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Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a rare comment on the rise of separatist sentiment in Alberta, saying in an interview that he understands the “frustrations” of Albertans mulling an exit from Canada.

“I understand the frustrations … in the development of resources in the province, realizing the full potential of Alberta,” Carney told Ryan Jespersen, the host of the online radio show Real Talk.

He added that, despite the current tensions, he hoped Albertans wouldn’t lose sight of how fortunate they and other Canadians are by global standards.

“The world admires and respects our country. We’re not perfect (but) the world wants what we have … We’re stronger together,” said Carney, who is in Edmonton this week for the Liberals’

national caucus meeting

.

Carney, who grew up in Edmonton, has only talked about separatism in his home province on a few occasions since becoming prime minister in March.

He said during a visit to the Calgary Stampede in July that he was taking grievances

coming out of Alberta “seriously.”

During a May stopover in Washington, D.C., Carney spoke haltingly about the prospect of a referendum on Alberta independence next year.

“As an Albertan, I firmly believe you can always ask, but I know how I would respond,” Carney told reporters.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she’ll

put an independence question

on next year’s referendum ballot if grassroots organizers collect enough signatures. A question proposed by the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) has

been challenged in court

.

Recent polls put support for independence in the

20 to 30 per cent range

among Albertans.

Jeff Rath, a lawyer with the APP, called Carney’s words “meaningless platitudes” that gloss over Alberta’s dire economic straits.

“(Carney) must think we’re pretty stupid if he thinks we don’t notice the correlation between his government’s policies and the fact that Alberta’s unemployment rate

is inching up on Newfoundland’s

,” said Rath.

Alberta’s unemployment rate ticked up to

8.4 per cent in August

, higher than any province other than Newfoundland.

Carney also told Jespersen on Wednesday that he had an “open” working relationship with Smith.

“We’re open about our perspective and we’re working constructively through them,” said Carney.

He said he’d be meeting face-to-face with Smith later in the day.

Carney was not asked about a report earlier in the morning that there will be

no oil and gas pipelines

on his first list of major projects, expected to be unveiled Thursday.

He said in July that

it was “highly, highly likely”

that a pipeline would make the list.

Smith said Wednesday that she was withholding comment on the matter until the list was made public.

Carney told Jespersen a second wave of major projects would be announced by the time the next Grey Cup kicks off on Nov. 16.

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 daily newsletter, Posted, here.


Prime Minister Mark Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he will announce Thursday the first group of so-called nation-building projects his government will fast-track using the sweeping override powers passed by Parliament in June.

Speaking to reporters before a Liberal caucus meeting in Edmonton, Carney said the much-anticipated first tranche of projects focuses on proposals that connect regions and diversify the country’s products and markets.

“Projects that will increase our independence, boost our economy, align with the interests of Indigenous peoples, and advance our climate goals,” Carney said.

Carney will meet with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Wednesday afternoon where projects put forward by the province will surely be discussed.

In the spring, the Liberals passed

the Building Canada Act, which gives cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track natural resource and infrastructure projects deemed in the national interest. 
Provinces then submitted lists of projects they wanted pushed forward using the new federal powers.

Last week, the Liberals announced the head of the Major Projects Office,

former TransMountain CEO Dawn Farrell

, who will help “national interest” projects get through government regulation to be built faster.

None of the projects submitted by provinces to the new office for fast-tracking have been revealed, though Carney has mentioned port expansions such as in Contrecoeur, about 40 kilometres northeast from Montreal on the Saint Lawrence, and the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba with direct access to Hudson Bay.

On Wednesday, Carney also announced a new “Trade Diversification Strategy” this fall that will flesh out the government’s plan to reinforce non-U.S. trade relationships and open access to new foreign markets, particularly in Asia.

More to come.

cnardi@postmedia.com

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 politics newsletter, First Reading, here.


The moment before and after 23-year-old Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed on a Charlotte, N.C., train on Aug. 22. The suspect is 34-year-old Decarlos Brown.

The murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a public train in North Carolina has led to political furore over “failed soft-on-crime policies” in the U.S.



A video of the vicious and unprovoked stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska at the hands of ex-convict Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, was released by the transit authority Friday and has been shared widely on social media.

