Brian Smallshaw, a web developer and historian from Salt Spring Island, said he suspected the force was breaking the law and breaching rights when arresting activists during protests against old-growth logging on Vancouver Island.

But now that the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission has upheld his allegations, he knows it.

In a scathing report completed last month, the commission found the Mounties wrongfully arrested Smallshaw while he was hiking three years ago when he wouldn't submit to a search he considered unconstitutional.

Four trustees of a controversy-mired western Manitoba school board met on Monday and voted to ban all but the Canadian, Manitoban and school flags, right after butting heads with a panel the province appointed to help guide them in their roles.

The Mountain View School Division board has nine seats on its board, so the four trustees present at Monday's meeting weren't enough to achieve the quorum required under the Public Schools Act — but they went ahead with a school boarding meeting anyway.

The province ordered a governance review of the school board in April, after trustee Paul Coffey gave a board meeting presentation in which he said residential schools started as a good thing, questioned the extent of abuse at the schools and called the term "white privilege" racist.

NATO says it wants its members to develop national plans to bolster the capacity of their individual defence industry sectors, a concept Canada has struggled with — or avoided outright — for decades.

At the NATO leaders summit in Washington in July, alliance members agreed to come up with strategies to boost their domestic defence materiel sectors, and to share those strategies with each other. Almost entirely overshadowed at the time by debates about members' defence spending and support for Ukraine, the new policy got little attention.

Federal officials are just beginning to wrap their heads around the ramifications of the new policy, and the burden it could place on the government and Canada's defence sector.

With illicit drug use, homelessness and untreated mental illness reaching a crisis in parts of Canada, the governments of at least three provinces want to treat more people against their will, even as some health experts warn involuntary care for drug use can be ineffective and harmful.

This month, British Columbia's premier, whose party is in a tight race for reelection in the province, said his government would expand involuntary treatment for people dealing with mental illness combined with addiction and brain injuries due to overdose. Some would be held in a repurposed jail.

The Alberta government is preparing legislation that would allow a family member, police officer or medical professional to petition to force treatment when a person is deemed an imminent danger to themselves or others because of addiction or drug use.

And New Brunswick has said it wants to allow involuntary treatment of people with substance use disorders, although it, too, has yet to propose legislation. A spokesperson for the governing Progressive Conservative party, which is also running for reelection, called this "compassionate intervention."

Screenshot of map:

While vote to topple his government has failed, it signals a new series of tests for the prime minister.

Bonne fête des franco-ontariennes et franco-ontariens!

L’origine de cette journée remonte au 25 septembre 1975, date à laquelle le drapeau franco-ontarien a été levé pour la première fois à l’Université de Sudbury. Conçu par Gaétan Gervais et Michel Dupuis, ce drapeau est rapidement devenu un puissant symbole d’identité pour les Franco-Ontariens. Ses couleurs et ses symboles racontent l’histoire et l’environnement de cette communauté : le vert représente les forêts d’été du Nord de l’Ontario, tandis que le blanc évoque les hivers enneigés. La fleur de lys rappelle les racines françaises, et le trille blanc, fleur emblématique de l’Ontario, souligne l’appartenance à cette province.

Loopholes in election financing rules could allow money from foreign countries to influence Canadian elections, the chief electoral officer told the inquiry probing foreign interference Tuesday.

Stéphane Perrault noted that, under the law, only citizens and permanent residents are allowed to donate to a party or candidate and that those donations are supposed to be made from personal funds. Foreign nationals, groups and governments aren't allowed to donate.

However, Perrault said that can be hard to police and no system is airtight.

Elections Canada audits candidate filings and publishes the names of those who contribute more than $200, he said, and that someone outside Canada would have to use proxies to funnel money to a candidate.

[...]

A veteran Montreal police officer says racism is a "cancer eating away at the organization" in a stinging resignation letter.

Patrice Vilcéus, a Quebecer of Haitian origin, served on the Montreal police service (SPVM) for more than 30 years and worked his way up to commander of the anti-gang squad.

"Throughout my career, I've made sure that I'm not just an observer of racism, racial profiling and social challenges. My aim has been to break down taboos and introduce more nuanced approaches, so as to take all aspects into account and help the organization grow," he wrote in a four-page letter obtained by CTV News.

His letter made reference to the recent Quebec Superior Court ruling declaring that there's a systemic form of racial profiling within the SPVM. The landmark decision also awarded $5,000 in punitive damages to anyone stopped on the streets based on their ethnic origin.

