Unpublished Newswire

A man convicted of ripping off a rival’s gold chain in Toronto over a $100 debt and slashing his face with a knife has convinced a jury that he stabbed his victim to death in self-defence and will serve just 21 more months behind bars, though the judge said a longer sentence could “easily be justified.” A jury in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice convicted Tamar Enoch Cupid last fall for the 2023 robbery and aggravated assault of Ifeanyichukwu Gabby Oseke in the Knob Hill Plaza, but found him not guilty of manslaughter. The jury “accepted, or at least had a reasonable doubt as to...

School may be out for summer, but for a considerable number of students that won’t make a huge difference to the time spent in classrooms. Chronic absenteeism, defined by experts as missing more than 10 per cent of school days, or about two instructional days per month, rose sharply during the pandemic but has stubbornly refused to come down, a trend seen throughout the Western world. To combat the problem, the Ontario government announced a plan in April that would tie attendance to grades — in secondary schools only, so far. Paul Calandra, the province’s education minister, said...