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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with new Minister of Tourism and Sport, Andrew Boitchenko, following a swearing in ceremony in Calgary, Alta., Friday, May 16, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON — Alberta is rolling out new regulations this fall banning transgender athletes from playing women’s sports, but the province will still welcome out-of-province transgender competitors.

Tourism and Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko said the discrepancy is out of his hands.

“We don’t have authority to regulate athletes from different jurisdictions,” he said in an interview.

In a followup statement, ministry spokeswoman Vanessa Gomez added it’s due to outside sporting organizations being bound by out-of-province or international guidelines.

She added the rules allow the government “to do what is best for Albertan athletes, while also showcasing Alberta as a premier destination for national and international sport events.”

Starting Sept. 1, the province will block transgender athletes from Alberta who are 12 and older from competing in female amateur sports. It’s one of a suite of changes surrounding transgender health, education and sport introduced last year by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government.

The laws sparked polarizing debate.

Proponents, including Smith, say it’s about fairness on the playing field, so girls are not battling opponents with biological advantages. Detractors say it’s about stigmatizing and punishing those in the transgender community.

Hannah Pilling, a track athlete who petitioned in favour of restricting transgender people in female sports, has welcomed the new regulations. She said in an interview she hopes Smith’s government takes it further.

“It’s kind of hard to enforce that on other athletes that are coming to compete in Alberta, but it’s definitely still not completely fair,” Pilling said.

She added that she would like to see future rules apply to men’s divisions.

Transgender athlete Allison Hadley said the exemption for out-of-province athletes suggests the legislation is not really about fairness or safety.

“If I had the resources to (move), honestly, I probably wouldn’t be in Alberta now,” she said. “We’re here in a province that doesn’t want us to be in the public or exist in many ways.”

Hadley said she didn’t pick up cross-country skiing to win medals. She said she was in it for the health benefits, the motivation that competition brings to her training and the camaraderie on the trail.

“It really sucks to have that taken away,” she said.

Mark Kosak, head of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, said a restriction preventing transgender athletes from coming to Alberta to compete might have stopped the organization from ever hosting a national championship again.

“So there’s some relief from us,” Kosak said.

He said the conference hosts more than 1,000 events a year and, of those, between 40 and 50 host out-of-province competitors.

He said he’s unaware of any transgender athletes competing in the conference.

Kosak added that the sporting community didn’t ask for the government’s new rules.

“This is not a priority. This is not a concern,” he said. “It’s not an issue.”

The rules will be enforced through a complaint-driven process. Female athletes subject to complaints need to prove their sex registration at birth.

For those who were born elsewhere but live in Alberta and can’t retrieve documents that clearly state their sex at birth, Boitchenko said the government will look at “alternative documents.”

“We’ll be looking at (it) case by case, making sure that nobody feels that they can’t compete just because they lost certain documents,” he said.

Possible sanctions could be written warnings or code of conduct violations.

Bennett Jensen, legal director at LGBTQ+ advocacy group Egale, said the validation process alone is a “gross violation of the privacy of all women and girls.”

He said the government is introducing a complaint-based “snitch line” for complaints that will spur even more public policing of women’s bodies and gender presentation among young girls _ whether they’re transgender or not.

He said a 12-year-old, at a vulnerable stage of her life, could be subject to scrutiny and humiliation based on her physical appearance.

Jensen also said the government’s biological advantage argument falls apart in many instances, including for those athletes receiving hormone replacement therapy.

Boitchenko said inclusion is the goal, and the government is planning to expand grants to encourage sporting organizations to create coed divisions where numbers allow.

Pilling’s father, Dave Pilling, said he sits on the board for the Southern Alberta Summer Games, where they introduced open categories in all sports this year.

But for the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, Kosak said creating coed divisions across the majority of sports is “totally impractical and unrealistic.”

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Vehicles enter the United States from Canada at a border crossing in Blaine, Washington. Far more large fentanyl seizures were made at the Mexican border than the Canadian border, the report found.

Most of the fentanyl entering the United States continues to come from the southern border, not the northern one, according to a recent report by an American think-tank, despite President Donald Trump’s statement on Thursday that Canadian authorities have failed “to stop the drugs from pouring into our country.”

