Canada

TORONTO -- Ten per cent of Canadians surveyed in a new poll say they typically contribute the maximum amount to their Tax-Free Savings Account and will now invest $10,000.

The poll done for CIBC found an additional 17 per cent said they will try to increase their contributions above $5,500.

The federal government increased the annual contribution limit to $10,000 as part of the budget this year.

However, the poll also found that roughly 34 per cent of respondents said they either didn't have the money to take advantage of the new $10,000 limit or had other investment plans.

Breaking the figure down, 18 per cent of those surveyed said they would probably contribute less than the old limit of $5,500, while 12 per cent said they would not have enough savings this year to make a contribution. Four per cent said they would contribute to other saving plans.

Twenty per cent of those responding did not have a TFSA account and had no plans to open one, while seven per cent said they were now looking into opening one. Another 10 per cent said they didn't know, while two per cent were categorized as other.

The online survey was conducted between April 30 and May 4, less two weeks after the federal budget announcement. It included 3,011 Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists.

"It's encouraging to see Canadians are well aware of the increased TFSA limit and that some are focused on increasing their contribution, though not everyone is able to,'' said CIBC senior vice-president Veni Iozzo.

"Awareness and intentions don't always translate into action, which is why creating a savings plan and following it is so important.''

Tax-free savings accounts were started in 2009 and allow Canadians to invest their money and not pay any tax on their gains.

The increase in the TFSA contribution limits was promised by the Tories in the last election. As part of the increase, however, the limit will no longer increase with inflation.

The polling industry's professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.

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OTTAWA - Conservative MP Michael Chong is expected to get a rough ride from some of his own caucus colleagues as he promotes his reform act at a Senate committee today.

The act is billed as a way to rebalance power between members of Parliament and party leaders.

But Conservative Sen. David Wells, a member of the Senate rules committee, is accusing Chong of "torquing" a bill that is actually bad for democracy.

Wells' main beef with the bill is a section that would allow MPs in a caucus to trigger a leadership vote, and then to potentially vote to eject the leader. Other Conservative and Liberal senators have also expressed concerns.

Chong watered down the bill when it was going through the Commons earlier this year, so that after an election each party could decide on the percentage of signatures needed to trigger a vote or whether to even have such rules in the first place.

But Wells says it's inappropriate for MPs to overturn decisions made by party members and of the larger public who select leaders.

"We celebrate that millions exercise their democratic right in our electoral system to choose which party — and therefore leader, governs," Wells wrote in an open letter.

"To dismiss the will of the grassroots and the electorate under the cloak of 'reform' by a small cabal of disgruntled is an affront to democracy."

The private member's bill would also allow MPs the power to suspend and readmit fellow caucus members, and to select a caucus chairman.

Finally, it would also remove the leader's veto power over election candidates in the Canada Elections Act.

Chong has warned that any amendments brought forward at the Senate level would essentially kill his bill, since there remains so little time for it to get through the legislative process before Parliament recesses for the summer and for the election.

He has also been critical of senators who have challenged the legislation, reminding them that the bill was passed by a vast majority of MPs from the three major parties.

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They look like the family that has it all. Louise Edgerton, her partner, John Camus, and her 10-year-old daughter, Fianna, joke around while making brownies. They move around with ease in the gleaming white kitchen of the new dream home they designed themselves.

But for Edgerton, one financial setback could change everything. "I am discouraged, because I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a little bit of a house of cards that could fall down at any time," she says.

The family is house poor, or as Edgerton puts it, "house rich and cash poor." They live in Lachute, Que., about an hour outside of Montreal, far from the housing hot zones of Toronto and Vancouver.

Edgerton estimates she and Camus spend 43 per cent of their combined income paying down their $418,000 mortgage and covering other fixed housing expenses. Once they pay the rest of the bills and buy groceries, "there is nothing left," she explains. She describes their existence as living "hand to mouth."

'Nobody talks about it'

Edgerton says she knows they're not alone. "I don't feel we are the only couple who are in debt and wondering how the hell we will get out of this."

"It's the dirty little secret," she concludes. "Nobody talks about it."

With skyrocketing house prices in some regions and the lure of ultra-low interest rates, more Canadians are living closer to the edge. But, naturally, many don't want to talk about their own house of cards.

"There definitely is a lot more going on than we see," says Laurie Campbell, CEO of Credit Canada Debt Solutions.

"Add the cost of running a vehicle to the cost of having a mortgage, the cost of raising a family [and] a lot of people are struggling. It could be your next door neighbour, it could be somebody at work, it could be one of your family members and you know nothing about it."

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians' debt-to-income ratio in the fourth quarter of 2014 was at an all-time high of 163 per cent. That means for every dollar of disposable income in a typical year, Canadians carry $1.63 of debt.

