We’re kicking off the newsletter with a scoop on the Senate.

The Senate was supposed to be independent, but some insiders are saying that era may be coming to an end.

Some senators are planning to form a new group in the Upper Chamber, iPolitics has learned, raising questions about the future of decade-old reforms to the institution.

Multiple sources linked Sen. Hassan Yussuff and Sen. Rodger Cuzner — a former long-serving Liberal MP — to the creation of the group, however neither senator responded to a request for comment.

iPolitics is granting the sources anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

It’s unclear what the motivation is behind the creation of the group and it comes as rumours circulate about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plans for the Senate.

Some sources suggested that creation of a new group is aimed at supporting efforts in passing Liberal government legislation, potentially unwinding Trudeau-era reforms to bring greater independence to the Upper Chamber.

In fact, that push comes as the Liberals are on the cusp of securing enough seats to form a majority in the House.

Read the latest from Marco Vigliotti. 

In other news, Ottawa is giving Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion another year to apply for work permit extensions.

Ukrainians who came to Canada before March 31, 2024, will now have until next year to apply to extend their work permits by up to three years.

The government created an emergency program to allow Ukrainians to come to Canada in 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country began.

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel visa offered three-year work and study permits to those fleeing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Some 300,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the country on those temporary permits.

The government previously said applicants had until March 31 to apply for new work or study permits, or to renew their work permits for up to three years. The one-year extension was announced on Tuesday.

The Canadian Press has more. 

Also, the Prime Minister got put on blast.

Two First Nations chiefs are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to apologize for saying he could “outlast” a First Nations woman who was protesting over mercury poisoning in her community.

Chrissy Isaacs, a Grassy Narrows woman suffering from mercury poisoning, was in Toronto on Monday to demand compensation from the provincial government for mercury contamination in her community.

The Dryden Paper Mill released thousands of kilograms of mercury into the community’s river system from the 1960s to 1970s, and community members are still dealing with the fallout today.

Carney made the comment about being able to “outlast” Isaacs after she and other protesters chanted and shouted during a news conference Monday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to announce new funding for housing.

CP’s also got this one. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Donald Trump has said he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “beyond reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to join the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The president’s threats, his most determined to date, have left the alliance facing its worst crisis in its 77-year history, a former US ambassador has said.

Trump has long been vocally sceptical about the benefit of Nato membership to the US, but since North Atlantic allies have refused to take part in the month-long, faltering US-Israeli assault on Iran, the president has stepped up his rhetoric.

He told Reuters news agency on Wednesday he was “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing, after telling the Telegraph the matter was “beyond reconsideration”, insisting he had never been “swayed by Nato”. He signalled that he would express his disgust for Nato in an address to the nation scheduled for Wednesday evening.

The Guardian has more.

Meanwhile in Britain, drones are flying contraband into prisons “as if by Uber Eats.”

Shortly before 3 a.m., the sedan pulled up on a residential London street. In surveillance footage used later in court, a man can be seen leaving the vehicle and tending to an object on the ground.

Moments later, the object — a drone — rises into the air and disappears.

The location was just outside the perimeter of one of Britain’s largest prisons, Wormwood Scrubs, and the drone was carrying illegal contraband to inmates.

The man operating the drone that morning, in December 2024, was Shafaghatullah Mohseni, 29, who was later convicted of being the leader of a gang that ran an estimated 140 illegal flights to nine prisons in England between December 2024 and his arrest in February 2025. Mr. Mohseni was paid almost 27,000 pounds, about $36,000, by inmates and by their friends and relatives, prosecutors said, fulfilling orders for drugs, phones, chargers, tobacco and knives.

According to government figures, the lucrative enterprise made up only a small fraction of the drones sent into British prisons in recent years, transporting contraband that prison governors say is driving up violence and drug use.

More from The New York Times. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Ottawa Tourism had some fun with readers today, teasing the arrival of “Ginger,” a seven-storey inflatable loon set to float along the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River.

Sadly, the bird won’t be making a splash. It was an April Fools’ Day joke.

But let’s just say one senior voice in this newsroom thought it was real and a really good idea.