National News

Canadians' hearts may be brimming with pride as Canada Day approaches, but a new poll suggests their minds aren't full of the knowledge needed to pass a citizenship test.

In a survey of 1,512 Canadian adults, Leger found that only 23 per cent would pass the citizenship test, based on their answers to 10 randomly selected questions.

People who wish to become Canadian need to answer 20 questions about citizens' rights and responsibilities, as well as Canada's history, geography, economy, government, laws and symbols.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the promised federal dental insurance plan will cost $2.9 billion less than the government budgeted, assuming provincial governments don't drop their coverage. 

The Liberals promised a stand-alone dental insurance plan for low- and middle-income Canadians who don't have private insurance as part of its supply and confidence deal with the NDP last year.

The program is expected to launch before the end of the year, starting with qualifying people under the age of 18, people with disabilities and seniors. 

Debris from the ill-fated Titan submersible was returned to shore in Newfoundland Wednesday, aboard a Canadian-flagged ship that had helped search for the vessel in a remote area of ocean near the wreck of the Titanic.

The Horizon Arctic docked at the port in St. John’s carrying a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, that had searched the ocean floor about 700 kilometres south of Canada’s easternmost province.

Premiers from Western Canada said Tuesday they are "extremely disappointed" in the federal government for not passing reforms to the bail system to target repeat offenders before Parliament rose last week for the summer.

Speaking at the conclusion of the western premiers' conference in Whistler, B.C., host Premier David Eby urged the federal government to prioritize passing the bill that would amend the Criminal Code as soon as possible.

The controversial Line 5 pipeline can keep moving fossil fuels through an Indigenous band's territory in Wisconsin for now, but operations on that property "must cease" on June 16, 2026, a U.S. judge says. 

Calgary-based Enbridge Energy Inc., the pipeline's owner, had asked Wisconsin district court Judge William Conley to clarify his order earlier this month giving the company just three years to relocate that section of the pipeline. 

Canada pledged to keep a close eye on escalating tensions in Russia on Saturday as an armed rebellion threatened to divide the country's attention and forces amid its ongoing war in Ukraine. 

Authorities in Russia are trying to tamp down the rebellion led by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. The millionaire has been outspoken for months in his criticisms against Russia's military leaders, accusing them of not providing enough munitions in the key battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut. 

Eighteen-year-old Hunter Sousa from Maine celebrated his high school graduation by hopping in a truck and heading to Nova Scotia to fight the biggest forest fire in the province's history.

Sousa works for the Maine forest service as an on-call firefighter, but had never before fought a fire. The call from his superior came on a Thursday. 

RCMP have released the names of 16 seniors who died after a fiery bus crash in western Manitoba on June 15. The bus had been taking a group from Dauphin and the surrounding area on a day trip to a casino, when it crashed with a transport truck near the town of Carberry. As of Thursday, nine others on the bus were still in hospital.

Here's a list of those who died:

Louis Bretecher, 81 — A family statement says Bretecher was a beloved husband, father and "pepere," or grandfather.

A catastrophic implosion ripped apart the Titan submersible, killing all five people aboard as it was descending to the bottom of the North Atlantic during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Thursday. 

Several pieces of the minivan-size craft, including parts of its carbon-fibre hull, were found in a debris field on an otherwise clear section of the ocean floor, about 500 metres from the bow of the sunken luxury liner, Rear Admiral John Mauger, commander of First Coast Guard District in Boston, told reporters.

The search for a submersible carrying five people took a grim turn Thursday as the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that a “debris field” was discovered by a remotely operated vehicle near the wreck of the Titanic.

The brief coast guard statement said experts were evaluating the find, but no other details were released.

The submersible Titan, operated by U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact with surface vessels on Sunday morning as it was nearing the famous shipwreck during a 3,800-metre dive that usually takes about two hours.