News roundup, 1 April 2026

- NORAD's US commander, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, has thrown cold water on the idea that the F-35 is essential for the defense of North America. Guillot says that the aircraft is better suited to assaults on overseas targets where its stealth and air-to-surface weapons would be more useful. Prime Minister Mark Carney is holding off on commenting on the matter pending a review.

- The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch today. It will carry four astronauts, including Canada's Jeremy Hansen, in a loop around the Moon before returning to Earth, in preparation for Artemis III which is planned to actually land.

- Stephen Lewis has died at the age of 88, having lived just long enough to see his son Avi win the NDP leadership.

- Numerous airlines around the world, including Air Canada and Air Transat, are imposing surcharges to deal with the rising cost of jet fuel as a result of the Iran war.

- Pierre Poilievre is calling for the cancellation of the proposed high speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City, using his usual simplistic populist slogans.

- A man in Niagara Region, Ontario has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges. Matthew Althorpe had created propaganda for the Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group, and an agreed statement of facts at the sentencing hearing showed that documents that he posted on the Telegram social media platform had inspired multiple terrorist attacks. This included an attack against the LGBT* community in Slovakia that killed two people, as well as a mass stabbing at a mosque in Turkey.

- French MEP Rima Hassan was invited by several organizations to speak at events in Quebec, but was denied entry to Canada. The official explanation was that she had "failed to disclose a previous visa refusal or denial of entry" as well as "an alleged criminal offence, arrest, indictment or conviction". Both of these appear to stem from her participation in one of the flotillas bringing aid to Gaza in June. B’nai Brith Canada has praised the denial, accusing her of "promoting terror"; presumably they think that if those kids in Gaza are given enough food to survive they'll surely grow up to be terrorists. 

- A teacher in Manitoba's Frontier School Division, which serves mostly remote communities in the northern part of the province, has been decertified after admitting to supplying a student with alcohol and cannabis. In other professional misconduct news, a lawyer who is already under suspension by the Manitoba Law Society has been accused of conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into Headingley Jail as well as conspiracy to obtain a prohibited or restricted firearm.

News roundup, 18 Dec 2025

- The Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUMSA) is currently being reviewed. Mark Carney denies that Donald Trump has threatened to abrogate the agreement in its entirety, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Grier says that the possibility is still on the table unless agreements can be made on some key issues, including supply management for dairy as well as the Online Streaming Act. It seems worthwhile to ask whether the renewal of the agreement would insulate Canada from tariffs, though; it hasn't done that so far, so perhaps cancelling the deal wouldn't make things worse than they already are. The US still does need our exports, after all.

- A federal court has ruled that National Guard troops can remain in DC while a panel of judges looks at the legality of the deployment.

- The European Union is looking into the possibility of using seized Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's war effort. They are also looking at other measures, including borrowing money to fund Ukraine, however such a move would require unanimity among member states, and Viktor Orban's Hungary is not expected to agree to it.

- A man who posted video evidence of the mistreatment of Uyghurs in his native China, then fled to the US, was given a work permit but nonetheless could now face deportation after ICE raided his residence while investigating his roommate.

- B’nai Brith Canada is going to court in the hope of having the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba's dismissal of a complaint against a physician overturned. The organization alleges that Dr. Barry Lavallee made antisemitic posts on X in 2024. The exact content of the posts has not been made public; presumably B’nai Brith wants us to take their word for it that the posts were actually antisemitic.

- A French anesthetist has been sentenced to life in prison after intentionally poisoning some 30 patients, 12 of them fatally. Dr. Frédéric Péchier had apparently contaminated infusion bags with toxic substances.