The Parliamentary Budget Officer said Thursday he can’t properly assess whether the federal government is on track to meet its fiscal targets because the Liberals’ new budget benchmarks haven’t been defined.

Without a spring budget, that means Ottawa’s budgetary watchdog is in the dark on how recently announced plans to boost Canada’s defence spending and cut income taxes will affect the government’s fiscal position.

Good morning. Our health team has been on the ground as measles cases surge in Ontario and Alberta – more on that below, along with a name change for Hudson’s Bay and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on youth gender-affirming care. But first:

Today’s headlines

• President Donald Trump won’t say whether he has decided to order a U.S. strike on Iran
• Mark Carney won’t say if he raised India’s role in the murder of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader with PM Narendra Modi
• Canada’s temporary resident population tumbles as new rules take hold

The Liberal government’s controversial legislation that would let cabinet quickly grant federal approvals for big industrial projects like mines, ports and pipelines sailed through committee in the early hours of Thursday.

A House of Commons panel sat from Wednesday afternoon to after midnight reviewing Bill C-5 in a hurried study, as the Liberal government seeks to pass it through the chamber by week’s end.

Canadian physician Panid Borhanjoo woke up on Friday morning in Iran’s cottage country to an onslaught of messages from family and friends asking if he was safe.

He turned on the news in his relatives’ home in Mazandaran, a lush, coastal province on the Caspian Sea. Israeli missiles had destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities and killed high-ranking military personnel in Tehran, about 200 kilometres away. War had erupted.

Mounties in British Columbia’s Interior say human remains found last month have been confirmed as being a woman who went missing near Sicamous nearly eight years ago.

They say the remains were discovered on a rural property in Salmon Arm on May 5, and the BC Coroners Service has since linked them to Nicole Bell.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is willing to give First Nations what they want for their support in developing mines, but they cannot “keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government” for more money.

Ford is set to meet Thursday with several dozen chiefs who are part of Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 First Nations in the province.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for student visas but all applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for government review.

The department said consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles.

New data on the explosive growth of women’s sport in Canada underscores its rising popularity, but also reveals that its structural supports still lag behind.

Jessica Doherty, vice-president of strategy and growth at Torque Strategies, presented findings from a new national survey on Wednesday morning at the espnW Summit Canada at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works. One of the study’s main findings is that 60 per cent of Canadians believe perceptions of women’s sport have improved over the past three years.

A three-year-old Montreal girl reported missing on Sunday by her mother was found alive in Eastern Ontario on Wednesday afternoon, minutes after her mother appeared in court while facing charges of child abandonment.

The Sûreté du Québec and Ontario Provincial Police confirmed in a Wednesday evening press conference that the girl was found around 3 p.m. along Highway 417, near St. Albert, Ont. She was alone but conscious and able to speak with officers, and is now doing “well” after being examined by a medical team in hospital, OPP Staff Sergeant Shaun Cameron said.

An investigation into tow truck industry violence across the Greater Toronto Area has resulted in the arrests of 20 people who are facing more than 100 charges combined, police said Wednesday.

Toronto police said they launched a wiretap investigation dubbed Project Yankee last October to gather evidence of a group committing crimes to control the towing industry.

Quebec provincial police say a three-year-old Montreal girl who’d been reported missing on Sunday has been found alive in Ontario.

The girl had been reported missing by her mother on Sunday afternoon with little information about what had happened to her, sparking a massive police response.

The quiet streets of Taber, a small town in Southern Alberta, still hold reminders of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taped to the windows of the Taber town office and a local bank are posters that encourage physical distancing. Pinned to the fence of a home near the only major highway that runs through the town is an anti-Trudeau tarp expressing support for protestors who opposed vaccine mandates during the 2022 Coutts border blockade.

Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Europe on Sunday to attend a pair of summits on NATO and Canada-EU relations.

The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the travel plans today, after Carney wrapped up the G7 leaders’ summit in Alberta.

Quebec provincial police say a three-year-old Montreal girl who’d been reported missing on Sunday has been found alive in Ontario.

The girl had been reported missing by her mother on Sunday afternoon with little information about what had happened to her, sparking a massive police response.

Quebec’s corruption police are searching the headquarters of the province’s auto insurance board.

The auto board has been mired in a scandal for nearly two years over the botched rollout of its new online platform.

An organization that helps LGBTQ+ people file refugee claims says it has seen a spike in pleas for assistance from around the world since 2020.

Devon Matthews, program head with Rainbow Railroad, said the explosion in the number of requests for help reflects a trend of countries backsliding on LGBTQ rights – or even embracing a policy of persecution.

Good morning. Companies are rushing to replace entry-level workers with artificial intelligence – more on that below, along with a G7 warning and the latest on the Israel-Iran conflict. But first:

Today’s headlines

• The Panthers beat the Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 to win their second straight Stanley Cup
• Canada announces $4.3-billion in new aid for Ukraine and more sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet”
• The short deadline for Canada-U.S. talks helps to ‘concentrate the mind,’ Carney says

A Bay Street veteran and financial commentator is speaking out after finding himself at the centre of an alleged online “pump and dump” scam that used his identity to defraud some investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

David Rosenberg, an economist and founder of Rosenberg Research, said ads appearing on Facebook and Instagram as early as March have promoted a fake investment program falsely listing him as its administrator.

Vancouver city council voted Tuesday to amend health bylaws to allow for indoor supervised drug inhalation at two sites, expanding access to the harm-reduction measure for people who smoke illicit substances.

