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St. Anthony Shrine jumps in to Mass and Cass mess

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

St. Anthony Shrine is part of the solution to today’s tent ban along the long-neglected Mass and Cass encampment.“We’re going to get people into programs and change their lives,” said Fr. Thomas Conway, executive director of St. Anthony Shrine. “They just need a trained social worker to give them a little push.”That’s where the Shrine’s Mary Ann Ponti, director of outreach programs at St. Anthony Shrine, goes to work.“God bless Mary Ann,” said Conway. “She’s working on the mayor’s teams and is spending part of the week over on Mass and Cass.”The Shrine, located in Downtown Crossing on Arch Street, has been a respite for the soul and for the hungry for decades. The friars and staff hold their annual fundraising gala tonight and donations go to missions like the one along Mass and Cass.Conway said there’s no one answer to the opioid epidemic — seen in its raw reality in the encampment ̵...

In the news today: Vancouver man worries for family as Israeli airstrikes target Gaza

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Vancouver man says his family in Gaza has no waterA Vancouver resident says his family in the Gaza Strip has no water to drink.Omar Mansour says the only liquid the family has is from the canned food they are eating.His family of 11, including his parents, who are in their 70s, are living in a home in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where they work as farmers. A deluge of Israeli airstrikes Tuesday on a refugee camp near Gaza City demolished apartment buildings, while ground troops battled Hamas militants across northern Gaza. Convoy trial continues with testimony of police witnessesThe testimony of police liaison officers is set to continue in the trial of two high-profile “Freedom Convoy” organizers today. Sgt. Jordan Blonde, who described himself as the “secondary” police contact to Chris Barber, will resume his testimony, and is...

Dozens of Afghans who were illegally in Pakistan are detained and deported in nationwide sweeps

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani security forces on Wednesday rounded up, detained and deported dozens of Afghans who were living in the country illegally, after a government-set deadline for them to leave expired, authorities said.The sweep is part of a new anti-migrant crackdown that targets all undocumented or unregistered foreigners, according to Islamabad, though it mostly affects some 2 million Afghans who are in Pakistan without documentation. The crackdown has drawn widespread criticism from U.N. agencies, rights groups and the Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s interior minister confirmed that the deportations have begun. “Today, we said goodbye to 64 Afghan nationals as they began their journey back home,” Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This action is a testament to Pakistan’s determination to repatriate any individuals residing in the country without proper documentation.”The authorities said Wednesday’s ...

Tories hold lead over Liberals, Canadians report limited trust in institutions: poll

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

OTTAWA — The Conservative party is maintaining a steady lead over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, a new poll suggests, at a time when Canadians are reporting limited trust in their institutions. Pierre Poilievre’s Tories are 14 percentage points ahead of the governing party, with 40 per cent of respondents in the survey saying they would vote Conservative, 26 per cent Liberal and 17 per cent NDP if an election were held that day.The poll conducted from Friday to Sunday also suggested that people in Canada are generally more trusting of institutions than their neighbours to the south — especially when it comes to federal election administrators, the countries’ top courts and the police. Nonetheless, majorities of Canadians said they don’t trust federal legislative bodies, provincial governments, the media and large corporations.A total of 1,632 Canadian respondents participated in the web survey, along with 1,002 Americans. It cannot be assigned a ma...

Saskatchewan gas utility could face steep fines and jail for not remitting carbon tax

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s natural gas utility could face hefty fines for not remitting the carbon tax to the federal government, and its executives may also face jail for failing to do so, federal legislation says. Premier Scott Moe announced this week that SaskEnergy would not remit the carbon tax on natural gas starting Jan. 1, unless Ottawa exempts the fuel.Legal professors say if SaskEnergy doesn’t remit the charges, it could face big consequences. “The stakes are actually quite high for failing to remit the carbon tax,” Gerard Kennedy, a law professor at the University of Alberta, said Tuesday.“But that is not to say that it would necessarily escalate to that.”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week the carbon tax would be exempt for three years on home heating oil to address affordability needs.The move largely helps those in Atlantic provinces, where it’s a main source for home heating.Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith ha...

