Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Iqaluit is being forced to medevac patients out of the territory as its only hospital suffers the effects of the water contamination crisis.
Iqaluit’s state of emergency has been extended until October 27 by the Department of Health, after testing showed a high concentration of fuel in a tank that supplies water to the city last week.
As a result, hospital workers are unable to properly wash hands or sterilize equipment.
Residents are being advised not to consume tap water for drinking or cooking until further notice – even boiled or filtered tap water is not considered safe for ingestion. Laundry, cleaning and showers are safe if the water isn’t swallowed, city said.
Deputy-mayor of Iqaluit Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster spoke on CTV’s Your Morning Thursday about the crisis, revealing her own mother had to be medevaced out of the territory for a diagnostic procedure normally available in Iqaluit.
“She’s in Ottawa and she is still in the emergency department, and she’s alone there,” Brewster said. “It’s been difficult.”
Brewster said that while it is a regular occurrence for people in Nunavut to have to seek medical care outside of the territory, the water crisis and COVID-19 have exacerbated the problem, outlining in a thread on Twitter that each medevac can cost upwards of $40,000.
“So there’s my worry about my mom and my family and then there’s my worry about the impact of the cost on the territories – it’s massive,” she told CTV’s Your Morning.
In her Twitter thread, Brewster says in 2019 the Health Department in Iqaluit forecast 2,400 medevacs for 2020 -- compared to the approximately 33,000 planned medical travel trips forecast for this year.
And while Brewster is currently on leave from her position as Director of Travel Programs for the Department of Health, she outlined what she thinks is happening in Iqaluit’s hospital as the water crisis continues.
“The health care team is likely having to triage patients and make decisions on which patients should fly out for medical care because we are the first point of medical care outside the communities in the eastern Arctic,” she said. “I would imagine patients are being diverted or their procedures delayed. We’ve experienced significant delays due to COVID-19 and Yellowknife is in an outbreak – our entire territory is impacted.”
Brewster said COVID-19 is impacting other health issues – outlining in her Twitter thread that the waitlist for children needing dental surgery, which is dependant on Iqaluit’s hospital as the only place where general anesthesia can be given, was at approximately 500 before COVID-19 hit, but has now double to 1,000.
With the state of emergency extended, Brewster said it feels like the crisis is unending.
“The city was hoping to have flushed the pipes by now but for some reason there are delays and there really doesn’t seem to be an end in sight,” she said.
“We’ve known for years that we are in a water crisis and that we need a new source of water, although the contamination is not in our water source, it’s in our system… what we know with climate change our system has slowly been breaking down over a number of years,” Brewster said. “We need $130 million in order to fix the entire system and to find a new and larger source of water that’s nearby.”
Despite the twin crises of COVID-19 and water contamination, Brewster says the community in Iqaluit has rallied.
“We have one young woman who has raised funds and paid $11,000 in shipping fees in order to bring up pre-mixed infant formula for babies,” she said. “There is a massive cost to moving all of the emergency water and supplies that we need, and the community is volunteering to distribute, the city is obviously doing a great job distributing water and the supplies as well.”
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.