OTTAWA — Online sales and auctioning giant eBay called on the federal government Wednesday to legislate an end to the Canada Post contract dispute, warning that quick action is needed to ensure retailers don’t lose out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

The plea, contained in a letter sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, came as the postal service said recent rotating strikes by its employees have resulted in a historic backlog of undelivered parcels and packages.

“I encourage the government to explore all available legislative solutions to alleviate the current situation,” eBay’s general manager of Canada and Latin America operations, Andrea Stairs, wrote in the letter, which was also sent to Labour Minister Patty Hajdu and Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Continued rotating strikes at Canada Post will result in significant losses for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the country, Stairs warned, noting that smaller businesses are unable to negotiate lower shipping fees with other delivery services.

Concerns over ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’

While many businesses have adapted as best they can to the strikes that began Oct. 22, Stairs said adjustments online sellers have made so far to avoid delivery disruptions are unsustainable.

“Black Friday and Cyber Monday are critical sales opportunities for Canadian small and micro retailers, particularly those that sell into the U.S. — the largest consumer market in the world,” she wrote. “Should the Canada Post service disruptions continue through this key retail moment, these SMBs will be seriously disadvantaged in competing for U.S. demand.”

“Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” are major days for shopping discounts, tied to American Thanksgiving. This year, they’re Nov. 23 and 26.

A dispute about pay between urban and rural postal workers triggered rotating strikes last month.

The prime minister warned last week that his government would look at “all options” to bring the labour dispute to an end if there was no significant progress in Canada Post’s contract talks with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Trudeau did not elaborate on what actions could be taken, although the previous Conservative government passed legislation to end a two-week lockout of postal employees by the agency in 2011.

A spokeswoman for Hajdu said Wednesday the government recognizes Canadians and small businesses rely on the postal service, and encouraged corporate and union negotiators to keep talking.

“We urge both parties to reach a deal soon to reduce the impacts to Canadians, businesses, Canada Post and their workers,” Veronique Simard said in an email.

Canada Post said Wednesday it was facing an unprecedented backlog of shipments and warned the situation could escalate quickly.

CUPW members staged pickets in Toronto on Tuesday for the third time in the past two weeks. While the latest job action in Toronto had ended, by Wednesday morning the shutdown added to the items that need to be sorted and shipped from there, said Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton.

“At Gateway parcel processing plant in Toronto, we have now surpassed 260 trailers of parcels and packets waiting to be unloaded,” Hamilton said in an email.

“The union just took down their pickets but we are backed up beyond anything we’ve ever seen in our history. With Toronto out on strike, we also missed two days of customer pickups, which will likely push that trailer total over 300 today.”

The previous peak for backlogged trailers reached 220 during last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period, he said.

CUPW, which is negotiating contracts for 50,000 of its members in two divisions — urban carriers and rural and suburban workers — said Tuesday that Canada Post was refusing to address key issues, including health and safety, staffing levels, over-burdening and job security.

The Crown corporation, though, said it had made “significant” offers of increased wages and benefits, as well as added job security.

The two sides have been negotiating for almost a full year, with little success despite the assistance of government-appointed mediators.

Alma Loken was five months old when she was diagnosed with a genetic condition that involves medical problems and developmental challenges. “I guess we’re not going to the Olympics,” her mom, Melanie, remembers saying. “But I think we have a Special Olympics athlete on our hands.”

Now five years old, extremely social and very energetic, Alma is just that. She’s been involved with the Special Olympics Active Start program since she was just two. Once she’s older, she plans to start figure skating, and hopes to one day represent Canada at the Special Olympics World Games.

Alma has Williams Syndrome, a rare disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 people worldwide. It often involves life-threatening cardiovascular problems, and can cause a host of other medical issues as well: elevated blood levels, low birth weight and feeding problems, musculoskeletal issues and kidney abnormalities are all common symptoms. There’s also some degree developmental delay and learning disability, as well as speech problems.

But, like Alma, most children with Williams Syndrome are usually very social, with a genuine interest in the people around them and expressive personalities. You’ll see Alma’s energy and personality shine through in the video above.

The Special Olympics were founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968, several years after groundbreaking medical research by Frank Hayden, a Canadian doctor. In 1960, Hayden discovered that children with intellectual disabilities were in fact capable of participating in sports, and simply weren’t given the opportunity. This year marks the Special Olympics’ 50th anniversary.

