Category Archives: Canada

India suspends visa services for Canadians in further decline in relations

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Announcement of ‘security threats’ follows Justin Trudeau’s claims India was involved in Sikh activist’s killing

Relations between India and Canada have further deteriorated after Delhi announced it was suspending visa services for Canadians due to “security threats” faced by its embassy and consulates in Canada.

BLS International, which runs the Indian visa offices in Canada, put a notice on its website stating that all visa services for Canadians were suspended until further notice, citing “operational reasons”.

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Keir Starmer: Labour in power would not ‘want to diverge’ from EU

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Party leader says he would not bring in lower environmental and food standards than in Europe or reduce workers’ rights

Keir Starmer has gone further than before in outlining his vision of a future UK relationship with the EU, saying Labour didn’t “want to diverge” – in comments that were immediately seized on by the Conservatives.

The Labour leader was speaking at an event in Canada bringing together liberal and centre-left politicians, where he said that “most of the conflict” since Brexit had arisen because the UK “wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners”.

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Canada: legal challenges threaten to derail truck blockade leaders’ trial

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Trial initially scheduled to last 16 days facing mounting delays amid challenges over the admission of certain evidence

The trial of two protest leaders who encouraged a truck blockade of Canada’s capital is facing mounting delays as legal arguments threaten to derail the closely watched case.

Early last year, the month-long “Freedom Convoy’” protest paralyzed Ottawa after hundreds of large vehicles blocked key thoroughfares. Initially meant as a challenge to coronavirus public health measures, the protests soon morphed into a broader collection of political grievances against the governing Liberal party.

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How should UK, US and Australia respond to Canada-India row?

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Justin Trudeau’s accusation that India may be behind Sikh separatist killing puts western leaders in awkward position

Canada’s accusation on Monday that India may have been behind the car park murder of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Najjar in June – which New Delhi rejects outright – comes at an uncomfortable and unwelcome time for Britain, the US and Australia.

London, Washington and Canberra have all been prioritising closer ties with New Delhi, seeing it not just as a strategic bulwark against the fast-rising China, but also as a partner in the economic isolation of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

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‘His spirit is still among us’: Sikhs defiant in Canada city where activist was murdered

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Colleagues say they knew Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by India for his role in Canada as a community leader

Justin Trudeau may have shocked the world this week when he linked “agents of India” to the murder of a Canadian citizen in British Columbia, but colleagues who worked alongside Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar before he was shot dead this summer said the link was already clear.

“We’re not surprised,” said Gurkeerat Singh, a volunteer at the Surrey temple that Nijjar led from 2019 until his death on 18 June. “The whole community knew who was behind it. We knew that Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by the Indian state for his role as a community leader advocating for human rights and for a separate Sikh state.”

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India urges its citizens to exercise ‘extreme caution’ in Canada

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India’s foreign ministry issues warning after rejecting Trudeau’s allegations government played role in murder of Sikh activist

The diplomatic row between India and Canada over the murder of a Sikh activist has continued to escalate as New Delhi warned its nationals of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes” in Canada.

Justin Trudeau alleged on Monday that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian government played a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was connected to a Sikh separatist movement, in British Columbia in June.

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Canada killing adds to suspicions of Indian crackdown on Sikh separatists

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Khalistani groups who want independence of Punjab accuse India of killings in UK and elsewhere

Months before Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in a car park in Canada, three other Indians associated with the Sikh separatist movement had died on foreign soil – in circumstances deemed, at least by some, as suspicious.

On Monday, Justin Trudeau alleged there was “credible evidence” that the Indian government was behind the assassination of Nijjar, an explosive accusation that torpedoed already frayed diplomatic relations between India and Canada. India called the allegation “absurd” and both sides expelled senior diplomats in response.

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Canada and India make tit-for-tat envoy expulsions over killing of Sikh leader

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Top intelligence officials expelled after Trudeau accused India of involvement in assassination of exiled Hardeep Singh Niijar

Canada and India have announced tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions after Justin Trudeau’s explosive allegation that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination on Canadian soil – accusations that India derided as “absurd”.

Speaking on Tuesday, the Canadian prime minister stood firm on the allegations that India was implicated in the death of the Sikh independence advocate Hardeep Singh Niijar, who was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia, in June.

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‘Credible evidence’ India behind alleged assassination of Sikh leader, says Trudeau

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India rejects as ‘absurd’ allegation by PM that it was responsible for fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil

Justin Trudeau has said there is “credible evidence” India is responsible for the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader, a claim Delhi dismissed as “absurd”.

The Canadian prime minister told the House of Commons of Canada on Monday that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination.

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Literary satire American Fiction takes Toronto film festival’s top award

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Cord Jefferson’s story of a novelist (Jeffrey Wright) grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers is now practically guaranteed serious Oscar consideration

American Fiction, the literary satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a novelist grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers, has won the Toronto international film festival’s influential People’s Choice award, a result that practically guarantees it serious Oscar consideration and contention for major awards.

