National News

VANCOUVER — A lawyer for a group of British Columbia churches that are challenging the province's COVID-19 rules prohibiting in-person religious services argued Monday the orders reflect a "value judgment.

EDMONTON — Alberta is opening up libraries and allowing low-intensity indoor group fitness workouts, like Pilates and tai chi, while it continues to monitor rates of COVID-19.

VANCOUVER — Staff at international bank HSBC were well aware of telecom giant Huawei's control of another company whose business in Iran lies at the heart of fraud allegations against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the British Columbia Supreme Court

TOFINO, B.C. — An Indigenous person will assist British Columbia's police watchdog in an advisory role for the first time during its investigation of a fatal police shooting on the weekend.

VICTORIA — British Columbia will extend the time between the first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines to four months as it ramps up its age-based immunization plan to free up doses so all residents could get their initial shot by July.

Several provinces began expanding their COVID-19 vaccination programs to members of the general population on Monday, as new recommendations on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine suggested it should be targeted at younger Canadians.

The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times eastern): 6:30 p.m. Alberta is easing COVID-19 restrictions on indoor fitness centres and libraries.

OTTAWA — MPs will hear from federal ministers and officials as early as this week on the safety of returning travellers after two women were allegedly sexually assaulted during mandatory COVID-19 quarantine.

WASHINGTON — The White House is making it abundantly clear it has no plans to share America's COVID-19 vaccines with Canada or Mexico.

Health Canada approved its third COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, authorizing the jab made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University after a lengthy review of clinical trial details.