A March fire in Old Montreal that killed seven people is now being investigated as a homicide.A press conference will be held by the Montreal Police at 3 pm.In the meantime, the police can lay charges of murder.Most of the seven people who died in the fire were living in illegal short-term rentals.An investigation into the matter was launched by the Montreal Police Arson Squad.According to sources, the case has now been transferred to the Montreal Police Major Crimes Division.If the fire was set on purpose, the police may add charges of murder in this case.

Montreal police are warning young people to be careful online after the number of sextortion cases they've seen has risen dramatically.The force says its child sex exploitation unit has already received more than 100 complaints this year, compared to about 30 at the same time last year.Police say victims are most often young men between the ages of 14 and 17 who are contacted online by people posing as teen girls.The perpetrator builds the victim's trust before asking for intimate photos or videos, only to threaten to publish the images or send them to family and friends if a payment isn't sen

Beijing and Ottawa are negotiating how to increase flights between China and Canada after a US deal in June.Transport Canada says there were more than 100 flights a week between the two countries during the summer in 2019 before Covid-19, but the number of weekly flights has dropped significantly.This number has come down to just 10 this season.The decline stems from China's strict Covid-19 regulations, which included overseas flights and frequent quarantine and testing requirements for tourists.However, China relaxed the Covid regulations earlier this year.Aviation analyst Helen Becker said d

British police are investigating the deaths of 88 people in the UK who bought products from Canada-based websites that allegedly contained lethal substances for self-harm.Britain's National Crime Agency said that in the last two years, 232 people in the U.K. who bought substances from websites have been identified and 88 of them have died.National Crime Agency deputy director Craig Turner said his sympathies go out to the family members of the victims.They are being assisted by specially trained officers of the police force.The investigation actually started after the arrest of a Canadian man

Singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh-starrer 'Punjab 95' based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, faces a setback.The movie has been removed from the line-up of the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, starting on September 7. Directed by Honey Trehan, the movie was scheduled for a world premiere in the Gala Presentations section on September 11, but the TIFF’s website has no mention of the biographical drama in its line-up anymore. There has been no official statement regarding the removal of ‘Punjab 95’, nor has anyone from the film commented on the same. Produc

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has appointed senior public servant Natalka Cmoc as Canada's new ambassador to Ukraine.Global Affairs Canada describes Cmoc as a career expert on Ukraine who worked previously on the creation of Operation UNIFIER, the Canadian military's training and capacity-building mission in support of the Ukrainian military.The department says Cmoc also was involved in Canada's implementation of democracy programming in Ukraine and Canadian monitoring of Ukrainian elections following the 2015 presidential campaign.A Ukrainian speaker, Ms. Cmoc has deep connections to

Quebec university administrators and professors are praising the provincial government's rejection of an idea by the federal housing minister that Canada could cap the number of student visas it issues.They say that limiting the number of international students will do little to address housing shortages and would instead hurt university research and deprive Quebec of skilled immigrants.On Monday federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser suggested that capping the explosive growth in the number of international students recruited to Canada in recent years was an option to reduce demand for housing.

Canada's corporate ethics watchdog is investigating allegations that Walmart, Hugo Boss and Diesel involved forced labor in their supply chains.Sheri Meyerhoffer released three reports today that say none of the three companies have done enough to disclose that the products they are selling in Canada are free of slave labor.These are the fourth, fifth and sixth investigations announced by the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) since it began accepting complaints in March, 2021.Last month CORE announced investigations into Nike Canada and Canadian mining company Dynasty Gol

To discuss the housing crisis, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has demanded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to start the Parliament session at the earliest.After the three-day Liberal cabinet retreat ended, Poilievre blamed Trudeau for the housing crisis, adding that the Conservative Party had more policies to balance the budget to lower mortgage interest rates.Taking a dig at Trudeau, Poilievre said that now the holidays are over and the House of Commons proceedings should resume so that Canadians can be given homes.The session is scheduled to start on September 18.According to the Canada