Justin #Trudeau is facing criticism for showing up to the #FIFA World Cup game in the United States instead of watching Canada’s game.

‘Yes, I do’: Alberta Premier Smith promises not to hold later separation referendum if remain side wins October vote.

#Alberta Premier Danielle Smith promises that if the remain side of October’s referendum wins, she will “listen to the will of the people,” and not hold another later referendum on independence.

Smith announced this week that a question on independence will be added to the already-set Oct. 19 referendum in Alberta.

It will not, however, ask Albertans whether they want to stay a part of Canada or separate. Instead, the question will ask Albertans whether they want to remain a part of Canada, or should the province “commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

While Smith has explicitly said she wants Alberta to stay within Canada, she has faced criticism for enabling the referendum to go forward in the first place, namely by changing the law to make it easier for petitioners to trigger one.

Asked by CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday whether she promises, as long as she’s premier, not to hold a separation referendum, if the remain side wins in October, Smith said: “Yes, I do.”

“I will listen to the will of the people, and that’s why I’m going to be advocating on that side,” she said.

“But you know, it goes the other way as well,” she added. “That if Albertans vote the other way, then we’ll have to begin the legal process to get to a binding referendum.”

The premier said she believes there will be “very severe consequences” of voting to launch an independence referendum process, and that she’ll be both voting and advocating for the remain side in October.
‘Far worse for this to linger’: Smith

Pressed on whether the number of signatures collected on two petitions — both the pro-federalist Forever Canadian petition and the struck-down Stay Free Alberta separation petition — is an accurate representation of the number of people who want a referendum, Smith said the issue needs to be resolved either way so everyone can move on from it.

“This debate has been lingering on, some might say decades, but certainly fiercely over the past two years,” Smith said. “And I would like to have five months to debate it. I will be supporting the remain side.

Kapelos also asked Smith whether moving ahead with the referendum is to appease the portion of her base who want it, as her counterpart in Ontario Doug Ford intimated when speaking to reporters Friday.

And, pressed again on her role in the referendum, considering her changes to the petition law and her decision not to take several available off-ramps to avoid the vote, Smith insisted the referendum process is “direct democracy.”

“My view is that you don’t just eliminate the anger that people have by ignoring it,” she said. “I think if you try to ignore it or suppress it, it can grow into something out of control.”

“I think it would be far worse for this to linger on for years, creating more and more division, more and more frustration,” she also said. “I think that we have five months now to have it out, make the case, and be able to vote on it, and move on.”

You can watch Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

‘We found something here’: The story behind one of Canada’s nation-building projects. “In 2014, we went to the field. (We) shovelled the ground and checked what the bedrock was. Our metal detectors were beeping through a fairly large area,” said Cloutier, the lead geologist for Nouveau Monde Graphite. “I called my boss and said I think we found something here. I’m going to need a bigger budget.”

What Cloutier found was a major graphite deposit. “From that point on,” he said with an easy smile, “it became our main focus of continuous exploration work.”

After years of drilling and gathering information, the company proposed an open pit mine — Matawinie Graphite Mine. “The pit measures about three kilometres long by 400 metres wide at a maximum depth of 185 metres,” said Cloutier. It would have a 25-year mine life.

Graphite, a mineral essential for electric vehicle batteries, is one of six critical minerals the federal government considers a priority for investment and development.

In November, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his second tranche of nation-building plans which included the Matawinie Mine.

Matawinie’s graphite deposits are just a five-minute drive from the village centre. The property covers about 9,200 hectares, about 80 per cent of the size of Vancouver. It lies within the Canadian Shield, one of the oldest geological formations on Earth.

Eric Desaulniers, the company’s founder and CEO, says in 2014, he saw Elon Musk’s early investments in large-scale EV production as a sign that the time was right to get into this business.

“Everybody wanted to sell graphite to the Gigafactory in Nevada. That’s why I started the company,” said Desaulniers. Global electric vehicle sales skyrocketed not long after: statistics from the International Energy Agency show that in the decade that followed sales rose from a few hundred thousand vehicles to around 17 million.

Major VPN provider says it could leave #Canada over lawful access bill. #NordVPN said in a social media post it is reviewing the bill and would consider leaving Canada if the bill requires it to compromise its privacy protections.

The company said if Bill C-22 passes “and if we are subjected to mandatory obligations, there isn’t a scenario in which we would compromise our no-logs architecture or encryption protections.”

“To prevent this, we will consider all viable options, including limiting or, if necessary, removing our presence from Canadian jurisdiction,” NordVPN said in a post on X.

A spokesperson for the company said it is closely monitoring the bill’s legislative progress. Bill C-22 is currently being studied by a parliamentary committee.

“NordVPN is built on a commitment to user security and privacy, and we believe legislation should not require providers to weaken encryption or compromise the protections users depend on,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, The Globe and Mail reported that the encrypted messaging service Signal said it would leave Canada if the bill requires it to compromise user privacy.

Conservative MP Jacob Mantle said in a post on X Friday that MPs depend on the service.

“Every member of Parliament in the country uses Signal, precisely because they believe it is safe (confidential) to use. No one wants Gary reading their messages,” he said.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in a statement the government wants to “reassure Signal and all service providers that we are not legislating to require them to install capabilities to enable surveillance and any assertions otherwise are false.”

Simon Lafortune said the government “categorically rejects claims that Bill C-22 would enable the surveillance of Canadians through everyday devices such as cars, home cameras, or smart TVs, or that it would require companies to introduce so‑called ‘backdoors’ into their products so that the government could gain access to customer data.”

Lafortune added authorities would still be required to get legal authorization to obtain data, such as through a warrant issued by a court.

Canadian VPN provider Windscribe said Thursday it also would leave the country if the bill passes.

“Signal isn’t headquartered in Canada so they can just shut off Canadian servers, but our HQ is,” the company said in a post on X.

“We pay an ungodly amount of taxes to this corrupt government, and in return they want to destroy the entire essence of our service to basically spy on its own citizens. Not happening. We’ll move HQ and take our taxes elsewhere.”

The comments from Signal follow warnings from big tech companies Apple and Meta that the legislation threatens to compromise their encryption services.

Last week, the lawful access bill also drew opposition from members of the U.S. Congress. The heads of the judiciary and foreign affairs committees said in a joint letter to Anandasangaree the bill would “drastically expand Canada’s surveillance and data access powers in ways that create significant cross-border risks to the security and data privacy of Americans.”

They said it would allow “Canadian government officials to compel American companies to build backdoors into their encrypted systems, thereby introducing systemic vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers, foreign adversaries, and cybercriminals.”

The spokesperson for the public safety minister said the letter reflects a misunderstanding of how the bill would function.

Bill C-22 also has run into fierce opposition from civil liberties groups and law professors who say it would open the door to serious privacy infringements.

The government says the bill will ensure law enforcement agencies have the legal tools to prevent, investigate and respond to modern crime and protect Canadians in a Charter-compliant manner.

Under the bill, authorities could demand that a telecommunications provider like Bell or Rogers reveal whether it provides service to an individual or a number of interest — a measure intended to speed up investigations.

The bill would also require electronic service providers to develop and maintain the technical capabilities necessary to enable police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to effectively obtain communications and information for investigations.

There would be mandatory requirements for certain core providers — likely large telecommunications companies and satellite providers — to have specific capabilities. In addition, the public safety minister could issue a ministerial order to require a provider to develop a particular capability, even if they are not a core provider. The bill would prohibit a provider from disclosing the existence or content of a ministerial order.

Meta said this could require companies to build or maintain capabilities that break or weaken encryption, and force providers to install government spyware directly on their systems. Apple, maker of the iPhone, said the legislation could allow the government to force companies to break encryption by inserting backdoors into their products — “something Apple will never do.”

The bill would also allow for regulations requiring service providers to retain metadata — digital traces of a communication, but not the email or text itself — for up to one year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2026.

With files from Jim Bronskill

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press

PM Carney pitched a goal of doubling Canada’s electricity generation by 2050. But it’s unclear whether his government also plans to meet its 2030 emissions target. More in today’s #Canada Daily newsletter.

#Iran’s rial currency hits record low as shaky ceasefire with U.S. and #Israel holds. The rial had remained stable in the early weeks of the war that began Feb. 28, in part because there was little trading or imports.

The rial began to slide two days ago. Experts warn that its fall is likely to further fuel inflation in a country where many imported goods, from food and medicine to electronics and raw materials, are affected by the dollar rate.

A U.S. naval blockade during the ceasefire has increased pressure on Iran’s already battered economy, cutting into a key source of government revenue and hard currency by stopping or intercepting oil shipments.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday his government was continuing efforts to help ease tensions between the U.S and Iran following an initial round of direct talks on April 11.

The latest slide of Iran’s currency comes months after a currency shock helped fuel nationwide protests in January. At the time, the rial weakened from about 1.4 million to 1.6 million to the dollar in less than a week, deepening public anger over rising prices and fears about the country’s economic future.

Iran’s economy has faced decades of sanctions, chronic inflation and a widening gap between official and open-market exchange rates.

Prices of basic household goods had already been rising before the rial’s latest fall, adding to pressure on Iranian families. Over the past two weeks, people buying daily essentials have faced higher prices for milk, yogurt, cooking oil, bread, rice, cheese and detergents.

