In Canada, Alberta's 'Maple MAGA' dream of independence



Issued on: 01/05/2026 - FRANCE24

12:00 min From the show


In Canada's oil heartland of Alberta, separatism is no longer just a slogan. An unprecedented movement of independence supporters, aided by a reform from the western province's conservative government, has just cleared the way for a referendum to be held on October 19. This is a first in Canada since Quebec's failed independence referendum in 1995.

The Alberta Prosperity Project, a movement led by lawyer Jeffrey Rath, nurtures an old resentment: that of a western, resource-rich Canada "despised" by the ruling elite in Ottawa. One third of those surveyed across the province's population are in favour of the referendum.

As they launch their final campaign for the "Yes" side, the separatists face numerous obstacles: unprecedented federal pushback in favour of the "No" campaign and a series of lawsuits from the province's First Nations communities, who denounce foreign interference from Washington and accuse the separatists of "treason".

US-Canada relations cool at the border over Trump's tariffs and threats

The shadow of the US's MAGA movement looms large over this oil-rich area of Canada dubbed "North Texas", where many oilers and ranchers hope to turn the territory – home to the world's third-largest proven oil reserves – into an independent state.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent welcomed the separatist initiative back in January, but Rath insists he's not funded by the MAGA movement.

FRANCE 24's François Rihouay and Joanne Profeta report.

'We need to reassess': The evolution of one gender care doctor in Canada

Story by Sharon Kirkey


Dr. Karine Khatchadourian is calling for a national review to reassess how Canada treats gender-distressed youth.

During a recent talk at the invitation of the University of Alberta, Dr. Karine Khatchadourian offered a candid appraisal of the evidence underpinning Canada’s approach to treating gender-distressed youth.

The field is in a highly consequential grey zone with contradictory findings at best, the Ottawa doctor told a virtual audience. The evidence doesn’t allow doctors to say with confidence whether puberty suppression has psychological benefits or not and today’s rapidly changing demographics — predominantly biological females with accompanying complex mental health problems and no known history of gender distress when they were younger — make it difficult-to-impossible to predict if someone’s gender dysphoria or incongruence will persist.

“We have to constantly be reassessing what we’re doing, what we’re treating, based on new evidence that’s coming forward,” Khatchadourian said.

Doctors are encouraged to look at emerging data objectively, be open to scrutiny and pivot where necessary, she said. However, gender-affirming care is different; a field so turbulent and charged with emotion that providers are reluctant to express doubts for fear of being alienated by colleagues and condemned by activists as transphobic.

Which is what makes Khatchadourian’s openness to share that her own messaging has changed so remarkable.

“The message to patients, providers, the public has to include that what we’re seeing now with the data is this uncertainty of the evidence,” she told the February gathering hosted by the U of Alberta-based Women and Children’s Health Research Institute. Her assessment echoes the findings of a recent series of deep systematic dives into the literature that concluded the evidence supporting gender medicine interventions is, as the editor-in-chief of the influential British Medical Journal summarized, “threadbare, whichever research question you wish to consider.”

Khatchadourian was one of the first doctors in Canada to provide hormone treatments to transgender-identifying and gender dysphoric youth, in 2014. By her estimate, some 250 to 300 gender-distressed children and teens have been under her care over the years.

After 12 years of experience, she said she now understands the population more. “I can say that, with everything I now know, as of now, I would challenge medicalizing the majority of youth that are presenting to clinics,” Khatchadourian, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview.

“I strongly believe in this care,” she stressed.

“But it must be approached with rigour and caution, given the high stakes in this field.”

McMaster University researchers faced persecution from both extremes of the trans debate last year after publishing two systematic reviews that found the evidence is of such low, or very low, certainty that it’s impossible to conclude whether puberty blockers are helpful or harmful.

Lead author and celebrated scientist Dr. Gordon Guyatt and colleagues faced backlash from activists on one side over a funding source (the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a group concerned with low-evidenced interventions that’s been accused of being an anti-trans think tank by transgender rights groups) and, on the other side, critics who accused Guyatt of shirking his own evidence-based approach to science by later issuing a letter criticizing opponents for using his work to justify treatment bans.

“Everybody’s been kind of frightened,” Guyatt told National Post columnist Michael Higgins . “I was not as vividly aware as to what an extreme political environment it is.”

In their letter, Guyatt and four colleagues wrote that it’s misguided to cast medical interventions based on low-certainty evidence “as bad care or as care driven by ideology.”

However, under the GRADE scoring system co-developed by Guyatt, “very low certainty” means it’s hard to have confidence where the true effect lies.

Privately, other Canadian doctors like Khatchadourian are becoming more cautious.

Writing for healthydebate.ca, scientist, gastroenterologist and U of Toronto professor of medicine, Dr. Laura Targownik, who is a transgender woman, said several providers working in the field have shared that they’re becoming “more circumspect, recognizing that they can no longer function as enablers of transition in all cases.”

Public support for gender care for minors is in “free fall,” she wrote, “not only among conservative voters, but also among those who describe themselves as moderate or liberal.”

But the issue has become such a political minefield doctors fear that any expressed concern will be weaponized and used to shut down “and rob youth” of all care, even for those who would benefit, Targownik said in an interview.

Canadian physicians want what’s best for kids, she said. But they’re also concerned about leaving kids suffering from serious dysphoria with nothing.

