British Columbia’s Provincial Health Services Authority has quietly cut more than 50 staff and eliminated more than 60 vacant positions amid a government-ordered spending review and a previously unpublicized directive to balance its budget, internal memos show.

Members of the health authority’s executive leadership team announced the layoffs in a series of five memos sent to their staff between July 23 and Aug. 5 and obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The U.S. Department of Commerce says it has made a final decision to more than double countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports, a move business groups in British Columbia say will harm communities on both sides of the border.

A statement from the American department said the duty for most Canadian companies is being increased to 14.63 per cent, up from 6.74 per cent, after it determined softwood lumber from Canada was being unfairly subsidized.

Alberta is appealing a temporary injunction of a law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth.

A judge granted the injunction in June, ruling the provincial law raises serious Charter issues that need to be hashed out in an ongoing court challenge of the legislation.

A Vancouver Island artist who was evacuated from her home studio near an out-of-control wildfire says she remains nervous despite being allowed back this week.

Ina-Griet Raatz-von Hirschhausen, whose home is a few kilometres from the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Cameron Lake, said she is waiting a bit longer to bring back half of her art collection, which was taken to a friend’s home when her family was told to evacuate late Sunday.

A British Columbia First Nation has won a major court victory, with a judge declaring it has title to a portion of land in the Vancouver area that includes currently active industrial operations on the Fraser River.

Justice Barbara Young of the B.C. Supreme Court declared the Cowichan Tribes “have established Aboriginal title” to roughly 800 acres in the City of Richmond, as well as an Aboriginal right to fish for food. Her 863-page ruling – from a trial that stretched 513 days over five years, from 2019 to 2023 – was issued Thursday and published online Friday.

Canadian doctors and scientists say Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s defunding of mRNA vaccine research and development projects will have negative health effects in Canada and around the world.

“I think that Canadians do need to understand that this and a lot of the changes that Kennedy is making to vaccination policy in particular are definitely going to affect Canadians,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.

Baklava pastries containing pistachios are being recalled over salmonella concerns.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a recall notice for some Andalos brand pastries distributed in New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and sold online.

The national average asking rent in July fell 3.6 per cent from a year earlier to $2,121, marking the 10th straight month of year-over-year decreases and the largest drop of 2025 so far.

The latest monthly report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation says asking rents held roughly steady in July on a month-over-month basis, down $4 from June.

Bob Pushie pulled a small piece of paper from his shirt pocket, where he had written a candidate’s name the day before, and double-checked the spelling on his ballot.

“I had a little cheat sheet,” Mr. Pushie said Friday, after he cast his advanced vote for the Aug. 18 federal by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot.

The Manitoba Museum might have one of the largest collections of Hudson’s Bay artifacts, but its CEO isn’t bitter the defunct retailer’s crown jewel isn’t destined for her institution.

There will soon be a new home for the 355-year-old royal charter that birthed the Bay, giving it extraordinary control over a vast swath of unceded lands – and enormous influence over settlers’ early relations with Indigenous Peoples.

Canadian job seekers and young workers are struggling through the dog days of summer even as the labour market shows limited strain from U.S. tariffs.

Statistics Canada on Friday reported 41,000 job losses last month, while economists had expected a slight gain.

Good morning. Two young children went missing in rural Nova Scotia more than three months ago. A closer look into their lives shows that all was not well, as their mysterious disappearance continues to baffle the country. More on their case below, plus what to know about a very Cold War-like summit and why collage art is back. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City
• Nova Scotia is banning recreational activities in wooded areas to prevent wildfires
• Some Métis leaders say they are optimistic that Ottawa will respect Indigenous rights on major projects legislation
• Victoria Mboko prevails against Naomi Osaka in National Bank Open final, capping a stunning run

Deep in the middle of Nova Scotia, far from its quaint coastal towns, sits Lansdowne – a hamlet of around 100 people in a cellular dead zone. It’s surrounded by endless spruce forests, bushes like razor wire and bogs that breed swarms of black flies.

Like many faded settlements across the Maritimes, Lansdowne reached its peak more than a century ago. About 150 kilometres northeast of Halifax, it was once a busy railway stop bustling with Scottish immigrants who dug iron and copper mines deep into the hillsides.

Standing along the rocky shores of Cape Breton Island, Jonathan Kanary is trying not to feel completely defeated. The manager and backcountry guide of a Nova Scotia adventure-tourism company, Live Life InTents, has been turning away customer after customer, many of whom drove across the country or flew overseas to be there.

Nearby, atop the Mabou Highlands walled by the Atlantic Ocean, Capes 100, a world-renowned trail race, has been cancelled this weekend – with organizers issuing deferrals and partial refunds for dozens of participants, while mile-marker signage is being haphazardly taken down by hand.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the home of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has sparked calls for the government to consider security measures to protect politicians from protests at their residences.

