By Anna Mehler Paperny and Jessie Pang – Reuters

From Sydney to Toronto, mainland Chinese have stepped up protests this week, with demands to end the world’s most stringent COVID-19 restrictions evolving into calls to “free China” and for President Xi Jinping to step down.

By Anna Mehler Paperny – Reuters

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday defended invoking emergency powers to end anti-government protests that paralyzed the capital earlier this year, citing the threat of violence and lack of a credible plan by police.

By Anna Mehler Paperny – Reuters

Canadian hospitals are straining to care for an influx of sick children, many with respiratory illnesses, in the midst of staffing constraints and as a shortage of children’s over-the-counter medication sends more kids to hospital.

By Anna Mehler Paperny and Ismail Shakil – Reuters

A split Canadian Supreme Court on Friday ruled limits on conditional sentences are constitutional, a setback for advocates of indigenous rights who argued the provisions discriminate against indigenous people, who are overrepresented in the country’s

prisons.