National News

OTTAWA — A corporation co-owned by 13 Mi'kmaw communities is investing in new battery plants with Nova Scotia Power in what both parties are calling a step toward reconciliation. The project, announced Thursday by Wskijinu'k Mtmo'taqnuow Agency Ltd.

OTTAWA — A federal watchdog is urging the RCMP to do a better job of assessing the privacy implications of commercial surveillance and monitoring services before using them.

CAMPBELLTON, N.B. — A judge in northern New Brunswick granted a stay of proceedings Thursday in the trial of an Indigenous lobster fisherman who recently launched a constitutional challenge aimed at asserting Indigenous and treaty rights.

OTTAWA — A Conservative MP whose Toronto office was vandalized this week is among several federal politicians now under visible police protection on Parliament Hill.

POINTE-CLAIRE, Que. — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging that a future government would cut what he calls "wasteful foreign aid" and would not allow funding to go to "dictators, terrorists and multinational bureaucracies.

SAGUENAY, Que. — The lawyer for a Quebec man charged with the first-degree murder and sexual assault of a 19-year-old junior college student in 2000 told a jury her client admits to killing the student, but he denies the act was planned.

OTTAWA — New Democrats and labour leaders are calling on Ottawa to change the employment insurance program so Canadians who take parental leave can still access unemployment benefits if they are out of work.

OTTAWA — Government departments lacked adequate protections to fend off a "sophisticated and co-ordinated" cyberattack that compromised the sensitive information of tens of thousands of Canadians, the federal privacy watchdog has found.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Lights from fishing boats illuminating heavy snowfall helped guide four crew members off a teetering vessel Wednesday night that had run aground that morning in Newfoundland as a massive storm set in.

BRUSSELS — The federal government is spending more than $273 million to acquire new military equipment for NATO's Canada-led battle group in Latvia. That includes $227.5 million for a short-range air defence system from Saab Canada Inc.