“Countering supply effectively depends on understanding what the dominant drug-trafficking routes are,” says the report by the Manhattan Institute, which was published July 1. “New data on fentanyl seizures presented here largely reinforce previous understanding that most IMF (illegally manufactured fentanyl) enters the U.S. from the south. These data call into question tariffs and other policies and policy justifications that treat the threat from the northern border as comparably severe.”

The report used new data regarding fentanyl seizures, which challenges public pronouncements made by Trump and the White House about the threats posed by the Canadian border. Authors Jon Caulkins and Bishu Giri write that such concerns are largely overstated and could even undermine America’s ability to prioritize tightening the country’s border with Mexico.

The report looked at “large” seizures of fentanyl — defined as over a kilogram of powder or more than 1,000 pills — that would suggest wholesale trafficking as opposed to smuggling for personal use. It found that officials made more large seizures in U.S. counties along the northern and southern borders when compared to the rest of the country. However, far more seizures were made in the south.

“Counties along the Mexican border account for only 2.35 per cent of the U.S. population; but in 2023–24, they hosted about 40 per cent of the nationwide quantity of fentanyl appearing in large seizures, for both powder and pills,” says the executive summary of the Manhattan Institute’s

report

. “By contrast, counties in the lower 48 states that border Canada account for 3.1 per cent of the U.S. population but only 1.2 per cent of the powder and just 0.5 per cent of the pills obtained in large seizures.”

Caulkins, the H. Guyford Stever University professor of operations research and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College in Pittsburgh, told National Post that his findings are “not terribly complicated or subtle.” He said that cross-border drug flows often mirror where seizures occur, and the data point to an uncontroversial finding.

“The basic punch line of this study is that seizures of fentanyl in the United States are disproportionately at borders: no surprise. It’s mostly produced internationally and then shipped in. But the vast majority of that is on the borders of Mexico, not on the borders with Canada.” When asked whether he was surprised by his findings, Caulkins, who has been a drug police researcher for over three decades, laughed and said he wasn’t.

“It’s what I expected.”

One thing that did strike him as overlooked was drug smuggling into Alaska, which he hadn’t contemplated deeply before. The report found that certain counties in Alaska could be portals from Canada to the broader Alaska market, “although those quantities are much too small to be of consequence beyond Alaska.” There were 26 seizures in Alaska counties that border Canada — “triple what would be expected based on those counties’ population” but still small when compared to the rest of the Alaska market.

“Maybe Alaska does get its fentanyl from Canada, because there’s not necessarily a large presence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations in Alaska, and you can’t easily drive from Mexico to Alaska without crossing several international borders,” he said. “I didn’t know that was coming, and by all means, maybe U.S. and Canadian authorities can put a few more inspectors on those ferries or whatever. But that’s not going to move the needle for the country, but it might be useful, right locally.”

President Trump has frequently cited the weakness of the nearly 10,000-kilometre long U.S.-Canada border as a threat to national security and a vulnerability that cartels and smugglers actively exploit.

“Gang members, smugglers, human traffickers, and illicit drugs of all kinds have poured across our borders and into our communities,” Trump wrote in a

public statement released

on February 1, just weeks after returning to the White House. He framed the crisis as having “profound consequences on our Nation, endangering lives and putting a severe strain on our health-care system, public services, and communities.”

“Canada has played a central role in these challenges, including by failing to devote sufficient attention and resources or meaningfully coordinate with United States law enforcement partners to effectively stem the tide of illicit drugs,” Trump said in February.

Two days after Trump’s message, then prime minister Justin Trudeau announced the implementation of a new “$1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed Trump’s claims of a porous Canadian border posing a threat to American national security in a social media message responding to the U.S. president on Thursday night.

“Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America,” the prime minister

wrote

. “We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries.”

The Manhattan Institute report concluded that it would likely be more useful for the United States to direct more of its focus to the southern border if it wants to reduce the flow of fentanyl.

“Counties along the Canadian border are not an important part of this story,” the report states. “Whatever the merits or drawbacks of tariffs on imports from Canada — a question of economics and international relations that goes far beyond our analysis — such actions cannot be justified as part of a pragmatic and data-informed response to the threat of fentanyl to the United States.”

