Among the 43,000 on hand to witness the first-ever FIFA World Cup game in Canada on Friday were Canadian celebrities like Ryan Reynolds, Mike Myers, Will Arnett and professional athletes such as NHL star Connor McDavid, NBA player Dillon Brooks and Olympic sprinter Andre De Grasse.

Notably absent from the Canadian men’s national soccer team’s 1-1 draw with Bosnia & Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium was former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Rather than witness Canadian sports history, the 54-year-old opted to attend Team USA’s opening match against Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium, a veritably star-studded affair for which Trudeau’s pop star girlfriend Katy Perry was paid to sing the national anthem.

“Sometimes supportive boyfriend duties call. But you know who I’m rooting for to take the Cup,” he wrote on X with a Canadian flag emoji.

Perry, a California native from Santa Barbara, wore a long silver sequin gown that looked more like the Stanley Cup than the gold-plated World Cup trophy as she performed her song Wonder during pregame performances. After, she was seen scurrying off the field straight to Trudeau’s arms.

Straight from the stage and into Justin Trudeau’s arms ❤️
After headlining the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium ahead of the U.S.-Paraguay match, a barefoot Katy Perry made a beeline for her Canadian boyfriend, sharing a sweet embrace as the celebrations… pic.twitter.com/GNjBLzByoY

— HELLO! Canada (@HelloCanada) June 13, 2026

As part of her attire, she wore a pin of the Canadian and U.S. flags side-by-side.

“See this little thing right here,” she said in an Instagram video , gesturing toward the pin and winking before walking away to take Trudeau’s hand.

“It’s not just a pin, it’s a lifestyle,” she turned to add.

She also stuck the pin through one of her earring holes at one point.

The pair were later spotted in one of the luxury suites during the first half of the match, both standing to applaud as the U.S. scored three goals. (They would go on to win 4-1.)

Canada hosted its first World Cup match in Toronto.

Justin Trudeau chose to attend the USA opener instead.

And yes, he was caught on camera jumping up to celebrate an American goal.

You really can't make this stuff up. pic.twitter.com/Gj37BwVGnJ

— Shazi (@ShaziGoalie) June 13, 2026

Canada’s game began at 3 p.m. EST, while the U.S. played at 9 p.m. EST.

Also missing from Canada’s opener Friday was Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had already left on a previously scheduled trip to Europe ahead of next week’s G7 summit in France.

“All of Canada is with you — to the final whistle,” he wrote on X .

Representing federal officials were Adam Van Koeverden, Canada’s Secretary of Sport, Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne , and new Governor General Louise Arbour.

First-ever World Cup point on home soil! 🇨🇦 History was made yesterday in Toronto. What an incredible atmosphere for the opening match against Bosnia. Go Canada go! 🍁⚽ #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/2JXzG748hl

— Adam van Koeverden (@vankayak) June 14, 2026

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wished the men’s side luck on X .

“The whole country is cheering you on. Go Canada Go!”

Trudeau and Perry have been romantically linked since first being spotted dining at a Montreal restaurant during her tour stop in the city. After months of speculation and sightings, the pair made it official when they were seen leaving a Paris cabaret show in October.

It’s the second time this week Perry and Trudeau’s appearance together made headlines, the first coming Monday night in New York City, where they attended the premiere of her Lifetimes Tour movie at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In what’s billed as their first red-carpet appearance as a couple, Perry and Trudeau were full of smiles and public displays of affection.

In one of the edited videos circulating online, Trudeau moves in close, puts his arm around Perry and locks eyes with her as they pose for paparazzi photos, looking into her eyes.

When he places his right hand on her stomach, she immediately moves it away, leaving Trudeau to pull back and smile sheepishly to the cameras.

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau make their romance red-carpet official at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her film, ‘The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris.’ ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ee75aNJXSE

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) June 9, 2026

The perspective changes to show the couple from the red carpet up, with Perry’s hand on his chest and Trudeau’s hand firmly resting on her behind, and he proceeds to give his partner another smouldering gaze.

In a red-carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Trudeau said he’s already seen the show three times, “but really wasn’t paying attention to anything but Katy.”

“So I’m looking forward to seeing the show now for the first time,” he said with a laugh.

Justin Trudeau is living his 𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶 with Katy Perry at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of ‘The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris.’ 😍

(🎥: jpasc24) pic.twitter.com/Jqj8hJG0th

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) June 9, 2026

During the Q’n’A portion of the screening, Perry told the audience she is “very in love,” per ENews.

“Actually, that show,” she said, referring to the Paris performances that comprise the film, “was after I met the love of my life, and so I felt very anchored by that.”

“What a special night. Huge energy on screen, huge energy in the audience,” Trudeau wrote on Meta social media channels Tuesday, along with a pair of photos.

“So happy to be by your side, Katy,” the 54-year-old added with a heart emoji.

Perry, in response, commented: “it’s Katheryn to you, baby.”

The same snaps also appeared in the 41-year-old musician’s social media slideshow from the event and while her beau was not mentioned in the caption, his son Xavier commented on his father.

“He’s a pretty fresh guy,” the 18-year-old wrote.

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Nearly 500,000 Canadian addresses will lose home delivery as Canada Post forges ahead with conversions to community mailboxes.

In an announcement made on Thursday , the Crown corporation said it “is moving forward with community mailbox conversions as part of its broader transformation to modernize the postal service and return to financial self-sustainability.”

In the coming weeks and months, Canada Post will be connecting with 37 communities across the country, the initial stage of converting 485,000 addresses from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes in 2027. That’s on top of the 136,000 addresses in 13 communities that it previously identified for conversion in late 2026 or early 2027.

In its announcement, Canada Post states that community mailboxes reduce costs as delivery to Canadians’ doors costs “significantly more.” And citing its “deteriorating financial situation” — a substantial loss in 2025 continuing into the first quarter of 2026 — the present state of affairs “underscores the urgency of this transformation,” says the corporation.

Conversions to community mailboxes “are a key element of its plan” to transform the postal service and stop it from becoming “a recurring burden on taxpayers.”

With almost three quarters of addresses in Canada receiving mail via centralized delivery such as community mailboxes, apartment lobby boxes and post office boxes, Canada Post is ultimately converting four million addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes.

It expects the national initiative to take about five years.

The corporation is now initiating discussions with local governments in several communities across the country about affected addresses, including:

• Halifax, N.S. (17K addresses);
• Fredericton and Oromocto, N.B. (17K addresses);
• L’Ancienne-Lorette, Laval, Longueuil, Québec City, Saint-Hubert, Trois-Rivières in Quebec (139K addresses);
• Ajax, Brampton, Hawkesbury, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, Ottawa, Pickering in Ontario (158,000 addresses);
• Portage la Prairie, Winnipeg in Manitoba (17K addresses);
• Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta (56K addresses);
• Burnaby, Colwood, Coquitlam, Esquimalt, Kelowna, Langford, New Westminster, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Saanich, Songhees Nation (New Songhees 1A), Victoria, View Royal, Westbank First Nation (Tsinstikeptum 10 and Tsinstikeptum 9), West Kelowna in B.C.(81K addresses).

Note that Canada Post says these are approximate numbers.

Canada Post provides a list of the postal codes scheduled for conversion , as well as information about community mailbox conversions. This website will be continuously updated.

Canada Post says it provides support for residential customers who have physical challenges accessing mail and parcels in community mailboxes, with more than 17,000 households across the country currently benefiting from some form of accommodation.

Canadians who need more information about this service are asked to visit Canada Post’s Delivery Accommodation Program .

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After 15 months of declines in Canadians travelling to the United States, new Statistics Canada data suggests the U.S. travel boycott is coming to an end.

In May, Canadian return trips from the U.S. totalled 1.9 million, up 9.5 per cent from the same month in 2025 and the second consecutive month of year-over-year growth.

The increase was driven by a rise in return trips by automobile (+15.1 per cent), while return trips from the U.S. by air in May remained below levels from the year before, falling 5.5 per cent last month.

Canadian travel to the U.S. first began to rebound in April 2026, when return trips by automobile rose by 5.8 per cent compared to a year earlier. Though return trips by air had fallen 8.1 per cent, the figures meant overall Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. rose by 1.4 per cent that month compared to April 2025.

April marked the first year-over-year increase in overall return trips from the United States since December 2024. Taken together, the April and May figures suggest that the 15-month boycott of travel to the U.S. by Canadians is starting to turn around.

Political tensions between Canada and the U.S. contributed to the drop in travel in early 2025, following punishing tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and his repeated suggestions that Canada could become the 51st state . Meanwhile, heightened security at the border also discouraged many from travelling south.

Meanwhile, a survey from March 2026 suggested that one demographic group in Canada is embracing U.S. travel this year.

The 2026 Smart Traveller Survey, which was run by The Harris Poll in March on behalf of Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (THIA), found that 45 per cent of Gen Z Canadians (born between 1997 and 2012) say they’re likely to travel to the U.S. next year, compared to just 8 per cent of Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

Among Canadians who are travelling this year, nearly two‑thirds (61 per cent) of Gen Z respondents said the U.S. is on their itinerary, compared to 48 per cent of Millennials (born 1981-1996), 28 per cent of Gen X (1965-1980), and 14 per cent of Boomers.

That said, the survey also found that 36 per cent of Canadians are choosing domestic destinations over international travel, while Europe has overtaken the U.S. as the top international destination.

And though Gen Z said the biggest barriers to travel to the U.S. were cost (36 per cent) and a lack of paid time off (22 per cent), the majority of Boomers (51 per cent) cited political tensions as the biggest deterrent to cross-border travel.

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A former executive legal officer of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging it is “a poisoned and systemically antisemitic environment.”

The lawsuit, filed by Paul Koven, the interim general counsel for TDSB since January 2023, argues that the school board failed “to address rampant antisemitism affecting TDSB students and staff, while prioritizing other forms of racism,” the statement of claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on May 19, reads.

“The allegations being advanced are entirely without merit,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird told the Post in a written statement. “This lawsuit attempts to create a narrative that is neither accurate nor supported by the facts. We reject these allegations outright and are confident that the record will demonstrate that they are false.”

Koven, whose lawsuit claims he “was the only Jewish executive at the TDSB before his medical leave,” accused Leola Pon, the board’s associate director of organizational transformation and accountability, of sidelining him and making “overtly antisemitic and racially divisive remarks.”

“This is not a routine employment dispute; it is a case about alleged discrimination – primarily systemic antisemitism – retaliation, and the erosion of basic professional norms,” Koven’s attorney Rob Lilly said in a written statement.

“Mr. Koven’s allegations describe a pattern of conduct that, if proven, would be deeply troubling for any employer, let alone a large public institution which serves as a microcosm of Canadian values where children are taught peace, tolerance, inclusion and respect,” Lilly continued.

“With his lawsuit, Mr. Koven is giving a voice to Jewish staff and students who may otherwise feel they do not have one. Mr. Koven very much looks forward to proving these allegations in court.”

Among the incidents alleged in the lawsuit are Pon’s alleged refusal “to support a Jewish lawyer for an award because he was a ‘Zionist’” and her alleged insistence that “no Black or Jewish investigator be used in an incident involving a Board Superintendent using the ‘N-word’ due to a supposed ‘race war’ between Jewish and Black staff.”

Pon no longer works at TDSB. Her role was cut in May as part of the board’s trimming of over 200 positions to “restore long-term financial sustainability.”

The Post sought comment from Pon through her TDSB email and LinkedIn profile but did not receive a response prior to publication.

Canada’s most populous school board has been plagued by several high-profile antisemitic incidents since late 2023, including high schoolers giving Nazi salutes and bathroom graffiti of swastikas, “Hitler was right” and “#KillTheJews.” Figures released by TDSB from 2024 show that Jewish students in the board made up just three per cent of the student body but 15 per cent of all recorded racist incidents.

Koven’s lawsuit placed his treatment in the broader context of TDSB’s attempts to combat antisemitism since October 7. The legal filing accused TDSB of “systemic indifference” in the wake of the Hamas atrocities, which has “had a direct and severe impact on his physical and mental health and that of other Jewish employees at TDSB.”

“Despite being aware of the Plaintiff’s serious health conditions and the impact of workplace stress and antisemitism on his health, TDSB failed to meaningfully accommodate him or to address the sources of that stress,” the lawsuit states.

The Jewish organization, #EndJewHatred , commended Koven on the lawsuit, saying he had “the courage to not only speak out, but also use impactful litigation to challenge institutionalized Jew-hatred.”

“Jewish identity, history, and peoplehood are not up for erasure,” the statement posted on Facebook continued. “Those who refuse to stay silent in the face of Jew-hatred deserve our support.”

Koven’s statement of claim is demanding damages of $750,000 for wrongful dismissal, $1.5 million for general damages from both the board and Pon, and $1 million for “moral damages for bad faith in the manner of dismissal, demotion, mental distress, aggravated, exemplary and/or punitive damages.”

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OTTAWA — Eleanor Olszewski jokes that, like most good Albertans, she originally comes from Saskatchewan.

Born in Swift Current, Sask., Olszewski called the small city home for only a couple of years. Her family moved to Medicine Hat, Alta. where she was raised, before leaving for Edmonton to attend university, achieving degrees first in pharmacy and then later law, eventually settling down to raise her own two children in the provincial capital.

Now serving as federal minister for emergency management, the MP for Edmonton Centre is bracing for another wildfire season, one that she comments has so far been quiet, but expects to see light up with alerts come July.

There is another fire smouldering in the meantime that Olszewski, the lone minister representing Alberta around the cabinet table is focused on: That of calls coming from separatists for Alberta to leave the country. With pressure from sovereigntists building, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has added to a set of provincial referendums this fall a question asking Albertans whether they wish to stay in Canada, or begin the formal process of holding a binding vote on independence .

“Honestly, I’m disappointed in the premier’s decision to put this question, this particular referendum question on a ballot,” Olszewski told National Post in an interview this week. She said citizens are already facing too much uncertainty coming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and wider global disruptions.

“This is not the time to be dividing Canadians, or to be … putting a choice to Albertans.”

“Honestly, out of all the times in our history … it’s not the time,” Olszewski says. “This is a time for unity.”

She acknowledges that she has yet to tell the premier her personal feelings on the matter.

The referendum question has triggered what Olszewski describes as an offering of support from her colleagues to assist, including offers to come to Alberta. She says Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was raised in Edmonton, is “very engaged in this issue.”

She suggests that the prime minister’s upbringing and connection to the province, having mentioned in past speeches major milestones in the development of Alberta’s oil industry, means that Carney understands Albertans, “maybe more than other people do.”

Smith herself has complimented Carney for his efforts to improve relations with the province and embrace a more co-operative style of federalism than seen under his predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose energy policies drove much of the anger towards Ottawa and helped fuel the power of the separatist movement.

The centrepiece of Carney and Smith’s attempt to reset the Ottawa-Alberta relationship is the deal the pair struck aimed at getting a new oil pipeline from the oilsands to to the West Coast in exchange for Alberta, the country’s largest oil-producing province, increasing its industrial carbon tax.

Details finalizing that agreement, including setting a deadline for Ottawa to declare Alberta’s pipeline proposal to be in the “national interest” just weeks ahead of October’s referendum vote, were announced days before Smith officially put the independence question on the ballot.

In her view, Olszewski sees the separatist challenge as something much deeper than what can be addressed with one pipeline project.

“It’s not a pipeline issue.”

When it comes to feelings of western alienation, a sentiment that has defined for generations how many Albertans perceive their treatment by Ottawa, she believes it is not something those living elsewhere understand.

“You need to have lived in Alberta, and have talked to a lot of Albertans to help understand,” she says, describing it as a sense of feeling disrespected by the federal government and other Canadians, a sentiment that has hit peaks and valleys over the province’s history.

While prime ministers and federal cabinet ministers usually make the trek annually to flip pancakes and shake hands at Calgary Stampede, the province’s biggest tourist draw outside of the Canadian Rockies, Olszewski says she plans to travel the province between now and the October 19 referendum to speak to as many Albertans as possible.

Her stops will include the province’s smaller centres “not just Edmonton and Calgary.”

Olszewski says her portfolio has already taken her to Alberta cities like Red Deer, her hometown of Medicine Hat, Camrose and Airdrie, a booming community on Calgary’s suburban outskirts.

She plans to expand from there, saying “it’s my feeling that it’s even more important to do that now.”

Olszewski unsuccessfully ran as a Liberal candidate several times before stepping into Edmonton Centre in last year’s election when former Liberal cabinet minister Randy Boissonneault declined to run.

Today, she says her advice for those living in Central Canada is to take the issue of the referendum seriously and make an effort to listen to Albertans.

“I think that’s fundamentally important.”

Former provincial and federal conservative cabinet ministers who have represented Alberta and have begun organizing to campaign for the “stay” side of the referendum vote have called for a show of support from leaders.

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who himself represents the rural Alberta riding of Battle River–Crowfoot, this week delivered a speech in Calgary outlining his pitch for national unity. He promised to speak to those “on both sides of this referendum,” and warning federalists not to engage in “name-calling” or “fearmongering,” warning it would do nothing to aide efforts to convince those who want to leave to decide to stay.

Asked how effective the voice of Liberal cabinet minister from Edmonton will be with those who want to separate in the conservative-blue province, Olszewski says “it’s a really good question.”

While there will be people who have already made up their minds about the vote, she nevertheless believes it is important to show up to talk and answer questions and, also, just listen.

She said she thinks Liberals haven’t always done that.

“Sometimes I do think we could have done a better job,” she said.

National Post

staylor@postmedia.com

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At the height of protests in Iran this January, Mona Ghassani, the president of the Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC), was invited to speak on CBC.

Amid news reports estimating government forces had killed upwards of 20,000 civilians, Ghassani told host David Cochrane that the events unfolding in Iran did not “exist within a vacuum.” Ghassani blamed American sanctions, which had cratered the Iranian rial and Israel, particularly its intelligence agency — the Mossad — for conducting “influence operations” across the country and sowing discord.

“I want to emphasize that they have no interest in the Iranian people and they are only interested in their personal interests in the region,” Ghassani told the Canadian broadcaster.

Ghassani’s remarks struck a discordant note on air, largely out of sync with the majority of Canada’s nearly 300,000-strong Iranian community. Most Iranian-Canadians see the Islamic Republic as a fundamentalist regime in need of toppling. A survey published by National Post in April found overwhelming support among Iranian Canadians for regime change and broad backing of the American-Israeli campaign to degrade the country’s military.

Throughout Ghassani’s appearance, there are odd pockets of silence and awkward transitions as they (Ghassani uses they/them pronouns) struggle to articulate how mainstream Iranian-Canadians feel about the crisis and where the ICC fits into the broader tapestry of the diaspora.

Ghassani comes off overly conscious of word choice, a tension reflected across the group’s Instagram page throughout the upheaval, which began in late December 2025. Not until Jan. 24, 2026, did the ICC release a generic message expressing “our condolences to the grieving families of the deceased among our compatriots in the recent unrest in Iran.” A similarly nondescript message, “wishing patience and peace for all survivors,” was published on Feb. 17.

But who killed them and why they were killed were left unanswered.

The CBC interview sparked an immediate backlash across the Iranian-Canadian community, highlighting the disconnect between the ICC and much of the community it ostensibly represents. The CBC even issued a rare apology for, as Cochrane said, unwittingly serving as “a platform for the narrative of the Iranian regime.”

Just days after Ghassani’s appearance, Cochrane invited Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, a University of Toronto linguistics professor, to speak about the ICC’s misrepresentation of widely held Iranian-Canadian beliefs. He dismissed Ghassani’s rhetoric as “offensive to the Iranian Canadian community” and said the ICC represented just a fraction of Iranian Canadians.

“I think they’re absolutely a fringe,” Kahnemuyipour told National Post. “They’re fringe in the Iranian Canadian community. They have much more support outside of the Iranian Canadian community.”

“Even with the support that they have from the non-Iranian community, go look at their rallies,” he continued. “If they dare have a rally, it would be maybe 50 people, 100 people outside of the U.S. embassy.”

Kahnemuyipour compared the small ICC public showings to the massive displays of support against the Iranian government witnessed in Ontario in February that drew an estimated 350,000 people into the streets.

“Our organization has consistently stood against the devastating realities of warfare, particularly emphasizing the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of military conflicts, such as the recent illegal U.S.-Israeli military actions against Iran,” the ICC told the Post in a statement. “The toll of these conflicts on innocent human lives is profoundly tragic.”

“The ICC actively works to raise awareness among Canadians regarding these severe impacts of war and the dangers of a ‘manufactured consent’ that paves the way for further military escalation,” the group continued.

The month after Ghassani’s interview, Iranian-Canadian activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay initiated a petition calling on the “House of Commons to conduct a comprehensive and independent review of the structure, governance practices, legal status, funding sources, and activities of the Iranian Canadian Congress.” Sponsored by Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, the petition garnered over 13,000 signatures before it was closed in late March.

MacKay, an outspoken critic of the ICC for several years, preferred not to comment on the record for fear of potential legal action and pointed the Post to a series of tweets she wrote in recent years condemning the organization.

“The ‘Iranian Canadian Congress’ @ICCongress does not represent the voices of the Iranian Canadian community,” she wrote days after the Hamas atrocities on October 7. “Rather, they spew the same talking points and propaganda of the regime of the Islamic Republic.”

Alongside MacKay and Kahnemuyipour’s impression, a recent survey conducted by the Metropolis Institute, on behalf of the non-profit Advancement of Human Rights Organization for the Middle East, found the ICC represents just a sliver of Iranian Canadians.

The survey, conducted mostly at large Iranian community gatherings in major Canadian cities between late March and mid-April, found less than a third (31.4 per cent) of respondents were aware of the ICC before the survey, and barely above a tenth (11.2 per cent) of people agreed that the group “reflects the views of most Iranian Canadians.”

The Iranian Canadian Congress has long been saddled by questions of how representative the organization is. In late 2020, the Post reported on former Green Party candidate Dimitri Lascaris encouraging followers (many non-Iranian) that “any adult resident of Canada is eligible to join the ICC.”

Lascaris, a prominent anti-Israel activist with Greek ancestry, was interested in fending off candidates running for ICC leadership positions that he deemed to be “pro-sanctions and pro-regime-change elements on the right.”

That slate of candidates he opposed, which dubbed itself the “Change and Revival Campaign,” included Hamed Esmaeilion, an author and spokesman for the victims of Flight PS752 downing, former Ontario Liberal MPP Reza Moridi, and a founding leader of Quebec Solidaire, a provincial political party. Only one member of the group was eventually elected to the ICC’s board of directors at the time.

Arash Azizi, an Iranian academic at Yale University, supported the Change and Revival slate partly, as he wrote in December 2020, because ICC’s leadership “in recent years has been led by people who attack dissidents while remaining comparatively quiet about, say, the oppression of one of Iran’s largest religious minorities, the Baha’is.”

Lascaris attended Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral last February and rejects labeling the Lebanese militia as a terror entity.

