LP_468x60
on-the-record-468x60-white

The Public Health Agency of Canada has identified 29 as posing “significant risks.”

A vicious organism so “armed to the teeth” it can dodge most drugs thrown at it and a fungus with a kill rate of up to 60 percent lead a new list of pathogens federal health officials say pose the greatest threats to Canadians.
 

The updated list of “high impact” superbugs making people sick, sometimes fatally sick, includes a family of bacteria that cause E. Coli and Salmonella, as well as extremely drug-resistant gonorrhea.

All in, 29 pathogens made the watchlist, whittled down from 68 initially flagged by Public Health Agency of Canada expert working and advisory groups.
 

Those selected were scored and ranked based on their treatability (or lack thereof), transmission, case fatality ratio — the proportion of confirmed cases that are fatal — and the impact on marginalized groups like Indigenous communities, people who inject drugs, gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, the homeless and new immigrants and refugees from conflict or disaster-affected regions.

It’s the first update since an initial list was published a decade ago, in 2015. Since then, new threats have emerged, including Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus spreading in hospitals that can cause infections of the blood, heart, nervous system and organs, and Mycoplasma genitalium, a sexually transmitted infection.

Resistance is also rising in already known bugs, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, a serious infection that can lead to life-threatening meningitis, pneumonia or sepsis, with kids and the elderly at greatest risk.

The pathogen watchlist “reflects the current reality in Canada,” said Dr. Gerry Wright, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton.
 

With no new drugs coming on the market, “things are going to get to the point that we’re going to be seeing a lot more people staying in hospital or even dying, because the antibiotics are not working.”

Antimicrobial resistance, a top global health threat, happens when infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can’t be stopped by the antibiotics, antivirals and other drugs designed to kill them.
 

Infections get harder to treat, increasing the risk of the disease spreading, serious illness and death — an estimated 14,000 deaths in 2018 alone.

Canada’s “pathogen prioritization list” ranks organisms across four tiers, from high priority to low.
 

The high priority group includes carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, a family of bacteria that normally reside in the human gut but that can cause infections.

Enterobacterales, which include E. Coli and Salmonella, can cause urinary tract, abdominal and bloodstream infections. They’re spread via person-to-person contact (dirty hands, wounds, stool) or contaminated medical equipment and devices.
 

Carbapenems are powerful antibiotics — “the last station on the penicillin highway,” Wright said.
 

“If you look at your IV bag and you see the word carbapenem, you know you’re in trouble. It’s not something that’s given all the time, and resistance to that class of drugs has spread like wildfire over the last 20 years or so around the world.”

Second on the utmost priority list is highly drug-resistant gonorrhea, a sexually-transmitted infection that has become immune to nearly every antibiotic used against it.

In 2022, Canada’s national gonorrhae rate was three times what it was three decades ago, the highest recorded in 30 years. The rates are highest in males 20 to 39, and females 15 to 30. It spreads easily, is associated with travel-related sexual contact and increases the risk of HIV.

“If you can’t treat gonorrhea, it can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease or infertility in the future,” said Dr. Kanchana Amaratunga, medical advisor to Canada’s antimicrobial resistance task force.

Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas — another “super bad bug,” Wright said — was also ranked high priority.

“It’s a vicious organism, really intrinsically drug-resistant. It doesn’t seem to care too much about any antibiotics. It’s very well armed to the teeth and causes all sorts of things like pneumonia,” Wright said.

It’s also seriously problematic for people with cystic fibrosis who have a lot of mucus in their lungs. “It loves to hang out in those types of (moist) environments.”
 

Wright’s lab at McMaster is working hard at trying to kill Pseudomonas. “Because if you’ve got something that will kill Pseudomonas, it will probably kill everything else.”
 

Rounding out the high priority group are drug-resistant Acinetobacter — a bug that clings to materials like IV bags, IV poles and dialysis lines that causes blood, wound and other infections — and Candida auris, a deadly fungus that can colonize or get into the skin via needles or catheters and can linger on hospital sinks, bed rails and curtains. It severe cases, C. auris can cause organ failure. It’s particularly lethal for people with weak immune systems and has a death rate ranging from 30 to 60 percent.

It wasn’t included in the old list and has “now emerged as a critical public health threat” owing to its resistance to multiple anti-fungals, high morbidity and how easily it can spread in healthcare settings, according to the task force.

