Year in review: A look at news events in March 2024

1 – Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah Mitton from Brooklyn, N.S., wins the gold medal in women’s shot put at the world athletics indoor championships in Glasgow, Scotland. Her throw of 20.22 metres also set a Canadian record. Mitton is the reigning Commonwealth and Pan American Games champion.

1 – In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada rules police need a court order to obtain a computer’s internet protocol address. The justices say the IP number is crucial link between a person and their online activity.

1 – Iris Apfel, a renowned textile expert, interior designer and fashion celebrity known for her eccentric style, dies at the age of 102. Her commercial agent, Lori Sale, confirms her death, calling her “extraordinary.” Apfel was famous for her irreverent, eye-catching outfits, mixing haute couture and oversized costume jewelry.

2 – A ship that was attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea sinks. Officials say the Rubymar had been adrift after the attack last month and had been taking on water for days. It’s the first ship sunk by the Houthis as their months-long attacks on shipping in the vital waterway continue.

2 – U.S. officials say American military C-130 cargo planes drop 66 bundles containing some 38,000 meals this morning into The Gaza Strip, expected to be the first of many drops announced by U.S. President Joe Biden.

2 – Israel endorses a framework for a proposed ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it. A senior U.S. administration official says the Israelis “have more or less accepted” the proposal, which includes the six-week ceasefire in Gaza as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered to be vulnerable.

2 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Toronto, where the pair agree to establish the so-called Canada-Italy Roadmap for Enhanced Cooperation. The two prime ministers issue a joint statement saying the agreement will further deepen their countries’ political, economic and strategic ties by setting out plans to collaborate over the next three to five years in key areas.

2 – Quebec actor, television and radio host Paul Houde dies at the age of 69. Houde’s wife, Francine Audette, says his death was due to a complication following a major surgery to remove a mass from his brain. Houde had a prolific career in Quebec media, including as a radio host on the BPM Sports network, CKAC and 98.5 F-M. He also appeared in the beloved comedy film series “Les Boys,.’ in which he played the character Fern, an erudite goalie who was able to recite details of professional player statistics.

3 – Canada’s foreign affairs minister announces another round of sanctions against the Russian government. Melanie Joly says the sanctions are in response to last month’s death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Russia’s “continued gross and systematic violations of human rights.” In a statement released early this morning, Joly says the measures will be imposed on six Russian senior officials and high-ranking employees of its prosecution, judicial and correctional services.

3 – A reception in Toronto featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Italian counterpart is abruptly called off as about 400 pro-Palestinian protesters block entrances to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

3 – Malaysia’s government announces it may renew the search for the lost flight, MH370, after a U.S. technology firm proposes a fresh search in the southern Indian Ocean. The Malaysia Airlines plane is believed to have crashed in the ocean nearly a decade ago. Transport Minister Anthony Loke says Texas-based Ocean Infinity has proposed a “no find, no fee” agreement to scour the seabeds, expanding from the site where it first searched in 2018. The Boeing 777 plane carrying 239 people vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path and was believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

4 – The European Union levels its first antitrust penalty against Apple, fining the U.S. tech giant US$1.8 billion for breaking the bloc’s competition laws by unfairly favouring its own music streaming service over rivals. The EU’s executive commission says Apple banned app developers from “fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services outside of the app.” The fine follows a long-running investigation triggered by a complaint from Swedish streaming service Spotify.

4 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules former president Donald Trump’s name will be on presidential primary ballots in Colorado, Maine and Illinois. The decision comes a day before Super Tuesday, when 16 states hold primary votes. The justices rejected state attempts to hold Trump accountable for the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. They say states, without action first from the U.S. Congress, cannot invoke a post-Civil War constitutional provision to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots.

4 – U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and other top officials sit down with Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz, who is visiting Washington in defiance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting comes after Harris issued a forceful call for a six-week ceasefire in Gaza, to get hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in. Gantz is on a mission to strengthen ties with the U.S., bolster support for Israel’s war and push for the release of Israeli hostages.

4 – Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty in New York this morning to perjury in Donald Trump’s civil fraud case. Prosecutors had accused 76-year-old Weisselberg of lying under oath when he answered questions in a case about allegations Trump lied about his wealth on financial statements given to banks and insurance companies.

4 – By a vote of 780 to 72, French politicians approve a bill that will enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French Constitution. Members of the National Assembly and the Senate stand in a long standing ovation after the historic joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles. Women’s rights activists are celebrating the measure promised by President Emmanuel Macron following a rollback of abortion rights in court rulings in the United States.

4 – Housing Minister Sean Fraser says 750,000 new homes will be built in the next decade as part of 179 housing agreements with municipalities. The federal government has finalized all of its deals with municipalities through the $4-billion housing accelerator fund. The program offered communities federal dollars in exchange for changes to bylaws and regulations that would boost home construction. The competitive process for funding resulted in more than 500 applications, but Ottawa says only one-third of them were successful.

4 – Four provinces now have confirmed cases of measles, including Quebec, which has 10 confirmed cases. More than half of the cases in Quebec are in the Montreal area, while one case in Ontario has been linked to a high school. Saskatchewan and British Columbia are the other provinces with confirmed measles cases. Infectious disease specialists say a small number of measles cases can escalate to widespread infections like in the case of Europe, where thousands of cases have now been confirmed.

