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.
Olympic teams were urged Friday to contact the IOC about getting more vaccines ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, which will be held in the country where the coronavirus outbreak started.
The International Olympic Committee first announced a vaccine rollout program with Chinese authorities for athletes and officials in March. Chinese vaccines were bought by the IOC and also made available for delegations heading to the Tokyo Olympics from countries which had approved them for use.
In May, vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech donated doses of their product to Tokyo Olympic teams. That scheme and potentially others could be added for Beijing, the IOC said Friday.
About 100 countries are likely to compete at the Beijing Olympics, which open Feb. 4. There were 205 national teams in Tokyo. Vaccination is encouraged but not mandatory.
"I would like to encourage those National Olympic Committees who require additional vaccine doses … to inform our NOC relations department as soon as possible so that we can put the necessary arrangements in place," IOC president Thomas Bach said Friday in a letter to Olympic teams.
Health officials in China said this week that more than 1 billion people, or 72% of the country's 1.4 billion citizens, have been fully vaccinated.
Still, the Beijing Games are expected to be organized within the same health security limits that applied for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Bach noted the "excellent cooperation that we are enjoying with our Chinese partners and friends, as well as the relevant Chinese health authorities."
Though Bach's letter referred to "the athletes of these Olympic Games that will send this message of the unifying power of sport to the world." It did not acknowledge global concerns about human rights issues in China.
Activists have tried to brand it the "Genocide Games" because of China's detention of Muslim minority Uyghur people in prison camps in Xinjiang province.
Bach has consistently said the IOC is a politically neutral sports organization which cannot address issues that not even the United Nations has solved.
His letter was published on the day Beijing organizers unveiled their Games slogan "Together for a Shared Future."
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.