The increases point to broader inflationary pressure in the economy driven by uncertainty, supply disruptions, higher transport and production costs and the continuing impact of the U.S. blockade. The rial’s latest slide is likely to add further pressure particularly on goods tied to imports, packaging and raw materials.

The economic pressure also has extended to the labour market. The reformist Shargh newspaper reported Monday that 500 workers at Pinak in Rasht and 700 workers at Borujerd Textile Factory had been laid off since the beginning of the new Iranian calendar year in late March after their contracts ended.

The reported layoffs add to concerns that rising costs, weaker demand and uncertainty after the war and blockade are forcing some companies to cut jobs or avoid renewing temporary contracts.

Amir Vahdat, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

PM Carney says Canada not ‘taking notes’ from Americans as it prepares for trade talks.

Carney says U.S. tariffs hitting key sectors such as steel, aluminum and forest products are “more than irritants” and violate the current trade agreement.

Carney also told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa today that he has never heard of an “entry fee” #Canada would have to pay to start talks with the White House on renewing the continental free trade pact.

A Radio-Canada report on Wednesday said the Americans are demanding concessions from Canada as a precondition for negotiations on the CUSMA trade deal.

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a congressional committee Wednesday the White House is pressing for “changes” to Canadian trade practices.

Greer issued a warning about possible trade “enforcement action” against Canada if American alcohol does not return to Canadian liquor store shelves.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press

#BREAKING: Canadian woman killed in shooting at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids, officials say. Videos on social media show people fleeing the area after gunfire was heard around Teotihuacán’s Pyramid of the Moon.

Teotihuacán is a major archaeological site and tourist destination in the State of Mexico, about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. The vast archaeological zone, a #UNESCO World Heritage Site, is lined with multiple monuments including two towering pyramids.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said authorities from federal, state and local agencies are responding to the shooting rampage

PM Carney says next governor general will ‘absolutely’ speak French and English.

In an interview with Radio-Canada, Carney answered “absolutely” when asked by radio host Patrick Masbourian whether he would commit to naming a candidate who speaks both of the country’s official languages.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon speaks English and Inuktitut but has failed to become fluent in French despite taking lessons.

Her lack of proficiency has made her a magnet for criticism, and her 2021 appointment prompted more than 1,300 complaints to Canada’s official languages commissioner.

Governors general typically serve a five-year term, meaning Simon’s tenure could end sometime in 2026.

Carney declined to speculate on who might take over from Simon, who is the first Indigenous person to serve as the King’s top representative in Canada.

This report by The #Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

#Ottawa announces another $51 million in aid programming for #Ukraine. The new measures come from a broader fund outlined in the 2025 budget, and $32 million of the money will go toward humanitarian aid through outside organizations, including the Red Cross, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme.

Another $5 million has been earmarked for programming to help veterans reintegrate into society.

Randeep Sarai, secretary of state for international development, said in a phone interview from the Kyiv Post newspaper office that Canada signed an memorandum of understanding with Ukraine a few years back on providing technical assistance to veterans.

The idea was to share with Ukraine’s government what Canada learned about helping veterans from the Afghanistan conflict with things like health issues, including PTSD, and finding skilled jobs. He said this new funding will help enable that work.

“Most countries don’t really think about this until after the conflict is over,” Sarai said. “I give them a lot of credit that they were starting this two years ago, which was really two years into the conflict.”

Another $6 million in funding is being set aside to help Ukraine prepare to eventually administer elections and educate voters about the process.

“How do you put up a polling station when there’s mines all around? And how do get people who are in displaced areas to be able participate?” Sarai said.

“How do you get people that are gone abroad, like those that are living in Canada and Poland and Germany and other parts of Europe, Australia, that are still citizens of Ukraine that want to come back and how will they participate?”

The funds also include $5 million for the organization UN Women, which will help Kyiv meet technical requirements to qualify to join the European Union. Those requirements include applying gender-based analysis to all of the legislation that gets passed through Ukraine’s parliament.

Sarai travelled to Poland and Ukraine this week and met with a range of Ukrainian cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

This is Sarai’s first visit to the war-torn country. A trip planned years ago was cancelled due to the hostilities.

“You’re in a conflict where there’s missiles and drones and even fighter jets flying above you, and we heard air horns and had to go to a bunker one of the nights. Ukrainians go through this every day, and then they go back to work in the morning and they take their kids to school,” Sarai said, adding it was “very eye-opening” to see schools outfitted with shelters.

The federal government has come up with almost $26 billion for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in 2022, a conflict that has stretched on for nearly 1,500 days now.