Pipeline spills 60,000 litres of crude into muskeg in northern Alberta

No impact to wildlife reported, cleanup has begun

The Canadian Press Posted: Nov 29, 2014 10:08 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 29, 2014 10:10 PM ET

The Alberta Energy Regulator says close to 60,000 litres of crude oil have spilled into muskeg in the province's north.

An incident report by the regulator states that a mechanical failure was reported Thursday at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited pipeline approximately 27 kilometres north of Red Earth Creek.

The report says there are no reports of impact to wildlife and that a cleanup has begun.

Red Earth Creek is over 350 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Carrie Rosa, a spokeswoman for the regulator, says officials have been delayed reaching the scene due to poor weather in the last few days.

No one from Canadian Natural Resources could be reached on Saturday for comment.

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Grey Cup breakdown: Ticats vs Stampeders

Tale of the Tape

Calgary held statistical regular-season edge

CBC Sports Posted: Nov 26, 2014 12:24 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 27, 2014 9:38 AM ET

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Calgary Stampeders will kick off the 102nd Grey Cup on Sunday night at B.C. Place in Vancouver.

The Tiger-Cats are making their second straight appearance in the CFL's title game. Hamilton lost to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2013, and hasn't tasted victory since 1999 when it beat the Stamps.

Calgary was defeated by the Toronto Argonauts in the Grey Cup's centennial contest in 2012. The Stampeders last won the championship in 2008 against the Montreal Alouettes.

Calgary rolled through the regular season with a 15-3 record before destroying the Edmonton Eskimos 43-18 in the West final. The Ticats struggled to a 9-9 season but pulled away from Montreal 40-24 in the East final to secure a Grey Cup berth.

Here's how the two teams compare:

With files from The Canadian Press

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Nunavut hunter survives 5-hour trek after falling through ice

A Pond Inlet, Nunavut, hunter is recovering at home after his snowmobile fell through thin ice, plunging him into frigid water and forcing him to walk five hours back to town in wet clothes in below-freezing temperatures.

Laimiki Pewatualuk was hunting several kilometres from Pond Inlet last Wednesday when thin ice beneath him suddenly gave way, submerging the hunter and his snowmobile in the water below.

"I brought all the necessary emergency supplies, such as a SPOT [GPS tracking] device and a flashlight," Pewatualuk said in Inuktitut. "My CB radio went down with the snowmobile."

At the time, the temperature was about –26 C. Pewatualuk tried to use his locating device without success.

"I may not have pressed it long enough," Pewatualuk said. "I also fired several flares, but they weren't seen [in Pond Inlet]."

So Pewatualuk started walking — and continued walking for about five hours. Eventually, another hunter spotted him and drove him the rest of the way home.

How to survive a fall into Arctic waters

Pewatualuk survived with no major injuries, but several hunters have died after falling through the ice into Arctic waters in recent months.

Earlier this month, a hunter from Nunavik, Que., died from an apparent case of hypothermia after falling through ice. Another man died in October after falling through ice while riding an ATV. 

Adam Woogh, Arctic Response Canada's manager for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, said people who fall into frigid water experience "cold shock."

"You start hyperventilating. You feel a tightness throughout your body. You're breathing way faster than you need to," Woogh said.

'You start hyperventilating. You feel a tightness throughout your body. You're breathing way faster than you need to.'- Adam Wough, Arctic Response Canada

"And what you have to do is just keep your head above the water, focus on getting your breathing under control and know that that will pass." 

That shock usually lasts about a minute, but can stretch as long as four minutes.

"In terms of surviving the cold water, making sure you stay afloat in those first few minutes is going to be the most important thing."

Woogh said there's a short window of time to climb out of the water while muscles are still working. 

"As a defence mechanism, your body tries to shunt all your blood flow to your core in order to preserve body heat. So as a result, there's a lot less blood going to the surface," Woogh said.

"That means the muscles in your arms and legs are not nearly getting the oxygen they need to allow you to keep swimming."

That means even the strongest swimmers usually drown within the first five to 10 minutes of falling into frigid waters. 

Use common sense and caution near ice

Woogh said it's important to bring a partner who can help if you do become submerged in frigid water, and make sure to check ice conditions before leaving the house.

"Don't trust water over rivers," he said, referring to the ice over lakes usually being much thicker. 

And if you find yourself on the land wearing wet clothes, Woogh has one final piece of advice: "Keep moving. You need to keep your body heat."

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3 people found dead in Toronto apartment building

Toronto police homicide detectives are investigating the sudden deaths of three people in the city's east end.

The bodies were found inside a Thorncliffe Park apartment building late Saturday afternoon. Paramedics said they found two adults and one child, all without vital signs. The genders and ages of the victims were not immediately clear. 

"Very sad news out of Thorncliffe this evening," tweeted Scott Gilbert, the superintendent of 53 Division. "Investigation is continuing. No suspects are currently sought for this horrendous crime."

Detectives are reportedly looking into the possibility the deaths are connected to what they're calling "an event" that occurred on the city's Don Valley Parkway earlier in the day.

The southbound lanes of the DVP were closed for several hours for a police investigation, creating traffic chaos.

Homicide detectives are expected to update their investigation later this morning.

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Michaëlle Jean chosen as new head of la Francophonie

Former governor general Michaëlle Jean has been chosen as secretary-general of la Francophonie, the organization announced today.

Jean was chosen by consensus at the summit of French-speaking nations in Dakar, Senegal, which began on Saturday. She becomes the first Canadian and the first woman to hold the position. 

The organization has 57 members or associate members, while another 20 jurisdictions have observer status.

"I am very excited to work with all these women and all these men who make and live the Francophonie daily," Jean said in a written statement following the announcement.

Jean also emphasized the important role of youth and women, and stressed the need to promote the use of the French language and strengthen economic action in the Francophone world.

The CBC's Rosemary Barton said Jean's appointment gives Canada and the Conservative government a much stronger level of influence internationally.

"It allows the prime minister, for instance, to continue to push his agenda of maternal and child health in a different organization within the very countries that he's been targeting," Barton said.

"And it also improves, let's be frank, our reputation internationally as well to have a Canadian head up an organization like this one. So certainly a coup for Jean today, but also a coup for the prime minister who backed this bid and for the country as a whole."

If the organization's members had any reticence about Jean, Barton said, it's because she's not from Africa.

"Most of the member of la Francophonie are African Nations and there was some concern whether a North American could well represent the needs of Africa," Barton said.

"But remember that Canada is the second biggest donor to la Francophonie and Jean has a background so well-known and she did a lot of work to try to win this. She lobbied countries very, very hard and travelled around to try to get them onside."

Jean's mandate will last four years. She was one of five candidates seeking to replace Abdou Diouf, who stepped down after more than 10 years on the job. She's the first woman to head the organization.

Jean, 57, was governor general between 2005 and 2010. She was born in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 6, 1957, during the era of the Duvalier dictatorships in Haiti. Her family moved to Thetford Mines, Que., in 1968.

The former Radio-Canada reporter has worked recently in Haiti as a special envoy for UNESCO and has been the chancellor of the University of Ottawa since 2012.

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NDP MPs angry with the way Trudeau handled harassment allegations

What began with a non-partisan attempt to deal with serious allegations of personal misconduct against two Liberal MPs has descended into a nasty political dispute between the Liberals and the NDP.

CBC News has learned that the two NDP MPs who came forward with allegations against two Liberal MP are "angry" at the way Justin Trudeau publicly handled the situation.

"They are angry at Mr. Trudeau," NDP whip Nycole Turmel told CBC Radio's The House. "They are not angry that they spoke about it, but they are angry at Mr. Trudeau that they had to face that," she said.

Turmel added that she has spoken to both complainants and that they are both struggling to come to terms with the fact their stories are in the public domain, even if they haven't been named. 

On Wednesday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau suspended MPs Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti from his caucus pending an investigation into what he called serious allegations of personal misconduct. Hours later, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said Trudeau did not warn the complainant he was going to go public with the situation — an action that said has "re-victimized" the two NDP MPs.

NDP Deputy Leader Megan Leslie told The House she believes the Liberal leader's approach will have even further damaging affects. She claimed his actions might discourage other women from speaking out about harassment.

"I don't think anyone's going to come forward anytime soon," Leslie told The House.

"I don't think it's safe to. I mean, it's not every workplace where you end up doing national media, because you came forward to say I want a safe workplace," she said.

"I think it's going to be cut off, that conversation is cut off, at least in the short term."

But Liberal Party whip Judy Foote maintains her leader had a responsibility to act once the allegations were brought to his attention.

"Certainly the MP that approached Mr. Trudeau had to know that, that he would have to act," Foote told The House. "You cannot sit on something like that."  

