The Alberta legislature's spring session is set to start today, with health care expected to be a main focus. Premier Danielle Smith's government is planning to dismantle Alberta Health Services and has indicated legislation is coming to begin the process. AHS is to be replaced by four agencies while being reduced to the role of service provider in acute care. Thursday will see the release of the 2024 provincial budget.Smith said in a recent televised provincewide address that it will be balanced but fiscal belt-tightening is needed. She says softening oil prices means provincial funding won't

The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died earlier this month in a remote Arctic penal colony, will take place on Friday in Moscow, his spokesperson said. His funeral will be held at a church in Moscow’s southeast Maryino district on Friday afternoon, Kira Yarmysh said Tuesday. The burial is to be at a nearby cemetery. Navalny died in mid-February in one of Russia’s harshest penal facilities. Russian authorities said the cause of his death at age 47 is still unknown, and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have al

Quebec City police say the death of a woman who was found unresponsive after a house fire over the weekend has been ruled a homicide. Police say 42-year-old Joëlle Lapointe was killed and the exact cause of death will be determined after investigators receive autopsy results. Lapointe was found unresponsive in the basement of a semi-detached home in the provincial capital's Loretteville sector around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. First responders were unable to revive her and she was declared dead on site. Fire commissioner investigators deemed the blaze suspect and contacted police. Police say anyone wi

Kensington Palace says Britain's Prince William has pulled out of attending a memorial service for his godfather, the late King Constantine of Greece, because of a personal matter. The palace declined to elaborate on Tuesday but said the Princess of Wales, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, continues to do well. It said William called the Greek royal family, which is attending the memorial service in St. George’s Chapel, to let them know he was unable to attend.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Ottawa is ready to step in and shut down shady schools that are abusing the international student program if provinces don't crack down on them. Miller says there are problems across the college sector, but some of the "really bad" actors are private institutions and those schools need to be shut down. The minister says provinces are responsible for addressing problems in the post-secondary sector with regards to international students. But he says if they won't do it, Ottawa will, though there are "jurisdictional questions" around what the federal governm

A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced a veteran human rights advocate who spoke out against the war in Ukraine to two years and six months in prison. He was taken directly into custody from the courtroom. Oleg Orlov, 70, was convicted of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian army in an article he wrote denouncing the invasion of Ukraine. He has rejected the case against him as politically motivated. The prosecution on Monday demanded that he be sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison. The verdict concluded a retrial after Orlov was earlier ordered to pay a fine. Underscoring how littl

The federal government is freezing the threshold at which the Competition Bureau must be notified of a merger. It also announced $123 million of funding to eight homebuilders that the federal government says are driving innovation and will help build more than 5,000 affordable homes. The announcements came this morning during Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's weekly economic update alongside other ministers. Competition law requires mergers that exceed a certain value to be flagged to the Competition Bureau in advance, so it can determine whether the deal could prevent or lessen competition

Quebec provincial police say they've so far arrested 21 people allegedly connected to a war over drug territory in eastern Quebec between a street gang and the Hells Angels. Sgt. Hélène St-Pierre said more arrests are possible in the crackdown on the running conflict between drug dealers tied to the Hells Angels and the Blood Family Mafia. Police say the war between the two groups has led to a series of violent incidents, including at least one murder, in the Quebec City area, the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, the Lower St-Lawrence and the North Shore. St-Pierre says that among the arrested a

Hungary’s parliament voted Monday to ratify Sweden's bid to join NATO, bringing an end to more than 18 months of delays that have frustrated the alliance as it seeks to expand in response to Russia'swar in Ukraine. The vote, which passed with 188 votes for and six against, came as a culmination of months of wrangling by Hungary's allies to convince its nationalist government to lift its block on Sweden's membership. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán submitted the protocols for approving Sweden's entry into NATO in July 2022, but the matter had stalled in parliament over oppositi