Month: April 2019

On May 19, Meghan Markle will be the first American to marry into the British Royal Family since 1937. While this is a big deal in itself, turns out it’s so significant that the Queen won’t show the former actress any public affection in official royal documents until she becomes a U.K. citizen.

This fact came to light after Queen Elizabeth II signed the Instrument of Consent, which gives approval for her grandson Prince Harry to marry Markle.

“NOW KNOW YE that We have consented and do by these Presents signify Our Consent to the contracting of Matrimony between Our Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales, K.C.V.O., and Rachel Meghan Markle,” reads the document, which was made public over the weekend.

While this all sounds pretty standard, what some people found puzzling is the fact that the Queen referred to Kate Middleton as “trusty and well-beloved” when she signed the Instrument of Consent for her 2011 marriage to Prince William, but Markle did not receive the same affectionate treatment.

To explain this, royal reporter Emily Nash tweeted:

Another source told The Sunday Express the same thing back in March after royal fans thought the Queen shaded Markle in the formal Privy Council declaration, which is a separate document that also gives the couple permission to wed.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean the Queen hasn’t made an effort to welcome Markle into the Royal Family. Not only has Her Majesty made exceptions for the former “Suits” star (like letting Markle be the first fiancée to spend Christmas with her and her family), but it’s been confirmed that Kensington Palace will give Markle and her family their own coat of arms, as per royal tradition, which will be featured on the souvenir program at the wedding.

And although they’ve written zero words of affection to Markle on any royal documents thus far, the royals have made sure to pay tribute to her American heritage. The Instrument of Consent, for instance, is elaborately decorated with symbols to represent both Harry and Markle’s backgrounds.

While the left side of the document features the red dragon of Wales with floral symbols of the U.K. for Harry, the right features a red rose and gold poppies, which is the national flower of the U.S. and the state flower of California, respectively, for Markle, who was born in Los Angeles.

Although the 36-year-old is not currently a British citizen, she previously revealed that she has plans to become one after the royal wedding.

The Competition Bureau’s recent victory over the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) was supposed to be a seminal moment for Canadian homebuyers.

In deciding not to hear TREB’s appeal of a lower court ruling, the Supreme Court in effect sided with the Competition Bureau and its request that TREB release a trove of data about houses that it had kept off listings, including sold prices.

The ruling was expected to have nationwide ramifications. After all, the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case meant the lower court’s ruling is the law of the land, and as the Competition Bureau is federal, it’s a given it wants to see other real estate boards across the country share more data with the public as well.

But little over a week since the Supreme Court’s announcement, it’s clear that this opening up of data about home listings will be slow going, if it goes at all. While some websites have popped up offering the enhanced housing data on the Toronto market, real estate boards around the country aren’t exactly jumping to follow suit.

According to a report in the Prince George Citizen, realtors in British Columbia are still prohibited from offering this data, and the board heads there have not decided whether they will allow the data to be released at all.

“There has been no public pressure here to release home sale prices,” the head of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board said. (However, as the Citizen noted, some websites are defying the real estate boards and publishing the data anyway.)

But perhaps the most alarming thing about this is that the Canadian real estate industry has made it clear that — unlike virtually every other industry on the planet — it has no intention of joining the 21st century and improving the consumer experience through the use of Big Data.

In its statements since the Supreme Court decision, TREB has made it clear it will comply with the courts — but as narrowly as it can. According to reports, TREB has told its members the data cannot be “scraped, mined, sold, resold, licensed, reorganized or monetized in any way, including through the sale of derivative products or marketing reports.”

In other words, the board intends to continue preventing real estate businesses and websites from carrying out any kind of data analysis or aggregation with the numbers.

“For decades the real estate boards in Canada have been data rich and insight poor. The wealth of information TREB holds cannot be subject to data mining for the benefit of board members or the consumers,” Haider and Moranis wrote.

For TREB and other real estate boards, this is about controlling the narrative. The board releases sales and price statistics every month, which it calculates using MLS data. If anyone else were to crunch those numbers and find different trends, TREB would no longer be the lone authoritative voice letting buyers and sellers know what’s happening in the market.

Many homebuyers and owners see home sales and price data as public information — after all, you need this sort of information to make smart decisions about buying a home. But MLS data is, in fact, the property of the real estate boards, and they intend to use it to their advantage, not to the advantage of homebuyers.

It may be some time yet before the Canadian real estate industry is dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the data Stone Age.

WASHINGTON — The vexing issue of securing more American access to Canadian dairy remains the major obstacle to the two countries concluding their negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, says a top Trump administration adviser.

Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council, laid that out in the plainest terms possible during a televised interview Friday morning an hour before Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland started her latest meeting with her U.S. counterpart, trade czar Robert Lighthizer.

“I think the United States would rather have a trade deal with Canada, but it has to be a good deal, right? And the word that continues to block the deal is m-i-l-k, OK?,” Kudlow said on the Fox Business Network show “Varney & Co.”

“I’m just saying, ‘Let go. Milk, dairy, drop the barriers, give our farmers a break and we can fix some other things.’ So I want to predict. I’ll just say Bob Lighthizer is doing a great job and the president is encouraging it.”

Freeland isn’t talking specifics, having made a deal with Lighthizer not to negotiate in public.

But as she emerged Friday from her latest meeting with Lighthizer, she said the talks have entered a “very intense” phase of “continuous negotiations.”

Officials are meeting “24-7” and “when we find issues that need to be elevated to the ministerial level, that’s where Ambassador Lighthizer and I need to talk,” Freeland said, adding that “there continues to be a lot of goodwill and good faith on both sides. The atmosphere continues to be constructive.”

Freeland departed the headquarters of the United States Trade Representative for the Canadian Embassy. It wasn’t clear whether she would be speaking to Lighthizer again before the weekend.

Her departure was part of a familiar rhythm that has taken hold this week during her time in Washington — back and forth between the two locations, while officials continue the nitty gritty negotiations, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is kept in the loop in Ottawa.

The U.S. wants Canada to open its dairy market to greater American access, as it has done in two previous major trade agreements, with the European Union and in a re-booted Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The latter deal offered 10 other Pacific Rim countries access to 3.25 per cent of Canada’s dairy market — and most analysts predict the U.S. will settle for nothing less in NAFTA.

Trump also wants Canada to scrap its two-year-old pricing agreement that has restricted U.S. exports of ultra-filtered milk used to make dairy products.

Both those issues are non-starters for the Canadian dairy industry, which makes the subject particularly politically charged in Ontario and Quebec.

In addition to dairy, the two countries still have to resolve differences on culture and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism.

Canada and the U.S. are trying to agree on a text that could be submitted to the U.S. Congress by month’s end in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week.

The hope is for a trilateral agreement in principle that Congress can approve before Mexico’s new president takes office on Dec. 1.

‘We do love Canada’: U.S. president

Trump is threatening to move ahead on a deal that excludes Canada, but he also needs a win on trade ahead of midterm elections in November that will test his ability to keep control of Congress.

“We do love Canada,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Montana on Thursday night.

“They’ve treated us pretty badly in trade for the last 40 years, but that’s OK, it wasn’t my fault. We’re going to make a fair deal with Canada, just like we did with Mexico.”

Trump reiterated his desire to rename the 24-year-old continental trade deal after his “historic announcement” with Mexico.

“We’re replacing NAFTA with a beautiful new brand, because it’s a much different deal. It will be called the U.S.-Mexico trade deal,” he said to partisan applause.

Trump said he thinks Canada will join the deal. But if it doesn’t, the U.S. can live with that.

Costco is expanding delivery in Ontario following the success of its launch in July.

The wholesaler announced Friday it would be extending delivery of non-perishable groceries, health and beauty products and other household items across the province, with the exception of Northern Ontario.

The company didn’t announce any plans to change its two-day delivery model, which adds a delivery surcharge to every item ordered. But delivery surcharges are waived for orders over $75.

“We’ve been very pleased with the initial member reaction and our ability to meet their expectations which is why we are taking another step towards our ultimate goal of offering this service throughout the country,” senior vice-president Andrée Brien said in a press release.

Brien also said no timelines have yet been set for expansion of the service, which will go “from Windsor to Ottawa.”

Competitive grocery landscape

The company has been fighting for customers in an increasingly competitive grocery retail space.

Loblaw last year teamed up with Instacart to offer grocery delivery, starting in Toronto and Vancouver. Walmart Canada has had an online order and grocery pick-up service since 2015.

Recent Whole Foods partner Amazon has offered grocery delivery in Canada since 2013.

Personally, I tend to roll my eyes at catty lists of deal breakers when it comes to sex and/or relationships. We’re all wired differently, right? So why would a vast array of unique individuals ever come together in agreement on any one list of no-nos?

Some of us might enjoy being spat on or peed on or slapped or bossed around while others among us are horrified at the thought. But a kink does not a deal breaker make.

Sexy divas from all walks of life: consider the following four sex deal breakers the next time his paws give you pause.

