Five Canadian provinces boost their minimum wage, Alberta now lowest, Five provinces are increasing their minimum wage today to support workers amid affordability issues.

The hikes will apply to Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

The provinces have tied their increases to Canada’s steadily growing consumer price index, which is an indicator of inflation.

Ontario’s minimum wage is now $17.60 per hour, Nova Scotia’s and Prince Edward Island’s are $16.50 an hour, Manitoba’s is $16 per hour and Saskatchewan’s is $15.35 an hour.

Alberta is the only province that has not boosted its minimum wage, with its $15-per-hour rate now the lowest in #Canada.

British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador raised their minimum wage earlier this year.

‘Jumping for joy’: Olympic hopeful on track for permanent residency after facing deportation.

It was late Thursday when Tamarri Lindo, 21, saw an unexpected email pop up in his inbox from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that changed his and his family’s entire lives: an email that said they were no longer under threat of deportation and could finally call Canada home as permanent residents.

“We read a letter that IRCC said something about being approved. I was like, ‘Wait, I didn’t just read this right? Did I just read this right?’” said Lindo in a Zoom interview with CTV News Friday.

“Then we were all over the place that night.. we’re shouting, we’re jumping up and down. I was very excited. But what’s crazy is that it actually felt like a dream, because... I can’t believe it finally happened.”

The Lindo family and their lawyer, Aidan Simardone, began a social media campaign and petition last week to put public pressure on elected officials to stop the Lindo family from getting deported back to Jamaica.

“The petition got over a thousand signatures that were sent to the members of parliament and different ministers who are responsible for both immigration and deportations,” said Simardone in a Zoom interview with CTV News Friday.“Thanks to all this attention, all this pressure that the Lindos ended up getting -- just yesterday, very recently, their humanitarian, compassionate application was approved -- and that’s for the whole family,” Simardone said. “This grants them permanent residency and means that they can remain in Canada, that they no longer can be actually deported anymore and that they are now safe.”

Lindo has a dream to represent Canada at the Olympics as part of the hurdling team, after becoming one of the country’s top hurdlers at the collegiate level. Now competing while in his third year at York University, he already has a gold medal from the 2025 Ontario University Athletics championship in 60-metre hurdles and gold in the 4x100 metre relay at the Canada Games in August.

But his dream almost came to an end after his entire family was on the verge of being deported back to Jamaica.

In 2019, Lindo’s father, George, brought his wife and Lindo’s two sisters to Canada from Jamaica and filed political asylum after their lawyer says George was targeted for his political affiliation with the country’s opposition party, the People’s National Party. He alleged he had been the victim of several violent attacks, including three assassination attempts.

In May of 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) gave them a notice of deportation, and later that year, gave them a one-year extension to stay.

At the time, the IRCC had said the Lindo family had “provided little documentary evidence to demonstrate that they are at risk of harm or persecution in Jamaica as a result of (Lindo’s) political activity” and “crime, including murder, is widespread throughout Jamaica - any risk they face is not personalized, it’s one shared generally by all persons living in Jamaica.”

The one-year extension was set to end this month, with Simardone saying they had an interview with CBSA this upcoming Monday and that deportation would likely begin quickly after that.

“In this case, what we provided was that we showed that the family is contributing significantly to Canada. I mean, of course, the parents who are hard working and pay their taxes, but also the big story here is Tamarri Lindo, with his major success in track and field. And then also continuing to provide evidence, news reports from Jamaica about political violence,” said Simardone.

In an interview with CTV News last Sunday, the family said it believed returning to Jamaica could possibly mean death, and that it had heard from friends and family back home that people had come to the family’s old house in Jamaica looking to see if they had returned.

Simardone credits that public pressure as part of the reason why the IRCC accepted the Lindo family’s claim and has now granted it “permanent residency in principle,” meaning it meets the eligibility criteria, but must still pass the medical, security and background checks.

“I think it’s no surprise that it was very soon after the attention that this case got that we … got an approval. We were, of course, on this for more than two years. And then suddenly, within the span of a week, everything moves really quickly. So thanks to a good reminder of that: nothing’s ever set in stone when it comes to immigration (and) public attention, public pressure does work," said Simardone.

