Edmonton gas station employee found guilty of terrorism charges in the U.K.
An Edmonton man has been convicted of multiple charges under the Terrorism Act in the United Kingdom.
Is it nuts to assume a scoop of pistachio ice cream should contain actual pistachios? Or how about real butter in a dish of butter pecan?
Such weighty questions about a favourite summertime confection could soon be decided by the courts.
A federal judge in New York has given the go-ahead to a Long Island woman's class action lawsuit that claims consumers are being duped by Cold Stone Creamery when they purchase certain flavours that "do not contain their represented ingredients."
Lead plaintiff Jenna Marie Duncan purchased her serving of pistachio ice cream from a Cold Stone Creamery store in Levittown, New York, in or around July 2022. According her lawsuit, Duncan "reasonably believed that the Pistachio ice cream she purchased from defendant contained pistachio."
But Duncan later learned after reading the company's website there were no pistachios -- a member of the cashew family -- in the frozen dairy product, but rather "pistachio flavouring" that's defined as a mixture of water, Ethanol, Propylene Glycol, natural and artificial flavour, Yellow 5, and Blue 1, according to the lawsuit.
"When consumers purchase pistachio ice cream, they expect pistachios, not a concoction of processed ingredients," Duncan's lawsuit reads, noting that competitors such as Haagen-Dazs use real pistachios in their ice cream.
Duncan also takes issue with the ingredients in Cold Stone's mango, coconut, orange, mint, butter pecan ice creams and its orange sorbet.
A message was left by The Associated Press seeking comment from Duncan's attorney.
U.S. District Court Judge Gary R. Brown, whose sometimes tongue-in-cheek court ruling is sprinkled with song lyrics about ice cream -- from Louis Prima's "Banana Split for My Baby" to Weird Al Yankovic's "I Love Rocky Road" -- writes how the case "raises a deceptively complex question about the reasonable expectations of plaintiff and like-minded ice cream aficionados."
Should a consumer ordering pistachio ice cream expect actual pistachios?
"And if the answer is no, should that leave them with a bitter aftertaste," wrote the judge, whose decision was released in May.
Brown acknowledges in his ruling, which now allows the case to proceed, that Duncan's alleged claims of deceptive practices under New York's General Business Law "are plausible on their face" when it comes to the pistachio ice cream she purchased. The state's law prohibits "deceptive acts and practices in the conduct of any business, trade or commerce or in furnishing of any service."
Messages were left seeking comment with lawyers for Kahala Franchising LLC, the parent franchiser of nearly 1,000 Cold Stone stores worldwide. One of the lawyers declined to comment on the case when reached by The Associated Press.
In court records, Kahala sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that a detailed list of the ice cream ingredients are published online. A regional director of operations for Kahala said in court records that no flavour placard at the Levittown location indicated the ice creams are "made with" any particular ingredient.
For the flavours named in the lawsuit, he said "consumers are able to see for themselves there are no `chunks' of what appear to be any specific ingredients in the ice cream that would indicate a particular ice cream contains a certain ingredient."
There have been numerous lawsuits filed over the years about products not living up to advertising hype, including suits against fast food restaurants for not providing big, juicy burgers or a soda not providing promised health benefits. There have also been lawsuits over products not containing ingredients they purport to contain.
Brown notes in his ruling that some of these disputes have led to an "etymological analysis" over whether a word such as vanilla is being used by a company as a noun to reflect an actual ingredient in a product, or simply as an adjective to describe a flavour.
But the judge acknowledged it's a tricky argument for an ice cream manufacturer to make when it comes to modern-day flavours, noting "when one orders a `Moose Tracks' ice cream cone, the hoofprints of the largest member of the deer family linguistically acts as an adjective."
An Edmonton man has been convicted of multiple charges under the Terrorism Act in the United Kingdom.
There are some laws in popular tourist destinations around the world that could land Canadian travellers in mild-to-serious trouble if they're not careful. Don't let these local laws land you in hot water during your next vacation abroad.
The director of the Secret Service is stepping down from her job, according to an email she sent to staff, following the assassination attempt against former U.S. president Donald Trump that unleashed intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission.
A Montreal-area mother is furious with Quebec's justice system because the man who killed her 25-year-old daughter in a 2022 hit-and-run was released from jail after only serving one-sixth of his sentence behind bars.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo has revealed the cause of death for polar bear Baffin last week.
Multiple wildfires in Jasper National Park flared up with a vengeance late Monday night, forcing all park visitors along with the 4,700 residents of the Jasper townsite to flee west with little notice over mountain roads through darkness, soot, and ash.
Keanu Reeves is aging like the rest of us. And for that reason, 'The Matrix' has shared, mortality has been on his mind.
Many people believe that creating a will requires the services of a lawyer, but this isn't always the case. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew explains a lawyer's role when crafting your last will and testament.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.
Halifax bridges have collected thousands of coins from around the world.
A donated clawfoot bathtub has become the preferred lounging spot for a pair of B.C. grizzly bears, who have been taking turns relaxing and reclining in it – with minimal sibling squabbling – for the past year.