Lifestyles – Brandon Sun

This image shows a Truffle Sazerac cocktail. Looking to create a bit of winter luxury when tending bar at home this holiday season? London's top cocktail-makers have some tips. Salvatore Calabrese of the cocktail bar Velvet says to start with the right glassware. He says that if the glass looks elegant, the atmosphere is already festive. Then think about the ice, which he says is like heat for cooking. You want the drink to dilute just right, so you don't want cracked or crushed ice. Other experts suggest decorating the glasses and coming up with some beautiful and tasty garnishes. Consider a garnish platter that lets guests choose which ones they want. (AP Photo/Louise Dixon)

Holiday advice for home bartenders, plus 4 festive cocktails

Louise Dixon, The Associated Press 6 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

LONDON (AP) — Looking to create a bit of winter luxury when tending bar at home this holiday season? London's top cocktail-makers have some tips.

“Christmas is a special time when you want to join with friends and family. And sometimes, the centerpiece of any happiness is to have a good drink,” says Salvatore Calabrese, an Italian-born drinks expert and author who has been making cocktails at top hotels, bars and private clubs for over 40 years.

Currently at the cocktail bar Velvet, at London’s five-star Corinthia hotel, Calabrese goes by the nickname “The Maestro.”

And The Maestro’s advice?

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‘Glaciers can’t get a break’: How climate change is affecting Canada’s icy landscape

Amy Smart, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

‘Glaciers can’t get a break’: How climate change is affecting Canada’s icy landscape

Amy Smart, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

VANCOUVER - On a mountain high above the residents of Metro Vancouver, tucked inside a north-facing gully, the region's last remaining glacier is vanishing fast.

The Coquitlam Glacier has survived 4,000 to 5,000 years thanks to its sheltered location on the east side of the Coquitlam watershed.

However, scientists say it's among thousands across Canada that are shrinking more quickly than expected due to climate change, with consequences for everything from ecosystems and climate regulation to water supply and tourism.

"It's hanging in there, but it's certainly wasting away quite quickly at this point," said Peter Marshall, field hydrologist with Metro Vancouver's water services.

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Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

The Coquitlam Glacier is shown in this 2022 handout photo. On a mountain high above the residents of Metro Vancouver, tucked inside a north-facing gully, the region's last remaining glacier is disappearing fast. The Coquitlam Glacier has survived 4,000 to 5,000 years thanks to its sheltered location on the east side of the Coquitlam watershed. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Metro Vancouver

‘Perfect storm’ of inflation, high prices driving more into homelessness: advocates

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

‘Perfect storm’ of inflation, high prices driving more into homelessness: advocates

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

CALGARY - Social agencies and advocates say rising interest rates and high inflation are pushing more Canadians into homelessness.

Chaz Smith, who was once homeless himself, said some of the clients of his BeTheChangeYYC street outreach group have been on waiting lists for affordable housing for more than five months.

He said with interest rates and inflation on the rise, it could make the rental market more difficult to enter.

"My fear is we're going to see people default into the rental market that's already crowded and we're going to see an increase in homelessness throughout all of Canada," said Smith, who founded BeTheChangeYYC.

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Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

Outreach volunteers offer help to the homeless on a -20 C night in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. Social agencies and advocates say rising interest rates and a high rate of inflation are pushing more Canadians into homelessness. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CP NewsAlert: Countries at COP15 reach deal to preserve biodiversity

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

MONTREAL - Countries taking part in the COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal say they've reached an agreement on four goals and 23 targets.

The goals include protecting 30 per cent of Earth's lands, oceans, coastal areas, inland waters, as well as, reducing by $500 billion annual harmful government subsidies and cutting food waste in half.

More coming

Negotiators finalize nature deal ahead of final day of COP15 convention

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Negotiators finalize nature deal ahead of final day of COP15 convention

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

MONTREAL - Negotiators in Montreal have finalized an agreement to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030, as the COP15 talks enter their final official day.

