www.theasianstar.com Vol 20 - Issue 8
Covid-19 surging in BC as province reports 800 new cases in one day New Covid-19 cases continue to climb in British Columbia, where the province announced 800 new cases on Thursday along with five more deaths. It’s the highest single-day total since Dec. 2, and pushed the seven-day rolling average for new cases to 674. Continued on page 6
Protesters call on Jagmeet Singh to denounce hatred towards Hindu-Canadians Hindu-Canadians from Burnaby are calling on federal NDP Leader and Burnaby MP Jagmeet Singh to be more vocal in denouncing hatred directed towards them in the wake of the Indian farmers’ protests. So far, they are disappointed by the MP’s response. On March 11, a group of concerned HinduCanadians plastered “missing” signs over Singh’s constituency office in Burnaby. This was the fourth action taken by the group over the last month. They had paid the office three visits before asking each time for the MP to specifically denounce the harassment Hindu-Canadians have faced in recent months. Sushil Nagar, one of the group’s members provided examples of the kind of harassment perpetrated against Hindus. These include vandalism, fake negative reviews Continued on page 8
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Brothers killed in Richmond had drug trade history One of two brothers found dead inside a burning Richmond house early Friday was supposed to be sentenced next month on trafficking charges in Langley from two years ago. Chaten Singh Dhindsa, 25, was arrested and charged in February 2020, but released on bail shortly afterward, according to the online court database. He was convicted last November and was scheduled to be sentenced April 13 in Surrey Provincial Court.
Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said the anti-gang agency is “analyzing the associations of these individuals in order to mitigate and suppress any potential retaliatory conflict that may occur as a direct result of these gang-related homicides.” Chaten Dhindsa was also convicted of three counts of trafficking, as well as possession Continued on page 6
Apple faces Indian engineer’s bias lawsuit over her heritage Apple Inc. lost an early round in a discrimination lawsuit brought in the U.S. by a female engineer from India who says her two managers, one from her country, the other from Pakistan treated her as they would in their own countries, as a subservient. The woman’s case in California state court is the latest to allege workplace bias in Silicon Valley that focuses on cultural prejudices of some tech workers from South Asia. Cisco Systems Inc. is fighting a suit brought by California’s civil rights agency alleging bias against a member of India’s so-called lower
castes, known as Dalits. Anita Nariani Schulze is part of the Sindhi minority -- she is Hindu, with ancestry in the Sindh region of what is now Pakistan. Her complaint alleges that her senior and direct managers, both male, consistently excluded her from meetings while inviting her male counterparts, criticized her, micromanaged her work, and deprived her of bonuses, despite positive performance evaluations and significant team contributions.
CBSA arrests South Asian man in $1million gold smuggling case The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced that a two-year investigation has led to the conviction of a Toronto man, and corporation, for smuggling gold jewelry into Canada. “This successful prosecution highlights the tireless work and great investigative efforts of both CBSA border services officers and our
BC to offer early Covid-19 vaccines to people with serious health conditions Hundreds of thousands of BC residents who are considered “clinically extremely vulnerable,” or CEV, will be able to book their Covid-19 vaccine appointments staring Monday, March 29. The B.C. government says that approximately 200,000 residents over the age of 16 are considered CEV, including people managing certain types of cancers, people with severe respiratory conditions, and people with rare blood diseases. Anyone who is considered extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 will be contacted
Tel:604-591-5423
through a letter in the mail with information on how to book a Covid-19 appointment starting next week. If you believe you are extremely vulnerable and do not receive an information letter by April 15, health officials say you should call your regional health authority or check the province’s online vaccine registration system, which is slated to launch on April 6. People who fall under the CEV category are asked to bring their information letter to their vaccination appointment to confirm their status. Continued on page 3
criminal investigations team,” a statement from Lisa Janes, CBSA regional director general, Greater Toronto Area Region, reads. “The discovery of this [jewelry] smuggling scheme demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the integrity of Canada’s border laws and economy.” Back in early 2018, border Continued on page 7
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RCMP lays charges against BC couple in alleged Ponzi scheme BC to offer early Covid-19 vaccines to people with serious health conditions From page 1 Anyone who is considered extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 will be contacted through a letter in the mail with information on how to book a Covid-19 appointment starting next week. If you believe you are extremely vulnerable and do not receive an information letter by April 15, health officials say you should call your regional health authority or check the province’s online vaccine registration system, which is slated to launch on April 6. People who fall under the CEV category are asked to bring their information letter to their vaccination appointment to confirm their status. To book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, people who are clinically extremely vulnerable will still have to call their regional health
authority. Contact information for each health authority can be found here. HowdoIgetthecoronavirusvaccineinB.C.? “B.C. has made tremendous progress on our age-based vaccine program,” said Health Minister Adrian in a statement Tuesday. “Now, we are able to expand to those people who are at increased risk from COVID-19 due to underlying medical conditions or various medical treatments,” he said. The province says that physicians, care providers and international data helped define what B.C.’s current CEV list is. A full list defining who a clinically extremely vulnerable person is in B.C. can be found on the provincial government’s website here. Health officials say that the CEV vaccine distribution program will run parallel to the province’s age-based approach, which is currently focusing on seniors.
RCMP have laid charges in what they say was a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme operating out of Calgary and Bragg Creek. Husband and wife Brian Kitts, 65, and Shannon Kitts, 55, of Summerland, B.C., are each charged with fraud over $5,000; theft over $5,000, and laundering the proceeds of crime. The couple — who were arrested in Summerland — are to appear in Calgary Provincial Court on April 12. According to RCMP — which launched a criminal investigation following a referral from the Alberta Securities Commission — the Kitts were operating companies named Vesta Capcorp Inc. and Vesta Equity Partners when they lived in Bowness and later Bragg Creek. The companies — pitched to investors as real estate financing firms — were actually a Ponzi scheme, RCMP allege. The scheme resulted in the loss of $2 million of the more than $5.5 million invested by various investors between February 2014 and September 2016, according to RCMP. The investigation was conducted by the Alberta RCMP Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET), a specialized unit under the RCMP federal policing program that detects,
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investigates and deters market fraud. The IMET unit works closely with the Alberta Securities Commission to protect investors and enhance confidence in Canada’s capital markets. The investigation was also carried out in collaboration with the Forensic Accounting Management Group, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada, Public Prosecution Service of Canada and Specialized Prosecutions of the Province of Alberta, the ASC, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2019, Brian Kitts and Vesta Capcorp were sanctioned by the Alberta Securities Commission, which concluded Kitts was running a “Ponzi-like scheme.” Kitts was ordered to pay a $600,000 penalty (plus $150,000 to cover the costs of the investigation and hearing) in relation to the fraud. The ASC panel that made the decision ruled that Kitts engaged in “fraudulent misconduct” by misrepresenting to investors how their funds would be used, diverting funds to unidentified businesses not within investors’ reasonable expectations, and using investors’ capital to repay principal and pay imaginary profits to investors.
