Justice Minister Sean Fraser is refusing to close the door on negotiations with the Conservatives on changes to the government’s anti-hate bill but acknowledges he’ll eventually move ahead with the legislation if no agreement can be reached.

At justice committee on Monday, the Liberals proposed changes to a contentious amendment to Bill C-9 that removes the religious beliefs exemption for the crime of inciting hate.

The Liberals said it clarified that Parliament wasn’t intending to criminalize religious speech but the Conservatives argued that it didn’t offer any substantive changes to address real concerns from faith communities.

Speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Fraser said he’s still hopeful the Conservatives can be brought on board and urged members of the committee to find a compromise.

“Yesterday’s committee was a disappointment seeing that we didn’t make the progress I was hoping for, but I don’t think the door is closed,” he said in response to a question from iPolitics.

Marco Vigliotti has more.

The Liberals’ controversial border security bill is off to third reading in the Senate with zero amendments adopted after a clause-by-clause review at the national security, defence and veterans affairs committee.  

The review came right after social affairs committee’s reported amendments, which called to remove or heavily amend parts five to eight of the C-12, citing safety risks and vulnerability for asylum seekers.

Senator Mohammad Al Zaibak submitted multiple amendments across parts five, seven and eight of the bill, which targeted information-sharing, executive powers and asylum ineligibility provisions. They were all voted down by the committee. 

Sydney Ko reports.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Jeneroux would join Carney on his travels to India, Japan and Australia over the next week and a half.

Jeneroux crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals last week. He was also named the prime minister’s special advisor on security and economic partnerships.

According to the delegation list shared by the PMO, Jeneroux is the only backbench MP participating in the trip, which will run from Feb. 26 to March 7.

The PMO said the trip to the Asia-Pacific countries will “focus on expanding economic and business relationships, identify investment opportunities in Canada, and create new partnerships to benefit workers and businesses across our nations.”

Marco Vigliotti has more. 

In other headlines

Internationally 

Four Russian soldiers have exposed the horror and brutality of conditions on their side of the front lines in Ukraine, with two men telling the BBC they saw soldiers being executed on the spot for refusing orders.

One man told a documentary team he saw a soldier executed on the order of his commander, who was made a “Hero of Russia” in 2024.

“I see it – just two metres, three metres… click, clack, bang,” he said.

Another soldier, from a different unit, says he saw his commander shoot four men himself.

“I knew them,” he says of the soldiers executed. “I remember one of them screaming ‘Don’t shoot, I’ll do anything!’”

One of them also says he saw 20 bodies of fellow soldiers lying in a pit after being “zeroed” by comrades. 

The term “zero” is Russian military slang for executing your own.

In the documentary, The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War, men give detailed accounts about how they were tortured for refusing to take part in assaults they describe as verging on suicide missions. 

Russian troops call these attacks “meat storms” as waves of men are sent across the front line relentlessly to try and wear down Ukrainian forces.

One of the men, whose job was to identify and count dead soldiers, provided detailed lists showing that he is the sole survivor from a group of 79 men he was mobilised with. Because he refused to go to the front line, he says he was tortured and urinated on. 

Others in his unit who refused would be electrocuted, starved and then forced into meat storms unarmed, he says.

The four men, who are on the run, told of the horrors they witnessed at an undisclosed location outside Russia.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Tuesday that Russia has not “broken Ukrainians” nor triumphed in its war, four years after an invasion that has severely tested the resolve of Kyiv and its allies and fueled European fears about the scale of Moscow’s ambitions.

In a show of support, more than a dozen senior European officials headed to the Ukrainian capital to mark the grim anniversary of the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people, upended life for millions of Ukrainians, and created instability far beyond its borders.

Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russia now holds nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine.

“Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say: We have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “not achieved his goals.”

Global News reports.

In other international headlines

The Kicker

As the Northeast disappears under a fresh blanket of snow, it’s becoming clear that Punxsutawney Phil was onto something – and our local groundhog might have been too optimistic about spring arriving in six weeks time.