'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has put Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on its list of "predators," the first time a Western European leader has been placed in the lineup of heads of state or government who "crack down massively" on press freedom.
The list published Monday includes 37 leaders.
Two women, the prime minister of Bangladesh and the Hong Kong's administrative chief, also were added to the list, as well as Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This was the first time in five years that the watchdog, known by its French initials RSF, has published its press freedom predator's list.
The report said Orban "has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010" by using "varied predatory techniques."
"The methods may be subtle or brazen, but they are always efficient," the report said, citing control over 80% of the media via purchases by oligarchs close to Hungary's ruling Fidesz party. Private media in Hungary are discriminated against in access to information and government advertising and denigrated as purveyors of "fake news," the report said.
Lashing back, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs slammed the France-based RSF, saying "they should be called `Fake News Without Borders."' Tamas Deutsch, a founding member of Orban's Fidesz party and a European Parliament lawmaker, wrote on Facebook that the report was the part of "the latest wave of attacks against Hungary."
Others curbing media freedoms included Bin Salman, the 35-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who wields day-to-day power in the kingdom.
"His repressive methods include spying and threats that have sometimes led to abduction, torture and other unthinkable acts. Jamal Khashoggi's horrific murder exposed a predatory method that is simply barbaric," the RSF report said.
Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who visited the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul to procure documents to marry and was brutally slain inside it in 2018.
Women appeared on the press predators list, too.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since 2017, "has proved to be the puppet of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and now openly supports his predatory policies towards the media," the report said. It noted the recent closing of Hong Kong's leading independent newspaper, Apple Daily, and the jailing of its founder, Jimmy Lai.
Lam was joined on the predator list by Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's prime minister since 2009.
"Her predatory exploits include the adoption of a digital security law in 2018 that has led to more than 70 journalists and bloggers being prosecuted," RSF said.
The watchdog's chief urged world governments to disavow the practices used by the leaders it singled out and to recognize the positive contributions made by an independent press.
"We must not let their methods become the new normal," the report quoted RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire as saying of the leaders that his group deemed predators.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
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.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.