National News

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.

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 — 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. The territory's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Brendan Hanley, says in a statement that the person died in hospital Wednesday night.

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.

IQALUIT, Nunavut — The government of Nunavut says residents of the territory and of Arctic Quebec can now travel freely between both regions as long as they've been in a community for at least 14 days.

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.