Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
When Ajay Chhabra was asked to design a pageant performance to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, he knew what would make the perfect centrepiece: cake.
Not just any cake, but Elizabeth and Prince Philip's 1947 wedding cake. The four-tier, nine-foot (2.7-metre) confection was dubbed "the 10,000-mile cake" at the time because it was whipped up with sugar, dried fruit, rum and brandy from all corners of the Commonwealth, from South Africa to the Caribbean to Australia and the South Pacific.
Chhabra, a second-generation British Indian with Fijian heritage, wanted to use his segment of Sunday's Jubilee pageant to highlight how the Queen, through her historic 70 years on the throne, united generations of Commonwealth citizens from places as far flung as Fiji.
"We're not recreating the 1947 wedding of the Queen, but creating a sort of homage to it, with all the people and all the diversity that Britain has produced," he said.
On Sunday, more than 200 performers in vibrant saris will dance to Bollywood tunes around a moving, six-metre-tall (20-foot-tall) version of the Queen's wedding cake, powered by a hidden electric vehicle. Its top tier, featuring a rendition of the Queen's beloved corgis holding aloft a crown, pops up and down on a hydraulic system.
The dancers, who range in age from 9 to 79, all have Commonwealth heritage.
"All those young people ... they don't see the world or 'being British' the way we did, or our parents did," Chhabra said.
His Bollywood-themed wedding party is just one of many colourful acts to parade down the Mall to Buckingham Palace in London on Sunday, the finale of a busy four-day weekend of festivities marking the monarch's Platinum Jubilee.
More than 10,000 people from across the U.K. and the Commonwealth have been involved in producing the pageant, which is expected to be seen by 1 billion people around the world.
A military showcase opens the spectacle, followed by a procession featuring a medley of carnival music, three-storey-high beasts, Scottish bagpipers, stunt cyclists, maypole dancers and dozens of animal puppets -- all telling the story of the Queen's reign in their own ways.
The pageant will travel a three-kilometre route and end in front of Buckingham Palace, where crowds will sing "God Save the Queen." Singers Ed Sheeran, Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard will be among the celebrities paying tribute.
It's a huge celebratory moment, and the pageant's directors aren't keen to discuss the more controversial aspects of Britain's legacy in many Commonwealth countries. In the Caribbean, in particular, the Commonwealth has increasingly been characterized by fragmentation, not unity.
Prince William and his wife, Kate, were greeted with anti-slavery protests in March during a royal tour of the Caribbean, and Jamaica's prime minister bluntly told the couple the country intended to "move on" and remove the Queen as head of state, following Barbados' move last year.
Pageant organizers emphasize that the event is a "people's pageant," focusing on how ordinary people are connected "through time, to each other, and to the Queen."
It's a connection that Chhabra feels keenly in his own family. He says the Queen is a symbol of continuity that unites his mother's generation with that of his young daughter, regardless of the time and distance separating the two.
"When I look at my mum's foundation story, she was 9 years old when the Queen came to Fiji during her tour of the South Pacific in 1953. You know, her and all of her school friends were waving flags to welcome her," he said. "That's an exciting story that she brought with her from Fiji to London in the 1960s."
His 9-year-old daughter will take part in Sunday's pageant -- an event that will become her story to tell future generations.
"In a world where things are very temporary and polarized, I think there are few things that bring us together," Chhabra said.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
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.