British Columbia is creating a provincial police unit to crack down on the wide-scale extortion of South Asian businesspeople, including a wave of shootings in recent months that echoes similar violence seen across Alberta and Ontario.

Assistant Commissioner John Brewer, with the British Columbia RCMP, and provincial Solicitor-General Nina Krieger announced the new 40-member team at a news conference Wednesday flanked by police leaders from around Metro Vancouver. They said this unit will lead new investigations as well as help local RCMP detachments and other municipal forces with their open cases.

Saskatchewan Mounties have charged three more people in their investigation of the Kingdom of Canada, a group likened to a cult that has been clashing with area residents.

RCMP said in a news release Wednesday three women face charges of obstruction of a peace officer in Richmound, a village west of Regina.

Quebec has become the second Canadian province after Alberta that will no longer provide free vaccination against COVID-19 for all its population.

Instead, only certain categories of people will still receive the shot at no cost: seniors, health care workers, residents of remote regions and medically vulnerable patients.

A Minnesota court requested the arrest of a Canadian resident this month so he can stand trial in the U.S. after he allegedly helped with the 2022 cross-border smuggling of an Indian family of four who froze to death in Manitoba.

U.S. authorities were concerned that Fenil Patel, 37, who also goes by the name Fenilkumar Kantilal Patel, would flee Canada – possibly to India – according to new court documents filed in Ontario and Minnesota, verified by The Globe and Mail.

Ottawa is calling on the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify the law around governments’ use of the Charter’s notwithstanding clause, arguing that courts should have a bigger role in such cases than previously granted by legal precedent.

If the Supreme Court accepts Ottawa’s arguments, it will mark the first substantive limits on governments’ use of the notwithstanding clause to override the rights of Canadians since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted in 1982.

The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point, bringing it down to 2.5 per cent after three straight holds. Governor Tiff Macklem says the central bank has shifted to worrying more about a slowing economy than high inflation, which provided the rationale for the interest rate move.

British Columbia Premier David Eby is off to Ottawa to lobby the federal government for more investment in major infrastructure projects in the province.

The Premier’s Office says in a statement that Eby is leading a mission to Ottawa that will last until Thursday, and the itinerary includes a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on priorities for B.C.’s economic growth.

Polaris Music Prize winner Yves Jarvis says getting the $30,000 award is 'the greatest sign' he could get to keep making music. The Montreal rock musician won the $30,000 cash prize for his fifth full-length record, All Cylinders.

The Nova Scotia RCMP have laid dozens of sexual-abuse charges against a former swim instructor who worked at a provincially run youth detention centre for nearly three decades.

Donald Williams, 75, was arrested at his home last week in Dartmouth and faces 66 charges of sexual assault, sexual assault causing bodily harm, sexual exploitation, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and assault. The charges relate to 30 victims − all boys but one.

This is the fifth story in a series on Canada-U.S. cross-border measures to protect North Atlantic right whales.

© Nick Hawkins

The union representing WestJet flight attendants says it has given the airline notice to begin contract talks.

CUPE 8125 says in a press release that it has served notice to bargain a new collective agreement. Its current contract is set to expire on Dec. 31.

When immigration lawyer Hana Marku opened her email weeks ago to a photo of an emaciated infant in the Gaza Strip, she said she felt helpless.

The child is among about 50 Palestinians the Toronto-based lawyer is representing. She said each one was blocked without explanation from submitting applications under the temporary visa program the Canadian government created to help them flee the Israel-Hamas war.

The federal union representing workers at the Canada Revenue Agency has started the second phase of its online campaign denouncing staffing cuts.

The “Canada on Hold” campaign was launched last month with a focus on CRA call centres but has now been expanded to draw attention to staffing cuts across the agency.

Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, says the CRA has cut almost 10,000 jobs since May 2024 and the campaign looks to highlight the impact of cuts on the delivery of services to taxpayers and businesses.

