After a group of individuals on a fishing excursion became caught in the tide, four youngsters were discovered unresponsive on a beach in Quebec on Saturday morning and later pronounced dead, according to authorities.
Emergency responders were dispatched to Portneuf-sur-Mer, a riverside community on the northern shore, at 2 a.m. on Saturday, according to a representative for the Quebec provincial police who spoke to CNN.
According to the spokesperson, eleven persons went missing after setting out on foot for a fishing expedition and being caught in the tide. Of those 11, he stated six were saved and five were still missing the next day.
Around 6 a.m., four children, all over the age of 10, were found unresponsive and sent to the hospital, according to the spokesperson. Police later confirmed that the children were dead.
A man in his 30s is still missing, according to Quebec provincial police, and a search for him with divers, boats, and helicopters is ongoing.
Quebec provincial police are investigating the circumstances of the incident, the spokesperson said.
An oath of fealty to the monarch is no longer required of legislators in the Canadian province of Quebec, thanks to a new law.
Three parliamentarians refused to take the oath of allegiance after King Charles III’s coronation, which led to the introduction of the measure.
The federal parliament of Canada overwhelmingly rejected cutting ties with the Crown in October.
In Canada, Quebec is the province that favors constitutional monarchy abolition the most.
The bill was introduced on Tuesday by Premier Francois Legault.
In October, after the province had an election,14 politicians refused to swear the oath. After being told they could not sit in the legislature without doing so, 11 of them backed down.
But three hold-outs did not, and have been barred from the National Assembly since late November, waiting for Mr Legault to bring forward the bill. It was fast-tracked once all parties in the legislature agreed to waive consultation.
In Quebec, members of the legislature had to swear two oaths, to both the people of Quebec and the Crown, and the latter has long been controversial.
The new provincial law amends the Canadian Constitution Act of 1867, to add a section exempting Quebec from the Oath of Allegiance to the King. That allegiance has been a requirement for all members of provincial legislatures across Canada.
“It is, I think, a relic from the past,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a co-spokesperson for the Quebec solidaire party, said in early December about the oath to King Charles.
“I think there is strong support in Quebec to modernize our institutions, to make sure that the representatives of the people are not forced in 2022 to swear an oath to a foreign king.”
Constitutional scholar Philippe Lagasse told the BBC in an email that Quebec did not have the authority to amend the constitution by an act of legislation alone.
He said a change like this would either need the support of seven provinces that had, on aggregate, more than 50% of the population of Canada, or the federal parliament would have to agree with Quebec to allow the change in Quebec alone.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could challenge this new law in court, or a private citizen could be given standing by the court to bring forth a challenge.
In Canada, the monarch – now King Charles – is the head of state. The monarchy serves a mainly symbolic role, with the power to govern entrusted to the Canadian government.
Opinion polls suggest Canada as a whole remains divided on the monarchy. In an Ipsos survey conducted following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, half of the Canadian respondents – around 54% – said their country should sever its ties with the Crown.
That sentiment is strongest in Quebec, where 79% agreed.
A nurse in Longueuil, Quebechas been reinstated after she was suspended for three days for eating a slice of toast with peanut butter while on her shift.
The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de la Montérégie-Est released a statement explaining “the measure was too severe for the act committed.”
“The Montérégie-Est Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) has taken note of the whole situation and is cancelling the disciplinary measure of a three-day suspension for the nurse involved. Considering the discrepancies in the handling of this event, the measure has been invalidated and removed from the employee’s file,” the statement read in French.
They added that they met with the employee and apologized to her.
The incident took place last Friday when the Journal de Montreal reported that the nurse had been suspended for eating a slice of toast on the job. The initial investigation described the incident as “a serious breach of the obligations of loyalty and honesty.”
Once the CISSS met with the nurse and her union representative, they reversed the suspension.
The nurse, who requested anonymity, explained to the Journal de Montreal that she had eaten the toast because she did not have time to eat breakfast prior to her shift.
Sonia Bélanger, the Quebec minister responsible for senior care tweeted that she will be looking into the incident and will meet with those who were involved with the initial decision to suspend the nurse.
“I asked the CISSS for an explanation and the CEO agreed that the measure was too severe,” she said on Twitter on Monday in French. “The CISSS will meet with the nurse today to apologize and inform her that they are reversing their decision. The managers involved will be met.”
Although emergency rooms in hospitals across the province are over capacity, the number of nurses in the province is growing, according to Quebec’s professional order.
Police accuse 51-year-oldof planning ‘armed revolution’ to seize power from ex-President Jovenel Moise.
Canadian federal police have charged a man in the province of Quebec with “terrorism” over an alleged plot to overthrow slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s government.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Thursday that Gerald Nicolas, 51, from the town of Levis near Quebec City “planned to stage an armed revolution in Haiti and ultimately seize power”.
“It is alleged that he took concrete actions, including travelling to Haiti to coordinate a group of individuals whose intention was to take part in a coup against the established authority,” a police statement said.
The police force did not say exactly when the suspect travelled to Haiti or when the alleged plot took place, but it did say its investigation, which began in July 2021, was unrelated to Moise’s assassination that same month.
The Haitian leader was killed on July 7, 2021, by a gang of mercenaries who stormed his home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The killing sent shockwaves around the world and thrust the Caribbean nation, which was already facing political turmoil, into deeper instability.
More than a year later, Haiti is reeling from surging violence as armed gangs have battled for control of key areas in the political vacuum created by Moise’s assassination.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s investigation into the killing appears to have stalled.
Dozens of people have been arrested in the ongoing inquiry, including several Colombian nationals, but the process has been slow-moving and many questions – and theories – remain as to why Moise was killed.
The United States Department of Justice alleges that a group of about 20 Colombians and a group of Haitian Americans participated in a plot that, while initially focused on kidnapping Moise in a purported arrest operation, “ultimately resulted in a plot to kill the president”.
The US has charged three men in relation to the assassination, accusing them of being members of the plot.
Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph was extradited to the US from Jamaica and charged in May. The other men charged are Mario Antonio Palacios, a former member of the Colombian military, and Rodolphe Jaar, a dual Haitian-Chilean citizen.
In a report (PDF) ordered by the US Congress on Moise’s assassination, theDepartment of State said it “continues to assist Haitian authorities as they proceed with their investigation” into the president’s killing.
“Embassy Port-au-Prince estimates Haitian authorities have detained around 74 suspects during the investigation; approximately 42 remain in pre-trial detention,” said the report, which was released this month.
The State Department said a fifth judge was appointed to head the Haitian investigation in May but “investigative judges assigned to the case and related figures have reported threats to their safety for working on the case”.
