Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Air pollution from wildfires remained well above healthy levels across much of southern and northern Ontario and several communities in British Columbia and Alberta on Thursday.
But there may be some hope on the horizon, after the number of fires burning across the country fell overnight.
The fires and the blankets of smoke affecting millions of Canadians prompted a debate in the House of Commons, during which members of Parliament expressed solidarity with the people affected and discuss the role climate change is playing in this year's more-severe fire season.
"Climate change is real and we are seeing and living its impact every day," Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said during the debate.
This, he said, is the worst fire season Canada has ever experienced and it has had devastating consequences.
"People have lost everything," he said.
As debate continued over the motion brought forward by the Bloc Quebecois, the air outside the Parliament Buildings had mostly cleared following several days of air quality so poor people were told to limit or avoid outdoor activities completely.
But further south, towards the Greater Toronto Area and in areas around Sudbury and North Bay, the air quality remained poor.
There are also many warnings of moderate or high risks due to bad air quality in parts of British Columbia and Alberta, as out-of-control fires continued to burn in almost every province and territory across Canada.
Environment Canada's air quality forecast suggests things will remain at unhealthy levels in most of southern Ontario and in western Canada through Friday.
Multiple health studies have linked wildfire smoke to serious health consequences including heart attacks, strokes and breathing problems, and the poor air quality has prompted cancellations or changes to outdoor activities as a result.
The Toronto District School Board joined several of its counterparts across the region in cancelling outdoor activities and moving recess inside for a second straight day Thursday. The Toronto Zoo also announced it would close early.
As of midday Thursday, there were 431 fires burning in nine provinces and two territories. That was down from 441 Wednesday, with Quebec extinguishing 10 fires since Wednesday morning.
The number of out-of-control fires also fell from 256 on Wednesday to 234 on Thursday, including a change in status for more than a dozen fires in Quebec.
The eastern United States has been seeing the effects from wildfire smoke drifting south, with cities like New York and Washington, D.C., issuing air quality warnings of their own.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights out of Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday morning and slowed traffic to and from New York City-area airports as wildfire smoke reduced visibility.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on the phone with U.S. President Joe Biden about the issue on Wednesday. A readout of that call said both leaders agreed the situation pointed to the urgency of addressing climate change.
More than 42,000 square kilometres have burned so far this year, making 2023 the second-worst year for fires on record. That's before the hottest months of the year have even begun.
In 2014, more than 46,000 square kilometres burned, the most ever in a single year. At the current pace, that total is expected to be passed this weekend.
There has been no loss of life, although property and infrastructure damage has been significant. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed or damaged in Nova Scotia in recent weeks, while Quebec's fires are threatening critical infrastructure including roads and Hydro towers.
On Vancouver Island Wednesday, a small wildfire cut off the only major highway linking Port Alberni, Tofino and Ucluelet to the rest of British Columbia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
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.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
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.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
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.