National News

Government websites in four provinces and territories were shut down Thursday, with at least two jurisdictions blaming cyberattacks for their outages.

Websites for Yukon, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Nunavut were all inaccessible. P.E.I. and Yukon said cyberattacks were behind their shutdowns.

"At midnight on Sept.14, Yukon.ca experienced a cyberattack that shut down the website and other public-facing Yukon government websites," said a statement from the territory.

Veterans Affairs Canada says a delegation has honoured the graves of Indigenous soldiers who helped liberate the Netherlands during the Second World War.

The Indigenous Legacy Project, which was founded earlier this year, says it has identified 81 Indigenous soldiers buried in the northwestern European country.

It says the delegation abroad included family and representatives of 13 of the recently identified soldiers, as well as elders, representatives of Aboriginal Veterans Autochtones and the deputy minister of Veterans Affairs.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is ready to use the notwithstanding clause to protect a new rule requiring parental permission for transgender and nonbinary students to use different names or pronouns at school.

In the face of a court challenge brought against the new education policy, Moe announced late last week that his provincial government would seek to enshrine the changes in legislation to be introduced this fall.

He recently told reporters that his Saskatchewan Party government was prepared to use different "tools" to ensure that the policy remains in place.

Just over one year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a new poll suggests a growing number of Canadians believe it’s time to reconsider the country’s ties to the monarchy.

Data released Wednesday by Leger indicates that 63 per cent of respondents said it was time to rethink ties — a seven point increase from March. About 81 per cent of respondents said they didn’t feel attached to the monarchy, compared to 14 per cent who said they did, results similar to six months ago.

Canada's senior public health officials are urging Canadians to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine this fall following the authorization of the first shot targeting the latest variants Tuesday.

Health Canada's regulatory branch approved Moderna's new Spikevax shot, which is formulated for the XBB.1.5 lineage of the Omicron variant. 

Moderna said in a statement the first doses would be shipped to arrive in Canada on Wednesday.

The federal government has tapped a Quebec judge to head a public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in Canada's affairs.

Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the probe will examine meddling by China, Russia and other foreign states and non-state actors.

LeBlanc, who is also the minister of public safety, says Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue will lead the probe starting Sept. 18.

For Emily Brown, it feels pretty good to be Conservative. 

"It's quite a time to be a part of this, honestly."

Buoyed by successive polls showing the federal party's message on the cost of living and housing resonating among a wider, and younger, swath of Canadians at the governing Liberals' expense, Brown will be among the thousands at the Conservative convention starting today in Quebec City.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the federal government needs to review the mandate of the Bank of Canada to put people first.

Singh's comment today comes as the bank holds its key interest rate steady at five per cent after raising it 10 times since March of last year.

Singh says while interest rates won't rise, they're still higher than they have been in the last 20 years.

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are not on trial for their political beliefs against COVID-19 public health orders, but for the means the two "Freedom Convoy" organizers used in trying to end them, a Crown prosecutor argued Tuesday. 

Tim Radcliffe used his opening remarks at the start of their 16-day trial to paint a picture of Lich and Barber at the heart of the protest that gridlocked downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill for three weeks in January and February 2022, until police moved in to clear the streets.

As Tamara Lich was led away from supporters in handcuffs on the snowy streets of Ottawa in 2022, she threw a single phrase over her shoulder.

"Hold the line," said the petite figurehead of the "Freedom Convoy" movement as the officers at each of her elbows walked her to the waiting cruiser. 

She was echoing the words shouted by of one of her supporters in a scene that was captured on video and circulated online the eve before hundreds of police moved in.

Officers spent the next two days dislodging protesters from the streets around Parliament Hill.