Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

The federal Liberals are creating a new agency to beef up Canada's ability to handle rapidly spreading infectious diseases and protect from future pandemics.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the agency is meant to preserve the "top-gun team" of public servants that helped steer Canadians through COVID-19.

Health Emergency Readiness Canada is being tasked with boosting Canada's life-sciences sector and ensuring Canadians get faster access to vaccines, medical therapies and diagnostics by accelerating the transition from research to commercialization.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there is no guarantee Ottawa can evacuate them if the situation deteriorates further.

She is also expressing concern that attacks like exploding pagers are only making the situation worse.

"My message to Canadians who even think of going to Lebanon is don't go, and I've been saying that for months," she told reporters Friday in Toronto.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukraine should be allowed to strike deep inside Russia, regardless of Moscow threatening that this would draw Canada and its allies into direct war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the NATO military alliance would draw itself into war if it allows Ukraine to use donated weapons to make long-range strikes inside Russia.

His comments come five weeks after Ukrainian forces stormed the border and put parts of Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since the Second World War.

Israeli police say a Canadian citizen was killed Monday after threatening local security officials with a knife near the border with the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military says the man drove to the entrance of the town of Netiv HaAsara, just 300 metres north of the Gaza border. The military says the man left his vehicle with a knife and approached the local security patrol, who opened fire and killed him.

There were no other injuries, the military said, providing a photo of a kitchen knife with a black handle. The rescue service Zaka also said nobody was injured. 

Federal officials in charge of the National Microbiology Lab defended security protocols at the Winnipeg institution against accusations from MPs of bureaucratic incompetence Friday. 

"We acted as expeditiously as we could, given the information that was available," Public Health Agency of Canada head Heather Jeffrey said Friday.

The son of a Canadian woman believed to be among those held hostage by Hamas in Gaza wants the world to push for an end to the fighting, and says he fears Israel's escalating offensive could end all chance of bringing his mother safely home. 

"My basic belief is that the military actions don't solve anything," said Yonatan Zeigen.

His mother, Vivian Silver, is one of an estimated 229 hostages taken by Hamas during its bloody Oct. 7 rampage in Israel.

The federal government is coping with cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims it has sowed chaos in Ottawa — but Canada's signals-intelligence agency says the "nuisance" attacks likely haven't put private information at risk.

The attacks seem to have hit institutions controlled by the government, but not the core infrastructure from which federal departments and agencies operate.

The Canadian Armed Forces says its website became unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours.

The woman accusing former New Democrat MP Roméo Saganash of sexual assault is going public, saying she wants to support others.

Carmen Roy, who works for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, is alleging that she was sexually assaulted on May 1 in Winnipeg, and police say they arrested the former MP on June 27.

In a written statement to The Canadian Press, Roy says she is pondering a civil suit.

Her lawyer says Roy was at work when the alleged incident happened, but she is not able to provide more details.

As federal parties craft the scope of a possible inquiry into foreign interference, Canada's media-literacy charity argues governments and schools need to do a better job of preventing citizens from being manipulated by hostile states.

"We are going to need a media-literate populace," said Matthew Johnson, education director with MediaSmarts, a non-profit aimed at boosting critical thinking among Canadians.

"Whatever the source of disinformation, but certainly including foreign interference, digital media literacy really is both the first and last line of defence."

International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan is announcing $71 million in humanitarian aid for Sudan and two neighbouring countries that are dealing with a large number of refugees in the wake of a violent crisis.

Sajjan says the funds will flow through agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross as well as non-governmental organizations to provide basic food, water and health services.

Nearly $31 million will go toward Sudan, while slightly more will be sent to South Sudan, which seceded from that country in 2011.