5 – Equifax Canada reports mortgage delinquencies soared in Ontario and British Columbia in the final three months of last year. Ontario’s mortgage delinquency rate was up 135.2 per cent from 2022 levels, while B.C.’s rate rose 62.2 per cent. Outside of B.C. and Ontario, Equifax Canada reports mortgage delinquency rates are rising at a slower pace and are still much lower than before the pandemic.

5 – UNICEF is reporting at least 10 children have died in northern Gaza because of dehydration and malnutrition, and is calling the deaths tragic, horrific, man-made, predictable and entirely preventable. The UN says more than 576,000 people across Gaza are a step away from famine. That’s 25 per cent of the territory’s population. It estimates one in six children under the age of two in the north suffer from acute malnutrition.

5 – RCMP investigators say an attack by an armed man at Edmonton City Hall in January appears to have been politically motivated. Terrorism charges have been laid against the man who had worked as a security guard. Edmonton Police Insp. Michelle Greening says it was important the terrorism charges against the accused were laid. Police seized an SKS-style assault rifle, three prohibited rifle magazines, about 150 rounds of ammunition and four gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails from the scene.

5 – The New Jersey ice cream parlour booth featured in the final scenes of the hit HBO series “The Sopranos” fetches a pretty penny in an online auction. An anonymous buyer paid more than $82,000 for the piece of memorabilia. The co-owner of Holsten’s in Bloomfield says the money will go toward renovating the dining area of the shop, which opened in 1939.

6 – Montreal’s Just for Laughs cancels its summer comedy festival. The company that owns the festival has filed for creditor protection as it starts formal restructuring under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

6 – U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump romp through more than a dozen states on Super Tuesday, cementing a November rematch in the 2024 presidential election. The coast-to-coast victories, including the delegate-rich states of California and Texas, left little doubt about the trajectory of the race, while Trump’s Republican rival Nikki Haley won Vermont, denying him a full sweep.

6 – The Bank of Canada keeps its key interest rate steady at five per cent, saying it doesn’t want to jeopardize the progress it has made in bringing inflation down. The central bank says inflation continues to ease and the economy is weakening, but underlying price pressures are still persistently high.

6 – Nikki Haley suspends her presidential campaign after being soundly defeated by Donald Trump on Super Tuesday, but didn’t endorse him in a speech in Charleston, S.C.

6 – Researchers with the New England Aquarium photograph a grey whale off Nantucket, 200 years after the last one was seen in the Atlantic Ocean.

6 – Former British Columbia cabinet minister Selina Robinson quits the NDP, citing antisemitism in the ruling party’s caucus. Robinson, who is Jewish, says she can no longer remain in the party because it is not properly addressing antisemitism in the province or among her former colleagues.

6 – A jury convicts a movie weapons supervisor of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin during a film rehearsal. The verdict issued at trial against movie armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed capped a two-week trial over the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western movie “Rust” in October 2021.

7 – The Calgary Stampede is banned from taking part in the city’s 2024 Pride parade. Calgary Pride’s communications manager says it’s because of the decades of abuse some community members experienced at the hands of a former staff member at the Young Canadians School of Performing Arts. The school is operated by the Calgary Stampede Foundation. Phillip Heerema admitted he used his position at the school to lure and groom six boys into sexual relationships between 1992 and 2013.

7 – Sweden ends decades of neutrality and is now officially the 32nd member of NATO. Concerns about Russian aggression in Europe spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, prompting Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance.

7 – Ottawa police identify the six victims of a mass killing in the suburb of Barrhaven as members of a family from Sri Lanka and a friend also from Sri Lanka who was living with them. A 19-year-old Sri Lankan international student Febrio De-Zoysa is facing six first-degree murder charges after two adults and four children were found dead in a south Ottawa home. Police say the children ranged in age from two months to seven years old. The children’s mother and a 40-year-old man who was a family acquaintance were killed in the attack on March 6 in Barrhaven.

7 – Niagara Falls theme park Marineland is found guilty under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws of three charges related to its care of black bears. A court found it guilty of failing to comply with three orders issued by the province’s Animal Welfare Services related to the living conditions of three young black bears. An agreed statement of facts says Marineland kept the three young bears in cramped enclosures with no climbing structures or water features in June 2021.

7 – U.S. President Joe Biden announces during his state of the union address that his military will set up a temporary port off the coast of Gaza. The United States now joins international partners in trying to carve out a sea route to deliver food and other aid to Palestinian civilians cut off by the Hamas-Israel war.

8 – The Canadian government announces new sanctions on International Women’s Day against two Iranians who are accused of participating in the violent repression of women and girls in Iran. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Iranian women and girls face an increasingly repressive environment, where injury or death could come from expressing themselves or demanding basic rights. The chief executive of the transit system in Iran’s capital Tehran and a senior parliamentarian are both being added to the list for carrying out “increasingly repressive measures.”

8 – France’s leadership plans to use a Napoleonic press to seal the right to access abortion into the constitution. The historic ceremony is designed to show support to women around the world on International Women’s Day. France will officially become the first country in the world to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in its national charter.

8 – Environment Canada is advising shovellers to take frequent breaks as parts of Newfoundland are getting pounded by up to 85 centimetres of snow in the second snowstorm to bury eastern Newfoundland in the past month. Schools are closed across much of the island.

8 – The RCMP won’t be laying any charges following an investigation into potential voter identity fraud in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race. The investigation was launched after Jason Kenney won the leadership race to become leader of the new party following the merger of Alberta’s two conservative rival parties. Police say there were suspected instances of potential fraud but they couldn’t find enough evidence to support laying charges.

8 – International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen says Canada will resume funding to the United Nations aid agency known as UNRWA for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip. Canada was one of 16 countries to pause future payments to UNRWA after Israel alleged in January a dozen of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Hussen says he has reviewed an interim report from the UN about the allegations, and the decision is being made in light of that information.

9 – An internal RCMP review of the force’s response to Freedom Convoy protests in early 2022 describes efforts to mobilize officers in Ottawa as “chaotic.” It also calls out a lack of proper equipment, inadequate training and poor intelligence co-ordination. The report finds some officers at the scene of an Alberta blockade were unaware of threats to harm police until after the episode ended. It says the federal government’s demands for hourly briefings during the upheaval left no time for intelligence units to collect the most up-to-date information.

9 – Canada’s largest First Nations police service suspends its chief over allegations of misconduct. The Nishnawbe Aski police board of directors says an independent investigation has been launched into allegations against Chief Roland Morrison. It says Morrison will be suspended with pay until the investigation wraps up, and deputy chief Brad Duce will step into the role until an interim chief is appointed.

9 – Sweden announces it will resume funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinians. Sweden’s funding decision follows similar moves made by the European Union and Canada as the UN agency known as UNRWA warns it could collapse, leaving the people of Gaza in a more desperate situation.

10 – The Dominican Republic says Haiti’s prime minister is not welcome in the country. President Luis Abinader issues a statement saying safety reasons prevent Ariel Henry from entering the Dominican Republic, which has now closed its land and air borders with Haiti as gang violence there escalates.

10 – Weather on the west coast continues to bash communities throughout B.C., as Environment Canada issues additional wind warnings for the Metro Vancouver, Victoria and the Sunshine Coast areas. Thousands of homes and businesses lost power due to high winds bringing down power lines and affecting local grids, with gusts potentially reaching 100 kilometres per hour.

10 – A U.S. army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza is on its way to the Mediterranean. U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans last week to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry.

10 – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada will provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea. Joly says Canada will join the international coalition, which is working together to increase the flow of aid to Gaza through a humanitarian sea corridor originating from Cyprus. The announcement comes following a meeting Joly had with her counterpart for the United Arab Emirates. In a statement posted on X, Joly says they discussed the need to increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza through all means possible.

10 – Al-Qaida says the leader of its branch in Yemen is dead. The militant group provided no further details but released a video showing the body of Khalid al-Batarfi wrapped in a funeral shroud of the al-Qaida black-and-white flag. The U.S. government had placed a US$5-million bounty on al-Batarfi’s head over his role in leading al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. It has long been considered the most dangerous branch of the extremist group still in operation after the killing of its founder Osama bin Laden.

11 – Canada’s UN ambassador Bob Rae attends an emergency closed-door meeting to discuss the spiralling crisis in Haiti. Caribbean leaders asked Canada, the U.S., France, Brazil and the UN to gather in Jamaica to discuss the escalating gang violence. Following the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces the U.S. will pledge an additional $100 million for a multinational force that’s awaiting deployment to the crisis-stricken country.

11 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his country has successfully conducted its first test flight of a domestically developed missile that can carry multiple warheads. India has been developing its medium- and long-range missile systems since the 1990s as its strategic competition with China grows. Three years ago it successfully tested a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile that is believed to be capable of targeting nearly all of China.

11 – Canada pledges $1 million to support women sexually assaulted by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada is also offering the services of the RCMP to help investigate. Joly is in Israel to advocate for humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza and to support efforts to get Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

11 – Ottawa says the lucrative elver fishery will stay closed for the 2024 season. Federal fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier says confrontations and violent incidents have created what she calls an immediate threat to public safety and the management of the fishery. Elvers are young and translucent eels that migrate up Maritime coastal rivers in the spring where they are easily caught in nets or buckets.

11 – The federal ombudsperson for victims of crime is launching a probe into how Canada’s justice system treats sexual assault survivors. Benjamin Roebuck says victims’ rights are often ignored and that survivors say the system doesn’t make them feel safe. He says the idea that survivors will have a painful experience navigating the justice system has become normalized. The office will launch public consultations in the spring.

12 – Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry says he’ll resign once a transitional presidential council is created. Henry made the announcement hours after Caribbean leaders and officials from other countries met in Jamaica to discuss a solution to halt Haiti’s spiralling crisis. It’s not yet clear who will be chosen to be Henry’s replacement.

12 – American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen has died. A statement from his wife Amy says Eric passed away in his sleep over the weekend at the age of 74, but no cause of death was given. The Ohio-born Carmen was the lead vocalist of the pop band The Raspberries and began a solo career in the mid-1970s. His power-ballad hit “All By Myself” was released in 1975, and in 1987, Carmen contributed to the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack with his hit single “Hungry Eyes.”

12 – An aid ship loaded with more than 181,000 kilograms of food sets sail for Gaza. It’s a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation. The food was gathered by the charity World Central Kitchen and is being transported by a Spanish aid group. The ship leaves Cyprus and is expected to arrive in the Gaza in two to three days.