They definitely have a boomer for a social media manager

A city councillor in British Columbia says an online mob of "extremists" and "politically motivated hackers" is responsible for uncovering and publicizing a photo of him wearing a blackface costume to a Halloween party in 2007.

Colwood Coun. Ian Ward on Monday addressed the photo in a statement on his X account after the picture, which was originally published on a personal family blog, surfaced on social media in recent days.

Ward acknowledged he posed for the photo wearing a Washington Bullets basketball jersey, a gold chain and a wig, with his teeth coloured gold and his hands and face painted black.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he wants to build a tunnel for cars and transit under Highway 401 that would stretch roughly from Brampton to Scarborough.

Citing increasing gridlock and little room for highway expansion at a news conference Wednesday morning, Ford says his government will begin studying the technical feasibility of building a tunnel stretching across the GTA under the country's busiest highway.

"This tunnel and expressway will cut gridlock, support economic growth and help get people moving faster," Ford said.

As a kid, Jason Ploeger remembers people searching in the waters of Larder Lake for a taxi cab that sank beneath the surface decades before.

And of course, like everyone else in the small northern Ontario town near the Québec border that was once a major gold mining centre, he heard the stories.

Ploeger spent 35 years searching for the taxi and then while fishing in a local derby last year, he saw something come up on the screen of his side imager that he uses to look deep into the lake for fish. Or sunken treasure.

... he marked the spot and went back later with some fellow divers, going down 15 metres into the pitch black waters of Larder Lake.

They purchased the house in July 2021 from the original buyer, a year after it had been built as part of a 100-home subdivision by Marina Homes.

But after dealing with a host of problems, from leaking windows and roof to extensive water damage and persistent mould, they said they soon discovered an even bigger issue.

The foundation is not strong enough to support the house, an engineering firm hired by the couple determined earlier this year.

"It is recommended that the building be completely demolished," said the report seen by CBC Hamilton.

Treasury Board says 3-day-a-week mandate still offers flexibility

Federal officials pointed to concerns about "public scrutiny" when the government mandated workers back into the office, even as workers reported they felt more productive working from home, documents show.

Documents prepared by the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) before the announcements of return to the office mandates were released to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) under an access to information request, and shared with CBC News.

The documents show how TBS looked at global trends, raised concerns about public trust and had very little internal information on productivity when deciding to mandate workers back to the office.

The union says the documents point to the lack of justification for the mandated return to the office.

"They had an opportunity here to really modernize the public service and move it forward, and yet here we are talking about cookie cutter approaches, butts in seats, and we're not really talking about services to those who reside in Canada," said Sharon DeSousa, president of PSAC."

Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to reinforce the right to decide whether to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure in changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights.

In an online video posted Tuesday, Smith said her government aims to amend the document in a few weeks to ensure people have the right to make informed decisions without fear of undue pressure or interference by the government.

"It is my firm conviction that no Albertan should ever be subjected (to) or pressured into accepting a medical treatment without their full consent," she said.

The changes outlined by Smith would also ensure the province respects "the right of individuals to legally acquire, keep and safely use firearms."

A report from a tribunal appointed by the Saskatchewan Party government says a proposed federal emissions cap and methane regulations would cause severe economic damage.

The tribunal report, struck by Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre, says the mandates would reduce oil and gas production and cause government revenue losses of $43 billion by 2050.

It also says up to 34,000 people would lose their jobs by that year.

The federal draft regulations have proposed a ceiling on oil and gas emissions to slow the effects of climate change.

The Canadian government is advising Canadians in Lebanon to leave now while flights are available amid escalating violence between Israel(opens in a new tab) and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Asked about the escalating risk level and an updated travel advisory, Global Affairs Canada said it isn't currently offering Canadians in Lebanon help to leave the country.

"Government assisted evacuations from a foreign country are an option of last resort, when all means of personal and commercial transportation have been exhausted, and the safety and security of its citizens is compromised," Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Kevin Sweet wrote in an email to CTV News on Monday evening.

Health Canada approved Pfizer-BioNTech's updated COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, marking its third authorization of vaccine formulations that protect against the most recently circulating variants of the virus.

Pfizer-BioNTech's mRNA vaccine, called Comirnaty, targets the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron, replacing the previous version that targeted the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant.

The approval of Comirnaty follows last week's authorization of Moderna's updated Spikevax mRNA vaccine and Novavax's updated protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid.