Beyond Local

OTTAWA — The Bloc Québécois and Conservatives are pushing for an unequal approach to amending Canada's Official Languages Act — one that a federal official warns could reduce English services in Quebec.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions.

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WINNIPEG — A search for the remains of two Indigenous women at a landfill north of Winnipeg could begin as early as April, pending the outcome of a feasibility study.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. fighter jet shot an unknown object out of the sky Friday off the coast of Alaska not far from the Canadian border, White House officials confirmed, just hours after Canada's defence minister met with her American counterpart at the Pentagon. 

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked his Western allies Thursday for more weapons and said “a Ukraine that is winning” its war with Russia should become a member of the European Union, arguing the bloc won't be complete without it.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia-U.S. relations are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” without any sign of improvement, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.

CALGARY — TC Energy Corp. has pegged the cost of cleanup and remediation of December's oil spill from its Keystone pipeline at an estimated US$480 million. The Keystone pipeline system suffered the worst oil spill in its history on Dec. 7, 2022 when oil leaked into a creek in Washington County, Kansas. 

OTTAWA — Humanitarian groups that have been supporting Ukrainian refugees are calling on Ottawa to extend a special immigration program that allows people fleeing Ukraine to temporarily live, work and study in Canada.

MONTREAL — Quebec is reporting a tripling of the number of organ donors in the last five years, including a major jump last year in donations through medical aid in dying.