VANCOUVER—A cheetah on the loose in B.C.’s Interior still is unaccounted for after it was last spotted roaming a snowy highway in the Kootenay region last week.
As of yesterday evening, conservation officers still were urging people to phone in any sightings of the big cat.
WINNIPEG—Manitoba’s attorney general says his province is ready for its first transgender judge—and possibly the first transgender judge in Canada.
Gord Mackintosh appointed Kael McKenzie to the provincial court last week.
McKenzie has been a Crown attorney in Manitoba for five years, and also practised family, commercial, and civil law before that.
OTTAWA—Closing arguments in the trial of Sen. Mike Duffy will be heard Feb. 22-March 4.
Judge Charles Vaillancourt said he wants to see written submissions from the Crown and the defence in advance.
He hopes that will focus their arguments and perhaps reduce the two weeks set aside for the wrap-up.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—A new report says temperatures in the world’s lakes are rising more than in the oceans or the atmosphere, which could worsen problems such as algae blooms and oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can’t survive.
The study combined satellite and ground measurements of 235 lakes over the past 25 years.
TORONTO—The OPP yesterday laid criminal charges against two top aides to former premier Dalton McGuinty in a gas plants scandal that cast a cloud over his final days in power.
TORONTO—A newlywed medical technician was remembered yesterday as a “vibrant, happy, and glowing person” after police identified her as the victim of an apparently random stabbing in the city’s financial district that has sent shockwaves through Toronto.
OTTAWA—The federal Liberal government is sending a controversial memorial to victims of communism back to the drawing board, citing flaws in the location and design approved by the Harper Conservatives.
TORONTO—Ontarians with complaints about services within their municipalities soon will have recourse to the province’s chief watchdog.
Acting Ombudsman Barbara Finlay says her office will have new powers to investigate complaints against municipal councils effective Jan. 1.
PHILADELPHIA—Four Canadians are among 24 people being honoured with medals and cash from the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Heroes Fund Commission.
They include Helen Goulet of Courtenay, B.C., who saved her 89-year-old friend from a house fire in January.
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a self-confessed “Star Wars” geek and says fans are going to be very happy about the latest incarnation of the saga, which he saw Tuesday evening.
At a Maclean’s magazine-sponsored, town-hall-style meeting at the National Arts Centre yesterday, the PM faced a question from an eight-year-old in the audience.
