ETA Canada News

The Greater Toronto Metro supermarket strike has been going on for nearly three weeks. This is because there has been no progress in labour-management negotiations.

The Metro side expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “We proposed to the union side to meet this weekend, but it was not accepted.”

In response, the union hinted that it would not stop the strike for the time being, saying, “We will wait until the company presents an acceptable negotiation plan.”

The issue of labour-management negotiations is the improvement of treatment. The union went on strike on the 29th of last month, demanding higher wages and improved benefits, and as a result, 27 Metros in the Greater Toronto Area were suspended. About 3,700 union members joined the strike.

The union is raising its voice, saying, “Please use part of the company’s increased net profit to improve the working environment for employees.” According to data from the Fair-Trade Commission, Canada’s three largest supermarkets, Lovelo, Metro and Sobis, posted a total of $3.6 billion in net profit last year.

TransLink, which manages and operates public transportation in Metro Vancouver, announced on August 15 that it will release a mini trolleybus compass key chain on the 16th, the 75th anniversary of the trolleybus operation.

Sales start at 8:00 a.m. at the customer service centre. There will be two types of key chains, one for general use with 4,000 pieces and the other for concession use with 1,000 pieces. This key holder can be used like a normal compass card and is used as a card by tapping it when boarding the Skytrain, Seabus, or bus. The headlights light up when tapped.

The fee is the same as a regular Compass Card, with a deposit of $6. Purchase up to 2 per person. Free ride on the Brill Trolleybus

As an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the trolleybus, a free ride experience tour of the Brill trolleybus, one of the first vehicles that ran in the city of Vancouver, was also held. Tours depart approximately every 20 minutes from 9am to 4pm from across the street in front of the Waterfront Station exit (601 W Cordova St. Vancouver).  First come first served, no reservations.

Vancouver is a familiar trolleybus, but it is only in Vancouver in Canada.

There are currently 262 units, the second largest in Canada and the United States.

The first service was on August 16, 1948. The operating company is BC Electric Railway Company. Since then, it has evolved and been active as a means of transportation for Vancouver citizens for 75 years.

This fall, gas prices at gas stations in Toronto are expected to approach $2 per litre.

As of the 9th, the average gas price in Toronto is around $1.60 per litre. Gas prices at gas stations around Toronto could rise by about $2 per litre this fall, a forecast has emerged.

Energy price expert Dan McTeague predicted, “As early as next month, gas prices could rise by 20% from now,” and “there is a possibility that it will not fall easily after soaring to nearly $2 per litre.”

The upward trend in gas prices is the result of a combination of the weak Canadian dollar and the federal government’s imposition of a carbon tax. Meanwhile, the gas price in Toronto on the 10th (Thu) is expected to rise by 4 cents per litre to $1.70.

A music festival in the city of Penticton, British Columbia (BC), has been cancelled due to wildfires.

The Princeton RCMP (Federal Police) announced on Aug. 7 that at approximately 7:30 p.m., the area caught fire and the fire spread rapidly.

The music festival, the Under the Stars festival, was scheduled to be held until the 7th, but was forced to be cancel.

About 1,000 people were in attendance, according to the RCMP. No evacuation order was issued, but police report that everyone, including the four occupants of the ATV, evacuated safely and no one was injured in the fire.

The BC Wildfire Service said the fire started on Rice Road, about 11 kilometres northwest of Princeton, and covered about 16 hectares.

Wildfires are still common in BC.

According to the BC Wildfire Service, there are currently 412 cases, 216 of which are out of control. There are 14 that could pose a danger to state residents. 315 were attributed to lightning strikes.

Last week, Ontario Superior Court Judge Ann Molloy said the search, arrest, and detention of individuals without a search warrant violated the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The judge said, “Thus, the suspect who was accused of violating the Firearms Control Act and the Drug Trade Act will be released without charges even though there are several reasonable evidence presented by the police.”

Mr. Carapet Tropp called the emergency number 911 and asked for help, saying that his girlfriend was drinking too much and was in a dangerous condition. When the police arrived at his home and found firearms and drugs through a search, he was arrested and charged. He, of course, neither asked nor received permission from the suspect.

Judge Molloy said, “During these searches, the lawless and illegal actions of the police were repeated many times. This causes more anger,” he declared.

Among the evidence presented by the police included five loaded guns and $3,000 in cash. It was evidence that the suspect could not deny. However, the judge said, “The police do not have the right to arbitrarily search the suspect’s house. The judge admits the evidence and punishes the accused, it is like saying, ‘The police’s behaviour was bad and violated the human rights clause, but I will ignore it.’

In recent years, courts have dismissed several felony prosecutions, such as murder, gun and drug offenses, on the grounds of police misconduct. Racial prejudice, house searches without permission, and interrogations without a lawyer are all illegal.

In April, the Ontario Prosecutor’s Office asked the court to dismiss the prosecution of a drug trafficker and received permission. This is because the police officer in charge of the investigation stole some of the confiscated drugs and confessed to taking them. In March, the court dismissed the charges and acquitted the drug dealer.

It was revealed that police officers had stolen $6,000 of his property during a search of his apartment. The attorney representing the accused in the above two cases was Kim Scofield.

