OTTAWA — Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs will be alongside agricultural producers and citizen groups from Quebec and Ontario to oppose Alto’s high-speed rail project. The demonstration is expected to rally hundreds of people on Parliament Hill around noon.

A press release from l’Union des producteurs agricoles, a trade union representing agricultural workers in Quebec, said the protest aims to raise awareness about the many impacts the project would have on local communities, including forced expropriations.

Concerns are particularly strong around Mirabel, north of Montreal, which saw thousands of citizens forced to relocate decades ago for an airport terminal that never really took off.

But other communities along the proposed route between Toronto and Quebec City are now growing increasingly uncomfortable with the expropriation powers the federal government is giving Alto, the Crown corporation behind the project, to build the rail.

North Belleville Against Alto, Save Stone Mills and Tyendinaga Township Landowners Coalition are among the citizen groups expected to be part of the protest on Wednesday.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has previously called on the government to cancel the project , which has been estimated to cost between $60 billion to $90 billion.

On Tuesday, Poilievre got up in the House of Commons to ask why the Liberal government will be sacrificing farmlands along the proposed route for “another boondoggle.”

“This will be the biggest infrastructure project in Canada’s history,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney, adding that a 60-metre wide corridor would be required for the future train track.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has said his party supported the idea of high-speed rail even before the Liberals did. But the Bloc is now opposing the Alto project, arguing there is a lack of transparency on its real cost and the expropriation process.

The Bloc’s provincial cousin, the Parti Québécois, is now promising to axe the Quebec portion of the project should it form government in October.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon admitted that would effectively kill the project.

“Let’s be clear. There is no Alto project without Quebec,” he said on Tuesday.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

• Farmers, conservationists and rural communities are uniting to protest high-speed rail
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Australian police are investigating a severe assault on a Canadian man in Byron Bay.

Late Sunday local time, a police patrol car was flagged down by a 28-year-old man in the coastal town on Australia’s southeastern coast, when he reported being attacked, according to a statement from police .

Police were told by the man that he had been drinking in a main street park with a group of about five males that he had just met, before they turned on him. He fled into the bush and later stopped the police vehicle.

The officers provided first aid to the man, identified as a Canadian national, before taking him to the Byron Bay Hospital, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation .

The man was later reported to be “serious but stable condition with a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and spinal injuries.” His name has not been provided.

A Canadian man has been hospitalized with a brain bleed and fractured skull after being attacked by five strangers in a popular tourist destination.https://t.co/lePzveSxhp

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 8, 2026

Police believe the Canadian had only arrived in the popular tourist destination the previous day , reports News.com Australia.

“Two of the males involved in the fight are believed to be aged about 16 or 17,” say police, but no further information is available at this time.

No arrests have been made, says Sky News .

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OTTAWA — The federal government is extending the amnesty period shielding firearms owners from liability for possessing guns that the Liberals have banned until 90 days after a Supreme Court ruling on the ban, which it expects next year.

The amnesty order, set to expire on Oct. 30, applies to owners of the roughly 2,500 makes and models of firearms the Liberals have banned since May 2020.

“When there is a Supreme Court hearing on a matter that is quite relevant to the program, I think it’s incumbent upon lawmakers to ensure that we respect that process,” Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, told National Post in an interview on Tuesday.

“While you know we would have preferred to have the amnesty in place for October … we have to respect the Supreme Court and their ability as the final arbiter of Canadian law to weigh in, and that’s what we’re doing today.”

The minister says the decision was made in concert with Justice Minister Sean Fraser, who oversees the amnesty period.

The top court’s decision to hear a challenge brought against the Liberals’ initial firearms ban back in May 2020 represents the latest hurdle the long-delayed and controversial policy has faced since then prime minister Justin Trudeau first promised it during the 2019 federal election.

The Liberals maintain that the decision to ban upwards of 2,500 makes and models of firearms targets guns deemed too dangerous for public use, such as the AR-15. Meanwhile, firearms owners and their lobby groups have argued it unfairly targets law-abiding gun owners and captures those that are used for hunting and sports shooting. The Opposition Conservatives have vowed to scrap the policy completely, slamming it as a waste of taxpayer money.

