The Manitoba government is following other provinces in restricting the use of cellphones in classrooms beginning this school year. There is to be a ban for students in kindergarten to Grade 8, while those in high school will be restricted from using their devices during class time but are free to use them during breaks and lunch. The province says exemptions are to be made for medical or accessibility reasons. The bans are designed to reduce distractions and help students focus in class. Some Manitoba school divisions already had their own bans in place. Saskatchewan announced its decision la

Amritpal Singh, who became an MP from Punjab's Khadur Sahib, and his supporters are preparing to contest the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections. In the meantime, Amritpal Singh's father Tarsem Singh has questioned the transfer of a drug smuggler to Dibrugarh jail by the Punjab government. He said that the intention of the government does not seem right, if any untoward incident happens with Amritpal there, the Punjab government will be responsible for it. It is to be noted that the previous elections of SGPC were held in the year 2011. Similarly, after the elections in the year

Residents can return home now that an evacuation order following a landslide that blocked a British Columbia river for days has been downgraded. The Cariboo Regional District in B.C.'s central Interior issued an evacuation order on July 31 for 34 parcels of land along the Chilcotin River due to a landslide and declared a state of local emergency. The evaluation order covered a stretch of the river about 30 kilometres long and spanning nearly 73 square kilometres. The district says the evacuation order in the Chilcotin River landslide area has been downgraded to an evacuation alert. But it's wa

In Punjab, the state level program on Independence Day was held at Sri Guru Gobind Singh Stadium in Jalandhar, where CM. Bhagwant Mann hoisted the tricolor. On this occasion, he said that along with getting independence, Punjab also suffered partition, we got independence very expensive but the contribution made by Punjabis in the progress of the country is unparalleled. Regarding the issue of drugs in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that, to wash away the stain of drugs on the forehead of the state, our government has created a zero tolerance policy, thousands of smugglers have bee

The BC Wildfire Service says thundershowers are expected to bring some much-needed moisture to areas of the province where hundreds of fires are burning, including a destructive blaze in the Kootenays. It says in an update that the moisture will likely arrive in the Rocky Mountain Trench in the northeast, as well as the Southeast Fire Centre. There were about 415 fires burning in British Columbia Wednesday, down slightly from the day before, with 163 out of control and four classified as wildfires of note, meaning they are highly visible or pose a threat to people or property. About 110 fires

The World Health Organization has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern and experts say it's critical for Canada to respond. The WHO declaration comes as mpox formerly known as monkeypox has spread between several African countries and there are concerns it could spread further. McGill University global health researcher Dr. Madhukar Pai says the current risk to Canadians is low, but it's important to provide funding and resources to help African nations get the outbreak under control. He says it's the way to prevent the virus from travelling and becoming a bigger th

Mounties in Metro Vancouver say five men have been charged following an investigation that resulted in the dismantling of a large and sophisticated synthetic drug lab. RCMP say they began the probe in 2022, leading to the identification of people suspected of being involved in the production and trafficking of the drug MDMA. In August that year, RCMP say their clandestine laboratory enforcement and response team executed four search warrants in Maple Ridge and Coquitlam, B.C. They say officers found a synthetic drug "superlab" capable of producing multiple kilograms of MDMA per cycle, and seiz

Canada's international trade minister is criticizing the U.S. Department of Commerce for nearly doubling duties on softwood lumber, saying the move is unfair and unwarranted. Minister Mary Ng says the U.S. has significantly increased duties on softwood lumber from Canada, from 8.05 per cent to 14.54 per cent. It's the latest salvo in a bilateral back-and-forth that Ottawa has described as a drag on efforts to improve the cost and supply of housing. Ng says the increase will harm consumers and producers on both sides of the border and called for a lasting resolution to this long-standing disput

Quebec says that starting this fall it will authorize early requests for medical assistance in dying from certain patients before their condition renders them incapable of giving consent. The province has been calling on the federal government to modify the Criminal Code to allow people to make such requests, but Quebec says it won't wait any longer. Quebec adopted a law in June 2023 permitting people with serious and incurable illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease, to ask for MAID while they have the capacity to provide consent, with the procedure being carried out after their condition has