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

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 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.”

Canadian experts in vaccines and infectious diseases say the decision by the U.S. government to terminate nearly US$500-million in funding for mRNA vaccine development is not just illogical but threatens pandemic preparedness.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday that 22 mRNA-based projects will be halted and no new projects will be green lit. He claimed data show these vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.”

An Ontario labour group says it is advocating for more robust worker protections amid growing health concerns over poor air quality as wildfire smoke blankets the province with increasing frequency.

The Ontario Federation of Labour, which represents more than 55 unions across the province, says the push is part of a broader heat stress strategy looking at how climate change is impacting working conditions.

Sandra Walsh was struggling to breathe in her apartment when temperatures across Nova Scotia soared in July, but the woman on social assistance says her pleas for a government-funded air conditioner have been ignored.

“With the high humidity, it effects my breathing and I have to gasp for air,” says the 46-year-old woman, recently diagnosed with a progressive lung disease. “Even taking frequent, cold showers isn’t really helping.”

The Manitoba Métis Federation is turning down Prime Minister Mark Carney's invitation to discuss his government's controversial major projects legislation, saying it won't attend the meeting alongside another Métis group it says has no reason to exist.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is holding virtual meetings with his cabinet and the premiers, less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump hit Canada with a baseline 35-per-cent tariff. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he wants to see dollar-for-dollar retaliation, but that doesn't mean he doesn't back Carney's approach.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford teed off Wednesday on a court decision declaring his law to remove three Toronto bike lanes unconstitutional, calling it the “most ridiculous” ruling he has ever seen.

Ford has already said his government plans to appeal, even as it works on a compromise with the city to both keep the bike lanes and add extra lanes for vehicle traffic.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford revealed more details Wednesday about his planned tunnel under Highway 401, even as a feasibility study he’s commissioning has yet to get underway.

Speaking at an unrelated transit announcement in Thornhill, Ont., north of Toronto, Ford said his plan is to have a 19.5-metre-wide, three-level tunnel, with one level going eastbound, one for westbound traffic and a bottom level for transit.

Alberta’s government is creating fines and rules meant to curb predatory tow-truck drivers.

Starting Friday, there will be 200-metre exclusion zones around accident scenes for tow-truck operators, who must stay back unless police or drivers involved say otherwise or face a $1,000 fine.

Three men facing smuggling-related charges after 44 foreign nationals were found in a truck in southern Quebec on Sunday will remain detained until their next court hearing.

Ogulcan Mersin, Dogan Alakus and Firat Yuksek appeared in a Sherbrooke, Que. courtroom today following their arrest over the weekend.

The Nova Scotia government has released its long-awaited plan to address the future transportation needs of Atlantic Canada’s largest city and the surrounding area.

Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters Wednesday that the goal of the Regional Transportation Plan is to transform the transportation system for Halifax and those areas within an hour’s drive of the port city – a region that is home to 63 per cent of the province’s population.

Light rain and higher humidity in British Columbia have briefly tempered wildfire activity, but hotter temperatures in the forecast appear poised to create new challenges.

Cliff Chapman, director of wildfire operations with the BC Wildfire Service, said a drying trend starting this weekend is expected to cause the southern half of the province to “heat up again,” raising the wildfire risk.

When police in England raided a fentanyl lab outside the northern city of Leeds in early 2017, the bust sent shockwaves across the country.

The raid and subsequent conviction of three men – who made and sold around £164,000 worth of the opioid in five months – was the first major fentanyl case in Britain and it prompted dire warnings from law enforcement officers, health officials and the media that the U.K. was headed for a U.S.-style fentanyl crisis.

© Chad Hipolito

Three men who face terrorism charges over allegations that they plotted to take over land near Quebec City were denied bail at a court hearing on Wednesday.

Corporal Marc-Aurèle Chabot and Raphaël Lagacé of Quebec City, along with Simon Angers-Audet from nearby Neuville, Que., were arrested last month. Each face one count of facilitating terrorism.

The Manitoba Métis Federation is turning down Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation to discuss his government’s controversial major projects legislation, saying it won’t attend the meeting alongside another Métis group it claims has no reason to exist.

The federation, which represents Red River Métis, said Wednesday Carney’s decision to invite the Métis Nation of Ontario to Thursday’s meeting undermines the integrity of the gathering and puts the government’s plans for major projects at risk.

Around 10,000 Air Canada AC-T flight attendants will be in a legal position to strike in less than two weeks, but the airline says it’s confident there is enough runway left to reach a deal that avoids grounding numerous flights.

The Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees says negotiations with the airline are set to resume Friday after its members voted 99.7 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

Canadian authorities intercepted a 16-foot U-Haul truck at the U.S.-Canada border near Stanstead, Que., just minutes after alleged smugglers loaded in 44 people, the RCMP say.

The people found in the sweltering cargo area, most of whom were Haitian nationals, included a pregnant woman and young children, police said. They allegedly told officers they had crossed the border on foot, walking for two hours before the truck picked them up.

Good morning. Canada is laying the groundwork for USMCA talks while Trump rewrites trade policy one hazy deal at a time – more on that below, along with Victoria Mboko’s Cinderella run at the National Bank Open and a potential Air Canada strike. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Wildfires push thousands from their homes in Manitoba and Newfoundland, while areas of Nova Scotia are on high alert
• Former Israeli officials call for an end to the war in Gaza, as Netanyahu hints at its expansion
• The family of a hostage held by Hamas pleads for an international response after the release of videos
• An Afghan family seeking entry into Canada has been detained by ICE

The Ontario government, poised to allow private clinics to do publicly funded hip- and knee-replacement surgeries, is facing behind-the-scenes criticism from some of the people who hope to build the new facilities.

The long-delayed move is part of the Progressive Conservative government’s push to boost the involvement of the private sector in the public health care system, in an effort to move more procedures out of hospitals and reduce waiting times.

An Afghan family fleeing the Taliban and seeking to join relatives near Toronto are stuck in a “legal trap” after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, their lawyers say.

The family was eligible to cross into Canada by land from the U.S. to claim asylum because a close relative – a 32-year-old woman who previously worked for a Western aid organization in Afghanistan – was granted refugee status in Canada last year.

Rapidly growing wildfires in several provinces forced thousands of people from their homes and prompted air-quality warnings in cities thousands of kilometres away, while hot and dry conditions had other areas on high alert, including Nova Scotia, where the government banned most summertime activities in wooded areas.

The deteriorating conditions have added up to a wildfire season that is on track to be one of Canada’s worst on record in terms of area burned, second only to 2023.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced $1.2-billion in support for Canada's struggling softwood lumber. He says Canada will not play industries off against each for the sake of a trade deal with the U.S.

Multiple wildfires are burning in Newfoundland, prompting more evacuation orders and destroying structures in a community in the eastern part of the province.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier said during a media briefing Tuesday the out-of-control wildfire near Small Point–Adam’s Cove–Blackhead–Broad Cove and Kingston grew significantly overnight.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake said Tuesday that it is looking at imposing tolls on the roads crossing its territory in response to looming federal budget cuts.

Grand Chief Cody Diabo told reporters the tolls could help offset the impact of cuts to federal departments, including Indigenous Services Canada.

Vancouver Island photographer Colby Rex O’Neill has had restless nights as a wildfire burns less than a kilometre from his home.

That’s a worry, but he also fears the Wesley Ridge fire could reach what he calls a “national treasure” – Cathedral Grove, a temperate rainforest containing trees that are about 800 years old.

Just 20, Adisa De Rosario has spent half his life in Toronto FC colours.

The young goalkeeper joined the TFC academy in 2015. Even then, he was no stranger to the club’s training centre, having been part of its pre-academy.

Canada’s privacy commissioner has opened an investigation into a cyberattack on WestJet WJAFF which saw a “malicious actor” gain access to the airline’s systems.

The airline said in a statement last month that a “sophisticated, criminal” third party was able to gain access to some personal and travel-related data during the June cybersecurity incident.

The family of a Nova Scotia firefighter who died in training says the results of a scathing audit of the province’s main firefighters school is an important first step in ensuring future safety.

The $300,000 money-for-value audit by consultant 21FSP was released Tuesday by the provincial government. It was launched in June and stemmed from the death of firefighter Skyler Blackie during a training exercise at the Nova Scotia Firefighters School in March 2019.

© HO

Four faculty groups at McGill University have launched a constitutional challenge of a Quebec bill that allows the provincial labour minister to terminate strikes.

The associations, which represent 500 academics, say the bill restricts the constitutional right to strike.

If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Climate and all Globe newsletters here.

Good afternoon and thanks for catching up with us after the long weekend. Welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

A mysterious illness has killed billions of sea stars. Just yesterday, scientists shared how they’ve solved the case.

© Lauren Owens Lambert

In the summer of 1910, 20-year-old Myra Ellison sent a letter home to her mother from the shores of Campbell Lake on Vancouver Island, where she was surrounded by a wilderness of old-growth forests and steep, snow-capped mountains.

“My boots are simply fine for walking,” she assured her mother.

© Justine Hunter

Soon after Rachel Calvelli got married, she and her husband wanted to take six months off work and travel across North America.

At her job, Calvelli had two options for a sabbatical: two years of salary spread across 30 months and six months off, or four years of salary across five years and a year off.

Canada’s merchandise trade deficit widened in June to $5.9-billion as imports grew faster than exports due to a one-time high-value oil equipment import, data showed on Tuesday.