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OPINION
By Andrew Pickford and Jeffrey Collins Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Saturday, March 27, 2021
When will Canada start to stand up to China?
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden joined his Japanese, Indian, and Australian counterparts at the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (or Quad) summit. This informal grouping remains the most powerful collection of countries focused on confronting the security, economic, and geostrategic challenges posed
by China. Canada may not have been there but there is finally a growing realization across political parties and wider society that China’s actions necessitate that we stand up and stand together. Under Xi Jinping, China has global superpower ambitions that involve undermining the international order founded by the U.S., Canada and other allies after the Second World
War. International institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO) are to be co-opted, while international laws and norms governing the law of the sea in places like the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea are to be ignored. Moreover, any foreign government that gets in the way of China’s interests quickly becomes roadkill under Beijing’s economic and (increasingly) military might. Canada has already gotten a taste of Xi’s medicine with the kidnapping of citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in December 2018 following the detention on a U.S. extradition request of Meng Wanzhou, deputy chair and CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, days earlier. The years since have seen import bans on canola, restrictions on Maritime lobster, and the clandestine seizure of at least 100 tons of personal protective equipment in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, to name a few. Any attempt to create a coherent strategy against Beijing’s bullying has been undermined by the quixotic belief that a unique mix of Trudeau familial history, international star power, and Laurentian business connections would lead to a blossoming in relations between Canada and China. Unfortunately, this proved to be a flimsy foundation for engagement with a China that was more authoritarian, protectionist and aggressive than the last time the Liberals were in power in the early 2000s. It’s up to civil society to push against this visionless approach from Ottawa. In a recent study published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute last October, we argued that Canada follow the example of its Commonwealth cousin and Quad member, Australia, and take a stand against China’s bullying and human rights violations. This contribution is one of many such calls for Canada to move off the sidelines. These efforts, combined with a growing awareness of China’s belligerence in the wake of the Kovrig and Spavor kidnappings, have led to a shift in public opinion. In June, four-out-of-five Canadians expressed a belief that Ottawa must speak up about China’s human rights abuses. A similar number believe we should be even more bullish, specifically on issues of our national values. Only seven per cent have an even moderately positive view of the PRC regime. Acting on this groundswell, the House of Commons voted unanimously (notwithstanding abstentions and the conspicuous absence of virtually all of the Trudeau cabinet) to support a non-binding motion labelling Beijing’s mistreatment of its Uyghur and other ethnic Turkic Muslims as genocide. This multiparty support was a significant change and an important juncture. Even former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose government in its later years in power oversaw the introduction of a foreign investment agreement with China, has warned that Beijing is now a “competitive rival” against Western interests.
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BC records deadliest February yet for illicit drug overdose deaths Another record death toll for overdoses in British Columbia shows this isn’t just a big-city problem and it must be addressed in every community in the province, Premier John Horgan said Wednesday. The BC Coroners Service reported the province’s deadliest February yet for illicit drug overdoses with 155 lives lost last month.It’s the 11th consecutive month in which B.C. has recorded more than 100 fatalities, says chief coroner Lisa Lapointe in a news release. She says the number of deaths highlights the
ongoing critical risk to public health and safety from the illicit drug market.The latest overdose statistics sparked debate in the legislature, with the Opposition Liberals demanding the government take vigorous action in next month’s budget to address mental health and addiction services. “The loss of 155 lives in February represents a 107 per cent increase over the same month in 2020,” said interim Liberal Leader Shirley Bond.
2 men charged after woman’s burned body found in Burnaby Homicide investigators say two people have been charged with first-degree murder and indignity to human remains after a grisly discovery in a Burnaby park last week. The accused, a 21-year-old man named Carlo Tobias and a 15-year-old minor who police cannot name, are charged with killing 49-year-old Ma Cecilia Loreto, whose body was found burned in Greentree Village Park early in the morning on March 18. Sgt. Frank Jang, a spokesperson for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, told reporters Wednesday that police believe Loreto was killed at her home in New Westminster earlier in the evening on March 17. Police were called to the park around 1 a.m. that night, where they found her burned body. The discovery left residents in the neighbourhood on edge, concerned that the violent crime that had occurred in their local
park might mean they too were unsafe. Jang said neighbours’ concerns were “valid,” but that the investigation so far indicates that the crime was an isolated incident and does not pose an ongoing threat to the public. “We believe that this was not a random incident,” Jang said. “This was not gang-related. This was not drug-related. This was not a random incident. From what we can tell from the investigation, we believe that everybody knew each other. The two accused and our victim, Ma Cecilia, knew each other.” Asked what the relationship between the three individuals was, Jang said he could not share that information in order to avoid inadvertently identifying the accused youth. Information about their relationship will come out in court, assuming there is a trial, he said.
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From page 1
the purpose of trafficking, after a 2015 CFSEU investigation. He was sentenced in August 2017 to five months in jail and a 10-year firearms prohibition. At the time, CFSEU said the probe targeted those suspected of being linked to a number of titfor-tat shootings in Surrey and Delta. Even those wounded by gunfire were refusing
Brothers killed in Richmond had drug trade history to cooperate with police, and were making flippant comments like “the bullets fell from the sky.” CFSEU referred to Dhindsa and the others arrested as low-level drug traffickers who were operating a dial-a-dope line. Two houses were searched and cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, $7,000 cash and several vehicles were seized. Dhindsa and five others were also
arrested in December 2015 after a Surrey man told police he was assaulted, threatened and held against his will. Dhindsa lured the man to a location in Surrey where the others then beat him “with fists and weapons resulting in injury to his face, neck, shoulders and back,” a B.C. Supreme Court ruling said. He later pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm
and was sentenced in July 2018 to 229 days in jail and another 10-year firearms ban. His younger brother Joben has no charges nor convictions in B.C. But he did file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court in January 2021 against a one-time co-accused of his brother for injuries Joben said he sustained in an accident while driving with the man in December 2018. The house where the Dhindsas were killed is owned by another Richmond resident, according to land title records. The owner could not be reached for comment. The double-murder is the first of brothers on the Lower Mainland since Oct. 19, 2007, when Michael and Corey Lal were gunned down with four others by Red Scorpion killers in the Surrey Six slayings. In October 2017, Scorpion gangster brothers Randy and Gary Kang were targeted in a Surrey shooting. Randy died and Gary was injured. Then on Jan. 6, 2021, Gary Kang was shot to death inside his parents’ South Surrey home as part of the same gang conflict that led to the Dhindsas’ deaths.
