By Canadian Press

You may be a millionaire in Quebec and budgeting for bling; In-The-News Nov. 27

Nov 27, 2019 | 3:19 AM

In-The-News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Nov. 27.

What we are watching in Canada …

MONTREAL — It’s back to work today for the Canadian National Railway workers who had been on strike for eight days.

CN and the union, Teamsters Canada, reached a tentative deal Tuesday to renew a collective agreement for more than 3,000 workers, ending a strike that halted shipments, triggered layoffs and disrupted industries across the country.

Normal operations at CN will resume today at 6 a.m. local time across Canada, the union said.

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Details of the settlement agreement, which must be ratified by union members, were not immediately available. Ratification is expected within eight weeks.

CN chief executive JJ Ruest thanked the railway’s customers for their patience.

“I would also like to personally thank our employees who kept the railroad moving safely at a reduced capacity” — about 10 per cent — Ruest said in a statement.

The union thanked the prime minister for respecting the workers’ right to strike and acknowledged the help of federal mediators and the ministers of labour and transportation in reaching the deal.

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Also this …

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bill Peters’ status as the Calgary Flames coach — and whatever future he might have in the sport — have been placed into question while the NHL and the team investigate allegations he directed racist slurs at a Nigerian-born player in the minors 10 years ago.

Asking for patience, general manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday that Peters remains with the Flames after the allegations raised by Akim Aliu on social media a day earlier.

Peters, who has not commented, stayed at the team hotel and was not with the Flames as they practiced for tonight’s game in Buffalo.

Aliu alleged Peters “dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music.”

It happened during the 2009-10 season while the two were with the Chicago Blackhawks minor-league affiliate in Rockford, Ill.

Treliving called the alleged comments “repulsive.”

“Allegations of this nature, we take very, very seriously. This is subject matter that has no place in our organization,” Treliving said. “Now it’s my job to find out exactly what’s taken place.”

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

TORONTO — Toronto police say they have charged a suspect who is accused of throwing buckets of feces at five people in three separate attacks.

Investigators say a man was arrested Tuesday night in the downtown area.

Samuel Opoku of Toronto is charged with five counts of assault with a weapon and five counts of mischief interfere with property.

The 23-year-old is to appear in court today. 

Police allege a man threw liquefied fecal matter on a woman and a young person on Friday at the John P. Robarts Research Library, on a man and a woman at the Scott Library on Sunday and at a woman on Monday.

Police have said the attacks appeared to be random.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, scheduling a hearing for next week as they push closer to a possible vote on actual charges of “high crimes and misdemeanours.”

The judiciary panel scheduled the hearing as the separate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released two last transcripts from its depositions, including from a White House budget official who detailed concerns among colleagues as Trump ordered them, through intermediaries, to put a hold on military aid to Ukraine.

Trump ordered the hold as he was pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats — the issue at the heart of the impeachment probe.

Multiple government witnesses testified in impeachment hearings held by the intelligence panel this month that Trump directed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to take the lead on Ukrainian policy and that Giuliani pushed an “irregular” diplomatic channel.

The Intelligence Committee is wrapping up the investigative phase of the probe and preparing its report for the next.

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has said the report could be released soon after the House returns from its Thanksgiving break.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

DURRES, Albania — The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Albania rose to 25 overnight as local and international rescue crews continued to search collapsed buildings for survivors.

Authorities said four more people had been confirmed dead early Wednesday, while more than 600 people were injured in the magnitude-6.4 quake that struck the country’s coastal cities.

In Durres, Albania’s second largest city, on the Adriatic Sea, residents slept in tents and cars and at a soccer stadium as powerful aftershocks from the earthquake continued.

Flags were flying at half-staff on public buildings around the country as Albania observed a national day of mourning.

The quake in Albania on Tuesday was followed by a smaller one in nearby southern Bosnia and another temblor Wednesday off the coast of the island of Crete in Greece.

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Weird and wild …

MONTREAL — Loto-Quebec is looking for the owners of five winning tickets for prizes of more than $100,000 — including two who will forfeit their winnings if they don’t come forward in the next few days.

The provincial Crown corporation says a $500,000 and a $250,000 prize have yet to be claimed off tickets bought in the Capitale-Nationale and Joliette regions.

The $500,000 winner expires on November 30, and the $250,000 ticket on Dec. 1.

In addition, Loto-Quebec says three people in the province have unknowingly become millionaires in recent months without stepping forward to claim their prizes.

Those tickets were purchased in the Laurentians, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Gatineau regions, and all expire sometime in 2020.

Winners have 12 months to claim their prizes. Unclaimed jackpots are put back into various lotteries in the form of special draws or bonus jackpots.

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On this day in 1987 …

Air Canada shut down its domestic and international operations, locking out 8,500 workers. A rotating strike organized by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had been disrupting flights in and out of major Canadian airports.

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Your money …

TORONTO — Jonathan Goldberg meets customers every day who are searching for an engagement ring that will wow their partner at his Toronto jewelry business Kimberfire.

But before many can even think about the ring’s size or cut, they are often fretting about something else: the price.

It’s not hard to understand why. Engagement rings can cost anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In a ploy to get people to spend more during the years surrounding the Great Depression, diamond company De Beers suggested dropping two months of salary on an engagement ring.

But Goldberg says, “We haven’t seen anyone calculate that in our office.”

These days he recommends engagement ring shoppers focus less on a decades-old rule and more on balancing what they are willing and able to spend with their partner’s preferences.

Reliable numbers on what consumers spend on engagement rings in Canada are hard to come by, but in the U.S, the average cost US$5,900 US, while one-third of people spend between $1,000 and $3,000, according to a survey from the Knot, a wedding services marketplace.

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The games we play …

WINNIPEG — Dayna Spiring never expected to have her name engraved on the Grey Cup when she joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ board of directors five years ago.

She was even more surprised to find out last week that having her name etched onto the CFL championship trophy would make history.

Spiring, who worked her way up to Chair of the Board this January, became the first woman to have her name appear on the Grey Cup after the Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the title game on Sunday.

“It’s surprising in a lot of ways and it’s about time in a lot of ways,” Spiring said Tuesday in a phone interview with The Canadian Press, moments after addressing a crowd at the Bombers championship rally in Winnipeg.

Spiring, born in Brandon, Man., moved to Winnipeg at age 11 and grew up watching the Blue Bombers.

She joined the team’s board of directors upon the urging of former Chair David Asper — who Spiring called “an iconic Winnipegger” — through a public nomination process in 2015.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2019.

The Canadian Press