National News

VANCOUVER — The father of a murdered 13-year-old girl did not bring a gun into a Vancouver courtroom eight weeks ago, on the day Ibrahim Ali was convicted of the killing, the man's lawyer has told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing.

VANCOUVER — A coroner's inquest jury looking into the Winters Hotel fire that killed two people in Vancouver two years ago was stood down Friday to deliberate potential recommendations to avoid similar deaths.

VERNON, B.C. — B.C.

VANCOUVER — An American transgender woman says she plans to appeal a Federal Court ruling that overturned the decision granting her refugee status in Canada and sent it back for redetermination.

VICTORIA — Researchers say a deadly disease starts out slow but has the potential to devastate British Columbia's deer population over time, after the discovery of the first cases in the province. The concerns come after the B.C.

MONTREAL — A Quebec teachers union whose strike late last year closed hundreds of schools for weeks has narrowly accepted a labour agreement with the province.

OTTAWA — As Canada's public broadcaster projects a budget shortfall, and with Conservatives threatening to defund it if they win the next election, its top executive says the way it's funded needs to dramatically change.

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday to launch what she hopes will be a global effort to secure the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

OTTAWA — Newly declassified pages from a 40-year-old report on Canada's handling of Nazi war criminals suggest both the author and Canadian bureaucrats felt politics, and not legal arguments, were driving decisions around a man convicted of Nazi war

SURREY, B.C. — The spokesman for a group advocating Sikh independence says its supporters are frustrated with the lack of action to protect them after a Metro Vancouver home belonging to an associate was hit by gunfire. RCMP in Surrey, B.C.