12 – The final report from a joint board of investigation into the statutory release of the man who killed 11 people on James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon, Sask., includes 14 recommendations. It concludes there were no indicators or precipitating events that the Correctional Service of Canada and National Parole Board staff could have acted on to prevent the tragedy. Despite his 59 convictions, Myles Sanderson was released earlier in 2022 – prompting questions about why that happened and how he remained free in the months leading up to the attacks.

12 – The City of Richmond, B.C., is urging the federal government to provide more temporary housing for refugees and asylum seekers or pay for their use of the city’s homeless shelter. Coun. Carol Day says local residents experiencing homelessness have been denied shelter spaces because of the “staggering” number of refugees and asylum seekers also in need of accommodation. Background material on the motion provided to the council says about a third of all beds at the Richmond House Emergency Shelter last year were occupied by asylum seekers or refugees.

12 – Dallas Seavey makes Iditarod history as he won the world’s most famous sled dog race in a record-breaking sixth championship for the Alaska musher. This year’s race started off rough for Seavey as he had to shoot and kill a moose tangled up with his dogs shortly after the race began. Iditarod officials wound up issuing Seavey a two-hour time penalty. He still enjoyed a three-hour lead over the nearest competitor on his way to the finish line in Nome.

12 – U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have clinched their parties’ presidential nominations with decisive victories in a slate of low-profile primaries. Their new presumptive-nominee status sets up a November general-election rematch between two unpopular presidents that most voters don’t want.

13 – Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country is ready to use nuclear weapons if there is a threat to its statehood or sovereignty, voicing hope that the U.S. would refrain from actions that could trigger a nuclear conflict. In an interview released by Russian state television, Putin described U.S. President Joe Biden as a veteran politician who fully understands possible dangers of escalation.

13 – A team of specially trained Marines arrives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti overnight to safeguard the U.S. Embassy. The capital has been overrun by criminal gangs demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

13 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill that would ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesn’t sell. The video app with more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese technology firm, and U.S. politicians believe its current ownership structure is a national security threat. They argue Beijing could demand access to the data of TikTok’s American users.

13 – The British Columbia government is giving farmers an extra $70 million to replant and strengthen fruit orchards and vineyards after two years of weather-related disasters. Premier David Eby says the funding will boost the province’s existing $15-million Perennial Crop Renewal Program, launched last spring to help more than 200 farmers replace diseased and unproductive plants. B.C.’s wine grape growers reported that a cold snap in January destroyed up to 99 per cent of the province’s harvest, a devastating blow that followed another crippling deep freeze in 2022 and wildfire smoke damage in 2021.

14 – SpaceX’s mega rocket blasts off on another test flight, and outperforms two previous test flights, which ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. This time the Starship spacecraft reached enough speed to coast toward its finish line halfway around the world. It headed out over the Gulf of Mexico from southern Texas, the booster separated and the spacecraft continued east and splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

14 – The Canadian Press learns the federal government quietly ordered a national security review of the popular video app TikTok last September. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne’s office says the review was never revealed because of confidentiality provisions of the Investment Canada Act.

14 – The Israeli military says it plans to direct many of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in the centre of the territory ahead of its planned offensive there. The fate of those in Rafah has been an area of concern for Israel’s allies, including Canada and the U.S.

14 – American Paul Alexander, who spent decades using an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, dies at the age of 78. He died in a Dallas hospital. Alexander was a child when he began using an iron lung, a cylinder that encased his body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air in and out of his lungs.

15 – Australia follows Canada, Sweden and the European Commission in restoring funding to UNWRA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians. The Australian government also pledged to increase aid for the Gaza Strip, with the country’s foreign minister expressing horror at the deteriorating humanitarian situation there.

15 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s willing to work with Quebec to limit temporary workers where needed , but he’s rejecting the province’s request for full powers over immigration. Trudeau made the comments today following a meeting in Montreal with Premier Francois Legault. He adds that Quebec already has more control over newcomers than any other province or territory, with authority over the number of economic immigrants to the province. Legault says Quebec needs full control over immigration because the number of newcomers to the province is causing a breaking point in social services and threatening the French language.

15 – British Columbia Premier David Eby dismisses a letter from Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asking him to help halt a federal carbon-price increase. Poilievre’s letter asks Eby to join seven other premiers in opposing the April 1 increase, saying the 23-per-cent hike amounts to an extra 18 cents on a litre of fuel, and people in B.C. and Canadians can’t afford it. Eby says B.C. would end up with less money returned to the province if it accepted Poilievre’s “campaign office and baloney factory” request.

15 – A man is dead after a 30-hour armed standoff with police at an east-end home in the Calgary neighbourhood of Penbrook Meadows. Despite hours of negotiations with the barricaded subject, officials say around 8:30 p.m. the situation escalated and the city’s Tactical Unit officers, along with members of the RCMP Emergency Response Team, engaged and discharged their service weapons. They say the standoff began during the exercising of a warrant concerning an ongoing firearms investigation.

16 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approves plans to invade Rafah, where the military believes the last few Hamas leaders and battalions remain. U.S. President Joe Biden is calling the offensive a possible red line if Israel doesn’t protect the Palestinians sheltering there.

16 – Rebel News confirms that Toronto police arrested one of its reporters, David Menzies, during a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown that delayed the start of a Liberal party fundraiser featuring the prime minister. The online media outlet says David Menzies has been charged with obstructing a peace officer and breaching a peace bond after trying to interview demonstrators on camera on Friday. A second man has been charged with mischief damage to property.

