Saskatchewan Venezuelans Rally Support After Deadly Earthquakes Strike Home Country

Venezuelans living in Saskatchewan are scrambling to locate missing loved ones and coordinate relief efforts after two powerful earthquakes — measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — struck Venezuela on Wednesday, collapsing buildings in the capital Caracas and leaving thousands missing or homeless.

Diaspora Community Takes Action

Betzabeth Jaramillo, a humanitarian activist and political refugee who relocated to Saskatoon in 2023, has been working around the clock since the quakes hit. She is using social media to share missing persons information and help connect Saskatchewan’s Venezuelan community with relatives back home.

“We try to encourage the people to go outside and help the people inside the buildings,” Jaramillo said. “I try to connect to the rescue centres to find people because, you know, their communication is unstable and we need all the hands inside Venezuela and outside to try to help them to resolve the situation.”

The effort is complicated by unreliable telecommunications infrastructure in Venezuela, making it difficult to confirm the safety of friends and family members.

Canada Pledges Initial Aid

Canada’s foreign affairs minister announced the country will provide an initial $5 million in humanitarian aid to support lifesaving efforts on the ground. The funding is earmarked for emergency food, clean water, and health care.

The full scale of the disaster is still emerging, with rescue operations ongoing and the death toll expected to rise as crews work through collapsed structures across the country.

St. John’s Marks World Refugee Day with City Hall Ceremony Honouring Newcomers’ Resilience

The City of St. John’s and the Association for New Canadians held a ceremony at City Hall on Tuesday to mark World Refugee Day, celebrating the contributions and resilience of refugees who have made Newfoundland and Labrador their home.

World Refugee Day, observed annually on June 20, honours the strength of people forced to flee their home countries. The event was designed to highlight refugee success stories and the ways newcomers enrich local communities.

Diversity as a Community Asset

Hussein Banisad, senior manager of the association’s Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program, emphasized the value refugees bring to the region.

“Diversity is very important when we see people are adding to our community in many different ways,” Banisad said at the ceremony.

Sharing Personal Stories

Alhafez Osman, originally from Sudan, arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2022 after fleeing conflict in his home country. He told CBC News that giving refugees the space to share their experiences is essential.

Osman was among several newcomers who spoke at the event, reflecting on the journeys that brought them to Canada and the lives they are building in the province.

Montreal Shooting: How a Gunman Killed a Police Officer and a Civilian Before Being Shot Dead

A police officer and a civilian were shot and killed in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood on Monday, June 22, 2026, after a gunman opened fire from a hotel window and then engaged officers in the street below. The suspected shooter was killed by responding officers. A second officer was critically wounded but has since stabilized.

How the Attack Unfolded

At approximately 11:35 a.m., someone called 911 to report a person pointing a gun from a window at the Hilton Garden Inn Montreal Midtown hotel. Officers arrived on scene and were immediately met with gunfire.

Cellphone videos verified by news outlets show a person dressed in fatigues-style clothing — an olive-coloured jacket and cargo pants — exchanging fire with police on the street. One officer is seen falling to the ground, crawling toward a parked car for cover, and eventually going fully prone.

Another officer takes cover behind a planter as gunfire continues. An unarmed civilian approaches the officer; a shot is heard and the person collapses. It remains unclear from the footage whether the officer or the gunman fired the fatal shot. Seconds later, the person in fatigues approaches the planter and appears to exchange fire with the officer before attempting to reload a rifle and collapsing amid continued gunfire.

The Victims

The officer killed was identified as Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, who joined the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) in 2021. The civilian killed was Michel (Michael) Moshe Mizrahi, described as a beloved member of Montreal’s Jewish community.

A second SPVM officer sustained critical injuries and was transported to hospital; her condition has since stabilized. A second civilian suffered minor injuries.

Who Was the Suspect?

Quebec’s coroner’s office identified the shooter as Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, from Lethbridge, Alberta. He was a philosophy student at the University of Lethbridge.

Investigators found a violent 104-page manifesto targeting women in his hotel room. Authorities have linked Hatfield to incel subculture — online communities associated with misogynistic ideology that have been connected to previous mass violence in Canada and elsewhere.

Quebec’s Minister of Domestic Security, Ian Lafrenière, confirmed the shooting was not classified as terrorism, a conclusion reached in consultation with multiple agencies including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

City on Alert

The attack triggered significant disruptions across central Montreal. Quebec’s Transport Department closed sections of the Décarie Expressway and surrounding highway network. Two metro lines were also partially shut down.

