Canada

Canada began allowing entry to fully vaccinated U.S. tourists beginning Aug. 9, but U.S. restrictions remain.

As a national election approaches, polling indicates housing affordability has emerged as one of the top voter concerns not related to Covid-19.

Canadian vaccination mandates could benefit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by shoring up his declining lead in opinion polls and sowing discord among his right-leaning adversaries ahead of Sept. 20 elections.

The prime minister aims to capitalize on popular support for his pandemic response and secure parliamentary backing for policies such as child care and climate change.

Canadian businesses whose revenues are tied to tourism and hospitality have said they are hopeful the partial reopening will give them a boost during the final weeks of the peak summer season.

Canada began allowing entry to fully vaccinated U.S. tourists beginning Aug. 9, but U.S. restrictions has extended its land-border restrictions.

The union that negotiates on behalf of about 9,000 employees at the Canada Border Services Agency said it clinched a four-year agreement, removing a potential roadblock for Americans, who can begin visiting on Monday for the first time in 16 months.

Talks under a mediator’s watch continued late Thursday between Canada and the union representing its border agents to head off a labor action starting Friday.

A union for customs and immigration officers served a formal strike notice to Canada’s federal government that labor disruptions could start Friday morning unless the two sides reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

The Six Nations of the Grand River community says survivors asked for the probe after unmarked graves were found near former schools in Western Canada.

Police in Canada are investigating more than 15 suspicious fires set in recent weeks at churches that politicians and law enforcement officials speculate are being targeted by those angry over the recent discoveries of unmarked graves at schools for indigenous children.

The Canadian government said it would allow fully vaccinated Americans to enter the country for recreational or tourist activities beginning Aug. 9, more than a year after Covid-19 restrictions first closed the 5,500-mile border to most travelers.

The lifting of restrictions would be conditional on Canada continuing a robust pace of Covid-19 vaccinations, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Stories about children asked to dig graves, as well as the discovery of a rib bone and tooth, helped investigators locate about 200 grave sites near a former school in Kamloops, British Columbia, a researcher said.

A third indigenous community says it has discovered unmarked graves near the site of a former Catholic-run residential school for indigenous children, adding to a somber mood across the country on the eve of its national day.

Police in western Canada are examining whether the fires are connected to the discovery of graves near two former residential schools for indigenous children.

The finding of unmarked graves near former boarding schools for Indigenous children, where many students were subject to abuse, has brought back painful memories for many in Canada’s Indigenous communities, as well as calls to search for further graves.

The discovery near a former school by the Cowessess First Nation came weeks after a similar discovery at another school set off a nationwide discussion about Canada’s treatment of indigenous people.

Despite a sharp drop in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in Canada, and a significant ramp-up in vaccinations, the government said it would stick to a gradual approach to reopening.

The remains were discovered at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School, a boarding school that operated in Saskatchewan for nearly a century until it closed in the 1990s.