APTN National NewsUp to 1,000 residential school survivors along with government and church leaders gathered in Inuvik last week for the second national gathering of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.For former students it was a week of painful memories and in some cases hope for the future.APTN Nation News reporter Rob Smith has this story.
APTN National NewsA First Nation in Ontario is accusing Winnipeg of stealing their most precious resource: water.For over a century, residents of Winnipeg have taken their driving water from Shoal Lake First Nation.And all that time, Shoal Lake has never received a dime.Now Winnipeg is planning to sell that water to surrounding municipalities.As APTN National News reporter Meagan Fiddler found out, members of the First Nation are increasing the pressure on the government to negotiate a deal.
APTN National NewsBand members of the Tataskweyak Cree Nation have barricaded their band office as part of a protest they’re holding against their chief and council.Like many First Nations, the community faces housing shortages and over-crowding.But protestors say the chief and council failed to address those problems and they want to know why.Band member Alberteen Spence spoke with APTN National News about the situation.
APTN National NewsAlgonquin Elder Claudette Commanda at the #MMIW announcement Wednesday in Gatineau, Que,.
Willow Fiddler APTN National NewsOver 20 First Nations in northwestern Ontario rely on diesel for energy.It’s not cheap and it’s dirty.But one fly-in community is starting to use renewable energy to offset the financial and environmental costs of diesel.
APTN NewsThroughout 2017, APTN News brought you the stories of people who have been targeted by the Canada Revenue Agency over what the government says are unpaid taxes – including employees of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.They worked for a temp company called OI Leasing that is situated in Six Nations in Ontario.The company hired employees who worked tax-free because the main office was on a reserve.But the government doesn’t see it that way and now thousands of people owe tens of thousands of dollars in back-taxes.
Tom FennarioAPTN NewsThe province of Quebec has increased the number of Crown attorneys and staff for the courts in Nunavik yet the system is still backlogged the Quebec inquiry heard on Tuesday.“Attorneys, we have 4 times more than before,” said Nathalie Samson with Legal Aid services. “We increased a lot the resources and in spite of all that the problem continues to increase this is the observation that we’re seeing and the limits of justice, justice cannot resolve everything.”Last year, Nunavik’s crime rate was astronomical with almost one criminal incident per person in a population of a little more than 12,000.Many of those charges come from breach of probation conditions which often includes breaking the prohibition of drinking alcohol.“We want to be ready for everything,” said Marie-Chantal Brassard, chief prosecutor and director of Criminal Pursuits and Penalties. “We want to have all the solutions but I don’t have any explanations, rational explanations for those numbers.”Commissioner Jacques Viens said the region should consider alternative measures other than imprisoning people with addiction issues.“I will have to ask you to reflect very profoundly with other intervention workers,” said Viens. “Other participants you will have to find something that will be a little more appropriate.But it’s not like the province hasn’t been warned about issues with justice in Nunavik.In 2016, Quebec’s ombudsman issued a report calling for sweeping changes to justice in Nunavik.Among the solutions proposed was to reduce travel by prisoners.Because there is no detention centre in Nunavik, Inuit prisoners are often transported more than a thousand kilometres to the south to be heard until their case is heard.These people are not convicted yet and often travel back and forth a dozen times before a verdict is reached.One solution offered in the report to reduce travel and speed up a trial was to introduce video conferencing.But the inquiry heard that video conferencing has yet to be properly set up in either men’s or women’s prisons.“Maybe I’m repeating myself here, but we’re in 2018 technology has been very developed, and we don’t live in the middle ages anymore,” Viens said. “There are people who are suffering from these delays who are subjected to injustices because of these delays and this has been related to us on multiple occasions.”Read more here: Imported Justice: A look inside Quebec’s travelling court in Nunaviktfennario@aptn.ca@tfennario
APTN NewsThe Aboriginal Peoples Television Network’s hard-hitting APTN Investigates show is nominated for Canada’s equivalent of an Oscar.The program, now in its 10 season, is up for best news or information series at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards.“I am extraordinarily proud of our APTN Investigates team, they have produced journalism that has changed lives and has influenced the course of Canadian history by bringing truth to public,” said Karyn Pugliese, APTN’s director of news and current affairs.“It is fantastic to see them nominated, having earned their place beside some of the top journalists in Canada. We are grateful and humbled by this nomination.”APTN Investigates shares the category with CTV’s W5 and CBC’s Fifth Estate and Marketplace programs.The winners in 135 categories celebrating the best in Canadian film, television and media will be crowned the last week of March in Toronto.See the other APTN programs nominated here: Canadian Screen Awardsnews@aptn.ca@aptnnews