Residents near Côte-des-Neiges, Highway 40, and Queen Mary Road were ordered to shelter in place. That alert was lifted shortly after 3 p.m. — after the suspect had already been killed.

Eyewitness David Benchimol described the scene to Global News: “Right outside our window, we saw them going into the grocery store, guns drawn, hiding behind cars and SWAT team arrived shortly after. And since then, it’s been a ghost town out here.”

Political Response

Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher noted it had been 24 years since a Montreal officer was killed in the line of duty. “It’s a very, very sad day. It’s a nightmare,” he told reporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a statement offering condolences to the victims and thanking officers for their response. Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette ordered the Quebec flag flown at half-mast. Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada issued the same order for City of Montreal flags.

Investigations Underway

Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), has opened an investigation into how officers responded to the shooting — a standard procedure whenever police use of force results in death or serious injury.

The Lethbridge Police Service confirmed it is assisting Quebec authorities with the broader investigation into the suspect’s background and motivations.

Federal Government Eyes Kingston Stop in Revised High-Speed Rail Route

The Liberal government is considering a major route change to Canada’s proposed Alto high-speed rail line that would add a stop in Kingston, Ont., shifting part of the corridor southward toward the shore of Lake Ontario following a public consultation process.

What’s Being Proposed

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon announced Monday in Kingston that the federal government has directed Alto to evaluate an additional stop in the city — a potential significant departure from the original plan. MacKinnon said he was “acting on what we heard” during three months of public consultations held in roughly two dozen communities this year.

The original Quebec City–Toronto route, announced late last year, included planned stops in Trois-Rivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa and Peterborough. So far, the federal government has mandated seven stops: Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Quebec City.

Alto has put forward two route options. The first is a near-straight line between Peterborough and Ottawa. The second is a southern track that brings the line to within a half-hour’s drive of downtown Kingston. MacKinnon said his office would take “a very, very, long, strong and positive look” at the southern option, while stressing no final decision has been made.

The Case for Kingston

According to Alto, adding a Kingston stop would cut travel times between the city and Toronto roughly in half, to approximately 90 minutes. The southern route would also allow the vast majority of residents between Peterborough and Ottawa to reach a station within a 30-minute drive.

MacKinnon said the review was informed not only by public feedback but also by consultations with Indigenous communities conducted between October 2025 and June 2026 along the Toronto–Quebec City corridor.

Kingston city council had previously passed a motion calling on the transport minister to add a Kingston-area stop to Alto’s mandate, and had expressed opposition to the project if no such stop were included. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also previously backed a southern route along the 401 corridor with a Kingston stop.

A Massive and Contentious Infrastructure Project

The Alto project envisions a roughly 1,000-kilometre all-electric rail line with trains reaching speeds of 300 km/h, at an estimated cost of between $60 billion and $90 billion. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he wants construction to begin within four years.

Construction of the first phase — linking Montreal and Ottawa — is scheduled to begin in 2029 or 2030, serving as an initial test case for the broader corridor.

The project has faced sustained opposition since its announcement. A grassroots coalition of farmers and small-town residents, particularly in rural eastern Ontario and in Mirabel, Que., has raised concerns about land expropriations and the line’s impact on agricultural properties and communities.

The Budget 2025 Implementation Act included amendments to the Expropriation Act and related legislation to accelerate the federal government’s ability to acquire land for the railway — changes that have deepened opposition among affected landowners.

MacKinnon, who described himself as coming from a farming family, acknowledged the emotional weight of expropriation. “We will not cut corners when it comes to respect; we will not cut corners when it comes to sensitivity,” he said, adding that his preference would be to secure a federal right-of-way rather than full expropriation wherever possible.

Critics Question the Process

The prospect of an eighth stop drew immediate backlash. Protesters demonstrated outside the Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston where MacKinnon made his announcement, and blocked the exit before police were called to disperse the crowd.

Christian Hébert, president of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles, questioned the project’s planning rigour. “This Alto project is improvisation,” he wrote in a social media post, arguing that Kingston should have been included from the outset if the project rested on a sound business case.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, speaking in Vancouver, dismissed the project’s viability. “If this project ever gets built it will be 15 years from now and it will cost every family $8,000 in higher taxes,” he said, arguing the funds would be better spent cutting taxes, including the GST on used vehicles purchased through dealerships.

The Parti Québécois has also opposed the project, joining federal Conservatives and rural advocacy groups in criticizing the rail corridor as costly to taxpayers and disruptive to the communities it would pass through.

MacKinnon defended the evolving route, saying the proposed change reflects a clear community preference that emerged through consultation. “This is a strong indication of preference for one route over another,” he told reporters — while reiterating that the final decision has yet to be made.