Living on the edge

Campbell says that many, like Edgerton and Camus, are surviving now, but the big question is what happens if there's an unplanned setback — from a job loss to a rise in interest rates.

"It worries me immensely that so many of us have allowed ourselves to live on the edge like this and not realize what happens should something out of daily life take a different turn," she says.

Unexpected turns are exactly what drove Edgerton and Camus this close to the edge.

Last year, just a week after they signed the deal to start building their house, Camus lost his sales job at a construction company. Then, the day before they moved in, their contractor handed them a surprise $27,000 bill for extra costs. The couple were forced to tap into their line of credit to pay for it.

So far, they've managed. Edgerton still runs her own website design company. Camus recently found a new, largely commission-based sales job at a car dealership. "I feel we can handle what we are dealing with right now," he says.

The tipping point

The two also say they live frugally, cutting out the extras and halting contributions to their retirement fund and an RESP for Fianna. But Edgerton's main concern is what happens if there's another financial emergency. "Should any bad luck happen, we are going to be in trouble," she believes.

If enough people living house poor reach their own tipping point, it could affect the value of the housing market, says Campbell.

"If the housing market goes down and those individuals have to sell, we're going to see a lot of houses on the market, which will further reduce the house market in general," says the debt counsellor.

Some housing experts say there's no need to panic. Yesterday, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported that the country's housing markets, overall, will remain stable, though they may slow down over the next two years.

Hanging on to the Canadian dream

Camus is also sanguine about his own situation. He believes he and Edgerton won't get to the point where they have to sell their home.

With his new job, he expects his financial situation will improve. "I don't share the same stress levels [as Louise], because I do think our situation will get better."

He adds, "Owning a home is a question of pride for me."

Canada has among the highest home ownership rates in the world; owning a home is one of the ultimate Canadian dreams. And it's perhaps why so many people choose to live house poor rather than sell their home. And it's probably why some people, no matter what their circumstances, won't give up their home without a fight.

"I want to say, no matter what happens, we'll just deal. That's what we've always done. But, you know, how long can we keep that up?" asks Edgerton.

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Like humans, chimpanzees possess reason, language and emotions. They feel despair, joy and fear. Our DNA differs from theirs by just over one per cent.

The similarities are so profound, according to some legal activists and scientists, that chimps should be recognized under the law as "non-human persons."

The same goes for elephants, orcas and even the African grey parrot, according to some legal interpretations making the rounds.

That would mean no more zoos, labs or being kept as pets.

They would have legal status similar to that of children — no longer "mere 'things,' which lack the capacity to possess any legal right," in the words of the Nonhuman Rights Project, a group that has recently been fighting in court to win the freedom of four chimps in New York state.

The NRP made headlines last month when a judge, seemingly in error, granted a writ of habeas corpus to two chimps the group has been trying to spring from a lab at Stony Brook University.

The writ — a legal bombshell that appeared to confer personhood on both animals — was quickly amended.

The judge crossed out the powerful legal phrase, but, however inadvertently, she seems to have set some wheels in motion. The case will be back in court on May 27.

The case is "probably the most progressive or advanced approach to dealing with this issue," says George Dvorsky, a Toronto-based science writer and ethicist. "The rubber has only hit the road in the last couple of years."

Fertile ground

The U.S. is fertile ground for these sorts of legal arguments, legal experts say; New York in particular as the state is among those that, for example, allows pets to be the beneficiaries of trusts.

That gives them a legal leg up that animals don't enjoy everywhere.

Other jurisdictions, though, are moving in this direction as well.

Germany amended its constitution to grant animals certain rights in 2002, and the Balearic Islands, an autonomous region of Spain, granted personhood to great apes in 2007.

India's ministry of forests and environment opined in 2013 that dolphins and whales should be treated as non-human persons and, last year, a judge in Argentina appeared to grant personhood to an orangutan, though observers say the full interpretation of that case has yet to be worked out.

'Their status is evolving'

Nothing so dramatic has happened in Canada, but recent rulings could lay the groundwork for pro-personhood cases, according to B.C.-based animal rights lawyer Rebeka Breder.

"Courts across the country are starting to recognize, even though animals are technically property, that they're also something a little bit more than property," she says.

"They're somewhere between furniture and a person."

An Alberta court last year said pets are "not simply chattels" when it sided with a woman in a dispute with her condo board over her two cats.

"Animals might not yet have rights in the conventional sense ... but the very least that can be said is that their status is evolving," wrote judge W.S. Schlosser.

"Their status remains … a grey area, and a large one at that."