An announcement issued early Monday morning says the gathering nations at the biodiversity summit have agreed to four goals and 23 targets.

The goals include protecting 30 per cent of the world's land, water and marine areas by 2030, as well as the mobilization, by 2030, of at least $200 billion per year in domestic and international biodiversity-related funding from all sources, both public and private.

There is also a pledge to reduce subsidies deemed harmful to nature by at least $500 Billion by 2030, while having developed countries commit to providing developing countries with at least US$20 billion per year by 2025, and $30 billion per year by 2030.

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Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada speaks to reporters at the COP15 the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Sunday, December 18, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Four cows have been captured in a small Quebec town after months on the loose

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Four cows have been captured in a small Quebec town after months on the loose

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

QUEBEC - After several months on the run, four cows from a herd of runaway cattle were captured on Saturday night in St-Sévère, Que.

The regional chapter of the Union des producteurs agricoles says the cows were transported back to their original farm on Sunday morning.

Specialists examined the cows after their capture and confirmed the animals were in good shape.

The union says weather conditions over the last few days prevented the entire herd from being captured, so another operation will take place soon to catch seven or eight animals that remain at large.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

A cow grazes in a pasture on a farm near Cremona, Alta., Wednesday, June 26, 2019. After several months on the run, four cows from a herd of runaway cattle were finally captured on Saturday night in St-Sévère, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

‘Hallowed space’: Divers pull 275 artifacts from 2022 excavation of Franklin ship

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

‘Hallowed space’: Divers pull 275 artifacts from 2022 excavation of Franklin ship

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Eleven metres below the surface of the Northwest Passage, deep within the wreck of one of Capt. John Franklin's doomed ships, something caught the eye of diver Ryan Harris.

Harris was in the middle of the 2022 field season on the wreck of HMS Erebus. The team had been hauling dozens of artifacts to the surface -- elaborate table settings, a lieutenant's epaulets still in their case, a lens from someone's eyeglasses.

But this, sitting within the steward's pantry, was something else.

"It's probably the most remarkable find of the summer," said Harris, one of the Parks Canada team of archaeologist divers who have been excavating Franklin's two lost ships since they were found under the Arctic seas.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Jonathan Moore observes a washing basin and an officer's bedplace on the lower deck of the wreck of HMS Erebus during a dive in this September 2022 handout photo in the Northwest Passage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Parks Canada, Marc-Andre Bernier *MANDATORY CREDIT*

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‘One side or the other’: Coutts, Alta. still a village divided after convoy blockade

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

‘One side or the other’: Coutts, Alta. still a village divided after convoy blockade

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

COUTTS, Alta. - The sound of blaring horns that echoed through this village 10 months ago has been replaced by the steady hum of semi-trailer trucks filing through the border crossing between Alberta and the United States.

There is an undercurrent in the community of 250 people, belied by a smiley face on its water tower, that suggests an ongoing division dating back to three weeks in late January, when a convoy of truckers and their supporters shut the border in protest of COVID-19 restrictions.

There was hope that time and community events over the year would provide healing.

Keith Dangerfield, who operates the Hills of Home Cafe/Bed and Breakfast with his wife, was an avid supporter of the convoy. His restaurant became a regular gathering spot.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

A truck convoy of anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators blocks the highway at the busy Canada-U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

COP15 negotiators heading towards a global nature deal, environment minister says

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

COP15 negotiators heading towards a global nature deal, environment minister says

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

MONTREAL - A global agreement to protect a significant percentage of the world's lands and waters will be reached by the time the COP15 nature convention ends on Monday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Sunday.

Guilbeault spoke on the second to last official day of the conference, as negotiators in Montreal pored over the draft of an agreement that would also include mobilizing hundreds of billions of dollars to fund the pledges.

Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu released the new draft of the Kunming-Montreal Global biodiversity framework on Sunday morning.