TORONTO – Clothing retailer Roots Corp. says it is looking to price its initial public offering at between $14 and $16 per share.Roots says the total size of the offering being sold to the public is expected to $200 million or $230 million, if an over-allotment option is fully exercised.The pricing of the offering follows an announcement by Roots last month that it wanted to launch an initial public offering. It plans to trade under the symbol ROOT on the Toronto Stock Exchange.The shares are being sold by private investment firm Searchlight Capital Partners, which acquired a majority stake in the company in 2015, as well as founders Michael Budman and Don Green. Roots is not expected to receive any proceeds from the offering.Searchlight will retain a roughly 54 per cent stake in Roots, while Budman and Green will keep about a 13.6 per cent stake after the IPO.If the over-allotment option is exercised in full, Searchlight’s stake is expected to slip to about 50.2 per cent, while the founders will hold 12.6 per cent.Roots has more than 100 stores in Canada as well as four in the United States, partner-operated locations in Taiwan and China and an online retail business.In its filing with securities regulators, Roots said it wants to continue its grow in Canada as well as the United States and in international markets.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will work the room at a business luncheon in Manhattan today on the merits of free trade and global economic co-operation, just as word starts to sink in that efforts to conclude NAFTA talks before the end of this week are likely to fail.Trudeau will spend the second morning of his three-day U.S. tour — his 16th visit to the United States as prime minister — participating in what is billed as an “armchair discussion” on economics and international trade at the Economic Club of New York.The trip is mainly focused on trade and drumming up investment for Canada, although Trudeau veered off that course Wednesday morning. During a speech at the New York University commencement at Yankee Stadium, the prime minister spoke at length on the merits of diversity and the risks of aggressive nationalism.Looming over everything is the North American Free Trade Agreement and the expected failure of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to meet an artificial deadline today, set to try and seal a new deal before the Mexican federal elections this summer or U.S. congressional elections in the fall throw new curveballs at the process.Coupled with ongoing struggles to get the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built, Canada’s ability to compete on the world stage and confidence in its ability to attract investment are currently flagged as questionable.In a series of meetings with a lengthy list of international investment executives and U.S. CEOs Wednesday, Trudeau time and again tried to counter those fears, pushing Canada as a great place to do business. Most of those he met with publicly agreed.None more so than Adam Neumann, the Israeli-born American billionaire who founded WeWork, which provides shared workspaces that include physical and virtual office space, health plans, and shared social networks to entrepreneurs, including start-ups.“Amazing leader,” Neumann said, after spending about 20 minutes in a private meeting with Trudeau.WeWork has five locations in Canada, with plans to expand to 11 by the end of this year and 45 by the end of 2020, Neumann said. He said his company is getting a lot of interest from Asian and Latin American companies who are interested in setting up shop in Canada using WeWork.“I think it’s a great story for Canada and a great story for us, and we’re here today to strengthen that relationship,” Neumann said.PepsiCo. Chair and CEO Indra Nooyi was also quite enthusiastic about Canada as a place to do business, noting her company — the second-largest food and beverage corporation in the world — does $4 billion worth of business in Canada each year.“We are in Canada, for Canada, with Canada and from Canada, and the reason is because the government of Canada is an excellent partner for business,” she said.Trudeau had another reason for sitting down with Nooyi this week, as he prepares to make ocean protection and eliminating plastic garbage a key initiative of the upcoming G7 leaders summit in Quebec next month. PepsiCo. is on board the plastics train, pledging last year to make sure 100 per cent of its packaging can be recycled or recovered by 2025.Trudeau also met with the heads of advanced manufacturing giant Honeywell, online advertising software expert AppNexus, and Etsy board chair Fred Wilson, who sang Canada’s praises as a great place for tech investments because of government support for both research and development as well as high-skilled immigration.“In a time where high-skilled immigration to the US has essentially been stopped, Canada is a great option to locate a team and recruit the smartest people in the world to it,” said Wilson in his blog. “What once was the game plan for tech in the US is now the game plan for tech in Canada.”Wilson’s comments fit in with Trudeau’s arguments in his commencement speech, against a type of politics that seeks to divide and conquer rather than unite and diversify, which many read as a direct rebuke of some of the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
