National News

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference says it has taken down picket lines at Canadian National Railway Co. and its workers will begin returning to work on Friday.

However, the union says the work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. remains ongoing pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

Following months of increasingly fraught contract talks, Canada's two biggest railways both locked out workers after failing to reach deals with the union by a Thursday deadline.

Canada's two biggest railways say they’re preparing to get trains back on track after Ottawa intervened to end an unprecedented labour impasse that disrupted business across the country and cancelled commutes for thousands.

Canadian National Railway Co., in a statement Thursday, said it has ended the lockout of workers that began earlier in the day.

The move came shortly after Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he has asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration to end the dispute and get the trains running.

Mounties say they are responding to additional bomb threats made across Canada today that they believe are linked to similar threats made the day before. 

RCMP say they responded to the threats alongside local police at synagogues, museums, malls, ports, art galleries and more.

RCMP say they are working closely with domestic and international police to identify who may be involved in the threats, and that they will provide an update on their investigation when it can. 

In a first for Canada, freight traffic on its two largest railways has simultaneously ground to a halt, threatening to upend supply chains trying to move forward from pandemic-related disruptions and a port strike last year.

In the culmination of months of increasingly bitter negotiations, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers after the parties disagreed on a new contract before the midnight deadline.

A coalition of business groups is calling on the federal government to prevent a work stoppage at Canada's two biggest railways.

A phased shutdown of the networks at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. is already underway as the clock ticks down on contract talks with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

Unless deals are reached, rail service at both companies is poised to stop at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday.

"Freedom Convoy" organizer Tamara Lich wasn't part of any conspiracy to break the law when she helped organize a massive protest against pandemic restrictions in Ottawa, her lawyers argued in her criminal trial on Tuesday.

The Crown alleges Lich and fellow organizer Chris Barber, who owns a Saskatchewan trucking business, were in cahoots to block roads and disrupt locals in a bid to pressure the federal government to drop COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2022.

The demands of protecting parliamentarians and other public figures are placing "significant strain" on RCMP personnel and taking resources from other federal policing priorities, warns an internal briefing note. 

The national police force is "forced to walk a delicate balance" in providing protective services in response to threats flagged by parliamentarians, says the newly released February memo.

"The limited capacity of the RCMP's protective services must be prioritized based on these assessments."

Monday's supermoon was the first of four this year.

During a supermoon, the full moon inches a little closer than usual to Earth. A supermoon isn't bigger, but it can appear that way in the night sky, although scientists say the difference can be barely perceptible.

September's supermoon will coincide with a partial lunar eclipse. October's will be the year's closest approach, and November's will round out the year.

Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 2.5 per cent last month, matching economists' forecasts and solidifying expectations for another interest rate cut in September.

Tuesday’s consumer price index report says prices for travel tours, passenger vehicles and electricity helped drive the headline figure lower.

Meanwhile, shelter costs are still the main driver of inflation as Canadians face significantly higher rents and mortgage payments.

Global Affairs Canada said Monday it's aware of reports that a Canadian has died after a luxury superyacht sank off Sicily during a violent storm, while Italian authorities said they continued to search for six people who remained unaccounted for.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Global Affairs said consular officials were in contact with local authorities, but said it could provide no further information due to privacy concerns.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by this tragic event," the agency said.