© Sean Kilpatrick

Good morning. Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City has begun, with missiles flattening neighbourhoods and families fleeing on foot – more on that below, along with the coming federal budget and Robert Redford’s cinematic legacy. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Chrystia Freeland will leave her cabinet post to serve as Canada’s special representative for Ukraine
• The suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk is charged and prosecutors will seek the death penalty
• Washington was hoping for a ‘bigger’ deal with Canada than USMCA, the U.S. ambassador says
• Britain prepares for Trump’s arrival with pomp and protests

© Mahmoud Issa

The small B.C. town of Smithers is the latest Canadian community to table extraordinary measures to deal with the chaos and disorder triggered by the fentanyl crisis.

Last week, the northern mountain town of 5,400 announced that it will be hiring a team of private security guards to patrol a homeless encampment and the wider downtown from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays and 24 hours on weekends and holidays.

Ontario’s Minister of Education has ordered child-care operators to immediately block parking spaces that could endanger children, a directive prompted by a Richmond Hill crash that killed a toddler and described by operators as a rushed response that has created new risks.

One-and-a-half-year-old Liam Riazati died when a vehicle crashed through the front window of the First Roots Early Education Academy last Wednesday. Six other children were injured – two critically – along with three adults.

David Sydney-Cariglia saw the struggling plane before he heard it.

He’d been focusing on his son playing soccer at St. Patrick Catholic Secondary School in Toronto’s east end. It was a cloudless Monday night in September. As dusk settled in and the floodlights hummed, a strange shape whispered over the field.

A Canadian resident has been arrested after his alleged involvement in the high-profile smuggling of a young Indian family of four who froze to death along the U.S. border in Manitoba in early 2022.

Fenil Patel, 37, who also goes by the name Fenilkumar Kantilal Patel, was apprehended on Sept. 5, based on an extradition request from the U.S., said Kwame Bonsu, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice Canada. The official declined to provide further details, including about any pending charges, describing the matter on Tuesday as part of “confidential state-to-state communications.”

A powerhouse politician who broke glass ceilings in Canada, Ione Christensen is being remember both for the trails she blazed and the international acclaim she earned for the century-old sourdough starter she protected in the back of her refrigerator.

A former senator and the first woman to be mayor of Whitehorse, Christensen died Monday at the age of 91.

Another man has been arrested in connection with a human smuggling operation that saw a migrant family freeze to death on the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson, Man.

Fenil Patel was arrested Sept. 5 on an extradition request from the United States, the Justice Department in Ottawa said Tuesday. The 37-year-old faces a hearing this week in Ontario Superior Court.

British Columbia’s independent Auditor-General says the province’s record-setting deficit forecast for this year is understated, because Finance Ministry officials were slow to account for a multibillion-dollar settlement that the provinces reached in March with big tobacco companies over health damages.

This week, B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey tabled a fiscal update that shows the provincial deficit in the current fiscal year is forecast to hit $11.6-billion.

The regional director of a union representing workers at the Amazon AMZN-Q facility in Delta, B.C., says leaders are scheduled to meet its members for the first time on the company’s property.

Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle says six, hour-long meetings will be held over three days this week to allow the union to inform workers about next steps in bargaining for their first collective agreement.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he believes Prime Minister Mark Carney will support his plan to build a tunnel under Highway 401 through Toronto and will include it among the major projects the federal government intends to fast-track.

Mr. Ford has spoken out about his plan to build a new driver and transit tunnel expressway under Highway 401 and included it on the list provided to Ottawa of five projects the province believes are in the national interest to build.

The United States is officially starting the process of reviewing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as President Donald Trump continues to shake up continental trade with his tariff agenda.

The U.S. Trade Representative is beginning 45 days of public consultations ahead of the mandated review of the trade agreement, better known as USMCA, next year.

British Columbia’s public service workers are escalating job action aimed at slowing work in the mining sector just as the province moves to fast-track several projects.

The BC General Employees’ Union and Professionals Employees Association say staff in mineral and mines offices in Vancouver and Cranbrook will join picket lines.

A 34-year-old woman found not criminally responsible after abandoning her toddler in a rural field will remain detained at a Montreal psychiatric hospital.

Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud delivered the ruling at the Valleyfield, Que., courthouse on Tuesday, saying that despite the progress she’s made in her recovery she still poses a risk to the public.

“I understand that you are eager to be released, but I think we need to take it step by step, gradually,” he told the woman, whose name is under publication ban to protect the identity of her daughter.

© Christopher Katsarov

Critics are questioning what problem the Alberta government’s move to add mandatory citizenship markers to provincial identification aims to solve, and say it opens the door to potential privacy breaches and discrimination.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Monday the move is all about streamlining services and preventing election fraud.

NDP MP and labour critic Alexandre Boulerice said Tuesday his party plans to table a private member’s bill this fall to scrap a section of the Canada Labour Code that lets the government shut down strikes.

Boulerice told a press conference that the Liberals and Conservatives have abused Section 107, which allows a minister to order binding arbitration and end work stoppages.

Canada's Ethan Katzberg won gold in men's hammer throw at the world athletics championships in Tokyo. The Olympic champion has now won two straight world titles. That equals fellow Canadian Camryn Rogers, who successfully defended her women's hammer throw world title on Sept. 15.

Children’s book author Robert Munsch says he has chosen a medically assisted death (MAID) because of his dementia diagnosis.

He made the comments in a profile in The New York Times, saying he hasn’t set a date.

A Quebec judge has declared that a man charged with attacking a Jewish father in a Montreal park last month is not criminally responsible.

Sergio Yanes Preciado was charged with assault causing bodily harm after he attacked a 32-year-old man on Aug. 8 who was with his young children at a Montreal park.

A 28-second video of the incident was shared widely online, drawing swift condemnation from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec Premier François Legault.

© Christinne Muschi

The federal government’s enthusiasm for laying sanctions on thousands of foreigners has made it harder for Canadians to understand and comply with the sanctions regime and exposes Ottawa to lawsuits, an internal review says.

The findings come as the Conservatives call for Canada to slap sanctions on those behind transnational repression.

“The urgency and frequency of new sanctions packages put intense pressure on operations, limited the ability to conduct research to further support listings and other decisions, and created legal risks,” reads the internal evaluation report dated March, 2025.

© Richard Drew

Enerflex Ltd. EFX-T has named Paul Mahoney as the company’s new president and chief executive, effective Sept. 29.

Mahoney was group president, production and automation technologies at ChampionX Corp., which was acquired earlier this year by SLB SLB-N.

Enerflex board chair Kevin Reinhart says Mahoney, who will also join the company’s board, is an accomplished and seasoned executive with broad industry experience.

© DARRYL DYCK

Premier Danielle Smith and her Alberta Next panel met another friendly audience at a packed town hall in Airdrie on Monday night, where the crowd cheered for separation and voted enthusiastically for the province’s proposals for greater autonomy from Ottawa.

Only after passing through buttoned-down security, the crowd of about 550 people packed the city community centre with 150 people lodged in an overflow room equipped with a television.

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose 1.9 per cent in August as gas prices on a yearly basis fell at a slower pace than the previous month and food prices were up slightly, data showed on Tuesday.

The annual inflation rate has been largely distorted by the cancellation of the carbon levy on petrol sale which has helped bring down the cost of the fuel on a yearly basis, and economists have focused on core inflation measures to gauge the trend of prices.

On a monthly basis, the consumer price index was down 0.1 per cent in August, Statistics Canada said.

© Sean Kilpatrick

As Toronto’s libraries increasingly find themselves on the front lines of the city’s homelessness and mental health crisis, a program that aims to help some of the most vulnerable people is expanding to more branches.

Social and crisis support services are now available in 12 Toronto Public Library locations across the city, in an effort to meet growing demand and reach people who may otherwise go without support in a welcoming public space.

Statistics Canada is set to release its inflation figures for August this morning. 

A poll provided by Reuters shows economists expect the annual inflation rate rose to two per cent in August, from 1.7 per cent in July. 

Core inflation metrics, which are closely watched by the Bank of Canada because they strip out volatile categories, are forecast to remain around three per cent, the upper end of the central bank’s target range.

