Canada's police chiefs are calling for decriminalization of personal possession of illicit drugs as the best way to battle substance abuse and addiction. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is proposing increased access to health care, treatment and social services to divert people away from the criminal justice system. This would apply to people possessing a small amount of illicit drugs for personal consumption. Chief Const. Adam Palmer of Vancouver, the association president, says Canada continues to grapple with the fentanyl crisis and a poisoned drug supply that has devastated

Canada is joining an international group of nearly two dozen other countries working to protect the world's oceans.The Global Ocean Alliance, founded by Great Britain last year, seeks to protect 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030. Its 22 members include European countries such as Italy, Germany and Sweden, as well as island states such as Fiji and the Seychelles.Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan made the announcement in Ottawa this morning.Canada has announced a conservation target of 25 per cent of its marine and coastal areas by 2025, and has already protected 14 per cen

A new report from a committee of senators says the country is ill-prepared to handle a second wave of COVID-19. The Senate's social affairs committee says the federal government needs to pay urgent attention to seniors in long-term care homes where outbreaks and deaths in the pandemic have been concentrated. There are also concerns in the report about the vulnerability of low-income seniors should there be a second wave of the novel coronavirus later this year. The document made public this morning is the committee's first set of observations on the government's response to the pandemic, with

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday kept a hold on President Donald Trump’s financial records that Congress has been seeking for more than a year. The ruling returns the case to lower courts, with no clear prospect for when the case might ultimately be resolved. The 7-2 outcome is at least a short-term victory for Trump, who has strenuously sought to keep his financial records private. The decision came after the court upheld a prosecutor’s demand for Trump’s tax returns as part of a criminal investigation that includes hush-money payments to women who claim they had affairs with Trump.

Former Bandipora BJP president Wasim Bari, his father and brother, succumbed to their injuries after terrorists fired upon them, said Police on Wednesday."Former Bandipora BJP president Wasim Bari, his father and brother, all 3 succumbed to their injuries," said Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh.Terrorists fired upon BJP leader Wasim Bari outside his shop near Bandipur police station at around 9 pm, sources said on Wednesday."The family had a component of 8 security people but unfortunately, none of them was kept along at the time of the incident," Singh added.In the firing, his brother Umar

There are 106,434 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 56,079 confirmed (including 5,603 deaths, 25,534 resolved) Ontario: 36,178 confirmed (including 2,700 deaths, 31,805 resolved) Alberta: 8,482 confirmed (including 158 deaths, 7,716 resolved) British Columbia: 3,008 confirmed (including 186 deaths, 2,645 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,066 confirmed (including 63 deaths, 998 resolved) Saskatchewan: 808 confirmed (including 15 deaths, 746 resolved) Manitoba: 314 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 312 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 258 resolved) Ne

British Columbia crossed the 3,000 mark for cases of COVID-19 as health officials reported 18 new infections and three more deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases stood at 3,008. There have been a total of 186 deaths. Health officials said in a statement that B.C. has 162 active cases of COVID-19 and 2,660 people who tested positive have recovered. The government says while there are no active outbreaks, new cases and community exposure to the virus continue.

The RCMP say the bodies of three people have been found at the scene of a motel fire in downtown Prince George, B.C. Cpl. Craig Douglass says emergency services were called to the Econo Lodge City Centre Inn on Victoria Street around 9 a.m. Wednesday. He says fire crews tackled the blaze, which engulfed a portion of the building, while police assisted with staff and guests who evacuated the structure. At about 12:30 p.m., Douglass says personnel clearing the building found the three bodies, but he did not have details about their identities. Douglass says an investigation is underway and dete

The Transportation Safety Board says a plane that went missing last month in British Columbia with two people on board was last recorded travelling at an altitude of about 60 metres. The board says the Cessna 172M aircraft was travelling east at an airspeed of about 150 kilometres an hour when it disappeared from radar over the Fraser River near Maple Ridge in the afternoon of June 6. In an update on its investigation released Wednesday, the board says the local training flight was operated by the International Flight Centre at the Boundary Bay Airport. There was a student and flight instruct