The police chief in Saint John, N.B., says complaints against him by several unionized officers are “disappointing and predictable.”

In a statement issued this morning, Chief Robert Bruce says most of the complaints made last summer were dismissed.

He says they were found to be “vexatious, frivolous and not made in good faith.”

Bruce says he took full responsibility for the few remaining allegations.

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He claims the police union used similar tactics to discredit police management and city officials before his arrival to the force.

The chief claims the complaints were timed to coincide with a challenging labour relations process last year.

“These attacks move us farther from the modern, responsive police force the residents of Saint John expect and deserve,” Bruce said in a statement.

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The Canadian Press has not yet reviewed the court file containing the allegations and the police association could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Saint John Police members file harassment complaints against police chief

Someone who bought a Lotto Max ticket for Tuesday’s draw is $75-million richer.

The prize breakdown shows one ticket matched the winning numbers — three, eight, 15, 19, 23, 29 and 37; the bonus number was four.

The winning ticket will be the last before new changes come into effect for Lotto Max starting Friday.

Lotto Max tickets will cost $6 instead of $5, but there will now be four lines of numbers people can win on instead of three. In addition, people will choose their seven numbers from one to 52 instead of 50.

The numbers and cost are not the only things changing, though — the cap on the jackpot is, too, with it being increased to $90 million from the current $80 million.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which runs the game in the province, says Lotto Max will also have new $100,000 “MaxPlus” prizes available, similar to the $1 million MaxMillions. The MaxPlus prizes will be tied to the size of the jackpot.

But while the jackpot is higher and new prizes are available, the odds of you winning vary depending on the prize.

Those hoping for a better chance at the jackpot may be disappointed, as the odds of winning per play are one in 33.4 million, up from the previous one in 33.3 million.

People aiming for a lower amount, though, may be in luck. For example, someone who gets five out of seven numbers matched now has a one in 1,684 chance of winning compared to the previous one in 1,841. In last Friday’s draw under the previous odds, 3,579 people won $110.

The odds for fixed prizes have also increased, with the chances of winning $20 increasing to one in 72, while a free play will be one in seven.

Canadians’ chances of winning any prize overall are improving to one in 5.8.

— with files from Global News’ Sean Previl

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

At this important moment for our country’s future, Canadians with a broad range of experience and perspectives are uniting to build Canada strong. I am honoured to welcome Marilyn Gladu today as the newest member of this government and our Liberal caucus.

In a time of global… pic.twitter.com/leQXxRL6VO

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) April 8, 2026

Brandon Jansen’s mother says he was a warm and inviting “health nut” who enjoyed time at the gym.

He was also known for taking people under his wing at some of the 13 drug treatment facilities he attended in the two years before he died. On March 7, 2016, at his last treatment facility in Powell River, B.C., he overdosed on fentanyl. He was 20.

Glenn Rebic was a fixture in Vancouver’s skateboarding scene where people still approach his mother with stories about the impact he had on their lives. He died on June 22, 2019, after using cocaine he didn’t know was laced with fentanyl. He was 29.

Michael Rantanen enjoyed being outdoors and working on his art. His mother now has a tattoo of his signature on her arm as a memorial. He died on July 15, 2022, and toxicology reports found the potent synthetic opioid carfentanil in his system. He was 25.

Ellen Lin remembers her daughter Emmy Liu as a creative teen with a love of playing the flute and a long reading list full of fantasy novels. She died of a fentanyl overdose in bed at the family’s home in Surrey, B.C., on Jan. 30, 2025, aged just 14.

The four young victims are among more than 18,000 people who have died from toxic illicit drugs in British Columbia since a public health emergency was declared on April 14, 2016.

Despite recent declines in fatality rates, almost five people in B.C. are still dying from unregulated drugs every day, on average. Illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of unnatural death in the province, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, motor vehicle incidents, drownings and fires combined.

As B.C. approaches the 10-year anniversary of the declaration, grieving friends and families, former policy makers, medical workers and those who use drugs are reflecting on the decade of crisis and what could have been done differently to save more lives. They describe the explosive and deadly impact of the arrival of synthetic opioids, the public policy battles to arrest the catastrophe as deaths soared, and the personal battles that also ensued.

