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Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed on September 4, 2024.

OTTAWA

— Israel’s ambassador in Ottawa says his country is “quite taken aback” by Canada’s decision to threaten action alongside the United Kingdom and France, over its war against Hamas and believes Prime Minister Mark Carney ought to pay the Israel a visit. 

“This is unprecedented,”

Iddo Moed,

 

Israel’s ambassador to Canada, told National Post in an interview Tuesday. 

“This has never happened in the past and so this is why we are taken aback. That’s an understatement, I would say.”

On Monday, Canada, the U.K., and France released a joint statement to say they “strongly

oppose the expansion of 
Israel
’s military operations in Gaza,” calling its latest actions “wholly disproportionate.”

It came after Israel announced it was launching an “extensive” ground offensive in Gaza and would be allowing more basic aid into the area, where thousands are starving and the threat of widespread famine has only worsened.

The countries’ leaders took aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that, should Israel not stop its military actions and restricting of humanitarian aid, they would take “further concrete actions in response.”

On Tuesday, the British government announced it was hitting settlers in the West Bank with sanctions and suspending talks about a free trade agreement with Israel.

Carney, who is spending the day meeting behind closed-doors with his cabinet, has not yet announced whether Canada would take further action.

Canada has previously levied sanctions against those responsible for settler violence in the West Bank and opposes further settlements.

In their statement, Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President

Emmanuel Macron

cited the “intolerable suffering” unfolding in Gaza, calling the announcement Israel made the day before to allow basic quantities of food into the area “

wholly inadequate.”

They demanded Israel’s government halt its military operations and for Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken captive when militants stormed into southern Israel in October 2023.

Their statement said Israel must also “

immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza,” including by working with the United Nations. 

In a post on X,

Netanyahu said by asking Israel to stop its “defensive war,” the leaders were giving a “huge prize” to Hamas, a designated terrorist entity which governs the Gaza Strip and carried out the October 2023 attacks, which killed around 1,200 civilians and saw 251 people taken hostage. 

There remain 58 hostages in Hamas captivity.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rejected Carney’s statement, pointing to how Hamas had thanked Canada for its statement on Israel by calling it a “step in the right direction.”

“Threatening Israel with sanctions and “further concrete actions” while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong,” Poilievre posted on X.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a Canadian Jewish advocacy organization, said Carney’s statement undercuts earlier remarks he made that Hamas ought to lay down its weapons and have no role in governing Gaza.

Pressure from the international community has been mounting on Israel to cease its war with Hamas, with agencies like the United Nations citing figures from the Gaza Health Ministry that more than 53,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, have been killed since Israel began its offensive.

The Gaza Healthy Ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Moed said on Tuesday that no country will tell Israel how to conduct its war that it is focused on trying to eliminate the designated terror group and securing the release of the remaining 58 hostages.  

The ambassador declined to speculate on what Israel may do should Canada follow through on its threat of taking further action against Israel.

He said channels of communication between Israel and Canada remain open and that both countries spent the past weekend exchanging messages about efforts Israel is making to get aid to people in Gaza “and not into the hands of Hamas.”

As of Tuesday, Israel said dozens more trucks entered Gaza. It also said that Hamas is responsible for stealing aid that enters Gaza.

Tom Fletcher, U.N. humanitarian chief, has called the aid that has been allowed to enter a

“drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.” 

While Moed said he has yet to speak to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand since she was named to the post last week, he believes Carney should pay a visit to the country to see the situation for himself.

“I think that he should,” he said. “Seeing the reality on the ground brings perspective into opinions.”

Particularly, he said, to better understand Israel’s opposition to seeing a two-state solution, which has been Canada and other G7 countries’ longstanding position to bring peace to the region.

With additional reporting from The Associated Press

National Post
staylor@postmedia.com
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Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon presents his end of session results on June 7, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City. St-Pierre Plamondon is accompanied by Pascal Paradis (right).

OTTAWA — Albertans may want to see more pipelines across the country, but Quebec politicians are still arguing about whether their constituents will welcome them.

“Where are the projects that are profitable for Quebec? If there were any, we would have known about it a long time ago. This is not the case currently,” said Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis at a press conference Tuesday.

Premier François Legault’s comments last week in an hour-long podcast interview with host Stephan Bureau are still resonating in the National Assembly and in Alberta.

“Quebecers are saying, ‘There’s no way Trump is going to control the oil we produce in Alberta.’ So, can we export it to Europe through Quebec instead of being stuck with Trump? There’s openness. I feel things are shifting,” Legault said. But he also suggested that a potential project could pass through the northern part of the province and end at the port of Sept-Îles.

“There are projects like that which would have been unthinkable before Trump,” Legault said.

