The Asian Star May 4 2019 by The Asian Star Newspaper

www.theasianstar.com

Vol 19 - Issue 14

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Tel:604-591-5423

Liberals accused of cover-up after report detailed SNC-Lavalin’s illegal political donations Conservatives accused Liberals of a different sort of SNC-Lavalin cover-up in question period Tuesday after a report revealed the names of employees involved in the Montreal firm’s illegal attempts to influence Canadian politics between 2004 and 2011.

Akshay Kumar’s lies about Canadian citizenship gets him in trouble in Indian election A lot of Bollywood and TV celebrities stepped out on April 29 to cast their votes in Mumbai for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone and many others had cast their votes. Recently, a reporter asked the Holiday actor why didn’t he vote to which he said, “’Chaliye Chaliye”. Immediately, a lot of people took to their social media and questioned Akshay Kumar for not casting his vote. They trolled him and questioned his love for India as he is Canadian citizen. Akshay shared a long statement on Twitter and admitted that he holds a Canadian passport. Akshay Kumar tweeted, “I really don’t understand the unwarranted interest and negativity about my citizenship. I have never hidden or denied that I hold a Canadian passport. Continued on page 7

A CBC investigation revealed new details about the scheme and listed for the first time individuals accused of indirectly funnelling almost $110,000 of the company’s money to the Liberal Party, and another $8,000 to the Conservative Party. The parties became aware of the lists during a 2016 investigation

by the Commissioner of Canada Elections. On his way into cabinet on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his party has “moved forward on transparency and openness and that is not what happens anymore.”

Why is PM Trudeau silent in BC-Alberta gas fight that is in courts now enacted “turn off the taps” legislation. Horgan told reporters he hoped to speak to Trudeau by the end of the day “about what the new owners of that pipeline can do about relieving pressure here in the Lower Mainland.

B.C. Premier John Horgan called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday to pump more refined fuel through the Trans Mountain Pipeline, hours after his lawyers filed a legal challenge to Alberta’s freshly

India to land on the Moon in September India is likely to have a date with history and destiny on September 6, when Chandrayaan-2 will land on Moon. On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it’s mulling to launch Chandrayaan-2, India second lunar mission between 9 and 16th of July. The sources, however, hinted that a lot of work

is still pending before the project can be taken for the launch. “All the modules are getting ready for Chandrayaan-2 launch during the window of July 09 to July 16, 2019, with an expected Moon landing on September 06, 2019 9 (sic),” Isro said in a statement. Continued on page 6

Sikh workers toil under gangsters in Italian farms When most people think of the Italian Mafia, cinematic clichés of gangsters fighting turf wars on the hardscrabble streets of blighted metropolises are apt to spring to mind. What likely doesn’t is a lush expanse of Italian farmland lined with giant eucalyptus trees tended by a vast community of Sikh workers under the tight control of criminal organizations.

A Vancouver businessman has South pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his alleged role in a college admissions scandal in the United States. David Sidoo’s lawyer Richard Schoenfeld says the plea was entered in writing after an indictment from the U.S. District Court

in connection with the scandal. An indictment in March alleged Sidoo paid $200,000 in total for someone to take the SAT on behalf of both his sons, and that he also paid an undisclosed amount for someone to fly to Vancouver and take a high school graduation exam on behalf of his older son. Continued on page 3

Asian man pleads not guilty to all charges in college admissions scandal in Massachusetts accused him of wiring about $100,000 in January 2013 from an account in Canada to an account in California. The indictment alleges the money was in the name of college-prep company The Key, and meant to be in exchange for admissions

consultant’s facilitation of a SAT cheating scheme for Sidoo’s younger son. Sidoo, 59-year-old former Canadian Football League player and well-known philanthropist, had already pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Premier Horgan pushes back against Alberta’s threat to turn off taps Local man Suresh Desai plans to act in Bollywood tv serials

twinning the Trans Mountain will necessarily deliver cheaper gas. Horgan said there’s no promise that any new capacity in the pipeline would be used for more batches of consumerready gas, as there’s no hint of that in the current proposal before the National Energy Board. He said the flow of crude, not refined gasoline, has recently increased. Kenney says he will turn off the oil taps to B.C. if the province keeps obstructing Alberta’s energy industry. Horgan said he plans to remain “reasonable” and avoid rhetoric. But he refused to take the blame for spiking prices at the pumps or to apologize for fighting Alberta’s bid to “impair trade” between B.C. and Alberta by fighting its new “turn off

the taps” law in court. Horgan didn’t get any more specific about next steps in the escalating word war between the two provinces. “When you are playing poker you keep the Suresh Desia did cards in your hands,” said Horgan. Albertans plays for Diwali want more pipelines and a diversified programs for the VHP economy, according to Vote Compass data in Vancouver in 70’s, Dr Earlier Wednesday, Kenney said B.C.’s Goel was consistence obstruction of his province’s oil and gas President for the VHP industry — specifically the blocking of the during the 70’s and 80’s. Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — was Suresh Desai will be going to Mumbai , the reason for gas prices topping $1.70 per India where he is know to Asah Pakresh Ji litre in Metro Vancouver. He then threatened and Tanuja’s School of Screen (Professor to use the newly proclaimed law to prod B.C. Roshan Taneja and his son Rohit Taneja). into approving the Trans Mountain project. Suresh has been receiving advise from Shortly after Kenney’s comments, lawyers Dr Taneja while he was in Vancouver. for B.C. filed legal paperwork signaling plans He had met the Professor about ten to fight Alberta’s law on grounds that it’s years ago his School of Screen celebrated unconstitutional. ‘This isn’t a team sport’: 50th year in 2013. B.C. premier staying neutral on Alberta election race Industry analysts and legal experts say the law is a bluff and more pipelines are not guaranteed to cool the punishing prices at the pump. They say soaring gas prices are caused by a combination of factors, from the 32 cents-a-litre tacked onto Metro Vancouver gasoline to a lack of supply — and of course, profits. But Kenney says the high prices are Horgan’s fault. He stood beside his new energy minister Wednesday, warning that he’s ready to use newly enacted “turn off the taps” law at any moment. “We are serious about it. This is not some bluff. We will protect the value of Alberta’s resources,” Kenney said during a news conference Wednesday. When asked why he hasn’t begun screwing shut those taps, he explained that he’s agreed to talk further with Horgan. But he said the fix is simple: Greenlight the Trans Mountain expansion. “We don’t have enough pipeline capacity to ship both refined gas and unrefined bitumen to the Lower Mainland,” Kenney said. Gas industry analysts are not so sure. They say B.C.’s high gas prices are driven by a combination of taxes and a lack of refinery capacity, which, it has been argued by B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, might actually get worse if the Trans Mountain pipeline were twinned. It’s important to remember that Trans Mountain only carries a limited amount of consumer gasoline and diesel alongside crude oil that must be refined, analysts say. “Pipeline or no pipeline, it doesn’t change the supply or availability of gasoline without a change in refining capacity,” said Mason Hamilton, a petroleum Tired of paying outrageous bills? Switch to Freedom Mobile markets analyst with the US Energy and get 10GB of fast LTE data for only $50 a month. Information Administration. As for Kenney’s promise to cut off the supply altogether, legal and political experts question whether that will happen. Alberta’s new law would face a challenge from this province and fail, said Joel Bakan, *With Digital Discount. a constitutional expert with the freedommobile.ca University of B.C. Bakan said that *Learn more at freedommobile.ca/digitaldiscount. Digital Discount promotion is subject to change or cancellation without notice. To be eligible to receive the $5/month Digital Discount, you must (i) be subscribed to a Prepaid or Postpaid line on an “Eligible Plan” (any of our current in-market plans), (ii) sign up for Auto Pay (pre-authorized payments), (iii) have an active and valid Auto Pay method on ﬁle, and (iv) there are provisions in the law to redeem the “Digital Discount” promo code at a Freedom Mobile retail location or through your My Account. The promo code can only be applied once to each eligible line. A $5 monthly discount will start to be prevent provinces from cutting off applied on your next top-up date following promo code redemption (for Prepaid customers), or on your next bill following promo code redemption (for Postpaid customers). Postpaid customers must complete the above eligibility requirements on the same day you activate your Eligible Plan to ensure the discount is received on your ﬁrst/next bill. If you are not eligible for the promotion during any month, that monthly critical resources to each other — discount will be entirely forfeited and cannot be made up. If you qualify for the discount in the months following the ineligible month, you will receive the discount in those subsequent months. Movement between Eligible Plans will not result in the loss of the monthly discount. Your service will no longer be eligible for the discount if you: (a) Change your rate plan to a non-Eligible Plan, or (b) Port your especially as political leverage. number away from Freedom Mobile. All Freedom Mobile services are subject to our Terms of Service, Fair Usage Policy and Privacy Policy located at freedommobile.ca. Applicable taxes extra. The remier Horgan says an expanded Trans Mountain pipeline is no guarantee of lower gas prices and the current spike in Lower Mainland fuel costs is not his fault. Horgan reacted to threats from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney who says he will use a new provincial law to cut off gas to B.C. if the premier keeps blocking oil projects and driving up the price of gas. “The travelling public cares not whose finger is pointing where. They want prices to come down,” said Horgan on Wednesday, adding he’s working with Ottawa to try to reduce the export of diluted bitumen and increased refined product. He urged Alberta to work with B.C. on this. Horgan said he spoke to Kenney late Tuesday and both agreed they’d continue to protect their provincial interests and had a “few good laughs,” but they disagree that

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Millions in real estate linked to BC money-laundering investigations is ‘owned’ by nominees Less than two weeks after the RCMP launched a series of raids in 2015 during an investigation into B.C.’s largest money laundering case, the spouse of a major police target sold a house on Fairbrook Crescent in Richmond. The four-bedroom, five-bathroom home with marble floors and a home theatre was purchased in 2013 for $1.8 million. Paul King Jin’s spouse, Xiaoqi Wei, sold it for $1.93 million on Oct. 26, 2015, 11 days after the raids on Oct. 15, which were part of the RCMP’s E-Pirate probe.During the raids at several locations, police seized more than $8 million in cash, largely bundles of $20 bills wrapped in elastic bands, ledgers allegedly containing information on money-laundering transactions, money counters, computers, cellphones and gambling equipment.

More than $4 million of the cash was seized from a gun safe in the master bedroom of a luxury Richmond condo where Wei lived with Jin, according to court documents. The Fairbrook Crescent house is among 20 Lower Mainland properties valued at more than $43 million that were linked to those accused of using proceeds of crime to buy property and other assets. They were targets of E-Pirate and related police probes into allegations of drug trafficking, illegal gambling and money laundering, according to a Postmedia News analysis of hundreds of pages of court records and property documents. The analysis shows the main players — those accused of running illegal gambling operations and money laundering — often put properties and other assets in the names of nominees,

Premier Horgan pushes back against Alberta’s threat to turn off taps From page 2 Others describe the legal showdown as a sideshow. University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley said the law is more of a political tool. “They are picking a fight and they look good whether the courts hold it up or not. They look like they are standing up for Alberta’s interest ... a lot of this is posturing,” he said. “An action taken by an

energy minister to actually stop shipment to B.C. would be the constitutional and intergovernmental equivalent of a nuclear weapon and I don’t think the Kenney government is in the mood to go that far.” A previous version of this story said the Trans Mountain pipeline only carries crude oil. In fact, it carries gasoline and diesel alongside synthetic, light and heavy crude.

such as relatives, and also were quick to protect assets when they come to the attention of law enforcement officials. For example, less than three weeks after Maxim Poon Wong was arrested with more than $200,000 in cash by Vancouver police investigating a cosmetics business that police alleged was a branch for an underground bank — he added Karen Wong to the title of a $2.8-million home on West 62nd Avenue in Vancouver. The ownership change — for $1 and “natural love and affection” — took place on Oct. 14, 2015, according to B.C. Land Title Office records, 19 days after Wong was arrested on Sept. 25. Assets are often put in family members’ names — even jointly — to make them harder to seize as proceeds-of-crime, experts say.

These findings come as increased scrutiny is being put on money laundering in B.C. and there are questions on what effect money laundering could be having on the Lower Mainland’s housing market that several years ago experienced rapid rises in prices. “This is not surprising,” a former RCMP anticorruption investigator, Patrice Poitevin, said of Postmedia’s findings. “Even from an organized crime perspective — traditional organized crime, drug traffickers — they most often put their properties in somebody else’s name,” said Poitevin, who co-founded the Canadian Centre of Excellence for Anti-Corruption. Poitevin, like other financial crime experts, said it’s difficult to figure out how much money is being laundered — let alone in real estate.

South Asian man pleads not guilty to all charges in college admissions scandal From page 1 Sidoo is among 19 parents, including actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Gianulli, who are facing the money-laundering charge in the new indictment April 9.

The new charges came a day after “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman, 12 other parents and a coach agreed to plead guilty.

OPINION By Stephanie Chamberlain, and Carole Estabrooks University of Alberta

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Growing number of seniors lack support of family, friends

What happens when a person grows older and can no longer make health and financial decisions for themselves – but also doesn’t have family or friends who can make those decisions on their behalf? Health and social services use a hard-hitting term to describe this growing population: unbefriended. Unbefriended individuals may have experienced homelessness, mental health issues or substance abuse; they may be estranged from their family, have outlived their family or never had a partner or children. Although the unbefriended can be of any age, they’re often older adults. Unbefriended seniors are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable — and we need to do more to safeguard their access to basic daily needs, including companionship, and improve their quality of life. Not much is known about this population, which is why we undertook a study – the first of its kind in Canada –

examining the quality of care and quality of life for the unbefriended across seven longterm care homes in Alberta. Our study found that many of these individuals are low-income, living on limited government-provided pensions. Even though they’re living in long-term care facilities where they have food and shelter, few can afford basic personal care items, such as clothing, lotions or denture adhesive. Similarly, uninsured services, such as dental, hearing and eye and foot care, are beyond their financial means. Even those who can afford these basics frequently go without these items because they have no one to purchase them on their behalf or arrange for appointments. Our study found that overworked care aides in long-term care facilities – who often make a basic wage – frequently purchase supplies out of their own pockets to help the unbefriended. One care aide reported buying dental adhesive out of her money so the residents in

her care could put in their dentures. Another reported seeing unbefriended seniors in worn and threadbare clothing so they scouted out second-hand clothes for them. We also found that unbefriended individuals have limited social interaction, especially if they exhibit challenging behaviours due to mental illness or dementia. Little social interaction contributes to a lower quality of life. Those with more financial means could hire a companion for social interaction, but most are unable to afford this luxury or are unable to facilitate hiring someone. In Canada, unbefriended seniors are assigned a government-appointed public guardian to take over decision-making responsibilities on their behalf, such as for their health care and living arrangements. But public guardians are not care providers or family members. They don’t spend much time with their clients who live in long-term care facilities because they’re deemed safe and housed. Many public guardians carry large caseloads of well over 50 clients. While they’re supposed to visit their clients four times a year, they often struggle to meet this goal. What can be done to improve the quality of life and access to basic daily living needs for someone deemed unbefriended? We could expand the public guardian role to include basic living needs beyond food and shelter, such as quality of life markers and social interaction. Alternatively, governments could fund organizations to work alongside public guardians to systematize such services so that no individual is left neglected or forgotten, or relying on the charity of care aides. But first and foremost, we need to simply put the unbefriended on the map. We can’t address what we don’t count and measure, and largely, they are the forgotten population in the policy landscape. With the numbers of single households rising dramatically, more of us could find ourselves in this position as we age. We owe it those who are at their most vulnerable to provide a life of basic dignity and security.

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Saturday, May 4, 2019 From page 1

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India to land on the Moon in September The orbiter, lander (Vikram) & rover (Pragyan)-Chandrayaan-2 has three modules, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The orbiter and lander modules will be interfaced mechanically and stacked together as an integrated module and accommodated inside the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle. The rover is housed inside the lander,â&#x20AC;? Isro said. Vikram will separate from the orbiter once the Chandrayaan-2 reaches lunar orbit and a will soft-land at e predetermined site close to the south police and this hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been explored by any country until now. ISRO chairman K Sivan told TOI, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once Vikram lands on the lunar surface on September 6, rover Prayan will come out of it and roll out on the lunar surface for 300400 metres. It will spend 14 earth days on the moon for carrying out different scientific experiments. Altogether, there will be 13 payloads in the spacecraft. Three payloads in rover Pragyan and the other 10 payloads in lander Vikram and orbiter.â&#x20AC;? The rover will send data and images back to the Earth after analyse the content of the surface of the Moon through orbiter with 15

minutes, ISRO chairman, K Sivan added. Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lunar mission was planned in April last year, but ISRO kept extending the deadline because of the several factor involved in the mission including the problem the erupted in lander Vikram during a test earlier this year. India was eyeing to become to fourth nation in the world after Russia, US and China to land spacecraft on the Moon and it almost lost to Israel, but Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beresheet failed to land on the Moon on April 12 and if India successfully lands Chandrayaan-2 on the lunar surface, it will become the fourth country to do so. However, it wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be easy as a 3,290 kg Chandrayaan-2 because Beresheet tried to land on a plain made after solidification of lava called the Sea of Serenity. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a flattened surface with more exposure to Sun, but Chandrayaan-2 will land on south pole and no country except for China has tried landing there. China in January landed its Changâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;e 4 spacecraft on the far side known as the dark side. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called dark side because it faces away from the earth and is comparatively unknown.

