OTTAWA — With just three weeks to go until election day, Canada’s federal party leaders are back on the road today.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is expected to make an announcement in Toronto today following weekend campaign stops on the East Coast, where he announced plans to impose national rent control and to get every Canadian access to a family doctor in the next five years.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is wrapping up a campaign sweep on the West Coast today before flying to Edmonton for a rally.

Poilievre says a new funding model for drug treatment centres, rolled out at a campaign event Sunday, could help treat 50,000 Canadians facing drug addiction.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney will spend the day in British Columbia, where he is scheduled to begin the day by meeting with B.C. Premier David Eby and later hold a rally in Richmond with local candidates.

Carney’s office said Prime Minister Carney spoke with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday to discuss deepening trade ties.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2025.

The Canadian Press

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a news conference in New Westminster B.C., on Sunday, April 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

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LAVAL — The man accused of killing two children and injuring six others when the transit bus he was driving crashed into a Montreal-area daycare is back in Superior Court today.

Both the Crown and defence are expected to argue at the Laval, Que., courthouse that he was not criminally responsible for his actions.

Prosecutor Karine Dalphond told the court in February that the Crown and defence would present the facts of Pierre Ny St-Amand’s case jointly, after two experts independently concluded he should not be held criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

The 53-year-old was arrested after the city bus he was driving crashed into the front of a daycare in Laval on Feb. 8, 2023, killing a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl.

Ny St-Amand is facing two counts of second-degree murder, and assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm in relation to the other children.

The trial is expected to last a few days and will include a detailed recounting of the facts and testimony from both psychiatric experts.

Superior Court Justice Eric Downs will preside over the hearings and will make the final decision on Ny St-Amand’s criminal responsibility.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2025.

The Canadian Press

The Liberal government has already cancelled the consumer carbon tax, but the issue of carbon pricing for industrial pollution is still on the table in the current federal election campaign.

A new report from Breaking the Silence, an Israel-based NGO, includes interviews with Israeli soldiers who detail how they completely razed homes and infrastructure on a swath of land between Israel and Gaza to expand a buffer zone at least one kilometre further into the strip.

In this federal election, the president of a longstanding gun club in Alymer, Ont., would like to see the Liberals shift their gun-safety measures away from them and more toward proven criminals who use illegal guns.

The project, called Morea, which was given the green light in March by the suburb of Mirabel, north of Montreal, will feature more than 20 attractions, including slides, a lazy river, spas and a surfing wave pool — over 150,000 square feet of entertainment space.

Northwestel says it upgraded its security software as the company deals with the growing issue of phishing and spoofing scams.

Under Mark Carney's leadership, global investment firm Brookfield was accused of breaching Indigenous rights or harming the environment in at least four countries — Brazil, Canada, Colombia and the United States — CBC Indigenous has found.

Pierre Poilievre's pitch to Indigenous voters has focused on resource development and economic reconciliation but some Indigenous advocates say they are concerned about his record on issues like residential schools and Indigenous rights. 

Customers at an Ottawa grocery store fill their carts with exotic produce from around the world, but as they make their way through the aisles CBC also asked them to chew on the politics here at home.

Young voters could swing the results in Canada's upcoming election if they vote, something the demographic doesn’t traditionally do as much as their older counterparts. 

Hitender Sharma was shocked to learn someone had changed his holding company's corporation record to leverage the mortgage-free commercial property it owns for cash. Sharma's case and a handful of others are raising questions about the security of business records in Ontario.

Yasmeen Awadh is a proud Canadian who sponsored her family successfully to also move to Canada. Whether it was Stephen Harper’s bill to distinguish between naturalized and Canadian-born citizens or the housing crisis facing newcomers under Justin Trudeau, she has reservations about how genuinely federal parties care about the plight of the newcomers.

Charlottetown Police say a 36-year old man has been charged with possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking after they seized, with help from Canada Post inspectors, 13 grams of fentanyl which had been shipped from out of province.  The seizure was part of the same investigation that saw the man arrested and charged when the Charlottetown Police Street Crime Unit executed a search warrant in mid-March at a home on King Street.  That search led to the man being charged with several offenses, including possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes and possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking. He has been in custody since his arrest March 15th.

A new Chief of Lennox Island First Nation will be elected June 14th.  Chief Darlene Bernard announced last week that she had decided not to seek re-election, calling it one of the hardest decisions she’ ever had to make.  She served as Lennox Island Chief from 2001 – 2013, and was re-elected again in June of 2019.  Bernard will remain in office until the new chief is elected. 

Federal party leaders were all over Canada Sunday on the campaign trial, making pledges to voters just three weeks out from election day.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney says Indigenous issues would be at the core of his government, also echoing his previous remarks about the need to fundamentally reshape U-S relations.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced a plan to tackle drug addiction in Canada including “results-based funding” to treatment centres– based on the number of people they help to get sober.

Israel struck tents outside two major hospitals in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least two people, including a local reporter, and wounding nine, including six reporters, Palestinian medics said.

Separate strikes killed 15 others across the Strip, according to hospitals.

The war, now in its 18th month, started when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage. The group still holds 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the territory has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Here is the latest:

Israeli strike kills a reporter

The strike hit a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, setting it ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today TV station and another man. The six reporters were wounded in that strike.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant, without providing further information.

Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

Nasser Hospital also said it received 13 bodies, including six women and four children, from separate strikes overnight. Al-Aqsa Hospital said two people were killed and three wounded in a strike on a home in Deir al-Balah.

The Associated Press