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The Alberta government has issued provincial guidelines directing K-12 schools to pull all books with graphic depictions of sexual acts from school libraries.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney might feel pressure to take sides as a new front in the culture wars opens up in Alberta — but don’t count on him doing it, those familiar with the Liberal leader’s thinking say.

Alberta just launched

new guidelines for school library books

, which critics allege

will disproportionately censor materials

discussing LGBTQ and gender-fluidity themes.

Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, frequently castigated conservative premiers for provincial policies he deemed intolerant, rebuking New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec over cultural policies. But Carney is expected to steer clear of those issues, underscoring a key dispositional difference between himself and Trudeau.

“He’s likely to take a different approach than (Trudeau), who had no issue calling out premiers over provincial matters,” says Sharan Kaur, a former senior Liberal government chief of staff who’s known Carney for a decade.

Kaur, now a principal at consulting firm Navigator, says she expects Carney to stay focused on the big picture, as he guides Canada through a perilous moment in both internal crises and cross-border relations.

“With U.S. trade tensions and separatist sentiment brewing in Alberta, he does not need another domestic fire, especially not over school libraries,” she said.

Alberta

issued provincial guidelines Thursday

directing K-12 schools to pull all books with graphic depictions of sexual acts from school libraries. The order also guided schools to restrict access to “non-explicit” sexually suggestive materials to students in Grade 10 and up.

Provincial officials said the action came after

four sexually explicit graphic novels

were found in Edmonton and Calgary public school libraries in the spring and the province surveyed parents in the province about whether the government should put controls on lending materials.

Three of the four books that were highlighted by the province as not acceptable are coming-of-age stories with LGBT protagonists. The fourth depicts male-on-male childhood sexual abuse.

The province said it would continue to allow books that serve as resources for sexual education.

Religious and scriptural books will also be exempt.

Kathleen Wynne, a former Liberal premier of Ontario, said the order

would send Alberta down

“(T)he slipperiest of slopes.” She also shared an article calling the order a “blatant act of cultural vandalism.”

Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells

said he was worried about the order limiting access to sex-ed materials, but added he was relieved that there was nothing in its plain text preventing students from learning about LGBTQ identities.

Wells, a 2024 Trudeau appointee, accused the Alberta government last month of playing to

an “old homophobic trope”

by singling out LGBTQ-themed books as pornographic.

So far, Carney and his cabinet have not commented on the policy.

His predecessor, Trudeau,

blasted New Brunswick in 2023

over its policy requiring schools to disclose student pronoun changes to parents, calling the policy “far-right.” The

policy enjoyed the support

of the vast majority of New Brunswickers and their fellow Canadians at the time.

Then minister of women, gender equality and youth Marci Ien was an equally vocal critic of similar parental disclosure policies rolled out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, saying at one point that these policies put transgender and nonbinary children in a “

life-or-death situation

.”

Trudeau also accused Alberta’s plan to restrict medical transitioning for children of being “anti-LGBT,” opposed Ontario’s changes to its sex-ed school curriculum, and criticized Quebec for rules barring religious symbols being worn by public servants.

Chrystia Freeland, a senior minister under Trudaeau

would later argue that

Trudeau’s loud championing of LGBTQ rights and other culture war issues were part of the reason he fell out of favour with Canadians.

“Liberals … lose when people think that we are focused on virtue-signalling and identity politics,” Freeland said in an interview earlier this year.

Carney looks to be taking this lesson to heart, treading lightly on cultural issues. The women and gender equality portfolio

was conspicuously absent from

Carney’s maiden cabinet, although he assigned former minister of small business Rechie Valdez to the role shortly after April’s election.

Carney said in a post-debate media scrum that he believed there

were two biological sexes,

but also believed that transgender individuals should be accommodated where possible.

“This is Canada (and) we value all Canadians for who they are,” said Carney.

Tyler Meredith, a longtime Liberal insider and former senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Finance, said that attacking the Alberta school libraries order would be a bad use of Carney’s time and political capital.

Meredith said that the Alberta policy would provide for its own undoing.

“Bullies are bullies. Bullies make stupid mistakes,” said Meredith.

“Let the bullies show themselves in public.”

The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to a National Post request for comment on the Alberta policy.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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Irish rap band Kneecap performs at the Glastonbury festival in Pilton, England, on June 28, 2025.

