VANCOUVER - The executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users says Health Canada's decision to allow British Columbia to again prohibit the use of illicit drugs in most public spaces will cause more deaths, calling it "prohibition 2.0." Brittany Graham says the initial decriminalization exemp...

LONGUEUIL, Que. - A Quebec court judge has ruled that the case against a former RCMP officer charged with helping China conduct foreign interference can go ahead in the province. Judge Sacha Blais denied William Majcher's bid to quash the indictment against him. Lawyers for the 61-year-old argued in April that the char...

WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg man has admitted to killing four women but claims he's not criminally responsible because of mental illness. Jeremy Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. His trial began Wednesday. Here is a timeline of the case: March 15, 2022 - Police say an unidentified wom...

OTTAWA - Jewish students from major Canadian universities appeared on Parliament Hill today to raise the alarm about a rise in antisemitism on their campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war. They appeared alongside several Liberal MPs, including Anthony Housefather, who helped initiate a parliamentary committee study about a...

OTTAWA - Longtime Ottawa journalist Joyce Napier is headed to the Vatican as Canada's new ambassador. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced Napier's appointment and says she will work to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in the new role. Napier's 40-year career as a journalist included ti...

OTTAWA - The federal health minister says he isn't convinced by the rationale used to deny independent hygienists equal reimbursement for the same services dentists' offices offer under a new national plan. Reimbursement rates vary from province to province, but the dental program pays significantly less for a cleaning...

OTTAWA - Public service unions say they'll launch further legal challenges and grievances over new rules that federal employees must work from the office at least three days a week. The unions are promising a "summer of discontent" over the policy, which was announced by the federal government earlier this mo...

OTTAWA - Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says carbon capture technology is not too expensive or ineffective. Wilkinson is defending carbon sequestration systems after a high-profile project in Alberta was abandoned over its price tag. Capital Power, an Edmonton-based electricity company, pulled the plug last week on...

RICHMOND, B.C. - The president of London Drugs has issued a letter apologizing for a cybersecurity incident that forced the company to close stores for more than a week, but he says there's no evidence customer databases were compromised. The letter from Clint Mahlman says the Richmond, B.C.-based company is still inve...

Quebec Premier François Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador criticized Legault's April 25 comments that suggested the province's history began with the ...

SURREY, B.C. - A court date has been set for the third man charged with the murder of British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, coinciding with that of the other two suspects. Case listings from Surrey Provincial Court in B.C. show that Kamalpreet Singh will appear next on May 21. Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpree...

OTTAWA - NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is slamming the federal Liberals for giving nearly $26 million to Costco and Loblaw for energy-efficient appliances. In 2019, the Liberals faced heat from Conservatives after the government announced it was giving $12 million to Loblaw for energy-efficient refrigerators and freezers. ...

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - An immigration lawyer in Toronto says new figures from the federal government show just how "grudging" Ottawa's efforts have been to rescue Canadians' family members from the war in the Gaza Strip. Figures obtained by The Canadian Press through an access to information request show Canadian...

OTTAWA - City officials say they've cancelled a flag-raising ceremony at Ottawa City Hall to mark the establishment of Israel because of security concerns. The flag will be raised next Tuesday, but a ceremony involving the mayor, diplomats and members of the Jewish community will not go ahead. The city says it has int...

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today... Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today. That means Canadians in most provinces and territories will receive a tes...

OTTAWA - The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today. That means Canadians in most provinces and territories will receive a test alert on their cellphones, as well as through TV and radio broadcasts. The sole exception is Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15. Provincial an...

OTTAWA, Ill. - A new opinion poll suggests nearly half of Canadians oppose the pro-Palestinian encampments that have cropped up on some university campuses. Just 31 per cent of people who took the Leger survey last weekend said they support the encampments, while 48 per cent were against the demonstrations. About one i...

DUNCAN, B.C. - Images of steelhead and trout flicker over long sheets of paper, brought to life in blue and green crayon rubbings by the thousands. It's called Project 84,000, and is intended to depict the number of steelhead and trout that died in a massive fish kill in the drought-stricken Cowichan River on southern...

Toronto police are seeking help from the public as they continue to investigate a shooting that seriously injured a security guard outside rapper Drake's mansion. The shooting took place shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday in the affluent Bridle Path neighbourhood, and police were searching for suspects who fled in a vehicle...

WINNIPEG - The trial of a man who admits he killed four women in Winnipeg is set to begin Wednesday, and a law professor says lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki have multiple hurdles to clear for a defence of mental illness. Skibicki, 37, faces four counts of first-degree murder. His lawyers told court this week they will arg...

VANCOUVER - Simon Coutts remembers being "heckled" by passersby in 2011 as he boarded up his bike shop on Vancouver's Robson Street before the Canucks' Game 7 Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins, that would spur hordes of drunken fans to riot. Simon's Bike Shop had been in business since 1986, and Coutts s...

RICHMOND, B.C. - London Drugs says it has reopened all its stores across Western Canada after a cybersecurity breach forced the retailer to close last month. The Richmond, B.C.-based retailer and pharmacy chain operates 79 stores across Western Canada. It said in a news release Monday that it had begun reopening its s...

EDMONTON - The Alberta government is appointing a new committee to look into ways to speed up reclamation of tailings ponds in the province's oilsands. The province says in a release that the committee will examine potential policies and options that would allow reclamation to happen as quickly and safely as possible....

VANCOUVER - The president of the University of British Columbia says its endowment fund doesn't directly own any stocks that are the target of divestment demands by pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up an encampment on the Vancouver campus. Benoit-Antoine Bacon says the targeted companies are instead part of &quo...

ZEBALLOS, B.C. - A reported sighting of an orca pod off Vancouver Island near where an orphan killer whale is spending her time after escaping from a lagoon has an expert expressing caution and downplaying a possible family reunion. A confirmed sighting of a pod of nine orcas was reported Monday near Kyuquot Sound, abo...

The Canadian government used a Haitian executive's property for helicopter evacuations of its citizens as violence escalated there last month, even while refusing to remove him from a sanctions list, a Federal Court application says. The Canadian government sanctioned Reynold Deeb in December 2022, along with two othe...

OTTAWA - The head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is set to testify before members of Parliament today. CEO and president Catherine Tait will appear before the Heritage committee with Marco Dubé, CBC's chief transformation officer. This is Tait's second time in the hot seat this year. The committee is study...

OTTAWA - India's envoy to Ottawa says Canadians need to rebuild the country's brand as a destination for bright minds, lamenting that a number of international students have died after being exploited. High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations that exploitation is undermining t...