Several European countries and American states are already pulling back. Puberty blockers have been banned indefinitely in Britain for under 18s after the country’s health service declared them an “unacceptable safety risk.” Alberta invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to uphold its bill p rohibiting doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to under 16s.

Meanwhile, numerous medical organizations, including the Canadian Paeditric Society, continue to endorse an affirming approach to gender dysphoria.


Dr. Karine Khatchadourian estimates some 250 to 300 gender-distressed children and teens have been under her care over the years.© HYUNGCHEOL PARK

Khatchadourian was one of the first pediatric endocrinologists to train in the field of pediatric gender medicine in Canada. She was the first author of the first Canadian study (and second paper in North America) on the medical management of youth with gender dysphoria, published in 2014. Between 2022 and 2024, she was co-medical lead of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) gender diversity clinic.

While still relatively small, the number of children and adolescents identifying as transgender or gender-diverse has grown dramatically over the last decade. Pediatricians and family doctors across Canada are seeing them in their practices. Kids are being treated not only in specialized hospital-based clinics, but also by primary care providers in the community, some after virtual assessments.

In an interview, Khatchadourian said she worries that the increase in teens (mostly natal females) identifying as non-binary — neither identifying as female nor male — may be socially driven. “We know social media and peers have greater influence during adolescence,” she said.

“I didn’t see anyone identifying as non-binary ten years ago when I was training.” She questions the influx now.

“It’s so hard to know when you see a patient how much of this story is really that person’s story and how much is based on the influence of peers and social media,” she said.

“We get to a point where we accept certain definitions and certain things, but we should continuously ask why: ‘Why is this happening? What are your theories? Does this warrant medical treatment?’”

In the pre-social media era, kids who might have struggled with low level dysphoria or transient feelings might have found other ways to deal with it or allowed it to pass, Targownik said.

“But now they’re connecting with people who are telling them, ‘Hey, I did this and it’s working for me. This may be why you’re feeling disconnected from society. Maybe the reason you’re having trouble fitting in with other girls is not because you’re autistic, or because you’re marching to your own beat. It’s because you are actually a boy inside.’”

Youth can instantly connect with dozens of others who feel the way they do and start down a medical transitioning path. But Khatchadourian worries “we’re changing trajectories for these youth” based on unconvincing and limited data, and with too few mental health assessments by psychologists or psychiatrists trained in the child and adolescent medicine space.

“The expertise has not kept pace with the demand, and that worries me,” said Khatchadourian. She’s advocating for a national review in Canada — one involving those working in the field, trans-identified individuals, parents and families and, as well, de-transitioners — to ensure practices are aligned with the best available evidence.

Targownik also supports getting better data because, whether a populist or pragmatist, government leaders “are going to start asking for receipts,” she said.

“Someone is going to come and say, ‘I know you believe this care works. If you believe so strongly in this, show me that it actually works. Show me your outcomes. Show me that the kids you’re transitioning are doing well a year later, two years, five years later. Give me your best estimate of what the detransition rate in the modern cohort actually is, and the risk factors.”

There’s been a reluctance to ask those questions in the past when the practice was completely unhindered and support for gender care at its peak, she said.

Now, more countries are questioning that blanket, blind “just affirm” approach.

Khatchadourian favours aligning with Sweden and Finland’s approach, where puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are reserved for children and teens with a history of gender dysphoria that started in early childhood and has persisted for many years.

For others, she recommends a more holistic approach, supporting youth as they’re going through identity development. She rejects accusations that she’s against gender affirming care. “Gender care means I’m addressing the distress. Of course that is a concern. ‘You have needs. I’m here to support your needs.’ But we haven’t asked the right question: What is the best way to address your needs?’

“We need to take a high level of risk approach, given the uncertainty of the evidence” and medication risks, she said. For her, the biggest stake is irreversible infertility.

“The most challenging conversations are always around fertility,” she said. “Most of the time you’re going to hear youth say they don’t want children, they don’t want biological children, or if they do at some point, they will consider adoption. You have to ask yourself, is that a mature response? Have they really given it considerable thought? Have they truly demonstrated capacity to consent?”

Early in her training, Khatchadourian spent a month in the Netherlands, the origins of pediatric gender medicine and birthplace of the so-called “Dutch Protocol” that saw doctors begin offering medical transitions for gender dysphoric teens in the early 1990s.

Back then, most of the gender distressed Dutch kids were biological males with a history of childhood-onset gender dysphoria that persisted into late adolescence.

Since then, the sex ratio has shifted dramatically, with 70 per cent of children presenting at clinics now natal females, many with co-occurring conditions such as autism, depression and anxiety that make it crucial to separate gender-related distress from other sources of distress or trauma that might mimic or add to the gender incongruence, Khatchadourian said.

“You really need good mental health providers to assess and diagnose from that lens.”

However, one study found that only four of 10 gender clinics in Canada required a psychiatric or psychological assessment before blockers or hormones were started.

Medical transitioning can begin once puberty starts, with drugs that block the physical changes of puberty. Older teens can receive cross sex hormones so that they develop the physical features more in line with their gender identity. Gender reassignment surgeries in Canada are restricted to those 18 and older, though mastectomies have been performed on girls as young as 14.

Concerns have been raised that doctors are misusing the principle of autonomy by prioritizing affirming a child’s self-declared identity and giving children the treatments they want to change their physical body to align with their expressed gender. It prioritizes the child’s goals. “But what if those goals shift,” she said.

There’s no clear picture of the natural course of gender dysphoria among the cohort of kids seeking gender-affirming care today, she said. “It’s well accepted that gender incongruence in childhood is usually a sign of later emerging same-sex attraction,” she said.