17 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to calls for a re-election in Israel by saying it would force his country to stop fighting against Hamas and would paralyze it for six months. United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” In a statement Netanyahu says Israel will not succumb to the pressure of a re-election, reiterating his determination to attack Hamas in Gaza’s city of Rafah where around 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

17 – Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he supported a prisoner swap idea involving his political foe and opposition leader Alexei Navalny just days before the latter’s death last month. Speaking at a news conference Sunday after polls in the country’s presidential election closed, Putin referenced Navalny by name and said he agreed to the idea, only on the condition that Navalny not return to Russia after his release. Navalny died at a Russian penal colony last month after being sentenced to 19 years for extremism.

17 – The first charter flight bringing U.S. citizens home from violence-ravaged Haiti arrives in Miami. U.S. State Department officials confirm the flight carrying 30 passengers landed on Sunday after leaving an airport in northern Haiti. Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed following gang attacks that have raged across the Caribbean nation for weeks. Global Affairs Canada confirmed Thursday that 3,000 Canadians are registered as still being in Haiti.

17 – Environment Canada says a ridge of high pressure brought record-setting warm temperatures to B.C. this weekend. Several areas saw temperatures climb past 20 Celsius with 38 communities logging their hottest March 16 on record. Agassiz broke its 124-year-old record of 22.8 degrees set in 1900 with temperatures that reached 23.3 degrees on Saturday.

18 – Vladimir Putin has secured a fifth term as Russia’s president. The country’s election commission said this morning Putin received an overwhelming number of votes – 76 million ballots to win 87 per cent of the vote. After facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices, Putin is set to extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.

18 – The UN food agency says this morning that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where more than 200,000 people are believed to be experiencing catastrophic hunger. The World Food Program is warning that a further escalation of the war could push nearly half of Gaza’s population to the brink of starvation.

18 – The Israeli military says it has killed a Hamas commander who was armed and hiding inside the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. That’s the same hospital Israel raided back in November. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari says senior Hamas militants were directing attacks from the compound.

18 – Retired NASA astronaut Thomas P. Stafford dies at the age of 93. He took part in four space missions, commanding a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first American-Soviet space link-up.

18 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation with Biden administration officials. The agreement to hold talks about Rafah follows a conversation between Biden and Netanyahu – their first interaction in more than a month.

18 – Members of Parliament approve a dramatically altered version of a New Democrat motion calling on the Liberals to recognize Palestinian statehood. The approved motion was negotiated by the Liberals and NDP with the most significant change revising the call to recognize Palestine as a state to instead “actively pursue” the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution. The amendment aligns with Canada’s existing policy and the new motion passed by a margin of 204-117.

19 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first to pay his respects to the flag-draped casket of former prime minister Brian Mulroney this morning after speaking with Mulroney’s widow Mila and their four children. A stream of federal cabinet ministers has been seen going into the Sir John A. Macdonald building across the street from Parliament Hill, where Mulroney will lie in state until Wednesday afternoon.

19 – The Swiss company IQAir reports all but two of the 15 communities on its list of the most polluted cities in North America last year were Canadian. It marked the first year since 2018 that Canada’s air quality was worse than the U.S. Raging wildfires are to blame, with Fort McMurray and Peace River, Alberta topping the list. Bangladesh had the worst air quality in the world last year.

19 – Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada plans to spend $40 million to buy artillery ammunition for Ukraine as part of a deal with Czechia. The government is spending another $7.5 million on night vision equipment for Ukrainian soldiers. Blair is fresh from a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which includes about 50 allied countries and is led by the United States.

19 – The Senate passes a bill to implement Canada’s updated Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine, paving the way for it to become law. The bill passes without the support of a single Conservative senator, which is in line with how Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre and the rest of his MPs voted in the House of Commons. Conservatives argued against the bill because the trade deal says the two countries, which both have a carbon price in place, will promote carbon pricing.

19 – Roy McMurtry, a legal and political giant in Ontario who helped pave the way for same-sex marriage as a judge and a key player in the Canadian Constitution,dies at the age of 91.He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and appointed to the Order of Ontario.

20 – The Senate has passed a bill to implement Canada’s updated Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine without the support of a single Conservative senator. Tories say they voted against the bill because the trade deal says the two countries, which both have a carbon price in place, will promote carbon pricing.

20 – The annual ranking of the world’s happiest people is released, on the UN’s International Day of Happiness. Finland has the world’s happiest people for the seventh year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report. Canada ranked in 15th place, two spots lower than last year.

20 – Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is quitting immediately as head of his party and plans to step down as leader of the country following a leadership contest. The 45-year-old is citing personal and political reasons for the decision. Varadkar was Ireland’s youngest-ever leader when first elected in 2017 and is also its first biracial and first openly gay prime minister.

20 – Premier Andrew Furey postpones the release of the Newfoundland and Labrador budget set after a chaotic fisher’s protest outside the legislature. A group of more than 100 fishers blocked government officials from entering the building. They claim the province’s fishery is over-regulated and the handful of established processors and buyers act like a cartel to push down prices. Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers rode their horses into the crowd trying to disperse it. A protester and a police officer were taken away by ambulance.

20 – The cavalcade escorting the casket of former prime minister Brian Mulroney leaves Ottawa en route to Montreal. Public tributes for Mulroney wrapped up in the capital after two days at the Sir John A. Macdonald building of Parliament. Mulroney will lie in repose in Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Basilica tomorrow and Friday before his state funeral on Saturday. He died on Feb. 29 at the age of 84.