Schlosser's ruling, which was upheld on appeal, nodded to the earlier case of Lucy, the elephant at Edmonton's Valley Zoo that activists tried to relocate to a sanctuary in 2011.

A lower court turned the case away. But in a lengthy dissenting opinion, Chief Justice of Alberta Catherine Fraser appeared to acknowledge the changing legal attitudes towards animals.

She concluded that the activists and, by extension, Lucy were "entitled to their day in court."

Adapting and expanding

Fraser's dissent was "a glimmer of hope" says Camille Labchuk, director of legal advocacy for the group Animal Justice. She says she's optimistic Canada's courts will one day accommodate more daring arguments like those of the NRP.

"The beauty of common law is it's capable of adapting and expanding to new societal realities," Labchuk says.

But even ardent proponents agree the process will be slow and fraught with resistance from both courts and the public.

Breder notes that it took a long time, for example, before women won recognition as legal persons in Canada. But the law eventually "caught up with … the societal uproar," she says.

"I'm optimistic that the law here in Canada will get to the point that it recognizes animals, and especially certain kinds of animals, should be deserving of legal status."

"If we can do it for corporations" — which are persons under the law — "there's no reason why a sentient living being can't be considered a person."

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NEW YORK, N.Y. - Charter Communications is buying Time Warner Cable for $55.33 billion, creating another U.S. TV and Internet giant.

And executives say they're confident regulators will allow it.

The deal comes a month after Comcast, the country's largest cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, walked away from a $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 cable company, after intense pressure from regulators. Time Warner Cable had chosen the Comcast deal and rejected a $38 billion hostile offer from Charter in early 2014.

There has been a wave in consolidation in the cable industry as providers are starting to lose TV subscribers, costs for TV, sports and movies rise and pressure from online video services such as Netflix and Hulu increases.

John Malone's Liberty Broadcast Corp., which owns more than a quarter of Charter's stock, is backing the acquisition, which puts Charter in the same league as Comcast. Liberty Broadband is expected to own about 20 per cent of the new Charter, which will also include Bright House Networks, a smaller cable provider Charter said Tuesday it is buying for $10.4 billion.

Charter, combined with Time Warner Cable and Bright House, will have nearly 24 million customers, compared with Comcast's 27.2 million. It also lags AT&T, whose pending deal with DirecTV would give it 26.4 million TV customers and 16.1 million fixed Internet customers as well as tens of millions of wireless customers.

Whether government regulators will approve the Charter deal after quashing Comcast's bid for Time Warner Cable remains to be seen. The Comcast deal would have given it more than half of the country's high-speed Internet subscribers, which the government feared would give it the power to undermine online video competitors.

Charter will have less than 30 per cent of those fast-broadband customers, the company said Tuesday.

"We're a very different company from Comcast and this is a very different transaction," said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge on a conference call Tuesday. "We're confident it's going to get done," said Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus.

In a statement Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said that the FCC weighs every merger on its own to see if it will be in the public interest, and that "an absence of harm is not sufficient." He said the FCC "will look to see how American consumers would benefit" from the deal.

"One has to be sober about genuine risks that this deal could still be rejected," said MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett in a research note Tuesday, given the number of Internet and TV subscribers involved.

The deal comes with a $2 billion break-up fee if it doesn't go through. If regulators don't approve it, Charter would pay Time Warner Cable; if Time Warner Cable kills the deal and goes with another buyer, it'll pay.

Charter Communications Inc., based in Stamford, Connecticut, will provide $100 in cash and shares of a new public parent company equal to 0.5409 shares of Charter for each outstanding Time Warner Cable Inc. share. The transaction values each Time Warner Cable share at about $195.71.

The companies on Tuesday valued New York-based Time Warner Cable at a total of $78.7 billion, including debt.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

___

Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tali Arbel at https://twitter.com/tarbel

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Toronto's chief medical officer of health wants to pull the city's bars out from under a haze of hookah smoke.

Dr. David McKeown has recommended that the city ban the use of the devices in licensed establishments starting Oct. 1.

"Using a hookah to smoke any substance poses health risks, such as heart and lung diseases, lung cancer and other respiratory problems to users and those exposed to second-hand smoke, including employees," McKeown said in a statement from Toronto Public Health (TPH).

"Hookah smoking is on the rise among young people, who often mistakenly believe it is a safe form of smoking."

Hookahs, or waterpipes, use charcoal to heat up moist tobacco or non-tobacco products known as shisha. They create smoke which is then cooled off by water before users breathe it in through a pipe.

In recommending a ban, TPH cited a 2014 report to the city's Board of Health which pointed out that "hookah use of any substance could have negative consequences for health, especially for workers in establishments that allow hookah use."

