Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced China's "lack of transparency" Friday following a brief trial for Michael Spavor, one of two Canadians detained by Beijing for more than two years. Canada said its consular officials were refused permission to attend the proceedings against Spavor, an entrepreneur with North Korea-related business, who is accused by China of stealing state secrets. Jim Nickel, the Canadian Embassy's deputy chief of mission, said he was told by Spavor's lawyer that the hearing ended at noon Friday after two hours. No verdict was announced. Nickel declined to give other d

A Chinese court says it will pronounce its sentence on detained Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor at a later date.Spavor's trial on charges of spying and illegally sending state secrets abroad lasted just two hours today and was conducted behind closed doors.Canadian consular officials were refused permission to attend. Ten diplomats from eight countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, stood on the street opposite the courthouse in Dandong, China.Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig is due to go on trial on Monday.The detention of the ``two Michaels'' is seen as retribution for

BC is reporting 622 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the total over 90-thousand since the pandemic began, and eight more people have died. A joint statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says more than 4,900 infections are active, including 286 people who are hospitalized. BC has confirmed 136 new variant cases for a total of 1,132, the vast majority of which are the variant first found in the United Kingdom. The province says 143 cases of those variants of concern remain active. The latest numbers come after the province announced more than 300,

Barring any issues, Major-General Dany Fortin says enough doses of COVID-19 should arrive in the country so that every adult could get a first shot before Canada Day. But due to the threat of vaccine production issues, the government's official line is that Canadians will be fully vaccinated by the end of September. And the calculations rely on the provinces continuing to delay second doses up to four months to get first doses to more people sooner. Health Canada anticipates a total of 36.5-million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of Ind

Transportation Safety Board chair Kathy Fox says Iran's civil aviation agency failed to answer key questions in its final report on the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet in January 2020. Kathy Fox says the final report on what happened to Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 fails to explain why the aircraft was shot down. Iran is blaming human error for the Revolutionary Guard firing two surface-to-air missiles at the jet shortly after it took off from Tehran. The TSB has questions about the missile operator's training, experience or proficiency. The final report from Iran's civil av

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia says it's temporarily delaying the delivery of COVID-19 rebate cheques due to a cyberattack on a third-party vendor contracted to provide printing and distribution services. ICBC says in a statement the vendor held customer names and addresses, as well as the dollar amounts and numbers of the rebate cheques, but there's no indication that information was obtained in the cyberattack. It says the attack did not affect ICBC's own systems, which are secure. The corporation had planned to start issuing the one-time rebate cheques this week and says it p

British Columbia is reporting 498 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths, pushing the death toll in the province to 1,411. Among more than 89,000 cases diagnosed to date, 4,851 are active, including 281 people who are in hospital. A statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says no data about new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern is available today due to a lab sequencing issue. BC had confirmed close to a thousand variant cases earlier this week. More than 444,000 doses of three approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC and

The federal government has rejected Iran's explanation of human error for the shooting down of an airliner from Ukraine in January of 2020. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired two missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran. All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and dozens more with ties to the country. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra largely dismiss the 145-page document, which was posted to the website of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization today. They say the report makes no

The Transportation Safety Board has received the final report into the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran, and will discuss it at a news conference tomorrow. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 7-52 crashed after it was shot down by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in January, 2020. All 176 people aboard were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens of others bound for Canada. Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Twitter: #MEDIA: TSB will hold a news conference to provide its comments on the final safety investigation report into the downing of U