Good evening, readers.

We start the evening newsletter with message from the Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin.

Dabrusin defended the Carney government’s policy approach before a House committee on Thursday.

During the minister’s appearance before the environment committee, Conservative MP David Bexte accused the Liberals of creating regulatory uncertainty that delays projects, citing the reasons Canadian Natural Resources gave to defer a $150 million investment in early engineering for its $8.25-billion Jackpine mine expansion.

Dabrusin responded by pointing the finger at the Conservatives, saying their attacks against carbon pricing go against the wishes of the resources industry.

“I feel like we have been very clear about the industrial carbon price and the need to enhance it,” she said, adding that if anything is creating uncertainty, it’s the Conservative push against the policy.

“Every day I fight to even keep an industrial carbon price, which is actually what industry is asking of us.”

Liberal MP Eric St-Pierre, a member of the environment committee, brought up figures from a recent Canadian Climate Institute analysis stating industrial carbon pricing would cost oil sands producers just a Timbit a barrel in 2030 on average under a minimum carbon price of $130 per tonne.

Aya Dufour has more. 

Green Leader Elizabeth May says her colleagues in the House of Commons should be “ashamed” for opposing Senate changes to government legislation exempting federal parties from provincial privacy laws.

May was the only MP to voice opposition to a motion from the government on Thursday rejecting an amendment to its landmark affordability legislation, known as Bill C-4. The motion was adopted on division, which indicates that the decision wasn’t unanimous, but was made without a recorded vote.

Most of the bill touches upon changes to tax laws. The legislation slashes the lowest tax rate from 15 to 14 per cent and eliminates the GST on new homes priced up to $1 million for first-time buyers.

But it also includes an unrelated section that would have the effect of exempting political parties from provincial privacy laws and making that exemption retroactive to 2000.

That is likely related to a 2024 decision by B.C.’s Supreme Court that ruled that the federal Liberal party had to comply with the province’s privacy law.

The Senate amendment would create a sunset clause that would repeal the privacy changes in three years time.

Find out more from Marco Vigliotti. 

A new bill tabled by the Liberal government would give the police and Canada’s spy agency new powers to compel telecoms to provide identifying information about subscribers.

It would also create a system to require service providers to keep user-specific information but who is captured would be flushed out in subsequent regulations.

The government says changes to Canada’s lawful access regime are needed to better respond to online threats and keep pace with new technologies.

It comes after privacy advocates and opposition parties objected to more expansive changes laid out in Bill C-2, the government’s first attempt at border security legislation that has since been supplanted.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday introducing the legislation, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Canada’s existing laws are “woefully behind our most important allies” and changes are needed to help law enforcement more quickly respond to digitally sophisticated criminal activity.

He said the new bill corrects issues with C-2 and “balances the needs of law enforcement with the privacy and civil rights that Canadians demand.”

Marco Vigliotti’s also got this one. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, the war with Iran entered its 13th day Thursday, as Iran issued what it said was the first message from its new supreme leader, while attacks on commercial ships spread to Iraq’s waters and oil prices climbed back above $100 a barrel.

In the statement that Iranian media attributed to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and keep up attacks on U.S. bases in the region. Another person was heard reading out the remarks, with a photo of Khamenei posted on the TV screen, as the statement was broadcast around the world.

Iranian and Lebanese health officials and Israeli authorities have reported more than 1,300 people killed in Iran, 687 in Lebanon and 12 in Israel. Seven U.S. soldiers have died and eight were seriously injured mainly after attacks at U.S. bases in countries neighboring Iran, according to the Pentagon.

The United Nations refugee agency said as many as 3.2 million Iranians have been forced out of their homes by the war.

Find out more from NPR. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran should not participate in the upcoming World Cup in North America, just days after telling Fifa’s chief they would be welcome despite the Middle East war.

“The Iran national soccer team is welcome to the World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” the US president said on his Truth Social platform.

The comments came two days after Fifa president Gianni Infantino said he had received assurances from Trump that Iran would be welcome at the tournament, which the United States is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada.

“We also spoke about the current situation in Iran, and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the Fifa World Cup 2026,” Infantino wrote in a Tuesday post on Instagram. “During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States.”

The Guardian has more. 

Other International Headlines

The Kicker

To all the fellow film buffs out there, this weekend is our version of the Super Bowl — the Oscars kick off on Sunday.

There are some notable homegrown works in the running this year, including Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and K-Pop Demon Hunters, co-written and co-directed by Toronto’s Maggie Kang.

As for my Oscars pool predictions? Let’s just say my track record suggests it should be viewed as a cautionary tale for gambling.