Trudeau acknowledges charges in Nijjar killing, calls for commitment to democracy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A California mother must pay more than US$9,000 in restitution and apologize to a teenage basketball player she told her daughter to hit during a youth basketball game in 2021, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The woman's daughter punched the opponent in the neck and she collapsed on the court, suffering a concussion. The punch was recorded on cellphone video.
The mother, Latira Shonty Hunt, was criminally charged last year with one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one misdemeanor count of battery. She faced up to a year in jail.
An Orange County judge allowed Hunt, 44, to participate in a diversion program that includes a written apology letter, restitution and anger management classes before she can attend basketball games. She must also stay away from the victim.
“A grown adult directing a child to use violence against another child on the basketball court is reprehensible,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “By instructing her own daughter to engage in violence, she is not only responsible for injuring an innocent child as if she punched her with her own fist, but she transformed her own child into someone who is willing to hurt another child.”
The criminal case will be dismissed if Hunt complies with the diversion program, her attorney, Brett Greenfield, said in a statement. The lawyer said Hunt and her daughter took responsibility for their actions.
“Ms. Hunt and her daughter can now begin to heal,” Greenfield said. “Unfortunately this incident opened the social media door for many individuals to make direct statements to Ms. Hunt and her minor daughters. These statements were infected with racism, bigotry, threats, humiliation, bullying and more. The harm created will last a lifetime.”
An attorney for the teenage victim's family did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The basketball game occurred Nov. 7, 2021, when two club teams played during a tournament in the city of Garden Grove near Los Angeles.
Hunt yelled to her daughter “you better hit her for that” after a physical play, prosecutors said.
Her daughter then threw a punch and the 15-year-old victim crumpled “to the floor like a rag doll,” Spitzer said when Hunt was charged last year.
“In my opinion it would have not happened, but for mom's words,” Spitzer said in December. He said Hunt's words “were the catalyst” that caused her daughter “to even think about” punching the other girl.
The girl who threw the punch is the daughter of former NBA player Corey Benjamin, who issued an apology shortly after he saw the video of the game last year. His pro career included stints with the Chicago Bulls, the Atlanta Hawks and overseas teams.
“As a father, I'm shocked and disappointed at my daughter's behavior as this is not a reflection of the values and standards that my family holds. Nor does it exemplify the values, character and spirit of sportsmanship that the game of basketball requires,” Benjamin said in a statement at the time.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Princess Anne paid tribute to veterans buried at a cemetery in British Columbia today, laying a wreath to honour the more than 2,500 military personnel and family members buried there.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on 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.