After nearly 24 straight hours, members of Parliament have completed their marathon voting session on the Conservative government's budget bill.

The voting, which began at 1 a.m. Thursday morning, ran non-stop until just after 11 p.m., more than 22 hours later.

Those MPs who were in the House of Commons were visibly relieved when the end finally came, cheering as the last vote of the night was cast.

Opposition members tabled some 871 amendments to the omnibus Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, which they denounced as a ``Trojan horse'' and an affront to the principles of democracy.

The bill contains changes to dozens of statutes, ranging from employment insurance and public pensions to environmental assessments, border security and spy agency oversight.

The governing Conservatives insisted the 400-page bill is responsible and necessary to ensure Canada's economy can weather the coming economic storm.

Third reading for the bill is on ...

The City of Toronto's Public Works Committee have been handed a list of Toronto's most congested streets, and now the Councillor responsible wants to do something about it.

Denzil Minnan-Wong forwarded a list of 10 roads he says experiences the most congestion.

Among the 10; Bayview Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East Intersection, Yonge Street - from Highway 401 to Sheppard Avenue, York Street from Front Street to the Gardiner Expressway, Sheppard Avenue West and Allen Road and Leslie Street - Highway 401 to Sheppard Avenue East.

The full list can be found here.

The committee has voted to accept Minnan-Wong's proposal to conduct transportation studies on all of the streets listed.  The studies will come back to committee in the Fall.

Minnan-Wong says the study will look at options beyond just adding lanes.

"Maybe we can re-design certain intersections and roadways and maybe we can look at more intelligent use ...

The last bit of preparation is done, the last of the photo's signed, and no more press conferences.

In about 24 hours, Nik Wallenda will be high above Niagara Falls with only a wire, and a pesky tether in between.

The thrill-seeker says he isn't nervous about the walk itself, but more the harness he is being forced to wear.

The walk is being broadcast by ABC stateside, and they wouldn't help fund the project, unless Wallenda agreed to using the tether.

He says he is getting used to the weight of it, and that he is looking forward to Friday night's feat.

An Ontario government lawyer says the director of Sunrise Propane seemed to know the company was acting illegally before a devastating blast in a north Toronto neighbourhood.

In closing arguments, the lawyer said Sunrise director Shay Ben-Moshe gave ``troubling'' and misleading statements to police following the explosion in August 2008.

Sunrise, Ben-Moshe and fellow director Valery Belahov face numerous provincial-offences charges in relation to the blast that killed an employee and rained damaging debris on the surrounding neighbourhood.

Ben-Moshe's lawyer has blamed the incident on malfunctioning equipment due to a manufacturing error.

But the government says it was caused by a leak during a risky truck-to-truck gas transfer that Sunrise had been told to stop.

The Crown lawyer said today there is no evidence to support any suggestion by Ben-Moshe that he somehow had permission for the transfers.

(Canadian Press)

A Toronto police officer has been arrested on impaired driving charges.

Investigators say cops were called out to investigate an impaired driving call, on the northbound DVP.  When police caught up with the accused, he was arrested immediately.

46-year-old Toronto police Detective Paul Cargill was charged Thursday.  He's due back in court July 19, 2012.

Cargill is a 22-year veteran of the force, and is currently attached to 11 division.

A retired Quebec judge has been found guilty of murdering his wife.

Jacques Delisle is believed to be the first Canadian judge tried for murder in Canadian legal history.

A jury came down with the first-degree murder verdict this afternoon at the Quebec City courthouse. It had been deliberating since Tuesday.

The retired Quebec Court of Appeal justice was accused of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife, Marie-Nicole Rainville, on Nov. 12, 2009.

Rainville had physical challenges after she suffered a stroke two years prior to the incident.

Delisle's lawyer claimed that Rainville committed suicide.

The prosecution told a different story: that the 77-year-old ex-judge shot his wife because she was an obstacle to his plans to live with his former secretary, with whom he was having an affair.