According to an

FBI affidavit

using the surveillance footage from the Charlotte Area Transit System, on Aug. 22, Zarutska boarded the train around 9:45 p.m. and sat in a row near the back in front of Brown, who is seen wearing an orange hooded sweater.

About four minutes later, as Zarutska scrolls on her phone with AirPods in her ears, the man pulls a knife from his pocket, unfolds it, stands and proceeds to stab her in the neck three times from behind.

“Following the attack, suspected blood can be seen dripping onto the floor as BROWN walked away from the victim,” the FBI Agent Cameron Winchester’s signed affidavit reads.

Extended footage

released since shows the moments after the stabbing as an injured and frightened Zarutska doesn’t seem to realize the extent of her injuries. People around her also don’t seem to fully realize the magnitude of what just occurred and none immediately offer her assistance.

U.S. Donald Trump laid blame on the accused and the state’s democratic government.

“The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail,”

Trump posted on X Monday

, naming former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, who is currently seeking re-election as a state senator.

“North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!”

On Tuesday, as

Trump posted a video

from the Oval Office about the murder,

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said

the woman’s death was a result of “failed soft-on-crime policies” and promised that Brown, “a repeat violent offender,” would face federal criminal charges.

“We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence — he will never again see the light of day as a free man,” she stated.

FBI Director Kash Patel said his agency acted swiftly to assist in ensuring Brown “is never released from jail to kill again.”

According to the affidavit, police arrived not long after and found Zarutska dead inside the railcar, “next to a large amount of blood.” They located and arrested Brown on a nearby platform and recovered the suspected murder weapon covered in blood.

 This undated photo posted to Instagram on June 9, 2025, by Iryna Zarutska shows a picture of herself. (Iryna Zarutska via AP)

In addition to his federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, Brown is also charged with first-degree murder at the state level. A conviction for first-degree murder in North Carolina can result in either a life sentence or death by lethal injection, however, none of the latter have occurred since 2006 following a moratorium. As of Sept. 10, the state counts 122 offenders on its

“Death Row Roster.”

Wednesday,

Trump said on Truth Social that

Brown should receive the death penalty following a quick trial.

“There can be no other option,” he posted.

As reported by

CNN

and multiple news media outlets, Brown has a lengthy criminal history in the state with 14 cases on record, including a five-year sentence for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Other offences include breaking and entering, speeding and shoplifting.

In January, he was charged with misuse of 911, but was released on a promise to attend his next hearing.

“What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets,” Trump asked on X, calling Brown “a mentally deranged lunatic.”

A GoFundMe benefiting Zarutska’s family in the U.S. said the newcomer came the country “seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning.”

As of Wednesday morning, the fundraiser has reached over US$235,000 with a goal of $280,000.

A spokesperson told local TV station

WSOC

that she had just texted her boyfriend to say she would be home soon. Concerned when she didn’t arrive, they used her phone’s location to learn it was still at the train station. When they arrived there, they found out she was dead.

At the time of her death, Zarutska had just left her job at Zepeddie’s Pizzeria, where she worked part-time while also attending college to improve her English.

 This screengrab made from video provided by the Charlotte Area Transit System shows Iryna Zarutska, bottom right, before she was fatally stabbed on a commuter train on Aug. 22, 2025. (Charlotte Area Transit System via AP)

“We lost not only an incredible employee, but a true friend. Our dear Iryna left this world far too soon, and our hearts are heavy with grief,” the pizzeria posted on

Instagram

.

“Since her passing, we have kept a candle burning in her memory — a small reminder of the warmth, kindness, and light she brought into our lives every single day.”

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.


Vancouver Police on April 30, 2025, at the scene where 11 people were killed by a speeding vehicle at a Lapu Lapu Day block party in Vancouver, B.C.

A judge is expected to rule today on whether or not the suspect of a deadly attack at a Vancouver festival is fit to stand trial.

Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, was

arrested on April 26

, after a truck drove into a crowd of people attending the Filipino Lapu Lapu Day Festival. Among the 11 people who were killed was

a five-year-old girl and her parents

. Dozens more were injured.

Lo is facing 11 counts of second-degree murder.

He is expected to appear in court on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. PDT.

 Scenes on April 29, 2025, days after 11 people were killed by a speeding vehicle during a Lapu Lapu Day block party in Vancouver, B.C.