The new list relied on data from 2017 to 2022, which means a natural time lag, the team said. It’s urging updates every three to five years, not once a decade.

Microbes can evolve rapidly, within hours. However, unlike the heydays of the 80s, “It’s now a completely different kettle of fish,” Wright said. “There are very few drug companies working in the field.”
 

“They can’t make money on it,” he said. “Antibiotics cure disease. If you’re a large pharma company, you like to be controlling chronic diseases, because then people take your drugs for a very long time,” meaning a guaranteed revenue stream, he said.

In work published recently in the journal Nature, Wright’s lab isolated a protein from a bacterium taken from a soil sample collected from his technician’s backyard in Hamilton. In lab mice, “It has activity against almost all of the pathogens that we care about on that list.” He’s now trying to develop it into a drug candidate.

That’s going to take time, and a lot of money. “And no matter what drug you bring into the country, resistance is inevitable,” Amaratunga said.

Both she and Wright emphasized the need for prevention, including judicious and appropriate use of antibiotics, beefed up surveillance, early detection and vaccines.

Nearly all (68 percent) of cases of invasive pneumococcal disease in Canada, which soared by 82 per cent between 2021 and 2022, are caused by vaccine-preventable strains.

National Post
 

 

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


Minister of Justice Sean Fraser arrives to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.

OTTAWA

— As Justice Minister Sean Fraser prepares to table his bill to legislate against the obstruction of places of worship, schools, and community centres, he says he wants to see it passed quickly. 

That bill, which would fulfil commitments made in the Liberal platform, is expected to be tabled this week

, making it the first major piece of legislation to be introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals since returning for the fall sitting of Parliament. 

While Fraser says he has not initiated conversations with other parties to see it pass the House of Commons by unanimous consent, as was the case when the Liberals passed their last bail reform package back in 2023 under his predecessor, former justice minister Arif Virani, Fraser says he would “invite” conversations to happen between House leadership.

“My goal here is to have the expeditious passage of the legislation,” he told reporters on his way into the Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday.

“Should parliamentarians wish to engage in a meaningful debate

I think it’s important that they’re given the opportunity to voice the concerns of their community, and I wouldn’t want to shortcut that process. However, if everyone in the House accepts that this is the right path forward, I don’t see need to delay unnecessarily when we know hate is such an important issue to address.”

Fraser pointed to the rise in hate-related violence across the country, which police services report has only increased since the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel and its ensuing war with Hamas.

Jewish leaders and groups have specifically called for the federal government to create “safe access zones” or “bubble zones” around places of worship, schools and community centres, citing the frequency of protests and other violence against such places.

The federal government has also found itself on the receiving end of criticism from several prominent groups calling for more action from officials to stem the reported rise in antisemitism.

Melissa Lantsman, a deputy leader of the Conservatives, said in a statement that the party will assess the legislation once it is tabled, but says the Liberals have been guilty of inaction while the Conservatives have spent the past two years proposing ways to keep places of worship and those inside safe.

No one should be afraid to worship in peace, but that is exactly what the Liberal government has allowed over the last (two) years of their inaction while our communities called out for help,” she said on Wednesday. 

Conservatives will always stand to protect all Canadians from religious discrimination and violence.”

Civil liberties groups have challenged jurisdictions that have enacted similar measures to the ones Fraser is preparing to introduce, with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association launching a Charter challenge over a Vaughan by-law, calling it an “anti-protest law,” saying non-violent protests were a function of democracy.

Fraser says that Ottawa is operating on guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada when it comes to approaching discussions regarding “hate-oriented crime” and “the right to free expression.”

“We think we’ve done a good job to specifically accommodate Canadians’ right to free expression,” he said on Wednesday.

Toronto Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith told reporters the “devils in the details” of the forthcoming bill and that the government is right to move on ways to combat antisemitism.

“As parliamentarians, we’ve got to do our work and to review that legislation, to provide that accountability function and to approve it where we can, and we’ve got to make sure we strike the appropriate balance between protecting free speech and protecting people’s safety and accessing and attending faith services. I think we can do that.”

Besides making it an offence to “intentionally and wilfully obstruct” places of worship, schools and community centres, the Liberals in their platform also promised to make it a crime to “intentionally and wilfully” threaten those attending these locations.

