Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A Florida aquarium has reached a deal with animal welfare advocates to release Lolita, a 5,000-pound (2,268 kg) killer whale held in captivity for more than half a century, officials said on Thursday.
The Miami Seaquarium said it had reached a "binding agreement" with nonprofit Friends of Lolita to return the whale, who recently retired from performances, to an ocean habitat in the Pacific Northwest within two years.
Lolita, a 57-year-old orca captured in 1970 in a cove off Seattle, is also known as Toki, a name that is short for the whale's Native American name of Tokitae, the Miami Herald reported. The plan to return Lolita to her natural habitat requires federal approval, according to the newspaper.
The process to return Lolita to her "home waters" was years in the making, beginning with the transfer of the aquarium's ownership to The Dolphin Co, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference. The company later partnered with the nonprofit to provide medical care to the whale.
The Seaquarium's previous owner, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc , phased out killer whale shows in 2016. Lolita, once a top attraction at Seaquarium, was retired from shows in March 2022 after management changed hands.
"Finding a better future for Lolita is one of the reasons that motivated us to acquire the Miami Seaquarium," The Dolphin Co Chief Executive Eduardo Albor said in a statement.
The push to free Lolita gained momentum after the 2013 documentary "Blackfish" highlighted the captivity of orcas.
Animal rights advocates for years fought unsuccessfully in court to obtain Lolita's freedom after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added orcas to the endangered species list in 2015.
Killer whales are highly social mammals that have no natural predators and can live up to 80 years.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
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A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
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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.
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