A driver who has racked up 32 driving prohibitions or suspensions, as well as 16 24-hour driving bans, failed to convince a British Columbia judge he should get a lighter sentence than normal for drunk driving because more than six months in jail could get him deported to India.

Vernon’s Gurinder Pal Singh Bajwa, a permanent resident of Canada who escaped deportation in 2019 on an impaired driving conviction with a sentence of five months and 29 days, got a reduced sentence this time around because Mounties

captured him on surveillance cameras using the toilet

in a holding cell after he was arrested for impaired driving again on May 11, 2022, after rear-ending a white Hyundai Tucson with his Mercedes sport utility vehicle in the parking lot of a Wholesale Club. His blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

But the judge refused to lighten Bajwa’s sentence on convictions for impaired and prohibited driving to a level that wouldn’t have immigration consequences for the 57-year-old. Any sentence over six months can result in deportation from Canada.

“To accede to Mr. Bajwa’s request for a (conditional sentence) or a reduction of the jail time on either count for the impact of the collateral immigration consequences to Mr. Bajwa and as a remedy (for breaching his Charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure), would bring the administration of justice into disrepute and result in an inappropriate and artificial sentence; in other words, an unfit sentence,” Judge David Patterson of B.C.’s provincial court wrote in a recent decision.

Bajwa immigrated to Canada from India’s Punjab region over 34 years ago.

“He received his first British Columbia driving prohibition on March 19, 1993,” said the judge. “He has also accumulated a substantial number of additional Criminal Code convictions and Motor Vehicle Act infractions.”

The Crown recommended Bajwa get between nine and 12 months in jail, a $2,500 fine and a five-year driving prohibition for the impaired driving charge, plus another four months behind bars for getting behind the wheel while he “was subject to five separate driving prohibitions” or suspensions.

“I am flabbergasted that Crown counsel has only sought a four-month consecutive jail sentence (for driving while prohibited),” Patterson said in his decision dated June 2. “Given the circumstances of the offence, it is hard to imagine a more suitable case for the two-year less-a-day maximum sentence allowed.”

Bajwa’s lawyer argued for a conditional sentence or no more jail time than he got in 2019 — five months and 29 days behind bars. He noted that would allow Bajwa to remain in Canada.

The court heard Bajwa “has no one in India” and that he’s in the process of getting a divorce “as his alcohol usage ruined his relationship with his estranged wife and his children,” said the judge, who noted they live in Canada.

Eight days after he was caught drunk driving in May of 2022, Bajwa “was very intoxicated at his daughter’s wedding and smacked a plate of food out of her hand,” said the decision.

“He was subsequently convicted of assault … and handed a 60-day jail sentence followed by an 18-month probation order, which included having no contact with his estranged wife or children.”

That was “the last straw for the family, essentially,” said the decision.

Bajwa “claims that his problems with alcohol started when he was a roofer,” it said. “He had a group of co-workers and they would often go drinking alcohol together. His alcohol consumption spiralled out of control.”

After he was caught driving drunk in 2022, Bajwa “began the process of getting his life together,” said the decision. “He gave up drinking alcohol and took a few counselling sessions. He now lives with a close friend … and he is an active participant in the Vernon Sikh community.”

Bajwa’s “moral blameworthiness is at the highest end of the spectrum,” said the judge.

Patterson said he had “considered the potential impact of a jail sentence of six months or more on him, including the possibility that he may be removed from Canada, his home for more than 34 years.”

Bajwa got a letter from the Canada Border Services Agency in February of 2024 “alleging he may be inadmissible to Canada” for serious criminality.

“Removal from Canada would lead to dire consequences for Mr. Bajwa,” said the judge.

“He would be forced to leave the country he has called home for more than 34 years. He would face the prospect of returning to India, which has changed since he last resided there. A country that now may be as foreign to him as Canada was when Mr. Bajwa immigrated to Canada.”

After considering the Charter breach, Patterson sentenced Bajwa to 198 days (just over six months) in jail for the impaired driving conviction, fined him $2,000 and banned him from driving for three years.

For driving while prohibited, the judge handed Bajwa another 120 days behind bars (about four months) to be served consecutively, for a total of about 10 months in jail.

• B.C. drunk driver will get lighter sentence because he was video-recorded using the toilet
• Jamie Sarkonak: Canada’s criminal sentencing discounts for non-citizens are unfair

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

A new multilateral defence bank aims to help Canada and its allies build their militaries to meet looming threats in an increasingly hostile world while also giving Canadian industry a leg up when it comes to producing weaponry and military kit to tackle those threats head on.

And its Canadian president is hoping it will have a major presence in Toronto.