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, which bills itself as “Canada’s gun lobby,” took the federal government to court after Trudeau’s cabinet enacted its first ban on some 1,500 makes and models of guns in May 2020, just weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in a shooting rampage across rural Nova Scotia.

At that time, an initial amnesty period was expected to end after April 2022. It has been extended several times since as the federal government struggled to get a compensation program for affected firearms owners off the ground.

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights , which fiercely opposes the policy, has taken aim in its court challenge at the way the 2020 ban was enacted through an order-in-council by cabinet, rather than through a law passed by Parliament.

The Federal Court in 2023 dismissed its appeal for judicial review. The Federal Court of Appeal also dismissed its appeal last year.

Back in March, however, the Supreme Court decided to hear the appeal, with the provincial governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, all of which reject the federal policy, slated to participate as interveners.

As is the case with other appeals, the Supreme Court did not release its reasons for accepting the case.

Anandasangaree back in February blamed dwindling support for the initiative among municipal police services and premiers on the fact that it took the Liberals too long to launch its compensation program. He also previously said the federal government was not open to extending the amnesty order beyond October 2026.

The minister said on Tuesday that he still agrees with those comments.

“The one matter that we didn’t anticipate at that time was the Supreme Court challenge,” he said.

“In both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal we were quite successful in defending our position,” Anandasangaree added, saying “we still are very confident of the position that we’ve taken.”

He said the decision to extend the amnesty period was being done out of “respect” for the judicial process and out of “the abundance of caution.”

Prominent gun control advocacy group PolySeSouvient, formed by victims of the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique shooting, criticized the decision as risking public safety.

“With this decision, the government is protecting gun owners unwilling to surrender their prohibited weapons against criminal charges — at the expense of potential future victims of mass shootings in Canada,” it said in a statement.

“Continuing to allow access to these weapons increases the risk of this type of extreme violence.”

Tracey Wilson, vice-president of public relations with the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, welcomed Tuesday’s decision, saying it looks forward to presenting its case.

“We suspect that the government realized that a defeat at the Supreme Court of Canada after collecting guns and or prosecuting those in non-compliance would be an untenable position for the Mark Carney’s Liberals,” she said in a statement.

Public Safety Canada, the department overseeing the rollout of the program, expects the Supreme Court to rule next year.

Anandasangaree said collection efforts for the guns declared under the federal compensation program will continue until its scheduled end date of this fall.

“Look, the Supreme Court is not opining on the validity of the compensation program,” he said. “They’re two separate things.”

As of Tuesday, the Public Safety department said more 142,000 of what it calls “assault-style firearms” have been declared by individuals and businesses under the federal compensation program.

It said more than 68,000 firearms were declared under the individual side of the program, which launched this year

Anandasangaree said the rollout of the program has so far been “on time” and “on budget,” adding that a “very significant amount of resources” had been put into the collection phase of the program.

“This is both the respectful thing to do to those who have already enrolled, and I believe that if individuals do want to buy something else, they’re able to do so, but with the caveat that the Supreme Court will decide on the overall firearms and the our ability to prohibit them using our laws.”

National Post

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The state of Israel is “the most successful land‑back project, the greatest decolonization project,” a New Zealand Māori activist told the first-of-its-kind Building Indigenous‑Jewish Friendship conference in Toronto.

“From my Māori perspective, a key point is that there was always a continuous Jewish presence in the land; they kept the fires burning, and that is what indigeneity looks like to us,” Dr. Sheree Trotter told roughly 70 activists, academics and community figures convened at Toronto’s Beth Torah synagogue on Monday.

The conference was the culmination of a weekend of local Indigenous-Jewish programming that included nearly 40 Indigenous people marching in the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Walk with Israel, a Sunday dinner-talk with Concordia University professor Csaba Nikolenyi on early 20th-century Zionism, and a Sabbath lecture by Justice Harry S. LaForme at Temple Sinai.

“Indigeneity is demonstrated by historical, collective continuity with a distinct ethnic identity, language, culture, rituals or traditions, economic, social, legal, and religious and spiritual belief systems that predate subsequent invaders or colonizers,” LaForme told Temple Sinai congregants.