In July, the court heard from two psychiatrists in an effort to determine if Lo is capable, mentally, of standing trial,

Global News reported

. A person would be considered unfit during the trial if their “mental health declines to the point where they no longer can understand” what’s happening, lawyer in the community law program at Community Legal Assistance Society, Jonathan Blair,

told The Tyee

. That would result in pausing the trial until the person has recovered.

“In short: as long as a person can understand that they’re on trial, decide if they want to plead guilty or not and communicate that to the court, the trial can proceed,” said Blair.

 Memorials on the scene where 11 people were killed by a speeding vehicle during a Lapu Lapu Day block party in Vancouver, B.C.

At the time of the attack,

British Columbia’s Health Ministry said

Lo was in the care of a Vancouver Coastal Health team.

“I can tell you that the person we have in custody does have a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health,” said Chief Constable Steve Rai at

a news conference in April

.

Much of what was said during the hearing in July about Lo’s fitness to stand trial has remained under publication ban. However, a media consortium challenged the ban, which asserts that evidence cannot be published until the ban is lifted or the trial is over, The Canadian Press reported.

The judge is also expected to rule on the challenge to the publication ban on Wednesday.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (L) and Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party chief Mark Carney shake hands following the English Federal Leaders Debate broadcast at CBC-Radio-Canada, in Montreal, Canada, on April 17, 2025.

OTTAWA — Half of Canadians believe Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s chances of beating Prime Minister Mark Carney are poor at best even as Carney’s approval ratings show the first signs of slipping, according to a new Leger poll.
 

“Mr. Poilievre still has work to do… to broaden his appeal to the greater electorate,” Leger executive vice-president Andrew Enns said in an interview.
 

A new Postmedia-Leger poll suggests that 50 per cent of Canadians think chances are slim that Poilievre defeats Carney and the Liberals in the next general election. That includes nearly one in five (18 per cent) Conservative supporters. A similar number of Liberal supporters (19 per cent) think Poilievre has a good chance of beating Carney.

Just over one-third of respondents (36 per cent) said they believe the Conservative leader has a good chance of defeating the Liberals, suggesting Poilievre still faces a significant uphill battle in the polls before the next election.

But with nearly three-quarters of Conservatives saying they believe Poilievre has a good chance of beating Carney, it’s likely a positive signal for the party leader ahead of a leadership review in January.

“If you’re the Conservatives, you’ve got to make sure that people are listening to Pierre and you’re connecting not just with your voters” because those numbers suggest Canadians may be tuning Poilievre out, Enns noted.

The picture isn’t entirely rosy for the Liberals either. Carney’s government still leads the Conservatives by nine points (47 per cent compared to 38 per cent), but polling suggests Canadians are getting antsy for the prime minister to start delivering on his commitments.
 

Notably, the poll shows a steady decline in Canadians’ satisfaction in Carney’s government since July. The new data suggest 51 per cent of Canadians are satisfied by the Liberal government, a second consecutive decline since early July (55 per cent).
 

Dissatisfaction with the Carney government has increased by almost the same measure (33 per cent to 38 per cent) over the same period.
 

While satisfaction remains high, the margin between satisfied and dissatisfied Canadians is shrinking fast, Enns said.
 

“Month to month haven’t really been big changes. But when you look at the beginning of summer to where we are now, at the beginning of summer they had a 22-point gap advantage in terms of satisfied versus dissatisfied. That’s narrowed to 13,” Enns said.
 

“As we get into the fall, as we get to the House coming back, there’s a little bit of ‘OK, let’s get going’,” he added about Canadians’ desire to see the government deliver on its electoral commitments.
 

But the polling data also suggest that Canadians weren’t following political news too closely this summer.
 

For example, over half of respondents (53 per cent) said they were not familiar with Carney’s “projects of national interest” initiative, a flagship program that the Liberals have discussed near daily since their election on April 28.
 

“I would imagine that there might be some folks in the Prime Minister’s Office that would go ‘wow, what the heck’,” Enns said. “They did spend a lot of time talking about these national projects.”
 

In the spring, the Liberals passed
the Building Canada Act, which gives cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track natural resource and infrastructure projects deemed in the national interest.
 

