Another wave of wildfire specialists from Alberta has arrived in Australia to help the country combat its record-breaking wildfires.

A team of 21 Albertans was welcomed in Sydney Sunday by Canada’s Australian ambassador, Angela Bogdan, before heading to the hardest-hit areas of the wildfires in New South Wales.. 

Another eight Canadian specialists arrived in Australia’s Victoria state Jan. 6, bringing the total up to 87.

Air Attack Officer Rob Anderson said this deployment lets Albertans reciprocate the efforts of  Australian crews who have helped with Alberta’s wildfires.

“We’re really looking forward to the experience. We’re proud to represent Alberta and Canada in this dire situation,” said Anderson, a resident of Rocky Mountain House, Alta. “I know we’ve needed help in the past and it’s just nice to return the favour.” 

The 2019-2020 wildfire season in Australia is the worst the country has ever seen, burning around 5 million hectares of land so far and killing 24 people, along with an estimated 500 million wild and domestic animals. 

The fires, numbering over 100, raging across Australia are believed to be caused by a record-breaking drought and dozens of cases of arson.

Australian authorities have taken legal action against 183 people to date for either arson or negligence in connection with the fires. Most of Australia is under a total fire ban. 

Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) information officer Michelle Morin, remembering Canada’s wildfire season last summer, said that international assistance during extreme wildfires is greatly appreciated.

“When we did have big seasons out west, sometimes it starts early, and you can see the rest of the summer going ahead of you and you just have no idea when it’s going to end,” she said. 

“So getting fresh hands, fresh eyes, people who are ready to jump in … they are a great relief and really, really a great help.”

Australian firefighters have come to Canada on four separate occasions in the past several years to combat wildfires in Western Canada, however foreign firefighters have not always been welcomed in Canada.

The grocery giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. is laying off nearly 800 workers with the closing of two distribution centres in Laval, Que. and Ottawa.

The jobs are expected to be replaced by automation at an existing facility in Cornwall, Ont.

“We will begin negotiations shortly, setting transition plans and finding solutions for those colleagues ― including a long, two-year wind down, and support for those who want new opportunities within Loblaw or beyond,″ said Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas about the layoffs. 

This comes less than a year after the company received $12 million in new funding from the Liberal government to replace its refrigerators with new “low-emission” alternatives. 

The company said the new refrigeration systems would be installed in 370 stores across the country.  

Former environment minister Catherine McKenna announced the funding in April, 2019. The money came from the federal government’s $2 billion Low Carbon Economy Fund, intended to help businesses to reduce their carbon footprints.

The Liberals were accused of “corporate influence” after announcing the funding and the NDP put forward a motion to recover the money. 

A year prior to receiving the funding, Loblaw admitted it was involved in a bread price-fixing scheme that carried on for 14 years, costing average Canadian families an estimated $400 extra in groceries.

The company confessed to the scheme and is facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit for its actions. 

Despite the scheme, Loblaw was granted immunity after its parent company revealed the scheme and nobody involved in the price-setting will face criminal charges or prosecution.

“As a result of the co-operation we have provided to the Competition Bureau, neither George Weston Ltd. nor Loblaw or their respective employees will face criminal charges or penalties,” said Loblaw and George Weston Ltd. CEO Galen Weston.

The company offered $25 gift cards to customers impacted by the scheme.

Sixty-three Canadians are among those dead in a plane crash outside Iran’s capital Tuesday night.

All 176 people on Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 from Tehran, Iran, to Kiev, Ukraine died after the plane crashed just minutes after takeoff.

“Tragic news regarding Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. Our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims, including many Canadians,” Global Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Wednesday morning.

“I have been in touch with the government of Ukraine. We will continue to keep Canadians informed as the situation evolves.” 

Many of the Canadian victims are believed to be students returning to Canada after the holidays. Ukraine International Airlines offers discount flights from Iran to Canada via Ukraine.

Among those dead are University of Alberta professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand and University of Waterloo student Marzieh Foroutan.

The former president of the Edmonton Iranian Heritage Society said Wednesday that 27 of the victims were from Edmonton.

Iranian media reported that the plane caught fire shortly after takeoff and exploded upon impact with the ground. While Iranian officials say they’ve located the airplane’s blackbox, they have refused to give it to any external investigators.

On the same night, Iran launched a series of missile attacks on American military assets in neighbouring Iraq in retaliation for last week’s assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif denied any connection between the missile attacks and the plane crash, noting that the Boeing 737 series that Ukraine International Airlines was using is “notorious” for mechanical issues.

Canada’s public health officials say they are monitoring a mysterious virus in China which has hospitalized 59 Chinese citizens so far.

At least 59 cases of “atypical pneumonia” have been seen in the city of Wuhan, Hebei since December 31. The nature of the new virus and how it spreads remains unknown. 

While no one has died, the World Health Organization says that at least 11 people are “severely ill.”

The first recorded victims were vendors at a seafood market in Wuhan. The market was shut down on January 1 by Chinese health officials but new cases continue to appear in the city. 

At least 15 new cases were recorded between December 5 and December 7.

