After the COVID-19 pandemic,  ridership on Toronto’s buses, streetcars and subways struggled to rebound.

But it surged back in nearby cities.

Brampton, Mississauga and parts of Waterloo Region were among the suburbs that rapidly recovered from COVID-19, setting records for the number of passengers and struggling with overcrowding.

Then, the federal government put a cap on the number of international students who could study in Ontario. The move appears to be directly linked to suddenly plummeting ridership in those cities, which are now recording millions fewer rides.

“In 2024, federal policy changes reduced immigration inflows and began to affect ridership,” the City of Brampton wrote in a statement to Global News. “Demand slowed late in the year and declines continued into Spring and Summer 2025, resulting in a revenue shortfall.”

Mississauga, for example, saw its student ridership drop 24 per cent last year and its total number of riders fall by 10 per cent.

“A 10 per cent drop in ridership does seem significant,” Mississauga’s Miway transit director Maureen Cosyn Heath acknowledged. “Certainly, the policy change is an impact on that.”

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

In Waterloo, Grand River Transit provided four million fewer rides in 2025 than it had the year before.

“Decreases in ridership were mainly due to reductions in the local student population,” a recent report from the agency explained.

The cap on international students was brought in by the federal government in January 2024 and then tightened. It’s been blamed by the Ontario government for financial struggles at provincial colleges as even overseas students who can get visas begin to stay away.

Cosyn Heath said the long-term impacts of the policy would mean Mississauga has to change how it plans its transit system, perhaps dropping or reducing its routes serving campuses or student housing.

“We’re aware that the changes on international students are going to have a permanent impact on us in the longer term,” she said. “So we revise our ridership projections, and then we pivot and shift to figuring out what new markets exist that we need to serve better.”

Brampton, too, said it would be “aligning service delivery with demand and long-term sustainability.”

Despite the short-term hit to transit ridership around Toronto, one transit expert believes it’s a bump in the road rather than an existential threat.

“Brampton was the transit success story of North America long before the international boom,” Jonathan English, principal at Infrastory Insights, told Global News.

“They experienced a 250 per cent ridership bump before international students arrived. Is it a significant drop? For sure. And will that have financial consequences? Definitely. But I think we need to keep it in perspective.”

In Mississauga, the transit agency is taking a pause to assess the impacts, but not scaling back. After increasing ridership hours, MiWay will freeze them for 2026 as it works out how to address a 10 per cent drop in travellers.

“You’re not going to see service cuts unilaterally across the system as a result of one pocket of our ridership,” Cosyn Heath said.

English said that’s the right approach, urging cities to ensure service improves to attract new riders who aren’t as reliant on transit as students might be.

“It’s hard to change routes before ridership data comes in. Now the ridership data has come in and there is an opportunity for the systems to respond — and they need to respond,” he said.

“Are some routes going to permanently or, for the foreseeable future, have less ridership? Absolutely… but overall the cities continue to grow, people continue to travel to work, to play, to school, so the key goal has to be here ot make sure we maintain a basic quality service level.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The government of Saskatchewan is extending additional support to programming addressing gender-based violence.

The $1.46 million investment will help 10 organizations and programs across the province and is the latest in funding through the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence program.

“These actions reflect our work to prevent violence before it happens, support survivors, and strengthen communities,” said Alana Ross, Saskatchewan’s status of women minister, at a news conference announcing the funding Tuesday.

The province says the funding will support a range of programs over the next two years — from existing services, such as transition houses and second-stage shelters, to new, innovative ones supporting children and Indigenous communities.

The new funding is also to support group therapy camps for men who have caused harm in intimate partner relationships. These camps are operated by the Rapport Clinical Consulting Group and the Buffalo Narrows Friendship Centre.

“If we want to interrupt the cycle of abuse, we need programming for people who’ve used violence to build skills and change their behaviour,” said Crystal Giesbrecht, director of research at the  Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS).

PATHS is receiving $280,000 through the latest funding announcement to support children who have experienced trauma and improve long-term educational outcomes, according to the province. The funding will also be used to provide free online workplace domestic violence training sessions to Saskatchewan businesses.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

The Saskatchewan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) will receive $250,000 to support pets caught in the middle of domestic abuse.

“Research shows that if there is violence in a home where a human is at risk and there are animals in the household, the animals are likely at risk as well and vice versa,” said John Hourie, executive director of SPCA.