Sikh workers toil under gangsters in Italian farms But an hourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drive south of Rome in the province of Latina live and toil as many as 35,000 farm labourers from Punjab, most exploited, some enslaved, say labour unions and community leaders. They say many arrive in Italy by paying a middleman as much as $20,000 for a legal visa before falling under the harsh control of an unofficial but widespread gangmaster system known in Italy as caporalato. The UN special rapporteur on contemporary slavery, Urmila Bhoola, described the system as putting

workers under extreme forms of coercion through sexual and physical violence and forced ingestion of performance-enhancing drugs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The caporalato system consists not only of labour brokers who supply irregular and regular migrants to farms, but it is also said to be underpinned by a network of criminal syndicates and Mafia groups who benefit from the exploitation in slaverylike conditions of migrant workers,â&#x20AC;? Bhoola wrote after visiting the area in late 2018.

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Why is PM Trudeau silent in BC-Alberta gas fight that is in courts now “I can’t rationalize the outrageous spike in prices here relative to other jurisdictions, beyond what I’ve said several times — a lack of supply.” The price for a litre of regular unleaded gasoline hovered just shy of $1.70 at many stations in Vancouver at midday Wednesday. Horgan said his message to worried drivers is that he was worried too. He said he was taking steps to work with “the owners of the pipeline, the federal government,” to try to reduce the export of bitumen through the pipeline and increase the volume of refined product. Asked whether that would change his position on the proposed pipeline expansion, Horgan responded that the use of Burrard Inlet as “an export terminus exclusively” is not in the interest of B.C. “I think there is an opportunity for the three governments to find a way forward. But there is a lot of work to do and what we’re focused on right now is the unacceptably high retail price of gasoline in the Lower Mainland.” The Prime Minister’s Office passed the opportunity to comment to Alexandre Deslongchamps, the director of communications for the minister of Natural Resources Canada. “Our government will continue working with our provincial counterparts to ensure a secure, reliable and affordable supply of energy for all Canadians, and support the good, middleclass jobs our energy sector creates,” he said. Trudeau is slated to meet with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. LISTEN: Mike Smyth and Rob Shaw break down the pipeline dispute between Alberta and B.C., analyze the comments of Premiers Jason Kenney and John Horgan, take look at the NDP government’s new labour bill and also blurt out massive spoilers about Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame. Alberta’s Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act gives that province the power to impose licences on companies exporting petroleum products and place restrictions on licence holders. In its lawsuit filed in Calgary, the B.C. government says that the terms of the licences may restrict or otherwise interfere with or impose cost burdens on the supply of petroleum products to B.C. The suit claims that the Alberta law is illegal and unconstitutional. “The government of Alberta introduced and supported the Act because it asserts British Columbia is responsible for ‘delays’ to an expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which transports petroleum products from Edmonton to Kamloops, Burnaby and Washington,” says the suit.

Akshay Kumar’s lies about Canadian citizenship gets him in trouble in Indian election It is also equally true that I have not visited Canada in the last seven years. I work in India, and pay all my taxes in India.” The statement further reads, “While all these years, I have never needed to prove my love for India to anyone, I find it disappointing that my citizenship issue is constantly dragged into needless controversy, a matter that is personal, legal, non-political, and of no consequence to others. I would like to continue contributing in my small way to the causes that I believe in and make India stronger and stronger.” Well, we think it shouldn’t be an issue if Akshay Kumar holds a Canadian passport it is a matter of choice and freedom. However, Akshay Kumar has contradicted his own 2017 statement where he said that

he was bestowed with honorary citizenship by the Canadian Government. According to Google, “Honorary Canadian citizenship is a symbolic title which is offered by the Parliament that is usually with a joint motion in the House of Commons and Senate. This citizenship does not offer any tangible, legal benefits such as a Canadian passport.” Thus, an honorary Canadian citizen cannot hold a Canadian passport. But today, Akshay Kumar admitted that he holds a Canadian passport which opposes his own statement of 2017. I am an honorary citizen of Canada. I think people should be proud of: @akshaykumar #AkshayOnTheNewshour pic.twitter.com/ GB2qTz18eB don’t teach others the NATIONALISM if u

Can’t hold yours. Now Stop your Deshbhakti Nautanki. This country gives Ak everything but he betrayed us.Shame No one Cares about your Canadian passport mr opportunist Kumar, they are angry because you lied about it before and have encouraged vicious jingoism of this government and recently even signed a letter supporting bjp and calling other parties antinational. Between your wife’s smugness and fauxintellectualism and your slimy opportunism, u two are surely r the most detestable in bollyland. AR Rahman was offered Canadian citizenship and refused. Pv pls run article on that.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

bout 600 million Indian citizens are expected to cast their votes over a period of 39 days ending May 19, in the ongoing election for their country’s parliament. There are roughly 900 million eligible voters, and the country has typically seen about two-thirds of them turn out to polling places. I have been working on the security of electronic voting systems for more than 15 years, and, along with other colleagues, have been interested in understanding how a nation can tally that many votes cast over such a long period. India uses a domestically designed and manufactured electronic voting machine – as many as 4 million of them at 1 million polling places, at least some in extremely remote locations. The first version of the Indian electronic

How the world’s largest democracy casts its vote voting machine debuted in the state election in Kerala in 1982. Now they’re used in elections throughout the country, which happen on different days in different areas. How does it work? When a voter arrives at the polling place, she presents a photo ID and the poll officer checks that she is on the electoral roll. When it’s her turn to vote, a polling official uses an electronic voting machine’s control unit to unlock its balloting unit, ready to accept her vote. The balloting unit has a very simple user interface: a series of buttons with candidate names and symbols. To vote, the voter simply presses the button next to the candidate of her choice. After each button press, a printer

prints out the voter’s choice on paper and displays it to the voter for a few seconds, so the person may verify that the vote was recorded correctly. Then the paper is dropped into a locked storage box. The whole system runs on a battery, so it does not need to be plugged in. When it’s time for the polling place to close at the end of the voting day, each electronic voting machine device and paper-

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record storage box is sealed with wax and tape bearing the signatures of representatives of the various candidates in that election, and stored under armed guard. After the election period is over and it’s time to tally the votes, the electronic voting machines are brought out, the seals opened and the vote counts for each control unit are read out from its display board. Election workers hand-tally these individual machine totals to obtain the election results for each constituency. The Indian electronic voting machine primarily runs on specialized hardware and firmware, unlike the voting machines used in the U.S., which are software-intensive. It is intended for the single purpose of voting and specially designed for that, rather than relying on a standard operating system like Windows, which needs to be regularly updated to patch detected security vulnerabilities. Each machine requires only a connection between a balloting unit and a control unit; there are no provisions to connect an electronic voting machine to a computer network, much less the internet – including wirelessly. This design does offer some protections against possible tampering with how votes are recorded and tallied. The Election Commission of India has repeatedly claimed that the electronic voting machines are tamper-proof. However, a scholarly study has demonstrated there are ways to rig the machines. In particular, the simplicity of the design allows for simple attacks, such as intercepting and modifying the signal carried over the machine’s cable. The Election Commission has not made public any independent security evaluations, so it’s unclear exactly what is – or isn’t – possible. Parties that lose elections often suspect malfeasance and question the equipment. As I and others have observed, when the machines are being made, there are a number of opportunities for someone to physically tamper with an electronic voting machine in ways that preelection device testing might not detect. The machines’ software is designed, written and tested at two electronics companies owned by the government of India: Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited. The chips for the machines are manufactured outside India. In earlier versions of the machine, the chip manufacturer also wrote the machine code into the chip; today the electronics companies do it themselves. At any time during manufacture, testing and maintenance, it may be possible to introduce counterfeit chips or swap out other components that could let hackers alter the results. The Election Commission of India argues that any manipulation or error would be detected because the electronic voting machine is tested frequently and candidate representatives have opportunities to participate in mock elections immediately before a machine is used in a real election.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Police looking for dash-cam video in latest Surrey homicide 18-year-old Surrey man was shot dead late Friday afternoon in Fraser Heights. Homicide police are appealing for dashcam and cellphone video as they investigate the shooting death of an 18-year-old Surrey man late Friday afternoon in Fraser Heights. It happened just after 5pm, near 176th Street and Abbey Drive.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has not revealed the victim’s name. “We believe this was a targeted incident and is linked to the ongoing Lower Mainland gang conflict,” said Corporal Frank Jang, spokesman for IHIT. Police ask anyone with information to contact the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-IHIT or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Woman caught up in Surrey’s hostage situation in March shot dead by police, investigation finds British Columbia’s police watchdog agency says a woman caught up in a recent hostage situation in Surrey was shot dead by officers as they sought to resolve the situation. The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) disclosed the information for the first time on Thursday as they issued an update on their probe of the March 29 confrontation. During the incident, an armed man at the scene was also shot dead by officers. “We thought, at this point, it was important to alert the public,” Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director for the office, said in an interview on Thursday. He said it was important for the families involved to know this detail, which has become clear through an ongoing investigation, and that it was inevitably necessary to release it to the public as well. Mr. MacDonald said there have been incidents previously where actions of police have injured third parties, but he was not aware of a case like this where a hostage was killed as a result of police conduct. According to police statements issued in March, RCMP responded to a house on the evening of March 28 to a report of a man with a gun and a possible hostage situation. After police evacuated nearby homes and properties, the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team arrived to help, and at 7:30 a.m. on March 29 entered the home after efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff failed. Police said the man on the scene died as a result of a fatal gunshot wound. But police said the female victim was found in the home with “serious

injuries,” given first aid by officers at the scene and later died at hospital. On Thursday, Mr. MacDonald said the woman was shot twice. “What occurred in the home is what might be termed as a very dynamic situation,” he said. “It’s fair to say that what happens in this type of situation is it’s very fast moving. There are a lot of decisions that are made in a very short period of time. That’s what I mean by a very dynamic situation.” The victims of the March 29 incident have yet to be officially identified. Initially, 10 of about 24 investigators at the IIO were working on the case, but that has been scaled back, Mr. MacDonald said. Office investigators have interviewed more than 40 people so far, including civilians and police witnesses, as part of an investigation that has also included obtaining and analyzing forensic data, Mr. MacDonald said. The director said it is not yet clear which officer fired the shots that killed the hostage, and that point is subject to further investigation. He said several officers fired shots. He said the investigation, including further interviews, is expected to take several more months. Sergeant Janelle Shoihet, media relations officer for the RCMP in British Columbia, said in a statement that the force is aware of the investigation “and are co-operating as appropriate.” She said it is providing support to members of the force directly and indirectly affected by the incident. “To maintain the integrity of the IIO investigation, we will not be providing further comments at this time,” she said in her statement.

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Justin Trudeau’s alleged ‘bad’ French skills a Quebec’s media elites are unfairly criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chorus of criticism by spoken French because they see him as an journalists regarding the outsider pretending to be a real Quebecois, an quality of Trudeau’s French, which she says suggests they American academic argues in new research. Journalists will forgive Conservative Leader are using language as a way of Andrew Scheer’s mangled pronunciations attacking his identity. She chose to focus on or former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s use of Anglicisms but Trudeau is held to prominent Quebec journalists an unrealistic standard, according to Prof. — mostly francophone — Yulia Bosworth of Binghamton University in because they have historically New York. Her article, “The ‘Bad’ French of been “agenda-setters” in Justin Trudeau: When Language, Ideology, Quebec society and who and Politics Collide,” was published in the have an established role of most recent issue of the American Review positioning themselves at the centre of the of Canadian Studies. The author studied 53 conversation on what is the correct use of the online news items, mostly between April 2013 French language. “A lot of the things he is being blamed for and January 2017, that discussed Trudeau’s linguistic abilities or those of other federal are the things francophone Quebecers are politicians. Bosworth, a self-professed “lover” themselves doing on a regular basis,” said of Quebec, discovered a near-unanimous the professor, who teaches French linguistics, specializes in North American French and

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reflection of his outsider status in Quebec: study studies how language and society intersect. On an linguistic level, the claim that Trudeau doesn’t speak French well is simply untrue, Bosworth said in an interview Wednesday. Moreover, Trudeau speaks French with virtually no accent, she said, and sounds like a regular Quebecer. That’s unlike his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who she says consciously chose to speak French that was more closely aligned with France. Bosworth studied hours of the younger Trudeau speaking French in public

appearances across Canada and in France. She said he doesn’t suppress his regional dialect. “In France he seems perfectly comfortable speaking the way he does at home and that should be recognized and credited but it’s not.” Instead, the media elite in Quebec describe his French as “incomprehensible,” “limp,” “snobbish,” and “jarring to the native ear.” “Some of the things being pointed out are OK in the mouths of just about any other Quebecer but not him,” Bosworth said. One of the main reasons she believes Quebec’s media elite have chosen to zero-in on Trudeau’s French is because he identifies as one of them — a francophone — but also as bilingual, a cultural intersection she says is construed in the province as necessarily clashing.

New ‘Targets’ video takes aim at gang violence in Surrey The “Targets” clip, launched April 13 on MMM Music & Films’ Youtube channel, is sung in Punjabi by Gogi Bains, with Sam Sidhu credited as music director, Niranjan Singh “Nanji” Dhaliwal as lyricist and R. Paul Dhillon, video director. It’s part of a campaign “to bring awareness to our youth,” according to a release from Surrey-based Brand D Media. “The goal of all parties involved in trying to stop this gang-violence monster that is consuming our youth is to create atmosphere for youth take part in change and to identify behaviours attributed to a dangerous lifestyle in youth, and then to curtail these types of behaviours in our community.” The South Asian community has gone through two decades of youth drugs and gang violence “that has claimed nearly 200 young Indo-Canadian men,” according to the release.

“And just when everyone thought that the nightmare of losing young men had finally ended, it has reared it’s ugly head again with a spate of shootings that claimed more young South Asian-Indo-Canadian men in recent wave of gang violence.” Ending gang violence requires better parenting, not just more cash. Dhillon said the “Targets” video team is excited to see its hard work finally premiere, following months of work. b “We hope that our small effort bears fruit,” Dhillon said. Added Dhaliwal: “This has been a long journey but we hope that it makes an impact with our youth – this is just a start of something that hopefully other artists and filmmakers will do on a continuous basis so that we can keep bringing awareness and education that can stop the flow our youth to gangs and drugs.”

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Khalsa Business Centre

128th Street, 84th Ave., Surrey, BC

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Farnworth concerned about Surrey street brawl, brazen gang violence Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says he was “absolutely shocked” at the brazen violence of a group of young men involved in a car and foot chase and assault in Newton on Saturday night. The chaotic scene, which resulted in several injuries, was captured on surveillance videos from homes in the area. One man involved was deliberately struck by a vehicle and sent flying through the air. Others carrying what appear to be weapons are chasing rivals along the street, over fences and into private yards. “It is absolutely unbelievable — just sort of the callous disregard for safety, callous disregard for people in general,” Farnworth said in an interview Tuesday. “What do they think when they go home? Clearly they don’t. Clearly they are so self-centred and self-absorbed that they don’t care about anybody other than themselves.

And I think it is just sick. It is sickening.” An image from YouTube video shows a man go flying as he is struck by a car that veered off the road during a running brawl in Surrey on April 28. The brazen daylight street battle, which Surrey RCMP say might be linked to the ongoing Lower Mainland gang conflict, is just one of several recent acts of gang violence in the region. On Friday, 18-yearold Austin Grewal was shot to death near 176 Street and Abbey Drive in Surrey. Grewal was linked to the Brothers Keepers gang and the drug lines it operates in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is looking for more information about a red Chrysler 300 sedan believed to be associated with the shooting.

Big oil refiners from Alberta price-gouging BC customers, says think-tank Alberta’s oil industry is raking in “excess profits” by price-gouging B.C. customers, according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Marc Lee, an economist at the CCPA and the author of the report, says: “Turn off the taps? Alberta already has Vancouver over a barrel,” and taxes aren’t to blame for record-high pump prices here — “Big Oil” in Alberta is. Lee’s report found Vancouver motorists are paying oil-refiners 20-30 cents more per litre than are customers in Calgary and Toronto. They’re also paying far more than they did just a decade ago. Suncor, Parkland Fuel and Imperial Oil, refiners that were specifically named by Lee, referred Postmedia News to the Canadian Fuels Association, an industry group to which all companies belong. Shell didn’t respond to a request for comment.

