Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
The first event ever inside Climate Pledge Arena -- whether it will be considered the official first event or not -- was far from a soft opening.
"Dave Grohl said he was going to tear the building down," joked Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke on Wednesday, barely 12 hours after Foo Fighters christened the new facility. "He came close, at 2 1/2 hours I think he was intent."
The home of the Seattle Kraken survived the screams and guitars of rock stars once this week and seems ready for its hockey debut on Saturday night when the Kraken host the Vancouver Canucks. Before the first home game for the NHL's newest franchise, the arena will have its first official event Friday night when Coldplay performs there.
The week's events -- which began with Tuesday night's benefit show featuring Foo Fighters -- are the culmination of a process that started nearly five years ago when Oak View Group was selected by the city of Seattle to renovate what had been known as KeyArena when it was home to the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA.
It was originally earmarked as a $600,000 project. When the doors open for the first Kraken game, the price tag will have topped $1 billion, with the facility now featuring plush premium seating sections, exclusive clubs and the first three-sided dual scoreboard system.
The arena also is running off electricity generated in part by solar panels, will use recycled rain water for its icemaking and has a living wall of vegetation on one of the concourses.
The building also resolved a long struggle to find a suitable arena for pro sports and concerts. It will also be home to the WNBA's Storm and perhaps someday the NBA once again.
"We're very pleased on what we have created for Seattle in this moment of truth," Leiweke said.
Some finishing touches were being applied all over the building Wednesday, from cleaning in the tunnel suites that lead from the NHL locker rooms to the ice, to some of the concession areas that had equipment delayed due to shipping issues.
The Kraken locker room was done, complete with the team's logo on the ceiling. But it still needed to be set up by the team's equipment staff after Seattle spent the first week of the regular season on the road.
Ken Johnsen, the construction executive who oversaw the arena project, said shipping delays created a little apprehension in the closing months of the project. For example, COVID-19 issues and a backlog of ships waiting to unload cargo at various ports around the United States delayed the arrival of risers manufactured in Slovakia to be used for retractable seating in the lower bowl of the arena.
Johnsen said they had to use air freight in some instances to get the materials on time.
"If you weren't watching things really carefully, this (chair) might be in a container in Long Beach," Johnsen said. "So I would say we really started even before July focusing on what's coming, where is it, are we going to have a supply chain problem, and I'm really proud that we didn't."
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
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.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
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.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.