National News

Church bells are to ring today in Humboldt at the same time as the deadly bus crash brought unimaginable tragedy to the small Saskatchewan city five years ago.

The bells at St. Augustine Church are to toll 29 times — one for each person who was on the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos on April 6, 2018. Sixteen people died and 13 were injured after a transport truck went through a stop sign and into the path of a bus carrying the Saskatchewan junior hockey team.

A Romanian family who had hoped to build a life near Toronto with their two Canadian-born children saw their dreams end tragically in the frigid waters off Akwesasne, Que., after fleeing a deportation order.

Florin Iordache, his wife Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, their two-year-old daughter Evelin and one-year-old son Elyen were among eight people found dead in a river near the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory last week.

Donald Trump has reportedly pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. 

Media reports say the ex-president entered the plea today in a heavily guarded New York courtroom — the first former commander-in-chief in U.S. history ever to do so. 

Live television coverage showed a stone-faced Trump, clad in his trademark dark suit and red tie, follow his legal team into the courtroom for his arraignment. 

He was equally stoic — and uncharacteristically silent — as he left the courtroom about an hour later.

Jeremy Hansen, a colonel and CF-18 pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, has been selected to become the first Canadian to venture further into space and orbit the moon.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency made the long-awaited announcement Monday, introducing the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon.

Saskatchewan politicians are raising concerns after a report recommended RCMP’s Depot police training academy in Regina be phased out for a new degree-style system.

A report released Thursday into the 2020 shooting rampage in Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead recommended the phaseout by 2032, and that provinces instead establish three-year policing degree programs.

The RCMP has been training recruits at the Depot for the past 140 years. It has strong ties to Regina and has been a source of heritage, employment and tourism in the province.

Kevin Garinger says it feels like the passage of time is inexplicable. The five years since a deadly bus crash changed his city, his hockey team and his life sometimes feel like a lifetime. Other times it feels like yesterday. 

"I don't know if anyone ever heals from significant loss or tragedy,” Garinger says after a moment of deep thought in his Humboldt, Sask., office. 

“You eventually just learn to live with this."

The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that's why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.

In its 2023 budget Tuesday, the government revealed the federally-administered insurance program will be far more expensive over the next five years than it originally thought. 

It is also projecting that ongoing costs after that will more than double, to $4.4 billion per year, up from $1.7 billion.

An Alberta deputy premier says it was appropriate for his boss to phone up a pastor and discuss his upcoming criminal trial on charges stemming from protests over pandemic restrictions. 

Kaycee Madu says Premier Danielle Smith has a broad mandate to reduce divisions over the COVID-19 pandemic while helping the province grow. 

Madu says in pursuing that mission, Smith is free to contact whomever she wants.

For Canadians fed up with chargers that don't fit their cellphones, hidden fees, air-travel disruptions and cosmetic testing on animals, the Liberal government says help is on the way. 

Those and others are among the countless measures contained in the federal budget plan unveiled by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. 

Here are some of the less-prominent promises being made: 

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's 2023 federal budget promises "transformative investments" in Canada's green economy as the country tries to maintain its place in the global clean tech revolution and realign its supply chains toward allies who won't use energy as a political weapon.

"Together these two great shifts represent the most significant opportunity for Canadian workers in the lifetime of anyone here today," Freeland said Tuesday in the House of Commons, according to her prepared remarks.