With its frequent fog, rainstorms and snow squalls barrelling in from the Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland and Labrador has long been known as a place with unpredictable weather. But until recently, dangerously hot and dry summers weren’t something people had to worry about.

As unprecedented wildfires chase thousands from their homes in the eastern part of the province, Newfoundlanders are concerned that their usually damp island is entering new territory.

Conservative MPs are calling for a parliamentary investigation into Spanish drugmaker Grifols’s GIFOF use of Canadian-donated blood plasma to make medicines for sale abroad.

The call follows a Globe and Mail investigation that found Canadian Blood Services is selling some blood components to Grifols to manufacture a product called albumin, as part of a complex arrangement between the international pharmaceutical company and the Canadian charity to collect and process blood plasma.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner says the federal government needs to do more to fight Canada’s devastating forest fires.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday in Ottawa, the Alberta MP accused Ottawa of “inaction” on wildfires. She also blamed that lack of action for new measures restricting activities in the forests of two provinces — even though those bans were imposed by the provinces themselves.

A raging wildfire that has forced evacuations on south-central Vancouver Island has shown some of the most severe levels of fire behaviour, a display that is “unusual” for the region, the British Columbia Wildfire Service said.

An update posted by the service said the blaze, located about 12 kilometres south of Port Alberni, has been burning at rank four and five on a six-point scale.

John Miszuk, a refugee from war-torn Europe who only learned to skate at age 12, overcame a late start to forge an 18-season career in professional hockey.

A dependable, stay-at-home defenceman, Mr. Miszuk (pronounced MISH-ook) gained a reputation for delivering punishing bodychecks, including once knocking out an opponent with a clean hit during a playoff game.

American pop star Chappell Roan is known to many as the “Midwest Princess” and now is promising to travel a touch north to the land of the living skies.

Roan has created a buzz in Saskatchewan with the release of The Subway, her new song about post-breakup frustration, where she name-drops Saskatchewan.

A Montreal man charged with assaulting a Jewish father at a park last week will be sent to a psychiatric hospital for a 30-day evaluation to determine criminal responsibility.

Sergio Yanes Preciado appeared before a Quebec court judge on Wednesday afternoon after meeting with a criminologist for an evaluation earlier in the day.

Yanes Preciado, 23, was charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm in an attack on a 32-year-old Jewish father of three at a Montreal park last Friday afternoon.

The federal government announced $25-million in funding today for companies to build more than 850 electric vehicle chargers, mostly in Quebec.

The money will also help companies finance the purchases of natural gas-powered transport and recycling trucks to help companies lower emissions.

Thousands of people in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city have been alerted to flee at a moment’s notice as out-of-control wildfires in the province are now threatening urban centres.

Crews are employing water bombers to slow the growth of flames in St. John’s, near the Trans-Canada Highway, where at least 20,000 residents are under evacuation alert as of Wednesday.

Toronto’s beloved annual fair is touting a lineup of fresh, fried and funky foods ahead of the kickoff of its 146th year in the city.

The Canadian National Exhibition is set to open its gates at the Exhibition Place on Friday, with carnival games, rides, performances and sweet treats on full display.

Farmer Bill Prybylski says China’s planned tariff on canola seed wasn’t factored into his business equations this year.

The president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan says the 75.8 per cent preliminary duty, announced Tuesday, has already caused canola prices to fall by $1 per bushel.

Five-year survival rates for people with lung cancer have doubled since the 1990s, but the disease still kills more patients than any other type of cancer, a Statistics Canada report said on Wednesday.

The report said the number of people living five years after they were diagnosed jumped from 13 per cent to 27 per cent between 1992 and 2021.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it will hold two days of talks with Canada Post.

The union, which represents about 55,000 postal workers, says both sides met with federal mediators on Tuesday and it has agreed to meet with Canada Post on Friday and Monday.

A wildfire about 15 hectares in size on the western outskirts of Halifax continues to burn out of control.

Firefighters said Wednesday they were taking advantage of low wind and foggy conditions through the morning to battle the flames, which erupted Tuesday afternoon.

A B.C. billionaire who wants to buy some Hudson’s Bay leases says landlord claims that she won’t be able to run a successful business in their spaces are “misguided.”

In new court documents filed overnight Wednesday, Ruby Liu says she is prepared to do what is necessary to make her venture successful and if it makes landlords more confident in her plan, will personally guarantee the first year of rent she’ll have to pay them.

Consumers are still seeking local products, but executives at one of Canada’s biggest grocers say the buy Canadian movement is starting to lose some steam.

“It’s decelerating somewhat,” Metro Inc. MRU-T chief executive Eric La Flèche told analysts during a third-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday.

A former top general who led the military during the Afghanistan conflict is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to revisit the files of soldiers who served there to see if any of their awards should be upgraded to the Victoria Cross.

Rick Hillier said that despite the failure of recent attempts to trigger such an independent review, he thinks the odds are better now that Ottawa is bent on revitalizing the Canadian Armed Forces.

Evacuees who fled a roaring wildfire near Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest city received a special donation Wednesday from a young musician.

Ten-year-old accordion player Zander Wright raised $121 while busking Tuesday outside a local convenience store south of St. John’s, the same day some residents of nearby Paradise, N.L., were told to evacuate their homes and businesses.

News publishers say the AI-generated summaries that now top many Google search results are cutting into their online traffic – and experts are still flagging concerns about the summaries’ accuracy as they warn the internet itself is being reshaped.

When Google rolled out its AI Overview feature last year, its mistakes – including one suggestion to use glue to make pizza toppings stick better – made headlines. One expert warns concerns about the accuracy of the feature’s output won’t necessarily go away as the technology improves.

Extreme heat is expected to ease in many parts of Canada today, while the Atlantic provinces continue to bear the brunt of a multi-day heat wave.

Relief is expected in southern and eastern Ontario, but Environment Canada says temperatures are still above average for this time of year, with forecasted highs in the low 30s.

Good morning. China is pulling out all the stops to control the spread of the chikungunya virus – more on that below, along with Europe’s record-breaking heat and Taylor Swift’s new album. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Air Canada flight attendants could be on strike as soon as Saturday after serving notice
• Ottawa wants certainty from China before making concessions on canola tariffs, the Agriculture Minister says
• As Trump takes over Washington, the city watches for potential fallout

Air Canada AC-T says it will begin a gradual suspension of flights to allow an orderly shutdown as it faces a potential work stoppage by its flight attendants on Saturday.

The airline says the first flights will be cancelled Thursday, with more on Friday and a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge by the weekend.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are facing opposition and threats of legal action after ordering residents to stay out of wooded areas and threatening hefty fines in an effort to prevent wildfires.

Both provinces banned hiking, camping, fishing and vehicle use in wooded areas, with violators in Nova Scotia facing fines of up to $25,000.

The Quebec government says legal opponents challenging its secularism law at the Supreme Court of Canada are merely rehashing old, failed arguments in an effort to overturn established legal precedent.

On Tuesday, Quebec filed 100 pages of legal arguments to the Supreme Court ahead of a hearing in which it will defend Bill 21 in court for a third time. The province won two previous decisions in the lower courts in Quebec, which led to the current appeal at the Supreme Court.

Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Tessa Thompson are among the stars set to take part in the Toronto International Film Festival’s In Conversation With… series next month.

The lineup also includes filmmakers Park Chan-wook and Nia DaCosta, who will join the others in candid talks about their careers and craft.

When Hilary Weston was appointed lieutenant-governor of Ontario in late 1996, the press reaction was almost uniformly negative and at times vicious. “Prime Minister Jean Chrétien couldn’t have made a more inappropriate choice for the position,” Richard Brennan wrote in The Toronto Star, calling the wealthy former model “our version of a society debutante.”

The late columnist Allan Fotheringham called Mrs. Weston the “wife of a billionaire,” whose “only politics is Chanel,” predicting with biting sarcasm that she would quickly tire of handing out mine safety certificates in Sudbury, one of the duties he imagined she would be burdened with.

Finding the next Summer McIntosh and keeping Canadians safe in the water is getting harder as pool closures spread across the country.

Municipalities and universities strapped for cash, and neglecting upkeep on aging pools, now face hefty renovation or rebuild costs – or closure.

An 18-year-old man from Oshawa, Ont., who was recently charged in a collision that killed a father of three is the same person facing a dangerous driving charge in a crash involving Premier Doug Ford, Ontario Provincial Police say.

A GoFundMe page by Christina Cristillo identifies her husband Andrew Cristillo as the victim of the fatal crash on Aug. 3 in Whitchurch-Stouffville, which also left her and their three daughters injured.

“He was an amazing, hands-on dad to our girls, always playing with them, teaching them, and making them laugh until their cheeks hurt,” she wrote.

At the entrance of a London hospital, Krystyna Locke fronts a banner with loopy cursive letters that says, “Happy birthday to me. Your parking is free.”

The lymphoma cancer survivor is celebrating turning 63 by paying the parking fees for cancer patients. She knows just how quickly those bills add up after 20 years of hospital visits to London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont.

Just five months after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Spirit Airlines SAVE-N is warning about its future ability to stay in business.

Spirit Aviation Holdings, the budget carrier’s parent company, says it has “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern over the next year – which is accounting-speak for running out of money. In a quarterly report issued Monday, Spirit pointed to “adverse market conditions” that it’s continued to face after a recent restructuring and other efforts to revive its business.

An East Coast drought that’s fuelling wildfires is also drying up farmers’ fields, and has homeowners scrambling to refill empty wells.

Nova Scotia, eastern Newfoundland, southeastern New Brunswick and portions of Prince Edward Island shifted into moderate to severe drought conditions over the past month, says an Agriculture Canada update released Tuesday.

A 23-year-old man has been charged in the assault of a Jewish father at a Montreal park last week.

The incident, captured on a 28-second video shared widely online, drew swift condemnation including from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec Premier François Legault.

Sergio Yanes Preciado is facing a charge of assault causing bodily harm, and he appeared briefly on Tuesday before a Quebec court judge from a detention centre in Montreal’s north end.

Residents near Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest city were ordered to flee a wildfire Tuesday, as thousands of other people across the province faced the prospect of leaving or losing their homes to flames.

Officials ordered evacuations in some parts of Paradise, a suburb of the capital St. John’s. The news came barely an hour after Premier John Hogan said a fire had ignited in Spaniard’s Bay, N.L., adding to a seemingly relentless series of wildfires erupting amid a spate of dry, sweltering heat.

A court will hear Cineplex Inc.’s CGX-T appeal of a record $38.9-million fine it is facing for deceptive marketing practices this fall.

The theatre operator revealed Tuesday that the matter is scheduled to go before the Federal Court of Appeal on Oct. 8.

Sweltering heat is expected to break in the coming days for many Canadians after Monday’s scorching temperatures broke dozens of daily heat records across the country.

Around 51 daily heat records were broken across the country on Monday with many regions recording temperatures in the mid-30s, said Christy Climenhaga, a scientist with Environment Canada.

The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada AC-T flight attendants says it has declined a proposal from the airline to enter a binding arbitration process.

The latest hurdle in negotiations comes just hours before the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees could signal its intent to strike this weekend.

Good morning. One family has become an example of how those trying to claim asylum in Canada face a very different reality than one year ago, thanks to the sweeping immigration crackdown in the U.S. More on that below, plus a landmark ruling (and appeal) for Indigenous land claims and how to prepare for this week’s meteor shower. But first:

Today’s headlines

• In a Gaza refugee camp, freelance journalist Hasan Jaber speaks with Palestinians about Israel’s plans to re-occupy the strip
• Some medicines made from Canadian-donated blood plasma are being sold abroad
• The notwithstanding clause does not automatically shield governments from judicial review, according to a ruling from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal

The rapidly growing wildfire on Vancouver Island near Port Alberni, B.C., has reached 13.9 square kilometres in size, almost triple what was reported when the fire was first reported late Monday.

The Mount Underwood wildfire is now classified as a fire-of-note and has cut off the main road access to a community 90 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni in addition to forcing an evacuation of a local campground.

Major institutional investors are asking the federal government to give them a reason to invest more at home in the upcoming fall budget, says the Liberal MPs leading budget consultations across Canada.

The federal Liberals are in the midst of consultations on the upcoming 2025 budget. While federal budgets typically are tabled in the spring, this one is set to land during the fall session of Parliament.

Diana MacKay remembers accompanying her dad, Dr. Ken Walker, on his rounds at Niagara General Hospital when she was six, her little legs having to run to keep up with him as he dipped in and out of patient rooms.

She waited outside or with the nurses at their station while he did his work. It was in these moments that his colleagues would tell her how much they had learned from her father, how he was making the world a better place.

The Parti Québécois sailed to a third-straight Quebec by-election win on Monday, cementing the sovereigntist party’s momentum ahead of the 2026 provincial election and dealing a crushing blow to Premier François Legault’s governing party.

Former journalist Alex Boissonneault handily defeated Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime in the Arthabaska riding, flipping a seat that Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec has held since 2012.

B.C. is appealing the landmark decision of its Supreme Court that granted a group of First Nations on Vancouver Island title to riverside land in the mainland suburb of Richmond, saying the judgment raises questions about private-property rights.

Attorney-General Niki Sharma announced the appeal at a news conference Monday, saying the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada judgment must be reconsidered by a higher court because it could have significant, unintended consequences on the province’s system of real estate ownership, known as fee-simple title.

Christine McNeil has spent the past several days helping feed the crews responding to an out-of-control wildfire in Newfoundland and Labrador that is just seven kilometres away from her restaurant.

She and her three employees at The Mess Tent Poutinerie, located in the small community of Lower Island Cove on the Bay de Verde Peninsula, sprung into action to help feed firefighters, many of whom are volunteers who have put their day jobs on hold. Ms. McNeil said her previous job as a supply tech in the military prepared her for the work she’s been doing over the past week.

The former CEO of Alberta’s health authority is asking a court to throw out a defamation lawsuit launched against her by Premier Danielle Smith’s ex-chief of staff, arguing that allegations she has made about political interference in procurement are protected by legal privilege and were in the public interest.

Marshall Smith, the Premier’s former aide, is suing Alberta Health Services’ onetime head Athana Mentzelopoulos for claims she made in her own lawsuit against the Alberta government, saying she has “mischaracterized, cherry-picked, and taken out of context” portions of their discussions to suggest that he improperly pressed her to benefit certain private companies.

The B.C. Supreme Court has invalidated a bylaw passed by the City of Vancouver that imposed a fee on ride-hailing companies working on city streets during peak hours.

Uber Canada took the city to court over the bylaw, claiming it overstepped a municipal government’s power to regulate so-called “transportation network services.”