Yesterday was the 44th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it comes at a time when the Charter is increasingly under attack by provincial governments who have realised that the prohibition against using the Notwithstanding Clause has worn off, and that the public no longer cares about it—at least not enough to actually punish a government that does it, mostly because it’s right-wing governments using the Clause to punish minorities, and there isn’t enough political will to care about trans and gender diverse youth, or the rights of visible minorities in Quebec.

While everyone waits for the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the Law 21 case out of Quebec, there is some using about ways that the federal government could try and introduce some kinds of guardrails against its use federally, but that immediately had the Bloc Québécois howling, and the brand new Quebec premier striking a combative tone, until she got reassurances from Carney and a text message apology from the federal justice minister, which strikes me as far too much appeasement. And then you have people calling for the constitutional power of disallowance if a province invokes the Clause, but that’s extremely dangerous. Disallowance is a constitutional dead letter—it existed mostly as a way of ensuring provinces would stay within their constitutional lanes, and that function has been taken up by the Supreme Court of Canada’s reference function. Disallowance would essentially be a declaration of war, which is a very bad thing for any federal government.

So, what can we do about provinces who abuse the power? The same way you effect any political change—you organize, and you protest, and you get out the vote. But that’s hard, and people don’t want to do that, even though that’s the way politics works. There is no easy way to curb the abuse of these powers other than the public letting it be known that it’s unacceptable, and that’s hard work. But it’s the only way to ensure that you not only get change, but that said change is actually durable. Make premiers afraid of you. It’s the only way we’re going to fix what’s wrong with this country.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-04-17T13:13:12.555Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit the Danube port of Izmail once again, and at least one drone strayed into Romanian territory as a result. Ukrainian drones made hits at oil facilities in the Black Sea port of Tuapse and Krasnodar.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney announced plans to hold a global investment summit in Toronto this September, as Canada is once again attracting more international capital.
• Carney took part in a virtual meeting of global leaders to talk about re-opening the Strait of Hormuz.
• Here is a deeper dive into parliamentary formation, floor-crossing, and why Poilievre’s complaints about the “manufactured” majority holds no water.
• US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said that our trade negotiations “suck” and that Canada “sucks off” the US’ economy. (Okay then).
• There have been more warnings about what Chinese EV access to our market is going to mean, particularly how Chinese industry tends to operate.
• Officials from Lockheed Martin are visiting Canada to insist that there will be maintenance contracts for F-35s here in Canada (once we’re fully onboard).
• The emissions data from 2024 has been released, and our reductions essentially flatlined, meaning it’ll be next to impossible to meet our 2030 goals.
• New ambassador to Washington Mark Wiseman will appear at the foreign affairs committee next week (so expect a circus).
• Lindsay Tedds continues her examination of how successive governments went about dismantling the women’s state, and how Carney is carrying that on.
• Althia Raj posits that Poilievre’s peevishness only made Mark Carney’s already good week a better one, especially his vow to remain leader no matter what.
• Supriya Dwivedi gives her own take on the stability of a majority government, with a reminder about why the opposition needs to fight bills like lawful access.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I delve into yesterday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on forfeiting proceeds of crime after criminal charges were stayed for delays.

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