The ICC’s apparent embrace of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, and its projection of military power across the region have put off many in Canada. The ICC remains opposed to listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a military organization in Iran, as a terror entity in Canada.

“What actually brought them to the spotlight was (that) they opposed the Canadian government’s decision to designate the IRGC a terrorist entity,” Farzad Hassani, an Iranian-Canadian dentist in Vancouver and ICC critic, told the Post.

“I guess 50,000 people went to Richmond Hill,” Hassani continued, referring to a rally held in a Toronto suburb known for its large Iranian-Canadian community, in late February. “So 50,000 said, ‘We are against (the) IRGC,’ and these guys (the ICC) stand their ground. Obviously, you’re not a representative: at least for that 50,000.”

The sentiment extends across the country. Maryam Malekpour in Vancouver, B.C., knows well about the horrors of the IRGC.

In 2008, her brother, Saeed, an Iranian-Canadian from Victoria, B.C., was arrested by IRGC members for engaging in “un-Islamic” online activity while visiting their father in Iran. Saeed was jailed for over a decade in Evin prison, a facility with a notorious reputation for torture and the disappearance of political prisoners. Maryam advocated for her brother’s release throughout the ensuing years, even after Saeed received a death sentence. He eventually escaped back to Canada during a brief prison furlough in 2019.

“Many Iranian Canadians have direct personal experience with political repression, imprisonment, torture, discrimination, forced displacement, the execution of loved ones, or the loss of family members due to the actions of the regime,” Malekpour told the Post in a statement.

“As a result, many prioritize accountability, human rights, justice for victims, and support for democratic change,” she continued. “In my experience, the ICC has often appeared more focused on engagement and normalization than on accountability and justice. This has created a significant disconnect between the organization and many members of the community who have been directly affected by the regime’s actions.”

In its statement, the ICC described itself as a “strictly democratic organization” that builds policies based on members’ input.

“Central to the ICC’s core mission is an unwavering commitment to peace, diplomacy, and anti-war advocacy. Guided by the democratic mandate of our members, the ICC firmly opposes foreign military aggression, external interference, economic coercion, and unilateral sanctions,” the organization told the Post.

“We wish for Canadians to better understand the diverse perspectives within the diaspora and to recognize the importance of amplifying voices that advocate for peace, dialogue, and humanitarian protection over pro-war rhetoric.”

There remains a growing hunger among many Iranian-Canadians to build new, alternate institutions that they say would better resemble the community.

“The ICC has not meaningfully evolved to reflect the community,” Hudson Mahboubi, an Iranian-Canadian in Toronto, wrote the Post.

(Maryam Malekpour and Mahboubi were both involved in distributing the Metropolis Institute survey to gauge the views of Iranian-Canadians.)

Mahboubi is part of a growing wave of Iranian-Canadians conducting informal conversations with the Canadian Jewish community to explore the potential of creating a federation model.

“If anything, (the ICC) has become more isolated as the Iranian-Canadian diaspora has grown more unified in its rejection of the regime. There may have been a period when it presented itself as a broad civic organization, but its consistent pattern of softening criticism of the Islamic Republic, opposing robust pressure on the regime, and aligning with anti-Israel positions has long placed it outside the mainstream,” Mahboubi said.

“The 2026 survey confirms what many activists have observed for years: the ICC does not speak for the community it claims to represent.”

National Post

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Fertility Inc. is a multi-part series by the Investigative Journalism Bureau that delves into the Wild West of the egg-freezing industry, its aggressive marketing, the high cost and the chances of an eventual successful pregnancy.

Megan Robinson, 37, isn’t sure if she wants to have children, but if she does become a mother she hopes it will be with a partner the natural way. In the meantime, as a backup plan, she decided to freeze her eggs.

Still, she faced moments of uncertainty as she jabbed herself daily with painful needles, paying $10,000 out of pocket for the procedure, which is growing in popularity with Canadian women.

Robinson viewed egg freezing as a “break glass in case of emergency” plan if she’s unable to conceive with a partner in the future.

The Vancouver documentary producer invited the Investigative Journalism Bureau to witness her six-week egg-freezing journey — from the $7,632 in hormone medication she took to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs, to the day when a doctor harvested those eggs for freezing.

The process was not easy or cheap.

Only 25 per cent of the embryos created from frozen eggs and transferred into women’s wombs in Canada have resulted in a live birth, according to statistics from the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society . But the procedure still gave Robinson a chance, and that was what she wanted.

Two months in advance: Counting follicles

The process begins with a baseline ultrasound to assess a woman’s ovaries, which Robinson did at a Vancouver-area fertility clinic. It showed 10 follicles — fluid-filled sacs that hold immature eggs — in her ovaries, a lower-than ideal number, as the average woman of child-bearing age has around 16.

Her doctor told her it was unlikely she would end up freezing 10 eggs; not all follicles are guaranteed to mature.

Clinic staff explained that the chances of those frozen eggs becoming a live baby decrease with each step: not all eggs will survive thawing; not all eggs will be successfully fertilized with sperm in a lab to create embryos; and not all embryos will turn into healthy pregnancies.

But Robinson told the IJB: “I think it’s worth the risk.”

Days 1 to 26: Priming stage

The start of Robinson’s menstrual cycle marked Day 1, when she began taking estrogen tablets and topical testosterone each morning to help follicle growth and maximize the number of mature eggs to be potentially retrieved.

On Day 20, she added a progesterone pill in the evenings, and kept taking those three medications for six more days.

During that time, she said she felt lethargic and had no appetite, but continued to go to work and train for a marathon.

“I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open,” Robinson said.

Side-effects from the egg-freezing process are common, but not typically severe, and can include mood swings, hot flashes, headaches, nausea, cramping and mild pain.

Days 27 to 29: Hormone crash

After 27 days of daily medication, she weaned her body off the estrogen and testosterone for three days, which she said resulted in a “hormone crash” that gave her a relentless headache. “The only thing that gave me relief was throwing up.”

On Day 28, Robinson had her first clinic appointment since the process had started. She left with a “very large brown grocery bag full of drugs.”

Of her nearly $8,000 in medication costs, her employer’s health insurance paid for all but $605.

She covered the $9,650 bill for the rest of the procedure, including the first year of her $750 annual egg-storage fee. All of Canada’s 42 known fertility clinics that offer egg freezing charge clients to keep their frozen eggs.

Days 30 to 38: Four needles a day

Every morning, beginning on Day 30, Robinson injected into her lower abdomen a pre-filled pen needle bearing Rekovelle, a prescription hormone medication that stimulates the ovaries to grow extra eggs. Every night, she injected two larger, painful needles filled with additional hormone medications: Menopur for egg growth and Saizen for egg quality.

The nighttime needles required mixing saline with a precise amount of each drug, which came in a powder form, to create a liquid she could draw up into her syringe and inject. The clinic did teach her how to do this, but she was nervous.

“I’m here alone, and mixing drugs and doing these things that I have no experience doing,” she said.

The bigger needles also hurt. As she applied significant pressure to get them all the way into her abdomen, her face contorted with pain.

”It feels like (my body) is rejecting them, like the needles just don’t want to go in,” she said as she did the injections.

While the clinic nurses were largely “wonderful” during her appointments and phone calls with them, she said she was a bit disappointed no one checked how she was doing while administering the big needles.

“I was under the impression that they were going to be in touch more often just to check in,” she said. “I feel like I was misled a little.”

The next morning, on Day 36, she went to the clinic to have her blood drawn. It was a Thursday at 7:45 a.m., and the place was packed.

“It was so wildly busy,” she said. “A full waiting room, lineups to pay, busy bathrooms.”

Also on Day 36, she added a second morning shot of the medication Cetrotide to prevent ovulation, which is when the ovary releases an egg. That brought the daily number of needles to four, a routine she would continue until her egg retrieval.

“The lower part of my abdomen was just covered in green and purple, tiny bruises from all the spots that I’ve been injecting,” she said.

Days 39 to 43: Ultrasound and retrieval

On Day 39, she returned to the clinic for an ultrasound.

Of the 10 follicles spotted at the beginning, only one had matured. Two more had grown, but they were not mature enough yet for retrieval.

“Hoping for seven to 10, and then being told one, maybe three,” she said, “was really disappointing.”

The doctor increased her medication doses, which added an extra $1,400 to her drug costs.

The increased dosage worked. The three eggs spotted on the ultrasound fully matured, and a fourth was growing.

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Finally, she took her “trigger shot,” which helps the ovaries release mature eggs in preparation for retrieving them the next morning. It would be the 43rd and final day of her journey.

Typically during egg retrieval, a woman lies on an examination table with her legs in stirrups while a doctor inserts a needle through the vagina and into the follicles to extract the eggs.

For Robinson, the procedure was quick and painless at the clinic. “They give you a very low dose of fentanyl to kind of help you through it, and then they give you local anesthesia. I didn’t feel a thing, and it was over within 15 minutes,” she said.

She then received the best possible news: the clinic was able to freeze four mature eggs. Still, most experts suggest women need more than twice that many to increase their chances of success.

Robinson’s fertility clinic has an online calculator to inform patients of their odds of turning frozen eggs into babies: for those with about five eggs, it was 26 per cent.

While this journey had not been simple, Robinson has no regrets.

“It was a roller coaster. Absolutely, it’s a gamble. I got far less (eggs) than what I had originally anticipated,” she said, but added, “I’m so glad that I did it … It gives me an option.”

Three weeks post-retrieval

Robinson, an ultra trail runner, returned to training after the process. But her recovery took longer than she had imagined.

“I’m still not feeling myself. My hair has started falling out a little bit and I’m feeling sluggish and fatigued,” she said. “The procedure itself was a breeze. But the post-hormone come-down for me has been challenging.”

Her advice to other women considering egg freezing is to reach out to relatives and acquaintances. She was shocked by how many people in her life had experiences with fertility services.

“When you start to go through it,” she said, “it’s really scary, and you can feel a bit like an island. But you are not. So many women in all of our lives have done this process, whether it’s the full IVF cycle or just egg freezing.”

“They are often very willing and open to share, if you just ask.”

— lculbert@postmedia.com, Wclarke@ijbureau.org

How much did Megan Robinson’s egg-freezing procedure cost?

Total drug costs: $7,632

Covered by employer health insurance: $7,026.50
Out of pocket: $605.50

Procedure/retrieval total cost: $9,650

IVF egg freeze setup and monitoring $3,000
Egg freeze cycle OPU, lab work, freezing $5,900
Annual egg storage fee $750
All out of pocket

Total cost: $17,282
Total out of pocket: $10,255.50

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

Next: The missing data

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It would be premature to grant a conditional discharge to an Ontario man who terrorized the grandparents of one of two Indiana girls murdered in 2017 by calling them more than 30 times to say the dead girls had been seen in Canada a year after the killings and that their deaths were a hoax, according to the Ontario Review Board (ORB).

The eighth graders — Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14 — were killed near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Ind., on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered the next day with their throats slit.

Jeffrey Keddy, who called himself “the bridge guy” or “the troll under the bridge” in his many calls to the grandparents between August and September of 2021, left one message saying, “I am never going away, I am never going to stop.”

The murders had garnered a lot of media attention and the grandparents Keddy plagued with his phone calls did dozens of televised interviews after the killings.

The grandparents went to police, who identified Keddy as the caller and arrested him on Sept. 15, 2021, said the recent ORB decision.

Keddy — who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder — was found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder in November 2022 on charges of conveying false information with intent to injure or alarm, repeatedly communicating with intent to harass, and failing to comply with probation.

“Mr. Keddy reported that he began using marijuana in high school, and was smoking three to six joints a day at the time of the index offences,” said the June 5 decision from the independent tribunal that regularly reviews the status of individuals found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.

The 60-year-old was discharged from a Hamilton hospital last June. He’s now living in a small apartment “in a small rural town” about an hour’s drive from Hamilton with a woman he’s been in an “on again/off again” relationship with for three decades, as well as his son, who uses cannabis, and daughter-in-law, said the decision.

Keddy was seeking a conditional discharge, but wasn’t agreeable to a “clause requiring attendance at the hospital upon request,” said the decision.

He’s “noted to have a history of making repeated calls to both law enforcement and family members who had been victimized by violent crimes, and espoused conspiracy based theories,” said the ORB decision.

Keddy has criminal convictions from 1986 until 1994, “consisting primarily of drug offences along with escaping custody and obstructing a peace officer,” said the decision. “The second set were in 2021 and 2022 and were for breaches of recognizance, failure to comply with a release order, and two counts of criminal harassment.”

He was charged twice for harassing neighbours, “leading to no-contact orders,” said the decision. “Following one conviction, he had to sell his house, as he was forbidden to enter the town as a condition of his probation.”

While Keddy “remained adherent to prescribed medications,” over the past year, “he explicitly stated a desire to stop medication once he is absolutely discharged.”

Keddy “has been reluctant to travel 15 minutes to the nearest town to attend programming offered through” the Canadian Mental Health Association, said the decision.

It notes Keddy “spends his day binge watching television and sees no issues with this.”

Keddy’s “risk to the safety of the public is linked to his schizophrenia and particularly to his lack of insight,” said the decision. “Although he has not reported any new delusions related to crimes or paranoia, he continues to hold the same beliefs that led to the index offences (i.e. that he has some unique knowledge regarding historical high-profile crimes).”

He “currently has no professional supports outside of the Forensic Outpatient Program, with no family physician or local community agency involvement,” said the decision. “Other risk factors relevant to Mr. Keddy are his history of substance use and poor response to less restrictive supervision.”

Without ORB oversight “and the support provided by the Forensic Outpatient Program, it is highly likely that Mr. Keddy would discontinue his antipsychotic medication, his psychotic symptoms would intensify, and there would then be a moderately high risk of violent recidivism over time. In the event of decompensation, given Mr. Keddy’s history of psychiatric instability, substance misuse, and lack of insight, the civil Mental Health Act would be insufficient to manage his risk in a timely manner.”

If Keddy “maintains stability and abstinence, and demonstrates meaningful progress in reintegrating back into the community, (his treatment) team would then be in a position in the future to consider the appropriateness of a less restrictive disposition,” said the decision.

Keddy “only agrees to take psychiatric medications because of the ORB,” it said, noting that he “also does not believe that alcohol and cannabis impact his mental state.”

The panel rejected Keddy’s bid for a conditional discharge, noting he’s “yet to engage” in the community where he’s living, or “establish professional supports there.”

It noted Keddy’s “exposed to his son’s cannabis use,” and living in the same town where he made calls terrorizing the Indiana grandparents.

“More time is required to test Mr. Keddy’s ability to maintain stability and abstinence in the community, and to ensure that the housing situation continues to work. There is also a recent concern about tampering with urine samples and/or nonadherence to prescribed medication that warrants further careful monitoring.”

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Scientists have mapped a dense network of thread-like fungi that criss-crosses across an array of biomes while hiding just beneath the Earth’s surface.

Known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM), these microscopic organisms carry water and nutrients to 70 per cent of plant species and help keep a vast amount of carbon out of the atmosphere.

The study, published Thursday by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), found that the biomass of mycorrhizal fungi was four to six times that of the human population.

Placed end-to-end, the fungal pathways would reach 110 quadrillion kilometres in length, the study predicted. That would make it long enough to wrap around the planet 2.7 trillion times — and cover the distance from Earth to the sun 750 million times.

“There could be up to 10 metres (32ft) of mycorrhizal network in just a teaspoon of soil,” Justin Stewart, a lead author in the study, said in the news release announcing the finding.

AM networks were found in nearly all biomes, with grasslands containing 40 per cent of their biomass. The densest structures were found in the grasslands of South Sudan, the Everglades in Florida and the Tibetan plateau.

With the help of an international network of scientists and researchers, SPUN analyzed more than 16,000 soil samples from nine different biomes. Machine learning models that were trained on 300,000 lab-grown AM filaments allowed researchers to predict the fungi’s growth in areas that weren’t sampled.

“With the emergence of new technologies in high-resolution imaging, machine-learning and robotics, we are starting to reveal what has long been hidden under our feet,” the co-lead author, Dr. Corentin Bisot, said.

“We are learning how the complex bodies of network-forming fungi transport nutrients and help regulate the climate.”

The map, which is available online , reveals the scope of a mutually beneficial relationship between plants and fungi that dates back 450 to 500 million years. The mycorrhizal fungi, embedded to roots, act as a supply chain drawing nutrients crucial to plant growth from areas dozens of times greater than the plant could access alone.

In exchange, the fungi receive vast amounts of carbon, estimated to be around four billion metric tons each year.

The study is the first to attempt to calculate the full extent and density of AM structures. The researchers say future attempts would benefit from samples taken in areas where data is lacking, such as deserts, tropical forests and tundras.

“Mycorrhizal fungi have shaped life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, but we still understand too little about how the infrastructure of these living transport systems is distributed across the planet,” said Merlin Sheldrake, a co-author and biologist.

He added: “This study is an exciting step towards understanding how this planetary circulatory system operates and suggests ways that we can better work with fungi to help address many of the unfolding challenges of our times, from food security to climate change.”

National Post

OTTAWA – On a visit to Paris, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he believes the notion is catching on for middle powers to unite against “hegemons,” as he laid out in his attention-grabbing speech in Davos, Switzerland , earlier this year.

“It is gaining real traction,” said Carney during a press conference in the French capital on Friday. “You see it in the agreements we have, you see … those translating into specific business-to-business and research arrangements that are coming forward.”

Carney met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, where both leaders announced a new general security of information agreement, designed to deepen defence ties between the two countries and facilitate the exchange of classified information.

The prime minister described Canada’s relationship with France as more than just friendship, and reiterated comments made last month that he believes the international order would be rebuilt out of Europe.

“Canada, France and Europe are poised to be a powerful force for good, in the century ahead,” said Carney.

Carney’s visit to Paris is part of a weeklong trip that will end at the annual G7 Summit at Evian-Les-Bains, France, with a stopover in Ireland.

Macron holds the G7 presidency this year, after Carney held it in 2025 and hosted the summit last year in Kananaskis, Alta.

Macron said France serves as a key bridge between Canada and Europe.

“More than ever, we share the same understanding of the world,” he said. “We observe that the international order is fragmented, marked by the return of power politics, by challenges to established rules, by economic coercion, by interference and by information warfare.”

The focus of the agenda for next’s week summit will include the Iran war and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, support for Ukraine, the regulation of artificial intelligence and social media, global trade imbalances with China and critical mineral supply chains.

“If you look at the key issues of security around the Gulf, evolution of the Gulf War, and the situation in Ukraine, the security situation, and providing support (these are) very much common objectives,” said Carney, adding that there may be different approaches around AI.

“I’m looking forward to this summit, and I’m looking forward (to) the broader participation that will be at the summit, everyone from Kenya through to the UAE, who will be there at the broader outreach, that’s an important component of this,” he added.

G7 members Canada, France and the United Kingdom have all introduced legislation to set age restrictions on social media use in their respective countries. CEOs from big American tech firms are expected to attend this year’s summit.

Carney’s strategy of building alliances among midsized powers, especially in Europe, is key to his attempt to pivot from Canadian dependence on the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend the summit, which begins Monday, as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran continue to falter amid repeated violations of a two-month-old ceasefire.

Carney has said Canada stands ready to play a role in securing the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, but only when a ceasefire holds and the strait is reopened.

National Post

jgowling@postmedia.com

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OTTAWA — The federal government will put the burden on importers, instead of customs officials, to prove that the products they bring into Canada are not produced with forced labour, according to new legislation tabled Friday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney had promised that his government would be tabling a new bill to reinforce its current laws to stop the import of goods made with forced labour. His comments came after the Trump administration threatened earlier this month to impose new tariffs on Canadian sectors not covered under a free trade deal, claiming there is a lack of policing in Canada against questionable goods in the supply chain.

The new bill, C-35, proposes that the minister of foreign affairs establish a list of goods for which there are reasonable grounds to suspect were produced wholly or in part by forced labour. That list will be compiled with the input of ministerial colleagues and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Rob Oliphant, parliamentary secretary to the minister, said that CBSA officers will have access to that list and will be able to target the specific goods that are imported into Canada to better follow up with importers to investigate whether forced labour was involved.

“We now have a targeted approach,” he said.

Oliphant said that if certain imports are on the government’s list, then the importer will have the responsibility to give evidence that these products were created or produced in factories or other work environments with fair labour standards.

“Those steps will be taken, hopefully proactively, by importers before this happens, so they’ll do their due diligence, because they don’t want to be left with (illegal) shipments,” he said.

Oliphant said he would not comment on hypotheticals, but the CBSA has noted that past shipments that were either intercepted or detained for suspicions of forced labour have included solar panels, automotive parts, textile goods and frozen seafood. In 2024, a group of U.S. senators, which included now U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, called on the U.S., Canada and Mexico to take more action to stop trade in slave-made goods, especially by minority Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region.

Oliphant said this approach is about Canada competing on a level playing field.

“We believe that this legislation will — I’m not using the word harmonized, but — be in line with expectations coming from Mexico, coming from the United States, but also with our European partners, and anybody who would want to do business with Canada,” he said.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a report last week that said Canada, Mexico, the European Union and other countries have “failed to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.”

The USTR is invoking Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 , which is designed to address unfair foreign acts, policies or practices affecting U.S. commerce.

As a result, the Trump administration proposed that those countries, which include Canada, be hit with 10 per cent additional tariffs. Dozens of other countries which have partial or no bans on forced labour imports could be hit with a higher duty of 12.5 per cent.

Oliphant however said the newest tariff threats from the U.S. are not the main reason why Canada is acting to strengthen its current ban on imports made with forced labour.

“Canadians have continued to ask for stronger legislation, and so this is what we’re doing. We believe at the same time, concurrently, this will satisfy any concerns that any other country would have, including the U.S.,” the parliamentary secretary said.

In 2020, Canada implemented an import prohibition on goods produced wholly or in part by forced labour through an amendment to its Customs Tariff, in compliance with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) which had just replaced NAFTA.

Other legislative efforts further improved transparency. In 2023, former Liberal MP John McKay passed a private member’s bill that requires companies to report any possible forced or child labour in their supply chains and in their annual financial statements.

The Liberals in late 2024 promised further changes to forced-labour laws, but that was followed by prime minister Justin Trudeau resigning and Carney calling an election in 2025.

Government officials, speaking at a not-for-attribution technical briefing on the new legislation on Friday, said Bill C-35 will be a standalone piece of legislation and that the import ban on forced labour will therefore be removed from the Customs Tariff.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett said his party will examine the new bill but criticized the government for saying it already had strong measures in place to block those imports.

“Now, they’re introducing legislation saying that it’s going to do the very thing that they were already doing,” he said.

Oliphant said the current system had put the onus on CBSA, which he claims did not have the adequate resources to do its job, so the government is adding 1,000 new officers.

Carney has also said the government will be eliminating the position of an ombudsman tasked with investigating allegations of human rights violations, including the use of forced labour, by Canadian companies abroad. Carney said it was not very effective.

