'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
New Zealand on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship to return since the coronavirus pandemic began, signalling a long-sought return to normalcy for the nation's tourism industry.
New Zealand closed its borders in early 2020 as it sought at first to eliminate COVID-19 entirely and then later to control its spread. Although the country reopened its borders to most tourists arriving by plane in May, it wasn't until two weeks ago that it lifted all remaining restrictions, including those on maritime arrivals.
Many in the cruise industry question why it took so long.
The end of restrictions allowed Carnival Australia's Pacific Explorer cruise ship to dock in Auckland with about 2,000 passengers and crew Friday morning as part of a 12-day return trip to Fiji that left from Sydney.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's another step in the reopening of our borders and a step closer to resuming business as usual."
Nash said it would take some time for international tourist numbers and revenue to return to their pre-pandemic levels, when the industry accounted for about 20% of New Zealand's foreign income and more than 5% of GDP.
"I think there's been many people in the tourism sector who have done it hard over the last two years," Nash said. "But we've always taken an approach where we need to ensure that we get the health response right. Because if we don't, we know the consequences are dire."
Not everybody is happy with the return of tourists. A sailboat carrying protesters upset about the industry's impact on the environment followed the Pacific Explorer into the harbor Friday, before passengers were greeted with an Indigenous Maori welcome and a visit by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Nash said the pause in tourism had given the nation a chance to reset its priorities. One of those was to go after what he described as wealthier "high quality" tourists who would stay longer and have a story to tell when they returned home.
"We are not targeting the guys that come over and put up on Facebook, 'Hey, travel around New Zealand on $10 a day living on 2-minute noodles,"' Nash said.
He said another goal was to move away from the perception that people working in the industry would be subject to long hours and low wages, and to make it a more rewarding and aspirational career.
Nash said that with airline tickets more expensive and travellers more risk-averse than before the pandemic, tourism numbers could remain subdued for a while, but he thought the industry would eventually make a strong comeback.
"I see markets like the United States being a really important market for New Zealand," he said. "There's been US$2 trillion saved in the States over and above that which would have been saved if it hadn't been for COVID. So, there's a little bit of money floating around."
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.