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☆ Canadian Police Arrest 3 in Slaying of Sikh Leader
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Three men were arrested Friday and charged in the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of orchestrating, fraying relations between the two countries. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh nationalist and Canadian citizen, was gunned down last June by two masked assailants in the parking lot of the temple in Surrey, British Columbia, where he was president, according to the police. Three men, all Indian nationals in their 20s, were all arrested in Edmonton, Alberta and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Police identified the men as Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreeet Singh. The police said the men had been living in Canada three to five years and were not permanent residents of Canada, but would not comment on their immigration status.

Persons: Justin Trudeau, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreeet Singh Organizations: Police Locations: British Columbia, Surrey, Edmonton , Alberta, Canada

☆ U.S. Warns Spring Breakers Headed to Mexico, Jamaica or the Bahamas
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Moore, 75, has always felt safe during her stays in Jamaica, where she’s returning for the fourth time on Wednesday. But this year, while she’s still happy to take a trip, a travel advisory for Jamaica, reissued in January by the U.S. State Department, has elevated her concerns. “I’m sure there are parts, just like the United States, that you can go into that are not recommended,” said Ms. Moore. In recent weeks, the State Department and U.S. Embassies have issued new and updated advisories urging travelers to Mexico, Jamaica and the Bahamas — some of the busiest international spring break destinations — to exercise extra caution after recent violent events, some in tourist areas. Security experts suggest that the advice is largely consistent with advisories of previous years.

Persons: Ginger Moore, Moore, she’s, “, ” Organizations: U.S . State Department, State Department, U.S, Embassies Locations: Panama City, Fla, Caribbean, Jamaica, United States, Mexico, Bahamas

☆ Canada Restores Visa Requirement for Mexican Visitors
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Canada announced on Thursday that it would require visas for Mexican nationals to enter the country, a move that comes amid a surge in asylum requests from Mexicans arriving in Canada. The rule follows months of discussions between the two countries over the rise in the number of Mexicans entering Canada, including repeated attempts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to address the issue with Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Some provincial officials say a surge of asylum seekers has strained their resources and their ability to provide social services. “We needed to give Mexico, because of our friendship, the chance to rectify things,” Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, said at a news conference.

Persons: Justin Trudeau, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ” Marc Miller Locations: Canada, Mexico

☆ For Car Thieves, Toronto Is a ‘Candy Store,’ and Drivers Are Fed Up
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Whenever Dennis Wilson wants to take a drive in his new SUV, he has to set aside an extra 15 minutes. That’s about how long it takes to remove the car’s steering wheel club, undo four tire locks and lower a yellow bollard before backing out of his driveway. His Honda CR-V is also fitted with two alarm systems, a vehicle tracking device and, for good measure, four Apple AirTags. Its remote-access key fob rests in a Faraday bag, to jam illicit unlocking signals. As a final touch, he mounted two motion-sensitive floodlights on his house and aimed them at the driveway in his modest neighborhood in Toronto.

Persons: Dennis Wilson, Wilson Organizations: Honda, Apple Locations: Toronto

☆ As Canadian Hockey Players Face Assault Charges, Officials Are on Defensive
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Ian Austen | Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the Leon’s Centre arena, home to the junior hockey team in Kingston, Ontario, a sense of outrage mixed with anticipation as fans who had gathered for a game grappled with the news that five former Canadian junior hockey players — four of whom played in the National Hockey League — had been charged last week with sexual assault. There the police, who first investigated but didn’t bring charges in 2018, plan to hold their first news conference about the case on Monday afternoon. The allegations have touched a nerve with fans, leading many to question how Hockey Canada, the nation’s governing body for the sport, has responded. The case came to light in May 2022 after TSN, a sports channel that broadcasts the world junior championship, reported that Hockey Canada had paid 3.5 million Canadian dollars, or $2.6 million, to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by eight junior league players. At the time of the assault is said to have occurred, all of the players were members of Canada’s national junior team.

Persons: National Hockey League — Organizations: Canadian, —, National Hockey League, Ontario, Justice, Hockey Canada, TSN Locations: Kingston , Ontario, London , Ontario

☆ Court Finds Trudeau Overreached by Using Emergency Law to End Blockade
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ian Austen | Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Canadian court found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the country’s Emergencies Act to end a truck convoy protest that had paralyzed the capital, Ottawa, two years ago was an unjustified infringement of civil rights, including the protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and, in some instances, the freedom of expression as well. The Federal Court of Canada decision also found that the freezing of bank accounts of people linked to the protest was similarly unjustified, but it dismissed arguments that the government had violated a variety of other rights, including those linked to peaceful assembly. The protests in Ottawa, which were initially incited by a Covid vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, rendered most of the city’s downtown streets impassable, clogging them with parked trucks. Six days after Mr. Trudeau’s government introduced the emergency powers, an enormous force of police officers from across the country finished clearing the streets. About 230 people were arrested during the protest.

