National News

Almost two-thirds of Canadians feel that inflation at the grocery store is getting worse, a new poll suggests, even as food inflation has been steadily cooling.

A new Leger survey found that almost 30 per cent of Canadians believe food inflation has been primarily caused by grocery stores trying to increase profit margins. Another 26 per cent think it’s mostly due to global economic factors, while one in five blame the federal government

Inflation on groceries was 1.4 per cent in April and helped drive overall inflation lower to 2.7 per cent, Statistics Canada said.

Retailer London Drugs says it is "unwilling and unable" to pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to cybercriminals who claim to have stolen data in a hacking attack that recently shut down its stores for more than a week.

The company says in a statement that the criminals could leak stolen corporate files containing employee information on the dark web, calling the situation "deeply distressing."

It says it notified all employees and is providing them with two years of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.

The Liberal government will bring its proposal to increase the inclusion rate on capital gains to the House of Commons before the parliamentary summer break, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday.

"In the coming weeks, and certainly before the House rises, we will begin the legislative process to implement our increase in the inclusion rate," Freeland confirmed during a news conference.

The finance minister announced the capital gains tax changes as part of her April budget, but left the new inclusion rate out of the budget legislation she tabled last month.

Canada's cyberspy agency says countries like Russia and China are increasingly targeting non-profit and advocacy groups, as well as journalists and human rights activists.

The Communications Security Establishment issued the warning Tuesday in a joint advisory with the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Estonia and Finland.

The advisory says "industry reporting indicates a consistent pattern of state-sponsored cyber actors targeting specific segments of civil society."

Barry Sawchuk doesn’t usually concern himself with space or the final frontier.

The 66-year-old Saskatchewan farmer is much more focused on seeding.

But when he found a giant piece of debris in his fields, Sawchuk said he was shocked to learn it was likely part of a rocket.

“Not every day you go out in your field and find space junk,” Sawchuk said with a laugh in an interview from the front seat of his tractor.

Thousands of residents in four neighbourhoods in the southern end of Fort McMurray were ordered out Tuesday as a wildfire threatened the Alberta city, bringing back memories of a devastating fire eight years earlier. 

The Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo directed residents in Beacon Hill, Abasand, Prairie Creek and Grayling Terrace needed to leave by late afternoon.

As wildfires rage in British Columbia, the family of a nine-year-old boy who died last summer is trying to protect people from poor air quality due to smoke this year.  

Amber Vigh says it's "scary" to know the wildfire season is once again in full swing and she is feeling "probably a little bit of PTSD." 

But she's hoping that Carter's Project, a partnership between the family and the BC Lung Foundation, will help make a difference.

The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation is blasting the Métis Nation of Ontario at a summit on how leaders are reacting to — and can come together to fix — what they call Indigenous identity fraud.

Co-hosted by the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Chiefs of Ontario, the summit in Winnipeg also includes Inuit and Innu leaders who have raised concerns about the topic in their respective jurisdictions.

The start to wildfire season has been far less dramatic than it was last year but the risk of hot, dry weather and severe fires remains high, officials warned Thursday.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported around 90 fires burning as of noon on Thursday, including 12 classified as being out of control.

"At the same time last year the situation was quite different," said Jean-François Duperré, the director of emergency planning for the government operations centre at Public Safety Canada.

London Drugs is gradually reopening its stores across Western Canada more than a week after a cybersecurity breach forced the retailer to close.

The company says it is working with independent cybersecurity experts to securely bring its systems back online after it was discovered April 28.

The Richmond, B.C.-based pharmacy and retailer operates about 80 London Drugs locations across Western Canada.

The retailer says on its website more than two dozen stores are back in operation in B.C., while six are open in Alberta, three in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba.