Police in Behchokǫ̀, N.W.T., are responding to a report of shots fired, with officers searching for multiple armed suspects in the community in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories.

In a social media post, RCMP said officers are looking for five to six individuals believed to be armed with long guns and travelling on two snowmobiles, one of which is described as orange.

Police said no injuries have been reported and preliminary information suggests the incident was targeted.

Additional resources have been deployed to the community and residents are being asked to shelter in place, stay away from windows and doors, and avoid sharing police locations.

At least two schools in the community, Chief Jimmy Bruneau School and Elizabeth Mackenzie Elementary School, were placed under lockdown as a precaution.

In a message to parents and guardians, school officials said all students and staff are safe inside, but no one is allowed to enter or leave the buildings until police give the all-clear. Students will remain at school through the lunch period and will be fed on site.

In a separate social media post, Behchokǫ̀ Chief Bertha Rabesca-Zoe also urged residents to stay inside, lock their doors and avoid sharing images or video of police activity, saying doing so could reveal officers’ locations.

Police say further information will be released when available.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A zoo in Japan was forced to delay its summer opening after an employee allegedly informed police that he had disposed of his wife’s body in the zoo’s incinerator, according to Japanese media reports.

Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, was scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, in time for a Japanese holiday period, after a three-week maintenance closure, but said it would reopen May 1 pending an investigation.

A statement on the zoo’s website reads, “We regret to inform you that a city employee is currently being questioned by the police on suspicion of involvement in a serious incident.”

Police arrested 33-year-old employee Suzuki Tatsuya after investigators discovered what appeared to be human body parts in the zoo’s incinerator, Japanese news outlet NHK reported on Friday.

The incinerator is typically used to dispose of animal carcasses, the BBC wrote.

Police say Tatsuya admitted to the alleged crime before he was arrested, according to the Japanese outlet, telling investigators he transported his 33-year-old wife’s body to the zoo and burned it at the end of March, it reported.

According to investigators, he also indicated that he had killed her and allegedly threatened to burn her body until nothing remained, NHK said.

Police began questioning Tatsuya after family members reported his wife was missing, the outlet added.
Hirosuke Imazu, the mayor of Asahikawa city, described the discovery at a press conference on Tuesday as an “unprecedented crisis,” the British outlet reported.

“No one could have predicted it,” he said.

“I am overcome with immense anxiety, and I am facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude,” the mayor continued.

“We are making preparations to welcome you, so we hope that as many people as possible will come to the park,” he concluded.

The popular tourist destination, which attracts visitors from across Japan and around the world, is operated by the local government and welcomed visitors on Friday, two days later than scheduled.

Asahiyama Zoo opened in July 1967 and is globally renowned for its unique enclosure designs, which include glass elements and overhead cages, giving visitors up-close, personal access to the animals.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The B.C. government is moving forward with its changes to the Wildlife Act, banning the breeding, transport and ownership of all non-native cats.

The changes come under the Controlled Alien Species Regulations (CASR), which requires a permit to possess, breed, ship or transport any prohibited species.

In a news release, the province says that non-native cats can pose a risk to wildlife and public safety because of their hunting skills.

They can also damage vegetation, nesting areas and other wildlife spaces.

The species that have now been designated as controlled alien species include:

• servals
• caracals
• ocelots
• European and African wildcats
• Asian golden cats
• fishing cats
• jungle cats
• marbled cats
• hybrid cats within four generations.

Existing owners of exotic breeds must apply for a permit before May 1, 2027, to keep their pets.

To qualify, existing owners must provide proof that they are able to meet basic care and safety requirements for the animal, as well as proof of the pet’s identification (microchip or tattoo) and sterilization.

Permit holders must also agree to restrict public contact with their animals.

The cats will not be allowed to be displayed or allowed to interact with people outside of the owner’s household.

People who fail to do so could be subject to penalties under the Wildlife Act, with up to $100,000 in fines and one year of imprisonment for possession without a permit.

Those caught breeding or transporting exotic animals without a permit could face $250,000 in fines and two years of imprisonment.

