Friday, May 01, 2026

Israel condemned for seizure of Gaza-bound aid flotilla

IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS

01.05.2026, dpa

Photo: Matthias Oesterle/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

By dpa correspondents

Germany, Italy and Spain were among countries that condemned Israel's seizure of an international flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in international waters off the coast of Greece and the detention of dozens of humanitarian activists.

The governments in Rome and Berlin on Thursday called on Israel to fully respect international law and "for restraint from irresponsible actions." Germany and Italy were following "with great concern developments" regarding the flotilla, they said.

At the same time, Berlin and Rome defended the international community’s efforts to "provide humanitarian aid to Gaza in accordance with international law and standards." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also demanded the "immediate" release of all Italians "unlawfully detained." Both Italian and German citizens are on board.

In a separate joint statement, 11 countries including Spain and Turkey said "the unlawful detention of humanitarian activists in international waters constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law."

The 11 countries called on the Israeli authorities "to take the necessary measures" to ensure the immediate release of the detained activists, condemning "in the strongest terms the Israeli assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry earlier had called the attack on the flotilla an “act of piracy” in violation of humanitarian values and international law.

Israel has said its navy has intercepted more than 20 vessels from the flotilla west of Crete, roughly 1,000 kilometres from Israel. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said around 175 activists were being transported to Israel "peacefully."

The ministry said that Israel acted after the flotilla "actively attempted to block an Israeli merchant vessel," according to the Times of Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said the detained activists would be brought ashore in Greece in coordination with the government in Athens, which the minister said agreed to it. All activists were taken off the vessels "unharmed," Sa'ar added.

Greece later said it had "urged Israel to withdraw its vessels from the area and offered its diplomatic assistance by agreeing to host the passengers on its territory and ensure their safe return to their home countries."

"The Greek Authorities are in consultation with the Israeli Authorities regarding safe disembarkation in Greece," the Foreign Ministry in Athens said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the aid group described the operation in a post on X as "a violent raid in international waters."

Activists said Israeli speedboats approached the flotilla at night, with soldiers allegedly pointing lasers and semi-automatic weapons at the vessels. People onboard were reportedly ordered to assemble at the bow and kneel.

The group alleged that naval forces boarded multiple boats, "smashing engines" and "intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels" as a storm approached. Communications were also reportedly disrupted.

More ships heading toward the Gaza Strip

Dozens of vessels carrying activists from multiple countries set sail from Sicily on Sunday toward the Gaza Strip in what organizers described as the largest flotilla yet attempting to reach the embattled Palestinian territory.

The activists aim to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007 and supported by Egypt, and to deliver humanitarian supplies to the territory.

They also say they are seeking to push for the establishment of a permanent humanitarian corridor.

Some of the flotilla's ships are continuing their journey following the incident on Wednesday night. Several boats were moving along the coast of Crete within Greek territorial waters late on Thursday, as shown by data from the online tracker of the flotilla's organizers and the Marine Traffic vessel tracking system.

The aid flotilla initially made no statements regarding its future plans. The organizers continue to accuse Israel of using violent force. Israel insists that the action against the flotilla is in accordance with international law.

Israel accused the organizers of the latest flotilla of collaborating with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which still controls around half of the coastal strip.

Activists on Gaza aid flotilla detained by Israel disembark in Crete

Athens (AFP) – Dozens of activists on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Crete disembarked on Friday in the Greek island, an AFP journalist saw.

Issued on: 01/05/2026 - FRANCE24

The flotilla comprising more than 50 vessels set sail in recent weeks from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy © Josep LAGO / AFP/File

Escorted by Greek coastguards, around 175 activists, the majority of them nationals of European countries, were taken in four coaches to the port of Atherinolakkos, in the southeast of the island.

As they approached the port, the activists chanted "Free Palestine," AFP saw.

Israel's foreign ministry earlier said around 175 activists had been taken off more than 20 vessels on Thursday. Flotilla organisers put the number at 211.

Turkey's foreign ministry said some 20 Turkish nationals in the flotilla who had been grabbed by the Israeli forces and taken to Crete would be repatriated. It said "certain participants from third countries" would also be sent to Turkey.

The flotilla comprising more than 50 vessels set sail in recent weeks from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy.

