Big numbers are being reported for B-C's cruise industry. The Port of Vancouver says its final cruise ship of the 2023 season is setting sail today.
It says the 2023 cruise season in Vancouver has been the port's biggest season on record, with an estimated 1.25-million passengers this year.
It says that marked a 54 per cent increase in the number of visitors in 2022.
The port says 332 ships docked between April and October this year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canada is working with allies to determine "exactly what happened" in the blast at a hospital in Gaza City earlier this week that has become a flashpoint in the Israel-Hamas war. Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa that Canada is taking the "necessary time" to probe a blast that the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says left hundreds dead.
Prabjot Singh Wirring had argued the portion of the oath mandated by the Legal Profession Act that includes pledging allegiance to the sovereign violates his Charter rights to religious freedom and equality. Wirring, who is an Amritkhari Sikh, said he is only allowed to pledge allegiance to a divine being in the Sikh tradition and not Queen Elizabeth, who was the reigning monarch at the time his suit was filed.
Thousands of people across B-C dropped, covered and held on this morning -- as they took part in the annual ShakeOutBC earthquake drill. The event -- at 10:19 a-m -- simulates an earthquake response and is a key part of provincial efforts to raise awareness about what to do in the moments, hours and days after an earthquake strikes.
A large number of Canadian diplomats have left India overnight, a media report said on Thursday. The departures followed two weeks of negotiations between India and Canada after India issued a demand for "parity" in the number of diplomats present in the two countries, CBC News reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.
Israel's envoy to Canada says it is important for democracies to assess when a line has been crossed between freedom of speech and what he calls "freedom of hate." Iddo Moed, Israel's ambassador to Canada, spoke generally about what he sees as a "thin line" between the two in an interview with The Canadian Press.
The federal auditor general says Canada's efforts to combat racism and discrimination in major departments and agencies are falling short. Auditor General Karen Hogan found in a report released Thursday that bureaucrats are failing to use data to understand how racialized employees are feeling.