‘They haven’t had water for the last week:’ Vancouver resident says of family in Gaza

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

After four days trying to call his family in the Gaza Strip, Vancouver resident Omar Mansour said he was able to hear his brother’s voice for a few minutes Monday morning.Those minutes with his brother, Firas, were a relief: his family had survived the blackout.Israel temporarily knocked out most communications in the territory late Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday a “second stage” in the three-week-old war and said Israel is determined to bring back 239 hostages taken by the militant group during its murderous Oct. 7 incursion. Four of the hostages have been released.Mansour, who works as an IT consultant, said Firas’s voice sounded “robotic” because the 2G network in the Gaza Strip is under immense pressure from families trying to contact each other at the same time. “I call them 50 times and they only get a connection once out of these 50 times.”His family of 11, including his parents, who are in their...

‘Freedom Convoy’ trial resumes with more testimony from police liaison officers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

OTTAWA — The testimony of police liaison officers is set to continue in the trial of two high-profile “Freedom Convoy” organizers today. Sgt. Jordan Blonde, who described himself as the “secondary” police contact to Chris Barber, will resume his testimony, and is expected to be cross-examined by defence lawyers. Barber and Tamara Lich face multiple charges including mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation in relation to the 2022 protests against COVID-19 public-health measures. Justice Heather Perkins-McVey ordered access to heavily redacted internal police documents on Tuesday so that she can determine whether they should be admitted as evidence. Defence lawyers said they will not be able to complete their cross-examination of liaison officers until she rules on the admissibility of the documents, which the Crown and Ottawa Police Service argue are covered by solicitor-client privilege.Three police liaison officers who had direct cor...

China critic says he’s the target of deepfake ‘spamouflage’ attack by Beijing

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

VANCOUVER — The YouTube video appears to show a person who looks like Liu Xin making unfounded remarks about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying among other things that “he is a man who loves porn.”But Liu, 60, a prominent online critic of China’s government who lives in Burnaby, B.C., says he didn’t say anything of the sort.The video is a deepfake creation according to Liu and an Australian security think-tank that analyzed it, and is part of an extensive “spamouflage” campaign that Global Affairs Canada believes is connected to China.The video and others making accusations of “criminal and ethical violations” by Canadian politicians were posted on the social media accounts of MPs across the political spectrum, Global Affairs says, including Trudeau and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre.But Liu says it was he, and not the maligned politicians, who was China’s main target in the campaign, which Global Affairs says involved a b...

Reasons for releasing Chinatown stabbing suspect should be public: B.C. Review Board

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man accused of a triple stabbing in Vancouver’s Chinatown in September has lost his bid to seal a document that identified him as a “significant threat” before he was released from a forensic psychiatric hospital.A B.C. Review Board panel said the presumption of the board’s open process overrides Blair Donnelly’s concerns that releasing the documents would invade his personal privacy or prejudice an upcoming trial. News of Donnelly’s history led to significant public attention, including Premier David Eby calling him “a violent, psychotic individual” and questioning how he was allowed to be released. Eby appointed former Abbotsford, B.C., police chief Bob Rich to investigate the circumstances. Media outlets, including The Canadian Press, argued against the proposed publication ban in a submission, but the panel said it was not necessary to reference those arguments because Donnelly wasn’t able to sh...

UK summit aims to tackle thorny issues around cutting-edge AI risks

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:58:41 GMT

BLETCHLEY PARK, England (AP) — Digital officials, tech company bosses and researchers are converging Wednesday on a historic estate near London to discuss and better understand the extreme risks posed by cutting-edge artificial intelligence. So-called frontier AI refers to the latest and most powerful systems that take the technology right up to its limits, but could come with as-yet-unknown dangers. They’re underpinned by foundation models, which power chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard and are trained on vast pools of information scraped from the internet. Some 100 people from 28 countries including China are expected to attend British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s two-day AI Safety Summit, though the British government has refused to disclose the guest list. One of the most high-profile delegates is U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s scheduled to attend the summit’s second day after making a separate speech on AI in London on Wednesday.T...