Fraser also signalled on Tuesday that the Liberals intend to go further than what the platform committed to when it comes to addressing hate.

The minister has left the door open to possibly including some of the provisions contained in the since-defeated Online Harms Act, which the Liberals failed to see passed before the spring federal election.

Those included allowing human rights complaints to be filed with the

Canadian Human Rights Commission based on hate speech and introducing harsher punishments for hate-related offences. It also proposed creating a new peace bond to deter individuals from committing a possible hate crime, the circumstances of which would be determined by a court. 

At the time, civil liberties groups, academics, and the Opposition Conservatives roundly criticized the measures as infringing on free speech.

Legislating against the obstruction of places of worship and schools is one of the three bills Fraser plans to introduce this sitting. Next month, he says, the government will introduce a package of reforms to the bail and sentencing system, which would be followed by a series of changes to better protect against intimate partner violence and children from crimes online.

National Post

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


A classroom is shown in this photo.

A teacher in British Columbia who had exchanged hundreds of “increasingly personal and intimate messages” with a student has been banned from the job for 15 years. Between the two, more than 1,000 calls were made over the phone, according to a summary of the consent resolution agreement published Tuesday.

The secondary school teacher and the student — who have not been identified in the document released by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation — started using the school’s Microsoft Teams messaging platform to speak to each other. There were more than 190 messages sent over a three-week period. Most of the Teams messages were sent between 8 p.m. and midnight.

“These messages included giving each other compliments about their physical appearance and about having a slow dance together,” per the consent agreement.

The relationship escalated after a school event, when the two exchanged Teams messages about the teacher picking up the student at the end of the evening. The student shared their cellphone number with the teacher. Over the following 16 months, more than 1,000 phone calls were made between them, with many of the calls lasting more than an hour and a half.

According to the consent agreement, the teacher was “dishonest about having contact with the student” when questioned by the B.C. school district. The district reported the teacher to the commissioner on March 8, 2024. The teacher was suspended that day.

More than a month later, on April 17, the teacher’s certificate of qualification was suspended.

The teacher admitted their behaviour constituted professional misconduct. The teacher agreed to the cancellation of their certificate of qualification. The teacher also agreed that for the next 15 years, they would not apply for a certificate of qualification, an independent school teaching certificate or any other authorization to teach in the kindergarten to Grade 12 education system.

The commissioner considered that the teacher’s conduct was “a fundamental breach of a teacher’s duty to students and to the public” and that the teacher was also “dishonest and did not maintain the integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession.”

“The teacher misused their position of power and trust to exploit a student for the teacher’s own personal advantage,” the commissioner wrote.

Consent resolution is when the commissioner and the teacher agree on appropriate consequences,

per the provincial government

. It is one way that a disciplinary matter can be resolved.

The teacher had received a Professional Certificate of Qualification issued by the B.C. College of Teachers in 2011.

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.


U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press as he departs Tel Aviv following an official visit to Israel, on Sept. 16, 2025.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “visa revocations are under way” for any foreign visitors who are celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk.

“America will not host foreigners who celebrate the death of our fellow citizens,” he said in a social media post on Monday. “Visa revocations are under way. If you are here on a visa and cheering on the public assassination of a political figure, prepare to be deported.”

Kirk, a 31-year-old political influencer, was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, last Wednesday. A suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was later arrested and faces seven charges including aggravated murder.

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has said his office will be seeking the death penalty against Robinson.

Rubio is not the first U.S. official to suggest a crackdown on those who are celebrating the event.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said last week he had directed consular officials to “take appropriate action” against people “praising, rationalizing, or making light of” Kirk’s death. He instructed officials to monitor comments on social media to identify such individuals.

And JD Vance, the U.S. Vice President, said people should report anyone celebrating Kirk’s death to their employer.

“By celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie’s innocence but the fact that he said things some didn’t like — even to the point of lying about what he actually said — many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen,” Vance said while hosting Kirk’s podcast on Monday.

“So when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out,” he added. “And hell, call their employer.”

Reports have noted that several individuals in aviation, education, the media and elsewhere have lost their jobs or been suspended over social media posts about Kirk.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s death. “This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” he said in a post on X.

He followed that with another post saying: “It is the right of every American to feel safe and free of political hate in our airspace,” and thanking American, United and Delta airlines for suspending employees who praised the killing, adding: “The next step should be to fire them.”

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


Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S. and Dominic LeBlanc, minister of Canada-U.S. trade and intergovernmental affairs talk with media at the G7 summit in Kananaskis on Monday, June 16, 2025.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When it comes to Canada-U.S. trade negotiations, things have been eerily quiet in Washington, D.C. recently.

Much of the focus in Washington has been on trade with the United Kingdom and U.S. President Donald Trump’s historic second state visit there this week. The trip promises plenty of royal pageantry that British leaders hope will persuade the American leader to lower tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Charles III’s first official visit to Canada in May to deliver the Speech from the Throne in person and open Parliament was, among other things, a way for Prime Minister Mark Carney to showcase his and the country’s royal ties in response to Trump’s fiery “51st State” rhetoric and trade war. But the pomp and ceremony playing out from Windsor Castle this week, with Trump referring to the king as his “friend,” means it’s the president’s turn to flex some royal muscle.

So, setting royal news aside, have Ottawa and Washington been holding tête-à-têtes in recent weeks?

A senior Canadian government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there has been little contact between the U.S. and Canadian teams since late August.

A couple of weeks back, on August 26, Dominic LeBlanc, the minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade, Marc-André Blanchard, the PM’s chief of staff, and Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, had what were labelled “constructive” meetings with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington. LeBlanc said at the time that “technical discussions” between the two countries would continue.

The government source said that while the teams have been in touch by phone and text, “there’s nothing planned at this time” for in-person meetings. He added that there will be an opportunity to meet again soon, likely in a few weeks.

When asked how the Canadian team’s morale was holding up amid all the so-far fruitless efforts, he said all they can do is keep up the good work despite the challenges, acknowledging that “it’s a lot.”

“We’re just doing our best and hoping for the best,” the source added.

As for those “technical discussions,” he said those are happening “mostly at the official levels,” referring again to the discussions Sabia and the others had in late August, meaning there has been little movement.

This week, the focus is less on the U.S. and more on Mexico, with Carney preparing to meet with his counterpart, President Claudia Sheinbaum, on Thursday and Friday in Mexico City.

“It’s important for the upcoming review of the CUSMA,” the source said. “We want to keep a good relationship with them and keep our good power to negotiate and to review CUSMA with Mexico.”

He explained that staying close to Mexico can help Canada gain more leverage in the upcoming renegotiation of the trade deal.

“The president might want to divide and conquer, and only deal with Mexico and then deal with Canada, piece by piece,” he said, “but I think we believe that it’s good to have discussions as three nations altogether instead of one-on-one.”

Is Carney trying to negotiate a direct trade deal with Mexico in case CUSMA falls apart? “Not for now,” the source said, but he added that Carney will likely make news this week by signing something with Sheinbaum — an agreement “like a new partnership or something.”

He didn’t offer more details but said the new deal will help reinforce Canada’s relationship with Mexico.

As for the longevity of CUSMA, Washington sent a positive signal on Tuesday, when the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced the formal review process for the agreement, inviting public comments that are due on November 1.

Jamie Tronnes, the executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, a project of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said she sees this move as promising.

“I think that’s a positive sign for the agreement in that the Americans are doing the USMCA process instead of throwing it all out, but we shall see,” she said.

The government source also seemed to think it was a good sign. “It’s a bit reassuring to see the U.S. following an actual process that is enshrined in law, so I guess it’s a bit encouraging.”

“But we’ll see. We can always be surprised.”

National Post

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


Photo of the suspect released by Halifax Regional Police on Monday.

Halifax Regional Police have charged a 31-year-old man with

public incitement of hatred

after an investigation into six antisemitic graffiti messages painted last weekend on three Jewish sites.

They arrested Gezim Topalli Tuesday at his Halifax home. He’s slated to appear in Halifax provincial court Wednesday on three counts of mischief related to religious property, three counts of property damage and public incitement of hatred.

Topalli allegedly sprayed a swastika on the Shaar Shalom synagogue, on Oxford Street, overnight last Saturday. He also allegedly painted graffiti on the Beth Israel synagogue, a few blocks away. A nearby building associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch of the Maritimes Rohr Family Institute was also defaced

 Chabad-Lubavitch of the Maritimes Rohr Family Institute was one of three Halifax Jewish sites defaced with antisemitic graffiti overnight Saturday.

