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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state on Sunday, just ahead of his arrival in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

Carney said in a statement that the Netanyahu government’s expansionist policies forced him to reverse Canada’s longstanding policy of waiting for a two-state solution to be achieved via a negotiated settlement.

“The current Israeli government is working methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established … It is in this context that Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” wrote Carney.

Carney said Canada would be a partner in a “coordinated international effort to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.”

Today, Canada recognises the State of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/zhumVJRBfe

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) September 21, 2025

He added that the Palestinian Authority has made “direct commitments” to Canada and other international partners to hold general elections next year, where Hamas will be barred from running candidates.

These would be the first elections in the Palestinian territories since 2006. Polls show that Hamas is still by far the

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Scott Moe sounds like a changed man, and it is both fascinating and illustrative to listen to him. Ottawa is no longer an impediment to Saskatchewan’s success; it might even be part of the solution. But that’s not all that’s on his mind.

“The generational opportunity that we have here is one I hope we don’t let pass by,” says the Saskatchewan premier. “And maybe that, in some ways, is determining a little different approach that I, myself, and our government, has taken with a new prime minister.

“We see these opportunities before us, and we’re really trying to change our tone so that we’re able to actually work together to achieve them,” he adds.

Since arriving back home this week from his recent trade mission to China — hopefully a step in the direction of persuading Beijing to back down on punishing tariffs on Canadian canola — the Saskatchewan premier has softened his tone toward Ottawa, and he’s waxing optimistic on the silver linings in this trade crisis. It’s enough to make one wonder what he saw and heard in China.

In a media scrum earlier this week, Moe chided journalists for their focus on the tariff challenges and failure to report on the potential opportunities. Loath to be accused of cynicism — who wants to be lumped in with nattering nabobs of negativism? — in a recent one-on-one conversation with Moe, I ask him to tell me more about these so-called opportunities.

Obviously pleased with the question, Moe enumerates the projects in Saskatchewan that just need a little punt to get over that finish line; sectors in his province that can be helped along by the momentum of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s nation-building campaign.

First, there are uranium mining projects that have provincial approvals, just “waiting to find their way through the federal regulatory process,” he says. These would create jobs, he reports, for northern and indigenous communities, “ethical jobs … as well as sustainable jobs for communities that otherwise don’t have a lot of other employment opportunities.”

Second, “we have the opportunity to move further into the ag value-added space,” he declares. “You know, trade, tariffs, market access; all of these things — it’s a different conversation when you’re talking about ingredients as opposed to raw agriculture products.”

While I don’t disagree, I can’t resist pointing out that some of these projects have stalled.

Viterra’s July merger with U.S.-headquartered Bunge Global SA meant there was a reassessment of its plans to build the world’s largest integrated canola crushing facility in Regina. “Yeah, well, we are in a global environment,” Moe responds, “so there’s going to be an American and a global touch.”

But Saskatchewan has homegrown companies and we’re getting into opportunities for high value pulse ingredients (edible dried seeds from the legume family, including dried peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas), he assures me in an upbeat tone. And, he enthuses, “add to that the irrigation project and the higher value-added crops, the sky’s the limit on the value per acre.”

The third opportunity on Moe’s list is oil. If there was more certainty in regulatory policy governing the oil industry, this sector could be firing on all cylinders, he suggests. While Saskatchewan oil wouldn’t find its way into a further-west pipeline from Fort McMurray to Prince Rupert, that oil pipeline would mean a higher price for Saskatchewan oil flowing to the U.S. And, he notes, it would free up more space on the rails for Saskatchewan’s other exports — including potash and agri-food products.

The premier is determined to assure me the big, beautiful, blue prairie sky is not falling. In fact, he’s quite philosophical: “I think the greatest opportunity — since I’ve been elected, maybe this generation, is actually, to determine our own destiny.” For Saskatchewan, that means being able to provide “the world with some of the most sustainably produced products that you can find on Earth.”

Things have changed: “What is today, and what will be for the foreseeable future, is different than it was yesterday,” he says, talking about Canada’s trade relationship with the United States. That fact also has implications for relations within Canada.

“My urging to the federal government, and to my colleagues at the subnational level,” he says: “We need to do our level best to not pit one industry against another, to support the federal government in finding what’s the quickest and the strongest and in the best interest of Canadians … what the best path forward looks like.

“It might be some small tariffs on a number of different industries,” he suggests, “or all industries, potentially blanket tariffs, hopefully zero, but they might be a small amount.

“But that is better for Canadians than trying to backstop and support industries that are, you know, tens of billions of dollars in size,” Moe argues. “Because quite simply … we just can’t afford that for any length of time.” And then Moe crunches the numbers:

A 20 or 30 or 40 per cent loss in revenues on a $43 billion canola industry is $10-, $15- or $20-billion, he reports; that’s one industry. “Bring in the auto industry, which is similar, maybe just slightly smaller in size, that’s another $10 billion,” he adds. “The steel industry, I think it’s about a $15-billion industry, bring in five there.

“We don’t have $40- or $50-billion to start, you know, propping up industries that quite honestly can function quite well on their own, as long as we have that market access.”

The Saskatchewan-led trade mission to China didn’t bring about Beijing’s capitulation on the anti-dumping claims against Canada at the World Trade Organization (WTO). But Moe sees the engagement as a step in the right direction. The WTO process takes roughly three years for any type of ruling, he explains, and “I think the North American economy, for sure, needs to find a path forward much sooner than that; three months would be long enough, let alone three years.”

What does Moe hope to see in the months ahead? “A number of different ministers — maybe trade, agriculture, foreign affairs — starting to engage with their counterparts in the lead-up to the G20, the APEC summit,” ultimately resulting in a face-to-face between Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and some resolution, as other countries including Mexico and Europe have achieved.