Covid-19 surging in BC From page 1
In a written statement, health officials said 264 of the new cases were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 381 were in the Fraser Health region, 45 were in the Island Health region, 50 were in the Interior Health region and 58 were in the Northern Health region. Active cases also climbed again to 5,856, while the number of people isolating due to exposure reached just under 10,000. B.C. identified another 191 new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern, for a total of 1,772. Two-hundred and fifteen of those cases remained active. Since last Thursday, the total number of cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., have grown by 50 per cent, while the number of cases of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil have more than tripled. “The bottom line with the
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From page 1
Saturday, March 27, 2021 CBSA arrests South Asian man in $1million in gold smuggling case From page 1
border officers at Toronto Pearson International Airport seized a “large quantity” of jewelry from a traveller, which prompted an investigation by the Greater Toronto Area Region Criminal Investigations Section. It was determined that the jewelry was the result of a smuggling operation. In July 2018, a link to another traveller was determined, who also attempted to smuggle jewelry into Canada. “In October 2018, as a result of evidence obtained through further investigation, CBSA criminal investigators determined that Lovely Gold Inc. and its director, Rahu Sinnathamby of Scarborough, schemed to enlist travellers to bring gold
jewellery, such as earrings and bracelets, to Canada,” the information from CBSA explains. “Lovely Gold Inc. and Sinnathamby paid for the airline tickets of the travellers and directed them to not declare the jewellery to the CBSA. The investigation resulted in the discovery that Lovely Gold Inc. and Sinnathamby were responsible for smuggling jewellery into Canada over a period of 17 months.” On March 1, Lovely Gold Inc. and Sinnathamby pleaded guilty to two counts each of evasion of duties, with a total criminal fine for the four charges equalling $760,000.00. The individual and the corporation must pay an additional $246,614.40 in regulatory penalties.
‘The Execution of Bhagat Singh’ The time for execution was unusual. It was not at dawn but at 7.30 p.m. in the cool, crisp evening of23 March 1931, just as twilight was setting in. This was when the Chief Superintendent of Central Lahore Jail, Major P. D. Chopra, escorted a lean, sinewy young man of twentythree years to the raised scaffold in the grounds of the jail. Looking on, a bewildered Deputy Jail Superintendent, Khan Sahib Mohammad Akbar Khan, struggled in vain to choke back his tears. The lush green trees outside the jail swayed in the gentle wind. Bhagat Singh was the condemned man. The most famous man in India. He grasped at the rope as it was brought near. Despite the deprivations of prison life, his face was still handsome. Undaunted and undeterred by the fate that awaited him, his hands dug deep into the fibrous strands of the braided, twisted piles of yarn which were about to extinguish his life. Bhagat Singh kissed the hangman’s noose. It was an occasion he had longed for, waited upon, and even planned. Calmly, assuredly, and with a wry smile on his face, he took a quick glance sideways in both directions. He then airily placed the noose around his neck. Before he knew it, the noose drew in and fastened tight around his throat. The trapdoor fell open under his feet. His body cascaded. The plunge snapped his neck in two. Bhagat Singh was hanged. Two of his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru, met with a similar fate at the same time in what became known as the Lahore Conspiracy Case. They too went to their deaths defiantly. All three had requested that they be executed by firing squad due to their status as political prisoners, and not hanged by the neck as common criminals; this had gone unheeded. Bhagat Singh had walked in the middle, with Sukhdev on his left and Rajguru on his right. It was not too difficult to see why they felt so elated, because as they had walked the path to the gallows Bhagat Singh sang out a verse. The other two joined in: ‘Dil se niklegi na marker bhi watan ki ulfat / Meri mittee se bhi Khushbue watan aegi’ (‘When we are dead there would be still patriotism left in us / Even my corpse will emit the fragrance of my motherland’). On the scaffold, Sukhdev and Rajguru also kissed the hangman’s noose. They too tumbled down the trapdoor with a heavy thud, dying instantly. It was all over so quickly. Afterwards, their bodies were hurriedly taken down from the gallows. They were dragged along the dirty passageway, chopped into pieces and stuffed into sacks, which were then whisked out of the jail compound surreptitiously. Outside the jail, the remains were unceremoniously stacked on a truck. The truck made haste, speeding northwards from Lahore to Kasur, some two hours’ drive away. There, on the banks of the River Sutlej, two holy men awaited. The harried men, dressed in full priestly garb, clutched their prayer books for solace. One was Sikh and the other Hindu. The priests read out the final prayers over the dismembered bodies, which were quickly loaded onto a funeral pyre to burn fiercely in the eerie silence of the night. Before the pyre had fully burnt out, and as dawn threatened to break over the silent waters of the Sutlej, the roaring fires were hastily put out. The charred remains were then hurled into the river. The precise spot was to be later identified as Post No. 201.
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Saturday, March 27, 2021 From page 1
Protesters call on Jagmeet Singh to denounce hatred
left on Hindu-owned businesses, physical attacks and death threats made via phone calls and social media. The farm bills initiated by India’s parliament in September 2020 have been controversial, sparking mass protests across India by farmers who see the bills as a threat to their livelihoods. But Nagar says the attacks go much deeper than the bills. Nagar and other IndoCanadian organizations are looking to counter incendiary narratives related to the protests as they allege the agenda has largely been hijacked in Canada. As Nagar alleges, the farmers’ protests present a platform for anti-Indian government sympathizers to spread their views against the current Hindu government in India. Similarly, Nagar says some people are using the position to spread hate against anyone not
against the Indian government. Nagar says that, over social media, Canadian-Hindus have been called “Nazis”, “cow piss drinkers”, “Modi’s dogs”, idol worshippers, demons and anti-farmers. “Whenever this Indian government is trying to do things for people, [pro-farmer supporters] are always framing it as an anti-human rights kind of thing. We are really bothered by it because this is framing Hindus in a bad light,” Nagar said. “This leads to a lot of negativity on social media; outside, kids are getting bullied in school, people are getting bullied in the workplace, on social media.” On Feb. 28, confrontations between pro-India protests and counter-protests turned violent during a car rally in Brampton, Ontario. Physical and verbal clashes resulted in Jagmeet Singh’s brother-in-law Jodhveer Dhaliwal being charged with assault causing bodily harm.
