Ninety-two-year-old Jean Mitchell has been active for as long as she can remember. She played sports while growing up in Saskatchewan – tennis, skating, volleyball – but admits that anything requiring hand-eye co-ordination was not where she shone.

Then she met her husband, an avid outdoorsman who believed the only way to handle a nine-to-five city job was to ditch corporate wear for outdoor gear as soon as the weekend hit. They enjoyed canoeing, overnight hiking and cross-country skiing during the nearly six decades spent together before he passed in 2014.

A man admitted in court Friday to being part of an arson extortion syndicate targeting South Asian home builders in Edmonton.

Manav Heer, wearing an orange jumpsuit, pleaded guilty to extortion, conspiring to commit extortion, attempting to cause fire to property and using an imitation firearm during an offence.

The chief executive of Canada Infrastructure Bank is defending a $1-billion loan to help BC Ferries buy four new ships from China, saying it will lead to improved service for ferry users.

Ehren Cory provided the perspective Friday during an appearance before the House of Commons transport and infrastructure committee, which was gathered to address the controversy over BC Ferries not buying the vessels from Canadian shipyards.

Harsh temperatures and heavy smoke have triggered heat warnings and air-quality alerts for large swaths of the country this weekend, as hundreds of wildfires remain uncontained in Western and Central Canada.

Higher-risk conditions are anticipated in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, prompting special bulletins from Environment and Climate Change Canada for dozens of cities and towns. Meteorologists expect dryness, heat and lower precipitation to create ripe weather conditions for intense fire behaviour.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she has temporarily closed her constituency office in Oakville, Ont., after a number of incidents left staff feeling unsafe.

Ms. Anand did not specify the nature of the incidents, but said that she is working with security services to resolve the issue.

When a group of Canadian researchers evaluated B.C.’s universal coverage for contraceptives, they uncovered data they say warrants further study on how misinformation could be affecting use among younger women.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the team found a significant immediate bump in prescriptions per month across all age groups after the province made contraceptives free starting in April, 2023. But the researchers also saw “steep declines” both before and months after the policy was introduced, among women aged 20-29.

Canada’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood is a grave mistake, for several reasons.

First, it rewards terrorism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wrong about many things, but he is right about that.

Vancouver paid just over $2-million in severance to 34 non-union employees since the new ABC party was elected in late 2022, putting it at the top of the list for severance payouts among British Columbia’s biggest cities since the last civic election.

But that figure, well above the average in Vancouver, is not routinely made available in the city’s financial statements. City watchers have decried the lack of transparency and say the turbulence is one consequence of new mayors and councils wanting to make a public show of big change.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said talks with the Americans will continue over the coming weeks, after the two sides failed to reach a deal by Friday, which would have averted the imposition of 35-per-cent tariffs on some Canadian goods.

But a new deal in the short term isn’t likely, Mr. LeBlanc said in an interview with The Globe and Mail on Friday from Washington. He said he’ll be speaking to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick next week, and the two will meet in person later in August.

© PATRICK DOYLE

Tens of thousands of lightning strikes across British Columbia since Wednesday have created “a very dynamic” wildfire situation, with more than half the current fires started since the storms.

Emelie Peacock, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said a week of dry and hot weather combined with lightning led to many new fire starts.

Ottawa is insisting it hasn’t been allowing exports of lethal weapons to Israel – days after the release of a report that says Israeli customs data indicates Canadian arms are still being exported there regularly.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Friday items that the Israel Tax Authority identified in customs data as “bullets” were actually “paintball-style projectiles” that cannot be used in combat.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating after a man died and two were injured in small airplane crash near the Ottawa International Airport on Thursday.

Ottawa paramedics said emergency crews responded to a wooded area near Riverside Drive and Hunt Club Road just before 6 p.m. after reports that the small plane crashed into trees.

Alberta regulations meant to keep old coal mines from polluting streams and lakes are failing, suggests a study by government scientists.

The study says high levels of numerous contaminants are having grave outcomes for aquatic life and their ecosystems.

Unionized workers at Canada Post are due to wind up voting on the Crown corporation’s latest contract Friday afternoon.

Voting is set to wrap up at 5 p.m., with results expected to be shared shortly after.

Good morning. The average person has access to more weather data than ever before, but when this flood of data consumes us, anxiety and misinformation tend to follow. More on that below, plus Canadian aid gets airdropped into Gaza, and new wildfire evacuations in B.C. But first:

Today’s headlines

• President Donald Trump raises tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35%
• Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policy shift on Palestinian statehood is met with cautious hope and criticism by Canadians
• The Weston family sought to avoid an auction in bid to buy the Hudson’s Bay charter

© DUANE COLE

Twelve years ago, near some farmland northwest of Toronto, Adam Skinner was in the passenger seat of a Toyota Corolla, unknowingly heading straight into a tornado.

An amateur storm chaser, Mr. Skinner was using weather radar data on his phone to track the menacing clouds unleashing sheets of rain. The wind was so strong, the nearby highway sign started to wiggle and fold. But the radar had a five-minute delay, so it didn’t show the funnel cloud forming behind the rain.

© Photo illustration by the Globe and Mail

A teen girl found guilty of manslaughter in a deadly swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man will spend 16 months under probation with up to a year in an intensive support and supervision program.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell sentenced the girl this afternoon to three years, the maximum available for manslaughter in a youth case, minus 20 months of credit for the time she previously spent in custody.

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 this is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to important reforms, including president 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.

© JOHN McNEILL

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.

© Horst Herget

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.

© 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.

What did Ottawa say?

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. 

© Todd Korol

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.”

© Frank Gunn

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.

© Rick Bowmer

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.

© 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.

© 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.

© Ryan Remiorz

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)

A special air quality statement has been issued for parts of southern Ontario, triggered by wildfire smoke from the Prairies.

Environment Canada says smoke from forest fires can cause reduced air quality and visibility that can fluctuate throughout the day.

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.

As a travelling physician in northern Ontario, Dannica Switzer is acutely aware of the health-care crisis in underserved communities.

“It’s sad to see how much worse things can get,” said Switzer, who works as a locum, filling roles on a temporary basis in rural or remote areas.

Good morning. Canada is facing (yet another) trade deadline with the United States tomorrow. 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
• The Hockey Canada trial has concluded, but conversations about the sport’s culture aren’t over

© Mark Schiefelbein

Canada has trees – on that everyone can agree.

But when it comes to seeing the forest, Ottawa is at odds with a slew of environmental groups over what that means.

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.

© Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images.

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.

A national Muslim advocacy group called Wednesday a “historic day” after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would formally recognize Palestinian statehood.

But a national Jewish organization said the decision was “deeply concerning” and would embolden the terrorist group Hamas.

Bev Priestman, the former head coach of Canada’s women’s national soccer team – who was banned by FIFA for her role in a drone spying scandal at the Paris Olympics – has been hired as head coach of New Zealand’s only professional women’s team.

Priestman made her return to soccer this week after her one-year ban. The ban expired the day before New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix announced Priestman would be the new coach of their women’s squad.

A judge has ruled that the Ontario government’s plan to remove bike lanes along three major streets in Toronto is unconstitutional and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by putting people at “increased risk of harm and death.”

The Ontario government passed legislation last fall giving itself the power to remove existing bike lanes along Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue, while also preventing municipalities from creating new bike lanes that replace traffic lanes. At the time, Premier Doug Ford complained about bike lanes creating gridlock.