For the last decade, the Saskatchewan government railed against Ottawa, even taking the feds to the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge the fairness of federal policies. The premier speaks candidly about his change of heart:

“Today, what’s happening, is we as Canadians, not as the province of Saskatchewan or a specific industry, but we as Canadians, are having things done to us — in the way of market access, tariff conversations, trade relations — from other leaders outside of Canada. We need to come together and we need to defend what is truly the Canadian economy and the Canadian opportunity, moving forward.”

It’s a breathtaking change of tone, attributable in part, I conclude, to two things. First, Carney’s nation-building plan emphasizes the worth of the resource sectors in their ability to carry Canada through this storm. And second, Moe has a sense of nation-wide public support at his back.

Carney will have to deliver on the optimism.

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A councillor in Milton, Ont., has filed a complaint with local law enforcement alleging that a recent anti-Israel street protest “was illegal” and represented a threat to public safety.

The “Globalize the Intifada” rally took place in downtown Milton on the afternoon of Sept. 6 that was co-organized by Liberate Palestine Forty-Eight.

Video clips

of the event shared on the group’s

Instagram

account show demonstrators chanting, “Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada,” and “There is only one solution.” Some participants wore sweaters bearing the refrain, “From the river to the sea,” which is understood by some to be a call for the eradication of Israel.

A black pickup truck with a loudspeaker appeared to lead the procession. It drove across the yellow median line down Milton’s Main Street as drums thudded in the background.

Calls to “Globalize The Intifada” are now hitting @TownOfMiltonON for Saturday September 6th.

What says you residents of Milton? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/uo37vUMuL8

— Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) August 31, 2025

“It was an illegal protest,” Councillor John Challinor II told National Post. “They had not sought a permit from the Town of Milton, they had not reached out for paid traffic management services by the police, which is really important. They had no insurance, right? Those are the three key things. So when you’re doing that, you’re putting yourself at risk. As a group, if you do protest, you’re putting the public at risk.”

Challinor raised the issue at the end of a

town hall

meeting on Sept. 8, a day after he reported the incident to Halton Regional Police Service.

“There are a number of Miltonians who, for the first time in their lives, are wondering why they still live here,” Challinor said.

“These illegal protests need to stop immediately. Not next year. Not next month. Not even next week. Now.”

He asked Milton’s business, political and religious leaders step up and call “out lawlessness in our community.”

However, Challinor doesn’t expect the police or town council will do anything.

“I have heard nothing from Milton Council, other than they have referred their constituents with questions to me. All constituents who have reached out to me through my fellow councillors wanted to know how the illegal protests can be stopped,” he said on Friday.

Liberate Palestine Forty-Eight did not respond to National Post’s request for comment before publication.

Another protest organizer, the Milton Palestine Action Committee, forwarded the Post a written statement sent to Milton’s town council on Tuesday, addressing Challinor’s comments.

“His remarks are not only inaccurate — they risk seriously misleading the public and disingenuously aim to silence citizens exercising their Charter-protected rights to free expression and peaceful assembly,” the statement reads. “These protests respond to genocide. That word is not rhetoric — it is fact in law and evidence.”

The Milton Palestine Action Committee called Challinor’s argument that they did not seek a permit “false.”

“In November 2023, Town staff explicitly advised organizers: ‘The Town of Milton does not issue permits for road closures related to protests.’ Organizers have consistently coordinated with Halton Police, either in advance or on site, who were present at each demonstration to ensure traffic management and public safety,” the group said.

Rob Faulkner, a public relations advisor with the town, would not specifically address the case of this protest, but he said that Milton “does not issue permits specifically for protests.”

“The Town may issue permits for events that require road closures, noise exemptions, or vendor sales of goods or merchandise; however, the Town was not approached about permits for this event,” the statement continued.

When asked for clarification whether Milton issues permits for protests involving road closures or if such documentation is not required, Faulkner pointed the Post to

town policies

, which do not specifically mention protests,

but do cover all “public events

.” Faulkner did not give a definitive answer when asked whether Milton Palestine Action Committee’s statement about not needing a permit in this situation was correct.

“Requirements for events are detailed on the web page and event form shared earlier,” he said.

The Halton Regional Police Service confirmed receipt of Challinor’s complaint in a document shared with the Post and acknowledged the matter would be “reviewed and investigated by our District Response Unit.” Ryan Anderson, a media relations officer with Halton police, told the Post in a written statement that because it was “an active matter, I am not able to provide further details or updates at this time.”

Anderson shared with the Post information police had earlier provided to Challinor, explaining that over a dozen members of Halton police were dispatched “to ensure public safety and manage traffic.” However, “despite considerable efforts, we were unable to establish contact with any of the event organizers, even though multiple groups were promoting it.”

Anderson said that “no significant incidents, and no arrests were made,” and clarified that attending officers “did not observe any behaviour that would be classified as hate speech.” He added that Halton police were unaware “of any permits issued by the Town of Milton for this event.” He requested members of the public come forward if they had any “evidence of hate speech or criminal activity related to the protests.”

Asked whether driving over the median lane or closing down a main street during a future demonstration could lead to any penalties, Anderson said the role of Halton police was to uphold “the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees certain rights and essential freedoms. These include freedoms of opinion, expression, and peaceful assembly. Our role is to balance these rights while maintaining public peace and order for residents, businesses, and road users.”

“Each situation is assessed on an individual basis, and our officers apply discretion to ensure that gatherings remain safe (and) peaceful,” Anderson continued. “The exercise of police discretion should not be mistaken for lack of enforcement — in some cases, officers may wait for a lower-risk opportunity to take action rather than inflame a situation.”

Challinor

said that local law enforcement was unprepared for the protest and were forced to rush over once it began to ensure public safety wasn’t jeopardized. “There was chaos. Chaos on that street, on Main Street, chaos on the streets that are secondary to it. That’s what got people upset,” he said.

“Crown attorneys and the court system have to take a hard, legally compliant line on hate speech, illegal protests and the organization of acts that threaten public safety.”

Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. Councillor Colin Best directed the Post’s request for comment to the mayor’s office and Councillor Adil Khalqi encouraged the Post to contact Halton police.

Josh Landau, the director of government relations for the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) in Ontario, told the Post that such demonstrations are part of a “disturbing surge in hate, intimidation, and violence” in Canada since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

“Extremists have targeted our places of worship, disrupted Pride parades, forced the closure of MPs’ offices, and created an environment where even simple activities — visiting bookstores, parks, or grocery stores — can feel unsafe,” Landau said in an email.

“We urge leaders at every level of government to confront extremism — whether at home or abroad — as well as urgently boost Jewish community security, and ban the glorification of terrorism in our streets. And it is our firm expectation that the authorities enforce the law and ensure everyone’s safety.”

Challinor decided to speak out because, “honestly, I’d had enough. I really felt that it was time to make it very clear that this is not acceptable in our community,” he said.

“I’ve been becoming increasingly frustrated, quite frankly, by these protests,” he said. “It really was, I felt, time to sort of draw the line because it’s having a negative impact on our community.”

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Warning, this story contains graphic details

A Calgary judge knocked two years off a 10-year sentence he would have given a man who terrorized and repeatedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl he met when he was 25 because the offender is Indigenous.

The man of Cree heritage on his mother’s side, who first met the girl on Instagram, is identified only as RJM

in a decision from the Alberta Court of Justice

. His victim, who he assaulted and threatened to kill multiple times between the spring and fall of 2023, is identified as AB.

“The offender repeatedly had sexual intercourse with her knowing that he held the power in the situation not only because of their age difference but also because he had inflicted physical harm on her and psychological terror to ensure that she would comply,” Justice Jayme Williams wrote in a recent decision.

RJM’s lawyer argued for a six-year sentence for her client who also plead guilty to leading police on a wild chase before he was arrested in September 2023 and to threatening the girl and her mother once he was locked up to convince her to recant her statement to police.

The Crown recommended the man be sentenced to 10 years in a penitentiary.

“But for his Gladue factors, I would have imposed the sentence sought by the Crown,” Williams said in his decision dated Sept. 15 that sentenced RJM to eight years in prison.

Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision a quarter century back and indicate sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.

“The offender’s life has been directly influenced by many of the Gladue factors,” Williams said.

“He has existed for extended periods of time in his life in a state of severe poverty or homelessness, he is under educated, he has struggled with severe addiction issues and as a child was taken from his family and placed in a foster care system where he was sexually abused and separated from his siblings. The racism he faced in his own family and in the outside world, no doubt impacted his views as to how others should be treated.”

According to the decision, RJM “lives his life in a state of fight versus flight, it is a direct reflection of how he has been forced to live since a very young age.”

The court heard the man had dragged the girl by the hair and punched her in the face.

“He also threw an object at her and struck her with a metal pole. These acts resulted in her having a large bruise on her right arm and another bruise on her neck. After the physical assault concluded, he pulled her pants off and penetrated her vagina with his penis. A.B. did not wish to have sexual intercourse with him on this occasion, he stopped, pulled his penis out of her vagina, and started to cry,” said the decision.

“On another occasion he drove her out of the city and left her on the side of the road to walk back. He eventually returned for her.”

The court also heard he threatened to kill the girl’s mother and her cat, “specifically telling A.B. she was a ‘dead slut’ and that her mother A.C. was ‘going to get hit too.’ He told A.B. that he would put a bullet in her head and stated that there was a bomb and A.C.’s car would be totaled. A makeshift nail bomb had been placed under A.C.’s car. She discovered it after she ran over it and it exploded.”

Shortly after RJM met the girl online, they agreed to meet in person at the Anderson Light Rail Train station,” said the decision. “Between this first meeting and his arrest in September, they met almost every second day” and regularly had sexual intercourse.

A.B. told him she was 16, said the decision. “He took no steps to substantiate her age initially, but on (Sept. 1, 2023) the offender took a photograph of A.B.’s passwords and accessed her Calgary Board of Education account. It was on this date that he learned she was 13.”

He admitted being violent with her when the girl was still 12 while they were driving around in his car, said the decision. “They began to argue about infidelity. He brandished a knife pointing it at A.B. and telling her he was going to kill her. He also searched her phone confirming she was not cheating.”

Once he learned her true age, RJM “confronted her via text message about lying. His texts divulge his awareness that her actual age resulted in ‘a whole new level of consequences.’”

He made a “conscious decision to continue the relationship despite his receipt of this new information,” said the decision. “He speaks to A.B. in possessive terms stating, ‘better or worse you belong to me,’ ‘that p—y is mine and that bulls–t sexy little attitude,’ ‘delete every message I ever send to you at the end of the night.’”

His texts on Sept. 4, 2023, “include a mix of disbelief that she is so young and a decision to sexually make the most of her age. There is a progression detailed in the (agreed statement of facts) from him being disturbed by her age to him being aroused by it,” said the decision.

“The texts begin with the following sentiments, ‘I’m in shock,’ ‘I’m seriously disturbed right now like feel really scared,’ ‘I can get labelled after a pedophile’ and progress to ‘I might as well earn these potential life changing charges.’”

While RJM seems “concerned about the potential jeopardy he faces as a result of his conduct initially, telling her to delete all of his messages by (Sept. 5, 2023), he is making no effort to hide it.”

One of the girl’s friends called Calgary Police Service on Sept. 11, 2023, “as a result of aggressive text messages the offender sent to A.B. while her friend was present. These texts included the offender calling A.B. a ‘f–king rat,’ ‘f–king piece of s–t’ and ‘f–king whore.’ He threatened to shoot up and burn down her mother’s residence and that of her friend. He threatened to kill her mother and her friends and he sent a video of him holding a blowtorch and a video showing that he was outside the residence of A.B.’s mother. He texted ‘Where the f–k are you slut, Daddy’s gunna slit your throat you f–king whore.’”

