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.

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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.

Bright colourful rides, skill-testing games with a stuffed animal prize, and copious amounts of sticky cotton candy are all hallmarks of the travelling carnival circuit, and are deeply rooted in the imagination of Quebeckers who’ve been able to experience them.

The travelling midways, which temporarily set up shop in shopping centre parking lots or wherever else they can find space, have been part of the Quebec landscape for decades.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely talk “over the next number of days” after the U.S. imposed a 35 per cent tariff on goods not covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a Canadian official said on Sunday.

Dominic LeBlanc, the federal cabinet minister in charge of U.S.-Canada trade, also told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he was “encouraged” by recent discussions and believed a deal to bring down tariffs remained an option.

Ottawa’s new trade minister says he’s looking to sign deals in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa and beyond – and to convince businesses to actually use the trade agreements Canada has already signed.

“My primary role as Canada’s top salesman is to be out there hustling, opening doors for businesses and accessing new markets,” Maninder Sidhu told The Canadian Press.

Quebec provincial police say four people are dead, including three children under the age of 10, following a car crash southeast of the provincial capital on Saturday.

Quebec provincial police say the victims include a 29-year-old man and three children all from the Chaudière-Appalaches region.

An Alberta man who spent more than three decades in prison for the death of an Edmonton woman has had his charge stayed, the group representing him announced.

Innocence Canada, a non-profit that advocates against wrongful convictions, said Roy Allan Sobotiak was to appear in court Friday to set a date for his new trial, but learned the Crown Prosecution Service stayed his second-degree murder charge.

Nearly 400 properties on Vancouver Island, as well as a provincial park, have been ordered evacuated due to a wildfire burning out of control.

The Regional District of Nanaimo expanded its evacuation order related to the fire burning on the north banks of Cameron Lake, about 60 kilometres from the City of Nanaimo.

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.