Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of temple in British Columbia, found fatally injured in car park
A campaigner for a Sikh nation to be carved out of India’s Punjab state who was wanted by Indian authorities has been shot dead in Canada, police have said.
Federal police said a man was found in his pickup truck in the car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia, at about 8.30pm on Sunday, with apparent gunshot wounds.
Continue reading...Race against time to find craft that went missing on Sunday with five people onboard, including British billionaire
US and Canadian rescue teams are scrambling to search for a tourist submarine that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck with a British billionaire among the five people onboard.
Hamish Harding is the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he was one of the mission specialists on the OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Continue reading...Government adviser says Britain should confiscate mansions to fund postwar rebuilding
Ministers should confiscate the mansions, country estates and UK assets of Russian oligarchs to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a senior adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said this weekend.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a sanctions expert working in the presidential office, said Ukraine’s government would like the UK to follow Canada in implementing new regulations that allow authorities to seize and redistribute assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities.
Continue reading...Safe Third Country Agreement does not infringe refugee claimants’ rights to liberty and security of the person, court rules
Canada’s top court has ruled that an agreement with the United States aiming to control the flow of refugees across the shared border is constitutional, ending a lengthy legal challenge by advocacy groups who argue the deal violates the rights of asylum seekers.
In a unanimous judgment released on Friday morning, the supreme court found the controversial Safe Third Country Agreement did not infringe refugee claimants’ rights to liberty and security of the person.
Continue reading...Crash involving a truck and a bus carrying mostly elderly people in Manitoba was one of the country’s worst in recent years
Police in the Canadian province of Manitoba are trying to identify the 15 people killed when a truck and a bus carrying mostly elderly people collided in one of the country’s worst recent road crashes.
Flags at the legislative building flew at half-mast to mark the victims of Thursday’s collision near the town of Carberry in south-western Manitoba, 170km (105 miles) west of Winnipeg.
Continue reading...Incident involving semi-trailer truck and vehicle used to transport elderly and disabled people sparks huge emergency response
At least 15 people are dead in Canada after a crash between a semi-trailer truck and a vehicle used to transport elderly and physically disabled people, according to multiple media reports, as crews mount one of the largest-ever emergency responses in the region.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the province of Manitoba said as of Thursday evening, 15 people had been killed in the crash and 10 others taken to hospitals with injuries.
Continue reading...Air quality alerts issued in Minnesota and Wisconsin with winds expected to blow airborne pollution from Ontario blazes south
The smoke-filled skies seen across US cities last week are set to make another appearance, as Canadian wildfires rage on and winds are bringing the airborne pollution south and again triggered fears over risks to health.
Air quality alerts were issued on Wednesday for the entire state of Minnesota and large parts of Wisconsin. This time, the culprit is a series of wildfires from the Canadian province of Ontario.
Continue reading...Finance minister announces immediate review of Canada’s involvement with Beijing’s alternative to the World Bank
Canada is freezing its ties with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) after the bank’s global communications director resigned and said the bank was “dominated by the Communist party”.
Finance minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday Canada was putting its ties with AIIB on hold while it investigated the allegations and did not rule out any outcomes, a clear hint that Ottawa could pull out of a bank it officially joined in March 2018.
Continue reading...Nine-year-old, who is not transgender, left in tears by incident at shot put final as anti-trans hate on the rise across the country
A Canadian man who allegedly shouted at a nine-year-old girl and questioned whether she was transgender has been banned from attending elementary school athletics competitions, after an incident that activists say reflects a broader rise in anti-trans hate across the country.
Kari Starr told the Guardian that her nine-year-old daughter was preparing for a shot put competition in the British Columbia city of Kelowna when a man attempted to halt the competition, alleging Starr’s daughter was either a boy or transgender.
Continue reading...Police find body of Brisbane woman Julia-Mary Lane, 25, who had been living in Alberta, near Bear Lake in British Columbia
An Australian hiker has been found dead in Canadian bear country after a Mounties search that deployed police dogs and a drone.
Twenty-five-year-old Julia-Mary Lane, from Brisbane, had been living in Canmore, Alberta since January.
Continue reading...Julia-Mary Lane failed to return from road trip, prompting housemate in Alberta to contact her family in Queensland
An Australian hiker has gone missing in Canadian bear country, prompting an urgent plea from her family as searches continue.
Twenty-four-year-old Julia-Mary Lane was living in town in Alberta, Canada, and travelled to British Columbia for a week-long road trip, according to a social media post from her housemate.