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Here's looking at you: How facial recognition technology is creeping into daily life

Calgary police became the first force in Canada to start using facial recognition software to match suspects against a mug shot database this week, but it likely won't be the last.

The use of facial recognition technology is growing not just in law enforcement and security fields but also in commerce.

"One of the reasons face [recognition] is so popular is that face images exist of almost everybody," said Kevin Bowyer, an expert on biometrics and computer vision and chair of the department of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

"You've got your driver's licence photos, you've got your identity badges wherever you work, so you've got this legacy of images that are easily accessible for everyone."

Some cellphone apps use face recognition instead of passwords to give users access to devices. (Carlos Barria /Reuters)

Chances are you've already encountered some form of this technology. Government agencies that issue driver's licences use it to verify that you are who your licence says you are. Banks use it when investigating debit card fraud.

Smartphone apps like FaceCrypt and FastAccessAnywhere use it to grant you access to your mobile devices. Social media sites like Instagram and Facebook employ it when tagging photos. Google uses it in search and tagging functions and police in Dubai have even incorporated it into its Google Glass eyewear.

Matching faces not so simple

The algorithms used to match images of faces vary and are largely proprietary but generally employ computational methods to analyze the pixel values in images and identify patterns and correspondences.

Matching images to mug shots can be problematic when using CCTV or security camera footage, which rarely provides clear, front-facing head shots. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)

A lot of progress has been made in facial detection and matching in the last decade thanks to the millions of dollars pumped into the field by the U.S. government — primarily the Defence Department — said James Wayman, a facial recognition expert who helped allocate that funding and is a research administrator at San Jose University

But facial recognition software can still be stymied by many factors: a person's pose, lighting, facial expressions, aging, image resolution and obstructions like hats or even hair.

"Identification is a very messy process. It's as messy for computers as it is for humans," said Kelly Gates, author of Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance and an associate professor of communication and science studies at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

"People look like each other, people look different over time …​ people can look very different depending on the lighting conditions, depending on the day.…

'You can never establish certainties; you can only establish probabilities of matches.'- Kelly Gates, author of Our Biometric Future

"You can never establish certainties; you can only establish probabilities of matches." 

To make a good match, you need images where people are looking straight into the camera and have similar facial expressions — ideally, a smile and not the neutral expression we've all been told to adopt on IDs and passport photos in the post-9/11 era.

"That rule is born out of this idea that you don't want to match across expressions," Bowyer said. "It turns out it would be better if everybody smiled because your smile is more distinctive than your neutral [expression]."

CCTV images often not useful

Facial recognition is only as strong as the algorithms and image banks driving it. When the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology tested the six leading suppliers of facial recognition software in 2013, it found the best-performing among them (NEC, the provider Calgary police are using) failed to recognize the most likely match in a database of 1.6 million mug shots about four per cent of the time. The worst-performing software missed it about 20 per cent of the time. For webcam images, the failure rates were roughly 11 per cent and 67 per cent, respectively.

Security cameras are usually mounted high up to prevent them from being vandalized, but this doesn't make for good quality images, says facial recognition expert Jim Wayman. (Soeren Stache/Pool/Reuters)

​The biggest obstacle to accurately matching faces is image quality. Many of the agencies that use facial recognition rely on CCTV and security cameras, but these produce images that are grainy, low-resolution and taken from above.

"The worst-possible direction to put a camera to try to recognize somebody's face is up," said Wayman.

He says he doubts that casinos, for example, ever really use the facial recognition software that is supposed to help them keep out problem gamblers and spot card cheats and VIP customers because their cameras are generally on the ceiling.

FBI adopts face recognition

Facebook, on the other hand, is full of high-resolution, front-facing pictures of faces, which is why it's more than 250 billion uploaded photos are a veritable gold mine for law enforcement.

The FBI has said it won't store social network photos in the database of 52 million photos that will be part of its new face recognition system, but groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have raised concerns that "there are no legal or even written FBI policy restrictions in place to prevent this from occurring."

Iris scans are another biometric tool used to identify individuals. They are used to screen travellers at some airports and will be part of the FBI's new identification database. India is using them to build a massive national identification system. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

The FBI has said that by 2015, its database will include at least 4.3 million "civil images" — those taken for non-criminal purposes.

"This means you could become a suspect in a criminal case merely because you applied for a job that required you to submit a photo with your background check," the EFF warned in an analysis of the program.

The FBI's Next Generation Identification system will also include fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans and information such as ethnicity and immigration status and be shared across agencies and police departments.

Automated passport checks

Facial recognition technology is also becoming a familiar site at airports. Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Germany are among the countries that use automated airport customs gates outfitted with cameras that snap your picture and match it against your passport — and potentially a watch list.

A Qantas Airways flight attendant places her passport on a scanner as her face is photographed at an automated border control kiosk at Sydney Airport. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

Canadian border authorities have so far limited their use of biometric tools to iris scans, which are used to verify the identities of those who use CanPass or Nexus IDs to travel between the U.S. and Canada. New passports are equipped with a digital facial image that can be used in face recognition systems, and Passport Canada does use the technology to check applicants' photos against its database.

But while facial recognition might be able to detect passport fraud, it likely won't help authorities pick a known terror suspect out of a crowd at a busy airport. 

"How often do terrorists whose picture you have and are looking for really walk through airports? Not very often. A thousand times an hour some poor chump like me walks through the airport … so you get thousands upon thousands of false positives," said Wayman, who advises Australian customs authorities on their SmartGate facial recognition system.

Selling you stuff to your face

Security-related uses of facial recognition are to be expected, says Bowyer, but it's the commercial applications that have really picked up in recent years.

Retailers like Reebok and Tesco have used cheap webcam based facial detection software to monitor how customers react to store displays or to show them age- or gender-specific ads in real time. (Unlike face recognition, face detection doesn't try to make a match but estimates a person's gender, age and facial expression based on what their face looks like and what the software already knows about faces of a certain age, sex or mood.)

Smart TVs enable cable, video game and marketing companies to gauge audience reaction using face detection while online dating site Match.com will find you a mate who looks like your ex with the help of facial recognition​.

There's even a smartphone app called SceneTap that uses cameras and facial detection to tell you if a club or bar is busy and what the average age and gender ratios of the patrons are.

All this raises concerns not just of privacy —  the Alberta privacy commissioner has already announced she will review the Calgary police's use of face recognition technology — but also of autonomy, says Gates.

"Facial recognition plugs into a larger set of practices and problems around predictive analytics and the ways in which all of our online and offline experiences are constantly being modulated using data science and data analytics," she said.

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Theremin turning heads in Canadian music, literary circles

The sound it produces is beautiful, unsettling, haunting and unmistakable … resembling, as one critic famously said, "a cello lost in a dense fog, crying because it does not know how to get home."  

He was talking about the theremin, also called the vox or "the voice from heaven." It's a mysterious electronic instrument whose Bolshevik and Cold War history is as fascinating as the music it makes.

"The theremin is the only instrument you play without touching it," says Clara Venice, one of the few composers who writes pop music for the theremin.

Clara Venice is one of the few composers who writes pop music for the theremin. (CBC)

"It has two antennae. The one on the right controls the pitch and the one on the left controls the volume, and as your move your hands around the antenna, you create sound. And if you practice a lot you can make make music."

She adds that there are no keys, frets or other guides to tell the musician where the notes are.

"I describe it as the instrument you play with your intentions. You think of a note, you find the note in thin air, Venice says. "It's an act of conjuring. It's a dance as well, because when you play it, you are constantly moving, and adjusting. It's a partner."

The theremin - once hailed as both a musical and scientific breakthrough - has lived most of its modern life on the fringes, in creepy movie soundtracks and pop music cameos.

This week on The Sunday Edition, starting at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 on CBC Radio:

• Remembering author Alistair MacLeod.
• Many are concerned that our justice system fails victims of sexual assault. Four experts offer thoughts on how to make things better for women who wish to come forward.
• Two eminent historians grapple with the legacy of the deadly carnage of WWI that killed 16 million people. David Stevenson of the London School of Economics looks at the advent of industrial warfare. Ian McKay of Queen's University examines Canada's glorification of the battle of Vimy Ridge.

But right here in Canada, the theremin seems to be having a bit of a mainstream moment.

Venice just completed a residency at the National Music Centre in Calgary. She celebrated her return to Toronto with a concert a few weeks ago, and is working on her second EP.

"The theremin is cool, it's sexy, and it can be used in any kind of music," Venice says. "It doesn't have to be classical music. It doesn't have to be experimental music. It can be used in R&B. I cover Bad Religion with the Theremin. I cover R Kelly with the Theremin. I write my own pop music with the theremin and it fits."

Montreal author Sean Michaels' novel, Us Conductors, is a love story rooted in the connection between Lev Theremin - the instrument's inventor - and its most famous player - Clara Rockmore. The book is a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, which will be awarded Monday night.

