NEW YORK (AP) — At age 45, Lin-Manuel Miranda already has accomplished enough to receive a lifetime achievement honor.

The celebrated “Hamilton” playwright is among 21 new inductees into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 127-year-old honor society where current members include Robert Caro,Jasper Johns and Meredith Monk. All are to be formally welcomed during a May ceremony at the academy’s beaux arts complex in Upper Manhattan, not far from the setting of Miranda’s musical, “In the Heights.”

Willem De Kooning, Toni Morrison and some key influences on Miranda are among the previous members.

“I am deeply grateful and humbled to be joining this distinguished community, which included Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and so many other titans of the arts who continue to inspire me,” Miranda said in a statement. “I am excited to visit the Academy in my neighborhood of Washington Heights as a new member to support and celebrate great artists and their work.”

May’s event will include a keynote, the Blashfield Address, from the novelist-playwright Caryl Phillips.

The academy is divided into categories for literature, music, art and architecture. It has a core membership of 300, with new members elected to replace vacancies created after one has died, along with foreign and American honorary members such as Meryl Streep and Martin Scorsese and Nobel laureates J.M. Coetzee and Bob Dylan. This year’s new honorary inductees are the Mexican conceptual artist Francis Alÿs, the Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum and the activist and author Angela Davis.

“Angela Davis’s revolutionary voice, scholarship, and intellectual rigor push the poetic and political imagination to ensure the full measure of equality,” the artist and academy member Mel Chin said in a statement. “Once most wanted by the FBI, she is now most needed, an advocate to sustain hope in the effort to end a divided society.”

Besides Miranda, the academy’s class of 2025 includes such prize-winning authors as Jesmyn Ward, Gish Jen and Elizabeth Alexander, architect Ricardo Scofidio, and visual artists ranging from the installation artist Robert Grosvenor to the sculptor Donna Dennis. Inductee Claire Messud, author of such acclaimed novels as “The Emperor’s Children” and “The Woman Upstairs,” has now joined an organization which in 2003 presented her with its prestigious Strauss Living Award for literary excellence.

“I remember how surreal it felt to shake hands with writers and artists I’d admired from afar for years,” she told the AP, noting that many of them have since died, including Edward Said, Grace Paley, Shirley Hazzard and Francine du Plessix Gray.

Other writers voted in are the author and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, novelist Chang-rae Lee, author-translator Daniel Mendelsohn and the author-playwright Darryl Pinckney. Visual artists besides Grosvenor and Dennis to be inducted are artist-curator Coco Fusco, multi-disciplinary artist Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne name: Hock E Aye Vi), weaver-textile artist Sheila Hicks, conceptual artist Rashid Johnson, photographer An-My Lê, abstract painter Charline von Heyl and installation artist Fred Wilson.

Additions to the music category include Miranda and the classical composers-musicians Derek Bermel and Gabriela Lena Frank.

“We’re proud of the incoming class our members elected and delighted by the excellence and range of practices their work embodies,” academy president Kwame Anthony Appiah said in a statement.

Hillel Italie, The Associated Press

Applications for U.S. jobless benefits rose to a three-month high last week but remained within the same healthy range of the past three years.

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose by 22,000 to 242,000 for the week ending Feb. 22, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts projected that 220,000 new applications would be filed.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs.

The four-week average, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, climbed by 8,500 to 224,000.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of Feb. 15 fell by 5,000 to 1.86 million.

Matt Ott, The Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A travel ban was lifted on influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are both charged with human trafficking in Romania, and they are headed to the United States, officials said Thursday.

The brothers are avid supporters of President Donald Trump and have millions of online followers. it wasn’t clear under what conditions the Tates were allowed to leave Romania, or where in the United States they were headed.

Here are some things to know about the Tate Brothers:

Who are the Tate Brothers?

Andrew Tate, 38, and Tristan Tate, 36 are dual U.S.-British citizens.

Andrew Tate is a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X. He also runs an online academy where he says he teaches young men how to get rich and attract women. Tristan Tate is also a former kickboxer.

The Tates are avid supporters of President Donald Trump.

What are they charged with in Romania?

The Tate brothers and two Romanian women were arrested in Bucharest in late 2022.

The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism alleged the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain.

They were initially formally indicted last year. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but didn’t set a date.

In December, a court in Bucharest ruled that the case against the Tates and the two Romanian women couldn’t go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.

The case hasn’t been closed, and there is also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania.

Andrew Tate has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. But they were charged with forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, among other charges.

What led to the travel ban being lifted?

DIICOT, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania,” but that judicial control measures remained in place. The agency didn’t say who had made the request.

The control measures include the requirement to “appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned,” the statement read.

The agency said the Tates were “warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”

Their departure came after Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said this month that a U.S. official in the current Trump administration had expressed interest in the brothers’ legal case in Romania at the Munich Security Conference. The minister insisted it didn’t amount to pressure.

Freida Frisaro, The Associated Press

OTTAWA — The Canadian Dental Hygienists Association says its members are urging all federal parties to keep funding the national dental care program, arguing it’s good for the economy.

The association says access to oral health care and preventive care increases worker productivity and keeps people from taking sick days.

The dental-care program, which was launched initially for seniors in December 2023, has now been used by more than 1.3 million Canadians.

Seniors, children and people with disabilities who have household incomes of less than $90,000 and don’t have private insurance are now eligible.

The program is supposed to be expanded this year to include all age groups.

The program was the product of the supply-and-confidence agreement signed by the NDP and the minority Liberal government in 2022.

