By Murray Sherriffs
When the OPP officer rescued Claire Bell on Highway 417, he gave her pieces of mango and Gatorade he had packed for himself to snack on during the search. She told the officer, “I’m waiting for mom, she told me to wait for her. Mom told me to wait.” Claire remains in hospital, her family is by her side, recovering from dehydration but ‘doing fine.’
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The girl’s mother, 34 year old Rachel-Ella Todd, charged with child abandonment, will be back in court tomorrow, to apply for bail.
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Police could recommend the Crown lay additional charges against the mother, but for now, remain over the moon at finding Claire alive.
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Claire’s mother pulled up to a farmhouse in eastern Ontario on the day she went and appeared “confused” and was “rambling.”
A witness and his mother encountered Rachel-Ella Todd, and has requested to remain anonymous, because of criticism of his family in recent days on social media.
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Days after the youngster was rescued, many are praising the work of police officers on both sides of the border, including Nancy Duncan, director of operations at the Missing Children’s Network who says the fact ”…we got this outcome after four days is; I want to almost say it’s almost a miracle. We were ecstatic, and it’s what we all hoped for.”
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Bill Dickson, spokesman for the OPP says the longer the search goes on, the higher the chance of a tragic outcome. This was the best ending we could hope for. ”He credits social media for the role people helped in finding the child; that without information from the public, it would have been very hard. We would still be there and her chance to be alive would be reduced.”
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An affordable re-housing facility to help homeless couples, has opened in Lachine and the people who run the Old Brewery Mission say ‘Tenaquip Place’ will offer refuge to couples who would otherwise be separated if they remained unhoused.
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Quebec Superior Court Judge Babak Barin has ruled Quebec’s Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility cannot remove the homeless camp on Notre Dame, between Pie-IX Boulevard and St-Clément, until the end of this month.
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Quebec Liberal Party Leader Pablo Rodriguez has named Liberal MNA for Saint-Laurent, Marwah Rizqy, as parliamentary leader and will answer Premier Legault’s questions over the next few months. =Laval police have charged 6 people in connection with vehicle theft and exports in Quebec and Ontario that focused on Land Rovers.
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Canada Lands Company plans will tackle Montreal’s housing crisis with a master plan for the redevelopment of the former National Film Board head office in Saint-Laurent and will offer affordable and market housing, encouraging economic development and create a living environment that’s open to the community.
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A man has been arrested after throwing pink paint at a glass-covered Picasso painting “L’Hétaire” at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
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The Quebec government is scaling back projections for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and blames the Trump administration for creating a ”challenging environment for advancing climate action” with its tariffs, that have ”…slowed down business investment, including in decarbonization”.
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There has been a five per cent increase in cases reported to Quebec’s youth protection services over the past year, and the latest annual report from the Director of Youth Protection cites the increase to public professionals seeking help from protection services, if a child is deemed at risk.
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Canada’s Competition Bureau is recommending an end to Montreal-Trudeau airport’s monopoly on international flights saying a competitive market would deliver “major benefits” for Canadians, from lower prices to better customer experience and end the domination of the market by Air Canada and WestJet.
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Former Longueuil elementary school teacher Kyle Le Huquet has been charged with 62 new counts, including child luring and production of child pornography.
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Have you seen that amazing video of a man and woman trying to steal a car on Palm Avenue in St. Henri, in front of an elementary school?
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Showers / 22 today
Sun / 26 tomorrow