"Us Conductors  traces Theremin's invention of the device when he lived in Russia around the Bolshevik revolution, his travel to America as one of the greatest stars of his day, and then his return to Russia where he was sent to a Gulag prison in Siberia," says Michaels.

"It traces those broad historical moments, the nightlife of New York brushing shoulders with the Gershwins, Charlie Chaplin, the Rockefellers. But is also digs deep into ideas of heartbreak, unrequited love, and the things we do to make it through hardship alive."

Author Sean Michaels book Us Conductors traces Lev Theremin's invention of the device in Russia around the time of the Bolshevik revolution. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

He says anyone can make sounds on a theremin, but the instrument is exceptionally difficult to master.

"To me, having a theremin in the living room is a bit like having a wild animal. Most of us hold our flimsy hands in front of these antennae and we make this warbly shaky sound and hit the wrong notes. It all just ends up sounding like a dying cat."

Venice says when the theremin came out it took the world by storm. RCA bought the patent and was going to produce them, but then Lev Theremin was imprisoned by Stalin and disappeared. RCA no longer had a spokesperson, the public face who could bridge the gap between the instrument and the  public.

"So the question is whether it was his disappearance that affected the instruments'  fate, or was it just that it's so damned hard to play?," she says.

(To listen to The Sunday Edition's documentary on the theremin, Out of Thin Air, tune in to CBC Radio on Sunday Nov. 9 starting at 9 a.m. or click the "Out of Thin Air" box to the top-left of this story.)

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Divers search for missing engineer in Quebec train derailment

Quebec provincial police divers will begin searching on Saturday for the conductor of a freight train whose lead locomotive plunged into a river.

Iron Ore Company of Canada, which owns the train, identified him on Friday as Enrick Gagnon, 45. He had worked for the company since 1997.

Parts of the train carrying diesel fuel fell into the Moisie River on Thursday, leaving a silvery layer of oil floating on the water.

Divers were unable to get into the water on Friday because it was too dark after the land near the river had been declared safe.

The train was made up of three locomotives and 240 empty cars.

The lead locomotive had a capacity of 17,000 litres and ended up fully submerged in the river.

It was unclear how many litres it contained at the time of the accident near Sept-Îles, about 900 kilometres from Montreal.

The locomotive behind it, which also had a capacity of 17,000 litres, was partially submerged.

An IOC spokeswoman said initial information indicates a landslide caused the derailment in the largely inaccessible area.

A spokesman for the Quebec Environment Department did not know how much diesel was in the river, although he said oil extended for about 20 kilometres out from shore.

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SNC-Lavalin loses federal contract worth up to $22.8B

The federal government is not renewing a major public works contract with Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

The news comes on the heels of the company's announcement that 4,000 employees worldwide will be laid off in the months to come — 1,000 of them in Canada. SNC-Lavalin said its job cuts are due to a restructuring effort that will save the company about $200 million.

SNC-Lavalin has been in charge of maintenance for a few thousand federally owned buildings across the country for about a decade. However, that will no longer be the case as of April 2015.

Public Works and Government Services Canada is awarding the hefty eight-year contract to SNC-Lavalin's competitor, Brookfield Johnson Controls Canada.

The eight-year contract is worth as much as $9.6 billion, with an option to renew for six more years, bringing the total potential value of the contract to $22.8 billion. The contractor will be responsible for maintaining around 3,800 buildings, facilities and pieces of land.

In a statement, the department responsible for awarding the contract said private contractors will subcontract about 50 per cent of the total value of the deal.

"As a result, hundreds of small and medium enterprises across the country will have access to the work through thousands of competitive subcontracting opportunities," the statement read.

Public Works and Government Services Canada said it followed a fair, open and transparent bidding process for the contract.

"It was posted on the Government Electronic Tendering Service after almost three years of industry engagement," the department said.

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CBC investigation prompts Nunavut health-care review

Nunavut's health minister has ordered an independent external review of how the department mishandled the case of a nurse facing numerous allegations. 

Monica Ell made the announcement in the legislature on Thursday afternoon after a CBC News investigation aired detailing how officials promoted a nurse in Cape Dorset who faced about 20 complaints about her practice and harassment of colleagues. 

Asked if she would make the findings public, Ell said "I would certainly hope so."

CBC News recently obtained internal government emails in which health officials admit that they put the public health of Cape Dorset "at risk" by leaving the accused nurse in her job. She was later promoted to the top nursing post in Cape Dorset.

The nurse in question, Debbie McKeown, 56, of Thunder Bay, Ont., faces nearly 20 complaints about her nursing skills. 

Gwen Slade, a veteran nurse who filed some of the complaints against McKeown, said she welcomed the health minister's announcement of an independent review, saying she hopes it looks at all the officials involved in handling the case.

"But at the same time, they have to take the positive out of this because this is the time to make things better … to face what wasn't right and change it," said Slade about what she hopes will be the broader goals of the review.

However, she was concerned about whether the report will be made public.

"This is a very public matter," said Slade from her Trenton, Ont., home. "There cannot be any secrets. A government, other than the level of national security, should really not have secrets."

'Immediate dismissal' recommended

One of the complaints stemmed from the 2012 death of a three-month-old Inuk boy, Makibi Timilak. The boy died from a common viral infection after the nurse allegedly refused to see him when his mother called the health centre. Nunavut policy requires that nurses see babies under a year who are sick.

Makibi's mother, Neevee Akesuk, told CBC News she's relieved the government is "trying to do something" about how they mishandled the case and said she hopes the report gets made public.

Other allegations include that McKeown brought a premature baby to a smoke-filled party, refused to see other patients and misdiagnosed others.

The government knew about numerous complaints over the past two years and did not remove McKeown from her nursing position. In fact, sometime after Makibi's death, McKeown was promoted to the acting nurse-in-charge, a position that involves not only overseeing a team of nurses but treating patients.

In two separate incidents in 2012 and 2013, the government found McKeown guilty of harassing her co-workers, according to government emails.

Regional health directors recommended "immediate dismissal" of McKeown after investigating her for the second harassment complaint, according to government emails. However, the government's employee relations unit overturned that recommendation, called it a "witch hunt" and instructed the health officials to reinstate McKeown. 

Earlier this year, health directors in the Baffin region recommended that McKeown be "terminated immediately" from her position as supervisor or nurse-in-charge of the Cape Dorset Health Centre. 

A source familiar with the case says the government didn't dismiss the nurse.

It wasn't until May, when the nursing college stepped in, that some action was taken. The college suspended McKeown's licence and is still investigating a number of complaints against her.

Afraid to raise concerns?

Interactive: Death and denial in Cape Dorset (CBC)

In the legislature on Thursday afternoon, David Joanasie, an MLA who represents the South Baffin region where Cape Dorset resides, stressed the importance of making sure health care professionals and Nunavummiut are "not afraid to raise concerns" about quality of health care in their communities.

That was an issue raised with the Cape Dorset story. Slade, the nurse who filed complaints about McKeown, said she felt like permanent nurses were treated like gold while the voices of the large contingency of casual and agency nurses that rotate in and out of the communities weren't heard.

CBC News spoke with numerous sources, including many nurses, who said the government rarely fired nurses because of their difficulties attracting and retaining nurses. The government, in a written statement, said that it's facing the same shortage challenges felt elsewhere.

Recent figures from the territory show that 35 per cent of their full-time nursing positions are not filled.

When asked about ensuring that nurses and residents feel comfortable raising concerns, Health Minister Monica Ell said, "The well-being of all Nunavummiut and the level of service we provide in our health centres are vital."

For the full story on what happened to Makibi and how the government handled the case, read CBC's "Death and Denial in Cape Dorset."

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Stephen Poloz, unintended champion of jobless youth: Don Pittis

The furor set off by Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz this week may be the best thing to happen for the youth jobs issue in ages.

For the few who didn't notice, the governor of our central bank put his foot in it the other day, telling young people they should work for free.

Canada's latest jobs data from Statistics Canada Friday morning showed some improvement in the jobless rate for youth, but unemployment among young people is still nearly double that of everyone else.

Poor Stephen. You get the feeling he's not quite as media savvy as, say, his immediate predecessor. He likely didn't know what he was getting himself into. 

The backlash was terrific, with his off-the-cuff remarks characterized by many as turning a blind eye to current employment standards. 

Unemployment among young people has been nearly double that of other Canadians. (Shutterstock)

"Employers in the private sector can't employ interns and pay them zero dollars," said Claire Seaborn from the Canadian Interns Association on CBC's Radio's Metro Morning.

Although there is a patchwork of provincial rules, generally, she says, internships are restricted to those within a specific education program.

Otherwise, employers and unemployed people just aren't allowed to agree that work will be done for free.

