Asylum seekers sleeping on Toronto streets as at-capacity city shelters overwhelmed … and housing starts decline 23% nationally

Two weeks after the City of Toronto said it would begin referring refugee claimants seeking beds in its at-capacity shelter system to federal programs, asylum seekers who recently arrived in Canada are struggling to find places to sleep.

Birck Teklau arrived in Toronto from Ethiopia on June 3 hoping to claim asylum because, he says, of political persecution in his home country.

The 34-year-old says he’s been sleeping on the streets ever since — after being turned away from the city’s shelter system day after day.

“I tried many times…. They say that we don’t have [a] place,” Teklau said in an interview. “I never expected this from Canada.”


Perfect Manufactured Storm … Annual rate of housing starts in Canada fell 23% in May

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in May dropped 23 per cent compared with April as starts of apartments, condos and other types of multi-unit housing projects in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal fell.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 202,494 units in May, down from 261,357 units in April.

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Living With Rats: A Parisian Ambition?

The proliferation of rats in Paris has become a matter of international concern. The French capital is suffering from an ever-increasing rodent population, to the effect that not a day goes by without residents coming face to face with these animals—whether in parks, on the metro, or in the city’s busiest streets. Unable to solve the problem, the socialist Town Hall has proposed the creation of a ‘committee’ to study how to ‘cohabit’ with these animals.

It is currently difficult to estimate the exact number of rats, a population that is by nature hidden and shifting. However, rat control professionals estimate that there are around 5 million rats in the whole of Paris, representing a ratio of 1.5 to 2 rats per inhabitant. Parisians come across them every day.

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At least 15 people dead following serious collision in Manitoba: sources

At least 15 people are dead following a serious collision in Manitoba, sources tell CTV News.

It happened on Highway 1 near Carberry, which is a community located approximately 170 kilometres to the west of Winnipeg.

CBCAt least 10 dead after serious crash near Carberry, Man., source says

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Canadian-owned company accused of supplying Syria’s chemical weapons program

A family business owned by Canadians, MHD Nazier Houranieh & Sons Co. calls itself a pioneer in the global metals trade.

European governments describe it more ominously: a supplier for Syria’s chemical weapons program.

Working from Damascus and Beirut, the company is accused of importing materials used to produce “chemical weapons delivery systems.”

I’m surprised Justin isn’t touting this family as an immigrant success story.

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Harvard mortician ‘sold human remains to dolls shop and leather tanner’

Ghoul

A former morgue manager at Harvard medical school has been charged with stealing, selling and shipping body parts donated for educational purposes, including skin and brains.

Cedric Lodge, 55, is accused of conspiring with his wife, 63-year-old Denise Lodge, to sell the human remains to others, and allegedly allowed two people into the morgue to choose which remains to purchase.

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Daniel Penny faces up to 15 years on 2nd-degree manslaughter charge in chokehold death of Jordan Neely

A grand jury has indicted former Marine Daniel Penny for the chokehold killing of homeless man Jordan Neely during a subway confrontation last month, sources have told The Post — even as Penny’s attorneys vowed to “aggressively defend” their client in court.

The Wednesday decision — made by a group of jurors sitting in Manhattan — arrives weeks after Neely’s caught-on-camera death sparked a national firestorm over Penny’s actions and intense scrutiny of the floundering mental health system that failed to help his victim.

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Dylan Mulvaney: Bud Light loses top spot in US after boycott

Bud Light has lost its position as the best-selling beer in the US after facing a boycott, new figures show.

In the four weeks to 3 June sales were down by almost a quarter, according to consulting firm Bump Williams.

Some drinkers in the US stopped buying Bud Light after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney showed off a personalised can of the beer.

It means Modelo Especial has taken the top spot, with 8.4% of US beer sales by value in the period.

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Poland cancels 666 bus route to Hel amid complaints of ‘spreading Satanism’

Poland will no longer run the 666 bus route to Hel amid complaints from Christian groups that it was “spreading Satanism”.

The route, which is the country’s most famous, takes tourists to the seaside town of Hel on a peninsula north of Gdansk.

It became a celebrated attraction in itself with its sandy beach, pier, forest trails and seafood restaurants.

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Star Gives Chow a Tongue Bath

Olivia Chow is the great organizer of the left. Can she be a unifying mayor?

Bob Gallagher’s voice catches telling the story, because even now, three decades later, the memory of the Metro council vote to grant health-care benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees is emotional.

Gallagher had a personal stake in the vote. He was then councillor Olivia Chow’s chief of staff and his partner had AIDS.

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Germany: We Need Nuclear Power From France

European countries are still feeling the pinch of being cut off from Russian gas as the German Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, has revealed that the country will be dependent on purchasing electricity this winter from neighbouring France, relying on French nuclear power.

The current German leftist coalition of the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP) have confirmed the findings of the “needs analysis” conducted by the agency, which regulates electricity, gas, and other utilities, according to a report from the German tabloid Bild.

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