A group of Indigenous leaders are pushing for the cancellation of shows featuring the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, arguing the rappers glorify terrorism and promote antisemitism.

“Kneecap has outwardly supported antisemitism, genocide, and the indiscriminate murder of civilians. Allowing them to play in Canada would be a stain on our country’s reputation,” says the letter, signed by nine Indigenous leaders in Canada.

Kneecap, a Belfast-based trio comprised of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (who performs under the name Mo Chara), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap) and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí), has seen a number of concerts cancelled amid the band’s outspoken support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel.

Ó hAnnaidh faces charges under the British Terrorism Act for allegedly waving the flag of Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group, last November. (He is out on bail.)

“We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction,” the group wrote on social media, according to al Jazeera.

The letter argues that Kneecap, having allegedly voiced support for Hezbollah and Hamas, should not be allowed to play in Canada on Indigenous land.

“By allowing Kneecap to perform on Indigenous lands, Live Nation and the MRG Group are not only endorsing rhetoric that promotes division, hate, and glorification of terror — they are violating the spirit and obligations of the Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” the letter states. (The peace and friendship treaties were a series of treaties signed between the British and the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy people prior to 1779.)

Kneecap has four shows planned for Canada, two in Toronto and two in Vancouver. All four October shows are sold out. The signatories of the letter are calling on Live Nation, the concert promoted, and MRG Group, which manages the venues where Kneecap is playing: History in Toronto and the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver.

Concerts elsewhere have been scrapped and politicians have called for further cancellations since Kneecap played a set at California’s Coachella music festival in April and accused Israel of committing genocide, something the Jewish state has vehemently denied. The group has also compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to the actions of the British in Ireland during the Troubles.

“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted by the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f–king skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their f–king home and they’re bombing them from the sky. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the f–k are you calling it?” Ó hAnnaidh

said on stage in California.

News reports have also cited video from a 2023 concert that appears to show a band member saying “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” and another that allegedly

shows a band member saying

: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

Grand Chief Harvey Yesno, one of the signatories of the letter and the former chief of Eabametoong First Nation and grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, said that part of the reason Indigenous leaders are speaking out is to reassert their voices within Canada.

“We’re in a land of freedom to express yourself … so that’s allowed throughout the country. But the difference is, is when you’re inciting hate and violence and acknowledging who — Canada has put some of these organizations as terrorist organizations. That’s where we draw the line,” said Yesno. “So, our concern there is the defilement of the land, because we believe that, as the Indigenous people on these lands, that we have a responsibility to point out, hey, wait a minute, you can’t be doing that. You can’t be inciting violence here on our lands because the defilement of the land causes things to happen amongst the people.”

Yesno said the group has yet to receive a response from the concert organizers. The signatories are largely involved with Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, an international group of Indigenous people from various countries that expresses Indigenous solidarity with Israel.

In late June, Kneecap played a show at England’s Glastonbury Festival, despite Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, saying it would be inappropriate. Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the U.K. Conservative Party, called on the British Broadcasting Corporation to not broadcast Kneecap’s show; the public broadcaster demurred, saying it does not ban artists.

“It’s not about us, it’s about distraction and a loud warning to other acts to stay silent or we will try silence you,” Kneecap wrote on X.

Kneecap could not be reached for comment. Live Nation and MRG Group did not respond to National Post’s request for comment.

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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew chats with members of the Logan Hotshots from the U.S. Forest Service as they prepare to drop into a wildfire hot zone for the day in the surrounding area of Flin Flon, Man. on June 12, 2025.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has pushed back against U.S. lawmakers who recently sent a letter to Canada’s ambassador

complaining that wildfires

are sending smoke across the border and making it difficult for Americans to enjoy the summer.

The Tuesday letter was signed by six Republican lawmakers from Minnesota and Wisconsin, and questioned Canada’s approach to fighting wildfires. In response, Kinew said Thursday that the lawmakers should speak with the American firefighters currently on the ground in Manitoba, instead of making political statements from afar.

“I’ve shaken the hands of American firefighters in northern Manitoba who are helping us out,” said Kinew. “I would challenge these ambulance chasers in the U.S. Congress to go and do the same, and to hear how much the American firefighting heroes who are here, how much they love our province.”