Persons: Justin Trudeau’s, Mr, Trudeau Organizations: Federal Locations: Ottawa, Alberta, British Columbia, France

☆ In Canada, a Judge Sentences an Incel Killer as a Terrorist
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The sword was inscribed with a sexist epithet and a note promoting an ideology of violence against women was found in the teenager’s pocket. With the evidence stacked against him, he pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. But a Canadian judge ruled that the attacks were acts of terrorism, in part because the teenager wanted to send a message that he hated women. On Tuesday, the judge, Justice Suhail Akhtar, sentenced the teenager — who was 17 at the time of the attack — to life in prison though he would be eligible for parole after 10 years. Under Canadian juvenile justice law, his name cannot be published.

Persons: Justice Suhail Akhtar, — Locations: Toronto

☆ Canada Convicts White Supremacist in Killing of Four Muslims
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For four seconds, Nathaniel Veltman floored the gas pedal, hurtling his pickup truck toward a Muslim family of five out for an evening walk in London, Ontario, killing four of them. The jury, after less than a day of deliberating, found Mr. Veltman, 22, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder involving the young boy in the June 2021 attack. Mr. Veltman was also charged with terrorism and jurors heard extensive evidence about his fixation with white supremacist ideologies. But under Canadian law, jurors were not expected to deliver a verdict on that charge, which will be decided later by a judge. The case represents the first time in Canada that terrorism charges have been applied to a far-right extremism case, according to the government agency that prosecutes federal crimes.

Persons: Nathaniel Veltman, Veltman Locations: London , Ontario, Canada

☆ Peter Nygard, Former Fashion Mogul, Convicted of Sexual Assault
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Toronto jury on Sunday found Peter Nygard, the high-profile executive behind a fallen fashion empire, guilty of four counts of sexual assault after just over three days of deliberation at the end of a six-week trial. He was found not guilty of one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. The maximum prison sentence for sexual assault in Canada is 10 years. The verdict represents the first criminal conviction against Mr. Nygard, 82, who has been in jail for the last two years. Mr. Nygard appealed the New York extradition ruling in Winnipeg — his hometown and the former base of Nygard International, his clothing company — citing poor health, but the court has not yet issued its decision.

Persons: Peter Nygard, Nygard Organizations: Nygard International Locations: Toronto, Canada, Montreal, Winnipeg, New York, York

☆ A Once Powerful Fashion Executive Testifies in His Sexual Assault Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Mr. Greenspan said that the defense’s evidence would “render the revisionist history which the complainants have provided inaccurate, unreliable and untrustworthy.”He told jurors that Mr. Nygard had waived his right to remain silent to testify in his own defense. At 82, his distinctive flowing hair was white and was pulled back into a large low bun, with a pair of orange tinted glasses sitting on his nose. “By necessity, we had to work to survive,” Mr. Nygard said, recalling his job at a textile factory under difficult conditions where his mother worked as a sewing machine operator. “The only way that you could have this type of success is that you would just outwork the next guy,” he later added. His company, which he founded in 1967, grew to 2,000 employees, competing with the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, he said, popularizing a type of polyester that made him known as the “polyester king” and turned him into a celebrity in the fashion world.

Persons: Greenspan, ”, Nygard, Nygard’s, Mr, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren Locations: Finland, Winnipeg , Manitoba

☆ Peter Nygard, Disgraced Fashion Designer, Faces Trial in Toronto
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The NewsProsecutors in Canada will begin laying out their case on Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom against Peter Nygard, the founder of a fashion empire, two years after he was charged with sex crimes by Canadian police. Mr. Nygard, 82, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement involving five women. A jury at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in downtown Toronto will hear how the prosecutors believe that Mr. Nygard abused the women, whose identities are hidden by court-imposed publication bans to protect victims of sexual assault. Mr. Nygard was charged in Oct. 2021. Mr. Nygard has denied the allegations through his lawyers’ statements to the media.

Persons: Peter Nygard, Nygard Organizations: Prosecutors, Canadian, Ontario Superior Court of Justice Locations: Canada, Toronto

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Tuesday firmly rejected the Indian government’s denial of any involvement in the assassination of a Sikh dissident in Canada, calling on India to take his country’s allegations seriously. “We are not looking to provoke or escalate,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the government of India.”On Monday, the prime minister stunned Canadians when he told the House of Commons that “agents of the Indian government” had been behind the shooting in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader and a Canadian citizen, near a Sikh temple in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia.

