Three Peel Regional Police officers have been suspended pending further investigation by York Regional Police (YRP).

YRP have been leading the ongoing investigation, Project South, that has already resulted in the arrests of seven Toronto police officers, a retired Toronto police officer and 19 others.

Peel police tell CityNews no officers have been charged in connection to Project South and the “scope of the York Regional Police (YRP) investigation is wide-reaching and ongoing.”

“To protect the integrity of their investigation, we will not be providing additional comment,” their statement read.

The investigation into police corruption and organized crime found officers had allegedly unlawfully accessed information, which was then funneled to criminals who carried out shootings and other violent offences.

The probe began in June 2025 after investigators uncovered and disrupted a conspiracy to commit murder at a home in York Region.

York police say the operation targeted a criminal network that spanned multiple jurisdictions. The charges against the seven officers range from a peace officer accepting a bribe, conspiracy to obstruct justice, breach of trust by a public officer, trafficking in substances, and theft under $5,000.

“While this is a deeply disappointing and sad day for policing, this investigation also underscores the insidious, corrosive nature of organized crime,” said York Police Chief Jim MacSween said in a press conference Thursday.

The Toronto Police Service Board and TPS Chief Myron Demkiw said as a result of the investigation, they have asked the Inspector General of Policing to conduct an independent review of “five key areas of concern” within the service.

Former Special Investigations Unit Director Ian Scott spoke with CityNews about the arrests of the Toronto police officers about the potential of other officers being involved.

“We know that there was one officer who was involved, and he was speaking to obviously seven other ones. But did he only speak to seven others? Was he trying to recruit others who didn’t say anything?” asked Scott.

“Of those eight officers, did anyone in their detachments know what was going on? They had a duty – a duty under the Community Safety and Policing Act – to bring allegations of misconduct to their superiors. […] This aspect has not been addressed at all. But it does mean that, unfortunately, the corruption issues extend much further than the seven or eight charged officers.”

He added restoring public trust in police after these incidents will be a key component moving forward.

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police, among other officials, that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. 

Toronto police officer accused of accessing confidential information denied bail

A Toronto police officer accused of unlawfully accessing confidential information on an Ontario corrections officer has been denied bail.

Const. Timothy Barnhardt appeared in court on Friday for a bail hearing.

Barnhardt faces 17 charges in connection with the investigation, Project South.

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Robert Schellenberg, the imprisoned Canadian man facing the death penalty in China for drug smuggling, reportedly had his sentence overturned.

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According to reports by the New York Times and Agence France-Press on Friday, the native of British Columbia had his sentence reversed by China’s highest court.

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The news comes weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney met with top officials in China, including President Xi Jinping, and signed a trade deal that saw the removal of tariffs from Chinese electric vehicles entering Canada in exchange for minimal tariffs on agricultural products.

“Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is aware of a decision issued by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China in Mr. Robert Schellenberg’s case,” spokesperson Thida Ith said in a statement sent to AFP.

Consular services will continue to be provided to Schellenberg and his family by Global Affairs, the spokesperson said.

“Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to the death penalty,” Ith said.

Global Affairs declined to say whether diplomacy during Carney’s visit influenced Schellenberg’s case.

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“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be provided,” Ith said.

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Schellenberg was detained in China on drug charges in 2014.

In November 2018, Schellenberg was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug smuggling. After appealing the verdict, his case was retried in January 2019 and he found guilty and sentenced to death.

Prior to his retrial, Canadian authorities arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018 following a request from the U.S. Department of Justice.

That led to the tit-for-tat detainment of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.

The arrests led to a frosty relationship between both countries until Carney’s visit to Beijing last month seeking to boost trade ties after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a trade war on its northern neighbours with tariffs on goods crossing the border.

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MILAN – Ivanie Blondin remembers the moment Sidney Crosby walked through the door.

Canada had table tennis set up in the country’s athlete lounge at the 2014 Olympics. The hockey icon picked up a paddle. Blondin did the same.

“I was really young, but you always get those star-struck moments,” said the long-track speedskater from Ottawa. “I couldn’t even get a word out. I just started playing with him, and I just was like, ‘Holy crap, what just happened?’”

Blondin and the rest of Canada’s top high-performance winter athletes will once again share space on sports’ biggest global stage as the NHL returns to the Games in 2026 following a 12-year absence.

Men’s hockey will, almost undoubtedly, take up plenty of oxygen. A lot of the focus will be on the likes of Crosby and Connor McDavid as they pull on the red Maple Leaf in Milan.

