Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will not pay the full price for medical masks that do not live up to medical standards.About eight million of 11 million N95 respirators shipped to the government from China through a Montreal-based supplier failed to meet specifications, federal officials said Friday.Trudeau says the discovery speaks to the government's “rigorous verification system” overseen by the Public Health Agency of Canada.The prime minister did not name the price the government will pay for the sub-standard respirators, which are used to protect against the COVID-19 virus.

There are 66,434 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. Quebec: 36,150 confirmed (including 2,725 deaths, 8,928 resolved) Ontario: 19,598 confirmed (including 1,540 deaths, 13,990 resolved) Alberta: 6,098 confirmed (including 115 deaths, 4,020 resolved) British Columbia: 2,315 confirmed (including 127 deaths, 1,579 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,008 confirmed (including 46 deaths, 722 resolved) Saskatchewan: 544 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 355 resolved) Manitoba: 273 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 247 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 dea

In view of the COVID-19 situation in the state, Punjab government has canceled the class 10th exams saying that students will be promoted based on their performance in pre-Board exams."Class X students under Punjab School Education Board will not have to take any exams and will be promoted on basis of their performance in pre-Board exams," said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.The state government has also decided to promote students from classes 5th to 9th. "The state government has decided to promote all students of Classes V to X under Punjab School Education system to next class without any

The head of the World Health Organization says the agency needs $1.7 billion to fund its response efforts for COVID-19 for the rest of the year, and that it's about $1.3 billion short. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was suspending funding to the U.N. health agency, saying WHO botched its response to the coronavirus pandemic and was acting as a public relations agency for China. WHO said previously it was conducting an assessment of what the loss of U.S. funding would mean for its operations. In a press briefing on Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said WHO's C

Canada's arts and culture organizations are getting a clearer picture of how the federal government plans to divide 500 million dollars of COVID-19 support. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault says the temporary relief plan aims to keep Canada's arts, culture and sports infrastructure intact through the pandemic. He says nearly 327-million dollars will be handed out in the initial stages, while the remainder will be ``assessed based on needs.'' The television and film industry will receive 116-million-dollars, through the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada.

People in Metro Vancouver can rest assured that they will be able to get back to work as the Province of B.C. and TransLink announced their commitment to ensure transit service is available as British Columbians safely restart the provinceand its economy in the coming weeks and months. The Province and TransLink are working on a comprehensive solution to address the major financial impacts that TransLink, like many transit agencies across the country, has incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Given the progress in these discussions, TransLink and its operating companies will suspend the servic

A year-long police investigation has resulted in 13 criminal charges against a former correctional officer whose alleged assaults of inmates at a federal prison for women in Nova Scotia are also the subject of a civil lawsuit. Truro police say Brian Wilson faces six sexual assault charges, six charges of breach of trust and one charge of communication for the purpose of obtaining sexual services.Police say they received a complaint in March 2019 alleging inappropriate relationships between Wilson and several female inmates at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S.They say Wilson has bee

British Columbia Finance Minister Carole James says she doesn't want to sugar coat what will be a hard road ahead as labour force figures show the province lost a quarter of a million jobs in April. Combined with jobless figures in March, almost 400,000 people were unemployed.James says nearly half of the job losses were in food services and the wholesale and retail sectors.B.C.'s unemployment rate jumped to 11.5 per cent in April, but remains below the national rate of 13 percent. James says it's too early to say what impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on B.C.'s budget, but her quarterly

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government's emergency wage-subsidy program will be extended beyond its early-June endpoint.The program covers 75 percent of worker pay up to $847 a week to try to help employers keep employees on the job in the face of steep declines in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.In an announcement in Ottawa, Trudeau says more details on the extension will come next week.The Canadian economy lost almost two million jobs in April, a record high, as the closure of non-essential services to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced businesses to shutter temporari