Some Quebec politicians don’t agree. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said that “we could discuss at length what constitutes openness among Quebecers or not.” Paradis argued that “there’s one poll showing a certain openness, but to what? ”

Making matters even more contentious, only a few public polls have been conducted on this question.

The most frequently cited one

dates back to February, during the tariff war with the United States.

At the time, a 

SOM-La Presse poll

suggested that 59 per cent of Quebecers would be in favour of a new Energy East project.

Another one by

Nanos Research

, conducted in April, found that nearly half of Quebecers said they somewhat or strongly supported the idea of a trans-Canada pipeline, the lowest rate in Canada.

Legault later told reporters that “we’re a long way from a concrete project” and that any potential environmental assessments would not be skipped.

“We remember there have been past projects that crossed several rivers. We need to look at the impacts and then look at the benefits. What’s positive in each of the projects, if any concrete ones are put forward,” Legault said.

Nonetheless, his comments infuriated separatist parties in the province.

While the Parti Québécois is asking “what’s in it for us” and “what are the proposed projects on the table” — so far, there aren’t any — the leftist separatist party Quebec Solidaire attacked the premier for making the mistake of “thinking that pipelines are the solution to the Trump tariff crisis.”

“It’s completely insane. It’s even dogmatic to think that,” said QS parliamentary leader Ruba Ghazal.

She said that pipelines “are destroying our environment,” that there are environmental, social and economic “risks” and that “it’s not profitable.”

She also echoed comments made last week by federal Liberal minister Steven Guilbeault about a peak in oil demand in the coming years, both in Canada and globally.

“When we look around the world, particularly in Europe, where there will be a decline in demand for hydrocarbon energy in the future, well, we’ll find ourselves with infrastructure that we won’t need later,” said Ghazal.

Those comments by separatists came as the PQ was tabling a motion in the National Assembly that called on the government “to use the fiscal means at its disposal to reduce the unfair gap in the price of gasoline with the border provinces, by June 24, 2025.”

The Quebec Liberal Party said that “people are now more open-minded than a couple of years ago.”

“The objective is to increase our independence with respect to the United States energy, with respect to the energy. So, that being said, again, it has to be an analysis project by project, with the environmental criteria being at the forefront,” said interim leader Marc Tanguay.

On Saturday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called Legault’s comments a “massive breakthrough” on her

weekend morning radio program

.

Smith said she believed the world’s perspective on natural gas and foreign demand may have swayed the Quebec Premier.

“I think there is a world understanding that natural gas is an important transition fuel. I think it’s a destination fuel, personally, but when you use natural gas, it means you’re not using other high-emitting fuels like coal and wood and, in some cases, even dung,” Smith said.

However, Legault’s comments were not about an LNG pipeline, but rather an oil pipeline.

The GNL Québec project was blocked by the Quebec government in 2021 due to environmental concerns. It was a $14 billion natural gas pipeline with a terminal in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

Also, the premier’s office indicated Tuesday that any opening on the government’s part is conditional on the submission of “serious projects,” concrete economic benefits for Quebec and social acceptability.

There aren’t any proposed pipelines involving Quebec. A decade ago, Energy East, a 4,500 km pipeline that would have carried 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Alberta to the Irving refinery in New Brunswick, was abandoned due to regulatory hurdles in Canada and strong opposition from environmental groups.

The $15-billion project was also unpopular in Quebec. The provincial government never signed on to it because it saw few benefits and the pipeline route would have to cross several rivers, which raised concerns among Quebecers.

National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com

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A judicial recount to determine if Liberal candidate Anthony Germain, left, defeated Conservative hopeful Jonathan Rowe, right, in a tightly contested Newfoundland riding is now in its eighth day.

With a judicial recount now into its eighth day, the Victoria Day long weekend likely felt especially lengthy for a Newfoundland and Labrador judge, Elections Canada workers and scrutineers labouring to determine the result of a federal riding separated by a mere 12 votes.

The mandatory re-tallying of ballots for Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, where the Liberal candidate Anthony Germain squeaked past Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe after results were validated, began on Monday, May 12, and has continued in earnest since.

On Wednesday, Elections Canada told the

Canadian Press

that more than 1,000 disputed ballots have arisen following a recount of all 41,670 cast by electors on election night or ahead of time via advanced polls and special-ballot voting. Disputed ballots are those questioned or challenged during the judicial recount because of how it was marked or otherwise interpreted when they were first counted or rejected.

A spokesperson said work overseen by N.L. Supreme Court Judge Justice Garrett Handrigan would continue through the weekend. In an email to National Post Tuesday morning, the independent agency said it was expecting results later that day and deferred specific questions on the recount to Handrigan and the court.

In an email to National Post on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the court in Grand Bank, which is near the site of the recount in Marystown, said no decision has been made and the judge will notify Elections Canada when it has.

