The Vatican says Pope Francis will stop in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut during his visit to Canada this summer. It says the capital cities of Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit will act as bases for the trip from July 24 to 29. The visit comes after the Pope's historic apology last month for the Roman Catholic Church's role in residential schools in Canada. Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, general coordinator of the trip for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, says it will be another important step for healing and reconciliation. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said the

British Columbia is seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19. Weekly numbers released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control show 596 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday compared with 331 last week. The centre says 54 patients were in intensive care. It says 59 people who had COVID-19 died in the week that ended May 7, bringing the total number of deaths in B.C. to 3,307 since the start of the pandemic. It says 1,987 COVID-19 cases were detected in the first week of this month, although health officials and experts have said the actual number of

Surrey RCMP’s Community Response Unit seized a firearm, ammunition, cash and a large amount of drugs in Newton. On April 27, 2022 at approximately 3:00 pm, Surrey RCMP’s Community Response Unit were conducting proactive patrols and located a man who had fled from police the previous day when they attempted to conduct a traffic stop. Officers arrested the 35-year-old man in the 13100-block of 61 Avenue and transported him to Surrey RCMP cells.The investigation remains ongoing and charges have not yet been laid in relation to the items seized, as further analysis is required on the drugs and

Democracy Watch says its legal challenge of the validity of Premier John Horgan's snap election call in late 2020, as the COVID 19 pandemic was nearing its height, begins today and continues tomorrow in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver. Democracy Watch says the goal of the court challenge is not to overturn the election. Instead, it wants the court to rule that the election call violated the sovereignty of Parliament because it happened one year before the fixed election date which had been approved by the legislature. Democracy Watch advocates for democratic reform and government accountability

Mediated talks between striking bus drivers in the Sea-to-Sky region and their employer have ended almost as quickly as they began. Unifor, representing about 80 transit workers in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton, says talks began and ended yesterday when PW Transit, the third-party contractor for BC Transit, would not consider union proposals for wage parity with bus drivers in Metro Vancouver and Victoria. But a statement from the contractor says it put forward two wage offers and is disappointed the union walked away without putting either one to its members. A transit strike in the Sea-t

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will deploy a general and six staff officers to join NATO's multinational division. Canada leads NATO's battle group in Latvia with 695 armed forces members.Trudeau says Canada's contributions to NATO's defence will give Russian President Vladimir Putin pause about expanding aggression into NATO territory. Trudeau announced the additional resources during a joint news conference with Latvia's prime minister today in Ottawa.

The Election Commission of India on Thursday announced that polls for 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10. There are 2 seats are going to vaccant in punjab. Earlier, five seats that fell vacant from Punjab were bagged by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after a landslide victory in the state Assembly elections. The biggest share of seats for the Upper House of Parliament comes from Uttar Pradesh where 11 seats will go for election. Out of 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP which is in power in the state, as well as at the Centre, is likely to get seven sea

Former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who has spent the majority of his more than 42 years of service with the Sikh troops of his battalion, on Wednesday paid obeisance to the Guru Granth Sahib at the Golden Temple in his first visit post-retirement visit. Gen Naravane retired on April 30 and has shifted to his newly-allotted accommodation in Delhi Cantonment since that day. "A Sikh Light Infantry officer having served for over 42 years in a Sikh Light Infantry battalion, former Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane in his first visit outside Delhi post-retirement visited the Golden

The federal government has approved a new, approximately $10-billion loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a move it says is common practice and does not reflect any additional public funding for the high-profile, over-budget oil pipeline. The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada's only oil pipeline system from Alberta to the West Coast. It was bought by the federal government in 2018 for $4.5 billion after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline's planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition. The statement said Trans