The funding will target the SPCA’s animal safekeeping program, said Hourie, which provides pets with safe, temporary spaces as owners find new homes.

Offering spaces for animals is important as not all domestic violence shelters accept pets, which can often serve as a barrier for those looking to leave situations involving gender-based violence, said Hourie.

“There’s a risk there that their animal may continue being abused. But sometimes one of the big challenges, too, is that there’s just no place to go when you have a pet,” he said.

In 2024, Saskatchewan had the highest rates of police-reported intimate partner violence among all Canadian provinces — reporting 714 incidents per 100,000 people, according to Statistics Canada.

Despite the province being in its fourth year of the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence program, trends in domestic violence data remain steady.

When asked by reporters about this Tuesday, Giesbrecht explained there is often a lag in data.

“When we look at data that comes from Statistics Canada, we’re often looking at data from two years past. So it takes some time for us to see if there are changes, and then also to understand whether those are normal fluctuations or if we’re seeing rates go down,” said Giesbrecht.

Ross said the province does not have updated gender-based violence statistics, but that it has increased its support over the past four years since it has been involved in the program.

The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence is a 10-year plan intended to provide a framework to end gender-based violence, while supporting victims and their families.

“We’re able to support more women, families, and victims of gender-based violence throughout the province in different avenues,” said Ross.

Other recipients of the latest round of funding include Anchor and Thread Community Services Inc. for counselling and administrative salaries, Regina Transition House for shelter outreach, United Way of Regina for an increased use of the 211 service and Coalition of Regional Sexual Assault Centres Inc. to expand trauma-informed training to police for sexual assault investigations.

Funding will also go towards Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan (SASS) to train criminal justice professionals in trauma- and violence-informed cultural safety practices and Muskoday First Nation to support culturally-grounded healing initiatives for women, girls and Two-Spirit+ individuals affected by intimate partner violence, according to the government.

Recipients of the funding are expected to perform check-ins with the province on its programming throughout the year.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday distanced himself from Jamil Jivani’s claim that Canadians are throwing an “anti-American hissy fit” over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and sovereignty threats, saying the Conservative MP “speaks for himself.”

Jivani travelled to Washington earlier this month to meet with his college friend, Vice President JD Vance, and other Trump administration officials in what he described as an attempt to “build bridges” between Canada and the U.S.

After he returned to Canada, Jivani told U.S. right-wing news site Breitbart that Canadians would be “shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this anti-America hissy fit” and urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to work with him and the White House on resolving the trade dispute.

Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa he has spoken to Jivani about his trip and subsequent comments.

“My message (to him) is that Canadians are understandably upset about the tariffs and the comments that President Trump has made, and that we need to focus on what we can do here at home,” he said.

“He speaks for himself, and I speak for the party.”

Jivani represents a central Ontario riding that Poilievre acknowledged has been “disproportionately impacted” by Trump’s auto tariffs. The riding includes parts of Oshawa, home to General Motors’ assembly plant that recently cut a shift and laid off some 500 employees — a move expected to affect upward of a thousand workers across the supply chain.

2:25
Carney suggests Poilievre remove his ‘fingers from his ears’ when it comes to Canadian auto workers

GM has signalled intentions to follow automakers like Stellantis and shift its production to the U.S., a key goal of Trump’s tariff policies.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

“I think that it’s necessary for all MPs to use all the connections and work that they can in order to overturn the tariffs and protect Canadian jobs,” Poilievre said. “So I encourage all MPs to fight the tariffs and stand up for Canada.”

Global News reported earlier this month that some member of the Conservative caucus were upset with what they viewed as Jivani’s “freelance” diplomacy with the Trump administration.

It’s also not clear if Jivani’s trip was sanctioned by Poilievre’s office, which has not responded to questions about his U.S. travels.

Jivani is not the party’s “shadow minister” for foreign affairs, international trade or Canada-U.S. trade.

Jivani said earlier this month he had “productive” meetings with Trump’s administration. He said on social media that he met with representatives of the White House and U.S. State Department and that the president asked him to pass along a message — to tell Canadians he loves them.

In a video posted to social media, Jivani said he expects criticism from “frothing, elbow-waving anti-American activists” but he thinks Canadians want someone willing to “cut through all the posturing” to deliver results.

He later described his meetings with American officials and lawmakers as “very productive, promising and positive.”

“I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic that we can get something really good done for Canadian workers and businesses,” he said. “Might take some time, but I really believe that the doors are open here.”