The federal Conservatives have not said whether they would keep funding the program if they form the next government. Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would cut wasteful and inflationary Liberal government spending.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press

<!– Photo: f461261a8d9d0eb0767889d5db58526cf9fa3dc17245670c8fee70bec90b5175.jpg, Caption:

A dental treatment room is seen in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

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In today’s The Big Story podcast, the four candidates in the Liberal leadership race are on the last leg of the campaign after going head-to-head in French and English debates earlier this week.

The leadership date on March 9 is fast approaching. It comes as the country sees a dramatic shift in voter support, with the Liberals vaulting ahead of the Conservatives for the first time in years.

So did the debate move the needle of support, what are the candidates doing in these final days of the campaign, and will this surge in Liberal support last?

To answer those questions, host Cormac Mac Sweeney is joined by Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at Pollara, and formerly a pollster for the prime minister and head of research and advertising at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Numbers show that a large percentage of the internationally trained nurses successful in obtaining a license have either not come to the province, or have used their Nova Scotia license as a stepping stone to jobs in other provinces. 

The post Nova Scotia nursing regulator pauses fast-track licensing for foreign nurses appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Houston’s recent rhetoric is right out of the conservative, populist right-wing playbook being used by autocratic politicians the world over.

The post Premier Tim Houston has a hate on for ‘special interest groups’ but won’t say who they are. Here are the actual special interests in Nova Scotia. appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Halifax councillors voted unanimously this week to look at the city’s options for dealing with an old school site that was recently the scene of a large fire.

The motion from District 8 Councillor Virginia Hinch, which was approved unanimously by council, asks staff to look into options and opportunities to address the “unsatisfactory situation” at the Bloomfield School site in the North End.

Earlier this month, a fire destroyed a building at the abandoned site. It took 49 firefighters to knock down the three-alarm blaze.

The former school has sat vacant since 2014 and has remained that way since the land was purchased in 2021. However, that agreement did come with an expectation that construction would begin on the site by 2026.

Hinch’s motion says a staff report should look at options for addressing the timely demolition of the remaining structures and offer an update on the HRM’s buyback rights for the property in light of this month’s fire.

In late 2023, amid safety concerns at the site, an agreement was reached between the city and owner Alex Halef of Banc Investments. The details of that agreement were never publicly disclosed.

Progressive Conservative MLAs used their supermajority in the Nova Scotia legislature Wednesday night to change the rules governing debate in the House.

After years of planning and fundraising, a new pelvic health suite has opened at Dartmouth General Hospital, bringing some urology and gynecology procedures under one roof in the hopes of improving efficiency and reducing wait times.

Rain, heavy at times, is expected along the Atlantic coast of mainland Nova Scotia from Thursday afternoon until Friday morning. Total rainfall amounts are forecast to range from 25 to 50 mm, with locally higher amounts possible.

According to Environment Canada, a brief period of snow is expected before the precipitation switches over to rain. Mild temperatures and strong winds will accompany the rain, leading to significant snowmelt and increased runoff.

“Given the fact that the ground is still frozen, it’s going to be mild enough that we will see some snow melting, and we are going to have that rain falling, sometimes heavy, which may have some localized flooding and water pooling on our roadways,” said 95.7 NewsRadio Weather Specialist Allister Aalders.

The winds will pick up on Thursday as well, with gusts expected to be in the 60-80 km/h range.

Residents are being asked to clear storm drains and gutters of ice and debris in advance of the system.

EDMONTON — The looming threat of U.S. tariffs along with a potential tax cut are expected to dominate Alberta’s budget today.

Finance Minister Nate Horner says addressing affordability is a prime concern, but the uncertainty surrounding tariffs makes the budget more challenging.

By legislation, the province can’t run a budget deficit unless revenue drops by $1 billion or more — something Horner warns could happen in the case of tariffs.

He says the United Conservative Party government is planning for a set of scenarios assuming tariffs in some way are coming soon from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Economist Charles St-Arnaud says Alberta will need to be prudent in case it needs to stimulate the economy.

Opposition NDP finance critic Court Ellingson says his party wants to see the government address affordability and support public services but is expecting spending cuts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree will apologize on behalf of the federal government Thursday for its role in the Dundas Harbour relocations between 1934 and 1948.

The relocations were part of Canada’s strategy to maintain a national security presence in the Arctic. More than 50 people were removed by the federal government from their ancestral homes, leaving impacts on Inuit communities that linger to this day.

Isaac Shooyook, born in 1939 in Arctic Bay, is expected to be present to hear Anandasangaree deliver the apology at a ceremony Thursday afternoon in the hamlet where he was born, along with survivors’ descendants.

Speaking in Inuktitut, Shooyook said while he is happy the minister is coming to apologize, he’s saddened many people who were affected have since died and will be unable to hear it.

The relocations have had a big effect on his life, he said, adding people were tricked by the federal government, which told them they would only have to be in the area for two years.

“But that was clearly a lie from the federal government, and that has been painful,” he said through a translator.

Inuit were sent to the area without any support, and were not given means of transportation, he said.

“They were expected to go to a very foreign land where there is 24-hour darkness that they’re not used to, and they had to fend for themselves. They were just left behind.”

At the same time, he said, Canada was using them to assert sovereignty over the territory — something he said the federal government needs to recognize, and because of such should help with the high cost of living they now face.

In an Interview Tuesday, Anandasangaree said the federal government is setting the record straight and apologizing directly to people like Shooyook.

“It’s about the harm that was caused,” he said.

“I’m taking responsibility on behalf of the federal government and acknowledging the failures, acknowledging and apologizing for what happened.”

The Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which studied the impact of federal policies on Inuit, said the federal government moved Inuit around because it believed they could live anywhere in the Arctic.

It said Ottawa ignored unique Inuit regional identities, linguistic distinctions, food preferences and survival strategies in an effort to claim ownership over the region.

“Despite the specialization of culture within specific regions, the government transferred Inuit to areas where they had inadequate knowledge of animal patterns or environmental conditions,” a 2013 commission report says.

The Hudson’s Bay Company wanted to establish trading posts at Devon Island, where the RCMP had an abandoned post at Dundas Harbour.

The company brought Inuit there to hunt and trap in 1934 and the federal government made it responsible for their well-being.

But the commission said the relocation was a failure because it was difficult to navigate boats around the area. The Hudson’s Bay Company closed the post after two years.

Instead of returning all Inuit to their original homes as was initially promised, several were relocated again — and some were relocated four times in a dozen years.

Survivors spoke of poor living conditions, going hungry during the relocations and people dying of homesickness. The impact of the relocations continues to this day, with family members living in different areas with no connection to each other.

“Some longed for the rest of their lives for their families and ancestral lands. Tagoona Qavavouq told the commission that her mother-in-law Ajau went ‘insane’ after the relocations and died prematurely,” the commission wrote in its report.

Steve Cooper, a lawyer for the Dundas Harbour Relocation Society, said that while the apology is important, what happens when the minister stops talking will matter more.

“He needs to listen to what happened,” Cooper said, noting RCMP, Hudson’s Bay Company and government reports at the time often ignored what Inuit were facing.

“At the same time, people want their history to be validated, to be recognized,” he added.

“They were used as human flagpoles and I don’t think Canadians have any idea.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s latest plan to reduce homelessness has seen the project’s first person moved from an encampment into housing, says an adviser.

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, the former head of the charity organization Siloam Mission, says the move happened last week after community agencies built a relationship with the person and found an appropriate housing unit.

“They had been in and out of encampments and between shelters for quite a while,” said Blaikie Whitecloud. She did not provide additional details about the individual.

The province has promised to eliminate chronic homelessness — people who are unhoused for several months or more — in the next seven years. A major part of its plan is to remove the estimated 700 people living in encampments.

Part of the plan, announced last month, includes buying apartment buildings so people living in encampments have immediate access to secure housing.

Several buildings are being bought and renovated, and the province aims to partner with municipalities and agencies to offer support services, such as addiction treatment.

In the past month, the government has been working with service providers to determine what options are available for supportive housing outside the few that are currently available.

“A big piece of this plan is that it starts with housing units, and those take a little bit of time to get online,” said Blaikie Whitecloud.

Work is underway to partner with community agencies to designate enough housing for everyone in an encampment, approach the people in the camp and determine what supports they may need.

The aim is to repeat the process, site by site, until they are clear.

The province has a goal of opening up some 300 residential units.

Blaikie Whitecloud wouldn’t say which encampments are being targeted first, because it depends on the needs of the residents.

“It needs to be a balanced approach of what units are coming online and who makes sense for those units, as well as how do we make sure that we’re doing work in terms of connecting with all encampment residents and providing opportunity,” she said.

The interim CEO of Siloam Mission said she sees the organization helping on the housing side.

“We definitely see ourselves playing a role … whether it’s operating as a landlord or operating as a service provider — open to doing both or one or the other,” said Julianne Aitken.

The organization announced its own housing strategy last year, which includes building 700 to 1,000 social housing units over the next decade.

Siloam Mission already operates an 85-unit apartment block, where clients can live long term with access to some supports. There’s also a transitional housing complex for people who have completed addictions treatment and another block that caters to seniors.

Aitken said the organization is working with the province on housing units for those leaving encampments and it’s connecting with another service provider to help people transition from living in tents to having a place to call their own.

The province has committed about $20 million over two years for the project, in addition to other housing and mental health money laid out in the budget.

The federal government also announced Wednesday that it entered into an agreement with Manitoba to support people without homes, including those in encampments. The funding is $7.5 million over two years.

It’s aimed at addressing homelessness and encampments, primarily in Winnipeg, by establishing a 20- to 30-bed supportive housing facility. The federal government said it would also help expand winter services at nine drop-in spaces.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff likens the situation facing the scenic B.C. community just a few kilometres from the U.S. border to that of her own family.

She said she’s been asked recently how she deals with her Canadian daughter being married to an American, given the current tensions between the two nations, fuelled by U.S. tariff threats and talk of annexation.

“Well, of course, I’m going to go down and see my grandchildren. Why wouldn’t I?” said McKortoff.

She said that her south Okanagan city of about 5,500 had little interest in worsening tensions with the United States, given that they “have been our best neighbours for hundreds of years,” with a big portion of the city economy relying on U.S. tourists visiting nearby wineries and farmers markets in the summer.

Bigger municipalities in B.C. have been talking of boycotts and reciprocal action against the threat of American tariffs on Canadian exports, with Vancouver’s council voting to direct procurement contracts to Canadian businesses instead of American ones, and suburban New Westminster asking staff to halt non-essential work trips to the United States.

But McKortoff and mayors of some other small border communities say they can’t afford to antagonize American customers and friends or have no interest in doing so.

“We need to be open to any kind of option that will allow us to do business and to make sure that we understand what the concerns are on both sides … and see how we can best deal with the situation because it changes often,” she said.

She said Osoyoos businesses head south on Highway 97 daily to get products from the United States and she had no problem with that.