Police found him driving southbound on 18th Street at Glenmore Trail SE.

“They attempted to stop him and he fled,” said the decision.

“He was pursued by several marked police vehicles and (police helicopters) at different times during a chase that lasted over 26 minutes and covered approximately 18.6 km.”

RJM “drove at speeds well over posted speed limits, reaching a speed of 140 kms/hr at one time during the chase. He ran numerous red lights.”

Police tried “a high-risk vehicle stop at one point at 114th Ave SE and Barlow Trail which was unsuccessful,” said the decision.

When RJM drove into a garage at the Anderson LRT station police attempted to contain him, said the decision. “He rammed the closed garage door to escape causing $10,000 worth of damage.”

He eventually then drove through a residential green space, hitting a fence and a tree before abandoning the car.

RJM fled on foot and got into the sunroom of a home on Canterville Road SW, said the decision. “When confronted by residents of that property, he fled on foot and was intercepted and arrested by officers.”

When RJM was arrested, police searched his backpack, which contained a manilla folder, said the decision. “The folder had ‘BOOM FOLDER’ written on the front and ‘Munitions Supply Folder, Burials, Advanced Techniques’ written on the back. Inside it contained documents which included details for making explosives, modified ammunition, improvised firearms, and techniques on how to properly dig a grave.”

A search of RJM’s car turned up a butane torch, rifle cleaning kit, hatchet, pick-axe, sledgehammer and knife.

While he was in custody and subject to and order not to contact A.B., RJM called her 15 times, said the decision.

“He also called R.Y., a friend of his in an effort to have A.B. drop the charges,” it said, noting RJM was “urging his friend to get her to, ‘recant her statement so (he) can get out of here.’ Noting that if she dropped the charges, he wouldn’t have to ‘get her house shot up.’”

According to the judge, RJM “was involved in a sexual relationship with a teenager for over three months. He was aware she was 13 for 10 days. His conduct was intentional over the course of that 10 days and the sexual acts were continual. This was not a temporary lapse of judgment on his part. In fact, his arousal having learned that A.B. was 13 resulted in the sexual acts becoming more egregious over the course of that 10 days.”

Those acts didn’t stop until police arrested RJM, said the judge.

“The gravity of any major sexual assault against a child is high but the gravity of these specific offences is higher than most,” Williams said. “While I recognize the physical impacts were somewhat transient, I have no doubt the psychological injuries will be long standing.”

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As the Supreme Court of Canada considers limits on the use of the notwithstanding clause, the Alberta government is considering invoking the clause to preserve three pieces of legislation affecting transgender minors in the province.

A memo from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office directs the Alberta justice ministry to develop plans for the use of the notwithstanding clause to protect the controversial legislation from being struck down by the courts, The Canadian Press reported Thursday.

“As you are aware, the premier’s office has directed that legislation be developed for the fall legislative session to amend the following pieces of legislation to permit each to operate notwithstanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Bill of Rights,” says the memo from Malcolm Lavoie, deputy minister of justice.

However, the use of the notwithstanding clause could soon be subject to new guidance from Canada’s top court, which could impact the way Alberta implements section 33 on its three pieces of legislation.

The first law, which is currently facing a Charter challenge from Egale Canada, the Skipping Stone Foundation and five transgender youth, seeks to ban doctors from providing medical treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under the age of 16 and imposed a blanket ban on gender reassignment surgery for minors in the province. It is currently not operative, subject to an injunction issued by Alberta’s Court of King’s Bench.

The second law requires students to receive parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school, and the third law bars transgender athletes aged 12 and older from competing in female amateur sports in Alberta.

The Alberta government has long considered the notwithstanding clause as an option of last resort to protect its legislation, and unlike Saskatchewan, which preemptively used the notwithstanding clause to shield its school pronoun legislation, Alberta has been reluctant to use the clause before the courts have actually ruled.

At present, the notwithstanding clause may be renewed indefinitely and there are no restrictions on a government invoking the clause preemptively.

In court filings related to a constitutional challenge to Quebec’s secularism legislation, the Canadian government asked the Supreme Court to consider temporal limitations on the use of the notwithstanding clause, which has been invoked to keep Quebec’s secularism law on the books. The clause, which allows governments to implement otherwise unconstitutional legislation, must be re-invoked every five years.

The federal government argues that the notwithstanding clause “cannot be used in a way that produces permanent effects” — that is to say, renewed indefinitely — that the notwithstanding clause cannot be applied to rights in several sections of the constitution, and that courts should still be able to say whether a policy violates rights, even if it cannot strike such legislation down because of the invocation of the notwithstanding clause.

“The constitutional limits of the s. 33 power preclude it from being used to distort or annihilate the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter,” reads the submission.

Smith, writing on X on Thursday, urged the federal government to withdraw its intervention before the Supreme Court.

“We are extremely disappointed that the Federal Government would risk national unity and a foundational principle of our constitution by attempting to attack the use of the notwithstanding clause by a sovereign provincial government,” Smith wrote.

The Notwithstanding Clause is integral to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an unassailable provincial constitutional right.

While the Alberta government does not support the content of Quebec’s Bill 21, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Quebec’s constitutional… https://t.co/3sKnFhL82Z

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) September 19, 2025

Eric Adams, a constitutional law professor at the University of Alberta, said he would be surprised if the Supreme Court of Canada sets limitations on the use of s. 33 of the Constitution.

“The idea that that there’s some kind of internal limit on the number of times that the notwithstanding clause can be deployed in a row, that’s a relatively novel legal argument,” said Adams in an interview. “I think there’s going to be strong pressure on the court not to go outside the bounds of the words of the provision itself.”