Why Pakistan wants peace with India? and Modi prefers it over war as well The first reaction among informed Indians to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s 13-minute speech at the Islamabad Security Dialogue last Thursday would be a yawn. All he’s saying is, India and Pakistan should bury the past, make a new beginning, they have a shared stake in peace so they can focus on their economies, and so on. Isn’t this what every Pakistani leader, elected or not, has said at some point of time? Then they stab you in the back. So, what’s new?To borrow and twist that phrase from the disclaimers in mutual fund advertisements, if the past is the only guide to future performance, there is no point talking about Pakistan. Just buy more sniper rifles and sit on the LoC. So, how do we break the deadlock? Bombing them to the Stone Age isn’t the answer. We know that after Kargil, Op
Parakram and Pulwama/Balakot. Even toughtalking US security-diplomat Richard Armitage, who famously used this threat to make Pakistan fall in line after 9/11, knew it was just hyperbole. In the 20 years since, the US has bombed large parts of Afghanistan to the Stone Age several times over. But it is the Americans who are retreating in defeat.Militarily, diplomatically, politically or economically, achieving anything by force is out of the question. As former Army chief General V.P. Malik said in a conversation with me earlier this month on ThePrint’s ‘Off The Cuff ’, it isn’t possible today to achieve any of our territorial objectives, PoK or Aksai Chin, by military force. Besides the capability question, any such adventure would immediately run into global disapproval and force a ceasefire earlier than you can advance a few miles.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Covid-19 might have been in Canada earlier than when it was first identified: expert he novel coronavirus might have reached Canada weeks before the first official case was diagnosed in late January of 2020, says an expert who tracks pandemics. Prof. Sarah Otto of the University of British Columbia said it is possible there were infections of COVID-19 a month or two before the first official case. A traveller could have returned to Canada and was just getting over the illness or was sick and didn’t go out while they were infectious, she said. Reconstructing early travel patterns of those carrying COVID-19 around the world might lead to better policies before pandemics take hold, said Otto, who is an expert on the mathematical models of pandemic growth and control
in the university’s zoology department. “I don’t think that we had any cases that then sparked community spread,” she said. Researchers have developed a phylogenetic or family tree of the COVID-19 strains from around the world to determine when the virus was in the community, she said. They analyzed over 700,000 sequences of its genome from positive cases since it was first found in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. “If you trace this family tree, you can go back to the ancestor and figure out when it first arrived in humans,” she said in a recent interview. “And that family tree kind of funnels together into one place in time, and that is around the end of 2019.”
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Saturday, March 27, 2021 As Covid-19 cases surged, Indian police shut down scam centres targeting Canadians. Now, they’re back An explosion of Covid-19 cases last summer ripped through the Mumbai suburb of Malad West with such devastation, Indian police poured in to lock down the busy streets and the low-rise office towers that cram them. In doing so, officers inadvertently disrupted scam calls targeting Canadians by shutting off the flow of fraudsters who work inside call centres across the area. But that’s all ended now. When strict lockdowns abated in the mega-city, the hunger of criminal syndicates for the millions they successfully steal outweighed any ongoing public health fears. “There are six to seven centres [within] 80 to 100 metres,” Jayesh Dubey explained to CBC Marketplace via video conference under
the cover of night from within the business quarter. And in one night, they’ll steal “$70,000 to $80,000.” The bank inspector scam was responsible for at least $3 million reported stolen from Canadians in 2020, says the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. For months, Dubey, a whistleblower within the scam centre industry, has been observing the “hundreds of workers” pouring into entire floors of buildings. He says that in the early days of the pandemic, scam centres were shut down. But now they’re back in full swing, with scammers posing as tax officials and bank employees, convincing unsuspecting Canadians to pay up or risk serious consequences.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
British Columbians in for a big adjustment with Aboriginal title settlement, lawyer says British Columbians are in for a big shock when ownership of large parts of the province switches from the Crown to First Nations, says Aboriginal rights and title lawyer Jack Woodward. Woodward, who acts on behalf of First Nations in court, believes it’s going to be a big adjustment but that’s going to be a good thing for the province. “Over the next generation, we’re going to see a replacement of ownership of large parts of the province,” Woodward said during a one-hour presentation hosted by the Campbell River Mirror on Zoom March 18 entitled Understanding Indigenous Rights and Title in Canada. The shift in ownership will be from what is normally called Crown ownership to Indigenous ownership, “Not for the entire province but…for fairly large chunks of it,” he said. The public was invited to listen into a conversation between Woodward and Binny Paul, the Campbell River Mirror’s Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Woodward is currently representing the Nuchatlaht First Nation, which has received a trial date of March 15, 2022 from the B.C. Supreme Court to proceed with its Aboriginal land title case. The Nuchatlaht case is significant as it could pave the way for other First Nations in B.C. First Nation’s historic land title case The Nuchatlaht case is a direct application of the precedent-setting 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision, where the Supreme Court of Canada granted declaration of aboriginal title to more than 1,700 square kilometres of land in the Interior of
British Columbia to the First Nation. Woodward was the lawyer for Tsilhqot’in Nation too. In his March 18 presentation, Woodward said the change in ownership of large chunks of land in B.C. from Crown – or public – ownership to Indigenous ownership means that the land will be under local control. It won’t be under the control of distant capitals – like Victoria and Ottawa – nor foreign corporate head offices. “Unfortunately, the history of British Columbia has been a history of resource giveaways so that now much of the forests of British Columbia are actually owned by corporations that are owned by foreigners,” Woodward said, “so the province doesn’t belong to British Columbia now anyway.” But you can expect that to change and it’s going to be a “big shock and a big surprise and a big adjustment for the system to get used to,” Woodward said. “There’s going to be a different landlord,” he said. “It’s going to be a local landlord, not a foreign landlord.” Two conditions lead Woodward to the belief that that will be a good thing for the province: a traditional respect for land and the environment in First Nations culture and a legal obligation to protect it. Traditionally speaking, you might say that First Nations are more likely to be better stewards of the land than in the present system where you have governments in Ottawa and Victoria that are somewhat remote from the local territory.
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Saturday, March 27, 2021
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LOCAL / NATIONAL
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Langley woman nominated for Women of Distinction Award A Langley business woman has been nominated for an award for moving the needle on diversity in Canadian boardrooms. YWCA Metro Vancouver has announced Alyssa Barry as a nominee in the category of “Business & the Professions” for its 38th annual Women of Distinction Awards. YWCA is a 125-year-old organization striving to achieve women’s equality. Barry serves as the head of strategy, operations and communications at Artis REIT, a real estate investment trust company. “Alyssa is an expert at fostering relationships with Canada’s top leaders, identifying and recruiting them as potential board members,” YWCA said. “She has contributed extensively
to strengthening corporate governance in Canada by speaking at conferences and on podcasts about the importance of director independence, diversity and sound corporate governance.” Barry also serves on the advisory council for Women Get on Board’s mentorship program and has been an active member of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute, and Women in Capital Markets and has participated in many other programs and forums that have enabled her to give back to her profession. The YWCA Women of Distinction Awards honour individuals and organizations who contribute to the well-being and future of the community. The Women of Distinction Awards is also the YWCA’s signature fundraising event.
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Canada’s carbon pricing is constitutional, Supreme Court rules n a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the federal Liberal government’s carbon pricing regime is constitutional — a major decision that allows Ottawa to push ahead with its ambitious plan to ensure every province and territory has a price on carbon to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Some provinces — notably Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan — have forcefully opposed the carbon tax, arguing natural resources are in the provinces’ jurisdiction under the Constitution. Chief Justice Richard Wagner, writing for the majority, said the federal government is free to impose minimum pricing standards because the threat of climate change is so great that it demands a co-ordinated national approach. He agreed with the federal government’s argument that climate change is a pressing matter of national concern and said it’s constitutionally
permissible for Ottawa to take the lead on a threat that crosses provincial boundaries. “Climate change is real. It is caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, and it poses a grave threat to humanity’s future,” Wagner wrote. Wagner found that Ottawa can act under the Constitution’s “peace, order and good government” clause, better known as POGG — which gives the federal government authority to enact laws to deal with issues that concern the entire country. Ottawa has tried to justify constitutionally questionable laws in the past by citing the POGG clause. It has succeeded in few of those cases because the Supreme Court tends to defer to the division of powers set out in sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867. In this case, Wagner said, invoking POGG is justified.
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LOCAL / NATIONAL Canadian housing boom raises concern, with homes selling far above asking prices
The US may be experiencing its biggest housing boom in decades, but one country has been outpacing its peers in home-price growth: Canada. Just like in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and elsewhere, Canada is experiencing a housing craze fed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the demand for more space, rock-bottom interest rates, and demographics, with millennials moving into their prime-buying years. Yet Canada has seen a more dramatic price run-up than all Group of Seven countries. According to housing data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, nominal house prices in Canada rose at an annual rate of about 16% in the fourth quarter from the previous three-month period, outpacing the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere.
While in the U.S. there are few concerns about a bubble or a 2008-style crash, that’s not the case in Canada, where some analysts and economists worry about real estate’s outsize role in the country’s economy that could be exposed in the next downturn. Canadian housing as a share of gross domestic product was 9.3% as of the fourth quarter of 2020, up from 7.5% a year earlier and from 6.6% a decade ago. In the U.S., housing is 4.6% of GDP, and the U.S. level at the height of its housing boom reached only 6.7%, according to data from BMO Capital Markets. In addition, starting in the third quarter of last year for the first time since data were collected in the 1960s, Canadian investment in real estate outstripped business investment in nonresidential structures, machinery and equipment as a share of GDP.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
New Pattullo bridge will be completed in 2023 Crews have officially begun working on the early stages of the Pattullo Bridge Replacement project, scheduled for completion in 2023. The project is managed by Acciona Infrastructure Canada and Aecon Group Inc., and expected to cost $1.377-billion. The renderings convey that the new cablesuspension bridge will have four lanes in total, and they expect to open the new crossing in 2023. As many have noticed, the original 80-yearold bridge has been in dire need of a makeover. Not only is the bridge old, but it is no longer able to accommodate the number of daily crossings. For this reason, the lanes on the bridge are being built 10% wider and will therefore accommodate heavier traffic. In addition, the bridge will be built with the possibility to expand into six lanes. The new bridge will be located just north and upstream of the existing bridge, and will provide: t " TBGFS DSPTTJOH XJUI XJEFS MBOFT BOE B centre median that separates traffic travelling in opposite directions. t .PEFSO MBOF XJEUIT UP JODSFBTF DBQBDJUZ on the bridge by 10%.
This is what the new pattullo bridge will look like, once completed in 2023.
t *NQSPWFE DPNNVOJUZ DPOOFDUJPOT JO /FX Westminster and Surrey. t 4FQBSBUF QFEFTUSJBO BOE DZDMJTU QBUIT The crossing is part of the Major Road Network, serving primarily as a connection between Surrey, New Westminster and Burnaby. As a result, it is a critical transportation link for the movement of people, goods, and services. To facilitate the new bridge there will be a realignment and extension of Scott Road creating a direct connection to King George Boulevard. In addition, the bridge will connect with the westbound lanes of Highway 17.
Mass vaccination centres set to open in South Surrey, Cloverdale and Delta Five mass COVID-19 vaccination centres – including ones in South Surrey, Cloverdale and North Delta – are being opened by Fraser Health, and are to be available to book appointments by the end of the month. Vaccination centres at the South Surrey Recreation Centre (14601 20 Ave.) and Cloverdale Recreation Centre (6188 176 St.) – as well as locations in Coquitlam and Chilliwack – will be accepting appointments on March 29, while the North Delta site, at the North Delta Recreation Centre (11415 84 Ave.) begins its booking process today (March 23).
Press release
A testing and immunization centre at the South Surrey Park and Ride – with vaccinations done by drive-through appointment only – is already open. According to a Fraser Health news release issued Tuesday, the new clinics “will support our current immunization plans and will remain open through phases three and four as we work to immunize our communities over the coming months.” For a full list of current clinics – as well as whether they are in operation yet or not – visit www.fraserhealth.ca/vaccineclinic. To book an appointment, use Fraser Health’s online booking tool (https://fraser-health-staff-vaccinations. myhealthinfo.ca) or call 1-855-755-2455.
Tegart advocates for greater supports for students struggling under COVID
BC Liberal MLA for Fraser-Nicola and Opposition Critic for Education Jackie Tegart is calling for greater supports for teachers, staff, and students as well as more government oversight on the quality of education
B.C. students are currently receiving. Tegart cited the personal experiences of many students and families, who are currently struggling under reduced instructional hours in the current model implemented by the Vancouver School Board with a lack of direction or intervention from government.
Lee speaks to need for continued effort to combat racism in BC Press release
BC Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Langara Michael Lee addressed the stark increase in hate crimes and overt acts of racism in B.C. over the past year, stressing the need for greater education and awareness to collectively fight racism in our society. He highlighted examples of systemic and
While money is going into real estate, economists point out that houses don’t produce the goods and services to meet domestic and
institutional racism in B.C’s history, the impacts of which are still felt today. During his speech in the Legislature, Lee highlighted the need to continue to work to be vigilant in addressing bias and racism in our institutions and in our communities and to find ways to foster greater empathy toward others.
