A popular immigration program that allows people to sponsor their parents or grandparents to come to Canada is reverting to a lottery system.Federal Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced the relaunch of the parent and grandparent program today, saying it will open for applications on Oct. 13. It ordinarily opens in January but was delayed this year as officials sought to revamp the system after a first-come, first-served approach buckled under excessive demand last year. A lottery system had been used before that but it led to widespread frustration that people's efforts to bring the

Former Green leader Elizabeth May slammed the New Democrats this morning for refusing stand down their candidate in a coming byelection so the first Black woman elected to lead a federal party in Canada can win a seat. Annamie Paul is the new leader of the Green party after winning on the eighth ballot of the contest Saturday. Paul says she is not surprised none of the other parties will offer what's sometimes called "leader's courtesy" in the upcoming byelection in Toronto Centre but that she is used to overcoming obstacles. But May says in 2019, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said it was "classy"

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering his family's best wishes to U.S. President Donald Trump and the first lady. Trudeau says he and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, hope the president and Melania Trump recover fully from COVID-19. Trump announced early this morning that both he and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus. Gregoire Trudeau tested positive for COVID-19 in March after returning from a trip to England. She recovered within weeks, and the prime minister never contracted the virus. But Trudeau points out it's the same news many Canadians are getting. British Prime

Health Canada says it's begun its first review of a possible vaccine for COVID-19. The agency says it's evaluating the vaccine candidate being worked on by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The possible vaccine is undergoing what's called a ``rolling review,'' in which Health Canada accepts data and results from the company's trials as it comes in, rather than waiting for everything to be complete. Health Canada cautions that starting a rolling review is just one step on the road to approval. The federal government has put in an advance order for 20 million dose

Canada is forming its own forensic examination and assessment team to examine evidence and information after Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, killing all 176 people on board. The office of Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told The Associated Press the team will collect, organize and analyze all available information, evidence and intelligence about after the Jan. 8 crash near Tehran, and will advise the Canadian government on its credibility. Canadian experts have been present as observers in the probe of the crash being carried out under inter

Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc says Ottawa is not trying to block provinces from getting access to new rapid COVID-19 testing devices. Manitoba's Central Services Minister Reg Helwer says Ottawa is forbidding Abbott Laboratories from selling its new ID Now tests directly to the provinces. Helwer says the federal government is insisting on controlling the supply and allocating shipments to the provinces. Health Canada recently approved the ID Now tests, which deliver results in about 15 minutes without having to send the specimen to a lab for processing. Helwer says

The federal Liberals have re-introduced a bill that would ban forcing children or adults to undergo therapy aimed at altering their sexual orientation or gender identity. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today called on the opposition parties to support the legislation. Justice Minister David Lametti says conversion therapy is based on a false premise that being gay, bisexual or trans is wrong and the legislation will prevent it from happening. The Conservative opposition has already indicated it's prepared to back the bill. PM concerned about the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in QuebecPrime Min

The Green Party of Canada says the amount of money accidentally deposited with the party rather than Glen Murray's leadership campaign adds up to less than $10,000. Murray says he is not yet convinced the damage stops there but credits the party with doing what it can to fix the problem. He says the damage to his campaign has been done, preventing his team from doing some planned work because it didn't think it had the money. The party says in a statement today it has forwarded $9,630 from 35 donors to Murray's campaign, and added under 10 people to the membership list whose memberships weren

The Canada Infrastructure Bank plans to invest $10 billion in projects that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls a win-win. The investments are expected to create 60 thousand jobs while contributing to the fight against climate change. The bank will invest $1.5 billion in agricultural infrastructure in Western Canada, $2.5 billion in clean power projects and $1.5 billion to buy zero-emission buses. Another $2 billion will be spent to expand access to high-speed Internet service across the country.