“My job is to support our local businesses. I always have pushed that since I’ve been on council and I think they may have product from the States, but they’re local. They work here. They support this community, therefore I support them,” she said.

Tom Morphet, mayor of Haines Borough, Alaska, recently wrote to Diane Strand, mayor of nearby Haines Junction, Yukon, to reaffirm a friendship the communities have shared for years.

“As northerners, we sometimes have as much in common with our Canadian neighbours as we do with our own countrymen in the southern latitudes,” he wrote this month.

Morphet said in an interview that his love for Canada began 20 years ago when his truck got stuck in a mountain pass during a blizzard. It was a Canadian who pulled his vehicle out, then let him follow his tail lights for 240 kilometres.

“We wrote the letter to reinforce this great relationship we’ve always had here close to the border,” said Morphet, adding that many residents “were born in Canada and have dual citizenship, and we have our First Nations who have always travelled freely in this part of the world.”

Morphet said residents in Haines Borough feel more connected to Canada than to the “lower 48.”

“We have lots of loonies and toonies in our cash registers. We all love that $5 bill that had the hockey game on the backside. I mean, we love Canada being Canada,” said Morphet.

Strand said the “border doesn’t mean that much” to either community.

Residents of both travel back and forth, especially during harvesting season. Alaskans crossed into Canada for moose hunting while Yukoners travelled to Alaska for eulachon fishing.

Both rely on each other to boost their economies, said Strand.

“We are a family and we are friends and the border never meant anything to us years ago. It was the Canadian government and the U.S., that put this border up. We have so many family members and we need to make sure that we maintain those ties,” said Strand.

‘SHOOTING OURSELVES IN THE FOOT’

In Rossland, B.C., Mayor Andy Morel, said the “beautiful little mountain community” in the Kootenays needed to walk a “fine line” in not upsetting their U.S. neighbours, who are a big part of the local economy.

He said 60 to 75 per cent of the city’s economy was driven by American tourists, with the city well known for its skiing and mountain biking culture.

“From the perspective of wanting to support our own economy, we do rely on U.S. visitors strongly, and we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot … if we started to boycott and to bad mouth our American tourists and friends on the other side of the border,” said Morel.

About 130 kilometres to the west, the town of Creston, B.C., is just across the border from deep-red Idaho, and the town of Bonners Ferry, which greets visitors with a sign saying: “Welcome to Trump country. Love God, guns, family, freedom and your neighbor.”

Creston Mayor Arnold DeBoon said seeing the sign made him “uncomfortable … in Canada, we don’t have that strong connection to guns, and we don’t want that in Canada.”

He said the cross-border sentiment had “cooled off” due to the recent tensions over Trump’s proposed tariffs. But he hoped to be able to maintain a “friendly relationship.”

“I don’t think we want to be impolite or destroy a relationship that’s out there,” said DeBoon.

“And I do believe one of the things we should be doing to this point, is welcome more from the south because of the exchange rate, and just let them know that if they want to come to Canada, the dollar will go far, and they will enjoy the country and the scenery.”

Back in Rossland, Morel said that like many he’s worried about the country’s economy if the tariffs go ahead, and Canadians will have to “fight back as best we can.”

But on “a face-to-face, person-to-person” basis, Morel wants to keep things friendly with the community’s American neighbours.

He said many residents recognize it’s the U.S. administration causing the tensions, and not every American supports Trump.

“There’s a border there, but many of them love our community. They come to our community every year, they spend money, they invest in the community, and (we) will continue to welcome them,” said Morel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

“Anora” producer Samantha Quan can’t help but get emotional when thinking about the film’s fairytale journey.

The Vancouver native says it’s been “wonderful and discombobulating” to see the sex worker dramedy emerge as an Oscars front-runner, especially since it was made for a modest $6 million.

The movie is up for best picture at Sunday’s awards show, and Quan quips its budget was “less than a lot of the catering budgets” of its competitors.

“It can get a little overwhelming because what’s happening now is kind of even bigger than the dreams I ever imagined,” she says, shedding tears while speaking recently from her L.A. home.

Quan, who is married to “Anora” director Sean Baker, says she hasn’t had time to process the film’s awards season success. Earlier this month, it was named best picture at Critics Choice, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America and Indie Spirit awards.

“I feel like a kid going to Disneyland and just being like, ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I’m here. It’s so shiny and crazy,’” she says.

In many ways, the film’s ascent mirrors its own Cinderella story. It follows Mikey Madison’s Brooklyn stripper Anora, whose life takes a dramatic turn when she meets and hastily marries the reckless son of a Russian billionaire, Vanya, played by Mark Eydelshteyn.

“Watching it, I do think deep down in our hearts, we all want to feel like our dreams can come true and fairytales can come true. That’s the reason why we root for ‘Anora,’” says the 49-year-old Quan.

“The fact that she might have met her prince, I think it keeps us wanting that for her because we want that for all of us.”

On Sunday, “Anora” will compete for best picture against Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two,” as well as “Emilia Pérez,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Wicked,” “The Brutalist,” “I’m Still Here,” “The Substance” and “Nickel Boys.”

The film is up for six Oscars in total, including best director and screenplay for Baker and best actress for Madison.

Quan met Baker at a gym class in Los Angeles and started dating. At the time, she was an actor with small roles in TV shows including CBS’ “NCIS: Los Angeles” and ABC’s “Castle.”

“(Sean) came up to me with a DVD and he said, ‘I went to this film festival and I saw this movie and I thought you might like it.’ I watched it and all I thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, why is it so grainy?’” she recalls.

“It’s because it was an indie film. Little did I know that that would become the thing I loved the most.”

