Conservatives win Ontario election, measles outbreak in Montreal

Here's a collection of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…

Conservatives win Ontario riding

Conservative candidate Jamil Jiwani celebrated his victory in Durham, Ontario, thanking his allies and challenging his “liberal elite” rivals who are making life harder and more expensive for working-class people.

Canada's preliminary election results show Jivani is poised to win a seat in the House of Commons after Monday's runoff election.

Jivani, a lawyer and commentator, won more than 55 percent of the vote in almost all polls late Monday.

Four provinces confirm measles cases in Montreal, the epicenter of Canada

Seventeen measles cases have been confirmed in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia — more than half of those in the Montreal area — and one case in Ontario linked to a high school.

Quebec Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau confirmed 10 cases on Monday, almost all of them children, making Montreal the epicenter of the country. He said only three of the cases were related to out-of-state travel, indicating that the community is spread in and around the city.

Public Health Ontario has confirmed five cases of measles and said all but one were travel-related.

The latest case, announced last week, was in a 30-year-old man in York Region, north of Toronto, and was “probably” linked to community transmission, the region's health official said.

Here's what else we're seeing…

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators say they feel humiliated after protests shut down the prime minister's event

Organizers of a pro-Palestinian protest that disrupted a weekend reception attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say they are being unfairly bullied.

An event scheduled to be attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was abruptly canceled as demonstrators blocked the entrance to an Ontario art gallery.

Toronto police said there were no injuries and no arrests after the nearly 400-strong protest, but the investigation is ongoing.

Dalia Awwad, an organizer for a group called the Palestinian Youth Movement, accused elected officials of deliberately insulting protesters to keep them from speaking out about Canada's position in the Israel-Hamas war.

The rate of missed mortgage payments in BC, Ont.

Equifax Canada says consumers in Ontario and British Columbia missed mortgage and credit card payments more frequently in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Ontario's mortgage delinquency rate jumped 135.2 percent from a year ago, while BC's rate jumped 62.2 percent.

Financially stressed homeowners in those provinces are also missing out on credit card payments, the agency said, a trend that is most likely among homeowners 36 and younger.

Aside from BC and Ontario, where mortgage rates are low, Equifax Canada says mortgage delinquencies are rising at a slower pace and are still well below pre-pandemic levels.

Why is the $430 million BC securities fine not being paid?

According to the BC Securities Commission, it owes nearly four hundred and thirty million dollars in unpaid sanctions, more than a quarter of which it will never see.

According to the regulator, about $130 million of the total amount is unrecoverable because some of the sanctioned individuals are in prison or bankrupt, and many of the sanctioned companies have been liquidated.

Dozens of sanctioned individuals have filed bankruptcy over the years to escape their debts to the commission, but a Supreme Court of Canada decision this year could change that.

The nation's highest court must decide whether or not to discharge the debts of people who have been punished by bankruptcy regulators.

Quebec director René-Lorty is preparing for the Oscars

Before winning an Oscar for his debut short film, Vincent René-Lorty was ready to quit filmmaking.

“It was a difficult time for me. We just came out of the pandemic and I didn't make any money,” the Montreal-born director said in a video call from Los Angeles.

“I've actually had important conversations my whole career about changing and becoming a nurse.”

Fortunately, the 30-year-old's career path became clearer when his film “Invincible” was nominated for an Oscar in the live-action short film category at Sunday's star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles.

A video posted on social media showed René-Lortie and her team shouting and jumping for joy in response to the nomination announcement in January.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 5, 2024.

Canadian Press