The London Free Press
IN-DEMAND SKILLS
Larry Oudekerk shows Isabel Rusek, a student at St. Thomas Arthur Voaden secondary school, how to work sheet metal at Jill of All Trades at Fanshawe College in London Thursday. The event, introducing young women to careers in skilled trades, featured...
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City OK'S $7.2M `multi-sport' plan
The City of London is partnering with Western Fair to turn a portion of the J-AAR Expo Centre, formerly known as the Agriplex, into a new multi-purpose sporting facility, city council heard Tuesday. The project, approved by politicians during a closed...
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Sarnia police chief describes quick end to 17-day hunt for accused killer
The arrest in London of a man charged with second-degree murder in a shooting at a college campus bar in Sarnia was quick and incident-free. “For the past two weeks, our investigators have been pursuing every lead,” Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis...
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SWING INTO SPRING
Sean Thorup, 16, of Mother Teresa secondary school, left, chuckles as Thomas Pinheiro, 16, of Lucas watches his ball go straight up in front of them. The students were learning the golf swing at Tin Cup Driving range at Adelaide Street and Windermere...
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GREAT MEALS, GREAT DEALS
We asked London's mayor, some council members, a local MPP and our newsroom where to eat well in this city for less than $20. Mayor Josh Morgan's pick? Nooner's, the 40-year-old eatery at 436 Clarence St., where Katrina Wice, above, shows off a...
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BICENTENNIAL TIDY
Zaid Hourani, Thatcher Smith and Nolan Williams pick up trash on the median between the north- and southbound lanes of Highbury Avenue south of Commissioners Road Thursday. Municipal workers descended on the litter-strewn thoroughfare for the first in...
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IT SEATS TWO, TREE IN A PINCH
Jordan Feairs places two young trees in the passenger seat well of Sandeep Karnik's classic S2000 Honda, which bucked the trend of SUVS and pickups lined up to collect some of the 2,500 native trees city staff handed out free for Earth Day at the...
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Joy, excitement and trusting God
A new bishop is taking over the Diocese of London, which serves about 450,000 Southwestern Ontario Catholics. Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev. Daniel Miehm as the 11th Bishop of London beginning in June, replacing Bishop Ronald Fabbro, who has held the...
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HEADS UP PLAY
Banting Broncos Henry Wernham goes up to cut off a deep ball during a TVRA Varsity boys soccer game against Saunders Sabres at Western University's Alumni Field Monday.
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BRAND NEW CANADIAN
Diya Vikas, 4, smiles and waves the flag as her mom, Sruthi Trivandrum Reghunathan Sreekumari, signs her Canadian citizenship papers, one of 79 who became citizens Friday in the first such ceremony at London's central library since the COVID-19 pandemic.
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`It's more than just a church'
One of London's only historic buildings with direct connections to the Underground Railroad, and the oldest black church in the city, could be at risk as the owners apply to the city to remove its heritage status as the lot goes up for sale. The Beth...
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IN FULL BLOOM
Omar Aljbory takes a selfie with Dhoha Hamja in front of the beds of daffodils in London's Springbank Park. “We walk here nearly every week, even in the harsh winter,” Aljbory said, but spring is their favourite time: “Everything is blooming, it's so...
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SPRING BREAK
City crews repair the damage Tuesday after an early morning water main break shut down and flooded the busy Huron Street and Highbury Avenue intersection. The same main broke at Highbury and nearby Jensen Road in December.
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Manhunt follows deadly pub shooting
Sarnia's top cop had this advice for a Londoner charged in a Sarnia student pub shooting that killed a 20-year-old Sarnia junior hockey player and injured two former teammates: “Turn yourself in.” “To Mr. Doe directly, I say that every time you go to...
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LAMBTON COLLEGE SHOOTING
The perpetrators remain at large after gunfire erupted early Friday at a campus bar at Lambton College in Sarnia, leaving one man dead and two others — all three played junior hockey together — injured. Dane Nisbet, a 20-year-old Sarnia man, died in...
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SUPPORTIVE STEP FORWARD
Natasha Thuemler, executive director of Indwell, shows a model suite at Coves Landing — a 50-unit supportive housing development that officially opened Thursday in a former retirement home on Elmwood Place in London. It was retrofitted to house people...
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Sarnia-area MP crosses to Liberals
Marilyn Gladu, longtime MP for Sarnia-lambton-bkejwanong, is the latest Conservative to cross the floor and join Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals. Gladu announced the move in a statement Wednesday morning. “The past year has been like no other...
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A LIFE WELL READ
Marvin Post of Attic Books on Dundas Street is celebrating 50 years in the business, with no thought of turning the page any time soon. He is planning an outdoor book festival called Bibliomania on Dundas on June 20, two days after the store's actual...
