DEVELOPING 120 active fires burning across Canada, 30 are 'out of control'
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Phonebooks have been in circulation since the 19th century. These days, in this high-tech digital world, if someone needs a phone number, "I Google," said Bridgewater, N.S., resident Wayne Desouza.
When presented with a phonebook, University of King’s College student Bjorn Schmidt said he had seen them around before.
"Maybe at those old phones that you pay for, you might find one there," said Schmidt, describing a payphone, while admitting he had never before used one.
Compared to previous versions, phonebooks are now much thinner, seemingly shrinking on a yearly basis and lacking in names, numbers and business listing in both the white and yellow pages. Many Canadians now use smartphones, which unlike landlines are often unpublished.
Digital anthropologist Giles Crouch is surprised they still exist.
"Here we are, we’ve had smartphones for almost 20 years now, and yet we still have phonebooks."
Given the books are shrinking in size on a yearly basis it raises the question; who is actually using them?
"Thirty per cent of seniors don’t have access to the internet and don’t use it for information," said Canadian Association of Retired Persons COO Bill VanGorder, who added because of this, many seniors still rely on phonebooks. "This year with the books being slimmer, we’re going to hear that they are really disappointed."
Phonebooks use numbers that are listed with phone companies, but it also turns out, not all the information in a phonebook is correct.
"My phone number is actually in there, but the phone number doesn’t work," said Halifax resident Bernice Murphy-Critch. “It’s the wrong number essentially."
Crouch said advertisers pay for the phonebooks, for now.
"If those advertising dollars dry up for print, and move to digital, that’s going to kill the phonebook," said Crouch. "I would give it five years tops."
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
The Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Randy Weekes has severed ties with the Sask. Party after accusing some members of harassment and intimidation tactics, including a situation he claimed saw the Government House Leader bring a hunting rifle to the legislative building.
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
Canada's new $10-a-day child care program is expanding, but there's growing evidence that demand for the program is rising even faster, leaving many parents on the outside looking in.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.