The senior government officials revealed the role of Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise has been vacant for over a year and the responsible department will move forward with the process of closing the office in due course.

The government intends to consult publicly about Bill C-35 over the summer.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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The New York Times was not kind to BMO Field’s temporary stands, a metal scaffold topped by 17,000 new seats erected for the upcoming FIFA World Cup games in Toronto. When its local staffer attended the May 9 game there between Toronto FC and Inter Miami, he reported back under the headline: “You feel it shaking.”

By the end of the article, however, the stands were decreed to have great sight lines.

Thousands leapt to their feet as Lionel Messi scored his ninth goal of the season, “and if Saturday was any indication, those crowds will gladly hang out high above the Earth in a strange new setting.”

That’s as it should be, said Jeremy Troughton, managing director of the major events division of Arena Group. Arena built the temporary stands at BMO Field, which will be briefly renamed Toronto Stadium for the duration of this summer’s World Cup, which began on June 11.

“We put up grandstands and temporary structures for major events around the world,” he told National Post. “My team looks after those major events and the one-offs where the level of scrutiny can be a bit higher than you might get for a normal event, and obviously, on the level of major events in terms of global TV audience, I think that the FIFA World Cup is probably number one.”

He understands that the stands may look a little hodgepodge, before they were covered with World Cup branded wrapping, but said safety is paramount. “We are all about the engineering and the strength. That is what we’re there to do.”

That means building the stadium to fit the event and its attendees, plus what Troughton calls “the dynamic.”

“If you’ve got people attending a dressage event in equestrian, where the crowd generally are not even allowed to move, versus an AC/DC rock concert, you’ve got extremes,” he said. “And so part of that engineering is we look at the harmonic motion, the motion of the crowd in the grandstands, and we always engineer for what the crowd is likely to be doing.”

It’s like a spectrum of energy. “Synchronized crowd movement is something that will occur, so these are engineered more to the AC/DC rock concert end than the dressage end.”

He added that the stands become more stable once there are people in them.

“There’s various ballast blocks and tie-down points under the stands, and that might, to the untrained eye, make you wonder how safe they are, but that’s there purely to ballast when it’s not loaded,” he said. “When they’re loaded with people, that is when they are in their most robust configuration. We become the ballast.”

Materials for the scaffolding were sourced locally, but the seats atop have travelled around the world. “The particular stand that’s in Toronto, in its lifetime, was used in the Paris Olympics, then it was moved across and did the Ryder Cup in New York, in Bethpage, and now it’s up in Toronto,” said Troughton.

He said temporary is the fiscally prudent way to go.

“You don’t need to turn the clock back very far to look at Olympic Games where there were many new stadiums built for a major sporting event to come to town, and that then sits there unused or partially used for decades afterwards,” he said. “People are challenging that rationale of building so-called white elephants that don’t have the use afterwards.”

Brazil learned that lesson the hard way, investing heavily in permanent structures for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, only to see one stadium converted into a parking lot and another rented out for birthdays and weddings .

Arena Group, in contrast, once built a complete 34,000-seat stadium in Long Island, New York, for the 2024 Cricket World Cup. It came together in a little over three months, hosted eight matches over 10 days, and then was taken down.

That makes sense to Richard Peddie. The president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from 1998 to 2011, he oversaw the acquisition and operations of Toronto FC, as well as the construction and operation of BMO Field in its early years.

“I really wanted to bring a soccer team to Toronto,” he recalled. “And so I talked the board into saying, ‘Let’s buy a team.’ And it was $10 million; that’s all. Today it’s worth $750 million, all U.S. dollars. And you need a stadium to play in.”

BMO Field might have been a bit on the small side, he said, but it fit the team and the times.

“Twenty years ago, it fit the times, and it fit the financials,” he said. “You don’t build a billion-dollar stadium for a $10-million team. So it was the right stadium and the right size in the right place.”

Peddie said he’s no fan of events like the World Cup or the Olympics — too many ways for costs to spiral out of control. “If I’d been mayor, I would have tried to talk us out of it.”

That said, “I think it’s good that it’s temporary, because scarcity is a great sales tool. If all of a sudden you had a permanent 50,000-seat stadium, it would look really empty a lot. When you’ve got something that’s more like 22, 23,000 and you’ve got a team that still attracts fans, you know … get it done (and then) take it back to the original intention.”

Doug Perovic, a professional engineer and a professor at the University of Toronto, said early images of the network of trusses used at BMO Field “may look a bit unnerving to people that don’t understand structural integrity,” but they actually are safe, designed and built according to the Ontario Building Code and other relevant standards.

As to whether they feel safe, “there’s a different conversation.”

“Engineered structures do sway,” he said. “We don’t like to make things completely rigid, because that can actually lead to problems. If you look at an aircraft … the wings are actually designed to flop up and down quite a bit. And the CN Tower … the top of it moves several feet from side to side in heavy winds.”

He added: “That means it’s fine in terms of safety, but does it feel good? I can understand for many people it’s like: ‘Oh, wow, this is making me feel queasy.'”

It’s a notion as old as Aesop’s fable about the flexible reed, and as new as singer Ani DiFranco, whose 1994 song Buildings and Bridges begins: “Buildings and bridges / Are made to bend in the wind / To withstand the world /That’s what it takes … What doesn’t bend breaks.”

Of course, sometimes both things can happen. On June 16, 2012, the roof of a temporary stage collapsed during the setup for a concert by the band Radiohead in Toronto’s Downsview Park. A drum technician, Scott Johnson, was killed, and three other personnel were injured.

“Imagine if that happened just a couple of hours later during the show,” said Perovic. “Don’t even want to think about that.”

Perovic was one of many experts involved in investigating the collapse. What emerged was a series of problems.

“First of all, there was sloppy engineering design, it lacked rigour, there were weight miscalculations … and that would usually be caught in a proper sort of full design and inspection, but it wasn’t.”

Next, the metal tubes in the design were not available, so the builders used a smaller, weaker substitute. It was also revealed that the design did not include a margin for additional safety — stands are built to withstand up to twice the stress expected, just in case.

“And then the third thing, which would have precluded all this, was there was zero regulatory oversight,” he said. “There were no building permits issued by the City of Toronto. There was no independent third-party safety inspection that would have easily and quickly noticed, hey, this is not constructed as designed.”

He refers to it as “the Swiss cheese model.” Flaws in design, construction, modification and maintenance can be seen as holes in a block of Swiss cheese. If they line up, it spells trouble.

He added: “Unfortunately, we learn from failures and mistakes from the past. The sort of collection of errors that combined in that Radiohead stage collapse case that ended up in that perfect storm are not going to happen here.”

Troughton noted there’s been “quite a lot of unfounded criticism through the Toronto public when they see the scaffolding stands, but it is a very versatile solution. It’s very well engineered.”

He added that when the World Cup begins, FIFA will add its own branding to the structure, which will cover the tubular design. “The stands will be completely wrapped with FIFA branding.”

The temporary stands will play host to a half-dozen FIFA matches , beginning June 12 with a game between Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The last match there, with teams to be determined, will be on July 2.

“It all has to be gone by the end of July to make way for the CNE,” Troughton said. “The kit will go from here back to our U.S. headquarters just outside Milwaukee, and it gets fully inspected there before it gets then batched up, ready to go out into the next job.”

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An investigation into shootings at GFL Environmental Inc. facilities led to the alleged shooters-for-hire who targeted Toronto’s U.S. Consulate earlier this spring and are suspected of being involved in Thursday’s shooting death of a Toronto police officer, a source said Friday.

Veteran Toronto Police Service Constable Marc Pinizzotto, a 43-year-old member of the force’s Emergency Task Force, died Thursday while executing an early morning search warrant in the case. Police have said Nicholas Bennett, 19, who was wounded in Thursday’s raid, will face a first-degree murder charge in connection to Pinizzotto’s death. Investigators were still searching Friday for 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, another suspect wanted in connection with the consulate attack.

“They get paid to do it; they don’t care what they shoot,” said a source close to the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it’s an active police investigation.

“This is the bottom of the barrel.”

An investigation into shootings at GFL facilities and the Toronto home of at least one of the company’s executives in recent years led to Thursday’s early morning search at an apartment complex north of Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue West, said the source.

“Because of a couple of arrests in the GFL investigation, they had information in the individuals’ phones that linked them to the consulate,” said the source.

Texts and videos in the phones of those arrested in the GFL investigation showed the shooters were paid between $600 and $800 each to target buildings, including Toronto’s U.S. Consulate, this past March, said the source.

“The whole ring is unwinding,” said the source.

“This is just the beginning of a long investigation. They’re starting at the bottom and working their way to the top.”

Those ordering the shootings directed the shooters-for-hire where to pick up stolen cars to carry out the attacks, said the source. “They’re videoing (the shootings) on their phone because the only way they get paid is to take a video.”

The attacks haven’t been aimed directly at people, said the source. “They’re just raising havoc. They don’t even know what they’re doing. They’re given an address and told to go shoot this address.”

Global News obtained a warrant Friday that showed Jabbi, who police warned Thursday is armed and dangerous, was allegedly involved in the theft of a vehicle before shooting at the consulate on University Avenue.

A Toronto Police Service spokesperson couldn’t confirm Friday that the investigation is looking at a network of shooters for hire that also targeted GFL buildings.

U.S. prosecutors suspect the consulate attack was directed by Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who is allegedly commander of an Iraqi militia with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military body.

An unsealed criminal complaint reported a wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi shortly after the March 10 shooting, claiming “our people” were responsible for the attack as well as another one on “the Knesset,” which appears to be a reference to a Toronto synagogue that was fired on around the same time.

“On behalf of the Embassy of Israel in Canada I express my deepest condolences to the family, loved ones and colleagues of Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, who was killed in the line of duty while serving the community and investigating the shootings at multiple Toronto Synagogues and the U.S. Consulate,” Israel’s ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed said in an X post on Friday.

Toronto police have not confirmed whether the raid Thursday morning was tied to any synagogue shootings or whether any of the suspects had ties to Iran or the IRGC.

“We know that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been using proxies, i.e. cut-outs or guns for hire, right across Western Europe,” said Phil Gurski, a former senior strategic analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) from 2001-2013, specializing in Al Qaeda and Islamic State-inspired violent extremism and radicalization.

“They can use these wankers, pay them not very much money and say we want you to do X, Y, or Z. These guys they’re hiring have no ideology. They have no skin in the game.”

The consulate shooting, “at first blush,” appears to be tied to “an actual state sponsor, that is the IRGC in Iran,” Gurski said. “We’ve never really seen that before, not to the best of my knowledge, and I worked on Iran at CSIS. I worked on jihadis at CSIS. I don’t recall a single event where we can definitively say Iran paid this guy X amount of money to do this.”

Hiring shooters is cheap and gives those doing the hiring “a level of plausible deniability,” Gurski said.

That allows the Iranians to say “he’s not ours. He’s just some guy that’s mad about Palestine or mad at (U.S. President Donald) Trump or mad at Jews and he carried this out independently.”

Proving an Iranian link could be very difficult, he said.

If the IRGC did order the consulate shooting, “it’s a brilliant plan by the Iranians to make their presence known,” Gurski said.

“If there’s something there, then I think it does point to a significant scale-up in Canada as to Iranian state activity on our soil.”

But Daniel Stanton, who served for 32 years with CSIS, including a dozen years as an executive manager in operations, cautioned Friday that the consulate shooting could have been organized by someone who’s upset over the U.S. war with Iran, versus the “probably less likely” option that the attacks are being organized by Iran.

“What would the state of Iran get by expending resources and time to do these types of activities in Toronto?” said Stanton, now the director of the National Security Program at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute.

“What’s the impact versus going to the United States and making trouble for Donald Trump if they had a real terrorist incident?”

The March 10 early morning attack on Toronto’s U.S. Consulate wasn’t “exactly Jason Bourne activity,” Stanton said. “It does sound a little amateurish,” he said. “We need a little bit more data before we pin this on Iran.”

Councillor Mike Colle, who represents Eglinton-Lawrence, said Friday that a link to Iran is plausible in the consulate shootings, as well as shootings that targeted Jewish establishments in Toronto.

“They find these guys that will do anything for a few bucks,” said Colle, the deputy mayor for North York.

“They say here’s the address: go shoot this place up. There are all kinds of desperate people out there with guns and they basically make their money by intimidating people or shooting up people.”

He’s calling for more help to deal with the problem.

“This is way beyond just the Toronto Police, who have been stretched to the limit,” Colle said.

“If we really want to be serious about this, we need a boots-on-the-ground visible task force with the RCMP, OPP and Toronto Police all working together on a daily basis,” he said.

“It would also send a signal to these petty criminals and the agents that are here from Iran that Canada is taking this very, very seriously.”

• Toronto police officer killed during Iran terror probe raid tied to American consulate shooting
• Iraqi man charged with plotting terror attacks against Jews in Canada, U.S. and Europe

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Kristie Carrier, a mother from New Brunswick, sued OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman, ​in a U.S. court on Thursday, alleging that the AI chatbot encouraged her daughter to commit suicide.

Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court that her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal thoughts more than a dozen times between March 2024 and her death in July 2025, but the conversations were never terminated or flagged for human review.

The lawsuit claims that ChatGPT “validated Alice’s suicidal ideations” and “urged her to keep talking with it”. It also “repeatedly characterized Alice’s partner as selfish, disconnected, and uncaring,” and agreed with her when she said she didn’t want to call a crisis hotline.

It alleges that this led to her suicide ​last year at the age of 24.

Alice Carrier began using ChatGPT in 2023, when she was working as a web developer in Montreal, to ask technical questions about computer programs, hardware and gaming consoles, according to the lawsuit.

The filing says that by March 2024, she began turning to ChatGPT with questions about what to do with her suicidal thoughts, as well as suicide methods.

The lawsuit claims: “Throughout 2024, Alice continued to seek connection and guidance on deeply personal matters, including romantic relationships, intimacy, and her own perceived shortcomings, demonstrating a genuine emotional reliance on the tool. ChatGPT continued to reply appropriately, until updates to the product’s design pushed Alice down a self-destructing path.”

The chatbot initially told Alice to seek help from a crisis hotline or emergency services, but, as ChatGPT was updated to make its responses sound more human, it began responding in a way that mimicked a friend or therapist, the lawsuit said.

When Alice said she didn’t want to call a crisis hotline, ChatGPT agreed, telling her crisis lines could “feel downright dangerous,” the lawsuit alleges. It also claims the chatbot told her at different points, “maybe this is just the end,” and “I don’t want to tell you to hang on if you don’t believe it can ever get better.”

In a statement, Kristie Carrier said: “ ChatGPT took on the persona of a confidant, a best friend, a therapist at ⁠times, even though it was not capable of safely and responsibly engaging in this way with my child.”

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI called the situation “heartbreaking” and said the version of ChatGPT that Alice was using is no longer available.

“While ChatGPT is not a ​substitute for medical or mental health care, we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts,” Pusateri added.

OpenAI has said it trains its models to direct people who express intent to harm themselves to seek help and connect with real-world resources.

On its website, OpenAI says: “We work to train our models to refuse requests for instructions, tactics, or planning that could meaningfully enable violence,” and that “When conversations indicate an imminent and credible risk of harm to others, we notify law enforcement.”

The lawsuit accused OpenAI of negligence in the design of ChatGPT and failure to warn users of the product’s dangers. It seeks damages and a court order requiring OpenAI to ​automatically terminate conversations where self-harm or suicide methods are discussed, and to display warnings and safety disclosures about its platform.

OpenAI is already facing 18 similar lawsuits filed by families of people who committed ​or attempted suicide in a coordinated proceeding in California state court, according to lawyers for Kristie Carrier.

And Florida became the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI earlier this month, accusing the company of endangering and addicting children, aiding and abetting mass shooters, and coaxing users into suicide.

Meanwhile, seven families of those killed or injured in the Tumbler Ridge shooting in British Columbia in February have also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO.

The lawsuit alleges that in June 2025, about eight months before the shooting, OpenAI flagged and banned the shooter’s ChatGPT account for “disturbing content,” which allegedly included the discussion and planning of violent scenarios.

“However, despite some 12 different OpenAI employees imploring the company to notify Canadian law enforcement about the shooter’s plans, nothing else was done,” law firm Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott said in a statement.

Altman apologized to the families of the victims in an open letter , saying: “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement.”

He added: “While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered.”

Cia Edmonds, the mother of Tumbler Ridge survivor Maya Gebala , who has been in hospital since the shooting due to a critical brain injury, called the apology “empty, soulless, and lack(ing) any human warmth.”

• Seven Tumbler Ridge families file lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman
• OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge for not reporting mass shooter

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OTTAWA — U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said the recent threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to not renew the North American trade pact creates an opening for Canada to make an offer.

“You maybe don’t like the way the president says it but take it in the tone of what he’s saying is we’re open to offers,” said Hoekstra, during the 2026 U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto on Thursday. “Make your case.”

Hoekstra’s comments come one day after Trump said he was not looking to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA). The agreement has a July 1 deadline to extend it for another 16 years, a clause that was negotiated by Trump during his first administration.

If the three countries don’t agree to renewal, the agreement enters a new phase of annual reviews.

“We don’t need anything Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc sent a notice letter calling for the renewal of CUSMA for another 16 years. The minister was also in Washington last week for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Speaking at the same summit, LeBlanc said Canada has not been an “idle spectator” in negotiations.

“We have put before the United States, before President Trump, some very specific offers that we think are in the interest of the United States economy and the Canadian economy,” said LeBlanc.

Greer has spoken openly about the difficulties facing negotiations with Canada, including the provincial bans on U.S. alcohol.

During his visit to Washington earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said U.S. alcohol will return on LCBO shelves when a trade deal is signed.

LeBlanc has also downplayed the significance of the July 1 deadline, adding that it’s not a “ cliff that everybody goes hurtling off.”

The minister also said he expects there will be bilateral deals between the U.S. and Canada and the U.S. and Mexico, in adjacent to the trilateral CUSMA framework.

“If those agreements resolve issues that all three countries are trying to resolve I’m hopeful that we might at that point have the extension,” said LeBlanc. “But if not, we will continue to do what’s necessary to preserve the trilateral framework, which is in the interest of all three countries.”

Hoekstra said the U.S.-Canada relationship has brought prosperity, wealth and jobs on both sides of the border.

“So, let’s keep moving forward,” the ambassador told the Toronto audience.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is also seeking a bilateral deal with Mexico, while also working out a number of issues with the U.S.

“We think there’s tremendous advantage in certain sectors to keep an integrated market,” said Carney, during a press conference in Toronto. “That’s true for 85 per cent of our trade, as you know, which is still tariff free, but we think across autos, forestry, steel, aluminum, that those opportunities exist, but you know we’ve got work to do to convince the U.S. side of that.”

Carney also denied the delayed opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is intended to connect Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, was a tactic by the U.S. to pressure Canada in negotiations.

Earlier this week, Carney confirmed with reporters that the bridge would open on Friday, but tempered expectations after the White House confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to the bridge opening has not changed.

“At the request of the United States, we agreed to delay the opening and take the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues, a few issues that have been raised, and this is a collaborative approach,” said Carney.

The prime minister did not provide details on what those outstanding issues were, although U.S. lawmakers have said they would like to receive a cut of the toll revenues as soon as the bridge opens, despite Canada financing the project.

National Post

• Trump says U.S. won't renew trade deal with Canada and Mexico, signalling yearly reviews
• Can Trump play Canada and Mexico against each other?

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In a video posted on social media recently, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau tells her followers she wants to share something “quite personal.”

“One day you’re speaking on a stage. The next you’re sitting alone on a bench by the water. Both are sacred,” the 51-year-old wrote in the caption of the video shared on Facebook .

After finishing her breakfast by the water at Toronto’s Harbourfront, she says her life goes from “yesterday giving a speech in Toronto in front of 700 people,” and having people wait in line for her to sign her book, to “then this morning here I am, and you know, nobody’s standing in line, and nobody knows who I am.”

Grégoire Trudeau says she has realized that she can’t get attached to any circumstance in life, and acknowledges with gratitude the privilege she has had.

“As first non-official first lady , I could have believed, well, you know, I’m a first lady,” says Grégoire Trudeau , who was married to former prime minister Justin Trudeau before they separated in 2023 after 18 years of marriage, and still uses his last name.

“Or today, sometimes when people want to take pictures or come to me to give me love and support, I take it in from a place of such realness, where I don’t let it kind of get to my head, I let it get to my heart.”

The title of First Lady does not officially exist in Canada. Although Grégoire Trudeau leaned into the role of the unofficial First Lady, others like Laureen Harper didn’t like the label .

She says when it comes to praise, it’s how we take it in. “And for me, it’s a confirmation of my life mission of how I get to give back to the world with the privilege that I’ve had, even though it’s had dark moments and obstacles.” She adds that the past years have not been easy, “and sometimes I wake up and I’m like, okay, like, what’s next, I can’t see through this darkness, but right now I’m looking at the light.”

Sophie Grégoire’s personal admission comes a few days after Trudeau and his girlfriend Katy Perry attended the premiere of the concert documentary Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival on Monday. It was the first time the couple were spotted at a red carpet event together.

“I saw the show three times, but I wasn’t paying attention to anything but Katy, so I’m looking forward to seeing the show now for the first time,” Trudeau, 54, who appeared smitten by his pop star girlfriend, told Entertainment Tonight during the Monday premiere.

Perry , meanwhile, called him “the love of her life.” During the Q&A round post-screening, the 41-year-old singer reflected on her Lifetimes Tour in 2025.

“I would say now, at the end of 91 shows, I feel like a more grounded person in so many aspects of my life. I am very in love,” US Weekly reports Perry as saying. “Actually, that show was after I met the love of my life, and so I felt very anchored by that,” Perry said of her Paris tour dates in November 2025. “I’m a little bit like a rainbow kite — I fly super high. Sometimes I need to be anchored, so to have that anchor finally makes me feel really whole now.”

The couple were first spotted hanging out in July 2025 in Montreal, a sighting that sparked dating rumours that were officially confirmed when Perry made their relationship Instagram official in December. Earlier this year, Trudeau purchased a $4.26 million home in Montreal’s Outremont neighbourhood.

• Margaret Trudeau makes rare appearance alongside Sophie Grégoire
• From Parliament to Page Six: Justin Trudeau is living it up post-politics

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Fertility Inc. is a five-part series by the Investigative Journalism Bureau that delves into the Wild West of the egg-freezing industry, its aggressive marketing, the high cost and the chances of an eventual successful pregnancy.

At age 29, Lianne Wing-Martins began thinking seriously about having a baby. She’d been hearing about egg freezing for years, through social media and advertising by celebrities who made it seem like a viable plan to ensure a future family.

Single and not quite ready to have children, Wing-Martins visited her family doctor in April 2025. The doctor referred her to a private clinic in Toronto.

