Ben Shapiro says most people, Jews included, often mistakenly define Zionism.

The superstar American pundit said during a Toronto symposium on Sunday that Zionism is not about Jews having the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Instead, he said, it’s self-determination that is backed up with action.

A people have to earn their state, he said — and he made it clear he believes Jews created a very successful state on the land of their ancestors. “It turns out that if you want a state, you have to earn it, you have to show on a moral level that you will become a good and positive state, and most of all, you have to do the work to build the state. You have to be able to defend it yourself. You have to be able to actually create and innovate. Well, Zionism won, the baby was born, and that’s why there is a state of Israel today,” he said.

Modern Zionism is simply: the Jewish state “should not be exterminated,” and Israel should not be held to standards applied to no other nation on earth.

On the other hand, antizionism is the demand that a living, breathing nation of 10 million people — older than 70 per cent of UN member states — be destroyed. To make that case, “antizionists must lie. They must lie about Israel, lie about its army, lie about its enemies, and ultimately lie about Jews themselves.”

When one follows that chain of lies to its end, he said, antizionism and antisemitism are not merely similar. They are the same conspiracy theory, with one word swapped: Zionist for Jew.

Antizionism is a symptom of a broader malady that threatens the West. Every radical — anti-market, anti-liberty, anti-Western — now marches under the banner of “Free Palestine,” because it is more palatable today to call oneself an antizionist than an anti-American, he said.

Yet he has faith that “antizionists will not win,” he said. “What they can win is time, if we stay silent. So the answer is what it has always been, from the banks of the Red Sea to today: speak up, fight back, and never back down. Where there is courage, there is victory.”

He was the final of nearly 30 speakers at the World Symposium Against Antizionism in Toronto on Sunday — a who’s-who of Zionist activism.

Produced by Tafsik, a Toronto-based pro-Israel group, and Stop Antizionism, it brought out many marquee names, including U.S.-based Eve Barlow and Lizzy Savetsky, Montrealer Gad Saad, and non-Jewish online allies American vet Nick Matau, Syrian-born Rawan Osman, and UAE-based Loay Alshareef.

Saad, author of the new book Suicidal Empathy, and a former Concordia University professor who has announced he is moving to the U.S., told the symposium that “anti-Zionism is simply the latest mutated form of a longstanding Jew-hating virus, and so again you see the analogy with the immune system, how it mutates.”

Canadian Natasha Pein, an academic with a forthcoming book on the history of antizionism, said the movement has been propelled by “the convergence of the progressive Marxist and the Islamist ideologies” that was “repackaged through the language of human rights, social justice, and liberation, DEI, and intersectional framework that became its delivery system.”

“Old libels were not abandoned, they were modernized,” she said. “Israel became a symbolic source of global injustice. Jews were recast as ‘privileged colonizers and oppressors,’ and antizionism was framed as moral cause. The result was ideological capture. Jew hatred entered the moral mainstream and became socially sanctioned, and what made this space especially so dangerous is that it no longer resembled traditional hate. It spoke the language of compassion and social justice, while denying those same rights of Jews.”

She said antizionism “follows a predictable pattern: a cycle that begins with words, evolves into exclusions, escalates into violence, and ends with denial and erasures.”

Toronto-based media entrepreneur Jesse Brown, founder and editor in chief of Canadaland, noted “this is not a Zionist conference. There’s nothing wrong with that, but this is not a Zionist conference. This is not a conference against antisemitism. The first symposium against anti-Zionism, specifically, and it’s happening in Toronto, a city that’s been plagued by gunfire and arson and assaults and threats, and it is the first one in the world, and it shouldn’t be necessary.”

He said the “anti-Zionist movement” has entered newsrooms “as a political movement,” and that connecting it to hate is “anathema to the mentality of the editors and producers who are making decisions, and that’s a problem.”

Naya Lekht, founder of Stop Antizionism, whose organization co-organized the symposium, told the National Post that the event was aimed at being “a catalyst that will help our community shift the paradigm” in order to understand that “antizionism is Jew hatred.”

The call, for her, was so that “everybody can speak in one voice, to have the consensus… to equip people with the correct language to describe the correct problem.”

• 'Dangerous politics': Trump suspends joint defence board with Canada
• Liberals are playing legal hardball with First Nations over drinking water

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 newsletters here.

OTTAWA — Defence Minister David McGuinty announced the Canadian Snowbirds, the fleet of planes that make up the Royal Canadian Air Force’s air demonstrations, will be grounded following the 2026 season.

“After more than six decades of service as both a trainer and demonstration aircraft, 2026 will mark the final season of the CT 114 Tutor aircraft fleet,” said McGuinty, during a press conference at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where the Snowbirds are based.

“And as Canadians gather over the next year to watch the Tutors fly one final time, we will also celebrate the generations of pilots, technicians, engineers, and support personnel who made the snowballs one of the most respected air teams in the world,” the defence minister added.

The Snowbirds first entered service in 1963 as a jet trainer for the RCAF, then became part of the air force’s air demonstrations starting in 1971. The Snowbirds received their name after a “Name the Team” contest was held at the local Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan base elementary school that same year.

Since its inception, the Snowbirds have performed over 2,700 air displays for over 140 million people.

RCAF Commander Lieutenant-General Jamie Speiser-Blanchet said that despite the millions of dollars invested in improvements to allow the planes’ lifespans to last until 2030, feasibility studies showed engineering challenges that required the aircraft to be retired three years earlier than anticipated.

The Department of National Defence intends to acquire the CT-157 Siskin II as a replacement, which are manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft Ltd in Stans, Switzerland.

The new planes are expected to become operational sometime in the “early 2030s.”

McGuinty did not specify which year the new Snowbirds will become operational, noting that discussions with the manufacturer are “ongoing” and the government’s new Defence Investment Agency will lead the negotiations.

The air demonstration squadron is comprised of 86 regular force, reserve force and public service personnel. McGuinty said these members will be reassigned to other duties.

Speaking to reporters during an announcement in Quebec, Prime Minister Mark Carney defended his government’s decision to ground the planes that are emblematic of Canadian identity and pride.

“We inherited a situation, or I inherited a situation where the planes literally had come to the end of their lives,” he said, during a press conference.

“The Snowbirds will continue, and new planes are being commissioned and will arrive,” he added.