When asked about the price differences, Erin Brophy, a communications manager for the fuels association, said in an email that it was fundamentally about “supply-anddemand dynamics and taxation.” She linked to an association statement that explained why it doesn’t comment on gas prices. Brophy also referred Postmedia to an issue statement the association produced in May 2018 regarding the high gas prices in Vancouver at the time. It said demand for gas in the Lower Mainland had “risen significantly” since 2014 at the same time that demand on space in the Trans Mountain pipeline had reduced the amount of refined products that were being sent. Those factors had increased reliance on imported fuel by rail and barge from the U.S., according to the 2018 statement. It also said Vancouver had higher rates of taxes on fuels than other North American jurisdictions.

Elections Canada set to eliminate 100,000 non-citizens from voters registry Elections Canada has identified and is set to eliminate some 103,000 people from the federal voters register who have been determined to be on the list illegally because they are not Canadian citizens. Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault told the Senate National Finance Committee on Tuesday that his office has identified these names on the registered list of qualified electors and will be removing them before the 2019 federal election.

It is not clear how many of these people could have fraudulently cast a ballot in the 2015 campaign, though the register these names appear on is what informs the voter lists, meaning they could have received voter identification cards telling them they were eligible to vote. However, a voter information card alone cannot be used as a valid piece of identification at the polls. Stephane Perrault (left), Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, and Yves Cote,

“That is not something that we want obviously, because it appears as an invitation to vote,” Perrault told CTVNews.ca. It would require considerable analysis to determine whether these potentially fraudulent votes would have affected the election result. Elections Canada is still looking into the matter to determine this, and try to establish how these names ended up on the register in the first place. Though,Perraultsaidthatthepriorityfornow is cleaning up the list for the coming campaign.

“We will have tools that we didn’t have in the past to monitor that,” he said, including tracking who voted through a new electronic list. “We will be able to follow up after the election and check if people have attempted to vote or voted while being non-citizens.” It is illegal for non-citizens to vote, or apply to register to vote if they know that they are not eligible. The federal register of electors is informed by multiple information sources, including provincial elections lists.

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Gas fight heads to courts as BC challenges Alberta’s turn off the taps legislation The B.C. government is going to court in a bid to stop Alberta’s threat to restrict the flow of oil and gas to B.C. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet proclaimed into law Bill 12, the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, during its first meeting after being sworn in Tuesday. Kenney had said during his election campaign he would enact the Act so he could “turn off the taps” to B.C. if necessary. The law gives Alberta the power to limit the allowable daily quantities of petroleum products shipped, among other things. Attorney General David Eby said Tuesday B.C. was ready to immediately file a legal challenge against Bill 12, but the province had to wait for it to be proclaimed into law to do so. And that’s what they did on Wednesday. In their lawsuit filed in Calgary, the B.C. government says that the terms of the

Alberta licences may restrict or otherwise interfere with or impose cost burdens on the supply of petroleum products to B.C. The suit claims that the Alberta law, entitled Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, is illegal and unconstitutional. “The government of Alberta introduced and supported the Act because it asserts British Columbia is responsible for ‘delays’ to an expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which transports petroleum products from Edmonton to Kamloops, Burnaby and Washington,” says the suit. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (right) speaks beside Energy Minister Sonya Savage about Bill 12, the turn-off-the-taps legislation, during a press conference in the media room in the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

Minister Chrystia Freeland promotes tax hikes for 1% to avoid ‘Crummy Society’ Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland promoted tax hikes for the rich as a way of helping a “hollowed-out” middle class Tuesday, but sidestepped questions on whether the country’s top one per cent will be asked to pay more in the Liberals’ upcoming platform. Freeland told an audience at Ottawa’s Global Centre for Pluralism that “real structural issues” with capitalism in the 21st century are feeding disruptive populist trends. Global capitalism is a machine that works

extremely well for the super rich, she said. But in this century, Freeland explained, it hasn’t delivered a comfortable, secure life to the broad middle class. “Failure to do that, will mean failure to sustain democracy.” Freeland, a former economics journalist, shared an anecdote about going door knocking in an upscale neighbourhood in her Toronto riding during the last election. She said one man told her that a Liberal government would cost him $30,000 more in taxes.

South Asian suspect in Surrey banquet hall stabbing turns himself in Surrey RCMP say the suspect in a banquet hall stabbing from February has turned himself in following a call out from police to help identify the man. Police released an image on April 30, urging anyone who knows the person to contact police. As of Wednesday afternoon (May 1), Surrey RCMP said the man had turned himself in Tuesday afternoon (April 30). Surrey RCMP said charges have not been laid as the investigation is ongoing. The stabbing happened shortly after 10 p.m. on Feb. 15, when an estimated 500 people were at Bollywood Banquet Halls and Convention Centre in the 8100-block of 128th Street. Staff Sergeant Duane Honeyman said the day after the stabbing that Surrey RCMP was called to Bollywood Banquet

Halls and Convention Centre just after 10 p.m. Feb. 15 for “reports of a fight.” Honeyman said there was a “large event in progress, probably upwards of three to four hundred people, was the estimate.” “It looked like there might have been several kind of little, mini, I guess, disputes going on,” Staff Sergeant Duane Honeyman said at the time. “It resulted in one large one, which resulted in this male being stabbed.” A man was stabbed and taken to hospital with not life-threatening injuries, police said. Social media posts at the time showed the banquet hall was being used as the venue for a concert with Sidhu Moose Wala and Elly Mangat that night.

South Surrey vehicle stop results in fentanyl bust A tip from the public to the Surrey RCMP resulted in the seizure of $27,440 in cash and a package of suspected fentanyl in South Surrey Monday evening. Surrey RCMP issued a news release Wednesday saying that officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked on the 700-block of 171 Street at approximately 8 p.m. Monday. Officers conducted a traffic stop and impaired driving investigation, which led to both the driver and passenger being arrested. During a search, Mounties found $27,440 in cash, a replica firearm, a conductive energy weapon, multiple cellphones, and a packaged bag of suspected heroin/fentanyl, the news release states. “Once again the watchful eyes of community members have assisted us in an investigation,” Surrey RCMP operations officer Supt. Ed Boettcher said in the release. “Police alone cannot combat violent crime in Surrey, we encourage the public to continue to report any suspicious activity in our community.” Both the driver and passenger were released from police custody on a “court process” and the investigation

ongoing, the release states. In addition, a series of check stops conducted on April 27, where approximately 1,110 vehicles were stopped, resulted in a number of violations and charges under the Motor Vehicle Act, the release states. In total, violations and investigations include one criminal impaired driving investigation, five 90-day immediate roadside prohibitions (IRP), one criminal charge for possession of a controlled substance, one charge for drive while prohibited, four three-day IRP, five cellphone violations, two violation tickets for no valid drivers licence, six violation tickets for drive contrary to restriction, one violation ticket for seatbelts and one violation for use of cannabis while operating a vehicle. According to the release, addressing violent crime “remains a top priority” for the Surrey RCMP. Anyone with information about suspicious or criminal activity is encouraged to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477

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NDP backs off push to scrap secret ballot union certification B.C.’s NDP government abandoned plans on Tuesday to scrap the secret ballot vote during union certification drives, despite heavy lobbying from union allies that the move was necessary to boost worker rights. Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced new labour code legislation that did not remove the secret ballot and replace it with a card check system, in which a majority of union members must sign cards to certify. Premier John Horgan campaigned on the idea of card check, which unions have said would make it easier to certify but which businesses oppose because they argue it would make employees more susceptible to intimidation by colleagues. Bains said the changes will instead focus on “improving the certification process with shortened timelines and better protection.”

Green Leader Andrew Weaver said he would never support eliminating the secret ballot process, forcing a showdown between the power-sharing partners because the NDP minority government requires the three Green MLAs to pass legislation. Bains acknowledged Weaver’s opposition forced the NDP’s hand. “Yes, our friend Andrew Weaver made it very clear if there’s card check included in this bill he would not support it,” said Bains. He added that if the NDP did not need the Green votes, it would have proceeded with the change to card check. “If I was proceeding with a majority government that would have been my preference,” said Bains. The B.C. Federation of Labour heavily lobbied the Greens to change their mind, but Weaver held firm.

Province commits $1 million for White Rock Pier, waterfront restoration A day after a community group launched a funding drive to help rebuild the White Rock Pier, the provincial government announced a $1 million commitment to aid the cause. The B.C. Ministry of Municipal Affairs – alongside MLA Ravi Kahlon (Delta North) and White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker – made the announcement Friday morning during a news conference at White Rock’s recently re-opened Memorial Park. “The historic White Rock pier is a cultural icon and a significant contributor to the local economy, drawing more than one million visitors to the community each year,” said Kahlon. “Restoring the pier will help local businesses and improve recreational and cultural opportunities for the community.” “Last winter’s storm devastated our community, impacting both residents and the local economy alike,” said Walker. “We are grateful for the provincial grant to help us reconstruct our waterfront and pier and protect our shoreline from

the impacts of climate change.” A release, issued by the province shortly after the announcement, states the funding will help repair waterfront infrastructure from storm damage along the promenade and White Rock pier, helping restore the economic and social heart of the community. On Thursday, Friends of the Pier – a group of community leaders and fundraisers – announced a plan to raise $2-million for restoration of the pier, which was badly damaged in a Dec. 20 storm and has been closed ever since. Repairing the pier is estimated to cost about $16.2 million, and even with insurance and contributions from different levels of government, there is an estimated shortfall of about $2 million, Friends of the Pier chair Bob Bezubiak explained at Thursday’s event. The community fundraising efforts aim to cover that amount. “This is a real chance for all of us to pay it forward for every stroll and every picture ever taken on the pier,” Bezubiak said Thursday.

Attorney general eyes expanding scope of special anti-moneylaundering unit The B.C. government may expand the scope of a proposed policing unit, meant to specialize in money laundering in casinos, to other areas, including real estate. “Obviously we have a problem in British Columbia with people putting proceeds of crime into real estate. There have been many news reports about this — and people are appropriately concerned,” B.C. Attorney General David Eby said Thursday. Eby said he was considering the potential expansion of the unit following a Postmedia investigation published this week. It found that 20 Lower Mainland properties valued at more than $43 million were linked to those accused of using proceeds of crime to buy property and other assets in the Lower Mainland. The accused were targets of the RCMP’s E-Pirate and other police probes into allegations of drug trafficking, illegal gambling and money laundering, according to a Postmedia News analysis of hundreds of pages of court records and property documents. The E-Pirate investigation is B.C.’s largest money-laundering case, where allegedly as much as $220 million

was washed through an underground bank in Richmond, and possibly as much as $1 billion, involving several countries including China and Mexico. The “designated” policing unit — still in development — is a recommendation from a governmentcommissioned report of former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German, delivered in June 2018, that found money laundering was being done through Lower Mainland casinos. The unit was meant to specialize in criminal and regulatory investigations arising from the legal gambling industry, with a focus on Lower Mainland casinos.

BC moves to protect staff in wake of allegations of harassment at River Rock casino The province has made a number of new recommendations to protect casino staff from potential harassment in light of allegations that workers were sexually harassed at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., two years ago. Several floor staff said they’d been assaulted by patrons at the casino in 2017. They reported the alleged attacks to Great Canadian Gaming Corporation (GCGC), which owns the River Rock, but the corporation was later accused of burying those reports. Under the Gaming Control Act,

the provider would be required to report such accusations to the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch. Management at the River Rock was also accused of asking employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, not to report incidents of any kind — including assault and sexual assault by patrons — to the BCLC. Attorney General David Eby later called for an investigation into the reported assaults, as well as the alleged failure by River Rock ownership to report the claims to regulators.

Immigrant Services Society of BC opens new welcome centre in Surrey When Yousef Al Horani woke up in the hospital in early 2013 he had no idea where he was or how he got there. The last thing he remembered, he was still in the Syrian prison where he had been held and tortured for almost a year after he and two dozen others were inexplicably rounded up on the street and arrested. “Basically, all types of tortures that you think of, we got it daily. Terrible things,” Al Horani said, his words translated by an Arabicspeaking settlement worker at the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. (ISS of B.C.). Doctors told him that strangers had found his body on a pile of trash outside the prison. When they realized he was alive and that he had no identification, the strangers took him to a private hospital. During the three months it took him to recover, Al Horani planned his escape, because he knew if government security forces found him he would be sent back to prison. He found out from a relative that his wife and five children had fled to Jordan while he was imprisoned, and paid a smuggler to take him there. Four years later, Al Horani’s family immigrated to Canada and settled in Metro Vancouver, where they plan to stay for the long-term. “Basically, there is no life there,” he said of Syria. “In Canada there is security, it is stable, it is safe, government is supportive, there is good education, health care — there is no comparison.”

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Controversy after Canadian soldiers carry guns in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;full fighting orderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at Khalsa Day in Toronto A unit of soldiers from Toronto-area reserve units of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were photographed carrying weapons in â&#x20AC;&#x153;full fighting order,â&#x20AC;? their magazines in place â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but unloaded â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at a Khalsa Day Parade that took place in Toronto on Sunday. The photo was posted to Twitter by controversial author and columnist Tarek Fatah, who has written extensively about extremism. Canadian Sikh soldiers march in Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Khalsa Day Parade. What next? Jewish soldiers to mark Yom Kippur or Hindu soldiers marching for Diwali? Stop it please. Trudeau is turning our Canadian armed forces into an ethnic vote getting spectable. Stop ghettoizing our military. 19 The CAF confirmed its authenticity and said it is not normal for weapons to be carried at events in this way. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a statement that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;while the intentions to participate in this event were good, the

choice that was made was inappropriate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know that the commander of 4th division and other commanders will take appropriate action to ensure that something like this never happens again,â&#x20AC;? he said. Soldiers with the 4 Canadian Division participate in a number of community and outreach events, â&#x20AC;&#x153;including parades such as the Khalsa Day Parade,â&#x20AC;? a CAF spokesman told Global News. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Normally, weapons are not carried at such events,â&#x20AC;? he said. The decision to have personnel in â&#x20AC;&#x153;full fighting order,â&#x20AC;? he said, was made after the commander of the 32 Canadian Brigade authorized participation in the parade, and assigned the task to the commanding officer of the Lorne Scots That officer issued the order detailing participation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;including authorizing unloaded weapon carriage and dress,â&#x20AC;? the spokesman said.

The 4 Canadian Division commander is following up with this unit and issuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;additional direction to the entire division prohibiting the carriage of weapons at similar events.â&#x20AC;? Such displays have not been seen at other parades, such as Pride, or similar events.

This time, the commander of this unit authorized the display â&#x20AC;&#x153;in a misguided attempt to show a wellequipped CAF,â&#x20AC;? the spokesman said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It never happens at Pride or similar events because it is not appropriate,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was not appropriate in this instance either.â&#x20AC;?

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Vancouver council votes to shift some property tax burden from businesses to residences Vancouver council voted on Monday to shift two per cent of the property tax burden from businesses to residential properties. The only voice before council Tuesday in opposition to the tax shift was City of Vancouver staff. However, the vote was not unanimous, with support from councillors Sarah Kirby-Young, Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, Michael Wiebe, Adriane Carr and Pete Fry.

Council heard a series of presentations in support of the shift, including representatives of neighbourhood business improvement associations, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. Each of those speakers argued the tax shift would provide some relief to businesses.

West Kelowna man charged with attempted murder after elderly woman badly beaten West Kelowna RCMP say charges have been laid in connection with an assault on an elderly woman that left her seriously injured. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, police said 60-year-old Kevin Lee Barrett of West Kelowna was charged with attempted murder. According to police, on April 29 just after 8:30 p.m. they received a 911 call from someone saying theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d found a seriously injured woman alone in the bush near Bear Lake Forest Service Road and Westside Road. The 79-year-old woman was in â&#x20AC;&#x153;desperate need of medical attention,â&#x20AC;? according to the statement. Police say she sustained â&#x20AC;&#x153;serious bodily injuriesâ&#x20AC;? as a result of the attack and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our preliminary investigation has revealed that the elderly woman was the victim of an alleged assault carried out by an individual who was well known to her,â&#x20AC;? Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donaghey said. Police believe the victim was driven to a remote area in her own vehicle, a grey 2005 Nissan X-Trail with B.C. licence plates FM590J, from her residence inside the Westview Village Mobile Home Park located in the 1900-block of Highway 97 in West Kelowna. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Further investigation has led police to believe that the victim and the accused may have come into contact with the unknown citizen, during the early evening hours of Monday, while still inside the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s West View Village mobile home complex,â&#x20AC;? Kelowna RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jesse Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donaghey said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have reason to believe that the suspect reassured the stranger that he was taking the

injured elderly victim to hospital for care,â&#x20AC;? said Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donaghey, adding they believe the person was concerned for the elderly woman.

