Most of us probably don’t really believe in horoscopes, but a good chunk of us read them anyway. Even if the descriptions don't always fit the bill, there’s usually enough truth in the characteristics listed for each of the Zodiac signs to somewhat relate it to your life.
Whether you think personality is set by genetics, experiences, or the position of the stars and planets at the exact second of your birth, there’s no harm in having some fun with horoscopes — particularly if it means you might also have some fun in the bedroom, says Vanessa Marin, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in sex.
These sex tips make no promises of astrological accuracy, but we do think the suggestions below can give you new ideas for spicing up your sex life.
Check out the tips by Marin below and have fun exploring!
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Note to police officers everywhere: Don't be this guy.
An Edmonton officer has been handed a ticket, and shamed widely on social media, after he decided it was OK leave his vehicle parked horizontally across a handicap parking stall earlier this week.
The officer, a 10-year veteran of the force, had stopped for a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons, while in the middle of transporting equipment in a trailer hitched to the back of a police SUV, Insp. Gary Godziuk told reporters.
Shaun McLeod spotted the vehicle Monday, and posted a photo of the infraction to Facebook. By Tuesday, the photo was picked up on Twitter and flagged for the Edmonton Police Service.
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Many people dream of giving it all up to live on a beach or to help make the world a better place. Earl Cahill managed to do both of those things, all by the age of 36.
Cahill, a Kingston, Ont. native, is a co-owner of Nicaragua's El Coco Loco Eco-Resort, as well as the president of its associated non-profit arm, Waves of Hope. In 2009, he and friends Jamie Collum and Ben Orton opened this vacation spot near Chinandega with one goal: to simplify their lives, while at the same time, working on a project that excited them.
The trio had travelled through Guatemala together in 2004 after university, and along the way had unsurprisingly decided they wanted to stay.
"We were adventurous and having the time of our lives, but were at a point where traditional careers in the corporate and/or public sector were imminent," Cahill tells the Huffington Post Canada. "The idea of pooling all of our money in order to purchase land, build a small eco-hotel, and establish a permanent life on the beach sounded much more exciting. As we were experiencing first-hand the difficulties associated with poverty and life in the developing world, the plan of including a development project along with our business venture seemed not only like a good idea, but a responsibility."
First, however, they had to get the start-up money together. They went back home to build the capital, with Cahill working at Corrections Canada and the others in their own office jobs. They continued to make plans, reconvening to find the ideal place to build their resort a few years later, eventually purchasing almost five acres of land in the small northwestern town of El Manzano Uno. They registered Waves of Hope as a Canadian non-profit in 2008, and from the beginning, made it a priority to include the community in their planning.
"We didn't want to come in too strongly with big ideas of how we could change their lives, but instead we wanted to learn from the local people and listen to what they hoped for their community and how we could support this," explains Cahill.
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Waves of Hope, which was launched with goals that included alleviating poverty, educating the youth of the region and improving health care through initiatives like clean water, has raised over $250,000 since 2008. The organization has refurbished several elementary schools and built a high school from the ground up. Meanwhile, the resort is doing brisk business in yoga and surfing retreats, welcoming visitors from all over the world for their holidays.
For Cahill, who was the last of the co-owners to move to Nicaragua with his wife and two children, the transition from vacation to life on the beach was more difficult than he expected.
"We had gotten quite comfortable in our life in Kingston, and although trips of several weeks or even months made the transition gradual, the actual move and introduction into our new life took some courage," he recalls. "Cold-water showers, composting toilets, a steady diet of rice and beans are all regular parts of our daily life now."
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And of course, building a house on the beach in a foreign country was another challenge altogether.
"When we arrived in early August 2014, [our house] was livable, but still far from complete," he says. "We quickly realized that we must have built directly on top of a major anthill, as they seemed to be everywhere! With two small kids, keeping the floors free from crumbs and spills is nearly impossible. Ants would parade in under our doors, over our walls, and even out from our outlets. Regardless, we remained excited and continued to believe in our decisions. After all, what family home isn’t in need of a little work?"
Though their families at home seemed initially dubious about the decision (and the distance from their grandchildren), Cahill credits them with truly helping to get the idea — especially Waves of Hope — off the ground.
"It was our friends and families who early on really made Waves of Hope work," he says. "They were the ones who came out to our early fundraisers, gave their time and donated their dinero. Without that initial support we would not have been able to offer any support to our community."
And as for their own journey, Cahill doesn't regret it for one moment, anthills or not.
"In a professional sense, I left an often thankless job of watching over hundreds of federal inmates and became a vendor of wellness, offering a fun-filled, relaxing change of pace where expressions of gratitude are plentiful and most people don’t want to leave," says Cahill. "The deep connection we've been able to establish with our community through Waves of Hope also provides a strong sense of purpose and accomplishment."
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It's taken more than 10 years, but now the three families are living the life they planned out all those years ago.
"As the business and non-profit have both continued to develop and become successful, we have been able to devote more time to our families, and ourselves, and really have come to enjoy the life that we all dreamed of," says Cahill. "Ben, Jamie and I have developed a system where we all share in the administrative duties, regular maintenance and upkeep of our infrastructure, and guest relations. This allows us to start most days with our four dogs on the beach or even in the surf, catching waves."
If you know of someone committed to improving the lives of others by giving, we want to hear about it. To submit a Go Giver nomination, email canadaliving@huffingtonpost.com.
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Canada’s economy may have been in the doldrums in the early months of this year, but you’d never know it looking at Toronto’s increasingly frenzied real estate market.
The average price for a standalone home in the city was $1,115,120 in May of this year, up from $943,055 a year earlier, the result of a worsening shortage of single-family homes in the city.
“Tight market conditions, especially for singles, semis and town homes in the GTA, have resulted in strong price growth,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s director of analysis.
Prices for Toronto condos also grew, albeit at a slower pace of 5.5 per cent over the past year. The average condo in the city now costs $422,947. The average price for all homes sold reached $718,350, up about 10.1 per cent in a year.
The number of home sales in Greater Toronto hit a record 11,706 in May, up 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. Single-family home sales in the city of Toronto were actually down about 6 per cent, largely thanks to a lack of new listings.
Mercer sees “no relief so far on the listings front” for single-family homes, and he expects to see continued strength in price growth for the rest of the year.
Demand for standalone homes is so pent up in Toronto it would take “a number of months” where new listings outstrip home sales before it could be satisfied, Mercer said.
But it looks unlikely that the supply of single-family homes will increase in Toronto anytime soon. With restrictions on land development around Greater Toronto and municipal policies in place requiring higher density housing, construction of single-family homes is expected to continue declining.
Despite rising prices and strong demand, the number of single-family homes built in Toronto this year, will drop by 13 per cent compared to last year, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said in a recent study.
Of 32,400 housing starts forecast for the city this year, only 7,700 will be single detached homes, the study said.
It showed similar declines in single-family home construction in many of Canada’s major cities, including Vancouver and Montreal. But future home buyers are likely to be more interested in condos than they have been in the past, the CMHC predicted.
“Demand for condominium apartments [is] expected to remain strong as affordability erosion in the low-rise market pushes buyers (especially first-time) further into the condominium market,” the report said.
“A growing millennial population (aged 20-35 years) looking for an urban lifestyle will look towards condominium purchases within Toronto’s downtown core. ... So too will wealthy baby boomers looking to downsize choose the condominium lifestyle, which is characterized by low maintenance [costs] and close proximity to amenities and transit.”
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Twenty-two days. Twenty-two stories. Countless lives forever marked by a tragic legacy.
The Anglican Church of Canada is marking the 22 days between the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) final national gathering (May 31) and National Aboriginal Day (June 22) with the "22 Days" project, which will see it promote the stories of 22 people who were affected by the residential school policy.
In explaining the project, the Anglican church said it played a role in running 36 residential schools for Indigenous students before it withdrew in 1969.
"Though individual participants may have had nobler intentions, the underlying colonial aim was the destruction of Indigenous cultures and the assimilation of children into Euro-Canadian Society," the project's website reads. "In pursuit of this goal, we tore apart families and communities, and drove students and their parents, siblings and children into dysfunction and addiction. Many students were emotionally, sexually and physically abused."