The RCAF remains in a pilot shortage and the Snowbirds are often a good recruitment tool for the Canadian air force. The defence minister said recruitment overall in the Canadian Armed Forces is up 61 per cent from last year.

“We have every confidence that the air force will do what it has to do to be able to recruit and retain trainees to become pilots,” said McGuinty.

National Post

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 newsletters here.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s longtime chief of staff Ian Todd is retiring, marking the latest of several recent departures of senior staffers in his office.

In a note sent to Conservative caucus members and Poilievre’s office, Todd said he would retire from his position at the end of this Parliamentary session. The House of Commons spring session is scheduled to end on June 19.

“While I am stepping away from this role, I remain fully committed to our leader and to the future of the movement. I look forward to the day when Pierre Poilievre serves as Prime Minister and Canada reaches its full potential once again,” Todd wrote in the note obtained by National Post.

Steve Outhouse, the Conservative Party’s current campaign manager, will be Poilievre’s new chief of staff. Aaron Wudrick, currently Poilievre’s director of policy, is promoted to deputy chief of staff.

Todd has been Poilievre’s chief of staff since the longtime MP was elected Conservative leader in 2022. Todd previously served in multiple other senior roles within the conservative movement over a nearly five-decade career, including as chief of staff to then-Alliance leader Stockwell Day and the Ontario government’s Representative to the United States.

“It is not easy to get off the saddle, but the time feels right. My journey in politics began as a young teenager, working on my first campaign, mopping floors, taking out the garbage, and knocking on doors alongside Peter Lougheed. I first came to Parliament Hill in 1992 with the visionary Preston Manning and a trailblazing group of determined Reformers,” he wrote in his retirement announcement.

In a statement on Tuesday, Poilievre thanked Todd for his “half century of service” to the party.

“He did a phenomenal job in my office over the last 4 years. He is known for his unfailing integrity, hard work and humility. While I regret he is moving on, he leaves behind a glowing legacy of service to Canada and he has earned a wonderful retirement,” wrote Poilievre.

Todd’s departure is the latest in a series by senior Poilievre staffers in recent months.

In early April, Poilievre’s director of communications Katy Merrifield left the office to go work on “passion” projects. She is now contributing to the campaign of B.C. Conservative leadership candidate Caroline Elliott.

Poilievre’s tour director Kate Harper also announced her departure from the office just over two weeks ago.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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 politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

A Canadian man has been charged with battery in Florida, where he allegedly “shoulder checked” a Disney World worker who tried to stop him from getting in line for a ride that was already closed.

According to Orange County Circuit court documents obtained by National Post, the 48-year-old from Palgrave, Ont., has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree misdemeanour alleged to have occurred on the night of March 20 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park outside Orlando.

The park worker, whose name was redacted, was closing an attraction on the evening of March 20, when the man, who was already admitted, flagged her down to ask about “his family outside.”

She told him they could not enter because it was past closing and the “chains were up.”

Regardless, three of his family members allegedly jumped the chains only to be escorted out by the worker. The accused followed them out, but “a few moments later he and some of the family jumped the chains to the Lightning Lane,” where they were met by the same worker who again told them to leave and “discuss it outside.”

The arresting Orange County Sheriff’s officer wrote that the man allegedly “continued advancing and shoved (the worker) with his shoulder claiming that she was not going to stop him.”

He then allegedly “shoulder checked her a subsequent time” as she stood in front of him as he moved up the line, stopping once he reached an area with more staff and other guests.

The worker notified security and management about the incident.

After police arrived, the man “largely corroborated” the worker’s account of the incident, adding that she “put her hand on the rail to block his path as he was going forward in the line against all instruction and in doing so, he walked into her trying to pass.”

The worker told the sheriff’s officer she wanted to file charges and was willing to testify in court, at which point the accused was arrested and taken into custody.

He was later released on a $2,000 bond and allowed to return to Canada.

A pre-trial conference originally scheduled for this Friday has been postponed until June 19.

National Post has contacted the man and his lawyer for comment.

The court documents don’t indicate which specific ride he was trying to access at Animal Kingdom, Disney’s largest venue at more than 500 acres. The zoological park features nine attractions with Lightning Lanes, according to Mouse Hacking, a website dedicated to tracking deals at Disney World.

• Disney Adventure cruise cancelled after guests had been onboard for more than a day
• A 19-year-old Canadian who overstayed his U.S. visa charged in $13 million crypto fraud

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.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emergency rooms are known for long waits — whether in Canada or south of the border — but they’re still among the shortest delays in health care.

Seeing a specialist, however, can take months, sometimes leaving nervous Canadians languishing as they await treatment, surgery, or both. In the U.S., the wait times are shorter, but access may be limited by one’s ability to procure and pay for insurance.

Still, there is one medical procedure patients are opting for, at least in Canada, that offers a quick path to treatment: Medical Assistance in Dying, a.k.a. MAID.

Ethicists argue passionately about whether it’s good or bad for patients and society — discussing everything from the need to offer trauma-free ends, to the system’s possible abuse, and people being encouraged to die. Those debates have been playing out for years, but another concern is emerging over elder care. As health-care costs mount for governments, employers and individuals in both countries, their low-fertility populations are aging and becoming more expensive to care for. Could both countries begin turning to MAID to cut costs?

Some critics say it’s already happening in Canada and fear it could one day happen in the U.S.

“MAID has already become in Canada a form of elder care,” said Alexander Raikin, fellow in bioethics and American democracy at the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“The people who are dying from (Canada’s) MAID are disproportionately vulnerable. They’re disproportionately disabled. They’re disproportionately elderly,” he added, arguing the data reflect that shift.

Others go further.

“It’s not even hypothetical. It’s Canada today,” said Lyman Stone, a demographer with the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.

In Canada, MAID is available to adults whose deaths are reasonably foreseeable, as well as those suffering from a grievous or irremediable condition where death is not reasonably foreseeable. For now, the rollout to patients with mental health illnesses is delayed until next year, though that is being challenged. In 2024, 16,499 opted for MAID, representing 5.1 per cent of Canadian deaths that year, a 0.4 per cent increase from 2023.

MAID came into effect in June 2016, following Parliament’s passing of federal law to implement the Supreme Court’s Carter decision, overturning the criminalization of assisted suicide. In less than a decade, MAID has gone from a criminal act to accounting for roughly one in 20 Canadian deaths.

