National News

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — In many ways, Serhii Semenets is like any other 17-year-old starting Grade 11 in Newfoundland this week. He likes playing guitar, he struggles with Shakespeare, and his ideal dinner is a plate of poutine.

OTTAWA — On the eve of his first policy convention as Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre reminded Canadians that he is not bound by the policy ideas the grassroots membership chooses to advance.

MONTREAL — The remains of two Innu children have been exhumed from a Quebec cemetery to help give closure to families who have long-standing questions about the identities of the bodies they buried in 1970.

SURREY, B.C. — Organizers of a Sikh community referendum on Punjabi independence say they've received a "slap in the face" from a British Columbia school district that cancelled their rental of a school to host voting this weekend.

OTTAWA — The federal government has awarded a contract worth up to $15 million to lay the groundwork for a new national dental insurance plan.

MONTREAL — A landmark Montreal church is confirming that a group of people ignited a flare — and not a bonfire — on the steps leading to the Catholic shrine on Saturday.

OTTAWA — A Pacific Rim trade dispute panel has found Canada's dairy-sector protections violate obligations that Ottawa signed with New Zealand and other countries.

MONTREAL — Quebec's anti-corruption police force says a former executive at a junior college north of Montreal has been arrested for allegedly defrauding the student union.

Hjeron O'sidhe has been leading a group of Viking-themed performance artists to the Burning Man festival in Nevada for 13 years running, and he wasn't about to let the rain and mud this year dampen their good time.

Air Canada says it has apologized to two passengers who were escorted off a plane by security after protesting that their seats were smeared in vomit.