British Columbia Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says there is some back-channel work going on around the escalating dispute between the government and striking public-sector workers, although she has no date for new talks. Bailey's comments come as members of the B.C. General Employees' Union put up pickets in front of more than two dozen liquor stores and at liquor and cannabis distribution warehouses this week. The union says about 14,000 of the 34,000 workers it represents in this contract are now taking some kind of job action, from pickets to an overtime ban, in an effort to force the gov

Someone in British Columbia has won a $31-million jackpot in the latest Lotto Max draw in the province. The B.C. Lottery Corporation says in a statement that a ticket sold online matched all seven winning numbers of the draw on Tuesday. It says the odds of winning the jackpot on a single $5 ticket is 1-in-33-million. The win comes after a Surrey, B.C., man won a record $80 million prize in May. At the time, the lottery corporation described it as the biggest jackpot ever awarded to a single person in Canada. The corporation says lotto players in B.C. have won more than $196 million from Lotto

The Alberta Medical Association says Premier Danielle Smith needs to do her own research, after she told critics of a law restricting health care for transgender youth that they need to ``look up what puberty is.'' Smith has defended the law that prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers for those under 16, saying the drugs permanently sterilize children. Dr. Sam Wong, president of the association's pediatrics section, says it isn't true that puberty blockers render a person infertile or sterile, adding that Smith should get her facts straight and be less condescending.

A gangland killer who escaped from a British Columbia jail in 2022 has been captured in Qatar. Police say Rabih Alkhalil is in custody, three years after he escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C. At the time, Alkhalil had been on trial for the 2012 shooting death of a rival gang member in a busy Vancouver restaurant. He was later convicted in absentia for first-degree murder. He was previously convicted in 2017 for the murder of a man at a Toronto coffee shop. Authorities in Canada say they're working with Interpol and other agencies to bring Alkhalil back to Can

Mounties in Ontario have made seven arrests in what they say is one of the largest known dark web drug trafficking operations in Canadian history. The RCMP says the investigation began after a "takedown" of a dark web marketplace by German authorities, who contacted the force about several alleged Canadian-based users linked to drug trafficking. The Mounties say data analysis identified a suspected Canadian-based drug vendor known as "RoadRunna," which involved an operation that allegedly shipped around 400 packages weekly across the country. They say seven suspects from the Greater Toronto Ar

The number of students working for the federal government fell almost 20 per cent between 2024 and 2025. Data provided by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat shows 9,120 students were employed in the federal public service at the end of March 2024. A year later, in March 2025, that number had fallen to 7,370. Employees on leave without pay, ministers’ exempt staff, employees locally engaged outside of Canada, some RCMP and Canadian Forces members and some agencies were excluded from the data. The biggest cut in student employment was at Canada Revenue Agency, which saw its student workf

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has signed a trade agreement with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Parliament Hill. The trade deal is comprehensive, meaning it opens up trade in multiple industries with the world's fourth most populous country. Last November both countries announced they had finished trade negotiations that started in 2021. Indonesia is looking to Canada for resources and for potential work on critical minerals and nuclear energy technology. Indonesia's population of 280 million people is younger than most, and the country has been trying to wean itself off

Starbucks is laying off around 900 non-retail employees and closing some U.S. and Canadian stores as it focuses more of its resources on a turnaround. The Seattle coffee giant will notify employees whose positions are being eliminated early Friday and said that it plans to close an undetermined number of stores in North America in the coming days. A review of Starbucks locations revealed that many are falling short of financial performance targets or are failing to create the environment customers expect, according to a letter sent by Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on Thursday. ``Each

Indian's new high commissioner to Canada is being sworn in this afternoon at Rideau Hall, following a series of high-level visits by Canadian officials. Along with other new envoys, Dinesh Patnaik is set to visit Gov. Gen. Mary Simon today to present his credentials, marking the official start of his term. Relations between Canada and India have been strained since Canadian police accused New Delhi of playing a role in the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist near Vancouver. The chill began to lift slightly in June when Prime Minister Mark Carney invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mo