Lenae Silva, 35, from Nanaimo, B.C., has been using opiates of some sort since she was about 15. She co-founded an organization that helped hand out harm-reduction supplies like clean syringes and smoking kits, while connecting those in need with support.

Hundreds of her friends have overdosed, she estimated. Many died, and she said there are many different answers for how each death could have been avoided.

“It’s almost like a road that each person tumbled down before they passed. All of those roads could have been diverted or forked or led to a door that, you know, could have led to safety,” she said.

“I wish I had a better answer than that, but …” she said, before her voice trailed off.

‘LIKE AN ATOMIC BOMB’

There were signs of trouble before provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall and health minister Terry Lake stood before a news conference and declared B.C.’s public health emergency over what they called a “significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths.”

The province had reported 474 apparent illicit drug deaths in 2015, a number that pales in comparison to the 2,000-plus annual deaths that would be recorded as the crisis progressed.

But at the time, it represented a 30 per cent increase in deaths from the year before. And the 76 deaths in January 2016 were the most in a single month since at least 2007.

Ian Tait had already been a paramedic for 15 years when the crisis was declared. He spent some of those early years on 135A Street in Surrey’s Whalley neighbourhood, on the front line of the battle.

He said the number of overdoses that were increasingly difficult to reverse had been growing a year or two before the emergency was declared.

“It just hit like an atomic bomb down there. And all of a sudden we were scrambling, literally, to keep up with the amount of Narcan we were using,” he said, referring to the brand name for the opioid reversal drug naloxone.

“We would go from half a dozen overdoses a day to like 30 overdoses.”

Now a quarter-century veteran of the paramedic service, he says his colleagues are sometimes responding to “hundreds” of overdoses a day. On Jan. 21, BC Emergency Health Services said paramedics responded to 256 overdoses across the province, setting a record.

“I don’t think people realize, if it wasn’t for Narcan, it would be … ten thousand a year (dead),” he said.

B.C. was the first province in Canada to establish a provincewide take-home naloxone program. It hands out 400,000 naloxone kits annually.

It was the introduction of fentanyl into the drug supply, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, that helped set off the crisis. First synthesized in the 1960s, it would become a common painkiller in hospitals and by prescription.

But it would also make its way onto the streets. Data from the BC Coroners Service show that in 2015, fentanyl was involved in about 29 per cent of drug deaths in the province. In 2016, that prevalence soared to 66 per cent.

As the presence of other opioids, such as heroin and oxycodone, in overdose deaths declined, fentanyl would become by far the most common drug involved, in B.C., the rest of North America and much of the world.

Brandon Jansen died from fentanyl poisoning in Powell River on the Sunshine Coast about five weeks before the emergency was declared.

His mother Michelle remembered the struggle to find help for her son. Private facilities cost her about $250,000 over two years before he died.

“There was nowhere you could turn to in terms of government resources. There was no one you could call. I brought Brandon to the doctor. It was all really new territory for the doctor,” she said.

On the streets of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, people who used drugs were relying on each other for warnings about bad batches, and for help when someone was overdosing. That was long before official warnings became commonplace, Lenae Silva said.

“Pre-COVID, Narcan wasn’t really massively available either, so it was a lot of the old-schoolers teaching us young’uns how to reverse these overdoses,” she said.

“Breathe for them,” she said, referring to rescue breathing. “Make sure they go to the hospital if you can convince them to.”

Tait thinks declaring the public health emergency was important, even if the government may have been initially hesitant because it meant admitting what they were already doing wasn’t helping.

“It was one of the first times where we really said, this is a medical problem, this is health problem,” he said.

“So, I feel like when that finally got described as a public health emergency for the first time, the government really owned up to (the fact that) this is actually happening and we need to divert a large amount of resources to this.”

Kendall said in an interview that declarations are conventionally used for epidemics in situations where officials need to order people to get treatment or stay home.

In this case, declaring the emergency meant the government could require that more information be released faster.

“We got more and quicker data from the coroner’s office. We could get data from police forces. We could get data from the emergency ambulance service,” he said.

