In the news today: Parliament returns, Western premiers meet, N.S. care workers rally

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

MPs return for Ottawa to begin the final sitting days before summer break

The House of Commons reconvenes today for a final stretch before the summer recess, with a budget bill and Conservative motion set for debate. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he plans to push for a debate on how the government handles First Nations land claims, as he wants the government to put private property owner rights ahead of all other claims.

Legislation to implement the spring economic update, which includes other measures such as police authority to search mail with a warrant, continues to work its way through the House of Commons.

International politics will also be in play, as Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand prepares to host her Chinese counterpart later this week and as Prime Minister Mark Carney travels to New York City to attract international investment.

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Western premiers take their seats for a news conference after meeting in Whistler, B.C., on Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Western Canadian premiers to gather for annual meeting amid Alberta separation talk

The annual western premiers conference kicks off in Alberta today.

Leaders of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and the Yukon are to discuss business and their neighbouring relationships during the two-day conference in Kananaskis, west of Calgary.

The gathering happens after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced that an October referendum question will ask Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or start the process to hold a binding referendum on separation.

B.C. Premier David Eby has remarked about the irony of a meeting with Canadian leadership in a province where the premier, in his words, “appears to be setting the table to leave the country.”

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One of Premier Doug Ford’s vehicles sits parked at the Ontario legislature sporting a new licence plate in Toronto on Thursday Feb. 20, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Ford government goes to court to fight FOI disclosure of blue licence plate documents

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is going to court to try to prevent the release of documents about its ill-fated blue licence plates.

Government lawyers have applied for a judicial review of decisions by Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner ordering the province to release documents in response to a freedom-of-information request by The Canadian Press.

Critics say that when combined with recent, controversial changes the Ford government has made to freedom-of-information laws, it shows a troubling trend against transparency.

The blue plates rolled out in early 2020, but the government stopped issuing them soon after because of visibility issues, and has, for years, not said what their plan was for getting the already-issued plates off the roads.

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A Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) flag during an education support workers rally outside of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

Union representing N.S. long-term care workers to picket outside Houston speech

The union representing about 3,500 striking long-term care workers in Nova Scotia says its members will picket this afternoon, steps away from Premier Tim Houston’s state-of-the-province address.

Christa Sweeney, with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, says Houston’s government has a responsibility to listen to the workers set to gather outside the Halifax Convention Centre.

CUPE members at 35 long-term care facilities have been on strike for six weeks, with pay being the main issue in the labour dispute.

Relatives of long-term care residents have said the strike has meant fewer baths, more falls and dietary adjustments for their loved ones.

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Jason Gaudreault, whose partner Tatjana Stefanski was found dead on April 14, 2024, after disappearing a day earlier, shows a photograph of her on his phone, in Lumby, B.C., on Monday, May 13, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Murder trial in 2024 killing of Tatjana Stefanski in rural B.C. is set to begin

The trial of Vitali Stefanski, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his ex-wife, is scheduled to begin in Kamloops, B.C., today.

Forty-four-year-old Tatjana Stefanski was last seen on April 13, 2024, at a property in the village of Lumby, about 25 kilometres east of Vernon, in the B.C. Interior.

Mounties said she had been reported abducted and her body was found by officers in a rural area outside town the next day.

Vitali Stefanski, who had two children with his ex-wife, was charged with second-degree murder on May 31, 2024.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2026.

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