'Some structural damage' from wildfire near Fort Nelson, B.C., mayor confirms
More than one home has been damaged or lost due to a massive wildfire outside of the B.C. community of Fort Nelson, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.
Lawyers for Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, revealed Tuesday he has been transferred to another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement again over an alleged minor infraction.
The unrelenting pressure on Russian dissidents at home and abroad has intensified significantly since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine almost two years ago.
Kara-Murza, 42, had been held in a penal colony in the Omsk region, but his supporters said on Monday he apparently was no longer there.
One of his lawyers, Maria Eismont, told Russia's independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper that she received a letter in which he said he was transferred to Penal Colony No. 7 in the city of Omsk and placed in a restricted housing unit for at least four months. In the letter, a copy of which his other lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, posted on Facebook, Kara-Murza said prison officials on Friday accused him of disobeying a command that he said wasn't even given to him.
"So now I'm in the IK-7 (penal colony), also in Omsk," Kara-Murza wrote. "It is a special regime colony, there is a special restricted housing unit facility for `repeat violators' like me. I'm in solitary confinement, of course," he wrote, adding that he was "fine," had enough food and it was warm in the facility.
Kara-Murza, who twice survived poisonings that he blamed on Russian authorities, has rejected the charges against him as punishment for standing up to Putin and likened the proceedings to the show trials under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
According to his wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, he spent the past four months in solitary confinement, a practice that has become common for Kremlin critics and is widely viewed as designed to put additional pressure on them.
Kara-Murza was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 25 years on charges stemming from a speech that year to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Memorial, which is Russia's most prominent human rights group and winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, has declared him a political prisoner.
Moves to neutralize opposition and stifle criticism intensified significantly after the start of the war, including passage of a law effectively criminalizing any public expression about the conflict that deviates from the Kremlin line. The legislation that outlaws "spreading false information" about the Russian army or "discrediting it" has been used against opposition politicians, human rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin, with many receiving long prison terms.
This week, Russia's lower parliament house -- the State Duma -- was set to consider another restrictive bill that would allow authorities in some cases to seize property belonging to those convicted of "spreading false information" about the army. The main, second reading of the bill was scheduled for Wednesday.
According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that monitors political arrests and provides legal aid, a total of 19,854 Russians have been arrested between Feb. 24, 2022, when the war began, and Jan. 28, 2024, for speaking out or demonstrating against the invasion.
A total of 825 people have faced criminal charges for their antiwar stances, and nearly 8,700 faced petty charges of discrediting the army, punishable by a fine or a short stint in jail, OVD-Info reported.
More than one home has been damaged or lost due to a massive wildfire outside of the B.C. community of Fort Nelson, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.
A warning from a Saskatoon driver about using your fast-food app while in the drive-thru line — a trip to get some free lunch cost him a lot more than he bargained for.
An 'unrepentant' YouTuber has been ordered to pay $350,000 in damages as compensation for a 'relentless' campaign of defamation waged online against a business owner and his company, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled.
Chief Robert Michell says relief isn't the right word to describe his reaction as the search begins for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school he attended in northern British Columbia.
While it's unclear what these closures might mean for the 27 restaurants in Canada, Red Lobster is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. this month.
A man from B.C.'s Lower Mainland has been sentenced to four years behind bars after shooting a sex worker in the back during a drug-fuelled 43rd birthday.
Nearly six dozen dogs were seized from a home Wednesday morning by the Winnipeg Humane Society. It is the largest known seizure of animals in the city’s history.
Of the $40-million Aiden Pleterski was handed over two years, documents show he invested just over one per cent and instead spent $15.9 million on "his personal lifestyle." The 25-year-old Oshawa, Ont. man was arrested and charged with fraud and money laundering on Tuesday.
A man with a long record of dangerous driving told investigators he smoked marijuana oil and took prescription drugs hours before he sideswiped a bus, killing eight Mexican farmworkers and injuring dozens more, according to an arrest report unsealed Wednesday.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.