Its aim, according to the organisers, was to break the blockade of Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

Israel controls all entry points to Gaza. It has been accused by the United Nations and foreign NGOs of strangling the flow of goods into the territory, causing shortages since the start of Israel's war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in October 2023.

The Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas, has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein on Friday said: "All the flotilla activists are now in Greece except Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila."

In a post on X, the ministry called the flotilla "another provocation designed to divert attention from Hamas's refusal to disarm". It also said the flotilla was serving "professional provocateurs".

It said Keshek was "suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organisation" and that he and Avila, suspected of "illegal activity", would be brought to Israel for questioning.

Several European governments with nationals among those arrested have called on Israel to free the activists and called its action a flagrant contravention of international law.

But the United States backed Israeli authorities, calling the flotilla a "stunt" and saying it expects allies to deny port access, docking, departure and refueling to vessels participating in the flotilla.

A State Department spokesman said Washington was exploring imposing "consequences" on those who support the flotilla.

The war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, has led to severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel.

In the summer and autumn of 2025, a first voyage by the Global Sumud Flotilla across the Mediterranean towards Gaza drew worldwide attention.

The boats in that flotilla were intercepted by Israel off the coasts of Egypt and the Gaza Strip in early October.

Crew members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were arrested and then expelled by Israel.

burs-pdw/

© 2026 AFP

Gaza aid flotilla reaches Crete after Israel intercepts vessels

01.05.2026, dpa

Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

By Takis Tsafos, dpa

Around 30 vessels from the flotilla seeking to bring aid to Gaza have reached Crete, tracking data showed on Friday, after Israel intercepted some of the ships earlier this week, sparking international condemnation.

Parts of the Global Sumud Flotilla have entered the bay of Ierapetra, a port town in south-eastern Crete, according to tracking site Marine Traffic and the flotilla's online tracking tool.

It was initially unclear how long the activists would remain in Ierapetra, but Greek media reported that they have been brought to the small port of Atherinolakos on the south-eastern edge of Crete, from where they are to travel on to the island's administrative capital Heraklion.

On Thursday, Israel said its navy had intercepted more than 20 vessels from the flotilla west of Crete, roughly 1,000 kilometres from Israel, with around 175 activists arrested. The Global Sumud Flotilla described the operation as "a violent raid in international waters."

The move sparked strong criticism including from Germany, Italy and Spain.

Greece said it was ready to take in those arrested to enable them to travel home.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that two activists were being brought to Israel for questioning, with one man suspected of having ties to a terrorist organization. The second person is accused of carrying out "illegal activities," the ministry said, without giving further details.

It was also unclear how they would be brought to Israel.

The Global Sumud Flotilla had previously told dpa upon request that its vessels had reached safe waters and were currently regrouping.

The group said it was fully prepared to continue its journey "to break the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip."

US condemns 'pro-Hamas' aid flotilla, threatens supporters

01.05.2026, dpa

Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

The United States on Thursday condemned an international flotilla attempting to carry aid to the Gaza Strip, calling it a "pro-Hamas initiative" attempting to undermine President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East.

The Israeli Navy has said it intercepted more than 20 vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla west of Crete, roughly 1,000 kilometres from Israel. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said around 175 activists were being transported to Israel "peacefully."

Countries including Germany, Italy and Spain condemned Israel for seizing the vessels in international waters and called for international law and standards to be respected.

The US Department of State, meanwhile, condemned "the Global Sumud Flotilla, a pro-Hamas initiative and a baseless, counterproductive effort to undermine President Trump’s Peace Plan."

Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that the flotilla is organized by "the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which was designated as a specially designated global terrorist in January for operating at Hamas’ behest."

Pigott went on to say that "the United States expects all our allies, particularly those who have committed to supporting President Trump’s successful 20-Point Plan [for demilitarizing Gaza], to take decisive action against this meaningless political stunt by denying port access, docking, departure, and refueling to vessels participating in the flotilla."

Since a ceasefire was declared in October last year, Israel has controlled around half of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas has largely re-established control in the remainder. Disarmament of Hamas under a US-led peace plan has not been implemented.

Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid flotilla, detains 175 activists

30.04.2026,

By Sara Lemel, dpa

The Israeli navy has intercepted more than 20 vessels from an international aid flotilla bound for Gaza off the coast of the Greek island of Crete and detained dozens of activists, authorities said on Thursday.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said around 175 activists were being transported to Israel “peacefully."