In the U.S., meanwhile, 14 states have medical aid in dying laws, allowing for prescribed drugs to be taken by patients. Patients must have a prognosis of death within six months. There’s no centralized U.S. tally, but for the jurisdictions that report, data show that 1,242 people ingested prescribed aid-in-dying medication in 2024.

In both Canada and the U.S., most reported recipients are seriously ill, and in Canada, they are typically elderly as well.

Some demographers and health experts fear that MAID will become increasingly attractive as a way of curbing growing elder-care costs.

The over-85 contingent in Canada is the fastest-growing segment by age, and it’s forecasted to more than double over the next 20 years. In the U.S., meanwhile, there were 58 million over the age of 65 in 2022, but by 2050, that group will explode to roughly 82 million. Seniors in both countries will soon represent nearly a quarter of each population.

For some, those demographic pressures point to a troubling incentive structure.

Sally Pipes, president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the California-based Pacific Research Institute, said she fears MAID is a symptom of the financial strains on Canadian health care.

“This is a way for Canada, for the Canadian health-care system, to reduce the cost of health care and reduce the waiting list,” she said.

While MAID may be billed as “an act of compassion,” Pipes added, “it’s really how government-run health-care systems respond to the reality of scarce public resources.”

She and Raikin also say that MAID should not be offered as a first resort.

“It is very difficult to not see assisted suicide or euthanasia as some sort of escape hatch,” said Raikin, “or maybe overflow valve is a better way of putting it.”

When you have long wait times and sick populations, he explained, “it’s very difficult when you have a legalized pathway of suicide that does not become a tempting program.”

But health-care providers are not allowed to recommend MAID as a substitute for care, and there are multiple assessments and consent requirements.

Proponent Udo Schuklenk, a philosophy professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, says professional ethics should mitigate abuse.

Opponents “need to do better than to say clinicians raise MAID in certain circumstances with patients because they might actually be under a professional obligation to do that so that people can make an informed choice.”

There are also legal ramifications for wrongdoing. In Canada, for example, if physicians don’t follow all the rules, they can face culpable homicide charges.

Stone also refers to the cost of treatment as a factor.

There are “news stories of people who don’t even have a lethal condition. They go in for a potentially disabling condition, and they’re referred for MAID, because their condition’s expensive,” he said.

Stone was referring to MAID’s eligibility for some patients whose death is not imminent, including those with serious disabilities — a scenario that has drawn intense scrutiny.

Stone claims that Canada’s policy direction is unambiguous.

“Canada has some of the lowest disability funding of any developed country. It has one of the most eugenic immigration policies of any developed country that is as strict (with) quality health and performance standards for immigrants,” he said.

“And now it has one of the most permissive regimes for physician-assisted suicide, for state-sponsored suicide, of any country in the world.”

He characterized the system as recruiting healthy immigrants to work while providing minimal support for the disabled and making it as easy as possible for the state to shed the financial burden through assisted suicide.

Could abuse become a problem? Could it happen in the U.S., with an aging population creating similar budgetary problems?

“Some states may solve (climbing elderly care costs) through something like the Canadian approach,” said Stone. “Others will not.” But he said a reckoning will also come: “Will it be that we raise taxes on workers or that we cut benefits for retirees?”

“Cutting benefits for retirees will have a somewhat similar effect as the Canadian solution.”

Proponents of MAID push back on those concerns.

“Anything can be abused,” said Thaddeus Pope, professor of medical law and clinical ethics at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. “And everything is abused.”

“But it’s ridiculous to say any service that you provide would ever be provided at a hundred per cent perfect level. Nothing is.”

And the data, he says, show that it’s not happening at scale. With a sample size now of 12,000 to 14,000 assisted-suicide deaths in the U.S. since 1997, there are very few reports of wrongdoing.

Health Canada’s data also show no clear evidence of a widespread pattern of MAID being used to trim health-care costs, with only a small percentage of cases citing any external pressure.

“It’s pretty darn safe,” Pope said, noting that there’s “absolutely zero evidence” of MAID being foisted upon people to trim costs.

“We treat the crap out of people,” Pope said, noting how oncologists are making a lot of money off of continued treatments.

“The problem is not that we’re hastening people into death to save money; the problem is that we are foisting more and more and more treatment upon people because it benefits the health-care providers, even though it doesn’t benefit the patients.

“The far bigger risk is not letting people die,” he said.

National Post

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.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Friday was quick to tout the potential economic benefits of her latest pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Beneath those headline claims, however, is a much less visible $600-million cost.

At least, that’s how much Alberta taxpayers could be asked to pay in order to prop up Smith’s new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ottawa that, among other things, promises to ratchet up carbon taxes to $130 per tonne by 2040. Under Friday’s agreement, Alberta and the feds promised to spend up to $1.2 billion toward that end, splitting the cost equally between both parties.

The expense underscores the cost Smith seems prepared to shoulder in order to finalize her MOU with Carney, which is widely viewed as a landmark effort to repair the fractured energy relationship between Alberta and the feds.

First outlined in November 2025, the MOU includes a long list of energy policies and infrastructure investments aimed at finally unleashing Alberta’s natural resources and turning Canada into an energy superpower. At the core of the deal, Alberta has agreed to hike industrial carbon taxes to $130 per tonne and facilitate the construction of a $20-billion carbon capture and storage project. In exchange, Carney has said he would support the construction of a new oil pipeline to the West Coast.

Observers have long wondered who would cover the cost of the stricter carbon regime, particularly given that the province’s oilsands industry has increasingly claimed that higher carbon taxes would make it uncompetitive with other producers.

And while Friday’s deal will force large emitters like oilsands facilities and petrochemical plants to pay higher carbon taxes, the province is also now promising to spend up to $600 million to soften the blow.

Alberta has forced large companies to pay industrial carbon taxes since 2007. Today, the province administers those taxes under its Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulatory system. Within TIER, companies are also eligible to acquire carbon credits on a per-tonne basis in exchange for meeting certain CO2 emissions reductions targets. They can buy and sell those credits as needed.

While carbon credits are designed to be roughly equivalent to the rate of carbon taxes, low environmental standards under TIER have led to a prolonged oversupply of those credits, driving down their value in recent years. Currently, TIER carbon credits are trading at around $40 per tonne, far below the $95-per-tonne carbon tax rate.

To fill the gap — or, to ensure that heavy emitting companies receive a higher price for the carbon credits they accrue — the provincial and federal governments will simply pay the difference, up to a maximum cap of $1.2 billion, or 75 megatonnes worth. Those payments will come in the form of financial instruments called carbon contracts for difference (CCFDs), according to Friday’s agreement.

Dave Sawyer, an economist at the Canadian Climate Institute, said costs are likely to fall on public coffers due to the structure of Friday’s agreement.

“The way they’ve designed this thing, there’s a higher risk that taxpayers will be on the hook,” he said.

That’s largely because of a part of carbon policy known as “stringency,” which sets the terms of the CO2 targets companies have to meet under TIER. Under Friday’s agreement, the rate at which stringency rates, or the proportion of emissions that are subject to carbon taxes, expand each year was cut from four per cent down to two per cent.

According to Sawyer, that lower stringency means that more companies will likely be acquiring credits rather than buying them from the TIER market, which could further push down credit values and force the government to pay more to maintain its stated floor price.

In Friday’s agreement, the two parties agreed to maintain a carbon credit floor price of $60 per tonne by 2030, ramping up to $110 per tonne by 2040.

Carney has long been a supporter of the theory behind carbon markets, which aims to ascribe value to CO2 that in fact holds no real-world value.

Contracts for difference are viewed by some policymakers as a necessary cost toward trying to establish carbon trading markets which, the theory goes, can help create a financial incentive for companies to reduce emissions. Under such a system, companies are rewarded with a guaranteed carbon credit value for the CO2 emissions they cut from their operations, thus giving them reason to invest in decarbonization technology.

• Ottawa, Alberta agree to path on approving new oil pipeline by September 2027
• Alberta and Ottawa want 'win-win' on industrial carbon tax, as pipeline deal inches closer, Smith says

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 newsletters here.

According to a report by an Israeli NGO, Hamas’s own internal memos show it has been working in tandem with Canadian government‑funded charities and non‑governmental organizations.

The documents, which the Israeli army says it seized during its Gaza counteroffensive, detail how the terror organization allegedly infiltrated and exploited international NGOs operating in the Strip.

National Post was given exclusive access to electronic scans of what are said to be the original Arabic documents, as well as English translations, by NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based non-profit that works to hold non-governmental organizations accountable, particularly on matters relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While National Post was not able to independently verify the documents, the Israel Defence Forces says the documents are authentic.

According to a Dec. 11, 2022, memo, the Canadian government gave over $300,000 to a project proposed by the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and implemented by the Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development, a Gazan NGO.

The document the IDF says it retrieved indicates that the project’s beneficiaries were selected from a list provided by the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development, and includes details of security screenings conducted by Hamas on all the Ajyal staff working on the project. The Post contacted Ajyal for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

There were allegedly 37 “team members” on the ground, including one listed as being aligned with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a listed terrorist organization in Canada.

Global Affairs Canada did not directly address the Post’s request for information on this specific project, and CRS did not respond to several requests for comment. However, according to Canadian government records, CRS was given grants of nearly $6.5 million in 2014, close to $10 million in 2019 and around $210,000 in 2020, all from Global Affairs Canada.

According to another document the IDF says it retrieved, dated Dec. 14, 2022, the AISHA Association for Woman and Child Protection, a Gaza-based NGO that received over $1 million from the Canadian government between 2018 and 2019, is listed as “co-operating” with Hamas’s Ministry of Interior and National Security. AISHA did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Alexandre Fournier told National Post that, “The Government of Canada does not tolerate any misuse or diversion of international assistance,” claiming that, “Canada exercises enhanced due diligence for international assistance funding through established funding agreements, ongoing oversight and a systematic screening process.”

He explained that there are “established mechanisms” through which Canada and other donors “ensure that relief and reconstruction efforts are not diverted and are used for intended purposes,” and that, “Global Affairs Canada officials in the region closely monitor programming activities to ensure compliance” with Canadian anti-terrorism legislation.

“Because delivering humanitarian assistance is complex and often involves partners working in unstable and high-risk environments,” he said that every humanitarian organization Ottawa partners with “must have strong safeguards in place and report suspected misuse immediately,” and that, “Canada has a no-contact policy with Hamas, as a listed terrorist entity.”

Nevertheless, the memos list dozens of workers from a variety of NGOs, including individuals Hamas purportedly identifies as its own operatives. An international emergency medical services NGO allegedly employed a Hamas “naqib” (captain). The British-based medical aid group was said to have an employee who was “affiliated with Hamas” and “works” with the Al-Qassam Brigades. The director of an Australian charity was also named as a Hamas member.

These documents were referenced in a 53-page report that NGO Monitor released in December, titled, “Puppet Regime: Hamas’ Coercive Grip on Aid and NGO Operations in Gaza.” Covering the period between 2018 and 2022, it describes how Hamas allegedly targeted numerous NGOs, including some that are funded by the Canadian government, for infiltration, in order to control and keep tabs on them.

Hamas would embed itself into the NGOs through the use of “guarantors,” Gazans who were hand-picked by Hamas to serve as point-persons with the charities, according to the report. They were required to hold senior roles at the organizations.

These individuals “can be exploited for security purposes, in order to infiltrate associations,” read a Dec. 14, 2022, document said to have originated from the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security. On that very page, a female guarantor, whose name was redacted, was listed as being “affiliated with Hamas,” working as a lecturer at the University of Palestine and married to a Hamas sergeant.

A guarantor at the Canadian-funded Handicap International (now operating under the name Humanity & Inclusion) was also “affiliated with the Hamas movement,” according to the documents purportedly retrieved by the IDF.

According to government records, Handicap International received over $28 million in grants from Ottawa between 2019 and 2024. The organization did not respond to the Post’s numerous requests for comment.

“NGO Monitor’s research underscores the danger of oversight failures for humanitarian aid projects involving hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds. As the evidence demonstrates, these often become pipelines for the diversion of Canadian money by heinous terrorist groups and their affiliates,” said Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor’s president.

He added that the documents said to have been captured by the IDF in Gaza “clearly delineate the process by which Hamas systematically diverts aid from international NGOs, and how personnel from these organizations were aware of, and often co-operated with, this manipulation.”

The evidence, he said, is “now too obvious to ignore,” and the “blind approach to aid in areas controlled by tyrants and terrorist regimes” needs to change. Canada, in addition to other aid-giving countries, must “implement changes in order to ensure that stolen aid does not continue propping up Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

In his view, this will require “professional and independent teams to audit NGO partners and recipient lists, rather than relying on deceptive NGO and UN self-reporting. Funding to NGOs that fail to co-operate fully with the requirements of transparency and oversight will have to be suspended until they comply.”

National Post

• Many Canadian Jews have lost their sense of belonging in a country they no longer recognize
• Supersizing the fight against Canadian Jew hate

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 newsletters here.

OTTAWA — Less than a week after winning last year’s election and just days before he was set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Mark Carney was looking for art to hang on his office walls.

Staff who arrived at the National Gallery of Canada that Saturday morning had been instructed to dress casually: sport coats and dress pants, although one mentioned they would be bringing a tie, “just in case there is a last minute change.”

Preparations for that 8:40 a.m. visit had come together quickly. The gallery’s director, Jean-François Bélisle, had been in St. Louis attending a conference when it received word from the Prime Minister’s Office that Carney wanted to tour its galleries of Canadian and Indigenous pieces, including a look inside its vaults.

He made sure to be back in time.

Staff, including senior curators, pulled together pieces they felt might work and could pique Carney’s interests, mapping out their precise route.

“One of his senior advisers shared with me that they were discussing a very big wall behind the PM’s desk in Langevin Block,” wrote Paul Genest, chair of the gallery’s board of trustees, ahead of Carney’s visit.

“And that he’d like to get something for it. ‘Big, bold, very Canadian.'”

A look inside the efforts the national gallery made to help the prime minister outfit his walls and the considerations that Carney had in mind have been outlined in internal emails, released to National Post under federal access-to-information legislation. Many of the roughly 350 pages were redacted.

Borrowing art from Canada’s national gallery or the art bank run by Canada Council for the Arts is nothing new for prime ministers, with that decades-old option existing for the Governor General, the Supreme Court of Canada chief justice and federal ministers.

That Carney made doing so one of his first priorities as a newly elected prime minister, however, did not go unnoticed.

“Oh I love this,” wrote Sara Stasiuk, another of the gallery’s board of trustee members. “That art was a priority for the new PM to spend time on during his first week is a big deal.”

“Historic moment and great capture indeed,” Katerina Atanassova, senior curator of Canadian art, said of photos snapped from the occasion, but which were redacted.

The Privy Council Office, which acts as the administrative wing of the Prime Minister’s Office, has said that Carney borrowed nearly 50 pieces, with around one-third coming from the national gallery itself, home to more than 90,000 works.

In mapping out his visit, gallery staff focused on presenting pieces from its collection of historical English and French Canadian works, as well as Indigenous pieces, contemporary art and those from the Arctic. They also were mindful of the lighting and temperature conditions within his two offices, which impacted what could be borrowed.

Bélisle remembers that they began by preparing lists of hundreds of different works and described Carney’s visit as introducing him to the gallery and its many collections, with talk about how some could be used in his offices.

One surprise they found when he arrived: Carney knew art history, and Canadian art, which Bélisle said led to “meaningful discussions.”

“I would say that his level of understanding and knowledge of art is quite a bit bigger than what I’ve encountered in other elected parliamentarians,” he recalled in an interview.

“It was a great surprise.”

Since taking office, Carney has presented himself as a prime minister who embraces Canadian culture. Whether quite literally, holding Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams’ leg in a close hug on a red carpet, a photo of which now hangs in his office, to making a surprise appearance at this year’s Politics and the Pen gala in Ottawa.

Carney has also employed consistent references to Canada’s historical past in describing its current situation with the U.S., including by featuring a figurine of Sir Isaac Brock, the British general who put preparations in place for a possible American invasion.

But Carney’s penchant for art began before entering politics, with he and wife, Diana Fox Carney, acting as collectors, one piece of which came from his now artificial intelligence minister, Evan Solomon, whose years-old brokering of a deal for the former governor of central banks in England and Canada as well as other high-profile clients, ultimately led to his firing from CBC.

Carney is also no stranger to the national gallery, with him being appointed to serve on a board reserved for what the institution’s board chair Ann Bowman characterized in 2022 as being reserved for “c hampions of the visual arts.”

“The happy surprise of his knowledge of art extended to the fact that we were thinking about this the same way that we would think about building a public presentation of anything,” Bélisle said.

“So not colour coordinating to the sofa, but what is the best of Canadian art that can go into that space, which is wonderful.”

He said there were many artists whose work the prime minister was drawn to, with one in particular being Alex Janvier who hailed from Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta, where Carney was raised. “He was pulled quite strongly to that one.”

Others included Luke Parnell, Emily Carr and Edward Burtynsky, plus Quebec artists.

A summary of Carney’s visit to the national gallery from last May outlines how the prime minister and his wife spent two-and-a-half hours touring its exhibits, with staff fielding “his questions and interests.”

“His goal is to display artwork in his two offices that reflects our country in all its diversity and across our history,” Genest wrote in an email to others, debriefing the visit.

“Staff in the (Privy Council Office) indicated that they would like to see the artwork in at least one of his offices in place very soon as there are dignitaries that will soon visit Canada. Including King Charles and Prime Minister (Keir) Starmer of the U.K.,” Genest said.

To make that happen, while Carney was out of the country, sitting down for his first high-stakes meeting with Trump at the Oval Office last May, gallery staff were invited into Carney’s two offices, one within West Block and the other, across the street, to participate in what emails described as being an “art-oriented walk.”

“They spent a couple of hours mapping out options for the spaces that would reflect the prime minister’s interests,” Genest wrote.

In email exchanges after his gallery visit, its national director hinted that discussions revolved about more than simply admiring Canadian art, but what message it could convey to future visitors.

“ Everyone at the (National Gallery of Canada) highly enjoyed it and it is exciting to talk about art as soft diplomacy,” Bélisle wrote.

In an interview, Bélisle outlined how Carney approached selecting art by wanting to ensure regional diversity, adding that he was “quite acutely aware of how these works could be received by his guests.”

