National News

Matt Berry was driving home after golfing Monday evening when cloudy skies quickly turned into a rare storm that dropped hail the size of softballs, caving in his windshield and leaving about 150 dents in his car.

"I was getting covered in shards of glass," the graphic designer said as he recalled the moment he pulled over on a country road to take cover while driving from Innisfail, Alta., to his home in Red Deer, Alta.

"The noise was quite loud," he said. "It was just crazy. Scary at times, but really it was just shock and awe more than anything."

Ottawa police arrested a driver after what they describe as an unauthorized vehicle drove into the front gates of Parliament Hill early this morning. 

Police say a vehicle rammed into the gates outside the legislature at about 3:30 a.m. and security infrastructure prevented it from entering the grounds.

An officer was nearby and took the driver into custody without further incident, the police statement says, and no criminal charges have yet been laid. 

Tears streamed down Kim Phuc Phan Thi's face as she stood at the entrance to a plane set to carry Ukrainian newcomers from Poland to Canada last month.

The aircraft was emblazoned with a famous black and white photo of Phan Thi as a nine-year-old child – an image that made her known as the "napalm girl" – showing her naked, screaming and fleeing an attack during the Vietnam War.

Fifty years after that photograph was taken, Phan Thi found herself drawn to helping Ukrainians escape the war in their country for the safe haven of Canada, just as she had done decades ago.

New statistics show that police-reported extortion cases in Canada rose by nearly 300 per cent in the last decade, as the crime swelled online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These concerning increases are being facilitated by social media platforms and other electronic services providers," said Lianna McDonald, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, in a news release.  

"It should be a wake-up call."

For the first time since the start of a Canadian tour highlighted by apologies for the Catholic Church's role in Indigenous residential schools, Pope Francis on Thursday acknowledged sexual abuse inflicted on "minors and vulnerable people."

Speaking at a prayer service at Quebec City's Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral, Francis said the church in Canada is on a new path after being devastated by “the evil perpetrated by some of its sons and daughters.”

A shortage of epidural tubes used to provide pain medication primarily during labour and delivery is affecting most provinces, but supply issues seem to be worse in Western Canada, says the vice-president of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.

Dr. Lucie Filteau said "murmurings" of a shortage of the tubes, or catheters, began recently on a private online page of about 300 anesthesiologists across the country.

By Brittany Hobson and Bob Weber in Lac Ste. Anne

Pope Francis spoke in three First Nations languages at a sacred pilgrimage site hours after his public mass in Edmonton was called a missed opportunity for not including Indigenous culture or traditions. 

On Tuesday, Francis joined hundreds of people at Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, and during a church service, wearing a red Metis sash around his neck, said hello in Nakota, Cree and Blackfoot.

"Aba-wash-did! Tansi! Oki!"

Many cheered.

Pope Francis delivered on Monday an apology for the Roman Catholic Church's role in residential schools, saying many Christians supported the colonization of Indigenous people. He made the remarks at the former site of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School in community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton.

Here is some of the reaction to the historic apology: 

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper has endorsed Pierre Poilievre to be the party's next leader. 

In a rare public return to party politics, Harper, who didn't wade into the Tories' 2017 and 2020 leadership races, released a short video on Twitter on Monday discussing his endorsement. 

Harper says the contest to lead the party is filled with candidates, but one stands out. 

Pope Francis says he is sorry for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous people, which culminated in residential schools. 

Francis apologized Monday in front of residential school survivors and elders in Maskwacis, Alta., south of Edmonton after visiting the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School.

He received applause from many in the crowd of thousands.