Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
House Democrats say they will vote on legislation this fall to curb the power of the president, an effort to rein in executive powers that they say President Donald Trump flagrantly abused.
The legislation, expected to be introduced Tuesday, would limit the president's pardon power, strengthen laws to ban presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments, better protect independent agency watchdogs and whistleblowers from firing or retribution and give Congress better tools to enforce subpoenas. It was written with the input of President Joe Biden's White House and incorporates a previous version that Democrats introduced just before the November election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill is intended to restore checks and balances between Congress and the executive branch “so that no president of whatever party can ever assume that he or she has the power to usurp the power of the other branches of government.”
The legislation, Pelosi said, is “specific in its remedies and its inoculations against future abuse.”
The bill comes as Trump mulls another run for president and as Democrats defend a thin majority in the 2022 midterm elections. Most provisions in the legislation are in direct response to actions by Trump or his administration that Democrats saw as abuses of presidential power, including his firing of agency whistleblowers, his defiance of congressional subpoenas and his campaign's interactions with Russians in the 2016 election.
The Democrats say they negotiated the bill with the White House, which thought some aspects of the original legislation went too far. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, the lead Democrat on the measure, said Tuesday that while they haven't agreed with the administration on every provision, they made specific tweaks to accommodate them. Those changes would allow the White House to continue to protect some information from subpoenas and shield Congress from seeing some confidential communications between administration officials, Schiff said.
“We have accommodated their feedback, but we're not in complete accord,” and will continue to work with the White House, Schiff said. He added that Biden has been supportive of the reforms generally.
White House spokesman Chris Meagher said in a statement that administration officials “strongly support efforts to restore guardrails and breathe life back into those longstanding norms” and that they are working with Congress to do that.
The bill is likely to be a tough sell in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats need at least 10 votes to pass legislation and where Republicans have been reluctant to defy the former president.
Schiff said that loyalty to Trump is what makes the bill necessary.
“What was also very revealing in the last four years is that so many of our current checks and balances really depended on members of Congress of both parties having a deep abiding conviction of support for their own institution - that each would jealously guard their own institution,” he said. “And that broke down. When members were more devoted to the person of the president than they were to the institution, that's made I think many of these reforms necessary.”
The legislation would prevent presidents from pardoning themselves - Trump once tweeted he had the “absolute power” to do just that as he was being investigated by the Justice Department - and would tighten federal bribery laws to clarify that a pardon could be considered a “thing of value.” It suspends the statute of limitations for any federal offense committed by a sitting president or vice president and strengthens regulations around foreign gifts.
It would also expedite the judicial process for enforcing congressional subpoenas and allow the court to levy fines on officials who willfully fail to comply. Dozens of Trump administration officials faced little consequence for defying subpoenas and ignoring information requests during Democrats' two impeachment probes and other investigations.
The bill would require stronger reporting requirements for campaigns and clarify and enhance criminal penalties for campaigns that accept foreign information sought or obtained for political advantage - a response to the Trump campaign's interactions with Russians during the 2016 campaign, including conversations between the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and intermediaries about information that could incriminate Democrat Hillary Clinton.
A report by special counsel Robert Mueller found multiple contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, but determined there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between the two.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
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.