If, however, the Supreme Court places any sorts of limitations on the use of the notwithstanding clause, it could limit the way that Alberta — and other provinces — are able to use it. While the government of Canada’s factum does not specifically address the issue of preemptively using the notwithstanding clause, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said in the past that he’s uncomfortable with it being used in advance of a court decision.

In 1988, in the Ford v. Quebec case, Adams said that the Supreme Court declined to place prohibitions on the preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause. “If the court is going to change views on that, and I would be surprised if they do, it’ll have to be that they overrule themselves,” Adams said.

Where the court is more likely to make a decision is on the question of whether a court can make a constitutional judgment in spite of the invocation of the notwithstanding clause. In the case of Saskatchewan’s pronoun case, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal concluded that the court could still weigh in on the constitutionality of the province’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, even if it could not be struck down because the notwithstanding clause had been used.

“Just like a government might use the notwithstanding clause after a court says that a law is unconstitutional, there’s nothing very different from that scenario than from a scenario in which the government uses it preemptively, but then the court says, ‘OK, but, but we still have the capacity to explain the way in which this might limit rights,’” said Adams.

While the Alberta Court of Appeal has not faced a similar question, since Alberta’s transgender laws are still in the early stages of their court battles, whichever way the Supreme Court rules could affect what the courts have to say.

In its filings with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the Alberta government argue that there can be no judicial review of the invocation of the notwithstanding clause and that there is “no legal basis for a court to issue what is in effect an advisory ruling on what the Constitution would require in the absence of s. 33.”

The scenario that would emerge here is one in which a government may have shielded its legislation with the notwithstanding clause but the court nevertheless says that in the absence of the notwithstanding clause, it would be invalid. The Canadian government argues that such information would “inform the evaluation, by voters and their representatives, of the justification of re-enacting a s. 33 declaration,” but the Alberta government argues that this would inappropriately pull the judiciary into the political sphere.

“A court proceeding on this basis would effectively become an interest group vying for the attention of voters in a political forum,” Alberta argues. The province also says that the use of the notwithstanding clause includes “public debate in the assembly along with broader public discussion and engagement,” which culminates in an election to hold the government accountable.

“It should not be assumed that this alternative process … will necessarily lead to unacceptable or inferior outcomes when compared to judicial review,” the province says.

National Post with additional reporting from The Canadian Press

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JERUSALEM — Iranian intelligence services are systematically outsourcing terrorist attacks to international criminal organizations, using drug cartels, biker gangs, and local criminals as proxies to target Jewish communities, Israeli interests, and Iranian dissidents worldwide, according to intelligence reports, government documents, and The Press Service of Israel’s interviews.

The strategy reflects a deliberate shift by Tehran to maintain plausible deniability while expanding its shadow war against Israel and Jewish communities. Recent arrests and foiled plots from North America to Germany to Australia reveal how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence recruit criminals-for-hire to carry out surveillance, assassinations, and terror attacks.

Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador in August 2025 after confirming that the IRGC had ordered arson attacks on Jewish institutions in Sydney and Melbourne.

But Iran’s connection to other attacks abroad has drawn less attention. Analysts describe Tehran’s approach as “narco-terrorism” — leveraging drug cartels, smuggling rings, and transnational criminal networks to fund operations and strike adversaries while shielding the Iranian state.

“What is being revealed does not reflect the full scope of Iran’s activity,” counterterrorism expert Moran Alaluf told TPS-IL.

Alaluf is an Iran and Hezbollah researcher at the David Institute for Security Policy and a research fellow at the Institute for Israel-Africa Relations.

“Because of its sophistication, its ability to avoid fingerprints on the ground, and support from criminal organizations, local collaborators, and the extreme left, Iran is managing to remove its name from many actions,” she explained.

Dr. Omer Dostri, who studied IRGC criminal partnerships in 2022, documented how Iranian forces repeatedly relied on Turkish and Cypriot crime groups, Afghan heroin cartels, and Mexican gangs like Los Zetas to pursue strategic objectives.

“The use of organized crime provides Iran plausible deniability because these acts appear informal; there is no reason to respond or condemn them,” Dostri’s report said, published by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

Sweden

Iran’s criminal partnerships became evident in March 2025 when the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish-international crime organization involved in drug trafficking. U.S. Treasury officials said the network carried out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe at Tehran’s instruction, including an assault on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in January 2024.

Foxtrot’s leader, Rawa Majid, coordinated directly with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. The arrangement allowed Tehran to maintain “plausible deniability” while leveraging criminal expertise in weapons, logistics, and local networks.

Majid and Foxtrot were linked to attacks on Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Brussels, as well as the Elbit Systems offices in Gothenburg, recruiting teenagers to carry out the operations.

Majid remains at large, reportedly living in Iran under Tehran’s protection.

Germany

In Germany, federal prosecutors arrested a Danish citizen of Afghan origin in June 2025 on espionage charges. Ali S., according to German court records, conducted surveillance of Jewish institutions and individuals in Berlin for the IRGC’s Quds Force, which specializes in operations outside Iran.

“In early 2025, Ali S. received an order from an Iranian intelligence service to collect information on Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals in Berlin. To this end, he surveilled three properties in June 2025, presumably in preparation for further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General’s office said in January.

Sacha Stawski, president of the Frankfurt-based antisemitism watchdog Honestly Concerned, said intimidation has forced many Jews to “hide their symbols” or consider leaving Germany.

“The third option is to fight as long and as strongly as you can. We know these attacks will keep happening, and Iran is involved. Awareness is rising,” he told TPS-IL.

Greece

Greek authorities grew suspicious in 2024 when an Iranian man was arrested alongside an Afghan and a Greek attempting to set fire to an Athens synagogue.

A senior politician in Greece’s ruling New Democracy party, familiar with intelligence and security issues, told TPS-IL that Tehran has established contacts with far-left and anarchist groups, including Rouvikonas, a violent organization linked to the dismantled “17 November” terrorist group, which coordinates anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish actions.

