The federal government says it will give Toronto nearly half a billion dollars in housing funding. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Toronto this morning, saying the city will receive $471 million from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund. The $4-billion fund is a federal initiative to encourage municipalities to make changes to bylaws and regulations that would spur more housing construction, in exchange for more money. Some of the changes Ottawa has pushed for include denser zoning and faster issuance of permits. Housing Minister Sean Fraser, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow an

The man who extorted and bullied British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd into suicide has had his 13-year sentence from a Canadian court converted to a six-year prison term in Europe.An Amsterdam court handed Aydin Coban the six-year sentence on Thursday, which is the maximum allowed under Dutch law and is longer than the 4 1/2 years prosecutors recommended to the court in July.Todd was 15 when she died by suicide at her home in Metro Vancouver in October 2012, weeks after posting a video watched by millions around the world describing being harassed and extorted by an online predator.Coban was

Alberta has signed a $1.06 billion, three-year deal with the federal government to help fund improvements to the province's health-care system.It's the third province to come to an agreement with Ottawa after British Columbia signed a similar one in October and Prince Edward Island inked its deal on Tuesday.The bilateral deals are part of a $196-billion, 10-year national health accord Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered to premiers in February.Provinces and territories are expected to commit to massive upgrades to digital medical records and the collection of health-care data, as well as bei

The Liberals are stressing that Hamas needs to surrender to Israel, after the militant group praised Ottawa for calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the group can no longer have a role in governing Gaza or in creating a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.This week, Hamas released a video message from one of its top officials, Ghazi Hamad, who thanked Canada, Australia and New Zealand for a statement that called on Israel to end its bombardment of Gaza.Hamad did not mention that the statement also demanded that his group surrender, release

Prague's police chief says an armed man who killed at least 15 people was a student at a university where the mass shooting took place. Police and the Czech Republic's interior ministry earlier said the suspect was dead. He has not been named publicly. Officers sealed off Jan Palach Square and evacuated the philosophy department building of Charles University, which is where Thursday's shooting took place. They are still searching the area, including the building's balconies, for possible explosives.

Shoppers should expect to see no single use plastic bags, straws or utensils in stores and restaurants starting tomorrow, as newfederal single-use plastics rules take effect. Cities like Vancouver and Victoria have already have their own rules in place. The BC government says food service providers will no longer be able to offer single-use plastic utensils, lids and other items like plastic sushi grass. It says such items can only be given out if a customer asks for them. federal rules will mean businesses are banned from giving out, manufacturing, and importing for sale checkout bags, cutle

The Quebec government has extended for six months the permission for the Canada Border Services Agency to detain immigrants in the province's jails at the request of the federal government. Earlier, the controversial agreement with the state Border Services Agency was due to expire on December 31, 2023. Now its new deadline has been fixed as 30 June 2024. The Ministry of Public Security of Quebec gave this information in a statement. Let it be known that the Border Services Agency can keep any such foreign national in jail regarding whom it feels that his identity is not clear or he may be a

The British Columbia Prosecution Service says there will be no charges stemming from a bus crash on an icy highway in the province's Interior last Christmas Eve that killed four people. Service spokesman Dan McLaughlin says it reached the decision after the Crown counsel assessing the allegations concluded that the standard for charges had not been met. The prosecution service guideline says in order for charges to be approved, there must be a "substantial likelihood of conviction" based on the strength of the evidence as well as the public interest being served in a prosecution. The crash of

Four Quebec public sector unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers say they will launch an unlimited strike early in the new year if they don't reach a deal with the government.The four unions, which are negotiating together and calling themselves the "common front," say it's still possible to settle before the end of 2023 but add that negotiations need to intensify for that to happen.Common front leaders told reporters today they have not set a date for an unlimited general strike in 2024.The unions, which represent 420,000 public sector workers, including teachers, education supp