Three time hockey gold medalist, Indian sports legend Balbir Singh Sr passes away at the age of 95
Darpan News Desk Darpan, 26 May, 2020 05:20 AM
Sardar with a golden touch - Darpan pays tribute to his legacy by looking at the highlights of his career. A sad day for the world of sports and an outpouring of emotional tributes for Indian hockey great Balbir Singh Sr who gave India its only World Cup til date in 1975. A three time gold medalist and one of best hockey players of his time is being deeply missed in Canada, India, and around the world.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused Wednesday to join the escalating global debate about the World Health Organization's handling of the COVID-19 crisis, insisting Canada remains focused on working with experts around the world to combat the pandemic. Trudeau repeatedly batted back questions about Donald Trump's plan to halt funding to the UN agency and review what the U.S. president says was a failure to properly assess the threat posed by the novel coronavirus back in January.
Canada could see the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic before autumn, according to federal projections, but only if strong physical distancing measures are strictly maintained the whole time. Even in that best-case scenario, the federal public health agency projects that a total of 4,400 to 44,000 Canadians could die of COVID-19 in the coming months.
The Canadian economy lost an unprecedented one million jobs in March — the worst recorded single-month change — as the COVID-19 crisis began to take hold, lifting the unemployment rate to 7.8 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. The loss is eight times worse than the previous one-month record, yet economists warned it will likely be even worse in April, when the impact of physical distancing practices and other measures became clearer and millions of Canadians began receiving emergency federal aid.
B.C. Finance Minister Carole James says the province lost 132,000 jobs last month, but it's going to get worse before it gets better due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She says the latest Statistics Canada Labour Force numbers indicate B.C.'s jobless rate rose to 7.2 per cent from five per cent in March.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says while he hopes to spend some time with his family this Easter weekend, his focus is on getting new emergency aid legislation passed. He says discussions with opposition parties continue on the bill, which backs up the new wage subsidy program. Trudeau says it is important to debate the democratic processes that could be put in place in the COVID-19 era, which the opposition wants to have.
