Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has approved RBC's $13.5-billion takeover of HSBC Canada despite calls from opposition politicians and other groups to block it. Freeland's approval was the last hurdle for the deal, after the Competition Bureau approved it in September. The minister's approval comes with conditions on RBC, including that HSBC's Canadian workforce be protected and that banking services continue to be provided at a minimum of 33 HSBC branches for four years. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had called for the deal to be blocked, saying Canada's banking sector is overly con

Montreal's Concordia University has announced financial support of up to $4,000 for new Canadian undergraduate students from outside Quebec starting next fall. The school says it is introducing the Canada Scholars Awards to address concerns that a government-imposed $3,000 tuition increase for out-of-province students will deter them from coming to Quebec. The value of the award will depend on high school students' average grade at the time of admission to Concordia, ranging from $1,500 for a B-minus to $4,000 for an A-plus. The university says students will be automatically considered for the

The economy was flat for a third straight month in October as services-producing industries rose 0.1 per cent and goods-producing industries didn't change. Real estate agent and broker activities fell 6.8 per cent in October, the largest monthly decrease since April 2022, as most of the country's largest housing markets continued to cool off. Statistics Canada is forecasting real gross domestic product for November increased 0.1 per cent.

The Canadian Transportation Agency says it's issued a $97,500 penalty to Air Canada for violating the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations. The penalty of $97,500 is for several violations of the regulations. The agency says that on August 30, Air Canada failed to assist a wheelchair user to disembark its plane. The passenger, who has spastic cerebral palsy and can't move his legs, was forced to disembark on his own. As well, the CTA says Air Canada failed to ensure that its personnel periodically checked in on the passenger while he was waiting in the terminal.

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.