“From there, it will be up to Elections Canada to make that announcement,” the spokesperson wrote. “Justice Handrigan will not be providing an oral or written decision, a report will be provided from Justice Handrigan to Elections Canada.”

The judge determines the number of recount teams that will re-examine all the ballots individually. The typical range is 15 to 20, but it’s not clear how many Handrigan has deployed for the 270 polls from the largely rural riding on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.

Each of those teams consists of two Elections Canada workers — a handler and a recorder — and a representative for each candidate, commonly known as scrutineers. As votes are examined, either of the scrutineers can dispute the interpretation.

It’s not clear if NDP candidate Liam Ryan, who finished a distant third with only 4.1 per cent of the vote, has been represented.

Because the process involves re-examining the 597 rejected ballots, some of those could be reclassified as disputed ballots if there’s unanimous agreement among the recount team. Common reasons for ballots to be rejected include improperly marking the candidate, extra markings on the ballot, damage or alteration to the ballot, or including identifying information of the elector.

After the disputed ballots are tallied, counsel for each candidate can make submissions to Handrigan on each, but he must make the ultimate ruling on whether it counts and to whom it is awarded.

Should Germain lose the seat, the Liberals will fall back to 169 in the House of Commons and the Conservatives will climb to 144 with Rowe’s addition.

Based on

Elections Canada’s judicial recount handbook

, it appears Handrigan and the parties elected to wait until all votes were recounted before making submissions and hearing decisions on disputed ballots, which “could slow down the process considerably.”

But the agency said that with the hecticness of recounting around them complete, it “allows for disputed ballots to be discussed more calmly, often in a largely empty room” where counsel can come to an agreement on many of the ballots.

National Post contacted both Germain and Rowe to discuss the judicial recount and is awaiting responses.

We brought our serious faces for Mine & Ruth-Ann’s first (hopefully last) day before a judge. Unfortunately, the wait continues as the judge continues to review the ballots.

Posted by Jonathan Rowe – Federal Conservative Candidate, Terra Nova-The Peninsulas on Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Meanwhile, the last of four judicial recounts that arose from the election ashes begins today in Ontario’s Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore. It was granted by a judge after Liberal incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk, who lost by 77 votes to Conservative Kathy Borrelli, said some of his scrutineers witnessed valid votes being rejected on election night.

In Ontario’s Milton East—Halton Hills South, a recount that began the day after Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, Kristina Tesser Derksen was confirmed as the new MP late last week, having beaten Tory Parm Gill by 21 votes.

The first judicial recount, in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne, was also completed last week, but it could head to a byelection depending on the outcome of a court case contesting the official result.

The riding was first claimed by the Liberals’ Tatiana Auguste on election night, but was awarded to Bloc Québécois incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné after results were validated. But with a margin of victory smaller than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast, a judicial recount was required, at the end of which Auguste emerged as the winner by a single vote. Two days later,

a Bloc supporter came forward saying her mail-in ballot was returned to her.

Elections Canada later ruled the lost ballot would not count, leading Sinclair-Desgagné and the Bloc to

challenge the outcome

“on the basis of a vote that was not taken into account, which constitutes an irregularity” in the electoral process.

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.


Postal workers are

expected to go on strike

at the end of this week, after Canada Post received notice from the union on Monday.

The announcement comes more than six months after Canada Post workers went on strike in mid-November. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said the decision to strike was due to a year of unresolved negotiations. The union said, in

a news release

at the time, that  workers wanted fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office.

What happens to the parcels Canada Post has already accepted?

As the strike approached mid-December, many small businesses

were struggling to get their goods delivered

, said Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) executive vice president of advocacy Corinne Pohlmann. Canada Post said it missed delivering roughly

12 million parcels in early December

.

On Dec. 13, former minister of labour Steven MacKinnon, who is currently the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, said in a post on X that he had asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) “to assess the likelihood of the parties reaching negotiated agreements by the end of 2024 under the current circumstances.”

If the CIRB found that the union and the corporation could not reach an agreement by the end of the year, MacKinnon said it would order Canada Post’s employees back to work. The union called the government’s involvement an “assault” on the constitutional right to collectively bargain and strike.

“Small businesses have written off Canada Post for this holiday season,” said CFIB president Dan Kelly in a

news release on Dec. 13

. He added that it would take weeks to clear backlogs in the system. According to CFIB data, 73 per cent of small business owners said

they would be using Canada Post less in the future because of the strike.

CFIB called for an “immediate truce” and for Canada Post and its employees to “resume operations while continuing to work through their differences.” Despite CFIB’s pleas and MacKinnon’s announcement, negotiations continued unsuccessfully.

