By Canadian Press

In the news today, August 12

Aug 12, 2019 | 6:14 AM

Four stories in the news for Monday, August 12

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AIR CANADA UPS PURCHASE PRICE OF TRANSAT

Air Canada says it will spend more to buy Transat A.T., upping its total offer by $200 million and winning the support of the tour company’s largest shareholder. The new deal sees Air Canada spending $18 per share, rather than $13, bringing the total offer to roughly $720 million. Air Canada says it now has the backing of Letko Brosseau and Associates Inc., Transat’s largest shareholder, which holds just over 19 per cent of outstanding shares. The investor previously said it wouldn’t support the deal if the purchase price remained at $13 per share. The move comes as Transat has been facing off against rival bidder, the Montreal developer Group Mach, at a securities tribunal hearing over Mach’s move to block Transat’s sale to Air Canada.

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HOMICIDE VICTIM’S SISTER SAYS FUGITIVE’S DAD DUCKING RESPONSIBILITY

The sister of an American tourist says the father of one of the B.C. teens suspected in the woman’s death isn’t accepting his share of responsibility for her family’s sorrow. Kennedy Deese, whose sister Chynna was found dead along with her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler in northern B.C., posted a statement to Facebook accusing Alan Schmegelsky of playing the victim and not acknowledging his own hand in his child’s upbringing and ultimate demise. Mr. Schmegelsky told Australia’s “60 Minutes” TV program he won’t believe his son is a killer until he gets facts, saying he knows how the families of the victims feel. Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod, whose bodies police believe were found in northern Manitoba, are suspects in the deaths of Deese, Fowler and Leonard Dyck, a university lecturer from Vancouver.

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P.E.I. PLANT WANTS TO SHARE TUNA SUCCESS STORY

A tuna buyer in Prince Edward Island has opened Canada’s first federally licensed plant to process bluefin tuna for the world sushi market. Jason Tompkins of OneTuna, says after 18 years as a tuna buyer he saw an opportunity to change the way tuna is bought, sold and marketed, and he’s looking to spread the word that Canada has the most regulated and sustainable tuna fishery in the world. He says while fishermen in the United States can catch one tuna a day, fishermen on Canada’s east coast get to land one per year. Before getting certification from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Tompkins was limited to selling whole fish to Japan, the U.S. and Canada. Now he can sell select cuts to more markets and even freeze it for later transport.

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MANITOBA ELECTION CAMPAIGN COULD START TODAY

The provincial election campaign in Manitoba will officially begin as early as today. Premier Brian Pallister announced in June that he was moving up the election from its scheduled date of October 2020 to Sept. 10 of this year. He has until Tuesday to visit the lieutenant governor and start the election campaign that must be a minimum of 28 days under provincial law. All the major parties have already been campaigning for weeks, and the Opposition New Democrats and Greens have released their platforms in broad strokes. Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives swept the NDP from power in 2016 with the largest majority in Manitoba in a century.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS:

— Emera to release results before markets open.

— MP Marc Miller in Montreal  to announce new investment in research to tackle stage four, or metastatic, breast cancer.

— Barrick Gold Corp. releases Q2 results.

— Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport in Edmonton to announce funding for universities across Canada.

— Trial of Andrew Berry for the second-degree murder of his daughters continues in Vancouver.

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The Canadian Press