Baker sought Quan’s help on a 2015 short film for fashion label Kenzo, but their first true cinematic collaboration began with the 2017 drama “The Florida Project.”

Inspired by the naturalistic performances in Korean dramedy “Miracle on 1st Street,” Baker asked Quan to coach the young, inexperienced cast of the film, which follows the adventures of a six-year-old girl living with her unemployed single mother.

Quan received an assistant producer credit on that film and took on full producer duties for Baker’s 2021 comedy “Red Rocket,” and then “Anora.”

She says she was involved in nearly every aspect of “Anora,” from helping to conceive the story to casting to editing, where she’d be “sitting right behind Sean with our dog, looking at every shot and being an extra set of eyes.”

“As an actor, I always felt like something was missing. I wanted to be more involved than, ‘You come in, you say your lines and then you go.’ I wanted to be a part of all of it. And the way that Sean works and the way we work together, I get to do that.”

Quan says work-life balance can be challenging when working with your romantic partner.

“You’re tempted to work all the time,” she says.

But she thinks there’s a reason there are several couples behind this year’s Oscar-nominated films, including Villeneuve and Tanya Lapointe of “Dune: Part Two” and Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold of “The Brutalist.”

“It’s because when you have a life like this, it’s your whole life,” she says.

On top of that, you can be completely honest with one another, for better or worse.

“With Sean and I, sometimes it may be difficult, but we know we always have each other’s backs. I have no ulterior motive when it comes to him and the work. I want it to be great. I want him to be happy. I want the vision to be what he imagined it to be,” she says.

“And to be able to share that, it’s a really lovely dream.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Ontario’s political party leaders have criss-crossed the province, released their platforms and made their pitches over the past month — now it’s decision day for voters.

It has been an unusual election, with candidates battling icy stairs, brutal snow storms and frigid temperatures while canvassing in the first winter campaign since 1981.

Most Ontario elections also haven’t included a party leader leaving the province during the campaign, but Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford made two trips to Washington, D.C. — as premier — to push back against threatened American tariffs.

Ford called the snap, $189-million election saying he needs a new mandate to deal with four years of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made repeated threats to put tariffs on Canadian goods that could greatly harm Ontario’s economy.

The other three major party leaders say this election was unnecessary, in part because Ford already had a large majority government with well over a year left in its mandate.

Ford made tariffs and the economy the focal point of his campaign, while Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie centered her campaign on a promise to connect every Ontarian to a family doctor, and NDP Leader Marit Stiles spoke a lot about health care and affordability.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner was the first to release a fully costed platform, with many promises on various provincial policy issues including building more housing, protecting farmland and improving affordability.

The party is hoping to not only hold onto Schreiner’s seat in Guelph and another in Kitchener Centre they picked up in a 2023 byelection, but also to add a third in Parry Sound-Muskoka — a seat the Greens have long had their eye on and where they came second in 2022.

Just before the start of the election campaign, Ford said he needed “the largest mandate in Ontario’s history,” but he ended the campaign with a slightly different tune.

“I don’t look at the numbers,” Ford said Wednesday morning in Windsor. “I just want to win.”

The Progressive Conservatives won 83 out of 124 seats in the 2022 election, with the NDP capturing 31, the Liberals getting eight and the Greens snagging one. At dissolution, the Tories had 79 seats, the NDP had 28, the Liberals had nine and the Greens had two. There were six independents.

If Ford’s government wins re-election, it will be his third term as premier, and when asked if he would eventually seek a fourth term, he said he wants to serve even longer than Hazel McCallion was Mississauga mayor. She won 12 successive elections.

“Man, I want to be premier forever,” Ford said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles headed into election day saying her goal is to flip Progressive Conservative seats, but most of her campaign stops on the final day were in NDP-held ridings.

“The sun is out,” she said with a nod to the challenging conditions through the winter campaign.

“It is shining today, right? The clouds have parted. This is the opportunity we have, and I know that Ontarians want to see that change. So please, everybody, get out there. Vote. Vote for change. Vote for your values. Vote to elect New Democrats in every riding across this province.”

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, meanwhile, spent time campaigning in Oakville — a riding the Liberals hope to take from the Tories — and canvassing in Mississauga.

Crombie was mayor of Mississauga for three terms and is hoping that her record and name recognition there turn all six ridings in the city from blue to red.

But the Progressive Conservatives are fighting hard to prevent that, paying particular attention to Mississauga East-Cooksville, where Crombie is running, in the hopes of keeping her out of the legislature.

Several candidates who have served as cabinet ministers have been out in the riding campaigning for PC candidate Silvia Gualtieri, who is also the mother-in-law of former Progressive Conservative leader and current Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown.

Ford made his final campaign stop on Wednesday in the riding, meeting with the Polish community. It is a community to which Crombie belongs, but she brushed off any significance of the visit.

“I feel the wind in our sails,” she said in Oakville. “I’m feeling a lot of momentum in Oakville, in Mississauga, and across the province of Ontario. Thank you for the question. Please vote for change and please vote Ontario Liberal.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

Arena availability, increasing girls' hockey registration could boost case for a Maritime city that's seen its population skyrocket over the last few years.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A man revered by millions as the “doctor of the poor” will be the first saint from Venezuela after Pope Francis approved a decree Tuesday.

A date for the canonization of Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, who died in 1919, has not been set. The Vatican in a statement said Francis also decided to convene a formal meeting of cardinals to set the dates for future canonizations, but it was not immediately scheduled.

