Canada's economy grew 0.1% in May, led by the oil and gas extraction sector, Statistics Canada said Friday. Most economists had expected growth of between 0.1 and 0.2% for the month.
"Goods-producing industries rose 0.6%, led by oil and gas extraction," the federal agency said. "Construction and utilities fell back, while manufacturing activity edged up."
Retail activity rose 0.3% in May, with increases at clothing and accessories outlets, as well as food and beverage stores.
"Decreases were recorded in building and outdoor home supplies stores, mirroring the weakness in construction, and by used car dealers," the agency said.
After posting annualized growth of 4.9% in the final quarter of last year and 6.1% in 2010s first quarter, the central bank now expects gross domestic product to expand just 3% for the three-month period ended June 3.
After a strong initial recovery from the recession, Canada's economic growth is beginning to slow. During the fourth quarter of 2009, GDP expanded by 4.9%, which was followed by a 6.1% advance in the first three months of this year. Since then, monthly numbers have weakened - with 0.6% growth in March and a flat reading in April.
The Bank of Canada's now expects the economy to grow 3.5% in all of 2010 and see 2.9% expansion in 2011.
David Tulk, a senior strategist at TD Securities, said Friday's report "confirms the deceleration in overall economic activity observed across a wide range of indicators."
"This was expected, as the stimulus-infused pace set through the first quarter of the year was clearly unsustainable. What matters for the balance of the year and for the outlook for monetary policy is the level at which the economy stabilizes."
Meanwhile in the United States, the Commerce Department said second-quarter growth slowed to a 2.4% from a revised 3.7% in the previous quarter.
Economists had forecast growth of 2.6% in the second quarter.
Canadian gadget gurus will get to bite into a new Apple product Friday: the iPhone 4.
Despite Apple doing heavy damage control over antenna issues with the new phone following its earlier U.S. release, more than three million of the slick, touch screen phones have been snapped up and demand is expected to be heavy at tech stores across the country Friday.
Another product for the masses that like shiny things...
The leader of the hybrid vehicles non-secret society is celebrating 10 years of spreading the eco culture throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The Prius was actually born back in 1997, but that was happening on its domestic market. Throughout its career, the car has managed to convert 1.8 million drivers, with the U.S. market accounting for 50% of the vehicle's total sales.
The Prius has come a long way from the first generation, which was a vehicle that failed to impress on any level. The second generation of the car, which came in 2004, gave the car a set of wings. With the third incarnation, which arrived in 2009, it really boosted the vehicle's status.
As for the future of the Prius, Toyota is planning to complement the current hybrid system, the Hybrid Synergy Drive, with a plug-in one, called the Prius Plug-In Hybrid. The company has introduced a series of worldwide test for a fleet of plug-in Prius vehicles that use lithium-ion batteries. The series version of the plug-in Prius is scheduled to hit the market in 2012.
The restart of a nuclear reactor that produced one-third of the world's supply of medical isotopes is now expected in August, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited said.
Earlier this month, Canada's nuclear safety commission authorized the restart of the half-century old National Research Universal reactor in Chalk River, Ontario -- 185 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
The reactor was expected to begin working again on July 31, after being shut down last year after a containment vessel began leaking radioactive heavy water. But AECL says that during the reloading of reactor fuel officials determined some reactor instrumentation was not responding as expected.
Medical isotopes produced by the reactor are used to diagnose cancer and heart disease in patients around the world. The shutdown led to a global shortage.
Toyota has announced a voluntary recall of 4,200 Avalon vehicles sold in Canada to correct a steering problem.
Toyota Canada announced Thursday it is recalling Toyota Avalon vehicles manufactured in the 2000 to 2004 model years because of an improper casting of the steering lock bar, a component of the steering system.
"If the vehicle while being driven is steered to the right with sufficient lateral acceleration, a broken and loose lock bar may move toward the steering shaft. If the engagement hole in the shaft happens to line up at the specific time the broken lock bar has moved, this could cause the steering wheel lock bar to engage, locking the steering wheel, and increasing the risk of a crash," Toyota said in a news release.
The company said it is unaware of any accidents related to this condition. Toyota will replace the steering column on vehicles involved in the recall. Owners will be notified by mail.
The company has issued a number of recalls over the past year including a major effort to repair vehicles for defects linked to unintended acceleration.
Arizona's new immigration law went into effect Thursday stripped of a controversial provision that would have given police the power to check the immigration status of suspected criminals.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most contested parts of the law hours before it went into effect at one minute after midnight (0701 GMT), handing a temporary victory to the Obama administration, which has challenged the legislation, and rights groups, who said it would lead to ethnic profiling.