Persons: Justin Trudeau of, Mr, Trudeau, ”, Hardeep Singh Nijjar Organizations: Justin Trudeau of Canada, of Locations: Canada, India, Ottawa, Canadian, Vancouver, British Columbia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia last June. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Trudeau said that he raised India’s involvement in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 summit meeting earlier this month “in no uncertain terms.” He said the allegation was based on intelligence gathered by the Canadian government. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Trudeau told lawmakers. He said Canada would pressure India to cooperate with the investigation into the killing. Mélanie Joly, the foreign minister, later announced that Canada had expelled an Indian diplomat whom she described as “the head” of Indian intelligence in Canada.

Persons: Justin Trudeau, ”, Trudeau, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Narendra Modi, ” Mr, Mélanie Joly Organizations: British Columbia, Group, Canadian Locations: British, Canada, India, Indian

Canada’s wildfire plague widened on Friday, with Yellowknife’s 20,000 residents rushing to meet a deadline to evacuate, while blazes hundreds of miles away threatened Kelowna, a much larger city in British Columbia. The mass migration from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, was the biggest mandatory evacuation so far in Canada’s summer of wildfire disasters. By midday, it remained unclear how many of Yellowknife’s residents had heeded the order as an encroaching fire loomed, but parts of the city appeared empty and most stores appeared closed. In Kelowna, a major resort area, homes on its suburban fringes were on fire and orders to evacuate were decreed in a community where several homes were destroyed on Thursday night and others were burning on Friday.

Locations: Kelowna, British Columbia, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

☆ Missing From Your Facebook News Feed: Canadian News
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It could be months before an escalating fight between Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and the Canadian government gets resolved, but Matthew DiMera, publisher of a Canadian news organization, is already feeling the pain. Mr. DiMera tried to create an Instagram post featuring a news article by his outlet, The Resolve — something news organizations do routinely to promote their work. Instead, he said, he was greeted by the message: “People in Canada can’t see your content,”Meta this week began blocking news from appearing on its platforms in Canada, the latest twist in its standoff with the government over a new law that will require technology companies to compensate domestic publishers for using their content. The law comes at a time when the news industry in Canada, as in much of the world, is shrinking under the pressure of lower advertising revenues, and depends on social networks for much of its readership. “Instagram has been a really great platform for us to connect with people, so losing that is really a huge concern for us,” said Mr. DiMera, who started The Resolve in 2021 to report stories on Black, Indigenous and racially diverse communities.

Persons: Matthew DiMera, DiMera, “ Instagram, ” Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Canadian Locations: Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced on Wednesday that he and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, had separated after 18 years of marriage. The Trudeaus, who have three children, have “signed a legal separation agreement,” according to a statement released by the prime minister’s office. For the well-being of our children, we ask that you respect our privacy and their privacy,” Mr. Trudeau said in a post on Instagram. He added that they had decided to separate “after many meaningful and difficult conversations.”Mr. Trudeau’s wife and children have played a prominent role in his political career, often accompanying him on trips overseas after he was elected prime minister in 2015. Their children are Xavier, 15, Ella-Grace, 14, and Hadrien, 9.

Persons: Justin Trudeau of, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, “, Mr, Trudeau, ” Mr, Trudeau’s, Xavier, Ella, Grace Organizations: Justin Trudeau of Canada

☆ Up in Smoke: Canada’s Outdoor Summer Season
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Vjosa Isai | More About Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fishing trips to Canada are a tradition for Jeffrey Hardy and his three friends from Vermont. They have, since 2001, been anglers loyal to Quebec’s northern wilderness, where the walleye are plentiful and the cellphone service is not. This summer, the crisp forest air coveted by recreationists visiting Canada was instead polluted with smoke as wildfires have torn through millions of acres, blocking roads, destroying campgrounds and forcing tourism operators to scramble during peak season. “Everybody was excited to go because Canada had been shut down for all of Covid.”The country’s worst wildfire season on record is straining the outdoor segments of Canada’s tourism industry at a crucial time in its rebound from years of pandemic travel restrictions. Of the 28.6 million acres that have burned across the country so far, more than 11.6 million acres were in Quebec, the most of any province, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Persons: Jeffrey Hardy, ”, Hardy Organizations: recreationists, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Locations: Canada, Vermont, St, Albans, Vt, Bermuda, Quebec

☆ Day Care for Less Than $10: How Canada Is Easing the Burden for Parents
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Finally, after putting him on a dozen or so waiting lists, she landed a spot. Even better, it came at a discounted fee of 600 Canadian dollars, or $450, a month. The low cost was the result of an ambitious day care plan expanding across Canada, intended to drastically cut fees that supporters say will address one of the most vexing problems facing many working parents. “It was just perfect timing,” said Ms. Ibarra, who in January went back to work as a paralegal at a tax services firm in Mississauga, a Toronto suburb. She had heard plenty of stories of co-workers who stopped working once they had children because child care costs were exorbitant.