Last week, the Liberals announced the head of the Major Projects Office, former TransMountain CEO Dawn Farrell, who will help “national interest” projects get through government regulation to be built faster.
 

None of the projects submitted by provinces to the new office for fast-tracking have been revealed, though Carney has mentioned port expansions such as in Contrecoeur, about 40 kilometres northeast from Montreal on the Saint Lawrence, and the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba with direct access to Hudson Bay.
 

Of all the projects floated as possibilities, the highest number of respondents (46 per cent) said new pipelines to open up markets for Canadian oil and natural gas would have the greatest positive impact on Canada’s economy.
 

A significant majority of Canadians (72 per cent) also want major projects to move forward quicker while only 16 per cent said they should move at the usual pace.
 

“The expectation in the public on that is that they are going to be faster, they are going to be special and they’re going to move quicker,” Enns said.
 

“It’s way easier to say they’re going to move quicker than to actually make them move quicker.”
 

The polling firm Leger surveyed 1,592 respondents as part of an online survey conducted between Sept. 5 to 7. Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not use random sampling of the population.
 

National Post, with files from Catherine Lévesque.
 

cnardi@postmedia.com

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File photo of a Kawartha Lakes Police cruiser.

A strong majority of Canadians feel they have the right to defend their home against intruders — and more than half say they don’t always feel safe in their neighbourhoods and that the justice system is working against their interests, new polling shows.

“I don’t think that’s a healthy sentiment in Canada if over half don’t really feel the justice system is working in their interest,” Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president, said Tuesday about the findings of a new national Postmedia-Leger poll.

The pollster said that could lead to situations where people say, “the law doesn’t respect me, why should I respect the law?”

Eighty-seven per cent of respondents sided with using reasonable force against an intruder. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as well as among Canadians aged 55 and up, the number of those who believe citizens have the right to defend themselves during a break-in climbed to 92 per cent.

“My sense is I don’t think that’s suddenly shot up out of nowhere,” Enns said.

Enns pointed out that home invasions aren’t, unfortunately, new to Canada.

“You always sort of feel that, if it was my house, I would do whatever I had to to defend my family. It’s a high number and certainly it’s going to get attention,” Enns said of the 87 per cent figure. “But I think that if we asked that a couple of years ago, I think it would have been still fairly high.”

The poll was conducted after the Aug. 18 incident where Kawartha Lakes Police charged a Lindsay, Ont., homeowner with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon after he allegedly used a knife against an intruder armed with a crossbow.

After police charged the homeowner, Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke out about a person’s right to protect themself and their family from home intruders and said the justice system is “broken.”

In late August, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government to spell out in law that Canadians have the right to use force, including deadly force, against someone who enters their home illegally and poses a threat to their safety.

When asked how often they worry about general safety, including home break-ins, in the neighbourhood where they live, just over half (51 per cent) of those questioned in the recent poll said they either “worry a lot” (13 per cent) or “worry sometimes” (38 per cent).

Enns pointed out that the number of Canadians worried about general safety peaked at 57 per cent amongst people between the ages of 35 and 54. “That’s also the demographic that is probably most likely to have family in the household and to be a homeowner,” he said.

On the flip side, 38 per cent of those polled responded that they “rarely worry,” and 11 per cent said they “never worry.” In rural areas, the number of those who indicated they’re not worried about break-ins jumped to 60 per cent.

More than half of those polled (54 per cent) said they “feel the justice system — the courts and the laws — is working against the interests of law-abiding citizens.” Support peaked for that sentiment in British Columbia, at 59 per cent.

Nearly a third of respondents (29 per cent) indicated “the justice system is protecting the interests of Canadians,” and 17 per cent said they “don’t know.”

Leger’s online survey of 1,592 Canadians aged 18 or older was conducted between Sept. 5 and 7. A margin of error cannot be calculated for a panel survey. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of the same size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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


OTTAWA — Calls are mounting for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to revive a Trudeau-era effort to regulate tech companies in an attempt to safeguard children from harmful online content.

While the issue has been raised internally, ministers are awaiting direction, including from the Prime Minister’s Office, which remains consumed by U.S. President Donald Trump and advancing the government’s economic agenda.

