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Newfoundland firefighting efforts push on as New Brunswick bans woods activities

Forest fires have closed roads and caused mandatory evacuations from several Avalon Peninsula communities along Conception Bay in north Newfoundland.

Firefighters battling out-of-control wildfires in Newfoundland were facing windy and dry conditions Saturday, while ongoing dry conditions in New Brunswick prompted officials to issue a ban on activities in the woods on provincially owned land.

Three ongoing fires in Newfoundland have forced hundreds of people to evacuate their communities. Two are on the Avalon Peninsula in the Conception Bay North area and to the south near Holyrood. A third fire in central Newfoundland, south of Bishop’s Falls, was reported on Tuesday afternoon.

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Conservative MP calls on minister to apologize to MAGA-affiliated singer over concert cancellations

Singer Sean Feucht at the National Mall in Washington in October, 2020.

A Conservative MP is calling on Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault to apologize to U.S.-based Christian musician Sean Feucht after the permits for recent concerts in venues overseen by Parks Canada were revoked.

Marilyn Gladu, the opposition critic for civil liberties, says in a letter dated Friday that denying the permits did not “preserve the principle of inclusion” but had the opposite effect in excluding Feucht and many Canadians who had planned to attend the events.

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Heat wave hits Ontario and Quebec, prompting warnings for sweltering multi-day stretch

The heat event, which is expected to blanket most of Ontario and parts of Quebec, is set to last into the middle of next week when slightly cooler temperatures are expected, says Environment Canada.

Hot, humid weather settled over much of Ontario and parts of Quebec on Saturday with Environment Canada warning of a multi-day heat wave set to bring even higher temperatures Sunday and Monday.

Environment Canada said several days of sweltering conditions began taking hold of southern Ontario and half of northeast Ontario on Saturday, blanketing communities including Windsor, Timmins, Sudbury, Toronto and Ottawa.

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RCMP union advocates for ease of foreign applicant requirements to attract talent

RCMP currently requires applicants are Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status. Applicants with permanent resident status must have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for three of the last five years.

The union representing front-line RCMP members wants the force to ease requirements for foreign applicants to help attract experienced police officers from agencies like the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and counterparts in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The RCMP currently requires that applicants be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status in Canada. Applicants with permanent resident status must have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for three of the last five years.

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Brace yourself for the rest of Trump 2

We are just half a year into Trump's second term and it has already been more chaotic than even his bitterest rivals warned.

The night that Donald Trump won the election for the first time I was in New York.

I had parked myself in a bar where young Republicans were gathering to watch the results come in. My assignment was to talk to them after Mr. Trump had lost and write something about the future of the Republican Party after his failure. A look at the post-Trump GOP, in other words.

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Stratford’s iconic Avon River has dried up, stunning locals and tourists

The water in Lake Victoria in Stratford, Ont., started receding after a brutal storm tore through Perth County on July 24.

From its earliest days, the Avon River has been the heart of the community of Stratford, Ont.

The centrepiece of the river, known as Lake Victoria, was created in the 1830s as a millpond for industry. The parks board later convinced the city to invest in horse-drawn scoops to dredge the lake. Locals warded off railroad proposals along the shorelines, where roses from Queen Mary were planted. A pair of swans from Queen Elizabeth arrived in 1967.

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B.C. health authority cuts dozens of jobs after quiet government directive to balance budget

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne in Burnaby, B.C., in June. Documents reveal the Ministry of Health directed B.C.'s health authority to balance its budget this fiscal year, separate from and before Health Osborne publicly launched a corporate-spending review.

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.

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B.C. businesses call U.S. decision to double Canadian softwood duties harmful to both countries

Prime Minister Mark Carney was in B.C. this week promising $700-million in loan guarantees for the industry and $500-million for long-term supports to help companies diversify export markets and develop products.

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.

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B.C. wildfires see some relief from cooler weather, many properties continue to be under evacuation order

The number of active fires in the province has been pushed down to just over 100, with more than 160 blazes declared out in the last week.

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.

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Major land claims ruling says B.C. Indigenous group has claim to a portion of city and port lands

In what was billed as the longest trial in Canada’s history, the ruling represents a milestone in Indigenous reconciliation.

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.

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RFK Jr.’s defunding of mRNA vaccines to threaten Canadian tech access, stall development, experts say

On Aug. 5, Robert F.  Kennedy Jr. announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was halting funding for 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth nearly US$500-million. 

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.

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Average asking rents fall again in July to $2,121, report says

The report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation said average asking rents in Canada are still two per cent higher than they were two years ago.

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.

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Manitoba Museum CEO glad Bay charter found a home: ‘We didn’t have the means’

The 1670 royal charter signed by King Charles II establishing Hudson's Bay is going to the Canadian Museum of History pending court approval.

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.

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Morning Update: Jack and Lilly disappeared. What happened to them?

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

© Darren Calabrese

Belynda Gray, grandmother of Jack and Lilly, holds a photo taken of the children on their first day of school while sitting at her kitchen table in Middle Musquodoboit, N.S. on Aug. 1.
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