OTTAWA - The Senate is no longer allowing senators to be reimbursed for spouses receiving language training.

The changes were passed yesterday at a Senate committee meeting on internal economy, budgets and administration.

The changes were made after Radio-Canada reported this week that Quebec Sen. Amina Gerba billed taxpayers nearly $22,000 for two English-language training courses in Vancouver for herself and her husband in 2023 and 2024.

Senators also will now be encouraged to either take the free language courses offered by the House of Commons or take classes in the National Capital Region or their home province.

MONTREAL - The second phase of strikes by Montreal's public transit maintenance workers is coming to an end, but there is still no deal in sight.

The latest strike by about 2,400 workers began Sept. 22 and is scheduled to end this weekend.

Over two weeks metro and bus service was limited to rush hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Labour Minister Jean Boulet says he plans to meet union leaders and representatives of the city's transit agency — Société de transport de Montréal.

EDGEWOOD, B.C. - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says an ostrich that was part of a B.C. flock that was recently issued a last-minute stay of a cull order by the Supreme Court of Canada has died. 

The agency says the bird at Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, B.C., had a previous injury and a pre-existing condition that impacted its left leg and mobility, and was being treated by the owners for some time. 

It says the bird's health "significantly declined" over a two-day period before dying Saturday. 

Farm spokeswoman Katie Pasitney posted a video to Facebook also confirming the news of the death before she accused the CFIA of animal cruelty, saying they had been "dumping the electrolytes out."

MONTREAL - An election employee noted a discrepancy in the postal codes of special ballot return envelopes in Terrebonne nearly three weeks before the election, but the error wasn't reported to superiors.

The mistake is outlined in legal documents filed as part of a court action brought by a former Bloc Québécois member who lost in the April federal election by a single vote to her Liberal counterpart.

Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné filed a challenge to the federal election result in the riding of Terrebonne, in Montreal’s north suburbs, in Superior Court. 

The incumbent lost by a single vote determined through judicial recount to current Liberal MP Tatiana Auguste after a see-saw battle.

The next Yukon territorial election will happen on Nov. 3, the last possible day allowed under the territory's fixed election legislation. 

Yukon Premier Mike Pemberton told supporters Thursday that he would be visiting the territory's commissioner on Friday to officially launch the campaign.

Flanked by candidates, Pemberton told those gathered in Carcross, Yukon, that housing is his party's top priority, while they will also focus on health care, affordability, the economy and First Nations' partnerships.

"We're heading into this election at a time when things can feel heavy. People are feeling frustrated, they're divided and they're tired. But I say don't lose hope. Our democracy is strong, our territory is strong, and together, we can be stronger still," he said. 

OTTAWA - A new report from a federal security task force says foreign interference activities during the last general election were "small scale" and often difficult to attribute to an actor from abroad.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force includes representatives of Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's cyberspy agency.

Under a federal protocol, a panel of senior bureaucrats had the power to warn the public during the election campaign if it decided one or more incidents threatened Canada's ability to hold a free and fair vote.

No such announcement was made during the 2025 campaign, which ended with the election of a minority Liberal government led by Mark Carney.

OTTAWA - Liberal member of Parliament Marie-France Lalonde wants to call a halt to the annual ritual of springing forward and falling back.

The Ottawa-area MP plans to table a private member's bill next week to end what she calls the "outdated practice" of daylight time.

"It is time to change the time change," Lalonde told reporters Thursday. "This unnecessary barrier impacts the lives of Canadians in more ways than simply adjusting their clocks."

The bill will call on the federal government to hold a pan-Canadian conference with provincial and territorial officials and Indigenous officials to formalize an agreement to end daylight time.

MONTRÉAL - Dr. Balfour Mount, widely recognized as the father of palliative care, is being remembered for his contribution to revolutionizing how people live out their final days.

Mount died on Sept. 25 in the palliative care unit that bears his name at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. He was 86.

McGill University paid tribute this week to Mount, who it said in 1975 launched the world’s first palliative care unit and service in Montreal. The university described the feat as "a groundbreaking initiative that became the template for global practice." 

"Dr. Mount coined the term ‘palliative care’ to designate this novel combination of British hospice, American thanatology and Canadian academic medicine," the university wrote.

The Canada Border Services Agency says an outage that affected its inspection kiosks at airports across the country has been resolved. 

The agency says travellers may continue to face delays in the short term as normal processing operations resume. 

Toronto Pearson International Airport said earlier Thursday that the outage was affecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, where passengers could experience longer wait times. 

It was the second CBSA inspection kiosk outage reported in the last few days. 

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed...

Ottawa expressed interest in Quebec LNG project

Senior federal officials touted a proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Quebec as having the potential to export “substantial volumes” of LNG to Europe, documents show.

The revelation appears in a federal briefing note prepared in May after Marinvest Energy Canada, a subsidiary of a Norwegian energy company, requested a meeting with the top bureaucrat at the federal Natural Resources Department to discuss its plans.