OTTAWA – Rising provincial minimum wages have cut into the reach of the Liberal government’s oft-touted increase to summer jobs spending by reducing the number of weekly hours being funded this year.The Liberals have doubled spending on the politically popular program to approximately $220 million in order to boost the number of available jobs to 70,000 from about 35,000.Newly released documents show the government was aware in late winter that there would be a drop in the number of hours funded through the program to meet the Liberal government’s summer jobs target.A mid-March briefing note to Labour Minister Patty Hajdu warned of the planned reduction in the average hours per job funded through the program, moving to a national average of 30 hours a week in 2018 from 35 in 2017.Officials wrote that the plan could raise concerns from MPs who like to promote the spending, as well as from employers — particularly organizations that need help paying and attracting seasonal workers.“The reduction is expected to affect organizations that require more weeks in order to sustain their operations (e.g. summer camp) and to attract enough potential applicants,” reads the briefing note, obtained by The Canadian Press under the access to information law.Figures provided by the department suggest officials have eased some of the effects, but there has still been a decline in hours across all 10 provinces. There has been no reduction in funded hours in the territories.A spokeswoman for Hajdu said the government stands by its decision to double the number of jobs through the program, and is “continually looking at ways to improve the program” for students needing “quality summer job experience.”The annual program provides wage subsidies, targeting mostly not-for-profit groups and small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.The program helps small businesses and organizations manage cash flow in the early stages of a summer placement because students may need time to learn the job before they contribute to an organization’s bottom line, said Ted Mallett, vice-president and chief economist at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.“That’s why these government programs are helpful in overcoming those kinds of start-up difficulties for small firms.”Demand for funding always exceeds the amount the government spends on the program and this year was no different. The total value of all the applications this year was $68.9 million more than last year, a figure the briefing note chalked up to rising minimum wages, particularly in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. Hajdu was told the increases in minimum wage nationally averaged out to a 13.7 per cent bump in wages.At a kickoff event for the program in late April, one non-profit group pressed Hajdu about the government’s plan to deal with the effects of minimum wage increases on the program.Hajdu responded that officials were working with provinces and territories. She added that employers approved for funding would make “decisions and determinations accordingly” about hours and duration of summer jobs.The department overseeing the program recommended 85,000 jobs for funding this year out of the more than 153,500 requests. Officials recommended more jobs than the expected 70,000 because some employers drop out of the program, while others end up being unable to fill the jobs.Final Canada Summer Jobs figures won’t be known until later this year.The Liberals have faced criticism this year from faith-based groups over new funding criteria that required groups to say neither their core mandate nor the jobs being funded actively worked to undermine constitutional, human and reproductive rights.Many faith-based groups refused to sign the declaration and the government is facing legal challenges to the anti-abortion requirements.Employment and Social Development Canada said officials have not revoked any group’s funding this year for being in violation of the declaration.— Follow @jpress on Twitter
LONDON — British police say they have released a man and a woman who had been arrested in connection with the drone incursions at London’s Gatwick Airport that had disrupted holiday plans for tens of thousands of travellers.Sussex police said Sunday the two had co-operated with police and were no longer considered suspects. They had been arrested late Friday in a town not far from the airport.There have been no reported drone sightings at Britain’s second-busiest airport since Friday evening and flights are operating normally.The drones first appeared on Wednesday night, causing chaos at the airport that handles 43 million passengers a year.The Associated Press
Landon said he was inspired to raise the money after his grandmother Suzanne Sutherland shaved her head while undergoing chemotherapy treatment last fall. Sutherland was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago. Landon’s mom Jackie Tolsma said that Landon’s inspiration for the fundraiser came while his family was shopping for scarves for his grandmother.Though he might not have his hair at the moment, Landon will be continuing the fundraiser until March 31st. To donate to the campaign, contact Jackie Tolsma by phone at (250) 262-6224, or email jackiesutherlandtolsma@yahoo.ca.All of the donations received will be posted on the Landon’s Wish Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1862574167149041/about/ FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — 10 year-old Charlie Lake Elementary School student Landon Tolsma had probably one of his most exciting and nerve-wracking lunch hours today.Tolsma, who turns 11 on Sunday, had the close to seven inches of hair that he’s been growing since October shaved off today to raise money for cancer patients in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek. A fundraiser that was launched by his family almost three weeks ago brought in over $13,000 from an initial goal to raise $1,500 to buy scarves and other essentials for those battling with cancer. A bake sale at Charlie Lake Elementary brought in over $700 of the total on Wednesday and Thursday. 
