National News

Anyone wanting to book a camping or RV spot at a national park in Canada will have to wait longer than usual. 

This year, visitors will be able to begin making reservations in March. Manitoba has two campgrounds in a national park, including Moon Lake which is open year-round and the highly popular Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park.

This year campers will be able to make reservations for Wasagaming on March 27, including the yurt options. 

Parks Canada says visitors will be able to start booking reservations for camping and other activities at its sites across the country in March.

The reservation dates, which are posted online, are different at each national park, historic site and marine conservation area.

Parks Canada says in a statement that the bookings are a couple months later than recent years because the reservation system was getting outdated and needed some upgrades.

The agency says the system will look different from the previous one, but it will offer the same features and functions.

Politicians in charge of provincial and territorial liquor laws aren't hurrying to adopt or promote newly updated guidelines that advise a steep drop in Canadian drinking habits.

Across Canada, the responsible ministers declined interview requests from The Canadian Press. In written responses, they didn't commit to changing marketing methods for alcohol and noted they're awaiting Ottawa's lead on whether to slap warning labels on products.

January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day to commemorate those whose lives were lost in one of the world's largest genocides.

Designated by the United Nations in 2005, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the largest death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, where roughly 1 million Jews were murdered alone. 

Caution: This story contains distressing details

Phyllis Webstad and the Orange Shirt Society have released a statement after a potential 66 more burial sites have been located in Williams Lake, B.C. 

A lead investigator has concluded that at least 28 children died on the grounds at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School site in Williams Lake, B.C., where Webstad attended. They also identified 66 more potential burial sites.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s promise to assemble a panel of medical experts to deliver ongoing advice on public health and COVID-19 will be covered off by former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning’s pandemic review, her office said Wednesday.

“The central role of the (Manning) panel will be to review legislation and recommend amendments to better enable the province to respond to future health emergencies,” Smith’s spokesman Taylor Hides said in a statement, responding to questions on when the science panel would be announced.

Oilsands executives insist they are all in on cutting emissions and will make big investments in green technology, but they maintain there isn't a place to invest that money yet.

Many companies are coming off a year of windfall profits not because they pumped out more product, but because the war in Ukraine and global supply chain crunches pushed world oil prices way up.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said repeatedly over the last year that the companies need to prove their commitment by putting some of that cold hard cash into climate initiatives.

Social Development Minister Karina Gould says Service Canada has "virtually eliminated" the massive backlog of passport applications that were delayed this year because of a surge in demand.

Most new passport applications were being processed on time by October, but thousands of people who applied before then still faced excessive delays.

Gould says 98 per cent of those backlogged applications have now been processed.

Canadians across the country and people around the world kicked off the first day of Lunar New Year celebrations Sunday and welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit.

Here are five things to know about the annual tradition widely celebrated in Asian countries and expatriate communities around the world::

What is the Lunar New Year?

Police in India say a third man has been charged in the deaths of four members of a family who froze in southern Manitoba while trying to cross into the United States.

They say the man allegedly acted as a scout for potential immigrants to the U.S. and helped the family get documents for the U.S. leg of its planned journey.

Dashrath Chaudhary faces the same charges as two others arrested Saturday, who are accused of acting as immigration agents and supplying the family with paperwork.