National News

Diane Hill had just celebrated her seventh birthday when she first arrived at the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., in November 1963.

“The first night there I was crying,” said Hill, a retired Mohawk languages teacher at Six Nations of the Grand River.

“I wanted my mom. I didn’t know where I was. I was crying. Every child will cry for their mom. And I was beaten to a bloody mess by the house mother. I was beaten to a bloody mess on the floor for crying for my mom.”

Introducing young hockey players to bodychecking at an early age doesn't protect them from injury as they move into older, harder-hitting leagues, new research has concluded.

In fact, the opposite may be true, said Paul Eliason of the University of Calgary, lead author of a new paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"More bodychecking experience is not protective against injury and concussions," he said. "The rates of injury and concussion were actually substantially higher among those who had more bodychecking experience."

The federal government is banning companies from importing or making plastic bags and takeout containers by the end of this year, from selling them by the end of next year and from exporting them by the end of 2025.

The move will also affect most single-use plastic straws, as well as all stir sticks, and cutlery. Six-pack rings used to hold cans and bottles together will get slightly more time before the ban affects them, with June 2023 targeted for stopping production and import, and June 2024 to ban their sale.

It could be a character on a Saturday morning kids show, but this rescue robot is anything but fantasy.

"It's not science fiction. It's science and this thing exists," said Alejandro Ramirez-Serrano at the unmanned vehicles robotarium lab at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.

The robot is a man's height with a space-age helmet for a head, working arms and legs, and interchangeable hands. It looks like a cross between RoboCop and a Transformer.

Michelle Rempel Garner, a longtime Conservative MP from Calgary, says she's stepping back from the federal Conservative leadership race to consider running for Jason Kenney's job. 

Rempel Garner was serving as co-chair on Patrick Brown's leadership campaign when Kenney stunned many last month by announcing he was resigning as premier of Alberta and leader of the United Conservative Party after narrowly surviving a leadership review. 

Rempel Garner's name soon started to circulate as a potential successor to Kenney.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will embark on a round-the-world tour next week to meet with global leaders for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, G7 and NATO summits. 

The Prime Minister's Office says he will endeavour to strengthen key international partnerships with an eye to defending peace, security, and human rights, and focusing on climate change, the economy and affordability.

MPs have been forced to rush through over 150 amendments to the online streaming bill to meet a deadline imposed by the government, prompting accusations of secrecy and legislative bungling. 

But senators have signalled they will not be pressured to speed up consideration of the bill, claiming they have thwarted government ploys to push it through the upper house. 

The online streaming bill, which the government rushed through the Commons heritage committee on Tuesday, is now subject to a pre-study by the Senate committee on transport and communications.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday Pope Francis's upcoming trip to Canada remains unchanged at the moment, but the pontiff's health is an "extreme concern."

Miller's comments come after the Vatican announced last week the 85-year-old Pope would reschedule an upcoming trip to Africa to avoid interrupting therapy he is undergoing for his knee. 

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the Canadian government will suspend COVID-19 vaccine mandates for domestic and outbound international travellers and federally regulated workers.

The new rules will come into effect on June 20, though the requirements for foreign nationals coming to Canada will not change.

Intergovernmental affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc warns the government is prepared to "bring back" necessary policies if there's a resurgence of the virus in the fall.

A deal has been reached settling a dispute with Denmark over a 1.3-square-kilometre island in the Arctic and is expected to be signed today, according to a government minister. 

Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, confirmed Monday that there will be an "official signing" of the accord over Hans Island on Tuesday.

The barren rock has been the subject of decades of diplomatic disputes between the two nations, as it sits in the territorial waters of both.