“Iran now considers Greece hostile territory because of Israel,” the source said, adding that Tehran uses local figures to destabilize Greek-Israeli relations.

United Kingdom

Britain’s MI5 disclosed that it had disrupted at least 15 Iranian plots to kidnap or kill dissidents, journalists, and regime critics.

United States

As far back as 2011, an Iranian agent tried to recruit a Los Zetas cartel member to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington, as well as diplomatic targets in Argentina.

In 2022, four Iranian operatives were charged with attempting to abduct journalist Masih Alinejad, part of a larger campaign to target dissidents in Canada, Britain, and the UAE.

Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a drug lord under IRGC protection, was sanctioned by U.S. and U.K. authorities in 2023 for links to assassination plots, including attempts to hire a Hells Angels biker to kill an Iranian defector in Maryland.

In November 2024, a federal indictment in New York accused Farhad Shakeri, an IRGC asset in Tehran, of using a U.S. criminal network of former prison associates for contract killings.

Court documents showed Shakeri ordered surveillance and the murder of two Jewish American business owners who supported Israel, offering $500,000 per target, and planned a mass shooting of Israeli tourists at Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay, supplying AK-47s to local operatives. Evidence included recorded conversations, messages, photos, and payments for reconnaissance and planning.

Canada

In 2024, Canadian authorities thwarted

an Iranian plot to assassinate

former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a long-time critic of Tehran.

Joe Adam George, a Canadian analyst specializing in Islamist threats, explained to TPS-IL that “local criminal gangs can be recruited to act on Iranian orders, creating challenges for law enforcement.” George also specializes in Islamist threats in Canada for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Middle East Forum.

“Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, have a documented history of exploiting criminal networks in Canada and elsewhere to carry out terrorism, illicit financing, drug trafficking, intimidation, and violence—all while maintaining plausible deniability,” he said. “This creates significant political, operational, geographic, and legal hurdles for law enforcement, as the individuals directing these operations are often based abroad, particularly in Iran and other rogue states.”

George called for a “comprehensive, multi-faceted approach,” including sanctions, military deterrence, intelligence sharing, IRGC designation as a terrorist organization, and stronger law enforcement.

International Response

The U.S. Treasury noted that Iran “increasingly relies on organized criminal groups…to maintain plausible deniability,” complicating detection and attribution.

In July 2025, 14 Western nations, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and 11 European allies, issued a joint statement condemning Iran for collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and officials.

“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty. These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America. This is unacceptable,” the statement said.

For Jewish communities, Iran’s strategy creates unprecedented vulnerability. Criminal networks operate differently from traditional terror cells, complicating conventional counterterrorism approaches.

Analysts cautioned that arrests, sanctions, and intelligence revelations likely reflect only a fraction of Tehran’s broader activity. Many plots remain undetected or unattributed, keeping Western security services one step behind.

“There are many dormant cells waiting for the green light,” Alaluf warned.

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In the third set at the recent U.S. Open, on her way to losing against the world number one, British tennis player Emma Raducanu finally said something.

“It’s been like ten minutes,” she complained to the umpire, gesturing to the crying baby in the crowd who was distracting her during her serve.

“It’s a child. Do you want me to send a child out of the stadium?” the umpire said. It was plainly a rhetorical question. But then spectators yelled out “Yes!” and Raducanu smiled and gestured as if to say, “Well, yeah.”

By taking this stand, Raducanu risked making herself into a viral villain, a young Karen in tennis shoes. But she was saved because so many people agreed with her.

The ump was right though. You can’t eject a baby. So the game went on, as did the crying. Raising the same issue in a talk show rant the other day, the English sports commentator Simon Jordan suggested parents who bring their babies to sporting events are

irresponsible “morons.”

He said this view does not make him a “horrid” Dickensian caricature who hates babies. “The fact of the matter is it’s not appropriate. It’s not mean spirited.”

There are diverse attitudes to babies in public spaces, and many efforts to formulate the rules for manners and etiquette without annoying anyone too much.

But exasperated intolerance is maybe the most common one, as is the suggestion of hard and fast rules against babies in public spaces not meant for them. No babies in restaurants. No babies in first class. Babies at the theatre, are you kidding?

It’s hardly a new notion. There is, for example, the prim Emily Post, whose great-granddaughter-in-law continues her tradition and wrote in an updated version of the original 1922 Emily Post’s Etiquette that children “can scarcely be too young to be taught the rudiments of good manners, nor can the teaching be too patiently or too conscientiously carried out…. All youngsters must be taught from their earliest years that there are certain rules that have to be obeyed and certain manners that always must be practiced.”

Likewise, the acerbic Miss Manners, in a 2020 volume of manners, noted “a certain lack of civility in the society.”

“This is not entirely new,” wrote Judith Martin under the pseudonym. “It is some decades since the enlightened child-rearing technique, or lack of one, has consisted of ‘Just be yourself, and don’t care what other people think.’ The intention may be to say, ‘Stand up for what you know is right, even in the face of disapproval.’ But it comes across as ‘Do what suits you and never mind how it affects anyone else.’”

It continues today, but in a new social media environment. Once, a manners scold would simply scold, maybe tut tut or mutter under their breath, and that would be that. Now, though, social conflicts have a tendency to go viral, and suddenly everyone has a chance to react. Suddenly it’s less about the specific annoyance and more about the general policy.

Two recent examples from the news illustrate the issue from opposite angles.

On the one hand, taking babies into grown up spaces can upset the baby, even plausibly harm it. That was what the Colombian rapper Maluma thought when he saw a baby at his concert in Mexico City. “I’d like to know what he’s doing here. Next time protect his ears or something.” He chided the mother for “swaying him as if he were a toy.” Never mind the viral exposure of a concert to an infant’s immune system, he was worried about the kid’s eardrums.

On the other hand, taking babies into grown up spaces can annoy and upset everyone else. That was what seemed to happen at the U.S. Open.