He said the numbers could be used to determine quickly where overdoses were happening so services could be developed and deployed.

“It also brought a ton of political and media interest into the issue, and we put a lot more time and effort into prevention, into intervention, into drug treatment, whether it was medication-based or behaviourally based,” he said.

The province said B.C. had more than 3,700 treatment and recovery beds of which 790 are new since 2017.

But a decade after her son’s death, Jansen said the government needed to do more to create dedicated places where people can quickly get help.

“It is absolutely nonsensical and unrealistic to expect someone who is in the throes of addiction, where the drug is making the choices for them to be able to … find and source the appropriate treatment facilities, make the calls, set up appointments, get themselves to there,” she said.

“They might not have availability for two weeks. Well, you’ve lost them, you lost them. It doesn’t make any sense.”

THE DECRIMINALIZATION EXPERIMENT, THEN A RETREAT

The trajectory of the crisis has not been a straight line.

BC Coroners Service data show that toxic drug deaths in the province dropped significantly in 2019 to fewer than 1,000, down more than a third from the year before.

Kendall said the decrease had been “encouraging.” Then the pandemic hit.

“What would have happened after that if COVID hadn’t come along? I have no idea,” said Kendall, who retired in 2018.

“I would like to think that we would have gotten on top of it and been able to manage it because it looked like we made a big start. I think COVID threw a lot more people into the ringer.”

In 2020, as the global pandemic shut down borders and forced many to stay inside, there were 1,775 deaths from illicit drugs in B.C., up 79 per cent from the year before.

Silva remembered people she knew “disappearing.”

“It takes a friend of a friend, of a friend of a mom who knows them to come out and say like, ‘Hey, sorry, this person passed away,’” she said.

“So, we were just seeing this massive loss of people, of our friends, of familiar faces who’ve been around for decades and just weren’t there anymore.”

Closed borders had an impact on drug supplies, leading to the creation of new clandestine labs, Silva said.

The number of deaths kept climbing: 2,294 in 2021, 2,390 a year after that, before peaking at 2,590 in 2023.

As the crisis unspooled, British Columbia was thrust onto the cutting edge of global drug policy, expanding safer supply policies and supervised drug consumption sites. In 2016 there was one safe consumption and overdose prevention site in B.C.; by 2021 there were 38, and by the middle of last year there were 58, plus nine in hospitals.

Most controversial was the experiment with decriminalization, launched in 2023, allowing adults to possess up to 2.5 grams cumulatively of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA under a three-year pilot program.

Advocates would push for higher limits, and seek expansion of safer supply to allow opioids to be provided without a prescription.

But such efforts are now in retreat. B.C. declared in January that the decriminalization experiment was over, having already tightened rules about public drug consumption amid a backlash.

Critics called decriminalization a failure, while studies gave varying opinions on its effectiveness and it became fodder for the 2025 federal election.

A study published in JAMA Health Forum in 2025 found that both safer supply and drug decriminalization policies in British Columbia were associated with increased opioid overdose hospitalizations, although not with an increase in deaths.

In 2024, the province placed tighter restrictions on where the drugs could be possessed and by early 2026 Premier David Eby told reporters that decriminalization “didn’t work.”

Silva maintained that while decriminalization was “not perfect,” it saved lives by allowing people to use around others. “It prevented a lot of people from dying inside alone,” she explained.

As for the province’s safer supply program, which provides pharmaceutical grade opioids to people at risk of overdosing, it has also seen significant changes since it was introduced in 2020.

The B.C. Health Ministry said users of the program peaked at almost 5,200 patients in March 2023, decreasing to fewer than 3,900 in December 2024.

In February 2025, Health Minister Josie Osborne announced the roll back of the program to a “witnessed-only” model in which users are watched as they consume opioids.

The move followed an outcry over the diversion of the prescribed opioid hydromorphone. A leaked report by a Ministry of Health investigative unit found that a “significant portion” of prescribed opioids were being diverted, with some trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally.

Like many of B.C.’s cutting-edge policies, the safer supply program was extensively studied, with one study published in the British Medical Journal finding that there was a 55-per-cent reduced risk of overdose death in the week after receiving at least one dispensation of safe-supply opioids.