Judge Susan Bolton said parts of the law requiring police to check the immigration status of suspects "would likely burden legal resident aliens."
And she found there was also a "substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens" due to complex deportation laws which are enforced by federal courts.
Opponents say the law is xenophobic and will lead to people being stopped on the streets simply because of the way they look.
But officials in Arizona, which borders Mexico, have argued the U.S. administration has failed to secure the frontiers, and they are overrun by illegal immigrants.
They maintain that a lucrative people-smuggling trade has triggered a spiralling crime rate fed by simultaneous trafficking in drugs and guns.
Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the legislation into law in April, vowed to lodge a swift appeal, saying she would take the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This fight is far from over. In fact, it is just the beginning, and at the end of what is certain to be a long legal struggle, Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens," Brewer said in a statement.
But civil rights groups welcomed the ruling.
"It is very much a major step that will help protect the residents of Arizona against additional profiling and discrimination," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, director of the Arizona American Civil Liberties Union.
Opponents of the law said rallies, marches and acts of civil disobedience protesting the law would proceed Thursday.
Thousands of demonstrators from local and outside groups are expected to rally against the legislation.
Judge Bolton is currently hearing seven suits against the law, which for the first time in the United States -- a nation built on generations of immigrants -- would make illegal immigration a crime.
She said the U.S. administration "is likely to succeed" in its argument and issued a preliminary injunction suspending the section of the Arizona law requiring police officers to check the immigrant status of any person they have stopped.
She also blocked a provision making it a crime to fail to apply for or carry proper papers, and another section making it a crime for illegal immigrants to apply for or perform any work.
White House lawyers have argued immigration policy is exclusively the government's responsibility and that state laws cannot trump federal rules or the U.S. Constitution.
President Barack Obama took a strong stand against the law, calling it "misguided," and ordered the Department of Justice to examine its legality.
But his administration has also brushed aside criticism from the right that it has not been tough enough on illegal immigrants, noting that officials are on track to deport some 400,000 illegal immigrants this year -- about 10% more than the Bush administration and the most in U.S. history.
"Over the past 18 months, this administration has dedicated unprecedented resources to secure the border," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said in a statement responding to the court decision.
Lydia Guzman, an activist with Somos America, an immigrant rights group, said she felt validated by the ruling.
"We're going to continue do it, to work hard, until we get immigration reform," she said.
The Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling saying it "affirms the federal government's responsibilities in enforcing our nation's immigration laws."
The row over the Arizona law has thrust the issue of the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants once more into the spotlight, after a series of failed legislative attempts to bring them out of the shadows.
Recent opinion polls have found more than 60% of the U.S. population supports the Arizona immigration law.
One in three of the 6.6 million people in Arizona are foreign-born and an estimated 460,000 are illegal immigrants, most of whom are Mexican.
Cheech and Chong will get The Simpsons treatment on the show's upcoming season, show-runner Al Jean let slip during a panel at Comic-Con on Saturday (along with news of a visit from the cartoon cast of Glee and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg).
Slated to air in the spring of 2011, The Hollywood Reporter has learned the episode -- written by Dan Castellaneta (who voices Homer) and Deb Lacusta -- spoofs the more than two decades-long break-up of the iconic stoner duo, in a depiction which Tommy Chong declares is "the best one yet."
So what happens when three of America's dopiest characters get together? Besides an inevitable donut binge, plenty of laughs, Chong promises. Homer, being a big fan of the comedy team, joins Cheech in a new duo called Cheech and Chunky, while Chong pairs up with a Springfield teacher for Teach and Chong.
"Homer thinks Cheech is the party animal, like his character, but soon finds out that the real Cheech is quite a bore," says Chong. "Eventually, the two teams end up on the same bill and argue over who should go on first."
Cheech Marin and Chong recorded their parts with the rest of the cast last month. "It only took a few hours," Chong marveled, "and was a great experience and a thrill to work with the Simpsons family."
Apple Inc. has announced it will sell an unlocked version of its new iPhone 4 when it goes on sale in Canada on Friday.
The unlocked version of the phone, which will be sold by Apple directly on its website and through its Apple Stores, will allow consumers to pick which cell company they want to sign up with and negotiate a monthly plan that suits them.
The unlocked phones will be sold in addition to iPhone 4s that are tied to specific wireless carriers, such as Rogers and Bell.