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PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
Gage Butler, left rear, Noah Young and Sean Mcspadden, of Greatario, assemble an aluminum framed geodesic dome for the Adelaide wastewater treatment plant in London on Monday. The 27-metre diametre (90-foot) dome will hold the roof over a concrete tank...
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DEFENCE SECTOR WINS
Canada's embrace of a greater global military role is a win for Southwestern Ontario industry supplying the national defence sector. London and region boasts about 20 businesses employing roughly 4,000 workers in military-related industries and that...
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READY FOR LIFTOFF
Excitement is building at Ingersoll District secondary school, whose halls Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen once roamed as a student. If all went as planned Wednesday evening, Hansen will have become the first Canadian, alongside three Americans, to...
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RAINING? STILL TRAINING
David Lim crosses a soaked bridge over the north branch of the Thames River in London Tuesday during an 18-km training run for Hamilton's Road2hope fall marathon, with an eye to qualifying for Boston. Rain is forecast all week and the Upper Thames...
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CREATIVE SOLUTION
When a two-storey window at Museum London's Centre at the Forks event space cracked beyond repair, officials needed a quick fix. They found it in Broken Window, a mural by London-raised artist Justin Broadbent, seen here admired by museum marketing...
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`VLADIMIR'S TEAM'
He stood along the third base line Friday watching the American League championship banner being raised and soaked up the love and celebration from a soldout crowd at the Rogers Centre. “The emotions are going to be there,” Vlad Guerrero Jr. said...
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SAY HELLO TO ROBOCROP
Mike Giannikouris of Kitchener-waterloo's Finite Robotics shows off their apple thinner, which six arms, cameras and cutters to thin out fruit, so only `king' apples are kept, at the Canadian Agrobotics & AI summit at the Grove at Western Fair Thursday.
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`THE OLD SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK'
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney made headlines around the world in January — and made many sit up and take notice — when, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he declared the old rules-based international order the world has known for...
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Thousands of jobs at risk: LHBA
The London region stands to lose thousands of construction jobs this year unless governments act to make new homes more affordable for buyers, a local builders umbrella group warns. The warning, in a public letter Monday from the London Home Builders...
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NEW PUBS ON TAP
Michael Holden owns the Off Licence at 474 Pall Mall St., one of two new neighbourhood watering holes in London settling in ahead of patio season, introducing themselves to locals before the crowds head outside as temperatures start to rise. Reporter...
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FERTILIZER FALLOUT
Southwestern Ontario, home to one of Canada's richest farm belts, is a world away from the war in Iran, but it's hitting farmers here hard. A focal point of the war is the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman....
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`DEVASTATING'
Queen's Park is cutting funding to seven supervised drug-use sites across Ontario, including London's Carepoint Consumption and Treatment Service at 446 York St. We spoke with Lily Bialas, interim director of the Regional HIV/ AIDS Connection, which...
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DINO-MITE VISIT
Evermore Entertainment's Brandon Presley introduces animatronic triceratops Twiggy to Adi Muskaj, 9, and her little sister, Juliana, 3, of Mississauga, during their March break family trip to the London Children's Museum Wednesday.
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HILL OF A GOOD TIME
Deborah Balasch, decked out for St. Patrick's day, guides a young student at Boler Mountain's snow school during March break Tuesday. A Boler official says they plan to open limited hours next week before their annual puddle jump season-ender March 29....
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ONE FINAL ADVENTURE
Ben Beavers, 7, crows with success after scoring a goal on his mom, Meghan Beavers, as they play air hockey at Adventures on Wonderland on Monday. The longtime children's play space is closing after March break, after a 26-year-run in London.
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ANY BEACON OF HOPE?
The future of the oldest wooden lighthouse on the Great Lakes — and one of the oldest in Canada — may be in jeopardy as negotiations with neighbouring landowners have slowed. Built in 1840, the municipally owned Port Burwell lighthouse — part of the...
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HOOPING IT UP
Mother Teresa head coach Kwame Aidoo jumps on the shoulders of his coaches to celebrate with his team after the Spartans won the OFSAA AAA boys basketball gold medal Wednesday night at Fanshawe College, the first top-level provincial title for a London...
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WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
A London Transit bus throws a sheet of water over the sidewalk on Oxford Street Wednesday after heavy rains led to Thames River flooding and large puddles forming on roads. The downpour comes as the city eyes changes to flood plain development
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`REALLY SPECIAL'
For three seasons, Parker Zimmerman travelled through snow and rain to practise with another high school's wrestling program. Now, the Oakridge secondary school 11th-grader is a provincial champion. Zimmerman trains with Sir Frederick Banting...
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SPARTANS START STRONG
Yaniss Lugogo of Mother Teresa, left, is fouled by A Y Jackson's Davonta Jackson as he goes up for a reverse layup during their opening game at the OFSAA AAA boys basketball tournament at MTS Monday. The second-seeded host Spartans overcame a slow...
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`IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK'
The use of a portable MRI during a complex pituitary tumour procedure is being hailed as a “game-changer” by the London Health Sciences Centre neurosurgeon who led the operation. A Hyperfine Swoop brain portable MRI was used during a complex procedure...
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FARMING IN HER FUTURE?
Annalee Martin, 1, tries the driver's seat of a tractor on for size under the watchful eye of her dad, Jermaine Martin of Chatham-kent, at the London Farm Show — eastern Canada's largest indoor spring farm show — which wraps up at the Western Fair...
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Help us clean up our housing crunch
Driven by the much-anticipated opening of an electric vehicle battery plant, St. Thomas is looking to increase its housing supply to accommodate the growing city's rising population. St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston says there's an opportunity to build an...
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DEER OH DEER OH DEER
Deer floating on a patch of Detroit River ice turned heads on Windsor's waterfront Monday, with onlookers tracking their trek downstream for hours. Some were alarmed, but a rescue of the timid animals was unlikely, officials said, noting they're strong...
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BLOCK-BUSTER
Oakridge's Ana Stojanovic hammers a spike past the block of Avery Thibeau and Lily Wittig of Lucas during a game at the WOSSAA AAA senior girls volleyball tournament at Oakridge Monday. Stratford District and Aquinas also were taking part.
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EXPLOSIVES/GUNS PROBE
The decontamination shower has been removed from the yard of 212 Chesham Place and the construction fence that surrounded the northwest London property for more than a week is gone. The trailers serving as mobile command centres for the dozens of...
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Lab enlists bricklayer `the machine' for help on brain smart cooking
It's getting close to lunch time, and Sal Cambria is getting excited. “Look at this cheese,” he shouts, pointing to a photograph on his phone of an assortment of different cheeses he made. “I make cheese with a lot of spice or nuts, all types, oh my...
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PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
A police dog is led around the front entrance of Oakridge secondary school on Wednesday after it was closed due to a “concerning message” that prompted a call to London police “out of an abundance of caution.”
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In and out for explosives probe accused
One among four people charged in the Chesham Place guns and explosives investigation was in court Tuesday, and it was quick. Jerry Tong, 27, appeared by video from the Elgin-middlesex Detention Centre for an Ontario Court of Justice hearing that...
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END OF AN ADVENTURE
Dahsin Grineage shoots out of a slide at Adventures on Wonderland on Monday and said, “Where will I ever find a place this fun to work,” as news of its closing was publicized. Barb Frijia, the owner for the 26 years of operation of the site, is retiring.
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SHOT AT GAMES GOLD
It turns out Canada's winning goal on Friday in the semifinal of men's hockey at the Milano-cortina Olympic Games was a year in the making. The goal, which proved to be a release-valve on a mounting overload of tension for Canadian fans, was the...
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GOLDEN HEARTBREAK
Anguished Canada captain Marie-philip Poulin watches U.S. players celebrate after they won the Milano-cortina Winter Olympics women's hockey gold medal game 2-1 in overtime in Milan on Thursday. See our Olympic coverage on
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CANADA SURVIVES IN A THRILLER
Canada's Mitch Marner, right, celebrates after scoring in overtime for a 4-3 victory over Czechia in a Milan-cortina Winter Olympics men's hockey quarterfinal on Wednesday in Milan. Canada advances to the semifinal round on Friday.
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London perfectly placed to overachieve on ice
There are 48 hockey players representing Canada at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Six have close London ties. That's a proud achievement for the puck-mad city in Southwestern Ontario that so often outperforms its population on the biggest sporting...
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Accused in explosives, guns probe denied bail
One of four people charged in a weapons and explosive investigation was denied bail. Fei Han, 25, was ordered detained by justice of the peace Chantal Bertrand Friday. He is the first person charged in the case to seek bail. Another accused, Zekun...
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THREE-MEDAL DAY
Bo Horvat celebrates after scoring Canada's third goal during a 5-0 win over Czechia on Thursday to open Olympic men's hockey Group A play at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, Italy. The hockey win was part of a big day for Canada, with...
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TRAGEDY IN TUMBLER RIDGE
The world's attention has turned toward the quiet, tight-knit community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., after a mass shooting killed eight and injured 27 others. It is one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history. On Wednesday morning, police...
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CHEMICAL CASE IN COURT
Fei (Frank) Han sat down in the prisoner's box and swallowed hard. For the rest of Tuesday, he stayed quiet during his day-long bail hearing while justice of the peace Chantal Bertrand heard the pitch by his defence lawyer to have him be released from...
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Don't cut homeless aid: helpers
Dozens of homeless outreach workers and advocates have written city politicians asking them to shoot down proposed changes that would see homeless outreach and housing options scaled back or redirected, with one letter dubbing it “a full-scale assault”...
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LET THE WINTER GAMES BEGIN
Flag-bearers Marielle Thompson and Mikael Kingsbury lead Canadian teammates into the opening ceremony of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Friday. It was one of four ceremonies, including the main one in Milan, held to open the far-flung...
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NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Staffer Shannon Richter says it's great that the new owner of the venerable London Fitness Forum on Jalna Boulevard is investing in renovating and revitalizing the business rather than razing the building for townhomes — quite a change for an operation...
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Chem probe trio in drone video
Three of four people charged after London police found chemicals they say could be used to make explosives at a home appear in a promotional video for a startup seeking funding for a drone defence system. Jerry Tong, 27, Zekun Wang, 26, Fei (Frank)...
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WAITING FOR WILDLIFE
Photographer Paul Roedding has been wintering near Algonquin Park to photograph its amazing wildlife and blog about wolf and moose sightings. While back in London to visit family, he found he missed area stalwarts such as cardinals and mallards and set...
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`SMOKE' ON THE WATER
`Sea smoke' rises around pedestrians on the Gibbons Park bridge from the nearly completely frozen Thames River in London Monday. Bitter cold overnight left a layer of hoar frost on city trees, while air rising from the river condensed quickly into the...
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READY FOR BATTLE
London Ward 12 Coun. Elizabeth Peloza is gearing up for a two-front fight this year. Not only is council's budget chair seeking re-election in October, but she's also awaiting further treatment for breast cancer, determined not `to let cancer define me.'
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31 guns, kilos of drugs seized, 11 charged
A brazen shooting at Victoria Hospital more than a year ago was the catalyst for an investigation that led to the seizure of dozens of guns and millions of dollars' worth of drugs, London's police chief says. Senior London and provincial police...
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`MASSIVE PARADIGM SHIFT'
Dr. Michael Chu shows off a device his team used in a groundbreaking double cardiac procedure — 2 “large, complicated operations” at once — at University Hospital in 2024. The procedure could add decades to patients' lives, London Health Sciences...
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Trespass call leads to chemical cache
Four men face charges after a trespassing call at Western University led police to a cache of chemicals that could be used to make explosives, London police say. Campus police responding to a trespassing call at the engineering building about 1:40...
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`RADICAL HOSPITALITY'
Rector Kevin George of St. Paul's Cathedral said he wasn't about to go to sleep Friday night, knowing they had space to let people escape the dangerous cold, but weren't letting them in. St. Paul's, with help from other local Anglican churches and...
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NEW KID IN TOWN
At a time the automotive industry in Southwestern Ontario has been rocked by volatility and uncertainty, Toyota offered a reminder Friday on the importance of stability. The automaker, with plants in Cambridge and Woodstock employing more than 8,500...
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`Bad winter,' deep freeze strain shelters
Heading into a days-long deep freeze, city hall is opening extra overnight beds in a community centre as two other agencies fear there may not be enough room indoors to keep London's homeless safe. Environment Canada was predicting temperatures would...
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`CANADA LIVES BECAUSE OF' U.S.
President Donald Trump said Canada should be more `grateful' to the U.S. Wednesday, a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney urged middle powers to call out unnamed bullies and hegemons in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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RUNNING WITH THE BIG DOGS
Alisa Castrilli of Mother Teresa tries to work the puck in tight in front of CCH goalie Alessandra Curcio during a TVRA Central Varsity girls hockey game at Carling arena.
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WALMART ON WONDERLAND
Ali Soufan, president of York Developments, discusses plans for a 140,000-square-foot (13,000-square-metre) Walmart Supercentre — the retail giant's fifth London location — announced recently for The District, York's commercial development at 3515...
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Chinese EV jobs for Canada?
Like a double-edged sword hanging over Canada's auto industry, the promise of Chinese-made EVS sold in Canada may offer hope for new auto jobs here, but also threaten delicate trade talks with the U.S. Prime Minister Mark Carney's announcement that...
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FENCING WITH THE FEDS
Mariane Yorga and Julian Wieder are among Idylwood Road residents who fear a federal research centre behind their properties will reclaim chunks of their yards and replace an existing 1.5-metre wood fence with a 2.4 m chain-link barrier, topped with...
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