Here is the last installment of a brief list of artists who died while performing onstage.

The Italian electronic artist Brandbug died of a heart attack behind the decks in November 2016.

In 2017, the former drummer for Boston, Sib Hanshian, was performing on a Legends of Rock cruise when he died onstage.

Barbara Weldens was a French singer known for performing barefoot. On September 2017, she stepped on a faulty cable onstage during a gig in a church and was electrocuted.

And how’s this for way to go: Three members of an Indonesian rock band called Seventeen died in December 2018 when, during a performance on a beach, were swept out to sea by a sudden tsunami.

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I’ll admit that this is kind of obscure, but it was one of the songs I played on the overnight show when I first joined CFNY in the old Spirit of Radio days. I’d never heard of Spear of Destiny and its leader Kirk Brandon. Four singles made the charts in the UK, but only one–this one–cracked the top 20. The album from whence it came, Outland, reached number 16.

Fun fact: Brandon sued Boy George for malicious falsehood after George write in his autobiography that the two of them had a sexual thing in the early 80s, claiming that allegations of him being gay hurt his prospects as a musician. Brandon lost that case. But then he sued over the lyrics in a George song called Unfinished Business where the alleged affair was brought up again. He lost that one, too, and was initially ordered to pay £200,000. That was later reduced to about £20,000. When he was portrayed by an actor in the TV biopic of Boy George Worried About the Boy in 2010, he kept his mouth shut.

The group was formed in London in 1982 and is still active. Their most recent album, Ghost Population (their 15th!), came out in 2022.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

For the last couple of posts, we’ve been looking at performers who died while onstage. Our list picks up with Deven Clifford. He was the drummer for the indie band You Say Party! We Say Die! On April 16, 2010, he stopped playing and hit the floor stone dead. The band dropped the “We Say Die” part of their name after that.

Guitarist Mike Saccaia who played with industrial bands like Ministry and Rigor Mortis, collapsed and died of a heart attack onstage in 2012.

Four of the five members of a Romanian metalcore band called Goodbye to Gravity died when their pyro set off a fire in the club where they were playing.

And former Megadeth drummer Nick Menza was playing with his band OHM when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Am I done? Not yet. More next time.

© 2025 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Sujan “SOHM” Khanal is originally from Nepal. He’s now living in LA making music like this and composing for film. He’s moved from folky stuff with his 2002 debut album to something more rocky for two more recent EPs,

If you’ve ever made some bad decisions that you’ve later come to regret this is the song for you.

© 2025 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Tax season is quickly approaching and there are a few changes to be aware of.

A Saskatchewan accountant says one of these changes involves the income threshold for 2024.

“Earlier it was somewhere $14,000 and this year it’s $15,705, so people can earn a little more income compared to last year,” Gautam Sudani said.

Sudani says there have also been changes to the Canada Workers Benefit and the rules for those who make an income behind the wheel, specifically rideshare and delivery drivers for services such as Uber or Skip (formerly SkipTheDishes).

For those who opened a first home savings account, Sudani says to indicate that on your return to maximize your contribution allowance.

He adds that common mistakes include not knowing deadline dates or not including all relevant tax information, such as T4s.

He encourages those filing for the first time and those new to the country to create an account with the Canada Revenue Agency.

“They can keep up to date their account if they move from one place to another, because newcomers once they come, there are a lot of changes in their life?” Sudani said.

Sudani says not filing your taxes can result in interest, penalties or not receiving a notice of assessment — which is needed to apply for things like housing loans.

Canadians can start filing their 2024 tax returns online on Feb. 24 with that familiar deadline of April 30.

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Toronto Police say they have seized the largest amount of cocaine in the service’s history and allege that the drugs had ties to a cartel in Mexico.

Police Chief Myron Demkiw told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that 835 kilograms of cocaine was confiscated, worth an estimated street value of around $83 million.

Demkiw alleges the “835 kilograms of cocaine that is alleged to have the hallmarks of coming from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.”

“We know that these drugs travelled all the way from Mexico over the United States southern border and then made their way here to Canada where we stopped and seized them,” Demkiw said.

Project Castillo — an investigation that began in August 2024 and was led by Toronto Police with the help of York Regional Police, CBSA and the RCMP — saw several search warrants executed across the Greater Toronto Area.

Six people were arrested, including four Canadians and two Mexican nationals, police said.

“I can tell you that getting 835 kg of cocaine off of our streets will make a huge difference for the wellbeing of our communities,” Demkiw said.

More to come.

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B.C. Premier David Eby will be speaking live at a press conference on Tuesday following U.S. President Donald Trump’s new comments on potential tariffs on Canadian goods.

Trump said on Monday that he expects the 25 per cent tariffs to come into effect on Feb. 1.

On Monday, before Trump mentioned a date for the tariffs, B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said the province would respond in kind.

While she did not give details about specific products B.C. might target, Bailey said “Everything is on the table.”

She referenced Eby’s press conference last week where he mentioned products including U.S. wine sold in B.C. liquor stores, Florida orange juice sold in B.C. grocery stores and Harley Davidson motorcycles sold in B.C.

“Of note, focusing on products that are particularly in red states where they will have impact and the potential to influence the people within Trump’s own party,” Bailey said.

“So I’ll state again that nothing would be off the table.”

Eby is scheduled to speak live at 12:30 p.m. PST and that will be livestreamed above.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the province had taxpayers in mind when it lifted a ban on new coal exploration in the Rockies.

Smith says the cost of pending lawsuits was factored into the decision last week by Energy Minister Brian Jean to lift the moratorium on new coal development.

The decision is the latest in a series of back-and-forth government policy manoeuvres over coal development on the eastern slopes of the mountain chain.

The United Conservative Party government opened the door to new coal projects in 2020 only to close the door again in 2022 after public concerns, mainly over environmental impact.

That freeze on coal exploration and development prompted five coal companies to sue the province, arguing they’re owed more than $15 billion in lost revenues and costs.

Smith says the potential liability facing Alberta means the government needs to take the lawsuits seriously and taxpayers need to be protected, but critics say the province has needlessly declared open season on coal development.

© 2025 The Canadian Press

Tanzania’s president said Monday that one sample from a remote part of northern Tanzania tested positive for Marburg disease, which is caused by a highly infectious virus which can be fatal in up to 88 per cent of cases without treatment.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan spoke in Dodoma, the capital, alongside World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

WHO was the first to report on Jan. 14 a suspected outbreak of Marburg that had killed eight people in Tanzania’s Kagera region. Tanzanian health officials disputed the report hours later, saying tests on samples had returned negative results.

Hassan said Monday that further tests had confirmed a case of Marburg. Twenty-five other samples were negative, she said.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bedsheets.

Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases death from extreme blood loss. There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg.

This is the second outbreak of Marburg in Kagera since 2023. It comes exactly a month after Rwanda, which shares with a border with Kagera, declared its own outbreak of the disease was over.

Rwandan officials reported a total of 15 deaths and 66 cases in the outbreak first declared on Sept. 27, with the majority of those affected health care workers who handled the first patients.

© 2025 The Canadian Press

Richmond, B.C.’s mayor supported a motion at council on Monday night for more transparency on elected officials’ pay.

On Friday, Mayor Malcolm Brodie refused to answer questions about his total compensation package of at least $362,000 in 2023. He earns $198,000 as mayor and the extra money is collected by sitting on various boards such as Metro Vancouver and TransLink.

Coun. Kash Heed put forward a motion on Monday night to have staff come up with a simple reporting tool and display compensation packages in one place that the public can access.

“This openness not only ensures that elected officials receive appropriate compensation but it also validates the rationale behind their salaries,” Heed said.

Brodie is among the highest-paid mayors in B.C., earning $135,000 more than Premier David Eby.

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