NATIONAL
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Laid-off tourism and hospitality workers to fill non-clinical roles in vaccination clinics More than 1,400 tourism and hospitality workers laid off due to the pandemic are being enlisted by the province to work in non-clinical roles in mass vaccination centres across B.C. Premier John Horgan said during a news conference Wednesday that the initiative will provide hundreds of temporary positions for people who lost their jobs in B.C.’s hard-hit tourism and sport sectors. Businesses and community groups — including the Vancouver Canucks, the Vancouver Giants, Tourism Whistler, the PNE and Canada’s two major airlines — have already begun to call and train hundreds of staff who will work in non-clinical, logistical roles at immunization centres to help move
people through the clinics efficiently and safely. “B.C. depends on our vibrant tourism sector and it’s been decimated,” Horgan said. “Many of the tourism operators, many of the companies like the Giants and Canucks who depend on people in seats and are not going to have people in seats, understand that the sooner we work together to get our communities fully vaccinated, the sooner B.C. and Canada and the world can begin to interact again.” Other community partners for the vaccination program include Air Canada, WestJet, the B.C. Pavilion Corp., Ceres Terminals Marine, Pacific Destinations Services, the Canadian Red Cross, the Fraser Valley Bandits and the Vancouver airport.
Elderly Asian woman who fought back against attacker donates $1 million raised to charity Xiao Zhen Xie, a 75-year-old Asian woman, was standing at an intersection last Wednesday when a white man ran up and, without provocation, allegedly punched her in the face. In the week that followed the attack, nearly US$1 million has been donated to help Xie with her medical expenses, but she isn’t keeping it. In an update to the GoFundMe page set up for Xie, her grandson wrote that she insists on donating the money to combat anti-Asian racism. Since that announcement, hundreds more people have continued to give to the page. “She said we must not (submit) to racism and we must fight to the death if necessary,” wrote Xie’s grandson, John Chen, on Tuesday. “She insists on making this decision, saying this issue is bigger than her.” On Thursday morning alone, over 100 people gave their money to Xie’s fund. “Thank your grandma for shining (a) beautiful
light to guide us all to a place beyond hatred, brutishness, and the worst of the human race,” wrote one person with their donation on Thursday. “I was going to donate anyway because she tore that guy up. She stopped him from hurting anyone else. But then when I saw she wanted to donate the money to a cause rather than keeping it, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer,” wrote another. Xie was attacked on Market St. in San Francisco, the morning after six Asian women were killed by a gunman in the Atlanta area. The 75-year-old had been waiting to cross the street when she was suddenly hit by the man. She picked up a wooden plank and hit him right back. A video of the aftermath of the incident, posted to twitter, shows Xie holding an ice pack up to her bloody eye, clearly distraught, while the man is on a stretcher.
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Feds watching housing markets ‘very closely’ as CMHC warns of vulnerabilities The Canadian government says it is watching housing markets closely after a CMHC report released on Thursday indicated that the market on a national scale was becoming increasingly vulnerable to economic shocks. “We are of course watching housing markets across the country very, very closely and carefully,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in a press conference. Feds watching housing markets ‘very closely’ as CMHC warns of vulnerabilities “We are very aware, also, of the challenges that many Canadians face — particularly young Canadians — in buying a home,” she said. “So it’s something that we’re looking at carefully.” Rapid price hikes across alreadyovervalued cities in Ontario and Eastern Canada have played a large role pushing those markets into vulnerable territory, according to the housing agency’s fourth quarter assessment. “It’s clear that the pace of house price growth that we’ve seen is not sustainable,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist.
“Compare February 2021 to February 2020, house prices across Canada are up 25 per cent.” In Toronto, price acceleration plus a
simultaneous increase in rental vacancies caused the CMHC to deem the city as highly vulnerable when, in the third quarter, it received a moderately vulnerable score.
Canada receiving 1.5M Covid-19 vaccine doses from USA next week: Fortin The dose-sharing deal with the United States has been finalized, and those 1.5 million shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine are set to arrive next week, Maj.Gen. Dany Fortin announced Thursday. Nearing the end of the first quarter and factoring in the scheduled deliveries for next week, Canada is on track to hit and possibly considerably exceed the total target of eight million COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered by the end of March, depending when next week these U.S. doses land. “Public Service and Procurement Canada has recently negotiated the delivery of 1.5 million doses from the U.S., expected to
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arrive in Canada in the next week. When we have a confirmed delivery date to Canada, this quantity will be added to the quarterly distribution goal of vaccine doses,” Fortin said. As part of the agreement, Canada is expected to have to return the favour by sending the U.S. back 1.5 million doses in the coming months, though with the vaccine rollout in that country well underway U.S. President Joe Biden is expecting to have enough supply for all eligible adults by the end of May, whereas Canada continues to hold on to an end-of-September timeline for wrapping up the mass immunization effort.
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Saturday, March 27, 2021
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Say you ask someone who looks different from you where they’re really from. Your intention might not be hateful. But the question is still racist. It says you see them as an outsider. Racism can be unintentional, which is why we all need to be intentional about being anti-racist.
Learn more at antiracist.gov.bc.ca
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Saturday, March 27, 2021 Supreme Court says Mumbai police commissioner’s plea against home minister is serious but ‘let High Court deal with this’ The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to entertain former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s petition in which he had sought a CBI probe into what he described as “various corrupt malpractices” by Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said the contentions raised in Singh’s petition are serious in nature and affect the public at large, but observed that high court was the appropriate forum to file such a petition. The court gave Singh liberty to move a fresh plea before the Bombay High Court. In a writ petition filed under Article 32, 1988-batch IPS officer had asked the top court to quash the state government order that removed him as the Mumbai Police commissioner and posted him as Director General (Home Guards). “The petitioner has invoked writ jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court to seek unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair investigation in the corrupt malpractices of Shri Anil
Deshmukh, the Hon’ble Home Minister of Government of Maharashtra, before the evidences are destroyed,” stated Singh’s petition. Singh’s lawyer, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, urged the bench to hear the matter “of some serious proportions”. He said the scandal had rocked the entire country, with a senior woman police officer Tuesday supporting Singh’s allegations. “The officer has said that the minister has been taking money for effecting police transfer,” Rohatgi added. According to him, the transfer of Singh and other officers is in violation of the Supreme Court verdict in the Prakash Singh case that prohibits transfer of senior officers without completing two years’ tenure. “It can only be done when a police officer is facing an inquiry,” Rohatgi said. Justice Kaul commented that no state was following the guidelines laid down in the Prakash Singh case. “States do not want to give up the control over their police,” the judge said.
Sadhguru storms Twitter to free Tamil Nadu temples from government control Spiritual leader Sadhguru launched a ‘100 tweets’ Twitter campaign on Wednesday to bring people’s attention to the dilapidated condition of temples in Tamil Nadu. Soon after, several people tweeted in support of the ‘Free Tamil Nadu’s Temples’ campaign. In a strong statement to the political parties and the government in the state, Sadhguru said in his tweet: “#FreeTNTemples a Movement born of deep Anguish. Today I am putting 100 tweets, not to browbeat anybody, but just out of deep pain. Anguished cry of the community must be heard.” Due to the unfortunate legacy that the
East India Company left us with, the Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu continue to be in the control of the government. This has led to the deterioration and suffocation of glorious Tamil traditions. The HR&CE (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department), which holds 44,121 temples in the state, told the Madras High Court that 11,999 temples have no revenue to perform even one daily puja. The heart-wrenching tweets featured pictures and videos sent in by devotees from all over Tamil Nadu, documenting the neglect and dilapidation of what were once magnificent citadels of Tamil ethos.
