Six days before the nail-biting 1995 Quebec referendum that nearly tore the country apart, Jean Chrétien told his ministers to keep their cool. The prime minister acknowledged that day that Quebecers might vote to separate from Canada on Oct. 30. He told his cabinet it wasn’t the time to discuss the consequences of a vote […]

Seven obstetrician gynecologists have resigned from in-hospital privileges under the Interior Health authority at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, B.C. Interior Health vice-president of medicine Dr. Mark Masterson says the doctors make up the whole department, but he assured the public there will be no change to obstetric or gynecology services at the hospital. His […]

An American man was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to cyber extortion in the mass data breach of a student information system used across Canada.  Court documents show Matthew D. Lane was sentenced in a Massachusetts court after he pleaded guilty to charges relating to the cyber extortion of two […]

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it’s committed to “ongoing review and improvement” of its use of new technologies following a critical spy watchdog report. The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency said in a report made public this week that CSIS lacked “adequate policies and procedures” to manage a confidential technical means of collecting […]

Documents detailing Canada’s effort to help citizens and permanent residents leave Lebanon last year on commercial flights and charters show there was huge interest in the first few days of the effort but uptake dropped off dramatically. In the end, Canada spent nearly three times as much to keep chartered planes on standby on the […]

Marineland’s crumbling infrastructure, staffing shortage and lack of resources have created dangerous conditions for its belugas and they should be moved immediately, a fired beluga trainer says. Kristy Burgess, who worked at the Niagara Falls, Ont., park when a young beluga was put down in February, said Marineland’s threat to euthanize all 30 of its […]

A newly released spy watchdog report says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service lacked adequate policies and procedures to manage a secret technology for collecting information. The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency says CSIS mischaracterized a novel technical capability as an extension of existing know-how. The report says this led to CSIS not consulting Public […]

Global Affairs Canada says deteriorating stability worldwide is causing a massive expansion in the work required to protect Canadians abroad, with the department warning Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand that Canadians might need to pay more and expect less. That’s according to the briefing binder prepared for Anand when she took on the role in […]

The Liberal government’s efforts to revise Canada’s national security strategy hit a snag when it became clear earlier this year that many of the assumptions underlying the work were “no longer valid,” a newly released memo reveals. John Hannaford, the Privy Council clerk at the time, told Prime Minister Mark Carney in the memo that […]

Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked each of his cabinet ministers and secretaries of state to identify three to five “key objectives” that will help the Liberal government achieve its core missions. In a July 8 letter, Carney gave the ministers and secretaries less than three weeks to map out these priorities for action over […]

Front-line housing workers in central Newfoundland say the province is transporting local homeless people out of their communities to other towns with more services — sometimes buying them bus tickets all the way to the capital, St. John’s. Sherri Chippett in Grand Falls-Windsor says people needing housing in her area used to be able to […]

The president of the group representing local governments in British Columbia says she welcomes proposed changes that would make it easier for First Nations and municipalities to meet behind closed doors. Cori Ramsay, president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, said her group and First Nations requested the changes, saying they give nations “the […]