In the news today, April 4

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PERMANENT INK MARKS BRONCOS BUS TRAGEDY

April 6th, 2018, is a day many want to forget, so friends and family of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash victims have chosen to get tattoos to remember the people instead. Ten players, the head coach, an assistant coach, the athletic therapist, a broadcaster, the bus driver and the team’s statistician died when a semi and the team’s bus collided at a rural crossroads in Saskatchewan. Several of the players, including Ryan Straschnitzki, who was partially paralyzed, have a tattoo of head coach Darcy Haugan’s favourite saying: “It’s a great day to be a Bronco, gentlemen.” Survivor Layne Matechuk and his father have the word “Believe” — along with his jersey number — inked on their arms, because they believe he will recover from his brain injury.

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SMOKERS, TOBACCO COMPANIES TO FACE OFF IN COURT

Lawyers representing Quebec smokers and provincial governments are pushing back against an Ontario court ruling that suspended legal proceedings against three major tobacco companies. The companies — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. — were granted protection from their creditors last month after they lost an appeal in Quebec. The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health led two class actions against the companies and won in 2015, with the court ordering the companies to pay more than $15 billion to smokers who either fell ill or were addicted. Lawyers for the council say they will ask the Ontario court today to revoke creditor protection for the companies if they intend to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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DATA GAP HURTING PBO STUDY ON TAX AVOIDANCE

Parliament’s spending watchdog says he still does not have access to all the data his office needs to determine the amount of money the federal government loses each year to offshore tax havens and tax avoidance schemes. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux says the Canada Revenue Agency would only give his office aggregate tax data for a study his office has for years wanted to complete on Canada’s tax gap. Without a more fulsome, independent study of how big the problem of tax avoidance and evasion is, Giroux says it’s hard for the government to understand how best to address it.

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HERRING SEASON ENDS, CONTROVERSY CONTINUES

The fish boats on British Columbia’s coast have returned to their home ports after a successful spring herring roe fishery, but opponents of the catch are already gearing up for next season. Conservation, environmental and some Indigenous groups say the threat of overfishing could harm B.C.’s marine ecosystem, particularly struggling chinook salmon and threatened southern resident killer whales. Pacific Wild’s Ian McAllister says the fishery should be suspended indefinitely before the Strait of Georgia herring stock collapses, as has occurred in other B.C. waters. But Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists say the herring population is the healthiest it’s been in almost 70 years, which is the major reason it approved a roe fishery this year.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS:

— Hearings continue today in Ottawa in the criminal trial of Joshua Boyle.

— The Parliamentary Budget Officer will release two reports on EI sickness benefits.

— Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, UCP Leader Jason Kenney, Liberal Leader David Khan and Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel participate in a televised debate ahead of the April 16 election.

— Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is scheduled to speaks at an event hosted by the Art of Leadership for Women in Calgary.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In the news today, April 4

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