National News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there will be no further carbon price carve-outs, including for natural gas heating, as criticism mounts of his decision to temporarily exempt home heating oil from the policy.

The promise is landing with a political thud, with both Conservative and NDP leaders accusing Trudeau of regional favouritism to save his political skin in Atlantic Canada, and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney saying he would have found a different way to ease the rising cost of living.

The federal government's priorities for improving Canada's immigration system include better aligning the number of people welcomed to the country with what the labour market needs, as well as services and infrastructure, says a report released Tuesday.

"With an aging population, people living longer, families having fewer children, Canada imperatively needs immigration to rebalance our demographics and support the growing need for workers," federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberals to exempt all forms of home heating from the carbon price, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a temporary exemption that only applies to home heating oil.

The federal government announced last week that it is increasing the carbon price rebate for rural Canadians and lifting the carbon price off home heating oil entirely for the next three years.

The son of a Canadian woman believed to be among those held hostage by Hamas in Gaza wants the world to push for an end to the fighting, and says he fears Israel's escalating offensive could end all chance of bringing his mother safely home. 

"My basic belief is that the military actions don't solve anything," said Yonatan Zeigen.

His mother, Vivian Silver, is one of an estimated 229 hostages taken by Hamas during its bloody Oct. 7 rampage in Israel.

Hundreds of flickering candles lit up the evening as residents of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. gathered for a vigil in memory of the victims of Monday's shooting rampage, with the father of one of the victims calling for respect for the family of the gunman as well.

Four people — including three children — were killed and a woman was injured at two different locations in the northern Ontario city before the shooter took his own life in what police have called a case of intimate partner violence.

Sharp-eyed mariners on a Canadian vessel have rescued a U.S. man, one day after the United States Coast Guard ended its search for a commercial fishing boat from Washington state with two people aboard. 

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier says crew aboard the Canadian fish boat Ocean Sunset spotted a life-raft drifting in open ocean far west of Vancouver Island on Thursday.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew apologized Thursday to the families of two slain First Nations women whose remains are believed to be in a Winnipeg-area landfill for what he called being reduced to a "political prop" by the former government during the recent provincial election.

Kinew met with the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran to reset the relationship between the two families and the government. 

Defence Minister Bill Blair is expected to face further questions today about the evidence Canada has gathered to determine a rocket blast at a hospital in Gaza City did not originate in Israel.

Blair made the statement Saturday night, five days after the attack at the al-Ahli Arab hospital.

The blast came nine days after a renewed conflict in the region following an assault by Hamas militants in Israel and retaliation by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle has called the spread of homeless encampments in cities across Canada a human rights crisis.

"People living in encampments face some of the most vulnerable circumstances of any member of Canadian society ... they have experienced a history of human rights violations and are at heightened risk of further violations," her office wrote in an interim report on encampments published this month.

A 99-year-old Hamilton man climbed 1,776 steps to the top of the CN Tower over the weekend, his third time pulling off the accomplishment in support of charity.

Walter Decker was joined by his son, grandson and two great-grandsons at the United Way ClimbUP on Saturday, where he raised more than $3,000 for people struggling to meet basic needs from housing and food to mental health supports.

Decker, who turned 99 last week, said he first began stair climbing more than 10 years ago as a distraction from his grief after his wife passed away, which he said made him "lost."