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Saturday, May 4, 2019 Twice as nice:

Bank of Canada says interest rates to rise if economic headwinds dissipate Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said on Wednesday interest rates would rise from their current “very low” levels if headwinds affecting the Canadian economy were to dissipate. Poloz also told the Senate banking committee that high levels of personal debt meant the economy was more sensitive to interest rates than ever. Last week, the central bank made clear rate hikes were off the table for now, given the economy was struggling to cope with lower oil prices, weak household spending

and the impact of global trade conflicts. “If those headwinds dissipate, then interest rates would rise,” Poloz told the committee. A few minutes later he said “for the moment we still have very low interest rates.” The bank’s main overnight rate is 1.75 percent, below the so-called neutral range of 2.25 percent to 3.25 percent, when monetary policy neither stimulates nor restrains growth. Poloz has made clear that any future rate hikes or cuts will be heavily data dependent.

BC landowners not being told property could go to First Nation More than 3,000 private properties in British Columbia could be swept up in land claims by two First Nations, but those landowners are being kept in the dark about that possibility as Ottawa and the two bands litigate the claims. Two B.C. First Nations have active land claims covering parts of the province where the Crown, long ago, granted parcels of their traditional territory to private landowners. The Cowichan Nation Alliance has laid claim to a tract on the south side of Richmond, B.C., along the Fraser River opposite Tilbury Island, which includes an estimated 200 privately held properties that have yet to be identified. The case, which was launched in 2014, is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Sept. 9. The Haida Nation, meanwhile, is seeking title over Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, a decision that could affect 3,285 private properties. No court date has been set for that claim. It is unknown what would happen to the private properties if the First Nations are successful in their claims. There is no previous case in Canada where a court has ordered that private property should be included in lands covered by Aboriginal title, the collective right of Indigenous people to occupy and use traditional territories. But, until all matters are resolved, the

claims raise questions about whether the non-Indigenous property owners would pay taxes to the First Nations, whether the property owners would be allowed to vote in band elections, whether the property values would be affected and whether they or future owners could secure mortgages. The federal government asked the B.C. Supreme Court in 2017 for orders that would force the Haida and the Cowichan to inform the landowners that their properties were subject to land claims. Justice Department lawyers argued at the time that the property owners should be alerted so they have the opportunity to participate in the legal cases because the outcomes could adversely affect their interests. But, in the fall of 2017, judges in both cases refused to make orders requiring such notice. In the Haida case, Justice Barbara Fisher said giving the property owners notice could “create unnecessary fear in the nonaboriginal community, given that actions for ejectment may never actually be brought.” And she said, if the landowners were informed that they live within the claim area, “there is a real possibility that many of them will seek to participate in this proceeding.” That, Justice Fisher said, could “frustrate” the progress of the case.

New Alberta MLA scoops provincial seat and $100K lottery in just two days Luck lightning struck twice for a new Alberta MLA when she scooped a seat in recent Alberta elections followed by a $100,000 lottery win just two days later. Janis Irwin said in Edmonton that her electoral win was down to hard work, but her lottery win was just unexpected good fortune, finding the golden ticket she bought last month after a “hectic campaign.” “The electoral win was based on a lot of hard work,” she said Wednesday, speaking at the Alberta legislature. “Many, many months in the cold and dark nights, knocking on doors and pounding the pavement.” Irwin succeeds the NDP’s Brian Mason as the MLA-elect for Edmonton-HighlandsNorwood. Two days later, the former teacher and government worker was surprised again. “I was trying to get my life sorted after a hectic campaign and found a lottery ticket in my wallet from March and checked it out at a gas station in my neighbourhood,” she

recalled. “I saw the six figures show up and I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ So a few people kind of gathered around and the two ladies working at the gas station were super excited. It was a huge shock.” Irwin plans to put the cash towards her mortgage and help her niece and nephew pay for school. Gas station employee Estrella Gantalao was working when Irwin bought the ticket.“She just said, ‘Oh my God,’” “That’s a lucky girl because she won the election and at the same time like $100,000,” added co-worker Jun Libero.

TransLink is asking the public how it wants to see transit change over next 30 years TransLink has launched the largest consultation campaign in its history, asking people who live and work in Metro Vancouver how they’d like to see the region’s transit system develop over the next 30 years. The transportation authority is asking the public to share “their values, priorities and ideas”forthesystemoverthenextfourmonths, according to a statement released Friday. A statement said the feedback will help shape the Transport 2050 plan. It’s TransLink’s newest regional transportation strategy, following previous plans rolled out in 1993, 2008 and 2013. “The region is changing, which is why it’s increasingly important for all of us to have a say on the future of how we live and move, not only in the near term but over the next decades to come,” TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond told reporters at an event announcing the consultations on Friday morning. Desmond said factors such as climate change, technology advancements and an

economy that shifts under those factors will influence the latest strategy more than before. “We need to understand not only how to keep up with [change], but how to ride the wave,” he said. “The future will be very different and hard to predict, but it’s important we anticipate those changes today.” Opinions on emerging modes of transport including automated, connected, electric and shared mobility such as ride-hailing, car sharing, and shared “micromobility” options like e-bikes and e-scooters. “Whether they’re small things that make your mornings just a little easier or if they’re innovations that revolutionize the future of our region,” Desmond added. The survey is being conducted online, but the statement said TransLink staff will also reach out to residents of all 23 jurisdictions in Metro Vancouver, as well as adjoining regions and Indigenous communities.

Police looking for help to locate missing person Surrey RCMP is requesting the public’s assistance in locating a missing 29-year-old male. Tyler Anderson was last seen at 10:00 pm on April 29, 2019 in the 17700 block of 60 Avenue. He has not been seen or heard from since. Tyler is described as Caucasian, 6’0 tall, approximately 210 lbs. with brown hair and brown e yes. He was last seen wearing a black baseball cap, grey t-shirt, grey sweater, green shorts and tan shoes. Police and family are concerned for his health and well-being as it is out of character for him to be out of touch this long. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of this person is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502, or Crime Stoppers, if they wish to remain anonymous, at 1-800-222-8477 or www.solvecrime.ca, quoting file number 2019-62073.

Amitabh Bachchan feels he’s in the “wrong” job, Courtesy Amazon, Google & Apple Amitabh Bachchan takes social media my storm every time he posts a witty tweet. The megastar, who recently made headlines for his fun banter with Shah Rukh Khan over their recent film Badla,

others’ hourly revenue has made Big B feel that he’s in the wrong profession. The tweet read, “Amazon: $28.3 million per hour, Apple: $27.5 million per hour, Google: $17.2

co-starring Taapsee Pannu, has once again done the same, but this time it’s about his job. A tweet about world’s largest companies like Google, Amazon Apple, Facebook, Netflix among

million per hour, Microsoft: $14.5 million per hour, Intel: $7.6 million per hour, Facebook: $7.1 million per hour, Netflix: $2.1 million per hour.”Re-Tweeting to which, he wrote really...? We are in the wrong job ..!!!” Talking about Amitabh Bachchan-SRK’s

banter on Twitter over Badla, the megastar had revealed that he is not very pleased with the film not getting enough appreciation from its producer, distributor, line-producers or anyone from the industry. Replying to a fan’s tweet who posted the box office figures of the film, Big B had expressed his disappointment. He then wrote, “about time someone started talking about this silent success .. !! because neither the Producer, nor the distributor, nor the on line Producer, or any else in the Industry, in general .. has even spent a nano second to compliment the success of this film #Badla .. thk u” Within a few minutes, it was SRK, the producer of film who said, “Sir hum toh wait kar rahein hain ki aap party kab de rahein hain hum sabko! We r waiting outside Jalsa every nite!” Big B had then made a strong come back with his wittier reply to SRK’s tweet.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

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What makes Malaika Arora furious!

alaika Arora is making headlines again for all the right reasons. While the Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Got Talent judge hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been seen on the big screen since long, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s her latest interview, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grabbing eyeballs on social media. Well, the lady has sizzled in several item songs like Chaiyya Chaiyya from Bombay, Maahi Ve from Kaante, Munni Badnaam from Dabangg, Anarkali Disco Chali from Housefull amongst many others. You may fondly want to call her one of the most glamorous â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;item girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the lady outright refuses to acknowledge the term. In a recent conversation with mediaz, the actress spoke about anything and everything. Talking about doing item songs, she said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whenever I did in a song I did it on my own. I never did it under duress, I was comfortable. If

I felt I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t not okay with something, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d voice my opinion. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say no I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like this step, or if I felt I was being objectified in any way Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll say it.â&#x20AC;?

HOROSCOPE Aries

March 21 - April 20 Although retrogrades are often seen as frustrating, they provide a necessary opportunity to review your goals and career plans. Prudent Saturn is in its retrograde phase in your sector of responsibility from Monday until September 18, which can be a call to do some restructuring in this area. If something really isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t working, it might be time to admit it and move on. You seem to have a lot to contribute to various discussions

Taurus

April 21 - May 20

Malaika further added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always had a problem with it being called an item song. Imagine somebody turning around on me and saying, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;kya item hai.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I would want to turn around and slap that person. I have a problem with the terminology.â&#x20AC;?

Bollywood

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Saturnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retrograde phase can be seen as a process of dismantling whatever no longer works for you. As itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also regressing in your sector of travel and study from April 29 to September 18, the coming months could see you reviewing a trip, a possible course of study, or even a lawsuit and wondering if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing the right thing. Events over the coming weeks and months will help you make wise decisions.

Gemini

May 20 - June 21 If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve found yourself in an impossible situation recently, things can begin to ease over the coming weeks. Potent Pluto reversed in an intense zone last week, and prudent Saturn goes retrograde in the same sector this week. The focus could shift inward, planet, is very active in your social sector, and this can be an opportunity to express your views and opinions.

Cancer

June 22 - July 23

retrograde phase, and prudent Saturn follows suit this week. With both in your sector ! relax a little. The coming months can be an opportunity to take an honest look at your part in this situation and consider what you might do about it. Regarding your goals and career plans, you may have a lot to contribute this week.

Leo

June 24 - August 23 If being a responsible person has taken its busyness that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve endured begin to ease up a bit. With potent Pluto rewinding last week and cautious Saturn going into reverse this week, the pace could slacken. You might want to use this opportunity to delegate some of your work and restructure your routines so that they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too demanding.

Virgo " # ! ! $ % & % and nurture those valuable connections, you could do very well. " % ! %

Libra

Sept. 24 - Oct 22 " # ! all cylinders and eager to get your best-laid % & % ! connections, you could do very well. When it comes to creative and romantic % ! %

Scorpio

Oct 23 - Nov 22 Your partnerships seem zesty and buzzing with energy as luscious Venus and chatty Mercury continue their path through your sector of relating. The people in your life may have a lot to say over the coming days, and some of it might be helpful and some more opinionated. Whatever occurs, try not to take it too personally. Tuesday could see you joining friends to enjoy ! '

Sagitarius Nov 23 - Dec 22

Money matters may have been rather intense over recent months for one reason or another. There could be a bit of a respite here, though, as cautious Saturn turns retrograde alongside potent Pluto (which went into reverse last week). Saturn will rewind until September 18, and this can be an opportunity to If this is something that needs doing, starting ! ! ! on the agenda, with friends eager to join you on an outing that may be a new experience for all of you.

Capricorn Dec 23 - Jan 20

From this week, both sobering Saturn and radical Pluto will be retrograde in your sign. Saturn enters its rewind phase on Monday (until September 18), which means that certain plans may stall over the coming months. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean that you should abandon them; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more that they may need reviewing and reorganizing. And while you might decide to jettison some, this can pave the way for better and perhaps more lucrative opportunities

Aquarius

Jan 21 - Feb 19 As sobering Saturn joins passionate Pluto in its retrograde cycle this week, certain situations in your life could seem to ease up. You may feel drawn to go on an inner journey that enables you to understand yourself in more depth. This might involve meditation, hypnosis, or anything else that can help you access your deeper nature. And you might want to employ the services of a professional to help you with this.

Pisces

Feb 20 - March 20 You may have been busy with many social obligations over the past months. However, with potent Pluto rewinding last week and karmic Saturn entering its retrograde phase on Monday, you could experience change in this area. You groups or activities or that your help isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t needed as much as it was. If so, this can give you the space to do your own thing and even relax at home. It might be the breather you need.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Punjabi movies you shouldn’t miss this month May Movie Mania: Punjabi movies you shouldn’t miss this month Though every month the box office is served with one or the other Punjabi movie, in May there’s an array of much-awaited Pollywood film releasing. This month the Punjabi audience will be hooked by not just one or two but five amazing films. Wish to have a look at them? Dil Diya Gallan’ The Parmish Verma and Wamiqa Gabbi starrer ‘Dil Diyan Gallan’ is one of the highly aniticipated movies of the year 2019. Releasing in the first week, on May 3rd, the movie is a romantic drama. It’s not just bringing Parmish Verma and Wamiqa Gabbi together on the big screen for the first time, but also marks the former’s debut as writer and director in Pollywood. However, he isn’t the sole writer-director of the film, the credit also goes to Uday Pratap Singh. Further, the movie is touted to be an emotionally rich project which will play with the audience’s heartstrings. Lukan Michi’ In the second week of May, ‘Lukan Michi’ will be hitting the theatres. The movie is a romantic comedy that has been set against the backdrop of intense rivalry. To be more clear, on one hand where it shows sweet romance between Preet Harpal and Mandy Takhar, on the other, it features fierce rivalry between Guggu Gill and Yograj Singh.

Further, the movie for the first time will be bringing Preet Harpal and Mandy Takhar together on the silver screen. Also, it marks the debut of M Hundal as a movie director in Pollywood; he has been lauded for this direction in music videos so far and the same is being expected out of him now. The movie is releasing on May 10th. ‘Kadon Aauga’ Another movie releasing in the second week of May is ‘15 Lakh Kadon Aauga’. Now this movie is also packed with comedy but is actually a political satire at heart. After last year’s ‘Gulak Bugni Bank Te Batau’, this is another Punjabi movie that’s about to present a witty and hysterical take on a political scene. Further, directed by Manpreet Brar, the movie stars Ravinder Grewal, Pooja Verma, Hobby Dhaliwal, Malkeet Rauni, Gurpreet Bhangu, Seema Kaushal, Jaswant Rathore, Khiyali and Ajay Jethi. ‘Muklawa’ Ammy Virk is also presenting his first outing of the year ‘Muklawa’ in May. Slated to release in the second last week of the month, i.e. on 24th May, the movie is a Simerjit Singh directorial. It is a romantic comedy featuring one of the most loved Pollywood pair - Ammy Virk and Sonam Bajwa. The story is about the struggle of a husband to meet his own wife,

Deepika’s ‘Chhapaak’ shoot

eepika Padukone started shooting for her upcoming film, Chhapaak, in which she plays an acid-attack survivor. We hear that post the shoot, at the end of the day, the actress makes sure that she unwinds by watching one episode of the TV series, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, a comedy-drama. Says a source, “Deepika’s role is very demanding and getting into the skin of the character takes a toll when you live the fierce journey of the survivor. So, to relax and divert her mind, she watches the series. It has now become a routine for her.” Padukone was born on 5 January 1986 in Copenhagen, Denmark to Konkanispeaking parents. Her father, Prakash Padukone, a former badminton player, and her mother, Ujjala, is travel agent. Her younger sister, Anisha, a golfer.Her paternal grandfather, Ramesh, was a secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association. The family relocated to Bangalore, India when Padukone was a year old.[6] She was educated at Bangalore’s Sophia High School and completed her pre-university education at Mount Carmel College. She subsequently enrolled at the Indira Gandhi National Open University for a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology but later quit it due to scheduling conflicts with her modelling career. Padukone has admitted to being socially awkward as a child and did not have many friends. The focus of her

life was badminton, which she played competitively from a young age. Describing her daily routine in a 2012 interview, Padukone said, “I would wake up at five in the morning, go for physical training, go to school, again go for playing badminton, finish my homework, and go to sleep.” P a d u k o n e continued to pursue a career in badminton throughout her school years and played the sport in national level championships. She also played baseball in a few state level tournaments. While concentrating on her education and sporting career, Padukone also worked as a child model, first appearing in a couple of advertising campaigns at the age of eight. In the tenth grade, she changed focus and decided to become a fashion model. She later explained, “I realised that I was playing the game only because it ran in the family. So, I asked my father if I could give up the game and he wasn’t upset at all.” In 2004, she began a full-time career as a model under the tutelage of Prasad Bidapa. Early in her career, Padukone gained recognition with a television commercial for the soap Liril and modelled for various other brands and products.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

