National News

Two New Brunswick men who were acquitted Thursday of a 1983 murder for which they served lengthy prison sentences said they were worried they wouldn't live to see their names cleared.

Robert Mailman, 76, and Walter Gillespie, 81, were convicted in 1984 of second-degree murder and received life sentences in the killing of George Gilman Leeman in Saint John, N.B. An appeal was dismissed in 1988.

The committee process for a testy piece of legislation that would recognize Métis governments in three provinces has been extended until at least February.

House of Commons committee hearings about Bill C−53 have seen 65 witnesses testify and 274 briefs submitted that argue vigorously either for or against the legislation, which Métis leaders say would set the stage for treaties on internal matters such as child welfare.

The federal government is pledging to work with its American counterparts after the U.S. claimed parts of the Arctic sea floor that Canada also wants. 

The U.S. filed its claim last month with the United Nations agency that evaluates such requests.

As expected, it includes a large chunk of the Beaufort Sea floor that Canada also seeks to control.

A UN treaty gives countries rights over seabeds and their natural resources if they can prove their continental shelf extends past 200 nautical miles from their coast and is a natural extension of the continent.

A look at news events in December 2023:

01 - The Ottawa Senators fired general manager Pierre Dorion. The team announced that hockey operations president Steve Staios will take over the job on an interim basis.

02 - Montreal-based broadcaster TVA Group says it is laying off nearly one-third of its workforce as the company contends with declining audiences and ad revenues. It says the shift involves overhauling its news division and ending its in-house entertainment content production.

1 – Two people died after a bear attack in Alberta's Banff National Park. Parks Canada staff euthanized the grizzly bear for public safety.  

1 – It went down to the wire, but the U.S. government avoided a shutdown after Congress rushed to approve a bipartisan deal, keeping federal agencies open until Nov. 17. The deal was reached after Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly abandoned demands for steep spending cuts, and relied on Democrats to pass the bill.

A look at news events in September 2023:

01 – Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett died at the age of 76. His song ''Margaritaville" was released in 1977 and spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

04 - Steve Harwell, the longtime frontman of the Grammy-nominated pop rock band Smash Mouth, died of acute liver failure at the age of 56.

04 - Ontario's housing minister Steve Clark resigned from his role days after a damning report from the integrity commissioner found he violated ethics rules when the province opened up parts of the protected Greenbelt for development. 

01 - The last surviving miner from the October 1958 Springhill, Nova Scotia coal mine disaster died. Harold Brine was 91. Only 19 of the 174 men working in the mine were rescued after a seismic shock wave trapped them near the bottom of North America's deepest coal mine. Brine was just 26 at the time.

02 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau announced they decided to separate after 18 years of marriage. They announced the decision on Instagram, saying it follows what they describe as many meaningful and difficult conversations. 

1 – Scores of forest fires burned in Ontario and Quebec, and the smoke continued to drift hundreds of kilometres into the southern reaches of the provinces and into the central and northeastern U.S. Environment Canada issued smog warnings for northern and western Quebec, and parts of eastern and southern Ontario. 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is ruling out the possibility of forming a coalition government with the Liberals if no party wins a clear majority after the next federal election.

"That's off the table," Singh said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, even though the two parties have been working closely together. 

"That's not something that we're focused on. We're focused on getting enough done in this Parliament and then running to win."