In the news today: gun review lags, Quebec cabinet swearing-in, vigil for Wainwright

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

Group assisting long-planned review of firearms — including SKS — has yet to meet

An advisory group that’s supporting a federal review of firearms classification — including a look at the SKS rifle — is expected to hold its first meeting this fall, almost a year after Ottawa announced the review.

Public Safety Canada says members of the Firearms Classification Technical Advisory Group, appointed to provide expert advice to the department and the RCMP, will meet later this fall.

The Liberal government has faced fresh questions about the SKS after a document filed in a U.S. court said Jesse Van Rootselaar, the killer in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting, talked about having one.

The SKS is commonly used in Indigenous communities to hunt for food, and it has also been used in police killings and other high-profile shootings.

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Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon to be sworn in and unveil cabinet

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is set to be sworn in as Quebec’s 34th premier.

He will also unveil his cabinet, officially bringing the Parti Québécois back to power after more than a decade.

The sovereigntist party won 59 seats in the Oct. 5 provincial election, falling short of the 64 needed for a majority government.

The party’s elected representatives were sworn in last week and took an oath of allegiance to the people of Quebec rather than the King — a requirement dropped in 2022 when St-Pierre Plamondon refused to take the oath.

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‘Hurting’: Vigil in Wainwright, Alta., for soldiers caught in deadly fire

A group of churches in Wainwright are organizing a vigil tonight, four days after the deadly fire on the nearby Alberta military base.

Four men were killed in the fire and 33 soldiers remain in hospital.

Residents have been handling the grief with a military-inspired resolve, but Ryan Wood, lead pastor at Church of the Nazarene, says people are looking for a way to come together.

Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh says the vigil may not close the book for many involved in the tragedy, but hopes it may at least close a painful chapter.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to take questions for first time since separation vote

Premier Danielle Smith will take questions today for the first time since Albertans overwhelmingly rejected separating from Canada in Monday’s referendum.

Smith said she voted to stay in Canada and had little choice but to call the referendum to quash a burgeoning and divisive debate over Alberta’s role in Confederation.

About three-quarters of voters marked an X to say yes to staying in Canada rather than holding a second, binding referendum on leaving.

In a provincewide TV address Tuesday, Smith said she now considers separation to be a dead issue in Alberta and there will be no more such votes as long as she is premier.

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Young anglophones are still leaving Quebec, but at much lower rates, find researchers

Two researchers from the Quebec English-speaking Communities Research Network have found the number of English-speaking Quebecers leaving the province has slowed down in recent years.

In research going back several decades, they identified many reasons that push young anglophones to leave the province and confirmed that the French language is a factor.

Meanwhile, the study shows that francophones are less likely to leave.

Simon-Pierre Lacasse, one of the authors of the paper, says that the exodus of English-speaking Quebecers was especially strong in the 1970s and 1980s, but has slowed down since then.

He says research appears to show that young English-speaking Quebecers are getting better integrated into the province’s culture.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.