 27)

“Firecrackers” — Two young women devise a plot to escape their rural Ontario town and resettle in New York City, but their dreams are crushed when a male friend catches wind of their ambitious plan on the eve of the escape. Michaela Kurimsky and Drake music video director Karena Evans play the lead roles (Crave/HBO, Oct. 10)

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The games we play …

The NHL could be on the way to its own version of the NFL’s “Are You Ready For Some Football?”

The league is announcing a two-year partnership with Green Day that includes an opening song for NBC Sports’ “Wednesday Night Hockey.”

The song, “Ready, Fire, Aim” isn’t custom-made for the NHL, though it’s likely a matter of time until Green Day or another band follows what Hank Williams Jr. and later Carrie Underwood did for the NFL.

“That I think will probably be the evolution,” NHL chief content officer and executive Vice-President Steve Mayer says.

Green Day’s open will debut Oct. 9. The band will also perform at the All-Star Game in St. Louis in late January.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2019.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Pet piranhas, a pelican and Green Day at the rink; In-The-News for Oct. 1

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