He said, “I don’t know if these incidents that exposed the lawlessness of the police have taught the police a lesson. In the future, if such illegal acts by the police occur, citizens must protest and correct them so that a righteous society will be established.”

Carapet told the courtroom that the police had searched his apartment without permission and were unaware of the legality of the detention and of the suspect’s right to an attorney.

Police stayed at his apartment for two hours, searching and photographing him, and forcing him to unlock the locked room.

Meta, which is in a dispute over news royalties with the Canadian government, has officially begun suspending news services in Canada.

Meta said in a statement on the 1st that within the next few weeks news services to Canadian users of its digital platforms Facebook and Instagram will be shut down.

Meta said, “Today (the 1st), we announce that we have entered the process of ending the supply of news in Canada.”

As a result, Canadian meta users will not be able to view or share news articles or other content from Canadian media, including international news. Previously, the Canadian Parliament enacted the Online News Act in June, which requires Canadian media to pay for the use of news on digital platforms.

Since then, Meta has been piloting a news service blocking measure for 5% of users in Canada, and as of this day, it has officially made full-scale expansion.

The Canadian government has begun preparing detailed enforcement rules ahead of the year-end implementation of the Online News Act, but Meta is currently not responding to this consultation process.

Canada’s Cultural Heritage Department called the move “irresponsible”, saying it “denies users access to quality local news in exchange for paying the news outlets what they deserve. The government will stick to the existing principles,” he said, adding that other countries would consider similar legislation.

Following Meta, while Google also announced its policy to suspend news services, the Canadian government took a retaliatory response early last month by suspending advertisements for Meta, and some media also agreed.

Toronto Transit TTC Line 3 train derails, injuring five people.

The accident occurred while the train on Line 3 was heading south from Scarborough Elsmere Station at 7:00 pm on the 24th (Mon).

According to the police and TTC, the rear carriage suddenly separated and tilted while derailing. The injuries are not serious, and they are receiving treatment and recovering.

After the accident, Line 3 service was suspended, and the TTC is operating a shuttle bus between McCowan and Kennedy stations. TTC originally planned to stop operating the old Line 3 around November of this year and use buses until the extension of the Scarborough subway line opened in 2030. However, with the derailment accident, there is a prospect that the suspension of Line 3 can be accelerated.

Meanwhile, TTC officially apologized for the accident and announced that it would quickly find out the exact cause of the accident.

The state government of British Columbia (BC) has decided on whether to transfer the police organization of Surrey City to the city’s own organization SPS (Surrey Police Service) as planned or to retain the RCMP (Federal Police).

BC Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has instructed the City of Surrey on July 19 to continue its plans to transition to SPS.

The Surrey City Council voted to retain the RCMP in June and was awaiting a decision from the provincial government. “There is no better way to keep both Surrey and BC citizens safer than through the SPS,” Farnworth said, adding that while the RCMP in Canada struggled to find staff, the Surrey RCMP was unable to find the manpower it needed without recruitment from other RCMPs.

In addition to providing $150 million in support for the SPS transition, the state government has appointed Jessica McDonald, former Deputy Premier of BC, and former CEO of BC Hydro, as a strategic advisor. The BC government has published a report on the decision.

In Surrey, former Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum had been promoting the transition to SPS since 2018, but current Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and the City Council insisted on retaining the RCMP.

In response, the state government supported the transition to SPS, and the situation turned around. Mayor Locke has called the state government’s decision “misguided and based on inaccurate assumptions.”

When the West Port Union went on strike again, the Federal Ministry of Labor put the brakes on.

On the 13th, as the International Port Warehouses Union and BC Maritime Operators Association accepted the federal government’s Labor-management agreement arbitration, the union ended the strike in about two weeks.

However, union officials exercised their right to veto the 4-year collective contract at the stage of final approval of the mediation plan and went on strike again on the 18th.

In response, the Ministry of Labor declared their resumption of the strike illegal, saying, “They violated the 72-hour notice rule.”

The union, which took a step back, announced on the 19th that it would go on strike again from the 22nd. Meanwhile, if the strike is prolonged, it is expected that the work of Toronto trading companies will be greatly disrupted.

In most provinces of Canada, a report has come out that minimum wage workers find it difficult to afford rent.

According to data released on the 18th by the Canadian Institute for Policy and Alternatives (CCPA), rental wages in 93% of the country were higher than the minimum hourly wage. Rental wage is the hourly wage that a full-time worker who works 40 hours a week must earn to pay rent and is set within the limit of rent not exceeding 30% of income.

In Ontario, renters must earn $25.96 an hour to afford a one-bed condo, and $29.90 an hour to afford a two-bed condo. However, the minimum wage in Ontario is $15.50 per hour. Huge gaps were also seen in British Columbia and Alberta, with the smallest gaps between rent and minimum wage in Quebec and Newfoundland.

It turned out that Toronto is in a situation where it is difficult to afford even a one-bedroom apartment even if two full-time workers earn the minimum wage. Rental wages in Toronto are more than twice the minimum wage.

In Toronto, the minimum wage is $15.50 per hour, but I had to earn $32.36 for a one-bed and $40.03 for a two-bed rental. Economist Mike Moffat warned that the market has reached ‘crisis levels’ as rents have risen significantly in major cities over the past year.

Experts cited rising interest rates and a lack of housing supply as the reasons for this phenomenon.