Canada is about to face off Qatar in a FIFA match, and Prime Minister Mark Carney will be there.

On with the news.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is defending the current version of the First Nation Clean Water Act, saying she’s “always going to listen” to feedback, but that the bill as written is the best path forward.

National and regional First Nations groups are calling for amendments that would restore stronger rights and source protection language from an earlier draft — concerns shared by Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige, who helped negotiate the previous clean water bill.

She described the version tabled this week as being “watered-down.”

The bill’s predecessor, Bill C-61, explicitly recognized clean and safe drinking water as a human right for everyone on First Nations land. The Carney government’s version drops that language, replacing it with a commitment to advance “the progressive realization of the internationally recognized human right to safe drinking water on First Nation lands.”

Addressing the Chiefs of Ontario, Debassige said the softer language on rights “is a slap in the face.”

Aya Dufour has more. 

The Liberal government’s contentious lawful access bill has passed in the House but likely won’t become law before Parliament rises for the traditional summer recess.

Bill C-22 was one of several pieces of legislation pushed across the finish line in the House courtesy of a motion passed unanimously on Thursday, which paved the way for MPs to return to their ridings a day earlier than scheduled.

The bill was moved quickly through the final stages after the Liberals passed a motion on Wednesday that wrapped up clause-by-clause review in committee that same day, drawing claims from the opposition that the government was trying to shut down debate over the bill.

That earlier motion also offered a few hours for debate at third reading before a final vote, but that was negated by Thursday’s motion that brings an early start of the summer recess for MPs.

Marco Vigliotti’s got more. 

On the municipal side, Ottawa’s mayoral race is heating up. At least the undecided voters are coming up with a decision now.

A new poll from Liaison Strategies, commissioned by Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, finds Mayor Mark Sutcliffe still leading the field with 38 per cent support among decided and leaning voters. But David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, says the broader political environment remains challenging for the mayor as dissatisfaction with city leadership persists.

Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper sits in second place at 31 per cent, down one point from the last month’s survey. Homebuilder Alex Lawson posted the largest gain in voters with support polling at 21 per cent, a seven per cent increase since the last report.

Economist and community organizer Neil Saravanamuttoo trails at six per cent.

The survey polled one thousand Ottawa residents between Jun 13 to 15. It carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

“People are happy to engage with the city… but they really just don’t trust the council,” Valentin said in an interview with iPolitics.

Sydney Ko has more. 

Also, Montreal’s business community is coming together to sweeten the pot in the city’s bid to host a multinational defence bank, offering several floors in a planned downtown tower for the highly sought-after headquarters.

A consortium of three companies — Sid Lee Architecture and real estate developers Rosefellow and the Tsatas Group — hope their idea will give Montreal an edge as it competes with Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.

Canada has been selected to host the multinational bank that will provide long-term, low-cost financing for defence projects by NATO members and allies. The federal government, meanwhile, has not yet chosen a host city — and the Ontario government says it has already secured a location in Toronto for the bank’s headquarters.

“We want Montreal to stay in the running,” Martin Leblanc, co-founder at Sid Lee Architecture, said in an interview Thursday. “We’re going to give (Montreal) one more card to play.”

The Canadian Press has this one. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow in Kyiv’s biggest air raid on the city since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, setting a major ⁠oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a response to Russia’s strike on a historic Kyiv monastery complex earlier this week.

“We do not want this war and never did,” the Ukrainian president said in a voice message to journalists. “But if Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too … it is time to end the aggression, time to end this war.”

Russia’s foreign minister in turn announced it would launch huge “group strikes” on Ukraine “on a regular basis” in response to the Moscow raid.

The scale of Ukraine’s long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotnya area, caught most people by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media.

The Guardian has more. 

US President Donald Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian have electronically signed a memorandum of understanding to extend a ceasefire in the US-Iran war.

Pakistan, which has been mediating the peace process, said the “Islamabad MOU” had gone into effect as of Wednesday.

US officials said the agreement includes Iran reaffirming a commitment to not develop a nuclear weapon, an end to the war on all fronts and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The war began on February 28, when the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran, though a temporary ceasefire suspended much of the most intense fighting on April 8. This agreement extends the ceasefire for 60 days, paving the way for further negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, US sanctions on Tehran and the release of frozen assets.

Read more from Al Jazeera. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

A city in England was experiencing flood from heavy rainstorm, and their solution? Beavers.

In a forgotten patch of West London wedged between a McDonald’s, a strip mall and a tangle of busy roads, a family of beavers has spent the last three years doing what engineers once planned to accomplish with concrete and heavy machinery.

Since being reintroduced to the stretch of land in 2023, the furry urban planners transformed the neglected land into a thriving wetland, soaking up floodwater that once spilled into nearby streets and a Tube station.

Read more from BBC.