In a news release, the BC SPCA says that the move will keep exotic animals from living as pets where their needs cannot be met.

“It is nearly impossible for exotic cats to express their natural, wild behaviours in captivity,” Senior Director Dr. Sara Dubois said in the release.

“When exotic cats are not free to express their natural behaviours, they may become depressed, destructive or resort to self-mutilation.”

The SPCA says it has been campaigning for protection of exotic animals for decades, especially after 13 serval cats were found in a Little Fort residence in 2019, living in what they describe as “horrific living conditions.”

The servals were given to sanctuaries after months of specialized treatment.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is rejecting the notion that Canada might use energy or critical minerals as “leverage” in upcoming trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

The prime minister made the remarks in an interview with The Canadian Press, his first since declaring he would enter federal politics more than a year ago.

Carney said he wouldn’t describe those sectors as “leverage” since Canada is not talking about stopping any sort of existing trade.

His comments come after United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told an audience in Washington that Canada should not attempt to use its energy and mineral resources as leverage in discussions about renewing the continental free trade pact.

Carney also defended former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s record on trade and his handling of Trump, crediting Trudeau with successfully negotiating the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement during Trump’s first term in the White House.

Carney said the agreement, better known as CUSMA, “stands the test of time” and he believes “much of it will be retained” through the renewal process.

— With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Alberta-based Imperial Oil Ltd. is capitalizing on strong pricing for diesel and jet fuel by boosting how much of those products its refineries churn out.

“Certainly in this time period, we’ve been maximizing our production of diesel and jet molecules over gasoline,” Scott Maloney, vice-president of Imperial’s downstream business, told analysts on a conference call Friday to discuss the company’s latest results.

Output from Imperial’s refineries — two in southwestern Ontario and one in Edmonton — mainly goes to the Canadian market, but Maloney said “we do opportunistically look at exporting additional production on top of that.”

The war in the Middle East has all but halted oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf, making fuel products derived from crude more expensive and, in some parts of the world, scarce.

Natural Resources Canada said the average weekly price for diesel sits at almost $2.21 a litre, about one-third than it was in late February.

The higher costs are being felt by long-haul truckers, railways and the businesses they serve via fuel surcharges.

Meanwhile, airlines are dealing with soaring jet fuel prices, with Air Canada on Thursday suspending its guidance for the year amid the volatility.

Airlines across the globe have trimmed their flight schedules as ballooning fuel costs render some routes unprofitable.

Imperial, majority-owned by U.S. energy major ExxonMobil Corp., sold 169,000 barrels per day of heating, diesel and jet fuels during the first quarter, a period that included one month of the Middle East conflict. A year earlier, sales of those products were 175,000 boepd.

Throughput at Imperial’s refineries during the first three months of the year averaged 384,000 barrels per day, down from 397,000 a year earlier, as it dealt with unplanned downtime and a disruption in supplies from an oilsands processing plant at the Syncrude mine.

Refineries ran 88 per cent full for the first three months of 2026, down from 91 per cent a year earlier.

Upstream production averaged 419,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels per day, up from 418,000 in the first three months of 2025.

Imperial’s Kearl oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray managed to increase output slightly to 259,000 barrels of bitumen per day despite a third-party natural gas supply outage during the quarter.

Also Friday, Imperial reported a first-quarter profit of $940 million, down from $1.29 billion a year earlier.

The drop was “primarily driven by higher incentive compensation charges as a result of our higher share price,” said Daniel Lyons, senior vice-president of finance and administration. The charge amounted to $143 million after tax, he said.

Imperial’s profit amounted to $1.94 per diluted share for the quarter, down from $2.52 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2025. The average analyst estimate had been for earnings of $2.39 per share during the first quarter, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

Quarterly revenue totalled $12.45 billion, down from $12.52 billion a year earlier.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Kylie Jenner is facing a second lawsuit from another former employee, alleging she faced workplace discrimination.

Juana Delgado Soto, who worked as a housekeeper for the reality TV star for six years, filed a complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and USA Today.

