Manitoba’s Accessibility Minister is apologizing after she was heard on video using “demeaning” language while questioning why a sign-language interpreter had been placed on the stage with her at a recent event.

Nahanni Fontaine was preparing to speak with reporters during a gala celebrating Indigenous graduates last week when she made the off-the-cuff comments, voicing her frustrations using an expletive with a member of her staff, which was captured on a hot mic.

The man charged by police in the late-night sexual assault of a 62-year-old woman in one of Toronto’s most popular parks was on probation at the time of the incident.

Earlier this week, Toronto police announced that they have laid charges in connection with a sexual assault that took place in High Park on June 4 – an attack that has left the surrounding community on alert. Cortny Henry, 35, was charged with multiple offences, including sexual assault with bodily harm.

Residents of a First Nation in northern Ontario will start returning home Friday after a wildfire threatened the community early last month and forced more than 2,000 people to evacuate, officials said.

Sandy Lake First Nation said in a social media post on Tuesday that repatriation will start Friday evening, with security and essential service providers going first to help prepare for the arrival of other residents.

Saskatchewan’s justice minister says he wants answers on why the RCMP’s commanding officer in the province was abruptly removed.

A spokesperson for Tim McLeod’s office said in a statement Friday the minister has requested Ottawa provide further information and rationale on the decision involving Rhonda Blackmore.

Country music superstar Shania Twain, in a white hat and white fringed jacket, sat on top of a white horse that clip-clopped to cheers through the downtown Friday as she kicked off the Calgary Stampede and its signature parade.

“It’s exhilarating. I just have to stay calm for my horse. I don’t want him to read my energy. I’m sure I’ll just have a smile stuck to my face the whole time,” Ms. Twain told reporters after she was given her official marshal badge to lead the parade.

The federal minister of Indigenous services says her government plans to reintroduce legislation to ensure First Nations’ rights to clean drinking water – despite calls from Alberta and Ontario for it to scrap the bill altogether.

Two provincial environment ministers sent a letter to their federal counterpart this week calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to abandon legislation they see as undermining competitiveness and delaying project development.

A 41-year-old Halifax man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his mother after the two argued over the subtitles on a video she was watching.

Jonathan William Pinsky pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April, admitting he experienced a “fit of rage” when he punched and kicked his 71-year-old mother, before stabbing her neck.

The company operating a major Quebec aluminum smelter says it will invest at least $1.5-billion in its North Shore facilities over the next 20 years.

Representatives of Aluminerie Alouette say the announcement is tied to an agreement in principle with the province’s hydro utility on electricity rates until Dec. 31, 2045.

CF Montréal is bracing for a visit from Lionel Messi.

Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said Friday the Argentine great is expected to travel to Montreal and be available to play in Saturday’s Major League Soccer match at Stade Saputo.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says the federal government is talking to mining and metals giant Rio Tinto RIO-N about helping the company with liquidity problems caused by the United States’ global steel and aluminum tariffs.

During a visit to Saguenay, Que., on Thursday to meet with businesses in the province’s critical aluminum sector, Joly told reporters in French that Ottawa had started talks with the firm earlier this week.

A group of Canadian academics is calling on the federal government to speed up approvals of student visas for Palestinians after two students who were accepted at a Canadian university died before they could leave the region.

Ayman Oweida, chair of the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network, said the two students, twin sisters, were killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December.

The party tents are up, straw bales are scattered around sidewalks and the most crucial 10 days of the year are in full swing for one Calgary bar and restaurant operator.

The Calgary Stampede is a yearly celebration of western culture that kicks off Friday with a parade and includes rodeo events, concerts, carnival games, midway rides, neighbourhood pancake breakfasts, corporate shindigs and a whole lot of cowboy cosplay.

They work on gruesome scenes of death, sometimes traversing rough terrain to access bodies in various states of decomposition.

British Columbia field coroner Leena Chandi said the things that she and her colleagues encounter “are not what most people see, and nobody should have to see that.”

Good morning. Burnout since the onset of the pandemic has led to hospital staff shortages across the country, with rural communities hit the hardest. More on that below, updates to our reporting on tuberculosis, ticks and tennis. But first:

Today’s headlines

• U.S. Congress passes Trump’s signature $4.5-trillion One Big Beautiful Bill Act
• Russia hammers Kyiv in its largest missile and drone barrage since the war in Ukraine began
• Sparks from an RCMP vehicle mishap ignited a fire now threatening Lytton, B.C., stirring painful memories

This project aims to document every instance in which a hospital emergency department (ER) in Canada closed its doors – temporarily or permanently – since 2019. For each closure, The Globe and Mail captured the ER’s name, start and end times, and the reason for the disruption.

Explore the interactive map below to browse ER closures across Canada, as compiled by The Globe and Mail.

The northern Manitoba town of Lynn Lake has issued a mandatory evacuation order as a nearby wildfire threatens to cause an imminent loss of power to the community.

