Lia Grainger

  • 'Chrissy sent me': Family of Canadian terror victim prompts outpouring of aid for homeless

    A simple request from the family of the Canadian killed in London’s terrorist attack has inspired an outpouring of goodwill, both in Canada and abroad. Christine Archibald was walking across the London Bridge on Saturday evening when she and other innocent bystanders were struck down by a speeding van. The Castlegar, B.C., native had moved to the Netherlands in February to be with her fiance, Tyler Ferguson, reports the Wall Street Journal.

  • Vaughan man has Lamborghini seized for driving double the speed limit

    A Vaughn man’s Lamborgini was caught going twice the speed limit. A 34-year-old man recently had his 2008 Lamborghini impounded and was charged with stunt driving and speeding after driving more than double the speed limit in Vaughan, Ontario. An officer on patrol Sunday evening spotted the expensive sports car whipping down Kirby Road eastbound near Weston Road, according to a statement from the York Regional Police.

  • Was the real Sgt. Pepper an Ontario Provincial Police Officer?

    The Beatles appear on the inside cover of a Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band record. It’s been 50 years since The Beatles released their iconic album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the anniversary celebrations are bringing some surprising details back into the spotlight—like the fact that Sgt. Pepper may have been named after an Ontario police officer. The year was 1966, and Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Randall Pepper had been given a special assignment: to head up the security detail for The Beatles while they were in town to play at the Maple Leaf Gardens.

  • Mac Lethal raps song 11-year-old fan wrote about his bully

    David McCleary Sheldon, better known as Mac Lethal, is an American rapper and something of a YouTube phenomenon, thanks to his his fast-talking, tongue-twisting rhymes. “My best friend Thomas who grew up down the street from me… Well he used to be my best friend , now he hates me and hurts me whenever i see him.

  • Students celebrate graduation with epic "paper toss"

    Seniors at Bahsa High School in Chandler, Arizona recently celebrated their imminent graduation by tossing an outrageous amount of paper down a stairwell. The paper toss is an annual tradition at Bahsa High, where seniors do the throwing and underclassmen do the cleaning up. On May 26, student Jordan White recorded the ritual and then posted it to Twitter, where it quickly caught fire and has since been viewed almost five million times.

  • Boyfriend makes nerdiest joke ever, internet applauds

    Shellfish allergies are no laughing matter, unless you’re Maddy and Drew. The young Florida couple recently shared a text message exchange that reveals how finding unwanted crab in your pasta can actually be hilarious. Maddy is an illustrator from Jacksonville and uses the Twitter handle @hatemailfanclub.

  • Trudeau makes pope smile -- a little

    New photographic evidence seems to suggest that Pope Francis was happier to host Justin Trudeau than Donald Trump—but only slightly.

  • Remember that time Mulcair questioned Scheer's neutrality as house speaker

    Now that Andrew Scheer has been elected leader of the Conservative Party, much of the nation is pondering a simple question: what do we know about this guy? During question period on September 26, 2014, NDP leader Tom Mulcair posed a straightforward question to Conservative MP Paul Calandra about the length of Canada’s mission in Iraq.

  • Drunk man finds selfie taken by the officers who brought him home

    Waking up with a foggy memory of how you got home the night before is a good indication you overindulged. Waking up with a foggy memory and a series of selfies on your phone taken by the cops that tucked you in the night before is a good sign that you’re Australian. A young man from Tasmania was lucky to wake up to just such a surprise on his phone, according to a post on the website Reddit.

  • Family claims they were kicked off airplane over birthday cake

    A New Jersey family says it started with a birthday cake in an overhead bin and ended with their removal from a JetBlue flight. On May 3, Cameron Burke, his wife and two children boarded a flight bound for Las Vegas from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, reports the New York Daily News. Burke says he had planned the trip as a birthday surprise for his wife, Minta, and the family had brought a cake on the plane.