According to the Los Angeles Time, Soto filed the lawsuit against Jenner, Kylie Jenner Inc., staff supervisor Itzel Sibrian, Tri Star Services and La Maison Family Services, alleging racial discrimination, harassment, failure to pay wages, failure to prevent or remedy harassment and discrimination, wrongful termination and more.

Global News has not independently viewed the court documents.

“On behalf of our clients, we want to be clear: no employee—regardless of the power, wealth, or fame of their employer—should ever be forced to endure unlawful working conditions, wage violations, retaliation, intimidation, or mistreatment in the workplace,” Soto’s lawyer Della Shaker told Global News in a statement.

(Shaker also represents Angelica Hernandez Vasquez, who filed a lawsuit against Kylie Jenner Inc., Tri Star Services and La Maison Family Services last week.)

Global News has reached out to Jenner’s representative for further comment, but has not received a response.

Soto, who began working for the 28-year-old reality TV star in 2019, claimed that she made a report to human resources about her alleged treatment by staff members in 2024, according to the Times’ reporting.

Soto reportedly claimed that Sibrian mocked and humiliated her for her accent, immigration status and race and called her “stupid.”

Sibrian was temporality removed because of the complaint but then reinstated, according to the lawsuit. Soto claims that’s when Sibrian “set out to retaliate against” her for filing the complaint by “reducing her hourly wage, assigning unreasonable workloads and changing her schedule,” according to the Times’ report.

In April 2025, the suit obtained by the Times alleges that after “repeated failures by management to address Soto’s concerns, she wrote a long letter to Jenner detailing the harassment, discrimination and retaliation and placed in on Jenner’s massage bed immediately before her massage.”

Soto reportedly wrote, “I need to express how terribly I am mentally abused” and “I really apologize for letting you know about all these situations, I know you wouldn’t allow this to happen, if you were aware of it.”

Soto alleges that the following day she was “threatened with termination and instructed never to contact Jenner again,” the Times reports.

“Defendants told her she was no longer allowed to look at Kylie, smile at Kylie and if she was Kylie she would have to ‘disappear,'” the legal docs reportedly read.

In August 2025, Soto reportedly sent a text message to her supervisors, writing, “I am sorry, I cannot do this anymore, every day you guys mistreat me, and I have bitten all my nails off, I cannot sleep at nights, and I always have anxiety because of the way you guys treat me. No matter what I did no one helped me.”

Soto is seeking an unspecified amount of punitive and compensatory damages.

Soto’s lawsuit comes after another former housekeeper of Jenner’s, Angelica Hernandez Vasquez, filed a lawsuit against Kylie Jenner Inc., Tri Star Services and La Maison Family Services, claiming was subjected to “severe and pervasive harassment” while working at the beauty mogul’s home.

Vasquez worked for Jenner from September 2024 to August 2025, and claims that from her first day on staff at Jenner’s residence in Hidden Hills, Calif., she was treated with “hostility and exclusion” by the head housekeeper, identified as Patsy, and another supervisor, identified as Elsi, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, People and E! News.

The lawsuit does not specifically attribute any alleged discrimination to Jenner specifically, but she’s listed as a defendant alongside Tri Star Services and La Maison Family Services and 25 individuals who have yet to be identified, according to E! News.

Vasquez, who is described as a “Salvadoran woman and practicing Catholic” in the legal docs, alleged that she was “routinely assigned the most difficult and undesirable tasks; excluded from the housekeeping team; publicly belittled and humiliated in front of coworkers due to her race, national origin and religion; and subjected to intimidation and demeaning treatment” during her employment.

Vasquez alleges that the defendants failed to pay her in full, paid her late, failed to pay overtime wages and failed to reimburse business expenses, according to the Times.

She’s requesting a jury trial and seeking damages “in the form of unpaid wages, meal and rest period premium pay, unreimbursed business expenses, unpaid sick leave, and all other compensation unlawfully withheld.”

This isn’t the first time a member of the Kardashian-Jenner family has been sued by former staff.

In 2021, Kim Kardashian was sued by seven members of her domestic staff who claimed that the reality star neglected to pay them properly or give them appropriate breaks.