She also worries about the risk of regret in, for example, a 15- or 16-year-old biological female who has identified as non-binary for a few years who now wants a mastectomy. “These are major decisions that require careful consideration.”

There’s sometimes an urgency of expectations from parents and youth as well, she said. Many are unnerved by the dominant and stark narrative that these kids have a high risk of suicide, but the weight of the evidence suggests blockers and hormones do not decrease suicidality, she said. “This is important for families to know.

“You need to identify and treat the mental health disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria to prevent suicide.”

Khatchadourian no longer sees many young people herself, though she still has a few she follows in clinic and acts as a consultant on gender care for primary care providers for the province of Ontario. She no longer helps lead CHEO’s gender diversity clinic. “It was deemed that my expertise would be better suited to focus on other clinical and academic responsibilities,” she said, including her diabetes patients.

Considerable research has been published since she first began in the field of gender medicine. It’s a field that’s evolving rapidly. What one might have believed even a year ago might not hold anymore, she said.

“I need to trust the data,” she said. “Trust what we’re doing. And there was a lot of confusion for me with understanding the evidence.

“If I didn’t trust the evidence, how could I instill confidence in my patients?”

National Post

StatCan seeking advice on how to share secret census data on transgender children 'O to 14'

'Ghosted by the one who did the mastectomy': Detransitioners face 'detransphobia,' study finds

'Denial of care': Doctors worry about refugees as payment requirements take effect in Canada

Story by Nicole Ireland



Asylum seekers line up to enter Olympic Stadium Friday, August 4, 2017 near Montreal, Quebec. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson© The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Refugees now have to pay out of pocket for part of their drug prescriptions, mental health counselling, dental services, vision care and health equipment — including wheelchairs — as changes to a federal program take effect.

For decades, Canada's Interim Federal Health Program has provided complete health coverage to refugees and refugee claimants until they are eligible for provincial health plans and benefits.

But starting Friday, they must pay $4 for every prescription and 30 per cent of the cost of supplemental health products and services.

More than a dozen medical, nursing, social work and refugee organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Nurses Association, have warned that refugees can't afford those co-payments and their physical and mental health will suffer.

They also say the changes will end up costing the health-care system as people who can't afford their medication or mental health services will deteriorate and end up in emergency departments.

The Interim Federal Health Program will continue to pay the full cost of doctor's appointments and hospital visits for refugees and refugee claimants.

Dr. Vanessa Redditt, a family physician at Women's College Hospital's refugee clinic in Toronto, said refugees are already living in poverty and making the co-payments will be impossible for many.

"It is a denial of care," said Redditt, who is also a founding member of the Canadian Refugee Health Network.

"I know patients who are grappling with suicidality because of the torture that they have endured or the sexual violence that they have endured and their precarious immigration status," she said.

"They're still living in shelters and they don't have a sense of safety and now they will not have the trauma therapy that they need to be safe."

Dr. Parisa Rezaiefar, physician lead of the Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre, said investment in the health of refugees — many of whom arrive in Canada ill or injured — will allow them to integrate into the community and contribute to the economy.

"The faster we deal with people's medical condition(s), the faster we enrol them in language training and vocational training (and) the faster we get them off supplemental care," said Rezaiefar, who came to Canada as a refugee from Iran in the 1990s.

The federal government announced the introduction of the co-payments in its budget last year and said it is a necessary cost-saving measure.

The Canadian Press has reached out to the office of Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2026.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press

About 20 per cent of Gen Z and millennial Canadians still spank their kids. Is that even legal?

The study is the first to provide a national detailed picture of spanking.

Story by Sharon Kirkey


Fifteen per cent of the nearly 4,000 adults surveyed for a new Canadian study agreed with a statement that spanking is necessary to properly raise a child.

Spanking isn’t a bygone, outmoded form of parenting in Canada, according to a new study that finds a sizeable proportion of millennial and gen Z parents are spanking their kids.

When asked whether they have ever spanked their child or children on their bottom with their hand, about 20 per cent of younger parents aged 18 to 27 (gen Zs) and millennial parents (ages 28 to 42) said “yes.”

“Having a history of being spanked as a child was associated with increasing odds of spanking one’s own child,” the researchers report in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.

When the team explored beliefs around spanking, 15 per cent of the nearly 4,000 adults surveyed agreed with a statement that spanking is necessary to properly raise a child.

Overall, “the prevalence of spanking history among Canadian adults is high,” with more than half (55.6 per cent) of respondents saying they were spanked at least three times during childhood, the researchers reported.

Nearly a quarter said the spanking left a mark or bruise “or caused lasting physical pain.”

The findings support abolishing a section of the Criminal Code that makes it legal for parents to spank children ages two to 12, the researchers said.

Related video: 6 things Canadian parents are doing differently from their own parents (Canadian Essence)

Not only has mounting literature linked spanking with the same harms as physical abuse, “no research has ever found that spanking is related to beneficial outcomes for children’s health and development,” the team wrote.

“There are no arguments to keep (the law) and there is no argument to hit children,” said first author Tracie Afifi, a University of Manitoba professor and Canada Research Chair in child adversity and resilience.

“All the science is against it.”

The study is the first to provide a national detailed picture of spanking.

While the data suggest a downward trend, the prevalence of spanking remains high, Afifi said. “We’re moving in the right direction, but not nearly quickly enough.

