B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Throngs of protesters gathered at the courthouse steps, chanting for freedom for their embattled hero. Police kept watch as passions flared and voices roared. Squad cars and television trucks encircled the commotion.
It's a scene New York City authorities have been bracing for as prosecutors consider an indictment against former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has invited followers to rally on his behalf. But on Saturday, it was just a movie shoot -- for the "Joker" sequel to be precise.
The roars faded and the crowds dispersed -- on command -- when the director yelled, "Cut!"
The New York City shoot for the upcoming "Joker" sequel had been planned for months; but in recent days, production crews wrestled with the possibility that filming could be disrupted by real-life protests over the Trump case -- none of which have so far materialized.
In the end, film workers forged ahead, said Leo Maniscalchi, a production assistant, who was taking a break at a nearby coffee house.
"They needed to do what they needed to get this done," he said.
In the film, the Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, inspires protests against Gotham's elites.
In real life, Trump has inspired protests, too. In recent weeks, the former president has called on his supporters to protest what he said was an impending indictment accusing him of paying $130,000 to buy the silence of porn actor Stormy Daniels.
"They can't stop production for anything, really," Maniscalchi said. "The scene didn't call for rain, but we're still out here."
For the past week, crowds -- mostly news media -- have been staking out another courthouse up the street from filming. Earlier in the week, a band of young Republicans staged a protest but its numbers were dwarfed by a crush of journalists. A rumored caravan of Trump adherents also did not take place, neither did a march dozens of blocks from the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to the Manhattan courthouse in the lower city.
When we last saw the Joker, he was running down the halls of a mental asylum with Frank Sinatra singing "That's Life."
In the sequel, called "Joker: Folie a Deux," Lady Gaga joins the cast as Harley Quinn, his love interest. Fittingly, the new move, expected to be released late next year, is being billed as a musical.
Siris Pagan, 30, arrived in lower Manhattan with his friend, Marissa Perez, to watch the filming.
"When some of the shots were being filmed, we started hearing loud chanting in the background and everybody was just turning around," Pagan said.
Just a block away, both sides of the abortion issue were competing for attention.
He thought it might have been part of the movie, but soon realized: "Oh, no, it's a whole different thing going on."
Reality and make-believe were suddenly colliding, he said.
Jaymie Robinson, a 24-year-old extra from Newark, New Jersey, recounted how she heard one bystander who seemed confused about whether she was part of a real protest. The cameras and phony police cars -- and signs saying "Free the Joker" -- should have been a dead giveaway, she said.
Laurie Allard, who was visiting from Montreal, came upon the outdoor movie set while touring downtown Manhattan and initially didn't know it was related to filming.
She was vaguely familiar with the Trump case -- and knew it was happening nearby. So when she saw the throngs, she was a bit startled.
"I didn't want to be trapped in a protest or something ... if there's one happening," Allard said.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.