The unlocked versions of the iPhone 4 will sell for $659 and $779 for the 16-gigabyte and 32-gigabyte versions, respectively.
It is expected that the models that are tied to a carrier will be cheaper than the unlocked versions, as they will be subsidized by the carriers and require longer-term contracts.
Typically, signing a long-term contract with a carrier gets consumers a bargain on the handset.
Those willing to sign a three-year term with Rogers or Bell can buy the older iPhone 3Gs, with eight gigabytes of internal memory, for $99. That's a $450 saving over its non-subsidized price.
Tony Olvet, a telecommunications analyst with IDC Canada, said the costly unlocked version of the phone will appeal only to a small segment of the market in Canada. He said the price makes it one of the three most expensive phones available to Canadian consumers.
"Canadians have become very used to having a portion of their phone subsidized," he said. "History has shown that Canadians are willing to give up some freedom by signing a contract in order to get something in return, and that is a highly subsidized phone."
Olvet expects the new iPhone to meet fierce competition.
Google's Android operating system continues to make inroads on various cellular phones, and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices are still selling well. As well, he said, technical issues with the phone may temper some of the enthusiasm and force consumers to ask more questions before opting to buy the device.
A day after it launched in the United States, buyers started complaining that the phone drops calls when held a certain way. Apple has acknowledged that the phone has antenna issues and is giving away free rubber cases that the company claims will improve reception.
"Consumers will think twice and ask a few more questions. It was a major headline," said Olvet. "That will make Canadians, who are typically more conservative, take further steps to qualify the purchase."
Despite the reception problems, more than 3.5 million iPhone 4s have been sold in the U.S. since the launch of the latest model on June 24. Canada is among 17 countries that gets the iPhone 4 on Friday.
Lindsay Lohan will just have to make do with prison visits from her momager and sis for a few more days. Though her lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, previously told media that there was "hope" her client would be released sometime this week, Lohan will be shedding tears in her jail cell a few days longer.
"Nothing has changed," L.A. Sheriff's Department rep Steve Whitmore told Us Weekly. "When she was incarcerated, I said a couple of weeks and it hasn't been a couple of weeks. That turns out to be the first part of next week. It could be Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, something like that," Whitmore continued.
And while we're sure Lohan-watchers everywhere are thankful for Whitmore's assistance with the math, there's still the pressing matter . . . of Lohan's hair extensions.
Yes, Lohan's still wearing hair extensions, Whitmore confirmed to the L.A. Times, but not because she's a Century Regional Detention Center VIP. According to the Times, Whitmore said Lohan's fake hair was OK by prison standards because they're not of the easily detached variety. Her extensions are affixed to her hair.
Blockbuster Canada, seeing its U.S. counterpart left on the ropes by Netflix south of the border, has introduced a monthly movie rental pass just weeks after Netflix announced that it would bring its movie-streaming service to Canada sometime this upcoming fall.
Canada's largest video rental chain said Canadians can purchase an unlimited DVD movie rental pass for $9.99 a month. The move follows Netflix on July 19 unveiling plans for Canadians to soon download its movies and TV shows for a still-to-be determined monthly fee.
There are restrictions on Blockbuster Canada's "Favourites Pass," including no rentals of Blu-ray or new movie releases, and only one disc to be taken out at a time, which is terrible in contrast to Netflix in the U.S., or Zip.ca here in Canada.
The company last year dropped the price for new movie rentals to $3.99 to help consumers during the economic downturn, and fend off new competition from discount chains like Walmart Canada. However, with the $3.99 rental price comes late fees of $1.00 per day for each additional day beyond the prepaid rental period, unless you pay $5.99 for a seven-day rental periods, which doesn't come with late fees.
But with Netflix entering the Canadian market now, it does threaten to turn the local movie rental business upside down... potentially.
Netflix will not provide a DVD-by-mail service in Canada, at least for now, and has given no pricing details for its Internet streaming service.
Closing arguments at the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich took a sharp detour Monday as one of the former governor's lawyers all but vowed to defy an order barring him from calling out the prosecution for failing to summon key witnesses to testify.
In calm but stern tones, U.S. District Judge James Zagel threatened to hold Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam Jr. in contempt if he proceeded. Adam said he might just try it anyway, prompting Zagel to suggest the Blagojevich legal team could sub in a different lawyer to sum up their case if Adam remained unwilling to comply.
"I'm willing to go to jail for this, your honor," declared Adam, a lawyer known for courtroom bombast. "I cannot follow your order on this."
At its most basic, the standoff meant that Zagel's plans to send the case to jurors by Tuesday may be pushed back. He gave Adam and his colleagues the night to think over how they wanted to proceed.
Less clear in a case that has been marked by strategic displays of showmanship on both sides was whether Adam's emotional outburst was borne of genuine indignation or whether it was another piece of stagecraft aimed at jurors who might, in defiance of orders, surreptitiously peek at news coverage.
Adam was challenging a ruling by Zagel on Friday that forbid the defense from making what is known as a "missing witness" argument. Blagojevich's team wants to point out to jurors that government lawyers originally suggested they would call up to 35 witnesses but ended up questioning only 27.
Among those omitted was convicted fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who the government claims is at the heart of many of the conspiracies for which Blagojevich is charged. Prosecutors also chose not to call to the stand alleged victims of attempted extortions by the former governor, most significantly former U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who is now the White House chief of staff.
What Adam hoped to do was telegraph to jurors that prosecutors may have pared down their witness list to keep people off the stand who might have undermined the government's case.
On Friday, Zagel told the defense he wouldn't allow the "missing witness" argument because Blagojevich's lawyers enjoyed subpoena powers and could have called any of the same people to the stand but didn't do so. Indeed, after months of vowing to mount a vigorous defense, Blagojevich's lawyers chose at the last minute not to put their client on the stand or present any other witnesses.
Overhanging much of the trial has been a clear culture clash between the more aggressive and fanciful legal styles on display in Cook County Criminal Court and the more precise and sober atmosphere of the federal court system. Adam and Blagojevich's other lawyers are largely creatures of the Cook County system and have repeatedly sought to push the envelope with Zagel.
Legal experts said the rules on making a "missing witness" argument are more lax in state court. In federal court, veteran attorneys said judges may allow lawyers to point out that a certain witness was not called but typically put sharp limits on telling the jury that it could infer something negative from that.
"There are many ways a defendant can point out things he thinks are missing from the government's case," said lawyer Joel Bertocchi, who specializes in federal appeals. "But the law does not favor an instruction or an argument that someone who was not actually called would have testified a certain way. It seems like speculation about something that never happened."
Leonard Cavise, a DePaul University law professor who listened to the closing arguments Monday, saw Zagel's ruling in a different light. "It's within the judge's discretion," Cavise said. "And, in my opinion, it's an abuse of his discretion."
The Adam flap upstaged everything else, but the day's first argument was given by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Niewoehner, who wasted little time accusing Blagojevich of being at the center of a conspiracy to use his office for his own gain and pointing at what has become the signature quote of the case.
"I've got this thing, and it's (expletive) golden, and I'm not just giving it away for (expletive) nothing," Blagojevich had said of his ability to name a U.S. senator to succeed Barack Obama.
"That was the governor of the state of Illinois talking, scheming and announcing he was going to do his absolute best to make money from this newfound power," Niewoehner told the jury.
"He basically went on a shopping spree," he said later.
In giving the government's first closing argument, it was Niewoehner's job to walk jurors through the law that applies to the case. His two hours and 40 minutes were filled with long explanations of the more than two dozen criminal counts against Blagojevich and his brother, Robert, and definitions of key words such as "bribery."
"Asking for, directly or indirectly, or agreeing to accept, anything of value in exchange for a promise for, or performance of, an official act," said Niewoehner, methodically using a slideshow to make his points.
His presentation clearly was designed to give the jury as much information as possible to avoid potential snags during deliberations. Early and often, Niewoehner addressed potential trouble spots for prosecutors, such as the reality that many of the Blagojevich schemes were not seen through to a successful conclusion.
It's not necessary in a conspiracy case, he told the jury. "Talking is the crime here, ladies and gentlemen."
Niewoehner was followed by attorney Michael Ettinger, arguing for Robert Blagojevich, who took a job as head of his brother's campaign fund just as federal investigators were closing in. Ettinger portrayed his client yet again as a former military man, businessman and Republican who was so disconnected with his brother's world and Illinois politics he was little more than a "scorekeeper" who kept tabs of donations.
Blagojevich decided to leave Nashville, Tenn., and join his brother in August 2008 to head Friends of Blagojevich out of loyalty to his younger brother, not because he had any unique skills in fundraising, Ettinger said.
"He did not come up here to extort," said Ettinger, working off handwritten notes on loose-leaf legal paper. "He came up here to fundraise."
