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.
When Tawanda Kanhema saw that that his home country of Zimbabwe wasn’t on Google Street View, he took matters into his own hands.
Kanhema, who moved to the U.S. in 2009 and currently works in Silicon Valley, reached out to Google and the company let him borrow one of their 360-degree Street View cameras. From the streets of Harare to the Victoria Falls, he covered over 800 km in Zimbabwe, travelling by car, boat, bicycle and on foot to map the country.
Google Street View first launched in 2007 in the U.S. before slowly expanding to western Europe, Canada, and parts of Asia and Latin America. While Street View coverage is comprehensive in wealthy countries, it's sparse or non-existent in most developing nations, including in much of the African continent.
Kanhema says there are numerous complex factors that often result in tech companies not prioritizing Africa when it comes to rolling out products like Google Street View, such as the challenges in building local relationships, but saw no reason to wait for them if he can make it happen on his own.
"For me I realized that there was really no need to wait for the pace of technology, which can be really slow for some of these locations. Instead, I was able to just figure out a way to begin doing this very small scale," he said.
After mapping Zimbabwe, Kanhema moved on to capturing other remote areas around the world, including 800 km of roads in northern Ontario, near James Bay, while working with the Mushkegowuk Council.
Capturing the icy roads of northern Ontario, where temperatures could drop to -40 C in the winter, came with an additional set of challenges.
"I had to figure out how to keep the camera powered. In northern Ontario, batteries will last just a matter of minutes because of the extreme weather conditions. So, figuring out a way to keep the camera going five to six hours a day, that was a bit of a challenge," said Kanhema.
Videographers have also captured footage of Kanhema's Street View expeditions. Kanhema hopes to see a documentary film come out in the future.
"I think that there's an opportunity to package this... and really tell the story in more detail," he added.
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.