Ottawa man charged with hate-motivated crime in Rideauview area
Local
Zachary Smith, a 26-year-old Ottawa man, has been charged with hate-motivated incidents such as mischief/damage of property and verbalizing threats of death or bodily harm to another person, according to police.
The events allegedly took place over the past year in the Rideauview area.
Police encourage all citizens who witness or experience such an incident to report it. “Reporting hate-motivated incidents is an important step in stopping cycles of hatred,” a news release stated.
Anonymous submissions can be made to the Crime Stoppers phone line, toll-free 1-800-222-8477.
National
Canada plans to reach defence funding targets in support of Ukraine by 2032. Two per cent of national gross domestic product is being offered by NATO’s summit partners.
“We’ll meet the two per cent pledge and I think we even need to go beyond that,” said Defence Minister Bill Blair at today’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C. He hinted at a path forward through partnership with other NATO members. Blair told the audience that Canada had entered into an agreement with Norway and Germany to “work together on issues around production.”
Canada is falling short but provided a plan on how to meet the set benchmark. Canada is expected to see military spending increase to 1.76 per cent of GDP. Twenty-three of 32 NATO members are aligned with the projected two per cent pledge in 2024, while NATO’s Secretary-General has implied that this is the lowest recommended support.
International
Several people were tragically killed in the Caribbean by the category-3 Hurricane Beryl.
Richard Thompson, acting director general at Jamaica’s disaster agency, said in an interview on local news that 1,000 Jamaicans were in shelters by Wednesday evening. Presently, a death toll of 10 has been mentioned and is expected to rise.
“It’s terrible. Everything’s gone. I’m in my house and scared,” said Amoy Wellington, a 51-year-old cashier who lives in Top Hill, a rural farming community in Jamaica’s southern St. Elizabeth parish. “It’s a disaster.”
The storm reached 200 to 205 km/hr winds in most areas, causing floods, power outage and roofs being ripped off homes.
Several prominent tourist areas such as Cancun, Playa Del Carmen and Barbados have been damaged, which may harm the long-term economy of the regions.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.
