Travis Vader's defence lawyer Brian Beresh speaks to media outside court in Edmonton, Wednesday, January 25, 2017. A judge has sentenced Vader to life in prison for killing two Alberta seniors who disappeared on a camping trip. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Highlights from the news file for Wednesday, Jan. 25
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TRAVIS VADER SENTENCED TO LIFE: A judge has sentenced a man to life in prison for killing two Alberta seniors who disappeared on a camping trip. Travis Vader was found guilty of manslaughter last fall in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann, who were in their 70s when they vanished after leaving their home in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, in July 2010. Justice Denny Thomas dismissed a defence submission that Vader should get a lesser sentence because his rights were violated in custody. He did, however, agree to a defence request that Vader serve his sentence in British Columbia because of threats he has received. Thomas said Vader will be eligible for parole in seven years.
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IMMIGRANTS AND CANADA'S POPULATION: A new study from Statistics Canada suggests that the proportion of immigrants in Canada's population could reach up to 30 per cent in 2036 — compared to 20.7 per cent in 2011 — and a further 20 per cent of the population would be the child of an immigrant, up from the 17.5 per cent recorded in 2011. The numbers are a far cry from the country's first census of the population in 1871 — four years after Confederation — when 16.1 per cent of the 3.7 million people in __canada were born abroad, with Britain, the United States and Germany as the most likely countries of origin.
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MEXICO PRESIDENT 'CONSIDERING' SCRAPPING U.S. TRIP: A senior government official says Mexico's president is "considering"
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GOVERNMENT WEIGHING RESULTS OF ELECTORAL REFORM SURVEY: The results of MyDemocracy.ca — the controversial online survey on electoral reform — are in, but what they mean for the future of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's promise to change the way Canadians cast their ballots in time for the 2019 federal election is still a mystery as the Liberal government considers its next move on the file. The Liberals had already given themselves some retroactive wiggle room on the commitment, saying they would not move forward without the broad support of Canadians. But they have never spelled out what they mean by broad support, meaning there is even more room for interpretation of what their critics are calling the "ambiguous" results of the online poll bring to the conversation.
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TORIES PREPARING FOR RETURN TO PARLIAMENT: Conservative members of Parliament are gathering in Quebec City on Wednesday for two days of strategizing before next week's return of the House of Commons and their final months with Rona Ambrose as interim leader. With the race to replace Ambrose ramping up and a change of government south of the border upturning the political status quo, the goal for the party's 97 MPs is to stay focused on the goal of holding the prime minister to account.
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LIBERALS LOOKING TO AI FOR GROWTH: The federal Liberals are expected to use the upcoming federal budget to foster the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence in the hope it will be a springboard to attracting investment and creating a highly skilled new sector of jobs. Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains says fostering AI is one of the pillars of the government's economic growth strategy. Bains and others see an opportunity for Canada to exploit its competitive advantage in a technology that is becoming ubiquitous across all sectors — from major companies such as Google or Microsoft to the banking and automotive sectors.
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POSSIBLE TOOTH FRAGMENTS FOUND AT SUSPECT'S FARM: The chief forensic investigator in a triple murder trial choked back tears in Calgary court describing how he found suspected fragments of teeth and jewellery while sifting through ash from the accused's farm near Calgary. Const. Ian Oxton described the 10 painstaking months he spent using a new method involving water to recover tiny fragments obtained from a burning barrel and pit on Douglas Garland's farm. Garland is on trial for three counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson Nathan O'Brien in 2014. Their bodies have not been recovered.
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CORRIVEAU SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS: A Montreal judge ruled Wednesday that an ex-Liberal organizer convicted of fraud-related charges in connection with the federal sponsorship scandal deserved an exemplary prison term for using his influence to enrich himself. Jacques Corriveau, previously described as the "central figure" in the scandal, was given a four-year sentence. The 83-year-old was also fined $1.4 million, with 10 years to pay it off once his sentence is completed. A jury found Corriveau guilty of three charges in November: fraud against the government, forgery and laundering proceeds of crime.
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PROTESTERS HANG BANNER FROM CRANE NEAR WHITE HOUSE: The morning after U.S. President Donald Trump issued orders to delay environmental rules and restart pipeline projects, seven Greenpeace protesters climbed a construction crane blocks from the White House and unfurled a massive banner with the word, "RESIST." The banner encouraging opposition to Trump's agenda was clearly visible from the grounds of the White House for several hours on Wednesday. District of Columbia police took a hands-off approach while the protesters suspended themselves from harnesses and ropes below the crane's huge arm. Police closed three city blocks to traffic and appeared content to wait until they climbed down to be arrested.
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MARY TYLER MOORE DIES AT 80: Mary Tyler Moore, the star of TV's beloved "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" whose comic realism helped revolutionize the depiction of women on the small screen, died Wednesday. She was 80. Moore gained fame in the 1960s as the frazzled wife Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." In the 1970s, she created one of TV's first career-woman sitcom heroines in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Moore won seven Emmy awards over the years and was nominated for an Oscar for her 1980 portrayal of an affluent mother whose son is accidentally killed in "Ordinary People." She had battled diabetes for many years.
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