‘Chandigarh-Amritsar-Chandigarh’ Trailer will be out soon

he mucha w a i t e d trailer of Gippy Grewal and Sargun Mehta’s starrer ‘ChandigarhAmritsar-Chandigarh’ to be released on May 1. The upcoming movie is directed by Karan R Guliani, It is a romantic drama and

ends up spending the day with a Boy from Amritsar. His constant chatter exasperates her, but they share a curious chemistry nevertheless. Between bouts of incessant culture bashing and despite many scenarios where both could have gone their separate ways, they end-up spending the day together. She finally decides to return without meeting the prospective groom and leaves a note for him with the Boy. Will the Boy and will be releasing on May 24. Girl part ways with just the memories Now both the actors, Sargun Mehta and of this day or will they meet again? Gippy Grewal took to their social media handle again to announce the trailer release date for their fans. They have shared two different pictures from the film and both of them are looking very cute together. ‘Chandigarh-Amritsar-Chandigarh’ A Girl from Chandigarh comes to Amritsar with the intention of rejecting a prospective groom and

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Saturday, May 4, 2019 By John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia We are so lucky to live in this extraordinary province. With beautiful mountains, pristine wilderness, rivers and lakes, and wild coastline, we need to do all we can to protect this province we love and call home. The challenge of climate change is global, but the impact is all too clear here in B.C. Record-breaking wildfires and floods displaced thousands of people and devastated many peoples’ livelihoods. I remember hearing the stories of two women from the Ashcroft Indian Band who fled on foot to escape a fast-moving fire, and a family in Grand Forks who watched their house be consumed by water in a matter of minutes. These events are becoming more and more common. Extreme weather events, rising ocean levels, disruptions in our ecosystem, threats to our food and water supply are all signs that climate change is happening now. And the science

Press release

Taking action on climate and protecting the place we love is telling us it’s almost too late to stop it. I believe we can do it. Because I believe in our people. Scientists, entrepreneurs, innovators and ordinary people all over B.C. are working every day to fight climate change. I am inspired by the young people who marched on the B.C. Legislature, and in communities across the province, in solidarity with youth around the world calling for urgent action on climate change. Their demand for bold and sustained action to prevent further global warming must be heard. Instead of ignoring the problem, we must build climate action into everything we do, to build a better future for people and the environment. That’s exactly what we’re working on as government. Last week we announced new incentives that make it easier and more affordable for British Columbians to install energy-saving products in their homes and businesses. Through the Better Buildings program, people

Statement from MLA Jane Thornthwaite on Lower Lynn project moving ahead As the process to dismantle the old Mountain Highway overpass has begun, it’s important to reflect on how far the four-phase, three-interchange Lower Lynn project has come. This was the culmination of years of meetings with the District of North Vancouver, councillors, MPs, neighbourhood groups, and myself, starting when I was first elected as MLA in 2009. Roughly four years ago our former government announced $150 million for the Lower Lynn Project in 2015, which included three phases of construction: phase one at Mountain Highway; phase two at Fern Street; and phase three at Dollarton. After receiving feedback from the public, we expanded the scope of the project to include two new collector lanes, bringing the value to $198 million. While this fourth phase was added in 2017, it will be constructed concurrently with the second phase; construction has already begun. The completion of the Mountain Highway interchange will have a positive impact on the east-west flow of traffic in North Vancouver. Once the entire project is complete in 2021, the separation of local and bridge traffic will further decrease traffic congestion.

can now get up to $3,000 back for switching to electric heat pumps and thousands more for installing energy-efficient windows and doors. For program details and to apply for your rebate, visit: BetterHomesBC.ca. Last month we introduced new legislation that will help reduce climate pollution by phasing out gas-powered vehicles. The legislation will make zero-emission vehicles more available and affordable for people all over the province by requiring the sale of all new, light-duty cars and trucks be zero-emission vehicles by 2040. Through the Clean Energy Vehicles for BC program, British Columbians can get up to $5,000 for the purchase or lease of a new battery electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and up to $6,000 for a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. Learn more about the CEVforBC program at cevforbc.ca. Our government recently signed an agreement with the Business Council of B.C. to

work together on low-carbon initiatives for industry. This first-of-its-kind agreement will help us meet the increasing global demand for products, services and solutions that reduce air pollution and protect our planet. These initiatives are all part of our CleanBC climate plan, and there is much more to come. It will help us build a strong, sustainable, low-carbon economy that creates jobs and economic opportunities for people, businesses and communities in every part of B.C. It’s not just a climate plan, it’s an economic plan. We all have a part to play in fighting climate pollution and growing a better, cleaner and more sustainable future. We must reduce air pollution, support cleaner industry, make our homes and businesses more energy efficient, and use cleaner transportation alternatives. We’re asking you to do what you can, to move toward a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future.

Lower Lynn project moves ahead Lower Lynn project moves ahead As the process to dismantle the old Mountain Highway overpass has begun, it’s important to reflect on how far the four-phase, three-interchange Lower Lynn project has come. This was the culmination of years of meetings with the District of North Vancouver, councillors, MPs, neighbourhood groups, and myself, starting when I was first elected as MLA in 2009. Roughly four years ago our former government announced $150 million for the Lower Lynn Project in 2015, which included three phases of construction: phase one at Mountain Highway; phase two at Fern Street; and phase three at Dollarton. After receiving feedback from the public,

we expanded the scope of the project to include two new collector lanes, bringing the value to $198 million. While this fourth phase was added in 2017, it will be constructed concurrently with the second phase; construction has already begun. The completion of the Mountain Highway interchange will have a positive impact on the east-west flow of traffic in North Vancouver. Once the entire project is complete in 2021, the separation of local and bridge traffic will further decrease traffic congestion. I want to thank residents and commuters for their patience throughout construction. While there is still more work to be done, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is near.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Vol. 10 No. 14

Saturday - May 4, 2019

Tel: 604-591-5423

E-mail: ads@theasianstar.com

House prices fall by $7,000 a month ss sales hit record lows If you own residential real estate in Greater Vancouver, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s likely your propertyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s value is back to where it was in 2016 or 2017. The latest data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, released Tuesday, shows no letup in the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing correction, with sales down 29.1 per cent in April, compared to the same month a year ago. Sales were little more than half their average over the past 10 years, REBGV noted. According to blogger and realtor Steve Saretsky, sales of all housing types hit their lowest level since 2000, while detached home sales were the lowest on record. Detached home sales were the lowest on record this April and down 70% after peaking in 2016. Probably safe to assume prices need to move lower to get sales volumes back up. The benchmark price for all housing types in the area is down 8.5 per cent from

Prices have peaked and are now declining. The correction has been more severe in detached homes, with the benchmark price falling 11.1 per cent over the past year, to $1.425 million. That amounts to a decline of about $15,000 per month, and it brings prices back to levels last seen in April, 2016. If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s any good news here itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, home sales rose 5.9 per cent in April from the month before. But prices didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t follow the trend, and

a year ago, to $1.008 million. This works out to a decline of about $7,000 a month over the past year, and it puts the benchmark price back to where it was in June, 2017. The benchmark prices for single-family homes, condos and all housing types for Greater Vancouver. Prices... Canadian Real Estate Association The benchmark prices for single-family homes, condos and all housing types for Greater Vancouver.

A North Shore realtor is Real estate company sued after alleged suing the company she worked romantic feelings for her that she rebuffed. for over allegations she was assaulted by a She says that following this rejection, Hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s male colleague and eventually forced to attitude toward her changed and he began leave her job. Lisa Eileen Billett claims that behaving in a controlling and erratic manner. Colin Hall, who formed a partnership with Billet claims that on April 19, 2017, she and her at Sutton West Coast Realty, developed Hall attended an awards dinner put on by

either fell or stayed flat from March to April. Vancouver developer offers a year of free avocado toast if you buy a condo. Story continues below. In a now-familiar refrain, REBGV President Ashley Smith pointed the finger of blame directly at government policies, particularly the mortgage â&#x20AC;&#x153;stress testâ&#x20AC;? now in force for all mortgages at federally-regulated lenders. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The federal governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mortgage stress test has reduced buyersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; purchasing power by about 20 per cent, which is causing people at the entry-level side of the market to struggle to secure financing,â&#x20AC;? Smith said in a statement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Suppressing housing activity through government policy not only reduces home sales, it harms the job market, economic growth and creates pent-up demand.â&#x20AC;?

North Vancouver assault involving co-worker Sutton West Coast and that as he was driving her home, he demanded that Billett return a letter he had given her stating he was committed to the partnership and addressing some of his previous conduct. In the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, she says when she refused to

return the letter, Hall began to wrestle her purse away from her while driving his car in excess of the speed limit and then swerved off the bridge onto the Dollarton off-ramp in North Vancouver and pulled into an empty parking lot.

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Over 11% of Vancouver condos have a non-resident owner, says new CMHC report

#106 - 7565 132 St. Surrey, BC 604.572.3005

Over 11 percent of Vancouver condos have at least one non-resident as an owner, a number that jumps to more than 19 per cent when it comes to newer built condos. The information is contained in a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation housing market insight report which also found that non-residents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; defined as someone who

doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have their principal residence in Canada â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tend to own more expensive properties than residents, especially in Vancouver. Some of the other findings: 7.2 per cent of all Vancouver properties have at least one non-resident owner. Non-resident ownership is highest in

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Deenanath Mangeshkar Awards

604-566-3111

7233 - Fraser St., Vancouver, BC

Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratishthan, Pune, a registered public charitable trust established and exclusively nurtured over the last 30 years by the Mangeshkar family, felicitated legends as usual from the fields of music, drama, art and social work with the prestigious annual Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratishthan

contribution to Indian Cinema and the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Special Award to Helen for her contribution to Indian Cinema. The Vagvilasini Award was given to Vasant Abaji Dahake for Literature; the Mohan Wagh Award to Bhadrakali Productions “Soyare Sakal” for Best Drama of the Year and the Anandmayee Puraskar to Pandit

awards at the Shri Shanmukhanand Hall, Sion. Hon. Directorate-General, Vijay Kumar, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), presided over the function and the awards were given away by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. This year, the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Award for music and art has been conferred upon the well-known classical dancer, Smt. Sucheta Bhide-Chapekar; the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Lifetime award (Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar) to Salim Khan; the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Special Award to Madhur Bhandarkar for his

Suresh Talwalkar of Taalyogi Ashram for espousing a social cause. Vijaykumar was also honored on behalf of “Bharat Ke Veer,” an NGO that works for India’s bravehearts under the Ministry of Home Affairs. This time, the Deenanath Mangeshkar Pratishthan handed over a token of appreciation to honor the martyrs who have laid down their lives in line of duty in the terrorist attack at Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir, which had claimed the lives of over 40 CRPF soldiers. For the same cause, Lata Mangeshkar has donated Rs.1 crore in memory of her father, Master Deenanath Mangeshkar.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

New mortgage rules could depress housing by another 10% Three veteran Calgary police officers have been charged with kidnapping and assault after an investigation into a 2010 incident involving at-risk youth. Det. Reagan Hossack, who has been on the force for 18 years, has been charged with k i d n appi ng . Sgt. Mark Schwartz, who has 16 years on the force, and 25-yearmember Det. Paul Rubner have both been charged with kidnapping and assault. Police say the three members were part of the vice unit at the time. T h e y picked up a man on Jan. 20, 2010, who they believed had information related to an investigation into at-risk youth. Police believed that man

might have information on a young woman being sexually exploited. The officers are alleged to have driven the man around for about 20 minutes while assaulting him. That man died several months later in circumstances not related to the alleged assault. He did not make a report to police on the incident. Acting Supt. Don Coleman says he fully stands behind the officers involved and the process. “It’s not convictions, it’s charges, so these are allegations, and then we will support the process once the matter goes before the courts,” Coleman told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. “I know these officers personally. I have worked around them.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

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LOCAL / NATIONAL

Saturday, May 4, 2019

RCMP says’unfounded’ change by Stats Canada drives up crime numbers in Surrey Mounties say a significant increase in violent crime in the first quarter of 2019 in Surrey, B.C., is partly due to a new Statistics Canada reporting requirement, and the change is likely to affect police data across the country. The federal agency announced revisions to its Uniform Crime Reporting Survey last year, following national media attention and police reviews of the use of the “unfounded” designation for sexual assaults. The changes took effect Jan. 1 and mean that “founded” occurrences now include offences where there may be no evidence to substantiate that an incident

took place, but there is also no credible evidence to confirm it didn’t happen. Previously, offences that could not be substantiated with evidence were not included in a city’s crime statistics. Surrey RCMP say it’s too early to fully assess the impact of the changes on crime statistics, but its analysis shows that some crime types are impacted more than others including assaults, uttering threats and shoplifting. In the first quarter of 2019, total Criminal Code offences increased four per cent in Surrey compared with the first quarter of 2018, while violent crime jumped 43 per cent with notable increases in robberies, sexual offences and assaults.

NDP gov’t updates labour rules, scrapping Liberal measures New Democrat government has introduced changes to labour law that scrap measures from the previous Liberal regime and meet recommendations from the province’s top unions. Labour Minister Harry Bains said the proposed legal changes “supports our government’s commitment to update employment standards and ensure they are applied evenly and enforced.” The legislation would “broadly raise the age a child may work from 12 to 16,” according to Bains’ ministry, while allowing exemptions for 14 and 15 year olds to do light work like stocking shelves at a grocery store or working

on a family farm. Previously, children as young as 12 could work with special permission from parents and the government. Bains said there are examples of children as young as 12 in B.C. working in hazardous sectors like construction and mining, and that B.C. paid out $5.2 million in worker’s compensation for injuries to children under 15 from 2007 to 2017. The change will bring B.C. into line with international standards on child labour, said Bains. Exactly what duties 14 and 15 year olds can perform will be set by later cabinet regulations, but some examples included cleaning at restaurants, dish washing, and those type of duties.

B.C., along the Fraser River opposite Tilbury Island, which includes an estimated 200 privately held properties that have yet to be identified. The case, which was launched in 2014, is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Sept. 9.

Aerial gypsy moth spraying to begin this week in North Surrey Gypsy moths are native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and the European gypsy moth is well-established in eastern North America. The invasive moths started to appear in B.C. in 1911, but have not yet become established here. Gypsy moth caterpillars eat the leaves of about 300 varieties of trees and shrubs — including shade trees, ornamentals, and fruit and hazelnut trees — and damage the plants, causing stunted growth, deformities or plant death. A single caterpillar can eat up to 1,000 square centimetres of foliage in their lifetime, the equivalent of about 15 oak leaves. “If it got here it could be a huge economic problem for horticulture and agriculture,” said Tim Ebata, a forest health officer with the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, noting that trade with the U.S. could also be affected if the moth population is allowed to grow.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Families of Canadians killed in Boeing 737 Max 8 crash file lawsuit The families of Canadians killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash last month launched a collection of lawsuits against Boeing on Monday, alleging the plane manufacturer put profits over safety when it rushed a new aircraft model to market. All 157 people on board were killed when the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed on March 10. Eighteen of the victims were Canadian citizens, although several others were foreign nationals living in Canada. Lawyers in Chicago filed Monday’s suits in the U.S. on behalf of a Brampton, Ont., family that lost six members and a man who lost his Hamilton-based wife and three young children. “Blinded by its greed, Boeing haphazardly rushed the 737 Max 8 to market, with the knowledge and tacit approval of the United States Federal Aviation Administration while Boeing actively concealed the nature of the automated system defects,” the unproven claims alleged. “Numerous decisions by Boeing’s leadership substantially contributed to the subject crash and demonstrate Boeing’s conscious disregard for the lives of others.”

“We offer our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those onboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” spokesman Paul R. Bergman said in a statement. “Boeing continues to support the investigation, and is working with the authorities to evaluate new information as it becomes available.” Manant Vaidya, a Brampton man who lost his parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces, said his family had been travelling to Kenya for a safari vacation that they had spent years saving for. He said he was taking legal action to get answers. a couple of people that are looking at the camera “They all died together due to the insensitivity and greed of the maker of the plane,” Vaidya told a news conference in Chicago. “We still cry when we think of the horror of their last moments.” Paul Njoroge, who lost his entire immediate family, was also part of the legal action. His wife Carolyne Karanja, sevenyear old son Ryan, four-year-old daughter Kelly and nine-month old daughter Rubi died in the crash. Rubi was the only Canadian citizen in the family while Karanja

China’s death sentence for second Canadian ‘cruel and inhumane’: Freeland Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says that she is concerned about the “cruel and inhumane” death sentence China has issued to a Canadian involved in an international drug operation. According to The Associated Press, a court in China issued either death or life sentences to 11 people who were convicted for producing methamphetamine. The Canadian sentenced to death is the second Canadian this year to be given this sentence for drug-related charges, as diplomatic tensions remain strained. After Canada complied with a U.S. extradition request to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzho , China has retaliated, detaining two Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and has banned canola shipments from Canadian producers. Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks to media following a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Foreign Affairs

Minister Chrystia Freeland is applauding the bipartisan American political effort to support Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huawei’s chief financial officer. “We’re very concerned by this sentence. Canada stands firmly opposed to the use of the death penalty everywhere around the world. We think that this is a cruel and inhumane punishment which should not be used in any country,” Freeland told reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning. “We are obviously particularly concerned when it is applied to Canadians,” said Freeland. In a later comment to reporters, Freeland said that the current situation with China is very difficult and she is following the case closely. “I do want to say that we are very seized of the matter,” she said. On Monday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do more to push back on China, including appointing a new ambassador quickly and boosting help for farmers caught up in the spat.

