Trudeau acknowledges charges in Nijjar killing, calls for commitment to democracy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Illustrious U2 producer Daniel Lanois, indie vocal powerhouse Charlotte Cardin and recent Juno Award winner Savannah Re have made the Polaris Music Prize long list.
New albums from 40 Canadian musicians were named on the extended list that will be narrowed down to 10 contenders for a short list due July 15.
Lanois made the cut with "Heavy Sun," a contemplative project he recorded with his bandmates in the Heavy Sun Orchestra, while Cardin's "Phoenix" marks some of her most deeply personal work.
Re landed on the list with "Opia," which saw one of its tracks win a Juno for traditional R&B/soul recording earlier this month.
Other artists on the long list include fellow Juno winner Tobi whose "Elements Vol. 1" picked up rap recording this year, and Quebecois singer Dominique Fils-Aime's "Three Little Words" which completes her album trilogy inspired by the history of Black-American music.
The $50,000 Polaris Music Prize awards the artist or group that created the best Canadian album of the previous year -- irrespective of genre or sales -- as chosen by a team of journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.
It's considered among the country's most prestigious music awards, in recent years naming Kaytranada, Jeremy Dutcher and Haviah Mighty as winners.
Transgender goth-metal rapper Backxwash was named the 2020 Polaris winner for her album "God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It."
Often the Polaris long list includes a handful of mainstream names who occupy early slots before being eliminated. But recent albums by Drake, Justin Bieber, Arkells and Gord Downie are all missing from this year's contenders.
Their absence leaves room for an array of lesser-known projects, including Vancouver-based Yu Su's electro-ambient "Yellow River Blue" inspired by her trip across China, and Hamilton artist Daniel Monkman whose self-professed "moccasin-gaze" album "Bleached Wavves," under his stage name Zoon, blends his Ojibwe roots with an alternative rock flavour.
Canadian mainstays Kathleen Edwards, the Weather Station and the Besnard Lakes are all among other recent projects in the running, as are Clairmont The Second, Mustafa, Art Bergmann and Julian Taylor.
The long list was selected from 204 albums that made the first ballots.
The Polaris prize will be handed out at a ceremony at an unannounced date later this year. Organizers say further details will come in the weeks ahead.
See the full Polaris long list:
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2021.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Princess Anne paid tribute to veterans buried at a cemetery in British Columbia today, laying a wreath to honour the more than 2,500 military personnel and family members buried there.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.