It was a coordinated photo-op day, as both prime minister Mark Carney and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, had events in different parts of the country to each proclaim measures that the government is taking to attack the rash of extortion crimes, happening in predominantly desi communities. Champagne was in Mississauga to proclaim that they were going to “follow the money” with these extortionists, and enhance the ability of FINTRAC to do the work, and so on. All of which is great, but it bears reminding that the RCMP’s federal policing role, which involves illicit financing and organised crime, is woefully underfunded, under-resourced, and lacking in specialised personnel, and this same government has refused to do the right thing and break up the RCMP so that it can stand up a proper, competent federal policing agency. Oh, and they dragged their feet for years on the promised financial crimes agency, so that’s also on them.

Meanwhile, Carney was in Surrey to have a photo op with police in the area, and he touted their bills to do things like strengthen bail laws, which won’t actually do that because the problem is provincial resourcing of courts, not the Criminal Code. All these bills are doing is setting the government up for failure, because as soon as someone reoffenders while on bail under these revised laws, the Conservatives will point at them and say “Look, your plan isn’t working.” The other thing Carney touted was the lawful access provisions in Bill C-2, claiming police really need these powers, but no, you do not give police incredibly invasive powers that they can start going on fishing expeditions with. The Supreme Court has twice ruled lawful access to be unconstitutional, and I wish this government could get that through their heads. After all, they opposed lawful access for 15 years until suddenly deciding it was the cat’s ass last spring.

During his speech in Surrey this morning, Carney talked about moving ahead on #LawfulAccess. As a reminder, Lawful Access has *twice* been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.I have some concerns about what they plan to do about private messaging services here.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:48:12.349Z

Last week, @privacylawyer.ca and I talked about these Lawful Access provisions on my YouTube channel:

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:48:12.350Z

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are insisting that none of these measures will work, and that they need to repeal previous bail and sentencing laws because that’ll do the trick. Except it won’t, because those laws don’t do the things the Conservatives claim they do, and this is just one more bit of cheap theatre that has Canadians’ Charter rights at stake, and they don’t seem to have any conscience about it. And frankly, Conservative MP Frank Caputo, a former Crown prosecutor, knows better than this, and if he doesn’t, then he should have his law licence revoked for gross incompetence.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-02-19T22:27:02.667Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have reduced their capacity to ship agricultural and mineral exports. Top intelligence chiefs in Europe say that the US is unlikely to broker a peace deal with Russia. (No kidding!)

Good reads:

• Stephen Fuhr says the Defence Investment Agency will be legislated as a standalone federal agency to give it more independence and authority.
• Mandy Gull-Masty made a major funding announcement for Inuit communities, including child and family services, tuberculosis elimination, and their university.
• Export Development Canada is seeking to boost its investments in the defence sector, because we want to export those arms we’re going to build.
• Here is a check into some of the remaining interprovincial trade barriers, which are the most stubborn as they largely involve training certification.
• First Nations in Alberta, whose lands the Pathways Project would be on, are also pointing out that they were not consulted when Carney signed his MOU.
• The Star put together a timeline of Matt Jeneroux’s defection to the Liberals.
• The NDP held their English-language debate last night.
• Indigenous artists are pushing back against Doug Ford, pointing out that basket weaving is important and that they make a good living from it.
• Ian Holloway suggests that any Alberta MLAs supporting separatism may not be treasonous under the law, but they have betrayed their oaths.
• Patricia Treble assesses the comeuppance due to Andrew Mountabatten-Windsor following his arrest for misconduct in public office.
• Justin Ling worries that there is not enough international pushback to Trump’s assault on the International Criminal Court, risking international law.
• Paul Wells absolutely nails Poilievre’s problem in terms of his one-track belief in tactics that no longer serve him, which is why he needs the time Carney is offering.

Odds and ends:

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