OTTAWA - The RCMP says a Canadian has been arrested by the FBI in connection with an attack from a criminal hacking group which breached the bureau's jobs portal and obtained sensitive and personal data on nearly all the FBI's employees.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on Friday the arrest of another co-conspirator in the ShinyHunters attack. He said the arrest had taken place earlier this week, related to a hack of FBIjobs.gov.

“This is the latest arrest this FBI has made in a matter of days involving this network, as we work non-stop to dismantle the group, pursue new leads and evidence, and act quickly," Patel said. "This arrest demonstrates the strength and reach of our efforts to protect Americans from cybercrime. We will continue to work closely with our partners to disrupt what’s left of the ShinyHunters group and their associates, no matter where they operate.”

The arrest was the latest targeting ShinyHunters, the group that claimed responsibility for the hack, as the FBI continues a global investigation into the breach of its network, which Patel said “occurred on a platform managed by a third-party vendor.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Ottawa to sue Stelco's American owner as part of a five-point plan aimed at protecting Canada's struggling steel industry.

Poilievre was in Burlington, Ont. on Friday, speaking at a site overlooking Stelco's operations across Hamilton Harbour. The steelmaker began issuing layoff notices this week after announcing plans to lay off up to 500 workers at its Hamilton and Lake Erie facilities.

He said the lawsuit should seek to bring back workers and restart idled operations at Stelco, or force its sale to a Canadian owner willing to resume production.

"The only thing that we would accept is these workers getting their paycheques, making Canadian steel to build our country," Poilievre said.

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday he will be in Alberta just days before the province's referendum to deliver a speech on Canadian unity.

The House of Commons will be on a break next week after MPs head back to their ridings for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Poilievre is scheduled to deliver his speech during the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Calgary on Oct. 16. His speech is expected to be followed by an address from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The schedule lists the title of Poilievre's speech: "The Canadian Drift: Reclaiming Confidence, Abundance and Freedom for Alberta."

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada says in cases where an Indigenous offender commits an offence against an intimate partner who is an Indigenous woman, a judge must apply sentencing principles related to both Indigenous offenders and victims of crime in a harmonious way.

In a 5-4 judgment Friday, the top court provided guidance and set out a new framework for determining an appropriate sentence in such cases.

The court said Indigenous people are disproportionately and excessively imprisoned, while Indigenous women and girls suffer from unacceptably high levels of violence and abuse.

It said both of these issues have been shaped by the experiences of colonization, and addressing them together is central to the ongoing process of reconciliation.

OTTAWA - Some of Canada's leading environmental groups are pushing the federal government to change aspects of proposed legislation to speed up development of major projects before it's tabled this fall.

Environmental Defence has launched an ad campaign to draw attention to the potential fate of the Southern Resident Orcas. The group says the whales are at risk if Ottawa moves ahead with a bill changing how major projects are reviewed.

The group says it's concerned about Ottawa's plan to establish "economic zones" for transportation corridors, telecommunications networks, and energy production and transmission. Those zones would allow the federal cabinet to decide which activities would be allowed in them, and give ministers the power to pre-approve projects.

"We've heard from MPs that changes are being considered from what was drafted initially," Julia Levin, an associate director at Environmental Defence, told The Canadian Press.

MONTREAL - A lawyer representing a Quebec man convicted of fomenting hatred against Jews is asking for a retrial, arguing the judge was biased against his client.

The case involving Gabriel Sohier-Chaput was heard Wednesday at the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal. Sohier-Chaput was not physically present.

Quebec court Judge Manlio Del Negro sentenced Sohier-Chaput in September 2023 to a year and three months in jail followed by three years’ probation. The accused appealed both the guilty verdict and the sentence.

Sohier-Chaput's lawyer, Antonio Cabral, told the panel of three Court of Appeal justices that Del Negro's judgment may have been affected by news media headlines at the time about antisemitism. 

OTTAWA - Federal and provincial watchdogs say OpenAI failed to respect Canadian privacy laws when training its artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT chatbot.

The conclusion came in a report released Wednesday following a joint investigation by federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and his counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

ChatGPT, released in November 2022, is a popular conversation-style tool that responds to online users' prompts with a wide range of information almost instantly — responses that may or may not be accurate.

They found OpenAI's collection of information to train its models was overly broad, resulting in the compilation and use of sensitive personal details.

BARDUFOSS - Canada and its allies are prepared to defend the Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday in Bardufoss, Norway, after observing NATO’s Cold Response exercises.

He held a news conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Asked by a German reporter whether the "conflict" over the Trump administration's demands for Greenland is settled, the leaders emphasized Greenland's independence.

"It's up to the people in Greenland and the King of Denmark to trace the future for the people in Greenland," Store said.