It preserves the marquee goal of ensuring that 30 per cent of "terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services," be effectively conserved by 2030.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Amel Ibrahem, a delegate from Sudan, examines her first ever snowman which she built during a break from the COP 15 summit on biodiversity, in Montreal, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabe

Feds, Northwest Territories to create Indigenous protected area for Great Bear Lake

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Feds, Northwest Territories to create Indigenous protected area for Great Bear Lake

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

MONTREAL - The federal government, the Northwest Territories and the Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę government signed off on a plan Saturday to create an Indigenous protected area around Great Bear Lake.

The three governments signed a letter of intent at the COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal in what the First Nation describes as a major win, having fought to have the lake declared an Indigenous protected and conserved area.

"Our people have kept it that way for many generations, we believe that we have the responsibility to keep it that way for the future generations yet to come," Chief Danny Gaudet of the Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę said via Zoom.

"It's our turn to have a responsibility to treat this place with respect, it is something that we have been told to keep alive (by elders) because it will be a place of refuge for the future of people, for all living things."

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, left, and Northwest Territories MLA for Nahendeh Shane Thompson bow during a prayer performed via videoconference and shown on screen during a news conference at the COP 15 summit on biodiversity, in Montreal, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabe

In crowded N.B. hospital, 88-year-old awaiting nursing home placed in supply room

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

In crowded N.B. hospital, 88-year-old awaiting nursing home placed in supply room

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

SAINT JOHN, N.B. - The daughter of an 88-year-old woman who spent part of Thursday in a supply room at an overcrowded New Brunswick hospital says she's alarmed by the shortages of space and staff in the province's health facilities.

Karen Totten photographed her mother Irene MacNeill of Barnesville, N.B., lying in a supply room at the Saint John Regional Hospital, with a bed sheet hung up to give her some privacy and wearing dark glasses to help her rest in an area where lights couldn't be dimmed. The image shows the woman surrounded by boxes and medical supplies.

Totten, a 65-year-old resident of Upham, N.B., says she published the disturbing images because she's become alarmed by the staff shortages, the long wait time for her mother to receive a nursing home bed, and the lack of space in the hospital.

"Our system is really broken. How can (Premier Blaine) Higgs be reporting a surplus? If he has a surplus ... get us some nurses and doctors and fix this mess that we knew was going to happen years ago," she said, referring to the Progressive Conservative government's recently announced $135.5 million projected budget surplus for 2022-23.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Irene MacNeill, 88, of Barnesville, N.B., lays in bed as nurses move the bed to access an electrical outlet after she was placed in a supply room at an over capacity Saint John Regional Hospital, in Saint John, N.B., in a Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, handout photo. MacNeill, who broke her arm in a fall and bruised her hip, went to hospital but hasn't been able to access a nursing home during her recovery. Nurses set up an improvised bed sheet for her privacy and her daughter provided her with dark glasses to cope with the overhead lights that couldn't be turned off. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Karen Totten, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

How a Marvel Comics artist helped give Newfoundland its own psychedelic superhero

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

How a Marvel Comics artist helped give Newfoundland its own psychedelic superhero

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - When Marvel Comics artist Danny Bulanadi died last month, fans around the world took to social media to share his illustrations of well-known and well-muscled characters including Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Transformers.

But in Canada’s easternmost province, the Bulanadi drawings shared by fans were of a mysterious cloaked figure who sought oneness with the universe instead of fist-slinging battles.

Captain Newfoundland was the province’s very own superhero, first brought to life by Bulanadi more than 40 years ago. When Bulanadi died in San Francisco on Nov. 3 at the age of 76, he was working on new Captain Newfoundland material for the first time in decades, said Jesse Stirling, whose father and grandfather came up with the idea for Captain Newfoundland.

“So we have all these half-finished panels and artwork of Captain Newfoundland, which we might release one day,” Stirling said in a recent interview. “The Captain lives on, but it will never be the same without Danny Bulanadi.”