Four or more dispensations of safe-supply opioids were associated with a 91 per cent reduction in risk of death from all causes in the following week.

But a second study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found an almost 63 per cent “relative increase” in the opioid overdose hospitalization rate across B.C. after the introduction of safer supply.

Silva has been using the safer supply program for years and calls it the most life-saving help she has received.

“I was on my way to almost entirely off (street drugs) when they changed it,” she said.

Under the new program, Silva said she had access to less of the safer drugs and has been forced to rely more on what she can get from the street.

“They’re pulling it way faster than our bodies can handle. I’m sick every day now and I’m just barely, barely pulling through and I’m housed and healthy. You know, it’s scary right now,” she said.

DECLINING DEATHS AND A CHANGING SUPPLY

Starting in 2024, the number of opioid deaths in B.C. began to decrease as part of a trend seen in cities across North America.

But for all its policy efforts, the decline was slower to arrive in B.C. than in some other places.

The first year of decriminalization had coincided not with a decline in drug deaths but with a record number of fatal overdoses.

The 2,590 deaths in 2023 represented an increase of eight per cent over the previous year. That rise was faster than in some other places in Canada, such as Ontario, where deaths were up four per cent. And deaths had already started falling in the United States after peaking in 2022.

In 2024, the year decriminalization was curtailed, drug deaths in B.C. fell 10 per cent. That was slower than in Ontario, which experienced a 15 per cent decline, while deaths dropped by 27 per cent in the United States that year.

The decline in deaths in B.C. now appears to have caught up to elsewhere, falling by about 21 per cent last year to 1,833, roughly the same year-on-year percentage decline as in the United States according to the latest data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Canada witnessed a 17 per cent decrease in deaths between 2024 and 2025, representing what the Public Health Agency called “the first sustained decline since deaths surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

What might be behind the continental decline in drug deaths is the subject of much debate.

In a report updated in December, the Public Health Agency of Canada lists changes in the drug supply, the availability of naloxone and a “declining population at risk” as “likely” factors.

Hints can be found in a study published in the April 2026 edition of the International Journal of Drug Policy where tested samples of unregulated opioids in B.C. found that median fentanyl concentrations peaked provincially at 11 per cent in mid-2023 before declining to 5.1 per cent in early 2025.

The thesis around reduced fentanyl concentrations may be bolstered by geopolitical analysis. An article published in the journal Science about the decline in overdose fatalities in the United States suggests the trend is related to “a major disruption in the illicit fentanyl trade” possibly tied to actions by the government of China, where most precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl are believed to originate.

It says in 2023 the government of China began more aggressive law enforcement against synthetic drug and chemical precursor suppliers, and by June 2024, it claimed to have taken down 140,000 advertisements and 14 online platforms.

Among other potential factors noted by the Public Health Agency of Canada: regions that distributed more naloxone kits experienced larger declines in deaths, while the sheer number of people who have died — reducing potential future victims — may also have played a role. The agency notes that the largest declines in deaths were in regions with more previous fatalities.

Among “unlikely” causes of the decreasing death numbers? The agency’s report lists supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites as well as opioid agonist therapy.

A STRATEGY SHIFT

A shift on addiction policy in B.C. is now underway, with a stronger public emphasis on treatment and involuntary care for people with severe and overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges.

“When someone is so unwell they can’t make decisions about their own safety, we have a responsibility to step in with compassion and care,” Premier David Eby said in a statement in November.

The shift includes legislative changes to the Mental Health Act that passed in December, strengthening liability protection for health workers involved in involuntary-care decisions and treatment.

The government also said in November that it was urgently working to boost the more than 2,000 mental-health beds in B.C. available to provide involuntary care.

A panel put together by B.C.’s coroner in 2023 estimated that 225,000 people in the province use drugs.

Some who grieve losses or have been on the front line of the drug battle over the past decade suggest the shift has come too late. Some wonder why more isn’t done about the criminals behind the flow of drugs.

Ellen Lin blamed death of her daughter Emmy on the “absurd” decriminalization experiment.

