National News

QUEBEC — A senior leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec is stepping back from his functions as he fights allegations of sexual assault that emerged as part of a class-action lawsuit, the Quebec City archdiocese said Friday.

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled that Ibrahim Ali should be removed from the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has been held throughout his first-degree murder trial.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The federal housing advocate was in St. John's, N.L., this week to join the leader of the Nunatsiavut Inuit in his long-standing fight for an end to the "deplorable" housing conditions in northern Labrador.

OTTAWA — Canada's former justice minister says he would have no fear of pressing ahead with a plan to allow people to seek medical assistance in dying solely on the basis of mental illness.

WINNIPEG — The proposed search of a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two slain First Nations women could cost $90 million — about half the projected maximum in an earlier estimate — although searchers could face a "very high risk" from asbes

OTTAWA — Several people arrested for drug-related offences must face a new trial because a judge improperly stayed the charges against them, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

CHARLOTTETOWN — Police in Prince Edward Island say they have solved a 35-year-old homicide case involving a man who was strangled and stabbed in his home by someone who left a message saying, "I will kill again.

FORT SMITH, N.W.T. — Northerners jump on small charter planes like people in the South would into taxis or buses, says the co-owner of Aunty's Korner Store in Fort Smith, N.W.T.

MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has refused to grant an injunction to halt tree cutting and other preparatory work at the site of a future electric vehicle facility east of Montreal.

OTTAWA — As the debate rages on about how to tackle rapidly rising housing costs, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the newly announced cap on international student enrolments should help ease rent price inflation.