National News

Delegates from the Nisga’a First Nation are in Scotland this week to discuss repatriating a memorial totem pole it says was stolen nearly a century ago.

Seven members, including Nisga’a Nation Chief Earl Stephens, have travelled from British Columbia and are scheduled to meet with staff, curators and politicians at the National Museum of Scotland on Monday.

Canadian flags hang alongside French and British on the streets of Dieppe, France, each August as the city marks the anniversary of an important and disastrous day during the Second World War. 

Eighty years ago today, more than 5,000 Canadian soldiers were sent onto the beaches in an attempt to breach the occupied town from the sea.

Among them was 20-year-old Gordon Fennell, a member of the Calgary Tanks regiment, who has returned this week to commemorate the battle in which more than 900 Canadians died.

Eviction warnings have been given to two longtime encampments on the Manitoba legislature grounds.

A handful of police were present Wednesday as the notices were given to demonstrators on the north and east sides of the legislative building.

A statement from Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen's office said rallies and protests are acceptable on the grounds.

But, the statement said, encampments are not permitted for the safety of staff, visitors, tourists and other protesters. 

Paris Eakins was 26 years old when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in November 1940 during the Second World War.

He was born in Minnedosa, Man., where he lived until he attended the University of Manitoba, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree. Eakins worked at his town's newspaper and went on to join the sports department at the Winnipeg Free Press. 

After he enlisted, Eakins worked his way to become a pilot officer in a fighter squadron based in England in 1941. The next year, he was killed in northern France during the disastrous Dieppe Raid. He was 27. 

Inflation in Canada finally appears to have peaked, but it nonetheless remains too high to dissuade the Bank of Canada from raising interest rates significantly in September, economists say. 

The year-over-year inflation rate slowed to 7.6 per cent in July, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday, with the deceleration largely driven by a decline in gas prices even as prices for food, rent and travel continued to rise.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo said Tuesday afternoon that a number of its wolves were on the loose after the animals were believed to have been released from their enclosure as a result of "malicious intent."

However, it said there was no danger to the public, and it was working with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service to "contain" the animals, while the Langley RCMP investigated what appeared to be a case of unlawful entry and vandalism.

Canada's year-over-year inflation rate slowed to 7.6 per cent in July, with the deceleration largely driven by a decline in gas prices.

The inflation rate hit a nearly 40-year-high of 8.1 per cent in June, but economists were widely expecting inflation to have since slowed.

In its latest consumer price index report, Statistics Canada said the rise in prices in July was the smallest monthly gains since December 2021.

It also marks the first decline in year-over-year inflation since June 2020.

The federal government needs to do more to help thousands of Afghans who assisted Canadian Forces but remain trapped in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban seized Kabul, aid groups and opposition parties say.

As the grim anniversary passed Monday, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan warned at a news conference that Canada will have blood on its hands if it does not take immediate action to help Afghans whose lives are in danger because they helped Canadians.

Canadian Blood Services is in talks with companies that pay donors for plasma as it faces a decrease in collections.

The blood-collection agency issued a statement on Friday saying it is in "ongoing discussion with governments and the commercial plasma industry" on how to more than double domestic plasma collection to 50 per cent of supply.

Canadian Blood Services has previously cautioned that letting companies trade cash for plasma — a practice banned in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec — could funnel donors away from voluntary giving.

A poll suggests more than half of Canadians viewed the recent visit by Pope Francis and his apology for abuses at residential schools as a step toward reconciliation.

The Angus Reid Institute released the findings from its latest online poll in which nearly 60 per cent of participants said they saw the Pope's apology as a meaningful step toward reconciliation, while 32 per cent said it did nothing to move reconciliation forward.