So, will all the attention afforded hockey’s stars, who previously participated at five Olympics between 1998 and 2014, steal some of the other competitors’ thunder?

“I don’t think they’re going to overshadow,” Blondin said. “If anything, it’s going to bring the mood up.”

Canadian pairs figure skating champion Trennt Michaud agrees — and won’t be shy when he gets to the Olympic Village.

“I want to see Crosby,” said the Trenton, Ont., product. “He’s Captain Canada for a reason.”

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker doesn’t see NHLers being back as anything other than a positive.

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“The Canadian men’s hockey team will garner a ton of attention, as it should,” he said. “We have the greatest hockey players in the world. But if people haven’t already realized it, it means that our Canadian women’s hockey team will get a ton of attention.

“Our hockey players are also fans of the great Canadian Olympians in other sports.”

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Women’s hockey did, however, get more ink than in the past at both the 2018 and 2022 Games when the NHL declined to participate

Canadian defender Claire Thompson said it’s great having the league back, even if the spotlight has to be shared.

“Every Games brings something special,” said the Toronto native. “I’m really excited for a lot of them — a lot of tremendous hockey players — to be playing in their first Olympics.”

Canadian curler Brett Gallant said the star power will add to the appeal for casual fans.

“More eyeballs on the Olympic Games and more talk about the Olympics is great,” said the Charlottetown product. “As a hockey fan, it’s pretty exciting that the best-on-best are going to be competing.”

Michaud added NHLers might keep those same casuals tuned in longer.

“Most people, when they start watching the Olympics, they don’t just stop,” he said. “Whether it’s hockey that brings them in and then they end up watching figure skating, I still think it’s great, and that’s how we’re going to get more people to watch. It’s very exciting.”

Canadian women’s hockey star Sarah Nurse said there have already been examples of storylines — the rink dimensions and arena construction delays — that wouldn’t have made the same waves without the NHL’s impending return.

“It’s definitely interesting,” said the 32-year-old forward from Hamilton. “There are always so many things going into Olympic Games that people don’t necessarily see … the drama with the ice, I don’t think anybody would have cared if the NHL players weren’t there.”

Nurse, to be clear, isn’t complaining.

“It’s great that they’re back,” she added. “We all want to see best-on-best.”

Canadian short-track speedskating coach and five-time Olympic medallist Marc Gagnon experienced the Games with and without NHLers as a competitor in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

“If we have victories in short-track, I think we’ll still have the same attention,” he said. “If there’s a big, big result in short-track at the same time as a Canadian game, could that affect it a little bit? Maybe so.

“I trust our media enough that they will give the same amount of spotlight to both of them, because they’re all important.”

But while hockey, figure skating and speedskating are located in Milan, athletes in other events will be spread out across Northern Italy in five other Olympic villages.

“It’s a little bit weird because we are so far away from all the other major events like hockey,” said men’s curler Tyler Tardi of Langley, B.C., who will be a five-hour drive away in Cortina d’Ampezzo. “I’ve always loved NHL players being a part of it. One of my greatest Olympic memories is in 2010 when Sidney Crosby scored (to win gold in Vancouver).

“Very excited to follow along.”

Blondin, meanwhile, will put in a better effort on the social side if she again crosses paths with Crosby.

“I would totally strike up a conversation,” she said. “I’m more confident and less shy.”

-With files from Gemma Karstens-Smith, Daniel Rainbird, Donna Spencer and Gregory Strong.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Jamil Jivani’s solo mission to Washington has provoked confusion and consternation among some of his Conservative colleagues who want to avoid the party looking cozy with Donald Trump’s administration.

Jivani, a friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance since they attended  Yale Law School together, paid a visit to Vance’s office in what he described as an attempt to “build bridges” between Canada and the United States.

The MP’s office has not responded to repeated interview requests or a request for a list of whom he met with. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office has also not responded to questions about Jivani’s trip.

Two Conservative sources told Global News Friday that some within caucus are upset with what they view as Jivani’s “freelance” diplomacy with the Trump administration.

“There’s no doubt people are trying to figure out why the separate set of rules [for Jivani] and why the freelancing, is this good for us?” one source, who agreed to speak about caucus dynamics on the condition they not be named, said in an interview.

It’s also not clear if Jivani’s trip was sanctioned by Poilievre’s office.

Jivani is not the party’s “shadow minister” for foreign affairs, international trade or Canada-U.S. trade. The party’s Canada-U.S. trade critic, Shelby Kramp-Neuman, also appeared to have recently visited Washington based on social media posts.