The decision clears one of the final hurdles for the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS to operate public supervised smoking and inhalation booths at its Hope to Health clinic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It also enables Vancouver Coastal Health to pilot an indoor inhalation booth at a supportive housing building, exclusively for residents.

Calgary’s Enoch Park, just south of the city’s downtown core, was quiet this week, like any other.

But what made its emptiness notable is that this outdoor space, chopped up by concrete seating and sunken walkways, served as a “designated demonstration zone” for people protesting this year’s G7 Leaders’ Summit.

Wildfire evacuees continued to make their way home in some Manitoba communities Tuesday, but there were hurdles.

Tataskweyak Cree Nation lifted its evacuation order Monday evening, then told the community’s 2,400 residents Tuesday morning the return was being delayed due to problems with the water system.

One of the last unprotected stretches of wild shoreline along the iconic Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario has been saved from development.

On Tuesday, the Nature Conservancy of Canada announced the purchase of 29 hectares of land adjacent to China Cove, a small, crescent-shaped bay located west of Tobermory, Ont., near the site of a 19th-century shipwreck.

British Columbia Premier David Eby is calling on Ottawa to label a notorious Indian gang as a terrorist organization, in a bid to help police tackle extortion cases targeting South Asian businesses.

B.C. is singling out the Bishnoi group amid a wave of extortion threats that has rattled Sikh people across Canada.

A Regina father is believed to have been killed on an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff last week.

Piyushkumar Patel was on board the London-bound flight that crashed in northwestern India last week, killing at least 270 people.

Québec provincial police say they have arrested 22 convicted sex offenders in an operation involving 17 municipal police forces.

Provincial police say that between June 2 and 13, officers monitored 69 people who were considered to have a “high risk of reoffending.”

A Statistics Canada report says Canadians are spending less time with friends than ever, with the decline sharpest among the working-age demographic.

The data released Tuesday show that in 2022, only 19.3 per cent of Canadians saw friends on an average day, down from 47.9 per cent in 1986.

Musician Terry Draper, most remembered as the drummer of the Canadian progressive-pop trio Klaatu, died of leukemia on the sunny afternoon of May 15, at Southlake Health in Newmarket, Ont. He was 73.

Like many Canadian kids who came of age in the 1960s, he desired to join a band that just might become the next Beatles. No one came closer to realizing those ambitions than Mr. Draper and his fellow dreamers in Klaatu.

The military police watchdog says resistance to civilian oversight in the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal’s office “worsened” last year.

The Military Police Complaints Commission released a report Tuesday accusing the provost’s office – which commands all military police in Canada – of “shutting down” complaints based on a “dubious” interpretation of the National Defence Act.

As inter-provincial contretemps go, the one emerging between B.C. and Alberta over the future of pipeline construction in Canada is shaping up to be a doozy.

Of course, the country has witnessed these two jurisdictions square off before, over a similar issue – the proposed expansion of a pipeline running Albertan oil to B.C.’s coastline. That was a weird one – on one side, you had former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley, and on the other, her close friend and fellow New Democrat, former B.C. premier John Horgan.

Outgoing Conservative MP Damien Kurek is looking to leave his mark in Parliament by pushing for the adoption of a national livestock brand as one of Canada’s symbols.

Kurek introduced a bill in the last Parliament to create the new brand but that bill didn’t pass before the election was called, meaning it now has to start over.

Canadian banks were once again ranked as among the world’s top fossil fuel financiers in a report that showed overall funding rose in 2024 despite it being the hottest year on record.

The Banking on Climate Chaos report by a coalition of environmental groups found that lending and underwriting among the world’s 65 top banks rose by US$162.5-billion last year to US$869-billion, a reversal of a downward trend since 2021.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says a new Netflix documentary about his late brother Rob Ford is “disgusting.”

The doc titled Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem chronicles Rob Ford’s rise to power as Toronto mayor in 2010 and his chaotic time in office.

The organization representing Alberta doctors is joining health care unions in raising concerns over Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to charge most Albertans for a COVID-19 vaccination this fall.

Dr. Shelley Duggan, president of the Alberta Medical Association, says the policy leaves behind many seniors and health care workers, and doesn’t even mention pregnant individuals, First Nations, Inuit, Métis or members of other racialized groups.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says masked men tried to steal a vehicle from his home overnight.

Ford says police thwarted the attempt at around 12:30 a.m.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says the Canadian government needs to spell out a clear strategy for repairing ties with China’s authoritarian rulers that doesn’t sacrifice Canada’s principles, including respect for human rights.

Mr. Kinew, whose province exported nearly $1.6-billion in goods to China in 2024, according to Manitoba government records, is eager to see a trade war between Ottawa and Beijing resolved. China’s government imposed retaliatory tariffs on Canadian agriculture and seafood in March after Ottawa applied steep tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, steel and aluminum.

06/17/25 20:34

Quebec police continued their search on Tuesday west of Montreal for a missing three-year-old girl after her mother was charged with child abandonment.

Rachel-Ella Todd, 34, has been charged with one count of unlawful abandonment of a child. The three-year-old was last seen Sunday morning in Montreal’s LaSalle borough, and was reported missing at around 3 p.m. that day in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres to the west.

She appeared briefly in court by video conference on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to return in person on Wednesday in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., west of Montreal. According to the charging document, the alleged offence is to have taken place on Sunday in Quebec or Ontario.