She said the policy “opened the floodgates to widespread drug abuse, exposing children and youth to extreme danger.

“They created conditions for adults, including drug dealers and other predatory individuals, to supply or sell dangerous substances to vulnerable minors,” said Lin.

Glenn Rebic’s mother, Meredith Dan, agreed that more needed to be done to stop those who sold the deadly drugs.

“Why aren’t they charged with murder? Because essentially they are murdering people,” she said.

She said more resources were needed by both people who use drugs and grieving families.

“I don’t think that there’s a single person in society that hasn’t been impacted by it somehow between a friend, a relative or a colleague,” she said.

Paramedic Tait said his colleagues question how increasingly toxic drugs arrive in Canada and why more isn’t done to stop it.

“Where in the world are they mixing in horse tranquillizers and 100 times more potent narcotics into street drugs? How is that happening? How is it getting into our country? Are they making it here? It’s almost like a geopolitical logistical chain issue,” he said.

Maria Rantanen attends a support group specifically for people who have lost someone in the crisis.

She said it’s hard for people who haven’t experienced that kind of loss to relate.

“There’s a certain stigma around losing someone to drugs that I think in that context people understand. I feel understood and heard in that group,” she said.

“Having to have these groups is indicative of the fact that we are losing so many people.”

— with files by Nono Shen in Vancouver

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says the U.S. has won the Iran war and is claiming that there is a “new regime” in place in Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would agree to a “double-sided” ceasefire with Iran that will see him hold off from further attacks for two weeks in exchange for Tehran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump made the announcement on social media less than two hours before his deadline for what he threatened would be the destruction of Iran’s “civilization.” He said it came after conversations with Pakistani mediators who had been pursuing an end to the war.

Iran’s airforce and missile system has been destroyed, Hegseth said Wednesday, less than a week after Iran shot down a U.S. fighter jet.

“We were locked and loaded. They couldn’t defend against it,” Hegseth said.

While Iran may “shoot here and there” but they can “no longer build missiles,” Hegseth said.

“They can still shoot, we know that” he said.

In a social media post on Wednesday morning, Trump said the U.S. had determined that Iran had “gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!”

Hegseth also said a “new regime” was in place in Iran.

On Feb. 28, the first day of the war, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes. He was promptly replaced by his son Mojtaba Khamenei. U.S. and Israeli strikes also targeted and killed several other top Iranian officials.

“This new regime was out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal,” Hegseth said.

Tuesday’s ceasefire deal also included an agreement on nuclear material, Hegseth said.

“Under the terms, any nuclear material they should not have will be removed,” he said, without elaborating further.

However, Trump said there would be “no enrichment of uranium” and “the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust.’”

The U.S. will also discuss sanctions and tariff relief with Iran, Trump said.

However, he added that any nation selling weapons to Iran “will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately.”

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, said Trump had laid out three objectives – destroy ballistic missile capability, destroy the Iranian navy and destroy their defence industrial capacity.

The U.S. military had achieved these objectives, he said.

EU and NATO leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling for “quick progress towards a substantive negotiated settlement.”

“The goal must now be to negotiate a swift and lasting end to the war within the coming days. This can only be achieved through diplomatic means,” the joint statement said.

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

Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to speak Wednesday with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen after the Artemis II’s historic mission to the moon.

A media advisory from the Canadian Space Agency says Industry Minister Mélanie Joly will also take part.

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On Monday, Hansen and his three American crewmates completed a six-hour lunar flyby, going farther into space than any humans before and breaking Apollo 13’s distance record from 1970.

It’s a step toward landing boot prints near the moon’s south pole in just two years.

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Carney has said that, with Artemis II, Canada became the second country in the world ever to send an astronaut on a lunar mission, and that it’s a testament to Hansen’s “exceptional skill.”

The crew, after capturing images and other geological observations of the moon, is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Friday.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says she’s committed to making the changes necessary to address NB Power’s soaring electricity rates.

Holt says the province’s troubled public utility will require structural changes to deliver predictable and affordable power for residents.

A third-party review of NB Power released last week said politically motivated decisions like rate freezes have added more than $1 billion to the utility’s $6-billion debt.

