In the news today: Hot, dry weather on tap in Prairie wildfires fight

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

Hot, dry weather on tap in Prairie wildfires fight

Hot, dry conditions with the odd chance of rain are likely to greet crews battling wildfires that have forced thousands out of their homes from Alberta to Manitoba.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba have declared provincewide states of emergency to deal with the fires, most of which are scorching pockets of rural communities in remote northern regions.

Manitoba has seen 17,000 residents forced out in recent days, including 6,000 residents in and around the northwest city of Flin Flon.

In Saskatchewan, more than 4,000 people have fled the flames, including more than 2,000 in Pelican Narrows.

Alberta, which has taken the brunt of wildfire damage in recent years, has been comparatively better off.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Statistics Canada set to report Q1 GDP

Statistics Canada is set to share details of how the economy performed in the first quarter of the year.

The agency will report today on real gross domestic product figures for March and for the first quarter as a whole.

Statistics Canada’s flash estimates for the first quarter, released at the end of last month, called for annualized real GDP growth of 1.5 per cent.

A Reuters poll of economists heading into Friday’s release expects growth edged above that, to 1.7 per cent in the quarter.

Statistics Canada’s report will also offer early signs of how the economy performed in April.

Halting operation put CSIS spies in danger: report

A new spy watchdog report says an overseas Canadian Security Intelligence Service operation was suddenly halted by government officials, “creating unnecessary danger for the CSIS team” and raising questions about ministerial accountability.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency found no written records indicating the decision to suspend the operation had been made by the CSIS director or the minister of public safety.

The review agency says that unlike typical operational matters, the case involved senior political-level actors from across the federal government.

The heavily redacted review agency report provides few clues about the actors in question or the nature of the overseas CSIS operation.

However, it says the decision to halt the activities abroad in mid-operation caused harm to Canada’s reputation, needlessly placed spies in danger and “raises serious concerns regarding CSIS’s accountability mechanisms.”

Heiltsuk Nation holds feast for constitution

First Nations leaders and delegates from around British Columbia are slated to attend a ratification feast on Friday that will officially bring the Heiltsuk Nation’s written constitution into effect.

Marilyn Slett, the nation’s elected chief, called it a “monumental day” that comes after two decades of development and consultation.

The Heiltsuk Nation approved the adoption of a written constitution for the First Nation on British Columbia’s central coast in February. That followed six months of engagement with more than 2,000 Heiltsuk members in Bella Bella, Nanaimo and Vancouver.

The nation said 67 per cent of the 725 people who voted on the referendum were in favour of the constitution.

The constitution will help provide clarity for its own members and those it chooses to do business with, Slett said, which will clear up questions around decision-making in Heiltsuk territory that have previously been left to the courts.

Watchdog pressed agency to scrub ’go’ from buses

Quebec’s language watchdog contacted the Montreal transit agency at least six times in the wake of a complaint about using the word “go” on city buses to cheer on a local soccer team.

The watchdog — the Office québécois de la langue française — asked for multiple updates on the agency’s efforts to remove the word, and kept the complaint open for nine months until “go” had been scrubbed from more than 1,000 city buses in Montreal, according to emails obtained by The Canadian Press.

The correspondence contrasts with the office’s public comments responding to an April report in the Montreal Gazette that revealed how the transit agency had replaced the expression “Go! Canadiens Go!” on its buses with “Allez! Canadiens Allez!” to appease the watchdog.

The news report, coinciding with the Montreal Canadiens’ first home game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, prompted a public outcry and elicited a declaration from French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge in support of the expression “Go Habs Go!”

At that time, the watchdog said it had “contacted the (transit agency) to inform it of the complaint and remind it of its obligations under the (French-language) charter.” But the office didn’t share details about the length of its review and the number of times it pressed transit officials for updates.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.

The Canadian Press