Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Monday, July 27, 2026

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters joins Teamsters Canada and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) in calling on Canadian National Railway (CN) to immediately stop operating trains through active wildfire zones and put the safety of Teamsters Canada rail members first.


A recent viral video on social media shows a CN freight train engulfed in flames while traveling through an active wildfire in Northern Ontario. The train was operated by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference members, whose quick thinking and professionalism ensured that no one was injured. But those workers should never have been put in that position. CN should never be sending train crews into such dangerous conditions.


for just the video, without the news anchors facebook.com/reel/1350124187104363/?s=single_unit

Saturday, May 02, 2026

amazing story of a farmer stuck under his tractor


The day began as any other for Cecil Harris, a farmer living with his wife, Bessie May near Rosetown, Saskatchewan. Hours later, when he didn’t return for supper, his wife grew worried.

It was nearly 10 p.m. when neighbors organized a search. They found Cecil pinned under his tractor on a remote part of the farm. The machine had slipped on the wet ground and rolled over, cutting his leg from ankle to hip. He was conscious but alone, bleeding, and trapped, with his leg severely fractured. He was rushed to the hospital, but Cecil died the next day.

While pinned, knowing he might not survive, Cecil took out his pocket knife and scratched a few words into the red paint on the tractor fender, "In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife," he wrote, and signed it as best he could. It was used as his holographic will. It was preserved, used as evidence in court, and within weeks of Harris' death, his estate passed uncontested to his wife, as per his clear wishes

Tuesday, April 07, 2026

an Automated Licence Plate Recognition system detected a pickup truck license plate was flagged as driving while under prohibition for defective brakes


During the traffic stop, officers discovered:

- The driver used a permanent marker on their license plates in an attempt to evade law enforcement by imitating a class designation that did not match their vehicle type.

- The MTO recently inspected the vehicle and deemed it unsafe for d
efective braking system and prohibited it from operating on public roads. Despite this, the driver continued to operate the vehicle

- Almost 2,000 unmarked cigarettes were located and seized.


Sunday, March 08, 2026

this MCACN barnfind '73 Citroën SM was extensively modified by prior owner



Bob Diemert was a self-educated engineer known in the aviation world for his meticulous restorations of  a Hawker Hurricane fighter (one of only 5 in existence!) and two Japanese Zero fighters.

He applied his aviation know-how and ingenuity to this SM, in some cases to increase its performance and in others, for reasons unknown.

he overcame the absence of the car’s original triple Weber carburetor setup by designing and fabricating a new intake manifold to adapt a Marvel-Schebler Ha-6 carburetor borrowed from a 1968 Beechcraft 23 Musketeer. To significantly increase power output from the SM’s V6 Maserati engine he added an AiResearch T04 turbocharger and nitrous oxide system.


Sunday, February 08, 2026

Col. Sam McLaughlin drove his McLaughlin buggy around 4 blocks to his office at GM Oshawa during the gas rationing days of WW2. (it may have been followed by his limo out of the camera frame)






McLaughlin Motor Car Company Limited was a Canadian manufacturer of automobiles headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario. 

Founded by Robert McLaughlin, it once was the largest carriage manufacturing factory in the British Empire. 

Robert McLaughlin founded the McLaughlin Carriage Company in Enniskillen, Ontario, in 1869. McLaughlin soon moved the company to Oshawa, a larger city a few miles away.

Around 1905, Robert's son Sam started building cars, and is most commonly associated with the McLaughlin-Buicks, it started out in car manufacturing building 154 of them in 1907.

In 1907,  Sam McLaughlin, son of Robert, created the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. after visiting the United States and discovering that automobiles were becoming a modern luxury. 

It was after this tour that R. S. McLaughlin decided to use Buick engines and chassis with McLaughlin bodies to create the McLaughlin-Buick automobile.

In 1915, the Chevrolet Motor Car Co. of Canada was formed.

In 1918, McLaughlin and Chevrolet merged with General Motors to create General Motors of Canada.

https://industryinoshawa.wordpress.com/transport/mclaughlin-motor-car-company/
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-elsinore-files/mclaughlin-canada-gm-descendant

Monday, January 19, 2026

the insurance company that didn't bother checking the security of Lockwood Leasing in Canada is learning how expensive it was to not verify that the cars couldn't be driven away by thieves. Some just did. Either the alarm wasn't switched on or there was no alarm of any value installed.

thieves broke into the dealership, pried open a lock box full of keys with a crowbar, then drove away a Ferrari 812 GTS, a Porsche 911 GT3, two Mercedes-Benz S580s and two BMW M4 models. 

What the hell was preventing the cars from driving away? Wet noodles? There were no blockers

10 thieves in the crew, simply smashed the glass door to the premises, used a pry bar to open the key safe, moved the furniture, and drove the cars away.

https://carbuzz.com/ferrari-812-gts-porsche-911-gt3-cars-stolen/

Saturday, January 17, 2026

1965 Meteor Montcalm, a Canadian car



I wondered where the hell did the word Montcalm come from? He was the general that lost the Battle of Quebec in 1759, sort of setting the course of Canada to British conquest instead of French rule

Friday, December 26, 2025

interesting railcar


So, why does the line end just in front of this, and without a wheel chock? 

