National News

OTTAWA — The threat of a federal election seems to be easing as the Liberal government prepares for a return to Parliament next week amid concerns Canada could already be heading into a dreaded second wave of the novel coronavirus.

Despite the widespread praise he won for his effective management of the COVID-19 crisis, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs failed to win over key parts of the province once the ballots had been tallied on election night.

FREDERICTON — Lawyers for Matthew Raymond acknowledge their client shot and killed two Fredericton police officers and two civilians on Aug. 10, 2018, but they say he was not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

OTTAWA — As fretful Canadian parents mull sending their children to school or opting for at-home learning, poorer countries are coming to grips with no school at all as the only option.

WASHINGTON, Wash. — The United States blinked Tuesday in its latest tariff dispute with Canada, lifting a 10 per cent levy on Canadian-made aluminum just hours before Ottawa was to let fly with a suite of countermeasures.

OTTAWA — A group of Tamil Canadians is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for legal changes to remove sovereign immunity as a defence for international crimes.

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says hundreds of billions of dollars in planned spending for the military over the next two decades is "secure" despite the ballooning federal deficit to deal with COVID-19.

CALGARY — Alberta's premier says new federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole was just stating the obvious when he indicated the Energy East pipeline project was "not on the table" in a conversation with the premier of Quebec.

BLACKVILLE, N.B. — The central New Brunswick village of Blackville has released the names of the three teenagers who were killed in a car crash over the weekend.

OTTAWA — Provinces are looking to expand COVID-19 testing as many Canadians wait long hours to be swabbed or can't get in for testing at all.