The letter was sent by representatives Tom Tiffany, Brad Finstad, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Glenn Grothman and Pete Stauber of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and addressed to Canada’s U.S. ambassador, Kirsten Hillman.

In the letter, they outlined that over the last few years, Canadian wildfires have impacted American’s quality of life. They argued that a “lack of active forest management” is a key cause, but arson could also be a contributing factor. The letter went on to say that with all the technology available, “this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken.”

“This is what turns people off politics,” Kinew said in response. “When you’ve got a group of congresspeople trying to trivialize and make hay out of

a wildfire season

where we’ve lost lives in our province. There’s no place for that in politics.

“If you can’t get likes on Instagram from your own skills as a politician don’t bother trying to throw other people under the bus during a state of emergency.”

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PSAC President Sharon DeSousa: “It doesn't have to be done like previous administrations, where it starts off with just this lazy approach of austerity and cutting jobs.”

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest public sector union is warning that any cuts to federal employees, as the Liberal government looks to shrink spending, will mean slower, lower-quality services for people seeking passports, employment insurance and veterans benefits.

Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said Prime Minister Mark Carney should stick with his campaign promise to “cap” the federal public service — not cut it.

However, Carney’s senior-most minister this week

directed cabinet to find a total of 15 per cent in spending cuts in their departments by 2028-29

. The direction from Finance Minister

François-Philippe

Champagne spelled out cuts of 7.5 per cent by 2026–27, an additional 2.5 per cent cut by 2027–28, and another five per cent on top of that by 2028–29. The target  will amount to $25 billion, a government official confirmed to National Post.

Any cuts to staff, said DeSousa, will have consequences.

“What it actually means is that you’re looking to cut jobs, which means cutting services — end of story,” DeSousa said. “It will mean longer wait times. It means that we’re not going to be able to deliver on the programs that are a priority to us, and I think everyone is going to be impacted.”

“What we’re talking about is employment insurance. We’re talking about veterans who are looking for services. We’re talking about an aging population who is looking to get guidance as to how to receive their benefits. It’s going to impact people looking for passports.”

“There’s not one area that’s not going to be affected,” she added.

Mohammad Kamal, director of communications to the President of the Treasury Board, did said the government’s spending review is requesting that all departments “bring forward savings proposals by targeting programs and activities that are underperforming, not core to the federal mandate, duplicative, or misaligned with government priorities.”

There are exceptions, however: the Department of National Defence, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be subject to a “lower savings target” of two per cent over those three years, said Kamal.

The process does not apply to agents of Parliament — such as the auditor general and the parliamentary budget officer, the courts administration service and the office of the registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada — to “preserve their independence,” he said.

Anxiety among federal public servants is reportedly already high. DeSousa said 10,000 jobs were cut just last year, and an estimated 2,000 to 7,000 more jobs could be on the chopping block for this year as well. That includes contracts at the Canada Revenue Agency, as well as the departments of employment and immigration that are not being renewed, she said.

“Right now, if you try to call Canada Revenue Agency, less than five per cent of the calls are being picked up. They don’t have enough people to do this,” she claimed.

While the government has vowed to not touch transfers to individuals and provinces, or social programs such as child care and dental care, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak warned Indigenous services should be exempt from the cuts as well.

“I think health care for Canadians and Indian Affairs should never be cut back,” said Woodhouse Nepinak in an interview. “And I think because the gaps are so huge, you don’t want to further and widen the gap on First Nations people by cutting services and programs very much needed to make this country be a better place.”

DeSousa said the government can look at different ways of finding efficiencies in delivering services to Canadians while still redirecting money to the government’s core priorities.

“There’s a different way that we can do this. It doesn’t have to be done like previous administrations, where it starts off with just this lazy approach of austerity and cutting jobs… I don’t think it needs to be at the expense of people who rely on those services.”

DeSousa suggested reducing the amount departments and agencies spend on outside consultants, which would save millions of dollars each year, but also reverse the return-to-office mandate to free up buildings so they can be repurposed for other initiatives, such as low-income housing, or sold to generate potentially billions of dollars in savings.

