Auto theft probe leads to arrest of 59 suspects, recovery of more than 300 stolen vehicles: Toronto police
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
French authorities said four migrants, including a two-year-old child, died Saturday in two separate incidents as they attempted to cross the English Channel toward Britain.
France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau deplored a “terrible tragedy" on X, saying that the child “was trampled to death in a boat."
“The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands,” Retailleau added, saying his newly-appointed government is to “intensify the fight against these mafias who make money from these deadly crossings.”
Saturday’s deaths come as a series of shipwrecks made 2024 the deadliest in recent years on the English Channel. Last month, 12 people died after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel. About two weeks later, eight migrants died in a similar crossing attempt.
In a news conference, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, said rescuers found the two-year-old child dead onboard a migrant boat that had called for assistance Saturday morning.
Fourteen other migrants picked up on board the recue boat were brought back to France to be interviewed by the border police and a 17-year-old was brought to a hospital in the port city of Boulogne-sur-Mer as he suffered from burns to his legs, Billant said.
Other people on the migrant boat who refused to be rescued continued their journey toward Britain, he said.
“To make money and with no regard for human life, networks of smugglers put people at ever greater risk,” including families with children, "literally leading them to accident and death,” Billant said.
Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, said the child, who appears to have been crushed in a jostling on the boat, was born in Germany from a 24-year-old Somalian mother.
In a separate incident, Billant, the prefect, said rescuers found three migrants dead and saved several others as they fell off a small boat overloaded with 83 passengers amid “panic and stampede."
Those dead “were probably crushed" and “have choked ... and drowned in the 40 centimetres (16 inches) of water at the bottom of the inflatable boat,” he said.
They were two men and a woman, the three of them aged about 30, he said.
Migrants that rescuers took care of Saturday came from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq, Billant listed.
The prosecutor said investigations have been open on both incidents.
Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north.
Before Saturday's events, French authorities said at least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the U.K. this year.
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
Hundreds of people are flocking to see a rare site in Pennsylvania: remnants of a historic town that is usually underwater.
An Ontario woman is facing serious charges after police allege she pretended to be a registered nurse at several Simcoe County facilities, despite being unqualified.
New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone's all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai for a climate conference last December violated the city's Code of Conduct for Council Members and the Community Charter, the city's ethics commissioner has ruled.
An Edmonton Police Service officer was caught on camera running over a woman with a marked cruiser last month.
An appeal has been denied to extend the sentence of an Ontario trucker who killed a woman in his Edmonton hotel room in 2011.
A new Secret Service report into the July assassination attempt against former U.S. president Donald Trump said multiple staffers knew about clear line-of-sight risks but found them 'acceptable' and that farm equipment intended to obstruct the view from the nearby building where the gunman opened fire was never used.
The Dodgers' most valuable pet: Decoy Ohtani, dog of Shohei, has become a fixture of Dodgers — and dog — fandom.
A landlord from B.C.’s Lower Mainland who evicted a longtime tenant only to rent out the same unit months later for more money has been ordered to compensate him $16,480.
A Windsor teen’s social media post showing off a distinctive Windsor pizza topping has gone viral, drawing millions of views worldwide and sparking new curiosity about Windsor-style pizza.
Auston Matthews has come face to face with his look-alike. On Thursday, the Maple Leafs star met seven-year-old Grayson Joseph, who went viral for dressing up as an Auston Matthews hockey card.
A Halifax junk remover shares some of his company’s strangest discoveries.
When Leah arrived at work directing traffic around a construction site, she never expected to see a van painted in all sorts of bright colours, and covered in eclectic decorations, including a stuffed moose attached to its roof.
After 14 years of repairing and selling bicycles out of the garage of her home, a Guelph, Ont. woman’s efforts have ended – for now, at least.
Epcor says it has removed more than 20,000 goldfish from an Edmonton stormwater pond.
Witches and warlocks have been flocking to New Brunswick waterways this month, as a new Halloween tradition ripples across the province.
New Brunswicker Jillea Godin’s elaborate cosplay pieces attract thousands to her online accounts, as well as requests from celebrities for their own pieces.
A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.