As part of that report, TPH noted a 2013 air monitoring study by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) at 17 hookah cafes throughout the city.

It found "concerning levels of PM2.5 (fine air pollutant particles) and carbon monoxide (CO)."

The OTRU's research also found elevated levels of nicotine in indoor hookah bars, which suggested that tobacco was being smoked despite the Smoke-Free Ontario Act (SFOA), which bans smoking in workplaces and enclosed public places. The act doesn't ban smoking shisha indoors.

The TPH report said that hookah smoking has been linked to conditions such as heart disease, carbon monoxide poisoning and lung cancer.

If the ban passes, it could affect at least 60 businesses that offer hookah use throughout the city, TPH said.

A study published in medical journal Pediatrics last year found that almost one in five U.S. students had tried hookah in the previous 12 months.

A separate study, by the National Institutes of Health, noted that one hookah session can produce 6.5 times the carbon monoxide, 1.7 times the nicotine and 46.4 times the tar that a single cigarette can.

Real Clear Science blogger Alex Berezow compared it to "smoking 10 to 40 cigarettes in a single sitting, and then kissing everybody as well."

Toronto's proposed hookah ban is set to be considered by Toronto's Board of Health on June 1.

It's not the only city that has looked at banning the devices.

The City of Vancouver prohibits smoking in businesses and common areas (including hookahs) and its bylaw has stood up against a legal challenge by hookah shop owners.

One of the owners has gone on a hunger strike as the city looks to shut down his shop.

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Sean O'Brien finally got to dance to his heart's content.

The 46-year-old British man's story went viral after a user posted photos of him on 4Chan in March, fat-shaming him for dancing in public.

"Spotted his specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing," the anonymous user wrote.

Thanks to the Internet, he's the one laughing now. Writer Cassandra Fairbanks launched a Twitter campaign to find O'Brien and throw him the dance party he deserves. This past weekend, she did just that.

O'Brien, who the Internet dubbed "Dancing man," was flown to L.A. and received a star-studded party, after funds were raised through a GoFundMe page. The event was attended by famous supporters such as Monica Lewinsky and Andrew WK, and featured a special message from Pharrell Williams, reports Yahoo. The party also raised funds for anti-bullying charities.

We love you Sean! @CassandraRules @DanceFreeMvmt @Dancingmanfound @JM_Couture #dancefree #iamdancingman #jmcouture pic.twitter.com/NqlDMyRksg
— Katy Dolle (@katydolle) May 24, 2015

@Dancingmanfound @Dom_OBrien06 @CassandraRules that L.A. life tho #dancingman #dancefree pic.twitter.com/67Ot3jYZBY
— Mile High Joe (@MileHighJoe1) May 24, 2015

The Londoner clearly had a great time. He took the stage to thank everyone for their support, and called the entire experience "overwhelming."

"I will wake up in the morning and think, 'Did that really happen?'" he told The Daily Mail.

The day after the party, O'Brien was also invited to throw the first pitch at an L.A. Dodgers' game.

A perfect ending, we think.

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The Muppets have been around for 60 years and are still as popular as ever! But while you may think you’re an expert in all-things Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, we bet you never knew these 11 Muppet facts below.

1) “The Muppet Show” is actually British.

Creator Jim Henson made two pilot episodes in 1974 and 1975, but neither were picked up by an American TV network. British company ATV then approached Henson to produce the show for their studios in London. He agreed and the series aired for five seasons. The show was later sold to the U.S. in a syndication deal.

2) The very first Kermit the Frog was made from an old coat that belonged to Henson’s mother.

kermit

He cut a ping pong ball in half to make Kermit's eyes.

3) Rowlf the Dog was the first Muppet to achieve national stardom.

Rowlf first appeared in a Purina Dog Chow commercial in 1962. He was then a regular cast member on “The Jimmy Dean Show” from 1963 to 1966, which is where he gained his fame.

4) Miss Piggy has appeared on the cover of six magazines.

Her most notable covers include People Magazine, TV Guide, and Life. The prima-donna is also a New York Times’ bestselling author. Her advice book, “Miss Piggy's Guide to Life,” was on the New York Times bestseller list for 29 weeks in 1981!

5) Howie Mandel was the voice of Animal in “Muppet Babies.”

The Canadian comedian voiced the character for two seasons from 1984 to 1985 and was also the voice of Skeeter and Bunsen.

6) Almost all Muppets are left-handed.

jim henson

Since most puppeteers are right handed, their Muppets are left-handed. This is because puppeteers use their dominant hand to control their character’s head and mouth and their other hand to operate the puppet’s hand and arms.

7) Scooter’s uncle owns the Muppet Theater.