20 – Quebec newspaper La Presse removes a cartoon from its website that depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the vampire from the 1922 film “Nosferatu,” after it was denounced as being antisemitic. The image was posted online this morning with text identifying the caricature as “Nosfenyahu” on his way to the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs says drawings like this contribute to a normalization of antisemitism. La Presse’s chief editorialist apologized for the cartoon, saying it was never the outlet’s intention to promote harmful stereotypes.

20 – The Saskatchewan government pitches record spending, no tax hikes and a $273-million deficit in a pre-election budget. In its last budget before a fall election, Premier Scott Moe’s government is promising more than $1 billion in investments, with big-ticket spending on health, education and communities.

21 – Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announce that they have transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient. The patient is said to be recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon. Before this month’s operation, pig kidneys had only been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors.

21 – Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the government plans to decrease the number of temporary residents from 6.2 to five per cent of the population over the next three years. The government is also moving to reduce the number of workers entering Canada in certain sectors as of May 1, except in health care and construction.

21 – The UN General Assembly unanimously adopts its first resolution on artificial intelligence. The resolution sponsored by the U.S. gives global support to an international effort to ensure the powerful new technology benefits all nations, respects human rights and is safe, secure and trustworthy.

21 – Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew formally apologizes to two men who were switched at birth in the province almost 70 years ago. Edward Ambrose and Richard Beauvais were invited onto the floor of the legislature chamber to hear the apology. They were both born in a municipally-run hospital in Arborg in 1955 before being sent home with the other’s parents. The truth came to light decades later after one of them took an at-home DNA ancestry test.

21 – The self-anointed “front page of the internet” jump 55 per cent in its Wall Street debut today. Investors pushed the value of Reddit close to $9 billion seconds after it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

21 – The federal government makes changes to the National Defence Act by removing the military’s authority to investigate and prosecute sex crimes cases. Defence Minister Bill Blair says the proposed changes would remove the military’s jurisdiction over sexual offences under the Criminal Code provided the alleged crimes happened in Canada. The military will still be able to exercise jurisdiction to investigate sex crimes that happen outside of Canada, including during international deployment.

21 – The confidence motion brought by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over carbon pricing is defeated 204-116 — with only Tory M-Ps voting in favour. The price will go up by $15 a tonne next month as scheduled, adding another 3.3 cents to the price of a litre of gasoline and 2.86-cents for a cubic metre of natural gas.

22 – After sleeping at the legislature, Newfoundland and Labrador’s finance minister releases a provincial budget following a chaotic demonstration by fish harvesters that prevented officials from entering the building. Siobhan Coady was originally scheduled to table the budget on Wednesday, but the large crowd forced the government to call it off and reschedule.

22 – An American-sponsored resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza fails to pass in the UN Security Council by a vote of 11-3 with one abstention. Russia and China vetoed the resolution that would have protected civilians and enabled humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than two million hungry Palestinians. The 10 elected members of the Security Council are working on a resolution..

22 – The Princess of Wales says she is undergoing preventive chemotherapy for a cancer diagnosis. The news follows weeks of speculation on her whereabouts and health after undergoing abdominal surgery in January. In a video announcement posted to social media, Kate Middleton says doctors initially thought her condition was not cancerous, but tests after the successful surgery uncovered cancer.

22 – Fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador reach a deal with the provincial government, ending their demonstration at the legislature. The fisherman who led the demonstrators says the province has agreed to changes that will increase competition among processors while making it easier for fishers to earn a living. The agreement comes after hundreds of harvesters blocked government employees from entering the legislature, forcing the delay of the provincial budget by a day.

22 – The federal and Manitoba governments will each put $20 million toward the search of a Manitoba landfill for the remains of two slain Indigenous women. The remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are believed to be at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg. Jeremy Skibicki is charged with first-degree murder in Harris and Myran’s deaths, along with the deaths of two other women.

22 – A United Nations body regulating shipping vessels approves new environmental protections for Canada’s Arctic waters that are expected to reduce ice-melting emissions. The International Maritime Organization agrees with a proposal from Canada to create a so-called Emissions Control Area. The committee is expected to finalize its approval at its next meeting in the fall, with the measures entering into force 16 months after.

23 – A state funeral is held at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica for former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who died Feb. 29 at the age of 84. Mourners gather to remember Mulroney as a loyal architect of modern-day Canada, one whose love of life and family transcended the rough-and-tumble world of partisan politics. Hockey great Wayne Gretzky is one of a number of people who eulogize Mulroney. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Quebec Premier Jean Charest also speak, along with Mulroney’s daughter Caroline.

23 – Grammy-winning Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini dies at the age of 82. The opera house in Milan where Pollini performed frequently says he died without giving a cause of death. La Scala called Pollini one of the great musicians of our time. He had a six decades-long international career and his repertoire expanded beyond the standard classics as he embraced early 20th-century masterpieces and postwar modernists.

24 – The Canadian Press obtains a newly released intelligence report, prepared by a federal task force that aims to safeguard elections, through the Access to Information Act. It warns that baseless theories, disinformation and misinformation have spread to larger audiences, exposing online users to a vast network of narratives that undermine science, systems of government and traditional authority.

