A preliminary report by the City of Vancouver and police into last month's Lapu Lapu Day festival attack says authorities are considering safety enhancements for outdoor events in light of the attack. But the report says planning for the festival appears to have followed prescribed processes, and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says all the right steps were taken. Heavy barriers were not in place at the festival where 11 people were killed when an SUV sped through a crowded street on April 26 and police have previously said only nine out of 3,200 events in the city involved such protection. The report

MP Gurjit Aujla has held Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's government responsible for the death of 27 people due to consuming poisonous liquor in Majitha constituency of Amritsar in Punjab. Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, he also demanded Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to make liquor cheaper in villages. He said that the trade of spurious liquor can be stopped only when the government makes cheap liquor available at the shops. The Congress MP said that the Punjab government has estimated to collect 11 thousand crores in revenue from liquor but this target will not be possible to meet

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has handed over cheques of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of 4 Sikhs killed in firing by Pakistan in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir. A delegation led by SGPC President Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami had reached Poonch today to attend the Bhog and Ardas on behalf of Ragi Bhai Amrik Singh, where they expressed their condolences to the members of all the victim families. On this occasion, Advocate Dhami said that whenever a Sikh in the country or the world has faced a difficult time, the SGPC has fulfilled its responsibility by standing with them, considerin

The B-C Wildfire Service wants people to take precautions with any fire use over the long weekend, saying most wildfires are preventable.   It also suggests people planning to travel to check for wildfire activity, road closures and evacuation orders and alerts, while also paying attention to weather conditions.The service's dashboard shows there are about 30 fires currently burning in B-C. The service says the province continues to have below-average rainfall at this time of year, and is warning about prolonged drought, noting the northeast remains the driest region.

The sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team will now continue in London, Ontario with a judge alone after the jury was dismissed. It comes after a juror sent a note to the judge yesterday indicating some members of the panel felt two of the defence lawyerswere laughing at them as they came into court each day.Both lawyers denied doing anything of the like, but it still caused concerns about jury bias. Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in relation to an encounter tha

Alberta has now seen more than 400 cases of measles within the last two months. The province confirmed 14 new cases Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 409 since the beginning of March. More than 300 of the total cases of the highly contagious disease have been found in children, with 127 cases confirmed in those under age five. The government says 35 people have been hospitalized. More than half of all cases have been in southern parts of Alberta, while just six cases have been confirmed in the Edmonton area. Measles symptoms include fever, coughing, runny nose, red eyes and a blot

Alberta's bill lowering the bar for a separation referendum has spurred a First Nation to push ahead with a legal challenge against the premier's flagship sovereignty act. Danielle Smith has said her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is needed to push back on what the province believes is unconstitutional federal encroachment on provincial jurisdiction. But Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis says it undermines his community's pre-existing treaty with the Crown. He announced the legal challenge is moving forward a day after Smith's government passed a bill significantly l

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met Friday in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in three years, officials said. A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov sat down with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, who published a photo of the meeting. The officials present sat around a U-shaped table, with the Russians and Ukrainians facing each other. Officials and observers expect the Turkish-brokered talks to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more

Khalilullah Yusuf, 36, of Toronto, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by Ontario Superior Court in the largest terrorist financing case in Canadian history. Yusuf admitted that he launched online fundraising campaigns and transferred funds in both money transfers and cryptocurrencies to support the Islamic State. He also ran propaganda to justify terrorist attacks on foreign nationals in Afghanistan. According to the RCMP, Khalilullah Yusuf, a Toronto resident, funded terrorist activities abroad through cryptocurrency and money transfers between September 2019 and December 2022. Yusuf