“How do we represent Canada through its art, I think, was one thing that he seemed quite interested to be thinking about.”

After visiting Carney’s office, gallery staff quickly got to work designing detailed mock ups for where prospective pieces would go: A landscape by Group of Seven founding painter Frank Carmichael above a fireplace, an Inuit print from the gallery’s vault nearby; a burst of vibrant colour against a white canvas by Janvier.

Gallery spokeswoman Josée-Britanie Mallet said in an email these rendering were “essential” to ensure the size of each piece “integrates harmoniously with the specific dimensions and architectural heritage of the rooms.”

Emails show time was clearly of essence, with King Charles’s impending trip to Ottawa only weeks away.

“I believe that you have been aiming for the end of the week for the two mock ups,” wrote Matt Shea, assistant secretary to cabinet, who handled the office curating. “Would having it today be possible? If not that’s ok, but I was asked if there was a way for the PM to have a package this afternoon.”

Audrey Champoux, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a statement that Carney has continued the longstanding tradition of displaying Canadian artwork in official spaces and residences, as it “h ighlights an ongoing commitment to celebrating Canada’s history and artistic heritage.”

“Featuring Canadian artworks in these spaces invites distinguished guests, dignitaries, world leaders and Canadians to experience the country’s rich diversity, history, and identity.”

When it comes to the gallery itself, Bélisle says he sees how the national pride Canadians have been experiencing has played out at the institution.

He points to a recent exhibition that featured works focused on the North, one that near the end saw upwards of 2,000 visitors per day, some who came multiple times. “Somehow the North became a symbol of Canada.”

National Post

• Western civilization is under siege in Canada, activist warns
• Ottawa, Alberta agree to path on approving new oil pipeline by September 2027

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 politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

OTTAWA — Call it the coriander conundrum.

Like with parsley, carrots, dill, and most other members of the apiaceae family of edible plants, the retail price of coriander has been growing like a weed.

While the prices of many items on grocery store shelves have been heading north in recent months and years, the price of fresh coriander — and the cilantro leaves that come from the same plant — tends to be even more volatile than most because the plant is a bit precious – it needs good weather, spoils quickly after being picked, and is usually imported.

That means its shelf price, which has more than doubled in price in some markets since the start of the pandemic, is more susceptible to exchange rate fluctuations and fuel price spikes, such as those that followed the recent attacks on Iran and the subsequent closing of the Strait of Hormuz.

The price of coriander is just one small component in the broader basket of items on Canadian grocery store shelves, the costs of which have been rising sharply in recent years. The Bank of Canada said earlier this year that grocery prices climbed about 22 per cent between 2022 and 2025, compared to a jump of 13 per cent for other consumer prices during the same period.

But there are no policy options to deal with grocery prices that won’t cause more harm than good, said Don Drummond, a former high-ranking official at the Department of Finance and chief economist at TD Bank.

“There are no policy levers that would quickly and decisively lower grocery store prices,” he said. “All they can do is re-distribute who pays and when.”

Drummond says the rise in food prices is a trap for governments because most efforts to do something will mean borrowing more money, thereby adding to the burden that future generations will pay for today’s consumption. Scratching more cheques for consumers is also dangerous because it’s expensive, adds to the expectation that governments will bail people out, and puts further pressure on inflation by boosting demand.

“There is nothing useful that can be done.”

Many Canadians, however, believe their grocery bills have been climbing faster than the Bank of Canada’s statistics show. The central bank says the average Canadian spends about 11 per cent of their budget on groceries, although that figure tends to be much larger for those with limited resources.

For many consumers, the conundrum has simply been about what to do about rising grocery prices, especially when they show few signs of heading back down. They’re annoying for pretty much everybody, but a serious issue for those on tighter budgets. In some cases, the price hikes have changed their lives, leaving them unable to pay bills or even hungry. Statistics Canada reported a full four years ago, in the early days of the recent price hikes, that consumers were also responding to the post-pandemic food inflation by buying less and hunting more for bargains.

For governments, however, the conundrum rests on a misalignment between the economics of grocery prices and the politics, leaving them struggling to try to do something about a major problem that is difficult to influence.

Analysts say the economics are that grocery prices are largely a function of market forces. Michael von Massow, a food agriculture economist at the University of Guelph, said the grocery price hikes over the last five or so years have been a result of poor weather, global warming, currency fluctuations, rising energy and fertilizer costs, the wars in Ukraine and now Iran, and of course pandemic-related supply chain problems — many things, but not an industry conspiracy.

Grocery stores are still earning pre-tax margins of about 4 per cent on most items, von Massow said, just as they were before the pandemic. “The perception of gouging is grossly overstated.”

The Retail Council of Canada, which represents the large grocery chains, says that grocery store margins are lower than the net income of farmers or food manufacturers and processors. Grocery store profits, the group says, have been flat in recent years and driven much more these days by non-food items such as those in the health, beauty and pharmacy aisles.

As for the politics, it’s as much about perception than the economic reality. When millions of voters are miffed about something, governments likely won’t be stopped from doing something as a response, even if it’s mostly to be seen to be doing something. Nor will opposition parties be stopped from accusing governments of not doing enough, or too much, or just doing it wrong.

The Carney government has already taken a number of steps to try to help, targeting both consumers’ wallets and the industry itself.

In a bid to help consumers, particularly those most in need, Ottawa brought in a new Canada Groceries and Essential Benefit. This measure, an expansion of the existing GST credit, includes a one-off top-up payment of 50 per cent, plus an increase in payments by 25 per cent for five years beginning in July.

The government also provided more money for food banks and local food programs.

To encourage grocery stores to lower their costs and perhaps their prices, the Liberals spent $500 million on a Strategic Response Fund to help businesses absorb disruption costs, instead of just passing them on to consumers. They also spent $150 million on a Food Security Fund that was designed to support smaller players in the food business and brought in tax incentives to encourage the construction or expansion of greenhouses.

There were also measures to support greater competition in the grocery sector, including greater monitoring by the Competition Bureau.

All told, said John Fragos, a spokesman for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Ottawa’s responses to the food price surge will save a single person about $905 a year, and a family of four about $1,890.

Opposition parties have proposed more drastic steps.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the government should tackle rising grocery prices by slashing taxes and input costs for truckers, farmers and food producers, and taking measures to increase competition in the grocery store market.