(The Canadian Press)

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a news conference Thursday morning calling on the folks at City Hall to step up and do something about the overcrowding situation at shelters in Toronto.

The group is blaming the deplorable conditions for a spate in violence at shelters, including an incident in which a man was seriously injured after he was attacked with a fire extinguisher at Seaton House downtown.

A small number of protesters showed up for a rally at Seaton House.

OCAP is asking the city to not close the schoolhouse shelter beside Seaton House.  Officials say they need more shelters, not less.

(w/files from A.Gero)

York Regional Police have arrested a 21-year-old woman in connection with a human trafficking investigation.

Police say the investigation began after they were called to help a 26-year-old woman on Tuesday.

Police say the woman told them after becoming acquainted with a male suspect she met through an online chat site, she was forced to work as an exotic dancer and a prostitute from September to November 2009.

Police say after further investigating the claims, an unnamed male and female suspect, along with the accused allegedly restricted the victim's movements and forced her to surrender her identification and take all the money she earned.

The suspect is also said to have assaulted the victim and destroyed her personal property.

On Thursday, Vanessa Cachia was arrested in Mississauga. She has been charged with Human Trafficking, Exercising Direction, Influence or Control for Gain, Living on the Avails of Prostitution, Receive Material of ...

A 30-year-old woman has died after being struck by a delivery truck in downtown core Thursday morning.
    
Cst. Clint Stibbie with Toronto Police Traffic Services say the collision happened shortly after 7:30 a.m., at Adelaide St. W. and Brant St., just west of Spadina Ave.

Stibbie says the truck was traveling eastbound on Adelaide and was about to turn northbound on Brant when the woman was struck in the roadway.

The woman was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

Stibbie says it doesn't appear that the woman was distracted when she was hit by the truck.

"We haven't gotten any indication that there was any form of distraction, that meaning distraction for either a cellphone or iPod but that doesn't say there aren't other forms of distractions, so we don't know if there was any attributable distractions involved with the pedestrian."

Stibbie ...

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is cool to the idea of holding a referendum in her city to decide if there should be a casino entertainment complex on the waterfront.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation is eyeing the eastern waterfront as a possible location.

McCallion isn't saying if she favours a casino or not, choosing to leave it up to the public.

The Mississauga mayor says you don't need to have a referendum if you know what people want.

The OLG wants a major gaming facility in Toronto, but if the city rejects one, the corporation could turn to Mississauga.

McCallion said earlier this month she's not sure if Mississauga has space for a casino.

On the ground aerialist Nik Wallenda is a bundle of energy, but once he sets foot on a cable strung high above the thundering Niagara Falls, he says he will be completely calm.

In fact, the only thing Wallenda says is making him nervous about Friday's high-wire walk is also what will keep him from, in his words, plummeting to his death.

On Friday night Wallenda's attempt at being the first person to walk across the falls on a tightrope will be broadcast on live TV.

ABC is partly funding Wallenda's walk, but also requested he wear a tether in case something goes wrong.

It's not to Wallenda's liking.

``If anything it makes me nervous to wear a tether,'' he said Wednesday. ``I know that sounds crazy, but it makes me nervous because you have to understand, I've trained a little bit for the last week in one, but never ...

It was just before 1 a.m. ET Thursday when parliamentarians began voting on proposed changes to an omnibus Conservative budget bill.

The bill, known as the Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act, or C-38, had been buffeting government MPs with unanticipated political turbulence well before it locked them into a 24-hour voting marathon not expected to end much before midnight Thursday.

After interminable procedure, the first of what could be 159 recorded votes began at 12:59 a.m.

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his front bench all in place, the Conservative majority won 150-133, setting the pattern to follow.

MPs turned their Commons seats into mini-daycares, packing plastic bags filled with junk food and IPads loaded with the latest TV shows.

It took four deputy speakers three hours to read all 871 motions into the record and there were 55 voice votes before the
real voting finally got underway.