More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
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.
A Minnesota judge on Friday denied Derek Chauvin' s request for a new trial in George Floyd 's death, saying the defence has not shown that the former Minneapolis police officer was deprived of his right to a fair trial.
The ruling from Judge Peter Cahill came hours before Chauvin was scheduled to be sentenced for murder in Floyd's death. Cahill found that defence attorney Eric Nelson did not show that the court abused its discretion or that there was prosecutorial misconduct that would have deprived Floyd of his right.
Cahill also denied Nelson's request for a hearing into possible juror misconduct.
Chauvin, 45, pinned Floyd to a Minneapolis street for about 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020, ignoring the Black man's cries of "I can't breathe" and the shouts of onlookers. Bystander video of Floyd's death sparked protests in Minneapolis, some violent, and quickly spread around the world.
Nelson had asked for a new trial after Chauvin was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. These requests are routine, but are rarely granted, and it's expected Nelson will raise the same arguments on appeal.
Nelson argued that intense publicity around Floyd's death tainted the jury pool and that the trial should have been moved away from Minneapolis. He also offered a range of other arguments, all dismissed by prosecutors, who said Chauvin was fairly convicted.
Among his arguments was that intense publicity before and during the trial tainted the jury pool and prejudiced the jury against his client.
There were reports in February that Chauvin had been prepared to plead guilty to third-degree murder and an announcement during jury selection that Minneapolis reached a US$27 million settlement with Floyd's family. Also, the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by a police officer in nearby Brooklyn Center happened during Chauvin's trial and sparked days of protests.
Cahill also denied Nelson's request for a hearing to "impeach" the verdict, which means to call into question the verdict's integrity or validity. The hearing, known as a Schwartz hearing, is used to examine whether there is juror misconduct.
Nelson accused juror Brandon Mitchell of not being candid during jury selection because he didn't mention his participation in a march last summer to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Prosecutors countered that Mitchell had been open about his views in a jury questionnaire and during the questioning of potential jurors. Nelson also alleged an alternate juror, who did not deliberate, made public comments after the trial indicating she felt pressured to render a guilty verdict.
The defence accused juror Brandon Mitchell of not being candid during jury selection because he didn't mention his participation in a march last summer to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Prosecutors countered that Mitchell had been open about his views in a jury questionnaire and during the questioning of potential jurors.
The judge ruled the defence didn't show any evidence of juror misconduct either during trial or during jury selection that warranted an evidentiary hearing.
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.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
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.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
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.
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.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
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.”