Going through the details of the prosecution's case, Ettinger insisted that Robert Blagojevich focused on fundraising from only people whose names he was given by others in his brother's circle and knew nothing about any plans by the governor to take or not take various state actions that could have affected those same potential donors.
Though Robert Blagojevich is charged in connection with various schemes, the most significant is his alleged involvement in scheming to get $1.5 million in campaign contributions from Indian businessmen in the Chicago area who backed the governor naming U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. as Obama's replacement in the Senate.
As for what Tuesday will bring, Adam would not comment on the judge's ruling as he walked briskly out of court, but he made it clear he was displeased by it.
"You can tell by my face how I feel about this," said Adam, telling reporters he would huddle with the rest of the defense team to figure out whether he will still give the closing.
"I've been working nonstop all weekend. I'm tired," said Adam, repeating he was prepared to go to jail to put on the best defense possible. "My job as a lawyer is to do everything I can for my client, and if that's what it takes ... in a heartbeat."
Mississauga, Ontario-based Walmart Canada Corporation has been fined $120,000 in connection with safety act violations that led to injuries for one store employee and one customer.
On January 19, 2009, a store worker in Welland, Ontario fell from a ladder while retrieving boxes of toys from an overhead shelf, injuring an arm. In a separate incident on September 27, 2008, a customer was hit by a forklift outside of a Barrie store and sustained foot injuries.
A Ministry of Labour investigation revealed that the retailer failed to ensure conditions were safe for work in both cases.
The company eventually pled guilty to two Occupational Health and Safety Act violations and was ordered in court to pay both a fine and a 25% victim fine surcharge.
A 20-year-old Maple Ridge, B.C. broad who claims she was shot twice with a rubber bullet while protesting in Toronto last month is suing the Toronto Police Service, according to reports.
Natalie Gray told the CBC she was shot once in the chest and once just above her left elbow.
Cops deny that they shot rubber bullets at the group of about 150 protesters, who were marching in a 'police-approved route' to a temporary jail set up in a former film studio on June 28, the last day of the G20 conference of world leaders.
The broad was later charged with obstructing a peace officer.
Cops explained that the shots were not rubber bullets but "muzzle blasts" -- harmless blanks meant to scare protesters, not hurt them.
When Ken Anderson was just 15, his mother, Shirley, made it clear: she didn't want him anymore.
Ken's father, a long-haul trucker, had been transferred from Osoyoos, British Columbia. Although their marriage was rocky, Shirley followed, taking her second-youngest son, Darryl, with her. Meanwhile, Ken was left behind.
Ken had plenty of time to think about it as he wiped bug splatter off car windshields and pumped gas, lucky to pick up some shifts at the local gas station to make a buck. He says he can't even remember how many couches he slept on, or how he kept himself going. He just knows that he never got to go to a prom, finish high school or even think about college.
The way he sees it, he never really had a mother. On August 3 and 4, Ken, who is now 46, will face off in B.C. Supreme Court against the woman who gave birth to him.
Shirley Anderson, now 71, is suing Ken and four of his five siblings for parental support. The case has been dragging on for years, but the August hearing should complete it.
Shirley has dusted off a little-used section in British Columbia's Family Relations Act that legally obliges adult children to support their "dependent" parents.
Section 90 is considered archaic by many legal experts.
Provincial Attorney General Mike de Jong, whose white paper on family relations reform was released this past week, recommends the statute be repealed. The Parents' Maintenance Act was put on the books in 1922, in a radically different socioeconomic climate than exists today.
"This dates back to the recession after (the) First World War," explained Kevin Zakreski, a lawyer with the Law Institute of British Columbia.
Zakreski authored a report, commissioned in 2007 by the Ministry of the Attorney General, which examined the issue.
The Law Institute's report explains that with no public pension program and an "alarming state of unemployment," local governments wanted to keep the poverty-stricken and sick from becoming wards of the state.
The report concluded the statute is out-dated and generates litigation that is frustrating for both families and courts, and recommended repealing the section entirely. However, the statute is still in place and legislation to change section 90 is far from a done deal.
The Anderson case raises concerns given that life expectancies are greater than ever before. With the cost of living and of long-term care skyrocketing, who is going to pay the bills for an expanding population of elders?
What duty, moral or financial, do any of us owe our parents?
Ken is too overcome with a sense of injustice to know what is more of an affront: that the statute exists or that the woman who abandoned him even meets the definition of "parent."
Ken says it's been nearly two decades since he even spoke with his mother. "The only time she ever called was to ask for money."
His voice is so clouded with emotion he can barely get the words out.