A group of up to 60 protesters chanted slogans, rang bells, banged pots and projected messages onto Ms. Joly’s house in Montreal on Wednesday evening, in an escalation of protest activity over the situation in Gaza.

Canadian officials say it is not possible for wildfire fighters to lessen the impact of smoke drifting across vast swathes of the country and blanketing some American states, after several U.S. lawmakers complained that Canada is not doing enough to combat the smokey conditions.

Officials with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre – a non-profit broker of staff and equipment owned and operated by federal, provincial and territorial wildland fire management agencies – held a briefing Thursday, which was attended by multiple American news outlets.

A judge has reserved his decision on whether to review a proposed Alberta separation referendum question.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby is expected to give his ruling Aug. 14.

The matter stems from Alberta chief electoral officer Gordon McClure referring the proposed question to the Edmonton court last week. He has asked the judge to determine whether the question violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.

He’s an NBA superstar and champion, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has never forgotten his roots.

Gilgeous-Alexander received the key to the city of Hamilton from Mayor Andrea Horwath at a public rally Thursday at Hamilton Stadium.

The obituaries following the death of Hilary Weston have focused on her philanthropy and that of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation (now the Weston Family Foundation), but there is one aspect that I would like to highlight.

In 2007, Gospel Mission on Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, (not to be confused with Union Gospel Mission), launched a project to build a shower facility for people in the area. Churches and individuals donated; businesses contributed supplies and tradespeople gave of their time. Volunteers ran the place. The Lord’s Rain, as we called it, opened in April, 2008.

A Quebec minister responsible for fighting racism is criticizing a ruling by a judge who reduced a convicted Black man’s sentence due to systemic discrimination.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Christopher Skeete said that someone’s race should not be a factor affecting sentencing for a crime.

A great shift is underway in Toronto months after the closures of several supervised drug-use sites, as their users seek alternatives and drop-in centres see an alarming jump in overdoses.

Some segments of the city’s homeless population have resettled near remaining drug-use sites, but fluctuating intakes have been reported at different locations.

Buying a house is the largest purchase most Canadians will ever make and finally paying off the mortgage is likely to be a game changer.

But before the temptation to splurge on a pricey new car or a luxury vacation takes hold, experts say it’s important to review your financial plan for this next chapter to ensure you’re on track for wherever you want to go.

Over the course of his decades-long acting career, Michael Blake built a reputation within the Canadian theatre industry for being quiet. Backstage, he was known to be thoughtful, perhaps even overly so – he took his time to flesh out the tiniest details of a given character’s psyche. At the Stratford Festival and beyond, he was slow, methodical. Every line had to be perfect.

But fellow actor Jordin Hall, a younger Stratford Festival mainstay who regarded Mr. Blake as a mentor, saw a different side of the artist. On days off from acting, they bonded watching televised Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, and at work, they shared Hi-Chew candies and giggled together onstage, even whispering inside jokes during performances. In 2023, a murmured reference to a silly line from All’s Well That Ends Well during a death scene in Richard III nearly sent a performance into chaos, according to Mr. Hall. “We had a great laugh, and I nearly croaked,” he said. “But it was worth it.”

An Ontario First Nation that has worked toward road access to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire on its traditional territory is now asking the courts to prevent the provincial and federal governments from mineral development in the region.

Marten Falls First Nation, located about 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, has filed a statement of claim asking for interim and permanent injunctions preventing Ontario and Canada from funding or participating in mining-related activities in the Ring of Fire.

A new poll suggests Israel is losing the battle for hearts and minds in Canada, with more Canadians now reporting their sympathies lie with Palestinians due to moral outrage over the war in Gaza.

Another poll suggests a slight majority of younger Canadians now say they’re optimistic about the prospects for peace in the Middle East — just as the broader public’s mood returns to the pessimism seen decades ago.

The Ontario government on Thursday issued a request for proposals for a feasibility study to explore the best way to establish a new economic and energy corridor in the province.

The proposed corridor includes new Alberta-to-Ontario pipelines, which would transport Western Canadian oil and gas to refineries in southern Ontario and to tidewater ports such as a new deep-sea port on the coast of James Bay.

The number of wildfires burning in British Columbia is on the decline after more than doubling during a spate of hot, dry conditions and thunderstorms that produced tens of thousands of lightning strikes across the province last week.

The BC Wildfire Service website shows 107 active blazes, with four started in the last 24 hours, while 21 were declared out over the same time period.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Mark Carney has broken his promise to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and find a resolution to the ever-expanding trade war.

Speaking in Calgary Thursday, Mr. Poilievre called the U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods “unjustified and unjustifiable,” and he criticized the Prime Minister for failing to negotiate a deal with Mr. Trump to avoid them.

