OTTAWA - The federal Liberals remain ahead as a new poll suggests Canada's political parties are holding relatively steady in terms of voter support only weeks before a possible election call.

OTTAWA - Driving into York Region on Toronto's northern border, what first stands out to most people are the large houses and vast estates that Michael Braithwaite says leaves the impression that homelessness isn't an issue here.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase and case numbers drop across the country, the provinces and territories have begun releasing the reopening plans for businesses, events and recreational facilities.

OTTAWA - Former Afghan interpreters now living in Canada are pleading for the federal government to help extended family members stuck in Afghanistan as the Taliban continues its march across the country.

WASHINGTON - Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden each got the chance to sports-gloat a little Monday as the two North American leaders talked for the first time since Canada and the United States appeared to part ways over their shared border.

REPENTIGNY, Que. - The family of a Black man shot and killed by police in a Montreal suburb on Sunday wants to know why officers opened fire.

MONTREAL - A labour strike at a Quebec pork-processing plant is creating a dangerous backlog of pigs ready for slaughter, putting thousands of animals at risk of going to waste, says the head of an association of pork producers.

DUNCAN, B.C. - Christmas tree growers in British Columbia say they are facing a brown holiday season due to the heat dome that drove temperatures above 40 Celsius for days and burned firs destined for family living rooms.

MONTREAL - Brendan Holt Dunn said he wanted to invoke the legacy of his great-great-grandfather, pioneering Quebec industrialist Sir Herbert Holt, in the name of his Montreal-based venture capital fund.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase and case numbers drop across the country, the provinces and territories have begun releasing the reopening plans for businesses, events and recreational facilities.

MONTREAL - Quebec provincial police say they are searching for two hunters in the Outaouais region who have been missing since Friday.

MONTREAL - Quebec lifted further COVID-19 restrictions across the province on Sunday, including extending closing times for bars and restaurants, and increasing capacities for gatherings.

MONTREAL - Newly elected Kanesatake Grand Chief Victor Bonspille says he wants to bring positive change in the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community, west of Montreal.

VANCOUVER - An extraordinary set of handwritten notes by Canada's acting defence chief appear to reveal a behind-the-scenes struggle between due process, political optics and support for the complainant after a sexual misconduct allegation emerged against Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin.

TORONTO - No winning ticket was sold for the $6 million jackpot in Saturday's Lotto 649 draw.

TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays have signed two more players, the team announced Saturday.

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets have clinched a one-year, $750,000 contract with forward Riley Nash, the team announced Saturday.

Vancouver Canucks have snatched up goaltender Spencer Martin from the Tampa Bay Lightning for "future considerations," says team's general manager Jim Benning on Wednesday.

EDMONTON - Warren Foegele has signed onto a three-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers for $2.75 million annually.

VANCOUVER - There is more to learn about the consequences of intensifying wildfires on community watersheds across Canada, but a large, severe fire followed by heavy precipitation could seriously affect drinking water, says a wildfire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service.

TORONTO - No winning ticket was sold for the $20 million jackpot in Friday night's Lotto Max draw.

EDMONTON - The head of the Alberta Medical Association says he has significant concerns with the province's decision to suspend almost all of its COVID-19 public health protocols.

VANCOUVER - British Columbia is gearing up for another heat wave this weekend by opening more cooling centres and redeploying health-care workers as temperatures are expected to soar.

EDMONTON - The public inquiry report into what the Alberta government labels troublesome foreign funding of enviro-groups was delivered Friday – a year late and million dollars over its original budget.

OTTAWA - The federal government has reached a nearly $8-billion settlement with First Nations who launched a class-action lawsuit over the lack of clean, safe drinking water in their communities.

Canada’s top doctors say Alberta’s decision to end isolation requirements for those who test positive for COVID-19, or who have been in close contact with someone who has, could have ripple effects across the country.

CHISASIBI, Que. - Mandy Gull-Masty has become the first woman to be elected grand chief of Quebec's Cree Nation.

OTTAWA - A copyright collective cannot force York University to pay fees for the use of published works in the classroom, given that the school bowed out of a formal arrangement, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

MONTREAL - A judge has put off a decision on a bail request from one of three men accused in an alleged abduction that triggered an Amber Alert in Montreal this week, telling the court on Friday she needs more evidence before ruling.

Federal officials are warning Canada could be on the brink of a fourth wave of COVID-19 driven by the Delta variant if the country opens too fast before enough people have been vaccinated.

OTTAWA - The federal government ran a deficit of nearly $24 billion over the first two months of its fiscal year, a sharp drop from the unprecedented spending one year earlier at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

VANCOUVER - Two groups focused on environmental issues are calling on the British Columbia government to come up with a plan to track "heat dome injuries" following record-setting temperatures that are also linked with 570 deaths in the province over a one-week period.

TORONTO - Two travellers who arrived in Toronto from the United States have been fined for providing fake COVID-19 proof of vaccination documents and lying about pre-departure tests.

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what's on the radar of our editors for the morning of July 30 ...

OTTAWA - Transactional clues — from hotel bills paid in cash to purchases of escort-service ads — are helping Canada's financial intelligence agency detect human trafficking in the sex trade.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase and case numbers drop across the country, the provinces and territories have begun releasing the reopening plans for businesses, events and recreational facilities.

OTTAWA - An Ottawa drummer with a passion for collecting reel-to-reel tapes deserves applause for the coming release of a Joni Mitchell performance recorded over half a century ago by none other than virtuoso guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

OTTAWA - The email address where Afghan interpreters were told to send their application forms under an urgent resettlement plan crashed Thursday, snarling what applicants and Canadian veterans say is an already chaotic process.

OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives are urging the Liberal government to do more to ensure that Canadians who received two different doses of COVID-19 vaccines are able to travel internationally.

WHITEHORSE - Yukon has reported its seventh death linked to COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Western Canada must urgently address the threats posed by highly destructive wildfires or face deadly and costly consequences, says a group of forest and environmental experts from British Columbia and the United States.

CALGARY - Alberta's health minister says it was the idea of the province's chief medical health officer to end isolation requirements for those who test positive for COVID-19 or who have been in close contact with someone who has.

WINNIPEG - An archdiocese in Manitoba will no longer allow a Catholic priest to preach publicly or teach after he suggested during a sermon that residential school survivors lied to get settlement money.

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is reiterating demands for more concrete action after meeting with Indigenous leaders at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., that bears unmarked graves.

OTTAWA - The Liberal government has laid out a blueprint for cracking down on harmful online materials posted to platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, with experts welcoming the move while casting a critical eye on the framework's effectiveness.

SHERBROOKE, Que. - Police and firefighters in Sherbrooke, Que., allegedly mistook a woman's body for a mannequin and threw her remains into a dumpster, police Chief Danny McConnell said Thursday.

OTTAWA - Michèle Audette, one of the commissioners for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, is among the five newest members of the Senate.

MONTREAL - While a Montreal group that helps victims of sexual assault continues to criticize the Montreal Canadiens' decision to draft a player convicted of a sex offence in Sweden, sponsors that earlier expressed concerns say they are sticking with the team.

SQUAMISH, B.C. - Numerous rock climbing routes on the renowned Grand Wall of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, B.C., are closed after a large slab broke off.