Canada's top immigration body said that it expects Indian visa processing, set to be impacted due to recent withdrawal of diplomats, to return to normal by early 2024. According to senior officials at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the reduction of staff in India is expected to create a backlog of 17,500 'final decisions' across the country's global immigration system over the next two months.
Calling for immediate de-escalation in strained diplomatic relations between India and Canada, Ujjal Dosanjh, former premier of British Columbia and erstwhile Canadian Minister of Health, stressed that India's "muscular" foreign policy is essentially for domestic consumption and not granting visas to Canadian citizens hurts ordinary Indo-Canadians.
An Angus Reid poll suggests 15 per cent of Canadians are struggling with their monthly mortgage payments. That's up from eight per cent in March and 11 per cent in June.
A Canadian man in Gaza says Israeli airstrikes that were previously heard roughly every hour can now be heard every few minutes as the Israel-Hamas war escalates. The sounds of explosions can be heard in the background as Shouman says he narrowly escaped an airstrike near the southern Gaza hospital complex where he has been taking shelter.
Trudeau announced in the House of Commons last month that Canadian intelligence services are investigating "credible" information about "a potential link" between India's government and the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
Mounties in Burnaby are looking for witnesses or dash cam footage after a crash this weekend sent one person to the hospital. They say the crash happened around 3 a-m Sunday on Willingdon Avenue near Still Creek Drive, and involved a black Mercedes with three travellers and a red Hyundai SUV with two occupants.