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.
Italy's president on Monday strongly criticized the violence that has erupted amid protests over the country's new coronavirus workplace health pass requirement, saying it appeared aimed at jeopardizing Italy's economic recovery.
President Sergio Mattarella spoke out as riot police again clashed with protesters at the port in the northern city of Trieste, at times using water cannons to push them back. The protesters, who have included right-wing agitators in previous episodes, oppose Italy's Green Pass requirement.
Italy on Friday became the first major European economy to require all workers -- from hairdressers to factory workers -- to present proof of vaccination, a negative test within the past 48 hours or proof of having been cured recently of COVID-19 to enter workplaces. The pass had already been required to enter indoor venues like restaurants, museums and theatres, or for long-distance domestic travel.
The government says the measure is necessary to ensure workplaces are safe so that Italy's economy, which shrank 8.9 per cent last year, can recover. Opponents say the requirement violates their rights and imposes unfair burdens on workers and employers alike.
In a speech opening the academic year at the University of Pisa, Mattarella praised the civic sense of duty that Italians showed when Italy became the first country in the West to get slammed by the virus. Italy imposed Europe's first nationwide lockdown and production shutdown when the virus first struck, and in the year since, Italians have largely abided by mask mandates and social distancing to try to keep infections at bay.
As a result, Mattarella said, it was "painful and surprising" that violent protests were erupting now, "not during the dark moments when we feared the collapse of the country, but now, today when we see an encouraging economic, social and cultural recovery."
He said the "explosion" of violence seems "aimed at intercepting or getting in the way of the country's recovery" which he said was owed to younger generations who have suffered years of economic stagnation.
The aim of the Green Pass requirement is to encourage even higher vaccination rates beyond the current 81 per cent of Italy's population over age 12 who are fully inoculated.
Italy has kept the latest delta variant resurgence largely under control, reporting around 67 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks and a daily official death toll that hasn't exceeded 70 for months.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
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.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Protesters chanted anti-war messages and waved Palestinian flags during the University of Michigan's commencement Saturday, as student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war collided with the annual pomp-and-circumstance of graduation season at American universities.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
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 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.
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.