This newsletter is going to begin with a definite confirmation that Prime Minister Mark Carney is “absolutely not” considering proroguing Parliament if he gains a majority in a series of upcoming byelections.

Speaking at a news conference with reporters in Wakefield, Que., Tuesday, the prime minister said the idea “never even entered” his mind.

Earlier that day the Globe and Mail reported the Carney government was considering proroguing Parliament if the Liberals sweep a set of byelections in two weeks’ time.

Three byelections are set for April 13 and the outcome could grant the Carney government a narrow majority government.

Two byelections are in Liberal strongholds in the Toronto area and the third is in Terrebonne, a contested Quebec riding north of Montreal.

Proroguing Parliament would grant Carney the ability to reset the parliamentary agenda and the structure of House of Commons committees, giving him more power to advance his government’s legislation.

The Canadian Press has this one. 

Today, the Liberal government has also unveiled a $3.8 billion strategy to protect nature through measures like creating new national parks and marine conservation areas.

Carney is making the announcement today just weeks after conservation groups warned that federal funding was running out.

He says his government is taking an “ambitious” approach to creating new conservation spaces and new urban parks which will require “significant funding.”

CP’s also got this one. 

Meanwhile, only three provinces have yet to sign a cooperation agreement with the federal government for impact assessment.

Ottawa had hoped to strike these “one project, one review” deals with all willing provinces and territories by the end of 2025.

It recently reached agreements with Nova Scotia and Alberta, after having landed deals with P.E.I., New Brunswick, Ontario and B.C.

The cooperation agreements all contain similar language and map out how federal and provincial governments will work together on projects that require assessments from both.

The deals are part of a wider government effort to speed up project approvals. By working together, Ottawa and the provinces can reduce duplication, rely on each other’s processes if equivalent, and pool resources.

Aya Dufour has more.

Shifting gears, if you’ve ever felt gaslit from price-change of booking flights or buying things online, you’re not alone.

That’s the idea behind  “surveillance pricing,” where companies take users’ data, browsing habits or location to tailor what you see, and what you’re willing to pay.

While fluctuating flight prices are nothing new, an expert warn this kind of data-driven pricing is quietly expanding into more traditional retail spaces.

Now, Manitoba has stepped up moving to restrict “surveillance pricing” by retailers under Bill 49, becoming the first province to take action against online personalized data.

Bill 49 would ban any practice where retailers use personal data like browsing history, location or past purchases to tailor prices to individual consumers.

The goal is to prevent companies from quietly charging different people different prices for the same product, a tactic critics say undermines transparency and fairness in the marketplace.

“That word ‘personalized’ does a lot of work, and we know that increasingly, because of all the data points, firms are able to both infer from us that we volunteer them and they may get elsewhere,” said Vass Bednar, managing director of the Canadian SHIELD.

Read more from Sydney Ko. 

Former politician and longtime Canadian social activist Stephen Lewis has died.

Lewis, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations and one-time leader of the NDP in Ontario, was 88.

He is the father of Avi Lewis, who was elected leader of the federal NDP on Sunday.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation announced his death on its website today.

Lewis held multiple posts with the UN after his four-year stint as Canada’s ambassador, including as a special adviser to then secretary-general Kofi Annan, as deputy director of UNICEF and as the UN’s special envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa.

CP has more. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed a religious counselor’s challenge to Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” for gay and transgender minors, saying it likely violates the First Amendment, handing the LGBTQ community another setback in a decision that will reverberate in nearly half the country.

The 8-1 decision, which had conservative and liberal justices in the majority, does not technically strike down the law, but means lower courts will now review it again and apply the highest form of judicial scrutiny. That means Colorado’s law, and others like it, will almost certainly be struck down by lower courts.

Colorado enacted its law in 2019 to protect gay and transgender youth subjected to the scientifically discredited practice of attempting to “convert” their sexual orientation or gender identity. Advocacy groups say roughly half of US states have banned the therapy for minors.

Here are takeaways from the Supreme Court’s decision:

The case largely broke down along a question of whether therapy is more like a medical practice, which the government can and does regulate, or whether what goes on in a session is speech protected by the First Amendment.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for an eight-justice majority, came down hard on the side of speech.

More from CNN. 

The Israeli parliament’s approval of a legislation that seeks the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks has stoked fears among the Palestinians and drawn condemnation from the international community, dismayed at the further entrenching of what rights groups have long described as Israel’s “system of apartheid”.

The law, which does not apply to Jewish citizens of Israel, was met with jubilation among its backers in the country’s far right.

France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have all raised concerns over what many describe as the overtly racist nature of the bill, whose nature and wording appear to exclusively target Palestinians.

“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill. The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles,” the foreign ministries wrote in a joint statement on Sunday.

Al Jazeera has more. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Ottawa’s “night mayor” is still clocking in.

Two years into the job, the city says the after-dark experiment is gaining traction.

The nightlife commissioner role was created to help revive a pandemic-bruised scene, connecting city hall with bars, festivals and even late-night transit, all in the name of building a 24-hour economy. Since then, projects like Metcalfe Plaza and the return of Nuit Blanche have brought some much-needed buzz back downtown.

Still, the real test is what comes next: will Ottawa actually stay up past bedtime?

Read more about the night mayor on Ottawa Lookout.