Meanwhile, the group calling itself the "Global Sumud Flotilla" described the operation in a post on X as "a violent raid in international waters."

The interception took place west of Crete, roughly 1,000 kilometres from Israel. While an intervention had been anticipated, the timing and location reportedly came as a surprise. Israeli media said the flotilla was stopped early due to its size.

The Israeli military provided only a brief statement, saying it was enforcing the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, which it says is in place for security reasons. It added that it was acting under instructions from Israel's political leadership.

The activists aim to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007 and supported by Egypt, and to deliver humanitarian supplies to the territory.

They also say they are seeking to push for the establishment of a permanent humanitarian corridor.

Israel has previously blocked similar attempts to breach the blockade. During an earlier effort last year, Israeli special forces boarded the largely privately owned sail and motorboats making up the flotilla and prevented them from reaching Gaza.

Israel accused the organizers of the latest flotilla of collaborating with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which still controls around half of the coastal strip.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem spoke of “professional provocateurs” and accused them of seeking to sabotage the transition to the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, diverting attention from Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the attack on the flotilla an “act of piracy” in violation of humanitarian values and international law.

Amnesty International official Erika Guevara Rosas said it was "appalling that activists participating in a peaceful solidarity mission to break Israel's unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver medical supplies to people facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis - deliberately imposed by Israel - have been arbitrarily detained once again."

Despite the raid, several ships from the flotilla were believed to be continuing their journey on Thursday, according to data from the organizers' online tracker and the Marine Traffic vessel tracking system.

There were initially no statements from the organizers regarding the further plans of the ships participating in the flotilla.

Greece describes events

A government spokesman in Athens said the Greek coastguard's search and rescue command centre received a distress signal from a vessel in international waters more than 60 nautical miles west of Crete.

A coastguard patrol boat was immediately dispatched. During radio contact, the captains of the vessel in question and other nearby ships stated that there was no danger and that they “neither required assistance nor wished for support from the Greek authorities,” the spokesman added on Greek television.

The coastguard also noted that 17 boats had been abandoned by their crews and were drifting in the region. The salvage of the vessels would begin shortly, with further details to be provided in due course, government sources in Athens added.

According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, those arrested are to be taken to Greece in the coming hours.

Right-wing violence in Germany hits highest level since 2016

01.05.2026, dpa

Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

German police recorded the highest number of right-wing motivated violent offences last year since 2016, according to a government response to a question from the opposition Left Party.

The response, seen by dpa, showed that Germany's federal states had reported a total of 1,598 such offences for 2025 to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) by the cut-off date of January 31, 2026.

In most cases, investigations were launched on suspicion of bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.

The previous year, the states recorded 1,488 right-wing motivated violent offences, while in 2023 police registered 1,270 violent offences with a right-wing background.

The figures for the previous year can still change because of late reports. This is partly because reports first have to be passed from the states to the BKA, but also because the political motivation behind an offence sometimes only becomes clear later.

Looking at all right-wing motivated offences recorded in 2025, there was a slight decline, from 42,788 to 42,544 offences.

Typical politically motivated offences include denigrating the state and its symbols, incitement to hatred and insults.

Violent offences include homicides, bodily harm, breach of the peace, dangerous interference with road traffic, deprivation of liberty and offences involving resistance to law enforcement officers.

Hundreds take part in anti-far-right demonstration in Cottbus

30.04.2026, 23:57 dpa

Photo: Frank Hammerschmidt/dpa

Following a series of suspected far-right crimes, several hundred people demonstrated against right-wing violence on Thursday in the German city of Cottbus, south-east of Berlin.

A procession marched through the city under the slogan "You attack us – we stand even closer together."

Everything proceeded peacefully, a police spokesperson said. An initiative "Safe spaces southern Brandenburg" organized the demonstration.

The initiative's spokesperson, former Green Party member of the state parliament Ricarda Budke, told regional public broadcaster RBB: "We are showing here and now that we will not let our city be taken from us."

The police's State Security Division is investigating several criminal offences in Cottbus. In recent days, anti-Semitic graffiti and a black swastika had been daubed on the city’s synagogue.

As yet unknown perpetrators also threw a flare into the hallway of an alternative housing project. There were also threats made against the home of a student chaplain who is actively involved in combating right-wing extremism.