“In my view, Israel is the product of the greatest decolonization project in modern history, and this fact does not make it a colonial entity.”

LaForme is Anishibaabe, and a member of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation. In 1994 he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, and in 2004 was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal and is the first Indigenous lawyer to be appointed to an appellate court in Canada.

“The Islamist strategists correctly believe that their ideology-driven false narratives appropriating indigenous social justice language would resonate, and given traction with the academically ignorant and the academically sinister in Canada,” he continued in his synagogue speech.

Karen Restoule, an Ojibwe from Dokis First Nation and director of Indigenous affairs at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, told attendees at Beth Torah that “political movements” have co-opted “Indigenous identity” and the term is “increasingly being treated as a universal political language, borrowed when convenient and deployed in conflicts that arise from very different histories.”

“Increasingly, indigenous identity is being treated as a metaphor, a branding exercise, a political strategy. Indigeneity isn’t any of that; it is a lived reality rooted in specific people and place.”

Trotter said in her talk that “settler colonialism has become a totalizing dogma: it over‑generalizes, homogenizes, and divides the world into saints and sinners, oppressed and oppressor.”

She earned her PhD in history from the University of Auckland, with a thesis on Zionism, and is a Fellow London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

She added: “Jewish people really need to own their indigeneity for themselves. Even if you don’t live in Israel, your people originate there, and you are part of an indigenous people to that land.”

Ryan Bellerose, a Metis from Alberta, said the conference was “a valuable first step in building bridges between the indigenous Canadian and indigenous Judean people (Jews).”

“As someone who has been trying to build these bridges for years, it is great to see so many people of like mind, people who understand that it’s more than just a shared history of persecution, but also a shared history of love and veneration for our ancestral lands, that really helps bind us. And with Israel being a great example of a successful land back movement, there is much we can learn from our Jewish friends,” he told the Post.

Gilli Zemer and her family hosted two visiting Indigenous leaders, and she told the Post that she “came to learn more about the connections between Indigenous and Jewish communities, and left inspired by how deeply our foundational values align. We have much to learn from one another, and a key message was that Jews need to be more confident in advocating for our own indigenous story.”

Avi Attali, vice-president of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), one of the sponsors of the event, told the Post that it “allowed us to exchange views, to learn about each other’s cultures and issues, and tried to seek solutions on how we can help each other in the future.”

The conversation often focused on building a shared framework for allyship — positioning dialogue and relationship-building as tools to counter misinformation about both communities. Sponsors also included the Israel Consulate of Toronto and Western Canada, Kanada House, Indigenous Embassy of Jerusalem, Allied Voices for Israel.

Robert Walker, assistant director of HonestReporting Canada, told the Post that “radical activists have weaponized everything from international law to indigenous lingo in their attempt to rewrite reality. That only works in a vacuum.

“The time has passed to permit this shameless inversion of reality to continue unchallenged. First Nations and Jews are both indigenous peoples who have a right to reclaim the truth from those who try to twist it.”

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A retired Air Canada pilot is facing criminal charges in Ontario after allegedly flying more than 900 domestic and international flights without a proper licence.

The former airline captain from Barrie, Ont., was charged with fraud and forgery and using counterfeit licensing documents, Peel Regional Police announced at a Tuesday press conference.

The 59-year-old retired from the airline in 2025, before the criminal investigation, after a 27-year career.

Police said in a press conference on Tuesday that records indicate the pilot had a commercial pilot licence but he was not licensed to operate passenger planes as a captain.

Between 2009 and 2025, he earned over $2.9 million in salary, Peel Police said in an accompanying statement .

Meanwhile, police noted that the pilot held several positions with the Air Canada Pilots Association, including serving as chair of the master executive council, the governing body of the ACPA.

“The investigation and the details surrounding it read like a movie script,” said Peel Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich, during a press conference about “Project Icarus” on Tuesday morning. (He was likely referencing the 2002 Steven Spielberg film, Catch Me If You Can, a story about an alleged con artist, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who posed as a Pan American World Airways pilot (among other things) in the 1960s, and the FBI agent pursuing him, played by Tom Hanks.)

