National News

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today...

New research suggests that ancient polar bear populations shrank as sea ice dwindled, adding weight to concerns about the predator's future as climate change melts the Arctic.

Police in Vancouver say they've received dozens of tips about the whereabouts of escaped sex offender Randall Hopley, who left a halfway house on Saturday and remains at large.

CHILLIWACK, B.C. — A judge has placed a terrorism peace bond on a British Columbia woman who was repatriated to Canada last year from a Syrian prison camp after she married an ISIS fighter.

OTTAWA — The president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is accusing an organization in Labrador of co-opting Inuit identities to secure lands, rights and financial resources.

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Bill Blair says he recently instructed his team to rejig the Liberal government's long-promised defence policy update, so as to give industry more clarity on long-term spending plans.

TORONTO — Jurors at the sexual assault trial of Peter Nygard began their deliberations late Wednesday afternoon, with the fate of the former fashion mogul now resting in their hands.

WOLSELEY, Sask. — Members of Shania Twain's concert production crew were on a bus that crashed Wednesday morning on an icy highway in southeast Saskatchewan.

MONTREAL — Quebec’s largest English-language school board says it is taking the provincial government to court over strict language rules requiring almost all of the board’s written communications to be in French.

MONTREAL — Some unionized Quebec health-care workers launched a two-day strike Wednesday, the latest group to walk off the job over stalled contract talks with the provincial government.