Photo by Chris Newton 
Photo by Chris Newton 
Photo by Chris Newton 
Jackie and Landon Tolsma show off his new Charlie Lake Elementary Lakers toque. Photo by Chris Newton 
“(But) if there’s curtailment all the way to the point of discontinuing that flow of product … that utilization taken away from the refineries would have a pretty negative effect on therefineries.”Refiners would be forced to find alternative markets, accept lower prices, or run operations at less than optimum capacity to restrict output, he said.Tighter supplies of gasoline and diesel in B.C. would likely drive up prices in B.C.’s Lower Mainland by about 10 cents per litre, said fuel market analyst Michael Ervin, senior vice-president at the Kent Group Ltd.The estimate is lower than other experts have estimated, but he said it’s high enough that refiners on the U.S. West Coast or possibly even Asia Pacific would be motivated to overcome logistical hurdles and start supplying the market.In Alberta, meanwhile, the glut of gasoline and diesel would likely result in cheaper prices for motorists, especially in the Edmonton area, he said.Ervin said cutting off light oil supplies through Trans Mountain would hurt Alberta-based Parkland Fuels Corp., which bought the 55,000-barrel-per-day Burnaby refinery last year and has enjoyed good margins thanks to its access to low-cost Alberta feedstock.Imperial Oil Ltd. spokesman Jon Harding said Tuesday the Calgary-based company, which ships refined products on Trans Mountain, “understands the rationale” for Bill 12 and will comply if it’s passed, but hopes a solution can be found that negates the need for its use.Suncor Energy Inc., meanwhile, has a “vast logistics network” and would look to send refined product out of Edmonton to other markets if needed, said spokeswoman Sneh Seetal.Andrew Leach, an associate professor with the University of Alberta’s business school, said any economic impact of an Alberta energy export ban would be brief because he doesn’t think the province’s legislation is constitutional.He suggested any attempts to implement a ban would be swiftly and successfully attacked by interested parties in court.(THE CANADIAN PRESS) The Alberta government said Monday it might restrict shipments on the existing 300,000-barrel-per-day Trans Mountain pipeline to diluted bitumen, thus displacing the refined products and light oil it carries.The move would likely push fuel costs higher in B.C. but would also hurt Alberta’s four refineries, said Brian Ahearn, Western Canada vice-president for the Canadian Fuels Association, which represents the refining industry.He said about 25 percent of the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products produced at the Edmonton-area refineries goes to B.C., a total of 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, the pipeline carries about 45,000 to 50,000 barrels per day and the rest is shipped by train or truck.“Directionally, we are supportive of the government’s overall objective and the reason is we are a supporter of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion,” Ahearn said. On Monday, Alberta introduced legislation that would allow the energy minister to use export permits to control how much and what products truckers, pipeline companies and rail operators can ship.The province says it might use the legislation to fire back at B.C. if it continues to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the courts. The dispute is headed for a showdown on May 31, the date on which proponent Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. has said it mightcancel the $7.4-billion project unless it is convinced it will be allowed to proceed to completion.D’Avignon pointed out that Alberta and B.C. have the most integrated economies in Canada and, if fuel costs rise in B.C., it will affect the cost of trade goods going to Alberta and the cost to ship Alberta products such as grain from West Coast ports.He said it could also affect the availability of B.C. residents to work in Alberta’s oilpatch and B.C. exports of electricity and natural gas to Alberta, while possibly reducing federal income taxes paid by B.C. residents.Alberta’s proposed legislation and B.C.’s response are the latest manoeuvres in the escalating dispute over the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that runs from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. The federal and Alberta governments support the project, while B.C. opposes it, saying it is defending its coast from a potentially catastrophic oil products spill.On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan government joined the fray, promising to also pass legislation allowing it to interrupt energy shipments to B.C.