  • Restaurant workers surprise hearing-impaired employee with sign language

    Staff members at a fast food U.S. restaurant recently gave a hearing-impaired co-worker a very memorable birthday present, and it didn’t cost them a dime. In a video posted to the Facebook page of Chick-fil-A location in Lawton, Okla., the entire staff of the restaurant can be seen using sign language to sing Happy Birthday to James, a much-loved employee. “We had the best time learning to sign the ‘Happy Birthday’ song for our fellow team member who suffers from hearing loss,” the caption reads.

  • Ontario hospital broadcasts kidney transplant live on social media

    Doctors live-streamed an organ transplant at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton. It’s a Canadian first: doctors and nurses at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton recently broadcast a successful kidney transplant using Facebook Live. The surgery took place on Wednesday as patient Bhargav Turaga received a kidney from his wife, Nagamani Turaga.

  • Sign language interpreter outshines Snoop Dogg

    Holly Maniatty interprets Snoop Dogg for the hearing impaired at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. It takes some pretty fresh moves to upstage hip hop mogul Snoop Dogg, but ASL interpreter Holly Maniatty has done it. Maniatty is an Atlanta-based interpreter and has been signing at concerts for more than 14 years.

  • Restaurant returns huge accidental tip on dinner

    If you overtip at Claudine’s Eatery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, expect to get a phone call—or at least a post about it on Facebook. A loyal patron of the restaurant received just such an online alert—and a reimbursement of her money—after accidentally leaving a $70 tip on a $55 bill. It all started when Dianne Doucette dined on liver and onions at Claudine’s last week.

  • The world's strongest coffee now available in Ottawa

    Black Insomnia Coffee boasts the highest caffeine content in a cup of coffee. The world’s strongest coffee is now brewing in Ottawa, and its makers are betting on the fact you’re not planning on sleeping anytime soon. Black Insomnia Coffee first hit the market on Amazon back in March, and the online buzz has been steadily increasing ever since.

  • Bikers narrowly escape charging brown bear

    Two mountain bikers had a close call with nature when a huge bear emerged from the woods and charged them at full speed. Malinô Brdo is a ski and bike park in Ružomberok, Slovakia, and has the odd bear wandering about thanks to the country’s conservation laws. In a GoPro video posted to YouTube by site user Dušan Vinžík, two cyclists can be seen ripping down the park’s gnarly trails at high speed.

  • Man wrestles shark, the inevitable ensues

    What could possibly go wrong trying to swim with a shark? In the video, posted to YouTube on May 3, a group of men on a fishing boat can be seen tugging at one end of a fishing line as a large shark thrashes about on the other. One of the men in the clip was Josh Neille, a tattooed and dreadlocked Aussie who apparently thought it would be a good idea to hop in the water and wrestle the nine-foot beast.

  • Student leaves pineapple at art exhibition, returns to find it encased in glass

    Contemporary art can be baffling. When does an everyday object become a work of art? A university student recently discovered an ordinary pineapple can be transformed into a gallery piece simply by placing it within an exhibit, after he did just that.

  • Scottish surfer missing 32 hours rescued drifting 21km from coast

    Matthew Bryce was rescued by a coast guard helicopter after 32 hours in the water. A missing surfer was found clinging to his board 21 kilometres off the Scottish coast after drifting at sea for 32 hours. Matthew Bryce waded into the water at around 9 a.m. Sunday morning from Machrihanish Beach on Scotland’s west coast.

  • The Chainsmokers surprise students with impromptu performance at high school prom

    A class of high school seniors in Chicago got the surprise of a lifetime when pop duo The Chainsmokers showed up to play a set at their prom. According to the Chicago Daily Herald, The Chainsmokers — made up of DJs Alex Pall and Drew Taggart — appeared unexpectedly at Chicago’s Hyatt Rosemont Hotel and started to perform at the Huntley High School senior prom. The Chainsmokers posted a photo taken from onstage at the prom to Twitter before leaving to play a show at Allstate Arena across the street.