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

The character Captain Newfoundland is seen in a photograph of a frame from a comic published in the Newfoundland Herald magazine, in St. John's, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Captain Newfoundland was the province’s very own superhero, first brought to life by Marvel Comics artist Danny Bulanadi more than 40 years ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie

N.W.T. announces latest case of private health information mishandled

Emily Blake, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

N.W.T. announces latest case of private health information mishandled

Emily Blake, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

YELLOWKNIFE - A privacy breach affecting people who stayed at a COVID-19 isolation centre is the latest in a long line of cases of health information being mishandled in the Northwest Territories.

Late last week, the N.W.T. Department of Health and Social Services issued notice of the "low-risk" breach involving about 2,000 COVID-19 isolation forms, which include names, phone numbers, addresses and emails of people who stayed at an isolation centre in Yellowknife between August 2020 and April 2021.

It said a box containing the documents left behind by the disbanded COVID-19 Secretariat was discovered at a government warehouse in late June.

While the records never left the territorial government's custody, there have been several recent cases where private health information was publicly disclosed.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

The Northwest Territories flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, Monday July 6, 2020. A privacy breach affecting people who stayed at a COVID-19 isolation centre is the latest in a long line of cases of health information being mishandled in the Northwest Territories. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Grocery shoplifting on the rise in Canada amid inflation, industry insiders say

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Grocery shoplifting on the rise in Canada amid inflation, industry insiders say

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry insiders say, with inflation and labour shortages cited as major factors behind the increase.

The uptick has triggered concern among Canadian grocers even as the rise in food prices helps pad their bottom lines. Grocery prices were up 11 per cent year-over-year in October and they're not expected to ease any time soon. The total cost of groceries for a family of four is expected to be $1,065 more than it was this year, according to the most recent edition of Canada's Food Price Report.

Inflation in food prices is one of the main drivers pushing more people to steal, says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“There is a correlation between the two, absolutely. Theft is an ongoing issue. But the intensity actually does increase when food prices go up," he said, noting that meat and dairy products are the top two stolen items.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

People shop in the produce area at a Loblaws store in Toronto on May 3, 2018. Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry insiders say, with inflation and labour shortages cited as major factors behind the increase.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Friendly rivals: with EV tensions in past, Canada poised to compete with biggest ally

James McCarten, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Friendly rivals: with EV tensions in past, Canada poised to compete with biggest ally

James McCarten, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

WASHINGTON - Friends, partners, allies — and rivals.

With cross-border auto tensions now in the rear-view mirror, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is talking about Canada's next big bilateral challenge: head-to-head economic competition with the United States.

From a Canadian perspective, the first two years of President Joe Biden's term were all about countering a persistent bout of U.S. protectionism by preaching the virtues of trade between like-minded partners.

Something sank in. Biden's panic-inducing plan to energize electric-vehicle sales brought Canada and Mexico into the tent at the 11th hour. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen even coined a new term — "friend-shoring" — to placate America's anxious allies.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at the General Motors CAMI production plant in Ingersoll, Ont., on Monday, December 5, 2022. With cross-border auto tensions now in the rear-view mirror, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is talking about Canada’s next big bilateral challenge: head-to-head economic competition with the United States.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne

Dreams of Chinese fame persist at Vancouver pageant, where stars are born

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

Dreams of Chinese fame persist at Vancouver pageant, where stars are born

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

VANCOUVER - The eight women lining up to take questions included a pediatrician, a legal assistant and a piano teacher.

But standing on stage in their bikinis at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., they had one goal — to become the next Miss Chinese Vancouver.

The popularity of the 27-year-old pageant is testament to both the ongoing lure of celebrity in Hong Kong and Chinese show business, and what one expert called the "aura" surrounding Chinese Canadian entertainers across the Pacific.

Vancouver has long served as a talent source for the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese entertainment scenes, and the mutual attraction persists in spite of recent political tensions over the crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese political interference in Canada.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

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