“This historic event, long awaited by the Venezuelan people, is a recognition of the exemplary life and heroic virtues of a man who dedicated his existence to alleviating human suffering and transmitting a message of love and hope,” the Archdiocese of Caracas said in a statement. “The Catholic Church recognizes his life of holiness, accompanied by a universal devotion, which today allows him to be elevated to the altar.”

Hernández was beatified in April 2021 after the church certified a miracle in the case of a girl who completely recovered after being shot in the head in 2017.

Hernández, born on Oct. 26, 1864, in the western Venezuela town of Isnotu, never married and graduated as a doctor in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in 1888. He was convinced that science was one of the main ways to get the South American country out of misery and went on to establish two research institutions as well as teach several classes at the Central University of Venezuela, the nation’s oldest and largest.

He traveled to Europe to study and then to become a Catholic monk, but his fragile health was affected by Italy’s cold and humid weather. He returned to Venezuela to recover and stayed permanently.

On June 29, 1919, Hernández was hit by a car while crossing a street shortly after picking up medicine at a pharmacy to take to an impoverished woman. His death was caused when his head hit the edge of a sidewalk. An estimated 20,000 people participated in his funeral procession, about a quarter of the population of Caracas at the time.

In 1986, the Vatican declared Hernández “venerable,” which means that he led an exemplary Christian life. But to achieve sanctity, teams of doctors, theologians and cardinals must approve miracles attributed to him.

When Pope John Paul II, now a saint, visited Venezuela in 1996, he received a petition signed by 5 million people — at the time, almost one in four Venezuelans — asking him to declare Hernández a saint.

____

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon revealed the specifics of its new transgender troop policy in a court filing Wednesday that says any service member or recruit who has been diagnosed with or treated for gender dysphoria is disqualified from serving — unless they can prove they meet a specific warfighting need and adhere to severe restrictions on their day-to-day behavior.

The policy memo was included in the latest court filing in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order against transgender military service, one of many hot-button issues the president made a priority to address on his first days in office.

Like the executive order, the policy filed Wednesday suggests that the lethality and integrity of the military “is inconsistent” with what transgender personnel go through as they transition to the gender they identify with, and issues an edict that gender is “immutable, unchanging during a person’s life.”

The policy provides two exceptions — if transgender personnel who seek to enlist can prove on a case-by-case basis that they directly support warfighting activities, or if an existing service member, who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, can prove they support a specific warfighting need and never transitioned to the gender they identify with and proves over 36 months they are stable in their biological sex “without clinically significant distress.”

If a waiver is issued in either case, the applicant would still face a situation where only their biological sex was recognized for bathroom facilities, sleeping quarters and even in official recognition, such as being called “Sir” or “Ma’am.”

Gender dysphoria occurs when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.

While the number of transgender troops serving is small compared to the size of the total force, it’s taken up a large amount of time and attention both at the White House and within the Pentagon. The military services due to medical privacy laws do not provide an exact count of transgender troops, but a 2018 independent study by the Palm Center, which researched LGBTQ issues, assessed there were an estimated 14,000 transgender troops among the more than 2 million troops serving.

It was a policy Trump tried to overturn in his first term in office but the issue ended up mired in lawsuits until former President Joe Biden was elected and he overturned the ban.

Tara Copp, The Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Thursday after U.S. stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish, with the S&P 500 closing just an iota higher.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 edged 0.2% higher to 38,198.96.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 0.8% to 23,618.74, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.5% to 3,364.05. Tech shares that had gained earlier in the week were among the heavier sellers.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 500 added 0.3% to 8,268.60, while the Kospi in South Korea dropped 0.9% to 2,618.77.

Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan’s dropped 0.8% and the SET in Thailand edged less than 0.1% higher.

On Wednesday, U.S. stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish. The S&P 500 inched up by 0.8% to 5,956.06, breaking a four-day losing streak that had knocked the index off its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% to 43,433.12, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3% to 19,075.26.

The stock market has generally been struggling following some weaker-than-expected reports on the economy, including a couple that showed U.S. households growing pessimistic about inflation and higher tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump. Some of the harshest drops hit Big Tech and other high-growth stocks, whose incredible momentum had earlier seemed unstoppable.

Super Micro Computer, one of the stocks that has soared in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, lost nearly a quarter of its value over four days, for example. But it jumped 12.2% Wednesday after filing its annual report for its fiscal year that ended in June.

Much of the market’s attention remained on Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI rush. It rose 3.7% ahead of its latest profit report, which arrived after trading ended for the day.

The company reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit and sales as demand for its specialized Blackwell chips, which power artificial intelligence systems, continued to grow.

It was the first earnings report for the company and its CEO, Jensen Huang, since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, upended the AI industry by saying it developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most expensive chips. That called into question all the spending Wall Street assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centers.

Some Big Tech companies have since said they still plan to invest billions of dollars into AI, an encouraging signal for the industry.

Later Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department will issue its third and final estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the final three months of 2024. The economy still appears to be in solid shape, and growth is continuing, though uncertainty is rising about the future. Another report on Friday will show how the gauge of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use has been behaving.

Worries have been rising about whether U.S. shoppers may cut back on their spending, a key driver of growth, given stubbornly high inflation and jitters about outlook.

In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 19 cents to $68.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, was up 22 cents at $72.29 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 149.34 Japanese yen from 149.10 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0475 from $1.0483.

___

AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.

Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press

Associated Press (AP) — A Mississippi judge on Wednesday vacated her order that a newspaper remove its editorial criticizing local officials, days after a city decided to drop the lawsuit that spurred it.

The judge’s order had been widely condemned by free speech advocates as a clear violation of the paper’s First Amendment rights.

Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin had issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register last week, telling it to remove from its website a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.” The piece criticized the city for not sending the newspaper notice about a meeting the board held regarding a proposed tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.

The board of commissioners dropped the suit Monday at the request of Mayor Chuck Espy, who cited an offer from the paper’s owner to run a clarification. However, Emmerich Newspapers president Wyatt Emmerich said he made that offer before the city filed its lawsuit and that it was no longer on the table.

Emmerich had offered to clarify that the council said the lack of notification wasn’t a deliberate attempt to hide the meeting, according to a text message Emmerich sent to the city attorney. The text also offered to clarify that a sentence questioning whether there was “kick-back from the community” should have said “push back.”

The city’s lawsuit called the editorial libelous and said it “chilled and hindered” the city’s efforts to lobby for the tax with state legislators. The newspaper and other critics of the ruling said the order was a clear example of prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.

The order drew widespread criticism from press groups and free speech advocates around the country, including the National Press Club and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression had agreed to represent the newspaper in court.

Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press

Most of the budget increase goes to wages for staff who went on strike last year.

The post Budget committee approves 13.4% increase for Halifax Public Libraries appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

Nova Scotia’s Health Department has launched a one-year pilot project in the hopes of repatriating doctors currently working in Australia.

Meteorologist Ryan Snoddon says the snow will change to rain and gusty winds in the evening. He says it'll be messy.

Jaime Battiste and Mike Kelloway both want to run in the new federal riding of Sydney-Glace Bay. But there's some confusion around who should be the candidate. Kyle Moore reports.

The only daily TV news package to focus on Nova Scotians and their stories

Wall Street once again fixated on an earnings report from Nvidia, the main player in the artificial intelligence mania. The chipmaker reported earnings after the bell Wednesday that topped analyst forecasts, and shares added 2% in after-hours trading, perhaps indicating that Wall Street quietly hoped for even better results.

This is Nvidia’s first earnings report since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, upended the artificial-intelligence industry by saying it has developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most expensive chips. Nvidia’s market value saw a one-day drop of nearly $600 billion after the news came out.

Here’s a look at Nvidia, by the numbers.

$3.215 trillion

Nvidia’s total market value as of the close Wednesday, before the release of its earnings report. That’s second in the S&P 500 behind Apple ($3.611 trillion). Microsoft is third with a market value just below $3 trillion ($2.972 trillion). Two years ago, Nvidia’s market value was below $600 billion.

-17%

The one-day drop in Nvidia shares on Jan. 27 after DeepSeek’s revelation called into question all the spending Wall Street had assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom. The stock rose more than 170% in 2024.

$39.33 billion

Nvidia’s revenue for the fourth quarter, easily topping Wall Street’s estimate and up 78% from last year’s fourth quarter.

$130.5 billion

Nvidia’s revenue for the fiscal year that ended in January 2025. That was more than double its revenue for fiscal 2024 and more than four times its receipts the year before that.

22%

That’s approximately how much of the S&P 500’s gain for last year could be attributed to Nvidia alone, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. By comparison, Amazon accounted for about 6% of the gain. Nvidia replaced Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in November.

649 billion

That’s how many dozen eggs one could buy with Nvidia’s market value of $3.215 trillion, using the average price of $4.95 per dozen for January from the Federal Reserve. Egg prices have spiked due to an outbreak of bird flu, and supplies of eggs have run short in some areas.

Associated Press, The Associated Press

Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey, an organization that promotes Indigenous education in Nova Scotia, is getting $7.1 million from Canadian Heritage to help revitalize the province's first language.

Snowmobiler Blake Nicholson, 28, was killed on Friday night in Collingwood Corner, N.S.

Starting Thursday, the emergency department at the Halifax Infirmary will issue a pass to each visitor upon entry, following a series of violent incidents last month. 

Premier Tim Houston indicated on Wednesday changes could be coming to controversial amendments he’s proposed to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, changes the privacy commission has said could diminish government accountability and limit the public’s access and privacy rights.

RCMP have laid dozens of charges against 21 people after raiding cannabis dispensaries they say have been operating illegally across Nova Scotia, including on four Mi'kmaw reserves, prompting a protest by advocates of Indigenous treaty rights.

Millbrook RCMP say a suspect is in custody after a stabbing on Coach Road that left two people, a man and a woman, with life-threatening injuries. 

Cape Breton Police said Jason Gordon Cashin, 50, was charged with failing to stop after an accident causing death. He was scheduled to appear in Sydney provincial court on Wednesday.

Thousands of Slack users reported connectivity issues with the online workplace messaging platform on Wednesday morning.

According to the outage monitoring site Downdetector.com, at least 3,090 Slack users reported issues at the peak of the outage around 11:35 a.m.

An incident status report posted to the company’s official website says an investigation is in progress for “deprecated functionality for Slack features such as workflows, threads, sending messages and API-related features.”

“We’ll be back with more updates as soon as they’re available,” a message reads.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Halifax councillors have reversed course on a previous decision and will be moving forward with the first phase of the Windsor Street Exchange redevelopment project.

In January, councillors rejected a design from staff in part because of a lack of dedicated transit lanes.

On Tuesday, councillors voted to move forward with the first phase of the plan while staff work on a second phase that will more closely match council’s asks on active transportation by widening the roads to make room for those transit lanes.

“Congestion is a major issue across the municipality,” said mayor Andy Fillmore. “I think you can hear I’m looking forward to support the motions on the floor today.”

Staff outlined a numbers of risks that could become reality if the first phase of the project didn’t move forward, including the potential loss of nearly $35 million in federal and provincial funding.

