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.
Nagasaki paid tribute to the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing 77 years ago on Aug. 9, with the mayor saying Russia's war on Ukraine showed the world that another nuclear attack is not just a worry but “a tangible and present crisis.”
Mayor Tomihisa Taue, in his speech Tuesday at the Nagasaki Peace Park, said nuclear weapons can be used as long as they exist, and their elimination is the only way to save the future of humankind.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and threat of nuclear weapons use came only a month after it and four other nuclear powers pledged in a statement that nuclear war should never be fought, Taue noted.
“This has shown the world that the use of nuclear weapons is not a groundless fear but a tangible and present crisis,” he said. The belief that nuclear weapons can be possessed not for actual use but for deterrence “is a fantasy, nothing more than a mere hope."
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Participants, including diplomats from nuclear states, observed a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the moment the bomb exploded above the southern Japanese city on Aug. 9, 1945.
Although Russia last week tried to roll back on Putin’s warning, fears of a third atomic bombing have grown amid Russia’s threats of nuclear attack since its war on Ukraine began in February. Russia last week shelled a Ukrainian city close to Europe's largest nuclear plant.
Japanese officials worry that the conflict may embolden China to be even more assertive in East Asia, and the government is pushing to further step up its military capability and spending.
Japan renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, but as a U.S. ally Japan hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Still, Russia's nuclear threat has prompted some hawkish lawmakers in the governing party have also proposed a possibility of nuclear sharing with the United States.
Taue said discussions about nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation over the past decades have not been put into practice and trust in the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has become “tenuous.”
“We must recognize that ridding ourselves of nuclear weapons is the only realistic way of protecting the Earth and humankind’s future,” Taue said.
Taue urged Japan's government to exercise leadership in pursuing peace diplomacy that does not rely on nuclear deterrence.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “Even though we face a severe security environment, we must pursue the history of non-nuclear use and make Nagasaki the last place of nuclear attack.”
As in Hiroshima, Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to Tuesday's memorial event in Nagasaki.
As of March, 118,935 survivors are certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the health and welfare ministry. Their average age now exceeds 84.
Many survivors of the bombings have lasting injuries and illnesses resulting from the explosions and radiation exposure and have faced discrimination in Japan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Canadian Transportation Agency has hit a record high of more than 71,000 complaints in a backlog. The quasi-judicial regulator and tribunal tasked with settling disputes between customers and the airlines says the backlog is growing because the number of incoming complaints keeps increasing.
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 Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star centre Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis he says has affected him since before the play-in tournament.
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.
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.