The union condemned government involvement. “This order continues a deeply troubling pattern in which the government uses its arbitrary powers to let employers off the hook, drag their feet, and refuse to bargain in good faith with workers and their unions,”

the union said

.

However, MacKinnon said the ongoing conflict had reached a “critical point” that was affecting Canadians, including those who needed essential parcels such as medications and official documents.

 Canada Post said the corporation is accepting no new items until the end of the strike.

The CIRB held two days of hearings. It made the decision to order Canada Post employees back to work on Dec. 17, after a 32-day-long strike.

Canada Post

reasserted its commitment

to reaching negotiated agreements with CUPW that would help the company “better serve the changing needs of Canadians and provide good jobs to those who provide the service.” Meanwhile,

the union called the decision “disappointing.”

The terms of the collective agreement were extended until May 22.

Following the order, the union and the corporation have continued negotiations. “When the parties met in December, January, and March, many of our issues remained unresolved,” the union said on May 2. Just over 10 days later,

Canada Post said

it was taking a “temporary pause in discussions.”

On May 16, after hearings held this year between the union and Canada Post, a final report from the Industrial Inquiry Commission was released. It was presented as an “

objective assessment of the challenges

facing the postal system and the fundamental obstacles in the negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW.”

The commissioner of the report, William Kaplan, provided recommendations such as revising the Postal Charter’s delivery standards and ending the moratorium on post office closures and conversions to community mailboxes.

 A Canada Post employee delivers mail to homes in Montreal.

The union said the recommendations amounted “to service cuts, contracting out, and major rollbacks to important provisions in our existing collective agreements” and that Canada Post had still not presented them with concrete plans.

Canada Post said it received strike notice on Monday, and that operations will continue as usual at this time.

“The potential for another strike comes at a critical moment for the postal system,” it said in a news release on Monday. “Canada Post  Since 2018, the Corporation has recorded more than $3 billion in losses before tax, and it will post another significant loss for 2024. In early 2025, the Government of Canada announced repayable funding of up to $1.034 billion for Canada Post to prevent insolvency.”

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Canada Post said the corporation is accepting no new items until the end of the strike.

Postal workers could go on strike as early as midnight on Friday after a notice from the union was received by the Crown Corporation.

The Canada Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which represents more than 55,000 postal workers, informed the management of its decision on Monday.

Canada Post said the corporation is accepting no new items until the end of the strike. “All mail and parcels in our network will be secured and delivered as quickly as possible once operations resume,” per

a May 19 news release

from Canada Post.

The corporation said it has had more than a $3 billion in losses before tax since 2018. There will be another significant loss for 2024. The federal government announced this year that it would offer repayable funding of up to $1.034 billion for Canada Post to prevent insolvency, per the news release.

Postal workers went

on strike ahead of Christmas last year

, delaying the deliveries of millions of holiday packages for Canadians. The possibility of a strike at the end of this week comes after recommendations from a report of the Industrial Inquiry Commission by Commissioner William Kaplan.

“The report provides an objective assessment of the challenges facing the postal system and the fundamental obstacles in the negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW. It also offers a series of recommendations for a sustainable path forward for our company,”

per the Canada Post

.

The union said the report “skews heavily” in favour of the corporation in

a May 16 news release

.

“These recommendations amount to service cuts, contracting out, and major rollbacks to important provisions in our existing collective agreements. There is also no guarantee that if these changes are made, Canada Post will increase its parcel business,” the union said. “Canada Post’s proposals have not been fully costed, nor have we been provided with concrete actionable plans. The recommendations also run counter to the demands you put forward and our years of campaigning to preserve and expand the public post office.”

What happened the last time Canada Post workers went on strike?

Postal workers went on strike at midnight on Nov. 15, 2024. The

union said it had been bargaining for a year

without results, therefore decided to strike. The union said its demands included fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office. Although a strike was a “last resort,” it said that Canada Post “must be willing to resolve our new and outstanding issues.”

Bargaining continued with the help of mediators; however, no agreement was reached. After weeks of striking, Minister of Labour

Steve MacKinnon announced

that the government was asking the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to order postal workers to get back on the job.

The union called the government’s involvement an “assault” on the constitutional right to collectively bargain and strike.

After two days of hearings, the CIRB confirmed that the corporation and its workers would not be able to come to an agreement. Employees were ordered back to work on Dec. 17.

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.


Private vehicles enter the United States from Canada at the Peace Arch border crossing on February 1, 2025 in Blaine, Washington.

EDMONTON — With fentanyl smuggling cited by U.S. President Donald Trump as a central motivation behind tariffs slapped on Canadian goods, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has listed fentanyl “super laboratories” in Canada as a “growing concern” to American authorities.

“These operations have the potential to expand and fill any supply void created by disruptions to Mexico-sourced fentanyl production and trafficking,” the report says.

