British Columbia

A company spokesperson says Corus has made a “small number” of changes in select markets including jobs at Global B.C., Global National, News 640 and talk radio.

Company cut dozens of jobs earlier this year

American booze may soon return to Canadian store shelves, ending a series of bans by provincial retailers in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. Some politicians and consumers say they’re not in the mood to say “cheers” with U.S. products.

According to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked the provinces to clear the way for liquor retailers to restock banned American products. Kinew described Carney as virtually begging first ministers to honour this request. He says reaching a Canada-U.S. trade deal by the end of the week could actually hinge on the booze issue.

“I was told by the prime minister that he wants us to put the booze back on the shelves,” Kinew told reporters on Thursday. “I wouldn’t say he was begging us, but what is a step before begging?”

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette says lifting the ban is “possible” in her province, pending analysis of how new Canada-U.S. trade terms will impact Quebec’s economy.

“We need to have a global view. The complete view of the impact on Quebec’s economy,” she told CBC News on Thursday. “If it is globally positive, it is possible that we put back the alcohol on the shelves of the SAQ.”

A media officer for SAQ told Radio-Canada that American booze is currently being stored in warehouses in Montreal and Quebec City, and putting these products back on store shelves could take some time.

Keep buying Canadian, Kinew says

Kinew says consumers should continue buying Canadian, even if U.S products are once again available. He noted that his province has not yet agreed to resume sales of American alcohol.

“When we put the American booze back on the Liquor Mart shelves, Canadians, leave it there,” he said. “Spend your money on Canadian products that are going to employ people in our country.”

Yukon’s government said on Thursday that consumers in the territory can expect a gradual return of U.S.-made alcohol brands in stores in the coming weeks “in the event of a deal.”

Provincial bans on U.S. booze sales have been a powerful point of leverage for Canada throughout the trade talks.

According to the White House, American businesses and workers, and U.S. commerce, have suffered as provinces and territories rolled out “unreasonable…

WestJet is imposing an “undue barrier” on travellers living with a disability by effectively barring some power wheelchairs from its planes, says Canada’s transport regulator.

In a recent decision, the Canadian Transportation Agency said the country’s second-largest carrier must scrap its 136-kilogram (300-pound) weight cap on mobility aids before July 2027.

WestJet should use “spreader plates” to better distribute the wheelchair’s weight in the cargo hold and arrange alternative travel with other airlines until then, the regulator said.

The case was brought before the transportation agency by Winnipeg resident Steven Fletcher, a former federal minister of state for transport, after he was stopped from flying with his custom wheelchair on a flight between Winnipeg and Toronto early last year.

He and other advocates say the weight cap has curtailed air travel in parts of the country and discriminated against people living with a disability.

“They have stigmatized and alienated and excluded an entire population of Canadians — through no fault of their own — just because of some arbitrary number which doesn’t hold up,” Fletcher said in an interview with The Canadian Press this week.

“WestJet should have taken proactive steps to accommodate the power wheelchairs. And obviously they’ve done it before, because I’ve been flying with them for three decades with power wheelchairs and many other people have as well.”

WestJet said it has no comment as parts of the matter remain before the regulator.

The agency is poised to hand down a final decision on how much advance notice passengers using mobility aids must give the airline.

Last year, Calgary-based WestJet argued that the weight limit was key to flight safety and that accessibility regulations allowed it to refuse transport of heavier mobility aids.

The company landed on the 136-kilogram threshold in 2024 after a technical analysis, which examined the “maximum allowable weight limit per square inch for the cargo holds” of its Boeing-made planes, according to a submission in response to a regulatory complaint filed by Fletcher.

At issue was what reasonable accommodation looks like for power wheelchair users, with two carriers in Canada arguing that safety and regulations justify the weight limits.

Advocates stress the severe curtailment of mobility for individuals whose wheelchair serves as an extension of their body — and the fact that most airlines impose much looser restrictions.