Good intentions

"That would essentially be contracting out of the minimum wage," says Seaborn. "Interns can't agree to be paid $3 an hour or zero dollars an hour. It's simply against our employment standard."

Despite the way it played in Peoria, Poloz's intentions were good.

What he is, quite validly, worried about is something that has often been called "generation jobless." And it is phenomenon well-known to have a long-term effect on an entire economy.

Here's how it works.

Imagine you finish your degree in law or commerce during a boom. As you graduate, employers are anxious to snatch up the fresh talent, hiring you young and malleable.

Lucky you, you get on the professional job ladder early and work your way up.

But if instead you complete the exact same qualification during an economic downturn, sometimes even the best graduates go begging.

Poor you, you get part-time work in retail, or worse, can't find a job at all. Even when the boom returns, your educational skills are stale and you are at the back of the line. 

Policy problems

If they were my kids, I'd give them the same advice Poloz offered. But then, I am not a high government official. And my saying it does not make it sound like policy. 

There are two obvious problems with encouraging free work as policy. One is that that even the smartest poor kids can't afford to work for free.

Youth unemployment is crucial issue, and not just for the youth scouring the job ads for opportunities. (Shutterstock)

The other is that a supply of free workers completely destroys the motivation for employers to actually hire young people and pay them. In a profit-motivated world, lots of free workers make the youth unemployment problem even worse.

In the past, government youth hiring programs gave kids from all backgrounds a leg up. But the current urge by governments to slash the public service means the bottom rung of entry-level jobs is drying up.

Apart from waiting for the economy to kick back into gear, the private sector solution is not obvious. 

Government handouts for companies to hire young people are in danger of turning into just one more form of corporate welfare as profit-seeking employers hire the people they would have hired anyway, and simply pay them with taxpayers' money.

I've reported in the past on the shortage of startup cash for young entrepreneurs.

But there are things governments can do. Employers are not currently pulling their weight when it comes to training the next wave of young people. They want their new workers to arrive fully formed. They each want someone else to do the training.

What about pre-trainees?

One technique might be for governments to make a rule that every employer hire some percentage of their workers as pre-trainees at minimum wage.

It would have no effect on workers who have skills or experience that commanded higher wages. And while employers would pay the cost, all would benefit equally.

The Poloz solution will not do as public policy.

But by his comments, our chief central banker has given the issue of youth unemployment a much higher profile than if he had spoken in platitudes. And as we begin a federal election year, he has done it at a perfect time.

As Poloz and today's jobless numbers remind us, youth unemployment is crucial issue, and not just for youth.

We should make federal parties realize it is the economic issue of our times.

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Ontario fines homeless woman for building her own home

A First Nations woman in Northern Ontario faces thousands of dollars in fines and a stop-work order on the cabin she is attempting to build in the place where she grew up.​

Darlene Necan is a member of the Ojibways of Saugeen First Nation, but she's been unable to acquire housing in that community, about 400 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, since the reserve was created in the late 1990s. 

Last year, Necan began building with donated materials on land where her family home once stood, 20 kilometres south of her reserve, in the unorganized township of Savant Lake, Ont. 

"This is my castle and I'm so proud to have it, even though it's not done yet," Necan said during a recent visit to the one-room, plywood house she is not allowed to live in. 

Inside Darlene Necan's 'illegal' cabin. (Jody Porter/CBC)

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has charged Necan with breaches of the Public Lands Act that carry fines of up to $10,000, and up to an additional $1,000 fine each time she is caught continuing to build. Necan believes it is because somehow the place she grew up has become Crown land. The ministry did not respond to questions from CBC News about this story.

'A lot of times I cry'

As an unorganized township, Savant Lake doesn't have a municipal leader. Denis Mousseau owns the only store, across the street from his hotel, on one of the community's two main roads.

"It's a common thing for First Nations people to do, is build their own house without title to the land," Mousseau said.  "First Nations people have the right to do that and I don't see why [the Ministry of] Natural Resources should be hassling her over this."

Necan has boarded up the unfinished doorway to her cabin for the winter, and said she feels "shattered" by the charges against her. Her next court date is Nov. 20. 

Some of the donated building supplies Darlene Necan was unable to use before a stop-work order was issued. (Jody Porter/CBC)

​"I still keep going with this fight no matter how awful it makes me feel for trying to house myself and help people, because a lot of people don't believe in themselves or that things can change if you fight hard enough," Necan said, her voice cracking.

"It's what I try to believe. I try to be hopeful. That's hard too and a lot of times I cry by myself here. But I talk to my [late] mom and my [late] dad and it keeps me going because I keep thinking of them."

'Not any better in the city'

Necan has spent much of her adult life couch-surfing among relatives and camping out on the family trap line when the weather allows. The 55-year-old was looking forward to a different life, living in her own home and offering shelter to family members.

"This is exactly the same spot where we lived," Necan said. "We slowly started moving to the cities because we didn't have anything after my dad got hurt and we were pretty well desperate."

Necan's father was injured while working for the railway.

"My family... they're not any better in the city than they were here," she says. "Here, at least they were free to roam around in the bush and go hunting and all that, but in the city you need at least five, 10 bucks to even live for the day."

'Aren't we under treaty?'

Fewer than 100 people live on the reserve up the road. Edward Machimity has been chief for nearly two decades, since the reserve was created. Necan said he refuses to help her, or even answer her questions.

"He has said that he has to be careful about how he helps the off-reserve people and that really got me confused because I thought, aren't we on Anishinaabe land right now? Aren't we under treaty?" Necan said.

"Isn't this why we elected him for, is to help all people, not only the people inside reserve? That is so crap because natives are scattered all over Canada. How can they say only the people on reserve have rights?"

Machimity did not return repeated calls from CBC News.

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Tories slam door on Access to Info reform

The Conservative government has rejected calls to reform the Access to Information Act as part of a new openness plan.

The final version of the federal blueprint on open government for 2014-16 remains silent on updating the 32-year-old law despite public pleas during several consultations — including a recent round of public feedback on a draft version.

The final plan, published Thursday, commits the government to making more information and data — including scientific research, federal spending and archival records — readily available.

However, it suggests no legislative changes to the access law, which allows people who pay $5 to request government records ranging from correspondence to expense reports.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement defended the law in an interview Thursday as "a good piece of legislation."

Opposition parties, pro-democracy groups and members of the government's own advisory panel have urged modernization, saying the law, enacted in 1983, allows federal agencies to hold back too much information.

Federal information commissioner Suzanne Legault wrote Clement earlier this year to say revision of the law is "the one element" that must be included in the open government plan.

'Loopholes' could hide waste, corruption: advocacy group

Reform of the law was also recommended during federal online consultations for the openness initiative and during meetings in four cities.

But the only promised changes to the access system involve improving administration.

The plan disappointed Duff Conacher, a board member of Democracy Watch, whose organization encouraged about 2,000 people to submit letters to Clement's department advocating an overhaul of the law.

The group says the act's built-in exemptions — coupled with Legault's inability to force departments to comply with the law — leave important files under wraps.

"The loopholes allow government to hide the information that shows corrupt, wasteful, abusive actions," Conacher said.

"The Conservatives have ignored the call from most groups involved in this issue across the country for a stronger Access to Information Act and an information commissioner with enforcement powers."

The NDP and Liberals have put forward private member's bills to update the access law, but the legislative efforts haven't been embraced by the Conservatives.

The government is "doing absolutely nothing" to modernize the act, said NDP digital issues critic Charmaine Borg, calling the lack of action "very problematic" and not "a road to real openness."

Clement said the government is concentrating on making progress on the existing access law.

"The structure of the act, I think, is basically a good structure."

'Unelected' scientists shouldn't speak for government: Clement

The open government plan stresses proactive release of information and use of online systems to make downloading information and filing formal requests easier.

"What I'm doing is working within the current framework of a good piece of legislation to use the tools of the 21st century to make the information more widely available, quicker than has been the case in the past," Clement said.

He pointed to the plan's "open science" component, which would create a one-stop catalogue of publications and data flowing from federal research activities.

The government has been accused of muzzling scientists with findings on issues such as climate change that don't mesh with the federal agenda.

Clement said while scientists give "thousands of interviews" a year, they should not speak for the government in all cases.

"As an elected representative in a flourishing democracy, we need a system where the primary spokesperson on certain political issues is the politician — the elected representative — not an unelected government employee scientist."

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Canada adds 43,000 jobs in October, jobless rate down to 6.5%

The Canadian economy added 43,000 jobs in October, pushing the jobless rate down to its lowest level since November 2008.

Statistics Canada said Friday that Canada has now produced 182,000 jobs in the past year. But two-thirds of those jobs have come in the past two months.

The strong monthly figure is much better than what most economists had been expecting — a slight pullback after a strong September figure. Instead, it was the first time there have been back-to-back monthly gains since the end of 2012.

The loonie gained almost a cent on the news, trading back above the 88 cent level after the news came out.

"Throughout this year, we've been trapped in an oscillating pattern of gains one month only to be followed by losses the very next month," Scotiabank said in a research note ahead of the release of the data.

Provincially, employment rose in Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, while it declined in New Brunswick. Everywhere else, it was basically flat.

Private-sector workers and the ranks of the self-employed swelled, while there was a slight decline in the number of public-sector workers, the data agency said.

There were job gains in manufacturing, where 33,200 more people found work during the month. The survey said the natural resources sector shed 22,200 jobs in October.

The strong monthly figure "suggests that the economy may have shifted into a higher gear," Capital Economics said in a research note. "Stronger job creation over the past six months indicates a marked improvement."

While the overall unemployment rate dropped to an almost six-year low, young workers are still disproportionately unemployed. The jobless rate for those aged 15-24 declined to 12.6 per cent because more young workers stopped looking. But the figure is still almost twice as high as overall jobless rate.

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Harassment allegations against 2 Liberal MPs rest with secretive committee

The issue of harassment on Parliament Hill landed in the spotlight when Liberal leader Justin Trudeau suspended MPs Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti from his caucus pending an investigation into allegations of "personal misconduct." ​

The allegations of harassment now rest with the House of Commons board of internal economy where seven members of Parliament will venture into uncharted territory when they meet behind closed doors.

While the House of Commons has a process in place to deal with complaints of harassment between MPs and their staff, there is no policy for dealing with allegations of harassment between Members of Parliament.

'I'm delighted that the speaker of the House is moving so quickly because it means that harassment is simply unacceptable.'- Kellie Leitch, minister of status for women

House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer is one of four Conservative MPs who sit on the board and will have a say in how the matter unfolds. Two NDP MPs and one Liberal MP are also members of the secretive board.

Kellie Leitch, the minister of status for women who also serves as labour minister, told CBC host Evan Solomon she was pleased that Scheer acted swiftly when the matter was brought to his attention.

"I'm delighted that the speaker of the House is moving so quickly because it means that harassment is simply unacceptable," Leitch said in an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Wednesday.

Scheer is said to be "seized with the issue," and taking the matter "very seriously."

A statement from his office said, "he has directed the House administration to make available all internal resources to the individuals involved," and has asked the board to meet "at the earliest available opportunity."

The board meets behind closed doors approximately every second week when the House is sitting.

But Parliament is not sitting next week which means if an emergency meeting is not called in short order, the matter may have to wait until the week of Nov. 17 when MPs are back in Ottawa from their ridings.

Liberals and New Democrats have said there should be an arm's length investigation. 

Both Andrews and Pacetti have said they're confident they will be cleared of any wrongdoing. 

CBC News has learned the accusations of misconduct came from two female NDP MPs, but who they are or the precise nature of the allegations is unclear. How far back the alleged misconduct goes is also unknown. 

Complicating matters is the NDP's claim that the two female NDP MPs did not know the allegations of harassment would be made public as they were on Wednesday.

New Democrat party whip Nycole Turmel told host Solomon the NDP MPs were victimized again when their allegations came to light.

"The persons involved, the alleged victims of this harassment or misconduct, didn't know that this would be coming," Turmel said in an interview on CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"So imagine, they are victims and they are victimized a second time."

'It's a serious matter but they've got to avoid it disintegrating into a partisan battle.'- Rob Walsh, retired House of Commons law clerk

Liberal party whip Judy Foote made it clear it was one of the two victims who approached Trudeau directly with the allegations on Oct.28.

Foote said she alerted Turmel to the allegations in a meeting with her on Oct. 29.

"This is about doing the right thing for people who are victimized. It's about doing the right thing for women and men who feel that they are being done wrongly by."

"No one should be threatened by another member of parliament, no one working on the Hill should feel threatened … and there isn't a process, other than standing up in the House and drawing attention to what has happened to you, is blatantly unfair and needs to be addressed."

Rob Walsh, the former law clerk of the House of Commons, said raising a point of privilege is one of the options available to MPs who claim they have been harassed.

But if the victims don't want to go public, Walsh said Mulcair and Trudeau should decide on who would lead the independent investigation and make the report public.

"It's a serious matter but they've got to avoid it disintegrating into a partisan battle."

Walsh said that to his knowledge the board of internal economy does not have "any jurisdiction" in this matter.

At best, he said, the board could "mediate" the matter and find a solution as soon as possible.

The allegations of harassment against two Liberal MPs appear to have opened the lid on workplace culture on Parliament Hill.

Ian Capstick, a former Liberal and NDP staffer, alleged for the first time on Wednesday that he was sexually harassed by two former members of Parliament several years ago.

Capstick, who is a regular political commentator on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, told Solomon he never reported the abuse because he felt "powerless."

He said he would have a conversation with his family to figure out how to move forward now that his allegations are in the open.

Capstick added that sexual harassment on Parliament Hill is too common an occurrence.

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Faking it: 4 ways companies can deceive you online

Trying a new sushi spot or booking into a hotel? Do you check online before you check it out?

Millions of consumers look at online references to followers, likes and shares to try to determine if a business is popular and legitimate before deciding to spend their money there.

But how much can you trust a company's online reputation?

Cornell University professor Jeff Hancock says 'it's really amazing how easy it is to purchase deception now on the internet.' (CBC)

CBC's Marketplace investigated how companies artificially inflate their online credibility through paid testimonials and fake reviews.

Marketplace set up a fake business to test how easy it is to buy a good reputation online. The Marketplace investigation, "Faking It," airs Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Television.

"I think it's really amazing how easy it is to purchase deception now on the internet," says Jeff Hancock, a professor who researches online language and behaviour at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

"You can get fake likes, you can get fake comments, fake reviews, fake everything."

So why do we fall for companies' fake reviews and false reputation?

"We believe other people," Hancock told Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson. "It's actually the foundation of how, I think, language and society work."

For some companies looking to look good online, there are lots of ways they can try to boost their business. Here are four ways that companies can fake it online.

Fake reviews

Research published by the Harvard Business School in 2011 found that a one-star increase on the popular review site Yelp meant a five to nine per cent increase in revenue for independent restaurants.

"If you're an owner of property that gets reviewed — and there is hardly anything that isn't reviewed now — there is real pressure to have good online reviews because if you don't, your business is gonna be hurt," says Hancock.

A 2012 study from IT research analysts Gartner found that 10 to 15 per cent of reviews on social media are fake.

'We take verification very seriously and have several processes in place to authenticate businesses and remove false reviews.'- Google

Last year, New York state cracked down on fake reviews, setting up a fake business and buying fake reviews in a sting operation dubbed Operation Clean Turf. It fined 19 businesses a total of $350,000 US.

"Consumers rely on reviews from their peers to make daily purchasing decisions on anything from food and clothing to recreation and sightseeing," New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman wrote in a news release, describing the practice as false advertising.

Some internet marketing and online reputation management companies bolster a business's online image with fake testimonials on a variety of popular review websites for a price.

Other websites connect businesses with freelancers who post fake reviews. Marketplace paid as little as $5 for testimonials about its fake business.

Review sites like Yelp and Google say they do what they can to delete fake reviews.

In a statement to Marketplace, Google said that the company takes down thousands of suspicious reviews down every month, but "there is a small subset of bad apples out there."

"We take verification very seriously and have several processes in place to authenticate businesses and remove false reviews, including a link next to each review allowing users to help flag suspicious reviews for us."

Fake YouTube views

With more than 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it can be hard for companies to compete for video views.

But Marketplace found it was easy to buy them, and inexpensive; the show bought 10,000 video views from a company for its video promoting its fake business. The cost? Thirty dollars.

Some websites connect businesses with freelancers who post fake reviews. Marketplace paid as little as $5 for testimonials about its fake business. (CBC)

In December 2012, YouTube stripped almost two billion fake views from music videos from major labels including Universal, Sony/BMG and RCA.

In February, Google, which owns YouTube, announced that it was increasing efforts to audit video views and remove fake views from the site.

Software engineer Philipp Pfeiffenberger wrote in a blog post: "When some bad actors try to game the system by artificially inflating view counts, they're not just misleading fans about the popularity of a video, they're undermining one of YouTube's most important and unique qualities."

Fake Twitter followers

Last year, Italian security researchers Andrea Stroppa and Carlo De Micheli researched fake Twitter followers. They estimated that four per cent — or 20 million — Twitter accounts were fake.

According to the researchers, fake Twitter accounts have become a multimillion-dollar business.

Millions of consumers check out online reviews to help decide the restaurants, shops and companies where they spend money. (CBC )

Research by internet security analysts at Barracuda Labs found that as of the end of 2013, there were 52 sellers on eBay selling fake Twitter followers, a number that more than doubled in roughly six months.

