Health Minister Patty Hajdu is tapping a former national security adviser to lead a probe into whether Canada's pandemic warning system fell down just before COVID-19 reared up. Margaret Bloodworth will chair a three-member review panel studying what went wrong with the Global Public Health Intelligence Network. She will be joined by former deputy public health officer Dr. Paul Gully, and Mylaine Breton, Canada Research Chair in Clinical Governance on Primary Health Care at Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec. The network, known commonly as GPHIN, was created more than two decades ago and help

Canada will not immediately follow the U.S. in allowing the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to return to Canadian airspace.Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said in a statement Wednesday that Canada will impose different requirements than the U.S. before it lifts the grounding orders for the plane, including additional procedures on the flight deck and pre-flight and differences in training for flight operators.Garneau added that he expects Transport Canada's validation process to conclude very soon.His remarks followed a U.S. announcement allowing the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again once the company ma

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says all Canadians should avoid international travel, even as some remain set on heading south for the winter. Trudeau says the pandemic is resurgent across large swaths of the United States, including in the south, and says Canadians are safest at home. However, he says the choice is in the hands of individuals, and suggests those who do make the trip get comprehensive health and travel insurance and make sure that regional health-care facilities in the places they're going to are not overwhelmed. PM Trudeau warns young people of the seriousness of virus Prime

The father of the man who killed 10 people in Toronto's van attack says he is not tailoring his testimony to help his son. Vahe Minassian is being questioned by the prosecution today at the murder trial of his son, Alek Minassian. The younger Minassian has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder. He has admitted to planning and carrying out the 2018 attack, and his lawyer has said Minassian should be found not criminally responsible for his actions due to autism. Vahe Minassian told court yesterday that his son has not shown remorse or apologiz

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is accusing Chinese telecom company Huawei of stealing defunct Canadian firm Nortel's technology. O'Toole made the allegation of industrial espionage as he announced his party is pushing the Liberals to make a decision within 30 days on which companies can provide Canada's next-generation 5-G wireless internet technology. The Tories are tabling a motion in the House of Commons demanding the government decide whether Huawei ought to be banned. O'Toole wants the matter debated in the Commons and is pushing for a new strategy to deal with China, saying the Libera

Federal privacy legislation introduced today would require companies to get consent from customers through plain language, not a lengthy legal document, before using their personal data.The bill is designed to flesh out the 10 principles from control over data to meaningful penalties for misuse of information that make up the federal digital charter.The Liberal government says the legislation would give consumers the ability to more easily transfer their data from one business to another.People could also demand that a company delete or destroy their information if they withdraw consent.The pr

Health officials everywhere are welcoming Moderna's vaccine candidate as preliminary results show it to be highly effective. But federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu says it's no time for Canadians to let their guard down. In the US, top disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's wonderful news, but people shouldn't relax. Moderna says its vaccine appears to be 94.5 per cent effective, according to preliminary data from a still ongoing study. A week ago, Pfizer announced its own COVID-19 vaccine appeared similarly effective.

Canada has reached a grim milestone in the case count for COVID-19. The number of infections has surpassed 300,000, less than a month after Canada crossed the 200,000 threshold October 19th. Health experts are alarmed, but not surprised, by the rapid growth over the last few weeks. Canada's new daily case numbers are also rising, suggesting that even as some cases are being resolved, the spread is quickening. The province added 1,218 new cases of COVID-19 and 25 new deaths. Ontario reported 1,487 new COVID-19 cases, as well as 10 new deaths.

Former finance minister Bill Morneau is heading back to the classroom next year. He has been appointed a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he will join other fellows such as former U.S. secretary of state John Kerry. The Ivy League university says Morneau will teach a graduate course on global economic policy-making in the spring semester. Morneau is also running to be secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. He became Canada's candidate for the OECD job after resigning suddenly as finance minister and as a Li