Author: ovieoftoronto

Canada’s alcohol industry is pushing back against a call for mandatory warning labels on booze containers as suggested in new guidance that also greatly limits the recommended amount Canadians should be drinking. CJ Helie, president of Beer Canada, said the industry is voluntarily informing people to drink responsibly so there’s no need for any labels. “A number of Canadian brewers, including a number of our members, have voluntary health warning labels or pictographs on packaging dealing with warnings against drinking while pregnant and driving while intoxicated,” Helie said. However, a report on the new drinking guidance released Tuesday by the…

The Queen of Pop will perform in London in October Madonna has announced a major world tour marking her 40th anniversary, including a show at London’s O2 Arena. The announcement comes after weeks of speculation the Queen of Pop had been planning something big to celebrate the milestone. The tour, ‘Madonna: The Celebration Tour’, will begin on July 15 and will feature her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40-plus years,” according to an announcement video. It will also “pay respect to the city of New York, where her career in music began.” She will perform in London on October…

The latest Twitter Files thread exposing the inner workings of the pre-Elon Musk era dropped on Monday, disclosing how pharmaceutical companies pressured the social media giant to censor activists voicing generic COVID-19 vaccine advocacy. “In 2020, it was clear that the pandemic would require rapid innovation. Early on, there was a push to make the solution equitable: an international partnership to share ideas, technology, new forms of medicine to rapidly solve this crisis,” tweeted investigative journalist Lee Fang. “But global drug giants saw the crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented profit. Behind closed doors, pharma launched a massive lobbying blitz…

Air Canada staff in Toronto were “put to the test” when recently tasked with shipping one of the largest items the airline has ever loaded into a Boeing 767 – a 44-foot long IMAX screen weighing nearly 2,000 lbs. The screen was shipped to Quito, Ecuador in November for a viewing of James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” according to a release issued by the airline Tuesday. “While Air Canada Cargo moves some pretty large items with its Boeing 767 freighters, the shipment of an IMAX screen from Toronto to Quito in November put the aircraft and the Air…

Canada’s annual inflation rate cooled to 6.3 per cent in December, its lowest level since February. Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that the deceleration in the cost of living was mostly due to a 13 per cent decrease in the price of gasoline, which saw its biggest one-month plunge since April of 2020. The average gasoline price across Canada is now only three per cent higher than it was this time last year, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine turned the global oil market upside down. Canadians may have gotten some relief from higher prices every time they filled up their…

OPSEU, one of the province’s largest unions, is suing three former leaders — including longtime President Warren “Smokey” Thomas — for millions of dollars for allegedly withdrawing $670,000 in cash from a strike fund without explanation and receiving “substantial compensation” on top of that have their salaries and have union-bought vehicles transferred to themselves and their families. The allegations against Thomas, former first vice president/treasurer Eduardo Almeida, and Maurice Gabay, former administrator of the union’s financial services division, are detailed in a complaint filed Monday morning in Ontario Superior Court and stem from a forensic examination ordered by the union.…

Ontario has released a new three-step plan that will see some for-profit community surgical and diagnostic centres take on more responsibilities, including additional surgeries and other medical procedures. Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said this will help reduce wait times and eliminate surgical backlogs. “We need to be bold, innovative and creative,” she said. “We need to build on the spirit of collaboration on display across the health-care sector.” The government said surgical wait lists should return to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023 under this plan. The first step would be to invest in “new partnerships…

Happy Valley season 3 certainly has its share of challenges after a monumental season 1 and 2, but based on recent comments from show writer Sally Wainwright, this part… Looks like there's no need to worry.Regarding how nervous he was to repeat the huge success of seasons one and two, Wainwright told RadioTimes.com: I really don't think so. There is a very clear climax. ”He added: “The story is the same in all three. In Season 1, Katherine and Tommy meet outside Ryan's school, and in Season 2 they almost meet on the pyre at Tommy's mother's funeral. It's pretty…

The federal government says repercussions for public servants who refuse to return to in-person work will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Starting Monday, all federal employees who are still working from home will begin the transition back to in-person work. Treasury Board President Mona Fortier announced last month that all departments must bring workers back to the office at least two to three times a week by the end of March. In an interview Thursday, she did not specify what the consequences may be for anyone who refuses to return. “Those that do not comply by the end…

Exxon Mobil’s scientists were remarkably accurate in their predictions about global warming, even as the company made public statements that contradicted its own scientists’ conclusions, a new study says. The study in the journal Science Thursday looked at research that Exxon funded that didn’t just confirm what climate scientists were saying, but used more than a dozen different computer models that forecast the coming warming with precision equal to or better than government and academic scientists. This was during the same time that the oil giant publicly doubted that warming was real and dismissed climate models’ accuracy. Exxon said its…