Three dead, two hospitalized, following collision in Fredericton: police
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
A young Afghan woman who escaped to Canada last summer is desperately worried for her family members who did not make it out of the country and are now living in hiding.
Rukhshana Ahmidi, 22, worked as an interpreter for a Canadian doctor in Afghanistan and was able to escape the country on Aug. 15, the same day a suicide bombing hit the airport in Kabul.
Amid the confusion and chaos at the airport, Ahmidibecame separated from her family and eventually made it onto a flight, but without an update on the status of her loved ones.
Ahmidi, who now lives outside Toronto, only found out after landing in Kuwait that her family did not make it out of Afghanistan.
“I am much worried as every moment it is possible that they will [be] killed because they changed the house three times and are living in hiding places,” she told CTV National News.
“They are not allowed to go outside. It’s not humane for them.”
The same day Ahmidi left Afghanistan, her brother Rostum Ahmidi was beaten and arrested at the airport. A photo of his injuries shows large red contusions across his back.
“It was really hard for me: ‘What should I do? [I have] to be careful about myself, but I have to think about my brothers, my mom,’” she said.
“I was in shock and confused.”
Back in Kabul, the Taliban destroyed Rostum’s music shop, as the organization has banned music in the country. Ahmidi’s grandmother is in hiding and had to destroy her old police uniform, where she rose the ranks to become a sergeant.
The entire family is feeling the stress and anxiety of living in fear of the Taliban.
“I’m very depressed,” Ahmidi’s mother Eidmah said, translated to English. “I’m afraid the Taliban will come and arrest my son. I’m afraid they will kill us.”
Ahmidi said she is constantly awake at night concerned for her family’s well-being and is worried that the family’s connection to music may make them a bigger target.
“I am much worried, even tonight when my mom called at the middle of night,” she said. “I thought that something happened to my aunt or something happened to my brothers because he was signing.”
“If it continues, I’m sure that they will kill them, because they killed the cousin of my mother.”
Getting out of Afghanistan is extremely difficult, as refugees wait in line for hours and sometimes days for a visa that would get them to Iran and hopefully, from there, to Canada.
Canada has pledged to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees in Canada, but has not provided a timeline for doing so. The government has brought in 6,860 refugees total through its immigration streams as of Jan. 12, according to government data.
Ahmidi said she emailed Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asking for help with her situation, but has not heard back.
“I’m so thankful for the government of Canada that kept my life safe and I hope they help my family to reunite us, and also they could join with me because if I can not join with them, I’m sure that I can not continue my life,” she said.
“I need to be with my family because they need me. I was the only one that was supporting them and now there is not anyone to help them.”
With files from CTV National News reporter Heather Butts
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
One person was killed and 23 others were injured when a bus crashed early Sunday on Interstate 95 in northern Maryland, police said.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
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.
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.
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.