In Fletcher’s…

U.S. President Donald Trump says a Canada-U.S. oil pipeline project cancelled by two of his predecessors “may be awoken from the grave” under a new bilateral trade agreement between the neighbouring nations.

But a former executive involved with Keystone XL and other industry experts suggest the remark may have more to do with politics than petroleum.

In a social media post late Tuesday, less than two hours before punishing new levies on Canadian goods entering the U.S. were due to start, Trump announced a “deal” with Canada and a three-day halt on new tariffs.

“The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform, referring to his predecessor in the White House.

Prime Minister Mark Carney did not address this in a statement responding to Trump’s post.

For U.S., Keystone XL ‘can be a nightmare’

“The fact that Trump has signalled that is something that he sees in the deal, I think is helpful to Carney [and] the trade-offs he’s going to have to make over the next 72 hours,” said Dennis McConaghy, former executive vice-president of corporate development at TransCanada Corporation, now called TC Energy.

From auto parts and lumber to steel and aluminum, the Republican president has targeted key sectors of Canada’s economy since Feb. 1, 2025, when his administration announced sweeping tariffs on goods from Canada.

Since then, he has regularly stated that the U.S. does not need anything that Canada has, even as key items like oil, potash and critical minerals have stayed exempt from U.S. tariffs.

“In the context of a person who says we don’t need anything from Canada, that [Keystone XL remark] was somewhat welcome,” McConaghy said.

However, Carlo Dade, director of international policy at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener that a revival of the controversial project would face familiar political and environmental challenges today.

“Let’s not get too excited about Keystone just yet,” Dade said on Wednesday.

“Will it be done by the end of his term? Because we potentially have Democrats … in the offing, which is going to make this extremely difficult,” he said. “He looks at this as a rejection of the policies of previous administrations, Biden, Democrats, et cetera.”

Valérie Beaudoin, a member of the federal government’s Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations, said greenlighting Keystone XL will be far easier for Carney than Trump.

“For them, it can be a nightmare,” she said. “Even if Trump says, ‘Oh, Keystone XL is back on track,’ who is going to want…

Meta Platforms rejected accusations by U.S. states that it intentionally sought to addict children to its Facebook and Instagram platforms in pursuit of profit as a trial that that could reshape some of the most popular apps on the planet got underway Tuesday

A bipartisan group of 29 U.S. states is suing Meta, seeking potentially tens or hundreds ‌of billions of dollars in penalties and changes to how Meta does business.

Four lead states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — accused Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to hook young users, fuelling anxiety, depression and even suicide, and misleading consumers about the platforms’ safety. All 29 states accused Meta of violating federal law by improperly collecting and using children’s personal data.

Experts have called the trial in the Oakland, Calif., federal court, which heard opening statements Tuesday, the biggest legal test yet of social media’s effects on young users. Meta and other social media companies ​including Snap, TikTok parent ByteDance and YouTube parent Alphabet face thousands of lawsuits by states, municipalities, school districts and individuals over ​whether their products harm young users.

Megan O’Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, told the eight-person jury that Meta’s business model was to “hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public.”

“It worked especially well for kids,” O’Neill added. “Meta needed kids, and it needed to ​reassure the people who cared about those kids that the kids are safe.”

Meta’s lawyer Paul Schmidt said there was “no dispute” that some social media users face struggles, but ⁠that research showed no clear link between adolescents’ social ⁠media use and a lack of well-being. He also said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and CEO, shared the company’s desire ‌to improve its services, and not make them dangerous.

“They don’t believe they’re going to do well if people don’t like their service,” Schmidt said.

Judge could order changes to Instagram, Facebook

Jurors are expected to issue an advisory verdict — a non-binding position the judge could take into consideration as guidance — but U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will ultimately determine Meta’s liability.

If she finds Meta liable, Rogers could impose civil penalties and order changes to Facebook and Instagram. Meta has said penalties could be as high as $1.4 trillion US,…