The total cost of the project has increased to $150 million, up from around $100 million in the summer of 2024. The original cost estimate in 2019 was $50 million. Most of the increased cost would fall to the municipality.

Construction is expected to begin this year.

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul McCartney ‘s next book, coming out this fall, is a reminder that the Beatles were not his only band.

“Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run” is an oral history about the group McCartney formed in the early 1970s, after the Beatles broke up. With members including guitarist Denny Laine and McCartney’s then-wife, keyboardist Linda McCartney, Wings rose from driving to shows in a van to selling millions of records with such hits as “Band on the Run,” “Jet,” “My Love” and “Silly Love Songs.” The band broke up in 1981.

Edited by historian Ted Widmer, the illustrated, 528-page book draws in part on hours of interviews with McCartney. W.W. Norton & Company, which also published McCartney’s “The Lyrics” and “1964: Eyes of the Storm,” announced Wednesday that “Wings” will be released Nov. 4.

“I’m so very happy to be transported back to the time that was Wings and relive some of our madcap adventures through this book,” McCartney, 82, said in a statement. “Starting from scratch after The Beatles felt crazy at times. There were some very difficult moments and I often questioned my decision. But as we got better I thought, ‘OK this is really good.’ We proved Wings could be a really good band. To play to huge audiences in the same way The Beatles had and have an impact in a different way. It was a huge buzz.”

Hillel Italie, The Associated Press

"He was dedicated to holding our systems accountable and fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized."

The post ‘If you have the ability to do something you have a responsibility to do it’: Remembering Harry Critchley appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations’ food agency says it has temporarily paused aid distribution in Sudan’s famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp of a half-million people as fighting intensifies between the country’s warring sides.

The World Food Program said in a statement Wednesday that fighting over the past two weeks between the military and a paramilitary group forced its partners to leave the camp in western Darfur for safety.

“Without immediate assistance, thousands of desperate families in Zamzam could starve in the coming weeks,” said the agency’s regional director, Laurent Bukera.

The Associated Press

TORONTO — George Weston Ltd. reported a profit in its fourth quarter compared with a loss a year ago.

The company, which is the controlling unitholder of Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and the controlling shareholder of Loblaw Companies Ltd., says it earned a profit attributable to common shareholders of $664 million or $5.05 per diluted share for the three months ended Dec. 31.

The company says the result compared with a loss of $38 million or 30 cents per diluted share in the last three months of 2023.

On an adjusted basis, George Weston says it earned $3.15 per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $2.51 per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $15.1 billion, up from $14.7 billion a year earlier.

Chairman and chief executive Galen Weston says the results were driven by the consistent and positive performance of its operating businesses.

“Loblaw’s focus on retail excellence provided unmatched quality and value to Canadians, and Choice Properties’ necessity-based portfolio generated stable and growing cash flows,” Weston said in statement.

“Our businesses are well-positioned to deliver on their strategy and financial objectives in 2025.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WN, TSX:L, TSX:CHP.UN)

The Canadian Press

Municipal planners presented new design details to Halifax regional council on Tuesday.

The post Halifax council votes in favour of Windsor Street Exchange plan appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

"They campaigned on health care, they campaigned on affordability, they campaigned on housing, and they've delivered on secrecy, a lack of accountability and really an assault on democracy."

The post ‘An assault on democracy’: opposition lambastes PCs’ ‘bypass the media’ fundraising pitch appeared first on Halifax Examiner.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller’s instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway. Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the go-around at Washington National.

The past few weeks have seen four major aviation disasters in North America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.

A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed Jan. 31 into a Philadelphia neighborhood. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

Twenty-one people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

The Associated Press

TORONTO — Canadian asset owners representing about $53 billion in holdings say they’re disappointed that Canada’s financial institutions have left net-zero emissions initiatives and are calling for them to follow through on climate commitments.

The 34 signatories to an open letter include the Trottier Family Foundation, the Canada Post Pension Plan, United Church of Canada and the University of Victoria.

Together, they’re raising concerns about departures from the UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance, which all of Canada’s six biggest banks quit in January to follow departures by the biggest U.S. banks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The asset owners say membership in the banking alliance, as well as the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, signals a baseline level of accountability as well as consistent reporting to provide transparency and comparability.

Signatories say they expect banks to follow through on net zero by 2050 commitments. They also call on banks to continue setting ‘robust’ targets for 2030 and to provide standardized annual progress reports.

Canadian banks that left the alliance including RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and National Bank said they have the internal capabilities to follow through on their climate commitments independently.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Heavy snowfall and rain have killed 36 people and injured 40 in different parts of Afghanistan, a Taliban government spokesman said Wednesday.

Days of extreme weather in most of the country’s provinces have reduced the impact of drought but have also caused personal and financial losses, said a spokesman at the National Disaster Management Authority, Abdullah Jan Saiq.

Initial data from provincial authorities showed that the snow and rain had killed and injured dozens across the country, mostly in southwestern Farah province.

Saiq said the weather had completely destroyed 240 homes and damaged a further 61. Hundreds of acres of land have also been destroyed.

“Survey teams have been sent to the affected areas and the survey is ongoing with the cooperation of nongovernmental organisations,” he said. “Roads have been blocked in some provinces due to snow and efforts are being made to reopen them in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Works.”

The Associated Press

Coun. Virginia Hinch says public shouldn't foot the bill to tear down burned buildings.

The post Halifax council votes in favour of staff report on demolition of Bloomfield appeared first on Halifax Examiner.