Thanksgiving and inflation, latest job numbers from StatsCan : In The News for Oct. 7

That’s an increase of about 12 per cent over 2021, and some Canadians may find themselves tightening their purse strings as they do their Thanksgiving shopping.

A survey by the Dalhousie University Agri-Food Analytics Lab found more than one in five Canadian shoppers will be changing their Thanksgiving menu to cut costs.

Meanwhile, others will struggle to put together a meal at all, meaning food banks will be stretched thin across the country.

Food Banks Canada says these organizations are seeing more need than ever even as donations are down ahead of the busy — and expensive — holiday season.

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Also this …

Statistics Canada is expected to release its September labour force survey today.

The Canadian economy has posted three consecutive months of job losses, as signs of an economic slowdown begin to appear.

RBC is forecasting the economy added 15,000 jobs in September, as seasonal distortions in the labour market fade.

The unemployment rate in August was 5.4 per cent, up from a record-low of 4.9 per cent the month prior.

Average hourly wages were up 5.4 per cent in August compared with a year ago.

The Bank of Canada is raising interest rates to bring demand in the economy in line with supply, which has been partly hampered by ongoing labour shortages.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

SAN FRANCISCO _ The suspect in the kidnapping and killings of an eight-month-old baby, her parents and an uncle had worked for the family’s trucking business and had a long-standing feud with them that culminated in an act of “pure evil,” a sheriff said Thursday.

The bodies of Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were found by a farm worker late Wednesday in an almond orchard in a remote area in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland.

Investigators were preparing a case against the suspect _ a convicted felon who tried to kill himself a day after the kidnappings _ and sought a person of interest believed to be his accomplice. Relatives and fellow members of the Punjabi Sikh community, meanwhile, were shocked by the killings.

The suspect, 48-year-old Jesus Salgado, was released from the hospital and booked into the county jail Thursday night on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, the Sheriff’s Office said. It wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Earlier, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke called for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The sheriff called it one of the worst crimes he has seen over his 43 years in law enforcement and pleaded for Salgado’s accomplice to turn himself in.

The city of Merced, where the family’s trucking business was located, will hold evening vigils in their memory Thursday through Sunday. The victims’ bodies were found near the town of Dos Palos, about 50 kilometres south of Merced.

Relatives of Salgado contacted authorities and told them he had admitted to them his involvement in the kidnapping, Warnke told KFSN-TV on Tuesday. Salgado tried to take his own life before police arrived at a home in Atwater _ where an ATM card belonging to one of the victims was used after the kidnapping _ about 14 kilometres north of Merced.

Public records show the family owns Unison Trucking Inc. and relatives said they had opened an office in the last few weeks in a parking lot the Singh brothers also operated. The feud with Salgado dated back a year, the sheriff said, and “got pretty nasty” in text messages or emails. Other details about Salgado’s employment and the nature of the dispute were not immediately available.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand _ Friends hugged sobbing family members struggling with staggering loss Friday in a rural northeastern Thailand community mourning the children and other victims slain by a fired police officer in the nation’s deadliest shooting rampage.

At least 24 of the 36 people killed in the assault Thursday in the small town of Uthai Sawan were children.

On Friday morning, royal and government representatives in white, military-style coats stood in lines to lay wreaths at ceremonial tables in front of the Young Children’s Development Center’s main door. They were followed by weeping family members, who gathered their hands in prayer before laying white flowers on the wooden floor.

“I cried until I had no more tears coming out of my eyes. They are running through my heart,” said Seksan Sriraj, 28, whose pregnant wife was a teacher at the centre and was due to give birth this month. “My wife and my child have gone to a peaceful place. I am alive and will have to live. If I can’t go on, my wife and my child will be worried about me, and they won’t be reborn in the next life. That’s about it.”

Many relatives were gathered in front of the child care centre to start the process of claiming compensation and psychologists were also sent to the site to help them. Seven of the 10 people who were wounded were still hospitalized Friday.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida were expected later Friday to visit two hospitals treating the wounded, and Prime Minster Prayuth Chan-ocha was expected to visit the daycare centre and the hospitals. A vigil was planned in a central Bangkok park.

Police speculated the gunman targeted the centre because it was near his home. They identified him as Panya Kamrap, 34, a former police sergeant fired earlier this year because of a drug charge involving methamphetamine. He had been due to appear in court Friday.

Witnesses said the attacker got out of a car and shot a man and child in front of the building before walking toward the classroom. Teachers at the child care centre locked the glass front door, but the gunman shot and kicked his way through it. The children, mainly two- and three-year-olds, had been taking an afternoon nap, and photos taken by first responders showed their tiny bodies still lying on blankets.

Panya took his own life after killing his wife and child at home.

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On this day in 1763 …

Cape Breton was annexed to Nova Scotia.

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In entertainment …

LOS ANGELES _ Brad Pitt’s lawyer said Thursday that he will continue to respond in court to allegations from ex-wife Angelina Jolie that he abused her and choked one of their children on a flight in 2016, saying he has taken responsibility for his actual actions but not aspects of her story that are not true.

“Brad has owned everything he’s responsible for from day one _ unlike the other side _ but he’s not going to own anything he didn’t do,” Pitt’s lawyer, Anne Kiley, said in a statement. “He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation.”

The statement came in response to a public court filing from Jolie on Tuesday that said he grabbed her by the head and shook her, then choked one of their six children and struck another when they tried to defend her. The filing came in a legal fight over a French winery the two co-owned.

Kiley’s did not specify which parts of Jolie’s account Pitt denies, and which he takes responsibility for, and representatives had no further comment when asked.

The FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services investigated the allegations, but decided to take no action against Pitt. They were also aired in testimony at the couple’s divorce trial, after which a judge found Jolie and Pitt should have 50-50 custody, though that result was nullified when the judge was disqualified by an appeals court.

“Thankfully, the various public authorities the other side has tried to use against him over the past six years have made their own independent decisions,” Kiley’s statement said. “Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.”

Jolie representatives had no immediate on-the-record comment.

Neither Pitt nor Jolie has spoken publicly about what happened on the flight, though she has publicly advocated for strengthening domestic laws and has revisited the abuse allegations through legal moves such as Tuesday’s cross-complaint to a lawsuit Pitt filed over the home and winery in France, which they were leaving for Los Angeles on a private flight when the incidents occurred.

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Did you see this?

CALGARY _ Danielle Smith has delivered a dramatic political comeback, winning the leadership of the United Conservative Party to become Alberta’s next premier.

Smith, a former leader of the Wildrose Party, captured nearly 54 per cent of the vote on the sixth round of the preferential ballot, defeating second-place candidate Travis Toews and five rivals.

Brian Jean, also a former Wildrose Party leader, finished third.

There were almost 85,000 votes cast out of 124,000 eligible voters.

Rebecca Schulz was fourth, Todd Loewen was fifth, Rajan Sawhney sixth and Leela Aheer came in seventh.

The race was called after Jason Kenney announced in May he was stepping down as premier after receiving just 51 per cent support in a party leadership review.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Thanksgiving and inflation, latest job numbers from StatsCan : In The News for Oct. 7

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