“That means there are still a lot of children who are exposed to this type of physical discipline.”

At least 70 countries or states have legally abolished all corporal punishment of children. When Afifi talks to global audiences, “people are shocked that Canada isn’t a leader in this area. They say, ‘I don’t understand. Are you sure Canada still has a law that allows this?'”

There have been more than a dozen private members’ bills and legislative attempts over the years to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code, a contentious passage that reads that every parent or person standing in the place of a parent “is justified in using force by way of correction” toward a child if that force doesn’t “exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.”

While upholding the provision in 2004, the Supreme Court clarified that parents and caregivers can’t spank a child younger than two or older than 12. They can’t use objects like rulers or belts. The spanking can’t involve slaps or blows to the head, or anywhere on the body so hard as to leave a mark.

Parents also can’t be motivated by “anger,” “frustration” or an “abusive personality.”

“I would like to know who is hitting their child if they’re not angry,” Afifi said.

The amendments have not had any impact on protecting children, and most parents don’t know the rules, she said. “Even if those rules were followed, that doesn’t protect the children in any way.”

There are multiple arguments supporting repeal, Afifi and her co-authors said, including that the law infringes on a child’s fundamental rights to live free from violence.

Parents who spank aren’t necessarily bad parents, she stressed. “They’re just using old, outdated information, old parenting advice that we gave 40 years ago.” Spanking is also ingrained in some cultures and religions, and through generations. “Older generations would encourage new parenting generations, ‘This is how you raise children,'” Afifi said, influences that can be hard to move away from.

Most parents who spank “are probably very loving parents,” Afifi said. “But we need to educate them that this is actually harmful. It has high risks and no rewards.” Studies have associated spanking with risks of physical injury to the child, risks of escalating violence, risks of developmental, behavioural and mental health problems, substance use, fractured parent/child relationships, higher levels of anti-social behaviour in children and lower executive functioning.

“In some cases, light hitting becomes more aggressive, because that’s what the parent thinks: ‘I need to hit the child harder or more often in order for this to work,'” Afifi said. While it might work in the short term, and in the moment, spanking doesn’t correct behaviour in the long term, she said, “and smaller taps can turn into more severe physical violence.”

Arguments that parents will be thrown in jail if the law is repealed haven’t been borne out in the experience of other countries. Sweden was the first country in the world to ban all physical punishment against children in 1979, and other countries have since followed. “We have decades of data,” Afifi said. “People think that, “Oh, now, if I spank my child I’m going to jail.’ And that’s not what happens.'”




University of Manitoba professor Tracie Afifi: “There are no arguments to keep (the law that allows spanking young children) and there is no argument to hit children.”© Heykiddo Photography/Handout

The intention is to change the culture, educate and intervene earlier with families experiencing more stress who need more resources, she said.

Her team used data collected from all Canadian provinces from a 2024 research study. The sample included 3,767 people aged 18 to 49.

For the generation X cohort (people aged 43 to 49 at the time data were collected), 45 per cent said they have spanked their own child.

Fewer millennial (22 per cent) and gen Z parents (18 per cent) said they have spanked their kids. While the numbers have fallen, “they’re still high, and there’s no real difference between gen Z and millennials,” Afifi said.

“They’re probably having their parents — the children’s grandparents — encouraging them to do it. ‘This is what you have to do’ and making them feel they’re doing the right thing.”

Nearly one quarter of those who reported being spanked as a child said it left a mark or caused pain, suggesting that, even with the limits in the law, people are going beyond those limits. Of those who were spanked, mostly mothers and fathers (75 per cent) did the spanking, followed by grandmothers (12 per cent).

Overall, 28 per cent of parents of all ages in the survey reported spanking their kids — two per cent reported spanking daily, eight per cent weekly, seven monthly and 78 per cent less than monthly. The remaining said they didn’t know.

More than half of the parents in the survey had a household income of $100,000 or more; 40 per cent had a university degree.

Many people who are pro-spanking are rooted in old ways of thinking, Afifi said. “They may have spanked their own children and think there’s nothing wrong with it. ‘My children turned out great.’ It’s hard to change their way of thinking no matter how much evidence or data you provide.”

Canada could invest in more positive parenting programs that teach parents less harmful and more effective ways of disciplining children that doesn’t include hitting, Afifi said.

“It’s not that there are no rules — there are rules and expectations and part of that is communicating what your expectations are and if they violate that or if they make decisions that are really poor decisions, it’s important they understand what they did is wrong, and why, and what they should have done differently. And if consequences are required, that’s OK. That’s life. There should be consequences, but the consequences shouldn’t include hitting or physical force,” Afifi said.

“But we need to let kids make mistakes and learn what is OK and not OK without being physically hit.”

National Post

Is it legal to spank a child in Canada? Yes, but there's a new push to change that

UK company wins rights to explore for oil and gas in Nova Scotia's offshore


The jack-up rig Noble Regina Allen sits on the heavy-lift vessel GPO Amethyst in Halifax harbour on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan© The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — A joint federal-provincial regulator says a U.K. company has won the rights to explore for oil and gas in the water off Nova Scotia.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator says Inceptio Oil and Gas Ltd. has committed $210 million for exploration activities such as seismic testing and drilling.

However, the company will only get an exploration licence after approval from the federal and provincial governments.

And further authorizations will still be required before Inceptio Oil and Gas can actually start seismic testing.

Premier Tim Houston says the successful bid means Nova Scotia is back in the offshore oil and gas business.

