LONGUEUIL - The long-awaited trial of a former researcher at Quebec's electric utility charged with economic espionage for the benefit of China opened Thursday with the Crown beginning to present its case.

Yuesheng Wang, 38, is the first person to be charged with economic espionage under Canada’s Security of Information Act. 

"The RCMP investigation initiated following a complaint filed by (the utility) allowed for the collection of documentary and testimonial evidence confirming the accused's access to confidential Hydro-Québec information," federal Crown prosecutor Sabrina Delli Fraine told Quebec court Judge Jean-Philippe Marcoux, who is hearing the case.

She clarified that the prosecution contends the information Wang is alleged to have accessed was confidential at the time he was alleged to have shared or mentioned it in applications.

VICTORIA - The British Columbia government has tabled what it says is the first law in Canada to recover health care costs from companies that use "deceptive practices" to sell vaping products. 

Attorney General Niki Sharma said Wednesday in Victoria that the legislation is modelled after similar laws the government used to sue tobacco companies and opioid manufacturers. 

She said some vaping companies have "engaged in deceptive practices to boost their profits" by marketing their products as safe and sometimes even beneficial, often targeting impressionable youth despite "knowing full well how untrue their claims are."

"It's always better when companies don't do these kinds of things, when they don't target people with deceptive practices about their products," Sharma said. 

WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Mark Carney met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington this week to advance negotiations on lifting or easing a growing list of tariffs.

Trump's ever-shifting tariff agenda is hammering Canadian industries. Here's a list of the current levies.

Fentanyl-related tariffs

Citing fentanyl trafficking, Trump used national security powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to hit Canada with economywide tariffs. He boosted them to 35 per cent in August — 10 per cent for potash and energy — but those duties do not apply to goods compliant under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.

OTTAWA - Interim NDP Leader Don Davies says his party wants to see the coming budget offer more investment in health care, affordable non-market housing and projects that create unionized jobs.

Speaking with reporters before question period Wednesday, Davies said he relayed the party's priorities for the Nov. 4 federal budget to Prime Minister Mark Carney during a meeting last week.

"We communicated very clearly that we would not be able to support a budget that takes an austerity approach," Davies said.

"We need to invest in Canadian communities, Canadian businesses, Canadian workers and Canadian infrastructure."

TORONTO - Prime Minister Mark Carney said there is a path toward a deal with the United States on steel, aluminum and energy following his meeting with President Donald Trump this week, as he drew applause from Canadian business leaders for how he is managing Canada's relationship with its southern neighbour.

Speaking virtually at a conference on U.S.-Canada relations in Toronto hosted by BMO and Eurasia Group, the prime minister said there will be more bilateral deals alongside the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, known as CUSMA.

He said the meeting in Washington involved a "very granular" discussion around steel, aluminum and energy and there is "a pathway to specific progress there."

Carney said the trade relationship has moved to become more "transactional," but that both countries are in the process of finding the right balance.