LOCAL / NATIONAL

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No immediate plans to restrict energy exports to BC: Saskatchewan premier Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said his government will not reintroduce a bill that would restrict energy exports to British Columbia. Last spring, the government passed The Energy Export Act, which would establish a permitting process for individuals or corporations seeking to export energy products outside Saskatchewan. Sask. introduces ‘last resort’ legislation that would restrict energy products to B.C. The act had a sunset clause which has expired. Moe confirmed Wednesday the bill will not be re-introduced and voted on before the session breaks on May 16. “We don’t have plans at this point in time. Our message on this holds true. We won’t be filling up the fuel tanks if Alberta moves forward enacting their legislation,” Moe said. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s new UCP government proclaimed its so-called “turn off the taps” legislation into law on Tuesday. Bill 12, the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, was passed under the previous NDP government but never enacted into law. Premier Horgan pushes back against Alberta’s threat to turn off taps Moe said the impasse over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline project to the B.C. coast is behind Alberta’s action. “This is about access of getting that product to market, getting Western Canadian sustainable energy products to market,” Moe said. Moe backed away from joining the

new premier of Alberta in bringing his legislation back and said he is hopeful, “calmer heads will prevail.” On Wednesday, Kenney threatened to use his newly proclaimed law to prod B.C. into approving the Trans Mountain project. “The B.C. government is doing everything it can to block the expansion of the very pipeline that would get Alberta oil and gas to the gasoline-constrained lower mainland and beyond,” Kenney said. “This hurts ordinary families in British Columbia, this hurts Alberta.” Shortly after Kenney’s comments, lawyers for B.C. filed legal paperwork signaling plans to fight Alberta’s law on grounds that it’s unconstitutional. When asked if the Saskatchewan government would intervene in the court action, the premier’s office provided this statement: “The Government of Saskatchewan will closely examine the case that is brought forward on this matter. Our government will make a decision on a possible intervention if there is an argument to present that protects Saskatchewan’s economic interests while upholding the integrity of the Canadian constitution.” Last spring when Alberta and Saskatchewan introduced their respective bills, B.C. Attorney General David Eby called the acts unconstitutional. “We fill the bill that we introduced would hold the test of a legal challenge,” Moe said.

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LOCAL / NATIONAL

A look at the Canadian $10 banknote that has been named the best in the world A Canadian $10 bill has won the “Bank Note of the Year Award” for 2018 at an international competition. The International Bank Note Society (IBNS) announced that the bill, which features civil rights activist Viola Desmond, won the award for the best design, beating out 15 other banknotes from countries like Switzerland, Norway and Russia. The back of the note depicts the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Ms Desmond became the first female Canadian to be featured prominently on a banknote, reports BBC. The purple polymer bill, which was introduced in November 2018, is also the first vertically-oriented banknote issued in Canada, according to a press release by the Bank of Canada. In 1946, Ms Desmond, a Nova Scotia businesswoman, became a symbol of resistance in Canada’s early civil rights movement when she refused to leave the whitesonly area of a movie theatre.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Canada’s big banks launch Verified.Me network to help prevent ID theft Canada’s biggest banks marked the official launch of the Verified.Me digital identity network on Wednesday, following years of development and testing with their partner SecureKey Technologies Inc. The banks say they see Verified.Me as the beginning of a more secure Canadian identity ecosystem for a world where technology is making it easier for criminals to steal personal data and use it to create false identities. “We think solving this problem — about proving it’s me and making it harder for the bad guy to [pretend to] be me — is a problem of our age that we have to solve,” SecureKey chief executive Greg Wolfond said in an interview. The Toronto-based company is building on the success of its SecureKey Concierge service, in use since 2012, that allows consumers to use their banking credentials to gain easier online access to Canada Revenue Agency services. Verified.Me goes a step further by making it easier for individuals to provide proof of their identity, using the information they’ve already provided to their financial institutions. In essence, the Verified.Me smartphone app connects with participating financial institutions and removes many of the steps currentlyrequiredtoestablishaperson’sidentity. The platform also promises to give the users control over what information their banks will share with third parties that use Verified. Me to transact business with consumers. In the long run, that could include applying for a mortgage, renting an apartment or obtaining a driver’s licence. But only a limited number of financial products or services are

available through Verified.Me. “The current capabilities ... on Day 1 are registering their insurance with Sun Life, for example, and checking their credit score with Equifax,” said Greg Elcich, CIBC vice-president for enterprise innovation. “But this is about building out an ecosystem around identity. This service will save Canadians time with everyday tasks that they do ...That’s the real vision here.” CIBC, Desjardins, RBC, Scotiabank and TD said they’d have Verified.Me running effective Wednesday while BMO Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada said they will join the network in the near future. Equifax fell short of privacy obligations to Canadians, says privacy commissioner Investors in the Verified.Me consortium include the banks and the Desjardins co-operative, the Telus and Rogers communications companies, the Visa, Mastercard and Discover credit card businesses, and Intel, the semiconductor giant. “There are quite a few nuances to how Canadians are accessing digital properties and accessing financial services digitally [that were] a key aspect of the design of the platform and to ensure that it met client needs in the future,” said RamiThabet, RBC’s vice-president for digital products He said Canada’s financial institutions invest heavily in cybersecurity to protect consumer data and privacy. “This has been a core underpinning of the [Verified.Me] platform, where it’s been designed with privacy and security in mind from the get-go,” Thabet said. Unless it’s easier and more convenient than using your card, people will continue to use the same payment methods that they have today.

Buying electric car in Canada becomes cheaper as federal rebates kick in Federal rebates to encourage Canadians to buy electric cars take effect today. The rebates, announced in the last Liberal budget, will take up to $5,000 off the cost of electric vehicles, and $2,500 off plugin hybrids, but they apply only to cars that cost less than $45,000. Federal rebates to encourage Canadians to buy electric cars take effect today. The incentives are part of the federal government’s strategy to meet its international targets for reducing emissions to halt climate change. Federal rebates to encourage Canadians to buy electric cars take effect today. The incentives are part of the federal government’s strategy to meet its international targets for reducing emissions to halt climate change. Ottawa is raising that to $55,000 to increase the options a buyer can choose and still receive the rebate, which will allow some of the most popular cars, including the Tesla Model 3, to qualify. Nine electric cars and 13 plug-in hybrids are eligible, including the secondand third-most popular electric cars, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Bolt. Electric-car experts say there is no doubt government incentives help drive electric-car purchases, noting when the new conservative government in Ontario killed a $14,000 rebate last year, electriccar sales in that province plummeted. Road transportation accounts for as much as one-fifth of Canada’s greenhousegas emissions and the incentives are part of the federal government’s strategy

to meet its international targets for reducing emissions to halt climate change. Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, arrives at a Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources in Ottawa on Feb. 28, 2019. In the province’s first televised election campaign debate, Ball suggested Tory Ches Crosbie lacks the openness and honesty necessary to lead the province. N.L. leaders square off in first TV debate of provincial election The debate opened with the Liberal premier and Progressive Conservative leader pointing fingers at each other over past comments on health-care and the Muskrat Falls project. Premier Blaine Higgs speaks about the flooding in New Brunswick at a press conference in Fredericton on April 21, 2019. Higgs met with the federal finance minister Wednesday morning to discuss financial relief for homeowners affected by this year’s floods. The premier of New Brunswick said the amount of assistance has not been determined, but the government will provide advance funds to allow people to begin repairs right away. Bianca Wylie, chair of a group opposed to Sidewalk Labs’ plans for the east Toronto waterfront, speaks at a recent news conference at city hall. A leader of the group trying to block Sidewalk Labs’ Quayside project told the Star’s editorial board the Google affiliate is too large and shouldn’t be involved in the development of the waterfront.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Senate committee recommends Senator Lynn Beyak be suspended for racist lettters The Senate Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators Committee is recommending that Sen. Lynn Beyak be suspended without pay from the Senate for the remainder of this Parliament after refusing to remove racist letters about Indigenous people from her website. “Your committee finds Senator Beyak’s conduct wanting in several ways, including: her failure to recognize – or decision not to acknowledge – that the content of the letters in question is racist,” says the committee report released Tuesday. This does not mean she has been suspended. The Senate as a whole has to vote on this recommendation and the others made in the report before they are acted on. There are around eight weeks left before the end of this Parliament. If Beyak decides to speak to this report, the vote on her suspension can be taken immediately afterwards, but if she does not speak a vote can happen within five sitting days, and must happen within 15 sitting days, Sen. Peter Harder’s office confirmed. “Your committee is of the view that suspension is particularly appropriate

where the breach of the Code is such that the Senator whose conduct is at issue would benefit from time away from the Senate to gain further perspective,” the report states. It also references their “profound disappointment” with Beyak’s conduct, “which reflects negatively on her, all senators, and the Senate as a whole.” The recommended terms of her suspension include: not being reimbursed for any living or travel expenses; and that she not be able to claim any other services, telecommunications costs or benefits during her suspension. Though the committee is recommending that she be able to continue to access Senate resources in relation to life, health, and dental insurance. The committee comprised of Beyak’s peers made the recommendations after the Senate Ethics Officer found that Beyak broke the upper chamber’s code and did not act with dignity or integrity in posting these offensive letters. In addition to Beyak’s suspension, the committee is also recommending that: Unless she does it herself, Senate administration remove the five letters found to have racist content;

Jason Kenney cites ‘deep frustration’ as Alberta’s ‘turn off the taps’ law proclaimed Alberta Premier Jason Kenney confirmed in a PostMedia op-ed Tuesday that his government proclaimed Bill 12 (or the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act,) the so-called “turn off the taps” legislation, in its first cabinet meeting. “We will never be afraid to stand up for Alberta,” Kenney states in the op-ed, adding Albertans feel they’re being “blocked and pinned” at every turn and feeling “deep frustration.” Alberta’s previous NDP government first passed Bill 12 — legislation to direct truckers, pipeline companies and rail operators on how much product could be shipped and when — last spring. However,

the bill was not proclaimed or used. Kenney says while the law is now in force, it doesn’t mean that it will be immediately used — but that it can be deployed “should circumstances require.” “We did not proclaim this law to reduce energy shipments to B.C., but to have the power to protect Alberta’s ability to get full value for our resources should circumstances require,” the op-ed states. Kenney goes on to note the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has been approved by the federal cabinet and National Energy Board, subject to further Indigenous consultation. “Unfortunately, since coming into office in July 2017, the B.C. government has opposed the expansion

Trudeau government set to boost cash advances for farmers as canola crisis drags on The Trudeau government is expanding a federal loan guarantee program for farmers in response to Western Canada’s canola crisis — more than doubling the maximum amount of money available to individual producers. The federal government is set to announce at a news conference Wednesday morning a boost to the maximum amount available to individual farmers under the Advance Payments Program (APP), from $400,000 per year to $1 million. The news comes not long after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that help for canola farmers would be “coming out in a few days.” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr will announce details at a news conference on Parliament Hill at 9:30 a.m. ET and CBCNews.ca will carry it live. Under the former APP rules, producers could receive up to $400,000 per year in advances based on the value of their crops or livestock, with the federal government paying the interest on the first $100,000. Producers repay the advances after they sell their product. Cash advanced for most commodities has to be repaid in 18 months;

cattle and bison producers get 24 months to pay. Ottawa is changing the APP rules in response to market turmoil in the canola sector. China has blocked Canadian canola seed from Richardson International and Viterra, two of Canada’s biggest exporters, saying that shipments were contaminated with pests. Other China-bound shipments of Canadian canola have been cancelled, forcing exporters to sell the seed elsewhere at a discount. And Reuters reports more commodities are hitting inspection roadblocks at Chinese ports, leaving exporters to scramble for alternate markets. A woman and two young girls ride horses through a canola field near Cremona, Alta., Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Canadian politicians have insisted there is no basis for China’s pest claim. China’s move is widely seen as an act of retaliation over Canada’s decision to arrest Meng Wanzhou, an executive with the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, for extradition to the United States. “Canadians know, of course, as do people around the world, that Canadian food inspection and the quality of Canadian agriculture and produce is world-class, and the processes we have cannot be beaten anywhere in the world,” Trudeau told a media event Monday morning.

NATIONAL

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Rs 72,000 will be given to beneficiaries under NYAY scheme: says Rahul Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said if voted to power, Rs. 72,000 would be deposited in bank accounts of 5 crore people of the country within one year under the NYAY scheme. The amount will be given till a family earns Rs. 12,000 per month, he said. Addressing an election rally in Simdega, Jharkhand, which is a part of Khunti Lok Sabha constituency where voting will take place on May 6, the Congress chief blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for working only for 15-20 people. “Narendra Modiji has not fulfilled his promises of providing two crore jobs. He did not deposit Rs. 15 lakh in bank accounts of the people,” Mr Gandhi claimed. Appealing to the people to vote for Congress and Mahagathbandhan candidate Kalicharan Munda from Khunti, Mr Gandhi blamed PM Modi for not waiving off farm loans while Rs. 2,500 (the MSP) is being given

for rice in Chhatisgarh, ruled by the Congress. Mr Munda is facing the BJPs Arjun Munda from Khunti seat. The Congress chief said the poor were hit by the GST and asserted that the Congress is committed to save tribal land. “This alliance (Mahagathbandhan) has the voice of people. I have not come to speak our ‘maan ki baat’ but to listen to your ‘maan ki baat’ and whatever you will tell us we will do it,” Mr Gandhi said. Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on ndtv.com/ elections. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections. Election results will be out on May 23.

Indian army says it found yeti footprints in the Himalayas The Indian army says it has discovered footprints in the Himalayas that appear to belong to a yeti, known in the United States as bigfoot or the abominable snowman. Measuring 32 inches by 15 inches, the footprints were found near Mount Makalu base camp April 9, military officials posted on Twitter late Monday. A spokesman for the country’s defense ministry told NBC News on Tuesday that photographs taken by the army’s mountaineering expedition team had been

passed on to “the scientific community” for verification. The announcement, which referred to the yeti as a “mythical beast,” was met with mixed reaction online. Some noticed that the photos appeared to show the footprints in a straight line, one behind the other, similar to what might be expected from a model. Little known fact for all you doubters who say it was one-legged: yetis prefer to catwalk. #Yeti pic.twitter.com/TJ8kWGfR00 — Dhruva Jaishankar (@d_jaishankar) April 29, 2019

PM Modi’s Jharkhand rally postponed PM’s Poll Rally In Jharkhand Postponed By A Day Over Impending Cyclone His rally at Chaibasa in West Singhbhum district will now be held on May 6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally in Jharkhand’s Chaibasa on May 5 was shifted by a day over the impending impact of the approaching cyclone Fani, expected to hit neighbouring Odisha on Friday morning, a BJP leader said. PM Modi’s rally at Chaibasa in West Singhbhum district will now be held on May 6, said BJP’s Jharkhand unit spokesman Rajesh Kumar Shukla. He said the proposed rally of Uttar Pradesh

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur (East Singhbhum) listed on Friday has also been put off due to the cyclone. The new date for Mr Adityanath’s public meeting will be announced in a day or two, the spokesman said. He said there was no change in the scheduled programme of BJP president Amit Shah, who will address an election rally at Agrico on May 8. vA high alert has been issued in view of cyclone Fani in East Singhbhum district on May 3 and 4, official sources said. The district administration has declared closure of all private and government schools for two days starting tomorrow

India delivers mixed performance in Asian varsity rankings India’s universities delivered a mixed performance due to significant changes at individual institutions in the 2019 Asia University Rankings released in London on Thursday. The rankings, collated annually by ‘Times Higher Education’, found that the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) held on to its 29th rank as a total of 49 Indian institutions made the cut to be included in the list. The number of entries was up from 42 last year, making India the third most-represented nation after Japan and China. China also emerged as the Asian rankings leader for the first time this year, with its Tsinghua University pushing the National University of Singapore to second place. “India’s performance is mixed, with significant rises and falls for individual institutions,” notes the rankings analysis. “However, its flagship, the Indian Institute of Science, remains in 29th place, while the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, joins

the list at joint 50th,” it said. The analysis noted that India also had more new entrants (five) among the top 20 newcomers in the table than any other country except Japan (also five). The other Indian universities making the cut to be counted within this year’s elite 100 include IIT Bombay and Roorkee at joint 54th, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research (62), IIT Kharagpur (76), IIT Kanpur (82) and IIT Delhi (91). The “success story” of the Asian rankings, now in their seventh year, was classed as China, having overtaken Singapore to top the charts and claiming 72 positions overall–up from 63 last year. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong University and Peking University complete this year’s top five behind Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore in first and second place, respectively. “This year’s table shows that

Bengal CM says campaign against BJP similar to Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee invoked the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 to draw a parallel with the efforts by her party to dislodge the Narendra Modi government in the ongoing parliamentary polls. “Sepoy Mutiny was the first uprising against the British in India. Now the biggest threat and problem in the country is Narendra Modi,” she said at a rally in

support of MP Dinesh Trivedi, who is pitted against BJP’s Arjun Singh. The Sepoy Mutiny was an uprising against the British rule in India in 1857. “Sepoy Mutiny started from Barrackpore. You keep this in mind and vote,” she told the gathering at Bhatpara, which is under the Barrackpore parliamentary constituency.

