Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
An array of progressive and pro-White House groups plans to spend nearly US$100 million to promote President Joe Biden's agenda over the next month to pressure Congress while lawmakers are on their August recess.
The push being announced Monday, coupled with a wave of travel by the president's top surrogates, is meant to promote and secure passage of Biden's two-track infrastructure plan: a bipartisan package focused on highways, transit and broadband, and a Democrats-only budget reconciliation bill for child care and what the White House calls human infrastructure.
Votes on both proposals, expected in the weeks ahead, are expected to be narrow, with Biden and Democratic leaders needing to keep in line a group of moderate Republicans for the nearly US$1 trillion bipartisan bill as well as an ideologically diverse set of Democrats for the potentially US$3.5 trillion reconciliation package.
An outside coalition of progressive organizations launched a war room and is planning to host over 1,000 events and actions over the next six weeks, The Associated Press learned. The goal, officials said, was to bombard the home districts of members of Congress with ads -- both televised and digital -- to keep the pressure on to follow through on their votes as well as to underscore much of the agenda's popularity with the public.
The Senate voted to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week, giving Biden a hard-fought legislative victory that, at least for now, seemed to justify his commitment to a bipartisan approach that some in his own party doubted. Both bills were expected to face debate and further votes in the weeks ahead.
"Progressive groups are going on the offense as we lead into August recess," said Danielle Melfi, executive director of Building Back Together, an outside group supportive of the president. "We know there is a groundswell of support and we want to show members that while they are back home in their districts."
Traditionally, August is the slowest month of the year in Washington, in part because Congress leaves town, so the White House aims to fill that vacuum with a blitz of events meant to tout Biden's first six months in office while also promising to take on rising fears of long-term inflation as well as a surge in coronavirus infections, predominantly among the unvaccinated, due to the highly contagious delta variant.
"We're going to use the August recess to build on (support for the president's plan) by launching a massive push in every corner of the country," said White House spokesman Mike Gwin, "to make the case directly to all Americans on why this agenda is going to benefit them and their families through lower costs for everyday expenses, tax cuts, and greater economic opportunity."
Several Republican senators, including Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, blasted the overall price tag and said they would not support the bill. Cruz deemed it a "massive US$3.5 trillion Democrat tax-and-spend bill."
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will headline events and, in the first two weeks of August alone, 14 Cabinet secretaries will travel to at least 26 cities in 13 states, the White House said. Among them, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will head to Georgia and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Nevada, New Jersey and Texas.
But the biggest name of all does not have travel scheduled: Biden is expected to remain in Washington this week before departing for a vacation in Delaware. White House aides said the president would hit the road at the end of August to promote the plan.
The bipartisan deal, which nearly fell apart several times, is tentatively slated to receive a vote this week. The timetable for the reconciliation bill is less clear.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
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.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
A delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported "noticeable progress" in ongoing cease-fire talks with Israel while an Israeli official downplayed the prospects for a full end to the war.
Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, N.C., home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire from the direction of his neighbor's house.
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.
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.
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.