National News

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.

The conviction of Aydin Coban for the "sextortion" of British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd has prompted calls from lawyers and advocates for more regulation, resources and education in Canada to protect future victims.

Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said Todd's case served as a warning, but Canada "failed to act."

Campers say a convicted Canadian sex offender identified himself as security at a South Dakota campground, where he was staying with two children at the centre of a Saskatchewan Amber Alert with their mother.

Benjamin Martin Moore, 50, was located late Tuesday at a campground that takes part in the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in the state. Glencoe Camp Resort posted on social media that its security team assisted in locating and apprehending Moore. 

The campground did not respond to a request for comment. 

On July 16, 1980, Dale Nancy Wyman left her Ottawa-area home with a suitcase full of her belongings, took a taxi to a Greyhound bus station and vanished. She didn't say where she was going and her family had no idea where to look. 

More than four decades later, a woman from Ohio contacted Wyman's siblings, who had never stopped looking for her. She had seen a video of Wyman's younger sister, Brenda Larche, asking for information to help the family find peace and closure, and realized the woman Larche was looking for was her mother. 

Two children at the centre of a Saskatchewan Amber Alert were found at a campground in the United States along with their mother and a man wanted by police, Mounties said Wednesday.

Benjamin Martin Moore, 50, was apprehended near Sturgis, S.D. He is behind bars in Pennington County and jail records show he is being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service.

His common-law spouse is also in police custody.

A seven-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy were located with Moore and RCMP said they are safe. 

The number of coronavirus deaths fell by 9% in the last week while new cases remained relatively stable, according to the latest weekly pandemic report released by the World Health Organization Wednesday.

The U.N. health agency said there were more than 14,000 COVID-19 deaths in the last week and nearly 7 million new infections. The Western Pacific reported a 30% jump in cases while Africa reported a 46% drop. Cases also fell by more than 20% in the Americas and the Middle East.

The Saskatchewan RCMP has confirmed that the children involved in Monday night's Amber Alert, a seven-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy, and their mother have been recovered and their alleged captor, Benjamin Martin Moore, has been arrested.

The recovery and the arrest were made by the Meade County Sherrif's Office in South Dakota, who reported to the Sask. RCMP early Wednesday Morning.

On Tuesday, Police extended the Amber Alert into South Dakota because evidence pointed them in that direction.