Netflix has a documentary on car design, (lots of 90s Mopar concept cars!) focused on Ralph Gilles, head of design for Mopar/Dodge/Chrysler/FCA "Abstract: The Art Of Design" (Season 1 ep 4) and it seems you can watch it on You Tube



Of course you can watch it at home on your big screen too, on Netflix

I had no idea he was born in Montreal, whose parents were Haitian immigrants, who must have been incredible parents, he became the youngest, fastest achieving head of design of one of the major dozen car making corporations, and his brother became a doctor, was an emergency room Dr at St Joe's in Elgin Illinois, and now is a board member of Morris Hospital (both are in the Chicago area) 

Dr Gilles is now Medical Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Morris, prior to this, he practiced at hospitals throughout the Chicago area for nearly 20 years.

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

According to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), one man shipped about 2,300 cars from Canada to West Africa over several years, all without the paperwork required by the nation’s Customs Act. but failed to submit any of the mandatory export declarations required by Canadian law. Now, he’s facing a $26.7 million dollar fine for the oversight.


CBSA investigators in Halifax, Nova Scotia, first flagged the operation back in 2021. That concern led to a multi-year probe and involvement from agencies on both sides of the border. In July of 2023, officers executed two search warrants, both in London, Ontario.

During those searches, they gathered business and financial records, vehicle titles, bills of sale, cell phones, SIM cards, and other devices. From there, authorities sifted through some 750,000 records tied to the operation.

Under sections 95 and 124 of the Customs Act, the penalty can match the full value of the exported goods, which is exactly what happened here.

“The multi-million dollar penalty attached to the outcome of this investigation sends a strong reminder to commercial exporters that they will be held accountable for not respecting mandatory reporting requirements and Canadian laws,” Dominic Mallette, regional director general of CBSA’s Atlantic Region said in the news release.

The penalty ranks as one of the largest of its kind in recent years. While the government didn’t mention anything about stolen cars, Canada has long combated issues with such vehicles ending up on boats headed to West Africa.


the writer at Carscoops didn't ask how this exporter got away with this, that no one noticed, that no one asked to see his paperwork before exporting/shipping these cars. Doesn't the govt have a customs dept on the pier checking the shipping manifests, and seeing if all the proper paperwork has been filed? Was there corruption, Pay offs, or Bribes down at the pier? Was there just overall ineptness, and is that universal, and is this the method stolen cars are sent to (notice the destination) ONLY West Africa?

Manitoba's iconic "Orbit" highway garbage cans were space-age, fiberglass spheres used in the 1960s-70s to combat litter, featuring countdown signs like "Put your trash into Orbit!"



The program began with 10 Orbits set along the TransCanada Highway, but it was an immediate hit and more were soon added to highways around the province.

"The success of the Orbit trash cans … has prompted the province to order 100 more of these unique garbage cans," The Rivers Banner newspaper reported Oct. 14, 1965.

By 1969, there were 120 Orbits, which cost about $150 each, according to the Winnipeg Free Press that year. At its peak in the mid-1970s, the program had about 150.

Instead of being a long term successful program, too many idiots caused too many problems. 

Newspapers reported the cans being stuffed with oversized bags of household garbage, the occasional animal carcass, and even bags of sewage, which were blamed on commuters from cottage country. People began to leave old furniture and mattresses next to them as well.

By the late 1980s, there were only about 50 left, as the cost to replace damaged ones had grown to about $900 per unit. After 30 years, the Orbits fell from grace in June 1997 when the program was ended.

Monday, November 24, 2025

odd situation... an Ontario bridge has been downgraded to single lane, 8500 lb limit while under repairs, and police followed a 60-80k pound truck across the bridge and then ticketed him. Not preventing, but allowing, and thereby, an accomplice.



According to witnesses, the semi-truck was heading west toward Keewatin, with an MTO enforcement vehicle behind it. 

Both vehicles then crossed the Keewatin Channel Bridge—despite the bridge being under a strict weight limit intended to protect the structure during Phase Two rehabilitation work. The truck was stopped shortly after entering Keewatin.


Makes the MTO an accomplice to crossing the bridge with weight over the limit. An accomplice is defined as a person who knowingly, voluntarily, or intentionally or fails to prevent another from the commission of a crime. An accomplice is criminally liable to the same extent as the principal. An accomplice is present when the crime is committed. By legal definition, the police are an accomplice. What morons.

Saturday, November 08, 2025

ever heard of the 60's fiberglass car, the LaDawri? Think Paxton Supercharged Cobra GT 350 with a different body, because it's 289 in on a Ford chassis... thank you George and Doug!


Dawes began producing fiberglass bodies in British Columbia in 1956, introducing the LaDawri Cavalier – widely considered Canada’s first production fiberglass sports car. After moving operations to Southern California in 1957, he expanded the lineup to include around 19 models, reportedly selling about 700 bodies before the company’s closure in 1965.

So, that's just seeing what was going on, the fiberglass Corvette, but dying with the 1965 GT 350 Cobra Mustang's availability

and it's currently on Bring a Trailer for 20k! https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1962-ladawri-conquest/

There sure were a lot of choices for anyone that wanted a Fiberglass sports car, Meyers Manx, Fiberfab, Glasspar, Victress, Devin, Kurtis Kraft, Kellison, Bocar, AMT etc