Canada's top doctor says now is not the time for Canadians to increase their contact with others in light of a recent rise in average COVID-19 case counts across the country. Dr. Theresa Tam says this upswing combined with an acceleration of new variants of the virus in Canada is cause for concern. She says the most up-to-date stats indicate the percentage of Canadians with immunity to COVID-19 remains low, even as governments have been ramping up their vaccination efforts. And since today's case numbers reflect the situation in Canada two weeks ago, Tam urged Canadians to continue to keep th

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says there is now enough ``real-world evidence'' to show the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is both safe and effective for seniors.The decision reverses a recommendation made by the body on March 1, when the panel of vaccine experts said AstraZeneca hadn't included enough people over the age of 65 in its clinical trials.NACI chair Dr. Caroline Quach said Tuesday that two studies of patients who received the vaccine in the United Kingdom have been released since then and show the AstraZeneca vaccine is both safe and effective for seniors, par

A 17 year old girl is dead after a violent assault at a school just south of Edmonton. RCMP say it happened at about 10 a.m. at Christ the King School in Leduc, which has about 350 students in grades 9 to 12. Mounties say the girl was airlifted to hospital, where she died of her injuries, and her death is being investigated as a homicide. Police say a 19 year old man was taken into custody outside of the school. Bob Young, the mayor of Leduc, says the girl was a student at the school and was stabbed. He says all schools in the area were locked down until officers made the arrest.

The Canadian Real Estate Association is predicting record high home sales this year. CREA says buyers have waded into expensive markets and battled it out in bidding wars, even as layoffs are plentiful and unemployment is high. The association says it expects nearly 702,000 properties to trade hands through Canadian MLS systems this year compared with 551,262 in 2020. The market won't cool off until next year. The association is congratulating anyone selling a home, but says if you want to buy, buckle up because it may not be the most easy process. Home sales are forecast to be around 614,000

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Health Canada is closely monitoring European reaction to a batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines linked to possible side-effects. France is suspending the use of the drug until at least tomorrow afternoon, when the European Medicines Agency will issue its recommendation on it. Germany is also joining a growing list of European countries doing the same, following reports that some people developed blood clots after receiving the shot. Trudeau says none of the doses Canada received from AstraZeneca were from the same batch, and he's urging everyone to

Pfizer is guaranteeing delivery of at least one-million COVID-19 vaccine doses per week starting on the 22nd of this month and continuing through to May 10th. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says one-million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines every seven days will make a big difference. He says the government has updated the provinces and territories so they can make plans for mass vaccination sites. Trudeau says the government is focused on making sure no one misses out on the vaccine, and that includes Indigenous communities. This morning Trudeau says Pfizer has provided some new delivery sche

Statistics Canada says the economy added 259,000 jobs in February, almost wiping out losses sustained over the previous two months.The economy lost almost 213,000 jobs in January as lockdown measures erased months of gains, and marked the worst monthly declines since last April.February's reopenings reversed that drop with gains largely in Ontario and Quebec, and in sectors highly affected by tightened public health restrictions. The national unemployment rate fell to 8.2 per cent, the lowest level since March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.The figures whipped past expectations of

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is side-stepping any responsibility for allegations of sexual misconduct against former chief of defence, General Jonathan Vance. He says it was not up to him to investigate allegations three years ago. But Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole says Trudeau did not take the proper steps when allegations against Vance were first brought to light in 2018. He says Trudeau failed to show leadership. The comments in the House of Commons today came after Trudeau revealed this week that his staff knew about the existence of an allegation of sexual misconduct by Vance in 2018

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons Thursday, one year after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, and said March 11, 2020 will always be marked by a before and an after. Since the pandemic began, 2.5 million people around the world have died due to COVID-19, with more than 22,000 of them in Canada. ``For families and close ones, each death has a before and an after,'' Trudeau said.``Since the great wars of the 20th century, there is a sentence we often evoke, and it's a sentence that we can bring back for those that we lost this year during the pandemic: We will rem