Announced this past spring, the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank could solve financial problems for countries, including Canada, that are under pressure to increase military spending beyond two per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP). Some estimates peg the more likely target as five per cent of GDP as Russia and China grow increasingly belligerent on the world stage.

“We have to use our capital markets of allied nations for overwhelming force against our foes,” Kevin D. Reed, the new bank’s president and chief operating officer, said in a recent interview.

The theory is the bank would allow Canada and other countries to re-arm, said Reed, who has helped start nine companies including Equity Transfer & Trust.

“Hopefully that acts as a form of deterrent against big conflicts.”

The United Kingdom “has emerged as the lead candidate to take this on,” according to Reed.

“That being said, we’ve … advocated to our Canadian government that there’s a window here for Canada to take a co-leadership role with the U.K.”

Reed would like to see a branch of the bank located in Toronto.

If Canada chose to be the bank’s host nation, or to co-host with London, “you’re probably looking at 2,500-3,500” banking jobs in Toronto, he said.

The bank would be owned by member nations, including NATO and Indo-Pacific countries.

“They would capitalize the bank, we would get a triple-A rating, and we would take it to the bond market to raise money,” Reed said.

“If we have all 40 nations in, we would expect about $60 billion of equity into the bank over time, and then subject to the bond markets we would seek to raise $100 billion at first, taking that up to about $400-500 billion over time.”

For countries that don’t have a triple-A credit rating, it would mean a lower cost to capital, he said.

It would also allow nations in immediate need of more defence dollars to tap the bank for money, rather than waiting for annual budget cycles.

“The real driver in this is that it would provide credit guarantees to commercial banks to lend into the defence sector,” Reed said. “Most commercial banks … unless you’re a big prime (like Boeing), if you’re a number two or three or four in the supply chain, you’re almost unbankable, historically, because of ESG (an investing principle that prioritizes environmental and social issues, as well as corporate governance) and just a view of defence.”

The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank would be similar to Export Development Canada, a Crown corporation that provides financial and risk management services to Canadian exporters and investors, “but way bigger,” Reed said.

It would offer large banks such as RBC and BMO credit guarantees “that would loosen up capital so they could offer lines of credit, trade finance, you name it, but we can grow the industrial base a lot faster,” Reed said.

That would, in turn, speed up military procurement, he said.

“It takes nine years to get a jet or seven years to get a shoulder-fired rocket launcher,” Reed said. “It’s because the industrial base just isn’t big enough. It’s been constrained. So, this would push liquidity into the commercial banks.”

Sovereign countries could also “enhance procurement” by borrowing from the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank on the promise that they “have to execute within two years,” Reed said. “We want to foster that rapid-fire procurement that we know has been a problem for all member nations.”

Right now, it takes 16 years for startups to go from selling the Department of National Defence on their products to procurement, he said.

“Companies just can’t live in that

—

they call that the Valley of Death,” Reed said.

“That is a problem. If you want to invent a new bullet … in your garage, you’re going to wait a long time.”

Rob Murray, NATO’s inaugural head of innovation and a former U.K. army officer, started writing the blueprint for the bank about five years ago.

But, at the time, interest rates were flat, Russia hadn’t launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, and U.S. President Donald Trump was not in power.

When the Ukraine war began, interest rates started climbing and people started recognizing “threat levels are changing around the world,” Reed said.

Then Trump came to power in his second term and started “forcing the hand of many NATO nations” to increase their defence spending, Reed said.

Murray published his blueprint last December.

“On the back of that he was invited down to brief the president elect down at Mar-a-Lago,” Reed said, “and Rob’s world just started to expand rapidly with proposed member nations seeking him out, asking how would this work? How can we get involved?”

Murray asked Reed to step in as the bank’s president in early February “to help stitch together the coalition of governments” needed to bring the idea to fruition.

“Every European nation has been briefed,” Reed said.

“And we did the briefing for Canada right after the election” with senior people in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office, the Privy Council Office, and departments including National Defence, Finance, Global Affairs and Treasury Board.

Reed also briefed officials in Singapore last week and plans to do the same in Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand this week.

“We’re trying to drive this around a consensus of a dozen anchor nations,” he said.

NATO figures from last June suggest Canada spent just 1.37 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2024. The Liberals have said they expect it to reach two per cent by 2030 “at the latest.”

But that’s not fast enough for Trump, who has complained repeatedly about Canada piggybacking on the U.S. for military protection.

“While I don’t like what he’s saying, I see this as an opportunity to get ourselves going,” Reed said. “We have not done our job in a long time. We’ve not fulfilled our commitments, and this a kick in the pants to say who are we, and what do we stand for?”

Later this month, Reed expects NATO countries to accept a new spending minimum of 3.5 per cent of GDP for defence and 1.5 per cent for border security.

