In the news today: Air Canada begins cancelling flights, Google AI summaries concerns
By Canadian Press on August 13, 2025.
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…
Air Canada starts cancelling flights after flight attendants give notice
Air Canada is starting a gradual suspension of flights to allow an orderly shutdown as it faces a potential work stoppage by its flight attendants on Saturday.
The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants issued 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday. In response, the airline issued a lockout notice.
The airline says the first flights will be cancelled Thursday, with more on Friday and a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge by the weekend.
Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines will continue to operate as normal.
Experts issue warnings about Google’s AI summaries
News publishers say the AI-generated summaries that now top many Google search results are cutting into their online traffic — and experts are still flagging concerns about the summaries’ accuracy as they warn the internet itself is being reshaped.
When Google rolled out its AI Overview feature last year, its mistakes — including one suggestion to use glue to make pizza toppings stick better — made headlines. One expert warns concerns about the accuracy of the feature’s output won’t necessarily go away as the technology improves.
“It’s one of those very sweeping technological changes that has changed the way we … search, and therefore live our lives, without really much of a big public discussion,” said Jessica Johnson, a senior fellow at McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.
“As a journalist and as a researcher, I have concerns about the accuracy.”
Ex-general calls for medals review for Afghan vets
A former top general who led the military during the Afghanistan conflict is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to revisit the files of soldiers who served there to see if any of their awards should be upgraded to the Victoria Cross.
Rick Hillier said that despite the failure of recent attempts to trigger such an independent review, he thinks the odds are better now that Ottawa is bent on revitalizing the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I am more optimistic right now. I think for the government, this should be a no-brainer,” Hillier, chief of the defence staff from 2005-2008, told The Canadian Press.
Hillier is part of the civil society group Valour in the Presence of the Enemy, which has been pressing Ottawa to consider awarding veterans of the 2001 to 2014 Afghanistan campaign the country’s highest military honour.
Roughly 20,000 under evacuation alert in N.L.
Thousands of people in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital and elsewhere in the province are under evacuation alerts as wildfires continue to threaten communities.
About 5,400 residents in two areas of St. John’s were told on Tuesday to be ready to leave their homes at a moment’s notice.
They joined roughly 15,000 others in parts of the nearby communities of Paradise and Conception Bay South who were placed under evacuation alerts a day earlier.
The wildfire threatening the towns was about 250 metres from the Trans-Canada Highway on Tuesday night.
Extreme heat persists in Atlantic Canada
Extreme heat is expected to ease in many parts of Canada today, while the Atlantic provinces continue to bear the brunt of a multi-day heat wave.
Relief is expected in southern and eastern Ontario, but Environment Canada says temperatures are still above average for this time of year, with forecasted highs in the low 30s.
The national weather agency says conditions will begin to improve today in many parts of Quebec, with more seasonal daytime highs and lower humidity expected by Thursday.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island will continue to see daytime highs reaching the mid to high 30s, with humidity making it feel closer to 40.
Ontario just shy of LTC direct care target
Ontario failed to meet its legislated target for getting long-term care residents an average of four hours a day of direct care by March of this year, the government concedes, though it came quite close.
The Progressive Conservative government set the target aimed at boosting both the amount of direct care residents receive from nurses and personal support workers, as well as other health professionals such as physiotherapists, in a 2021 law.
While the government met its interim targets in the following two years, starting at three hours of direct care, it did not reach the third-year or final targets, amid staffing challenges.
In the last year, the average direct hours of nursing and PSW care in long-term care homes across the province was three hours and 49 minutes, or 95.5 per cent of that four-hour target, according to a report recently published by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, led by Minister Natalia Kusendova-Bashta.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2025
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