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.
Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have spoken out against the Hungarian government's planned LGBTQ2S+ law referendum.
Hungary's government wants a national referendum to showcase public support for a new law that the European Union says discriminates against LGBT people. The government says the law aims to protect children, but many have criticized it as an attack on LGBT rights.
The seven-time F1 champion Hamilton, who is chasing a record-extending 100th grand prix win this weekend, made his opposition known on social media.
"Ahead of the Grand Prix this weekend, I wish to share my support for those affected by the government's anti-LGBTQ+ law. It is unacceptable, cowardly and misguiding for those in power to suggest such a law," Hamilton wrote on Instagram.
"Everyone deserves to have the freedom to be themselves, no matter who they love or how they identify. I urge the people of Hungary to vote in the upcoming referendum to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+, community, they need our support more than ever."
Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted a video on Facebook to say the referendum was necessary to counter strong opposition to the measures by the EU, which he said abused its power by launching legal action against Hungary over the law.
The four-time F1 champion Vettel spoke out on Thursday at the Hungarian GP.
"I find it embarrassing for the country," said Vettel, who is third all-time in F1 history with 53 race wins. "I can't understand why they (the government) are struggling to see why everybody should be free to do what they like."
The law passed last month by Hungary's parliament bans the depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment to minors in school education programs and media content.
Its passage set off a heated confrontation between Orban's right-wing government and the 27-member EU, which argued it discriminates against LGBT people and contravenes the bloc's fundamental values.
The referendum will cover such issues as whether children should be introduced to topics of sexual orientation in schools, and whether gender reassignment should be promoted or depicted to children.
Last Saturday, thousands of LGBT supporters marched in the annual Budapest Pride parade.
Budapest Pride spokesperson Jojo Majercsik said the was not just a celebration and remembrance of the historical struggles of the LGBT movement, but a protest against Orban's current policies.
This month, activists erected a 10-metre-high (30-foot-high) rainbow-coloured heart opposite the country's neo-Gothic parliament vowing to wage a civil disobedience campaign.
At the Turkish GP last November, Vettel wore a special helmet promoting a message of diversity and inclusion.
The helmet's design depicted a diverse crowd, a prominent rainbow stripe, and a white-to-black gradient with his chosen message "No borders, just horizons -- only freedom" written on top.
Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, has spoken out at length against racism. He and other drivers have been taking a knee against racism before races for the past year.
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.
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.
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.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
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.