'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.
The speeches may be scripted, but the UN General Assembly can sometimes be the only direct window into the regional challenges that command global concern.
On Saturday, world leaders were speaking on behalf of some of the most unstable and unsettling current conflicts. That includes India's fight over the Kashmir region with bitter rival Pakistan, Haiti's domestic crises spilling into a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and questions about the Ethiopian government's role in reported starvation deaths in the Tigray region.
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry didn't shy away from addressing his country's turmoil following a major earthquake and the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, in recent months -- alluding to but not directly addressing reports that may implicate Henry himself in the murder.
"I want to reaffirm here, at this platform, my determination to do everything to find the collaborators, accomplices and sponsors of this odious crime. Nothing, absolutely nothing, no political maneuver, no media campaign, no distraction, could deter me from this objective: rendering justice for President Moise," Henry said in a prerecorded speech.
"It is a debt to his memory, his family and the Haitian people," Henry said. "The judicial inquest is going difficultly. It's a transnational crime. And for that, we formally solicit mutual legal assistance. It is a priority of my government for the entire nation. Because this crime cannot rest unpunished et those culpable, all those culpable must be punished."
The statement comes days after Henry fired his chief prosecutor, who had asked a judge to charge Henry in the slaying of Moise that has shocked the world and to bar the prime minister from leaving the country.
Haiti's troubles have moved beyond its borders, with thousands of migrants fleeing to the United States. This week, the Biden administration's special envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned in protest of "inhumane" large-scale U.S. expulsions of Haitian migrants. Foote was appointed to the position only in July, following the assassination.
Henry pointedly said that inequalities and conflict drive migration. But he stopped short of directly criticizing Washington, whose treatment of Haitian asylum-seekers has prompted an outcry.
Human beings, fathers and mothers who have children, are always going to flee poverty and conflict," Henry said. "Migration will continue as long as the planet has both wealthy areas, whilst most of the world's population lives in poverty, even extreme poverty, without any prospects of a better life."
It was a flat-out denial for Ethiopia Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, who rejected humanitarian concerns over Tigray as part of a "twisted propaganda campaign" in the embattled corner of northern Ethiopia.
"The criminal enterprise and its enablers created and advertised horrific imagery of faked incidents. As if the real misery of our people is not enough, storylines are created to match not the facts but preconceived stereotypical attitudes," Mekonnen said.
Ethiopia has faced the pressure of global concern since the UN warned of famine in the conflict, calling it the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade. Starvation deaths have been reported since the government in June imposed what the UN calls "a de facto humanitarian aid blockade."
In his speech Saturday, Mekonnen urged the international community to steer clear of sanctions, avoid meddling and take a "constructive approach" to its war forces from the region.
"Prescriptions and punitive measures never helped improve situations or relations," he said, less than 10 days after the U.S. threatened to impose sanctions against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders.
Meanwhile, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi largely sidestepped his nation's regional conflict, making only what appeared to be a passing reference to Kashmir, channeling his comments through the lens of the Afghanistan crisis.
Modi, who spent part of the week meeting with U.S. officials to strengthen ties in the Indo-Pacific, was measured in his pushback as compared to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's scathing -- albeit predictable -- rhetoric that had landed hours earlier.
Modi called upon the international community to help the women, children and minorities of Afghanistan and said that it was imperative the country not be used as a base from which to spread terror.
"We also need to be alert and ensure that no country tries to take advantage of the delicate situation there, and use it as a tool for its own selfish interests," he said in an apparent reference to Pakistan, wedged in between Afghanistan and India.
On Friday, Khan had, once again, labeled Modi's Hindu nationalist government "fascist" and railed against India's crackdown on Kashmir, the disputed region divided between each country but claimed by both.
The Indian government has raised concerns that the chaos left in the wake of the U.S.'s military withdrawal from Afghanistan will benefit Pakistan and feed the long-simmering insurgency in Kashmir, where militants already have a foothold.
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.