Rebecca Eckler thinks people are unfair to parents who take their babies out in public. She’s mindful of the etiquette, and once tipped 40 per cent when her baby cried at a restaurant. But she would “rather hear a baby scream than an adult telling me about another fad cleanse they are on.”

“People love to clutch their pearls like it’s the end of civilization when they hear or see babies and toddlers. I never judge,” said Eckler, a former star National Post columnist in its early days; author of books including Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be (2004), Wiped! Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator, (2007), and The Mommy Mob: Inside the Outrageous World of Mommy Blogging (2014); and publisher of RE:BOOKS, a publishing house of books for and by women, and Rivkah Books, its Jewish imprint.

“Flying is already a misery, tiny seats, someone always reclining into your lap, someone snoring, someone who coughs. Maybe flying with a baby was literally unavoidable to a family. If you’re lucky enough to have a life where the worst thing that happens to you is that a baby cried while you’re sipping mediocre coffee on a plane? Well, congratulations! A crying baby at a concert? What about every adult recording the entire thing holding up their phones or worse, holding their iPads? Should we arrest them? Restaurants? Same thing. Maybe that couple hasn’t seen each other outside of sweatpants and Goldfish crackers in months,” Eckler said. “And honestly, the idea that a baby should never inconvenience adults is nothing short of laughable. Life is one big inconvenience.”

There was a time maybe a decade ago when there was a broad societal effort to make public spaces more welcoming to new parents. Public places installed nursing rooms and quiet areas, more washrooms got change tables, there were magazine thinkpieces on breastfeeding in public, emphasizing that women should be not just free and unbothered, but actively helped and encouraged to take the baby into public places.

That messaging continues, because companies seem pretty slow to pick up on it. Just this week, Virgin Australia apologized for asking a woman to stop pumping and to leave a lounge at Melbourne airport, leading an MP to scold the airline. In New Jersey, a department store apologized for not letting a woman breastfeed in a fitting room.

Elaine Swann is an etiquette expert in Los Angeles and author of a forthcoming manual on modern etiquette. Her view is that manners are, at root, about putting others at ease. It’s not so much about rules and policies. It’s being “mindful of the environment” and how they might be affecting it, she said in an interview.

Many of the troublesome examples arise from people who are annoyed by babies, but should really just mind their own business and deal with it. But other examples reveal a crude overconfidence in parents about the behaviour of their child, an inflated sense of how cute their baby seems to other adults.

At worst, this is an entitled sanctimony that verges on rude cluelessness. Swann, for example, worked for many years in airline cabin crews in first class, and recalls one parent seeming so besotted with their little child as it went up and down the aisles, visiting people who were paying handsomely for a luxury experience, and arguably spoiling it.

“It’s a blindness on the part of the parent,” she said. “Not everyone wants to be visited,” and it forces people to be gracious to this baby even though they may be unwilling.

So what that squinty-eyed view of babies in public boils down to is this. It’s not that you shouldn’t bring your baby to this public event because it’s wrong in principle to bring babies to public events.

It’s a more subtle point. You shouldn’t bring your baby to this public event because you are being annoying, right here and now, just you, specifically you. And let’s be clear. No one can blame the baby. The parent is the annoyance. This is not the time to share your views on child development theory, knowing that social media will back you up. These are beside the point. Junior’s being a pest, which at least for the time being means you’re being a pest.

Voicing this opinion, however, that babies do not belong in first class cabins or in nice grown up cocktail lounges and similar fancy places, tends to get Swann roasted on social media. It’s a common attitude, but one that people love denouncing.

“I said what I said. And I stand by that,” Swann said.

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.

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Jewish advocacy groups say that

Canada recognizing a Palestinian state

would embolden terrorist group Hamas and pose a threat to Canadian values.

Prime Minister Mark Carney

said late in July

that he intended to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in a speech on Sept. 27. An updated schedule this week shows that instead Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is scheduled to address the assembly on Sept. 29.

“We’ve seen, in the wake of the government’s announcement on this, an upsurge in activities targeting Jewish communities,” Noah Shack, the CEO of advocacy group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), told National Post.

“Here in Canada, we’ve seen

synagogues vandalized from Victoria to Halifax

, Jewish Canadians assaulted in Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Saint John, and an overall escalation in the tensions that we’re facing here.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages in an attack that has sparked ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

According to Statistics Canada

, there was an increase in police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2023, and 70 per cent of the ones that targeted a religion were directed at Jews. In 2024, Jewish advocacy group

B’nai Brith Canada recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents

— 6,219 —

since it started documenting them in 1982.

Carney said his intention to recognize Palestinian statehood “was predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” including a commitment by

Mahmoud Abbas,

president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold general elections in 2026, the release of the hostages, and Hamas stepping down. Abbas does not control Gaza, and has not held elections since 2006. On Friday, The Canadian Press reported that Anand said there would not be an

immediate normalization of diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority.

“Hamas has stated that this recognition is one of the

fruits of October 7

and have called for an escalation of resistance activities around the world, with Canadian organizations taking up that call,” Shack said.

Recognizing Palestinian statehood “does nothing to bring the hostages home or come to an ultimate resolution of this conflict,” he said, adding that it was a challenge to understand why Canada was making the decision right now, “given that we’re facing this significant crisis coming up on two years” of hostages remaining in captivity.

As of September, 48 hostages remain, according to the American Jewish Committee, and 20 are believed to be alive,

CNN reported

“That should be a primary objective of the Government of Canada, not a secondary one, right?” he said.

But the move doesn’t only affect the Jewish community, Michael Westcott told National Post. Westcott is the CEO of Allies for a Strong Canada, an organization dedicated to combatting antisemitism in the country.

“It sends a message both to Canada’s enemies abroad and to the people who are actively and vocally supporting groups like Hamas on the streets in Canada right now that what they are doing is working. And not only should they keep up their harassment of the Jewish community, but they should keep up their harassment of Canadians,” said Westcott.