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The report called for an end to political interference at the utility, where rates had increased more than 20 per cent over two years.

Holt has not said whether her government would rule out rate caps or freezes, blaming past administrations for the utility’s current state.

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The Liberal provincial government is expected to give a formal response to the NB Power report in May.

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“We will make the changes necessary in order to deliver to New Brunswickers predictable and affordable increases to their cost and power,” Holt said in an interview.

Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday morning amid news Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as part of its two-week-long ceasefire with the United States.

But when that will translate to price drops at Canadian gas pumps remains unclear as shipping companies scramble to get their products to market.

Benchmark U.S. crude sank US$16.47 to US$96.48 a barrel Wednesday morning; Brent crude, the international standard, dropped US$13.79 to US$95.48 a barrel.

The national average for regular, unleaded gas in Canada was $1.82.4 per litre Wednesday morning – an increase of two cents from Tuesday, CAA data showed.

The drops reversed some of the rise in oil prices, following the start of the war in late February, which had effectively blocked passage through the strait that’s a crucial route for global supplies.

Late Tuesday, Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets. Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, told The Associated Press the development has sparked “cautious optimism” rather than “outright celebration.”

“The ceasefire is only two weeks long, and markets will be watching closely to see whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz normalizes as promised and whether the fragile truce can pave the way for a more durable peace agreement,” he added.

Trump acknowledged late Tuesday a 10-point proposal from Iran on ending the war, which he called “a workable basis on which to negotiate” a long-term peace deal despite rejecting it a day earlier. Iran’s clauses included an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of sanctions and reconstruction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday that Israel backed the U.S. ceasefire with Iran but that the deal doesn’t cover fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

His office said Israel also supports U.S. efforts to ensure Iran no longer poses a nuclear or missile threat.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern to agree to a deal with the U.S. and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, 12 hours ahead of his deadline.

However, he added that there was potential for something “wonderful” to happen in Tehran.

“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he added.

Iranian officials had vowed “an unforgettable hit” and “immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures” if Trump carried through with his threats. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took to social media on Tuesday to announce that he had registered for military service, along with 14 million Iranians.

Pakistan, which was working towards mediating a ceasefire, urged Trump to extend his deadline and Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump’s threat against Iran’s civilization came after he vowed to bomb every Iranian power plant and bridge over the weekend unless Iran, and dismissed concerns that such actions could amount to a war crime.

Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called Trump’s latest threats “sickening” in a statement.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Canada “expects all parties in this conflict” to respect international law.

“That means not targeting, certainly, civilians or civilian infrastructure. And we urge all parties in this war to follow those responsibilities as a point we’ve made publicly and privately,” he said.

Trump’s shifting deadlines for the conflict had raised uncertainty over where the conflict was headed as it entered its second month.

On March 21, Trump issued his first ultimatum to Tehran, giving them 48 hours to allow ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had blocked in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes.

Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran doesn’t “FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS.”

Iran had until the evening of March 23.

However, 12 hours before that deadline, Trump took to Truth Social again to announce that he had decided to postpone the strikes against Iran.

“I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD,” he wrote, adding that was subject to the success of the discussions.

That pushed the deadline out to the end of that week.

On March 26, just before the deadline, Trump first doubled down on his threats, adding that there was “NO TURNING BACK.”

Later that day, however, he postponed his deadline another 10 days to April 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern.

On March 30, Trump put celebrating progress in the talks with Iran while also expanding his threatened bombing if a deal wasn’t “shortly reached,” adding that “it probably will be.”

“We will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” he wrote.

On Easter Sunday, in an expletive-laden post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Iran’s power plants and bridges if they did not open the Strait – and extended his deadline once again for 24 hours.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump said, warning Iranians to “open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”

Shortly after that, he simply posted: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”

He confirmed to reporters Monday that the time referred to his final deadline.

— with files from Reggie Cecchini and the Associated Press and Reuters

Iranian-Canadian communities in Vancouver and Toronto say a temporary ceasefire has brought some relief, but deep concern remains for loved ones in Iran following threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire after Trump’s latest warnings raised alarms internationally.

Human rights advocate Soushiant Zanganehpour said the rhetoric marked a sharp escalation.