Investigators with the Peel Fraud Bureau arrested the retired pilot on June 1 after a four-month criminal investigation. It was launched after Transport Canada contacted Peel police with the results of a regulatory review into the pilot’s licensing credentials and conduct.

Evidence to support the alleged criminal behaviour was obtained through a search of the man’s home and gathered from Air Canada and Transport Canada, say police.

Peel Regional Police will announce the results of Project Icarus, a complex fraud investigation involving a former airline captain who allegedly flew hundreds of flights without the necessary licence. https://t.co/r43y9M2vAv

— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) June 9, 2026

“We are alleging that, since 2009, (the pilot) had been flying for years, misrepresenting himself and his credentials to his employer and regulatory officials, using fraudulent licensing documents,” said Milinovich on Tuesday.

“As captain, the accused was considered a ‘pilot in command’ and was ultimately responsible for aircraft operation and safety during flight,” Detective Sergeant Chad Mitchell said during the press conference. And while the man was licensed to fly and was a commercial pilot, Mitchell said, he was not licensed to fly passengers internationally, “you know, on 777s, 767s, 787s, and tens of thousands of passengers.”

“The catalyst event” leading to the regulatory and criminal investigations was a routine operational evaluation of the accused’s credentials at Pearson International Airport in March 2025, according to Mitchell.

“Anomalies were detected within the pilot license documentation he presented,” he said.

The man is no longer flying for Air Canada, the airline confirmed in a statement released on Tuesday.

It said that while “captains and first officers are trained to operate aircraft, regulations require that captains of large aircraft operated by airlines in Canada hold an airline transport pilot licence (APTL).”

“ This individual, who had been promoted to captain, lacked the mandatory ATPL for the position,” the airline wrote. “Immediately upon Air Canada’s discovery of this, the individual was removed from active duty, and the company voluntarily reported the matter to Transport Canada.”

The airline also said flight safety was not compromised” because pilots are required to “undergo mandatory recurrent training every six months to validate their flying competency, including a flight check with a certified Transport Canada check-pilot every 12 months.”

The pilot has already been fined, according to the Montreal Gazette . On June 6, Transport Canada levelled $67,500 in fines for a pilot not having the “appropriate permit, licence or rating” on 18 flights between December 2024 and March 2025.

National Post has reached out to Transport Canada for confirmation of the offences and fines.

The criminal investigation included witness interviews, subject matter expert input, and forensic analysis conducted the RCMP’s National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau in Ottawa, Mitchell said Tuesday, adding that there’s no indication that other people were involved, he added.

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OTTAWA — Chief Justice Richard Wagner warned against “attacks” against the justice system and took issue with criticism painting judges as partisan actors or obstacles to the will of the people.

During his annual press conference Tuesday, Wagner said that “rhetorical attacks” questioning the legitimacy of courts and judges weakens Canada’s judicial system. He also applauded unnamed chief justices who recently spoke out after critical comments from a politician.

“What happened in Canada most recently, if you refer to some attacks or attempts to politicize the judiciary, there was a strong reaction of the chief justices in some provinces… there were strong messages given by the chief justices, as that is their responsibility,” Wagner told reporters.

Though he refused to single out any particular criticism or critic, Wagner’s comments appeared to be thinly-veiled criticism of statements by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

In January, the three chief justices of Alberta courts issued a rare public message emphasizing the importance of judicial independence just days after Smith said she wished she could “direct the judges” on her weekly radio show.

“The judges get very, very prickly when you criticize them, but boy… they deserve the criticism,” Smith told a caller who complained that Justin Bone was out on bail when he allegedly killed two people in Edmonton.

On Tuesday, Wagner said that criticism and questioning is part of a healthy democracy, but drew the line at what he called attempts to undermine public confidence in the justice system.

“We have seen judges and courts sometimes portrayed as partisan actors, or described as obstacles to the will of the people,” he noted. “A non-partisan judiciary, sheltered from all politicization, is essential for the rule of law.”

In April of last year, Ontario’s three chief justices also issued a rare joint statement insisting on the importance of judicial independence in response to fiercely critical comments by Premier Doug Ford.

At the time, Ford ranted that judges were being soft on crime and called judicial independence a “joke”.

“The system is broken, and there’s a lot of terrible, terrible bleeding-heart judges out there,” the premier said.

