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Canada receives its first F-35 jets from U.S., as full order remains under review
Canada receives its first F-35 jets from U.S.
Canada has received its first pair of new F-35 fighter jets, with Ottawa still deliberating on how many of the American planes it will buy.
The Royal Canadian Air Force announced receiving the two Lockheed Martin jets Friday on social media with a photo from Phoenix showing one plane with a maple-leaf roundel.
The air force could not immediately say when it will start training pilots with the new planes, which U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra recently hailed as "the best fighter in the world."
Prime Minister Mark Carney has paused plans to proceed with a planned order for 88 of these stealth fighter jets, and it may instead have a mixed fleet that includes Gripen jets made by Saab.
Carney launched a review of the purchase amid U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated trade and annexation threats, and the review was supposed to have concluded a year ago.
Last year, Trump mused about providing allies with jets that have limited capabilities in order to maintain American supremacy, and former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy warns in a Saturday blog post that Washington controls software used by F-35 jets.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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First Nations, Carney and premiers set to gather for day of ceremony
First Nations hold ceremony with country's leaders
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
First Nations leaders are gathering with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country's premiers in Ottawa today for a ceremony ahead of a historic meeting on Monday.
Monday's meeting will the first such gathering since the Kelowna Accord talks of 2005, which brought premiers and then-prime minister Paul Martin together with Indigenous leaders to discuss ways to close the socioeconomic gaps in their communities.
First Nations will be represented in the closed-door meeting on Monday largely by regional chiefs from the Assembly of First Nations.
The Privy Council Office has not said which premiers will be attending the meeting, although Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have both said they will be absent.
The ceremonies will be held in Ottawa with knowledge keepers, elders, First Nations leaders and community members.
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says it's important to start the meeting with ceremony to ensure all participants are entering with the right frame of mind, grounded in First Nations spirituality.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2026.
By Alessia Passafiume | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Tackling homelessness will be a key challenge for incoming Ontario mayors, councils
Homelessness a key challenge for incoming mayors
The rise in homelessness is one of the most pressing issues mayors and councillors elected next week across Ontario will have to face as the struggle to fund housing, mental health and addiction services persists.
A seminal study from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario warned last year that the province was at a "tipping point" in the homelessness crisis.
It found nearly 80,000 Ontarians were homeless in 2024. That number rose to about 85,000 people in 2025 and the association expects it to rise again.
"Eighty-five thousand is breathtaking in the sense that it's shocking how big that number is in a province as wealthy as we are," said Riley Brockington, president of AMO, which represents the province's 444 municipalities.
More than half of those people have been homeless for more than six months, the association said.
The vast majority of Ontario's municipalities are struggling with the issue and it's eating up more and more of their annual budgets, Brockington said. Without the ability to run deficits, it puts municipalities in a bind.
Brockington, an Ottawa city councillor who was acclaimed in his ward ahead of Monday's election, said the province and the federal government need to step up with stable, long-term funding.
It's the only way to try to get a handle on homelessness, he said. "We're calling for a national housing strategy with some real money."
The AMO's ask is big: $11 billion over 10 years. That would cover supportive, transitional and community housing for 75,000 people, along with money for prevention programs.
The association is also asking for $2 billion over eight years to deal with the rise in encampments. There were nearly 2,000 encampments across Ontario last year, it said.
The encampments have been popping up all over the province, including in many smaller towns where there are no shelters.
"We believe every person in Ontario needs a safe place to call home every night, but it's very expensive," Brockington said. "This is why the burden cannot be on the shoulders exclusively of municipalities."
The frustrating part for municipalities, Brockington said, is the fact that every level of government agrees on the path forward: more housing, particularly supportive housing.
While municipalities are appreciative of every dollar from the federal and provincial governments, much of that comes in the form of time-limited funding, Brockington said.
"Municipalities need to be able to budget and have some assurances going forward that the money will still be there," he said. Otherwise, it will be the same scramble every year, he said, with little ability to plan long term.
A recent report from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario said provincial spending on homelessness programs has fluctuated since 2020, before reaching a projected $948 million in 2026-27. But that figure is expected to decline to $708 million in 2028-29 because of time-limited funding, the report said.
Northern and rural Ontario are driving the growth of homelessness, which is increasing 37 per cent in northern Ontario and 31 per cent in mostly rural communities in one year, AMO found.
Another troubling statistic the association uncovered: about 20,000 youth are homeless across the province.
And on any given night in Toronto, more than 1,000 teens and children are in the city's shelters or on its streets.
For Mark Aston, the CEO of Covenant House Toronto, Canada's largest charity serving youth in crisis, prevention is key. Covenant House has a crisis shelter, offers transitional housing and wraparound support services including education and employment support.
"It is getting more difficult for young people to get out of that situation because of a whole bunch of things: affordability, the job market, and also acute crisis and disabling conditions that need co-ordinated specialized services to help young people," he said.
Covenant House has seen great prevention results by going into Toronto's schools, Aston said, adding that the program is very successful, with more than 90 per cent of at-risk young people avoiding homelessness.
"We have solutions, we just really need to get attention to this and do a bit of scaling," Aston said, arguing that the program should be in every single school in the province. Covenant House also has its own on-site school that helps youth complete their secondary education.
The reason is simple, Aston said. Between 30 to 50 per cent of adults experiencing chronic homelessness can trace their journeys back to their youth.
"That's when they first experienced homelessness," Aston said. "So if you don't solve the problem when somebody's young, it can become really entrenched, really pervasive."
For young people, the largest driver of homelessness is family pressure, conflict or breakdown, he said, while for adults the leading cause is eviction.
When a young person becomes homeless, early intervention is key. Aston said Covenant House gives them space to breathe, connects them with health-care workers, mental health professionals and tries to reconnect them with family -- but not necessarily the family that may have driven them away.
"If you can do that and you can maintain those connections and you can provide them with housing, with social supports, with community, it can really be life altering for those young people," he said. "You can change the trajectory of where they're going."
Aston has a message for all incoming mayors.
"I think the mayors across Ontario should make a commitment to end youth homelessness," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2026.
By Liam Casey | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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District 31 intervient suite à plusieurs commentaires haineux sur Facebook
Avec plus d'un million de téléspectateurs chaque soir, nombreux sont ceux qui ont les intrigues de leur émission favorite à coeur. Par contre, il semblerait que cet engouement soit allé trop loin, car District 31 a dû intervenir après qu'une publication sur Facebook ait reçu plusieurs commentaires haineux.
C'est ce lundi 7 décembre que la femme d'affaires et actrice Caroline Néron faisait son entrée dans la série.
Sa présence a certainement fait jaser et lui a valu des commentaires désobligeants sur sa vie personnelle et son apparence.
En fin d'après-midi ce mardi, District 31 est intervenu pour remettre à l'ordre les fans qui « dépasse[nt] la limite du respect et du bon goût dans les commentaires ».
La sélection de l'éditeur : Voici comment se déroulera la vaccination contre la COVID-19 au Québec
« Nous pensions que tu pouvais faire la part des choses et te contenter de commenter les actions, les personnages, les intrigues, ou le jeu des comédiens, en t'abstenant de tout jugement sur le physique ou la vie privée de ceux et celles qui portent nos histoires à l'écran », peut-on lire.
La page de l'émission a précisé qu'elle n'hésiterait pas à bannir les usagers qui envoient des messages haineux.
District 31 encourage aussi le public à signaler tout commentaire qui n'a pas sa place sur la page.
Cette intervention de la quotidienne a reçu des milliers de messages positifs et plusieurs en ont profité pour défendre Caroline Néron et acclamer son jeu d'actrice.