© Sean Kilpatrick

Good morning. Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre sparred for the first time in Parliament yesterday – more on that below, along with JD Vance’s guest-host appearance on Charlie Kirk’s podcast and Camryn Rogers’s golden hammer throw. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Carney told Anglo American to move its headquarters to Canada for a Teck deal approval, sources say
• Israel launches its long-awaited major ground assault on Gaza
• B.C.’s deficit will rise to $11.6-billion after dropping its carbon tax

© Blair Gable

The patient’s name is Rowan, and he is not happy to be held in a hospital against his will.

Rowan was admitted to an inpatient psychiatry unit for bizarre behaviour and paranoia after coming in off the streets to receive IV antibiotics for a leg wound.

© Sarah Espedido

Federal and provincial attorneys-general on Wednesday are set to file their legal arguments in the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case over Quebec’s secularism law – staking out potentially controversial positions after years of public debate.

At stake is how governments use the notwithstanding clause, Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allows legislators to override a wide range of rights, from freedom of religion to the presumption of innocence for someone charged with a crime.

British Columbia’s second-largest city has created a $250,000 fund to dole out rewards to people with evidence that helps stop the continuing extortion of South Asian businesspeople.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and the city’s police chief announced the fund Monday as they detailed the latest effort to stop the extortions, which she characterized as “frightening and unacceptable.”

The Surrey Police Service said it is investigating 44 extortion cases, including 27 that involved shootings of businesses, homes and vehicles. The agency didn’t specify the time period for these crimes, but noted they peaked in June.

© Isabella Falsetti

The B.C. government has conditionally approved a liquefied natural gas project backed by the Nisga’a Nation.

Environment Minister Tamara Davidson and Energy Minister Adrian Dix have issued an environmental assessment certificate for Ksi Lisims LNG.

Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Leader John Hogan triggered an election for Oct. 14 on Monday, the last day possible to make the call under the province’s fixed date election rules.

Mr. Hogan visited Government House along with his wife, Gillian, and their dog, Rooney, to ask Lieutenant-Governor Joan Marie Aylward to dissolve the House of Assembly.

Phil Arens spreads a stack of lab reports across his dining room table, jabbing at test results showing how heavily his well has been laced with “forever chemicals” seeping downhill from North Bay’s airport.

“It really bounces around,” says the plumbing contractor. “Here I am at 93, then 48, 11, 35, 31 – then there was 226. That was last August. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faced off in question period.

The leaders of Canada, France, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Britain held a call on Monday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, the office of Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement.

“All leaders agreed that the focus must remain on advancing peace and security, including reaching a lasting ceasefire, securing the release of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas, and scaling up flows of life-saving assistance for Palestinian civilians,” it said.

Ontario’s education minister has instructed licensed daycare providers to immediately prevent the use of parking spaces directly adjacent to child-care facilities, according to a memo obtained by The Canadian Press, days after a toddler was killed when an SUV crashed into a daycare north of Toronto.

Paul Calandra – who first proposed the measures several days ago – said in the memo sent to daycares Monday that the goal is to “better safeguard” children and child-care providers.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is adding proof of citizenship markers to driver’s licences and other forms of identification to streamline services and prevent election fraud.

Smith told reporters in Calgary the change would make it easier for students and the disabled to get funding, as they already have to prove Canadian citizenship to do so.

B.C. Premier David Eby’s decision to remove the province’s consumer carbon tax has helped drive British Columbia to a new record-high deficit of $11.6-billion.

B.C.’s carbon tax was eliminated on April 1, after Mr. Eby promised voters he would do so in a hotly contested election campaign last October that ended with his New Democratic Party barely holding on to power. The impact of that tax change, calculated for the first time in Monday’s fiscal update, is a loss of $2-billion in government revenue in the current fiscal year.

Voters in Newfoundland and Labrador will be heading to the polls on Oct. 14.

Liberal Leader John Hogan, who was sworn into office in May, is seeking his first electoral win as premier. His party has been in power for 10 years, and he said the Liberals still have important work to do.