 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Bowled over: Why some Canadians are feeling duped by their breakfast cereal | | |  | Ken Bennett of Chilliwack, B.C., bought Vector because of the graphic on the front of the box saying it contained 13 grams of protein per serving, but the flakes alone contain only 5.6 grams of protein per serving. (Sophia Harris/CBC) | | | Ken Bennett, an avid hiker and recreational hockey player who lives in Chilliwack, B.C., wanted a cereal packed with protein. So last month, he picked up Kellogg's Vector. Bold lettering on the box declares that it has "high protein" — more specifically, that it "provides 13 g of protein" per serving.
He felt good about his choice — until he noticed the fine print on the box one morning during breakfast.
The fine print reveals that a serving of Vector flakes alone contains just 5.6 grams of protein. The rest of the advertised 13 grams comes from the recommended 200 millilitres of skim milk to be added to the flakes.
"I felt tricked. I felt duped," said Bennett. "I took it for face value that these breakfast cereal flakes had 13 grams of protein."
As Canadians grapple with rising grocery prices, they're becoming more concerned about food marketing tactics they believe are deceptive — including "shrinkflation" (when companies reduce the weight of a food product, but not the price or packaging), "skimpflation" (when they use cheaper ingredients but keep the price the same), and bold claims that gloss over key details.
"It really offends consumers," said Mary L'Abbé, a nutritional sciences professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.
"They really feel like they're being ... cheated out of their hard-earned dollars."
CBC News has heard from several Canadians who had gripes about cereal packaging, such as taller boxes containing less cereal, and bold statements on box labels that may not match up with what's inside.
Canadian regulations state that food labels and advertising can't be misleading.
In Vector's case, Health Canada spokesperson André Gagnon said Kellogg can add milk to the protein count, because the product isn't a cereal. Instead, Vector is a "meal replacement" — a product that meets specific nutrition criteria that may require added milk. | | | | | This frozen fairytale city in China is a hot ticket | | |  | (Tingshu Wang/Reuters) | | | | People enjoy the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, in Harbin, China, on Jan. 4. Harbin, the snowy capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, attracts millions of visitors every year to interact with a dazzling wonderland of ice sculptures at its annual Ice and Snow Festival. Check out the photos here. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | U.S. investigators say a door panel slid up before flying off an Alaska Airlines jetliner last week, and they are looking at whether four bolts that were supposed to help hold the panel in place might have been missing when the plane took off. On Friday night, during Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a plug covering a spot left for an emergency door tore off the plane as it flew 4,800 metres above Oregon. Roller guides at the top of one of the plugs broke — for reasons the investigators don't fully understand yet — allowing the entire panel to swing upward and lose contact with 12 "stop pads" that keep the panel attached to the door frame on the plane, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said at a news briefing in Portland, Ore. Investigators are looking into whether four bolts that help prevent the panel from sliding up on rollers were missing when the plane took off from Portland or whether they blew off "during the violent, explosive decompression event." The plane was able to return to Portland, and there were no serious injuries among the 171 passengers and six crew members on board. Read the full story here.
In 2021, Sudip Sehgall, 52, put down an $81,990 deposit on a yet-to-be-built townhouse in Surrey, B.C. While it was under construction, he occasionally visited the site to watch it grow. He envisioned the deal taking him steps closer to owning his first Canadian home, but he only had enough for a deposit after a loan from his retired father. Sehgall was relying on selling his home in New Delhi to get financing to close the deal. He began to worry when new regulations in India made his property less desirable. Then floods hit and selling became impossible. Making matters worse, when he tried to find a buyer to take over the Canadian deal so he could get a refund, the developers opted to keep his deposit and sell the brand-new unit themselves. Sehgall is part of a growing contingent of Canadians who are defaulting on deals to buy presale or preconstruction condos or homes due to financial pressures. This trend of defaults is in part being driven by high interest rates and declining condo values, according to realtors. Many buyers lose their deposits, say realtors and real estate lawyers across the country. While Sehgall's circumstances are specific and extreme, other Canadians are also getting a hard lesson in the potential risks of these deals, experts say. Read the full story here.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is dropping the Ferdinand Eckhardt name from its main entrance hall, website, and all other gallery materials. The decision comes after recent allegations and research show that while living in Germany in the 1930s, the former gallery director was a Nazi supporter, the WAG posted in a statement on its website last month. The gallery is also conducting research into the origins of donated materials made by Eckhardt and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation to ensure none of it is artwork confiscated during the Nazi regime. If that is discovered "all efforts would be made to return it to the rightful owners or their heirs," the statement says. Eckhardt was born in Vienna in 1902 and conscripted into the German army, where he served from 1942 to 1944. He became an art historian and developed a division of art education for the Austrian government before moving to Canada in 1953 to become director of the WAG — a role he held until 1974. Read the full story here.
When called down to the principal's office last October, high school student Francesca Mani learned that someone had taken online pictures of her and used artificial intelligence to generate fake nudes that were then shared on social media. The teen was understandably shell-shocked, yet as she made her way through the halls and saw the clusters of crying fellow classmates also affected (while others laughed), anger and a sense of purpose replaced her own tears. "I came home to tell my mom … 'We need to do something about this,' because I didn't think it was fair," said the Grade 10 student from New Jersey. "I wanted to protect other people, so they weren't in the same position as I was." Since the incident came to light, the student and her mother have been meeting with U.S. state and federal politicians to press for updates to laws, school policies and codes of conduct to address AI being used for harassment and abuse. As similar incidents — including at a Winnipeg school in December — crop up, some experts are urging education officials to update and improve both curriculum and school policies to address technology-facilitated sexual violence and to better support teachers to tackle these topics in their classrooms. Read the full story here.
Now here's some good news to start your Tuesday: There is a magic in the air when it snows in the Yukon, but when it comes to shovelling it, the magic normally disappears. Especially for people who may have difficulty pushing the weight of it. That is why a group of Whitehorse residents are offering to shovel driveways, porches, and sidewalks for elders, pregnant people, or residents living with health issues that make the task particularly difficult. Israr Ahmed, a member of the group, said there are about 20 volunteers ready to do the work, no matter how big the job. "We just wanted to embark on this journey of serving," Ahmed told CBC News. "It's grounded in our Islamic tradition, which is to care about your neighbours. We've been thinking about it for some time." Read the story here. | | |  | Life and death at a Gaza hospital | | Syrian-Canadian doctor Anas Al-Kassem tells his stories from the frontlines of Gaza’s medical crisis, where he just spent two weeks providing emergency care to wounded civilians. Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: January 9 | | | 1802: Canadian author and pioneer Catharine Parr Traill is born in England.
1949: Onondaga marathon runner Tom Longboat dies at Ohsweken on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ont. Longboat won the 1907 Boston Marathon and went on to a successful professional running career. During the First World War, he served as a dispatch runner in France.
1956: The first Dear Abby advice column is published in the San Francisco Chronicle. It would prove so successful that the column would be syndicated around the world.
1988: At a ceremony in Leith, Scotland, historian and academic Sylvana Tomaselli, originally from Placentia, N.L., marries George Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews, becoming the first Canadian to marry into the Royal Family. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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