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Highlighting ties to the Trump administration is a dangerous play for Canada’s Conservatives, given how deeply unpopular the U.S. president is with Canadian voters.

Data released by pollster Angus Reid last week found that 66 per cent of Canadians gave Trump an ‘F’ grade on his first year of the second term, while just 15 per cent graded him either an ‘A’ or ‘B.’

Further complicating matters for the Conservatives is that 50 per cent of their voters, according to Angus Reid, gave Trump a ‘C’ grade or better. So a strong majority of Canadian voters dislike Trump, but a significant portion of Conservative voters have a more positive view of the U.S. president.

In an interview with the American news outlet Semafor, Jivani said part of the reason for his trip is to tell the Trump administration “we’re all on the same team.”

“I think there’s a real opportunity to build something with the U.S. administration,” Jivani told the outlet.

“Maybe, in re-establishing that special relationship [between Canada and the U.S.], we could get to a point where the tariff regime imposed on us looks very different from that imposed on other countries.”

In a social media post Wednesday, Jivani said he had “productive meetings” with the White House and State Department – and told Semafor that he met with both his friend Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

He also said Trump asked him to “pass along a message” that he loves Canadians.

“I gotta tell you I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic that we can get something really good done for Canadians workers and businesses,” Jivani said in a video posted to his social media accounts.

It’s not clear who the “we” in that statement signifies, but Jivani – first elected in 2024 – said he’s “sick” of the politics surrounding the Canada-U.S. relationship and has attempted to reach out to the Liberal government about his bridge-building efforts.

His professed multi-partisan ambitions are apparently shared by Poilievre, who told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week that his party was willing to co-operate with the Liberals to fight against Trump’s unilateral trade war.

“My message [to Carney] is Conservatives are here to work with the prime minister and with the government to knock down these unjust tariffs and fight for our workers, fight for their jobs, and fight for our economic independence,” Poilievre said.

Roland Paris, the director of the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, told Global News that he doesn’t see a danger in Canadian politicians having meetings in Ottawa.

“But that’s within limits,” Paris said in an interview.

“Because I think that everybody, every Canadian, expects that Canadian political leaders will be operating in the Canadian interest. And so, in principle, I don’t think that there’s a problem with these trips [but] it really depends on what is actually said and what commitments are made.”

— with files from Global’s Jillian Piper and David Akin

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

With slush and ice melting across Saskatchewan, the unplanned warm weather this time of year is bringing negative impacts to winter activities.

The Rosewood Community Association’s ice rink has lost a couple of inches of ice to the warm weather, and Larry Hounjet, the association’s co-ordinator, is hoping for the temperatures to drop to build up the ice on the rink.

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“The last couple of days were too nice here,” says Hounjet. “I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for cold weather.”

Sask. Snowmobile Association says some snowmobile trails have closed while others haven’t even opened due to a lack of snow.

In Saskatoon, citywide street rut levelling efforts are being made to fix ruts caused by melting and refreezing. On the flip side, some residents are enjoying the city’s warm weather and are describing it as ‘a great thing’ that is creating the illusion of winter being a lot shorter than it is.

A Medicine Hat, Alta., man who had a standoff with police nearly two years ago has been found not criminally responsible for attempted murder.

Cole Scory, 31, fired a shotgun multiple times inside the apartment building where he lived on July 27, 2024.

Over the course of a two-day trial at the Medicine Hat Court House, Scory testified he believed he was acting on the orders of police and was shooting at a gang.

A pair of local officers who took the witness stand said Scory fired on four service members wearing police gear. Body camera video shown at the trial depicted the four officers attempting to communicate with Scory and identifying themselves as police.

On Friday, Justice Grace Auger agreed with the Crown’s version of events and found Scory committed the acts that led to the attempted murder charges.

Psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Hashman, who has been treating Scory since shortly after the incident, testified he diagnosed him as being on the schizophrenia spectrum.

Auger agreed with Hashman’s assessment and found Scory was not criminally responsible due to his mental illness.

‘Like it was yesterday’

Scory told the court he remains employed by the Medicine Hat Police Service and communicates with them through an earpiece.

He said on Thursday he remembers the July 2024 incident “like it was yesterday.”

He said he was informed there were murderers in a neighbouring apartment through an in-ear device he used to communicate with police.

Scory testified he fired a shotgun through the door into the apartment and hit someone inside.

When owner John Karamanos entered the building, Scory discharged the gun in his direction, causing him to leave.

Scory then waited for police to arrive.

When he heard people come to the front entrance, he said he believed they were members of a local gang coming to kill him.

He admitted to firing his gun towards people at the doorway of the building but denies shooting at police.

