Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada will bring back visa requirements for people from Mexico because of a spike in asylum claims in recent years. Miller says Mexicans accounted for 17 per cent of all asylum claimants in 2023, and most of their claims are either rejected or withdrawn by the applicants. Quebec Premier François Legault has been urging Ottawa to make the change, telling the federal government his province is reaching a breaking point because of the number of claims. Mexican citizens flying to Canada will be able to apply for an electronic travel authorization if they h

The Canadian government is going to present the pharmacare bill in a day or two. Health Minister Mark Holland has listed it on the notice paper of the House of Commons. The government's House Leader Steve MacKinnon said on his way to the Liberal meeting this morning that he expects it to be tabled on Thursday because the deadline under the agreement with the NDP is Friday. Initially, diabetes and birth control drugs are being covered. In return for supporting the minority government of the Liberals, the NDP had placed several conditions, including the pharmacare condition. The NDP had previ

Quebec City police say the death of a woman who was found unresponsive after a house fire over the weekend has been ruled a homicide. Police say 42-year-old Joëlle Lapointe was killed and the exact cause of death will be determined after investigators receive autopsy results. Lapointe was found unresponsive in the basement of a semi-detached home in the provincial capital's Loretteville sector around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. First responders were unable to revive her and she was declared dead on site. Fire commissioner investigators deemed the blaze suspect and contacted police. Police say anyone wi

Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Ottawa is ready to step in and shut down shady schools that are abusing the international student program if provinces don't crack down on them. Miller says there are problems across the college sector, but some of the "really bad" actors are private institutions and those schools need to be shut down. The minister says provinces are responsible for addressing problems in the post-secondary sector with regards to international students. But he says if they won't do it, Ottawa will, though there are "jurisdictional questions" around what the federal governm

The federal government is freezing the threshold at which the Competition Bureau must be notified of a merger. It also announced $123 million of funding to eight homebuilders that the federal government says are driving innovation and will help build more than 5,000 affordable homes. The announcements came this morning during Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's weekly economic update alongside other ministers. Competition law requires mergers that exceed a certain value to be flagged to the Competition Bureau in advance, so it can determine whether the deal could prevent or lessen competition

Quebec provincial police say they've so far arrested 21 people allegedly connected to a war over drug territory in eastern Quebec between a street gang and the Hells Angels. Sgt. Hélène St-Pierre said more arrests are possible in the crackdown on the running conflict between drug dealers tied to the Hells Angels and the Blood Family Mafia. Police say the war between the two groups has led to a series of violent incidents, including at least one murder, in the Quebec City area, the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, the Lower St-Lawrence and the North Shore. St-Pierre says that among the arrested a

A new report says the crisis in Canada's bail system has worsened over the last decade, with more people in pre-trial custody and some spending weeks in detention before being released. A report released today by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says that by 2021-2022, the proportion of people in provincial and territorial jails who were awaiting bail or trial was more than 70 per cent and nearly 79 per cent in Ontario. That's compared with just over 54 per cent in 2014, when the association released its initial report on the issue. The report says that while there are "clear timeframe

Lynx Air, known as Canada's cheapest airline, is closing down. The company has suddenly announced that it will stop operations from midnight on Monday, February 26. The management cited all the reasons behind this major decision including inflation, fuel cost and inability to compete. Lynx Air says it will try to operate as many flights as possible through the week to get as many passengers to their destinations as possible. The airline said that if a flight is cancelled, passengers will be notified via e-mail. Meanwhile, passengers whose flight tickets are on or after February 26 have been

The relief given by the Government of Canada to international students to work more than 20 hours is ending on April 30. Meanwhile, reports say that the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is considering a permanent change to increase the working hours for international students from 20 to 30 hours. Immigration Minister Mark Miller announced the reduction in the number of international students in January, saying that students who are already in Canada or who have applied for a study permit by December 7, 2023 will be able to work without the 20-hour limit until April 30. Ear