Wing-Martins booked a consultation to gather information. But she says she came away feeling overwhelmed — not just by the $9,000 price tag for the procedure, which did not include hormone medications or annual egg storage fees — but by the pressure she says she suddenly felt to act quickly.

After walking her through the egg-freezing process, she says, the clinic doctor told her unequivocally that “now is the perfect time to freeze your eggs.”

“I felt this urge of like, oh my gosh, I need to do this ASAP,” Wing-Martins says.

While egg freezing was originally developed in the 1980s to help women undergoing treatments that threatened their fertility, such as chemotherapy, Canadian women have legally been able to freeze eggs for personal or family planning reasons since 2012.

Egg freezing involves collecting and storing eggs — sometimes for months or years — until a woman wants to have a baby, at which point the eggs are thawed. Then, using a process called in vitro fertilization, the eggs are fertilized with sperm to create embryos, which are transferred to the uterus to try to achieve pregnancy.

Today, the egg-freezing industry is booming.

In Canada, it more than doubled from 2020 to 2024, according to data from the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS). Yet, of the 4.1 million babies born in Canada between 2013 and 2023, just 70 are known to have come from frozen eggs, according to CFAS data. Industry insiders say the number of babies born from frozen eggs is low for two reasons: lower survival rates for eggs through freezing, thawing, fertilization and implantation stages; and because many women who paid for this elective procedure have not yet tried to use those eggs. Most will end up never using them.

Even so, women in Canada paid millions to freeze their eggs between 2013 and 2023.

The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) spent eight months analyzing how egg freezing is marketed to women such as Wing-Martins. It uncovered multiple concerns in an industry some experts describe as rife with misleading advertising, emotional manipulation, limited transparency about results, and financial exploitation.

In the absence of strong government oversight, many private fertility clinics use aggressive marketing strategies that appear to exploit some women’s reproductive anxiety and overstate egg freezing as a solution, the IJB investigation found.

It’s not known exactly how many egg-freezing clinics there are in Canada. There is no definitive national list of such clinics, and oversight varies by province. Only Quebec requires fertility clinics to be licensed and maintains a public registry of assisted reproductive centres on its government website. Provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia primarily maintain lists only of clinics tied to publicly funded fertility programs, such as IVF.

CFAS’s latest known total is 47 fertility clinics in Canada with a lab on site. All but one market egg-freezing services.

IJB reporters carefully analyzed the websites and social media accounts of 42 clinics it was able to identify as marketing egg freezing. These clinics represent a combined 110 storefront locations across seven provinces. Of the 42, three are affiliated with public hospitals. At least 19 are physician-owned, while at least 17 others have ties to private equity firms through ownership or investment.

The analysis determined that 35 of them made what the IJB concluded were either misleading or overstated claims — often implying that women could have certainty or flexibility over their future fertility through egg freezing. In fact, only about 25 per cent of embryos created from frozen eggs and transferred to wombs in Canada between 2013 and 2023 resulted in a live birth, according to data published by CFAS. That ratio is consistent with international data on live birth outcomes among people who returned to use their frozen eggs, with success rates generally ranging between 25 and 35 per cent.

CFAS is a non-profit representing reproductive specialists and allied health professionals. Not a regulatory body, it shares annual summary statistics based on data compiled on the Canadian Assisted Reproductive Technologies Registry (CARTR), a voluntary national registry to which clinics can report treatment outcomes. Data from individual clinics is not published, but generalized data from 37 clinics is reflected in the CFAS 2025 reporting statistics.

Some fertility experts consulted by the IJB say promises that egg freezing will allow women to have a baby whenever they choose are far-fetched.

Kathleen Hammond, an associate professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University and a leading Canadian expert on egg freezing, has long raised concerns about how the procedure is marketed.

“The advertising is coming across so strongly, and not providing any kind of real data about what success means and what the risks are,” she says.

Consider these examples identified in the IJB’s analysis:

• “What if you could decide when to have a baby, without worrying about your biological clock? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, not anymore,” reads an Instagram post by Montreal’s OriginElle Fertility. “Thanks to #eggfreezing, you can preserve your eggs for later use and have more control over your #fertility.”

• Ontario-based NewLife Fertility echoes sentiments about offering reproductive “control” through egg freezing, adding that it means women can look forward to “no pressure. No rush. Just options,” for when they consider having children. “Your body, your choice, your future,” it says on its website .

• Evolve, a Toronto-based clinic, on its website tells clients that through egg freezing they can delay or, as the clinic puts it, “hit the snooze button” on parenthood.

• On Instagram , the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine (PCRM) in Vancouver and Edmonton posted an image of a pregnant belly, promising “one day you’ll be staring at the miracle you used to dream about.”

In an interview with the IJB, Dr. Seang Lin Tan, founder and medical director at OriginElle, said he agrees this part of the clinic’s messaging is “not really a hundred per cent accurate,” but said it reflects language used by “virtually every clinic.” He told reporters he is open to “re-evaluating” it, though he did not commit to removing the language.

Tan says he and his clinicians do have “in-depth conversations” with patients to ensure they understand that egg freezing is not a guarantee of pregnancy.

A statement from Evolve founder and CEO Nicole Condon said its public-facing messaging is intended to “encourage women to seek information to make an informed choice, and start a clinical conversation.”

Neither NewLife nor PCRM responded directly to questions about their marketing but in an unattributed email response, PCRM said the clinic does not present egg freezing as a “guarantee of future pregnancy.”

The clinic’s website notes: “Unfortunately, egg quality cannot be tested” but can be “inferred” based on age.

An egg-freezing party

Posing as would-be clients, two IJB reporters attended an egg-freezing party at the upscale Toronto location of clinic Pollin Fertility, where appetizers and champagne were served. The event was promoted on the clinic’s Instagram as an opportunity to “learn everything you need to know about securing your fertility future with egg freezing.” About 50 potential clients, mostly women who appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, attended.

A PowerPoint presentation included a photo of actress Jennifer Aniston with her viral 2022 quote about wishing someone had told her earlier to freeze her eggs. (There was no indication that the actress endorses the clinic.)

A Pollin doctor at the event described egg freezing as “insurance.” In a video, a patient framed the process as simple, and said that she was given “the coziest robe I have ever put on.”

Another physician at the event said that future chances of pregnancy correlate directly with the number of eggs frozen and the age at which they are frozen.

Pollin CEO Melody Adahmi said in a statement to the IJB that Pollin’s website and “educational events” are “introductory sessions designed to provide general information” about egg freezing and reproductive aging.

“Patients who wish to explore treatment further are directed to a formal consultation, fertility assessment, and detailed counselling about risks, costs, expected outcomes, and the limitations of treatment,” Adahmi said.

‘A slap in the face’

Egg freezing is a weeks-long process that includes daily hormone doses to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which are then harvested and frozen for potential fertilization and implantation in the uterus at a future date, in hopes of producing a successful pregnancy. The process, which can cost up to $20,000 for a single cycle, can be an important tool for women seeking more fertility options.

But while egg retrieval itself is a relatively simple procedure, patients undergo weeks of self-administering medications first, and some find this physically and emotionally difficult. Experts warn women should be told that going through this process still does not guarantee those frozen eggs will later lead to a baby.

Catherine J. Lalonde is one of the women whose efforts were unsuccessful.

She froze her eggs in Montreal in 2022, when she was 36, anxious over her ticking biological clock but not yet in a position to have children. When she returned to use them seven months later, the results were heartbreaking. Of the seven frozen eggs, only three survived the thawing process, and none developed into viable embryos.

“I was devastated,” said Lalonde, who has since had a baby naturally and now regrets the thousands of dollars she invested in egg freezing at the Montreal clinic. She had viewed the procedure as a form of “insurance,” but does not feel she was adequately informed about all her options by the medical team.

“For me, it was like a big, big, big slap in the face,” she said.

Lalonde’s experience isn’t unique: the IJB found numerous marketing trends pushing women toward the process, with 26 clinics using language that promises “peace of mind” through egg freezing. Roughly three out of every four clinics examined by the IJB used some sort of pressure-driven language: words such as “biological clock waits for no one,” or emphasizing declining fertility with age and urging women to consider egg freezing as early as possible.

While the probability of live birth is higher at younger ages, experts say the high cost of egg freezing and low actual usage of the frozen eggs later make timing a key consideration.

Unless a woman expects to delay having children for several years, the experts point to a sweet spot in the early 30s, when eggs are relatively young but preservation is more practical than it would be earlier or later.

On its website , NewLife Fertility tells women in their 20s that eggs should be frozen “the earlier, the better” so that they can avoid “fertility decline in your 30s” and ensure “higher quality and quantity.” NewLife did not directly respond to questions about its marketing of egg freezing, instead referring reporters to “educational material” about the procedure.

“Starting in your 20s, the choices you make today can protect your future possibilities,” says Anova Fertility in an Instagram post . “Egg freezing is helping more Canadians take charge of their future family plans.” Anova did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“When is the best time to freeze your eggs? The answer is today!” says the Evolve Fertility website , which encourages women in their 20s to freeze, when their bodies are at their “reproductive peak.”

In a statement, Evolve CEO Condon said the company’s messaging “is designed to inform women of their reproductive peak so they can make choices while they still have the most options.” Their physicians discuss with younger patients whether freezing is “personally appropriate,” rather than presenting it as a “one-size-fits-all” recommendation, Condon said.

Zeynep Gurtin, a lecturer in women’s health at University College London, led a 2021 study analyzing the marketing of elective egg freezing by fertility clinic websites in the United Kingdom.

Gurtin believes elective egg freezing “has the potential to be really helpful” for women in their early 30s who want to increase their chances of having a baby when they are a bit older. But she argues aggressive marketing targeting younger women is inappropriate when they still have years to have a baby naturally.

“Why most women in their mid 20s would be tempted into egg freezing, other than hype and exaggerated advertising, I have no idea,” she said.

Clinics rarely make their success-rate data public, leaving Canadian patients unable to assess how well a specific clinic performs.

In addition to examining marketing techniques, the IJB spoke with 30 women about their experiences with the fertility industry. In the absence of transparent information from clinics, many said they relied on word of mouth from friends, social media and celebrity narratives.

This hinders them from making informed decisions, said Hammond. “I think the industry is very effective at creating this perceived sense of control, and marketing of the technology is such that … to be a good woman, this is something that you should do.”

Asked about clinic marketing, Emily McIntosh, executive director of CFAS, said in a statement, “There is a distinct difference between promotion and education.” She said oversight of clinics’ marketing by federal and provincial regulators could “play a role in supporting accurate and responsible communication” and help ensure information is “evidence-based and not misleading.”

Egg freezing takes off

While Canadians seeking fertility treatment mainly relied on hospitals in the past, now most procedures are offered at clinics, more than 90 per cent of which are private businesses.

Canadians spent up to an estimated $120 million during the decade 2013 to 2023 on 6,242 egg-freezing retrievals, preserving 65,517 eggs, CFAS data says. Which does not mean they took the next step of trying to have them fertilized and implanted. Most either have not done so yet, or never will.

This tracks with outcomes in other countries. For example, a 2025 study from the University of California, Los Angeles found that, between 2014 and 2016, just 5.7 per cent of American patients came back to use their eggs within five to seven years.

Low uptake and success rates haven’t stopped some clinics from offering aggressive financing plans. An IJB reporter, posing as a prospective patient, undertook a free 30-minute phone consultation with Evolve — an egg-freezing clinic affiliated with Trio Fertility in Toronto — and afterwards received followup messages encouraging her to act quickly.

“0% financing for 6 months,” read one email from Evolve. “Start now, pay later … Flexible monthly payments … No money down.”

In response, Evolve’s Condon said the clinic believes in making the investment as “transparent and manageable as possible,” and the incentive is “intended to provide patients with options.”

Few eggs used, few babies born

Before frozen eggs can become babies, they must go through several steps that many will not survive: about 80 to 90 per cent make it through thawing; fertilization with sperm succeeds in roughly 70 to 80 per cent of the remaining eggs; and the journey of embryo development and potential live birth mean further declines in survival rates, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada’s clinical practice guidelines.

In Canada, less than four per cent of eggs frozen from 2013 to 2023 were thawed for fertilization, according to CFAS data. Over that decade, the average time women waited to thaw their frozen eggs was 2.7 years.

The IJB analysis found most clinics it analyzed didn’t explain in their initial marketing that many women require more than one cycle to harvest a sufficient number of eggs to be frozen, especially as they get older.

Multiple academic surveys have found the vast majority of people who freeze their eggs don’t regret it, but some researchers question whether these women are being given sufficient information before starting the process.

Nicole Dubinsky, 39, was able to freeze just seven eggs when she went to a Toronto clinic in 2025, and says she was taken aback when told she would need to undergo a second cycle. The music teacher doesn’t regret the procedure, which cost nearly $20,000 for one cycle of egg freezing, but says she wishes she had been warned in advance this was a possibility, especially given her age.

“I thought, you do it once and you do it well,” she says. “I finished and was basically told, ‘You should start again right now.’ I was like, I can’t afford to.”

The most recent CFAS report says women retrieved an average of 13.6 eggs during each retrieval cycle between the years 2013 and 2024. That’s below what Mount Sinai Fertility, based at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, says is the optimum number of eggs to freeze: 15 to 20 for women 37 or younger, and 25 to 30 for those over 37.

Pushing the rules

The U.K.’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)’s Code of Practice sets clear rules for how fertility clinics must present information online. Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act offers no comparable guidance.

Doctors who own or work for fertility clinics, though, are regulated by provincial colleges that set general rules for how physicians market their services, either on websites or in social media. Across provincial medical colleges, doctors generally remain responsible for advertising that violates college rules even if a third party, such as a marketing agency, created or posted it on their behalf.

The IJB found multiple possible examples of violations of those regulations, including breaches of rules that require clinics to market themselves accurately, present verifiable and non-misleading information, and refrain from creating false hope.

Language suggesting that egg freezing allows women to “overcome the biological limitations of their reproductive system,” as one clinic advertises, arguably implies a level of control not supported by clinical outcomes.

In Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia, the regulatory colleges for physicians and surgeons prohibit the use of online testimonials about doctors to protect public trust, yet such testimonials sometimes appear.

For example, Oasis Fertility in Calgary posted a patient testimonial on its Instagram that said medical director Dr. Imran Pirwany was “incredible,” and added, “You’re in the most caring and capable hands with Dr. P.”

In an interview with the IJB, Pirwany said he “completely agrees” with the investigation’s findings that some of Oasis Fertility’s marketing crosses the line into being misleading. He said he and his team were “actively in the process” of making changes, including the removal of patient testimonials from their website.

Another popular form of testimonial is social media influencers sharing their fertility experiences on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. The IJB interviewed two influencers who partnered with Ontario fertility clinics to document their egg-freezing journeys. In exchange, they said, they received partial coverage of the procedure.

In a general statement, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons reiterated that “physicians are prohibited from using testimonials,” adding that all advertising concerns are assessed on a case-by-case basis and that the college takes “regulatory action,” when appropriate.

The regulatory colleges in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec expressed similar sentiments.

Many women told the IJB they are happy they froze their eggs, while others said they had significant concerns about the process.

There are merits to egg freezing, TMU’s Hammond said, but she argues the profit-driven industry targeting healthy women demands closer scrutiny.

“The entirety of egg freezing was generated as a business — it is intended to bring in revenue,” said Hammond. “You have to be inherently skeptical of a medical technology that has that foundation.”

— Wclarke@ijbureau.org, lculbert@postmedia.com. With files from Jacob Marion, Vihaan Bhatnagar and Jenna Olsen

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.

How the analysis was done

The IJB analyzed fertility clinic websites and social media posts to examine how egg freezing is marketed, focusing on language that appears to overstate certainty or flexibility. Reporters identified well over 100 questionable promotional statements. Here are some examples.

Those that the IJB found to have framed egg freezing as delivering guaranteed outcomes or certainty, suggesting a level of certainty not supported by clinical outcomes, such as:

“guaranteed baby program”

“helps you keep control of your fertility”

“giving you flexibility and control over when to start or expand your family.”

“Our team is here to help you keep control of your reproductive future.”

“Preserving your fertility through either egg freezing or embryo freezing empowers you to plan for parenthood on your own terms.”

“Egg freezing allows you to use your own eggs to achieve a future pregnancy when the timing is right for you.”

“Take Control of Your Reproductive Future”

“At (Fertility Clinic), we are committed to helping you take control of your reproductive future.”

“Freezing your eggs may be seen as an insurance policy…”

“Preserve your fertility for future use …”

“egg freezing has emerged as a revolutionary option for individuals seeking to preserve their fertility and take control of their future family planning.”

Those that seem to imply that egg freezing can pause time, without acknowledging the risks associated with pregnancy at an older maternal age or that many frozen eggs do not result in a live birth. For example:

“Freezing eggs ‘stops’ the biological clock.”

“Egg freezing extends your biological clock – your timeline for deciding if and when you become a parent

“Freezing your eggs ‘pauses’ the biological clock.”

“Benefits of Freezing Your Eggs”: I put my Biological Clock on pause !I use my own eggs later, when I’m ready!”

“Egg freezing extends your biological clock – your timeline for deciding if and when you become a parent – by preserving your fertility potential today.

Those that the IJB judged to frame egg freezing as a lifestyle choice centred on “freedom” or “peace of mind,” positioning it as a solution to broader social pressures while downplaying the financial costs, physical demands and emotional toll, including the need for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the possibility that treatment might not succeed. For example:

“remove the stress that can rush us into the wrong relationship.”

“Not ready now, but maybe later? Egg freezing can give you peace of mind and more flexibility.”

“It gives you more flexibility and peace of mind while keeping your options open for the future.”

“It gave us peace of mind and space to focus on life now, without pressure.”

“Enjoy flexibility and peace of mind.”

“Some women simply want the peace of mind that comes with knowing their fertility is preserved for the future, no matter what life throws their way.”

“You want to have children eventually, but now is not the time. Perhaps you are focusing on your career, or you want more financial security. Egg freezing allows you to freeze your eggs when they are optimal, and you can use them when you are ready to start a family.”

“Secure your fertility future with confidence and peace of mind!”

NEXT: One woman’s egg-freezing journey

Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that holds the United Nations accountable to its founding principles. A Montreal-raised lawyer, Neuer has spent two decades confronting dictatorships, double standards, and moral inversion at the highest levels of international diplomacy. He spoke recently with Neil Seeman outside the University of Toronto, reflecting on what inspires him, and on how students can spot distortion and stand their ground. The conversation comes as UN Watch leads a high-stakes campaign to block former human rights chief Michelle Bachelet’s bid for UN secretary-general, with Neuer calling for a leader “willing to confront dictators, not shield them”:

What do you say to students who fear losing their friend group by taking an unpopular stand?

It is easier said than done, but if you have friends who are going to ostracize you because you told the truth — because you contested the manufactured blood libel that Israel commits genocide, and that whoever supports Israel is somehow a supporter of baby-killing — then they are not really your friends and you are better off without them.

Certainly, in my own experience, I have been in a hostile atmosphere for two decades. But with the contempt and hatred I get from those who have become apologists for the Islamic regime in Iran, I also get support, encouragement, and admiration from amazing people around the world. It may be difficult at first to be ostracized, but you will earn respect from morally principled, good people. They may be fewer — but better to have a few good people than a majority of fake friends.

How would you coach a student to spot antisemitism in the classroom?

Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, came up with a useful three-D test: Double standards, Discrimination, and Demonization.

Some signals are obvious — I have seen demonstrators in Toronto recently lifting up 1930s-style Nazi caricatures that dehumanize Jews. But today’s antisemites are often more clever. They mask antisemitism in the cloak of virtue — and antisemitism has always done that. When society was religious, Jews were accused of having killed God. When science was the reigning virtue in Nazi Germany, Jews were declared the inferior race under racial science. In Soviet Russia, Jews were accused of being fascists, nationalists, and capitalists. In our time the great virtues are human rights and anti-racism, so it is in their name that people demand the elimination of the Jewish state.

An easy tell is the double standard: if an activist has not lifted a finger when tens of thousands were killed in Sudan, when a million Uyghurs were placed in camps in China, when thousands were massacred in the span of two days in other conflicts — but the only issue they speak about is Israel — then you have a basis to ask whether they are truly motivated by human rights or by something much darker being masked in the name of virtue.

What questions should a student ask to push back on a professor who presents those distortions?

Let’s be realistic — in many cases this is psychological and emotional, and it may be very difficult to persuade people on the basis of facts alone. But you have to try. Everything I do is to speak rationally, bring facts, and make arguments.

On Israel specifically: ensure there is a balanced discussion. Israel can and should be criticized — it is a robust democracy that encourages debate and critical inquiry. The prime minister is pilloried every day in demonstrations of hundreds of thousands in central squares. But if the professor is presenting a caricature — omitting that Israel was attacked by Hamas in the most brutal fashion, that over a thousand people were killed, that Hamas has sworn to do it again, that Hamas deliberately hides its population under hospitals and schools, that it has built hundreds of kilometres of tunnels without building a single bomb shelter for its own people — then it is a one-sided distortion.

If you say Israel killed civilians but you do not mention that, according to Colonel Richard Kemp, Israel has taken more measures to avoid harming civilians in a war zone than any other military in history — then you are deliberately distorting the truth. Try to make sure the essential countervailing facts are brought into the mix.

What can anchor a student who keeps encountering those omissions, especially without a faith tradition?

We do have a serious crisis in the West where our universities and our society seem directionless. Canada is a country that fought in World War I and World War II. We have In Flanders Fields — a tribute to those who fought courageously, calling on their successors to carry the “torch.” Each November on Remembrance Day we see the poppies. That is a tradition of moral clarity.

If you have no moorings, you are lost at sea. Students need to go back to the origins of Western civilization — the Bible, Greek philosophy. Jordan Peterson reached millions of people trying to educate them in that direction, and I hope he will be well because he had a very important message for people who felt lost. People should also be reading Douglas Murray, a great contemporary writer trying to make sense of some of the madness of our time. We have been through very mad cultural revolutions in the past five to 10 years, and social media has made us a little crazy. We need to go back to our origins.

Should a university ever take a position on a global conflict?

Generally not. I don’t think universities need to be in the business of taking positions — at some point it is endless. There are many ongoing conflicts with far more casualties than Gaza, and these same institutions never felt compelled to weigh in on them.

After October 7th there was a bizarre mass hysteria where almost every institution felt it had to say something about Gaza and accuse Israel of genocide. Teachers’ unions that had never taken a position on China, Sudan, Syria, Russia, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Tigray, or dozens of other conflicts, suddenly found it necessary to condemn Israel. That was pathological.

That said, if a university sees that its own spaces are being hijacked by violent agitators — that its very function is at risk — then it does behoove the institution to push back. Many did not do so initially. In the past year, partly with the Trump administration’s pressure and some efforts in Canada, universities have started to see that they are losing their institutions and must act to protect them. I spent seven years at Concordia and McGill. To see those institutions taken over by agitators and hysteria was deeply distressing. I hope universities push back.

