National News

VICTORIA — British Columbia is applying to the federal government to remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of illicit drugs in an effort to help more people get care in a health crisis that has claimed 7,700 lives over five years.

VICTORIA — Dozens of refrigerators and bags of Styrofoam and garbage have been picked up from a remote Vancouver Island beach as the cleanup has started from 109 shipping containers that fell overboard from a ship off Victoria.

EDMONTON — Alberta politicians are warning the federal Liberal government that caps on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas will have to be set in consultation with the province.

MONTREAL — A Quebec environmental group attempting to block a road construction project south of Montreal that it says would damage the habitat of an endangered frog said it’s pleased with a recent court order.

WASHINGTON — Voters in Virginia are choosing their next governor Tuesday, a vote that could have wide-reaching implications for the sitting U.S. president, his ever-present predecessor and the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

QUEBEC — A Quebec Liberal member of the national assembly has been expelled from the party's caucus after a formal complaint of workplace harassment. Marie Montpetit was ejected Monday and will sit as an Independent.

MONTREAL — "Systemic ageism," outdated health-care facilities and government reforms contributed to the tragedy that unfolded in the province's long-term care homes during the first wave of COVID-19, a former Quebec health minister told a coroner's i

GLASGOW, United Kingdom — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the memory of Lytton, B.C.

WINNIPEG — The losing candidate in the race for the leadership of Manitoba's governing Progressive Conservatives is challenging the results, calling for a redo of the vote and pushing to delay the swearing-in of the winner as premier.

An Ontario court has approved a settlement that will see more than $13 million divided between families who allege an Ottawa fertility doctor used his own sperm and that of the wrong donors in performing artificial inseminations.