24 – The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says Israel is no longer allowing aid convoys into northern Gaza. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini is calling it an intentional move to stop lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine. Experts have said famine is imminent in northern Gaza, where more than 210,000 people are suffering from catastrophic hunger. Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA of having links with Hamas.

24 – The biggest night in Canadian music wraps up in Halifax. The Juno Awards pays a star-studded tribute to Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee and hip-hop pioneer Maestro Fresh Wes. The “Let Your Backbone Slide” rapper says “we don’t make records, we make history” as he accepts the honour. Calgary natives Tegan and Sara accept the 2024 Humanitarian Award for their work with the LGBTQ+ community. And Montreal singer-songwriter Charlotte Cardin scores album of the year for “99 Nights” while the Beaches took home the group of the year prize.

25 – Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun is stepping down following two major crashes and a series of safety issues since late 2018. Board chair Larry Kellner won’t be standing for re-election and Stan Deal, the president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit is retiring immediately. Calhoun took over the company after Dennis Muilenburg was ousted following the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. Boeing’s problems snowballed and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recently ordered an audit of assembly lines at its factory near Seattle. That’s where it builds planes like the Alaska Airlines 737 Max jet that had a door-panel blow out in early January.

25 – The U.S. abstains, but does not veto a UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It is the first time the council has succeeded in passing a resolution demanding a halt to the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The resolution, which passed 14 to 0, also demands the release of all hostages taken captive during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled his upcoming diplomatic delegation’s visit to Washington to protest UN vote.

25 – A New York appeals court says it will hold off collecting former U.S. president Donald Trump’s $454-million US civil fraud judgment. But he has to put up US$175 million within 10 days for the clock to stop on collection efforts and prevent the state from seizing his assets while he appeals. Despite Trump’s bragging about all the cash he has, his lawyers pleaded for a state appeals court to halt collection, claiming it was “a practical impossibility” to get an underwriter to sign off on a bond for such a large sum.

25 – Canada is working to airlift vulnerable Canadians out of Haiti, as gangs continue to overwhelm local police forces and virtually all infrastructure falls into a state of collapse. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada will move people by helicopter to the Dominican Republic. Officials say they know of 3,000 Canadians still trapped in Haiti, adding that some have reportedly left through private services.

26 – A major bridge in Baltimore snaps and collapses after a container ship loses power and rams into it and catches fire early today, and six construction workers are unaccounted for. Rescuers are searching for people in the water and an investigation is underway. Video posted on social media appears to show the vessel hit one of the supports of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the roadway to break apart in several places and plunge into the water.

26 – A British court rules Julian Assange can’t immediately be extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges. It’s a partial victory for the WikiLeaks founder. Two High Court judges say they will grant Assange a new appeal unless U.S. authorities give further assurances about what will happen to him. The U.S. alleges he endangered innocent lives by publishing classified government documents. The ruling means the legal saga, which has dragged on for more than a decade, will continue. The case has been adjourned until May 20.

27 – About 230 Canada Revenue Agency employees are fired for falsely claiming a federal income benefit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The C-R-A says the workers who inappropriately applied for and received the benefit known as CERB have been terminated and must repay the funds they received if they haven’t already done so.

27 – A federal inquiry begins two weeks of hearings into foreign meddling allegations and how the Trudeau government responded to them. Members of diaspora communities are slated to testify today as the hearings focus on possible interference by China, India, Russia and others in the last two general elections.

27 – Ten-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont., sets a world record for most aluminum pop can tabs collected for recycling in one year. Guinness World Records says Jace collected more than six million pop tabs. He and his family delivered them to the March of Dimes and donated the nearly $2,600 he received back to the organization that helps people living with disabilities.

27 – RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says the force has created a strategy that represents a concrete demonstration of its commitment to change. The report presented today comes almost a full year after the Mass Casualty Commission released 130 recommendations from its investigation into the police response to the 2020 shooting in Nova Scotia that killed 22 people. Duheme admits the force’s previous responses to other reviews and reports have not always been fulsome but says change is happening.

27 – Quebec signs onto Ottawa’s health accord, becoming the final province to do so. Health Minister Mark Holland signed a $3.7-billion health pact with the province. In exchange for the funds, Ottawa is demanding provinces report on how the money will be spent and measure how those funds are improving on health outcomes for Canadians.

27 – A new report by Statistics Canada shows the country had its highest growth rate last year since 1957. The report says the population grew by 3.2 per cent in 2023, the highest rate since a growth rate of 3.3 per cent seen in 1957. The chief of StatCan’s Centre for Demography Patrick Charbonneau says about 98 per cent of the country’s population growth was explained by international migration, noting it’s mostly the temporary immigration component that is a driving factor.

27 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces a plan in Vancouver today with supports for renters, including a bill of rights and a policy for rental payments to count toward credit scores. The measures are part of April’s federal budget and include a $15-million Tenant Protection Fund, which would pay provincial legal aid groups to help tenants against unfairly rising rents, “renovictions” or bad landlords.

28 – Recovery efforts continue at the site of the Baltimore bridge collapse. The bodies of two construction workers were pulled from a sunken truck the day before. Four co-workers who also plunged into the river when a cargo ship hit and destroyed the bridge are still unaccounted for.

28 – Four of Ontario’s largest school boards are suing the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok for more than $4 billion for disrupting student learning and the education system. The suit alleges the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn. The school boards in Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa say the compulsive use of social media is causing massive strains on their resources, including additional needs for in-school mental-health programming and personnel and increased IT costs.