What’s left is a confusing picture of who is even responsible for the file and whether the Carney government intends to move on the issue of regulation or has abandoned that approach, choosing instead to tackle online harms through criminal justice, as outlined in the Liberal platform.

Meanwhile, children’s health organizations have joined child safety advocates and digital policy researchers in sounding the alarm over the damage minors in Canada face through their online activity, calling for the government to introduce regulations.

“Despite clear evidence of harm, digital platforms face no meaningful accountability in Canada,” Emily Gruenwoldt, president and CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada, said in a statement.

Gruenwoldt wants to see the Liberals introduce a new version of their online harms bill, known as Bill C-63, which failed to pass through Parliament before the spring federal election.

This time, she added in her statement, it ought to focus more narrowly on “platform accountability” rather than include any proposals for stiffer hate crime and hate speech punishments from the last bill, which garnered widespread pushback from civil society groups and opposition parties, before the Liberals, in a last-ditch effort to save it, proposed splitting it.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity for the Carney government to learn from the missteps that we did and that the Trudeau government did, and to come forward with a much more streamlined bill that I think can gain a lot of cross-partisan support,” said Supriya Dwivedi, who served as a senior advisor to former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Dr. Charlotte Moore Hepburn, a pediatrician and medical director of a child health policy wing at the Hospital for Sick Children, Canada’s largest children’s hospital, echoed those calls, saying cases of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders were rising and tied to young people’s time spent online.

“We fully support re-introducing the parts of Bill C-63 that focused on protecting children online, including through the creation of an online safety regulator,” she said in a statement.

Earlier this summer, a “safer online spaces” campaign launched, urging the government to pass new child safety legislation, which included, as listed supporters, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

“A decision to not act and to take a step forward is a decision unto itself, and so I think that’s the real risk here, is inaction,” said Jacques Marcoux, director of research and analytics for the Canadian Center for Child Protection.

Dozens of researchers, authors, and other civil society groups recently sent an open letter to Carney, pressing his government to take 14 different steps

to protect “Canada’s digital sovereignty,”

which listed among its calls, introducing a “new and improved” online harms bill.

“It’s clear that social media companies do not have our children’s best interests at heart. These platforms are engineered to be as addictive as possible,” Dr. Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association, which was among the signatories, added in a statement.

“Clinicians in doctors’ offices and hospitals across the country are grappling with the impacts of this harm.”

In the face of growing calls,

National Post

sought clarity from different ministries to confirm whether the Carney government has any plans to introduce a new version of its online harms bill.

A spokeswoman for Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who steered previous efforts to clamp down on harmful content online the last time he held the job under Trudeau — and would be expected to do so again this time around, according to other government departments and offices — directed questions to Justice Minister Sean Fraser.

 Justice Minister Sean Fraser.

Fraser’s predecessor, former justice minister Arif Virani, was the one to introduce the Liberals’ last bill.

Jeremy Bellefeuille, a spokesman in Fraser’s office, confirmed that it intends to legislate against the online sexual exploitation and extortion of children, as well as toughen the country’s child luring laws. It also plans to increase penalties for the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and create an offence for the non-consensual sharing of sexualized “deepfakes,” which refer to digitally altered images, including through AI.

“We will have more to say as we finalize the legislation,” Bellefeuille wrote.

No timeline was provided for the proposed changes, which were promised in the Liberal platform and focus explicitly on the Criminal Code.

For Shaheen Shariff, a professor at McGill University’s education faculty who specializes in cyberbullying, the approach marks a good first step, but she pointed out that there are many other dangers children face through what she called “technology-facilitated violence,” outside of sex-based crimes.

“The impact is quite devastating for kids who are harassed online or cyberbullied,” she said.

Emily Laidlaw, a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, who sat on the Liberals’ expert advisory group regarding online harms, said she agrees that sexualized deepfakes should be criminalized, but that it does not address the issue of getting them removed once online or stopping their spread.

“The only avenue through this to really address internet safety is corporate regulation,” she said.

Laidlaw added she worries the priority of trying to regulate tech giants in the name of online safety may be slipping.

“It’s a thorny issue. It’s like playing hot potato, right? I mean, there’s no way to take on this issue without it being highly controversial.”

With Carney’s government being the first in Canada to appoint a standalone ministry for artificial intelligence, questions have been raised about the file potentially going to Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon, who is preparing to table his own, separate legislation.

