National News

OTTAWA — Opposition parties and aid groups say the Trudeau government is dragging its feet in carving out exemptions to anti-terrorism laws to allow humanitarian groups to reach desperate people in Afghanistan.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson's office would not return a call from the Parliamentary Protective Service during the height of the "Freedom Convoy," its acting director told a committee Thursday evening.

OTTAWA — A Russian oligarch indicted in the United States Thursday for conspiring to circumvent its sanctions regime stands accused of, among other things, having flowers delivered to a former member of Parliament in Canada.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia is expanding the power of pharmacists to renew and issue some prescriptions as part of a wide-ranging plan to relieve pressure on the province's struggling health-care system.

OTTAWA — The former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says the argument Ottawa made in 2015 that the Catholic Church was unlikely to raise the money it promised to residential school survivors is "blatantly dishonest.

OTTAWA — The federal government will extend its matching of donations to help people dealing with catastrophic flooding in Pakistan in hopes the crisis doesn't fall off the public radar.

VANCOUVER — Gas prices in Vancouver hit a new high of more than $2.39 a litre at some stations Thursday, blowing past the previous peak set this summer.

MONTREAL — Despite his widely denounced comments about immigrants, Quebec Immigration Minister Jean Boulet could keep a seat in cabinet if the Coalition Avenir Québec is re-elected Monday, leader François Legault said Thursday.

HAVRE-AUBERT, Que. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Quebec's Îles-de-la-Madeleine Thursday, promising federal support for the archipelago hammered by post-tropical storm Fiona last weekend.

OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog says a data breach at a contractor for Canada's border agency involved as many as 1.38 million licence plate images and associated information.