Robots to patrol India borders soon Indian scientists have reportedly been working on all-terrain AI-enabled robots that might be used to patrol international border of the country. The Bengaluru-based Central Research Laboratory of defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is working on developing a prototype for such a robot by December this year, The Times of India reported. The BEL robot will be equipped with sensors and programmed to communicate with the control centre, the report said. In addition, it will also be able to work in situations like the recent Easter blasts across Sri Lanka while conducting surveillance, it further added. The primary objective of the border patrol robots will be to save the lives of security personnel deployed for border surveillance. The estimated cost of these robots will be in the range of Rs 70-80 lakh for small orders. This price tag could go a lot lower if the army places large orders, the report said. As of now, 80 scientists and engineers in

three AI-specific labs - CRLs in Bengaluru and Ghaziabad, and BEL Software Technology Centre (BSTC) in Bengaluru - are working on the AI-enabled patrol robots, the TOI report said. This number is expected to be increased to 100. While the team has already developed a rudimentary robot, work is going on to develop the next generation of robots with AI capabilities, the report said. The list of problems includes need for massive raw data that is needed for such products, which once gathered, could be used to customise algorithms to instruct the robot to perform very specific tasks, BEL CMD Gowthama MV said. The report said that the BEL is planning to conduct internal review of the first prototype by December first week. The user trials for the same might happen by February 2020. The BEL will also be ready with a few other AI-enabled products by the end of this year, however no specific requirements have been made by the armed forces, the report said.

PUNJAB

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Election Commission issues notice against Sidhu’s remark The Election Commission (EC) has issued a notice to Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The EC has asked Sidhu to furnish his response by Thursday in relation to his remarks against Modi at a rally in Ahmedabad on April 17. This is the second time that the EC has issued notice to Sidhu. In his speech in Ahmedabad, he had called the Prime Minister a “biggest liar” and a “thief ”. The EC in its notice said the speech in question was “examined in the commission and the statements were found to be in violation” of the provisions of the model

code of conduct.“Therefore, the Commission, after considering the available material and extant provisions of the model code of conduct and instructions on the matter, has decided to provide an opportunity to Sidhu to submit his explanation, if any, before 6 pm on Thursday,” the EC said. During the rally in Ahmedabad, Sidhu had launched a scathing attack on Modi. On an earlier occasion in Bihar, Sidhu had urged Muslims to vote unitedly to ensure Modi’s defeat and then the EC had banned him from campaigning for 72 hours over his controversial remarks.

Sunny Deol’s movie charisma vs Sunil Jakhar’s political experience The battlelines have been drawn between actor and BJP candidate Sunny Deol’s charisma and the experience of threetime MLA and sitting MP Sunil Jakhar with residents in every nook and corner of the constituency debating the political competence of both the candidates. Deol has yet to tour the area while Jakhar has already covered each of the nine Assembly segments in this constituency twice. A few seats have seen him touring more than thrice with Dera Baba Nanak being one of them. The actor, after spending some time here, is scheduled to tour Rajasthan in the next few days as the party’s star campaigner. This means he will not have much time to spend in his own backyard, a development that is rankling his election managers. Locals recount the actor’s speech on April 29, the day he filed his nomination papers. “It was full of filmy flavour and lacked depth and vision. Oneliners which the actor recites have become passé these days. What people want to see is development and how employment avenues will be generated,” said Cabinet minister and Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Rs 7-lakh bank robbery case cracked, 5 arrested The local police arrested five persons and cracked the 10-day-old Rs 7.27-lakh robbery at the Bamhna village branch in Samana of the Oriental Bank of Commerce. The police have nabbed five members of the robbers gang allegedly involved in the crime and claimed to have solved four other crimes committed by the gang. SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the robbers were arrested on a tip-off during police checking at a barrier near Lalochi village of the district. “We have recovered Rs 1.70 lakh, two countrymade pistols, 12 bullets, 30 mobile phones, sharp-edged weapon and fake registration number plates from the car in which they were travelling,” Sidhu added. The accused have been identified as Daljit Singh and Jagjit Singh Sonu from Sangrur, Prince Rao, Om Prakash and Deepak Kumar from Ludhiana. The police said three more accused involved in the robbery cases had been identified as Biraj, Ashok, and Hemant of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. They were yet to be nabbed. On April 20, five robbers, armed with pistols, had looted over Rs 7.27 lakh from the bank in broad

Conman was disguised as police DSP In an incident that raises questions on police functioning, a conman managed to don the uniform of a DSP and wield powers attached to the post for two years in Jalandhar district. A DSP deployed with the Jalandhar Rural police allegedly connived with him. The conman, identified as Mohit Arora (30) of Amritsar, is a school dropout and he managed to marry a sub-inspector, who is a qualified dental surgeon. The DSP, who is under the scanner for helping Mohit, was awarded President’s Police Medal and a commendation disc last year for his meritorious services. An SHO also reportedly helped Mohit in concealing his identity. The accused had been gifting costly presents to the said DSP for favours extended to him, it is learnt. Surprisingly, Mohit, who used the name Vikramjit Singh Mann to pose as DSP, would often visit the police headquarters and meet senior police officials. All this while, nobody got a whiff of his reality. It was only

after his wife got suspicious of his activities and informed the seniors, following which the Ropar police arrested him from a local bus stand in police uniform. The police recovered a fake identity card from his possession. Though the police remain tightlipped over the issue, the sources said Mohit noticed the woman SI at a naka near Maksudan police station in 2017 and decided to marry her. He came in contact with the above said DSP through a common friend. The DSP and an SHO reportedly helped him in convincing the woman SI that he was a DSP and finally, they got married 10 months ago. The DSP and the SHO even provided him gunmen and he would be seen issuing directions to the police personnel posted at nakas in the district, the sources said. The woman SI, who joined the police force about four years ago, is currently posted at Hoshiarpur. She is said to be in depression ever since she came to know about the reality.

INDIA

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Rare feat of 1,000 landings bu Air Force Captain Chhabra Group Captain Sandeep Singh Chhabra, an IL-76 pilot, has achieved the distinction of having completed 1,000 incident-free landings of the Russian-origin heavy lift aircraft at Leh and Thoise. He achieved the feat on April 30. Commissioned into the transport stream of the Indian Air Force on June 13, 1992, he initially flew the AN-32 in the narrow valleys and advanced landing grounds of North-East and Uttarakhand hills, primarily in para-drop and landing roles. Subsequently, he has flown the IL-78 Mid Air Refuellers and at present, he is posted to an IL78 squadron, according to an IAF statement.

All IAF’s IL-76 aircraft are operating with No. 44 Squadron based at Chandigarh Air Force Station. Capable of airlifting up to 45 tonnes of payload, these aircraft have played an instrumental role in ferrying men and equipment, including tanks, artillery guns and construction equipment to the northern sector. They have also airlifted large quantities of relief material during disaster management in cases of natural calamities and undertaken overseas missions. During this tenure, the officer has flown extensively in support of the Army in the northern sector, primarily to Leh and Thoise airfields.

Congress & BJP anti-Dalit, anti-OBC: Mayawati BSP chief Mayawati today accused the Congress and BJP of being anti-Dalit and anti-OBC. She said despite persistent demand of its Dalit supporters, the Congress did not bestow the Bharat Ratna on Bhim Rao Ambedkar and the BJP withdrew support from the then VP Singh government, which years later awarded the Bharat Ratna to Ambedkar and implemented the Mandal Commission report, giving quota to OBCs. Addressing a joint rally of the SP-BSPRLD mahagatbandhan at Daryabad, on the border of Barabanki (reserved) constituency, she also made an appeal to vote for the alliance candidates of Bahraich (reserved) seat as well as Ayodhya — all having candidates from the Samajwadi Party. Mayawati alleged that a disheartened Ambedkar had resigned from the Jawaharlal Nehru government for what she described as his belief that Dalits and OBCs were not getting their legal rights as

assured by the Constitution. She said when he contested the first parliamentary election in 1952 from his own organisation from Bombay, the Congress instead of helping him win unopposed pitched a candidate against him and misused the government machinery to ensure his defeat. She claimed that the number of invalid votes polled by Ambedkar was equal to the number of valid votes. The Congress is reported to be in the fight in all the three seats. Holding the BJP governments at the Centre and the state responsible for not filling the reserved positions of Dalits and OBCs, Mayawati said they had outsourced most vacancies to the private sector where reservation was not applicable. “Both the governments had similarly misused government agencies like CBI, ED, and income tax departments against their political opponents,” she said.

Man arrested for strangling woman to death The suspected lover of a woman, who was found dead in north Indian province Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district last month, had been arrested, police said on Thursday. Senior Superintendent of Police Sudhir Kumar claimed that the accused, Vikas, had confessed to killing Babita, whose body was found in a jungle at

Gadla village in Morna block on April 23. Vikas, who was arrested on Wednesday, and Babita, whose husband had passed away five years ago, had an affair. Babita apparently had been putting pressure on Vikas to marry her, following which he allegedly strangled her to death, the officer added.

19 Indian students kill themselves after controversial examination results Nineteen students have taken their own lives in the Indian state of Telangana since mid-April, after the release of intermediate examination results, officials say. Global rates of suicide death have fallen by a third since 1990, study finds. The state examination for 12th-graders has come under scrutiny. Hundreds of parents have protested the marking and evaluation of the test papers, which they say have resulted in students being awarded incorrect marks and, in many cases, failing the exams. Most university admissions are based on the examination. Some students have said that they appeared for exams but were marked absent or that they were awarded zero marks in specific subjects

that they completed. Parents have blamed both the state Board of Intermediate Education, which is responsible for the examinations and their evaluation, and the Telangana government. The board contracted the evaluation of mark sheets to an outside firm, Globarena, which could not be reached for comment. The suicide rate in the United States has seen sharp increases in recent years. Studies have shown that the risk of suicide declines sharply when people call the national suicide hotline: 1-800273-TALK. There is also a crisis text line. For crisis support in Spanish, call 1-888-6289454. The lines are staffed by a mix of paid professionals and unpaid volunteers trained in crisis and suicide intervention. The confidential environment, the 24-hour accessibility, a caller’s

Dismissed BSF jawan not allowed to stand against Modi Dismissed BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi was rejected by the poll authorities today. The former BSF constable had hit the headlines after his video on the alleged poor quality of food being served to the jawans had gone viral on social media. He was subsequently dismissed. Yadav was served notices on Tuesday by the Varanasi returning officer over “discrepancies” in the

two sets of nomination papers submitted by him. District Magistrate Surendra Singh said Yadav’s nomination was not accepted as he “could not furnish the required documents” in the stipulated time. Yadav said, “I had raised my voice about what I had felt was wrong when I was with the BSF. I decided to come to Benaras to assert that voice for justice. If there was a problem with my nomination, why did they not tell me when I had filed (my papers) as Independent.”

Saturday, May 4, 2019

SOUTH ASIA

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Cyclone Fani to slam eastern India A cyclone barreled into eastern India on Friday, damaging houses in the tourist town of Puri and wounding 160 people after a million people were moved into storm shelters. Trees were uprooted, power and telecom lines snapped as Tropical Cyclone Fani, the strongest storm to hit India in five years, swept ashore the eastern state of Odisha. Bangladesh, which lies further up the path of Tropical Cyclone Fani, ordered the evacuation of 2.1 million people before the storm arrives on Saturday. Indian government spokesman Sitanshu Kar said there were no reports of deaths but 160 people were believed injured. Bangladesh’s disaster minister Enamur Rahman said 56 thousand volunteers were racing to move millions out of the storm’s path. Fani spent days building up power in the northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal before it struck the coast of Odisha at around 8 a.m., the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Howling winds gusting up to 200 kph (124

mph) whipsawed trees, uprooting scores, and driving rain impacted visibility, while streets were deserted in the state capital Bhubaneswar and Puri. “Damage in Puri is extensive, power supply, telephone lines disrupted,” Odisha’s Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi told Reuters, referring to the seaside Hindu temple town that is popular with pilgrims and was directly in the storm’s path. Cyclone tracker Tropical Storm Risk put Fani as a powerful category four storm on a scale of one to five. The IMD said the storm was now weakening. Close to 60 km (37 miles) inland, winds brought down electricity poles in Bhubaneswar, where authorities had ordered the airport to stay closed. Schools and colleges in Odisha were also shut. A major hospital in the city suffered extensive structural damage but all patients and staff were safe, authorities said. People move past a damaged vehicle after Cyclone Fani hit Puri, in the eastern state of Odisha, India, May 3, 2019.

Masood Azhar declared global terrorist as China yields to international pressure Masood Azhar declared global terrorist as China yields to international pressure | India News - Times of India China relented after intense pressure from the US, UK and France and even smaller countries, including Indonesia, the most populous Islamic country in the world which chaired the UN Sanctions Committee that formally

made the designation, backing India, much to Pakistan’s embarrassment. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin said, “Big, small, all join together. Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist in @UN Sanctions list. Grateful to all for their support.”

US & Taliban resume talks as Kabul seeks role in the peace process American and Taliban officials resumed talks in Qatar on Wednesday aimed at ending a 17-year war in Afghanistan, while the Afghan government hosted a rare assembly in Kabul to ensure its interests are upheld in any peace deal. The Taliban issued a statement saying the U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, had met the Taliban’s political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is heading the Islamist militants’ delegation. “Views were exchanged about key aspects for a peaceful resolution of the Afghan issue,” its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. The talks are part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end America’s longest war, which began when U.S.-backed forces ousted the Taliban weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Since October, U.S. and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks aimed at ensuring a safe departure for U.S.

forces in return for a Taliban guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used by militants to threaten the rest of the world. “It is absolutely vital that the two key agenda points - full withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and preventing Afghanistan from harming others - be finalized,” Mujahid said. “This will open the way for resolving other aspects of the issue and we cannot enter into other topics before this,” he said. In this round, Khalilzad and his delegation are expected to focus on a declaration of a ceasefire as a first step to end the fighting, said a western diplomat in Kabul. An official working closely with Khalilzad said he is expected to encourage the insurgent group to engage in Afghan-to-Afghan talks to find a political settlement to end the war. , but Mujahid said the Afghan representatives were not allowed to attend the ongoing talks.

Thailand’s King marries his bodyguard, names her queen Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn has married a former flight attendant turned royal guard in a surprise ceremony and designated her Queen Suthida, just days before his own coronation. The king’s new bride was formerly the deputy head of his personal security detail, the Guardian reported. The surprise announcement came just ahead of Vajiralongkorn’s coronation was announced in the royal gazette. The report also carried footage from Wednesday’s wedding ceremony. The news of the royal wedding was later also shown in the royal news segment aired on all Thai television channels late Wednesday. Vajiralongkorn, 66, also known by the title King Rama X, became constitutional monarch after the death of his revered father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in October 2016. Bhumibol

had ruled for 70 years. Vajiralongkorn is scheduled to be officially crowned in elaborate Buddhist and Brahmin ceremonies on Saturday, followed by a procession through the capital. In 2014, Vajiralongkorn appointed Suthida Tidjai, a former flight attendant for Thai Airways, as a deputy commander of his bodyguard unit. Some royal observers and foreign media had linked Suthida romantically with the king, but the palace had previously never acknowledged any relationship, the Guardian report said. The king made Suthida a full general in the army in December 2016 and she has also been made a ‘thanpuying’, a royal title meaning lady. Vajiralongkorn has previously been married and divorced three times and has seven children. While the king took the throne after the death of

Hundreds of workers die from overwork following world’s biggest single-day elections in Indonesia Hundreds of election workers have died of overwork and almost 2,000 have fallen ill following the world’s biggest single-day elections, held in Indonesia earlier this month. Indonesian officials said over the weekend that at least 272 election officers had died since the April 17 vote, mostly from fatigue-related illnesses caused by the long hours they clocked counting millions of ballot papers by hand, Reuters reported. Arief Priyo Susanto, a spokesman for the country’s election commission (KPU), said Sunday that 1,878 election workers had fallen sick for similar reasons. Susanto said the government had urged health facilities to provide the best possible care to sickened election staff and had promised to adequately compensate the families of the deceased.

