Not the Summer We Expected…☀️

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Let’s start with a summer spy story… not exactly the summer content we had on our bingo card. A Canadian woman who was an intern at NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium was recently arrested on spying charges in Europe. Belgian prosecutors said the woman is suspected of spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization. But authorities didn’t name her, or specify the third country or criminal organization. According to a CBC investigation, the woman appears to have worked for multiple government agencies in Canada — including the Canadian Space Agency and Statistics Canada — before her NATO internship at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), in the Belgian city of Mons. The case has raised concerns about Canada’s security screening processes, with Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree committing “to get to the bottom” of the arrest and calling the allegations “quite serious.”

Now for something totally different: a carbon capture deep dive. A key part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deal to build Alberta’s new oil pipeline to the West Coast involves moving forward on the long-delayed Pathways carbon capture project. PM Carney calls this the world’s largest carbon capture and utilization and storage project, and it’s projected to cost tens of billions of dollars (although it’s currently a mystery as to who will pay for it). Pathways will capture carbon dioxide emissions from the oilsands and move them hundreds of kilometres in a pipeline to an underground storage hub. But it’s worth noting that Canadian politicians — both Liberal and Conservative — have been hyping carbon capture technology for a long time. The Narwhal investigates why Canada’s promise to capture carbon has made little progress over almost 20 years. Hear the writer of the piece on this pod, talking about this technology and what it says about the politics around the climate.

Summer Spending: The Liberal government has made announcements worth tens of billions of dollars this summer, but critics and analysts are calling out Ottawa’s lack of detail on those spending plans. One economist estimates the federal gov has committed more than $40 billion since the last fiscal update in April. “All this raises reasonable concerns regarding the transparency of federal spending commitments,” he said. The math isn’t mathing.

Vote Value: The billionaire CEO of Shopify, one of Canada’s largest companies, is drawing shock and anger for endorsing the idea of stripping voting rights from some people and giving more votes to the ultra-wealthy. Replying to a post on X from a former TD Bank Executive — who suggested an electoral system of “weighted voting proportional to the amount of income tax you pay” — Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke wrote “Good system.” An expert calls the comments destructive to our democracy.

Prompt Problems: A New Brunswick politician says he has learned a lesson, after a video of a speech he gave in the provincial legislature went viral because it included prompts from an AI tool. As Bill Oliver read from speaking notes, he paused and said: “Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.” Nothing says “written by AI” quite like reading the AI instructions aloud.

You thought we could go a whole newsletter without mentioning trade talks? Think again. PM Mark Carney is shifting his tone, a week after he said “everything’s on the table” as a possible response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats. Now PM Carney says he doesn’t “see the value” in using Canadian energy exports as a bargaining chip. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been a vocal proponent of using energy exports as leverage in trade talks, recently saying: “we are an energy powerhouse and we could dismantle the U.S. if we wanted to.” As always, the trade talks remain extremely normal and chill.

And now it’s time for dessert...your weekly crossword! A little hint for you: make sure you review last week’s edition to complete the crossword:

YOUR WEEKLY CROSSWORD

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