OTTAWA - Sen. Patrick Brazeau is trying a second time to pass legislation that would add cancer warning labels to alcohol packaging.

The Senate is studying Bill S-202, a revival of legislation Brazeau sponsored in the last Parliament. The previous bill died on the order paper when the spring election was called.

Brazeau, who has been sober for five years, said his personal experience with alcohol is part of what drives his push for change.

"It does ruin lives. It kills people. It's certainly not good for mental health. And personally, you know, it led me down a very, very, very dark path, so dark that I just wanted to put an end to my life," he said.

OTTAWA - Influencers had the "loudest voices" online in this spring’s federal election, overtaking news outlets and politicians, says a new report.

The report from the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, co-ordinated by the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory, looked at the election information environment.

Influencers were the most active in terms of frequency and volume of online posts and received the most engagement, said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory.

"This is new to this election … materially different," he told The Canadian Press.

TORONTO - When U.S. President Donald Trump urged pregnant women to avoid Tylenol because of an unproven belief it can cause autism, Julie Green was brought back to the mom-blaming claims she heard more than a decade ago when her son was diagnosed with the condition.

"It seemed like every couple months there was some new headline. And there was still a lot of like, 'Oh, did mom do this? Did mom do that?' A lot of things were tied to pregnancy. And every now and then you'd brace yourself and you'd think, 'Oh, what did I do?'" said Green, who learned her son had autism when he was three.

"You question absolutely everything," she said from her home in Kingston, Ont. 

"It sounds like a very ludicrous example, but I had real meat cravings when I was pregnant. So I ate a lot of McDonald's and it's like, 'uh-oh, therefore did eating a lot of Big Macs cause autism?" 

Job action by British Columbia public service workers is putting pressure on craft brewers, with the head of one industry group saying major players are facing a cash flow crunch, while smaller breweries are contending with a boon in demand.

Ken Beattie, executive director of the BC Craft Brewers Guild, said the escalation of job action by the BC General Employees' Union to include all government-run liquor stores in the province is affecting brewers in different ways depending on their size.

"Our biggest members … they're getting devastated," he said in an interview Wednesday. "It's not good for them at all."

Smaller breweries that aren't reliant on the province's distribution system, however, can sell and deliver directly to private retailers and bars and restaurants, so they're grappling with the increase in demand, Beattie said.

LONGUEUIL - The trial of a former Hydro-Québec employee facing economic espionage charges remains on hold over arguments about the utility's commercial secrets.

Hydro-Québec prompted the delay after introducing a motion to prevent some information in the case from being revealed in open court.

The court arguments about the utility's motion are subject to a publication ban and cannot be reported.

Yuesheng Wang, 38, is the man on trial in the case.

HALIFAX - Marineland says it has more than a dozen reasons why none of its remaining 30 belugas should be sent to a proposed whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

The shuttered Ontario theme park, which is trying to sell the whales to avoid bankruptcy, made headlines last week when Federal Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson denied Marineland's request for a permit to ship Canada’s last captive whales to buyers at an aquarium in China.

Marineland responded by saying it doesn't have the money to continue feeding the whales and asked for emergency funding from Ottawa, warning that it might otherwise have no choice but to euthanize the snow-white mammals.

Thompson has said she "would love to see the whales in a sanctuary," but Marineland has argued that no such sanctuary is currently available for 30 belugas, including the Whale Sanctuary Project’s proposed coastal refuge near Wine Harbour, N.S.

TORONTO - The federal and Ontario governments are urging each other to help 30 belugas at Marineland, which has threatened to euthanize the whales if the park does not receive emergency funds from Ottawa.

The federal government should reconsider its position after denying Marineland permits to move the belugas to an aquarium in China, Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.

Federal Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said last week that she denied the permits to move the whales to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom because she did not want to subject them to a future of performing in captivity, which is consistent with a law passed in 2019.

Marineland said it is quickly running out of money and asked the federal government for an infusion of emergency cash to help it feed and care for the whales — otherwise the belugas would be euthanized.