The evacuation begins Friday, though officials haven’t provided a time for when residents must be out of their homes.

An RCMP equipment failure is responsible for igniting a wildfire near Lytton, B.C., stirring painful memories for a community that is still rebuilding after being levelled by fire four years earlier.

A Mountie who was in the area searching for a missing swimmer was towing a police boat along Highway 12 northeast of the village in B.C.’s Interior on Canada Day when a wheel ejected from the right side of the trailer, causing a fire in a grass-filled ditch, said B.C. RCMP spokesman Staff Sergeant Kris Clark.

Two suspects have been arrested in British Columbia in an investigation into widespread extortion of South Asian business figures, crimes that police and politicians say reach back to India.

RCMP in Surrey, B.C., say the suspects were arrested Thursday on arson and firearms allegations dating from late 2023 into 2024.

The outdoors beckoned on a recent Sunday in Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg County, where the weather was 25 degrees and sunny – a perfect spring day. So naturally, Stephanie Tanner’s six-year-old daughter wanted to go outside and play.

Emily spent just 30 minutes in the backyard, romping with the family’s chickens. When she came back inside, she was unknowingly harbouring a dozen parasitic hitchhikers; by the end of the day, her mother would pluck 12 ticks from Emily’s body, finding them everywhere from her groin to her hairline.

A swarming attack on a business owner in Oshawa, Ont., that police are investigating as a possible hate crime has shaken the victim’s family and the broader Muslim community, which has seen a rise in Islamophobic incidents, advocates said Thursday.

Amira Elghawaby, federal special representative on combatting Islamophobia, said the alleged suspects “violently” ripped off the woman’s hijab and kicked her repeatedly during the attack.

Nunavut’s health department declared an end to years-long tuberculosis outbreaks in two Baffin Island communities on Thursday.

Pangnirtung, a hamlet 45 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, had the largest outbreak of TB in the territory in at least seven years. The outbreak was declared in November, 2021, and resulted in 47 active TB cases and 225 latent or “sleeping” infections, which are asymptomatic and non-contagious.

The head of an organization representing automakers said he’s “cautiously optimistic” after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney to urge him to repeal the electric vehicle sales mandate.

Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association CEO Brian Kingston joined the CEOs of Ford Canada, Stellantis Canada and GM Canada in a meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday in Ottawa.

Mounties say a out-of-control wildfire that has triggered evacuations near Lytton, B.C., was caused when a wheel fell off an RCMP trailer in a “tremendously unfortunate” incident.

Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said in a statement released Thursday that the “equipment failure” that sparked the Izman Creek fire, about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, happened on Tuesday afternoon on Highway 12.

The Montreal mother who allegedly abandoned her daughter in a field in Ontario last month has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The 34-year-old woman appeared in court this morning as part of her bail hearing at the courthouse in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., west of Montreal.

Eight years ago, at the peak of the #MeToo movement, it seemed, for a brief moment, like progress was imminent. Women from around the world were sharing their extensive – and oftentimes painful – experiences of sexual abuse and violence, and lawmakers and corporations alike were pledging to make change.

But in the years since, that progress has been stuttered. Harvey Weinstein, the film mogul whose case served as the rallying cry for the #MeToo movement, saw one of his convictions overturned. Donald Trump, who in 2023 was found liable for rape, was re-elected as President of the United States.

Vancouver-area home sales decreased 9.8 per cent in June but the city’s real estate board says that could signal a potential recovery after larger year-over-year declines in previous months.

Greater Vancouver Realtors said residential sales in the region totalled 2,181 last month, down from the 2,418 sales recorded in June 2024 and roughly 25 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average.

Toronto police say they have arrested a suspect in an alleged sexual assault of a 62-year-old woman last month in a west-end park.

Police say the woman was approached from behind while she was walking in High Park around 10:40 p.m. on June 4 and was dragged into a wooded area where she was sexually assaulted.

They say the woman was able to get away from the suspect and had a passerby call police, and the man fled the area soon after.

It was August 1983 at the Hand Hills Lake Stampede and Les McIntyre had just fallen out of his chuckwagon.

As he remembers it, McIntyre had made a sharp turn, hit a competitor’s wagon and tumbled to the ground at no less than 40 kilometres an hour. When he hit the ground, another wagon following behind hit him, knocking McIntyre out cold and resulting in a career-ending back injury before the age of 30. He spent the next week in a Calgary hospital bed.

Quebec’s language watchdog has changed its tune on whether it’s acceptable to use the word “go” to cheer on sports teams.

In a new guideline posted in its online dictionary, the Office québécois de la langue française says that while “allez” is the preferred term, it’s now “partially legitimized” to use the English word to show encouragement.

A series of bomb threats that briefly grounded flights at six major Canadian airports Thursday began with an early morning phone call to an air traffic control tower in Vancouver, soon repeated at other towers across the country.