Wagner said Tuesday that he liked the way the provincial chief justices had responded to date to “attacks” on the judiciary.

“Chief justices in Canada, in every province, and the chief justice of Canada have a responsibility, not an obligation, but a responsibility to speak out about any attempts on judicial independence, attacks on independence, or the rule of law… or any events that could jeopardize the justice system,” Wagner said.

During his press conference, Wagner reiterated his concerns about a lack of resources in courts across the country and warned that it is partly to blame for growing court delays.

But the chief justice declined to comment on the federal government’s decision to reject the recommendation by a quadrennial commission to boost judges’ $429,000 compensation by at least $28,000. Two associations representing judges are currently suing the government over the decision.

Wagner also cited ongoing litigation when he declined to explain his recent, controversial decision not to recuse from the Emergencies Act case currently being considered by his court.

Last month, Wagner told parties requesting his recusal that his 2022 comments about the Freedom Convoy protests had nothing to do with the issues on appeal.

In the months following the February 2022 Freedom Convoy protests, Wagner described the events as the “start of anarchy” and said participants took Ottawa residents “hostage.”

On Tuesday, Wagner also warned about growing use of artificial intelligence by parties, saying the technology is making the law more accessible but comes with considering risk of “hallucinations.”

“Artificial intelligence is now present in the courtroom in ways both promising and problematic. Just a few years ago, hallucinated legal cases were not something we imagined. Today, they are a part of our reality,” he said.

Wagner said the chances that fake cases generated by AI are submitted to the Supreme Court is “very low” because cases are “filtered” by the time they arrive at the apex court.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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One of the wildest days in Ontario’s courts has been revealed by a short appeal decision about the day a judge and everyone in his courtroom were held hostage in a terrifying bomb plot that has largely remained a secret.

The shocking incident played out in cinematic style: twisting drama and high emotions, heart-pounding terror and a surprise happy ending when a clever judge and a heroic cop outwitted the desperate, inventive villain who was threatening mass mayhem.

Rather than movies and screaming headlines, however, there came only silence. Over the next seven years, the case — called a terrorist incident — quietly tiptoed through court with barely a public mention or disclosing the antagonist’s name.

After last week’s court hearing for the bomb plotter’s appeal, National Post has unlocked the untold details and can now reveal how the hostage drama and attempted kidnapping unfolded, how it was thwarted, and its continuing aftermath.

Shortly before 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2019, Ontario Superior Court Judge Frederick Myers called to order an acrimonious child-support hearing on the ninth floor of a downtown Toronto courthouse.

“How do we get to the bottom of this and get it settled,” Myers asked the couple who sat before him. The pair had already divorced, and the mother granted sole custody of their daughter, but they disagreed on child support and access. Along with the feuding parents and the judge, there were five court staff in the room.

“I’m afraid the settlement is not going to be the way you expect it to be,” the 37-year-old father in the case, Serkan Kesgin, replied.

“I’m leaving with my child from here today. It’s not a laptop. This is an explosive device. You can come check, sir,” he said, motioning to the computer bag he had with him in court, all while the remarkable exchange was being captured by the court’s transcription recorder.

“No one is leaving this room” he said. “If my heart rate goes below my resting rate, the device will explode. If my heart rate goes up, without my pressing the right button, device goes off. If my orientation changes too quickly without me pressing the button, right combination, device goes off. It’s a dead man’s switch.

“There is no way to stop this device.”

Kesgin gave his demands. His daughter was to be put on an airplane to Turkey within two hours. Authorities were to video call him to prove she was on the plane and one hour after she was in the air he was to be taken to the airport with his courtroom hostages and put on a second flight to Turkey, where he was born.

“Listen, sir,” Myers said, “you have to understand the police are going to be coming… You are holding people hostage in the courthouse? Really? You think this is going to work?”

“It doesn’t matter, sir,” Kesgin replied. “I died so many times you cannot imagine.”

Kesgin didn’t know it, but by then Myers had secretly pressed an emergency button under the judge’s bench and had dialled 911 on his phone. His iPhone was connected wirelessly to his hearing aid, and he could hear the emergency dispatcher’s questions and was trying to answer them as if he was speaking to Kesgin.