Electoral workers count ballots during the election at a polling station in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April... Indonesia’s elections were one of the most complicated single-day votes ever undertaken. For the first time in its history, the country chose for cost-cutting reasons to hold its presidential, parliamentary and local elections on the same day. About 245,000 candidates competed for more than 20,000 positions and an estimated 150 million Indonesians — or about 80 percent of the country’s eligible voters — flocked to more than 800,000 polling stations across the sprawling archipelago to cast their ballots. More than 6 million election workers were involved in counting ballots and monitoring the election. BBC said workers

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FIJI

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Teachers warned against corporal punishment Teachers have been reminded that they could lose their jobs if they use corporal punishment. Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Rosy Akbar reiterated this at the Fiji Teachers Association Annual Delegates Conference at the Yat Sen hall, this morning. Despite numerous warning to teachers, Minister Akbar said the Ministry continues to receive complaints from parents. “The Ministry receives complaint of corporal punishment, in which some cases we have to investigate and in many cases, this ends with a termination of the teacher’s contract,” she said. She also highlighted that lesson plans need to be reviewed to ensure that they are up to date as the world around us keeps developing.

“In preparing your lessons, please take time to reflect on students’ learning abilities and design learning activities that will make their lessons engaging and interesting,” she said. “Our teachers should connect learning with real life situations, to prepare students with the necessary skills for success. The school should be a source of pride to individual students, teachers and the community,” she said. She said dialogue is an important part of teachers’ role when it comes to dealing with children. “In addition to parents and the wider community, teachers often provide professional advice to parents.” “I am glad to confirm that we are taking steps to up skill those teachers interested in counselling as well as to provide professional counselling support to schools and teachers through Civil Society Organisations,” she added.

Human rights NGO condemns harassment of trade unionists by gov’t The NGO Coalition on Human Rights says they strongly condemn the harassment and arrests of trade unionists yesterday and stands in solidarity with the workers of Fiji. Chair Nalini Singh says workers and unionists should not be victimized or penalised for freely expressing their Freedom of Association and voicing their employment issues. Singh says it is shocking and disgraceful that instead of celebrating International Workers’ Rights Day, also known as International Labour Day on May 1, it was marked with the detainment of workers and unionists She says in the past few days,

union representatives were taken into custody and detained by police including workers from the Water Authority of Fiji adding workers from WAF raised issues and questions regarding their contracts and termination of employment but this culminated with the involvement of riot police and a series of arrests. Singh says this also occurred in light of a planned peaceful demonstration by the Fiji Trades Union Congress tomorrow to highlight workers’ issues including the national minimum wage, labour law reforms, the Right to Strike, Federated Airlines Staff Association issues and opposing the unilateral

Fiji-China trade hit $1.05 Billion last year The total two-way trade between Fiji and China reached its peak last year amounting to $1.05 Billion. This was revealed by the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Premila Kumar at the official launch of the Macau-Fiji Chamber of Commerce in China. Over the past five years, average exports to China totaled $108.6 million whilst imports averaged $742.7 million Minister Kumar said trade has always been an important factor in the bilateral relationship between Fiji and China. She said trade flows between Fiji and China have been

flourishing in recent years. “I noted that some Fijian products have already entered the Macau market. Fiji Water is a good example, which is available in many high-end hotels and casinos here,” she said. “Fiji, being a small island country, is not a supplier of mass products nor do we intend to become one. Fiji is a brand that is synonymous with quality, pristine environment and uniqueness.” “Fiji provides the opportunity to access a market of over 49 million people, as we are the hub that links to the rest of the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.”

196 immigrants granted Fijian citizenship in 2016 - Saumaka 196 immigrants were granted Fijian citizenship in 2016. Acting Deputy Director of Immigration Litia Saumaka says this includes immigrants from Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada, USA, India, UK, Korea, Samoa, Philippines, Bangladesh, Netherlands, France, Kiribati, Malaysia, Nauru, Sri Lanka. Acting Deputy Director of Immigration Litia Saumaka Saumaka says that these immigrants have

met the 5 years criteria prior to the lodgement and processing of their application. When the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence questioned her about the status of people coming illegally, Saumaka stated that it was being handled by the Fiji Police Force. Saumaka also highlighted the 2 citizenship criteria which all immigrants’ needs to have before ticking the box for their citizenship.

333 students graduate from FNU’s College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies 333 students who have graduated from FNU’s College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies have been told to be ready to face the music of the real world since challenges will not come on a daily basis but on an hourly basis. While speaking at the graduation ceremony, ANZ Fiji Country Head Saud Minam highlighted to the graduates that once they achieve their goal, it is important to maintain themselves at that

level. He told graduates that education is a lifetime process and every day is a learning process where new things will be learned. Meanwhile, FNU’s Chancellor Rajesh Chandra says that the certificates that the graduates have obtained today should mark a turning point in their life and lead to lifelong success and contribute to the collective success of the economy.

PAKISTAN

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Gov’t & Army indicate foreign hands in tribal unrest

Pakistan top civil and military leadership have indicated the involvement of foreign elements in trying to stir up trouble in the erstwhile tribal areas. Speaking at separate occasions on Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa both pointed out that external forces were at work to instigate unrest in the country’s north. Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Mohmand Dam, the prime minister asked each province to give up 3% of their share from the federal divisible pool for the development of the tribal districts as foreign elements were exploiting

the situation and inciting the youth there to violence. Foreign elements inciting tribal youth against state: PM Imran “I see a foreignfunded conspiracy under way to instigate the youth in tribal districts [against the state],” he maintained.

Pakistan plans to bring 30,000 madrasas under government control Pakistan plans to take control of a network of over 30,000 madrasas as part of a drive to “mainstream” the Islamic schools by bringing them under state control, the military’s spokesman said on Monday. Modernizing madrasa education is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation where religious schools are often blamed for radicalization of youngsters but are the only education

available to millions of poor children. Pakistan’s new government, facing pressure from global powers to act against militant groups carrying out attacks in India and Afghanistan, has vowed major reforms and Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised the South Asian nation will no longer tolerate such outfits operating on its territory. Critics of the madrasa education system say children who attend such schools, where

Terrorists attack along Afghan border, 2 soldiers killed, 7 injured Three soldiers were martyred and seven others injured when a group of 60 to 70 terrorists from the Afghan side of the border attacked Pakistan Army troops undertaking fencing efforts along the Pak-Afghan border in Alwara, North Waziristan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the ISPR, the troops effectively responded and repulsed the attack, killing

Pakistan says it will ‘immediately’ implement sanctions against Masood Azhar

Pakistan said it would “immediately enforce the sanctions” imposed by the UN on JeM chief Masood Azhar and agreed to his listing after all “political references”, including attempts to link him to the Pulwama attack, were removed from the proposal. In a major diplomatic win for India, the United Nations designated breakfast. Obviously you guys need some Pakistan-based Azhar as a “global terrorist” cultural training.....”, were the kind of response after China lifted its hold on a proposal by that flooded Pakistan International Airlines twitter handle. “Correcting your definition of home. Check pic: Aisa anda paratha chahye, woh bhi slightly crispy. Anda with a runny egg yolk so that I can dip my paratha in it. That’s the taste of home,” said one user. While another said: “That’s more British then you can get. No Halwa Puri ?” User after user rubbished it saying the platter was “a pathetic attempt at English breakfast”. Just when you start missing it, we serve you a taste of home! A dash of salt and little bit of pepper, we tantalize your taste buds with our delicious meal to welcome the glorious morning!

We ‘Want halwa-poori’, PIA passengers say no to the‘Foreign breakfast’ PIA (Pakistan Internation Airline) learnt lesson just how seriously airline meals are taken by the passengers, following a backlash after its advert, bearing photo of cheese omelette, beans and sausages, promised that the airline’s breakfast will “serve you a taste of home”. Though not known to be the tastiest of meals, the passengers still take these on board platters to heart. PIA ad said: “Just when you start missing it, we serve you a taste of home! A dash of salt and little bit of pepper, we tantalise your taste buds with our delicious meal to welcome the glorious morning! #PIA #BreakfastWithPIA.” The backlash was immediate with people pointing out that the meal wasn’t even a little bit Pakistani: “You guys really need to sort yourselves out.....’taste of home’ we need.Come on whom did sausages and beans sound like a traditional Pakistani

He said the youth could be moulded in any direction if their deprivation and marginalisation did not end. “Hence, it is upon us to support them.” In an interaction with university students at the Corps Auditorium Peshawar, the army chief said a

and injuring scores of terrorists. The three Pakistan Army soldiers — Lance Naik Ali, Lance Naik Nazeer and Sepoy Imdadullah — were martyred in the exchange of fire and seven others were injured. “While Pakistan security forces are solidifying border security through fencing and construction of forts to deny liberty of action to the terrorists, Afghan Security Forces and the authorities

few individuals were pursuing a foreign agenda and exploiting the sentiments of terror victims. “The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement [PTM] itself isn’t an issue. The issues being highlighted are genuine and natural in the post-operation environment,” the ISPR quoted the COAS as saying. “However, a few individuals playing in foreign hands.

the US, the UK and France to blacklist him. The US, the UK and France had moved the proposal to designate Azhar as a “global terrorist” in the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee in February just days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack carried out by the JeM in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan says will immediately enforce sanctions on Masood Azhar as UN

NRI

Saturday, May 4, 2019

3 NRIs & 1 Indian Killed in Cincinnati An Indian national and three persons of Indian-origin have been killed in Cincinnati, USA, the matter is being investigated by US police, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said. However, Sushma Swaraj ruled out the possibility of a hate crime. “Indian Ambassador in United States @IndianEmbassyUS has informed me about the killing of four persons in Cincinnati on Sunday evening,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “One of them was an Indian national on a visit to US while others were persons of

Indian origin,” she added. The matter is under investigation by police, but it is not a hate crime, Ms Swaraj said. “Our Consul General in New York is coordinating with the concerned authorities and will keep me informed me on this,” she said. Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on ndtv.com/elections. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections. Election results will be out on May 23.

NRI charged with kidnapping after driving away with 2 children in USA Police officers observed the stolen vehicle fleeing the scene and chased Dalvir Singh, who was then taken into custody and charged. A 24-year-old Indian man has been charged with kidnapping, assault and theft after he drove off in an elderly woman’s car from outside a medical centre in the US with her grandchildren inside the vehicle. Dalvir Singh, a heroin addict, was taken into custody and charged with two counts of kidnapping, felonious assault for dragging Nita Coburn, 69 and grand theft, Middletown Division of Police said in a statement. Coburn was injured when as she tried to stop Singh as the kids jumped out of the car. The police is also hailing Coburn’s 8-year old grandson Chance as a hero for saving his 10-year old sister’’s life by pulling

her out of the car as Singh took off in it. Chance Blue and his sister were waiting in the backseat of their great grand-mother’s car when a man jumped in and tried to speed off. The Middletown Police said that on the evening of April 25, it received a call that a car with children inside had been stolen at a medical center in Middletown, Ohio and that an elderly lady was injured. Coburn had taken another woman to the hospital and her two grandchildren were with her in the back seat. When they got to the emergency room, she pulled up close to the door and was helping the other woman into the emergency room. About 10 seconds after she got out of the car, Singh jumped into the driver’s seat and took off with the children still in the back.

Teenage boy dies from allergic reaction after being hit by a slice of cheese thrown by his school mate Teenage boy who threw cheese at schoolmate who subsequently died tells inquest “I didn’t know it would kill him.” Karanbir Singh Cheema (pictured), known as Karan, suffered serious allergic reaction to the cheese slice at his school in Greenford, West London, just before midday on June 28, 2017. The 13-year-old was severely allergic to wheat, gluten, all dairy products, eggs and nuts and he was also asthmatic and suffered from atopic eczema. Giving evidence behind a screen during the inquest into Karan’s death on Wednesday, one of two boys then aged 13 and now aged 15, who cannot be named, said he knew Karan was allergic to bread but was unaware of his dairy allergy. Speaking at Poplar Coroners’ Court, where the inquest took place, he said: “I thought maybe he would get a fever or a rash and miss school for a while... I didn’t know it could lead to death.” He said he “flicked” the cheese at Karan from about a foot away and that he “didn’t know he was allergic.” He added: “I think it landed on the left side of his neck. When asked why he had flicked the cheese he responded that it was “usual behaviour in year eight”. William Perkin C of E High School where Karan went into anaphylactic shock William Perkin C of E High School where Karan went into anaphylactic shock. Karan went into anaphylactic shock at around 11.30am at William Perkin Church of England High

School. Staff administered two spoons of piriton, an EpiPen and gave Karan his inhaler but shortly after paramedics arrived Karan stopped breathing. Paramedics were told over the phone that it was “just an allergic reaction” but when they arrived Karan was “gasping for air” and had broken out in hives. Karan, described as “so bright he could have been anything he wanted”, was brought to Great Ormond Street Hospital but died ten days later on July 9 with his family by his side. The second boy who handed the classmate the cheese claimed although he knew Karan had a dairy allergy, he didn’t know cheese was dairy. He said: “At the time I didn’t know dairy was cheese - milk and yoghurt, I would say that was dairy. “I knew he was allergic to some things, dairy and pollen. “I knew he probably had more (allergies), but I was only informed of the other ones.” Addressing the family the boy said: “I just want to say that I didn’t mean any harm - I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did.” A statement from Karan’s mother Rina was also read. She said her son was “diligent” about his allergies and skin condition and was in good health the morning he died. Mrs Cheema also said the school had a full report on all Karan’s conditions. When she arrived at the hospital she was told by a consultant that it was unlikely that skin contact with food could cause someone to go into anaphylactic shock.

Indian & Pakistani professionals win right to settle case in UK Court

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Three Indians including one from Hyderabad and one Pakistani were refused their Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. The four Asians appealed at the UK court. They won their appeal in the UK Court of Appeal against the British government’s decision to reject their right to settle in the country over a controversial national security clause. The four applicants, three of whom are Indian and one Pakistani who had been refused their Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK under a skilled visa category over perceived dishonesty

in reporting their earnings to the UK’s tax department. Their case had been clubbed together for the purpose of the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, which ruled against UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid and found his approach was “legally flawed” to apply Paragraph 322(5) of the immigration rules related to conduct and character. “It is a big relief but it has been a very long and difficult journey,” said Ashish Balajigari, from Hyderabad. His application for ILR must now be reassessed after the court found that he had not been given “an opportunity to make

Half of 11.7 lakh international students from China and India Indian and Chinese electorate made up nearly part of the overall 11.7 lakh international students within the United States as of March 2019. Other than the large numbers, although, students from the two nations proportion little in not unusual, teachers sensible. Those from India dominated grasp’s courses while a larger percentage of Chinese students had enrolled for bachelor’s degrees. Collectively, the selection of “energetic” students from those nations, at five.8 lakh, comprised 49.five% of the overall international students who hang an F visa or an M visa for educational and vocational research, respectively. The information used to be released recently in its raw shape via the United States department of fatherland security (DHS) and used to be in response to SEVIS figures. SEVIS or the scholar and change customer data system (SEVIS) is the database that the DHS makes use of to care for and arrange data on international students. Nearly 75% or 1.6 lakh of the overall 2 lakh energetic students from India had enrolled in grasp’s courses.

Of those, 11% were learning for a bachelor’s stage and 10% were pursuing a doctorate. While the raw information does not dissect the numbers into study streams, various different research and anecdotal references indicate that a important selection of students from India opt for the science, generation, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) flow. Typically, international students do seek to work within the host nation for no less than a few years. For those that aspire to work in the United States, although, acquiring an H-1B work visa is challenging. Merely 85,000 such visas are issued every year with 20,000 reserved under the grasp’s cap. Plus, the choice process involves a lottery. For the monetary 2019-20 season, a hit H-1B candidates would be accredited to work in the United States from October on the earliest. The recently introduced lottery reversal mechanism, used to be implemented for the first time, this season. This means, USCIS first conducted the choice strategy of all H-1B cap programs. Then, it conducted a spread for those eligible for the masters’ cap.

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