Microsoft has won a “$480 million contract to supply prototypes for augmented reality systems to the Army for use on combat missions and in training.”

As reported by Bloomberg, this contract could lead to the US Army purchasing over 100,000 HoloLens headsets, intending to “increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy.”

While the U.S. Army and Israeli military have been running training programs with Microsoft HoloLens, these next steps would prepare them in use for live combat.

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While the Army will be using HoloLens devices, they will obviously be different than the consumer-grade products as they will look to “incorporate night vision and thermal sensing, measure vital signs like breathing and “readiness,” monitor for concussions and offer hearing protection.”

This contract’s bidding process was aimed at those who “aren’t traditional defense contractors,” and included HoloLens competitor Magic Leap.

Even though Microsoft secured the contract, many employees have not been happy about the company involving its products for use by the military. Last month, a blog post said to be written by Microsoft employees implored the company not to pursue a multi-billion dollar U.S. military contract and said “many Microsoft employees don’t believe that what we build should be used for waging war.”

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Following this, Microsoft’s president and chief legal office, Brad Smith, said the company would continue to sell to the military and that “employees with ethical qualms with projects would be allowed to move to other work within the company.”

“Artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other technologies are raising new and profoundly important issues, including the ability of weapons to act autonomously. As we have discussed these issues with governments, we’ve appreciated that no military in the world wants to wake up to discover that machines have started a war,” Smith wrote. “But we can’t expect these new developments to be addressed wisely if the people in the tech sector who know the most about technology withdraw from the conversation.”

Microsoft began shipping the Development Edition of its augmented reality HoloLens device in 2016 and while it has shown that amazing potential in the gaming world, it’s clearly the applications outside the gaming space that appear to be the future of this product.

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At E3 2018, Microsoft even confirmed that it has no plans to bring HoloLens to the Xbox.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who has always wanted to try the HoloLens. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.

OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall of Crisp & Delicious brand Chicken Breast Nuggets due to possible Salmonella contamination.

The uncooked breaded chicken pieces were sold in 1.6 kg packages with a best before date of July 19, 2019 (upc code 0 69299 11703 5).

They were distributed by Sofina Foods Inc. in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and possibly other provinces.

The recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

The CFIA says the recall was triggered by findings from its investigation into a foodborne illness outbreak.

Symptoms from Salmonella poisoning can include fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea, while long-term complications may include severe arthritis.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior pitcher/infielder Samantha Show (East Bernard (Texas) HS) and senior third baseman Sarah Williams (Robertsdale (Ala.) HS) have been selected as the MaxPreps/NFCA National High School Players of the Week for games played Feb. 16-22.

South Central
Show powered East Bernard to a 6-0 start with her arm and her bat. She was 4-0 in the circle with 0.00 ERA and 61 strikeouts to just two walks in 28.1 innings of work, while batting .750 (15-20) with four home runs, 13 RBI and 12 runs scored. She twirled a 17-strikeout (one walk) no hitter in a 1-0 win over Foster and combined on another no hitter two days earlier with 13 strikeouts and zero walks in 5.1 innings of work versus Bellville. Not to overlook the no-hitter, but against Angleton, Show struck out 20, walked just one and surrendered three hits in a 10-inning complete game, while going 3-for-5 with three home runs, three RBI and three runs scored in a 4-3 victory for the Brahmas. For the week, she surrendered just four unearned runs and held her opponents to a .081 (8-98) batting average. At the plate, she added five doubles, two triples, slugged 1.800 and posted a .762 on base percentage

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Williams batted .786 (11-14) with a double, triple, five RBI and six runs scored helping Robertson to a 7-1 start. Riding a seven-game hitting streak, Williams reached base safely in all eight games and recorded a pair of three-hit contests against Foley and Jackson. Against Jackson, she was 3-for-3 with a double, two RBI and a run scored. She scored twice against Cintronelle and tripled and knocked in a run versus Pine Forest. For the week, Williams walked five times, struck out just once in 19 plate appearances, slugged 1.333, posted a .842 on base percentage.

MaxPreps.com, the official high school statistical provider of the NFCA, provides all statistics for the NFCA High School Player of the Week award. To nominate a player for the award, the coach must enter his or her athlete’s game stats into MaxPreps.com by Sunday evening to be eligible that week.

The MaxPreps/NFCA High School Players of the Week are announced on NFCA.org every Monday during the spring season, with one representative chosen from each of five separate high school regions. During the fall campaign, just a single player is selected representing all participating regions.

MaxPreps is a free stat tool that is available to high school coaches across the country and is one of the most recognized and respected high school athletics websites on the internet. Coaches who enter their team’s stats on Max Preps will not only be nominating their players for this award, but they will be getting their team’s information out to thousands of high school sports fans and college coaches across the country.

To obtain a coach’s login, please contact [email protected] or call 1-800-329-7324 x1. To enter a team’s stats on the MaxPreps website, please click here.

Please note, in order for a school to have multiple player(s) recognized during the course of the season, a coach from that institution must be an NFCA member To become an NFCA member, please visit NFCA.org502-409-4600.

Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game talk show. This wee we’re discussing the PS4’s fifth birthday, Prima Games shutting down, Streets of Rage, and more. Watch the video above or download the podcast below.

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TORONTO — A raised bit of concrete on a sidewalk. An icy patch on the road. A misstep on the stairs at home. All of these can lead to accidental falls — landing a person not only on the ground, but often also in hospital.

Unintentional falls are the most common form of injury across the country: every day last year, falls resulted in almost 1,800 reported emergency department visits and 417 hospital admissions, says a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

In 2016-17, nearly 654,000 — or about one-third — of the more than two million injury-related emergency department visits were due to accidental falls, CIHI reported Thursday. Injuries from falls led to about 152,500 hospital admissions, up from more than 146,600 the previous year.

The average length of a hospital stay after a fall was 14.3 days, compared to 7.5 days for other medical reasons, the data showed.

Falls are the scourge of growing older, said Geoff Fernie, a senior researcher at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI), who is independent of CIHI. He notes that seniors have a higher risk of taking a fall and tend to have more serious injuries as a result.

“But it’s not exclusively older people,” he said. “We see a lot of young children falling down stairs and having serious head injuries.”

“We see middle-aged people running up and down stairs and having indoor stair accidents quite commonly. And we see a lot of workers having falls — and not just construction-type workers. People in the winter, people working in coffee shops and falling over in the car park when they get there in the morning.'”

In fact, almost 8,800 of fall-related injuries across Canada occurred as a result of people slipping on ice, CIHI data showed.

Falls within the home accounted for more than 114,000 emergency department visits last year, making it the most common place that people take a tumble.

“You keep seeing the incidence of falls going up and you see the injuries continuing to increase,” said Fernie, who has been researching falls and ways to prevent them for 30 to 40 years.

CIHI found hip fractures were the most common injury sustained in falls.

“The ones that we most worry about are hips because they’re extremely common and they are really difficult to get over if you’re an older person,” said Fernie, noting that studies have shown that between 20 and 40 per cent of seniors who break a hip die within a year.

CIHI found the second most common injuries were lower leg fractures — including 16,135 broken ankles — and head injuries (13,997).

“Head injuries are a big worry, too, because they can be very serious,” said Fernie. “You can have long-standing effects from head injuries and people can be off work for one to two years and become quite significantly affected.'”

Toronto Rehab runs a falls prevention program, primarily for seniors and those with disabling injuries or illness.

But researchers are also looking at ways to prevent falls at the “environmental” level, including helping to increase the depth of stair treads under the Canada Building Code, a move that was shown to save an estimated 27 lives and avoid 13,000 serious accidents in the first five years, he said.

Toronto Rehab scientists also began rating the safety of snow boots sold in Canada in 2016, resulting in some manufacturers improving their footwear and some retailers saying they would stock only winter boots given positive ratings for non-skid properties.

When it comes to preventing a fall, Fernie advises people, especially seniors, to maintain their fitness level to promote good balance and to keep muscles strong.

Wearing the right footwear is important, as is making sure steps and stairs in one’s home are in good condition and have decent handrails on both sides. Grab bars in bathrooms can also prevent falls.

Fernie said when he gives talks on falls, about a third of the audience will raise their hands when asked if they have a close relative who has taken a spill and been injured. But those who have not personally encountered a slip, trip or stumble tend to discount their potential seriousness, he said.

“We all think of cancer and heart disease and strokes as being the big problem — they are serious and you do sometimes die of them — but you also find that falls are extremely common and although they don’t usually kill you straight away, sometimes they do.”