In one of the first episodes of “The Muppet Show,” Scooter reveals that his uncle, J.P. Grosse, owns the theatre. As a result, Kermit agrees to hire Scooter as his go-fer (as in “go-fer coffee, go-fer sandwiches”).

8) Kermit wasn’t the original star of “The Muppet Show.”

kermit the frog

In both pilots, Kermit appeared as a secondary character. Wally, a groovy fellow sporting shades, only appeared in the first pilot and was replaced by Nigel, the orchestra conductor in the second. Unfortunately, Nigel lacked charisma and was deemed “too wimpy,” so he was demoted to a secondary character and Kermit got the gig.

9) Animal was inspired by Keith Moon of The Who.

10) Kermit the Frog’s two puppeteers have the same birthday.

Kermit was played by Henson until he passed away in May 1990. Since then, Steve Whitmire has voiced the fun-loving character. Both puppeteers are born on September 24.

11) Henson invented the word “Muppet.”

The term is often thought to be a mashup of the words “marionette” and “puppet,” but in actuality, Henson simply liked the sound of the word and used it to distinguish his own creations from other puppeteers. Henson reportedly created over 2,000 Muppets in his lifetime.

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The idea of placing climate change warning labels on gas pumps is beginning to pick up steam, with several Canadian city councils moving forward with motions to study the proposal, but it’s being met with stiff resistance from gas retailers.

Over the past few months, cities from West Vancouver to Guelph, Ont., to Moncton, N.B., have passed resolutions supporting the idea of warning labels on gas pumps. Already, questions have come up over whether cities have the right to mandate these labels, and observers are speculating about the possibility of lawsuits.

climate change warning label

A proposed climate-change warning label for gas pumps, produced by activist group Our Horizon.

And while industry groups say they support the goal of combatting climate change, they are aggressively moving to protect gasoline’s image, especially from being linked to another product that has been slapped with warning labels — tobacco.

In a letter to Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc, the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association said it found it “disturbing” that gasoline is being equated with smoking.

“Until some viable alternative energy is developed, fossil fuels will be a critical economic and societal necessity. The same cannot be said for tobacco products,” the letter read.

Gas retailers are also wondering why — in their view — they’ve been singled out for attention.

“Perhaps every home, business and public institution consuming energy linked to fossil fuels for heat, power or air conditioning … should be required to have a climate-change warning label on the front door,” a spokesman for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA) told the National Post.

But for Rob Shirkey, a former Toronto lawyer, occasional Huffington Post blogger and founder of the Canadian campaign for labels on gas pumps, the target isn’t gas retailers — it’s consumers.

"A lot of activists will vilify industry and say it's a problem with the oilsands, it's a problem with pipelines," Shirkey, who founded the campaign group Our Horizon in 2013, recently told Vice magazine.

"My thinking is, though, that the only reason any of that exists is because I use the product [and] there's a market for it. So if you actually want to address this issue, you have to address the demand side of the equation."

While he concedes a warning label alone won’t solve the problem, Shirkey points to studies showing that tobacco warning labels, especially when accompanied by images, have had an impact in reducing smoking rates.

The questions remains whether municipalities have the power to “address the demand side of the equation” through warning labels.

For gas retail groups, it’s also a question of cost. In an interview with CBC, CCSA president Alex Scholten estimated it would cost gas retailers about $30 each for the nozzle sleeves needed to put a message on a gas pump.

“So if you're dealing with a retail gas station that has eight pumps, you're talking about $240,” he said.

Shirkey sees that as a minor cost.

“It’s just a sticker. It’s low-cost. It’s compelling,” he told the Post. “It’s the world’s lowest cost to climate-change intervention.”

But the CCSA has already suggested gas pump warnings could be the target of a lawsuit if cities go ahead with it.

In the U.S., where Berkeley, Calif., is one of a handful of cities moving forward with climate change warning labels, the city has acknowledged it could face a lawsuit from the Western States Petroleum Association, or other groups. That group has called gas pump labels “the type of forced speech that the United States Supreme Court has ruled is absolutely unconstitutional."

In Canada, cities will likely look for legal cover by pushing higher levels of government to create legislation allowing the labels.

“What we really need to do is get it mandated by the province and federal government,” said Michael Smith, mayor of the city of West Vancouver, which has passed a motion to bring the labels idea to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

“The issue is, I don’t think we really have the legal right to insist that west Vancouver service stations put those labels on,” Smith told the Post.

But Smith himself demonstrates that, at least on some scale, the idea is likely to go forward. The owner of several commercial car lots, he hopes to have warning labels on his own gas pumps by summer, the Post reports.

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HAMILTON - Premier Kathleen Wynne says that once this "difficult" round of negotiations with teachers is over, she's open to making changes to the process.