As part of "22 Days," the Anglican Church will post the stories of survivors and others affected by residential schools on the project's website, with a prayer for the person whose experience is being told.
The first person to have her story told was Gladys Cook, who was interviewed by Anglican Video in 1992. Her account is posted above this story.
But that's not the only way the church is paying respect to Indigenous people.
Churches across the country, like St. John's Anglican Church in Peterborough, Ont., have committed to ringing their bell for 10 minutes every day until June 21 to recognize missing and murdered aboriginal women, writes PTBO Canada.
This comes at the suggestion of Anglican Church of Canada Archbishop Fred Hiltz.
He wrote in a recent Anglican Journal column that churches should consider ringing their bells as an "act of remembrance" for the 1,017 aboriginal women and girls who've been killed, and the 164 who've gone missing since 1980.
"To ring the bells is to pray for their families," he said.
The Anglican Church was party to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which established a TRC in which survivors could tell their stories in an effort to create a historic record of the schools and their legacy.
The TRC issued its summary report on Tuesday, with Justice Murray Sinclair saying that residential schools constituted "cultural genocide."
It also issued 94 recommendations to various levels of government, in areas such as education, health and child welfare.
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A Conservative MP is taking heat after re-tweeting a post that was critical of Caitlyn Jenner winning a courage award instead of a U.S. military veteran.
St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra re-tweeted the following post on Wednesday, which criticized the decision to hand ESPN's Arthur Ashe Courage Award to Jenner over Noah Galloway, an Iraq vet who lost two limbs, but went on to run marathons and partake in CrossFit competitions.
The award is handed out by ESPN in recognition of athletes who show "strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost."
No other nominees were mentioned in ESPN's news release about the award.
But the post about Galloway doesn't represent the only criticism of ESPN's decision to honour Jenner.
Others have criticized the fact that Jenner is receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award instead of Lauren Hill, a college basketball player who died of a brain tumour during her freshman year.
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"We’ve come a long way," she told Yahoo of the media's handling of Caitlyn's unveiling . "There is a little bit more sensationalizing than I would like to see, but we’re talking about really mass media and she is such a huge figure in American society so it’s really gone mainstream. I would definitely like to see a focus more on the emotional side, too."
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However, Pejic is pleased to see that more transgender stories are being shared with the public.
"It's just amazing when, more and more, these stories are coming out [and] a greater variety of them are being told. I think it's very important for breaking down stereotypes and opening people's minds," she told People. "I do think in the future, it should be a normal part of the way human beings are. It's just one of the great things that makes us diverse and unique."
"For that to happen," she continued, "I do think more and more of these stories have to be told, since we're not talking about a trend – we're talking about a whole social minority. I think there definitely will be more stories. Also, the way that young people are viewing sexuality and gender [is] probably changing, and the next generation will probably take all this to a new level."
As for Jenner's beauty look, Andreja offered up some advice: "You’re going to make mistakes. It’s all fun, it’s part of being a girl and trying new things. I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes!" she said in an interview with Fashionista. "Before I really learned how to sculpt my eyes I would go a bit too crazy with the eyeliner; or I would try and create a smoky look but it wouldn't have any dimension and it would be too high up. And I would sometimes do this really strong contour, but with me it was a bit much because I already have defined cheeks. It’s been a learning process."
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They called it Hellboy, and not just for the two horns sticking out over its eyes.
The skull from the new species of dinosaur did have cranial similarities to the famous comic book and movie character. But it was where it was found that really earned it the nickname.
"The Hellboy nickname is because of all the problems with the excavation," said Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, whose paper on the new dinosaur and its bizarre armour-plating was published Thursday.
The 1.6-metre skull was found only about a metre above the water along southern Alberta's Oldman River, a waterline that fluctuates widely over the seasons. It was on a steep cliff, prone to dangerous rockfalls.
The rock that housed the dinosaur was very hard. To top it off, that section of the river is crucial habitat for Alberta's provincial fish, the bull trout. No sediment or debris was allowed to fall in the water.
Digging out the 68-million-year-old fossil took years.
"It was a hellish quarry to work in," Brown laughs.
But it was worth it. Not only is Hellboy — or Regaliceratops peterhewsi, to be formal — a completely new species. It is spectacular. Part of a family that includes the iconic Triceratops, Hellboy has the longest nose horn of any of those three-horned monsters — up to 28 centimetres long.
And while Brown calls the horns over Hellboy's eyes "almost comically short," the dinosaur did sport a massive, bony shield protecting its neck and shoulders. That shield featured a row of large, triangular bony plates along its edge, giving it the appearance of a crown.
"This is a pretty bizarre-looking one."
It's one more variation in a family of dinosaurs that sports a panoply of variation in horns and shields, or frills. The number of known horned-dinosaur species has tripled over the last 15 years or so, and that variety is what finally gave scientists a clue as to their purpose.
"When the first horned dinosaurs were found — this was Triceratops — we thought these were probably used for defence," Brown said. "You have these iconic images of Triceratops doing battle with Tyrannosaurus rex.
"(But) the more horned dinosaurs that we find, the less the explanation of defence makes sense. There are a number of species where their horns would be pretty much useless in defence.
"What we're thinking now is that these were used for display. These were to impress members of the same or opposite sex and communicate with other species. That plate at the back of his skull is pretty much a billboard advertising for that individual."
Brown says Hellboy also shows how evolution can sometimes come up with similar answers to similar situations.
Horned dinosaurs come in two families: chasmosaurs and centrosaurs.
Chasmosaurs, such as Triceratops, had small nose horns, big eye horns and scallops frills. Centrosaurs, which became extinct shortly before Hellboy appeared on the scene, had big nose horns and small eye horns.
Although Hellboy was a chasmosaur, he looked like a centrosaur. Brown said that's an example of how one species can move into an empty niche, sometimes by adopting some of the features of the previous tenant.
And Brown is convinced that there are more like Hellboy out there.
"If there's this thing out there, there must be other things that are related to this thing as well. We still have a lot to learn."
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You could get up early and swing by the drive-thru for breakfast — or you could sleep in a little longer, then make this McDonald's classic from the comfort of your own home.
In the video above by Buzzfeed, we learn how to make a mouthwatering Egg McMuffin in as little as 60 seconds. All you need is an egg, a mug, a slice of Canadian bacon, cheese, an English muffin and a pat of margarine. Oh, and a microwave.
Microwaved eggs make a great meal on mornings when you don't have an extra minute to spare, but if you're making this dish on the weekend, might we suggest frying (and seasoning) it instead? A fried egg will not only add a little crunch to your sandwich, a slightly runny yolk will also add sauciness and simply make it look good!
Watch the video above for a step-by-step tutorial on this quick and easy breakfast recipe.
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Canada’s telecom and financial sectors and management of Canadians’ private data could see radical changes under proposals in a trade agreement leaked by Wikileaks on Thursday.
The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) has received little media attention and even less mention from political leaders in the U.S., Canada and 23 other countries negotiating it, but the proposed agreement would “create an international legal regime which aims to deregulate and privatize the supply of services,” according to Wikileaks.
“Services now account for nearly 80 per cent of the US and EU economies and even in developing countries like Pakistan account for 53 per cent of the economy.”
Among the parties negotiating the agreement are Canada, the U.S., the European Union, Australia, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan and Taiwan.
Notably, the negotiations don’t include the emerging “BRICS” economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. That’s also the case with another major trade agreement under negotiation, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Although chapters of the proposed deal have leaked before, this is the largest leak yet, comprising 17 chapters of the agreement. Among them are:
— A proposal to standardize regulation of the telecom sector across member countries. The proposal would “prevent states from discriminating against foreign or foreign-owned telecommunications providers where to do so would create obstacles to trade,” according to Wikileaks. Such a proposal would require major changes to Canada’s telecom sector, where foreign ownership is strictly limited.
— A proposal for standardizing financial services, which, according to Wikileaks, “sets rules which would assist the expansion of financial multi-nationals – mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt – into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers.”
— A proposal that would require governments to consult with multinational companies on decisions that would affect their businesses.
— A proposal that would bar governments from having requirements to store data locally. Currently, some governments restrict sensitive information from being stored on servers abroad, as a data security measure. The proposal “obliges states to allow private data gathered in connection with the provision of e-commerce services to flow freely over borders,” Wikileaks says.
— A proposal eliminating government monopolies in postal services, allowing private postal companies to compete.
Consumer activists and service-sector unions have been especially critical of the secrecy surrounding the deal.
“It is outrageous that our democratically elected governments will not tell us the laws they are making,” said Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of the umbrella labour group Public Services International, in a statement published on the Wikileaks site.
“What has our democracy come to when the community must rely on Wikileaks to find out what our governments are doing on our behalf?”
The White House on Thursday defended its participation in the deal.
“While the U.S. does not comment on alleged leaked negotiating information, it is important to underscore that American services exports are at all-time high of $710.6 billion, and those exports support 4.6 million well-paying jobs all over the country," a spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told the Guardian.
“That is why president Obama has made opening markets for U.S. services exporters a chief priority of his middle-class economics agenda.”
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Yves Saint Laurent famously said "fashion fades, style is eternal," and this video proves just that.
"100 Years Of Fashion" highlights American fashion trends over the past century in just under two minutes. Created by lifestyle blog Mode in collaboration with Soothing Sista stylist and YouTube user Stephanie Villa, the video includes everything from Dior's New Look from the '40s to present day boyfriend jeans and a leather jacket.
Ready to get a brief lesson in fashion history? Watch the video above to check it out!
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NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A 45-year-old man from New Westminster, B.C., has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault after two women reported being inappropriately touched while riding public transit.
Police say they arrested Jason Taylor on May 19 after a woman's report to Transit Police matched the description of a suspect in a sexual assault earlier that month.
In the first incident on May 2, a 19-year-old woman reported that a man who entered a bus at Metrotown in Burnaby, B.C., rubbed her thigh and said inappropriate things to her.
A second 19-year-old woman who was approached in the subsequent incident while riding a bus on Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam, B.C., says a man sat down next to her and ran his hand up her thigh.
She told police she elbowed the man, but he proceeded to show her pornographic videos on his phone.
New Westminster police say Taylor, who has three previous convictions for sexual assault, remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on June 10.
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The long-running high school drama series will reach its end with a two-week finale this summer, TeenNick announced in a statement quoted by Variety on Thursday.
The final season will have 12 half-hour episodes starting July 20, said a news release from Bell Media.
An hour-long special titled "It Goes There: Degrassi's Most Talked About Moments" will lead into its finale on July 31.
It will bring former cast members to talk about the show's history.
"For an incredible 14 seasons, 'Degrassi' has been a groundbreaking show tackling so many important topics that real teens face in their everyday lives," Keith Dawkins, SVP and general manager of TeenNick, Nicktoons and Nick Jr., said.
"In the final episodes on TeenNick and through the hour-long special and social activations, we hope to say goodbye in a way that is both fitting to the show and 'Degrassi's' passionate fan base."
Social media lit up with reaction to the cancellation on Thursday.
The "Degrassi" universe began in 1979, with the airing of "The Kids of Degrassi Street," which ran until 1986.
It was followed by "Degrassi Junior High," which acquainted audiences with popular characters such as Caitlyn Ryan (Stacie Mistysyn), Christine "Spike" Nelson (Amanda Stepto), Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni) and Archie "Snake" Simpson (Stefan Brogren). It ran from 1987 to 1991.
The franchise was rebooted in 2001 as "Degrassi: The Next Generation." It featured some of the original "Degrassi" actors but also introduced audiences to students such as Spike's daughter Emma (Miriam McDonald), Lauren Collins as Paige Michalchuk and, of course, future rapper Drake as "Wheelchair" Jimmy Brooks.
We can think of at least one "Degrassi" fan who won't take the news well.
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"Clerks" director Kevin Smith has long professed to loving the series, so much that he appeared on numerous episodes of "The Next Generation."
A two-part episode had Smith filming "Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!" at Degrassi Community School.
We can only hope he and Drake make it for the hour-long finale.
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We're halfway through the year already, and if you haven't had a chance to take a vacation yet, you might be itching to do it soon.
But before you book your flight and start packing your suitcase, you might want check out the infographic below by the Baltic Travel Company. In it, the trip experts share 21 travelling hacks that will help you get from point A to point B with ease.
These aren't just confined to your average packing tips either — from transportation to the best time for travel and even anti-thieving tricks, the infographic has all sorts of suggestions to make your time away from home more enjoyable.
Check out the infographic below for all 21 tips and let us know in the comments below your golden rule for travelling.
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"Even if you're meeting your physical activity guidelines, you cannot undo the risks of prolonged sitting," said Gavin Bradley, director of the campaign group Get Britain Standing and one of the authors to the Associated Press.
But there are ways to avoid sitting all day without hurting your posture. Watch the video above to find out how.
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Thrill seekers, it’s time to feed your wanderlust.
The Yukon is the smallest of Canada’s three territories, but its land mass is quite large. Covering an area bigger than Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands combined, it boasts some of the country’s most spectacular mountain vistas. Tall plateaus are also a common sight, dotted with alpine and sub-Arctic flora including more than 200 species of wildflowers.
For the hiker, the Tombstone Mountains are an obvious attraction. It offers a dramatic feast for eyes — a range of wind-whipped granite cathedrals are overshadowed by a towering 500-metre vertical face. In August, the wild terrain changes hues: summer’s green moss fades into vibrant shades of gold and orange, broken up by ripples of crimson and the occasional mountain lake.
The territory's name is derived from “Yuk-un-ah,” a Locheux word meaning “great river.” The 3,185 kilometre-long Yukon River stretches from northern B.C. to the Bering Sea, making Canada’s second longest river. There’s an extensive network of lakes and rivers carved into valleys, much to the thrill of summertime rafters and anglers.
Encounters with wildlife are common for campers, but what else would you expect from a place that’s rugged and underdeveloped?
Imagination has long lured people to this remote part of the world. From amateur prospectors during the Gold Rush to backcountry enthusiasts longing to disconnect from the bustle of the world today.
So if you’re looking for some quiet, adventure, and a good reason to break out those hiking boots, this may be a Canadian destination worth adding to your bucket list.
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OTTAWA - Federal political parties are being challenged to publicly disclose how much taxpayer-subsidized money they're spending on advertising during the unregulated pre-election season.
The advent of fixed dates for federal elections has turned the months leading up to the Oct. 19 national vote into a spending free-for-all.
Sen. Dennis Dawson says that makes a mockery of the strict spending limits imposed during election campaigns, which are meant to reduce the influence of money and level the playing field for all parties.
Dawson, who sits as a Liberal senator, had hoped to compel parties to disclose how much they spend on advertising in the three months before an election is formally called, and to have that count against their campaign spending limit.
But two attempts to pass a private member's bill to that effect have gone nowhere.
So Dawson is now calling on the parties to voluntarily disclose how much they spend on advertising in the three months before the writ is dropped for the October vote.
Canadians have a right to know how much is being spent trying to win their votes, he said in an interview.
"If you're going to be buying them, at least tell them how much you paid for them."
Dawson is also calling on the parties to promise, as part of their election platforms, to put an end to "Wild West" pre-election spending — what he considers a "perversion" of campaign spending rules caused by the imposition of fixed election dates.
"When you didn't have a fixed election date, you didn't waste your money because you didn't know if the election was going to be held six months later or a year and a half later. So there was a sort of self-discipline," he said.
"Now that you know that the writ will be dropped in September, you've seen them all start spending over the last few days, few weeks, and you can only imagine that it's just going to get worse."
Last week, all three main parties released new television ads. None of the parties would reveal how much is being spent on them.
However, the Liberals said their latest offering constitutes the party's largest ad buy ever, outside an election writ period. And the NDP said it was spending in "seven figures" for their ad.
