National News

The latest news on the COVID-19 global pandemic (all times Eastern): 11:45 p.m. WestJet says it is suspending all commercial operations for international and transborder flights for a 30-day period.

OTTAWA — WestJet says it is suspending all commercial international and transborder flights for a 30-day period to help control the spread of COVID-19, effective March 23.

TORONTO — Canada's largest movie exhibitor Cineplex Inc. says it's closing all of its 165 theatres nationwide until at least April 2 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

CUSCO, Peru — As the federal government urges Canadians overseas to return, some travellers in countries where borders are closing don't know how they're going to get home.

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has postponed until at least June hearing a constitutional challenge of the federal government's carbon tax.

EDMONTON — Alberta's chief medical officer of health announced 18 new cases of COVID-19 in the province Monday but the news came via video, as she has isolated herself at home and is being tested for the virus.

A wave of alarm over COVID-19 hit the shores of some of B.C.’s more isolated islands after federal and provincial authorities have announced a series of wide-ranging measures to quell the spread of the virus within the last week.

VANCOUVER — The aunt of three-year-old Alan Kurdi says she has mixed feelings after three people were sentenced in the human smuggling case that resulted in the deaths of her nephew, his brother and mother as they fled Syria in 2015.

The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of March 16, 2020: — Ontario: 177 confirmed, 5 resolved — British Columbia: 103 confirmed (including 4 deaths) 5 resolved — Alberta: 74 confirmed — Quebec: 50 confirmed — Can

TORONTO — A Toronto man who was the last person seen with a murdered young woman presented an "easy target" for investigators to blame for her death, his lawyers said Monday as they argued for his acquittal.