How much does a fake follower go for? Not a lot: the cost was an average of $11 per 1,000 followers.

Twitter's rules prohibit buying and selling fake followers.

"When you purchase followers, retweets and favourites, you are often purchasing bot (fake) or hacked accounts," the site reads.

"Any account caught participating in this behavior will be in violation of the Twitter rules and may be suspended."

Fake Facebook likes

Facebook is another platform popular for posers. The company estimates that as many as 1.2 per cent of accounts are fake, but with 1.2 billion active monthly users, that number represents as many as 14 million fake accounts.

Like many other sites, Facebook says it tries to crack down on fakers.

'We adapt our defences constantly to stay ahead of spammers' techniques.'- Matt Jones

"Fraudulent activity is bad for everyone — including page owners, advertisers, Facebook and people on our platform," wrote Facebook site integrity engineer Matt Jones in a blog post last month.

"We adapt our defences constantly to stay ahead of spammers' techniques, and one area we've focused on for several years is fake likes."

Hancock says that while some reviews are fake, many are honest and useful.

"Most businesses really want to provide a genuine service; most businesses are real," he says.

"The ones that do take the risk and they're desperate and buy some fake support, some fake reviews, some fake likes, this is not going to be a long-term business.

"It's going to damage the reputation in the long run. If I had one piece of advice, not for the consumers but for business owners, don't do it. It's too easy to get caught. One of the main things with deception on the internet: it leaves a record."

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Nunavut put community's health 'at risk' by mishandling nurse

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Quebec in vitro fertilization program to be scaled back

The Quebec government is about to limit the province's free in vitro fertilization program and change the way it offers financial support.

Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is planning to present an overhaul of the plan in the coming weeks.

The previous Liberal government started the program in 2010.

Quebec was the first province in Canada to fully fund IVF treatments.

But the program became so popular that it ran over budget. 

In his previous job as head of the Quebec's Federation of Medical Specialists, Barrette criticized the program,. 

He called it an "open bar" and said it was not an essential service.

According to Radio-Canada, Barrette is looking at limiting the program to infertile couples, with financial aid in the form of tax credits.

That would exclude others from the program, including single mothers and gay and lesbian couples.

The decision to limit aid to infertile couples would have to be studied in a National Assembly committee to make sure it does not run afoul of Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

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Honda to invest $857M in 3 Alliston plants in Ontario

This Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont., is set to receive a big investment from the Ontario government. CBC has learned Honda is investing $875 million in three plants, with the province putting 10 per cent towards that total.

Honda will invest $857 million in its three plants in Alliston, Ont., along with financial support from government.

Premier Kathleen Wynne will be at the facility, alongside Honda officials, to announce the news on Thursday morning.

The plants employ a total of 4,000 people and make Honda Civic and CR-V vehicles. The facilities currently have the capacity to make 390,000 cars a year, primarily for the Canadian and U.S. markets.

In a release issued earlier, the company said it had a "major announcement" to reveal at the plants, which are close to each other, and about 100 kilometres north and slightly west of Toronto. The funds will be used to invest in new technologies and processes that will make the facility what's known as a "lead plant" for Honda's popular Civic sedan.

"This marks the first time a Honda plant outside Japan has been designated as a 'global lead plant', which reflects the knowledge and experience of our Canadian associates," Honda Canada's president Jerry Chenkin said.

The province will chip in 10 per cent of the company's investment, which is $857 million.

Honda says the money brings the company's total investment in its Canadian operations to almost $4 billion since 1986, when the company became the first Japanese car company to set up shop in Canada.

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Licensed medical marijuana facility goes up in smoke

A second barn fire in the Annapolis Valley within recent days has prompted the RCMP and the fire marshal to investigate.

Lionel Rhynard, Port Williams fire chief, said the destroyed barn was believed to have been storing medical marijuana.

"We received a call for a barn on fire, a little after 10 p.m. [It's] still under investigation but we did have reports that the building was used for medicinal marijuana grow purposes," he said.

Rhynard said the facility is licensed to grow marijuana.

On Saturday night, a fire in Scots Bay destroyed a chicken barn.

Fire crews from several departments responded.

"At its peak last night, we probably had about 50 firefighters there," he said.

"It was a difficult fire. When we arrived there was heavy fire coming through the roof of the structure."

Rhynard said no one was injured.

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Burger King deal takes bite out of Tim Hortons profit

Tim Hortons says almost $30 million worth of costs associated with its deal with Burger King ate into its quarterly profit in the past three months. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

Tim Hortons Inc. said Wednesday it earned $98.1 million in its latest quarter, down from $113.9 million a year ago, as it was hit by costs related to Burger King's deal to buy the company.

The coffee and doughnut chain said the profit amounted to 74 cents per share in its latest quarter, down from 75 cents per share a year ago.

Total revenue amounted to $909.2 million, up from $825.4 million.

Excluding $27.3 million in costs related to the deal with Burger King Worldwide Inc. and 3G Capital as well as $1 million in corporate reorganization costs, Tim Hortons said it earned an adjusted operating profit of $196.1 million for the quarter, up from $169.8 million a year ago.

Adjusted earnings per share totalled 95 cents, up from 76 cents a year ago.

"We have strong momentum in our business, supported by early stage execution of our strategic plan. We are pleased with our ongoing growth and evolution which we believe is positioning our brand for long-term success," Tim Hortons president and chief executive Marc Caira said.

"With our strategic transaction announced in August, we can build on our momentum and have the opportunity to participate in the creation of a global powerhouse in the quick service restaurant sector."

Tim Hortons reported same-store sales were up 3.5 per cent in Canada customers spent more, offsetting a slight decline in same-store transactions. The company said sales were helped by its new chicken sandwich specialty doughnuts and dark roast coffee.

In the U.S., same-store sales increased by 6.8 per cent in the quarter, helped by increased spending by customers and to a lesser extent an increase in same-store transactions.

Burger King agreed in August to buy Tim Hortons in a friendly deal worth more than $11 billion in stock and cash.

The deal still requires shareholder and regulator approvals.

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Canadians aim to send micro-rover and lander to Mars in 2018

A Canadian company aims to launch a micro-rover and mini-lander to Mars in 2018.

Thoth Technology, based in Pembroke, Ont., launched a campaign on Indiegogo today to crowdfund $1.1 million to pay for the hardware needed to fly the Northern Light lander and Beaver rover in space and land them on Mars. The project is being developed in partnership with Toronto's York University, which houses a lot of the space testing facilities and will analyze the data from the mission.

If it is successful, it would be first Canadian mission to the surface of Mars.

'If we are serious about living on Mars, we need to explore it much more thoroughly.'—Ben Quine, Thoth Technology

"I think it's important to do big things," said Ben Quine, principal investigator for the mission. "Mars is the only other habitable planet in the solar system, and if we want to survive, we need to be a multi-planet species."

Quine is the technical director and chair of the board at Thoth Technology and a professor of space engineering at York University, which is a partner on the project.

Ben Quine, principal investigator for the mission, is the technical director and chair of the board at Thoth Technology. He is also a professor of space engineering at York University. (Thoth Technology)

So far, Quine said, robots like NASA's Curiosity and Spirit and Opportunity rovers have only explored a half dozen sites on Mars.

"If we are serious about living on Mars," he said, "we need to explore it much more thoroughly. We probably need hundreds of landers to pepper the surface prior to sending people so we know exactly what it is that we're up against, where we'd find things like minerals and where we'd want to live."

Hunt for life

Northern Light aims to gather data about rocks, minerals and greenhouse gases on Mars, as well as hunt for life.

Quine said that in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic, photosynthetic microbes can be found in a layer a millimetre or two below the surface of the rock, where they are protected from the harshest of the sun's UV rays, but can still use sunlight to produce energy.

The solar-powered Beaver rover weighs just six kilograms and is semi-autonomous. (Thoth Technology)

Northern Light will look for similar light on Mars by using the lander's robotic arm to grind away the surface of rocks. It will then use a device called a photometer to scan for different shades of green that may indicate the presence of photosynthetic organisms.

Meanwhile, the solar-powered Beaver rover is like no other that has ever gone to Mars. For one thing, it weighs just six kilograms. In comparison, NASA's Curiosity rover is a hefty 900 kilograms, forcing it to rely largely on nuclear power to lug its bulk around.

The NASA rovers, which are controlled from Earth, move very slowly, covering only a few dozen metres per day, because their commands take 15 minutes to reach Mars from Earth.

The Beaver rover is designed to be quicker — and more independent.

Intelligent rover

"We're going to embed intelligence into the rover," Quine said, "and the rover is going to be tasked to drive around and explore the environment using autonomous algorithms built into the rover to determine things like when it should make a manoeuvre to avoid falling into a hole or run into a rock."

