National News

Canada has sanctioned a Russian woman whom the foreign affairs minister's office alleges is the architect of a scheme to abduct thousands of Ukrainian children and facilitate their adoption into Russian homes. 

The federal government has imposed sanctions on Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's children's rights commissioner, who has been accused by Ukraine of organizing the removal of children from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections and a possible signal the outbreak in Europe may be starting to decline, according to a World Health Organization report issued Thursday.

Canada's immigration minister now projects it will take a few months longer than originally hoped to get application wait times back on track.

Sean Fraser promised in January to eliminate backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of the year.

That was before Canada launched a major response to the refugee crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

Frasier says that effort has contributed to longer waits for people who want to come to Canada.

Incoming Supreme Court of Canada judge Michelle O'Bonsawin, poised to become the first Indigenous member of that bench, says she's a "tell it like it is person" and a lifelong student.

In O'Bonsawin's first public appearance since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nominated her for the position last week, she said she believes her life experience as an Indigenous person, a Franco-Ontarian and someone who grew up in rural northern Ontario will serve her well on the court.

Ukraine's ambassador to Canada says her country is investigating more than 28,000 suspected war crimes, including the killing of 373 children by Russian forces. 

Ambassador Yulia Kovaliv says the crimes being documented and probed, with help from Canadian investigators, include the kidnapping of children taken to Russia, and the murder of fleeing civilians. 

"What we want to do is to properly document each and every crime and we will bring Russia to justice," she said in an interview, during which she was called by Ukraine's prosecutor general about the issue. 

A European music school named in honour of one of Russia's most celebrated composers is undergoing a name change and will no longer be playing any Russian music according to reports.

The former Tchaikovsky Music School in Brussels, Belgium, will begin its new year now known as the Brussels International Music Academy, the Brussels Times reports.

On March 8, nearly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, Taisiia Mokrozub took her infant son, parted from her husband and joined an exodus to safety in Poland. She believed the war would end quickly and she would be home by May.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is open to easing regulatory requirements for projects that would facilitate the export of Canadian natural gas to Europe, but questioned whether a business case exists for such investments.

The comments came Monday during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Montreal as the prime minister hosted the German leader during a visit that will also include stops in Toronto and Newfoundland.

Lawmakers and advocates in the United States are ramping up the pressure on the federal government to ease travel delays between the U.S. and Canada. 

The Canadian American Business Council's new campaign, "Travel Like it's 2019," aims to flood federal MPs with public demands for action. 

It calls on Ottawa to scrap the troublesome ArriveCan app, a mandatory pre-screening tool for visitors to Canada. 

And it wants the federal government to clear the backlog of 350,000 applications for the Canada-U.S. trusted-traveller system known as Nexus. 

Canada agreed to "forever discharge" Catholic entities from their promise to raise $25 million for residential school survivors and also picked up their legal bill, a final release document shows. 

The Canadian Press obtained a signed copy of the 2015 agreement through federal Access-to-Information laws, marking what appears to be the first time the document has been widely publicized.