“To go from our base today … it’s another $100-110 billion a year to ramp up to that,” he said of Canada. “And that’s not in future dollars. That’s in last year’s dollars. So, any available mechanism that can help grow the industrial base and get them towards those NATO soon-to-be targets is going to be well received.”

Founding members of the bank will start meeting in the fall to hammer out details. Reed anticipates standing up the bank next year.

“I like the idea of another mechanism, and a very powerful and large one, and I think a very influential one, that can help us do more in the defence and security domain in Western democracies,” said retired general Rick Hillier, Canada’s former top soldier, who has joined the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank’s board of directors.

He predicts Canada is going to need “a revolution in defence and security procurement” to solve the Canadian Forces’ equipment woes.

More money could accelerate the acquisition of new aircraft, warships and submarines, he said.

“The component I’m most worried about is the army,” Hillier said. “The army is broken. We’re down people. Our bases and our infrastructure are in very sad condition. And we lack every kind of capability that a force needs in the kind of areas where we would find ourselves fighting right now. If things go south in Eastern Europe and (Vladimir) Putin and Russia get into some kind of thing they can’t extract themselves from and start heading into Lithuania and Latvia, where there are several thousand Canadians, our sons and daughters, we are ill-prepared to insure that they’re ready to look after themselves.”

The army lacks self-propelled artillery pieces, air defence systems, technology that can detect, track, and neutralize drones, and equipment to remove minefields, Hillier said. “We need to focus a huge amount of that defence spend on the army.”

Canada has also been lagging in spending to defend our north, he said. “We’ve got to know what’s going on in the Arctic, to be able to see what’s going on specifically, to be able to communicate what’s going on and then to be able to respond to what’s going, whether its air, land, or depending on the time of year, sea forces. Right now, we can only do a very small part of that.”

The country needs satellites and ultra-long endurance drones to cover the north, Hillier said. Bases should be built in Inuvik, Rankin Inlet, and Iqaluit, he said. “Then you have to connect … those spots by upgrading the airfields across the north.”

The military also needs billions of dollars to repair and replace old buildings, Hillier said.

Canada’s military has a shortfall of about 15,000 people right now, Hillier said. “You do not attract first rate people with third rate infrastructure. And right now, you go to any garrison, any base, any wing across Canada and the infrastructure is crumbling.”

At CFB Trenton, the military’s hub for air transport operations in Canada and abroad, people can’t even drink the water on the base “because it’s contaminated,” Hillier said.

At CFB Petawawa, “the fire hall they’ve been trying to replace for years floods in any kind of a rainstorm,” he said. “As soon as it shuts down, you shut down operations in that training area, in that garrison, for the brigade, for the helicopter squadron and for the special forces training centre.”

Hillier believes the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank could help alleviate all of these problems.

“There’s an enormous amount of momentum because the inherent good in it is evident to most people as soon as they sit and think about what it could achieve,” he said.

This is the latest in a National Post series on How Canada Wins. Read earlier instalments here.

• Opinion: Two ways to boost Canadian defence spending and minimize Trump’s tariff threats
• Canada’s boutique military: ‘Should we not be able to defend ourselves?’

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

A new study reveals what drinking tea and eating dark chocolate and berries did for a group of more than 120,000 people.

Those foods, as well as fruits like grapes, apples, oranges, and beverages like red wine, all contain flavonoids, which are compounds found in many plant products. Flavonoids can “help your body function more efficiently while protecting it against everyday toxins and stressors,”

per Healthline

. The study’s authors said those who consumed a diverse range of foods containing flavonoids (such as berries, grapes and dark chocolate) “could lower their risk of developing serious health conditions and have the potential to live longer,” in

a news release

. The study has been peer-reviewed.

In the study, which was

recently published in the journal Nature Food

, researchers observed 124,805 participants between the ages of 40 and 70 from the UK Biobank, a large-scale database with biomedical information. The participants were tracked for roughly 10 years and their dietary information was collected using a questionnaire asking them about the frequency in which they ate approximately 200 types of food and 30 beverages.

Dr. Benjamin Parmenter, a research fellow at Edith Cowan University in Australia, was the study’s first author and co-lead. He said consuming roughly 500 mg of flavonoids a day or more was linked to a 16 per cent lower risk of “all-cause mortality” (meaning death from any cause).

It was also linked to a roughly 10 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and respiratory disease.

A

study published in 2025

in peer-reviewed food science journal Foods said, as it pertains to human health, “flavonoids are recognized for their ability to combat aging, mitigate inflammation, safeguard the nervous system, and promote overall well-being.” However, in another study published in

2022 in the Nutrition Journal

, researchers “observed an increased risk of prostate cancer by higher intake of total flavonoids.” In a

study published in 2016 in the Journal of Nutritional Science

, researchers called for further studies on flavonoids so their usefulness “in the diet could be improved for better human health.”

