Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has personal understanding of the impact of mental illness and suicide.

Aglukkaq, the first Inuk appointed a federal minister, hails from Nunavut, where Inuit youth have among the highest suicide rates in the world, according to Health Canada.

"Family-wise, community, friends. I've also lost a number of friends to suicides," Aglukkaq told Postmedia News. "Whether that was associated (with mental illness) or not, one could never really know. But we make assumptions on why we lose people that we care about.

"But certainly, I've seen people suffer from it, whether from postpartum (depression) or whether through illness . . . The North is very small."

Aglukkaq was in Geneva this week to discuss mental health at the 65th World Health Assembly.

"We need to look at mental illness like any other illness," she said. "We need to start breaking down those barriers that individuals with mental illness face.

Aglukkaq discussed Canada's new mental health

As the Quebec student tuition strike metastasizes into a larger social protest under the provincial government's ham-fisted legal crackdown, money is pouring in from elsewhere in Canada to support the movement.

The Canadian Press reported trade unions outside Quebec have sent $40,000 to the province's largest student federations to help pay for such things as buses to transport marchers and food for the demonstrators.

The protest marked its 100th day Tuesday with a massive march through downtown Montreal in defiance of the hurriedly passed law that demonstrations of more than 50 people required advance notice of the route, the Canadian Press reported.

Marches of solidarity took place Tuesday in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York and Paris.

As it has several other times, Montreal march deteriorated Tuesday night into clashes with police, with at least 100 arrests, according to a Canadian Press report.

Police declared the march illegal under the new law, Bill 78, after protesters

It's a rite of passage that involves a flurry of miniature pads and sticks, a battered net, a gaggle of energetic grade-schoolers and a residential city street.

And up until now, street hockey - that rowdy, popular outdoor version of Canada's biggest sport - has been illegal in Canada's biggest city.

Of course, that hasn't stopped groups of boys and girls from hauling out their gear and risking a $55 bylaw fine until long past dinnertime.

But as the Toronto Star reports, the days of watching out for police cars among the parade of passing motor vehicles may soon be over.

Under a proposed set of rules, which are scheduled to reach the ears of the city council public works committee in June, enthusiastic players can appeal to their neighbours for slapshot permission.

Lucky athletes who snag a formal support rate of 80 per cent can then apply for a permit.

City staff members would then step in to make sure the right criteria are in place: a street speed limit of 40 km/h or less, 1,000 or

We've all seen this TV scenario: Investigators are racing to track down the source of a deadly virus, or maybe a terrorist nuclear device, threatening a big city.

But they're keeping the publicity lid on because they don't want people to panic.

Well, a move by the B.C. government feels a little like that.

Freedom of information advocates are criticizing provisions of the province's new Animal Health Act which forbids anyone, including journalists, from reporting an animal disease outbreak.

The Vancouver Province reported the law requires anyone — a journalist, say, or a farm or lab employee — who learns about an outbreak must keep the details secret or face "administrative penalties," bureaucratise for fines, of up to $75,000.

According to the Province, a section of the law states: "A person must refuse, despite the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, to disclose . . . information that would reveal that a notifiable or reportable disease is or may be present in a

The two Canadian women stabbed to death in Atlantic City have been identified as Po Lin Wan, 80, and Alice Mei See Leung, 47.

Police in the New Jersey town released the names of the mother and daughter who are both from Scarborough, Ont.

The two women were attacked in the middle of the city's tourism district Monday during what police are calling a botched robbery in broad daylight.

Police patrolling the streets witnessed the attack, intervened and arrested Antoinette Pelzer, 44. Pelzer has been charged with murder in connection with the deaths. She appeared confused, shook her head and made odd faces while the judge read the description of the events in court.

Superior Court Judge Michael Donia had difficulty getting Pelzer to focus and respond to questions and Pelzer laughed out loud when the judge asked if she applied for a public defender.

Pelzer had been living in an Ohio shelter until December, when her mother brought her back to Philadelphia, said Pelzer's aunt Nadine King. King

In July, 2008, Vince Li beheaded fellow bus passenger Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba.

Li, who believed he was on a God-sent quest to save people from an alien attack, was found not criminally responsible for McLean's death.

Instantly, he was catapulted into Canadian infamy.

Now, almost four years later, Li is talking about that day. Granting an interview to Chris Summerville, CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, Li speaks of the shame and guilt that followed the attack once he began treatment for his then-unidentified schizophrenia.

Summerville said that "unjustified public fears" about Li will likely keep him in a mental-health hospital longer than necessary.

McLean's mother would disagree, considering Li's earlier release from a mental-health institution gave him the freedom to kill her son.

The interview is a fascinating look inside the mind of the man dubbed a monster, whose supervised excursions from the Selkirk Mental Health Centre outraged Canadians. The

Hansen's arrival at Terry Fox Plaza marked the end of the 25th anniversary of the Man in Motion Tour. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan HaywardHe's been Canada's Man in Motion for 25 years but Rick Hansen's energy to promote spinal-cord research never seems to ebb.

Hansen finished a cross-country relay Tuesday to mark anniversary of the May 22, 1987 completion of his round-the-world wheelchair odyssey.

The relay ended, fittingly, at Terry Fox Plaza in downtown Vancouver after Hansen wheeled the final stretch, accompanied by B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Mayor Gregor Robertson, The Canadian Press reported.

The event will be capped with a planned concert headlined by Sarah MacLachlan.

"There are few moments in life when the dream and the reality are the same," Hansen tweeted via his foundation. "This is one of them."

The Rick Hansen Foundation posted a highlight video of the relay on is web site Tuesday.

The anniversary relay began last Aug. 24 in Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, and travelled west, involving 7,000 participants who've made a difference in the lives of others, the foundation said.

Hansen, a Paralympian

Graphic of SpaceX, the first private company to launch to the International Space Station. (AFP Photo/)There's a Canadian connection to Tuesday's successful launch of the first private rocket to the International Space Station.

Well, two Canadian connections but one of them is quite literal.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the starting point for so many historic space missions, in the pre-dawn darkness to deliver a half-tonne of supplies to the space-station, Reuters reported.

In a news release, SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies, said the Dragon capsule would undergo a series of tests to determine if it's ready to dock with the station in a couple of days.

"We obviously have to go through a number of steps to berth with the space station, but everything is looking really good and I think I would count today as a success no matter what happens with the rest of the mission," SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk said.

Musk tweeted the flight's progress with a sense of elation.

"Falcon flew perfectly! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays