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Amid tariff turmoil, will Algoma find demand for its green steel?

Steam rises as water is poured over hot steel at Algoma's Direct Strip Production Complex in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. The steel producer considers its new electric arc furnace a major achievement.

Like some superhero channelling the power of lightning, Algoma Steel Inc. ASTL-T has started using the heat cast off by the arcs of powerful electric currents to make greener steel.

Electric arc furnaces are nothing new – the technology is more than a century old, and there’s already a few in Canada – but Algoma is calling the achievement of production from its first-of-the=kind furnace last month a win as it faces an existential threat from U.S. tariffs.

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Métis Nation of Ontario received nearly $1-billion in federal funding over 20 years, data show

Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand. First Nations and other Métis groups say Ottawa and Ontario have no right to recognize the MNO.

First Nations in Ontario and the Manitoba Métis Federation say nearly $1-billion in federal funding went to a group they allege is fraudulently claiming Métis identity.

The Chiefs of Ontario, which represents 133 First Nations in the province, shared with the Canadian Press data on more than 20 years worth of federal funding provided to the Métis Nation of Ontario.

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Montreal police investigate after Jewish man assaulted in front of his children

Montreal police say no arrests have been made.

Montreal police are investigating after a Jewish father was attacked in the city’s Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough on Friday afternoon, an act condemned by much of the political class on Saturday.

Police say no arrests have been made as the 32-year-old man who was with his three children was struck several times by a suspect around 2:45 p.m.

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Police arrest Canada’s 10th most wanted man at Montreal airport

 A man who’s been on the list of Canada’s top 25 most wanted fugitives for murder and drug trafficking charges in Saskatoon dating back to 2022 has been arrested at the airport in Montreal while police say he was returning to Canada. 

Quebec provincial police say officers from the Sûreté du Québec Airport Unit, the Mascouche Major Crime Investigation Division and the Canada Border Services Agency arrested Jonathan Ouellet-Gendron on several Canada-wide warrants at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport on Saturday.

A Saskatoon Police Service news release from May 2022 says Ouellet-Gendron, 36, was first sought by police after being identified as a suspect in a homicide that occurred in the 700 Block of Melrose Avenue.

© Christinne Muschi

<p>A Surete du Quebec police shoulder patch is seen in Montreal, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi</p>
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BC Hydro says Site C dam is fully operational ahead of schedule

BC Hydro's Site C dam and hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River near Fort St. John can now power half a million homes a year.

B.C.’s minister of energy and climate solutions Adrian Dix said Site C won’t be the last major energy project in the province after becoming fully operational ahead of schedule. 

The dam in northern B.C. is now able to generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity – enough to power half a million homes per year – after the sixth and final power-generating turbine came online. The first of the six turbines started to generate power in October 2024.

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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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Months after Nova Scotia children vanished, a clearer picture emerges of their lives before their disappearance

Deep in the middle of Nova Scotia, far from its quaint coastal towns, sits Lansdowne – a hamlet of around 100 people in a cellular dead zone. It’s surrounded by endless spruce forests, bushes like razor wire and bogs that breed swarms of black flies.

Like many faded settlements across the Maritimes, Lansdowne reached its peak more than a century ago. About 150 kilometres northeast of Halifax, it was once a busy railway stop bustling with Scottish immigrants who dug iron and copper mines deep into the hillsides.

© Darren Calabrese

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Nova Scotians lament early end to summer after wildfire risks force ban on most outdoor activities

A barrier is placed across the Chain of Lakes Trail in Halifax on Thursday after the Nova Scotia government announced it was banning access to wooded areas because of elevated wildfire risk.

Standing along the rocky shores of Cape Breton Island, Jonathan Kanary is trying not to feel completely defeated. The manager and backcountry guide of a Nova Scotia adventure-tourism company, Live Life InTents, has been turning away customer after customer, many of whom drove across the country or flew overseas to be there.

Nearby, atop the Mabou Highlands walled by the Atlantic Ocean, Capes 100, a world-renowned trail race, has been cancelled this weekend – with organizers issuing deferrals and partial refunds for dozens of participants, while mile-marker signage is being haphazardly taken down by hand.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Joly’s home, raising security concerns

Melanie Joly on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May. Ms. Joly was foreign minister until this spring, making her a central figure in the government’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the home of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has sparked calls for the government to consider security measures to protect politicians from protests at their residences.

A group of up to 60 protesters chanted slogans, rang bells, banged pots and projected messages onto Ms. Joly’s house in Montreal on Wednesday evening, in an escalation of protest activity over the situation in Gaza.

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Not possible for wildfire fighters to lessen impact of smoke, officials say

The Statue of Liberty is seen from Brooklyn, New York City through haze caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Canadian officials say it is not possible for wildfire fighters to lessen the impact of smoke drifting across vast swathes of the country and blanketing some American states, after several U.S. lawmakers complained that Canada is not doing enough to combat the smokey conditions.

Officials with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre – a non-profit broker of staff and equipment owned and operated by federal, provincial and territorial wildland fire management agencies – held a briefing Thursday, which was attended by multiple American news outlets.

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Judge reserves decision on whether he’ll strike review of Alberta separation question

A judge has reserved his decision on whether to review a proposed Alberta separation referendum question.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby is expected to give his ruling Aug. 14.

The matter stems from Alberta chief electoral officer Gordon McClure referring the proposed question to the Edmonton court last week. He has asked the judge to determine whether the question violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.

© Jeff McIntosh

A Canada flag, left, and an Alberta flag flap in the breeze with Mt. Kidd in the background at the site of the G7 Leaders meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., Monday, June 2, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
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I remember Hilary Weston

Hilary Weston, an Irish-Canadian businesswoman, philanthropist, writer and former lieutenant-governor of Ontario, in 2003.

The obituaries following the death of Hilary Weston have focused on her philanthropy and that of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation (now the Weston Family Foundation), but there is one aspect that I would like to highlight.

In 2007, Gospel Mission on Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, (not to be confused with Union Gospel Mission), launched a project to build a shower facility for people in the area. Churches and individuals donated; businesses contributed supplies and tradespeople gave of their time. Volunteers ran the place. The Lord’s Rain, as we called it, opened in April, 2008.

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After some Toronto supervised drug-use sites forced to close, remaining services shoulder the fallout

Jason Stutz is a staff member at Toronto's Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site, which launched a Charter challenge to keep supervised drug-use sites open.

A great shift is underway in Toronto months after the closures of several supervised drug-use sites, as their users seek alternatives and drop-in centres see an alarming jump in overdoses.

Some segments of the city’s homeless population have resettled near remaining drug-use sites, but fluctuating intakes have been reported at different locations.

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Once your mortgage has been paid off, what’s the best use of the freed up cash

Buying a house is the largest purchase most Canadians will ever make and finally paying off the mortgage is likely to be a game changer.

But before the temptation to splurge on a pricey new car or a luxury vacation takes hold, experts say it’s important to review your financial plan for this next chapter to ensure you’re on track for wherever you want to go.

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Shakespearean actor Michael Blake was a mainstay of Canadian theatre

Michael Blake had a reputation among his peer in the theatre industry for being thoughtful and methodical.

Over the course of his decades-long acting career, Michael Blake built a reputation within the Canadian theatre industry for being quiet. Backstage, he was known to be thoughtful, perhaps even overly so – he took his time to flesh out the tiniest details of a given character’s psyche. At the Stratford Festival and beyond, he was slow, methodical. Every line had to be perfect.

But fellow actor Jordin Hall, a younger Stratford Festival mainstay who regarded Mr. Blake as a mentor, saw a different side of the artist. On days off from acting, they bonded watching televised Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, and at work, they shared Hi-Chew candies and giggled together onstage, even whispering inside jokes during performances. In 2023, a murmured reference to a silly line from All’s Well That Ends Well during a death scene in Richard III nearly sent a performance into chaos, according to Mr. Hall. “We had a great laugh, and I nearly croaked,” he said. “But it was worth it.”

©

Michael Blake
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Carney meets with Métis groups on major projects bill

Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling on Métis leaders to help transform the economy in response to an increasingly unsteady trade relationship with the United States under President Donald Trump. During a meeting scheduled to discuss his government's major projects legislation, Carney said building up the Canadian economy will rely on partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, and that the partnership has the potential to benefit all.

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Ontario First Nation seeks injunction halting Ring of Fire mining development

Marten Falls First Nation Chief Bruce Achneepineskum, centre, speaks at a press conference in Toronto on Thursday. The First Nation has asked for interim and permanent injunctions preventing mining-related activities in the Ring of Fire.

An Ontario First Nation that has worked toward road access to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire on its traditional territory is now asking the courts to prevent the provincial and federal governments from mineral development in the region.