"She wouldn't know her grandchildren if they passed her on the street."
Ken's wife, Sherry, will be representing him in court, as they can't afford a lawyer.
All four siblings named in Shirley Anderson's case -- Brian, 52; Donna, 50; Keith, 48; and Ken -- have decided to fight.
The stress of prepping for the court case has tested the relationships of the siblings and strained their marriages, but they share one unshakable conviction: that it's unfair for the law to compel them to provide for a woman who they allege did not provide for them, and abandoned Ken outright.
With the exception of Darryl, the second youngest, who has bounced in and out of jail for most of his adult life, all the kids have been estranged from Shirley for close to two decades.
Donna Anderson breaks down in tears when she recalls her tumultuous childhood with the "mother we never had."
Anderson, who left home at 18, put herself through college and now is the mother of two kids, both of whom she is putting through school.
She feels so strongly about the way her mother treated her she says she won't pay a dime. "They can take me to jail."
Section 90 is missing a key evaluative criterion, Donna said: "What a parent is should be defined."
But the court doesn't care whether Shirley Anderson was a good or bad mother. Neither does her lawyer, Donald McLeod of Victoria.
"My interest, quite frankly, is to see that someone is treated right, and that's all I care about," said McLeod, who has never met his client, though they have talked on the phone.
What kind of mother she was, or is, shouldn't matter, says McLeod, who picked up the case through Pro Bono BC. "To engage in any analysis of who is at fault, I think that is a useless exercise."
Carol Usher, a chambermaid at an Osoyoos motel, remembers seeing Kenny around town looking lost. The mother of two young girls, Carol had her hands full already, but she knew this boy was on his own.
"I just went and talked to him," Carol said. "He was a good kid. You could see he was mixing with the wrong crowd. He didn't have a place to hang his hat."
Carol wanted to scoop him into her arms like a stray pup. One day she talked to Joe, her husband. Couldn't they just give the kid a place to stay?
Joe Usher is 64 years old now, and he's been making a living as a heavy duty mechanic in Osoyoos about as long as he can remember.
Back in the 1970s, he says he was "pretty good friends" with Ken's father, Gary. Gary drove for Labatt back then and Usher worked on the rigs.
He didn't know Shirley very well, but from what he'd seen he was pretty sure about one thing: "Ken's life was bad. He was bounced around from friends' houses, left to fend for himself."
Joe says that when Kenny was about 12, Shirley Anderson "seemed to change. She didn't seem to care for nobody," he says.
If it was "a bad situation" when Ken lived with his mother, being out on his own at 15 was just another kind of bad.
He was shy, too. He didn't want to come up and eat with the family. He also didn't want to get in anyone's way. Kenny was a survivor, and that was obvious, but he had yet to learn how to live.
"When we got started with him, he didn't have no house skills," Joe said.
He didn't know to pick up his clothes and throw them in the hamper. Carol did his laundry, but she told him a thing or two, as well.
Joe took Ken on board at the shop, taught him heavy mechanics, how to work on a truck, how to drive.
After a couple of years, he said, Kenny had almost become part of the family. As the court date looms, the anxiety grows, and so does the paperwork.
The four kids have been ordered to provide financial statements, income and expenses going back ten years. Sherry estimates that since the case was first heard in May, she has assembled another 500 pages of required documents and made 2,075 photocopies.
"Yesterday my mailing was $45. One document is 311 pieces."
She begins to cry. The stress is killing them, she says.
"The toughest part (for Ken) is he's had to admit that the things that went on..." she pauses, then says carefully, "...that there was dysfunction."
The other siblings, who spoke at length with The Vancouver Sun, mince no words: their upbringing with Shirley, they allege, was "harsh" and "brutal."
Over the years, Brian said they've each tried to build a relationship with Shirley. Brian bought her a fridge. Donna attended counselling with her mother and Darryl.
"Nothing was ever enough," Keith said.
Keith, who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, and is a warehouse worker with two teenage daughters, says he hasn't talked to his mother in years.
"She doesn't even know we're alive," he said. "She never worked and she's never worked at her family either."
Shirley first made the claim against the kids in 2000. The judge awarded her an interim judgment of $50 a month, $10 from every child.
Since the interim judgment, she has dropped her son Darryl from the lawsuit, presumably because he has been in and out of jail for so many years it would be impossible to collect anything from him.
Shirley Anderson did not return calls from The Vancouver Sun, but McLeod, her lawyer, says he hopes to get the interim judgment substantially increased. "She's only asking for $300 to $350 a month from each of them."