Warnings about delays were issued at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal after the anonymous threats, which also prompted evacuations of employees from some of the control towers. Air travel resumed at all of the targeted airports by midday and police say there was no evidence of any explosive materials.

Ground stops were lifted at international airports in Montreal and Ottawa after a bomb threat on Thursday briefly halted departing flights, a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said.

The Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport said on X that it was investigating a security incident and warned that operations may be disrupted, urging travelers to check their flight status.

Good morning. A $13 half-zip Costco sweatshirt is at the centre of a 49-page lawsuit from Lululemon – more on that below, along with the Sean (Diddy) Combs verdict and the Dalai Lama’s succession plan. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Canada’s Auditor-General plans to review the new $526-million border duties system
• The vast majority of large U.S. fentanyl seizures happen along the Mexican border, a report finds
• U.S. House Republicans stall again in their vote on Trump’s tax-cut bill

Bunge BG-N announced its successful merger with Viterra Limited, forming what they anticipate will be a leading global agribusiness company specializing in food, feed, and fuel.

This US$8.2-billion deal was finalized nearly six months after the Canadian government approved the merger, having included specific terms and conditions to address competition concerns.

Almost all large seizures of illicit fentanyl in the United States occur along the southern border with Mexico, according to a new report that casts more doubt on the White House’s claim that the drug is “pouring” into the U.S. from Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump has cited the fentanyl crisis as a legal rationale to invoke emergency economic powers and impose tariffs on imports from Canada. But a Manhattan Institute report by Jonathan Caulkins and Bishu Giri of Carnegie Mellon University concludes that such levies, regardless of merits or drawbacks, cannot be justified as part of a pragmatic and data-informed response to the threat of illicit drugs in the U.S.

A third person has died following a highway crash that killed the bassist for a well-known Winnipeg band.

Mounties responded to the crash Tuesday afternoon north of Swan River in western Manitoba.

They say a vehicle travelling south had crossed the centre line and hit a vehicle facing north that was parked on the edge of the road.

The City of Victoria will spend more than $10-million on new measures to improve public safety in its downtown, its mayor announced Wednesday, an infusion of cash aimed at addressing an outcry from residents and businesses about squalor and disorder.

Nine new police officers will be either hired or redeployed to focus on the downtown and specifically the area around Pandora Avenue. More bylaw officers will be added to the neighbourhood and money has been allocated to transport vulnerable people away from the area to health and other services around the region.

Alberta’s government has named its own provincial police force and announced its first chief.

Former deputy Calgary police chief Sat Parhar has been tapped to lead the new force, which the province says it intends to call the Alberta Sheriffs Police Service.

An 84-year-old art dealer who pleaded guilty last week in a sprawling investigation into the distribution of counterfeit Norval Morrisseau artwork bought around 500 fakes for more than $450,000 and then distributed them across Canada, according to an agreed statement of facts released Wednesday.

The document outlines his role in selling forgeries, while peeling back another layer of what investigators call the biggest case of art fraud in Canadian history, a major scheme that has tarnished the late Anishinaabe artist’s legacy.

Heat warnings are forecast to extend into Thursday across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, with temperatures expected to hover around 30 C and feel even hotter when humidity is factored in.

On Wednesday in Fredericton, with temperatures hitting 31 C and a humidex of 38, Elle Bahraq sat under a tree by the Saint John River and enjoyed a picnic with a friend.

Ontario is expanding the delivery of publicly paid orthopedic surgeries through private clinics in an effort to reduce wait-lists.

The province is investing $125-million to add upwards of 20,000 orthopedic surgeries at community surgical centres over the next two years.

This week marks the four-year anniversary of a deadly wildfire that destroyed the British Columbia village of Lytton and the community is again under threat, with a fire burning out of control north of the community setting off evacuation orders and alerts.

The Izman Creek fire saw the Thompson-Nicola Regional District issue an evacuation order for three properties and an evacuation alert for nine addresses along Highway 12 around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The British Columbia government is loosening the rules for payment of development fees in a bid to jump start home construction that has been hampered by upfront costs.

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says among the biggest changes will be more flexible and extended payment timelines for homebuilders, so instead of paying development fees up front, they will pay 25 per cent at permit approval and 75 per cent when the building is occupied.

Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T has closed its deal to buy BCE Inc.’s BCE-T 37.5 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to become the majority owner of the company.

Rogers now holds a 75 per cent stake in the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Argonauts and Toronto FC.

A politically motivated hacker breached Columbia University’s data systems last week, stealing troves of student documents while briefly shutting down the school’s computer systems, a university official said.

The June 24 cyberattack prompted widespread network outages on campus, locking students and staff out of their e-mail accounts, coursework and video conference software for several hours. On the same day, images of President Donald Trump’s smiling face appeared on several public monitors across the Manhattan campus.