In the news today: House of Commons returns with new faces

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Parliament gets back to work with a new prime minister and many new faces

Parliament gets back to work Wednesday with a new Speaker, a new prime minister and plenty of new faces in the House of Commons. Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia will preside over the House of Commons for the first time today, while his office has confirmed that all 343 members of Parliament have now been sworn in. Roughly a third of those MPs, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, were elected for the first time in April and will face their first question period today. King Charles formally opened Parliament on Tuesday with the speech from the throne and the minority Liberal government says it will move quickly to pass a promised one-point cut to the bottom income tax bracket.

Defence minister to address industry as Canada eyes new European partnership

Defence Minister David McGuinty is set to deliver a state-of-the-union style speech to defence industry representatives this morning at a military equipment trade show in the nation’s capital. It comes a day after the Liberal government confirmed plans to join a major European defence procurement pact called ReArm Europe. McGuinty is speaking this morning at the CANSEC trade show in Ottawa, just a week before he travels to Brussels for a meeting of NATO defence ministers. NATO members are expected to agree next month to commit to a massive increase in defence spending.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Sentencing expected for human smugglers

Two men are to be sentenced today for their role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family of four freeze to death on the Canada-U.S. border south of Winnipeg. Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were convicted last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States and transporting them. Court was told during one operation in January of 2022, a couple from India and their two children were left to walk across the border in an overnight blizzard on the bald prairie, as temperatures dropped below -20 C. Prosecutors say Patel organized the logistics while Shand would pick up migrants on the U.S. side in rented vehicles and drive them to cities such as Chicago.

Canada Post, union set to continue talks

Canada Post and the union representing 55,000 of its workers are set to head back to the bargaining table as an overtime ban remains in effect. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the Crown corporation proposed continuing talks today. It says Canada Post plans to respond to proposals the union presented on Sunday. The union had been in a strike position starting Friday but opted instead for an overtime ban. The postal service has said parcel volumes last week were down 50 per cent from last year and dropping.

Hockey players’ trial hears from retired detective

A retired detective is expected to continue testifying today at the sex assault trial of five former world junior hockey players in London, Ont. A video of Det. Steve Newton’s November 2018 interview with Michael McLeod was played in court on Tuesday. McLeod spoke with Newton, the lead investigator in the case at the time, just a few months after the encounter with the complainant. McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, and McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

Feds paid $330K to rebrand high-speed rail project

A federal Crown corporation paid more than $330,000 to a marketing firm to rebrand a planned passenger rail project between Toronto and Quebec City. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show how the corporation decided to pivot from high-frequency to high-speed rail to drum up public support for the project. The VIA Rail subsidiary hired Quebec-based firm Cossette to help come up with a new name and branding that would focus on high speed. The corporation landed on a new name – Alto – more than a year ago. The rebranding project was so sensitive that the Crown corporation also chose a code name for Alto, calling it “Tracks.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.

The Canadian Press