Terri Coles

  • Trump's first foreign trip is not a snub of Canada, history reveals

    Coverage of Trump’s alleged Canada snub in the American press. Some Canadians might be relieved that President Donald Trump appears to be breaking with tradition and visiting another country—any other country—before he comes to ours. Trump’s first foreign visit will be not to one of the United States’ closest neighbours, allies, and trading partners but instead to Saudi Arabia in late May, followed by trips to Israel and Vatican City and meetings in Brussels (NATO summit) and Sicily (Group of Seven meeting).

  • TDSB app ban is the latest puts in Canadian schools curbing phone use

    The Toronto District School Board’s decision to ban social-media and entertainment sites from its in-school networks appeared to take many by surprise on Monday, but it’s a move that has already taken by schools across the country. The policy change—which temporarily blocks wifi access to Snapchat, Instagram, and Netflix over its networks—was announced by the board in a release on Monday. “These sites account for more than 20% of our daily network activity and, on our older, slower network, make many necessary operational tasks, such as attendance, registration and report cards, nearly impossible to complete,” the release reads.

  • Harjit Sajjan keeps apologizing but questions about his past keep mounting

    Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan faced more criticism Monday as he apologized once again for mischaracterizing his service in Afghanistan. “I would like to apologize for my mistake in describing my role,” Sajjan said during a scrum with reporters Monday before Question Period. “I work very diligently in everything that I do and I want to be able to continue to do that,” Sajjan said when asked about the statements that got him in hot water and planted seeds of doubt regarding his truthfulness.

  • Kevin O'Leary disappoints some supporters by abandoning Conservative leadership race

    Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Maxime Bernier, left, watches businessman Kevin O’Leary announce that he is withdrawing his name from the race to lead the party due to a lack of support in Quebec. Kevin O’Leary’s decision to exit the crowded federal Conservative leadership race was met with anger from a few supporters who wondered what would happen to the campaign donations he was soliciting only hours before he called it quits. The brash television personality, perhaps best known for his roles on Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank, announced Wednesday that he was ending his leadership bid and throwing his support behind Maxime Bernier, who was polling at 14.19 per cent compared to O’Leary’s 26.32 per cent in a Mainstreet Research poll of more than 2,000 Conservative Party of Canada members taken between April 18 to 22.

  • Justin Trudeau's Liberals refuse to adopt marijuana decriminalization

    Despite the federal government’s allowance for marijuana offences to be prosecuted ahead of pot legalization, some are calling for the decriminalization of cannabis in the interim period. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and MP Bill Blair participated in a Vice event at the news outlet’s Toronto office Monday. During the discussion, Trudeau recounted how his father helped his late brother avoid having a criminal record after a pot possession charge, pointing out the unfairness in the current system that doesn’t provide the same resources for all people facing charges.

  • Tours of the Titanic's wreck starting from N.L. next year

    Over a century later, the Canadian island will play a new role in the ongoing history of the doomed ship as it becomes the starting point for underwater trips to the Titanic wreck. Starting in May 2018, London-based travel company Blue Marble Private will begin eight-day treks to the Titanic wreck site that will launch from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The luxury trips, done in collaboration with OceanGate Expeditions, will take nine “Mission Specialists” at a time 4,000 metres down into the North Atlantic in a submersible specially designed for the deep water dives.

  • Abortion clinic protestors in Ottawa could be handled by buffer laws

    Buffer zones are needed to prevent anti-abortion protesters from harassing clients, clinics say. Anti-abortion protests outside Ottawa’s only private clinic providing abortion services are causing stress for staff and patients, and some are calling for Ottawa Police and local politicians to do more. “I know that this has been going on for a long time and really the problem comes down to the lack of adequate response by Ottawa police,” Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC), tells Yahoo Canada News.

  • Canadian music festival criticized for lack of support for women, diverse artists

    Canadian Music Week, currently happening in Toronto, is being criticized for its lack of diversity because the event's conference panels are made up of primarily white men.

  • Canada's first female infantry officer breaks silence on abuse in revealing new memoir

    Sandra Perron, Canada’s first female infantry officer, is seen here at home with her old uniform. After years of silence, Canada’s first female infantry officer, Sandra Perron, has penned a memoir about the misogyny she experienced in the military and the changes she hopes will be made someday.

  • Strict penalties on selling pot to youth won't change, says justice minister

    The government’s goal of keeping youth from using marijuana justifies proposed prison sentences in its new pot legalization bill that have been criticized as too harsh, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told journalist Evan Solomon during a CTV Question Period interview that aired Sunday. There is no mandatory minimum sentence proposed in the bill. Keeping young Canadians from cannabis, even once the drug is legalized for adult use, is key for the government, Wilson-Raybould said.

  • Puffins aplenty in Newfoundland despite struggling to survive globally

    Puffins are at risk of extinction in the U.K., but you’ll see plenty of the funny-looking seabirds if you head to Newfoundland and Labrador, where they can be found by the hundreds of thousands. A quarter of the bird species in the U.K. are struggling for survival, according to a report released Tuesday, and the Atlantic puffin is among them. The Atlantic puffin, which breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and other North Atlantic islands, was classified as vulnerable to extinction globally by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2015 because of high breeding failures at colonies.

  • Federal youth jobs program funding will reportedly go to groups that oppose abortion rights

    The federal government’s youth summer jobs program will reportedly provide tens of thousands of dollars to organizations that advocate against abortion rights and LGBTQ rights. The financial support for organizations like the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, which runs a campaign that compares abortion to the Holocaust, counters the strongly pro-choice statements made recently by Liberal cabinet ministers Maryam Monsef, Patricia Hajdu, and Jane Philpott. The purpose of the Canada Summer Jobs Program is “to focus on local priorities, while helping both students and their communities,” according to the website for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

  • Washington Post dedicates front page to anti-Trump Americans who can flee to Cape Breton Island

    The Washington Post had a feature story on Cape Breton Island. A weekend feature in The Washington Post about American interest in immigrating to Cape Breton Island highlights how Canada could benefit from growing nervousness about the Trump presidency. Cape Breton DJ Rob Calabrese has received more than 5,000 emails since he put up a $28-website encouraging Americans to escape Trump by moving to Cape Breton Island, N.S. The Washington Post article, published last Saturday, features interviews with Calabrese, locals in Cape Breton, and Americans who have thought about moving.

  • Halifax police force takes oath to 'start by believing' sexual assault victims

    Halifax police have agreed to take the “start by believing” approach to sexual-assault complaints. Halifax Regional Police have become the first Canadian police force to take the pledge to “start by believing” sexual assault victims when investigating complaints of sexual violence. The police force, in partnership with the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, announced yesterday that its members were taking a pledge from Start by Believing, which is a public awareness campaign that began in the United States.

  • Netflix rewards stranded Newfoundlander for binge-watching movies

    Transport truck driver Matthew Woodland watched some movies downloaded from Netflix while he was stranded on Burin Highway. Would you spend 24 hours stranded on a snowy highway for five years’ worth of free Netflix? Matthew Woodland may not have made that deal, but now he’ll be streaming as many movies and shows as he likes.

  • A look at progress on assisted-dying guidelines across Canada

    Shine A Light, a project of Dying With Dignity Canada, aims to highlight the barriers facing Canadians who want to access their right to assisted dying. It comes at a time when provinces are still working on refining their guidelines for physician-assisted death. A crowdfunded map of Canada, published on the Dying With Dignity website, shows there are several facilities across the country that will provide the procedure, while others explicitly will not.

  • Drone enthusiasts feel their wings have been clipped by new Transport Canada regulations

    There are new rules for flying recreational drones in Canada. Some drone enthusiasts think Canada’s new regulations on the unmanned aircraft could hamper innovation, though others say the regulations are a positive step forward for the growing industry. To them it seems like they can’t fly anywhere,” George Habib, owner of drone retailer Dr. Drone, told Yahoo Canada News.

  • Disappointment, frustration follow confusing VIA pass sale

    Via Rail’s promotional passes for unlimited travel this summer are now all sold out. Excitement about heavily discounted Via Rail passes for the month of July quickly turned to disappointment among prospective travellers. On Tuesday, Via Rail launched a promotion: for just $150, Canadians between the ages of 12 and 25 could have unlimited travel across the country by train.

  • Provinces unsure how to move forward on marijuana legalization

    One of the things standing in the way of clarity around the federal government’s plans for recreational marijuana legalization is the degree of power the prime minister appears ready to give the provinces. Details of the federal plan, first reported Sunday by CBC News, indicate that several decisions will be made at the provincial level, such as where marijuana will be sold, what the minimum age for purchase will be and what legal pot will cost. The federal government revealed they’ll introduce their legislation before April 20, a day of global weed celebration, and several provinces have hinted they’ll wait to see what that bill looks like before making too many plans of their own.

  • How the 2017 federal budget stacks up for women

    The Trudeau government unveiled the 2017 federal budget on Wednesday. The 2017 federal budget contains something that no previous budget has: a long statement on gender equality. Trudeau’s second federal budget has a 26-page statement about gender equality that puts government spending and programs through a gender-based analysis.