National News

MONTREAL — The Quebec government has quietly relaxed its approach to people caught with small quantities of illegal drugs, following a federal law intended to divert drug users from the criminal justice system.

OTTAWA — A major Muslim charity is calling a new court ruling a green light for government overreach after losing its latest bid to halt a Canada Revenue Agency audit.

The woman's husband argued that his wife did not have family in Quebec, that she hadn't planned to stay there and that she would have wanted to return to Nigeria if given the choice.

OTTAWA — Canada spent $9 million last month to buy a luxury condo in Manhattan for the official residence for its consul general in New York but the federal government is refusing to say what is being done with the old property.

CALGARY — TC Energy Corp., the Canadian company behind the ill-fated Keystone XL pipeline, has suffered a major blow after a trade tribunal tossed out its claim to US$15 billion in damages.

MONTREAL — Quebec’s liquor Crown corporation says it’s seeing a surge in sales at some stores along the boundary with Ontario amid a strike by workers of that province's liquor control board.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A protester at the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., described in court Tuesday a police presence so overwhelming and intimidating that he decided to go home early. "I observed the helicopter (and) drones.

REGINA — The federal government says it has reached an agreement with Saskatchewan over the province not paying carbon levy money to Ottawa, though the case may still end up in court.

OTTAWA — Ottawa intends to ban the installation of oil furnaces in new construction as soon as 2028, Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced Tuesday.

“Not too many people knew about” Gerald Fremlin’s 2005 guilty plea to a charge of indecent assault, says the Crown attorney who prosecuted him.