Myers said his staff should leave Courtroom 901 at 393 University Ave., a message also meant for the 911 dispatcher.

The man’s former wife, who sat terrified, saw that as her cue and suddenly bolted towards a door behind the judge’s bench and Kesgin chased her, allowing Toronto police court security officers who had arrived to rush in and grab him.

Myers ducked under his heavy wooden bench and braced for a blast.

“It’s going to go off,” Kesgin called to the officers.

“Well, if anybody’s dying, you’re dying too. Let’s go,” an officer can be heard saying as one officer held Kesgin and another pried his laptop bag out of one hand and a controller from the other, according to the officers’ notebooks from that day.

The court’s reporter later said she and a colleague were “like two chickens running out of the courtroom in a flight.” Staff were terrified and traumatized. Myers made sure he was the last to leave.

About 50 people from two floors of the courthouse were evacuated as police and fire crews arrived. A bomb sniffing dog searched the building and officers examined Kesgin’s bomb.

It was a fake, made of Play-Doh modelling clay, wax, wires, a 9-volt battery, circuit boards and a handheld device. Kesgin had also brought duct tape and zip ties, which can be used to restrain people.

Myers had been right. Kesgin’s bomb plot was not a good legal strategy. He was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, intimidating the justice system, hostage taking, attempted kidnapping, and failure to comply with a court order.

Kesgin’s marriage had lasted barely a year and had dissolved four years before his courthouse drama.

Long before the hearing, he was struggling with the process. He had already been found in contempt of a restraining order, in breach of child support orders, and threatened with a harassment charge if he didn’t shape up. Despite having a job as a software engineer that paid $150,000 annually, he was $30,000 behind in child support, court records said.

After his courtroom attack, Kesgin pleaded guilty to the charges in 2021 at a hearing held over Zoom without a single outside observer. He told court he understood there would be immigration ramifications to his guilty plea. “I am prepared to leave the country voluntarily,” he told the judge.

Judge Bruce Durno heard that Kesgin moved to Canada in 2010 and returned to Turkey after his marriage failed. He came back to Canada in 2018 on a work permit in a bid to regain parental rights. Kesgin presented letters from friends attesting to his intelligence, work ethic and friendly demeanour before his family turmoil. He had no criminal record.

The prosecutor, Marnie Goldenberg, called Kesgin’s crimes “an act of terrorism.”

“A free society cannot survive when activists or protestors, no matter how passionately they hold their beliefs, deliberately break the law in an effort to impose their will on others by dangerous and unlawful intimidation,” Goldenberg said.

She sought a sentence of between eight and 14 years in prison. Kesgin’s lawyer, Coulson Mills, asked for five years.

“I am frankly astonished how that device made it into the courthouse,” Mills said at one of his client’s hearings. Durno was told the courthouse didn’t have a screening device to detect such things at the time, which might be one reason authorities didn’t mention the incident. By the time Kesgin was sentenced, that had been fixed.

Mills described his client as “a man who has got many abilities, but unfortunately has been consumed, it appears, by the quest to have some contact with his daughter.”

At his sentencing hearing, victim impact statements from most of the seven he held hostage told of psychological damage from believing they might be blown to bits at work.

Mills then warned Durno his client wanted to deliver a two-hour speech. It’s an astonishing length for what is meant to be a simple allocution before sentencing. Most take a few minutes. As court discussed the prospect, Kesgin interjected with complaints of how he is treated in jail, claiming he was discriminated against and singled out for punishment.

“I have a particularly skeptical nature I guess I can attribute to my profession for the past 20 plus years, in which not only billion-dollar businesses but entire economies (and) human lives that depends on what I do, makes me a bit more cautious about things,” he said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

He said he had started an online inmate complaint service that automatically forwarded complaints to the Prime Minister, the United Nations and Amnesty International, which makes him a target of prison staff.

That, however, was not the speech he wished to make. On May 16, 2022, he had more to say. He started by apologizing to his victims.

“I said such things that make me want to throw my face on the floor and stomp on it. Things that even I find beyond outrageous today,” he said. To Myers, the judge he hijacked, he said: “The heroism you showed that day by ensuring your staff’s safety first and then remaining in ground zero to support the security officers is exemplary.

