Democracy Watch says its legal challenge of the validity of Premier John Horgan's snap election call in late 2020, as the COVID 19 pandemic was nearing its height, begins today and continues tomorrow in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver. Democracy Watch says the goal of the court challenge is not to overturn the election. Instead, it wants the court to rule that the election call violated the sovereignty of Parliament because it happened one year before the fixed election date which had been approved by the legislature. Democracy Watch advocates for democratic reform and government accountability

Mediated talks between striking bus drivers in the Sea-to-Sky region and their employer have ended almost as quickly as they began. Unifor, representing about 80 transit workers in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton, says talks began and ended yesterday when PW Transit, the third-party contractor for BC Transit, would not consider union proposals for wage parity with bus drivers in Metro Vancouver and Victoria. But a statement from the contractor says it put forward two wage offers and is disappointed the union walked away without putting either one to its members. A transit strike in the Sea-t

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will deploy a general and six staff officers to join NATO's multinational division. Canada leads NATO's battle group in Latvia with 695 armed forces members.Trudeau says Canada's contributions to NATO's defence will give Russian President Vladimir Putin pause about expanding aggression into NATO territory. Trudeau announced the additional resources during a joint news conference with Latvia's prime minister today in Ottawa.

The Election Commission of India on Thursday announced that polls for 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10. There are 2 seats are going to vaccant in punjab. Earlier, five seats that fell vacant from Punjab were bagged by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after a landslide victory in the state Assembly elections. The biggest share of seats for the Upper House of Parliament comes from Uttar Pradesh where 11 seats will go for election. Out of 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP which is in power in the state, as well as at the Centre, is likely to get seven sea

Former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who has spent the majority of his more than 42 years of service with the Sikh troops of his battalion, on Wednesday paid obeisance to the Guru Granth Sahib at the Golden Temple in his first visit post-retirement visit. Gen Naravane retired on April 30 and has shifted to his newly-allotted accommodation in Delhi Cantonment since that day. "A Sikh Light Infantry officer having served for over 42 years in a Sikh Light Infantry battalion, former Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane in his first visit outside Delhi post-retirement visited the Golden

The federal government has approved a new, approximately $10-billion loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a move it says is common practice and does not reflect any additional public funding for the high-profile, over-budget oil pipeline. The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada's only oil pipeline system from Alberta to the West Coast. It was bought by the federal government in 2018 for $4.5 billion after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline's planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition. The statement said Trans

Share price of state-run lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) slumped 13.6 per cent on Thursday after the company reported 66 per cent drop in its fourth-quarter profit. Trading in PNB shares started sharply lower at Rs 31.70 against its previous day's close at Rs 33.10 at the BSE. PNB share was trading 13.44 per cent down at Rs 28.65 at 3.19 pm. Earlier, the scrip tumbled to a low of Rs 28.50 in the intra-day. The bank's share slumped after it announced disappointing financial numbers for the fourth quarter of 2021-22. PNB on Wednesday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 202 crore for January

The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the plea seeking to open 22 closed rooms in the Taj Mahal to ascertain the presence of the idols of Hindu deities. The hearing seeking an investigation over 22 rooms of the Taj Mahal concluded on Thursday. The plea was filed by Rajneesh Singh, a BJP youth media in-charge, before the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court that sought the directions to the Archaeological Survey of India to probe the 22 closed doors in the Taj Mahal to ascertain the presence of the idols of Hindu deities. The plea sought the constitution of a fact-fi

Alberta's Opposition NDP says new data shows a health-care system in crisis due to long wait times.The Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services quarterly dashboard from early April shows ambulance response times in urban areas got progressively worse in the past year. NDP Leader Rachel Notley says those numbers are another sign of an ambulance and hospital system under extreme stress. In the past week, there have been reports of ambulances lined up outside hospitals, surgeries being diverted and long wait times at children's hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton. Mike Parker, a paramedic