An El Nino-less summer is coming. Here's what that could mean for Canada
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
An Ontario mother, who had been holding a one-woman protest for the past week to try to get help with her son's autism care, will finally have her file looked at after a call from the social services minister.
Stacy Kennedy staged a sit-in outside of the Premier Doug Ford’s office in an effort to get better access to autism funding and services for her 10-year-old son, Sam.
Kennedy told CTV National News she decided to protest with the hopes of opening a dialogue with the provincial government about how desperate families of children with autism are for help.
"We took the word of this government and Doug Ford, we took the word of most government’s that you’ll actual take care of us and I’m here to say that’s not happening and its woefully unacceptable," Kennedy said.
After seven days of sitting in the office's parking lot and sleeping in her van, Ford finally responded to Kennedy's protests, but it took a question from CTV News at a press conference to do so.
"Stacy, I will make sure that we reach out to you [and] have a good conversation," Ford said Wednesday.
Kennedy said Ford called her later Wednesday and agreed to have an in-person conversation about issues with the government’s new autism program.
"There was a lot of sound bites, a lot of staying on point," Kennedy said of the call.
Kennedy said Ford’s office will schedule a time for them to meet at a later date.
In addition, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Merrilee Fullerton, who is in charge of the autism file, called Kennedy Thursday.
Kennedy said the minister was sympathetic and agreed to look at her file. She explained that Sam has been on the waitlist for four years to receive full access to the province's autism programs.
While such barriers are frustrating, Kennedy says parents of children with autism have “no choice" but to try to navigate them.
"These are the roadblocks that have been thrown in front of us. I just want the average Canadian to understand how horrifying they are -- that I literally had to sit in my van for someone to make things move," Kennedy said.
"That’s atrocious, it's cruel, it’s callus, it's a scandal."
Angela Brandt, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, said Kennedy's concerns speak for the entire autism community.
"It’s so sad that this is the extent she had to go to in order to be heard, just to be heard," Brandt told CTV News.
Ontario's new autism program has been widely criticised and slow to roll out. Advocates estimate 40,000 families are waiting to receive access to full funding and therapy services.
Most families are currently offered one-time funding of $5,000, but experts say that isn't much help for those paying $40,000 to $80,000 a year for services.
"This $5,000 payment… it's an interim payment, it is not access to therapy, so they are still on a waitlist because they are not accessing therapy," Brandt said.
"The Ontario autism program is a treatment program. It’s not a subsidy program, so if they’re not accessing treatment, they’re on a waitlist," she added.
After speaking with the premier and the minister, Kennedy ended her sit-in on Thursday. However, she acknowledges that the fight is not over.
If the provincial government doesn't make good on its word, Kennedy said she will be back protesting in front of the premier's office.
"I don’t want to do more talking, I want to see more action, not just for my son, but for everyone," she said.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
The federal New Democrats are calling out Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party for trying to block the bill that could pave the way for millions of Canadians to access birth control and diabetes coverage.
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.
An Ontario MPP was asked again to leave the Ontario legislature on Monday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that was banned by the Speaker last month due to its political symbolism.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be tabling legislation on Monday aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada. Federal officials have scheduled a technical briefing on the incoming bill for Monday afternoon.
Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during the Second World War because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
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.