When the case is heard by B.C. Supreme Court, all four kids hope their voices will be heard.
They hope that their history will be taken into consideration but they fear the worst.
This is a fucked up story and I hope that the kids will not have to pay the old broad a penny.
While most jumped for joy after Canada won Olympic hockey gold, others may have died from the excitement, an expert says.
Dr. Martin A. Samuels calls such deaths "voodoo deaths," caused by fright or high stress, a phenomenon he has been studying for 40 years.
The deaths are caused by a toxic amount of adrenalin, which can damage the heart tissue quickly enough to kill someone, he said, adding his research has proved that being frightened to death is a physiological phenomenon.
Samuels, chair of the department of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, presented his findings in Vancouver during the weekend.
BP Plc. is expected to appoint an American trouble-shooter as chief executive in the next 24 hours, replacing Tony Hayward, who has come under fire for his handling of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Bob Dudley, an American who is managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is poised to get the top job in a move that could soften U.S.-led attacks on the British oil company, sources close to the company say.
Shares in BP, which has lost 40% of its market capitalisation since the blast that caused the spill, rose 2.5% to 408.26 pence by 1022 GMT.
In a statement on Monday, BP dropped its previous language insisting that Hayward remained chief executive officer with the full support of the company's board and management.
"BP notes the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management and the charge for the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters," it said.
If Hayward leaves as it is expected, he will be the third of the last four BP CEOs to be forced to stand down early. John Browne left after lying in court papers about a gay love affair, and Bob Horton was pushed out over strategic disagreements in 1992. The sources said BP's board, meeting in London on Monday evening, would discuss a plan for the exit of Hayward, a geologist whose ill-chosen comments exposed BP to criticism.
The boardroom drama unfolded as the company was due to report an eye-popping second-quarter loss on Tuesday given the financial impact of the environmental catastrophe that at one stage lopped $100 billion from BP's market value.
Hayward, who is 53, drew wide criticism in the United States for complaining he wanted his "life back" weeks after the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig killed 11 workers and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Angry American lawmakers also lambasted him at a congressional hearing where he was accused of ducking responsibility for the spill.
Dudley, who was raised in Mississippi, would be the first non-Briton to become CEO of BP. He was previously head of BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, until he was forced to flee the country amid a spat between BP and its oligarch partners.
"In order to give the new CEO a fighting chance, we expect BP to write down the $20 billion clean-up costs this quarter. We therefore anticipate that the company will post a loss in the order of $15 billion this quarter," Arbuthnot analyst Dougie Youngson told clients in a note, maintaining his "sell" rating.
Analysts at Barclays bank said BP could report a loss for the second quarter of $13 billion as it makes provisions of up to $25 billion for the cost of the spill. Those figures would far outweigh an expected 77% jump in underlying profit.
BP's efforts to contain the gushing oil have been watched closely by investors because its ultimate costs may hinge on how much oil is determined to have flowed into the Gulf.
With the well sealed since July 15 by a temporary cap, the board's concern has shifted to market preoccupation over Hayward's future, which is making it hard for the company to move forward, the sources said.
The imminent decision on Hayward's departure comes despite BP stating, as recently as Friday that the board was not even discussing the matter. BP's reputation has in part been damaged by accusations it has been less than frank in its statements. Under BP's terms of employment, Hayward would be entitled to one year's salary, or 1.045 million pounds, and he could be in line for additional payouts under the company's incentive scheme, which awards shares options.
Hayward would also keep his pension entitlements, which were worth 10.8 million pounds at the end of last year.
Clearing weather in the spill zone allowed work to resume on drilling a relief well to plug the leak that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf for three months.
A Transocean Ltd. rig was reconnecting equipment, a BP spokeswoman said. Vessels that had left the area on Friday to avoid Tropical Storm Bonnie were also returning.
Once the last bit of pipe is cemented in place near the bottom of the relief well this week, BP will begin a "static kill" the first week of August, the head of the U.S. spill response, Thad Allen, told reporters on Sunday. That entails pumping heavy drilling mud and cement into the well from the top to seal it off once and for all.
"We still believe that the market has overreacted on the way down and that this will be reversed as concerns are allayed as the company moves ahead with killing off the well," Panmure Gordan analyst Peter Hitchens said in a note, keeping a "buy" recommendation for BP stock with a price target of 600 pence.
Although Tony Clement has a high-profile day job as Canada's industry minister, the politician took on a very different role in a high-stakes river rescue near his Ontario home.