When he was struck by return fire, Scory said he crawled to his apartment and asked for help.

Police officers testify

Sgt. Eric Marshall and Cst. Mackenzie Kipta were among the four officers who responded to calls reporting gunfire at the apartment building.

The officers said they identified themselves as police, and Kipta attempted to negotiate with Scory, who told them in response that he wanted to discharge his weapon.

After less than a half-hour of attempted negotiations, Scory appeared from behind a stairwell wall on the second floor and fired towards the officers, according to testimony.

Marshall, then an officer with the tactical response team, told court he was struck by shrapnel and felt pressure generated by the shotgun fire.

He fired back, but didn’t believe he hit Scory.

Scory disappeared behind the wall, Marshall said.

When he returned to fire at the officers again, Marshall shot and injured Scory.

When Scory fell out of sight behind a wall, Marshall said he fired at the wall to create a hole and attempt to stop the threat.

Marshall said he suffers from worsening hearing loss due to the shotgun blasts and will require hearing aids in the future.

‘Not a criminal’

Scory retreated to his apartment after the exchange of gunfire.

The standoff continued for about two more hours, according to testimony and a related November 2025 ASIRT report.

Scory was eventually transported to hospital for gunshot wounds to his right leg and lower abdomen.

Defence lawyer Darcy Shurtz said he agrees with the court’s ruling. 

“This is not a criminal; he’s someone who suffers from a mental health disorder,” Shurtz told CBC News after the trial concluded.

“It’s unfortunate that he did not receive the help he required prior to this incident.”

The justice ordered Scory to remain at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre, where he’s been held since 2024.

Scory will appear before the Criminal Code Review Board within 45 days to evaluate his risk to public safety. That body will determine whether he remains in hospital, has a conditional discharge or is set free.

China’s top court has overturned the death sentence for accused Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official told CBC News.

The Supreme People’s Court struck down the lower court’s sentence on Friday. The source requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The New York Times first reported the news.

Schellenberg had been found guilty of being involved in an international drug-trafficking ring and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018.

But he was retried and sentenced to death in 2019, roughly a month after Canadian authorities detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a warrant from the U.S.

In 2021, a Chinese court in Shenyang rejected Schellenberg’s appeal of his death sentence.

WATCH | Schellenberg death sentence upheld in 2021:

China upholds death sentence for Canadian prisoner Robert Schellenberg

Canadian Robert Schellenberg has been denied his appeal to get a death sentence lifted in China after being convicted of drug smuggling. A verdict in the case of Michael Spavor, a Canadian detained on suspicion of espionage, is also expected to be handed down this week.

A spokesperson from Global Affairs Canada said the government “is aware of a decision” regarding Schellenberg’s case, but declined to comment on the specifics.

“Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to the death penalty,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

CBC News has reached out to Schellenberg’s lawyer and family for comment.

Meng’s arrest had put relations between Canada and China on ice for several years.

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by Beijing on vague national security allegations shortly after Meng’s arrest — though both were released in 2021.

Four Canadians were also executed in China last year for drug-related charges.

Prime Minister Mark Carney travelled to China last month in an effort to reset relations with Beijing.

Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping struck an agreement to remove certain trade barriers during last month’s meeting.

Schellenberg has been accused of conspiring with others to smuggle 222 kilograms of methamphetamine from China to Australia in 2014. Although he has proclaimed his innocence, the B.C. native has a history of drug-related offences in Canada, including a two-year sentence in 2012 for drug trafficking.

The cauldrons are lit in Milan and Cortina

Long-track speed-skating legend Enrico Fabris hands off the torch to ski racer Alberto Tomba and alpine skier Deborah Compagnoni, who then light the cauldron in Milan together.

Fabris won three medals at Italy’s last Olympics, Torino 2006: gold in team pursuit, gold in the 1,500 metres and bronze in the 5,000 metres. 

Not only was he the first Italian to win a medal in long track speed skating, he was the most successful Italian athlete at those Games. (He also has multiple world championship and European championship medals, but never quite reached the Olympic peak of Torino again.)

Compagnoni won three gold medals and one silver in three alpine skiing disciplines — super-G, giant slalom and slalom — over three Winter Games (1992, 1994 and 1998).

Tomba dominated men’s slalom and giant slalom in the late 80s and early 90s, claiming three gold medals and two silver over three Winter Olympics (1988, 1992 and 1994).

Alpine ski racer Sofia Goggia lit the Cortina cauldron. She became Italy’s first Olympic women’s downhill champion when she won at PyeongChang 2018.