Nova Scotia’s once active offshore energy sector vanished after the closure of two major gas fields in 2018.

ExxonMobil’s Sable Offshore Energy Project and Encana’s Deep Panuke Project reflected the industry's potential in the province, Houston said.

“We proved we can build, operate and responsibly manage offshore energy at scale. That was not the peak. It was a preview,” the premier said in a statement Thursday.

"Across our entire offshore margin, we believe there is the potential for 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 49 billion barrels of oil.”

Related video: Shell's decade of deals in Canada (Financial Post)

In 2023, the provincial and federal governments vetoed a winning bid by Inceptio to explore for oil and gas in Nova Scotia's waters, following a call for bids by the joint energy regulator.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2026.

The Canadian Press

Lake Huron's 'fish city' is a sign of trouble at nuclear plant, says Ontario First Nation

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada
• 1d •


The dazzling underwater footage from Lake Huron appears to show such abundance that a documentary crew dubbed a zone "fish city" and showcased it for Earth Day.

But Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) is challenging that narrative of fish crowding in the warm-water outflow of Bruce Nuclear Generating Station — saying the site functions instead as a "fish trap."

The First Nation points to the deaths of up to five million gizzard shad there in 2025 — a tally recorded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulatory report.

The mass die-off occurred when enough fish entered the station to clog cooling water intake systems and force a proactive shutdown of Bruce A Unit 2 by the utility.

SON also says several lake sturgeon — a species at risk, considered culturally important in Anishnaabe teachings — became stranded in a forebay pond at the plant. One was rescued in November by Bruce Power and SON, while three remain.

The clash over "fish city" is about more than imagery. It raises questions about how Bruce Power manages ecological risk as it seeks permission from regulators to increase plant limits in order to run reactors at a higher output to produce more electricity.




(Submitted by Saugeen Ojibway Nation)
SON says warm water is 'bait'

Bruce station is North America's largest nuclear plant and releases water as part of its reactor cooling system that is warmer than the surrounding lake. While it's clear fish gather there, regulators didn't cite the plant as the cause of the die-off.

However, Ryan Lauzon, a biologist with SON and an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto who authored a 136-page study on the 2025 fish kill paid for by the First Nation, said the site operates in two stages: attraction and entrapment.


A lake sturgeon, a species at risk and culturally revered by many Indigenous nations, including Saugeen Ojibway Nation, is seen in June 2024 in a forebay pond at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station. (Submitted by Saugeen Ojibway Nation)

"You have this thermal effluent, which is the bait," he said.

Lured by the warm waters and higher food availability within, Lauzon said the fish can, depending on conditions, be pulled into the plant's forebay — a channel inside the plant's water intake system that feeds cooling water to station equipment — once there, larger fish often have no way out.

Related video: How Industrial Fishing Sinks Communities (TED)

How Industrial Fishing Sinks Communities

Let me tell you a story about stolen fish.

Duration 7:28

"There's no real access for them to exit the plant," he said. "Just the fact there's all these fish swimming around outside the nuclear plant doesn't necessarily mean health."

"These fish are actually at risk."
Bruce Power disputes claim

Bruce Power disputed claims the plant caused the 2025 die-off, saying unusual environmental conditions, such as high shad numbers and harsh winter conditions, played a a major role.

"This combination led to a broad, population-level die off observed across the region," the utility said in an email.




(Bruce Power)

Bruce Power said it also added nets, acoustic and strobe-light deterrents as well as sonar and camera monitoring and expanded its lake research to keep fish out of its system, following the 2025 die-off incident.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said staff visited the plant three times in March and February of 2025 to confirm the measures had been put in place and said it would continue to monitor their effectiveness.

Seeking increased power limits

In August 2025, Bruce Power asked regulators for permission to generate more electricity from its existing reactors, saying the plant could increase output by about 11 per cent by 2030, from roughly 6,300 to 7,000 megawatts, without building a new reactor.

A final hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 2026.

Maggie Tieman, the director of community and external affairs at Bruce Power wrote in an email to CBC News that the requested increase is needed to help meet rising provincial electricity demand and can be made safely, while staying within environmental limits.

"Due to improvements in pump flow, the reactor power increase requested will not increase temperature differences outside of regulated limits," she wrote. "No operational changes can be implemented without regulator assessment and approval."
No benchmark for fish deaths

At the same time, the company acknowledged in a 2024 report, the year before the mass die-off and reactor shutdown, regulators had no clear benchmarks for judging how many fish deaths are unacceptable when fish are pinned to intake screens or drawn into plant systems.




Bigmouth buffalo swim among other species in a dense 'fish city' near the Bruce nuclear plant, part of a shifting mix of fish in Lake Huron. (Inspired Planet)

"No benchmarks for fish impingement or entrainment are available from federal or provincial authorities that can be used to assess the environmental risk. Effect thresholds are dependent on sufficient knowledge of the population including natural variability," the report said.

It means that while Bruce Power does operate under strict regulatory rules, there is no clear threshold for when fish losses become unacceptable.
Shad play role in lake health

Paul Jones, a retired fisherman who spent roughly two decades working Lake Huron and is now a councillor with the Chippewas of the Nawash Unceded First Nation, part of Saugeen Ojibway Nation, said that while many people dismiss gizzard shad as junk fish, the mass die-off removed an important food source from the lake ecosystem that affected other species.

"You take out all that kind of nourishment out of the lake, it's going to have some sort of effect," he said, noting many people in his community view fish as a gift.


Gizzard shad are extremely sensitive to water temperature and will often seek out warm water effluents as a refuge against winter. These shad, seen in the Thames River in London, Ont., in 2021 gathered in the warmth from storm sewer runoff. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

"We always say that fish give up its life so that we could utilize it, so that we could sustain ourselves."

Jones said the fish deaths matter both ecologically and culturally: shad provide food in the lake, while fish are treated with respect in Ansihnaabe teachings. It underscores why he believes celebratory "fish city" portrayals "missed the mark."

"If you do that, you don't really have to fix anything."

Why a salary of $115K isn't enough to purchase a house in some parts of Canada

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada


Across 23 countries with available OECD data, Canada experienced the sharpest rise in the home price-to-income ratio, up more than 80 per cent over the past two decades.

© Evan Mitsui/CBC

Ron Butler says that when he started in the mortgage business 30 years ago, it was quite easy for a grocery store produce manager or part-time nurse to find the five per cent down payment needed to buy a home.

"Those days are gone," Butler said recently at a parliamentary finance committee hearing looking into household debt in Canada.

Asked how long it would take someone with a solid, full-time job to save up the minimum down payment on a home today, Butler said that when it comes to the Greater Toronto Area, "the reality is they never could."

"If you're running about $110,000, $115,000 income, you have to pay rent, you have to eat, you have to live. You pay taxes," Butler said. "You could not possibly accumulate a satisfactory down payment for a house price that's still sort of just under a million dollars."

In Ontario before 2015, a family making $115,000 a year "had a shot" at home ownership, Butler said. They would have to go to places like Ajax, Burlington, Hamilton or the Niagara region to find a single-family home, but they would be able to find something to buy.

"Today, a $115,000 income earner, they really can't buy anything."

According to March 2026 figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the national average sale price for a home in Canada was $673,084. That means the minimum down payment required would be just over $42,000.

• Related video: 9 financial realities Canadians are quietly adjusting to (Canadian Essence)

But in the Greater Toronto Area, the average price was $1,017,796, while in Greater Vancouver, it was $1,201,123. In those cases, the minimum down payment would be about about $76,000 and $95,000, respectively.

It's not just in parts of Toronto and Vancouver where a single income in the $100,000 range is insufficient to be able to buy a home.

"Over the last few years, it's spread to other locations," said Mike Moffatt, founding director of the University of Ottawa's Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) and a researcher into Canada's housing supply and affordability crisis.

For example, CBC calculated that by using CREA's March 2026 median house prices and assuming a mortgage rate of 4.39 per cent amortized over 25 years, a person would need to make $122,300 to afford a 10 per cent down payment, a $4,000 annual tax bill and to pay $150 monthly in heating for a home in Calgary.

In Montreal, one would need to make $127,800, and in Ottawa $132,100 to do the same.

A report published in February this year by MMI found that across 23 Canadian metropolitan areas, newly built family-sized starter homes are now more than twice as expensive relative to median income as they were in 2004. According to the report, in the last two decades, new home prices at the lower end of the market have risen by 265 per cent on average, while young dual-earner incomes grew just 76 per cent.

Another MMI report published in November found that across 23 countries with available OECD data, Canada experienced the sharpest rise in the home price-to-income ratio, up more than 80 per cent since 2004.

A home that cost three years’ income in 2004 now costs nearly 5½ years' income today, the report found.

"A combination of skyrocketing home prices and stagnant wage growth has left Canadian households far worse off than their peers abroad," the report said.

Help from Mom and Dad

The people buying houses, at least in Ontario and British Columbia, are almost consistently in the top 10 or 15 per cent of earners in the country, Butler said.

Either that or people are getting massive assistance from their parents, who are using some of the accumulated equity in their own homes to assist their kids in buying a place, Butler said.

He gave the example of a semi-detached home in most of the GTA and most of Greater Vancouver, which would cost just under $800,000.

"That's not a nice one. That's not a great neighbourhood," he said. Still, if you're making $115,000, "that's seven times your income. You can't get a mortgage even with 20 per cent down."

Butler said it's "thin on the ground" in terms of Canadian locales where the lower part of middle-income earners can afford a home.

Moffatt said some parts of Quebec, northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and some areas of Manitoba, Atlantic Canada and northern Ontario have homes that are priced relatively low compared to incomes.

When asked for advice on where someone would have to go to find an affordable house, "it's largely to look for places where people don't live as much," he said.

"But that list of places is shrinking."

The wage dilemma

He said this housing dysfunction, which 20 years ago was basically just a Toronto and Vancouver problem, has spread across the country, for the main reason that people moved.

In fact, Moffatt said the place where home prices have increased the most in Canada over a 10-year period was Tillsonburg, Ont., which is outside of London.

"And the reason for that is just that it was one of the cheapest places in the country to live, and families started moving there."

The challenge with housing affordability is that the costs of homebuilding have not gone down. Moffatt said one of the risks is an extended period where new homes aren't being built.

"Because right now, if you want a home, it's hard to build something new that can compete with the prices on the resale market," he said.

And if wages increased without more homes being built, that would just lead to more money chasing the same number of homes.

But wage growth is part of the solution, he said.

"That's how we're going to get affordability. It's not just the prices of homes falling, but you need wages to rise, rise faster than housing prices."

Trump signs order authorizing Bridger's Canada-Wyoming crude pipeline

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada

April 30, 2026.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an order authorizing a proposed project to transport Canadian oil across the border as part of an effort to revive parts of the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline.