According to the civil action, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, “Plaintiffs never received any paystubs, were not paid on regular pay periods, were not given their required meal and rest breaks, were not provided a means to record all their hours, were not paid all their hours, were not reimbursed for employment expenses, were not paid all their overtime wages, and were not paid their wages upon termination of employment.”

The seven workers who filed the lawsuit didn’t specify the exact amount they were seeking in damages, but said it was in excess of US$25,000, not including interest.

A representative for The Kardashians star said in a statement that Kardashian can’t be held responsible because the workers were provided through an unidentified “third-party vendor.”

By November 2023, Kardashian agreed to a legal settlement with the former employees after a scheduled trial for November 2023 to January 2024 was called off.

Kardashian and the defendants told the court they had “reached an agreement in principle to resolve this action.” The terms of the deal were kept private.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Cross-border commercial shippers say they are “losing faith” in the aging IT infrastructure used by the Canada Border Services Agency to pre-clear goods coming into Canada, amid persistent technical glitches that have led to growing delays and financial costs.

It marks the second major issue with CBSA technical systems in recent months, which the agency and the federal government have vowed to address with an IT modernization plan.

At issue this time is the eManifest digital portal that allows importers to send data about their cargo to the CBSA prior to their arrival at the border. The system is meant to expedite the customs clearance process, which under normal circumstances only takes a few minutes.

Yet recurring outages in recent weeks have added hours of wait times for truck drivers, who are now being forced to submit paper documentation or otherwise wait for CBSA to move through digital backlogs that accumulate by the afternoon.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance said in a statement Thursday that the problems have become particularly acute this week at major border crossings in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, with clearances taking four to eight hours or longer.

“This means numerous drivers are being forced to sit idle in the U.S. for an entire work shift just waiting for the word ‘go,'” said Lak Shoan, the CTA’s policy and public affairs director.

A CBSA spokesperson told Global News it has been implementing its system outage contingency plan since April 18 and has been helping supply chain and government partners navigate alternative submission measures “to ensure the continued flow of goods.”

“While most of the issues have been resolved, we continue to clear a residual backlog and investigate the causes,” spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said.

“CBSA personnel have been working around the clock to restore system performance and resolve challenges, while also working directly with trade chain partners to move and release goods as quickly as possible to minimize disruptions.”

Purdy added the current technical issues and commercial shipping delays have had “no impact on border wait times for travellers.”

The commercial delays are leading to added costs for shippers that will ultimately be passed along to the price of the goods they’re carrying, the CTA said, fueling inflation.

It estimated that a four-hour delay costs each truck an additional $300, creating a daily supply chain cost of $3.3 million, while an eight-hour delay roughly doubles those costs.

“Over a single week of these systemic failures, the ‘outage tax’ on Canadians’ groceries, medical supplies, and manufacturing parts can exceed $30 million to $45 million,” the CTA statement said.

The outages have persisted despite multiple workarounds and IT system updates seeking to solve the problem, the CTA added. While it says it is not “losing hope” that CBSA wants to solve the problem, “CTA members are losing faith the current border technology utilized by CBSA is beyond repair.”

“The workarounds recently introduced by the CBSA, along with IT updates, show they are committed to keeping trucks moving, but the frustration for drivers and carriers continues to mount because they fear these failures are our new normal until this system is replaced,” said Shoan.

Last fall, multiple outages affected the CBSA’s passenger inspection kiosks at Canadian airports, as well as inspection systems at land border crossings and the Passenger Protect Program — Canada’s “no-fly” list.

A joint investigation by the CBSA and Shared Services Canada, the Crown agency that provides IT services across government, found “human error” prior to a software upgrade on Sept. 28 caused the inspection outages that lasted until Oct. 5.

The outages resulted in a weeklong backlog of commercial shipments entering Canada at land, air and marine ports, and delays for international airport arrivals, the Oct. 31 joint report from the investigation said.

An emergency security patch on CBSA firewalls installed on Sept. 29 caused the issues with the Passenger Protect Program as well as the Interactive Advance Passenger Information system, which allows border agents to assess passenger data prior to boarding a flight.

