Workers at British Columbia's HandyDART transit service have rejected a final contract offer, and their union says it is now considering its next move. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 has said it would give a 72-hour strike notice if membership voted down the latest offer by Transdev, the contracted operator of HandyDART. A potential disruption of the door-to-door service was averted Monday, after workers suspended job action to vote on the contract offer. Local 1724 president Joe McCann called the suspension of job action "a gesture of goodwill" after what the union described as "months

Cellphone use will be restricted in all British Columbia school districts when pupils return next week, as the province becomes the latest to curtail the use of the devices in classrooms. Premier David Eby says all school districts now have policies in place to ban cellphone use "bell to bell," in line with a government directive announced in April. The province is also imposing "access zones" around schools allowing police to arrest or issue tickets to anyone found impeding access, disrupting educational activities, or attempting to intimidate an individual within 20 metres of school property

After the resignation of Shiromani Akali Dal constituency in-charge Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, the political temperature has risen ahead of the by-election in Giddarbaha constituency. According to sources, Sukhbir Badal is likely to contest the by-election from here. At the same time, Dimpy Dhillon, who is close to him, may be a candidate from the Aam Aadmi Party. For the past several days, Sukhbir was running a campaign in this patriarchal constituency. Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was MLA from Giddarbaha constituency from 1969 to 1985. This seat has recently become vacant due

A 17-year-old from Ontario is dead after climbing over a fence and falling off the edge of a cliff in a popular park in North Vancouver, B.C. Dwayne Derban, assistant fire chief with North Vancouver Fire and Rescue, says the boy was in an off-trail area of Lynn Canyon Park when it happened Sunday afternoon. Derban says there are signs warning people to stay away from dangerous areas, but the boy's friends told firefighters that he had climbed over a fence to get a better look at the river canyon and he "just got too close" to the edge. Derban says the boy fell onto rocks about 50 metres below

Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab has been elected to the Rajya Sabha without any opposition from Rajasthan. His victory was sealed on Tuesday. Bittu's victory was one-sided due to the decision of the Congress not to field any candidate. Similarly, BJP's Kiran Chaudhary from Haryana was also elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed. A total of 7 BJP candidates have been elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed ahead of the elections for 12 Rajya Sabha seats in 9 states. Now only 5 Rajya Sabha seats are left, out of which two seats are in Maharashtra and one Rajya Sabha seat each in Telan

Toronto Public Health says the number of whooping cough cases are more than double the pre-pandemic average. The public health agency is reporting 99 cases in Toronto so far this year compared to the pre-pandemic five-year average of 38. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a cyclical disease that occasionally increases every two to six years in Ontario. It is a highly contagious persistent cough that’s of most concern for infants. Toronto Public Health says 41 per cent of cases are found in 10 to 14-year-olds. Last week, New Brunswick health officials said a whooping cough outbreak h

China on Tuesday accused Canada of protectionism after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's governmentimposed a 100% tariffon imports ofChinese-made electric vehicles, matching U.S. duties on Chinese-made EVs. The Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement the tariffs would disrupt the stability of global industrial and supply chains, severely impact China-Canada economic and trade ties and damage the interests of enterprises in both countries. “China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes this,” the statement read. “Canada claims it supports free trade and the multilateral trading sy

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is leading the farmers' protest in Punjab, and his two colleagues were detained at the Delhi airport today. He was on his way to attend a farmers' rally in Tamil Nadu. Dallewal alleged that the airport officials told him that he could not travel in the plane wearing Sri Sahib. In the meantime, Jathedar Singh Sahib Giani Raghbir Singh of Sri Akal Takht Sahib issued a statement and said that taking immediate notice of the Government of India on this matter, the relevant responsible officials of Delhi Airport Immediate action should be taken.

BC Hydro says it has begun filling the reservoir created by the massive Site C dam project in northeastern British Columbia. The provincial electric utility says in a statement that the filling of the reservoir is one of the last steps toward starting operations for the controversial dam project, located about 14 kilometres southwest of Fort St. John, B.C. BC Hydro says it will take between two and four months to fill the 83-kilometre-long reservoir, which will cover about 5,550 hectares of land while totalling about 9,330 hectares in surface area. The utility is warning people to stay away fr