The deficit observed in June is the second highest on record after the deficit dipped to its largest in history in April to $7.6-billion.

Air Canada flight attendants are entering the final day of voting on whether to give a strike mandate to their union.

The vote, which began July 28 and closes today, comes after the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees concluded the conciliation process with no deal reached.

The union represents more than 10,000 flight attendants who have been in contract talks since the start of the year.

© Christinne Muschi

A stretch of northern Ontario remains under a special air quality statement today amid smoke from wildfires burning in parts of the country.

The special statement for southern parts of the province, including the Toronto area, lifted this morning as conditions there improved.

Good morning. Canada has started to deliver aid in Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to agree to a ceasefire. More on that below, plus a look ahead on the trade file for the week and a look back at how science saved sick sea stars. Let’s get to it.

TOP STORY

The Canada Border Services Agency says it has arrested and charged three alleged smugglers after police in southern Quebec intercepted a truck carrying 44 foreign nationals in conditions an RCMP officer described as “horrific.” 

The agency said RCMP and Quebec provincial police intercepted the vehicle with dozens of people aboard near Stanstead, Que., overnight between Saturday to Sunday.

The rats took over James Klein’s backyard this spring.

He’d never had a rat problem in the more than two decades he’s lived in Montreal’s Snowdon neighbourhood. But now, when he watches TV in his family room, he sees them out of the corner of his eye, scurrying around outside the glass door leading onto his back deck.

Residents of several small communities in eastern Newfoundland were ordered Monday to leave their homes as two separate wildfires burned along the shores of Conception Bay.

On Monday, just before 2 p.m. local time, the provincial government issued evacuation orders for the two towns of Small Point–Adam’s Cove–Blackhead–Broad Cove and Kingston, which are spread along the west side of the huge bay.

Officials said a 150-hectare wildfire had come within one kilometre of Kingston.

© Adrian Wyld

Debbie Nightingale produced movies and television shows before a personal plot twist led her to become a goat farmer. Over time, her Ontario farm became a popular tourist attraction.

Ms. Nightingale, who has died at 71, was a prominent member of the Canadian film and television industry whose many credits included co-founding a documentary festival now known as Hot Docs.

A family that was caught in a shootout between Montreal police and an armed suspect last year is suing the city and members of the police force, alleging inhumane treatment that caused lasting trauma.

Houssam Abdallah and his family members say they’ve been living a nightmare since he and one of his sons were caught in crossfire outside their home one year ago.

A 32-year-old Nova Scotia woman who was reported missing from the Annapolis Valley has been found dead, RCMP said Monday.

Police say Kerstin Marie Wetter was last seen Sunday at a residence on Highway 10 in the community of Nictaux, N.S.

Sunflower sea stars were once everywhere along the Pacific coast. Big, colourful and many-armed, they could be spotted at low tide clinging to rocks as if painted there by Vincent van Gogh.

Then came a devastating sickness that turned healthy sea stars into mounds of decaying mush. Known as sea star wasting disease, the mysterious syndrome is estimated to have killed billions of the creatures since it emerged in 2013.

Quebec’s universal respiratory syncytial virus immunization program proved more than 85 per cent effective in reducing infant hospitalizations, emergency-room consultations and intensive-care admissions, according to a new study.

The province was the first in Canada to announce a publicly funded nirsevimab program for the 2024-25 RSV season. Ontario, Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories later followed suit.

It’s the sounds of the wildfire at Cameron Lake that alarm Colby Rex O’Neill the most.

The gunshot-like noise of trees exploding, followed by the earth-shaking crash as they fall. The thunderous clap as overheated boulders split, then roll down the hillside, splashing into the lake.

Victoria Mboko earned the biggest win of her young career with a dominant win over No. 1 seed Coco Gauff of the United States to reach the National Bank Open quarterfinals in Montreal. The 18-year-old from Toronto is having a breakthrough season after starting the year ranked outside the top 300.

A Canadian hockey brand has pulled controversial clothing from its online store after a line of T-shirts and hoodies it sold was criticized for demeaning women and girls as sex objects.

HockeyBenders, a company that has become popular in rinks across the country and boasts a large following of kids and teenagers online, sold $35 T-shirts with the slogan “Barduzz, Gettin Huzz,” which it has pulled.

Hilary Weston, an Irish-Canadian businesswoman, philanthropist and writer who served as lieutenant-governor of Ontario, has died.

Ms. Weston’s family confirmed her passing at the age of 83 in a Sunday statement, which did not give a cause of death.

Winning her fourth gold medal of the world swim championship in Singapore, Toronto teenager Summer McIntosh is a stroke closer to becoming one of the most decorated swimmers in history.

But at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, she’s already a legend.