'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
A snowstorm battered southern Ontario and parts of Quebec Monday, with between 15 and 60 centimetres of snow falling across the provinces.
With high winds and poor visibility, Environment Canada issued blizzard warnings across much of southern Ontario Monday morning. Conditions began improving Monday afternoon, although most of the region remained under snowfall and winter storm warnings until the evening.
Up to 60 centimetres of snow was expected to fall in several cities, particularly those on or near Lake Ontario, like Hamilton, Burlington, Mississauga, Toronto, Cobourg and Belleville. Ottawa and its surroundings were expected to receive up to 50 centimetres.
Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips said on CTV News Channel Monday that the storm could be “one of the snowiest days in recent history,” after parts of the country were in a “snow drought” this winter.
“This storm is a hard hitter but it really is also a quick hitter,” Phillips said. “It arrived on time like it was following a script…very few areas will escape this…with really a lot of snow in certain areas, looking at these numbers for Toronto, this isn’t even a two or three-day event, this is less than a day.”
Phillips said the storm was going to dump a lot of snow with very strong winds, which is what makes it an “impactful event.”
“You’re going to have to be pushing it, plowing it and shovelling it two or three times before it settles down,” he said of the amount of snow expected in some regions.
“It’s a very potent storm, there are a lot of dangers with it,” Phillips said, citing factors such as very poor visibility in Toronto.
The storm prompted the temporary closure of the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway in Toronto, two main thoroughfares for the city. There were also numerous public transit delays and cancellations in the city.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the roads were treacherous and that many people were stuck on Highway 401 due to the snow and poor visibility.
“It’s just been an absolute mess,” Schmidt said on CTV News Channel Monday. “It’s just a day of frustration for pretty much everyone on the roads.”
Schmidt declared Monday as the day people “should stay home.”
Despite the warning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford headed out into the storm and was photographed in Toronto helping a few stranded motorists dig out their cars.
On Monday, several southern Ontario school boards cancelled what was supposed to be the first day of in-class learning since December. Canada Post also halted services and vaccination clinics in Toronto, Durham, Peel, York and Ottawa were closed until Tuesday.
Both Toronto and Ottawa reported it could take days to clear all the snow from the cities’ roads, where multiple crashes were reported. In Ottawa, a life was saved thanks to a quick-thinking eight-year-old boy, who had his parents call 911 when he saw an elderly man almost buried in the snow.
Much like its neighbour, southern Quebec was blanketed with snow and Environment Canada warnings on Monday as the massive winter storm made its way across eastern Canada.
Snowfall and winter storm warnings were issued for much of southern Quebec, with anywhere from five to 25 centimetres of snow anticipated. Across from Ottawa, Gatineau was expected to receive the most in the province, with 30 to 50 centimetres in the forecast.
South of Montreal, highways were shut down and at least a dozen people were taken to hospital following three pileups involving nearly 75 vehicles. The Greater Montreal Area was expecting as much as 25 centimetres of snow Monday.
In addition to snow, storm surge warnings were in effect for several coastal regions along the St. Lawrence River and Gaspe Peninsula on Monday. Further north in Quebec, the regions of Waskaganish, Parent-Gouin Reservoir, Matagami, Chibougamau and Abitibi were all under extreme cold warnings, with wind chill estimated to make it feel like -38 to -42 C from Monday night to Tuesday morning.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
There is currently a whooping cough epidemic in Europe, with 10 times as many cases compared to the previous two years. While an outbreak has not been declared nationwide in Canada, whooping cough is regularly detected in the country.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
British Columbia's human rights tribunal has awarded a neurodigergent actor, who was diagnosed with sensory and learning disorders, more than $55,000 after finding that a Kelowna theatre company discriminated against him because of his disabilities.
It's not quite clear who is supposed to be regulating so-called sovereign cannabis stores or even ensure they're benefiting Indigenous communities.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
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.