Persons: Susana Ibarra’s, ”, Ibarra Locations: Toronto, Canada, Mississauga

But Titan, the lost submersible from the company OceanGate, is a technological maverick based on novel concepts that differ from standard designs. “I’ve had three people ask me about making a dive on it,” he said in reference to the lost submersible. Private vessels — those used on superyachts, exploratory craft, tourists jaunts — are not formally regulated by any governmental or intergovernmental agency. Nor do they meet the rigorous standards that are applied to deep-sea craft used by the United States Navy and other government agencies. “We are proud that every submersible delivered remains in active service and certified to its original design depth,” it says on the company’s website.

Persons: ”, Bruce H, Robison, Alfred S, McLaren, Navy submariner, “ I’ve, ‘, OceanGate, submersibles, jaunts, Jennifer, Dr Organizations: Aquarium Research, Explorers Club of New, United States Navy, Lloyd’s, American Bureau of Shipping, ” Triton, Triton Locations: Monterey, California, Navy, Explorers Club of New York City, British, Everett, Wash, Houston, American

☆ At Least 15 Die in Highway Crash in Canada
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least 15 people were killed in a crash along the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Manitoba, on Thursday afternoon, after a bus carrying 25 people, mostly older people, collided with a semitruck, the police said. The crash turned a mile of the highway, which runs from east to west and connects the country’s provinces, into what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba called a “mass casualty collision” scene. It was not immediately clear what caused the collision, which happened around noon local time. Most of the victims were older people, a police official said. I am so sorry we cannot get you the definitive answers you need more quickly.”

Persons: Rob Hill, ” Organizations: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Locations: Canada, Carberry , Manitoba, Manitoba

☆ Canada’s Ability to Prevent Forest Fires Lags Behind the Need
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Vjosa Isai | Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Canada’s capacity to prevent wildfires has been shrinking for decades because of budget cuts, a loss of some of the country’s forest service staff, and onerous rules for fire prevention, turning some of its forests into a tinderbox. As residents braced for what could be the worst wildfire season on record, and one that is far from over, the air slowly cleared over the Northeastern United States on Friday, but hundreds of wildfires continued to burn across Canada. Thanks to some rain and cloud cover near wildfire areas, with scattered rains expected in parts of southern Ontario on Sunday, Steven Flisfeder, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, predicted that the weekend could bring better air quality in Toronto, the country’s largest city. “That’s going to help flush out the contaminants from the air a little bit,” he said. More than 1,100 firefighters from around the world have been dispatched across Canada to help combat the country’s raging fire season, officials said, including groups from France, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Persons: Steven Flisfeder, “ That’s Organizations: Northeastern Locations: Northeastern United States, Canada, Ontario, Toronto, France, Chile, Costa Rica, United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

☆ From British Columbia to Nova Scotia, Wildfires Spread Across Canada
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Dan Bilefsky | Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The danger of wildfires, which over the past few weeks have stretched from British Columbia on the west coast to Nova Scotia, nearly 2,900 miles away in the east, was brought home on Tuesday to the political heart of the nation. A thick haze hovered over Parliament Hill and the soaring Gothic Revival building that houses Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said that hundreds of soldiers were deployed across the country to help with firefighting efforts. Bill Blair, the emergency preparedness minister, told reporters last week that over the month of May an area of roughly 2.7 million hectares, or about 6.7 million acres, of forest in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and the Northwest Territories had been scorched. “The equivalent of over 5 million football fields has burned in Canada so far this year,” he wrote on Twitter.

Persons: Hill, Justin Trudeau, Mr, Trudeau, Bill Blair, ” Organizations: Northwest, Twitter Locations: Canada, United States, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia , New Brunswick, Ontario, Northwest Territories

CALGARY, Alberta — Judy Greenwood did not want to leave. In much of the western province of Alberta, this time of year has long been wildfire season. As of Tuesday after, about 24,000 people were out of their homes in the sparsely populated, largely northern areas of the province as 88 active wildfires were burning across nearly one million acres. There have already been 412 fires this season — which typically runs from March 1 to Oct. 31 — an unusually high number. And for residents of vulnerable areas, that has evoked uneasy memories of 2016, when raging flames moved from the forest into the oil sands capital of Fort McMurray, Alberta.

A blast of Arctic air will also plunge much of the country into bitter and, in some cases, dangerous cold, forecasters say. In some parts of this area, the wind chill could reach as low as minus 70 degrees, according to the Weather Service. Brief bursts of moderate to heavy snow lasting an hour or two are likely to occur immediately behind the Arctic front. Strong southerly winds, combined with the new moon-tide cycle, could also bring coastal flooding from northern New Jersey to northeast Massachusetts, the Weather Service said. Meteorologists warned local residents that this is not a normal lake effect event with a narrow band of heavy snow.

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