Ukraine launches fresh drone attacks on Russian oil port of Tuapse

01.05.2026, dpa

Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Ukrainian drones have once again caused a fire at the oil terminal in the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse, authorities said on Friday.

There were no deaths or injuries, the crisis management team for the southern Russian region of Krasnodar told the state news agency TASS.

According to the report, more than 100 firefighters are involved in fire-fighting operations.

This was the fourth Ukrainian attack on the oil facilities within the last two weeks.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported that 141 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory. However, air defences were once again powerless against the strikes in Tuapse.

The previous attacks caused severe damage. Most of the reservoirs have now been burnt out, and the infrastructure for transferring oil to ships has also been damaged.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently warned that the attacks could potentially pose an environmental hazard, but insisted that the authorities have the situation under control.

Official data shows air pollution levels are significantly elevated and some of the oil has leaked and entered the sea.

Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russia’s invasion for more than four years, is deliberately targeting not only military sites but also facilities belonging to the Russian oil industry.

This is intended, on the one hand, to hamper the Russian army’s fuel supply and, on the other, to undermine the Kremlin’s war financing.

Meanwhile, Russia again attacked Ukraine with drones during the night.

According to official reports, two apartment blocks in the port city of Odessa caught fire following drone strikes.

Two people were injured, the Ukrainian civil protection agency reported. Twenty-five people, including two children, are receiving psychological support following the shock of the strikes.

Gen Z turning its back on AI isn’t irrational—it’s a verdict on everyone who failed them

Story by Nick Lichtenberg

Fortune

Gen Z is entering a not so brave new world of AI.© Ye Myo Khant/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

America has a problem with young people and AI. Gen Z has looked clearly at what the AI revolution is doing to their lives and rendered a verdict: The institutions that were supposed to prepare them for this moment have failed; the employers that were supposed to hire them have vanished; and the government that was supposed to manage the transition has been absent without leave.

That verdict is arriving in numbers that are hard to dismiss: The more young people engage with the technology, the worse they feel about it.

Gen ’s excitement about artificial intelligence dropped 14 points over the past year to just 22%, according to Gallup polling released this week. Hopefulness fell nine points to 18%. Anger rose nine points to 31%. And here’s the data point that deserves the most attention: Even daily AI users saw bigger drops in sentiment than nonusers; excitement among that group fell by 18 points, and hopefulness tumbled by 11. Separate polling aligns with this: Gen Z rates AI satisfaction at just 69 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index—below airlines, social media, and mortgage lenders.

The paradox is telling: 62% of Gen Z and millennials believe that AI will unlock financial opportunities they can’t currently access. Something is going wrong here, on the cusp of a supposed Fifth Industrial Revolution, and, as with so many things in the wider AI discourse, this seems to be a sort of Rorschach test, reflecting back humanity’s own foibles. They believe in the technology’s potential, but don’t trust the system surrounding it to let them benefit.

Schools chose the wrong side

The first institution to stand in the dock is higher education. At the exact moment AI literacy became a foundational workplace skill, most colleges went in the opposite direction. More than half of college students say their school either discourages (42%) or outright bans (11%) the use of AI, according to Gallup. Faculty are aware of the damage: 63% believe their schools’ 2025 graduates were not very or not at all prepared to use AI in the workplace, per the American Association of Colleges and Universities. But what is the first thing employers are asking for from any qualified candidate? AI literacy.

This editor has personally visited the KPMG Lakehouse, where new consulting interns are training up in how to prompt, and talked to thought leaders in human resources and economics who fear the mismatch between what employers want and what workers have to offer. AI skills are the missing link in the stagnant labor market, and Gen Z knows it—and they know they’ve been underprepared for this revolutionary moment.

A Fortune investigation last fall found the same fault line from a different angle: Nine in 10 educators told researchers their graduates were workforce-ready, while nearly half of those graduates said they didn’t feel prepared even to apply for an entry-level job in their field. Rather than adapt, some students are engineering their own work-arounds: Double-majoring has surged as a hedge against AI disruption, Fortune reported in November, and graduates who steered toward so-called AI-proof fields—psychology, education, social work—are now finding those degrees carry negative financial returns as AI moves into white-collar work faster than anticipated.

