News

Stephen Harper got the majority he was looking for. Canadians voted the Conservative Party into power in 167 of the 308 ridings.

A late surge from the New Democratic Party launched the party into becoming the official opposition with 102 seats. They earned most of their seats in Quebec where the Bloc Quebecois once reigned. The Bloc suffered a historic collapse in this province by losing all but 4 of their 49 seats. Adding insult to injury, once popular leader Gilles Duceppe couldn’t hold on to his seat and resigned as party leader.

Al-Quaida leader and wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden is dead. He was found and killed by U.S. Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Sunday night.

President Obama addressed the nation Sunday to confirm the reports of his death. He said the government had been following a trail they hoped would lead to bin Laden since August of last year. On Friday, deeming the amount of information they had collected sufficient, Obama gave the order to strike.
As the news was announced, scores of people gathered in front of the White House. They waved the American flag, cheered and sang the national anthem.

Two Canadian men were found dead in Hong Kong over the weekend. They were discovered in their room at a tourist hotel Saturday afternoon. Police say they also found an unidentified white powder near the bodies. 

Officials say it was the cleaning staff at the Metropark Hotel who found the bodies, one in the washroom and the other on a bed. Neither man has been identified. 

Autopsies will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

Quebec writer Louise Penny won her fourth Agatha Award in a row on Saturday for her novel Bury Your Dead. The Agathas are given to mystery novels first published in the US by a living author. Bury Your Dead is the sixth book in her Inspector Gamache series. Gamache, the protagonist, is a francophone homicide detective living in Outremont.

This is not the first time the mystery writer has won acclaim for the books. The last three Inspector Gamache books earned her other three Agatha Awards. Her novels been translated into over 16 languages. Penny is an international bestselling author.  She lives south of Montreal.

News read by Jessica MacDonald and produced by Erica Bridgeman

Stories written by Erica Fisher, Michael Lemieux, Aisha Samu and Jessica MacDonald

Victims of the Earl Jones Ponzi scheme will have a greater chance of reclaiming money lost from the illicit scam. A ruling by the Quebec court cancels several contracts still connected to Jones and his victims. This allows the 77 victims to begin to discuss tax reimbursements with the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenue Quebec. Together they paid an estimated three million dollars in income taxes based off of invented interest income created by Jones.

In national news, many Canadians decided to cast ballots in advance over the holiday weekend. Elections Canada estimated a 34% increase from the 2008 elections, with over two million votes this weekend. More than 676,000 canadians voted on Friday and over 823,000 voted on Monday.

According to the agency’s preliminary estimates, this represents the busiest days of advanced voting ever.