CALGARY, A.B. – Economic damage will extend far beyond the fuel budgets of British Columbia residents if Alberta successfully enacts a bill allowing it to restrict oil and gas exports, observers say.The Bill 12 legislation and the trade war escalation it might spark would damage Alberta and Canadian businesses and citizens as well as those in British Columbia, warned Greg D’Avignon, CEO of the Business Council of B.C.“By punishing British Columbia because of the actions of the government of the day, while it might feel good and I completely understand it, it actually has consequences people aren’t thinking about for the citizens of Alberta and our country as a whole,” he said Tuesday.
EDMONTON, A.B. – Alberta is on track for a $6.9-billion budget deficit amid speculation voters will go to the polls this spring before a new budget is introduced.The budget had originally forecast a deficit of $8.8 billion, but Finance Minister Joe Ceci says a lower dollar and higher than expected bitumen royalties have helped reduce the red ink.Ceci released the numbers as part of a third-quarter update for the current fiscal year. Total revenue this year is forecast at $49.6 billion and total expenses at $56.6 billion.Ceci has not confirmed whether his department will present a budget before the spring election call.However, the update contained long-term projections for deficit reduction, which are normally found in budgets, along with charts detailing what the NDP government has been doing to combat the downturn in oil prices.
Sekhon says, this weekend we are forecasted to see temperatures return to close to normal with Saturday at a high of 4°C and rain, 2 degrees warmer than the seasonal average.The above seasonal temperatures are expected to continue for the rest of March and into April.For more information on weather trends, you can visit Environment Canada’s website. FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – This week Fort St. John has been experiencing above seasonal temperatures for this time of year.According to Environment Canada Meteorologist, Bobby Sekhon, Fort St. John did break a daily temperature record on Wednesday, March 20, reaching 13.8°C beating a previous record from 1910.“We do have at least one record for Fort St. John, and that was from March 20. The new record is 13.8°C and the previous record was 13.3°C from 1910.”
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The Fort St. John Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Speaker Series Luncheon on Wednesday, May 22 at the Northern Grand Hotel.The Luncheon will feature guest speakers Official Opposition Leader, Andrew Wilkinson, and local MLA Dan Davies.Wilkinson and Davies will be providing an update on the current status of Provincial Government issues that are important to the Peace Region. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, in a Q&A session, following the presentation.The Chamber of Commerce Speaker Series Luncheon is taking place on Wednesday, May 22 from 11:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Northern Grand Hotel.For more information, and to register for this event, you can visit the Chamber of Commerce’s website.
Indian Wells (US): Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams rallied from a set and two breaks down to topple third-seeded Petra Kvitova 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday and reach the third round at Indian Wells. “Today I just fought and tried my hardest,” said Williams, currently ranked 36th in the world. “Honestly, a double break is not ideal against a great server, especially a left-handed server. “A lot of it is just being in the moment. And I think I created some opportunities. I had some good points. I think she had a few tight points, and here we are.” She booked a third-round clash with fellow American Christina McHale, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner over 30th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova, who was runner-up to Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open in January, also reached the final in Dubai last month. The Czech appeared to have taken control of the stadium court slugfest when she broke Williams for a 4-3 lead in the third. But Williams immediately broke back and Kvitova soon found herself serving to save the match. She took a 40-15 lead in the final game, but two double faults, followed by a lucky netcord bounce for Williams gave the American a match point and Kvitova sailed a ball long to end matters after two hours and 27 minutes – sparking an ebullient celebration from Williams. “Having to play down the whole match and to be able to get that,” Williams said of her emotion. “It was just a fun moment.” Williams pulled off the unlikely comeback despite failing to produce a single ace although she said her varying serve speeds were “what I needed to do”. She was broken four times, but proved more consistent in the bruising baseline rallies. Kvitova fired 10 aces, but also had 10 double faults and while the Czech fired 38 winners to Williams’s 15, her 56 unforced errors were more than double the American’s 25. “It was such a weird match,” Kvitova said, calling it her worst of the year. “I took the first set. Suddenly I was leading in the second, but somehow I just gave her a chance again to be back in the match, and she took it. “Suddenly, she just started to play better, I started to play worse … I was so frustrated with myself from the half of the second set to the end, which shouldn’t happen to me. “I really played bad,” she said, “and in the end of the match she definitely played better than me. Dusk was arriving in the California desert when Williams and Kvitova departed the court. Naomi Osaka, who followed up her US Open victory with an Australian Open triumph that propelled her to number one in the world, was to launch her title defense with a second-round match against France’s Kristina Mladenovic. Mladenovic, ranked 65th in the world, seized her first career victory over a number one player when she shocked Osaka in the second round at Dubai last month, the Japanese star’s first match since her victory in Melbourne. Elsewhere on Saturday, fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova shook off a slow start to defeat Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-1.
Ahmedabad: A special SIT court in Gujarat on Wednesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train carnage case.The court of Special SIT judge H C Vora convicted Yakub Pataliya based on submissions made earlier in the case by five other accused. Pataliya was arrested by the Godhra Police in January 2018, nearly 16 years after being booked in connection with the incident in which 59 ‘karsevaks’ were burnt alive in two coaches of the Sabarmati Express. His trial was held at a special court set up at the Sabarmati Central Jail here. Also Read – Uddhav bats for ‘Sena CM’He was accused of being a part of the mob that torched the coaches of Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, killing 59 ‘karsevaks’ and triggering state-wide riots. Earlier, the special SIT court convicted 31 people in the case on March 1, 2011. It later awarded death sentence to 11 of them and life imprisonment to 20 others. However, the Gujarat High Court in October 2017 commuted the death sentence of 11 convicts to life imprisonment while upholding the punishment awarded by the special SIT court to 20 others. The special court sentenced two men — Farooq Bhana and Imran Sheri — to life imprisonment in August last year and acquitted three others, identified as Hussain Suleman Mohan, Kasam Bhamedi and Faruk Dhantiya, all of whom were arrested after 2011.
Greater Noida: In a major road mishap, at least eight persons died while 30 others were critically injured after a private double decker bus collided into the truck from behind in Rabupura area of Greater Noida on Yamuna Expressway on early Friday morning. Cops said that the driver of speeding bus dozed off and rammed into the truck.The incident took place at around 5 am in Rabupura area of Greater Noida, around 29 km away from zero point at Yamuna Expressway. Eight persons, including a minor and two women, died on the spot while the rescue operations continued for nearly an hour to pull out victims from the mangled bus. Police officials said that the driver of bus and helper also succumbed to injuries in the incident. Also Read – India gets first tranche of Swiss bank a/c detailsAccording to police, the deceased have been identified as bus driver Mahesh Kumar (48), helper Bandu (25), passengers Vineeta (32), Arun (42), Asad (12), Suman (35), Vishwanath Tiwari (75) and one unidentified. Cops added that most of the victims hail from Jalaun and Auraiya districts of Uttar Pradesh while the bus driver and helper were natives of district Dhaulpur in Rajasthan. Sharad Chandra sharma, Circle Officer (Jewar) said that the bus was moving towards Delhi from Jalaun district while around 55 passengers were boarded in the bus when the incident took place. “Almost all the passengers present in the bus were sleeping when the incident took place. It seems driver dozed off and the bus rammed into truck from behind which was moving slowly on the e-way,” said Sharma. Also Read – Tourists to be allowed in J&K from ThursdayThe officer further said that the victims were rushed to Kailash hospital in Jewar while police had to use crane and cutters to rescue the victims. “Acting upon the information received, a police team rushed to the spot and immediately stared the rescue operation. The victims were taken to the Kailash hospital in Jewar where doctors declared eight passengers brought dead while around 30 passengers including women and a few children have been critically injured and are receiving treatment at hospital,” added Sharma. Based on the complaint from the family member of one of the deceased, who was himself a passenger, a case was registered against the unknown truck driver at the Rabupura police station under sections 279 (rash driving), 338 (Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. The truck was full of tiles. The police have seized it and are working on tracing the owner and driver. Contd on P4