He referenced the closure of the constituency office of Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand in Oakville, Ont. According to the office’s manager, Elizabeth Chalmers, it was closed in late July out of “concerns for security” of staff due to ongoing anti-Israel protests taking place outside, local media outlet

Oakville Beaver reported

“That’s what terrorism is. It is breaking the law and harassing people to affect policy changes, and that’s what they’re getting. So, you’re sending a message to the wrong people that their efforts are working,” Westcott said.

“It’s not in Canada’s international interests (to recognize Palestinian statehood), and it will help nobody. This won’t be good for the people of Gaza. There is no plan to remove Hamas. Hamas has said repeatedly that they will not disarm. They will not leave Gaza.”

The message that Carney is sending, “not only to Jewish Canadians, but to anyone who is concerned with upholding Canadian values like the rule of law,” is that certain groups can “break the law with impunity” and get rewarded.

“That tells me that Mark Carney doesn’t stand for Canadian values,” he said. “We all deserve to live in peace and safety.”

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.

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If all goes well, Saturday morning will mark the launch of the first commercial rocket from Canadian soil. More specifically, it will leave the planet from the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, a newly built facility on the southern edge of Newfoundland, just outside the small town of St. Lawrence, about 350 kms southwest of St. John’s.

The Markham, Ont.-based company behind the mission is

Nordspace

, founded just three years ago by 33-year-old

Rahul Goel

, who is a currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Toronto, and also runs two companies, PheedLoop and Genepika. And the launch itself couldn’t be more Canadian. The sub-orbital rocket is called Taiga, named after a type of coniferous forest found at high northern latitudes, including the region of Newfoundland where the launch will take place.

The launch can be watched live here:

The Taiga is about five metres tall and about 30 centimetres in diameter, and is powered by the company’s 3D printed liquid rocket engine, named the Hadfield in honour of Canadian astronaut and former space station commander

Chris Hadfield

The inaugural launch has been dubbed “Getting Screeched In,” a reference to the tradition of making those “from away” into honorary Newfoundlanders by having them kiss a cod and take a shot of local rum, known as screech. Taiga’s rocket fuel, a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen, will be somewhat stronger stuff.

“We believe that it is critical for a Canadian launch capability to be supported by Canadian designed and manufactured rockets, launching from Canadian soil, by a 100% Canadian owned company,” Nordspace said on its website in announcing the launch window. “We welcome you to join us as we open this new frontier for Canada.”

The launch window will open daily from 6:30 a.m. until noon and again from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time. (Newfoundland’s time zone is 90 minutes ahead of Toronto and Montreal.) If Saturday’s launch doesn’t happen, the team will have further windows daily until the following Saturday, Sept. 27.

This is not the first launch attempt by Nordspace. A previous try made at the end of August was delayed at first by the close passage of Hurricane Erin, and then by a misfire detection mechanism that triggered prematurely and put the rocket into a safe state just before it was to lift off. Nordspace then had to obtain a new launch licence from Transport Canada.

“We are pleased to have arrived at this absolute final point which is difficult to test precisely, even with static fires, until the rocket is actually flown,” the company said on its website, announcing the scrub of the last attempt. “We will be back very soon!”

Taiga is merely the first step in the company’s plans. If the sub-orbital flight — with a partially fuelled rocket, and a flight time of only about 60 seconds — goes well, the next step would be to fly the Tundra, named for the treeless region to the north of taiga areas in the Arctic.

The Tundra would be more than four times as tall as the Taiga, at about 22 metres, with two stages and multiple Hadfield engines. “Our goal is to fly Tundra for the first time as early as 2027,” the company said on its website.

“This historic launch from Canadian soil of our Taiga sub-orbital rocket, powered by our 3D printed Hadfield engines, will represent a massive leap forward for Canadian sovereignty, prosperity, and security and for assured access to space,” it added. “Our technologies and infrastructure are all being designed to scale to medium-lift, responsive, and reusable launch vehicles.”

National Post has reached out to Hadfield and Nordspace for further comments.

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OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Anita Anand says Canada’s imminent recognition of Palestinian statehood does not mean the government will immediately normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to reporters from Mexico on Friday, the minister argued that recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly next week — breaking with decades of Canadian foreign policy precedent — was no different than believing in a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.

But the recognition does not mean Canada will normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body in the West Bank, she noted.

“Normalization is completely different from recognition,” she told reporters.

“The process of normalization involves increases in diplomatic relationships. It involves opening embassies. It involves opening consulates. It involves ensuring that there are processes for transfer of citizens between the two states at issue,” the minister said.

Canada currently only has a representative to the Palestinian Authority with an office in Ramallah, West Bank.

That step will only happen when the government sees the Palestinian Authority make good on

commitments to significant democratic reform

and hold a general election in 2026 (for the first time since 2006) that cannot involve terrorist group Hamas, Anand said.

Anand said she would speak to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas later in the day on Friday and would reiterate the need for Hamas to lay down its weapons and release remaining Israeli hostages.

“I will be stressing again, the importance of the promises laid out in the Abbas letter that we received in July.”

In the meantime, Anand said she was in “deep” conversation with the United Kingdom, France and Australia which are also slated to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly next week.

In July, Carney said the statehood recognition would go to the Palestinian Authority and that Hamas is not welcome “in any shape or form” in the process.

Considering that Abbas has not held a general election in the West Bank since 2006 and the extreme devastation in Gaza due to the ongoing war with Israel, most international observers consider it unlikely that the PA hold a general election in 2026.

Carney’s July announcement was immediately condemned by the Israeli embassy, which said it rewards the 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel that started the war in Gaza.

“Let us be clear: Israel will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it. We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland that seeks our annihilation,” said Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed at the time.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Source: National Post (Politics)

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