A nearby building associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch of the Maritimes Rohr Family Institute was also defaced with the words

“Jews did 9/11.”

The incidents happened after days of protests in the city against

Israeli participation in the Davis Cup

tennis tournament.

“I am pleased with the outcome of this investigation. While I credit the quick and thorough work of HRP’s hate crime investigator, I also want to thank the public who came forward to help identify the suspect,” HRP Chief Don MacLean said in a written statement. “The swift and seamless collaboration between police and the community represents our city taking a strong and unified stance against the promotion of hatred.”

Police urge “anyone exposed to behaviour that is offensive, threatening or intimidating” to call them at 902-490-5020, said a news release.

“Even if the investigation does not find criminal wrongdoing, it is important to have it on record.”

 Halifax’s Shaar Shalom synagogue was cleaned with a power washer after it was defaced with a swastika over the past weekend. Sept 15th 2025. Credit: Rob Roberts/Postmedia

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.


X CEO Elon Musk in 2023.

OTTAWA — Newly released documents show federal public safety officials quietly expressed concern over the tech industry’s ability to curb the spread of extremist and terrorist content online after sector-wide layoffs.

The documents, released to the National Post under federal access-to-information legislation, were prepared ahead of a 2023 meeting with Google, which owns YouTube, as well as a meeting with X, formerly known as Twitter.

Officials specifically reported the rise in terrorist and extremist materials found on the platforms in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict has created an avalanche … with at times hundreds of thousands of graphic videos and images of mass shootings, kidnappings and other violence widely circulating on social media,” reads one of the briefing notes.

“The industry’s response has thus far been disappointing. While tech companies state that they are removing significant volumes of terrorist images and videos, many tens of thousands are still circulating.”

Officials tied the spread of this content to earlier layoffs made by X and Google, with the latter saying that a majority of videos flagged in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks were removed before they had 1,000 views.

“Violent extremist content is strictly prohibited on YouTube, and we continue to invest in the teams and technologies that allow us to remove this material quickly. Any notion that we’d compromise the safety of our platform is categorically false,” a spokesperson for YouTube said in a statement.

In late 2023, the then deputy minister of Public Safety Canada, who has since retired, met separately with officials from Google on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum that November, as well as a senior representative from X, who has since left that position, during a G7 Interior Ministers’ meeting the same year.

Max Watson, a spokesperson for the department, said while details of their discussions were private, they “focused on security issues,” which included “how to address online harms.”

The internal briefing documents detail how officials believed one of the reasons platforms and their companies were struggling to remove terrorist and extremist content was because thousands of staff responsible for content moderation had been laid off.

In early 2023, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, announced that it was laying off some 12,000 staff, with cuts continuing across other major tech companies in the years since.

Around that time, reports suggested roughly one-third of the staff working at Jigsaw, a technology incubator at Google, tasked with developing tools for content moderation and helping identify terrorist content that could be removed, but which was separate from YouTube’s trust and safety division, were cut.

The internal documents show officials suggested asking Google, which owns the video-sharing platform, about the possibility of rehiring some of the staff, and also asking how it was working to “mitigate the harms” related to violent and terrorist content, citing the “recent cuts in trust and safety seen across the industry.”

YouTube has said it removed tens of thousands of videos for violating its service guidelines regarding violent extremism and hate speech, since the Oct. 7 attacks.

It also says that more than 90 per cent of the content removed for violating its policy regarding violent extremism was taken down before it had reached 1,000 views, and that this was the case for roughly 96 per cent of the videos removed from October to December 2023.

In the internal documents from that year, public safety officials expressed concern about how removing this amount of content still saw “tens of thousands of videos and posts circulating, some getting millions of views.”

When it came to X, officials flagged reports that content considered to be antisemitic had exploded by more than 900 per cent on the platform, while content considered Islamophobic had increased by around 400 per cent.

The briefing note said one of the purposes of the meeting with a representative from X was to express Canada’s concern, “with X seen as among the worst of the big companies.”