Condom hesitation

Ok, this one should really be a no-brainer for anyone using condoms as a form of protection. Most, if not all, of us hetero gals have been in a situation where a guy has resisted wearing a condom, and many of us have had multiple instances of being so swept up in the heat of the moment that we get swept up in the heat of the bareback dream at the same time.

It happens to the best of us; take it from me. I’ve heard all manner of excuses come from the mouths of men: they can’t stay hard; they can’t cum; they will pull out; they are pro-abortion. If that last one made your jaw drop, then chances are, you get why any energy a guy makes you spend to protect yourself from unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections is energy far better spent somewhere else — or dare I say, on somebody else?

Bad hygiene

Many of us have been there ourselves: you’re less than squeaky clean and Mr. Lover wants to tear your clothes off and go downtown. There are ways to work the situation in your favour, like playfully moving the party to the nearest shower. Maybe you’ve had a guy take initiative and carry you over the threshold and into the shower before too.

There’s nothing wrong with cleansing your playdate, and it doesn’t speak ill of a person if they’re willing to go along with it. But if your man is dirty, and he resists cleaning up (for whatever reason), things can be less than desirable, let’s just say. Why not bring your best self to the sheets?

It’s one thing if you like inhaling his unwashed pheromones — lord knows I’m not knocking that. But there’s good dirty and bad dirty. Uncut nails fall into the bad dirty category, by the way—ouch!

Any lover worth his salt should want you to feel good, and not hesitate to make him feel good in the process.

Not enough foreplay

You gotta be ready for penetration before penetration occurs, am I right? You can’t have buddy just ramming himself into you when you’re not yet wet. Sometimes (or, always), it can take some foreplay to get you in the mindset and to get your girl in the slip-slidey game. Also: just because you’re moist doesn’t mean you’re ready.

Some guys may not realize it can actually be really painful when they go in without showing your sensitive blossom the love it requires. Anything less is disrespectful. I’ve actually told men when they need to stop and “warm me up” first, and I’ve had men tell me to just touch myself while they’re inside me — ignoring the fact that I just said I wasn’t ready. Ew. Lack of consent, much? Time to show this guy the door.

Lack of passion

Ok, you may balk at the word passion, and I get it. It’s kind of up there with the word “soulmate” at this point, and who’s banging any soulmates these days, right? Cynicism aside (I’m actually more of a romantic than I let on), your bedmate need not be your true love or anything, and you need not be in a committed relationship, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that dude should at the very least be really into it.

Obvious though this may sound, there does exist a breed of man who likes to play it cool — even in bed. If you want an ass-grabbing, heavy-breathing, grunting man who is moved by your every move (receptive, shall we say), well, you deserve one. Sex should be great, regardless of what kind of relationship inspires it.

Bottom line: consent and communication are paramount to any positive sexual experience. Anyone who fails to respect these basic tenets is very likely not worth a second go-round.

NSFW: This article was originally published on Bellesa.co

With recreational marijuana legalization nearly two weeks away, Canada’s largest airline has barred some of its employees from consuming cannabis, even when they’re off-duty.

Air Canada announced Friday that pilots, cabin crew, flight dispatchers and aircraft maintenance workers won’t be able to smoke weed whether they’re on or off duty.

The policy applies to “safety-critical” areas, where impairment would present an obvious issue for the airline.

But for companies where public safety is not at risk from cannabis consumption, can employers still dictate what their workers do in their private lives?

Katrina Ingram is the COO of Cannabis At Work, a company that provides education and training to employers and employees about their rights around consuming medical and recreational cannabis.

She told HuffPost Canada the answer is “technically, yes,” though there’s a distinction between medical and recreational users.

Employers have a duty to accommodate any employees who are medical cannabis users, she said, which could involve “reorganizing aspects of their job in order to ensure that safety is taken into account.”

“Recreational use is really governed by an employer’s drug and alcohol policy. And that is up to the employer to set that particular policy,” she said.

“So in terms of cannabis, do they have the right to do that? Technically yes.”

Ingram said she’s curious to know what Air Canada’s unions say about the issue, since they’d likely be treating alcohol differently from cannabis.

“I think it’s interesting that they’d be treating these two substances a little bit differently, and it’s probably borne out of a position of not really understanding what the implications are going to be for cannabis use,” she said.

HuffPost Canada has reached out to the Air Canada Pilots Association for comment.

Police forces divided

Calgary’s police force also announced last week officers will be banned from using cannabis while off duty, but Ottawa’s police force voted to allow it, provided workers don’t show up to work high.

