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.
Thousands of demonstrators protested against the economic policies of conservative Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso on Tuesday, days after he raised gasoline prices, blocking roads in some parts of the country.
Lasso, an ex-banker who took office in May, last week scrapped https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ecuador-scrap-monthly-fuel-price-increases-establishes-fixed-price-lasso-2021-10-22 planned incremental rises in gasoline charges, meant to eventually align with international costs, following pressure by indigenous and other organizations.
He opted instead to raise the price of gasoline extra, a higher octane gasoline that is Ecuador's most-used fuel, to a fixed US$2.55 a gallon and diesel to $1.90 a gallon.
But unions and other groups want Lasso to freeze prices at lower rates and exempt sectors hit hard by COVID-19.
Five police officers were injured and two members of the armed forces were being held by a community in northern Quito, but were unharmed, Defense Minister Luis Hernandez told journalists.
Thirty-seven people were detained for blocking roads, he added.
The Ecuador Confederation of Indigenous Nations said demonstrators had been injured but did not give a figure.
Interior Minister Alexandra Vela said marches were peaceful except for a few incidents in the afternoon and said the government was open to dialog.
Gasoline costs have risen significantly since Lasso's predecessor, Lenin Moreno, began monthly increases in May 2020.
"We don't agree that the measures implemented because of the crisis should fall on workers and the middle class," said university professor Victor Sanchez, 55, as he marched in central Quito with about 1,000 others.
Police used tear gas in the capital amid small clashes with protesters, while officers on horseback blocked the entrance to the plaza that had been the marchers' destination.
Marches also took place in Guayaquil and Cuenca.
Indigenous groups blocked the road that connects Quito to the country's north with earth and trees, and others in various Andean provinces were closed.
Indigenous organization CONFENIAE said some roadways in the Amazon region had been shuttered from the early morning.
"We didn't come to destabilize, we came to make economic demands of the government," CONAIE president Leonidas Iza told demonstrators in Panzaleo.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; additional reporting by Tito Correa Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler)
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.