That later video came days before Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Ontario and Michigan in a social media post that complained about Canada treating the U.S. unfairly on trade and other issues.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Tuesday he was happy to see Jivani go to the U.S. but that he disagreed with his recent comments.

“I don’t call it a hissy fit,” Ford said. “What I call (it) is making sure that we communicate with the American people.

“No one would even know who Jamil Jivani was unless I hired the guy in my office,” Ford added, referring to the fact that Jivani once worked as an adviser to his government. “I didn’t know him from a hole in the ground.”

—with files from Global’s Alex Boutilier and the Canadian Press

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A new report from the national spy watchdog says the federal government kept some people on Canada’s no-fly list without proper justification — a possible violation of the law that underpins the program.

The government is responsible for screening travellers through the Passenger Protect Program, commonly known as the no-fly list.

Federal officials inform air carriers when a passenger requires additional screening or is prohibited outright from boarding a flight because they could pose a threat to air security or might travel to commit a terrorist act.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency looked at how people are added to the list, the actions taken when listed people try to fly, and ways to challenge inclusion on the roster.

The review agency says improvements to the program, such as centralized passenger screening, reduced the number of errors and improved security.

1:20
Changes designed to fix no-fly list false flags come into force, Trudeau announces

Public Safety Canada, which oversees the program, also has generally made sure that people on the list aren’t unfairly restricted from travelling, the watchdog says.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

If an individual is denied boarding because they’re on the list, they receive a letter from the public safety minister with instructions on how to apply for recourse and to request removal.

In addition, the law governing the program, the Secure Air Travel Act, requires the public safety minister to review the list every 90 days to determine whether grounds for inclusion still exist.

The intelligence watchdog says while people met the act’s listing threshold when they were first added to the no-fly list, there were shortcomings in how the minister’s delegate decided to relist people during reviews of their cases.

The report notes that sometimes the 90-day reviews were not conducted on time.

The watchdog also found the minister’s delegate renewed the listing of six people “without having necessary grounds.”

Those cases included:

• two individuals the delegate had previously decided to delist, with no new information to justify a reversal of that decision;
• one person whose most recent case brief clearly indicated that the act’s listing threshold was not met; and
• three individuals who were relisted on grounds that were unrelated to the act’s thresholds.

2:49
Secret documents show Canada’s no-fly list poses ‘national security risk’

The spy watchdog also pointed to a general lack of clarity — and in some cases disagreement — between program partners on when and why to consider delisting a person.

It found this was the case for decisions regarding each person’s listing status every 90 days, and for rulings on applications for recourse.

The intelligence watchdog says its recommendations are aimed at ensuring a more fair, principled and co-ordinated approach to managing the program.

It recommended Public Safety prioritize updating program governance documents to clarify roles and responsibilities for supporting the minister on listing decisions.

It said in cases where the minister or their delegate does not approve a proposal for relisting or delisting someone, the reasons for their disapproval should be clearly documented and relayed to the agency that nominated the person for inclusion.

The watchdog also recommended that Public Safety build a complete record of all positive matches to the list, actions taken in relation to them and the outcomes of those steps.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

The Quebec ski resort where a 13-year-old Ottawa girl died last week has been given the green light to reopen.

According to the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ), an inspection was carried out at Centre Vorlage on Feb. 12 and 13 following the incident on Feb. 11.

The inspection of the chairlift determined there were irregularities that needed to be corrected, forcing the ski hill to be unable to operate the chairlift until fixes were made.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The RBQ said it received documents on Monday that showed the ski resort had corrected the problems identified during last week’s inspection.

Centre Vorlage temporarily closed last week after the incident, in which police said the 13-year-old’s clothing got caught in a chairlift as it was raising her off the ground.

Her family confirmed her death on Sunday in a statement released by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontairo (CHEO) in Ottawa.

The MRC-des-Collines police service said Monday that an Ontario coroner will investigate the circumstances surrounding the death and that its investigation was ongoing.

A New Brunswick father is preparing to travel to war-torn to seek answers about his son’s death — one of 27 Canadians the federal government said have died in that country during the war.

Marc Mazerolle will be flying out from his home in Inkerman, N.B., this week and hopes to find his son’s remains to bring back to Canada.

“I don’t blame nobody, you know, it’s just the speed of the system,” he said. “It’s long and it’s frustrating for families because we don’t got much answer.”