On Thursday, the DEA released its 2025 report detailing threats posed to the United States by illegal drugs and the actions of drug traffickers and cartels. Between October 2023 and October 2024, more than 84,000 Americans died from drug overdoses.

 Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., joined by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., left, talks to reporters ahead of announcements by President Donald Trump on tariffs and why he has put forward a resolution that would end an emergency Fentanyl declaration that Trump used to impose tariffs on Canada, at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

In addition to noting Canada’s production of fentanyl, the report covers the actions of major Mexican drug cartels and China’s role in exporting the ingredients needed to manufacture fentanyl in North America.

“In addition to the synthetic drug threat from Mexico, elevated synthetic drug production in Canada — particularly from sophisticated fentanyl ‘super laboratories’ such as the type seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in October 2024 — presents a growing concern for the United States,” the report says.

While the report doesn’t specify the precise drug bust it was referring to, in late October, the RCMP broke up the “largest and most sophisticated fentanyl and methamphetamine drug superlab in Canada,” which was in Falkland, B.C., a community between Kamloops and Kelowna, and is otherwise known for hosting one of the largest Canadian flags.

The RCMP said the lab could have produced 95 million doses of fentanyl. Investigators seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl, “massive amounts of precursor chemicals,” and hundreds of kilograms in other drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA, better known as ecstasy.

Police also found 89 guns, including 45 handguns, 21 “Ar-15-style rifles” and submachine guns. Nine of the weapons were stolen.

 A sign marks the border between the United States and Canada at Peace Arch Park on February 1, 2025 in Blaine, Washington.

The data on drugs flowing from Canada to the United States show that while there are drugs flowing north to south, the overwhelming majority of drugs smuggled into the U.S. come from the southwestern border with Mexico. In 2024, U.S. border officials seized 21,000 kilograms of fentanyl, 158,000 kilograms of methamphetamine and more than 56,000 kilograms of cannabis.

By comparison, American authorities seized 43 kilograms of fentanyl and 72 kilograms of heroin flowing from Canada to the United States in 2024, statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show. So far in 2025, 26 kilograms of fentanyl have been seized, as has less than one kilo of heroin. Rates of cannabis smuggling are far higher: nearly 7,000 kilograms were seized last year, and this year more than 2,500 kilograms have been seized.

Additionally, more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine have been seized at the northern border this year.

National Post asked the RCMP for comment on the DEA’s threat assessment, but the agency was unable to provide comment by press time. Public Safety Canada referred the Post’s inquiry to the Privy Council Office, where Canada’s new fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, a former Mountie and national security adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, works.

The DEA declined to comment on the report, but noted that Canada has been mentioned in previous threat assessments. Canada received no mention in the 2024 report, but in 2020, Canada was identified as a major source of high-quality cannabis. The report also

identified Indigenous reserves

on both sides of the border as significant routes for drug smuggling.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, both in Rome for the Pope’s inaugural mass on Sunday, discussed border security, a crackdown on fentanyl and increased investments in defence, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a  statement.

Carney said on X he had a “good conversation” with Vance.

“Canada and the United States share a common goal of saving lives and protecting communities from the devastating impacts of the illegal fentanyl trade,” said Pierre-Alain Bujold, a spokesperson with Canada’s Privy Council Office, in an email. “Canadian law enforcement agencies at all levels — municipal, provincial, and federal — are focused on dismantling organized crime networks and shutting down illegal drug production operations.”

In February, Trump declared a state of emergency on his country’s northern border, using that to justify the imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports.

“I determined that the failure of Canada to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept drug trafficking organizations, other drug and human traffickers, criminals at large, and illicit drugs constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” the

president said in a press release

.

In response to Trump’s comments on fentanyl made last year before the emergency declaration, Ottawa amped up drug-enforcement along the border. The

federal government announced

a $1.3-billion border security plan, including appointing Brosseau as fentanyl czar and starting aerial patrols and a special intelligence unit to track down precursor chemicals. The government says that a 56-per-cent increase in the number of RCMP officers and targeted enforcement operations by Canada Border Services Agency officials have increased the number of investigations.

A further crackdown on fentanyl trafficking within Canada, the federal government says, has taken 46 kilograms of fentanyl, and 15,765 fentanyl and other

opioid pills off Canadian streets

.

“The DEA report reinforces what we already know — the fight against fentanyl must be relentless, coordinated, and evidence-based. Canada will continue working closely with our U.S. counterparts to secure our shared borders and safeguard our communities,” said Bujold.

National Post, with additional reporting by The Canadian Press

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Asked about the comments in a briefing with Canadian reporters in Tel Aviv, Lt. Col Nadav Shoshani (pictured) said Hamas figures do not distinguish between civilians and non-combatants.