“What we’re trying to do is to provide practical solutions that the government can, in fact, look at so that it doesn’t make the sacrifices on the programs and services, and to get them to understand the actual impact their decision-making is going to have, and how it’s going to affect people residing in Canada who depend on them,” she said.

“For us, it’s about fighting for their services.”

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

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This image from July 2018 shows the last time a giant iceberg threatened the village of Innarsuit, in northwestern Greenland.

An enormous iceberg is drifting dangerously close to the shore in northwestern Greenland.

The

skyscraper-sized

piece of ice is on a potential collision course with the harbour of Innaarsuit, a village in Greenland’s Avannaata Municipality.

It originally sidled up to the village last week, but seemed to have drifted away before reappearing on Monday and remaining precariously close.

Local authorities have issued warnings to residents as the iceberg sits near the Royal Greenland fish factory and the local grocery store. People have been advised to take care when in that part of the community.

Emergency services are encouraging families not to go in a group towards the store. They are also asking people who have difficulty walking to be extra careful. The fish-processing factory has been temporarily closed.

Meanwhile, locals have been advised to be careful when sailing to or from the settlement.

While some residents are concerned, others are

reportedly excited

by the rare and dramatic sight.

What can be done with large icebergs that threaten coastal communities?

There are few options for dealing with threatening icebergs. One of the main concerns with a large iceberg is that it will “calve” (split), with pieces falling into the ocean, resulting in large waves that will swamp nearby coastal communities.

As a result, authorities monitor icebergs for cracks and holes that may result in calving.

The first line of defence is for nearby residents to evacuate. That

occurred in 2018

, when this same Greenlandic community was similarly threatened.

Other options have been considered but remain experimental. They involve explosives to break up the iceberg and towing. These tactics present monumental challenges.

The

U.S. Coast Guard

says aside from difficulty involved in successfully getting onto an iceberg, demolition would require “a 1,000 lb. charge of conventional explosives…to break up approximately 70,000 cubic ft of ice (an iceberg weighing 1,960 tons).” Further, a hundred of these charges would be needed to destroy an average iceberg, (presumably more for the mammoth berg threatening Innaarsuit at this time).

Melting a medium-sized iceberg of 100,000 tons would theoretically require heat from the “combustion of over a quarter of a million gallons of gasoline” says the Coast Guard.

“Such methods are, of course, economically, as well as practically unsound.”

How common are icebergs?

Icebergs drift south after calving from Arctic and western Greenland glaciers. They are

regular sights

in spring-early summer. Transported by Atlantic Ocean currents to waters off Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Cape Breton Island, they eventually melt in somewhat warmer southern climes. An iceberg that drifts south rarely lasts more than a year.

Icebergs flow at speeds of up to seven kilometres a year, first floating in Arctic bays before passing into the Labrador Current and south into what is known as “

Iceberg Alley

.”

 A huge iceberg grounded off the coast of Newfoundland in 2023. (Keith Gosse/The Telegram)

Every year about 40,000 medium to large icebergs calve from glaciers but only 400-800 make it as far south as St. John’s. However, those numbers can vary greatly from year to year based on temperature, ocean current, wind direction and sea/pack ice.

Often huge, ninety per cent of an iceberg sits below the ocean surface.

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A crowd waits for an act to come on the main stage at the Festival d’été de Québec in 2023.

OTTAWA – As Avril Lavigne was about to take the stage at the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) last week, many other Canadian artists were no doubt wondering why the organizers of Canada’s largest outdoor music festival had to go make things so complicated for them.

The FEQ began on July 3 — just as it was being hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), National Post has learned.

The not-for-profit group, which is responsible for granting licences and collecting royalties on licensed music in Canada, claims in the lawsuit filed in Federal Court that since at least July 2022 the festival’s organizers “have failed to obtain a license from SOCAN and have not paid any royalties or submitted any report forms to SOCAN.” The Festival International d’été de Québec Inc. and Bleufeu, another organizer, are named as the defendants.

The festival is still ongoing and will conclude on Sunday. Many Canadian and international artists are there this year, including Rod Stewart and Shania Twain. It attracts over a million visitors each year, and receives public funding, while earning millions in revenue.

SOCAN represents more than 200,000 Canadian songwriters, composers, and music publishers, as well as millions of rights holders through a network of over 100 collective societies in over 200 countries.

