By Canadian Press

In the news today: Encroaching wildfire prompts evacuation of Yellowknife

Aug 17, 2023 | 1:17 AM

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…

Evacuation ordered for Yellowknife due to fire

Residents of the capital of the Northwest Territories and two neighbouring First Nation communities have been ordered to evacuate by Friday because of an encroaching wildfire.

The evacuation order issued late Wednesday applies to Yellowknife, which has a population of about 20,000 people, as well as the nearby communities of Ndilo and Dettah.

The territorial government says residents living along Ingraham Trail and in Dettah, Kam Lake, Grace Lake and the Engle Business District are at highest risk and should leave as soon as possible.

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It says other residents have until noon on Friday to leave.

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Here’s what else we’re watching …

Decision opens up debate about consent, technology

A ruling that a man who secretly recorded consensual sex he had with two women constitutes sexual assault is opening a debate about how courts view the issue of consent when it comes to technology. 

Legal experts and lawyers say the decision out of Ottawa is unique and reflects the serious harm caused when someone’s intimate images are shared without their consent. 

The case in question involves Jacob Rockburn, who last week was sentenced to more than five years in prison after sexually assaulting two women by secretly recording and sharing their images on Pornhub. 

Experts say Canadian law is unclear about what to do when someone’s consensual activity is non-consensually recorded, and the question is whether that act makes the consent void, as is the case when it comes to someone who removes a condom during sex. 

Liberals called on to bridge social housing gap

Housing advocates and policy experts are calling on the federal government to bridge the gap between supply and demand for non-profit and social housing.

Canada is facing a shortage of affordable housing.

The federal government’s national housing strategy has been lauded as a return to the affordable housing space, but advocate Ray Sullivan says the strategy needs to be updated to match today’s need. 

The federal government has been hinting that it plans to roll out more housing policies over the next year, but Sullivan says he’s concerned it won’t invest enough money to address the shortage.

B.C. fire behaviour ‘extreme’ in hot, dry weather

The British Columbia Wildfire Service says hot and dry weather is contributing to “extreme fire behaviour” in the southern Interior as a ridge of high pressure settled over the province this week, sending temperatures soaring and further drying fuel in the forests. 

Neal McLoughlin, with the predictive services unit of the wildfire service, says the ridge of high pressure bringing the heat is expected to break down in a few days in the Interior. 

But he says once the unseasonable heat is over, the breakdown of the high-pressure ridge could bring strong winds, a cold front and dry lightning. 

He says the lightning could start more fires that would spread quickly with shifting winds and has the service “very concerned.” 

Canadians also need new postpartum drug: advocates

Maternal health experts and an advocate for people struggling with postpartum depression are hoping a fast-acting, short-term medication approved in the United States will soon be available north of the border.

Zuranolone is the first pill specifically designed for severe depression after childbirth, with relief that starts on Day 3 of a two-week regimen, according to two clinical trials.

Drug manufacturers Biogen and Sage Therapeutics received approval from the U-S Food and Drug Administration for the novel medication, marketed under the brand name Zurzuvae, earlier this month. 

A spokeswoman for Biogen says the companies are focusing on making the pill commercially available in the U-S later this year and have not filed an application seeking approval from Health Canada, but they’re exploring opportunities to make the drug available elsewhere.

Species affected by warming Gulf of St. Lawrence

From great white sharks around Quebec’s Îles-de-la-Madeleine to lobsters conquering new territory, oceanographers say the warming of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is having an impact on the creatures that live in its unique ecosystem.

Data from Fisheries and Oceans Canada show that deepwater temperatures have been increasing overall in the gulf since 2009. 

The news is worrisome to oceanographers, who say they’re already seeing the impact of the warming water on different species in the gulf, which touches five provinces at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

Philippe Archambault, a professor of oceanography at Université Laval, says that while ecosystem changes are a normal part of nature, the speed of change is striking, noting life within the ecosystem doesn’t have time to adapt.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2023.

The Canadian Press