Quine said he has already spent 12 years working on the project. His team has spent half a million dollars developing and testing prototypes of the lander and micro-rover, and done space tests on some of the instruments by flying them on satellites in low-Earth orbit. Thoth Technologies also recently spent $1 million leasing and repairing the Algonquin Radio Observatory from the federal government, which had barely used the crumbling radio telescope in the Ontario park for decades.

The Northern Light lander will include a device that can grind away the surface of rock and look for green, photosynthetic microbes. (Thoth Technology)

Quine said it's the only steerable radio antenna dish in Canada large enough to detect signals from Mars. It will be used as a ground station to communicate with the lander and rover when they are on Mars.

The Northern Light team hopes to send their lander and rover to Mars by piggybacking on a spacecraft that is already headed to the Red Planet.

There are a number of spaceflight options scheduled for 2018 including the joint Russian-European Space Agency ExoMars rover mission and an Indian Space Research Organization mission that will likely include a lander and rover.

Quine said Northern Light aims to barter for the flight in exchange for collecting and relaying other agencies' data from Mars via the ARO ground station, which can collect them at times of day when places like Russia and India are facing away from Mars.

Members of the public who support the campaign will get a chance to help choose the landing site for the mission and will get rewards ranging from a Frisbee for $20 or the chance to name the lander for $1 million.

Mars One, the company that hopes to start the first human settlement on Mars in 2025, also plans to send a lander to Mars, along with a satellite, in 2018. It raised $313,744 US of its $400,000 goal on Indiegogo earlier this year.

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'Incompatible with Canadian values': Immigrants in polygamous marriages to be banned

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander is introducing legislation and announcing new measures Wednesday to ban immigrants in polygamous marriages from coming to Canada. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander will introduce legislation later today to ban people in polygamous and forced marriages from immigrating to Canada.​

Alexander says such practices are "incompatible with Canadian values."

He and Status of Women Minister Kellie Leitch made the announcement this morning at a news conference in the Toronto area.

The government also wants to protect women and girls who seek to escape polygamous or forced marriages.

The 2013 speech from the throne promised action on forced marriages and so-called honour killings, an issue that has concerned the Harper government, in light of cases including the multiple murders in 2009 of female members of Montreal's Shafia family.

"Sadly, millions of women and girls continue to be brutalized by violence, including through the inhumane practice of early and forced marriage. This barbarism is unacceptable to Canadians," the throne speech said.

A government source says that globally, between 2004 and 2014, an estimated 100 million girls, will have been forced to marry before their 18th birthdays, often in polygamous unions.  

Alexander says the bill, if passed, would eliminate early and forced marriages from Canada's immigration system and the country as a whole.

He says there are "at least hundreds" of cases of immigrants in polygamous marriages in Canada.

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Stephen Poloz comments on unpaid work raise ire of youth groups

Advocates for young workers took Stephen Poloz to task after the Bank of Canada governor recommended that jobless university graduates beef up their resumes by working for free.

Speaking to a House of Commons committee Tuesday, Poloz suggested young Canadians and others struggling to find work should acquire more experience through unpaid internships or volunteering until the country's hobbled job market picks up. He predicted it would improve over the next two years.

Poloz told the committee that when a young person asks for advice on getting through the tough times, he says, "'Volunteer to do something which is at least somewhere related to your expertise so that it's clear that you are gaining some learning experience during that period."'

The central banker made the remarks a day after he told a Toronto business audience that 200,000 young Canadians are out of work, underemployed or back in school trying to improve their job prospects.

"I bet almost everyone in this room knows at least one family with adult children living in the basement," he said in the prepared speech he delivered Monday.

"I'm pretty sure these kids have not taken early retirement."

Later that same day, he elaborated.

'I wasn't trying to go deeply in this and it's not a monetary-policy matter'- Stephen Poloz's response when asked to expand his thoughts on unpaid work

"Get some real-life experience even though you're discouraged, even if it's for free," Poloz said he tells young people.

"If your parents are letting you live in the basement, you might as well go out and do something for free to put the experience on your CV."

The contentious subject of unpaid internships recently landed in the House of Commons. Last summer, an NDP MP tabled a private member's bill aimed at protecting those who agree to work for free.

And for recent graduates like James Tobin, Poloz's remarks show he's out of touch with the reality young would-be workers face every day.

"I don't think it really works because you have to live, right?" said Tobin, who's been trying to land a full-time teaching job since 2012, when he graduated from Bishop's University in Quebec.

"Not everyone is living at their parents' house rent-free ... so how are they going to make ends meet?"

Tobin, who lives in suburban Montreal, had to move to England for a year after finishing his degree because he couldn't find work in Quebec. These days, he routinely wakes up at 5 a.m. in hopes of finding a day's work as a substitute teacher.

During his studies, Tobin said he spent a lot of time building experience in his field before he earned his certificate — by working 700 hours as a student teacher.

Andrew Langille, a Toronto labour lawyer, says he's pleased the Bank of Canada is aware of the labour-market hurdles young Canadians are trying to overcome, but he calls Poloz's comments "incredibly tone deaf."

"He shouldn't be saying stuff like that — it's a very dangerous precedent to set," said Langille, who noted the governor's recommendation seemed to encourage people to "subvert" minimum-wage laws to gain experience.

"We have employment-standards laws in this country for a reason."

Langille said there simply aren't enough jobs for young people coming out of college in Canada.

Statistics Canada's latest job numbers said the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 was 13.5 per cent in September, almost double the country's overall jobless rate of 6.8 per cent for the same month.

The president of the Canadian Intern Association described Poloz's comments as "extremely problematic."

Claire Seaborn said the comments mischaracterize existing employment laws, devalue the abilities of young people and show no sympathy for the socioeconomic issues related to unpaid internships.

She added that people from more modest backgrounds are less likely to be in a position where they can work for free.

"Mr. Poloz's comments seem to suggest that all young people are extremely inexperienced and live in their parents' basements and don't have anything to contribute to the workforce," said Seaborn, who appeared before the same finance committee last March and again last week to make submissions aimed at helping to protect the rights of interns.

On Tuesday, Liberal MP Scott Brison asked Poloz at the committee hearing whether he thought unpaid internships benefited wealthier young people because those from lower-income backgrounds can't afford to work for free.

"I acknowledge that there are issues like the ones you are raising," Poloz replied. "I wasn't trying to go deeply in this and it's not a monetary-policy matter."

The controversial issue of unpaid internships has been under scrutiny since Andrew Ferguson, a student in Alberta who was interning at a radio station, died in 2011 while driving home after a 16-hour day.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government cracked down on the practice at several Toronto-based magazines, prompting the publications to stop offering unpaid internships.

Bell Mobility, one of the most-profitable telecommunications firms in Canada, also scrapped a contentious program — at least temporarily — that recruits hundreds of interns each year to work for free.

A report released in June by the same parliamentary committee recommended Ottawa work with provinces and territories to ensure unpaid interns were protected under labour laws. It suggested the federal government examine the impact of unpaid internships on the job market.

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Grizzly bear gets behind photographer's lens

A B.C. photographer snapped a new angle on grizzly bear behaviour last week, after one sauntered up and decided to see what life was like on the other side of the camera.

Jim Lawrence, of Revelstoke, submitted his photo of the photographer-bear to CBC Radio One's B.C. Almanac for its Listeners' Lens gallery, and told this story to go along with it:

"The grizzly in the photo was fishing for Kokanee and making his way upstream. I set the camera up at an opening in the brush thinking I'd get a photo of him across the way.

"I should know better than to guess what a bear is going to do. He crossed to my side and scrambled up the bank, at which point I dashed back to the truck for another camera.

"They say intelligent species are curious and the big bear was no exception. He approached the camera cautiously, sniffing deeply, then stood up for a closer inspection. For the longest time, he studied the screen and buttons then, with a huge long-nailed paw, gently tugged on the strap.

"The weight of the long lens caused the camera to pivot quickly upward, startling the big fellow at which point he kind of shrugged, and went back fishing."

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Why an 'alarming' number of Canadians use food banks

Food bank use in Canada increased slightly this year in comparison to 2013, and it remains significantly higher than it was before the economic recession, according to a report released Tuesday by Food Bank Canada.

In the month of March 2014, more than 840,000 people received food bank assistance, one per cent higher than the same snapshot period last year. More than a third of them were children, and nearly half of households helped were families with children.

Five years after the economy's downturn, 170,000 more people per month were walking through the doors of food banks than was the case before the recession.

The annual HungerCount study provides one of the most up-to-date national indicators of poverty. The study highlights the factors driving the need for food banks and the continued high use of food banks in Canada, calling the 840,000-figure "alarming."

This year's HungerCount report delves into the 'why' of food banks and says 'the picture is not a positive one.' (Canadian Press)

Who is using food banks?

