National News

A man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of his common-law partner and their two children is to serve a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 16 years. 

Court of King's Bench Justice Chris Martin agreed Thursday to a joint recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers at the sentencing hearing for Trevis McLeod in Winnipeg.

"It's horrible, just horrible," the judge told court, calling it "one of the worst cases I've dealt with in my career." 

"At the end of the day, nothing takes away the pain, nothing takes away the shock."

A new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says 83 per cent of adults in this country have a regular primary-care provider, but that still leaves 5.4 million adults without one. 

It says seniors 65 years and older are more likely to have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner than younger adults between 18 and 34. 

Access to primary care is highest in Ontario and lowest in Nunavut. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his MPs Wednesday that he would reflect on what they had to say in a three-hour caucus meeting where some Liberals confronted him about his leadership.

Trudeau was smiling when he left the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and as he walked briskly past a horde of reporters on Parliament Hill he said only that the Liberal party is "strong and united."

The effort to find the remains of two slain First Nations women believed to be in a landfill is on track and excavation in the target area is set to start in early December, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday.

"I hope that everybody in the province and across the country sees that Manitoba values and honours Indigenous women," Kinew told reporters as he stood at the Prairie Green Landfill north of Winnipeg.

Kinew also addressed the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, who joined him at the site.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resisted calls for his resignation for more than a year now but in recent weeks those calls have grown louder and in some cases more public.

The Liberal caucus meets Wednesday and Trudeau is expected to be confronted by a group of MPs who have banded together to try and finally convince him to go.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of this meeting. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face down his own caucus members in a hotly anticipated meeting this morning, as several of them plan to try to convince him to step aside.

Rumours have circulated for weeks about an undisclosed number of Liberal MPs who have signed on to the effort to oust the prime minister in the hopes of improving the party's chances in the next election. 

That promises to make the regular weekly caucus meeting on Parliament Hill extra tense, as Trudeau has showed no signs of stepping down from the top job.

Ottawa marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament Hill Tuesday, but for the family of the reservist who was killed that day the memory is still raw.

"I can't believe it's been 10 years. It felt like it was yesterday," said Ephraim Cirillo after a private family ceremony held at the National War Memorial Tuesday morning.

After her party won a majority government in the New Brunswick election on Monday, Liberal Leader Susan Holt thanked all the women who came before her.

Flanked by her three young daughters on stage in Fredericton, Holt, the first female premier-designate in New Brunswick history, delivered a bilingual victory speech that paid tribute to female trailblazers in provincial politics.

The 47-year-old former business advocate and public servant led the Liberals to victory after a 33-day campaign, thwarting Blaine Higgs’s bid to secure a third term as Tory premier.

Liberal MP Sean Casey is the first to publicly confirm that he has signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, arguing it would be in the best interests of the country to let someone else take the reins. 

As an internal revolt brews, few Liberal MPs who are not in the cabinet are publicly defending the prime minister. The upcoming caucus meeting on Wednesday appears to present the most serious challenge to Trudeau's leadership to date.

The federal government is expected to boost the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream as a way to encourage employers to hire more Canadian staff.