“I was a man who has finally giving in to a lifetime of tyranny, a lifetime of discrimination, a lifetime of injustice.” He said he was fearful his daughter would face the same discrimination because “I have made you a visible minority in this intolerant country. And not only a minority either, but the most unwanted kind, the Middle Eastern kind.”

Durno handed Kesgin a nine-year sentence.

“These offences have an impact on the administration of justice at large when offenders decide to terrorize a court,” Durno said. He considered the case terrorism, although it wasn’t charged as such, he said.

Since then, Kesgin has had a difficult time in prison.

In April 2025, he was denied parole. He appealed the Parole Board of Canada’s decision, and, in October, the parole appeals division also rejected his plea for early release.

Parole officials had several concerns. The board considered a letter he sent that contained “wide-ranging threats against a wide variety of people and threatened devastating consequences for the Canadian public,” according to parole records. He later said it was not a threat but a “wake-up call.”

A loud “outburst” from him at his parole hearing brought prison guards rushing to the room, according to parole records. Kesgin later said Turkish men are passionate and “raising our voices when we speak is not necessarily a sign of anger, but passion.” He railed to parole officials about “blatant and merciless discrimination” and blamed his situation on his former wife, incompetent police and mistaken court officials, according to parole records.

“The Board is satisfied that you are likely, if released, to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person before the expiration of your sentence,” the parole board told him.

Then, on June 2, came his court appeal of his nine-year sentence. Representing himself, Kesgin complained his sentence was disproportionate and his sentencing judge failed to apply the principle of restraint.

After hearing his arguments, the panel of three judges dismissed his appeal.

“We are not persuaded that the sentencing judge made any reversible error,” the appeal court said.

Court previously heard that when Kesgin is released, he will face immigration inadmissibility proceedings because of his convictions.

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A new ban on certain fees for phone and internet plans in Canada will come into effect on Friday, making it easier for consumers to switch providers or change plans without incurring extra costs.

The changes to the Consumer Protections Action Plan were announced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in March and are intended to make it easier for Canadians to access more affordable telecommunications services.

According to the new rules, telecommunications providers will no longer be permitted to charge activation, plan-change or cancellation fees for cellphone and internet services.

The CRTC said activation fees have ranged from roughly $30 to $80, creating a barrier for Canadians looking to take advantage of competitive offers.

Beginning Friday, Canadians will be able to switch plans or providers without worrying about added fees that could offset potential savings.

The new measure is a result of changes to the Telecommunications Act that came into force on Oct. 30, 2025, which required the CRTC to put new consumer protection measures in place.

As part of this work, the CRTC held a public consultation to see how service providers could offer Canadians more ways to make changes to their internet and cellphone plans. The consultation included input from consumers, advocacy groups and telecommunications providers.

“We are taking action to give Canadians more control over their internet and cellphone services,” CRTC chairperson and CEO Vicky Eatrides said in a news release in March.

“Today’s decision removes extra fees to activate, change or cancel a plan. This means that consumers can switch to a better deal without having to pay extra just to get the service that works best for them.”

Canadian internet and cellphone bills are some of the most expensive in the G7. According to 2024 data from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), Canadians pay the most out of the seven countries for ‘Level 7’ broadband services (defined as 900+ Mbps download speed) — the highest level available — at an average price of $113.11 per month.

The data also showed Canadians pay some of the highest mobile wireless rates in the G7, ranking first for Level 2 service (unlimited nationwide talk and text, 5+ GB of data) at $63.80 per month, second for Level 3 (with 20+ GB of data) at $65.40 per month, and third for Level 4 (50+ GB) and 5 (100+ GB) plans.

More recently, U.K.-based broadband comparison site Broadband Genie found Canada to be the most expensive country in North America for broadband prices, with an average cost of US$55.26 per month (roughly CAD$77).

That said, ISED’s data also showed that prices for both mobile wireless and broadband services declined across nearly all service tiers between 2020 and 2024.

And with the elimination of activation, plan-change and cancellation fees, consumers could see additional savings and greater flexibility when shopping for better telecom deals in the years ahead.