Unions and advocacy groups, whose spending is strictly limited after an election is called, are also taking advantage of the unregulated pre-writ period to broadcast radio ads.
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Tim Hortons responded to several Twitter users by saying it values the feedback and the ads will no longer be airing on Tims TV.
Enbridge spokesman Graham White says the company enjoyed working with Tims and respects its decision.
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On Monday, Alicia Groot was horrified to find three, small worm-like bugs squirming right under her daughter’s diaper.
“She was fussier than normal,” recalls the Barrie, Ontario, mom who had just put her eight-month-old daughter, Sierra, down for a nap. Groot thought perhaps the pigtails in Sierra’s hair were bothering her, so she went in to check.
Groot found her baby girl sitting straight up in the crib, one of her pigtails unravelled, and the elastic nowhere to be found.
“I thought she might be sitting on it,” Groot told The Huffington Post Canada. “So I picked her up and that’s when I saw three of them.” Thinking they might be bed bugs, Groot snapped some photos and posted them on Facebook “to see if any other moms knew what they were.”
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When Nikki Marshall, mother of four in nearby Innisfil, Ontario, saw Alicia’s pictures, she instantly remembered a similar experience she and her husband had just four months prior.
During a regular diaper change, Marshall says her husband noticed a bug crawling around in their daughter Alee’s diaper. “He actually thought it was a maggot,” Marshall says.
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When they looked through the remaining Huggies' diaper box, Marshall says they found more of the squirming insects. The mom took pictures and brought one in a plastic bag to her doctor’s office the next day -- along with her baby. The doctor advised her to notify Huggies right away, which she did.
After seeing Marshall's photos, Groot firmly believes the bugs came from Sierra’s diaper. “I had just changed her diaper and they came from where she was sitting. It’s the exact same bug that was in (Nikki’s) picture for sure, 100 per cent.”
Both Marshall and Groot say they were using Huggies size three diapers. Groot remembers purchasing the diapers at a Shopper’s Drug Mart in May, while Marshall says she purchased hers at Wal-Mart in January, both locations were in Barrie.
These aren’t the first cases of insects allegedly being found in Huggies’ diapers. In December 2014, the CBC reported a mother in Yellowknife contacted Health Canada after finding a “worm-like insect” in her baby’s Huggies’ diaper.
Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies brand diapers, gave the mom compensation in the form of a pre-paid credit card.
When contacted for this story, Kimberly-Clark Dallas headquarters spokesperson Bob Brand said: “If you would see the manufacturing process for a diaper you would realize it’s almost impossible for an insect or a bug to survive that process... We certainly have seen complaints over the years. It’s distressing if you’re a mom or a consumer to discover that and we take it very seriously.”
Brand says every complaint is investigated, however, the company couldn’t in Marshall’s case. Unfortunately, Marshall and her husband didn’t keep the box with the product code. Groot has yet to file a complaint with Kimberly-Clark.
“We were disgusted, sad and freaked out,” says Marshall. “Your emotions go through the roof, because you don’t know what they are, you don’t know if they got into your kids. No one has contacted me and said, 'This is what it is.'"
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Marshall and Groot both plan to report their cases to Health Canada. In the meantime, Marshall says: “Always check your diapers.”
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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants to install a memorial for hundreds of chickens that recently died in a crash on a Saskatchewan highway.
The crash happened on May 26, when a semi-truck transporting the birds went off the highway between Wadena and Kylemore, about 215 kilometres east of Saskatoon, reports CBC News.
The driver swerved off the road and as he was trying to right the vehicle, the load shifted and several crates of chickens toppled into the ditch.
The letter stated the memorial would make sure “commuters know that the best way to prevent tragedies such as this one is to go vegan, because chickens shouldn't have to make terrifying trips to factory farms and slaughterhouses at all," reports The StarPhoenix.
A similar request to build a monument for chickens killed in a Texas highway crash last fall was denied by the state's Department of Transportation, reports KHOU.com.
"We appreciate PETA's concern for these chickens and all other animals. TxDOT's rules do not allow memorials for animals on highway rights of way," the department said at the time.
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