National News

The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times Eastern): 5:30 p.m. Alberta is reporting 425 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths. There are 257 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 38 in intensive care.

MONTREAL — The Quebec Council of Hasidic Jews launched a court challenge Friday to the province's COVID-19 nighttime curfew, which it says will impede religious rights after daylight time comes into effect this weekend.

OTTAWA — Health Canada's chief medical adviser says there is no scientific explanation to suggest a link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and blood clots. Dr.

FORT NELSON, B.C. — Ottawa has committed more than $40 million to fund the development of geothermal power from a diminishing natural gas field in northern British Columbia.

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — The inability of doctors to access health records was the focus Friday of an inquiry investigating why former soldier Lionel Desmond killed three family members and himself four years ago in Nova Scotia.

OTTAWA — Canada's economy added 259,000 jobs last month, whipping past expectations to pull the country closer to pre-pandemic employment levels, with young women staring at the longest road to recovery.

WHITEHORSE — As other provinces and territories get ready to roll their clocks forward this weekend, the government official behind Yukon's move away from the seasonal time shift says it's been a relatively smooth process.

VANCOUVER — The most at-risk ecosystems should be set aside from logging while British Columbia shifts its forestry policies toward a more sustainable system, says a forester who helped write a provincial report on old-growth forests.

OTTAWA — The federal minister of agriculture says Canada is an important step closer to being recognized as a negligible-risk country for mad cow disease.

QUEBEC — The man accused in the Halloween night sword attack in Quebec City appeared briefly before a judge today and will see his case return to court April 30. Carl Girouard, 24, from the Montreal suburb of Ste-Therese, Que.