Happy Friday! We’re starting tonight’s newsletter with an update on the hate bill.

The Senate has rewritten the government’s hate crime bill to include a ban on anti-Black symbols, but rejected a proposal to criminalize residential school denialism.

Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard’s amendment to Bill C-9 was the only one to pass at third reading on Thursday, after the chamber rejected the report on the bill from the human rights committee.

Her amendment would criminalize public displays of nooses and white pointed hoods, labelling them symbols of “anti-Black racism.” The bill already included language criminalizing other symbols, including the Nazi “SS bolts.”

Bernard’s amendment was originally passed at committee, but needed to be reintroduced after the report was voted down by the wider Senate on Wednesday.

That vote also killed Nunavut Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell’s amendment that would criminalize condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian residential school system. But the Senate opted against restoring this amendment at third reading.

Marco Vigliotti has more. 

The labour market rebounded with a surprise gain of 88,000 jobs in May, partially offsetting a bigger drop in employment since the start of the year, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The agency said the unemployment rate fell to 6.6 per cent in May, down from 6.9 per cent in April.

StatCan said May’s gains were the first significant increase in employment since November 2025. The economy had shed 112,000 net jobs in the first four months of 2026.

Economists had broadly expected a more modest gain of 10,000 jobs in May and that the unemployment rate would hold steady.

Growth last month was concentrated in full-time work, StatCan said, and was widespread across industries.

Construction led the way with a gain of 27,000 jobs, followed by the information, culture and recreation sector and the transportation and warehousing industry. Tariff-sensitive manufacturing also posted job gains in May.

The Canadian Press has this one. 

Also, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith has sent an email to supporters confirming he will resign his seat in the House of Commons and inviting volunteers to an event to celebrate his decade of public service.

He was elected in Beaches-East York in 2015 and briefly served as housing minister in Justin Trudeau’s final cabinet and Mark Carney’s first cabinet.

Erskine-Smith’s email does not say whether he still plans to run for the Ontario Liberal leadership.

His plans to jump to the provincial party hit a snag last month when he lost the Liberal nomination for a byelection in a seat in Toronto.

CP’s got more. 

Up for a long read? Well here’s one about Alberta.

Canadians have likely seen the inescapable headlines by now: Alberta’s separatists want out, and Premier Danielle Smith has decided to hold a non-binding referendum on whether the province should have the decision to sign that divorce paper.

That means this fall, Albertans will vote in a non-binding referendum on whether the province should pursue sovereignty negotiations with Ottawa. The move followed months of pressure from separatist activists and came alongside changes that lowered the threshold for citizen-led referendum petitions.

Following that announcement, Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a “dangerous bluff,” referencing his experience with Brexit, something he said the U.K. is still grappling with to this day. It was also echoed by other western premiers including B.C.’s David Eby and Manitoba’s Wab Kinew.

But, before Alberta decides whether to file for divorce from Canada, conservatives in the province are fighting over who gets custody of the governing party led by Smith.

Sydney Ko’s got this one. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, U.S. employers added jobs for the third month in a row in May, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department. Job gains for March and April were also revised significantly higher.

Restaurants and bars added 48,000 jobs last month in anticipation of strong summer demand, while the overall hospitality industry added 70,000 jobs. Construction companies and local governments were also hiring. Healthcare, which has been a steady source of employment gains, added another 35,000 jobs.

Banks and insurance companies, meanwhile, cut jobs. The financial sector overall cut 22,000 jobs in May.

Overall, the report shows hiring has picked up steam this spring after anemic job growth last year. Over the last three months, employers have added an average of 188,000 jobs each month.

NPR has more. 

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has rejected an offer from Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hold a face-to-face meeting, insisting instead that Russia will achieve its war goals in Ukraine, including seizing all of the eastern Donbas region.

Speaking at the St Petersburg economic forum, the Russian president described the open letter from his Ukrainian counterpart containing the offer as rude. He refused to use Zelenskyy’s name, referring to him only as its author. Asked if they could meet to discuss an end to the conflict, Putin replied: “So far I see no point.”

Zelenskyy’s letter, which was published on Thursday, proposed a meeting in a third country such as Switzerland or Turkey. It said diplomacy should start from the current frontline and that Ukraine was ready for a full ceasefire while negotiations took place.

The letter also alluded to Russia’s recent military setbacks and the growing fuel shortages in Crimea caused by Ukrainian attacks on crucial supply routes. Hours before the forum opened on Wednesday, Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg’s oil terminal, sending black smoke billowing into the sky.

Read more from the Guardian.

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Now, if Canada’s housing crisis got you dreaming of more space, Prince William is selling a modest little starter home…

It’s an eight-bedroom farmhouse on 617 acres of English countryside for just $12 million CAD.

The Prince of Wales is offloading part of the Duchy of Cornwall’s land holdings as he tries to modernize the royal estate, and to invest more on housing and environmental projects.

Honestly, if every reader chips in, we can probably crowdsource a down payment.

Have a great weekend!

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