Six stories in the news today, March 18

Six stories in the news today, March 18, from The Canadian Press:

IT’S 2016: WOMEN WILL OUTNUMBER MEN ON KEY FEDERAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau will announce the members of a key economic advisory council today and most will be women.The advisory’s council’s job is to come up with a plan aimed at pulling Canada out of its economic difficulties. Sources say in all the lineup of business and academic leaders will include eight women and six men.

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PARENTS OF DEAD NOVA SCOTIA MAN WANT MORE DETAILS SURROUNDING HIS DEATH

The parents of Jason LeBlanc want to know more about the circumstances surrounding his death in a Cape Breton Jail. Ernest LeBlanc says internal jail video shows his son gasping in the early hours of Jan. 31, shortly after police picked him up when he missed his curfew at a halfway house. Ernest LeBlanc says he thinks his son’s life could have been saved and wants to know what authorities did.

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VINDICATED SOLDIER FACES HEFTY LEGAL DEBT

A soldier who was acquitted of a number of charges in a court martial says his reputation is in tatters and he owes thousands of dollars in private legal fees. Wade Pear was accused of drunkenness, insubordination and making disparaging remarks. He says he is relieved he was acquitted but says he ran up to $8,000 dollars in legal fees. Pear says a court martial was originally scheduled for when he was still in uniform, but was postponed until after he accepted his retirement a few months later.

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HOMELESS YOUTH WITH PETS LESS DEPRESSED

A new study suggests homeless youth who have pets tend to have lower levels of depression than their counterparts who don’t.The study done by the Ontario Veterinary College found that homeless youth with pets were three times less likely to be depressed. They were also less likely to engage in potentially harmful behaviours like hard drug use. The study looked at 198 street youth in four Ontario cities who were in shelters and drop-in centres. The results are similar to a study done in California that looked at thebenefits of pet ownership on the health of seniors who live alone.

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OIL PLUNGE PUTS PINCH ON CHUCKWAGON ADS

It’s yet another sign of the tough times for Canada’s oil and gas sector. Last night they held the annual chuckwagon canvas auction for the Calgary Stampede.The event sees businesses bid for the right to have their logos advertised on the canvas coverings of the horse-drawn rigs featured in the Stampede’s biggest attraction. And the total take from the auction was about half a million dollars less than last year.

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SHAKESPEARE OFFERS INSIGHT INTO TRANS STRUGGLES

A British Columbia scholar is proposing that the struggles of a gender-bending spirit servant in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” offers valuable insights into life as a modern-day trans person. Mary Ann Saunders is an English professor at UBC.She says that after watching Julie Taymor’s 2010 Hollywood interpretation of “The Tempest” she was struck by the parallels between the antics of Ariel and her own experience as a trans woman.Saunders will present her theory at this week’s Moving Trans History Forward conference at the University of Victoria.

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