Officials also pointed out that since Elon Musk bought the company in October 2022, thousands of jobs had been cut, with the company doing away with its ethical AI team and laying off 15 per cent of its trust and safety department. Elsewhere in the briefing documents, they also discussed how X had “made decisions to deprioritize” the removal of this content, “often citing freedom of speech or public interest exceptions.”

Both X, along with Google and YouTube, have been involved in an international NGO founded in 2017 dedicated to preventing terrorists and extremists from spreading their content online.

In the internal documents, however, public safety officials suggested it was struggling to address the rise in terrorist and violent extremist content online, saying the Israel-Hamas conflict had “created a crisis online.”

In the department’s statement, spokesperson Max Watson said Canada remains concerned about the spread of this content, saying Canada was one of the first countries to sign onto an initiative struck after a gunman livestreamed a mass shooting that killed 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Reached for comment, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree declined to respond, pointing instead to the department’s response, which outlined the millions of dollars the government had dedicated towards preventing the spread of this content online.

Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals tabled a bill aimed at compelling social media companies to reduce the exposure of their users, in particular children, to different types of harmful content, including that which “incites violent extremism or terrorism.”

The legislation failed to pass by the time Prime Minister Mark Carney, who succeeded Trudeau back in March, triggered a spring federal election.

While his government has said it plans to amend the Criminal Code to address online exploitation and the sextortion of children, it has not clarified whether it intends to try to move on to regulate companies to remove harmful content.

National Post

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


A police officer removes caution tape from the roof where law enforcement alleges Tyler Robinson shot political activist Charlie Kirk, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 15, 2025.

Police interviewed suspect Tyler Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner, who identifies as transgender, according to officials, after Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University.

“The roommate told police that the roommate received messages from Robinson about the shooting and provided those messages to police,” according to charging documents that lay out Robinson’s alleged motive for killing the conservative activist.

On Sept. 10, the day of the shooting, the roommate allegedly “received a text message from Robinson which said, ‘drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard,’” the documents say. “The roommate looked under the keyboard and found a note that stated, ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.’ Police found a photograph of this note.”

The following text exchange then took place, according to police.

Roommate:

“What?????????????? You’re joking, right????”

Robinson:

 I am still ok my love, but am stuck in orem for a little while longer yet. Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you.

Roommate:

you weren’t the one who did it right????

Robinson:

I am, I’m sorry

Roommate: 

I thought they caught the person?

Robinson:

 no, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing. I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. Its quiet, almost enough to get out, but theres one vehicle lingering.

Roommate:

Why?

Robinson: 

Why did I do it?

Roommate:

Yeah

Robinson:

I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.

Roommate: 

How long have you been planning this?

Robinson: 

a bit over a week I believe. I can get close to it but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don’t wanna chance it

 Tyler Robinson, accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, attends a virtual court hearing from prison in Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.

Robinson:

I’m wishing I had circled back and grabbed it as soon as I got to my vehicle…. I’m worried what my old man would do if I didn’t bring back grandpas rifle … idek if it had a serial number, but it wouldn’t trace to me. I worry about prints I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. didn’t have the ability or time to bring it with…. I might have to abandon it and hope they don’t find prints. how the f–k will I explain losing it to my old man….

only thing I left was the rifle wrapped in a towel….

remember how I was engraving bullets? The f–kin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see “notices bulge uwu” on fox new I might have a stroke alright im gonna have to leave it, that really fucking sucks….

judging from today I’d say grandpas gun does just fine idk. I think that was a $2k scope ;-;

Robinson: 

delete this exchange

Robinson:

my dad wants photos of the rifle … he says grandpa wants to know who has what, the feds released a photo of the rifle, and it is very unique. Hes calling me rn, not answering.

Robinson: 

since trump got into office (my dad) has been pretty diehard maga.

Robinson:

 Im gonna turn myself in willingly, one of my neighbors here is a deputy for the sheriff.

Robinson:

 you are all I worry about love

Roommate:

I’m much more worried about you

Robinson:

don’t talk to the media please. don’t take any interviews or make any comments…. if any police ask you questions ask for a lawyer and stay silent

Read Tyler Robinson’s charging document in full:

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.


Premier Scott Moe holds a press conference about his recent trip to China at the Saskatoon airport before catching another flight.

OTTAWA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Tuesday that Ottawa must work in tandem with the provinces to relieve tariff pressures being placed on Canada’s economy by both the U.S. and China.

Saskatchewan, which produces more than half of the nation’s canola crop, has been hit hard by the 76 per cent tariff China

placed on Canadian canola seeds

last month, a move widely seen as a response to Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.

Moe was quick to call for Canada to drop

the electric vehicle tariff

, but appears to have changed his tune slightly since returning from a

trade mission to China

last week.

“I was quoted on this a while ago, and I’d just clarify it’s not as simple as that,” said Moe when asked again about dropping the electric vehicle levy on Tuesday.

“Our largest trade partner is the United States of America (and) we’ve aligned with the EV tariffs, on which there’s been a response from China,” said Moe.

He said his talks in China last week were “constructive” but added that he wouldn’t disclose any of the details publicly.

He also admitted that restoring Canada’s market access to one superpower may not help it restore access to the other.

“Here’s the dance that I think all countries are finding themselves in, and it’s a sensitive and delicate dance. Decisions that you make (with one trade partner) will have an indirect impact on your relationship with another partner,” Moe told reporters on Parliament Hill.

Moe was in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney, joined by leaders of Western Canada’s tariff-ravaged canola industry.

He said he had a “good meeting” with the prime minister but stressed the urgent need for movement on the tariffs, saying it was unsustainable to keep throwing relief dollars at canola and other hard-hit sectors.

“I don’t know that we can afford to backstop all the industries that might be impacted in what is such an uncertain trade environment globally … What we need is market access,” said Moe.

Moe, who endorsed

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

ahead of the recent federal election, said he trusted Carney’s leadership on trade matters.

“There’s a marked improvement, I would say, with the dialog that we’re seeing from the current prime minister versus, you know, the last number of years, and we’re appreciative of that,” said Moe.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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


Messages that authorities say were inscribed on bullet cartridges by alleged Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson.

Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer left messages etched on cartridges that are meant to speak to the slang of popular video games and online culture.

Authorities found the missives from alleged 22-year-old killer, Tyler Robinson, with the gun officials say was used to assassinate the influential American conservative activist last Wednesday while he was speaking to a large crowd on the campus of Utah Valley University.

The etchings on four separate cartridges said: “NoTices Bulge OWO What’s This?”, “Hey Facist! Catch!” followed by five arrow symbols (up, right, down, down, down), “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao Bella ciao Ciao, ciao!” and “If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao.”

Robinson allegedly addressed the etchings in text messages sent to his roommate and romantic partner

, who authorities say identifies as transgender,

according to charging documents released Tuesday.

“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The f–kin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see ‘notices bulge uwu’ on fox new (sic) I might have a stroke,” Robinson allegedly wrote.

For a tutorial on what the engravings might be trying to express, Postmedia turned to Evan Liu, a PhD candidate in communications and culture at York University whose dissertation is about how internet memes and slang spread across online digital platforms.

What’s behind the meme-laced language employed by Kirk’s alleged killer?

“Internet language, from my research and also from my experience, has a lot to do with both irony and also satire,” Liu said.

“This is, of course, also found in the mainstream media, where you have shows like Saturday Night Live, for example in the U.S., which frequently employs those comedic tropes that are rooted in irony and satire.”

Why are the messages on the alleged killer’s cartridge casings tapping that same rich vein?

“He’s clearly invoking the same kind of trolling/non-serious nature of internet language, and it’s obviously to contrast with a horrific shooting,” Liu said.

The alleged killer chose phrases that people recognize, “or spark curiosity,” suspecting they’ll get discussed in the mainstream media, he said.

“That way he gets to influence the narrative at least a little bit,” Liu said. “Theres a reason why he left these messages.”

Would most folks over the age of 20 understand the language used on the cartridge engravings?

“I’m a gamer myself and I’m 32 years old,” he said. “Many of the people who I play with online … are in their thirties, too. They are married with kids.”

Liu’s go-to game, World of Warships, also attracts players in their 40s and 50s, he said. “They are veterans of the U.S. Navy or Air Force,” as well as Canadian military vets.

Who were the engraved messages aimed at?

According to Liu, some of the engraved cartridge messages likely weren’t left for police, medical examiners, or Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, who read some of them out last week at a news conference announcing Robinson’s arrest.

