BREAKING Board orders deportation for trucker in horrific Humboldt Broncos crash
The truck driver who caused the horrific bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has been ordered to be deported.
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.
Speaking at the company’s annual meeting, President and CEO Per Bank said misinformation about Loblaw is circulating online leading to what he referred to as "misguided criticism" of the retailer. A Reddit page called "Loblaws is out of control" has more than 67,000 members and has led the charge in encouraging a boycott.
"I think it’s great that people are standing up," says Caroline Schwim, a Loblaws customer who has decided to participate in the boycott told CTV News "I come from a country (South Africa) where there’s a Competition Commission and I think the canoodling and price fixing between the shops here is really disgusting."
Consumers are voicing their frustration and anger online, upset with food prices and big grocer, which have consistently reported large profits as the cost of food has climbed.
In its latest quarterly earnings report, Loblaw saw its profits grow nearly 10 per cent compared to last year, to $459 million. Empire, which owns Sobeys, also reported an increase in profit last quarter, with net earnings of $134.2 million. Metro saw its profits drop, but still pulled in $187.1 million, down from $218.8 million the year before.
"As a well-known company and Canada's largest grocer, it is natural that Loblaw would be singled out as a focal point for media and government and of course consumer frustrations," said Weston, assuring shareholders the company continues to act with integrity.
It’s a pledge reiterated by Bank, who said the company is working hard to "reduce costs and do things more efficiently."
Loblaw has set up a meeting with the boycott organizers. It’s an example of the company’s willingness to engage with customers, experts say, even though strong earnings reports can undermine that message.
"I think there is some indication that they are listening to the criticism," said Monica Labarge, a marketing professor at Queen’s University. "But at the same time. then you have these earnings reports that come out that make it sound a little bit like they are saying one thing on one hand and doing another."
There have also been calls to steal from Loblaw, something the boycott organizers say they are not affiliated with. Both Bank and Weston slammed the idea, saying they are hopeful Canadians will reject it.
"There's a group of people who have been relentlessly propagating a narrative that they know is false,” Weston said. "And it is now being used to justify theft on a grand scale."
While food prices are still rising, they aren’t going up as quickly as they once were. Statistics Canada says the food inflation rate in March was 1.9 per cent compared to the year before, lower than February's annual rate of 2.4 per cent. In late 2022 and early 2023, grocery inflation peaked at 11.4 per cent.
With files from The Canadian Press
The truck driver who caused the horrific bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has been ordered to be deported.
A toddler has died after being struck by a recycling truck in a Barrie, Ont. neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon.
Pope Francis paved the way for the canonization of the first saint of the millennial generation on Thursday, attributing a second miracle to a 15-year-old Italian computer whiz who died of leukemia in 2006.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar-nominee who made food and American diets his life's work, famously eating only at McDonald's for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
It began last month with the arrest of a Russian deputy defense minister. Then the head of the ministry’s personnel directorate was hauled into court. This week, two more senior military officials were detained. All face charges of corruption, which they have denied.
As avian flu spreads south of the border, Canadian officials are now testing samples of milk sold in grocery stores across the country.
Friday's warrant for prison inmate Yacine Zouaoui, 32, is the latest in hundreds of reported prison breaks in Quebec. Sometimes, they just walked away; sometimes they went through a fence, and twice they used a helicopter.
Border workers have voted in favour of a strike mandate which could lead to 'significant disruptions' to the flow of goods, services and people through Canadian ports of entry, their union said Friday morning.
Lynx Air is selling off everything from life jackets to oxygen masks as it tries to recoup a portion of the losses it suffered before filing for creditor protection earlier this year.
The proprietors of Regina's sole discount theatre are aware they're carrying on a significant legacy.
When Jujhar Mann said he wanted to be a pastry chef on a grade school career project, he didn't imagine that pursuing his dream would land him on a popular Netflix baking competition.
A city known for its history, ties to outer space and southern barbecue, is also home to a Winnipeg chef dishing out dozens of perogies.
A Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.