The Canadian Press

The Department of National Defence says Canada is working with the United States to protect sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats after a high-altitude surveillance balloon was detected.

The U.S. says it is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a few days. 

The Pentagon says it decided not to shoot it down over concerns of hurting people on the ground.

Former Conservative interim leader and longtime Manitoba member of Parliament Candice Bergen has announced she is stepping down. 

Bergen said in a video posted to Twitter that she submitted a letter of resignation as the representative for Portage-Lisgar after meeting with her party's caucus. 

The MP said last September, after serving as interim leader of the party following the ouster of former leader Erin O'Toole, that she was not planning to run in another federal election.

The United States is filing another formal dispute over what it considers Canada's failure to live up to its trade obligations to American dairy farmers and producers.

It's the second time the U.S. has launched such a dairy-driven escalation, formally known as a dispute settlement panel, in less than two years.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai says the new panel has become necessary because Canada has so far refused to take the steps necessary to properly address the first one.

Crown prosecutors say they are staying six sexual assault charges against a doctor in rural Manitoba.

They told a Winnipeg court Wednesday that they couldn't go through with a trial for Dr. Arcel Bissonnette after new evidence came into play.

Court of King's Bench Justice Anne Turner heard from Nadine Vasas that the Crown reassessed the charges against Bissonnette. 

"Based on that assessment, the Crown is entering a stay of proceedings at this time," Vasas said. 

Social Development Minister Karina Gould says Service Canada has "virtually eliminated" the massive backlog of passport applications that were delayed this year because of a surge in demand.

Most new passport applications were being processed on time by October, but thousands of people who applied before then still faced excessive delays.

Gould says 98 per cent of those backlogged applications have now been processed.

The chief of a northwestern Ontario First Nation that found the province’s first "plausible burials" says the community is in shock and its members are working hard to ensure survivors and their loved ones have mental health support.

Wauzhushk Onigum Nation Chief Chris Skead says the uncovering of 171 anomalies and "plausible burials" at the site of former St. Mary’s Indian Residential School in Kenora earlier this week is retraumatizing many survivors who attended the Catholic-run institution.

The First Nations advocacy group tasked with overseeing efforts to determine whether it's possible to recover the remains of two women from a landfill expects to complete a feasibility study in the next two months. 

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says it is still in the process of securing funding from the federal government for the feasibility study, but once that's done, it should be completed by March 31. 

A newborn baby is among three people who died in a highway crash near Castlegar in southeast B.C. on Monday.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark says in a news release that police were called to a collision involving a car and a pickup truck on Highway 3a along the Kootenay River just before 4 p.m.

Clark says a 26-year-old man, a 25-year-old woman and an eight-day-old infant were killed in the passenger vehicle, while a two-year-old child survived and is expected to recover from their injuries.

The only person in the pickup was treated for minor injuries at the scene.

The Manitoba government has started a public awareness campaign to encourage more young people to stay in school.

The campaign includes videos that show young people talking about how going to school opens more possibilities for their future.

The government has also issued a new policy directive for school divisions to help monitor and analyze absenteeism.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko says school divisions will be updating their own policies to match by the end of the school year.

RCMP have arrested a western Manitoba man who faces charges including uttering threats and resisting arrest.

The Mounties say they acted on a tip from Interpol, the international policing agency.

Police say they were told a man from Russell had made threats on social media against government officials, medical professionals and law enforcement personnel.

Officers say when they tried to arrest a suspect at a home, he became combative and his dog bit one of the officers.

Michael Jae Man, who is 42, was remanded into custody.