One contained the engraving “Bella ciao,” a historic reference, according to Liu, to the folk song that was transformed by the Italian resistance during WWII into an anti-fascist anthem.

“It became a reoccurring symbol in popular culture where you have games that are based on WWII, based around that era, invoke this kind of messaging as historical symbolism and also as a cultural (and) political commentary,” Liu said.

“I believe it shows, at least partly, what the shooter is aligning with in terms of where he is on the political spectrum.”

 A TV monitor displays a picture of Tyler Robinson, the man suspected of killing Charlie Kirk.

Was the “Bella ciao” reference made to be spoken or sung aloud?

It was meant to be sung, Liu said, noting Gov. Cox’s attempt to read it instead sparked lots of laughs from the online world.

“They can’t believe that the governor didn’t just sing the phrase out because, to them, it’s as symbolic as I Want It That Way lyrics from the Backstreet Boys. You’re not supposed to read it, you’re supposed to sing it.”

What message was another cartridge engraving that used the “up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols” trying to convey?

That’s a reference to a sequence of controller moves that allows players to drop 500 kg bombs in the popular video game Helldivers 2.

“Helldivers 2 became a sensation this past year,” Liu said.

“It was based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe … imagine a very grim, dark, futuristic cyber punk scenario where earth is under this so-called managed democracy where the citizens obey a central government.”

In Helldivers 2, players dive down to war zones to fight alien beings and rebels “with all sorts of weapons and inputs. And here, the (arrows signifying) up, right, down, down, down, refers to command input for dropping a 500-kilogram payload bomb on to a target location.”

The engraving “invokes the setting of the game where you hail from this so-called managed democracy,” Liu said. “Let’s be honest, they call it a democracy, but obviously, they’re not…. That brings it back to the whole idea of are we fighting for the good guys, or are we fighting for the bad guys debate. And, clearly, it’s ironic, because it’s the whole idea of I am coming from this managed democracy perspective, but am I really fighting for the good cause?”

Are some of the messages meant to be more literal?

Another one of the killer’s unfired cartridges says, “Hey Fascist! Catch!” According to Gov. Cox, that one showed the gunman’s intent. “I think that speaks for itself,” he told reporters last week.

Liu wasn’t willing to wade into interpreting that reference.

“I don’t know enough about the shooter,” he said. “I’m not comfortable enough to share my commentary on this as a political perspective.”

Another one of the alleged killer’s cartridge engravings says, “NoTices Bulge OWO What’s This?” What’s that trying to convey?

According to Liu, that’s used for trolling, with roots in online role-play communities.

“It came from an online subcultural group called the furries,” Liu said. “It started in the 1960s in the U.S. and then it quickly took over, along with the anime wave, online in the new millennia.”

Furries dress up like animals in costumes, Liu said. “They call it fur suits and getting into fur gears. And they are incredibly expensive for what they’re worth. It’s a very fringe, niche hobby.”

Furries “play a lot with sexual humour and self-depricating humour,” Liu said.

The engraving — an emoji whose capital Os are meant to depict eyes that just saw something interesting — is meant as a “signal towards

the those furry role play group,

” he said. “You can call this an inside joke if you absolutely must.”

What’s behind the engraving that says, “If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao

“That one’s obviously for the general population,” Liu said. “It’s very classic internet humour. Anyone who has ever been online in the 1990s or 2000s would get this as a very stupid joke.”

Why do you think the alleged killer left these engravings behind?

“He’s invoking his connection to these groups,” Liu said.

“He probably anticipated that he would get arrested and that these messages would be found. That’s the presumption of these bullet casings. So, I believe that he left these as sort of his way to still influence the narrative after his arrest, because obviously he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t be giving interviews as freely. So, these are like dog whistles, if you will, to those groups. And those who know will know, basically. And, clearly, he meant to leave this for just the online population – those that are terminally online. But if you’re from the mainstream media … you’ll be scratching your head over what the hell does he mean by all of this?”

Have other killer used similar messaging?

According to Liu, comparable cases include August’s Minneapolis church shooting, as well as recent school shootings in Russia and Finland.

“All of these shooters came from internet backgrounds,” Liu said. “But none of them left these messages at the shooting scene. So, it’s very hard to draw them together. But in this case (with the Kirk assassination), we have a clear and undisputable way of displaying internet culture at the crime scene.”

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