Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

There was a powerful word being repeated in the joyful Newfoundland community of New-Wes-Valley on Sunday: "Miracle."

Over and over, residents out walking or chatting to one another in local stores described the rescue of seven fishermen from the area who had somehow survived two days in a life-raft on the Atlantic ocean as nothing short of miraculous.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for returning our men," Betty Lou Pollett told a crowd of hundreds at the end of a community parade held to celebrate the fishers' return.

The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay settlements totalling $104 million to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those at the now infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John's.

The decision Friday was met with relief, hurt and even grief by survivors who've endured a decades-long fight for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents more than 200 survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

Thousands of Canadians woke up in the dark on Christmas Day as power outages caused by ferocious winter conditions persisted across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

A state of emergency continued in southern Ontario's Niagara Region as crews grappled with impassable roads and wildly blowing snow.

Phil Lambert said his community of Port Colborne, Ont., was a sea of abandoned cars Sunday. He and his daughter, Gracyn Burse, said they were heading into their second straight day without power, and they didn't anticipate it being restored until Monday.

Hundreds of Canadians are stranded in Cancún, Mexico and don't know how they'll get home after their Sunwing flights were cancelled last week.

Passengers said they've been shuffled from hotel to hotel after sleeping on floors at the airport and in lobbies, saying there's no end in sight to their ordeal.