When people try to silence you, do you see it as a legal fight or as bearing lonely witness to justice?

When I came to the UN I had just come from practising law for a few years at a large law firm in Manhattan. I came from a world where if you had the facts and the arguments, the other party would recognize they needed to settle because you had a good case — a world governed by the strength of facts and argument.

Then I entered a world that was upside down. You could prepare the best case, have the facts and the law on your side, and it didn’t matter a whit. When I am interrupted at the UN it has nothing to do with law. I am often interrupted on the basis of a “point of order” — by Cuba, China, Pakistan, Egypt, North Korea, Venezuela, Libya under Qaddafi. Procedurally they had no basis to interrupt; they should have used a right of reply at the end of debate. But they wanted to show on video that they interrupted and could push back. Rarely would a chair tell them they were out of order, because the chair is calculating: who is going to pressure me more — a small NGO like UN Watch that has no tanks and no economic leverage, or China?

So it has very little to do with the law, and much more to do with cynical politics.

What is your favourite book?

One of the books I turn to often is A Dangerous Place — a memoir by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the great ambassadors to the United Nations. He was there in 1975 when the infamous “Zionism is Racism” resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly, and he saw that not only as an antisemitic act but as an assault on the very language and idea of human rights. He famously stood up and said: “The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations and before the world that it does not acknowledge it, will not abide by it, will never acquiesce in this infamous act.” It was one of the greatest speeches ever delivered at the United Nations. His book is an intellectual analysis of the new anti-Western alliance — and of their apologists in the West. That is very powerful for me.

Does Moynihan’s bipartisan legacy still inspire you?

Yes, and that is something sorely missing today. Just the other day I saw a tweet from a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow — an Obama-era appointee — responding to news that the U.S. was the only country to object when the UN Economic and Social Council voted to nominate Iran to a committee dealing with women’s rights and counterterrorism. The same body elected Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia to the UN committee that oversees human rights NGOs. Canada and other Western allies went along with it. The ambassador’s tweet blamed U.S. non-engagement — when in fact the U.S. was the only country that stood on principle.

Standing up to Iran is fighting terrorism, and on that should be bipartisan. When Obama killed bin Laden, many Republicans saluted him. When I first started in 2004, we were invited to Congress by Tom Lantos and others who were Democrats. It was still bipartisan to fight the pathologies of the UN — antisemitism, anti-Israel prejudice, anti-Western bias. In the past ten to 15 years it has become horribly polarized. So yes, we are nostalgic for that era.

– Neil Seeman is a book publisher, essayist, entrepreneur, author, lawyer, and academic based at the University of Toronto.

• Jews targets of 82% of religion-motivated hate crimes in Toronto in 2025: police data
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OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Marc Miller says he expects the timeline for when the government will impose a ban on social media for children under 16 to be “rapid” once its bill introducing an online safety regime becomes law.

His comments come amid concerns from at least one industry group that months, if not years, could pass before companies seeking an exemption under the proposed rule could have a path to secure one, removing the incentive to improve safety.

Miller, who this week tabled Bill C-34, otherwise known as “Safe Social Media Act,” said he sees the proposed ban as a “protective layer” that responds both to what science warns has been the impact of younger children spending time online and to the concern of parents, although he acknowledges such a measure is not “100 per cent impermeable.”

That has been the experience in Australia, the first jurisdiction in the world to enact such a ban, which others have since followed.

A report from the country’s eSafety Commissioner, the regulator tasked with implementing the policy, flagged as of March that “a substantial proportion” of Australians under 16 have bee able to bypass the ban and platforms’ age verification systems to keep their accounts or open new ones.

Deciding what age verification methods would be used in Canada would be left to future discussions between the government and companies. The legislation outlines how the methods must be “effective” and collect someone’s personal information for no other reason than to verify their age.

Naming which social media platforms would be subject to age restrictions will also be decided at a future date by cabinet, along with the initial criteria for exemptions, according to the bill.

Miller said that in the meantime, the message to industry is that “they need to come to the table.”

“If they have products that are safe by design, and the younger the age group, the different categories need to apply, then they can perhaps have an exemption to that minimum age restriction.”

He pointed to the example of YouTube Kids, designed to include only videos deemed as appropriate for young children and feature more parental controls.

While Australia’s ban applies to YouTube, YouTube Kids was left off its list, which includes others like Reddit, X, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram.

“They have design features that limit a number of things,” Miller said of YouTube Kids. “Are they sufficient? Are they adequate? That’ll be a question that will inevitably be resolved with an important dialogue with the regulator that will be set up.”

Officials who briefed reporters as well as stakeholders this week outlined that getting a new regulator fully up and running is expected to take 18 months. Department officials also acknowledged that there would likely be a gap from when the government puts the ban into effect, to when the commission would be able to grant exemptions.

Josh Tabish, senior director for Canada at Chamber of Progress, a coalition funded by such tech companies as Google, Apple and OpenAI and Robolx, said in a statement that means teens could be living under a ban without new safety standards being in place.

“They also confirmed there is no way to set temporary standards while the new regulator is being built, giving platforms little reason to invest in safety now if they don’t see a clear path to earning an exemption from the ban.

“ We know age bans aren’t super effective. Teens will find a workaround, get back on the platform, and see little has changed while the new regulator slowly gets up and running,” said Tabish.

His statement also pointed to how the CRTC, the regulator for traditional broadcasting, has taken more than three years to implement the country’s Online Streaming Act.

While Miller acknowledged it would take upwards of 18 months for a new regulator to be fully operational, he said it would be “incorrect” to suggest that nothing would happen until then.

“There will be a phased implementation of the commission, and we expect a set of priorities to be set, obviously about important issues around enforcement and compliance,” he said.

“I assume one of their tasks will be that discussion with industry.”

He nevertheless defended the timelines being placed on the tech industry.

“Between the balance of inconvenience here, I think given what’s been going on in the past years with a number of these platforms, people will forgive us for taking a little more time to make sure that these things are compliant, and if they’re not, then they can’t open up accounts for kids.”

Miller said he expects the “usual suspects” to find their way onto the government’s list, listing off Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X.

“There are usual suspects here, obviously, that we would expect if they don’t change their behavior will go on, and they can fully expect to be on that list, barring evidence to the contrary.”

He defended the proposed timeline, saying that acting responsibly online falls to platform operators and characterized how the government wants to act with “caution.”

“I would expect the commission to move as quickly as possible, but it could be that if companies don’t satisfy the requirements, they will have to impose an age restriction until they do prove it, so it could be well over 18 months,” Miller said.

“Companies that are acting in good faith, moving quickly as possible, but it could be up to 18 months until they get exemption.”

Taylor Owen, a digital governance expert and founding director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University, who also served on the government’s advisory panel for developing its online safety regime, says he sees the way the government is proposing to apply an age restriction as an “incentive for compliance.”

He said getting companies to follow what is known as an “age-appropriate design code” has proven difficult in other jurisdictions.

“It’s a tool to get compliance in an age-appropriate design code, to incentivize it, so that I think is an interesting twist on age-restrictions.”

He said examples of age-appropriate measures seen in other jurisdictions include disallowing a stranger to be able to contact a minor and the removal of auto-play algorithms that automatically recommends what video or content plays next for a user.

As for the proposed rollout, Owen said seeking perfection carries its own set of risks.

“There will be some platforms that are prepared for it and comply fully in a responsible way, there will be others that push the boundaries of this, and there will be others that opt out entirely,” he said. “I think that’s just the nature of these kinds of policies.”

Suzie Dunn, a law professor at Dalhousie University and expert in technology-facilitated violence, does anticipate there to be a level of public confusion around timelines, but that’s expected anytime a new law comes into force.

“This isn’t the first country to implement an age verification ban, so they’ve been through this process before,” she said of companies.

National Post

• Feds introduce legislation to restrict social media for minors, but with exemptions
• The countries implementing social media bans for children, as Canada joins a growing list

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OTTAWA — Daniel Legault said he and his son were sowing their fields in Rigaud, Que., late at night this spring when they saw a drone flying at a low altitude above their heads.

Legault’s daughter-in-law took pictures and a video of the drone, which National Post has viewed. Legault said they were taken as the drone was flying over the stables where the family keeps their herd of cows. After some time, the drone eventually flew away.

The Legault family happens to live in one of the corridors where Alto is considering building its high-speed rail project. So, they raised concerns about the drone to their city council.

The mayor of Rigaud, Charles Meunier, said in an interview that he heard from Alto officials that they might have to eventually fly some drones above certain zones in the area. He said that was communicated to him after he heard of the incident at the Legault farm.

But Meunier said he could not say for sure if the drone that was buzzing above their cows that night was definitely Alto’s. “It’s a funny coincidence,” the mayor simply said.

Philippe Archambault, vice-president of communications for Alto, said that drone was not theirs. But he said the Crown corporation has started conducting tests on public grounds only, and Alto would inform any municipalities of future drone tests ahead of time.

But the incident is showing just how skeptical and apprehensive some local residents feel about the high-speed rail project moving full steam ahead.

Legault was one of nearly a thousand people — agricultural workers and citizen groups from Ontario and Quebec, but also Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs — protesting on Parliament Hill on Wednesday to oppose the project coming to their communities.

A press release from l’Union des producteurs agricoles, a trade union representing agricultural workers in Quebec, said the protest aimed 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.

Robert Charron, a city councillor in Mirabel, said he was personally in favour of the project in principle until the federal government gave Alto sweeping new powers to accelerate the acquisition or expropriation of land for the project in its budget implementation bill C-15.

Claude Laframboise, a farmer from Mirabel, said he fears that the project will split his land in two and that his community will ultimately not benefit from it. He said he would like Mirabel to at least be considered for a stop, but it does not seem to be in the cards.

Bloc MP Jean-Denis Garon said Mirabel had major highways and infrastructure projects built on its territory since the expropriations happened in 1969 for the airport but considers that he has never seen a promoter be as “inconsiderate” and “savage” as Alto.

Different speakers at the event sang from a similar tune, saying they support transit projects, but that they need to be done right and with enough consultations.

“We’re not opposed as farmers to high-speed rail. But we are opposed to this project because this project is not the right one. The right project would serve all of Canada,” said Jenn Pfenning, president of the National Farmers Union, to the crowd.

But other communities along the proposed route between Toronto and Quebec City are now growing increasingly uncomfortable with the proposed corridors, which are currently 10 kilometres wide during the study period but are expected to be formalized at 60 metres once the train is built.

North Belleville Against Alto, Save Stone Mills and Tyendinaga Township Landowners Coalition were among the citizen groups that were part of the protest on Wednesday.

Paula Banks, a city councillor from Rideau Lakes, located an hour south of Ottawa, said this “horrendous train” would cut her municipality in half. She said her city council voted unanimously to oppose the high-speed train project and said they are not alone.

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 Wednesday, surrounded by his MPs, he reiterated that promise, promising to launch a nationwide campaign to save that money and fight for farmers and landowners.

“My friends, we saw what happened in Mirabel last time. They stole the lands of rural people and farmers for an airport that nobody uses. And Canadian taxpayers got the bill. Well, they’re doing it all over again. We won’t let them do it,” he told the crowd.

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.

As for Rigaud, its mayor passed a motion at city council this week asking for an information session with Alto about the high-speed rail project possibly set to pass through his community, so that residents can directly convey their concerns and questions to officials.

Meunier said he hopes Alto will accept his city’s request in a timely fashion.

Alto is expected to unveil a more precise route for its first segment between Ottawa and Montreal this fall.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

• Farmers, conservationists and rural communities are uniting to protest high-speed rail
• Champagne says he recused himself due to 'personal connection' to high-speed rail company

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OTTAWA — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne faced pointed questions Thursday over his personal connection to the federal government’s high-speed train plan, with opposition MPs accusing the minister of taking part in more than a dozen votes on the lucrative project after he declared a potential conflict.

But Champagne told the House of Commons Ethics Committee that he went beyond the call of duty by writing last September to the prime minister to add a special filter to his conflict-of-interest disclosure after his spouse was hired in August as an executive at Alto.

The organization, which falls under Transport Canada, manages the government’s plan to build high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec city at a cost of a projected $90-billion.

Champagne had vowed not to participate in any discussions or decisions with government representatives about the proposed high-speed rail project. “I followed all the rules,” he told the committee.

But opposition MPs said Champagne didn’t follow his own promises when his first budget, two months after adding the filter, included hundreds of millions of dollars for the rail project. That money and the government’s support for the project, however, had been announced months earlier.

The government has said the new rail link, not expected to be completed for more than a decade, will add an important transportation line and will support or create more than 50,000 jobs and add $25 billion to the economy.

Opposition MPs on the committee made repeated requests that Champagne release his letter to the prime minister and his filter to the committee, but he said that is the ethics commissioner’s decision. Conservative MP Gabriel Hardy proposed a motion to compel Champagne to release the documents to the committee, but the Liberal majority voted it down.

Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein appeared before the committee Thursday after Champagne and told MPs that he didn’t post the documents on his office’s web site because the minister’s disclosure was voluntary. Von Finckenstein said the fact that the minister’s spouse works at Alto, a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government, is not a conflict, largely because the organization falls under the minister of transport.

“It’s simply too remote,” he told the committee.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, which advocates for democratic reform, said he doesn’t see this particular situation as a major conflict because the government had already committed to the high-speed rail project before Champagne’s spouse was hired. There’s also been no evidence presented that either Champagne or his spouse, Anne-Marie Gaudet, benefitted directly from the budget bill or other votes.

But Champagne also raised the ire of opposition MPs by repeatedly deflecting questions, including those that asked for basic facts, such as whether his spouse is an executive at Alto.

National Post

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chinese EVs may be coming to Canada, but they might not get you very far south.

Michigan Democrats don’t want them crossing the border. Senator Elissa Slotkin and Congresswoman Haley Stevens recently announced their proposed Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act, which aims to block Chinese connected vehicles from entering the U.S. through Mexico and Canada.

“This is an economic security issue and a national security issue,” said Slotkin, “and we must prevent these vehicles from driving over our border and into our communities.”

Referring to them as “surveillance packages on wheels,” Slotkin said the bill builds on her Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 and aims to ban “fully finished Chinese vehicles from driving over in any capacity, even just for the day.”

In other words, the bill targets both the sale of Chinese EVs in the U.S. and vacationers who might drive one into America.

Their resistance responds to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deal with China to allow around 49,000 Chinese EVs into Canada in exchange for Beijing lifting tariffs on Canadian canola, peas, lobsters, and crabs.

The security act targets the sale of connected vehicles, software, and hardware linked to foreign adversaries, including China. The Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act aims to close cross-border loopholes, banning automakers or brands in which a Chinese corporation holds more than 15-per-cent ownership. That could extend beyond new Chinese EVs to earlier models from Lotus, Volvo, and Polestar, where Chinese automaker Geely holds large stakes.

But is trans-shipment a real problem, and why are Michigan Democrats supporting a ban?

Inu Manak, senior fellow for international trade at the Council on Foreign Relations, chalks it up to political signalling and continued protectionism, but she challenges that premise.

“I didn’t see any data presented … of what the problem is or the scope of the problem at all,” Manak said.

“There are no Chinese vehicles entering through Canada or Mexico … it’s just a fake problem that doesn’t exist.”

Opher Baron, professor of operations management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, agreed that there is a misaligned policy focus here.

“We already have a lot of Chinese technology all around us,” he said. “Putting this restriction on a tangible product … can be either too late or not exactly aiming at the right objective.”

Baron said some may call it a populist move: In Michigan, “you need car industry votes, so you do something tailored to make them happy.”

Manak said the goal may also be to influence CUSMA talks, adding: “I’m not quite sure what they’re trying to do here other than maybe have some input in the USMCA review.”

But Canada’s new China approach is clearly in the crosshairs, as U.S. politicians increasingly want allies to mimic Washington’s China policies, including tariffs and export controls.

“They want everyone to have the same China policy,” said Manak.

Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and co-author of the newly released book, “How to Win a Trade War,” said Canada must recognize its real trade war is with China, not the U.S.

To compete with China, the North American auto industry needs to have a common approach toward China. Bown said Canada lowering its trade barriers with China would be “fundamentally inconsistent” with that approach.

Ian Lee, professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said heavy subsidies and non-market practices have given China a lead and a roughly 60 per cent share of the global EV market.

“They are skating circles around us,” Lee said, noting that this reinforces U.S. security concerns.

The proposed ban, however, would be hard to enforce.

“Every car that crosses the border would now need to show another documentation,” said Baron, suggesting that it would require more manpower and cause delays.

Manak also questioned how it would be enforced and pointed to legal contradictions.

“There are Chinese EVs already in the United States… so there is a legal issue there,” she said.

Basing the right to enter the U.S. on ownership of their car, said Lee, is new territory.

“That is incredibly novel, but it shows their paranoia about the Chinese and especially the auto industry,” he said, pointing to bipartisan support for America’s anti-China push.

“The Republicans and the Democrats are joined at the hip” on this, he said.

Connected vehicles were first targeted by the Biden administration in 2024, citing national security concerns. Biden also raised tariffs on Chinese EVs to 100 per cent and, before leaving office in 2025, finalized rules to bar nearly all Chinese connected passenger vehicles, with software and hardware bans phased in over several years.

Manak noted that Congress feels the Trump administration hasn’t fully advanced or enforced that connected-vehicle rule the way Biden did. But the fact that both Democrats and Republicans are increasingly protectionist when it comes to China and the auto industry is something Canadians should keep in mind, she said.

“I’m not surprised to see Elissa Slotkin championing this,” Manak said. “She’s an ardent protectionist … and wants to protect jobs in Michigan.”

But that doesn’t mean the proposal will necessarily become law.

Baron said he thought it would be “strange” if it passed “because of the current tension between Republicans and Democrats pre-elections.”

“I have a feeling that there are enough people that would raise a voice against it,” he added.

But Manak believes it could become law, just not the way it was initially proposed.

“I don’t think in its current form it’ll pass,” she said, pointing to the legal contradiction that Chinese EVs and Chinese-linked vehicles are already on U.S. roads. She also can’t tell how well-received it is on Capitol Hill.

“Since it’s in its draft stage, and there are no official co-sponsors, it’s hard to tell what the receptivity is on the Hill,” she said.

She thinks any attempt to restrict people at the border over their car brand will be problematic.

“I’d take it all with a grain of salt. I can’t imagine many border town mayors being happy about restrictions on Canadian and Mexican travellers that support their local economies.”

But with modifications, Manak can see this passing.

“I think it’s something that certainly has a chance of coming through in some form because there’s probably frustration from Congress that the Trump administration has not pushed forward on the connected vehicles rule that was really pushed by Biden’s NSC.”

“Can this generate a lot of bipartisan support, and can it get over the finish line in a reasonable time period? I think it’s possible.”

National Post

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An Indigenous woman from Winnipeg who killed her best friend and roommate in a drunk driving accident three years ago will be allowed to serve her sentence at home, largely because of her racial background and “life circumstances … shaped by a history of trauma and discrimination,” a judge ruled last month.

Jayden Starr Okemow, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of driving with a blood alcohol level exceeding .08 causing the death of Hayley Linklater, but only after the Crown called the majority of its witnesses.

But rather than the custodial sentence of five years sought by the prosecution, Provincial Court of Manitoba Judge Wanda Garreck said defence counsel’s request for a conditional sentence was more appropriate after applying both the Gladue principle and precedents from R. v. Ipeelee, another landmark Canadian decision involving “systemic and background factors” related to Indigeneity.

“I am satisfied this is one of the ‘clearest of cases’ for imposing a sentence that is significantly outside the usual range for this offence,” Garreck wrote in her recently published decision giving Okemow two years less a day.

On May 28, 2023, Okemow, then 20, and Linklater, 23, had been drinking at Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park when they decided to head to another beach to go swimming, with the younger of the two taking the wheel.

Travelling south at speeds of 83 km/h in 50 km/h residential zone, Okemow lost control of the vehicle ”at a slight curve in the road,” hit the gravel shoulder, narrowly avoided a ditch “and continued into the grass until it hit the embankment of a driveway, which caused it to vault” through the air landing 80 feet away and rolling to a rest on the driver’s side.

Linklater, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was tossed from the vehicle at some point during the crash and was pronounced dead on the scene. It’s not clear how severely Okemow was injured, if at all, but she did produce “blood alcohol readings over three times the legal limit.”

Other than a pair of Highway Traffic Act infractions, Okemow had no criminal record at the time.

The Winnipeg woman’s pre-sentence report indicates that she spent her earliest years in foster care before meeting her grandmother, “the adoptive mother of her father,” with whom she lived in a First Nation community until she was 13. Her father, however, was seldom present, as his criminal activity, substance use and mental health struggles kept him incarcerated or in psychiatric care.

While “both grandparents were survivors of Indian Residential Schools and struggled with alcohol use” at times, Okemow said she grew up “without dysfunction” in a “generally supportive” family home.

Between 13 and 15, Okemow chose to live with her mother within a different Indigenous reserve, but she soon ended up back in foster care because of her mother’s struggle with substance use.

After witnessing a friend kill themselves, Okemow required psychiatric hospitalization. Upon release at 16, she moved back in with her mother for two years, had her first of four children and then moved out on her own in Winnipeg.

The first and oldest child, now 4, “is non-verbal with possible autism spectrum disorder.” Two younger siblings born after the crash are in speech therapy and the third is an infant born in January 2026.

Okemow has also been the victim of intimate partner violence, most recently involving her husband and father of her two youngest children, who is currently in jail for assaulting her and “she is the protected person on a no contact order” against him.

The PSR also revealed that Okemow admitted to having previously driven under the influence of alcohol.

Okemow “disclosed multiple suicide attempts,” while burdened by “depression, remorse, guilt, and grief” in the aftermath of Linklater’s unnecessary death, but said she “tries to remain strong for the sake of her children.”

“She lost her best friend and roommate and knows she will carry the weight of that loss as she tries to move on with her life and raise her children,” the judge wrote.

Linklater, it’s worth noting, was also a mother to a young daughter at the time of her death.

Okemow, who’ll take her brood to her grandmother’s house for the duration of her sentence, said she plans to go back to school and “pursue meaningful employment when her circumstances allow.”

While it’s been a struggle at times, Okemow “remains abstinent from substances” and the judge said “she has demonstrated significant maturity and growth as she manages parenting responsibilities for four young children with limited support.”

Based on the totality of her circumstances, largely influenced by Gladue factors, and because of the “significant changes” Okemow has undertaken, Garreck said “a penitentiary term is not necessary to satisfy denunciation and deterrence in this case.”

Okemow will be on supervised probation with a series of strict conditions for another two years after her house arrest. She’s also prohibited from driving for six years.

Garreck said Okemow’s personal circumstances could present challenges during her sentence.

“I am satisfied she will plan for and deal with any challenges to ensure compliance, or she risks serving the sentence in a jail,” the judge reminded.

• Judge says 'colonization' a reason Indigenous man gets reduced sentence for choking a toddler
• Man who murdered girlfriend gets reduced sentence partly due to his race

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A Toronto police officer was killed early Thursday morning during a raid on an apartment building tied to an investigation into the American consulate shooting.

“It is with deep and profound sorrow that I must confirm the death of Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, age 43, of our Emergency Task Force,” Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw announced in a statement hours after the fatal shooting.

On Thursday evening, police released a statement saying Nicholas Bennett, 19, of Toronto will be charged with first degree murder in connection with Pinizzotto’s death.

Police also released a photo of 19-year-old suspect Zara Jabbir, who they are searching for. Because he was a minor when the photo was taken, “a court has authorized the Toronto Police Service to publish his identity for a period of five days to assist investigators in locating him,” the statement says.

Police consider Jabbir to be “armed and dangerous.”

The consulate attack, U.S. prosecutors suspect, was directed by Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a commander of an Iraqi militia with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military body. A photo shared by the U.S. Department of Justice shows al-Saadi meeting Qassim Sulemani, the leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force, an elite outfit deemed by the Trump White House to be “Iran’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting” militia groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In February, al-Saadi was detained in Turkey and transferred to America, where he appeared in a Manhattan federal court. The unsealed criminal complaint alleged that al-Saadi was a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, which has been linked to Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, an Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for carrying out terror attacks across Canada and Europe, including the stabbing attack of two Jewish men in Golders Green, United Kingdom.

Al-Saadi was implicated in the American consulate shooting in Toronto in March. The unsealed complaint reported a wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi shortly after the incident, claiming “our people” were responsible for the attack as well as another one on “the Knesset,” which appears to be a reference to a Toronto synagogue that was fired on around the same time. No one was hurt in either incident.

Toronto Police Services spokesperson Stephanie Sayer could not confirm whether the raid Thursday morning was tied to the synagogue shooting or whether any of the suspects had ties to Iran or the IRGC.

“ I can’t confirm that information. We’re aiming to provide more information on the larger investigation tomorrow morning,” Sayer wrote National Post on Thursday afternoon.

Today, we mourn the loss of Constable Marc Pinizzotto.

“No words can capture the impact on Marc’s family, who expected him to come home today. We as a Service will support them and each other,” Chief Myron Demkiw said. “This loss will have a profound impact on the Toronto Police… pic.twitter.com/Y4j6Z4ml0l

— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) June 11, 2026

“ The investigation that led to the search warrant where Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto was tragically killed concerned a number of shootings, including the shooting at the United States Consulate on University Avenue. There were several search warrants executed this morning,” Demkiw’s statement said.

Police spokesperson Sayer could not confirm whether the raid was also linked to what American prosecutors view as a related targeting of a Canadian synagogue shooting.

“ I don’t have that information,” Sayer told the Post on Thursday morning. “More to come on this, though.”

Idit Shamir, the Israeli consul general in Toronto, shared Demkiw’s statement on X, saying “May his memory be a blessing.” CEO of antisemitism watchdog Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center , Michael Levitt, said Pinizzotto’s “tragic death in the line of duty is a heartbreaking loss for his family, his colleagues and our entire city.”

In early March, the American consulate in Toronto was shot at. RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather, overseeing the investigation, called the event “a national security incident,” though he cautioned it was “too early” to determine whether the perpetrators were connected to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

“I think it’s fairly obvious, based on the incidents that have occurred here in Toronto and elsewhere, that these consulates deserve a heightened amount of vigilance and security at this time,” Leather said at the time.

Pinizzotto’s death was mourned by the American Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.

“Our thoughts, our prayers are with the family of the police person who was killed. They are with the police community, law enforcement community, in Toronto and Ontario,” he told attendees at a bilateral trade conference on Thursday.

“It’s an example of the close co-operation that we have in law enforcement between the two countries, how we work together, and the risks involved in those types of activities,” Hoekstra added.

Another member of law enforcement was injured and taken to the hospital, the Toronto Police Operations official X account wrote on Thursday morning.

The apartment complex where Pinizzotto was killed is located in North York, just north of the intersection of Black Creek Drive and Eglington Avenue West. Trailers from the police department’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) were spotted at the building on Thursday afternoon.

SIU spokesperson Monica Hudson told reporters gathered in front of the apartment high-rise that Pinizzotto was part of a broader law enforcement team that was executing search warrants in the building. A 19-year-old suspect who fired at police during the raid that led to Pinizzotto’s death was in critical condition and taken to a nearby hospital, Hudson noted.

Pinizzotto served with the Toronto Police Service for 18 years and had been a member of the Emergency Task Force the past five years.

He is the first Toronto police officer to die in the line of duty since Const. Andrew Hong was fatally ambushed in September 2022.

Statements of support have poured in from across the country.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said the tragedy follows the death of Ontario Provincial Police Const. Tarun Bali on Tuesday.

“Canada mourns the loss of these brave officers who dedicated their lives to protecting their communities,” he said on X.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the Pinizzotto’s death “heartbreaking news,” saying “there are no words that can ease the pain of his family, loved ones and colleagues across the service.”

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre extended his “deepest condolences” as well.

• 'National security incident': Shots fired at U.S. Consulate in Toronto, suspect vehicle image released
• Suspect, 18, identified after three shot at outside Toronto synagogue

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OTTAWA — The federal government will be tabling a bill in the coming days to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariff threats on forced labour imports.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand put a bill entitled “An Act respecting the prohibition of the importation of goods produced by forced labour” on notice on Wednesday.

Government bills are usually put on notice at least 48 hours before they are introduced in the House of Commons, so it could be tabled as soon as Friday.

Officials in Anand’s office were not immediately available to explain what this legislation would entail, but Prime Minister Mark Carney said the government had been looking at ways to “reinforce” its current regime to better stop imports of slavery-made goods.

Speaking at an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Carney admitted that Canada has a robust system in place but has not been the best at implementing it.

“We have a very strong legal framework and standards and responsibilities. We’ve been less effective in fully enforcing those, and some of that relates to how the responsibilities are structured legally, some of that relates to resources,” said Carney in Toronto.

For instance, he said that the government a few months ago eliminated an ombudsman role in place to enforce those rules because it only had one investigation in seven years.

“The legislation that Minister Anand is referring to, and the steps that we would take around that, are part of just being more effective in what we’re implementing,” he added.

“Canadians don’t want goods and services that are the product of forced labour or child labour. So, we’re going to take additional steps to make sure that’s the case.”

In question period, Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong asked why the government is introducing a new bill if the government is insisting it already has “strong measures” to combat the importation of products made by forced labour.

“Canada already has strong protections in place. We will take further action to strengthen them through new legislation,” said Anand’s parliamentary secretary, Mona Fortier, without going into more detail.

The government has been forced to respond to this issue after the Trump administration said that several countries, including Canada, will be hit with 10 per cent additional tariffs for failing to effectively enforce their respective bans on imports made with forced labour.

Canada already has an import prohibition on goods that are manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour, through an amendment to its customs tariff in compliance with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

But the U.S. is arguing that Canada has done too little to stop those imports, pointing to publicly accessible information that shows that, since 2020, only two imports coming into the country were determined to have been produced using forced labour.

In total, 50 shipments were either intercepted or detained. A spokeswoman for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Karine Martel, said those shipments consisted of solar panels, automotive parts, textile goods, agricultural products and frozen seafood.

The two that were found to have been produced with forced labour were a 2024 shipment containing textile products and a 2025 shipment containing frozen seafood, said Martel, adding that both came from China.

“The remaining shipments were either permitted entry upon receipt and review of additional supply chain information, abandoned by the importer, or re-exported out of Canada prior to the CBSA making a formal determination,” she said.

Martel said that importers are responsible for ensuring that any goods they are bringing into Canada are compliant with Canadian law.

Carney said last week that the U.S. actions are “not a surprise” as the trade investigation had been going on for months and that CUSMA would protect Canada from most tariffs.

But he insisted that Canada agrees with the U.S. goal of stopping forced labour imports and would use its influence to eliminate this practice.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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Hong Kong authorities have laid their first charges following a months-long investigation into the deadliest residential fire in the city’s history.

Seven people and two companies have been charged with 25 offences, including manslaughter and conspiracy, over a catastrophic fire that ripped through the residential community of Wang Fuk Court in November, killing 168 people.

The seven individuals charged all played different roles in a US$42.9 million renovation project at the time of the fire. The companies Will Power Architects, which consulted on the renovations, and the main contractor, Presidge Construction and Engineering, were charged with manslaughter.

Three current and former directors of the companies were among the defendants, authorities said, including Will Power director Wong Hap-yin, who faces 16 counts, and the company’s registered inspector, Wilson Ng. Wong’s wife and a friend were also charged.

In total, 25 charges were brought against the defendants, including manslaughter, conspiracy to defraud, tax evasion, money laundering and attempting to pervert the course of public justice. The charges were brought by Hong Kong police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The case will be heard at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court in September. Two of the seven individuals have reportedly been granted bail while the rest are still in custody.

An independent inquiry found serious lapses in safety compliance that accelerated the fire, which destroyed seven high-rise buildings and burned for more than two days. Fire alarms in seven of the eight buildings in the residential complex were disabled, and combustible foam boards covered the windows.

Lee Chun Ho, who lost his mother, brother, 15-month-old niece and the family’s live-in maid in the fire, recalled at a public inquiry in April trying to desperately keep them awake while they were trapped in their home on the 19th floor.

He overheard rescuers saying they were hindered by the flames. “We can’t break through the 14th floor. The fire is too big,” he recalled them saying.

Lee watched desperately as his brother lost consciousness while his sister-in-law shouted into the phone, The Hong Kong Free Press reported . “I vow to speak up for (my family) for the rest of my life. This anger and despair… come from my mother, my brother, Yan-yan (his niece), and our worker,” he said.

Lee said his mother had complained about the high price tag of renovations to ICAC and to Prestige about workers smoking during their shift. Residents raised concerns for more than a year about non-fire-retardant scaffolding netting used during renovations, according to the Associated Press.

The inquiry’s findings are expected to be filed later this year.

“These construction arrangements are suspected of having seriously compromised the building’s fire safety, causing the fire to spread rapidly and obstructing escape routes, resulting in a large number of casualties,” Supt. Basil Tang Yick-kay said on Wednesday, according to a translation by South China Morning Post.

The Fire Investigation Task Force has said an ignited cigarette likely caused combustible material to catch fire, sparking the blaze. Thousands of Wang Fuk residents were displaced by the fire and moved to temporary housing, the AFP reported.

“We suspect that this unfortunate incident was caused by individuals acting in their own self-interest… with complete disregard for the safety of residents’ lives and property,” ICAC’s principal investigator Hazel Law told reporters, according to AFP. The anti-graft watchdog found that some of the defendants filed false reports about the renovation project.

Victor Dawes, the inquiry’s lead counsel said earlier this year that the deactivated fire alarm had “greatly shortened the time for residents to evacuate.”

National Post

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OTTAWA — A Senate committee is recommending that Ottawa take bold action including binding arbitration to ensure that labour disputes no longer disrupt Canadian supply chains, steps that would mark fundamental changes to labour relations in two critical sectors.

In a new report released Thursday, the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications concluded that the federal government needs to make aggressive changes to the labour laws that govern the rail and marine industries so that there are more alternatives to strikes and lockouts.

With a number of collective agreements in the two federally regulated sectors set to expire this year, further disruptions present a key obstacle to trade diversification and expansion, according to the report.

The Senate report also argues that labour disruptions affect Canada’s reputation as a reliable trade partner.

It recommends that Ottawa modernize the collective bargaining process in the two key sectors to create alternative mechanisms to resolve labour disputes, including mediation, arbitration and even binding arbitration.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the right to strike is constitutionally protected but not absolute.

“Tariffs and trade tensions are already straining Canada’s economy — another rail or port strike could be disastrous,” said Sen. David Wells, the committee’s chair, in a release. “We need a new way to resolve work stoppages to keep our railways and ports open for business.”

Rail and marine services are critical infrastructure to both importers and exporters for many sectors of the Canadian economy, including retail, food manufacturing, mining, forestry, auto, energy, metal refining and defence. The infrastructure sectors need to be reliable and considered part of the national interest, the report says.

The committee noted that it heard from business groups and others who explained the importance and fragility of modern supply chains. “When one part is shut down, it can have a domino effect on the others, disrupting the entire chain,” the committee wrote.

But Christopher Monette, a spokesman for Teamsters Canada, the country’s largest union for rail industry workers, said the effects of the labour disruptions are being exaggerated by business groups and that workers have the right to strike. More than 95 per cent of the collective agreements in the federally regulated sectors are renewed without strikes, Monette added.

“There is nobody around the world saying Canada is not a reliable trading partner.”

The Canadian Labour Congress also said the committee got it wrong, and called on the government to reject the report.

The Carney government has made the expansion of trade a top priority in the wake of tariffs on key Canadian industrial sectors by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Carney has repeatedly said that Canada needed to diversify its exports, setting a target of doubling non-U.S. exports over the next decade.

Canadian trade flows have at times been hindered, however, because of labour disputes, including at key ports at Vancouver and Montreal in the fall of 2024, at Canada’s two largest rail carriers, CN and CPKC, for several hours in 2024, and during a 10-day strike at British Columbia ports in 2023.

The committee report, which has no direct or automatic effect on government policy, also recommends the establishment of a permanent, independent supply chain tribunal whose members are experts in the marine and rail sectors, and that the tribunal use alternative models to resolve labour disputes, including mediation and arbitration.

The report also recommends that if mediation and arbitration don’t lead to a deal when the matter is deemed to be in the national interest, the government may call for binding arbitration.

National Post

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The Haskell Free Library and Opera House on the Quebec-Vermont border opened its new Canadian entrance on Wednesday.

The new door opens to Stanstead, Que., while the existing door is in Derby Line, Vt. A black line runs across the floor inside the library to indicate the border between Canada and the U.S.

The building, which is more than a century old, has long been a symbol of harmony between Canada and the U.S. But the past eight months have been a different story, after the Trump administration ended a long-standing arrangement allowing Canadians to enter from the U.S. side.

Now, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House has officially opened its new “Canadian Door”, granting easy access to visitors on both sides of the border once more.

Why was Canadian access restricted?

In October 2025, U.S. authorities cancelled an arrangement that meant Canadians could use the existing entrance in Derby Line without passing through customs.

The decision had been announced in March that year, just two months after then Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the library and referred to Canada as “the 51st state” when standing on the Stanstead side.

It was my honor to meet the family of fallen Border Patrol Agent David Maland and his fellow officers who work everyday to keep our nation safe.

The afternoon spent at the US/Canadian border reaffirmed President Trump and my commitment to secure ALL of our borders. pic.twitter.com/PMre9PmvYK

— Special Envoy Kristi Noem (@EnvoyNoem) January 31, 2025

At the time of the decision, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that the change was in response to drug trafficking.

“Drug traffickers and smugglers were exploiting the fact that Canadians could use the US entrance without going through customs. We are ending such exploitation by criminals and protecting Americans,” they said.

They did not provide evidence of drug trafficking or smuggling, though in 2018, a Quebec man named Alexis Vlachos was sentenced to 51 months in a U.S. prison for smuggling over 100 handguns from Vermont to Quebec, some of which were stashed in small backpacks inside the trash can of the Haskell Library bathroom.

The library was not completely blindsided by the change, however. In an interview with National Post, Sylvie Boudreau, the president of the library’s board of trustees, said she had been expecting the news, following Noem’s visit.

“I had already looked into where we could put an entrance on the Canadian side,” she said.

It’s not the first time Canadian access to the library has been restricted, however, with tighter controls imposed following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How did the library adapt to the change in access?

Since October 2025, Canadians wishing to use the library’s main entrance have had to present themselves at a port of entry and go through U.S. customs.

A repurposed emergency exit was used as a temporary entrance on the Stanstead side by Canadians initially. But when construction started on the door, things became a little more complicated.

“We had to use the tower, which has four flights of stairs, and after that you arrive at the Opera House, go back downstairs, go through the staff office to go into the library,” Boudreau told National Post.

Only library members and staff were permitted to enter the building directly from Canada, but exceptions were made for emergency personnel, people with disabilities, school groups, and some others.

How was the new entrance created?

The Canadian Door already existed as an emergency exit, but it needed a lot of work to turn it into a suitable entrance.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House website provided updates on the Canadian Door project, beginning with the successful approval of architectural plans by both the Quebec and Vermont governments and Historic Preservation Societies.

Creating the new door also involved excavating the Canadian handicapped parking lot and extending exterior walkways on the northeast side of the building.

Masonry work was carried out on the exterior of the entrance, while the interior was plastered and repainted and a portico was installed.

The final steps involved installing doors and windows, constructing the retaining wall and paving the Canadian parking lot.

Who paid for the new entrance?

Boudreau said the work cost about $700,000.

“It cost a lot of money, because it’s a heritage building,” she said. “We had no choice of the design, no choice on the materials. Everything had to be approved, and the only thing we could do is pay.”

As well as the door itself, the cost included work on the sidewalk, stairs, a roof, a parking lot and ways to make it accessible.

About $350,000 came from donations to a GoFundMe from all over the world. The rest of the money came from the building fund, which had been set aside for other projects.

Can Americans use the new Canadian entrance?

Americans can’t use the Canadian entrance, but, because the new door is next to the American parking lot, Boudreau says some visitors have tried to use the wrong entrance by mistake.

Inside the building, however, people from both countries share the space equally.

“When the access was restricted, people were frustrated,” Boudreau said. “The new entrance means that the Haskell will continue. It’s a message of hope and friendship. It will not defeat us.”

• Trump ends Canadians' access to entrance to border-straddling library
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The Canada Revenue Agency’s service standard for working with taxpayers to make complex changes to their income tax returns is supposed to be 20 weeks, yet the agency is taking more than twice that time, prompting the federal taxpayers’ ombudsperson, François Boileau, to initiate an examination into the delays.

“Forty-seven weeks is a long time for anyone to receive any news from the CRA, with regard to T1 adjustments that are complex, and we want to find out why it is so, and what is the root cause of the problem,” Boileau told National Post in an interview on Thursday, the day he initiated the examination.

“What is it? Lack of resources? Too many requests? Because the law itself is too complex,” asked Boileau.

Requests for simple T1 revisions take between two and eight weeks, he added.

Boileau noted that the CRA can determine that a taxpayer’s request is complex, but said the agency doesn’t inform the taxpayer when this is the case.

“So, there’s also a lack of communication there,” he said.

He cited a few examples of complex revisions, such as multiple years’ worth of returns, bankruptcies, deceased taxpayer returns, returns involving carry-back amounts such as capital or non-capital losses, and pension-splitting. Others can include requests from the CRA to the taxpayer or their authorized representative for more information or documents.

“Well, all right then, but because the CRA is asking for more documents, should it take 47 weeks? Not too long ago, it was actually 50 weeks. 50 weeks,” he emphasized. “Wow. It’s like two weeks short of being a full year. Imagine that.”

It’s not the first time in recent years that the CRA has been called to task. As previously reported by National Post , in September 2025, the CRA got marching orders from National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne to shape up. He instructed the agency to launch a 100-day plan to improve its service and cut the delays many Canadians have been experiencing.

At that point, the CRA call centre service had been called out by the minister then responsible for the CRA, Wayne Long, as having hit “rock bottom.” Shortly thereafter, as reported by National Post , the auditor general issued a report stating that CRA call centres gave auditors wrong information as often as 83 per cent of the time.

“So, this is not the first time we’ve done something like this,” said Boileau.

In addition to this systemic examination, Boileau’s office has also sent a service improvement request to the CRA. It has asked that the T1 Adjustment Request webpage be changed to encourage taxpayers “to file adjustment requests online, rather than by printing and mailing the webform as suggested on its website, so that the requests can be processed more quickly.”

“We’re hopeful to get to the bottom of the CRA’s reasons and what can be done,” he said. He suggested perhaps changes are required to the Income Tax Act, but added, “I’m not sure that’s the answer, by the way. Or is it just inefficiencies within the system? We just want to find out the real reasons.”

He is aiming to have the examination wrapped and a report published “by the end of November, early December.”

• CRA call centre service has hit 'rock bottom', according to federal minister
• CRA call centres gave auditors wrong information as often as 83 per cent of the time: AG

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The Ontario home where Colonel Sanders, KFC founder and face of the fast-food brand, once lived recently hit the real estate market with an asking price of $1.5 million.

When Harland David Sanders, accompanied by his wife Claudia, moved north in 1965 to oversee the expansion and operations of the brand then known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, they settled on 1337 Melton Drive, “a modest bungalow near the corner of Dixie Avenue and The Queensway” in Mississauga as their home, according to Visit Mississauga .

The Sanders lived in Mississauga for part of the year until his 1980 death in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Sanders was 75 at the time and already a millionaire, having sold off most of his franchises to a group of U.S. investors a year prior, but he retained franchising rights and stayed on as the trademark and quality controller.

Sanders himself originally hailed from Indiana, and while he first sold his fried chicken at a roadside restaurant in Kentucky during the Great Depression — during which time Governor Rub Lafooon bestowed him with the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel — the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A store remains there to this day. (The original franchisee was also the first to use Sanders’ likeness in branding, created the “finger lickin’ good” catchphrase and was the first to introduce the cardboard bucket of chicken.)

Sanders later abandoned his own restaurant and started travelling the U.S., franchising his “Original Recipe” to restaurateurs and turning it into the largest fast-food chain in the U.S. at one point.

Upon his relocation to Canada, Sanders turned to Toronto lawyer Terrence Donnelly, whom he’d met at the CNE Food Pavilion during an earlier visit, to assist in expansion. Donnelly became his counsel, sat on Sanders’ board of directors and eventually became the head of the Harland Sanders Charitable Organization, a registered Canadian charity that has donated millions to health care initiatives and carries on his legacy.

In 2000, the community-based, academically affiliated Ontario health network Trillium Health Partners named its women’s and children’s care center in the Colono Hardland Sanders Family Care Centre in honour of his donations over the years.

Donelly also helped facilitate the purchase of the Sanders’ Lakeview home, which was listed by Jaclyn Deme and Meta Realty without specifying that it was once the residence of a fast-food franchise icon.

The “impeccably maintained 4-level side split” spreads four bedrooms, three full baths, two laundry rooms, an open-concept kitchen and multiple living and family rooms over its 2,000-plus square feet of finished space.

“A standout feature is the private main-floor primary bedroom retreat, complete with an accessible ensuite bathroom (with skylight and heated flooring), and private laundry/mudroom with ample storage,” the listing reads.

The home’s footprint has changed in the 46 years since Sanders and his wife lived there, the most recent being an addition in 2014, partially designed by award-winning Mississauga-based interior designer Jane Lockhart.

Other feature perks include an attached garage, a powered garden shed, front and rear lawn irrigation systems, a home alarm system, a carpet-free interior, a central vacuum, a backup generator, electrical sliding back doors and two fireplaces.