Solomon has said his forthcoming legislation would not contain the same sweeping regulatory provisions for AI systems proposed in Bill C-27, which failed to pass Parliament before the election. Instead, it would focus more narrowly on data and privacy protection, as the Carney government is more interested in promoting AI adoption.

In an interview earlier this week, the minister told host Ryan Jespersen he was also aware of the concerns surrounding the harms caused by this technology and was talking to people about protecting consumers as well as “kids and people from deepfakes.”

Asked whether the bill would address any AI-related harms, his office did not directly answer, citing only how the legislation was under development.

Another complicating factor is U.S. President Donald Trump, given his ire towards countries’ policies on regulating American tech companies and online speech.

Such circumstances mean hopes within Canada to adopt models like those in the U.K., which has its own digital safety regulator, now face a more challenging reality should they be viewed as a trade irritant.

Establishing a new digital safety regulator was at the heart of the Liberals’ last bill, which proposed giving the regulator the power to force platforms to submit safety plans and be subject to fines for non-compliance. It also featured a 24-hour takedown rule for child sex abuse materials and sexual images shared without a person’s consent.

Taylor Owen, the

Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at McGill University, who also served on the government’s online harms expert advisory committee, said countries are dealing with “some of the most powerful companies in human history,” and getting them to listen requires “a vehicle that has authority over operations in your country.” 

“Without that, they are ungovernable.”

Owen pointed out that the U.K. managed to retain both its Digital Safety Act and its digital services tax, the latter of which Canada decided to scrap in an effort to progress negotiations of a trade deal with Trump, who demanded Canada abandon the policy.

Even with Trump changing the landscape, Owen says countries must ask themselves: Are they prepared to give up control of setting their own digital policies?

“Are they going to really cede the governance of their entire digital economy to the whims of the US forever? Like, is that what we’re talking about?”

Michael Geist, the

Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said he believes U.S. opposition to Canada’s digital services tax and law regarding online streaming platforms may have more to do with requiring companies to pay money. 

“The U.S. has talked about opposing heavy-handed speech regulation, but a narrow C-63 premised on the requirement to act responsibly – may not be viewed as threatening,” he wrote in an email.

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The Sanctuary building, which is immediately to the right of the CASA Condos front entrance in Toronto.

A condominium corporation in Toronto has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against a neighbouring church, alleging it has become a “free-for-all haven” for illegal activity, including drug use, trafficking and violent altercations.

“Despite its representations as providing community services to marginalized persons, the Sanctuary has routinely engaged in and/or permitted illegal, illicit, disruptive, interfering and egregious conduct to occur on its property,” alleges the statement of claim, which was filed on behalf of CASA Condos in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last week. CASA Condos “has repeatedly appealed to the Sanctuary to take meaningful action,” the lawsuit says, calling police and speaking with local councillors “in an effort to compel the Sanctuary to take meaningful action, all to no avail.”

The 46-storey glassy high-rise is located at 33 Charles St. East, next door to the Sanctuary. The building was completed in

2010

and was

hailed

shortly after as “one of the first towers to transform the South Bloor East cityscape.”

The claim alleges that condo residents and staff have been yelled at and chased by Sanctuary patrons armed with hammers, steel rods and pipes, and that the church’s property has become a dumping ground for garbage, human waste and drug paraphernalia. The church has also allegedly allowed tent encampments on its property.

Sanctuary Ministries of Toronto is a “church and a community,”

according to its website.

It hosts Sunday services, community meals, health clinics and other outreach programs for marginalized people. The

registered charity

declared nearly $2 million in revenues in 2023. Over half of its annual income that year came from “receipted donations,” according to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Sanctuary first

opened

its doors at 25 Charles St. East in 1992 with a mission of helping people “who are poor and excluded to be the heart and centre of our community,” and purchased the building in 1999.

CASA board president Peter McDonald said the condominium is not seeking to remove the church or people in need of services from the community.

“Our goal remains the same: ensuring the safety of our condo residents and the neighbourhood. If Sanctuary can commit to being a responsible neighbour and work to implement the safety measures we’ve suggested over the years, we would be satisfied and our neighbours would be relieved,” McDonald told the Post in a statement on Tuesday.

“Sanctuary’s operations have created ongoing safety risks for residents and employees,” which, at times, “required repeated police interventions and added security measures,” he said.

The condominium corporation has requested an injunction to prevent Sanctuary guests and occupants from trespassing, creating a nuisance, or threatening occupants of the residential building. The lawsuit is also seeking more than $2.3 million in damages, including compensation to cover property damage, ongoing security services as well as punitive damages.

Rachel Tulloch, the organization’s pastoral director, said in an interview with

Spacing magazine

 last December that there have been campaigns to shut down the church’s outreach programs.

“These tensions are symptoms of a larger systemic problem,” Tulloch said. “We’re not creating issues — we’re attempting to mitigate them.”

Outside the church last Friday, Sanctuary’s executive director, Gil Clelland, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but he sent a statement via email on Tuesday evening that said the organization is prepared to defend itself in court.

“Sanctuary, and the community we serve, are part of the neighbourhood and have been for decades. We’ve now been sued by the condominium next door because they feel inconvenienced by the homelessness that they see,” Clelland wrote. “A lawsuit won’t solve the housing crisis. We urge the condominium to drop the suit.”

The church has not yet filed a statement of defence. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

A handful of people were milling around outside the main entrance to the church last Friday. They spoke about the importance of the institution in downtown Toronto and said there are few alternatives for them.

“I mean, for me, personally, it’s a huge support in terms of meals, clothing,” Ryan Hayashi told National Post. “With the current climate, the surrounding places that used to provide meals, harm reduction they’ve been shut down.” Hayashi said he could understand where condominium residents were coming from, though he felt they didn’t wish to see the whole picture.

“I do, but I don’t think that they’re really willing to see it from our perspective as well.”

 Casa Condos, located in downtown Toronto, is suing its neighbour, Sanctuary Ministries of Toronto.

Rob Dods said he’d been coming to Sanctuary for nearly ten years and that it’s become one of the few places in the city he feels comfortable returning to for help. “What Sanctuary does, what I feel, (it) gives you a sense of community, gives you a sense of friends,” he said.

Dods has been homeless three or four times in his life, and spoke of a troubled past beginning with his first time in jail at the age of 16. “I did something stupid,” the greying Dobs said. “Everybody who’s gonna hear this has problems, right?” He credited the Sanctuary with helping him and other homeless people survive the brutal Toronto winter months. The non-profit also helped him find furniture for a place he was living in at one point and arranged transportation for people attending funerals for family members outside the city.

He believes the condominium’s complaint against the Sanctuary overlooks the broader issue affecting homelessness and social services across Toronto. “People are focusing on one issue when it’s not going to fix the issue,” Dods said. “Even if we fix this place, you have every other place.”

Clelland said Sanctuary is “proud to serve the most marginalized in our community and will continue to do so.”

McDonald called the condo’s lawsuit “a last resort,” the culmination of several failed attempts to address the issues through non-legal means.

“This is about accountability for persistent illegal and dangerous activity outside the Sanctuary that has raised serious safety concerns,” he said. “We are asking Sanctuary, together with the City and the Police, to balance service delivery with basic neighbourhood safety.”


Anti-Israel flyer in Halifax where Davis Cup games between Canada and Israel are to be closed to the public due to

Tennis Canada’s decision to close tie-breaking tennis matches between Canada and Israel to the public due to “escalating safety concerns” is another example of how extremists have hijacked international events, says the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

“This decision was not taken lightly and was made in consultation with the International Tennis Federation (ITF),”

Tennis Canada

said in a statement on Monday.

“Intelligence received from local authorities and national security agencies, combined with disruptions witnessed at other recent events both in Canada and internationally, indicated a risk of significant disruption to this event. At the heart of this difficult decision is our responsibility to protect people while ensuring that this Davis Cup tie can still take place,” said Gavin Ziv, Chief Executive Officer, Tennis Canada.

The

Davis Cup

is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. Organized by the International Tennis Federation, the annual contest hosts teams from over 150 competing countries.

The decision to close the Canada-Israel games to the public has been met with intense concern from the

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

.

