The Alberta government is tightening the rules around employee bonuses in light of the six-figure payout to the chief medical officer of health. Finance Minister Jason Nixon says the civil service has been directed to review and make changes to the rules to ensure future bonus payments during emergencies go through cabinet for approval. Nixon says the public service should not have the ability to sign off on such big-ticket bonuses. Earlier this week, the government's salary list revealed Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, received a bonus of almost 228-thousand dollars fo

The United Conservative government has cancelled an emergency directive that called for some patients in Edmonton hospitals to be treated in hallways. The order was enacted to reduce pressure on emergency departments while Alberta Health Services worked to place some patients in other hospitals. The province says it was dealing with high demand, staffing shortages and higher numbers of patients due to COVID-19. The Opposition NDP says the government contributed to the staffing shortages by tearing up the master contract with doctors and fighting at one point to cut nurses' salaries.

Defence lawyers working with Legal Aid Alberta have voted to stop taking any cases for two weeks. They say it is their response to what they call the provincial government underfunding the system. The Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, and the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers' Association have been pushing the province to increase Legal Aid's budget in line with other Canadian jurisdictions. Alberta Justice says it has reached out to all three organizations for a meeting.

On August 3rd at approximately 2:00 pm, the New Westminster Police Department responded an domestic incident near 20th Street and 6th Avenue. The suspect was identified and later located at a residence in the 300 block of Agnes Street. The suspect would not acknowledge police and patrol members attempted to negotiate the surrender of the suspect. Due to the suspect refusing to exit the apartment, the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team was deployed to assist with the arrest. The suspect was located inside the residence at approximately 7:00 pm and was taken into custody without inc

A judge in Russia convicted American basketball star Brittney Griner of drug possession and smuggling. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in a politically charged case that could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow. Griner showed little emotion to the sentence but her lawyers said later she was "very upset, very stressed. U.S. President Joe Biden denounced as ``unacceptable'' the verdict and sentence, which came amid soaring tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine. Griner had told the court she had no intention to break the law by bringing va

With the ongoing erosion of B.C.’s health care system and the continued lack of urgent action from the NDP government to address the now system-wide crisis, the BC Liberals are asking the question, where is NDP Health ​Minister Adrian Dix and the NDP’s long-promised health care human resources plan? "For months we have watched the crisis in B.C.’s health care system grow and tragically, some British Columbians have lost their lives as a result of the dysfunction in the system. This has become a province-wide crisis that continues to get worse by the day, and yet Minister Adrian Dix ref

Former Supreme Court of Canada judge Thomas Cromwell is leading an independent review of Hockey Canada's governance that begins immediately. There have been calls for a change of leadership at Hockey Canada for the way it handled recent sexual assault allegations against players. Members of the 2003 and 2018 world junior team have been accused of separate incidents of group sexual assault. It was also revealed that the organization maintained a fund for uninsured payments, including settlements of sexual assault complaints, that was funded by player fees. The independent review is expected to

Defence Minister Anita Anand says Ottawa and an Ontario company have agreed to deliver armoured vehicles to Ukrainian forces to help their fight against Russian troops. Anand also says Canada is sending up to 225 Canadian Armed Forces members to Britain for an initial period of four months to teach Ukrainian soldiers the basics of soldiering. Her announcement today comes nearly six months after Canada suspended its previous training mission in Ukraine just weeks before Russia invaded its neighbour back in February. Since the invasion, Ukraine says roughly 10-thousand of its soldiers have been

The U.S. will declare a public health emergency to bolster the federal response to the outbreak of monkeypox that already has infected more than 6,600 Americans, two people familiar with the matter said. The announcement will free up federal funding and resources to fight the virus, which may cause fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps on many parts of the body. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. The declaration comes as the the Biden administration has faced criticism over the pace of vaccine availability for monkeypox. Clinics in maj