A Newfoundland wildfire is forcing another 900 people to leave their homes as hot temperatures fuel multiple out-of-control blazes in the province.

Premier John Hogan said Thursday that the province has ordered the residents of two communities – Ochre Pit Cove and Salmon Cove – to join the hundreds of other evacuees already ordered to leave communities along the western coast of Conception Bay in eastern Newfoundland.

Canadian defence officials have strongly made the case that Ottawa should stick to a plan to buy 88 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets rather than splitting the order, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The review stops short of making a formal recommendation, one of the sources said.

Good morning. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is positioning a €13-billion mega-bridge as a matter of national defence – more on that below, along with Shopify’s return to the top of the stocks and Gen Z’s embrace of Y2K fashion. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Trump and Putin could meet in person as soon as next week, the White House says
• Ford expects Trump to target USMCA and says Ottawa should prepare for early negotiations
• Victoria Mboko advances to the women’s singles final at the National Bank Open, continuing her remarkable streak

A Yukon First Nation says it will oppose any new mining claims on its traditional territory as it begins a regional land-use planning process with the territory’s government.

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun says in a post on Facebook that it is issuing a notice to the mining industry that it will oppose any claim “through all available legal and political avenues.”

The Nation says any such claim staked during the land-use planning process are “unwelcome” and “unlawful,” citing past court decisions that it says “strongly discourages staking claims in the areas” undergoing such a process.

Ottawa says it will uphold a ruling by Canada’s telecommunications regulator allowing the country’s largest internet companies to provide service to customers using fibre networks built by their rivals – as long as they do so outside their core regions.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement Wednesday evening that the CRTC’s policy “will immediately allow for more competition on existing networks for high-speed internet services across the country.”

Canadian experts in vaccines and infectious diseases say the decision by the U.S. government to terminate nearly US$500-million in funding for mRNA vaccine development is not just illogical but threatens pandemic preparedness.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday that 22 mRNA-based projects will be halted and no new projects will be green lit. He claimed data show these vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.”

An Ontario labour group says it is advocating for more robust worker protections amid growing health concerns over poor air quality as wildfire smoke blankets the province with increasing frequency.

The Ontario Federation of Labour, which represents more than 55 unions across the province, says the push is part of a broader heat stress strategy looking at how climate change is impacting working conditions.

Sandra Walsh was struggling to breathe in her apartment when temperatures across Nova Scotia soared in July, but the woman on social assistance says her pleas for a government-funded air conditioner have been ignored.

“With the high humidity, it effects my breathing and I have to gasp for air,” says the 46-year-old woman, recently diagnosed with a progressive lung disease. “Even taking frequent, cold showers isn’t really helping.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford teed off Wednesday on a court decision declaring his law to remove three Toronto bike lanes unconstitutional, calling it the “most ridiculous” ruling he has ever seen.

Ford has already said his government plans to appeal, even as it works on a compromise with the city to both keep the bike lanes and add extra lanes for vehicle traffic.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford revealed more details Wednesday about his planned tunnel under Highway 401, even as a feasibility study he’s commissioning has yet to get underway.

Speaking at an unrelated transit announcement in Thornhill, Ont., north of Toronto, Ford said his plan is to have a 19.5-metre-wide, three-level tunnel, with one level going eastbound, one for westbound traffic and a bottom level for transit.

Alberta’s government is creating fines and rules meant to curb predatory tow-truck drivers.

Starting Friday, there will be 200-metre exclusion zones around accident scenes for tow-truck operators, who must stay back unless police or drivers involved say otherwise or face a $1,000 fine.

Three men facing smuggling-related charges after 44 foreign nationals were found in a truck in southern Quebec on Sunday will remain detained until their next court hearing.

Ogulcan Mersin, Dogan Alakus and Firat Yuksek appeared in a Sherbrooke, Que. courtroom today following their arrest over the weekend.

The Nova Scotia government has released its long-awaited plan to address the future transportation needs of Atlantic Canada’s largest city and the surrounding area.

Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters Wednesday that the goal of the Regional Transportation Plan is to transform the transportation system for Halifax and those areas within an hour’s drive of the port city – a region that is home to 63 per cent of the province’s population.

Light rain and higher humidity in British Columbia have briefly tempered wildfire activity, but hotter temperatures in the forecast appear poised to create new challenges.

Cliff Chapman, director of wildfire operations with the BC Wildfire Service, said a drying trend starting this weekend is expected to cause the southern half of the province to “heat up again,” raising the wildfire risk.

When police in England raided a fentanyl lab outside the northern city of Leeds in early 2017, the bust sent shockwaves across the country.

The raid and subsequent conviction of three men – who made and sold around £164,000 worth of the opioid in five months – was the first major fentanyl case in Britain and it prompted dire warnings from law enforcement officers, health officials and the media that the U.K. was headed for a U.S.-style fentanyl crisis.