The Liberal government introduced back-to-work legislation Monday for high school teachers on strike in the regions of Peel, Durham and the Sudbury-area Rainbow District.

They had hoped to get it passed in just one day with unanimous consent of all parties, but the NDP did not agree, so it will go to second reading debate after 3 p.m. today.

It comes as there are rumblings of a potential provincewide high school teachers' strike in the fall, following an application for conciliation by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, and elementary teachers are on a work-to-rule campaign.

This is the first round of negotiations to formally separate local and central bargaining under legislation the Liberal government brought in last year.

While Wynne says it was necessary to have a process like that, she would consider looking at changes.

"Right now we're in a difficult negotiation because we're operating in a net zero environment where there isn't new money for compensation and at the same time we are using this new process," she said Tuesday in Hamilton.

"If there are changes we need to make to the process once we're through this, then we can look at that."

The Ontario Labour Relations Board is considering an application from the Durham, Rainbow and Peel school boards on the legality of the strikes. While the decision will come too late to be of any effect in the three local strikes — with back-to-work legislation already going through — Education Minister Liz Sandals has said the ruling will still be of interest during a planned review of the new School Boards' Collective Bargaining Act.

The legislation was intended to bring clarity to labour negotiations, but it came under fire at the labour board as not clear enough in some areas.

Lawyers for the three school boards argued that although the law doesn't explicitly ban teachers from staging local strikes on provincial issues, that's what it was meant to do. The school boards claim the teachers and their union have been largely protesting about class sizes, which is a central issue, and in the boards' opinion, the act prevents local strikes on central issues.

Sandals has also said she would "certainly" consider, during the planned review of the legislation, amending it to specify that unions must divulge the type of strike they're planning.

Following the letter of the law, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario provided more than five days' notice before their work-to-rule campaign that began Monday, May 11, but refused until the following Friday at 2 p.m. to say it would be an administrative strike, with parents worried for days that there would be a full withdrawal of services.

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It's called comfort food for a reason; whether you are sad, mad, stressed or simply tired, eating your favourite fatty foods can make you feel good — but only for a short time.

In the video above by Ivanhoe, we look at six foods that relieve stress naturally and won't leave your feeling guilty tomorrow. Unlike the sugary sweets and simple carbs you crave while emotionally eating, these foods not only release mood-boosting serotonin, but some of them also lower cortisol levels and boost your immunity.

Researchers at the Harvard Medical School say prolonged stress releases cortisol into the bloodstream, causing people to overeat and gain weight.

But some doctors also say it's OK to emotionally eat every now and then, CNN reports. Giving into the occasional craving can might make you feel better than trying to walk it off, but indulging too often can cause some serious problems too.

So if you're having a hard time saying no to a sundae when you're sad, try these tips to help you regain control.

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OTTAWA - The Senate has appointed former Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie as a special arbitrator to look at questionable expense claims flagged by the auditor general.

Senate Speaker Leo Housakos says Binnie will be called in if senators challenge the findings or the amount of repayment demanded.

Auditor general Michael Ferguson has been looking at all Senate expense claims and is expected to refer some cases to police.

His report is to be delivered to the Senate in the first week of June.

Housakos says all of Binnie's decisions will be made public.

Binnie says it will be an independent, fair and impartial process.

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TORONTO - Bank of Montreal says profits dropped seven per cent in its second quarter, as it logged a $106-million charge for restructuring some of its operations.

The bank says earnings were $999 million, or $1.49 per share, for the period, down from $1.08 billion or $1.60 per share a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, net income amounted to $1.71 per share, beating analyst expectations of $1.66 per share, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenues climbed to $4.5 billion compared from $4.4 billion a year ago.

In its personal and commercial banking division, BMO posted an adjusted earnings increase of eight per cent to $706 million.

The bank is also raising its quarterly dividend to 82 cents from 80 cents.

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TORONTO - Shomi will soon be available for all TV binge watchers across the country.

The streaming video platform from Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) and Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) says it's opening the service to all Internet users, regardless of which TV provider they use.

The move comes after Shomi launched last November as an exclusive service offered to Rogers and Shaw cable TV and Internet customers.

Starting this summer, Shomi will be made available to cable and non-cable customers alike for $8.99.

The service can be streamed on tablet, mobile, online, and to televisions via Xbox 360, Apple TV and Chromecast. Rogers and Shaw TV subscribers can access content through their set-top boxes.

Shomi's Canadian exclusives include the buzzy series "Transparent," "Mozart in the Jungle," and "Catastrophe" as well as past seasons of "Modern Family," "The Americans" and "Sons of Anarchy."

Netflix has been the dominant subscription video service in Canada since it launched here five years ago. Last fall, Shomi entered the market alongside CraveTV, a similar service operated by Bell Media (TSX:BCE) that's available only to Bell customers and its various telecom partners.

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MONTREAL - A former Conservative candidate and longtime Montreal city councillor has entered guilty pleas to breach of trust and corruption charges.

Saulie Zajdel won't serve any time in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to two of the five charges he faced stemming from land deals in a borough where he was an elected official.

Zajdel was given an 18-month suspended sentence and must perform 240 hours of community service during that period. He also has to donate $10,000 to various goups.

Zajdel was involved in federal politics as the Tory candidate in the Montreal riding of Mount Royal in 2011, losing to Liberal Irwin Cotler.

He was subsequently hired by then-heritage minister James Moore to work as an "ethnic outreach officer" but Cotler referred to him as a "shadow MP."

Zajdel quit his federal post in 2012.

He was arrested alongside former interim Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum and another senior borough official in 2013.

That official, Jean-Yves Bisson, pleaded guilty last week and was sentenced.

Applebaum's preliminary hearing begins Monday.

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VATICAN CITY, Italy - Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard has invited Pope Francis to Montreal to attend the city's 375th-anniversary celebrations in 2017.

Couillard had a 45-second conversation with the pontiff at the Vatican today.

His invitation follows a similar initiative from Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre last February.

Couillard reminded the Pope of Quebecers' deep Christian roots.

It isn't clear when the leader of the Roman Catholic Church will reply.

Couillard, who is on a four-day trip to Italy and France, pegged the chances of the Pope coming to Montreal at 50-50.

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The body positive movement has been picking up real steam lately, and if the Internet has anything to say about it, it won't be stopping soon.

Enter #ThickGirlAppreciationDay, the latest trend sweeping the web. On Tuesday, Twitter was filled with people using the hashtag, posting images with body positive messages, shutting down fat-shamers, and as Cosmo puts it, "generally winning at life."

Just check out some of the awesome body-loving snaps below:

more #ThickGirlAppreciationDay only bc I got new jeans and looked A1 in them ✨✨✨ pic.twitter.com/LAxxh7X4zz
— ✨ yung lipstick ✨ (@BorelMakenzie) May 27, 2015

killing it #thickgirlappreciationday pic.twitter.com/zFbEbGd99q
— jaimie (@irrelevantgatto) May 26, 2015

#ThickGirlAppreciationDay #mintswim (excuse the clothes, we were in PC lmao) pic.twitter.com/D2YXRR75OQ
— Amani Chambers (@TiaaBrown_) May 26, 2015

When you heard its #ThickGirlAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/iF6uBBqTAo
— Bri † (@Samoneeeb_) May 26, 2015

#thickgirlappreciationday I count http://t.co/Rlb69iiRmM pic.twitter.com/zguleRMDws
— powerwashed. (@MalahBOOYOW) May 26, 2015

Supa #ThickGirlAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/KRV2GrUjWK
— Romè (@RomiiRae) May 26, 2015

#ThickGirlAppreciationDay I embrace all my thickness!! I love it!! pic.twitter.com/HlIogsm1y7
— Beyoncé AF™. (@jiggarella_) May 26, 2015

#ThickGirlAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/7jAGdaRI5Z
— Petty La Flare (@p_slickk) May 26, 2015

#ThickGirlAppreciationDay I LOVE DAMN MYSELF INSIDE AND OUT. LOVE YOURSELF AND THE SKIN YOUR IN XOXO #bodyposi pic.twitter.com/usMlsj45Jo
— meg (@mcnuggetjpg) May 27, 2015

YAAASSSS QUEENS!

These women are so awesome, and we love their pride and confidence in their bodies. They are proof that all bodies are beautiful, despite what hateful shamers might say.

Keep on doing you, ladies!

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Nail salon workers aren't the only ones facing serious health problems due to working conditions -- hair stylists are also putting themselves at risk to make us look more beautiful.

Following the New York Times' investigative series uncovering the exploitation occurring in NYC nail salons, reports have revealed hairstylists are also struggling with long working hours under hazardous conditions, which may lead to long-term health risks, all for very little pay.

Alexandera Scranton, director of science and research at Women's Voices for the Earth, told HuffPost Live "up to 60 to 70 per cent of salon workers reported dermatitis on their hands and respiratory conditions like asthma and decrease in lung function," mostly due to chemical overexposure in hair salons from keratin straightening treatments, perms and bleach.

One hairstylist, Cassi Hurd, told HuffPost Live she often experiences "coughing attacks" when she mixes hair colour or bleach. She also touched on the electrical hazards and poor working conditions she faced from working as an independent contractor.

"When you do production hairstyles, sometimes they're sticking you in warehouses that have maybe or maybe not been approved to have people working in them at all," she said. "It's not always the most professional or proper spot for that."

And to make matters worse, ThinkProgress reported that hairdressers are more likely to die from Alzheimer's disease, presenile dementia and motor neuron disease. Plus, women working in hair salons are also more likely to have miscarriages or children with cleft palates.

Another concerning revelation is that African-American hairdressers are most at risk, as many treatments include working with harsh chemicals. Teni Adewumi, an environmental justice research coordinator for Black Women for Wellness, revealed findings from an upcoming report showing that stylists suffer from higher risks of certain types of cancer, immune disorders, uterine fibroids and even miscarriages.

"My friends 20 years in the industry, girl, my friends don't have fingerprints anymore . . . my friends can't go to the [RTA] and put the hand down and have fingerprints anymore," one participant said (in a focus group session held in 2014), according to Black Women for Wellness.

And hairdressers aren't the only ones at risk -- we, the clients, are as well. Even if you choose not to use bleach, ammonia and formaldehyde on your hair, these dangerous toxins are lingering in the air at salons. Here's hoping these reports will help spark safer regulations in the beauty industry.

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Deborah Drever, the rookie Alberta legislature member who was suspended from the NDP caucus last week by Premier Rachel Notley, has apologized for a "problematic" photo posted to her Instagram account, but says she won't quit her job.

In a post to Facebook Tuesday, Drever said she has "taken much time to think and reflect on the events of the past few weeks,"

Drever was suspended after a picture began taken from her Instagram account began circulating on social media.

The photo showed former Premier Jim Prentice and former cabinet minister Ric McIver, with Drever's comment, "Gay boyz," beneath.

NDP boots Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever over latest social media gaffe: http://t.co/r4WrmqgQel #yyc #ableg pic.twitter.com/aRJeDA3s0W
— Calgary Sun (@calgarysun) May 22, 2015

"My flippant attempt at humour backfired and I sincerely apologize to my constituents and to all Albertans for that," said Drever.

"I want to stress in the strongest possible terms that my comment was never intended to convey an insult to LGBTQI people. I also want to make it perfectly clear that I know now that my intent doesn't matter. When it comes to discriminatory language or actions, intent is irrelevant when it causes harm to another person or persons."

I have taken much time to think and reflect on the events of the past few weeks. I would like to acknowledge certain...
Posted by Deborah Drever on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Drever, a 26-year-old student at Mount Royal University, said she posted the photo almost a year before she decided to run in the May 5 election.

Her suspension came just days after Notley, who appeared ready to forgive her, spoke with Drever about several other controversial photos that had surfaced in previous weeks. Notley gave her homework, saying it was up to Drever to come up with a plan to educate people about violence against women.

One photo showed Drever Being restrained against a fence by several men, pretending to be assaulted with a bottle for a garage band album cover.

deborah drever album

A Facebook photo showed Drever at age 19 and in dark glasses, hamming it up beside a marijuana T-shirt.

deborah drever pot leaf

Still another showed a disembodied hand, not Drever's, giving the middle finger to the Canadian flag.

deborah drever flag

In her apology, Drever said she will stay on as an independent member of legislature for Calgary-Bow, and holds hope Premier Notley will one day invite her back into the folds of the NDP caucus.

"I know that I have a tremendous opportunity to serve as a role model for young people and I plan to do just that. In the coming weeks, I am focused on meeting with constituents and with equal rights organizations."

Notley will review Drever's status with the NDP party after a year.

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Leo and Ruth Zanger’s family is so big, they could start their own town.

Seriously.

The couple from western Illinois recently welcomed their 100th grandchild. Jaxton Leo was born to grandson Austin and his wife Ashleigh on April 8.

“The good Lord has just kept sending them,” Leo told The Quincy Herald-Whig. Ruth added, “There’s always room for one more.”

Married for 56 years, the couple have 12 children of their own. Linda is the eldest at 58 and Joe is the youngest at 31.

Joe already had 10 nieces and nephews by the time he was born in 1984.

Leo and Ruth Zanger. Photo: Leo Zanger/Facebook

The Zanger family. Photo: Leo Zanger/Facebook

Most of the family lives in the Quincy area, which makes for easy hiring when it comes to recruiting workers for the family realty business.

Leo is the managing broker and owner of Zanger & Associates in Quincy where several of his kids and grandkids work.

The Zangers are a tight-knit family, so when it comes to get-togethers, a church hall has to be rented out to accommodate everyone.

As for food, The Associate Press reports it takes about 10 turkeys or 50 pounds of ham to keep the entire Zanger flock stuffed.

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