TEL AVIV — The international spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces has clapped back against Foreign Minister

Anita Anand’s criticism of the Gaza war

, even as the Liberal government broadened its messaging to call for Hamas to disarm and cede power.

In a scrum with reporters after being sworn in last week, Anand described Israel’s post-October 7 war on Hamas as “aggression,” accusing the Jewish state of using food as a political toll. She cited a death toll of 50,000 in the war, a

figure released by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

Asked about the comments in a briefing with Canadian reporters in Tel Aviv, Lt. Col Nadav Shoshani said Hamas figures do not distinguish between civilians and non-combatants. Israel works hard to limit civilian deaths, he said, often issuing warnings beforehand so they can get out of harms way.

“Israel is only country in the world that could be attacked on seven fronts and described as being the aggressor,” he told the reporters on Sunday, travelling in Israel on a trip sponsored by the Exigent Foundation. The seven fronts he named include

Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran,

the Houthis and other enemies.

On the X social media platform on Monday, Anand revealed that Prime Minister Mark Carney had spoken to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and “discussed the urgent need” for Hamas to release the remaining 58 hostages, “lay down its weapons and have no role in Gaza.”

The two leaders also discussed a ceasefire,

“a two-state solution”

and the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, she said. On Sunday, Israel announced a resumption of aid.

Shoshani said he had “a lot of respect for Canada,” but said Hamas started the war and could end it by laying down their weapons and releasing the hostages.

“We’re doing everything we can to fight a terrorist organization and we’re not going to fight it in a non-aggressive way,” he said.

“We’re differentiating and targeting terrorists who have said they want to kill us, kill my family. We have to act against these terrorists to make sure they can’t do that.”

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and saw

251 hostages taken to Gaza.

Most have since been returned to Israel or died. Many of the remaining hostages are believed to have died.


People gather for United Jewish Appeal’s annual Walk With Israel event in Toronto, on Sunday, June 9, 2024.

Toronto Jewish community leaders are hopeful that the

2025 Walk with Israel

will build on the record-breaking attendance, fundraising and public support of last year’s march.

“The Walk with Israel really represents a moment of solidarity and togetherness and pride for the Jewish community in Toronto,” Sara Lefton, the chief development officer of the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto (UJA), told National Post. “I think at a moment where there has been so much antisemitism and so much isolation of the Jewish community that it’s needed now more than ever.”

Last year, the UJA Walk with Israel down Bathurst Street in northern Toronto drew an estimated 50,000 participants, the

largest ever

in the event’s history. Noah Godfrey, a co-chair of the event alongside his wife, is similarly upbeat that this year’s walk will be a positive gathering for Toronto’s Jewish community and their allies supporting the Jewish state.

“We are big believers in the need for the State of Israel, for Jews, and for the need for self-determination. It’s been pretty important a role Israel has played for Jews, not only in Israel, but for the diaspora,” he told the Post.

While sporadic groups of anti-Israel protesters lined the walk’s path last year, some of them yelling antisemitic slurs, Lefton noted that UJA is taking safety precautions seriously ahead of this year’s march. “The Jewish security network is working on behalf of the community with Toronto Police to make sure that there’s a coordinated plan to deal with any counter-protesters and to make sure that we’re safe and secure.”

Godfrey agreed that organizers were taking any potential threats seriously, but emphasized it would not distract them from the importance of the event.

“We’re not deluding ourselves that the people will show up. But we also are not also going to let it ruin our day. We’re gonna have a wonderful day, a wonderful walk,” he said.

Upholding a peaceful environment in which Jews and non-Jews alike show their support for Israel is vitally important, Lefton said. “This is a celebratory march about pride,” she said. “We’re marching as Canadians who are standing with Israel.”

Another major goal of the walk is to raise money for Israelis. Lefton shared that the 2024 event fundraised over $1 million, which was earmarked to help “people in Israel who are suffering as a result of the current situation.” The UJA executive explained that some of the donations had been used to assist families in Sderot, a town which was attacked during the October 7 invasion by Hamas, who are struggling to find mental health and trauma support.

Last year’s walk was buoyed by the return of four Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas and held in Gaza, and this year’s event is equally timely, Lefton said. “It’s a scary time to be a Jew in Toronto and in Canada, in general. We have never seen this kind of hate targeted against our community before,” she said. “Our children are waking up and going to school knowing that there are very real threats that they’re facing. For the last year, our community has really been banding together to make sure that we stand up against this hate and use our voices, because we need to call attention to the fact that we’re facing this kind of hatred and antisemitism and that it’s not acceptable.”

The adversity Canadian Jews have faced throughout the days and months since the October 7 atrocities — swastikas graffitied on schools, bomb threats against synagogues, shootings at Jewish day schools — underscored for Godfrey the unending struggle of the Jewish people to never give up or be complacent.

“We can never take freedom for granted…. I think that is even more palpable today, post-October 7, than it has been in my entire lifetime,” he said.

“It’s even more important now to show our friends in Israel and around the world that they are not alone and that the Jewish diaspora is here and strong and supportive of what we’re fighting for.”

 A huge crowd at the United Jewish Appeal’s annual Walk With Israel event in Toronto, on Sunday, June 9, 2024.

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People wait to cast their votes at a polling station at the Canadian Museum of Nature on April 28, 2025 in Ottawa, Canada.

OTTAWA — The federal government provided private security for close protection or to guard the home of 22 candidates in the last federal election amid a rise in threats and intimidation towards politicians.

Throughout the campaign, 15 candidates were granted private security service that acted as their bodyguard during campaign events or daily activities, Privy Council Office (PCO) spokesperson Daniel Savoie told National Post.

Another two were provided home monitoring services by an unarmed guard, while five met the threshold to receive both services, Savoie said.

This was the first federal election during which the federal government offered private security services to candidates. The program was geared toward politicians who believe their security is at risk during the campaign but where the level of threat does not meet the threshold for police protection.

To be eligible, candidates had to have been physically attacked, had their property targeted by protesters or vandalized, felt threatened by a “disruptive, uninvited individual” at home, or had their personal information posted on the internet, for example.

Former CSIS national security analyst Stephanie Carvin said she was surprised by how many candidates applied to receive additional private security from a program that was announced right as the election campaign began.

“I’m glad that resource is there, but it’s unfortunate that it’s needed,” said Carvin, now an associate professor at Carleton University.

“Individuals who are upset with the politics or politicians are increasingly willing to physically confront the people they see as adversaries or with different point of views. Rather than challenging their ideas, they want to physically confront them,” Carvin added.

Savoie declined to identify which candidates were granted additional security or which party they represented over concerns it could compromise their safety.

But he noted that half (11) were candidates in Ontario, five were in Quebec, four in B.C. and one in both Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

Violence, intimidation and threats were the first concerns highlighted by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force during a briefing days after the election was called on March 28.

“One concerning trend is the intensification and rise of threats of violence and intimidation directed at Canadian public figures,” said the government’s top communications official Laurie-Anne Kempton on March 31.

“Candidates and public office holders should not be dissuaded from exercising their democratic rights because of a perceived or real threat to their personal security,” she added. “It is in Canada’s vital national interest that Canadians running for elected office feel safe.”

The RCMP’s Gregory O’Hayon said during the same briefing the national police force is “very well seized” of the issue of threats to candidates but its protective mandate is limited to members of cabinet, party leaders and a few others designated for protection by the minister of public safety.

“The RCMP unfortunately cannot be everywhere, all at once,” O’Hayon said.

The national police force has previously said it is dealing with an “unprecedented” number of threats towards politicians.

Roughly three years ago, MPs were offered mobile duress buttons, or “panic buttons,” in case they were accosted by a threatening individual. That program has since been extended to senators.

On Friday, Carvin said there is increased risk that politicians become more separated from the people they serve as threats increase against them.

“In order to get elected, they have to be able to meet people, they have to be able to mingle. And if, you know, our politicians become separate from the population, it just doesn’t work,” Carvin said.

“It’s the door knocking, it’s the events, the campaigning and things like that that make our democracy function.”

During the last campaign, Elections Canada also increased availability of security at polling locations in light of ongoing “tensions” caused by the Israel-Hamas conflict and the historic trade war with the United States.

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault told reporters on March 24 that the agency proactively pre-approved security spending for returning officers (who administer the elections in each of the 343 federal ridings) to protect polling locations and offices if needed.

That’s a change from previous elections, where returning officers had to request approval for security expenses as the needs arose, which slowed down the process.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at a campaign stop in Oshawa, Ont., April 3, 2025. It is no secret the Conservative messaging didn’t land well with female voters in the campaign.

Ben Woodfinden, the 31-year-old former director of communications for Pierre Poilievre, understands the challenges faced by younger Canadians. Ten years of a Liberal-led, no-growth government, Ben laments, “means they live in a country that doesn’t work for them anymore.” They want change.

And there’s a flip side, he cynically suggests: Some Canadians are content with the status quo, because it benefits them. They bought houses decades ago that are worth 20 times what they paid for them. It’s in their interest, he argues, to encourage unsustainable levels of immigrants to support existing social programs and to constrain investment in the infrastructure needed to re-energize the Canadian economy.

“A lot of people have had it pretty good, and the status quo in this country works for them,” Ben asserts. “But what that means in reality is managed decline.”