The majority of those receiving food live in rental housing. One in seven self-identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit — up from 11 per cent in 2012 to 14 per cent in 2014. Twelve per cent of those being helped are immigrants or refugees, rising to 20 per cent in cities with populations greater than 100,000.

The report says food bank use by single adults who live alone has doubled in the last 13 years, as social assistance benefits have not increased with the cost of living for about 20 years.

Twelve per cent of food bank users are employed.

More and more, Canadians are stuck in part-time, temporary, low-paying jobs, thanks to a nationwide loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Because of this, many are forced to depend on government benefits, and that assistance is not doing enough, the report argues.

"Low income is just one part of the equation that leads to food insecurity and the need for food banks," the report says. 

"Just as important are the systems, led and managed by our federal, provincial and municipal governments, that exist to ensure Canadians do not fall into destitution. These overlapping yet underco-ordinated and sometimes conflicting systems are failing too many."

Report points finger at inadequate social programs

This year's report delves into the "why" of food banks "and the picture is not a positive one."

Food at the Regional Food Distribution Association in Thunder Bay is headed to northern Ontario First Nations. An annual report says food bank use in Canada continues to be high. (Cathy Alex )

"The massive loss of well-paying blue-collar jobs, too many people without the skills for today's labour market, inadequate social programs for people facing hard times — we have largely not taken the steps necessary to address these problems head-on," Food Bank Canada says.

Recommendations for lowering the number of food bank-dependent Canadians include more government-subsidized affordable housing and a focus on helping the large number of hungry people in Canada's North.

Revolutionizing welfare, making more of an effort to end child poverty and improving literacy and skills training are also among the recommendations to stem the root causes of hunger.

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Ottawa teen prostitution ringleader gets 6½-year adult sentence

An 18-year-old girl who led an operation that trafficked other teenage girls using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter today received an adult sentence of 6½ years in prison.

The girl was arrested in 2012, when she was 15, for leading the operation with two other teens as they recruited other girls through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, before drugging and beating them and forcing them into prostitution.

The 18-year-old was the only one who pleaded not guilty in her trial, but she was later found guilty this January. The two other teens entered mid-trial guilty pleas in September 2013 for their roles in the violent pimping operation.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the 18-year-old faced a maximum sentence of three years. Under the adult Criminal Code, she faced a minimum sentence of five years.

The CBC's Laurie Fagan says victims and their families were crying with joy in the courtroom after the judge's ruling early Tuesday morning.

"It's a very rare thing. It happens very infrequently; it's a big deal. And there's a ... complicated and extended procedure that has to be followed," said Doug Baum, a defence lawyer and a past president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa, in an interview with CBC's Ottawa Morning earlier Tuesday.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act takes into account a youth's diminished moral blameworthiness, greater dependency and reduced maturity, Baum said.

But there are times when the actions of a youth rebut those characteristics, he added.

Other teen received maximum youth sentence

Another girl in the case earlier received the maximum youth sentence of three years, while sentencing has been delayed as a psychological assessment has been ordered for the other.

During her sentencing hearing last month, the 18-year-old made a tearful apology to her victims.

"No words could ever convey how solemnly sorry I am. I am far from perfect but I'm definitely not the same girl I was at 15," she said in front of Justice Diane Lahaie. 

"I realize the pain I inflicted on my victims and their families was extremely wrong and I will forever live with the guilt and regret of my vile actions ... I pray, Your Honour, take a youth sentence into consideration because unlike before I have aspirations for my future and I'm striving to become a better person." 

Crown sought adult sentence

The teen — whose mother has worked as a prostitute and who lived in a home surrounded by drug use — is not a victim but a "product of her upbringing," her lawyer argued in court.

The Crown argued the ringleader, now 18, should be sentenced as an adult for her crimes.

The defence argued she should serve a three-year sentence in the youth system, but that she should not receive credit for time already served since her arrest.

The trial, which began in April 2013, heard from three teenage girls who were forced to perform sex acts and hand over the money they earned. Four other teens testified about a range of experiences, including being recruited online to sell their bodies.

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Alison Redford could face criminal charges, review finds

An Alberta Justice internal review concluded former premier Alison Redford could face four criminal charges if allegations contained in an auditor general's report about her use of government airplanes are proven by an RCMP investigation.

Internal government documents obtained exclusively by CBC News show Justice Minister Jonathan Denis informed then interim premier Dave Hancock of the conclusions of a report prepared by a special prosecutor.

"The report indicates that the allegations, if proven, 'could constitute the criminal offence of forgery, uttering a forged document, fraud, and breach of trust by a public officer,'" Denis wrote in an Aug. 4, 2014, email to Hancock's chief of staff.

In the same email, Denis said the auditor general's report could be forwarded to the RCMP simply for information purposes. But Denis said that would be inconsistent with both a government policy "and a practice that has developed in Specialized Prosecutions where we are satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe that an employee's conduct involves a criminal offence.

"It is my conclusion and recommendation that this [auditor general's] report should be forwarded to the RCMP with the request for an independent investigation," Denis wrote.

'The report indicates that the allegations, if proven, "could constitute the criminal offence of forgery, uttering a forged document, fraud, and breach of trust by a public officer,'" wrote Justice Minister Jonathan Denis in an Aug. 4 email. (CBC)

Alberta Justice forwarded the report to the RCMP on Aug. 7.

The RCMP recently confirmed it began an investigation that same month.

But the documents also reveal the RCMP had already begun an investigation into Redford's use of government planes months earlier.

Redford could not be reached for comment.

Redford resigned as premier on March 23, 2014, amid growing controversy over her spending on travel, her use of government airplanes and her leadership style.

She resigned as a member of the legislative assembly for the riding of Calgary-Elbow on Aug. 6, two days after Alberta Justice obtained its legal opinion that four criminal charges against her were possible.

Legal opinion sought

On March 28, a CBC investigation revealed Redford had personally ordered the construction of a private penthouse in the provincial Federal Building near the Alberta Legislature.

On April 14, a CBC investigation revealed Redford had flown her daughter on 50 government flights, including two long weekends in Jasper where Redford and her entourage stayed at the luxury Jasper Park Lodge.

On April 15, Auditor General Merwan Saher announced he would conduct an audit of Redford's travel expenses and the government's Air Transportation Service. But Saher also investigated how Redford came to order the penthouse.

CBC obtained a leaked copy of the auditor general's report. The internal Alberta Justice documents show Hancock asked for a legal opinion on July 29, 2014, just hours after CBC revealed the findings of the leaked report.

The auditor general released his report to the public on Aug. 7. It confirmed Redford personally ordered the penthouse and that she had derived a personal benefit from taking her daughter on the government flights. It concluded Redford had used government planes for personal and partisan reasons.

The report also revealed Redford's staff had "block booked" fake passengers on government planes to allow the former premier to fly alone with her entourage rather than with other members of the legislature or government employees. Redford denied any knowledge of the block-booking scheme.

Sheila Brown, executive director of the Specialized Prosecutions Branch, prepared the legal opinion after reviewing the auditor general's report.

In an Aug. 4, 2014, memo, Brown states: "In relation to the 12 instances of block booking to give the appearance that the government aircraft was full so that other passengers could not ride on the same flight, if proven, the allegations contained in the report could constitute the criminal offences of forgery, uttering a forged document, fraud and breach of trust by a public officer.

"In relation to the 50 occasions where the premier's daughter rode on the government plane and the four occasions where her daughter's friend rode on the plane, the allegations if proven could constitute the offence of breach of trust by a public officer.

"In relation to the renovations to the 11th floor of the Federal Building, there is insufficient evidence in the [auditor general's report] to determine whether or not there is any potential criminal conduct.

"Since no source documentation was supplied [by the auditor general in his report] it is not possible to identify which government employees may be liable for potential criminal conduct other than the former premier herself," Brown's memo states.

"The [auditor general's] report states that the auditor general identified a total of 25 employees of the office of the former premier including the former premier herself, during the relevant time. Further information would be required to determine which members of her office may have committed criminal offences."

RCMP investigation recommended

Brown said her opinion could be forwarded to the RCMP for information only, but she noted the RCMP normally does not act on "FYIs," and that the RCMP usually need a complaint before opening an investigation.

She said this case may be an exception owing to the allegations, the level of public interest, "and the fact that there is a pre-existing RCMP investigation into the former premier's use of government aircraft."

That "pre-existing RCMP investigation" was in response to a formal complaint filed by the Opposition Wildrose after the April story by CBC revealed Redford had flown her daughter on government flights, including one flight that also ferried her daughter's nanny from Calgary to Edmonton.

Brown was also asked whether Redford should be reported to the Law Society of Alberta. She recommended against it because the RCMP investigation, already underway, was still in its infancy and any reporting to the law society is normally done when charges are laid.

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