Continue reading...Supreme court justice Russell Brown says allegations of misconduct are false but investigation has placed strain on family
A Canadian supreme court judge under investigation for his alleged involvement in a drunken fight has resigned, marking the first time a member of the top court has resigned amid questions of misconduct.
Russell Brown, appointed to the nine-judge court in August 2015, had stepped aside in February after reports emerged of a confrontation with a US marine veteran in an Arizona resort in late January.
Continue reading...More than 14,000 remain under evacuation as nearly 450 fires burned across the country on Sunday, with 220 out of control
Overdue rains and cooler temperatures have given Quebec fire crews a chance to launch their assault on dozens of wildfires, but the reprieve for one part of Canada comes as fires in the west of the country have once again forced residents to flee their homes.
The country has been struggling with an “unprecedented” wildfire season, with nearly 450 forest fires across the country on Sunday, 220 of which were burning out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Continue reading...New York City, parts of Pennsylvania and Baltimore all issued warnings as 421 wildfires continue to burn up north
Poor air quality returned to the north-east US on Sunday, although it was nowhere near as bad as the heavy haze that recently shrouded the region and triggered global headlines as wind-borne smoke from raging Canadian wildfires caused orange skies, thick smog and record-setting pollutant levels.
On Sunday morning, a smoke plume moved across New York City, leaving the air quality index in the city at 103 and categorized as “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, particularly for those with heart or lung problems.
Continue reading...Global heating and human changes to the landscape have invited more destructive fires, making fire season worse
Weeks of unprecedented wildfires in Canada have burned millions of hectares, displaced more than 100,000 residents and plunged the country into a nationwide crisis as exhausted crews battle hundreds of blazes. But experts caution that a changing climate and human actions on the landscape will probably make fire seasons worse in the coming years.
Hundreds of firefighters from across the world have flown to Canada to aid a nation stretched thin with a spring fire season that has shattered records on both sides of the country, with warmer and drier months still to come.
Continue reading...David Johnston blames resignation on ‘highly partisan atmosphere’ surrounding his investigation in China’s alleged election interference
A Canadian official appointed to investigate allegations that China attempted to subvert the country’s federal elections has abruptly resigned, blaming the “highly partisan atmosphere” surrounding his work.
David Johnston was appointed in March amid concerns that Justin Trudeau’s government had failed to respond adequately to the threat of foreign interference in the last two elections.
Continue reading...Researchers used a model to predict how the smoke would move through the region and said it wouldn’t pose a health risk
Smoke from Canadian wildfires that has descended upon parts of the eastern US and Canada in a thick haze has drifted over Norway and is expected to hit southern Europe, Norwegian officials said on Friday.
Using a climate forecast model, atmosphere and climate scientists with the Norwegian climate and environmental research institute (NILU) predicted how the smoke would travel through the atmosphere, flowing over the Scandinavian country before moving further south. The smoke was not expected to pose a health risk there.
Continue reading...Plumes of smoke move southwards across US east coast. Elsewhere, Japan hit by remnants of Typhoon Mawar
Wildfires in Quebec, Canada, continue to rage, following a spring that was drier and warmer than normal, creating perfect conditions for wildfires to develop. As of 7 June, at least 150 fires remained active across the province, with more than 400 across the country according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Officials warned this could be the country’s worst wildfire season to date, with at least 9.4m acres of land destroyed so far.
Plumes of smoke from the fires have been moving southwards across the US east coast, delaying thousands of flights. The US National Weather Service also issued air quality alerts for many states, with air quality index levels above 400 – a level of 300 is considered “hazardous” – in some states. A fairly static weather pattern this weekend will mean further plumes of smoke moving towards eastern parts of the US.
Continue reading...Orange smoky skies might be a new phenomenon for those on the east coast, but for the American west, it’s just the average summer
It was a sight all too familiar to Californians: orange skies and thick smoke blanketing the sky, emitting the eerily out-of-place smell of a campfire.
But this time the scenes were in New York City, as smoke from more than 400 wildfires darkened the famous skyline and gave the US its worst day of air pollution in recent history.
Continue reading...Quebec minister described ‘unprecedented’ situation amid warnings that country must be prepared in future
• Wildfires latest news – live
Wildfire crews in Canada continue to battle hundreds of blazes across the country as air quality in major cities remains poor and other regions brace for intense heat. And as the country burns, experts warn Canada needs to do a better job of readying its communities in areas increasingly prone to destructive blazes.
More than half of the 414 fires across the country are out of control, said the emergency preparedness minister, Bill Blair – with the hottest and driest months still to come.
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