A new report says pandemic benefits rolled out to cushion the blow of COVID-19 lockdowns significantly reduced the child poverty rate.The analysis by the anti-poverty group Campaign 2000 says in 2020 13.5 per cent of Canadian children were living in poverty.That is down from 17.7 per cent in 2019, and 24.2 per cent 20 years earlier.It notes the decline is the largest drop since the federal government pledged to end child poverty in 1989, and accounts for nearly half of the decline in the poverty rate seen over two decades.Campaign 2000 is offering 50 recommendations to further reduce poverty,

Canada and the United States are eyeing the sky with suspicion these days, as well as the shared continental defence system that's supposed to be watching it for them.The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, appeared to lose track of the mysterious object that was eventually shot down Sunday over Lake Huron.Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University in Virginia, says that's just one example of why Norad needs an overhaul.Jaffer says it's unclear if the challenges posed by the recent flurry of overhead encounters represent a lac

A cross-section of MPs say Ottawa should cost-match donations to more organizations who are responding to devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.Officials from Global Affairs are testifying to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee about Canada's response to the massive earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks that have killed more than 35,000 people.The federal government has offered to match up to $10 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross for their partners on the ground to help people who are suddenly homeless.The officials say they are simply following a 2016 declaratio

Two backcountry skiers are dead after being caught in an avalanche in south central British Columbia.A report from Avalanche Canada says the skiers were on a slope called Potato Peak, south of Tatla Lake, about 750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.It says both victims were fully buried during the slide that happened Saturday.Search and rescue crews were notified when the victims were reported overdue and their bodies were later recovered from the scene of the avalanche.Avalanche Canada says the area of the slide was highly wind-affected, leaving some parts of the slope thin and rocky, while o

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May wants Canada to consider expanding access to psychedelics as medical treatments.May was among the MPs who joined a delegation of patients and health-care practitioners trying to lobby the federal government to make psilocybin, the psychedelic compound produced by magic mushrooms more readily available.The group is calling on lawmakers to advance clinical trials to better understand how it could be used for medical treatment of some mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.Psilocybin is listed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and its medical

Canadian Heritage has changed the way it vets funding requests for community and anti-racism projects after it cut ties with an organization that was accused of antisemitism.The federal government suspended a contract with the Community Media Advocacy Centre back in August after it gave the group $133,000 for projects to help combat anti-racism.Ottawa's relationship with the group ended after media reported that a senior consultant had posted what federal ministers described as antisemitic content on Twitter.The associate deputy minister of Canadian Heritage, Mala Khanna, says those applying f

All major parties in the House of Commons are signalling they will support a Liberal bill that would further delay the expansion of medically assisted dying to people whose sole condition is a mental disorder.Members of Parliament began debating the bill this week and it is expected to pass quickly, before a mid-March deadline.An update to assisted dying law passed in March 2021 included a two-year sunset clause on provisions to expand eligibility to patients who only have mental disorders.But Justice Minister David Lametti is now seeking a longer delay, to do more consultations and better pre

An "anomaly" that military officials were tracking through the weekend before fighter jets downed an unknown object over the Great Lakes was first detected in Canadian airspace.Norad commander Gen. Glen VanHerck says radar first picked up the object on Saturday at about 4:45 p.m. EST, about 110 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border.VanHerck says it crossed into U.S. airspace over Montana about an hour later, but fighter jets were unable to locate it, which is why it was deemed an anomaly.Radar newly detected an object approaching Wisconsin that night, and President Joe Biden ordered it sh

Russia's ambassador in Ottawa says Canada is a "very dangerous country" for Russians to visit.Oleg Stepanov says Canada keeps sanctioning people and claimed that Russians are regularly experiencing racism.In a Russian-language interview last Friday, Stepanov said, "I would not recommend (visiting Canada) for tourism, education or business."However, he added that most Canadians treat Russians well, and Moscow's travel advisory for Canada only warns of street gangs and a "rather harsh climate."Stepanov says relations between Ottawa and Moscow are in a deep freeze and claimed that Russia has been