South Bow, the Canadian pipeline company behind the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline, is partnering with U.S. company Bridger Pipeline on the proposed project.

South Bow is considering reviving some of the already built line in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Bridger Pipeline is pursuing construction of a potential 1,038-kilometre pipeline beginning near the U.S.-Canada border in Phillips County, Mont., and transiting to Guernsey, Wyo.

As Trump signed the order, White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf told the president, "This is a trans-border pipeline similar to the old Keystone XL pipeline."

Trump responded: "A lot of jobs, too. A lot of jobs. OK, very good."


(Kyle Bakx/CBC)

New proposal revives part of Keystone XL route

The pipeline could increase Canada's crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12 per cent if it goes ahead.

The new proposal involves a different route through the U.S. than the previous Keystone XL project, which was cancelled by former U.S. president Joe Biden in 2021 after years of Indigenous and environmental opposition.\

However, it would use some of the previously built pipe on the Canadian side, where the Keystone XL line is already fully permitted. In 2021, about 150 kilometres of pipe were installed in Alberta.

"South Bow continues to evaluate the Prairie Connector project, a potential expansion of its Canadian asset base that would leverage existing infrastructure and permitted corridors to improve market access for Canadian crude oil," South Bow spokesperson Solomiya Martoiu said in an emailed statement.

"The Prairie Connector project remains in early stages and is subject to ongoing commercial, stakeholder and rightsholder discussions, regulatory processes and evaluation," Martoiu said.

South Bow was created in 2024, when former Keystone XL proponent TC Energy spun off its oil pipeline business.

"One reason we see it keep coming back is that there are some market realities that make a lot of sense," James Coleman, an energy law professor at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview with CBC News.

"There are continued increases in oil production in Canada. We are seeing right now the biggest threats to waterborne traffic of oil that we've ever seen in the world," he said.

North America is uniquely well positioned to deal with the energy crisis caused by the U.S. war in Iran because of the continent's mix of heavy oil, light oil, refining capacity and natural gas, Coleman said.

Still, Coleman warned there could be legal challenges to this proposal, similar to the lawsuits against Keystone XL.
Keystone revival resurfaces during trade talks

The pipeline could transport about 550,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day to the U.S.

"Canada has benefited for decades from having fully integrated infrastructure tied to the United States, the largest oil and gas consuming market on the planet," Lisa Baiton, CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in an emailed statement.

Baiton said the association supports "any new capacity that is commercially viable and can move Canadian energy reliably."

State regulatory permits will still be required for the project to proceed.

"We are aware of the issuance of permits to Bridger Pipeline. The Government of Canada remains focused on strengthening Canada’s position as an energy superpower, supporting North American and global energy security, and advancing the diversification of our trade partnerships," Charlotte Power, a spokesperson for natural resources minister Tim Hodgson, said in an emailed statement.


Pipe ready to be used for the construction of the Canadian leg of the Keystone XL pipeline in Alberta in September 2020. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

The presidential permit comes at a time when Canada and the U.S. are facing an ongoing trade war and will soon begin negotiations on a new North American trade agreement.

Last October, Prime Minister Mark Carney floated the idea of Keystone XL to Trump during a meeting at the White House.


During the construction of the Canadian leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, about 1,000 workers were based in the town of Oyen, located 300 kilometres east of Calgary.

The 1,897-kilometre Keystone XL pipeline was first announced in 2005 and designed to carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Hardisty, Alta., to Nebraska. It would then connect with the original Keystone pipeline, which runs to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

In 2024, TC Energy lost its bid to recoup $15 billion US from the U.S. government after claiming it was treated unfairly and inequitably.

Carney says there is 'one negotiator for Canada' after Conservative MPs descend on Washington

Story by Stephanie Taylor

April 30, 2026.


Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs at Oakville's IUOE Local 793, Thursday April 30, 2026.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that politicians travelling to Washington who are not part of his government often return home not having learned “anything new” about Canada-U.S. trade.

He added that the same can be said when it comes to gleaning information about the state of ongoing discussions and the status of negotiations.


“In the end, there’s one negotiator for Canada, and that is the Government of Canada,” Carney said, speaking at an unrelated announcement in Oakville, Ont.

“Our interlocutors in the United States are generous people. They’re generous with their time, and it’s good of them to meet a host of Canadians coming down. But in the end, they know, and we know that we’re the negotiators.”

Carney’s comments come after Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, along with some of the party’s other MPs, including its foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, went to Washington to participate in a networking event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada, which saw them meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and included other federal and provincial officials.

Citing unnamed sources, The Canadian Press reported Thursday that Greer told those in attendance the “America First” policy ushered in under U.S President Donald Trump was unmovable and that the U.S. was interested in working with Canada on energy issues. National Post has not independently confirmed the contents of what was said.

 Related video: ‘There is one negotiator,’ says Carney on Conservative MP trips to Washington DC (CBC)

“It has not been our experience that people have gone to Washington and have learned anything new, nor has it been that they have learned everything that is either being discussed on the table or where the negotiations are in the end,” Carney said on Thursday.

This trip marks the second Jivani has taken since February, where he went to the White House to meet with Vice-President JD Vance, whom he has been friends with since attending Yale Law School together, along with other Trump officials, saying at the time he wanted to extend a hand to the Carney government to help in navigating the Canada-U.S. relationship.

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Wednesday that dozens of Conservative MPs have travelled to Washington in recent years to fight for “tariff- free trade” and underscored how the party stands ready to fight for Canadian workers.

