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About a half-dozen horse trailers were parked in front of Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci's office Friday. Members of the racing community brought their horses downtown to protest against the Ontario Lottery and Gaming announcement that it will end its slot machine contract with racetracks — including Sudbury Downs.
They said, if the decision stands, the horse racing industry will die — and so too will many of the horses. The horsemen say some horses will be sent to slaughter if racing stops.
The owners of Sudbury Downs said they haven't heard from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and the director of operations said he's worried that the racetrack could close.
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The Mayor of London, Ont. has pledged to punish rowdy partiers who caused an estimated $100,000 worth of damage when a party turned violent on St. Patrick's Day.
Police said the chaos broke out just before 10 p.m. Saturday in the city's east end, an area heavily populated by students and blocks away from Fanshawe College.
Crowds of revelers ignited a fire and stoked it with random objects as police attempted to break up the mob of an estimated 1,000 people. Bricks, tire rims and wooden planks were hurled at officers.
Eleven have been arrested so far. Of those individuals, police said 7 are students from Fanshawe College. The college said it is taking the matter "very seriously" and will suspend the students who were arrested.
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Air Canada has confirmed that delayed and cancelled flights over the weekend were caused in part by "higher-than-usual" pilot book-offs.
In a statement …Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said that while weather and a fire at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Sunday affected operations, "some impact was the result of higher-than usual pilot book-offs.
It was confirmed Saturday that about a dozen pilots called in sick, citing stress or fatigue as the reason for their absence.
Late Saturday night the airline had referred the issue of pilots calling in sick to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, asking for an injunction against its pilots' union.
The delays and cancellations began on Saturday, when Air Canada cancelled 23 flights, mostly out of Montreal, due to pilots calling in sick. That led to dozens of delays for the airline.
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The balmy, early spring weather that has helped some cities break heat records for March is expected to stick around for another week in parts of the Prairies, Central Canada and New Brunswick.
On Sunday, Canada's hotspot was Winnipeg, where temperatures reached 21 Celsius, shattering the previous high of 8.8 C set in 2000. On Monday, temperatures in the Prairie city will soar into the realm of summer weather with a forecast of 25 C.
By Wednesday the spring heat wave will move east to Ontario and New Brunswick. Both Toronto and Ottawa are expected to see temperatures rise to 25 C by mid-week.
Winter will roar back to Alberta as temperatures in Calgary dip to -4 on Wednesday. And winter is still a force in Newfoundland and Labrador. Below-zero temperatures are forecast in St. John's next week.
The spring thaw arrived in Canada about 10 days ago and made appearances across the Prairies and Central Canada. In some places temperatures were about 12 degrees warmer than usual.
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Mitt Romney won an overwhelming victory Sunday over chief rival Rick Santorum in Puerto Rico's Republican presidential primary. But Romney was campaigning far away in the critical heartland state of Illinois ahead of Tuesday's primary which offers another chance to prove he is the inevitable Republican candidate in the extended fight for the nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in the November election.
The former Massachusetts governor and multimillionaire, who accumulated his fortune buying and selling troubled business ventures, has proven singularly unable to win the hearts of the base of the Republican party, an increasingly conservative bloc of voters who distrust Romney for his moderate past positions on important social issues like abortion and gay rights.
As the day began, Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, claimed he was in the contest for the long haul because Romney is a weak front-runner even though he comfortably leads in the fight for delegates to the nominating convention. Santorum campaigned Sunday in the southern state of Louisiana, which holds its primary on Saturday.
AND IN YOUR 100.7 THE ISLAND SPORTS:
At the World Curling Championship this weekend, Team Canada skipped by Heather Nedohin sits alone at the top of the standings at 3-0. Nedohin stole a point in the 10th end to get by Switzerland 6-5 in the evening draw after a 7-5 win over China. Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and South Korea are all 2-1. China, Denmark and Russia sit at 1-2 ahead of the US and Italy who are both 0-3. Action continues.
And spring time means baseball. Cole Hamels gave up five runs and seven hits while pitching into the fourth inning of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 10-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Jose Bautista and Yan Gomes each drove in three runs and Brett Cecil allowed one run on four hits over four innings, striking out two for Toronto which had 15 hits. Cecil is 3-0 this spring with a 0.90 ERA. He has allowed six hits in 10 innings.
And in the NHL Scott Hartnell scored his second of the game with less than 1 second left in overtime to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 win over the Penguins, snapping Pittsburgh’s 11 game winning streak. The Penguins lost for the first time since February 19th. The Penguins also blew their chance to move into a tie with the slumping New York Rangers for first place in the Eastern Conference. Sidney Crosby played in the third game of his comeback following a three month absence caused by recurring concussion symptoms.
And in Edmonton it was pretty evident which time was fighting for their lives as Ray Whitney scored in regulation and in the shootout as the Phoenix Coyotes rallied to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 last night. Raffi Torres scored for the Coyotes with less than three minutes left to force overtime. Goalie Mike Smith made 36 saves in the win. The win moved Phoenix into a tie for seventh with Colorado at 83 points in the Western Conference.
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