On Tuesday, Health Canada issued a travel warning to Canadians in Wuhan. In the travel warning, the Canadian government assured the public that they are monitoring the situation.

“The Public Health Agency of Canada is actively monitoring the situation and working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international partners to gather additional information. The situation may change as new information becomes available,” Health Canada said.

While in Wuhan, Health Canada warns Canadians not to come into contact with living animals or uncooked meat.

In 2002 an outbreak of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus originating from China killed 44 in Canada and 774 worldwide. The Chinese government says it has ruled out SARS, bird flu and influenza as the cause of the outbreak.

Ontario, where the 2002 SARS outbreak occurred, says it is also monitoring the situation.

“As the situation develops, the ministry will continue to assess and determine whether any further action is needed,” said Ontario Health Ministry spokesman David Jensen.

All 44 fatalities in the 2002 SARS outbreak were in the Greater Toronto Area.

Throughout the world, journalists are still being killed for speaking the truth since the horrific attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in 2015. 

Five years ago, on January 7th, 12 journalists were killed and 11 were injured by armed gunmen who stormed the French paper’s headquarters. The savage attack was retaliation for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. 

In 2015, France was listed as the second most deadly country to be a journalist behind Syria which took first place. 

That year alone saw 28 journalists killed by Islamists and terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. 

Only a few weeks after the Hebdo attacks, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was murdered by ISIS and had his killing broadcasted in a video by the terrorist group in Syria.

Later that year, an ISIS terrorist murdered two journalists Ibrahim Abd al-Qader and Fares Hamadi in Turkey. 

In Pakistan, journalist Zaman Mehsud was shot in the streets by Taliban gunmen for reporting on the ongoing conflicts with Islamists along the country’s border with Afghanistan. 

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists database, from the period of 2015 to 2019 a total of 134 journalists were murdered in a number of countries throughout the world. 

In 2019 alone, 10 journalists were killed for their work with a majority of the deaths taking place in Mexico. 

Killers shot 46-year-old Norma Sarabia in Mexico on June 11, 2019 at the front door of her house. Sarabia mainly reported on crime and kidnappings in the area and the alleged involvement of police in the crimes. 

The most recent death to take place in 2019 happened on October 10, 2019 in Haiti, where journalist Néhémie Joseph was found dead after being shot several times in the head. Joseph was a radio reporter who covered the anti-government protests plaguing the country on a daily basis. 

The daughter of the dead terrorist Qassem Soleimani threatened U.S. troops and American families during a funeral speech.

Zeinab Soleimani told a crowd in Tehran that Americans and families of American soldiers, “will spend their days waiting for the death of their children.”

“Crazy Trump, don’t think that everything is over with my father’s martyrdom,” she said.  

Unverified reports surfaced on social media shortly after her speech that Soleimani’s daughter was a U.S. citizen. A website that catalogues personal information about public figures originally reported her nationality as “American,” before being edited to “Iranian.”  

True North has not been able to independently verify Zeinab Soleimani’s citizenship. 

Her speech came after the Iranian general and head of a powerful terrorist organization was killed in a drone strike ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump in order to prevent further attacks. 

Soleimani was killed in Iraq among other targets involved in organizing and supporting terror groups like Hezbollah. Iran’s terrorist proxies have been responsible for the deaths of numerous Canadian and American soldiers, as well as waged wars that have led to the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians throughout the Middle East. 

Prior to Soleimani’s death, he ordered an attack against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad that resulted in the death of an American contractor. 

At Soleimani’s funeral, crowds of people were chanting anti-Western slogans, including “death to the USA” and “death to Israel.” 

The conflict between Iran and the U.S. has continued to escalate since Soleimani’s killing, with Donald Trump tweeting that he would retaliate if any Americans or American assets were harmed in the region. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau only addressed the situation recently after returning from a three-week long vacation in Costa Rica. Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne called on both sides to “exercise restraint” in the first official statement from the Liberal government since the strike took place. 

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination directed Canada to stop constructing three energy and resource projects, including the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline. 

18 members of the committee claimed that Canada did not get proper consent from Indigenous groups to construct the pipeline, as well as the Site C dam and the Coastal GasLink pipeline. 

The TMX pipeline has been the target of attacks by activist groups despite overwhelming support among Canadians as well as First Nations. 

Over 100 First Nations have been involved in talks with the federal government to secure ownership of the TMX pipeline. 

The Indian Resource Council (IRC) is hoping that if negotiations are successful, indigenous people will be able to own and operate the pipeline completely. 

A number of First Nations along the pipeline’s route have signed agreements with the government in support of the construction, while a few are holding out over fears of spills and treaty rights. 

A majority of Canadians also support the construction of pipelines in Canada, according to a December 2019 Nanos poll. 

The poll found that three in five are in favour of or somewhat in favour of constructing new pipelines. According to the responses, 42% of Canadians supporter new pipeline projects, while 23% somewhat supported them. The poll also found that only 30% of people somewhat opposed new pipelines. 

Construction on the TMX pipeline began late last year and is expected to continue into 2020.

It doesn’t.