• Canada's wireless costs 'continue to be the highest or among the highest in the world': Finnish report
• Telecoms tell MPs mobile plans are getting cheaper despite government policy adding costs

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The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off this week, with games being played in Canada for the first time.

Canadian soccer star Alphonso Davies, though plagued by injury, remains a key figure in the national program, and will be one to watch in the tournament.

Journalist Jolene Latimer joins the show to discuss the importance of Canada’s presence at the World Cup, why Davies is so integral to our soccer program, and pulls back the curtain on one of the key figures in the star player’s life.

Background reading: Alphonso Davies is Canada’s best soccer player ever. And the biggest mystery

Subscribe to 10/3 on your favourite podcast app

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

On the New Year’s Eve she was 13, her 64-year-old sexual abuser told his adopted daughter, “the devil made him do it.”

The man, now 68, is identified only by initials in a recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision sentencing him to nine years in prison for sexually abusing his adopted daughter and a family friend.

“He told (his adopted daughter) that they would have to stop. He said that he felt guilty, was sorry for loving her in that way, and that the devil made him do it and that he had asked God for forgiveness,” Justice Jocelyn Speyer wrote in a May 22 decision.

“A short while later, (he touched her) in a sexual manner again. After that, (she) realized that it was not going to stop, and told her older brother … what happened. Other family members became involved, and the police were contacted.”

The abuser immigrated to Canada in 2002 with his wife and three children. He became a Canadian citizen and adopted several Zimbabwean and Botswanan orphans, including the one he sexually abused.

“In her victim impact statement, (she) eloquently describes how her childhood was stolen from her,” Speyer said.

“She was a child not fully aware of what was happening in the moment. She has experienced shame, anger, self-blame, numbness, anxiety, depression, betrayal, confusion and suicidal thoughts. Instead of learning what healthy love is like, she learned to associate love, as expressed to her by (her adoptive father), with fear, secrecy and silence. In her incredibly articulate victim impact statement, (she) revealed that the abuse did not just harm her body. It changed the way that she understands trust, and her ability to feel safe.”

Her adoptive father abused the girl between October 2018 and December 2022.

“At the time, (she) was between nine and thirteen years old,” Speyer said.

He touched her “in a variety of ways that amounted to an egregious violation of her sexual integrity.”

His wife helped the family of the other girl he sexually abused find a place to live when they immigrated to Canada. The court heard he was “like a grandfather” to the family’s daughter, and she addressed him as such.”It was customary for her to hug him as a form of greeting when the families visited together,” said the judge.

“He was in the position of father to (one victim and grandfather to the other) and took advantage of his time alone with them when they were in his care.”

He abused the family friend, starting when she was seven or eight, between 2017 and 2021.

The court heard that “on many occasions, usually when he greeted her when she went to his house, (he hugged her) and kissed her with an open mouth, forcing his tongue into her mouth. This behaviour started when (she) was seven or eight years old. If (she) tried to keep her mouth shut, (he) would push through to get his tongue into her mouth,” said the decision, which notes he also once “touched her buttock and squished or groped it.”

Police charged him in 2023.

A jury convicted him of sexually abusing the girls when he was between the ages of 60 and 64.

The Crown recommended he get 12 years in prison. His lawyer argued for seven.

Speyer sentenced him to eight years behind bars for abusing his adopted daughter, and tacked on another year for the family friend.

He’s banned from contacting either victim.

The judge found that the man poses a danger to children when he is in a position of trust. She issued several decade-long prohibitions aimed at protecting children under 16.

Those include bans on: “attending a public park or public swimming area, or a daycare centre, schoolground, playground or community centre, in the company of any grandchildren, except when he is in the direct company of an adult who is aware of the circumstance of his conditions.”

The man cannot be within two kilometres of anywhere the victims usually live, attend school or anywhere else he knows they typically frequent.

He is prohibited from working or volunteering in any position that involves having authority over children under the age of 16.

The man “abused a position of utmost trust,” said the judge.

“He breached his duty to protect and care for the victims and this enhances his moral blameworthiness.”

• Ontario special education teacher gets three years in prison for sexually exploiting student
• Calgary man who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl gets reduced sentence because he's Indigenous

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