The IRCC did not provide CTV News with a reason as to why the Lindos’ claim was approved, saying it would need the family’s permission, which their lawyer did not provide, to share that private information.

Meanwhile, Lindo is excited at the prospect of representing the maple leaf on the Olympic stage. Now heading towards citizenship, he hopes he can thank Canadians for supporting him and his family by giving them gold medals in return.

“I’ll try my best from right here now to continue making Canada proud,” said Lindo. “And hopefully one day... when it’s time for me to put on that jersey, I remember all of them and make sure I compete every single day for everybody who helped supporting me and my family.”

No injuries have been reported after a small plane containing three occupants crash landed in Toronto’s east end on Monday night.

The incident happened at Monarch Park Collegiate Institute at 1 Hanson St., just south of Danforth Avenue and west of Coxwell Avenue.

Toronto fire said they were dispatched to that area at 8:20 p.m. for reports of a small plane that had crashed into the stadium area.

They said that paramedics at the scene reported smelling gas and fuel.

Toronto fire’s hazmat team quickly responded to address this issue. Toronto fire told CTV News Toronto in an email that a small amount of fuel was leaking, but crews have since been able to contain it.

Toronto police, meanwhile, said they were called to the scene at 8:17 p.m. for reports of a small plane that has crashed in a field. Police said three occupants were on board, noting that no injuries have been reported at this time.

Speaking with reporters at the scene, Toronto fire Chief Jim Jessop said crews arrived to find a small plane that had crashed “just shy” of the soccer field into the parking lot right beside the grandstand.

“I am happy to report there are no injuries to the occupants of the airplane and no injuries to the civilians that were playing soccer on the field. As you can see, the game continues,” he said, adding that the scene is now stabilized and the leaking fuel has been mitigated.

“We have deemed the situation under control so there is no risk to the public.”

Jessop said the aircraft, which looks to be a four-seater 140 Piper Cherokee (C-FXGC), appears to have come through the tree canopy and skidded into a fence about 50 feet away from a field where people were playing soccer.

He said that he has not spoken with the plane’s occupants, whom he described as in their mid 30s to 40s, and is not aware of where the plane came from and where it was heading.

“We were very fortunate tonight, when I was back at the scene, and you look at the amount of people on that field playing soccer, and we got very lucky tonight,” Jessop said.

“This is rare. You know, we did have the plane go down into the lake a number of weeks ago, but to see a plane crash land into the heart of the city on a high school property is something I have not seen in my close to 30 years (of service), and it is extremely rare. So we are very, very fortunate that there were no injuries, that it turned out the way it did, because it could have been a lot worse.”

Transport Canada, the authority that has jurisdiction over this kind of incident, has been notified and wil be handling the investigation once its investigators arrive on scene, Jessop said.

Until they arrive, Toronto fire and police will “maintain scene continuity and stand by and then provide any assistance that is required or requested by Transport Canada,” the fire chief noted.

The Toronto District School Board has been advised of the incident and will work with Transport Canada on next steps in the morning. It not clear at this point if classes will be cancelled for the day.

Witnesses share what they saw and heard

Beach resident Kevin Alexander told CP24 that he was in the area of the park’s pickleball courts when he saw the aircraft’s lights dipping below the trees and then heard the crash, adding that several people who witnessed what happened ran in that direction..

Another witness named Frank Leonardo told CP24 that he was playing soccer nearby when he saw a plane “flying really low” moments before it crash landed.

“The whole field was being played on. Thank God (no one was hurt),” he said.

David was with his kids who were practing soccer at the field at the nearby St. Patrick’s Catholic Secondary School when the plane came down.

“We saw a plane really low. I’m going to say maybe 250 to 300 feet in the air, very quiet. And it was just kind of going from the west side of the field to the east side, and then it was out of sight and then we heard a crash,” he told CP24.

“We saw three occupants that were near the plane and shortly after we saw the police, and fire, and ambulance, everybody showing up.”

With files from CP24’s Melissa Duggan

#BREAKING No injuries reported after small plane with 3 passengers crashes in Toronto