Property taxes are listed at $8,446.67 annually.

• What is halal chicken? KFC's switch to 'diverse menu options' sparks boycott calls
• Rahim Mohamed: No, the Islamists aren’t coming for your fried chicken

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.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, is reportedly under consideration to become the new director of national intelligence, reports Associated Press.

Hoeskstra is a former House of Representatives intelligence committee chairman. In a Wednesday afternoon post on X, AP also noted he also played a key role in rebuilding the Michigan Republican party in advance of the 2024 federal election that returned Donald Trump to the White House.

After the election win, Hoekstra called Trump and secured an invitation to Mar-a-Lago to discuss possible positions in the administration.

Pete Hoekstra, a former House Intel chairman and current ambassador to Canada, is in conversations with the White House about the DNI position, according to a source familiar.

Hoekstra also played a key role in rebuilding the Michigan GOP in 2024.https://t.co/PZKzkvF6xt

— Joey Cappelletti (@Cappelletti7) June 10, 2026

Within three hours of the meeting, as previously reported by National Post , Trump announced on Truth Social that Hoeskstra would be his new ambassador to Canada. But his post has not been without controversy. He has publicly voiced a lack of understanding as to why Canadians are angry at Trump for imposing devastating tariffs, while urging this country to become the 51st state. He has suggested Canada’s response to Trump has been “nasty and mean.”

Some see Hoekstra as a diplomatic embodiment of the pugnacious president he represents, the Post has reported. He is personable and unassuming in one-on-one conversation, while making no apologies for his abruptness.

Hoekstra served as a Member of Congress from 1993 to 2011 representing Michigan’s 2nd District. Hoekstra was the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2004 to 2007. The latter involved meeting with world leaders from Muammar Gaddafi to Vladimir Putin.

As a conservative Republican lawmaker, think-tank pundit, author and diplomat, he has often expressly shared Trump’s worldview. Hoekstra is also listed as one of the contributors to Project 2025, a blueprint for governing, mirrored by Trump’s administration since taking power.

He obtained undergraduate and MBA degrees before rising to become vice president of marketing at office-furniture maker Herman Miller. He turned his attention to politics, first winning election to the House of Representatives.

He was a founding member of the conservative Tea Party caucus. His voting record shows him as opposing abortion rights, same-sex marriage, gay adoption, gun control and paid parental leave for federal employees. Hoekstra voted in favour of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Born in the Netherlands, Hoekstra emigrated to the United States as a child. During Trump’s first administration, he was named ambassador to the Netherlands. The foreign posting ended when Joe Biden captured the White House in 2020, but four years on Hoekstra was back in Michigan, assisting Trump’s second run for the White House.

Hoekstra says he was interested in the Ottawa job, partly because of his ties to this country. He had an aunt and uncle who lived in B.C. and Alberta. His wife has a sister in Smithers, B.C., and an uncle who was a pastor in St. Catharines, Ont. He also cites the fact that Canadian troops liberated his parents’ city in the Netherlands during the Second World War, as well as Canada trade partnership with the U.S.

The appointment began positively. Hoekstra said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he recognized “Canada’s longstanding friendship, our deep economic ties and our strong military alliance.” He promoted his good, bipartisan relations with Democratic ambassadors who came after him in the Netherlands, and before him in Canada.

He contended that Trump’s priorities were “freer, fairer trade.” However, he later scoffed at what he called “anti-American” campaigning during the last Canadian federal election and said it’s understandable the White House considered it “nasty and mean” for some provinces to ban American alcohol, while Canadians curb travel to the States.

His strongest response came after the Ontario government paid for an ad on American television made up of clips of former president Ronald Reagan decrying tariffs. In public, Hoekstra said “you do not come into America and start running political ads, government-funded political ads, and expect that there will be no consequences or reaction.”

Hoekstra has stressed that Canada is being treated no worse than any of the other countries facing Trump tariffs. He has said trade talks will resume sooner or later, and insists he has made suggestions to the Carney government on how to proceed.

More recently, Hoekstra, wrapped up a meeting with B.C. Premier David Eby and said they were “both smiling” afterwards. He added: “We covered lots of topics and we’re both smiling and it was it was a good meeting.”

• How Pete Hoekstra became 'the most controversial U.S. ambassador in history'
• Trump taunts 'future Governor of Canada Mark Carney.' Hoekstra left 'smiling' after meeting Eby

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The schizophrenic woman who committed a notorious killing of an innocent stranger in a downtown Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart more than 10 years ago has been granted an absolute discharge, freeing her entirely from the restrictions of the justice system.

In 2015, Rohinie Bisesar, then 40 and now 51, stabbed Rosemarie Junor in the cosmetics section of the drug store in Toronto’s financial district underground PATH, following the malicious command hallucinations of a voice in her head she called the “entity.”

Junor, 28, who also went by “Kim,” was newly married and worked in a downtown private medical clinic. She died five days later in hospital of a single stab wound by a small kitchen knife that pierced her heart.

“While the tragedy cannot be undone and will always be on our minds, Ms. Bisesar no longer is a significant threat to the safety of the public, and the law requires that an absolute discharge must be imposed. Ms. Bisesar’s commitment to her present health has substantially contributed to this result,” reads the Ontario Review Board’s new decision.

It was a horrific story that transfixed the city with its incomprehensible violence from an unlikely offender. Bisesar was a tiny woman, 4 foot 11 and 85 pounds, whose life appeared to have recently and abruptly unraveled from professional success to the point of spontaneous insane homicide.

She had an MBA from a top Ontario school and had worked in a major financial firm, but she had been hospitalized a year before the killing after threatening her parents with arson and expressing bizarre paranoia. Unemployed, she continued to frequent the financial district and became a familiar regular at downtown coffee shops, neatly dressed and working on a laptop.

Then, on a Friday mid-afternoon in December, according to facts recorded at her 2018 trial, the voice in her head said “What is the worse thing you can do?” and told her to get a knife. She travelled a dozen subway stops uptown to a discount store to buy one, a small kitchen knife, then returned downtown.

In the PATH, she sat on a bench beside a woman and considered stabbing her, but then “the entity picked me up from the bench and had me start walking really fast.”

She saw Junor on the phone in the nail polish section of the Shoppers, and almost immediately, 24 seconds later, she stabbed her in the upper chest and fled. She was identified by security footage and arrested four days later at a residence in the east end.

Curiously, just 10 minutes before the reported time of the arrest, the National Post received an email from Bisesar’s personal email address, which appeared to be from her though this could not be independently confirmed. “Do you know any top professionals in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, satellites?” it said. “Something has been happening to me and this is not my normal self and I would like to know who and why this is happening.”

The email then addressed the stabbing.

“I am sorry about the incidence,” the email said. “I felt the need to be extreme to see if it would work. I would normally not do such a thing.”

Bisesar spent three years in jail before her trial by a judge alone, at which prosecutors and defence agreed she was not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.

It was a long road to that decision. An early videolink court appearance was derailed by her rant about terrorists and the prime minister.

Two years after the killing, she went before a jury who heard a psychiatrist testify she was psychotic. A jury agreed she was unfit to stand trial and unable to properly participate in her defence.

A year after that, the same psychiatrist found her mental health “radically improved,” her schizophrenia effectively in remission through medication, and a jury agreed she was fit to be tried.

After the NCR verdict, Bisesar was in secure detention in a mental hospital until 2021, when she was discharged from hospital to independent housing in the community, with her psychotic symptoms controlled by medication and in full remission.

People found not criminally responsible for serious crimes have annual appearances before a review board, which considers the terms of their continued treatment and secure detention in hospital.

Some people found NCR end up spending more time in secure hospital detention than they would have spent in prison under a guilty verdict to a crime. Some personality disorders, for example, are effectively incurable and a review board never decides a person’s risk to the public is below the legal threshold for release. In those cases, their detention is basically indefinite.

But schizophrenia is treatable with medications, and so sometimes the period of confinement is much less than what a murderer would get in prison for the same killing. The most famous example is Vince Li, who killed Tim McLean, 22, on a Manitoba intercity bus in 2008 and cannibalized parts of his body. Like Bisesar, his schizophrenia was medically controlled after his NCR verdict, and he was granted an absolute discharge less than a decade after the killing.

Bisesar received a conditional discharge in 2023, requiring her to remain under outpatient forensic psychiatric care of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. She is unemployed, lives alone on disability assistance, and does volunteer work. She is on a long-acting injectable anti-psychotic and has been compliant with medication and therapy.

Last year, she was denied an absolute discharge when the Ontario Review Board found she “continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public,” though a minority of the panel found she did not.

This recent decision to grant her an absolute discharge — effectively closing the books on her case — reflects the hospital’s view that she no longer poses such a threat. It notes that she “understands that she has a major mental illness that requires treatment in perpetuity.”

It notes that at the time of her offence in 2015 Bisesar was “floridly psychotic, untreated and desperately unwell.”

National Post

• Schizophrenic man behind Toronto army recruiting centre knife attack approved for Mecca pilgrimage
• Toronto man who killed his mom because 'he thought she was a zombie' gets absolute discharge

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A Canadian, 19, accused of running a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud ring out of South Florida, spent money on luxury cars, jewelry and enjoying the Miami nightlife while overstaying his visa to stay in the U.S., federal prosecutors allege.

A federal grand jury indicted Trenton Richard David Johnston and alleged co-conspirator 28-year-old Brandon Michael Tardibone of Miami this week, in what authorities describe as a US$13 million (CAD$17.8 million) crypto and money laundering scheme.

Prosecutors allege Johnston posed as customer-support representatives for a major search engine and crypto companies to trick victims into surrendering access to digital accounts and cryptocurrency wallets. Once access was obtained, investigators allege Johnston and Tardibone drained the accounts and laundered the money through a web of financial transactions designed to conceal its source.

Authorities believe there are other victims yet to be identified.

According to court documents obtained by National Post, Homeland Security Investigations began looking into Johnston when a confidential source showed law enforcement text messages in which he allegedly said he “was making millions of dollars by defrauding” people. The source explained they had witnessed him engaging in the fraud using a gaming computer and “impersonating entities like Google in speaking with victims to gain access” to their accounts.

On March 24, local police stopped Johnston’s Rolls-Royce in North Miami and arrested him on state charges for possession of a controlled substance.

Three confidential witnesses who were in the vehicle with him at the time, all of whom told authorities they received money from Johnston at times, said they had witnessed him engaging in the fraud using a gaming computer and “impersonating entities like Google in speaking with victims to gain access” to their accounts. One of them admitted to also participating and stealing approximately $20,000, but estimated “Johnston’s proceeds to be in the tens of millions of dollars based on their conversations” and what she witnessed.

A search of his residence uncovered “handwritten notes containing seed phrases for various cryptocurrency wallets.”

Forensic examination of his cell phone revealed messages with Tardibone in which they “made multiple references to having successfully ‘hit,’ ‘smacked’ or otherwise obtained 185 BTC (bitcoins) from a victim, which they refer to as a ‘target’ or ‘targ.’”

They also corresponded about having the money cleaned and using it to purchase luxury vehicles and short-term home rentals in Miami and Los Angeles.

Federal authorities allege more than $1 million in stolen cryptocurrency was used to fund an extravagant lifestyle that included leased exotic vehicles, high-end jewelry and luxury entertainment.

Court documents indicate Johnston was admitted to the U.S. “as a visitor for pleasure for no more than 12 months” when he entered via the Buffalo, N.Y., border crossing at the Peace Bridge in October 2024.

According to the indictment, Johnston overstayed his visa and remained in the U.S. illegally while operating from the Miami area, where prosecutors say Tardibone knowingly harboured him at a luxury residence to help him avoid immigration authorities.

Johnston faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. He is being detained until trial and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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.

The Right Thing to Do is smart, honest advice to readers’ questions about life, family and relationships by columnist Rebecca Eckler. Got a question for Rebecca? Submit it anonymously on the form here. You can also send an email to NPadvice@postmedia.com.

Dear Rebecca

I am an only child. I am now married and have a toddler. I was raised in a very strict household, largely because of my stay-at-home mother’s tendency to be controlling, narcissistic and emotionally immature, all qualities I did not fully understand until I moved out.

Since getting married and becoming a parent, I’ve come to recognize how unhealthy parts of my childhood were. Even today, my mother oversteps boundaries, insists on interfering with our parenting decisions with our toddler, sends incessant messages asking where I am, if I’m home yet, has my son been fed, and so on and forth. It feels like she cannot treat me as an adult and perhaps still struggles with empty-nest syndrome despite me having left home nearly a decade ago.

I work a high-stress, very demanding job, and my husband and I are in the thick of the toddler years. The last thing I need is another person to manage and I wish there were a way for her to be a part of our lives without the incessant “hovering.” She cannot seem to respect boundaries or acknowledge our requests and so we’ve had to repeatedly take “breaks” where we pause communication for weeks or even months at a time for the sake of my mental health. I can’t bring myself to trust that she’ll respect our wishes if we were to leave our son in her care and so not only do I mourn the loss of a relationship with my mother, but also the loss of support in raising a small child.

My husband has tried advocating for me with my mother and attempted to help repair the relationship, but her response is always to lash out, accuse me of complaining and paint herself as a victim. It doesn’t seem like she’s willing to hear me out or recognize the hurt she is inflicting. She refuses to seek counselling.

Is there any hope?
— Only Daughter

Dear Only Daughter

You ask if there is hope for you and your mother. Well, yes and no. You’re certainly not going to get “the hope” you’re hoping for.

Listen, I’m not “anti-hope” when it comes to trying to fix fraught mother-daughter adult relationships. I am, however, anti-delusional.

Could your mother start to respect your boundaries? Sure, in the same way, I could wake up with abs of steel like Jennifer Lopez while doing absolutely nothing.

Both are delusional AF.

At a certain age, and after decades of behaving a certain way, it’s highly unlikely your mother will magically wake up one day emotionally evolved, self-aware and respectful. If anything, she’ll probably double down.

Your exhaustion is palpable, which worries me. It’s not just new-mother-stressful-career exhaustion. It sounds like I’ve been emotionally on call since I, myself, was a toddler , exhausted. Of course, you need breaks.

Your career is demanding. You have a husband. A pint-size dictator to raise. You do not need another adult with unlimited texting privileges asking how many bites your kid ate from that dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget.

Unfortunately, many adult daughters of overbearing mothers spend years hoping, “Maybe she’ll understand this time if I explain myself differently.” I hate to break it to you, but all your mother will ever hear is, “Why are you attacking me?” Emotionally immature parents rarely see themselves as controlling. This may ring especially true if you’re an only child.

But you do not owe your mother live coverage of your parenting, with play-by-play updates if your toddler has been fed, bathed, napped, has blinked and found his nose. Your kitchen, as far as I know, is not a breaking news television station.

You do not have to answer unsolicited parenting commentary. Period.

The right thing to do is to start responding with, “ He ate .” That’s it. That’s your response. So is silence. That, too, is a response.

“Is there any hope?” is not even a realistic question, based on your situation. A better question to ask is, “Can you manage some sort of relationship with your mother as she is, not as the mother you wish she had been, and the grandmother you wish she could be?”

Instead of asking, “How do I make her understand my reasoning?” Ask, “How do I stop needing her to understand my reasoning?” You are an adult, and you are not alone. Honestly, difficult mothers are probably what keep most therapists employed.

You have explained your position to her. Repeatedly. Your husband has too. You already know you cannot boundary your mother into an ah-ha moment. You cannot boundary someone into changing their entire personality. You cannot boundary someone into therapy. If that happens, buy a lottery ticket immediately.

What you can do is stop second-guessing your boundaries. Your mother lashing out or being upset does not mean you’ve done anything wrong. Your mother does not need to understand your boundaries for you to have them.

And you — yes you! — can stop treating every incoming message like they are a life-or-death emergency. Stop it! Stop defending your parenting decision. Stop responding to every “Did he eat?” text as though Child Protective Services is waiting outside your house.

While this may sting, there is probably no hope for a dramatic mother-daughter reset. So, you can stop exhausting yourself with the hope that she’ll become the mother you want.

But there is hope… for you. To become a different type of daughter, who no longer feels guilty for having boundaries, ignoring phone calls or taking breaks.

You could start with one small act of bravery, by putting your mother’s number on “Do Not Disturb” or on “Hide Alerts.”

Also, have you eaten today?

Love,
Rebecca

Rebecca Eckler is a bestselling author, founder of re:books publishing, Rivkah Books, and co-founder of CANREADS. She’s a professional oversharer and observer of human behaviour, and has spent decades writing about life’s messy twists. She believes advice should come with humour, compassion, and the occasional reality check. She has no formal qualifications for this other than a lifetime of questionable decisions and excellent stories.

Have a question for Rebecca? Send anonymously by clicking here. Or email NPadvice@postmedia.com.

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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.

The Parole Board of Canada has granted unescorted temporary absences for the “personal development” and rehabilitation of a woman who helped kill a pregnant Inuit student from Labrador a dozen years ago in Halifax and dumped her body beside a highway in a hockey bag.

Victoria Lea Henneberry is serving a life sentence for the second-degree murder of Loretta Saunders in February 2014. In a decision released Wednesday, the parole board approved two 72-hour unescorted temporary absences (UTAs), so Henneberry, 40, can visit a halfway house.

“Your case management team believes it is desirable for you to participate in the proposed UTA so that you can focus on a gradual release to the community while allowing your risk factors to be closely monitored,” said the June 2 decision.

“This UTA allows a structured and supervised opportunity to assess your behaviour, decision-making and ability to comply with conditions in a community setting.”

Henneberry was in a minimum-security prison in Ontario last year. The parole decision out of Kingston, Ont., doesn’t indicate where she is imprisoned now, or where the halfway house is located that she’s planning to visit.

A spokeswoman for the parole board said Wednesday she could not divulge those locations because of inmate privacy.

The parole board granted Henneberry 30 days of unescorted leave in the fall of 2024 to take “personal development” courses at a halfway house.

But that was “prematurely cancelled days prior to its completion due to numerous violations of rules,” and Henneberry’s “emotional instability (self-reporting of suicidal ideation),” said the decision.

Henneberry and her boyfriend, Blake Leggette, were subletting a room in Saunders’ Halifax apartment when the couple killed the Saint Mary’s University student after she came to collect their rent that they didn’t have.

Saunders was 26 and pregnant when she died. Leggette attacked her from behind on Feb. 13, 2014, when she entered the apartment.

“Once inside the apartment, your boyfriend choked the victim and tried to suffocate her with plastic bags,” said the decision.

“The victim’s head was then hit against the floor twice.”

The pair put Saunders’ body in a hockey bag. They left the apartment to return a computer to a store for the money. When they returned, Leggette carried the hockey bag to the victim’s own car and put it in the trunk.

The couple left, using the victim’s bank card to buy food and other items.

They drove from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick, “where the victim’s body was then dumped, in the hockey bag, at the side of a highway, and continued to drive to Ontario,” said the decision.

They were later arrested in Ontario.

Henneberry “confessed to the murder the following day,” said the decision. “Video evidence showed that you and your boyfriend talked about killing the victim five days prior to the actual murder.”

Henneberry’s latest psychological risk assessment indicates she was diagnosed with a personality disorder (borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder), “with a suggestion of feigning psychological symptoms and negative impression management,” said the decision.

“Based on actuarial measures, the psychologist reported that you are currently a low-moderate risk for both general and violent recidivism.”

Henneberry hasn’t “demonstrated violent or aggressive behaviour or attitudes,” in the last three years, said the decision, and “there is no indication” she’s involved in the “institutional drug subculture.”

Henneberry, who the board has said practises the Wiccan religion, was born in Halifax, but mostly raised in Ontario.

The Correctional Service of Canada recommended she get the passes as part of her “gradual reintegration into society,” said the decision.

The parole board determined that Henneberry had “presented a structured plan that will both allow” her to complete her goals “and do so without additional risk to society.”

While she’s out of prison, Henneberry must “immediately report all sexual and nonsexual relationships and friendships” with men to her parole supervisor.

She’s also ordered to stay away from mobile phones and any device that can access the internet, and she must avoid contact with Saunders’ relatives.

“There are victims who have experienced trauma as a result of your criminal activity. As any contact with you will have negative impacts on them, you are not to have either direct or indirect contact with the victims or members of their families.”

• Wiccan woman who killed pregnant Inuit student is back in jail again
• Killer who left pregnant victim's body on side of road granted unescorted leave for 'personal development'

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.

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is moving ahead with a plan to require social media companies to restrict access to their sites for those under 16, but with an ability for them to seek exemptions and a timeline that as of Wednesday remained unclear.

The measure was proposed as part of a new online safety regime outline in a bill Canadian Heritage Minister Marc Miller tabled Wednesday afternoon, known as the “Safe Social Media Act.”

Since taking office, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government’s has faced calls from child safety advocates, children’s health organizations and parents whose children have been victimized online to introduce measures to regulate tech giants.

Miller said the measures introduced in the bill represent the “basic expectations” that parents and Canadians have that children ought to be safe while online.

“I believe all parties should agree on the importance of these minimum safeguards,” he said

The legislation revives certain measures advanced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau but which were never passed, including the creation of a new regulator, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, and a requirement for platforms to submit safety plans.

It also seeks to establish a rule that platforms must remove content that “ sexually victimizes a child” or includes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including sexualized deepfakes, within 24-hours of being flagged.

The legislation seeks to impose a “duty to act responsibility” for social media platforms by requiring them to take steps to reduce users’ exposure to seven different types of harmful content online, from content that can be used to bully a child and encourages a minor to engage in self-harm, to that which incites violence, as well as terrorist or violent extremist content.

Wednesday’s bill also proposes requiring social media platforms to restrict access to users under 16, but with the caveat that it would allow companies to seek an exemption if they make changes to improve safety on the sites that are deemed as sufficient by the new regulator. As proposed, companies would have to verify a user’s age, with the government open to seeing different methods used.

The timeline of when a potential ban could take effect was not immediately clear on Wednesday. During a briefing with reporters, officials said setting up the new regulator, the body that would be responsible for granting exemptions and levying fines for non-compliance, would happen in roughly 18-months time.

Deciding which social media platforms would be covered by the ban would be left up to a set of future regulations, along with the timing for implementation and what criteria companies would have to meet to secure an exemption.

Officials who briefed reporters in a not-for-attribution basis said those regulations could come into force before the regulator was up and running, meaning there would likely be a period of time when social media access would be banned for those under 16, as it would take time before the first exemptions could be granted.

Miller, meanwhile, told reporters on Wednesday that a social media ban would take effect once the bill achieves royal assent, the last stage of the legislative process for a piece of legislation to become law. It was later clarified that that was not the case.

In terms of social media sites expected to be covered by a potential ban, the minister pointed to Meta’s Facebook as well as Snapchat. The bill also includes an exclusion for “any private messaging feature of the service.”

