National News

Cheers erupted in a Winnipeg courtroom, spilling out onto downtown streets Thursday, as family members who lost their loved ones at the hands of a serial killer said they had finally received justice.

A judge convicted Jeremy Skibicki of first-degree murder in the 2022 slayings of four women in a case that put another bright spotlight on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Jorden Myran, whose sister Marcedes Myran was killed, said she held back tears when the judge delivered the verdict.

Federal Court in Vancouver is to hear a case today from the Saskatchewan government asking for an injunction to stop the Canada Revenue Agency from collecting millions in carbon levy money.

Premier Scott Moe's government argues it's unconstitutional for Ottawa to take from its bank account, and that it's unfair for Saskatchewan to pay.

Earlier this year, Saskatchewan had stopped remitting the carbon levy on natural gas to Ottawa, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exempted home-heating oil users from paying. 

A man who admitted to killing four women in Winnipeg but claimed he was too mentally ill to be held responsible has been found guilty of first-degree murder.

Defence lawyers had argued Jeremy Skibicki was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the slayings in 2022 and should be found not criminally responsible and detained in a hospital.

But Crown prosecutors said he had the mental capacity and awareness to commit and cover up the killings.

People in a packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the verdict came down Thursday. Skibicki showed little emotion.

First Nations chiefs have heard enough promises and "performative reconciliation," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday, adding they deserve a partnership based on honest conversations.

It was the first time Poilievre was addressing the Assembly of First Nations, an organization representing more than 600 First Nations that had a tense relationship with the Conservatives when former prime minister Stephen Harper was in power.

The head of the Assembly of First Nations has informed chiefs that a draft deal with Ottawa on child-welfare reforms is worth $47.8 billion, a source who was in the room says — more than double what was initially promised.

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak revealed that number to chiefs and their proxies on Tuesday afternoon, says the source, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to share the details publicly.

Several people in Ontario have become sick with listeriosis in an outbreak that triggered a national recall of certain plant-based milks that may have been contaminated with Listeria. 

WHAT IS LISTERIA?

The Listeria bacterium is found in soil, sewage and untreated water. It can also be found in foods such as meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables and dairy products. 

Thousands of Ticketmaster users may have had their data compromised in a security breach.

Ticketmaster says it discovered unauthorized activity on an isolated cloud database hosted by a third-party data services provider between April 2 and May 18.

The company learned a few days later that some personal information of customers may have been affected, possibly including email, phone number, or encrypted credit card information.

A blistering heat wave is moving across Western Canada, pushing record temperatures and the threat of wildfires into Saskatchewan today.

Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Smith says a ridge of high pressure from Northern California crept into British Columbia on the weekend before invading the Northwest Territories and Alberta on Monday.

She says the heat will travel into Manitoba by Wednesday and may reach the edge of the northwestern Ontario border before it moves south into the United States again. 

Canada will be reassuring allies of its commitment to the western alliance as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travels to Washington, D.C., this week to take part in the NATO leaders' summit at a critical time for war-ravaged Ukraine. 

The 32 NATO countries are set to mark the alliance's 75th anniversary in the same city where the initial treaty was signed. Trudeau will be attending a dinner with NATO leaders at the White House hosted by President Joe Biden as the age and mental acuity of the United States leader is expected to cast a shadow over the historic meeting. 

Remi Laboucane says memories of being bullied were finally fading, memories so awful he switched schools.

He was graduating from high school this summer, ready for life’s next chapter, when he opened his yearbook to see that he and other transgender students at Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks, Alta., had been deadnamed.

“It was just a nightmare," the 18-year-old said in an interview.

"I wrote a letter (to our principal) and I said, 'This isn't OK, and this needs to be fixed.'