“Cheering for Team Canada is part of what it means to be Canadian. Yet, a small group of extremists have hijacked the Davis Cup, silencing thousands of fans—many of whom travelled from afar—who simply wanted to show pride in their country,” Noah Shack, CIJA CEO, said a statement on Monday.

“It is unacceptable that hate, harassment, and intimidation have made it unsafe to support our athletes in our own country.”

This disruption is one more added to a list putting Canada at “a crossroads,” he added.

He noted that extremists have targeted the Toronto International Film Festival, shut down Ottawa’s Capital Pride Parade, forced the closure of MPs’ offices “and even made everyday activities—like visiting bookstores or grocery stores—feel unsafe.”

He called on Canadian political leaders to decide whether the nation is governed by “peace, order, and good government” or fear and intimidation.

Previously, the CIJA

praised tennis officials for refusing to succumb to demands

made by hundreds of anti-Israel activists to cancel a Davis Cup match-up involving the Israeli team.

In a post on X, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) applauded Tennis Canada and the ITF for not caving to the pressure and for “providing opportunities for athletes to compete while ensuring the event remains safe and focused on tennis.”

Today’s Tennnis Canada decision

comes after more than 400 Canadian athletes and academics

, including Olympic runner Moh Ahmed, urged Tennis Canada to cancel the tie over Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

The tie, which will be played on Friday and Saturday, was initially to be played at Scotiabank Centre. Tennis Canada says fans who purchased tickets will receive a full refund within 30 days.

“Roughly 1,500 tickets per day are being refunded,” a Tennis Canada spokesperson told

TSN

.

Halifax Regional Police did not say whether threats were directed at the Israeli team, but said officers will be present at the event.

This isn’t the first sporting event involving calls for an Israeli team to be suspended or an event to be cancelled because of their participation.

Last month, the Italian Soccer Coaches’ Association said it wrote a letter calling for Israel to be suspended due to the war on Gaza. That was before the two sides met Monday in a men’s World Cup qualifier in Hungary.

On Monday, Montreal-based human rights group Palestinian and Jewish Unity asked Mayor Valérie Plante to bar the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team from competing in Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.

The Canada-Israel matches are being broadcast on TVA Sports and CBC’s streaming services. The winner will advance to the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers.

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.


Canadian Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa.

Despite calling the service provided by Canada Revenue Service call centre agents “completely unacceptable” and hitting “rock bottom,” Wayne Long, secretary of state responsible for the CRA and the country’s financial institutions is reluctant to say whether there will be future cuts at the agency.

Long, like all federal ministers, is under orders by the prime minister to find up to 15 per cent in his department’s daily spending over the next three years, in advance of the Liberals’ first budget, expected in October.

However, Long is reluctant to commit to any cuts. He will only say he is “not going to prejudge the review process,” while also promising CRA service “will not get worse…It can’t get much worse than it is now.”

He emphasized that people “are waiting too long,” but added: “We will get this right.”

The comments were made during an

interview with CTV

on Monday.

The

Union of Taxation Employees

, which represents CRA workers, blames the call centre problems on job cuts that have already been made. It says nearly 3,300 call centre employees have lost their jobs since May 2024. According to Treasury Board data, the CRA employed 52,499 people in 2025, compared to 59,155 in 2024.

Consequently, says the union, fewer than five per cent of callers on average reach an agent.

In early September, the CRA got marching orders from National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne to shape up. He instructed the agency to launch a 100-day plan to improve its service and cut the delays many Canadians have been experiencing.

“If this was a call centre selling hotel rooms, (the agency would) be out of business, and heads would roll,” Long told CTV.

 

Despite acknowledging Canadian taxpayers’ distress, Long confirmed that the CRA is reversing a plan to end the contracts of 850 employees in call centres. Those contracts have been past next year’s tax-filing deadline he says.

Meanwhile, in addition to “reallocating internal resources” and introducing new “call scheduling tools” to help call centres, the agency was also “deploying targeted teams to improve delivery time in high-demand areas such as T1 adjustments, Disability Tax Credit applications, and Canada Child Benefit claims,” a CRA spokesperson recently told

the Ottawa Citizen

.

Still, the CRA is cutting in other ways. It is not extending contracts for 250 term employees at tax centres. The CRA has cut back the size of its workforce as programs introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic are phased out. The culmination of the tax centre contracts are part of that readjustment 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.