Ontario MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman, who serves as the party’s critic in Parliament on Canada-U.S. trade, told reporters on Wednesday that she intends to travel to Washington in the coming weeks.

Poilievre, who travelled to the U.S. last month, stopping in Texas, Michigan and New York, has not travelled to Washington himself since becoming party leader back in 2022. He has said he takes the approach of letting the U.S. administration deal with “one prime minister at a time.”

The Conservative leader recently told reporters that his intention was to brief Carney on his trip. During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, aired last month, he told the mega-popular host that he was texting with the prime minister, whom he would not criticize while on foreign soil.

Poilievre’s Conservatives have criticized Carney’s government for not yet having secured any kind of trade deal with Trump that would see existing tariffs, such as the 50 per cent levies on steel and aluminum lowered or lessened.

The party’s MPs have also called on the government to be more transparent about its plans to manage the relationship with the U.S., given the upcoming July 1 deadline to begin the scheduled review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.

Carney has characterized Canada’s trade deal with the U.S. as being an envy of its other trading partners, given that goods covered by the trilateral deal continue to be exempt, telling CBC in an interview that aired this week that he did not want to rush into striking a deal with Trump that “disadvantages us.”

National Post

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First reading: Denmark to procure state-of-the-art Canadian assault rifle before Canada does

Opinion by Tristin Hopper
NATIONAL POST



Variants of the Modular Rail Rifle, also known as the C8.


Despite the Department of Defence touting its new “fast-tracked” procurement strategy, a new Canadian-made assault rifle is already equipping Danish soldiers months before a Canadian will ever see one.

The C8 Modular Rail Rifle, first unveiled at an Ottawa military trade show in 2024, is lighter, more accurate and stealthier than the C7 assault rifle currently in Canadian Armed Forces service.

Although it’s made in Kitchener, Ont., the tiny Danish military has managed to secure the rifles first, in larger quantities, and on a faster timeline.

It was last August that the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition first announced a contract with Colt Canada to buy 26,000 of the rifles, which Danes are calling the Gevaer M/25.

In February, the order was then expanded to 50,000, with the additional rifles to be delivered by 2027.

As of press time, the rifles are already in Danish service. In January, the Danish government published photos of large crates of the guns, shrouded in bubble wrap, arriving from Canada.



The Government of Canada, by contrast, inked its contract to buy the C8 just last month. On March 19, the newly formed Defence Investment Agency first announced its deal with Colt Canada to “replace current Canadian Armed Forces assault rifles.”

The contract shows that Canada will be buying fewer rifles to start, and will be taking more time to phase them in. Although the eventual plan is to buy 65,402 assault rifles, the initial commitment is for 10,000 rifles per year for three years.

The net effect is that Denmark, which has about 9,000 full-time professional soldiers in its army, is purchasing 50,000 C8 rifles on a timeline of about 18 months.

While Canada, which has 22,500 active personnel in its army, is purchasing its first tranche of 30,000 C8 rifles on a timeline of at least three years.

This is all happening as Canadian troops happen to be serving alongside Danish ones as part of the NATO Multinational Brigade in Latvia. Which means that the first glimpse Canadians get of their next assault rifle could be in the hands of Danes deployed to the Baltic.

In tandem with the Carney government’s massive expansion in military spending has been a promise to speed up the Department of Defence’s infamously slow procurement process.

As the Prime Minister’s Office said in a February statement , “Canada’s defence procurement has long been too complicated, too slow, and too reliant on international suppliers, limiting the growth of our defence industries.”

The glacial pace of Canadian defence procurement was best illustrated by its decades-long odyssey to replace the Browning Hi-Power, a pistol that had been in Canadian service since the Second World War.

Despite the fact that the 74-year-old pistols were so worn out they were constantly jamming, it took a 13-year process for the Department of Defence to eventually swap them out with the German-designed Sig Sauer P320.

The delay was ultimately so long that the Canadian military had to set up an “ Army Interim Pistol Program ” just to cover for the fact that units were running out of functioning pistols.

Compare this with the experience of the British Army, who in 2010 faced the exact same process of phasing out a war-era Browning-made pistol as its official sidearm. In a process lasting no longer than two years, the U.K. Ministry of Defence tested the available substitutes, and then put in an order to buy 25,000 pistols from Austria’s Glock Inc.

The process to acquire the C8 rifle has been much the same.

Denmark simply empowered its Ministry of Defence Acquisition to buy the best available rifle, while Canada launched into a years-long bureaucratic review process.

It was six years ago that the Canadian Army first officially announced its plans to acquire a “Canadian Modular Assault Rifle,” submitting its plans to the Independent Review Panel for Defence Acquisitions in July 2020.

As detailed by the publication Canadian Army Today , the process very quickly slowed to a crawl due to “chronic shortages of specialized staff.”

Prior Canadian procurement odysseys have often been sidelined by political intervention, particularly over the issue of foreign-made equipment.

Canada’s acquisition of a replacement to its CF-18 fighter jets, for instance, remains in a limbo that has now stretched to 10 years, with recent delays being influenced by Ottawa’s hesitance to buy the U.S.-designed F-35.

Assault rifles, however, are one of the very few military technologies that Canada has no problem manufacturing in-house.

Denmark, in particular, has been employing Canadian-made assault rifles since the 1990s. The new C8s will be replacing rifles also made by Colt Canada, the C7.

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. 

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