Justice NV Ramana: From a student leader to next Chief Jusitice From a student leader who fought for civil liberties during the nationwide Emergency in 1975 while sacrificing an academic year to taking over as the 48th chief justice of India next month, justice NV Ramana has had a remarkable journey. Born into a humble family of agriculturalists in Ponnavaram village of Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, justice Ramana was asked by his father in June 1975 to pack an extra change of clothes after he presided over a public meeting against the Emergency. “My father was convinced that I will be arrested,” justice Ramana recounted his experience at an event in the national capital
in January when he added that he had no regrets losing a year of college when he saw so many young people sacrifice their lives for the sake of human rights. Before he joined a law college in 1980, justice Ramana worked as a journalist for a regional newspaper for two years. He was enrolled at the Bar in 1983. As a lawyer, he practised in the Andhra Pradesh high court, central administrative tribunal, the AP state administrative tribunal, and the Supreme Court in civil, criminal, constitutional, labour, service and election matters, with specialisation in constitutional, criminal, service and inter-state river laws.
HC orders Delhi govt to pay nearly Rs 900 crore to MCDs by end of March The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the state government to release the remaining amounts due to the three civic bodies towards their Basic Tax Assignment (BTA) on the basis of revised estimates presented in the budget for the year 2021-22, within the current financial year. A bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli said that the amount, which is nearly ₹900 crore, is one of the major and important
sources of revenue for the corporations. It said that this contribution by the Delhi government to the corporations is used to meet the expenditures towards the salaries and other expenses on a day-to-day basis. “….we direct the Delhi government to release in the financial year the remaining amount due towards BTA to the three corporation on basis of revised estimates presented in budget for year 2021-22,” the court said.
Mumbai records 5,000 new Covid-19 cases in one day Mumbai reported its highest-ever singleday spike with over 5,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time since the pandemic outbreak. With 5,185 new COVID-19 cases, the city’s total tally increased to 3,74,611, according to the health bulletin. While 2,088 people have recovered from the disease, six people succumbed to the virus
in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate of Mumbai city is 90% while the overall growth rate of Covid cases stands at 0.79%. Total recovered cases in the city stand at 3,31,322 and the death toll is 11,606. Mumbai has 30,760 active cases. In addition to that, the active containment zones in the financial capital of the country stand at 39 and a total of 432 buildings are sealed.
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INDIA
Saturday, March 27, 2021
India reports ‘double mutant’ coronavirus variant as daily deaths reach record high A new and potentially troublesome variant of the coronavirus has been detected in India, as have variants first detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, health officials said Wednesday. Health Ministry officials and experts, however, cautioned against linking the variants with an ongoing surge in new infections in India. Cases in India had been plummeting since September and life was returning to normal. But cases began spiking last month and more than 47,000 new infections were detected in the past 24 hours, along with 275 deaths — the highest one-day death toll in more than four months. The virus has been mutating throughout the pandemic. Most mutations are trivial, but scientists have been investigating which
variations might make the virus spread more easily or make people sicker. The three variants first detected in South Africa, Britain and Brazil are considered the most worrisome and have been designated “variants of concern.” The three variants were found in seven per cent of the nearly 11,000 samples that India sequenced since Dec. 30. The most widespread of these was the more contagious variant that was detected in the U.K. last year. The new variant found in India has two mutations in the spike protein that the virus uses to fasten itself to cells, said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, the director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, one of the 10 research institutes sequencing the virus.
Rajya Sabha okays Delhi Bill amid opposition’s uproar The Rajya Sabha cleared the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, through a voice vote in the absence of Opposition members, who staged a walkout in protest against the government not heeding to their demand of referring the Bill to the select committee for scrutiny and wider consultations.
The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill. “This government is rigid and is pressing ahead with the Bill. Hence, we are walking out,” Leader of the Opposition in the House Mallikarjun Kharge said after the discussion on the Bill was completed. Earlier, the House witnessed heated exchanges between Opposition and ruling party members.
India’s ambassador to USA urges shipbuilding industry in India fully utilise bilateral instruments A top Indian diplomat has urged the shipbuilding industry in India and the US to fully utilise the strategic trade authorisation licence exemption granted by Washington to New Delhi, as well as the bilateral Industrial Security Annex Agreement.
Speaking at a webinar, India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said shipyards in India today make some of the most complex ships and submarines. However, for some of the core technologies, India looks up to its friends like the US. The United States
Shiv Sena alleges collusion between BJP and some Maharashtra officials Stating that the BJP’s “key motive” is to create instability in Maharashtra by imposing President’s Rule, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday alleged “collusion” between the BJP and some officials with an aim to weaken the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The Sena also referred to the “phone tapping episode” and the disappointment expressed by Sanjay Pandey, a DG rank officer, that he was sidelined to claim the collusion. On Tuesday, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed that he had 6.3 GB data of telephone calls intercepted by then Commissioner of Intelligence Rashmi Shukla in which names of several key police officers figured. He also met Union Home Secretary in Delhi and demanded a CBI probe into “corruption” in police transfers in Maharashtra.
‘What about Sanjiv Bhatt case,’ Sena asks BJP amid Param Bir row As former Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh approached the Supreme Court over corruption allegations against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and his alleged “malicious” transfer in the backdrop of the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday, 24 March, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was working in cahoots with certain senior officers in the state in order to destabilise the state government. Training guns at the Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh state governments, the Sena asked why similar allegations against law makers and home ministries in the BJP-ruled states were not being raised and probed. “As far as Pandey and Singh conveyed their feelings via a letter, it was alright. But they made sure that the letters reach the media and that doubts are cast on the credibility of the government,” the editorial
India records highest daily spike in Covid-19 cases this year: Gov’t India recorded its highest daily tally of coronavirus cases this year with 28,903 new infections, taking the total COVID-19 tally to 1,14,38,734, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated. The number of deaths increased to 1,59,044 with 188 new fatalities, the highest in around two months, the data updated at 8 am showed. Registering an increase for the seventh day in a row, the total active caseload has increased to 2,34,406 which now comprises 2.05 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 96.56 per cent, the data stated. As many as 30,254 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on December 13. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,10,45,284, while the case fatality rate has dropped to 1.39 per cent, the data stated.