Described by the Guardian as “hilarious and withering”, American Fiction triumphed over pre-festival favourites such as Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Boy and the Heron, which were named the runners-up. It is written and directed by Cord Jefferson, a credited writer on TV shows including The Good Place, Watchmen and Station Eleven, and now making his feature directing debut.

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Power outages and one death as Storm Lee swings away from Canadian coast

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Tens of thousands without power in New England and Nova Scotia as other potentially dangerous tempests hover over the Atlantic

Tens of thousands in New England and Canada remained without power on Sunday morning after the deadly storm Lee struck Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone.

In Nova Scotia, nearly 100,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.com. The US state of Maine was dealing with about 40,000 outages as of Sunday morning, and New Brunswick had about 12,000, the website also said.

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Tropical cyclone Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia as thousands lose power

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Storm expected to approach New Brunswick, bringing winds of 70mph and relentless rainfall

Post-tropical cyclone Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Saturday afternoon hours after it battered New England and eastern Canada with powerful winds and rains.

The storm cut off electricity to tens of thousands and inundated coastal roads in Nova Scotia, and left at least one person dead, according to the Associated Press. The 51-year-old man died after a tree limb fell onto his vehicle as he was driving in Searsport, Maine. The tree felled live power lines and workers had to turn off electricity before the man could be taken from his vehicle. He died at a hospital.

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Keir Starmer arrives in Canada to set out stall on immigration policy

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Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political shows

Keir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader’s move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration.

Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the “nonsense” that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians.

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Biden approves state of emergency for Maine as Hurricane Lee approaches

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Canada issues hurricane watch for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with storm expected to bring high winds and flooding

Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Maine as Hurricane Lee rapidly approaches the north-easternmost US state amid the likelihood of a landfall there or more likely in Canada over the weekend.

About 7 million people are now under tropical storm warnings across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Canadian Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane watch for parts of the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

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When nature calls: Canadian wilderness area offers poop bags to fix fecal furore

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Special bag dispensers will be installed after visitors to wild areas around Squamish, British Columbia, left more than footprints

The sheer rock faces, winding trails and granite crags around Squamish in south-western British Columbia have seen a surge of climbers, campers and hikers lured to answer the call of the wild – but who are increasingly causing friction with local people when nature calls.

Earlier this week, the Squamish Access Society announced it had partnered with the province’s parks service and local businesses to erect five poop bag dispensers, placed at busy climbing locations, with four more planned in the coming weeks.

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Maine and Atlantic Canada face flood warnings as Hurricane Lee heads north

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Storm, which has already brought strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda, is weakening in strength but expanding in size

Parts of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada are under a tropical storm watch this week as Hurricane Lee continues on its path upward.

With maximum sustained winds of up to 100mph, Lee was 265 miles south-west of Bermuda as of Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

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Hurricane Lee heads north with landfall expected in Nova Scotia or Maine

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Storm threatens to affect parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada with winds up to 115mph

Hurricane Lee continues to grow larger in size as it moves northward and threatens to affects parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada.

Moving at 7mph (11.3km/h) and packing winds of up to 115mph (185km/h), Lee was positioned 380 miles (612km) north of the northern Leeward Islands as well as 600 miles (965km) south of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday evening. That track triggered a tropical storm watch for Bermuda.

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Canadian police open case into ‘suicide kits’ sent to Montreal residents

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Suspected mailer is facing 14 charges in connection to deaths in Ontario, and is linked to another 88 deaths in Britain

Police in Canada have opened an investigation into “suicide kits” allegedly mailed to people in the Montreal, Quebec, by a man already facing more than a dozen criminal charges.

Montreal police said they believe Kenneth Law, 57, mailed packages containing a lethal substance to people at risk of suicide in the city. The police asked residents to exercise “vigilance” as the investigation advances.

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Canadian man accused of killing Muslim family motivated by white nationalism, court hears

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Closely watched trial of Nathaniel Veltman, charged with murder, could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism

The man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family was motivated by white nationalist beliefs and was out to commit an act of “terrorism”, prosecutors have argued, during opening statements of a closely watched murder trial that could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22, is facing four charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after driving his truck into five members of the Afzaal family while they were out for a walk in London, Ontario, on the evening of 6 June 2021.

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Canada PM Justin Trudeau stuck in India after plane breaks down

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Canadian PM was due to return home on Sunday after G20 summit in Delhi but a mechanical fault kept him in India overnight

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his entire delegation have been forced to extend their stay in New Delhi for the G20 summit by an extra day after his aircraft broke down, Canadian officials confirmed.

Trudeau arrived in India for the meeting of the leaders of 20 leading economies on Friday.

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