The federal government is reviving an independent commission to offer advice to cabinet on reforming Canadian laws, and has announced its picks for key roles.McGill University law professor Shauna Van Praagh will begin a five-year term as president of the Law Commission of Canada in June, and two other commissioners have been appointed to four-year terms.The Liberals' 2021 federal budget said the government would spend $18 million over five years and $4 million in ongoing annual funding on a renewed Law Commission of Canada.The government says the commission will support efforts to create an i

A parliamentary committee is set to decide whether or not it will expand its current study on foreign election interference to include more details about the 2021 federal election.The meeting today is in response to a report last week from the Globe and Mail newspaper that said China worked in the last federal election to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing and to help ensure a Liberal minority government.The House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee will meet later today to discuss the report, which cited classified records from Canada's spy agency.Pr

Quebec's premier is making a pitch to English Canada for the closure of an irregular border crossing used by asylum seekers and for would-be refugees to be transferred outside his province.The Globe and Mail today published an English-language letter by François Legault in which he says the sooner the federal government closes Roxham Road, the better.The message is similar to one Legault wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday, but the Globe's letter plays down concerns about the French language and the costs of caring for asylum seekers.Legault's letter to English Canada instead foc

The federal Liberal government has yet to respond to a months-old invitation from Tokyo to have Canada rejoin a global environmental organization that regulates the timber trade.A July 2022 briefing note obtained through an access-to-information request shows that Japan has asked Ottawa to be part of the International Tropical Timber Organization.The group works with producer and consumer countries to share knowledge about conservation practices and to promote the sale of sustainable timber.The organization currently includes 37 exporters of timber and 38 countries that import it, including al

New research using advanced technology suggests heavy oil facilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan are releasing almost four times the amount of a powerful greenhouse gas than they report to government.The research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, pioneers new methods of measuring methane emissions that question current industry practice, said author Matthew Johnson, an engineering professor at Carleton University in Ottawa."A lot of these (reports) are done on estimates," said Johnson. "Clearly, they're not very accurate."Methane is a gas emitted as a byproduct of

Ukraine wants Canada to lend its expertise and donate crucial railway parts to keep its embattled passenger and cargo rail system running as landmines and missile strikes threaten to stall the country's lifeline.The rail system is vital to the war effort, and has been since the first days of the invasion that began one year ago this week.Millions of people used trains to escape occupied cities and flee to neighbouring countries.Thousands of wounded soldiers and civilians were also transported by rail to hospitals in safer parts of the country.The railway is also how Ukraine moves aid and soldi

Justice Paul Rouleau, the head of the public inquiry that examined the federal Liberal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in February 2022, concluded in his final report the choice was justified.Here is what he wrote: "It is regrettable that such a situation arose here, because in my view, it could have been avoided. As I have explained in this report, the response to the 'Freedom Convoy' involved a series of policing failures. Some of the missteps may have been small, but others were significant, and taken together, they contributed to a situation that spun out of control. La

Two people have died and one was hurt in an avalanche in the Purcell Mountains in southeastern British Columbia.Avalanche Canada says a group of five snowboarders and one skier were caught in the slide on Thursday in an area known as Terminator 2.5 outside of a ski area boundary near the town of Golden.It says the avalanche was triggered by the group and three people were buried in the snow, one partly and two completely.Avalanche Canada says the two buried victims did not survive and the one person partly buried was rescued with injuries.It says a second group of snowboarders that was lower o

The deputy commander of Norad says a suspected Chinese spy balloon passed through "radar gaps" during its flight over Canada.Lt.-Gen. Alain Pelletier says that it affected the military's ability to track its flight path as it flew over central British Columbia.Pelletier and Maj.-Gen. Paul Prevost of the Canadian Armed Forces strategic joint staff are appearing before a parliamentary committee this morning.The two say the Chinese balloon passed near several Canadian military bases during its journey through Canada on January 30-31.But they say the balloon did not pass over anything of particula