NDP Leader Avi Lewi says the government should attack affordability by investing in a new chain of government-supported grocery stores that would compete against the private operators. The non-profit government stores would offer a smaller array of products, the theory goes, but could charge 30 to 40 per cent less than the private chains.

A report released last week by the conservative-leaning Montreal Economic Institute argued against government-run grocery stores, saying they’d fail to provide significant savings and fail to address the real drivers of rising food prices: tariffs, interprovincial trade barriers, and unnecessary regulation.

Provincial governments have also taken their shots at combatting rising grocery prices through tax credits and rebates targeted at low-income citizens, increased support for food banks and farmers.

But the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers said governments could help even more with grocery prices by cutting the fees that credit card companies charge smaller retailers and doing more to address the disparity between business costs in rural and urban communities. “It’s like an invisible border,” said Gary Sands, the federation’s senior vice-president.

The Liberals argue that the soaring food prices are a global phenomenon and that their measures have prevented prices from going up even more.

The OECD says that Canada ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack of industrialized countries when it comes to grocery price inflation over the last few years. But that’s cold comfort to Canadian consumers who just want to feel like they’re getting a fair shake as they make their way through the checkout.

Despite the global increase in inflation, economists say Canadian governments have also played a role by throwing too much coal on the fire. During the pandemic, at a time when the global economy was already experiencing a number of supply shocks and increased consumer demand, the Trudeau government embarked on an unprecedented spending spree.

In 2020, near the start of the pandemic, about 20.7 million Canadians out of an adult population of 30.3 million received income from one of the federal pandemic-related programs, according to a 2022 report from Statistics Canada. During that year alone, the programs are estimated to have cost $270 billion — about 12.5 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP).

While the programs provided relief to individuals and businesses and offered a short-term economic cushion during the crisis, the C.D. Howe Institute noted that injecting that much extra money into an economy with strong employment will almost certainly lead to inflation.

Von Massow, the University of Guelph economist, said today’s higher food prices might not seem fair, but market forces can also work the other way too. In recent months, for example, coffee, olive oil, pasta, some berries and some seafood have been among the grocery items to fall in price, he said.

Consumers, however, tend to notice the rising prices, notably of some imported fruits, chocolate, beef, and fresh vegetables, much more than those that are falling, von Massow said.

Economists also point out that food prices haven’t jumped that much more than inflation overall, which has averaged 2.8 per cent over the last three completed years, or 3.8 per cent if 2022’s 6.8 per cent is included.

“They’re tough,” Von Massow said about the grocery price hikes over the last few years, “but they’re not as tough as we make them out to be.”

He suggests that consumers try to control what they can control, such as what they buy and when. For example, buying produce that is in-season and grown nearby can help, he said.

Coriander, by contrast, is largely imported to Canada from warmer places, mostly Mexico, Arizona and California in the winter, dried seeds from India, Morocco and Egypt in the winter. That makes the spice among the items on the grocery store shelves most susceptible to fuel price hikes and other supply chain fluctuations — and a small piece of a big conundrum for both consumers and governments.

National Post

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.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government is playing legal hardball with First Nations fighting for clean drinking water — and First Nations are fighting back.

Interviews and hundreds of pages of court documents reviewed by the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) reveal this marked shift primarily on three fronts.

In Alberta, Canada pulled the plug on settlement talks involving four nations. In Ontario, it is using a legal tactic against another that appears to contradict its own guidelines for government lawyers. And nationally, it is appealing a summary judgment that handed First Nations a victory late last year, arguing the federal court judge erred in finding Canada owes First Nations a duty of care on drinking water.

Meanwhile, some First Nations are taking the government back to court, alleging it is breaching its obligations under a separate drinking-water settlement agreement hammered out in 2021.

Another nation plans to ask a court to declare a right to clean drinking water for First Nations — something Canada has fought in court despite ministers’ declarations backing such a right.

Meanwhile, Canada is keeping the costs of these court battles a secret.

• 'Not acceptable': AFN national chief decries timeline for Liberals' proposed overhaul of rules for major projects
• Mothers are suffering injury, death during childbirth in Canada. Here's why it still happens

The ramped-up legal tussles come more than a decade after former prime minister Justin Trudeau pledged to end long-term drinking water advisories and as Carney tells First Nations Canada wants “stronger nation-to-nation relationships” and to build infrastructure, “including housing and water.”

According to the federal government there were 39 long-term drinking water advisories in 37 First Nations communities as of May 6, with 154 lifted since 2015. But both last year and the year before, for the first time in a decade, more have been added than lifted — and these tallies ignore the dozens of drinking water advisories in British Columbia and Alberta.

As Canada pushes forward high-profile “nation-building” infrastructure projects, many of them on Indigenous land, some First Nations leaders have called for their own infrastructure needs to get sped-up nation-building treatment.

Legal representatives for First Nations said they are frustrated to find a government that once emphasized reconciliation abandoning attempts to reconcile. First Nations leaders who spoke with the Investigative Journalism Bureau said they are worn out by years — in some cases, generations — without water to drink, without water for firefighting, in some cases without running water at all.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty was not available for an interview. Indigenous Services Canada spokesperson Pascal Laplante would not comment on specific legal cases but said in an emailed statement: “Everyone in Canada should have access to clean drinking water. The Government of Canada respects the decision of First Nations to seek the Court’s assistance on these important issues and remains committed to working with all First Nations to advance solutions with communities to support reliable access to safe drinking water, now and over the long term.”

The nations fighting Canada in court see things differently.

‘Litigate or go home’

Carol Wildcat remembers when the water was sweet.

That was 30 years ago. Now the Ermineskin Cree Nation member and director of industrial relations, whose community is south of Edmonton, drinks bottled water and fears what bathing her great-grandchild could do to the three-year-old’s skin. What comes out of their tap smells of rotten eggs, is yellowed and cloudy and will give you stomach problems or worse.

“You could start smelling it. You could start seeing a difference. It cooked differently,” she said. “If I’m a human, I have human rights. But we’re not sure if water is a human right.”

Indigenous Services Canada says it provided Ermineskin with $12.9 million in capital investments for water and $12.1 million in operational and maintenance funding between 2004 and 2025. Lawyer Clayton Leonard, who represents western First Nations including Ermineskin, said the operations and maintenance funding goes toward a treatment plant that serves, in often inadequate amounts, about 30 per cent of the community.