One of them is the Montreal-based rock band Half Moon Run. Its members said they were thrilled to be the final act of the FEQ in 2022. In fact, they thought it was going to be

“the show of (their) lives.”

While the show was a success, the aftermath may have been less thrilling: The group is one of 11 artists named in the SOCAN lawsuit as those allegedly impacted by the festival’s non-payment.

Other artists named include Walk Off the Earth, pianist Alexandra Streliski, Beyries, Tokyo Police Club, Les Trois Accords and Karkwa.

“The full extent of the Defendants’ wrongful acts and infringements is not known by SOCAN but is within the knowledge of the Defendants. SOCAN will seek relief in respect of all such activities,” reads the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, despite SOCAN’s notice, both organizations have “persisted in organizing, producing and promoting the FEQ Festival, and have, by their actions, sanctioned, approved and countenanced the performances of SOCAN Musical Works” contrary to the Copyright Act.

The FEQ festival organizers did not respond to National Post’s request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges the organizers have relied on their tax status as charities to exempt them from paying royalties to music creators and their publishers when their music is performed at the FEQ.

In an email to the Post, SOCAN’s legal advisor Julia Werneburg wrote that her organization is “deeply concerned” with that justification.

“Although the Festival d’été de Québec is a registered charity, the performances it presents are virtually identical to those of its for-profit competitors, and Canadian law requires the payment of licensing fees for these performances,” she said.

“Failing to pay royalties to music creators and their publishers weakens the foundations of the music industry.”

The FEQ is considered an institution in Quebec. Each year, it presents an impressive program of international artists on the famous Plains of Abraham, a historic space in Quebec City’s Battlefields Park.

On Friday, the federal government announced a total of $1.75 million in financial support to the organizers, including a non-repayable contribution of $1.2 million to “engage in promotional activities internationally, to renew its brand image and to develop new products to enhance festivalgoers’ experience” for this year and next year’s editions.

“Our government is proud to support this artistic effervescence and to contribute to the success of an event that really brings people together,” said Heritage minister Steven Guilbeault in a statement announcing the funding.

Ottawa also granted the FEQ $550,000 through Canadian Heritage’s Canada Arts Presentation Fund for its program.

Guilbeault’s office did not provide comment on the lawsuit for this story by deadline.

National Post

atrepanier@postmedia.com

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Kanye West at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025.

A music festival in Slovakia has been cancelled after thousands signed a petition against the performance of rapper Kanye West, who was referred to as “one of the world’s most famous anti-semites.”

In May, West, who also goes by Ye, released a song entitled Heil Hitler, which includes part of a speech given by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. West has written

antisemitic posts on social media the past

. In February, he bought an ad that played during the 2025 Super Bowl promoting his brand, Yeezy, which was only

selling white T-shirts with swastikas

at the time.

The

petition

, called Kanye West Does Not Belong in Bratislava, garnered more than 6,200 signatures online. It described West as someone who has “repeatedly and openly espoused the symbolism and ideology associated with the darkest period of modern world history.”

It concluded: “Today we have the opportunity to say clearly and publicly that there is no place on our soil for those who celebrate a perverse regime that has taken the lives of millions of people.”

During the Second World War, 70,000 Jews were deported from Slovakia by German and Slovak authorities, according to the

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

. More than 60,000 of them were murdered.

The Rubicon Festival was scheduled for the weekend of July 18, featuring American rappers Ken Carson, Offset and Kanye West as headliners, in Bratislava. In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, festival organizers said it would “not take place this year.”

“Due to media pressure and the withdrawal of several artists and partners, we were unable to deliver the festival at the standard of quality you deserve,” it said. The organizers did not mention West by name. They said information regarding refunds would be sent via email within two weeks.

According to

Czech news site CT24

, after receiving backlash, festival organizers said that they included West in their lineup because he had apologized for his remarks.

However, one of the petition’s co-authors disagreed with allowing the rapper to perform, despite his apology.

“Such opinions should have no place in a democratic society and we do not want to give such role models to our young people,” Zuzana Izsáková told the publication.

Before the festival was cancelled, Bratislava Mayor Matúš Vallo said he would not support having West as a headliner.

