A three-year-old Montreal girl reported missing on Sunday by her mother was found alive in eastern Ontario on Wednesday afternoon, minutes after her mother appeared in court while facing charges of child abandonment.

The Sûreté du Québec and Ontario Provincial Police confirmed in a Wednesday evening press conference that the girl was found around 3 p.m. along Highway 417, near St. Albert, Ont. She was alone but conscious and able to speak with officers, and is now doing “well” after being examined by a medical team in hospital, OPP Staff Sergeant Shaun Cameron said.

Mona Ghassemi, president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, was at home in Montreal when she first heard about the Israeli strikes in Iran early Friday. She called her mother, learning her aunt and cousin in Iran awakened to the sounds of nearby missile blasts but were unharmed.

“Residential buildings were hit, and there were children among the killed. So this, of course, is very devastating,” Ms. Ghassemi said.

A Mississauga dentist was among more than 240 people killed Thursday in an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, 33, was the lone traveller with a Canadian passport aboard the London-bound flight. Her death was confirmed by her husband.

Hazardous fumes and thick smoke have blanketed Western Canada, extending toward large parts of Ontario and even beyond the country’s border – an ominous sign that wildfire season is well under way.