His son Patrick, 24, was killed while volunteering to fight for the Ukrainian army last fall.

Mazerolle didn’t even know his son had joined the fight until Patrick was already there.

The family believed Patrick had travelled to the U.K. on vacation. Instead, he had made the trek to Poland and volunteered to fight in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

“Patrick was a good kid, he was a good soul. All his intentions was good. I’m not sure he was ready to really understand what he was getting into,” said Mazerolle.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get out of there a better person, You’ll be so proud of me.’”

Mazerolle said his son was killed in the Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast area, and he understands it would require a ceasefire in order for it to be remotely possible to repatriate his son’s remains.

His family has worked desperately to get as much information about Patrick’s final days as possible. After speaking out last year and sharing their story, Mazerolle said others on the front lines have come forward with vital news.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

“(We) talked to the last soldier who was with him when he was alive. So now we know that Patrick died on Sept. 1 between 8:00 and 8.15 in the morning. I got a location within 20 metres where his remain is,” he said.

Mazerolle and his wife have submitted DNA and provided DNA from Patrick to Canadian authorities but without a centralized system, the process has been stalled.

While he’s been in contact with Global Affairs Canada and independent agencies that help repatriate soldiers, it’s been a complicated and difficult process, and one the family has had to navigate alone.

“In Canada, we don’t have much support. Like the government is trying but it’s such a slow process,” he said.

“We gave Patrick’s DNA and our DNA within the first week after the incident. I don’t even got confirmation that Patrick’s are in the system in Ukraine yet.”

Global Affairs Canada doesn’t track how many Canadians have gone to Ukraine to fight nor does it keep a registry of Canadians who have been injured or killed.

“Like all Canadian citizens abroad, these individuals are not required to register with the Government of Canada, and there is no legal mechanism to compel them to do so,” a spokesperson told Global News in an email.

“(Global Affairs Canada) is aware of the deaths of 27 Canadian citizens in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This figure includes all causes of death.”

University of Ottawa researcher Jean-François Ratelle estimates there have been around 130 to 150 Canadian fighters in Ukraine at any given time since the war started in 2022.

Taking into account the number of deaths from Global Affairs Canada, Ratelle said that means the fatality rate for fighters could be as high as 20 per cent.

“(That’s) quite high for a war where the Canadian army and the Canadian government is not directly involved,” said Ratelle.

To honour Canadians killed or wounded, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has given out 14 Ukrainian Canadian Sacrifice Medals. Patrick Mazerolle is among the latest recipients.

“It is both an honour for our community but also a deeply sombre and moving and sad thing that we do,” said Orest Zakydalsky, senior policy adviser with the organization.

When asked if he had a message for other Canadians who volunteer to fight in Ukraine, Mazerolle said he understands they may want to help but he believes there are other ways to go about it without putting themselves in danger.

He said he’s heard from other Canadians struggling because a loved one volunteered, saying,”They kind of disappeared without telling them exactly where they were going.”

2:35
‘Canada will always stand in solidarity with Ukraine,’ says Carney on Ukraine Independence day

Although the search for answers has been hard, Mazerolle said he feels compelled to continue and plans to start a non-profit to help other families in the same situation.

“We’re doing that to help out other families, but in the same process (we hope it will) give us a better chance to bring him back home,” he said with emotion.

“It’s sad, but I’ll be proud of that kid for the rest of my days. It takes a lot of courage to go there, believe me.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A shooter unleashed a flurry of bullets during a Rhode Island youth hockey game, killing two people and injuring three others, in an attack that was cut short when a spectator stepped in to help stop the tragedy, authorities said.

Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempt to piece together what happened earlier that afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence.

Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Monday that the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, though authorities are still investigating.

Goncalves credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.” She did not provide details.

It is not entirely clear what precipitated the shooting, who was targeted or why.

The game was livestreamed by LiveBarn, a streaming platform for youth sporting events, whose videos have been shared on social media showing players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats.

2:46
Video captures chaos inside Rhode Island ice rink during shooting that killed 2

LiveBarn’s social media account has been issuing warnings to those who shared the video that they do not have permission to do so. An email to LiveBarn seeking comment was sent Tuesday.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” Goncalves said. Authorities said both people who died were adults but have not released the identities of the victims.

Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, who she said also went by the name Roberta Esposito, who was born in 1969.