Mr. Clement, the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, was eating dinner at his home in Ontario's Cottage Country when he heard someone at his door.
"A youg woman said 'Help us, dial 911, my friend is in the river drowning" he told CTV News.
Mr. Clement quickly ran outside of his home and checked the waters of the Muskoka River, which runs past his home in Port Sydney, about 200 kilometres north of Toronto.
Meanwhile, his wife and father-in-law grabbed a pair of life jackets to help out.
"Further downstream there were rapids where she could have been in grave danger," said Mr. Clement, who plunged into the fast-moving river wearing his T-shirt and shorts.
But as Mr. Clement swam towards the woman, who is named Jennifer, he also became locked into the river's strong current, making it difficult to reach her.
As Mr. Clement swam to the shore, Jennifer began to float on her back and drift downstream. Moments later, Clement's wife and father-in-law were able to pull her onto shore.
The woman was distraught and sobbing after her harrowing experience, Mr. Clement said.
"Me and a couple of other people just kept talking to her, putting her clothes around her," Mr. Clement said. "We just wanted to keep her conscious and calm."
Close by, a male friend of the woman was lying on his back. He also appeared to have been in trouble.
"He'd been in the water too. We were worried that he was going into shock, so I kind of rushed over to him," said Mr. Clement, who gave him some dry clothes and called paramedics. "It was pretty intense."
Mr. Clement said that the experience reminded him that everyone needs to stay safe near bodies of water.
"We have many drownings every year throughout Canada," he said. "Know the water you're in. If you're not a strong swimmer, swim close to the shore line, have life jackets available."
With warmer temperatures than usual in many parts of the country this year, drownings have been on the rise. More than 200 people have drowned in Canada since January.
"It's great that people enjoy our lakes and our rivers, we're so blessed to have them, but people have to be careful," Mr. Clement said.
TBS plans to honour George Steinbrenner next week by showing ten Seinfeld episodes that featured a character in the guise of the Yankees' long-time principal owner.
The voice of the Seinfeld version of Steinbrenner belonged to Larry David, the show's co-creator, and the back and flailing arms was actor Lee Bear's. The episodes will be shown Monday through Friday at 7 and 7:30 p.m., Eastern time.
The tribute will open with "The Opposite," the fifth-season finale, in which George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, lands a job with the Yankees. On Tuesday night, in "The Wink," Steinbrenner lists all the people he fired. The tribute will end Friday with "The "Muffin Tops," in which George is traded for chicken concessions at Yankee Stadium.
Canada's economy grew 0.1% in May, led by the oil and gas extraction sector, Statistics Canada said Friday. Most economists had expected growth of between 0.1 and 0.2% for the month.
Canadian gadget gurus will get to bite into a new Apple product Friday: the iPhone 4.
The leader of the hybrid vehicles non-secret society is celebrating 10 years of spreading the eco culture throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The restart of a nuclear reactor that produced one-third of the world's supply of medical isotopes is now expected in August, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited said. 
Toyota has announced a voluntary recall of 4,200 Avalon vehicles sold in Canada to correct a steering problem.
Arizona's new immigration law went into effect Thursday stripped of a controversial provision that would have given police the power to check the immigration status of suspected criminals. 
Cheech and Chong will get The Simpsons treatment on the show's upcoming season, show-runner Al Jean let slip during a panel at Comic-Con on Saturday (along with news of a visit from the cartoon cast of Glee and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg).
Lindsay Lohan will just have to make do with prison visits from her momager and sis for a few more days. Though her lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, previously told media that there was "hope" her client would be released sometime this week, Lohan will be shedding tears in her jail cell a few days longer.
Blockbuster Canada, seeing its U.S. counterpart left on the ropes by Netflix south of the border, has introduced a monthly movie rental pass just weeks after Netflix announced that it would bring its movie-streaming service to Canada sometime this upcoming fall.
Was it a showdown or merely showtime?
Mississauga, Ontario-based Walmart Canada Corporation has been fined $120,000 in connection with safety act violations that led to injuries for one store employee and one customer.
A 20-year-old Maple Ridge, B.C. broad who claims she was shot twice with a rubber bullet while protesting in Toronto last month is suing the Toronto Police Service, according to reports.
When Ken Anderson was just 15, his mother, Shirley, made it clear: she didn't want him anymore.
Although Tony Clement has a high-profile day job as Canada's industry minister, the politician took on a very different role in a high-stakes river rescue near his Ontario home.