This lands inside a broader legitimacy collapse that elite universities have spent years engineering for themselves. A Yale faculty committee released a sweeping, self-critical report this week documenting the ruin—runaway tuition; an opaque admissions process that systematically advantages the wealthy; and campuses increasingly hostile to free inquiry. A decade ago, 57% of Americans said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education; by 2024, that figure had cratered to a historic low of 36%. The institutions most responsible for equipping the next generation to navigate a turbulent economy have spent years losing the public’s trust—and then they turned their backs on AI, the one thing Gen Z most needed to master to get a good job, maybe any job, in this market.

The jobs disappeared quietly

Whatever deficiencies young people bring out of school, they have expected the job market to eventually sort things out. It hasn’t. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates hit 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025, above the national rate—a reversal that almost never happens. Underemployment for recent grads sits at 42.5%, the highest since 2020.

The mechanism matters here. This isn’t primarily a story of mass AI-driven layoffs, as layoffs remain relatively low across the economy, with big exceptions in the tech industry. The story is more one of quiet erasure. At companies that have adopted AI, junior hiring fell nearly 8% within six quarters—not through firings, but through a freeze on new positions, according to a Harvard working paper tracking 62 million workers.

Gen Zers are paying a compounding price: Without early-career experience accumulating, their wages are falling further behind those of older workers than any comparable cohort in decades. Entry-level jobs are the ones AI automates first. They are also the jobs that teach young workers how to think, build judgment, and eventually move up. Eliminate the bottom rung, and you don’t just harm one generation—you hollow out the management pipeline for the next decade.

The anxiety is producing measurable behavioral responses. Forty-four percent of Gen Z workers admit to actively sabotaging their company’s AI rollout—compared with 29% of workers overall, Fortune reported earlier this month. It is a sign less of technophobia than of workers who feel unprotected and are acting accordingly. Some economists argue that the weak entry-level market is partly an overcorrection from the post-COVID hiring binge of 2021. And nearly 60% of hiring managers reportedly use AI as an excuse for layoffs and freezes because it plays better with stakeholders than the real reasons do. Marc Andreessen called it a “silver-bullet excuse.” Sam Altman branded it “AI-washing.” The honest answer is messier: AI and opportunism are compounding each other, and young workers are caught in the middle.

Washington has been somewhere else

The missing actor in all of this is the government. There is no serious federal workforce transition framework, no large-scale AI-skills retraining program, no mandate that schools treat AI literacy the way they treat reading or arithmetic. What there is instead: an administration that has spent its political capital on wielding education funding as a cudgel—freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard over campus activism disputes—while the skills gap widens, and a generation improvises its own future in real time.

Sixteen percent of currently enrolled college students have already changed their major because of AI—a sign of a generation trying to adapt in real time, without a map. Whether schools catch up, whether employers reverse the junior hiring freeze, and whether Washington produces anything resembling a workforce policy will determine whether the current anxiety hardens into something permanent. For now, the numbers suggest it already has.

In April 2026, OpenAI released a 13-page policy paper, “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,” warning that AI’s rapid advance toward superintelligence threatens to hollow out wage and payroll tax revenue and unravel the social safety net, and calling for a sweeping overhaul comparable to the Progressive Era or the New Deal.

The company’s blueprint—shifting the tax base away from labor income toward corporate profits and capital gains, floating a “robot tax” on automated labor, and creating a national public wealth fund that would distribute returns to American citizens—closely mirrors proposals from billionaire venture capitalist and early OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla, who has argued for eliminating federal income tax for Americans earning under $100,000 and taxing capital gains at ordinary income rates.

Both Khosla and OpenAI framed the urgency in stark terms. Goldman Sachs research indicates that AI is already cutting roughly 16,000 U.S. jobs per month, with younger workers hit hardest, and Khosla predicts that AI could automate 80% of current jobs by 2030. Critics, including Carnegie Endowment scholar Anton Leicht, dismiss the OpenAI paper as “comms work to provide cover for regulatory nihilism,” underscoring how far Washington remains from any concrete legislative response.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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."

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Friday, May 01, 2026

More ships heading toward the Gaza Strip

Gaza aid flotilla reaches Crete after Israel intercepts vessels

US condemns 'pro-Hamas' aid flotilla, threatens supporters

Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid flotilla, detains 175 activists

Greece describes events

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