FIJI
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Punjab Chief Minister orders mass transfers of school teachers in Punjab Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh ordered mass transfers of school teachers in line with the Teachers Transfer Policy-2019. Digitally with touch of a button, Chief Minister cleared the transfers of 10,099 teachers and volunteers to the station of their choice on merit basis. Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla was also present on the occasion. A total of 35,386 online applications were received from aspiring teachers and
volunteers, of whom 15,481 were found ineligible as they fell short of the prescribed parameters of the policy. The remaining 19,905 were found eligible for transfer. For the first time, computer teachers and various categories of education volunteers were brought into the ambit of the Teachers Transfer Policy. The Chief Minister said the transfer policy had been instrumental in successfully achieving the goal of quality education through filling
Several injured as bus falls into drain near Faridkot Several people, including students, were injured as a bus carrying them from Ferozepur to Faridkot fell into a drain on Thursday morning. The accident took place following a tyre-burst. The driver lost control over the vehicle and it fell into the drain after breaking iron grills. Residents of Golewala village rushed to help the injured.
rising disproportionately to the population and the vaccine coverage among health workers is extremely low at 65.11 per cent. While 10 states have achieved 100 per cent coverage of health workers with the first dose, Punjab, despite adequate vaccine supplies, has not been able to cover even the identified groups. Likewise, only 63 per cent of the health workers have received the first shots in Chandigarh,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.
Pakistan Indo-Pak bilateral cricket series may take place this year There could be resumption of bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan. According to some media reports, PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has been told to ‘be prepared’ to organise mother of all rivals, i.e India vs Pakistan cricket series. “We’ve been told to be prepared,” the official was quoted as saying according to
some media outlets. Pakistan Cricket Board, Chairman Ehsan Maani hasn’t confirmed anything but there has been no official denials yet. It is being reported that both teams could play some cricket series within 2021, despite the year being jampacked with international cricket.
‘India desires cordial relations’: Modi in letter to Pakistan PM Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a letter to his Pakistani counterpart, saying he desires cordial relations with Pakistan, officials said, as relations thaw between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Modi wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday to congratulate him on the country’s
annual Pakistan Day, which commemorates a resolution passed on March 23, 1940 when the subcontinent was under British colonial rule. On that day, the subcontinent’s Muslim political leadership in the eastern city of Lahore demanded Muslim-majority states be given an “independent state” status.
Nawaz Sharif made concessions to India but failed to get anything in returnformer high commissioner Nawaz Sharif made unilateral concessions to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and even weakened Islamabad’’s principled position on Jammu and Kashmir, thinking that he would extract something in return but that did not happen, a former Pakistani
diplomat said on Tuesday. Pakistan’’s former high commissioner to India Abdul Basit, in an online interview to Karan Thapar of The Wire, severely criticised Sharif on his policy towards India and said Islamabad’’s reading of Prime Minister Modi was “off the mark”.
High Court dismisses senator’s appeal challenging top Senate post Islamabad High Court dismissed senator Yousuf Raza Gilani’s petition against rejection of seven votes by the presiding officer during Senate elections. High Court rejected Yousaf Raza Gillani’s petition challenging the Senate chairman election, stating that courts do not intervene in workings of the Parliament.
The former prime minister, Mr Gilani was joint candidate for opposition PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement), challenging the rulling PTI party’s candidate Senator Sadiq Sanjrani. Mr Gilani lost the election by 6 votes compared to Senator Sanjrani’s 48. The verdict on Gillani’s petition was issued by Chief Justice.
Covid-19 smart lockdown imposed in Karachi’s affected areas The provincial gov’t on Wednesday announced that, smart lockdown will be imposed in some sub-divisions of Keamari District. According to a notification issued in
Heavy rain causes surface flooding in Central & Western divisions Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) is advising motorists to drive safely amidst the wet weather conditions due to surface flooding, especially in the low lying areas. Several roads are currently being affected in the Central and Western Division’s due to surface flooding caused by the heavy rain and we are advising motorists to avoid driving through flooded water as the depth is hard to gauge.
Please continue to keep a safe following distance in order to prevent accidents on wet and slippery roads and avoid driving into flooded areas. In some instance, debris may cause overtopping and erosion around the crossing approaches, occasionally resulting in washouts that will temporarily cut off access.
Former police officer files appeal manslaughter conviction A former constable of the Fiji Police Drug Task Force Team, sentenced for causing the death of Josua Lalauvaki, filed an appeal against conviction and sentence. Kelepi Duri Tautaumacala Kolinisau, 30, was jailed for five years with a non-parole period of three years and four months by the High Court in Suva on November 20, 2019.
Kolinisau assaulted Mr Lalauvaki after an altercation outside a Suva nightclub on September 2, 2018. Mr Lalauvaki died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital on October 11, 2018, as a result of injuries he suffered from the assault. Kolinisau’s appeal case was called at the Fiji Court of Appeal before Justice
Fiji ahead of target in eliminating tuberculosis by 2030 The injured were shifted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital.
Rapid surge in Covid-19 cases in Punjab as vaccination seems slow A year since the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed to break the chain of viral transmission, the country finds itself battling a second surge of the infection with the Centre on Wednesday terming “Maharashtra and Punjab as areas of gravest concern”. Of the 47,262 (the highest daily case tally this year and the highest in 132 days), more than 28,699 are from Maharashtra and 2,634 from Punjab. “Punjab is a specific worry as cases are
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this regard, the decision was taken after the district health officer identified some areas as coronavirus hotspots.
Fiji had successfully treated and cured more than 80 per cent of its Tuberculosis (TB) cases over the past three years. This was revealed by Divisional Medical Officer Central Dr Tevita Qoriniyasi during the World TB Day commemoration at the P.J Twomey Hospital at Tamavua, Suva yesterday.
Dr Qoriniyasi said it was an important achievement in Fiji’s fight against the disease. “From 2018 to date, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services injected approximately $1.2 million into the TB programme to strengthen its operations, maintain the gains from previous years and progress the programme targets
229 CCTV cameras installed around urban centres People can expect much safer markets, parks and public places as municipal councils have installed 229 CCTV cameras. Minister for Local Government Premila Kumar says CCTV cameras are installed to create a safer environment for people and to deal with vandalism in towns and cities. She says they are working with Fiji Police Force in deciding the location of other camera installation and monitoring of live feed. Kumar mentioned this when questioned
by SODELPA MP Lynda Tabuya in parliament on the status of the installation of CCTV cameras around the urban centres. She says 56 cameras are yet to be installed and the councils are putting these cameras in and around council properties such as markets and parks. Kumar says there are at least 9 councils that have taken the initiatives of installing CCTV cameras in the urban areas which include the Suva City Council, Lautoka City Council,
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Saturday, March 27, 2021
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Saturday, March 27, 2021
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