For the past six summers, High Level, Alta., a northern town of 4,000 that straddles the only road into the province from the Northwest Territories, has converted its arena into a makeshift wildfire evacuation centre.

Municipal staff have been diverted from regular duties such as working at the pool or running summer programs to haul up to 350 cots, purchased by the town to accommodate evacuees, from a storage container into the arena. They have sometimes worked up to 17 hours a day to make sure everyone was fed and children were entertained.

The Ontario government has taken control of four school boards including in Toronto and Ottawa, a move the province says stems from concerns over large deficits, depleting reserves and widespread mismanagement.

Education Minister Paul Calandra announced Friday the appointment of supervisors at the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, following investigations earlier this year.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s performance this week of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor included a lot of what attendees might expect to see – and hear – from a concert at a packed Roy Thomson Hall: bows raised and lowered in near-perfect unison, a mezzo-soprano in a glittery gown and dramatic swells of music.

What some attendees didn’t know they were getting, however, was an amateur conductor who bankrolled the production, which was not in fact an official Toronto Symphony Orchestra production. Having come across ads for the performance on social media, some attendees said they took advantage of lower admission prices to hear a long-admired piece of music played by some of the most talented musicians in the country.

The death toll from Thursday’s fatal rock slide in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is expected to hold at two, with three people who were transported to hospital in stable condition, authorities said Friday.

Francois Masse, Parks Canada superintendent of the Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit, said authorities believe they have accounted for all the hikers who were near Bow Glacier Falls at the time of the slide. Rescue teams on Thursday evacuated 13 people from the scene in Banff National Park.

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.

Mona Ghassemi, president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, was at home in Montreal when she first heard about the Israeli strikes in Iran early Friday. She called her mother, learning her aunt and cousin in Iran awakened to the sounds of nearby missile blasts but were unharmed.

“Residential buildings were hit, and there were children among the killed. So this, of course, is very devastating,” Ms. Ghassemi said.

A Mississauga dentist was among more than 240 people killed Thursday in an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, 33, was the lone traveller with a Canadian passport aboard the London-bound flight. Her death was confirmed by her husband.