The CBSA and Shared Services Canada committed to a number of improvements in training, communication and IT management as part of the joint review, some of which have been completed, with others in progress.

The report, which was updated April 17 — one day before the outage contingency plan was invoked — says consultations with “central agencies” on prioritizing the renewal of CBSA’s IT systems have been extended from March to May.

A fulsome system review that identifies safeguards to prevent future outages is expected to be completed by October.

The CTA called on the federal government to provide additional funding to allow for the action plan to be implemented, including modernizing CBSA systems.

Global News has reached out to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s office for comment.

Last fall’s federal budget allocated just over $1 billion over the next four fiscal years, and $318.5 million ongoing, to Shared Services Canada for “modernizing government operations” but included no specific mention of CBSA’s IT infrastructure.

It said both CBSA and Shared Services Canada would be tasked with retiring outdated IT assets and equipment in order to save costs.

The spring economic update released this week makes no mention of Shared Services Canada, nor the CBSA’s IT modernization plan.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Vancouver Parks Board says it has voted to continue providing lifeguarding services at nine outdoor beaches this summer, after previously saying the program was going to be reduced.

This comes after musician Peter Gabriel spoke out about being rescued by a Vancouver lifeguard when he was in town in 1983.

The lifeguards were going to be removed from Trout Lake, Sunset Beach, Third Beach and Spanish Banks.

However, this change means lifeguards will now be on duty at Spanish Banks West, Spanish Banks East, Locarno, Jericho, Kitsilano, Sunset, English Bay, Second and Third Beach, but not Trout Lake.

“This was a difficult decision in the current fiscal environment but we need to make sure our beaches are safe,” park board chair Tom Digby said in a release. “We have a long history of having excellent beach lifeguarding in Vancouver, and residents expect that.”

The park board says this change came from a one-time reallocation of funds from its 2026 budget.

Ongoing funding for the program will need to be established in the park board’s 2027 budget.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The body of an unidentified male has been found in the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, according to the city’s police.

Officers initially responded to a report of a body in the river on Friday around 9 a.m., the Saskatoon Police Service said in a news release.

The body was reported to be near Sturgeon Drive and Spadina Crescent East, it said.

The male’s identity and cause of death have not been identified yet, police said, adding that their major crime and missing persons units are on the case.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The second generic version of semaglutide — the medication in brand-name drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro — has been approved by Health Canada, this one manufactured by Canadian company Apotex.

Health Canada approved the first generic version of Ozempic Tuesday night. The first generic semaglutide – the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic – is being manufactured by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in India and is approved for the once-weekly treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults.

Canada is the first G7 country to authorize generic semaglutide. There are now seven other submissions currently under review for generic semaglutide by different companies.

“Like existing products, this semaglutide injection is indicated for the once-weekly treatment of adult patients with type 2 diabetes to manage blood sugar levels,” Health Canada’s press release states.

Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, a professor in the medicine department at McMaster University and a diabetes physician, has told Global News that there is not much difference between name-brand and generic semaglutide drugs.

“When Health Canada approves a generic version of a drug, they go through a very rigorous process and ensure that the drug that they’re approving is as close to the original drug chemically as it can possibly be,” he said. 

“The fact that they’ve approved it should reassure most people that if they’re using one of these generic drugs, it should be a very similar, if not identical, effect as would be if they would take the original, copied drug.” 

The agency is expected to make regulatory decisions on more of these submissions in the coming weeks and months.

According to Felix, a Canadian integrated health-care platform, the average cost of Ozempic injections can be between $200 and $450 per month, depending on each Canadian province.

The price of Mounjaro ranges between $300 and $550 per month in Canada. Wegovy’s current list price is expected to cost $5,066 per patient per year, or roughly $400 per month.

Health Canada has stated that many generic medications are 45 to 90 per cent cheaper than the brand name versions.

“The numbers I’ve heard are anywhere from like $40 to $80,” Dana Small, a neurology and neurosurgery professor at McGill University, said to Global News. “That’s a major decrease in cost.”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.