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It's Day 29 of the Canada Post strike, with Christmas fast approaching and still no apparent movement at the bargaining table.

The two sides have been bandying criticisms back and forth, but there's no indication yet that federal mediation is set to restart after it was paused in late November.

The federal labour minister continues to rebuff calls for government intervention, saying it's up to the two sides to work out a deal.

This week did see resolution on one thing: a labour practice complaint from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers over layoffs during the strike.

The key issues in the strike by more than 55,000 workers include wages, job security and how to staff a proposed expansion into weekend delivery.

Here's what else we're watching...

Exchange rate a challenge for Canadian travellers

Whether having to scale back vacation spending or deciding to forgo a trip to the U.S., it's a reality many travellers are contending with this holiday season as the loonie's value continues to weaken.

The Canadian dollar has been hovering around 70-cents US in recent weeks, a slide that has seen its value depreciate to near-five year lows.

A BMO survey this fall found 79 per cent of Canadians planned to cut back on holiday spending this year, including when it comes to vacations.

Nearly one-third said the cost of international travel — including airplane tickets, lodging and gas — is now too expensive for their budgets, while around 45 per cent said travel is a lower priority as they manage day-to-day expenses.

"(The cost of) things, as we all know, have gone up. When you factor in the U.S. dollar, it means you need 40 per cent more than what you thought if you were just doing a comparison between our dollars," said Gayle Ramsay, head of everyday banking and customer growth at BMO.

Can ticket giveaways spur climate action?

Taylor Swift commands a legion of devotees, but among the thousands decked out in cowboy boots, friendship bracelets and glitter at her Canadian performances, one was not like the others.

Millions of people attended the Eras Tour. Avery Parisien might be the only 15-year-old who got there by protesting a major bank and its investments in fossil fuels.

Parisien's education in RBC's investments trace back to an unusual ticket giveaway contest that sought to leverage the power of Swifties, the portmanteau for the superstar's fan base.

While Eras Tour tickets have been used as a magnet for companies and even charities to attract new customers and donors, a campaign called Unite the Swifties took it a step further.

The campaign encouraged people who wanted free tickets to engage in escalating actions against RBC, one of the world's largest bank financiers of fossil-fuel companies — and the "Official Ticket Access Partner" for Swift's tour stops in Toronto and Vancouver.

Borrowing from Swift's lyrics and esthetic, the campaign organized by three Canadian advocacy groups urged fans to ask the superstar to drop RBC as a partner.

Hope rises for plan to save rare eastern wolf

Gisèle Benoit still gets goosebumps when she remembers the first time she saw a family of eastern wolves emerge from the forests of the Mauricie National Park, under the backdrop of a rising moon.

It was 1984 and Benoit, then in her early 20s, had been using a horn to try to call a bull moose when she instead heard a long howl, followed by an adult wolf stepping out to a rocky shore accompanied by a half-grown youth and four pups.

It was only later that Benoit, an artist and documentary filmmaker, learned that the wolves she saw weren't grey wolves but rather rare eastern wolves.

The species, whose population is estimated at fewer than 1,000 mature adults, could soon be further protected by new measures that are raising hopes among conservationists that attitudes toward a once-feared and maligned animal are shifting.

In July, the federal government upgraded the eastern wolf's threat level from "status of special concern" to "threatened," based on a 2015 report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. That report found the population count may be as low as 236 mature individuals in its central Ontario and southern Quebec habitat.

Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner improv through 'Mufasa'

"Hakuna Matata" may not feature on the soundtrack, but Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner embodied the carefree spirit of the song when they reprised their roles as comical buddies Pumbaa and Timon for "Mufasa: The Lion King." 

Back when they recorded the voices for 2019's photorealistic remake of the "The Lion King," Rogen said they felt pressure to put their own spin on the characters while nodding to the beloved performances in Disney's original 1994 film.

In the new prequel bound for theatres Dec. 20, the shaman Rafiki recounts the childhood and adolescence of the late king Mufasa to granddaughter Kiara, the daughter of "Lion King" hero Simba. 

The tale is frequently interrupted by interjections from Rogen's flatulent warthog Pumbaa and Eichner's self-aggrandizing meerkat Timon, which the duo says were largely improvised. 

Eichner joked that this involved going "method" for the role.

This report by ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû was first published Dec. 13, 2024.