Dorgan was an active employee at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a ship building in Bath, Maine, that contracts with the U.S. Navy, David Hench, a spokesperson for the shipyard, said Tuesday. Hench did not immediately respond to questions about Dorgan’s job title or how long Dorgan worked at the shipyard.

Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, as well as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”

Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle contributed to this report from Portland, Maine.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Two First Nations communities in Ontario have issued travel advisories urging caution when travelling to the U.S. and are underlining Indigenous rights under the 1794 Jay Treaty.

But what is the Jay Treaty and how does it relate to cross-border travel?

Right to freely pass into U.S.

The treaty was signed in 1794 between Great Britain and the United States and sets out that “American Indians” born in Canada have the right to freely pass into the U.S. for travel, for work or to live. They can also enter the U.S. freely for retirement or immigration.

“These rights have been identified as, it’s all of our rights as Indigenous Peoples in Canada to be able to cross the borders,” said Jessica Keeshig-Martin, acting chief of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. “These borders never existed; they’re fairly recent in terms of our timeline being here on Turtle Island, which we refer to as North America.”

The Chippewas of Nawash is one of the two First Nations in Ontario to issue a travel advisory in recent weeks.

6:23
‘Lots of divisiveness between Canada-America but the people see no border’ Lily Gladstone declares

In their notice, they strongly advised each member who wishes to cross the Canada-U.S. land border to carry a valid, unexpired status card; other valid information; birth certificates with parental information and/or a Canadian passport.

The First Nation said the advisory was prompted by reports of First Nation and Native American members being detained and questioned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

“We’ve had inquiries from our members of the Chippewas of Nawash who are travelling and visiting relatives or friends, or to work and attend meetings to the south of us and so there’s definite fear,” Keeshig-Martin said. “Folks have contacted me as well, fear of being questioned and detained by ICE.”

The Assembly of First Nations confirmed last month that at least one First Nations person recently had a negative encounter with ICE and has since returned to Canada.

Indigenous people urged to carry status card and passport

In an email to Global News, Indigenous Services Canada said it was aware some First Nations “have been in contact with their band to report incidents.”

“While you may have previously crossed the Canada-U.S. border with only a secure status card, ISC now strongly recommends also carrying a valid passport when travelling outside of Canada,” the ministry said in the email.

It added that acceptance of all status cards is “entirely at the discretion” of U.S. officials.

U.S. may request proof of Indigenous status

Amid concerns over U.S. travel, Saugeen First Nation in Ontario also issued a notice that suggests “exercising caution” if going south of the border.

While it notes that Section 289 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act codifies rights from the Jay Treaty, members travelling south should still carry various documents.

It says members will need proof of lawful status through several documents, including a status card, a long-form birth certificate, a government-issued photo ID, a Form I-181 or I-551 (green card) if you have one, and what’s known as a blood quantum letter.

The letter is a requirement in which Indigenous people must prove they have 50 per cent blood quantum, showing the bearer of the letter is at least “50 per cent of the American Indian race,” according to the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada.

2:03
With territory on both sides of B.C.-U.S. border, Sinixt Confederacy seeks recognition

According to Indigenous Services Canada, such documentation must either come from a person’s First Nation or a letter of ancestry requested from the ministry.

The ministry adds a caution, though: “A letter of ancestry is an official document confirming registered ancestors, but, it does not list a person’s blood quantum. You may be asked for more documentation.”

The Chippewas of Nawash and Saugeen First Nation are just the latest First Nations communities to issue advisories since the new year.

Last month, the Okanagan Nation Alliance, which represents eight First Nation communities in British Columbia, issued its own, urging members “exercise extreme caution.”

“Although the Jay Treaty reaffirms our right to travel freely to and from the United States, we expect that not every federal law enforcement officer and ICE agent will be familiar with our rights to cross the border freely,” the alliance wrote in its advisory.

Alberta’s Blood Tribe Chief and Council also issued an advisory late last month urging members to use caution.

“Blood Tribe Chief and Council is urging Blood Tribe members to use caution when crossing the border into the United States, notwithstanding our inherent rights and the promises of the Jay Treaty, during the current time of political unrest,” the advisory said.

They added that Canadian federal certificates of Indian status have reportedly not been accepted as proof of blood quantum, and that such documentation must come directly from an individual’s First Nation.

The Assembly of First Nations, which has also issued its own advisory on U.S. travel, says in emergency cases, people can contact the Canadian Consulate.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.