Marten Falls First Nation, located about 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, has filed a statement of claim asking for interim and permanent injunctions preventing Ontario and Canada from funding or participating in mining-related activities in the Ring of Fire.

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Canadians growing more sympathetic for Palestinians over Israeli actions in Gaza, poll finds

Palestinians collect lentils from the ground after humanitarian aid was airdropped by parachutes into Gaza on Monday.

A new poll suggests Israel is losing the battle for hearts and minds in Canada, with more Canadians now reporting their sympathies lie with Palestinians due to moral outrage over the war in Gaza.

Another poll suggests a slight majority of younger Canadians now say they’re optimistic about the prospects for peace in the Middle East — just as the broader public’s mood returns to the pessimism seen decades ago.

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Ontario seeks proposals for feasibility study on cross-Canada energy corridor

Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, near Laidlaw, B.C., February, 2024. The study will also assess the feasibility of port developments on James Bay, Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes.

The Ontario government on Thursday issued a request for proposals for a feasibility study to explore the best way to establish a new economic and energy corridor in the province.

The proposed corridor includes new Alberta-to-Ontario pipelines, which would transport Western Canadian oil and gas to refineries in southern Ontario and to tidewater ports such as a new deep-sea port on the coast of James Bay.

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Number of B.C. wildfires dips but heat, conditions expected to worsen

Traffic leaves the area along highway 4 below the Wesley Ridge wildfire at Cameron Lake near Coombs, B.C., on Sunday.

The number of wildfires burning in British Columbia is on the decline after more than doubling during a spate of hot, dry conditions and thunderstorms that produced tens of thousands of lightning strikes across the province last week.

The BC Wildfire Service website shows 107 active blazes, with four started in the last 24 hours, while 21 were declared out over the same time period.

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Poilievre says Carney has failed with Trump, urges narrow countertariffs

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says on Monday he wants to pressure the Trump administration into a deal granting Canada unfettered access to the U.S. market.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Mark Carney has broken his promise to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and find a resolution to the ever-expanding trade war.

Speaking in Calgary Thursday, Mr. Poilievre called the U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods “unjustified and unjustifiable,” and he criticized the Prime Minister for failing to negotiate a deal with Mr. Trump to avoid them.

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Two more Newfoundland communities ordered to evacuate as wildfire burns

A Newfoundland wildfire is forcing another 900 people to evacuate their homes as increasing temperatures continue to fuel multiple out-of-control wildfires across the province.

A Newfoundland wildfire is forcing another 900 people to leave their homes as hot temperatures fuel multiple out-of-control blazes in the province.

Premier John Hogan said Thursday that the province has ordered the residents of two communities – Ochre Pit Cove and Salmon Cove – to join the hundreds of other evacuees already ordered to leave communities along the western coast of Conception Bay in eastern Newfoundland.

© Paul Daly

Forest fires have closed roads and caused mandatory evacuations from several Avalon Peninsula communities along Conception Bay North N.L., Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly
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Morning Update: Italy pitches the world’s longest suspension bridge

Good morning. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is positioning a €13-billion mega-bridge as a matter of national defence – more on that below, along with Shopify’s return to the top of the stocks and Gen Z’s embrace of Y2K fashion. But first:

Today’s headlines

An artist's rendering of the €13.5-billion Strait of Messina Bridge.
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Yukon First Nation to oppose all new mining claims as regional land-use planning process gets started

A Yukon First Nation says it will oppose any new mining claims on its traditional territory as it begins a regional land-use planning process with the territory’s government.

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun says in a post on Facebook that it is issuing a notice to the mining industry that it will oppose any claim “through all available legal and political avenues.”

The Nation says any such claim staked during the land-use planning process are “unwelcome” and “unlawful,” citing past court decisions that it says “strongly discourages staking claims in the areas” undergoing such a process.

© Adrian Wyld

The Yukon territorial flag flies in Ottawa, Monday July 6, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
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Ottawa upholds CRTC’s wholesale internet rules, says they will foster competition

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says in a statement the CRTC’s ruling 'will immediately allow for more competition on existing networks for high-speed internet services across the country.'

Ottawa says it will uphold a ruling by Canada’s telecommunications regulator allowing the country’s largest internet companies to provide service to customers using fibre networks built by their rivals – as long as they do so outside their core regions.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement Wednesday evening that the CRTC’s policy “will immediately allow for more competition on existing networks for high-speed internet services across the country.”

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