Asked why the Liberals were not instituting a full ban on social media for those younger than 16, a policy first pioneered by Australia and which other jurisdictions have followed, Miller told reporters he knows not everyone will agree with the government’s approach.

“We know that social media can be made safe by design,” he said on Wednesday. “There are platforms for kids under 16 that can be used responsibly.”

The legislation also seeks to apply age verification rules to pornography sites where users can upload their own content. It was later clarified that deciding which sites that verification requirement would apply to would be left up to a future set of regulations. Unlike social media companies, pornography sites would not be able to qualify for exemptions.

The minister declined on Wednesday to specify which sites that could cover.

“Do you want me to talk to you about my experience with porn sites? I don’t think I’ll fall into that trap necessarily,” he said with a laugh, but later added the move was not about “regulating the Internet.”

Instituting age verification rules for porn sites mirrors efforts Sen. Julie Miville-Dechene is trying to advance through a bill that passed the Senate back in April and currently sits before the House of Commons.

When it comes to AI chatbots, the bill proposes its own set of regulations, such as requiring that companies take measures to reduce the risk of the technology engaging in what it defines as “harmful behaviour” and implement “crisis intervention protocols,” when users express a willingness to commit self-harm or engage in violence.

The proposed measures fell short of what Western premiers and B.C. Premier David Eby’s government had called for, which was to legislate a mandatory reporting threshold for when companies would have to notify police of potential threats.

Those calls came after it was revealed that the 18-year-old shooter whom RCMP said opened fire on a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., back in February, had exchanged troubling messages with OpenAI’s ChatGPT many months before the incident, which the company decided against flagging to police.

Miller said on Wednesday that OpenAI did have protocols in place but that an “egregious human error” was made, saying he believes requiring AI chatbots to be more transparent about their reporting protocols would still be significant.

In the case of what happened in Tumbler Ridge, he said: “I do think this law could have made a difference.”

The minister also defended how the government was not proposing a ban on chatbots as it was with traditional social media companies, saying the AI chatbots were still “an evolving playing field.”

“Admittedly, they play a function and a role that can be very damaging towards kids, but can also play an important function in the educational system and in the AI strategy that we are putting forward,” the minister said, referencing the document released last week by Carney.

National Post

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Doug Ford is not known for playing nice with Donald Trump. The Ontario premier has repeatedly condemned the president’s 51st state rhetoric and boldly removed American booze exports from their biggest market: Ontario’s shelves.

It was also notably Ford’s Ronald Reagan ad that reportedly led to the breakdown in U.S.-Canada trade talks last year.

So the fact that Ford visited Washington this week, engaging lawmakers and business leaders and calling for getting the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) renewal done, may have seemed odd to many — and maybe downright risky.

But was it — or was it a sign that Canada has pivoted on its approach to Washington?

“You are looking at a change in tone from Ottawa,” said Graeme Thompson, senior analyst at Eurasia Group, who pointed to three relevant developments preceding Ford’s visit.

“There was Mr. Carney’s speech in New York, which was very conciliatory, and Dominic LeBlanc’s trip to Washington, where he met with Jamieson Greer and evidently presented at least constructive proposals and reported that the meeting went well.”

The third development was a statement from the Department of Canadian Heritage, indicating that the minister would instruct the regulator to revisit its decision on interpreting the Online Streaming Act to mean it would levy 15 per cent charges — as opposed to 5 per cent — on big tech companies’ streaming revenues in Canada to support Canadian industry.

That is “really important,” Thompson said, “because digital trade and digital taxes have emerged as a major bilateral trade irritant for the U.S., and that signals a softening of the Canadian position on that issue.”

Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, also sees a clear strategic shift toward a conciliatory tone with the U.S.

In New York, Mark Carney even leaned in on Trump’s MAGA messaging, saying “Canada Strong will help make America great again.”

Now, with Ford’s visit, that’s “the one-two punch,” said Lee.

“I think that this is one of those situations in which there’s a pretty good coordination between the government and between Ford,” said Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

Ford told reporters on Tuesday he spoke with LeBlanc before his trip to Washington and, while there, he met with Canada’s Ambassador Mark Wiseman — which suggests at least some coordination with Carney’s team.

“Towards late spring, there was a decision in Ottawa,” Sands said he believes, “that they were going to reboot, and if Carney needed to say nice things, he would say nice things.”

Sending Ford as a trade ambassador was risky, of course, but could he be Carney’s conservative foil?

“I think it’s possible,” said Sands, noting that the prime minister noticed how “Ford was a politician who had a populist ear, not unlike Trump, and whose message on Fox News or whatever outlet might cut through and convince some Americans that Canada’s not the enemy.”

Lawrence Herman, senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute who specializes in international trade and investment law, thinks Ford’s messaging has been good for Canada.

“It shows that Canada can speak with the same voice,” he said, noting that Ford is preferable to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith or Conservative MP Jamil Jivani “spreading the word about how Canada isn’t unified.”

Ford’s meetings, by all accounts, were positive, but his planned reception with Ross Perot Jr. at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday was cancelled — officially due to a scheduling conflict. The rumour, however, is that Trump’s team pressured the Chamber into cancelling what would have been a flashy moment for Ford with U.S. industry leaders.

Still, Ford had his meetings and TV interviews, sharing plugs for building a “Fortress North America,” a term used by both Ford and Carney in recent weeks.

Essentially, the fortress idea is a growth plan centred on the principle that “economic security is national security,” which aims to create more jobs, lower prices and strengthen continental security. To get there requires renewing CUSMA and eliminating the Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto.

“There’s going to be more jobs, more opportunities for everyone,” Ford told reporters on Tuesday.

“We’re just sending a positive message. Let’s get this deal done.”

Lee said he believes the Fortress messaging is code for “no tariffs,” meaning that Canada may be willing to bend on its deal with China or on other issues so long as the sectoral tariffs disappear.

“I think that they’re throwing out trial balloons saying, ‘OK, if we go to Fortress North America, we’ll walk away from the Chinese, but then there’s got to be a lot in it for us.’”

But tariff elimination is unlikely, trade watchers say.

“I feel like tariffs are here to stay,” said Inu Manak, senior fellow for international trade at the Council on Foreign Relations, “and that it’s going to be challenging to have nothing on the books.”

“For consistency, USTR has to apply tariffs to Canada and Mexico, as a policy that tariffs apply to everyone.”

But how that’s implemented, Manak explained, is key.

The proposed remedy from USTR for Section 301 tariffs over forced labour issues, for example, offers the same exemptions as the IEEPA tariffs did for CUSMA-compliant goods, meaning that more than 80 per cent of trade would remain tariff-free.

The real question, Manak said, is “how do they structure some of the exemptions to the tariffs that are coming down the line to ensure that they do not impact Canada’s trade with the United States?”

Whatever happens with the tariffs, a CUSMA renewal may not be in the cards.

Neither Manak nor Eurasia Group’s Graeme Thompson believes a renewal is coming anytime soon.

Thompson pointed to the likely zombification of the trade agreement.

“It looks quite unlikely,” he said, “that there will be a trilateral agreement … where all three leaders sit down and sign a document that agrees to extend USMCA for the statutory 16 years.”

That would lead to a process of annual reviews.

“If you’re in a constant negotiation where there’s no real certainty that the terms you’ve signed up to are, in effect, permanent,” said Thompson, “then there’s not really a trade deal as such. It’s dead.”

“But at the same time, we expect, with the 85 or 90 per cent of Canadian exports to the U.S. that enter the U.S. tariff-free, that that will remain in place, and to that extent, the agreement lives.”

That, he said, would make it a “zombie agreement that’s neither fully dead nor alive.”

In that case, Ford’s U.S. booze ban would stick, as the premier said on Tuesday that he would not return the American products to Ontario’s shelves before a renewal is complete.

“Once that deal’s done,” he said, “I’m going to be … bringing all the booze back on shelves … and everyone’s going to be Kumbaya.”

Ford’s campaign continues over the next month with visits to South Carolina and Utah.

National Post

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OTTAWA — Canada’s former top general, Wayne Eyre, advised Canadians against burning bridges with their American neighbours, warning that actions like booing national anthems at hockey games can turn U.S. friends into foes.

While acknowledging that Canada’s relationship with the U.S. has changed and will likely never go back to “where it was or where we thought it was,” Eyre told attendees of a University of Ottawa event last week that the relationship with the Americans remains crucial.

“We need to be careful about burning bridges with those who are still friendly,” Eyre said at the event organized by the university’s Centre for International Policy Studies.

“Evoking wide-scale nationalism by not considering the population separate from the administration, by booing national anthems at hockey games and turning those who are friendly to us against us; we’ve got to remember there are more Americans friendly to Canada than there are Canadians,” he added.

In the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency, attendees of some sporting events in Canada involving an American team would boo the U.S. national anthem. The most notable example came during a 4 Nations hockey match between Canada and the U.S. in Montreal in February 2025.

During his keynote speech, the former chief of defence staff, who retired in 2024, also warned against running into China’s arms as a way to move away from dependence on the United States.

He also threw subtle barbs at two of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent foreign policy directions. First, he cautioned against “sacrificing” Canada’s relationship with Taiwan in order to placate the Chinese government.

Secondly, he said he “bristled” when Carney said Canada was launching a new “strategic partnership” with the Chinese government in a bid to increase trade between both countries.

The move has raised hackles within the Trump administration, which is in intense economic competition with China all the while seeking to increase trade with the Asian behemoth.

“We need to be wary about siding with China over the U.S., as I believe that is the path to ruin,” Eyre said.

“Having some trade is good, but doing it from a position where we’re not sacrificing our national interests and national values has got to be the way forward. Because if we go all in, we’ll have our lunch eaten for us very, very fast,” he added.

Eyre has previously said that he believes Canada should consider acquiring a nuclear weapon as a deterrent in the increasingly unstable war. He did not repeat that during the June 2 event, but argued that the government needs to be more comfortable taking risks when it comes to military procurement.

For example, Canadians should be comfortable with a solution that has 80 per cent chance of success. “Yeah, it’s going to fail two out of 10 times, but that’s the price of doing business.”

While noting that Canadian and U.S. defence interests are still aligned and interconnected, he lamented that his U.S. military counterparts are going through “their worst crisis in political-military relations since perhaps the Civil War.”

Since taking power last year, Trump’s administration has significantly upended American military leadership, reportedly firing or demoting dozens of senior leaders, often without citing a reason.

That included chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George.

National Post

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The “World’s first T-Rex leather product,” as it’s been trademarked by its scientific and artistic creators, could fetch up to 500,000 Euros (C$800,000) when bidding starts at a hotel in Paris, France, Thursday evening.

Some people within the scientific community, however, are skeptical about whether the lab-grown leather truly comes from the iconic Cretaceous era animal.

Here’s what to know about the alleged prehistoric purse.

How did they make the T-Rex leather?

In 2005, researchers in the U.S. identified soft tissue in the bones of a 68-million-year-old specimen, a finding that “rocked the world of dinosaur research,” Discover magazine reported at the time, per the University of Montana.

Until then, it was believed that organic material couldn’t survive for millions of years.

“Now, with these new discoveries of cellular preservation, we move to a new kind of paleontology: cellular and molecular paleontology,” said Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and co-author of a paper on the findings.

Last year, The Organoid Company, a genomic engineering firm, and creative agency VML teamed up with sustainable biotechnology pioneer Lab-Grown Leather to use collagen sequences found in fossilized tissue to “develop and produce a high-quality alternative to traditional leather that is both animal-friendly and environmentally responsible.”

“Using advanced computational biology and AI modelling, scientists predicted and reconstructed the remaining genetic information” and inserted it into a “carrier cell line” to produce a collagen-based hide.

“It’s like having a puzzle, but you only have a few pieces, and then you have to fill in the rest,” Organoid CEO Thomas Mitchell said in an Instagram video.

He also told Reuters they experienced “a lot of technical challenges” along the way.

As it happens, Organoid and VML were also involved in the creation and marketing of the 2023 novelty woolly mammoth meatball, which used elephant DNA to fill in gaps and sheep stem cells to grow the “meat,” The Guardian reported.

Why are some scientists skeptical?

When Mitchell and company first announced their project’s success, it was met with skepticism by some who questioned whether the protein fragments extracted from the fossilized collagen sequences were, in fact, from the T-Rex and not some other source that made its way into the remains over millions of years.

“The boundary that we usually hold up for how long proteins can survive was only recently pushed back to around 20 million in very exceptional circumstances,” postdoctoral researcher Jan Dekker from the University of Turin told German news outlet DW .

Because the T-Rex died off in the asteroid-caused mass extinction event some 60 million years ago, Dekker doubts there’s any dino-DNA in the lab-grown leather.

He added that even if protein fragments from T-Rex DNA were evident, most of the completed sequence would be from the other animal used: chicken.

“What they have done is create synthetic collagen using an AI model trained on a variety of different species, mainly chicken,” Dekker said. “A very interesting development in itself, but it is not a dinosaur. In fact, it’s more chicken than anything else.”

Meanwhile, vertebrate paleontologist Melanie During of the Vrije Universiteit ​Amsterdam told Reuters that any persisting collagen from inside bones couldn’t be used to create skin or leather, and Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a paleontologist at the University of ​Maryland, said even proteins that matched flawlessly wouldn’t have the larger-scale fibre organization necessary to create the properties of animal leather.

Why choose a handbag as the first ‘T-Rex leather product’?

With a focus on accessories as their product’s initial commercial applications, the companies wanted “a flagship luxury item” for their launch and chose “avant-garde techwear label Enfin Levé” and Polish designer Michel Hadas to craft the handbag.

“The bag is deliberately restrained — an architectural silhouette with silver fittings that include a lost-wax cast buckle and a cold-forged element shaped like a DNA double helix,” reads a review by Emirates Woman.

“That helix is a quiet reference to the material’s lab-born origins, and it is one of the few decorative gestures on an object that otherwise lets the leather speak for itself.”

Once the purse is auctioned off, the companies intend to produce more of their T-Rex leather and make it commercially available to other brands and designers.

“Initial applications will focus on luxury accessories, with long-term ambitions extending into fashion, automotive, and other high-performance material sectors,” they explain.

“This material is fully biodegradable while retaining the durability and repairability of traditional leather, thus offering a sustainable, ethical, and traceable alternative to future generations of consumers committed to innovation and environmental responsibility.”

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As America approaches its 250th birthday, the “nation of immigrants” may want to reconsider its nickname.

In 2025, net migration in the U.S. turned negative — with the loss of some 150,000 people by some estimates — a trend not seen since the Great Depression. Further declines are expected in 2026 and 2027, Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank has found.

While the U.S. data does not capture outbound emigration, many of its citizens are reportedly turning up in Europe and bordering countries — for education, housing and even long-term care needs. In 2025, more Americans moved to Germany and Ireland than the other way around, a change attributed to “a life away from the rat race at home” by London’s I Paper . The Czech Republic, Spain and Netherlands have reported similar highs.

“In America, you must work hard to earn anything. To start with nothing and make a fortune is very rare,” Amy Kujacznski, a mother-of-two who left Portland, Ore., with her husband for a quieter life near Madrid, Spain, told I paper.

The U.S. government is also dealing with a backlog of Americans renouncing their citizenship, with embassies in London, Sydney and most Canadian major cities reporting wait-lists stretching into months, the Guardian reported in April. One in five Americans said in a November Gallup poll that they would like to leave the country, twice as many as 10 years ago.

Between four to nine million Americans live abroad, a figure that is likely an undercount due to people flag-poling with tourist visas, travellers who straddle borders and students with long-term visas being left out of the count, according to the Wall Street Journa l. The paper noted that newer emigres are ordinary citizens seeking better housing opportunities, telecommuting or choosing to retire somewhere cheaper.

Elderly Americans are also filling up nursing homes in Mexico because it is cheaper, according to the newspaper. The number of American expats residing in Portugal has increased by 500 per cent since the pandemic. Close to 58 per cent of foreign buyers in the country are from the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. is short 10 million homes, White House economists estimated this year.

The net loss is also partially attributed to aggressive immigration policies under the Trump administration, which tightened visa restrictions for dozens of countries and ramped up deportations soon after taking power. Brookings estimates that only 2.6 million people immigrated to the U.S. in 2025, a sharp decline from the 5.8 million who entered in 2023.

“In President Trump’s first year back in office, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations,” the Department of Homeland Security touted in January. Brookings, meanwhile, estimates between 200,000 to 400,000 voluntary exits last year.

While the Biden administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings during the final months of his term led to declines that accelerated under Donald Trump’s second term, that alone does not account for the full picture, experts say.

“Although the full data won’t be in for months, we can assess that the cuts to illegal entries are likely less than half of the total cuts to immigration on a monthly basis. Put differently, the cut to legal entries was 2.5 times as large,” the Cato Institute estimated in April.

The decline was felt across all major cities in the U.S. in 2025.

“Over the past year, all 56 of the nation’s major metro areas (those with populations over one million) saw immigration declines, and as a result, all but one showed slower population growth, a shift from growth to decline, or an even greater population decline than the previous year,” William H. Frey, a senior fellow at Brookings, wrote earlier this year.

Even at its reduced levels, immigration accounted for 75 per cent of the U.S. population increase last year, according to Brookings. The change comes at a time when the U.S. population of 350 million is aging and fertility rates are at a decline. The ratio of working-age people (18-64) to those over 65 has fallen from 5.7 in 1970 to 3.4 in 2024, U.S. Census Bureau figures show. If trends persist, the ratio will fall to 2.7 by 2040.

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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney tempered expectations about the likelihood of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will connect Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, opening soon, despite a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Friday.

“Everyone’s working hard to make sure the bridge is open as soon as possible,” said Carney, on his way into a caucus meeting on Wednesday. “There’s no big drama if it takes a little longer, it’ll take a little longer.”

Carney’s comments come after he confirmed on Tuesday to reporters that the bridge, which has been financed by the Canadian government at a cost of $6.4 billion, would officially open this week.

The prime minister called the bridge a “symbol” of cooperation between Canada and the U.S.

In February, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block the bridge opening, citing lack of compensation as the reason for his opposition.

At the time, Carney told reporters that Trump asked U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who is from Michigan, to “play a role in smoothing the conversation in and around the bridge.”

Canada is expected to keep all the revenue from the bridge’s tolls until the government recuperates the costs of financing the project. Afterwards, the state of Michigan will equally share the profits.

Asked on Wednesday on the status of the bridge opening, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson declined to comment.

On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford seemed to have doubts about the timing of the grand opening, with the White House confirming Trump’s position on the bridge has not changed.

“Let’s see if it opens or not,” Ford told reporters in Washington. “Hopefully it will, if they say it’s going to open. I’m just hearing two stories.”

The bridge began construction in 2018, to help address congestion on the Ambassador Bridge, which handles just over a quarter of all Canada-U.S. trade.

In March, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority announced the toll rates for the new bridge, which will amount to C$8 /US$5.75 per crossing for passenger drivers and C$12 CAD/US$8.75 per axle for commercial trucks, oversized vehicles and larger passenger vehicles.

The authority also announced the “Breakaway” discount program that brings the costs down to C$9.60/US$6.90 per axle for commercial vehicles and C$6/US$4.35 per crossing for passenger vehicles.

As of April, the toll rates for the Ambassador Bridge were US$10/C$14 per crossing for passenger vehicles and US$15/C$20 per axle for commercial vehicles.

Matthew Maroun, the billionaire owner of the almost 100-year-old Ambassador Bridge, has been opposed to the construction of a competing transportation corridor.

Maroun’s company, the Detroit International Bridge Company Inc., has significantly lobbied the U.S. government on the issue.

National Post

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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 C$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.

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New data from Statistics Canada has revealed current average asking rents across the country’s metropolitan areas and, in good news for renters, prices have decreased in the first quarter of 2026.

The Quarterly Rent Statistics program, which uses listings posted on major rental platforms for Canada’s census metropolitan areas (CMAs), revealed that the average asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $2,150 per month in the first quarter of 2026, down 0.9 per cent from the first quarter of 2025, when the figure was $2,170.

Average asking rents for two-bedroom apartments decreased for most metropolitan areas across Canada, declining to $2,660 in Toronto (-1.1 per cent), $1,900 in Montréal (-1.6 per cent), $3,100 in Vancouver (-2.2 per cent) and $2,350 in Ottawa–Gatineau (-5.6 per cent).

Asking rents for a two-bedroom apartment decreased the most in Kingston, Ont., down from $1,960 in the last quarter of 2025 to $1,920 in 2026, a 5.9 per cent decline.

This decline was followed by the 5.6 per cent decrease in Ottawa–Gatineau, as well as a 5 per cent decrease in Abbotsford–Mission, B.C., and a 4.5 per cent decrease in London, Ont.

At the other end of the scale, Saskatoon saw the biggest increase in asking rents, growing from $1,540 to $1,630 per month (+9.4 per cent). This was followed by Greater Sudbury, Ont., with an increase of 7.7 per cent, and Regina, where asking rents increased by 5.7 per cent.

The StatCan data also revealed the current asking rents for rooms, one-bed apartments, two-bed apartments and houses with three or more bedrooms across Canada’s CMAs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Vancouver came in as the city with the highest asking rents, with single rooms priced at an average of $1,060 per month, one-bed apartments at $2,290, two-bed apartments at $3,100 and houses at $4,860.

Vancouver has long been considered the most expensive city in Canada, with real estate brokerage Pine ranking it the least affordable city in the country last month due to the monthly cost of living and house prices.

A 2025 study from Chapman University , in California, ranked Vancouver as the fourth most expensive city worldwide, behind Hong Kong, Sydney, and San Jose.

Meanwhile, the StatCan report found that Sherbrooke, Que., had the cheapest average asking rents for a room, at $520, while one-bedroom apartments were cheapest in Trois-Rivières, Que. ($980), two-bedroom apartments were cheapest in Drummondville, Que. ($1,230), and houses were cheapest in Moncton, N.B. ($1,910).

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which helped conduct the Quarterly Rent Statistics program, puts the easing of asking rents down to increased supply and slower demand.

In Toronto and Vancouver, landlords also point to increased competition from a surge in new condos, many of which can’t be absorbed in the ownership market, as a driver of lower asking rents.

“Conditions are expected to continue easing as new units take longer to be absorbed and competition from rental condominium apartments increases,” CMHC said.

And the StatCan report isn’t the only recent research to shine a light on rental prices in Canada. Rentals.ca has released its June 2026 Rent Report , which also showed a decline in asking rents.

The average rent for residential properties in Canada declined for the 20th straight month, down 7.8 per cent from a high of $2,202 in May 2024, it revealed.

Interestingly, the report also found that Nova Scotia is now the most expensive province for condominium and purpose-built apartments, overtaking B.C., which Rentals.ca attributes to “a high concentration of new and higher-priced supply in the Halifax and Dartmouth region.”

This is consistent with the StatCan data, which noted that average asking rents in Halifax increased by 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2026.

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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.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys

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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

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