The Canadian government’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state in September reflects Ottawa’s deep frustration with the Israeli government and sends a strong message that it supports a two-state solution, but analysts say it likely will have little impact without U.S. support.
Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that Canada intends to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly. He said thisis predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to important reforms, includingpresident Mahmoud Abbas’s promise to hold general elections in 2026, in which Hamas could not take part, and the demilitarization of the Palestinian state.
Reem Sultan’s uncle was killed in Gaza last December, her aunt died of malnutrition in January. Her cousin’s family of six, including children, perished when their home was bombed in May. Another cousin who went to retrieve and bury their bodies died in an air strike, killed while grieving the dead.
In all, the resident of London, Ont., has lost 15 close relatives in the Middle East conflict, but a tally of extended family members reaches closer to 100. So while Ms. Sultan welcomes the news that Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine, she says more is needed than just words.
Canada has joined 13 other countries, including the United States, Britain and France, to denounce what they describe as threatening Iranian state activity in Europe and North America.
Thursday’s statement does not detail specific incidents but speaks of attempts by Iranian intelligence “to kill, kidnap and harass” people.
At the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in October of 1992, the police created a barrier around Paul (Sparkle) Markle and a group of Toronto Blue Jays front office workers and players’ children and wives. It was Game 4 of the American League Championship Series and after Roberto Alomar slapped a ninth-inning, game-tying homer off A’s closer Dennis Eckersley, the fans, already rowdy, began sniffing for Canadian blood. The Jays eventually won in the 11th inning.
“The police said, ‘Stay in your seat until the crowd leaves,’ because we didn’t want to get rained on with popcorn and warm beer,” says Glen Wilkie, known as Hoop, Mr. Markle’s best friend of 67 years. As Mr. Wilkie relates, the Jays’ contingent did as the police advised, but the evening wasn’t over.
A truck hauling heavy machinery down a highway in British Columbia’s dry Okanagan region caught fire Wednesday, sparking a blaze in the nearby bush that has forced nearly a thousand people from their homes.
Patrick Van Minsel, Mayor of the District of Peachland, is among them.
For several years in the mid-2000s, I worked at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, where I managed a program for keen young musicians. I had met the virtuoso bassist Gary Karr earlier in my career. I doubted he would remember me, but knowing his dedication to music education I contacted him to ask if he and his partner, the pianist and harpsichordist Harmon Lewis, would host a musical evening for some of our students.
Their generosity was beyond what I could have hoped for. The visit to Gary and Harmon’s home in Saanich, B.C., became an annual event, eagerly anticipated by the students, and also their parents who competed for the opportunity to attend along with their kids. We brought the pizza, and we were given the run of the house: We were free to try out the harp that stood in the living room, admire the works of art on the walls, and discover their many academic certificates and awards that were given pride of place – hanging in the bathroom, above the toilet.
I had the good fortune to encounter Alia Hogben when I was a public servant in the old multiculturalism program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, following up on a small grant to assist her with her manuscript on the history of Muslim women in Canada. We ended with a good 45-minute conversation on the post-Gulf War and post-9/11 challenges facing young Muslim women, which I had observed while performing other duties for my department.
I was especially impressed by her fervour for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and how it was a guidepost for women of all communities and origins, but much more so for Muslim women, who had to deal with family pressures and those of a wider society still uncertain about how they should respond. She was practical and direct on this issue when I twice saw her speak frankly to Muslim audiences. She believed strongly that one could best be a good Muslim by being a good Canadian.
Alia Hogben, spring of 2022 when she received an honorary degree from Victoria University in the University of Toronto.
Photo credit: Victoria University
Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating a report that an officer fatally shot a man inside a courtroom in a remote part of northern Ontario on Thursday.
The Special Investigations Unit said a team of investigators is heading to the scene in Wapekeka First Nation.
“Preliminary information indicates an OPP officer fatally shot a man,” SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said in an emailed statement, adding that more details won’t be available until Friday.
A Special Investigations Unit logo is seen on a truck at Toronto Pearson International Airport, in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, April 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey
Canada’s planned recognition of the state of Palestine is a significant step but in many ways the decision is largely symbolic, as experts suggest the move will not have major practical or legal implications in the months ahead.
Oil sands producer MEG Energy Corp. MEG-T says its profits fell during the second quarter compared with a year earlier.
Net earnings for the quarter came in at $67-million, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with $136-million, or 50 cents per diluted share, during the same period last year.
Revenue came in at $757-million during the quarter, down from $1.37-billion a year earlier.
Quebec vehicle-maker Lion Electric will no longer honour warranties on school buses and trucks sold in the United States, leaving clients south of the border in the lurch.
After seeking protection from its creditors in December, the struggling manufacturer was acquired by a group of Quebec investors in May with a plan to focus exclusively on electric school buses assembled and sold in the province. The company has retained its manufacturing plant in St-Jérôme, Que.
Five months after Drake backed out of concerts in Australia and New Zealand, his fans are set to get their money back.
Live Nation Australia has notified ticketholders that four postponed shows for the Toronto rapper’s Anita Max Win tour are now officially cancelled, after assurances earlier this year that they would be rescheduled.
The entertainment company says refunds will be issued, stating on the TicketTek retailer website that “extensive efforts” to reschedule the shows “within the necessary timeframe was not possible.”
<p>Rapper Drake has a laugh during first half NBA basketball action between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday, November 16, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</p>
The Public Health Agency of Canada says this year’s first human case of West Nile virus acquired within the country has been confirmed in Toronto.
The confirmation comes after Toronto Public Health said its first laboratory-confirmed case of the virus in 2025 is an adult resident of the city with no travel history.
The virus is transmitted to humans through infected mosquitoes.
File - In this Aug. 26, 2019, file photo, Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District biologist Nadja Reissen examines a mosquito. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
There’s been a surge in wildfire activity in British Columbia associated with this week’s high temperatures and thousands of lightning strikes, with dozens of new fires sparked in just one day.
Multiple evacuation orders were in place across the province on Thursday, including for lakefront properties near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, homes in the Okanagan Valley and two First Nation reserves near Lytton.
By late Thursday, the BC Wildfire Service online dashboard showed more than 40 new fires in the past 24 hours.
B.C. Wildfire Service firefighters take a brief break while conducting a controlled burn to help prevent the Finlay Creek wildfire from spreading near Peachland, B.C., on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
American pop star Chappell Roan is creating excitement in an often-overlooked Canadian province, with her latest single supercharging fans in Saskatchewan’s LGBTQ community.
In Roan’s new song about post-breakup frustration, set for release late Thursday, the singer-songwriter name-drops Saskatchewan.
An audit of Alberta medical clinics charging membership fees found no significant cases of patients paying out of pocket for covered medical treatment but paying members are likely getting more thorough care.
The province launched the audit in 2023 in response to concerns over a Calgary medical clinic switching to a membership model and planning to charge annual fees of about $5,000 for families and $2,000 for an adult.
Ads promised patients shorter wait-times and extended appointments but experts warned membership fees would create a two-tiered health system benefiting those who can pay.
Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services for Alberta, makes a health care announcement in Calgary on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol
Canadian aid is being airdropped into Gaza a day after Ottawa joined allies in recognizing Palestinian statehood – a step which has prompted both praise and condemnation in the Middle East.
Israel has slightly loosened its tight restrictions on food and medicine reaching the Gaza Strip in response to an international outcry over starvation in the Palestinian territory.
Quebec’s Superior Court has authorized a class-action lawsuit over infamous CIA-linked brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital.
The Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University and the Canadian government are being sued for their alleged role in the so-called Montreal Experiments carried out by Dr. Ewen Cameron between 1948 and 1964.
The lawsuit alleges the federal government funded psychiatric treatments that were part of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program of covert mind control at Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute.
Guillermo del Toro and Jodie Foster are among those set to receive special honours at the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival.
De Toro will be presented with the Ebert Director Award – recognizing filmmakers who have exemplified greatness – at the TIFF Tribute Awards on Sept. 7.
Justin Trudeau was spotted in the crowd at Katy Perry’s concert in Montreal, days after duo dined together in the city.
The appearance continues to fuel speculation about a possible relationship between the former prime minister and U.S. pop star, who had dinner at a Plateau restaurant on Monday.
The rumour mill continues to churn for Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry. The former prime minister was spotted at the U.S. pop star's Montreal concert July 30, days after they dined together at a Plateau eatery.
Canada’s Summer McIntosh has claimed her third gold medal of the world swimming championships. The 18-year-old from Toronto won the women’s 200-metre butterfly in a meet-record 2 minutes 1.99 seconds, just shy of the world record 2:01.81. (July 31, 2025)
The affordable housing complex Mike Tiller is hoping for is unlike anything else in his community.
The sleek, modular buildings with sloping roofs and wide windows pose a sharp contrast to the brightly-coloured clapboard houses dotting the shores in New-Wes-Valley, a small fishing community along the northern end of Newfoundland’s Bonavista Bay.
Toronto has moved to ban motorized watercraft from one of its busiest beaches by next year due to concerns over unsafe operators and illegal rentals, but one rental company says the city should instead focus on regulations that weed out “bad actors” in the industry.
City council passed a motion last week requesting that PortsToronto ban boats and personal watercrafts such as Jet Skis within at least 150 metres of the shoreline at Woodbine Beach in the city’s east end by June 2026.
Good morning. Canada is facing (yet another) trade deadline with the United Statestomorrow. And while many tariff deadlines have been delayed, this one could stick. More on that below, plus the latest news out of Gaza, and how B.C. prepared for a smaller-than-expected tsunami.But first:
Today’s headlines
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada intends to recognize a Palestinian state
Extremism is a threat to the Canadian army’s trust and credibility, commander says
For $35, aspiring young hockey players can purchase a T-shirt from a Canadian brand that has become popular in rinks across the country, with a slogan rooted in language that degrades women and girls as sex objects.
Using veiled locker-room slang, the shirts read: “Barduzz, Gettin Huzz.” Loosely translated, it means “Scoring goals, getting hoes.” A hoodie version is also available in children’s sizes.
In the end, the tsunami that washed onto Tofino, B.C.’s shores was only about half the height of a school ruler, gently raising the tide and delighting the roughly 300 tourists watching just before midnight Tuesday on Mackenzie Beach.
About seven hours earlier, J. J. Belanger, general manager of the nearby Crystal Cove Beach Resort, went into high alert after news that an underwater earthquake had hit Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula with a preliminary magnitude of 8.8, one of the strongest ever recorded.
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