Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is tapping the former procurement minister to become Canada’s next defence minister.Anita Anand’s arrival in the position follows months of controversy surrounding the Liberal government’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving some of the military’s most senior officers.Opposition parties, experts and victims’ support groups had been calling for Trudeau to replace Harjit Sajjan, who was accused of having lost all credibility when it came to leading the fight against military sexual misconduct.Anand is only the second woman to serve as Canad

Canada's chief public health officer says the latest data shows a continued decline in the COVID-19 case count in most jurisdictions.Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is approaching the level of 90 per cent of the population having at least one dose of vaccine.But she notes no vaccine is perfect and there will continue to be breakthrough cases.Tam says over the past week, a total of 28-hundred cases were reported daily across the country and the numbers of severe illness are stabilizing.

A northern Alberta First Nation says it has completed the first phase of ground-penetrating radar in its search for children'sremains at a former residential school site. Kapawe'no First Nation northwest of Edmonton says that finding any unmarked graves at Grouard Indian Residential School, also known as St. Bernard Mission School, is imperative to the community's collective healing.The school was opened by the Roman Catholic Church in 1894 and closed about 60 years ago. The First Nation says the archeology department at the University of Alberta is leading the project and a report on its find

Alberta's public inquiry into the role of foreign funding of campaigns opposing oilsands development has found environmental groups have done nothing wrong.Inquiry commissioner Steve Allan says the groups behind those campaigns were within their free speech rights. Allan also says the campaigns have not been unlawful or dishonest.But Allan recommends a series of reforms to improve transparency in the charitable sector, as well as an industry-led campaign to rebrand Canadian energy.

Alberta's chief medical officer of health says COVID-19 case numbers in the province continue to recede. But Dr. Deena Hinshaw cautions that the hospital situation remains precarious given the high number of patients. And she says Albertans can't afford to let up on health restrictions, particularly with Halloween coming up. There were 770 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday for a new total of 10,434 active cases. There were eight more deaths, bringing that total to 3,014. Alberta Health Services says there are 912 people in hospital with COVID-19, and that 201 of them are in intensive care.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says provinces and the federal government have agreed on a new national vaccine passport for domestic and international travel. Several provinces have already begun to roll out the new proofs of vaccination. He announced this morning that several jurisdictions have already begun to roll out the new proofs of vaccination, including Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and Yukon. Government officials say all provinces plan to have their version of the Canadian document available by the end of next mont

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says a suite of pandemic aid programs for businesses and individuals will come to an end on Saturday as scheduled. In their place -- she has announced more direct subsidies to still-hurting sectors of the economy. Freeland says the support now needs to be more narrow, more targeted, and less expensiveFreeland says the government estimates the total cost of the new benefits from October 24th through to May 7th of next year will be 7.4-billion dollars. She says that compares to 289-billion spent on income and business supports since the start of the pandemic.

A Calgary man charged following two downtown machete attacks has been found fit to stand trial. Conner Dery, who is 25, is charged with aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon in the attacks last week at a light-rail transit platform and a nearby bus shelter.Police say the attacks appeared to be random and two people were sent to hospital. Police have confirmed that Dery is the son of a Calgary Police Service officer who recognized his son on CCTV footage and notified investigators.Dery was in court this morning and a psychiatrist found that, despite having suffered a brain injury w

Premier Jason Kenney says a Calgary city councillor should resign if allegations of sexual impropriety are true. Sean Chu was re-elected on Monday in the municipal vote.Chu was never charged with a criminal offence. He was found guilty of discreditable conduct by the Law Enforcement Review Board for touching a 16-year-old girl's leg when he worked as a Calgary police officer in 1997. Chu could not immediately be reached for comment.