“He has not dealt with an adversary this unmanageable … to threaten the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure … and then to ratchet up those threats to the level of the eradication of the civilization — this is genocidal,” he said.

On social media, Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die” unless Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz, setting a Tuesday evening deadline.

Across Iran, people formed human chains around power plants, while hundreds gathered on bridges holding flags.

In Vancouver, members of the region’s large Iranian community reacted with a mix of skepticism and fear.

One Iranian resident told Global News the threats were unlikely to be carried out, describing Iran as a vast country with a long history that cannot be destroyed.

Another Iranian resident said people in Iran have long endured a brutal regime, but warned the situation could worsen without a clear plan.

In Toronto, Iranian-Canadians said the developments have made an already emotional situation more stressful.

Rogina Aselfallah said she had been on edge while following the latest developments, worried about her family members in her home country.

She said the last-minute decision to suspend attacks about 90 minutes before a deadline brought temporary relief, but also uncertainty.

“I’m very happy that power and water aren’t going to go out for two weeks, but then (what) after the two weeks? That’s scary too,” she said.

Babak Zamani said it is difficult to know what his family is experiencing. “Every night they are scared to just sleep. We are hoping to end the war as soon as possible,” he told Global. He described the situation as painful and conflicted, with people caught between calls for political change and fears about further destruction.

Sam Fayaz, who owns an Iranian grocery store in Toronto, said many in the community want to see change in Iran’s government, but were alarmed by Trump’s comments.

“(We) were very concerned, extremely saddened by his comments (about) destroying the entire civilization. That’s really not what we want,” he said.

Fayaz added many Iranian-Canadians feel a responsibility to speak out.

“People have no voice (there) and it’s our job here to be their voice,” he said.

Many say they are now hoping the ceasefire will give both sides time to reach a longer-term resolution. Zanganehpour said the uncertainty has left people searching for answers.

“The fact that we don’t have answers, we’re all on the sidelines trying to make sense of unprecedented things. I hope it does bring us a little bit together, because we’re all we have,” he said.

An apparent dispute between the City of Kelowna, B.C., and a hotel owner is delaying public access to a popular waterfront boardwalk.

“This is a lovely walkway to go through and enjoy the waterfront,” said Raymond Wiebe, who lives in the Lower Mission area.

Last July, the city announced the temporary closure of the roughly half-kilometre boardwalk in front of the Eldorado and Manteo resorts for repairs.

In its public service announcement on July 14, the city stated, “the boardwalk is anticipated to reopen in September.”

“It hasn’t reopened since then,” Wiebe said.

Nor have any repairs taken place.

“I think it’s too bad,” said Kim Thompson, another concerned Kelowna resident. “I think everyone would enjoy that part of the lake and to access it.”

Wiebe says he’s sent multiple messages to the city, which replied it’s being denied access to do the work.

In an email to Wiebe last month, the city stated, ““Hotel management continues to restrict access to the site – including access for construction crews to do the repair work that was identified last year.”

It also added, “Based on direction from the City’s legal team, we have decided not to remedy via self-help (i.e. unilaterally cutting locks, removing gates, etc.)”

The city declined to comment to Global News, saying there is nothing new to add to the response it sent Wiebe.

“I don’t really know what it is, what they are wanting to achieve by denying access to the city to come in and do the work,” Wiebe said.

Global’s messages to Argus went unanswered Tuesday.

The decades-old public right-of-way agreement was made with previous hotel owners and came to a head in 2020 under Argus’ ownership when the boardwalk was closed to the public.

Among the reasons for the closure given by Argus was for crowd control and physical distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue ended up in court, with Argus arguing the agreement wasn’t legally valid or enforceable.

The city argued closing the boardwalk was a breech of conditions.

In the end, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled the agreement was valid and the boardwalk must remain accessible to the public.

The boardwalk did reopened for a couple of years until last September, when it closed to accommodate the repairs.

However, with the city not taking any action at this point, it’s not known if or when the repairs will happen or when and if the boardwalk will reopen to the public.

“This doesn’t make us feel like we have a very good neighbour,” Wiebe said.

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