Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December in an effort to accelerate contract negotiations with the provincial government. The four unions, who are negotiating together as a common front, say their 420,000 members will walk off the job from Dec 8 to Dec 14. 14 if a deal isn't reached before then. The unions represent the majority of Quebec's elementary and high school teachers, as well as education support staff and a range of workers in the health-care system, including patient care aides and laboratory technicians. Workers represented by the four u

A new report from Statistics Canada says life expectancy for the average Canadian at birth has fallen for three straight years, from 82.3 years in 2019 to 81.3 in 2022. The report on deaths shows New Brunswick saw the biggest decline in life expectancy in 2022, dropping to 79.8 years from 80.9 in 2021. Saskatchewan's life expectancy has fallen the most over the past three years combined, dropping a full two years to 78.5 in 2022 from 80.5 in 2019. Cancer and heart disease were the leading causes of death, accounting for 41.8 per cent of all deaths in 2022, while COVID-19 caused about six per

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have congratulated the Sikh community living in the country and abroad on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Prakash Purab. Trudeau said that today the Sikhs of Canada and all over the world are celebrating the birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. "On this auspicious occasion, on behalf of all Canadians, I wish everyone a Happy Prakash Purab", said Trudeau.He added that Canada has a large number of Sikhs who have contributed greatly to Canada's culture, community and economy. Premiers of different states including A

The British Columbia government goes up against dozens of health care and pharmaceutical companies in court today in a bid to get certification for a class-action lawsuit over the costs of the opioid crisis. It comes even after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed this month to hear a constitutional challenge by four of the companies who say a law allowing B.C. to recover costs on behalf of other governments is an overreach. Those companies then went back to the Supreme Court of B.C. to seek a delay of the certification hearing while the high court rules, but the judge said an adjournment wasn't

The union representing 2,100 flight attendants at Air Transat says workers have voted to approve a strike if they cannot reach a new contract with the airline. The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the flight attendants voted 99.8 per cent in favour of backing the mandate. Dominic Levasseur, president of the Air Transat component of CUPE, says the next few weeks of negotiations will be critical. Levasseur says it's still possible to reach a new contract without resorting to a strike, but the union's members have high expectations and are extremely motivated.The collective agreement for t

Winnipeg residents are waiting for more information as investigators work to piece together what led up to a downtown shooting Sunday that killed three people and left two others in hospital with critical injuries.City Police Const. Jason Michalyshen has said officers were called to a home shortly after 4 a.m., where they found five people wounded.Michalyshen said a man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene, while three were taken to hospital. One man later died, and a man and a woman were receiving medical care.He said the investigation is in its infancy, as no arrests have been made, a

A high-risk sex offender arrested by Vancouver police after a 10-day manhunt earlier this month remains in custody awaiting his next court date. Randall Hopley was to appear in court on Friday, but his case was put off until Dec 8 in British Columbia provincial court. Police say Hopley cut off his electronic monitoring device after he walked away from a halfway house in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Nov 4. Hopley had been on a 10-year supervision order after serving a six-year prison term for abducting a three-year-old boy in southeastern B.C., but he was charged last January for allegedly

The two people killed when their car crashed into a border checkpoint in Niagara Falls and exploded in a fiery wreck were identified Friday as a western New York husband and wife whose family owns a lumber business and several hardware stores in the Buffalo area. The Niagara Falls Police Department named the couple as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island, New York, a leafy Buffalo suburb close to the falls. Authorities have not yet released details on what exactly led to the couple's crash Wednesday at the Rainbow Bridge, where their car raced through an intersection, h

Hamas released 24 hostages who had been held captive in Gaza for weeks, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison in the first stage of a swap under a four-day cease-fire deal. The hostages freed Friday included 13 Israelis, 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines, according to Qatar. The agreement opened the way for sorely needed aid to flow into Gaza for beleaguered residents. It was also a moment of hope for families in Israel and elsewhere worried about loved ones taken captive during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war. With the truce's start Friday morning, Gaza