National News

A new toll-free, three-digit suicide prevention helpline launched across Canada on Thursday morning.

People having suicidal thoughts or other mental health distress can now call or text 988 to reach a trained responder 24 hours a day, seven days a week — no matter where they live in the country.

Ottawa has agreed to set a $100-million yearly cap on payments that Google will be required to make to media companies when the government's controversial online news legislation takes effect at the end of the year. 

The announcement Wednesday has the Liberals bending to the tech giant's demands after Google threatened to remove news from its platform. 

The Online News Act compels tech giants to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on Google sites, if that content contributes to revenues.

Government House leader Karina Gould warned Tuesday the Liberals are unlikely to get a pharmacare bill passed by the end of the year, despite their promise to do so in an agreement with the NDP.

"I don’t think we’re going to get it passed by the end of this year, but we’ll definitely keep working," Gould said on Parliament Hill. 

The two parties are still hammering out the details of a bill and it's a "productive" conversation, she added.  

In the end, she said, "I'm quite confident that we'll land it."

The Saskatchewan government is using its autonomy legislation for the first time to review the federal government's proposed clean-electricity regulations.

Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre told reporters Tuesday she's implementing the Saskatchewan First Act to establish a tribunal to study the economic effects of the rules.

The regulations would require provinces to work toward an emissions-free electricity grid by 2035, which Eyre said is creating investor uncertainty. 

WARNING: This is a story about a boy who died by suicide. There is a list of resources for anyone in crisis at the bottom of the article.

Parents of a 12-year-old boy who killed himself last month after falling prey to online sextortion are urging others to talk to their kids to make sure they don't also become victims of internet "predators."

 Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID−19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

Statistics Canada’s analysis of deaths last year shows the average Canadian’s life expectancy dropped to 81.3 years in 2022, a full year lower than the 82.3 years recorded in 2019.

"Life expectancy declines when there are more deaths, when deaths occur at younger ages, or a combination of both," the report said.

Two sisters are among four people who have died after being shot in downtown Winnipeg over the weekend.

“Our hearts go out to these families and the community," Insp. Jennifer McKinnon said Monday.

Officers were called shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday to a home where they found five people wounded. A man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene, and another man died from his injuries in hospital.

Police announced Monday another woman had also later died, and a 55-year-old man was in hospital in critical condition.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says one person has died after a salmonella outbreak linked to Malichita and Rudy brand cantaloupes.

An update from the agency posted on Friday offered no details on the person who died, but says there have been 63 confirmed salmonella cases linked to the outbreak and seventeen people hospitalized.

The agency issued food recall warnings three times in November for Malichita cantaloupes sold between October 11 and November 14.

The FBI says a deadly car crash and explosion at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between New York state and Ontario shows no sign of terrorist involvement and there were no explosive materials at the scene, and the case has been turned over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation.

Four of the busiest border crossing points between Canada and the United States are closed after a vehicle exploded at a U.S. checkpoint in Niagara Falls. 

The FBI confirmed it is investigating an explosion, which took place on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge crossing in upstate New York.

Videos posted to social media show smoke and flames emanating from the checkpoint complex at the crossing, which spans the Niagara River. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she had been fully briefed and was monitoring the situation closely.