Howard Alexander

OTTAWA – The federal information commissioner says the Conservative government is setting a "perilous precedent" by retroactively rewriting Canada's access-to-information law to absolve the RCMP of wrongdoing.

TORONTO – An Australian police force is knocking Nickelback in a cheeky social media post as the Alberta rockers tour the country.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Actress and comedian Anne Meara has died. She was 85.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson out-muscled the competition at domestic movie theatres as the earthquake epic "San Andreas" hauled in an estimated $53.2 million over the weekend. It was Johnson's biggest debut for a non-sequel as the top-billed actor, according to box office tracker Rentrak.

The commission that has spent five years examining one of the darkest chapters in Canada's history is winding up its work with a key question left unanswered — exactly how many aboriginal children died in residential schools?

OTTAWA – At the Ottawa courthouse, a suspended senator's criminal trial continues.

MONTREAL – In a ruling described as "historic" by one lawyer, a Quebec judge has ordered three major cigarette companies to pay $15 billion to smokers in what is believed to be the biggest class-action lawsuit ever seen in Canada.

SCHLOSS ELMAU, Germany – The G7 leaders started their annual meeting Sunday during which Prime Minister Stephen Harper was expected to face discussions on a topic he has been repeatedly criticized for not doing enough about — climate change.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Patrick Macnee, the British-born actor best known as dapper secret agent John Steed in the long-running 1960s TV series "The Avengers," has died. He was 93.

VANCOUVER – The aftermath of Canada's exit from the Women's World Cup was gut-wrenching.

TORONTO – Not everyone is pleased by the announcement that American rap legend Kanye West will perform at the closing ceremony of the Pan Am Games in Toronto.

New research suggests that Canada's drought-stricken forests will take years longer to recover from dry weather than previously thought.

OTTAWA – Top members of Stephen Harper's campaign team, including the most senior staffer currently in the Prime Minister's Office, were among those who knew in 2013 that Sen. Mike Duffy didn't pay back his own contested expenses.

CARAQUET, N.B. – Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau waded into a noisy crowd of thousands of people celebrating their Acadian culture in northern New Brunswick Saturday night, hoping to garner support in a riding that has voted New Democrat for the last 18 years.

VANCOUVER – Bon Jovi fans praying to see the band in Vancouver just had to hold on until a cancelled concert was back on again at another venue.

OTTAWA – The main federal leaders returned to the campaign trail today as the economy stumbled.

KLEMTU, B.C. – A Japanese fisherman is to be reunited with his boat more than four years after a powerful tsunami hit his country and carried the craft to the shores of British Columbia.

TORONTO – A cyberattack on a website facilitating extramarital affairs is taking a toll on families across the world, Toronto police said Monday as they announced two unconfirmed reports of suicides and a string of extortion crimes related to the hack.

LAVAL, Qc – Justin Trudeau says he wants the major federal party leaders to sit down together before election day to discuss Canada's role in the Syrian refugee crisis.

OTTAWA – The Conservatives stumbled as the federal election reached an unofficial milestone on Monday, dropping two candidates from their slate in the important battleground of the Greater Toronto Area after embarrassing videos surfaced in the mainstream media and online.

OTTAWA – Canada will be supplying additional humanitarian assistance for victims of the conflict in Syria.

EDMONTON – A six-year-old cancer patient from Edmonton is living out her dream as she travels around the city fighting crime as a pint-sized superhero.