“It’s not illegal and in that, we didn’t feel that we were in a good ground to say that we should prohibit our members from using it,” Ottawa deputy police chief Steve Bell told CBC News.

“Instead we said you’ve got to come to work and be ready to do your job.”

Watch: You could fail a drug test from second-hand smoke. Story continues below.

Ingram said employers are allowed to drug-test employees at specific times, such as upon hiring them, or after some kind of incident, which must be carefully documented.

“You can’t just go around randomly drug-testing people,” she said.

But part of the issue around workplace cannabis policies relates to what kind of drug tests are actually available, Ingram said.

THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, can stay inside a person’s blood long after they’re not actually impaired.

Ingram pointed out that THC can stay in a consumer’s fatty tissue, “so it compounds over time and it’s possible that someone may test positive for THC but not actually be impaired.”

“I think it’s a huge challenge to really understand impairment itself, just because we don’t have the testing in place to really gauge that well.”

“So I think the fallback position becomes using the tests that we currently have on the market, which aren’t necessarily all that indicative of impairment itself.”

Recently, I’ve spent a sizeable amount of time catching up on the just concluded Big Brother Nigeria reality show. Most of the comments, hate and controversy have centred on a particular housemate whose anger was better talked about than experienced. Luckily, there were no cases of violent outbursts, but the damage that was done verbally was ostensive and disturbing.

I’ve seen anger in various forms and have firsthand knowledge of the scars it leaves. I grew up in a home where domestic violence was almost a norm, and most of it could have been avoided if anger was properly managed. It was almost predicted that I would grow into an angry and abusive adult, cursing and breaking things in my wake, in reaction to anything that didn’t go my way.

However, I made a very conscious decision to be nothing like where I came from. The choices before me were simple: be an ill-tempered aggressive woman, or be even tempered and reasonable. What we aren’t told is that this is a choice you have to make every day, and many times, it’s hard to choose the latter option.

These simple tricks have helped me stay sane and kept the demon called anger at bay.

Identify your triggers

I learnt as I grew older that insensitivity and raised voices were a few of my triggers. Once I felt a certain level of insensitivity and aggression toward me, I got tempted to defend or express myself by throwing tantrums or expel my frustration by breaking something.

Hence, I made a decision to do the very opposite and walk away from these scenarios. Your triggers could be messy kids or unforeseen traffic, but the first step is to know what they are.

It’s often said that we cannot control the actions of the people around us, but we can control our reactions. You too can. Identify the ills that set your “anger-meter” racing to a dangerous red, and walk away anytime these scenes come on. Once the issue is diffused and you’re calmer, then you find that you’re in a better mental place to express yourself.

Visualize a bigger picture

Many people have relaxing pictures and words they use to calm the storms raging in their minds. It does work greatly when anger flares. However, what works for me is visualizing a bigger picture, or 10 scenes ahead. If life was a movie, and each moment was a scene, then we can be sure that each scene/angry moment would pass.

So try thinking of five or 10 scenes ahead of the moment in which you’re angry. The realization that life is moving, and that in the grand scheme of things this particular outburst isn’t worth it, could encourage you to simply let things go.

Laugh out loud

Humour is a great trait. It’s amazing how you can send serious messages on the wings of humour. You don’t have to speak aggressively when angry; you can think through your words and wreck less havoc. Take a moment to laugh, and then communicate your thoughts jokingly but succinctly. It does sound a little hard, but with practice, it becomes a natural impulse. Avoid drifting into sarcasm though, as that could do more damage than good.

Get some exercise, take a break

Sometimes lack of rest, exercise and healthy eating can leave one cranky and irritated. Other times, a fast moving office environment could introduce fatigue. These are very fertile grounds for anger to thrive! When you feel like your stress levels are on a hike, take a break, change your environment, go camping, engage in some exercises and don’t forget to eat well.

Forgive and Let go

My life literally changed the day I learned forgiving an offender was more to my benefit than theirs.

For the longest time, I felt forgiveness was doing a favour to an undeserving immortal, and so I held on to grudges for an unhealthy amount of time! Many still think this way. If only you knew the damage refusing to forgive can bring, you’d let go more easily.

Let go of every wrong that’s been done you, release every angry impulse with each breath and watch how easily you win this battle against anger.

It’s equally important to admit when it’s time to get some help. Sometimes after all is said and done, anger could still win. Consult a mental health professional in such cases. There’s no shame in doing that, as it’s just another means to a desirable end.