These are the sort of people, he says, who lean into the nostalgic “elbows up” nationalism (

the Mike Myers commercial

being the most emblematic, he notes), reminding them of a Canada that no longer exists. “That kind of vision of Canada,” he frowns, “does not speak to me at all.”

In 2022, Ben was tapped to be Poilievre’s comms director, responsible for crafting the Conservative leader’s public image and the party’s populist, anti-elite messaging, targeting the gatekeepers — bureaucrats, regulators and corporate elites — who stand in the way of opportunity for ordinary Canadians. During the 2025 federal election, Ben became a point man in Poilievre’s media strategy, often by-passing mainstream media in favour of more direct messaging.

Ben’s in Toronto when we connect for a conversation. Now resigned from his partisan role, and scheduled to return to McGill in the fall to finish his political science PhD, he’s exhausted.

“I had two and a half years working for Pierre,” he says, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. “He is the hardest-working guy I’ve ever met in my life,” he chuckles. “…The biggest challenge for me is just keeping up with him. So I’m a bit burnt out.”

There’s a lot of soul-searching going on in conservative circles, he admits, and points to Poilievre’s recent statement affirming the CPC’s need to add roughly one million people to the conservative coalition to get the party over the finish line in a two-party system.

“New Canadians, younger Canadians, working-class Canadians — these are the kinds of people for whom the deal of this country has been fundamentally broken,” he asserts. “So if you want to make that coalition cohesive, you need to add people to it that fit that mould.” And, he explains, “If you add a bunch of disparate groups together that have different interests and values, different norms, that coalition will just fall apart at some point.

“I do think this is going to be a challenge for Carney and the Carney coalition,” he adds, and I concur. The Liberals siphoned off voters from the left and the right in the election, and beyond the “protect us from Trump” mandate, the priorities of Carney’s supporters won’t necessarily align.

Talk of the new kind of conservative coalition that’s emerging animates Ben; his faint British accent (he moved to Canada as a teenager) becomes noticeably more pronounced as his enthusiasm builds.

“What group do you suggest could be added to this coalition?” I ask. “Female voters” is Ben’s unequivocal answer. “We did very well with younger men,” he explains, “and I think there are a lot of women, younger women … who face the same problems as young men … making it harder for them to achieve the things they want to achieve in life.”

 “New Canadians, younger Canadians, working-class Canadians — these are the kinds of people for whom the deal of this country has been fundamentally broken,” says Ben Woodfinden, formerly Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s director of communications.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Ben’s aspiration to engage women, it’s no secret the Conservative messaging didn’t land well with female voters in the federal campaign. We both wince recalling the backlash to Poilievre’s observations about biological clocks early in the campaign.

“So I think it’s going to be about figuring out a way to speak to women … on issues that affect them,” Ben reflects, in ways that don’t alienate other people. But, he admits, it’s a challenge to thread that needle.

There are many divides bubbling up in Canada’s political landscape — generational, regional, rural versus urban, education levels. And now gender. “The parties of the right are increasingly male-dominated,” Ben notes, and the “parties of the left are increasingly female-dominated.” It’s an unhealthy social divide, he adds, “a trend that’s happening independent of any specific leader or any specific party, and I think that’s part of why we didn’t do as well with younger female voters.”

These trends, Ben explains, are happening all over the Western world, all over advanced democracies. “So you can accelerate them and you can minimize them, but you can’t necessarily avoid them.”

In an effort to turn the conversation in a more positive direction, I ask Ben about Poilievre’s decision to run for election in Alberta. “There’s a touch of destiny about this,” Ben answers thoughtfully, “I think he’s going to be an important voice in the next few years, simultaneously speaking to those (western) frustrations and what needs to change, but also articulating a slightly different but more expansive vision, a more inclusive vision, of what it means to be Canadian.

“I think the centre of political gravity is slowing shifting west in Canada,” Ben continues, “just following population trends and demographics.” And our vision of what it means to be Canadian needs to be updated, which he acknowledges is a big project and “not something you can impose from the top down.”

The ubiquitous symbol of Canada is the maple leaf, Ben explains, “but you don’t get maple trees west of Manitoba.” (He means sugar maples, as seen on the flag.) There are shared values across the country — he’s lived in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary, since immigrating to Canada — but, he observes, “it’s very much an eastern-centric Laurentian vision of what this country means, and I still think the future of Canada is very much out west … If people move within Canada, people go east to west, not west to east.”

The resurgent wave of patriotism, triggered by Donald Trump’s threats, is an opportunity to create a slightly different vision of what it means to be Canadian, Ben suggests, one that speaks to a Canada of 2025 and not a Canada of 1991.

The last election was about change, Ben concludes, and that desire for change is not going to go anywhere. “Some people think it will just bubble down, and I think it will just bubble up even more.”

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