Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Canadian weightlifter Maude Charron made sure that, at least in some way, Christine Girard was able to be part of the experience that comes with winning an Olympic gold medal.
Charron won gold in the women's 64-kilogram event on Tuesday, and she spoke of what it means to follow in the footsteps of Girard, one of the sport's trailblazers.
"She's like my idol," Charron said. "When I won my first Canadian national championship, she was the one who gave me my gold medal. I was like 'Oh my god, that's Christine Girard! And I'm still: 'Oh my god, that's Christine Girard talking to me."'
Girard won Canada's first ever weightlifting gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics. But she was denied her Olympic championship moment. Originally awarded a bronze, Girard wouldn't receive the medal she rightfully earned until years later, after the London gold and silver medallists were eventually stripped of their medals for doping infractions.
"Now I just feel like that's her medal, that's her moment, because she didn't have it in real time," Charron said. "So this is just a medal and a moment due to Canada."
Charron from Rimouski, Que., put the finishing touches on her medal with a successful lift of 131 kilograms on her third and final clean and jerk attempt.
Charron also had the highest score in the snatch phase, lifting 105 kilograms. Her total of 236 points over the two phases was four better than silver medallist Giorgia Bordignon of Italy.
Wen-Huei Chen of Taiwan finished third.
"Everyone does their thing, and if the bar falls, the bar falls," Charron said. "That's the game, that's the play, that's the sport -- you miss or you make it.:
The 28-year-old lifted her hands in triumph as she climbed the podium and appeared to wipe away tears as the Canadian anthem played.
"Actually I don't remember, I was just crying and I didn't realize what happened," she said with a laugh.
"I thought about my grandmother because once she told me she'd like me to sing the Canadian anthem, so I sang it -- but on the podium at the Olympics."
The weightlifter, who had once gone to circus school and dreamt of being a gymnast, said going into the Games that her goal was to give her best performance.
However, she had already established herself as a medal contender earlier this year when she won gold at the Pan American Championships in April, breaking three records on her way.
And her recent success came without having a gym to train at due to COVID-19.
"My gym in Quebec closed so I had to take my stuff -- my bar and my plates -- to my dad's garage," she said. "I trained there for a whole year along with my dog.
"It was fine, I just picture myself there in my peaceful place and it puts me in the right mood."
Charron's gold is Canada's second of the games after swimmer Maggie Mac Neil won the women's 100-metre butterfly on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2021.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
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.
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.