The Alberta government is following Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia and will make wearing masks mandatory for most students and staff this school year.Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says students in Grades 4 to 12 and all staff will be required to wear masks in common areas, hallways and on buses, but not in classrooms.The province is going to provide two reusable masks for each student and staff member.

Canada's chief public health officer says regardless of when a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, the Public Health Agency of Canada is planning to be responding to the pandemic for at least another year if not two or three. Dr. Theresa Tam says a safe and effective vaccine is a very important aspect of the COVID-19 response, but it is not the ``silver bullet'' that will end the health crisis. Tam says the public health measures we currently have in place such as social distancing, wearing a mask in indoor public spaces are going to have to continue in the long-run. Answering criticism that the f

The federal Liberals have given companies more than $5.8 billion in COVID-19-related contracts for personal protective gear and medical supplies. The latest figures provided by the government also show that about two-fifths of the total contracts awarded as of July 16 have gone to domestic suppliers, some of them having retooled operations to provide needed masks, gowns, gloves and ventilators. But many details of the companies involved and the amounts of their contracts are being kept from public view. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the data on N95 respirator masks, where all

The federal government's COVID-19 contact tracing app is facing criticism for its download requirements, which restrict some Canadians from accessing and using the app.The free "COVID Alert" app, which became available on Friday, is designed to track the location of phones relative to each other, without collecting personal data anywhere centrally.Users are notified if their phones have recently been near the phone of a person who later volunteers that they have tested positive for COVID-19.But the app requires users to have Apple or Android phones made in the last five years, and a relativel

There are 116,312 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 59,312 confirmed (including 5,674 deaths, 50,886 resolved) Ontario: 39,209 confirmed (including 2,775 deaths, 35,074 resolved) Alberta: 10,843 confirmed (including 196 deaths, 9,261 resolved) British Columbia: 3,641 confirmed (including 195 deaths, 3,168 resolved) Saskatchewan: 1,319 confirmed (including 18 deaths, 1,008 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,069 confirmed (including 64 deaths, 1,003 resolved) Manitoba: 401 confirmed (including 8 deaths, 337 resolved), 14 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 266 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 259 resol

A national Muslim association is calling for action after it says two of its Toronto mosques were vandalized repeatedly, including a pair of incidents in the lead-up to a major holiday. The Muslim Association of Canada is asking police and elected officials for help after it says two of its facilities were targeted in five separate incidents over the past two months. In a statement Thursday, the association says two of the incidents occurred at the same location on the same day this week, just as Muslims were preparing to mark Eid al-Adha.A spokeswoman for Toronto police says the force is awar

Documents from lawyers for Canada's attorney general say a series of witnesses will prove Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou lied to HSBC bank about the company's relationship's with Skycom in Iran. The documents released Friday are the government's arguments to be used during a hearing next April and they say there's enough to prove fraud in support of Meng's extradition to the United States. The documents say witnesses, including former employees of Huawei, FBI investigators and officials with HSBC _ the bank at the centre of the allegations _ will say Meng falsely said Huawei didn't control Sky

The government is going to create a transitional benefit to help workers such as gig or contract employees, who exhaust the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and don't qualify for employment insurance.The CERB is due to wind down in several weeks. Today's announcement means those who are eligible for E-I will move to the separate program. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the program will include access to training, and the ability to work more hours without having such a steep clawback of benefit payments.

Canadians can now begin downloading a voluntary smartphone app meant to warn users they've been near someone who tests positive for COVID-19. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he downloaded the "COVID Alert" app this morning and says the more people who sign up to use it, the better it will be able to trace — and help to slow — the spread of the novel coronavirus. The app is designed to track the location of phones relative to each other, without collecting personal data anywhere centrally, using digital identifications unique to each device. Then users can be notified if their phones hav