Leonard thought some of his clients were close to a deal with the federal government. They had been negotiating for the better part of nine years, seeking an out-of-court settlement to a lawsuit over four Alberta nations’ lack of clean drinking water.

Then came an August 27, 2025, letter from the government.

“Canada does not currently have a financial mandate to negotiate settlement of this matter,” it read in part. “We have also been advised that we do not have instructions to continue with any exploratory discussions at this time. It remains uncertain when, or if, such instructions will be forthcoming.”

The news and the effective end to settlement talks was a blow to Leonard’s clients. And to his faith in the government.

“I can tell you, for the first time in 21 years as a lawyer, it’s gone. I have no confidence at all any more that any political party or prime minister will actually do what’s required, here.

“It’s litigate or go home. I think that’s the only thing that will force the government of Canada to ensure First Nations have access to clean drinking water.”

Laplante would not comment on individual cases.

Canada’s move hardened Leonard’s clients’ resolve, he said. He has received instruction to fight more aggressively on their behalf. While the case itself may take years, Ermineskin Cree Nation plans to request a summary judgment finding First Nations have a right to clean drinking water.

‘One of the sickest communities in Canada’

Family doctor Beverley Preater has practiced medicine from Labrador to Lebanon. She has worked on rotation in about 40 First Nations communities across Ontario and visits Pikangikum, in the province’s northwest, at least four times a year.

She is accustomed to adverse conditions that make practising medicine hard and staying healthy harder. Nowhere she has worked in Canada, she told the IJB, is as bad as Pikangikum.

“I believe that Pikangikum may be one of the sickest communities in Canada,” she wrote in a January 2025 affidavit, filed as part of Pikangikum’s legal memorandum in its lawsuit against Canada, which seeks $2 billion in damages and a declaration by the court that Canada breached its obligations owed to Pikangikum, among other things.

Pikangikum’s problems have persisted so long, the federal government argues, that Canada cannot be held responsible for them.

Pikangikum’s situation, Preater says, is getting worse. The population is growing — it’s a little over 4,100, and projected to double within 20 years — but its infrastructure is deteriorating as it ages and becomes less able to meet growing demand.

Of the community’s 521 homes, the First Nation’s lawyer Yana Sobiski said, about 320 have no water whatsoever, while about 172 have water trucked to cisterns. Those without running water haul it in buckets from a distribution point.

The federal government pays to operate and maintain a water treatment plant that provides piped water to 29 homes and trucked water to 172, although the community says the latter is unreliable and has never been enough to meet the population’s need. Indigenous Services Canada says it approved $17 million in January for short-term water and wastewater system upgrades. “We are working closely with the First Nation to address their water infrastructure needs.”

That lack of usable, drinkable, running water means parents without flushing toilets delay toilet-training children because the trek to the outhouse with a toddler in minus-40-degree-Celsius weather is too much to bear. The inability to wash easily makes medical evacuations increasingly likely because wounds fester, infections worsen.

In any other community, a child with lice would be an unpleasant but routine ordeal, addressed with special shampoo. In Pikangikum, Preater said, it can become a pernicious infection necessitating medical evacuation.

Canada’s response appears to go against advice it has given its lawyers.

Assertions in Pikangikum’s claim “rest on events that took place many years ago,” the government argued in its May 29, 2025, statement of defence. As a result, they argued, potential damages for alleged government failures have effectively timed out.

This contention appears to fly in the face of the government’s own guidance for its lawyers: A 2021 memo from then-attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould said that in cases that have been delayed the government should avoid using statute-of-limitations arguments to throw them out.

Former Pikangikum lawyer Jonathan Schachter’s response to the government’s legal argument was “complete frustration,” he said. (Since he spoke with the IJB, Schachter left the firm for reasons unrelated to Pikangikum’s case.)

“The wrong keeps going: The limitation period has not elapsed…You can’t bar a claim if the situation is worse than ever.”

Laplante said the 2021 directive “recognizes that litigation may be necessary in certain circumstances and sets out how it should be conducted in a manner that supports reconciliation and respects Indigenous perspectives.” Laplante did not comment on the government’s statute-of-limitations argument.

Schachter said he does not know why Canada is taking this tack but contends the decision would have been made by someone higher up. “This isn’t a mistake by a junior lawyer. Someone with decision-making power said, ‘Yes, let’s do that.’”

‘A real shift’ in Canada’s litigation posture

In addition to the Alberta and Ontario cases, Canada is appealing a courtroom victory for at least 60 First Nations fighting a class-action suit over clean drinking water.

In December a federal court judge found Canada owes a fiduciary duty to First Nations on this matter.

Federal spokesperson Laplante referred reporters to the government’s court filings. In January, the federal government filed documents announcing its intent to appeal that ruling, arguing the judge “erred in finding a common law duty of care,” among other objections.

It came as a surprise to Michael Rosenberg, a lawyer for some of the First Nations in the case.

“It’s a very disappointing message,” he said. “I think we’ve seen a real shift in the litigation posture” of the federal government on this file, he added.

Meanwhile, some First Nations are going on the offensive in the face of what they see as government stalling.

Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Curve Lake First Nation and Neskantaga First Nation are taking Canada to court alleging it has breached its obligations in relation to a previous drinking-water settlement. That settlement required the introduction of drinking-water legislation , which died when Parliament was put on hold when Trudeau stepped down in early 2025.

Canada’s failure to introduce a replacement law “is not reasonable” and the government has not fulfilled its obligations, the motion read.

Laplante said, “Canada has signalled its intention to introduce drinking water legislation this spring.”

Rosenberg said his clients have not seen a draft of the bill.

The IJB filed an access-to-information request for the legal costs related to four court cases on First Nations drinking water. The response came with all the costs redacted on the grounds they are subject to solicitor-client privilege.

Deborah McGregor, an associate law professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice at York University, sees a government proclivity to litigate that brings financial and logistical burdens.

“It’s expensive and it takes a long time and so much resources go into it, including government resources, that could be going to the community to help solve the problem.”

The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health is a collaborative investigative newsroom supported by Postmedia that partners with academics, researchers and journalists while training the next generation of investigative reporters.

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.