FortSask

A highway in the British Columbia Interior has reopened after a passenger bus crash sent more than 50 people to hospital.

Few details have been released about the Saturday evening incident, but Interior Health tweeted that 53 people are being treated at three hospitals in Kelowna, Penticton and Merritt.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking Canadians to remind themselves how fortunate they are "to live in a country of peace."

Trudeau says in his annual Christmas address that it's the season when life slows down and "Christmas movies, including Die Hard, are on repeat."

But he says that 2022 was a challenging year and acknowledges that for some, the holidays won't be easy.

This holiday season marks a return to more normalcy for millions of Canadians who no longer have to navigate holiday travel and family gatherings under COVID-19 health restrictions. 

Thousands of Canadians woke up in the dark on Christmas Day as power outages caused by ferocious winter conditions persisted across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

A state of emergency continued in southern Ontario's Niagara Region as crews grappled with impassable roads and wildly blowing snow.

Phil Lambert said his community of Port Colborne, Ont., was a sea of abandoned cars Sunday. He and his daughter, Gracyn Burse, said they were heading into their second straight day without power, and they didn't anticipate it being restored until Monday.

With the temperatures warming up, there's plenty of time for fun in the snow before the end of winter break.

Here are five free family activities you can do in Fort Saskatchewan before the kids have to go back to class. 

1. Ice Skating

Fort Saskatchewan has a ton of skating rinks. 

For those who aren't into shinny or hockey, the Fort also has a skating loop at West River's Edge which features plenty of paths for people to have a leisurely skate on or learn how to skate. 

There is a complex, counterintuitive relationship between rising global temperatures and the likelihood of increasingly intense snowstorms across Canada.

Winters are becoming on average milder and warmer than they used to be, but there has also been a noted rise across the country in extreme weather events, such as intense snowstorms, said John Clague, a professor of geosciences at Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, B.C. 

Weather warnings remain in place across the country as major storms continue to dump snow and freezing rain on Quebec, Ontario and B.C., and batter the Atlantic provinces with heavy rain and powerful winds.

Hundreds of thousands of customers have been left without power in the final hours before Christmas, with hydro crews working around the clock to get the lights back on.

A Hydro-Quebec spokesman said about 1,000 workers were repairing power lines to restore electricity to approximately 355,256 customers as of early Saturday morning.

What was Christmas like in Fort Saskatchewan over 140 years ago?

While the Fort's first Christmas in 1875 isn't documented, a journal entry by Fred Bagley a year later highlights some of the festivities. 

According to officials from the Fort Heritage Precinct, Bagley was one of the original 20 North West Mounted Police (NWMP) members to start the area's fort. Bagley would've arrived at the same time as Inspector William D. Jarvis. 

Local police want to make sure everyone is safe over the holidays. 

The holiday season tends to be a time when people let their guard down a bit, making them more vulnerable to theft. 

Crime prevention is important during the season, especially when packages with gifts and cards have the chance to be stolen.

A Morinville man is facing charges of child luring and sexual assault. Police say there could be more than 100 victims.

On Tuesday (Dec. 20), the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit said Imesh Ratnayake, a 21-year-old man from Morinville, has 18 charges laid against him for child luring and sexual assault.

Ratnayake was first arrested back in July for the same charges involving six children. 

A local darts celebrity is back home after a European trip. 

13-year-old Jaxson Danis was in the Netherlands earlier this month to take part in the World Dart Masters tournament. 

Jaxson, who has a fear of flying, said that it was a bit of a stressful start to the trip. 

"I watched movies the whole time," Jaxson said. "We lost our luggage on the flight." 

The family landed in Amsterdam on a Tuesday (Dec. 6) but wasn't able to get reunited with all their luggage until that Friday (Dec. 9).