National News

Reality seems to be sinking in for the man poised to become the first Canadian astronaut to fly around the moon. 

"I already knew going to the moon was hard," Jeremy Hansen quipped Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center during an update on Artemis II, the first crewed voyage to lunar space in more than half a century. 

"That's why we're doing it — I already knew it was hard. But boy, it's harder than I thought." 

Ottawa introduced a new three-year pilot program Tuesday that would incentivize employers to follow worker-protection rules by making it easier for them to hire temporary foreign workers. 

Under the "recognized employer pilot" program, companies with a good track record would only need to prove that they require temporary foreign workers every three years, instead of every 18 months. 

The employer's trusted status would also be flagged to potential workers in the government's job bank.

Earlier this summer, two Canadians walked into a party in rural Germany.

"Canadians?" joked the host. "I thought you'd smell more like smoke."

It's been that kind of season. Floods, drought, warm waters lapping three coasts — but mostly wildfire smoke from sea to sea and overseas. Yes, this is climate change, scientists say, and expect more weather weirdness to come. 

"It's been a wild ride," said Danny Blair, co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg. "It's been a season and a year of extremes."

British Columbia's port workers have voted almost 75 per cent in favour of accepting a contract offer, ending weeks of turbulent job action that stopped billions of dollars' worth of goods from being shipped.

In a statement on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada website, president Rob Ashton says the results of the latest ratification vote came in 74.66 per cent in favour of the agreement.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan confirmed in a tweet that both the ILWU and the BC Maritime Employers Association have ratified the deal, ending the dispute.

The road at Winnipeg's well-known downtown intersection ran red as protesters gathered to call out government inaction on searching a landfill for the remains of two First Nations women. 

People chanted "Search the landfill!" and "Bring our women home!" as red paint was poured onto the pavement, eventually forming the shape of a dress at Portage Avenue and Main Street on Thursday. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau say they are separating after 18 years of marriage.

In statements posted to Instagram, both say they have made the decision after "many meaningful and difficult conversations."

The couple met as children but reconnected as adults and were married in a ceremony in Montreal in May 2005.

They have three children, 15-year-old Xavier, 14-year-old Ella-Grace and nine-year-old Hadrien.

Trudeau is the second prime minister to announce a separation while in office.

The Alberta government is no longer formally pursuing its plan to dump the RCMP in favour of a new provincial police force.

However, Justice Minister Mickey Amery said Tuesday the idea is not dead and his department will continue to consult with Albertans on where they want to go with policing.

Earlier Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith delivered her mandate letter to Amery, outlining his goals and priorities as the new justice minister.

"You're too honest," Donald Trump allegedly told Mike Pence on the first day of 2021, six days before supporters of a defeated yet defiant president stormed Capitol Hill and tried to subvert the outcome of a free and fair presidential election.

That assessment of the former vice-president and his commitment to democracy is just one of the revelations in what is the third — but perhaps most explosive — indictment of Trump to come down in just the last four months. 

A fresh set of Health Canada regulations that will require warning labels on individual cigarettes is set to come into effect Tuesday.

The move, announced earlier this year, makes Canada the first country in the world to take that step in the ongoing effort to help smokers kick the habit and deter potential puffers from picking it up.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reorganized his front bench Wednesday in a massive federal cabinet shuffle, he also created a single new job: minister of citizens' services.

But when the minister appointed to the new role was asked what exactly citizens' services is, he wasn't entirely clear. 

"This is really where the rubber hits the road in providing services to citizens right across the country," newly appointed cabinet minister Terry Beech said Wednesday, less than an hour after he was sworn in.