DEVELOPING BMO online service outages reported by customers
Dozens of Bank of Montreal customers said they faced website outages early Wednesday morning, according to reports.
Pro-democracy Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai was found guilty Tuesday on two fraud charges related to lease violations, the latest in a series of prosecutions apparently aimed at punishing him for his past activism.
Lai was arrested during a crackdown on the pro-democracy movement following widespread protests in 2019 and under the city's sweeping Beijing-imposed National Security Law. He is already serving a 20-month sentence for his role in unauthorized assemblies.
His media company, Next Digital, published the now-shuttered Apple Daily, Hong Kong's last pro-democracy newspaper.
Lai also faces collusion charges under the National Security Law and a separate sedition charge. His former colleague, Wong Wai-keung, was also convicted Tuesday on a single charge of fraud.
Lai and two former executives at his company were charged with fraud for subletting part of the office space to a secretarial firm, which was also controlled by Lai, between 2016 and 2020. Their move allegedly violated lease agreements with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp. The second fraud count was for letting the same firm use the media outlet's office space in alleged breach of lease agreements from 1998 and 2015.
District Court Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said the firm's business did not conform with what was stipulated in the lease agreements, and ruled that Lai had hidden the fact that the company was occupying space in the building. He said he did not believe Lai had forgotten the business was using the office.
One of the executives, Royston Chow, made a deal earlier this year to help with Lai's and Wong's prosecution in exchange for exemption from criminal liability.
Lawyers for Lai are asking the United Nations to investigate his imprisonment and multiple criminal charges as "legal harassment" to punish him for speaking out.
Armed with the National Security Law, prosecutors have brought cases against people for clapping in court, sentenced five speech therapists to nearly two years in prison for their role in the publication of children's books deemed seditious, and put on trial a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and five others accused of failing to register a now-defunct fund set up to assist people arrested in the mass anti-government protests three years ago.
That has damaged faith in the future of the bustling bastion of finance, with increasing numbers of young professionals responding to the shrinking freedoms by moving abroad.
Electoral reforms have ensured that only those deemed to be "patriots" by Beijing serve in the city's legislature. China has installed John Lee, a career security official, as the city's new chief executive.
Separately, a mainland Chinese man was arrested for allegedly posting three signs carrying "seditious" words at the protest zone of the city's legislative complex on Oct. 15, police said Tuesday. China's twice-a-decade Communist Party congress began the next day.
Some wordings on the posters, which were generally about COVID-19 restrictions, were intended to incite others to hate or despise the central government or leaders of the central government, said Lo Yin-lam, chief inspector of Hong Kong Island's regional public order event investigation team. Lo did not elaborate on the wordings that had been used.
Local newspaper Ming Pao said the content of the posters was linked to a protest at Beijing's Sitong Bridge, where someone hung banners calling for freedom and not COVID-19 lockdowns days before the congress opened.
Dozens of Bank of Montreal customers said they faced website outages early Wednesday morning, according to reports.
In part two of a four-part investigation into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry, CTV W5 uses trackers tp reveal a for-profit operation masquerading as a charity.
The XEC strain, a hybrid of Omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, was first detected in Canada in mid-August and the number of COVID-19 cases with the XEC variant has rapidly increased.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face down his own caucus members in a hotly anticipated meeting this morning, as several of them plan to try to convince him to step aside.
Gisele Pelicot, the 72-year-old victim of mass rape whose ordeal has shocked the world, told a trial in southern France on Wednesday that she was determined that making her case public should help other women and change society.
Police have confirmed the body of an employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax over the weekend was found in a walk-in oven.
A father and his two children who suffered severe burns in a Springfield, Ont. house fire have undergone surgery.
The Bank of Canada is set to make its latest interest rate decision this morning.
The U.S. government fined American Airlines $50 million for failing to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers with disabilities and damaging thousands of wheelchairs over a five-year period.
A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
Looking for a scare with good intentions this Halloween season? The ghosts and ghouls of Eganville, Ont. invite families to tour the Haunted Walk at Lekbor Manor.
The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with 'not a lot going on' is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that 鈥 and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.
A Moncton, N.B., home has been donated to the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation and will be transformed into a resource hub for people living with cancer.