28 – Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried is sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted last November of fraud and conspiracy linked to the collapse of FTX – once one of the world’s most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried had cost customers, investors and lenders more than $10 billion by misappropriating billions of dollars to fuel his quest for dominance in the new industry. They said he illegally used money from FTX depositors to cover his own expenses.

28 – The International Court of Justice orders Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza through land crossings. The top United Nations court issues two new provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Israel stringently denies it is committing genocide and says its military campaign is self defence.

28 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the upcoming budget will include more than $1 billion in low-cost loans, grants and student loan forgiveness to expand child care across Canada. Speaking in Surrey, B.C., Trudeau says an additional $60 million will be set aside for non-repayable grants for eligible child-care centres to build new spaces or renovate.

28 – Louis Gossett Junior dies at age 87 in Santa Monica, Calif. He was the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar, for his role as Sgt. Emil Foley in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He won an Emmy for his role in the seminal T.V. miniseries “Roots.” No cause of death is revealed.

29 – Nine people are detained in Tajikistan in connection with a deadly shooting at a Moscow concert hall. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti is reporting the nine people were detained due to contact with the four suspects who allegedly opened fire at the Crocus City Hall music venue on March 22, killing 144 people. It further says the detainees are also suspected of having connections with the Islamic State group.

29 – New statistics show Canadian exports of thermal coal increased another seven per cent last year to their highest level in almost a decade. The statistics from the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert show 19.5 million tonnes of thermal coal were exported through their terminals last year, up from more than 18 million tonnes in 2022. The boom comes as Canada leads a charge to end the use of coal as a source of power worldwide.

29 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will go back to the table for ceasefire talks with Hamas. It’s another attempt to reach a deal to pause Israel’s devastating war against Hamas in Gaza in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. Efforts by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to negotiate a ceasefire all appear to have stalled as the war grinds through its sixth month.

30 – Several days of trying to coax an orphaned whale calf back out into open waters off Vancouver Island are paused as fisheries officials wait for the tide to improve. Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Paul Cottrell says the department hopes the animal can free itself from the lagoon near the village of Zeballos, B.C. He says the calf is “very reluctant” to pass over a sandbar its mother got stuck on last weekend before dying in the shallow waters, despite efforts by locals to free the animal.

30 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon says three UN military observers and a Lebanese interpreter have been wounded in Lebanon. They say the four people were patrolling the southern Lebanese border and were wounded after a shell exploded near them. In a statement, the Israeli military denied striking the peacekeepers while a spokesperson for the UN says they are “investigating the origin of the explosion.”

30 – The National Defence Department says 70 Canadian Armed Forces members have been deployed to Jamaica for a month-long assignment to train Caribbean Community troops. Canadian Forces members will be helping prepare CARICOM troops for deployment in Haiti to bolster the Haitian National Police and restore order in the country. Gangs in Haiti have overwhelmed local police forces and taken control of key infrastructure. That has triggered a violent turf war that has led to the collapse of the island society.

30 – American actor Chance Perdomo dies in a motorcycle crash at age 27. A publicist says no one else was involved in the crash, but it’s unclear when and where it took place. Perdomo rose to fame as lead character Ambrose Spellman on the horror series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and was most recently on the first season of “Gen V.”

31 – Today marks the last day for Ukrainians to make use of their emergency visas to come to Canada. There has been a surge of Ukrainian newcomers in the last month before the visa program expired. Ottawa says more than 248,000 Ukrainians had made the journey by the end of February, and Immigration Minister Marc Miller previously estimated that number would be close to 300,000 by now. It’s unclear how many of those newcomers have stayed in Canada. Canada granted some 960,000 emergency visas to Ukrainians in the aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion.

31 – More than 400 Canadian artists have signed a letter denouncing what they describe as anti-trans policies in parts of the country. Music superstars Tegan and Sara released the open letter signed by fellow Canadian artists from the worlds of music, film and literature calling on all levels of government to put a stop to discriminatory legislation targeting transgender youth. The letter calls out Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s proposed pronoun policies for gender diverse children in schools, as well as new guidelines for hormone therapy.

31 – Firefighters had to use all-terrain vehicles to reach a small forest fire burning in Quebec’s Oka provincial park west of Montreal. Local fire crews put out the 2.1-hectare blaze around 1 a.m. local time. A spokesman for Quebec’s forest fire prevention society says a discarded cigarette likely sparked the fire. The blaze signalled an early start to this year’s wildfire season. Quebec’s forest fire prevention society says the season normally gets underway in mid-April but is starting a little earlier than usual due to a less-snowy winter.

31 – Tens of thousands of Israelis stretch for blocks around the parliament building in Jerusalem in the largest anti-government protest since Israel went to war with Hamas on Oct. 7. Organizers are vowing to continue the demonstration for several days as they urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to hold new elections nearly two years ahead of schedule. The protesters also want the government to reach a ceasefire deal to free dozens of hostages held in Gaza. But Netanyahu says calling new elections before victory in Gaza would paralyze Israel and hinder the hostage talks.

31 – Popular leading actor Barbara Rush – who co-starred alongside Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman and other top film performers in the 1950s and 1960s – dies at the age of 97. Fox News reporter Claudia Cowan announces the death, posting on Instagram that her mother died today. Cowan praises her mother as among the last of Old Hollywood Royalty and calls herself her mother’s biggest fan.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

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