“Over 30 different types of flavonoids are regularly consumed in the human diet. These are found in different types of everyday foods,” Parmenter told National Post over email.

A few squares of dark chocolate could be roughly 25 mg of flavonoids. One apple is equal to roughly 100 mg of flavonoids, while one orange is roughly 60 mg. For tea drinkers, one cup of black tea is roughly 300 mg of flavonoids, while the same amount of green tea is roughly 150 mg.

“We observed that consuming a higher quantity and wider diversity of dietary flavonoids, when consumed together, may represent the optimal approach for improving long-term health, compared with increasing either flavonoid quantity or diversity alone,” Parmenter said.

Those with the highest flavonoid diversity were more likely to be female, older, have a lower body mass index (BMI), be more physically active and have a higher education and were less likely to be current smokers, according to the study.

“We also know from lab data and clinical studies that different flavonoids work in different ways, some improve blood pressure, others help with cholesterol levels and decrease inflammation,” said study co-lead professor Aedín Cassidy, per the news release. Cassidy is from the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast.

The findings of the study show how “simple and achievable dietary dietary swaps” can “potentially improve health in the long-term,” she said.

“Dietary swaps, such as drinking more tea and eating more berries and apples for example, can help increase the variety and intake of flavonoid-rich foods, and potentially improve health in the long-term,” said Cassidy.

According to researchers, no previous works appear to have reported on the human health benefits of a flavonoid-diverse diet.

“Consequently, replication of our findings in other cohorts and clinical trials will be critical, as will the exploration of flavonoid diversity with other disease outcomes. Interpretation, however, requires careful consideration,” said researchers, in the study.

The study was led by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast, Edith Cowan University Perth, and the Medical University of Vienna and Universitat Wien.

• Smoking one cigarette equals 20 minute off your life, study finds
• What drinking 3 cups of coffee daily did to a study group of more than 170,000 people

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will attend the G7 meeting in Kananaskis this month after receiving an invitation from Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the Summit,”

said Modi, on social media

.

Modi wrote that he spoke to Carney on the phone and congratulated him on his recent election victory.

Carney’s office confirmed the invitation on Friday morning, saying “the two leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between Canada and India.”

“Importantly, there was agreement to continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns,” the statement reads.

Relations between the two countries have been tense since 2023, when a local Sikh leader was shot and killed outside the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau

told the House of Commons

that there was credible evidence that agents of the Indian government were behind the murder.

More to come.

National Post

• Liberals to remove federal trade barriers, fast-track major projects in new bill
• FIRST READING: The wild overreach contained in the Liberals’ new border control bill

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Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government plans to remove federal trade barriers by recognizing the rules provinces have in place, National Post has learned.

The measures are set to be introduced in a “One Canadian Economy” bill aimed at knocking down federal trade barriers and fast-tracking the approvals process for major energy and infrastructure projects to be introduced Friday.

The full title of the bill is “An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.”

The proposed legislation takes aim at the overlap that exists between rules at the provincial and federal levels of government, including when it comes to workers.

The federal government is hoping the legislation will receive unanimous support from all parties to fast-track its adoption, but at least one opposition party has said that will not happen.

Bloc Québécois House leader Christine Normandin said on Wednesday her party will want to study the bill in great detail and hear from experts in parliamentary committees, which are not yet up and running.

“For the interest of the population that we represent, we’re going to do the work,” she said.

Carney is expected to hold a media availability to answer questions about the legislation around 12:30.

Besides addressing trade barriers, the bill will usher in a new process to fast-track approvals for major projects by creating a new federal major projects office.

By creating the new office, the government promises to streamline the regulatory process and cut the approval timeline from five to two years.

Carney and the premiers met earlier this week and agreed on the criteria for what constitutes a project to be in the “national interest,” which would allow it to be fast-tracked.

Requirements include Indigenous participation, the potential for clean growth, and a high likelihood of success.

The federal government has promised that the proposed bill to fast-track resource project approvals would follow the constitutional duty to consult First Nations.

However, the Assembly of First Nations has said it needs to see the full text of the bill to analyze it legally and has warned the approach

poses a “serious threat” to treaty rights

. On Friday, they reiterated that concern.

“The Assembly of First Nations remains deeply concerned about the lack of time and appropriate process to carry out the Crown’s consultation and consent obligations, especially given the potentially massive impact on the rights of First Nations,” the AFN said, in a statement to National Post.

National Post

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

• Doug Ford and Scott Moe agree to work on eliminating trade barriers on eve of first ministers’ meeting
• Proposed fast-tracking of national projects ‘serious threat’ to treaty rights: AFN Chief

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