MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
The largest wildfire in North America slowed to a near standstill in northern New Mexico Tuesday amid light rain and a bit of snow in the mountains as nearly 3,000 firefighters scrambled to get ahead of a worsening fire forecast in the days ahead.
The Memorial Day weekend historically marks the beginning of the primary wildfire season across many parts of the Southwest. But wildland blazes already have burned an area larger than the state of Delaware this year in extremely dry conditions created by lingering drought and climate change.
In Arizona, a new fire briefly forced evacuations Tuesday near Flagstaff. Authorities investigating the cause said they were looking for a person of interest near where it started a half-mile (.8 kilometer) from the Lowell Observatory.
Fire officials in New Mexico said they hoped to continue to clear flammable vegetation and deploy aircraft to douse smoldering forests on Wednesday before windier, hotter, drier conditions return into the weekend.
By Friday, "fire weather starts to enter the critical stage where we'll probably see more growth and fire moving," Forest Service fire behavior analyst Stewart Turner said at a briefing Tuesday night.
The blaze that started about seven weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains foothills east of Santa Fe was 41% encircled by clearings and barriers that can stop a wildfire from spreading farther.
The fire has consumed more than 486 square miles (1,260 square kilometers) of timber, grassland and brush, with evacuations in place for weeks. Its perimeter stretches 634 miles (1,020 kilometers) -- more than the distance between New York City and Detroit.
It's among six active large fires in the state that have burned across 536 square miles (1,388 square kilometers).
So far this year, wildland fires have burned across roughly 2,650 square miles (6,860 square kilometers) of the U.S. That's roughly twice the average burn for this time of year, according to a national center for coordinating wildfire suppression.
Jayson Coil, one of the operations chiefs in New Mexico, said the thing that will be "keeping me awake at night" are the hidden hot spots where extremely dry roots and dead logs smoldering beneath the ground can quickly burst into flames.
"You can have one of those (logs) that's stuck in a snow bank, but the wood's going to keep heat in there," he said Tuesday night.
"Once one side of them burns, it will be just like a cigar. It may take several days depending on what is around it, but the fire will creep down, stay in there and then it will pop out the other side," he said.
A wildfire on the outskirts of Los Alamos National Laboratory was 85% contained Tuesday. In the vicinity, Bandelier National Monument is preparing to reopen some areas to visitors Friday.
In southwestern New Mexico, a fire was burning through portions of the Gila National Forest and outlying areas.
Stricter campfire and smoking restrictions will take effect Wednesday or Thursday in all six national forests in Arizona because of the heightened fire threat, Forest Service officials said Tuesday.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.