“West praises Adolf Hitler, has called himself a Nazi, speaks out against Jews, sells swastika T-shirts on his online shop, and just a few weeks ago, he caused further outrage with his song ‘Heil Hitler.’ What Kanye West is preaching is in complete contradiction to my values ​​and I am convinced that it is also with the values ​​of our city,” he said,

per Slovak news site Novy Cas

.

“I know that the organizers are trying to solve the difficult logistics of the festival and obtain all the necessary opinions and approvals from the institutions concerned, but under these circumstances they cannot count on any support from the city.”

Petition organizer Lucia Stasselova posted on her Instagram account over the weekend, saying West had deleted a post on social media about performing at the festival.

“This petition did something important: draw attention to what is and what is not okay. And maybe we helped prevent another international shame,” she wrote in the caption, translated to English. “We don’t have to be ashamed of what country we live in. Because this is the power of civil society — it has a voice. And it has meaning.”

This comes after Australia cancelled West’s visa. The rapper’s wife, Bianca Censori, is Australian and he has visited the country for some time, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said, per Agence France-Presse. The cancellation comes after officials took a closer look into West’s visa upon the release of Heil Hitler. The visa was not intended for performing concerts, but was a “lower level,” he told Australian broadcaster ABC.

West is reportedly in China for a concert, according to

The News International

. In June,

Lifestyle Asia reported

about the gig, saying West was expected to hit the stage in in Shanghai on July 12.

Jing Daily

also reported about the upcoming performance.

Love concerts, but can’t make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.

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U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office at the White House on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says the deadline for a new economic and security deal between Canada and Ottawa has been pushed back to August 1 as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to increase tariffs on Canadian products to 35 per cent.

Carney wrote on social media late Thursday evening that Canada and the U.S. are now working towards a new deadline of Aug. 1 to sign a new trade deal. The original deadline was set for July 21 before shifting Thursday evening.

“Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1,” Carney reacted on social media.

His statement made no reference to Trump’s new tariff threat nor did it suggest any immediate retaliatory measures from Canada.

Carney has repeatedly said that his government is working to that his government hopes will eliminate all of Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods. Those include 50 per cent tariffs on all aluminium and steel imports and separate 25 per cent border levies on foreign vehicles and components as well as Canadian goods not covered by CUSMA.

Those hopes look increasingly dashed, though, as Trump published an open letter on Thursday threatening to increase existing 25 per cent tariffs on all non-CUSMA goods to 35 per cent on Aug. 1. He once again cited fentanyl smuggling to the U.S. and Canada’s dairy supply management system as irritants.

“As you are aware, there will be no Tariff if Canada, or companies within your Country, decide to build or manufacture product within the United States and, in fact, we will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely — In other words, in a matter of weeks,” read Trump’s letter to Carney.

“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.”

Trump ended his letter by noting that Canada “will never be disappointed with The United States of America.”

The U.S. government’s data shows that trace amounts of fentanyl are intercepted by border guards coming from Canada, particularly when compared to the southern border with Mexico.

Trump has also promised 50 per cent tariffs on copper imports — another major Canadian export to the U.S. — as well as eventual tariffs of up to 200 per cent on foreign pharmaceuticals.

In his statement, Carney reiterated his government’s commitment to removing internal trade barriers in Canada and working to diversify the country’s trading partners away from the U.S.

“The federal government, provinces and territories are making significant progress in building one Canadian economy. We are poised to build a series of major new projects in the national interest. We are strengthening our trading partnerships throughout the world,” he wrote.

The latest Trump threats once again illustrate the increasingly diverging economic views held by Trump and Carney.

Speaking to media during the G7 meeting

in Alberta last month, Trump said tariffs were a key part of his economic strategy to build up American manufacturing.

“I think we have different concepts,” said Trump on trade with Canada. “I have a tariff concept. Mark (Carney) has a different concept, which is something that some people like. But we’re going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today.”

In a statement on X

, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called the latest Trump threat an “unjustified attack on Canada’s economy”.

“Canada has long been a reliable partner and trusted friend to the United States. These tariffs will damage both our countries,” Poilievre wrote.

Conservatives stand ready to do everything we can to secure the best deal for Canada,” he added.

More to come.

National Post

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