In the news today: Ottawa silent on U.S. sanctions, new Canadian training for Ukraine

By Canadian Press on August 28, 2025.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Ottawa silent on Trump sanctioning Canadian judge

Advocates for international law say Ottawa is letting Washington chip away at the global rules-based order by remaining silent a week into American sanctions against a Canadian jurist.

On Aug. 20, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on Kimberly Prost, a judge on the International Criminal Court who authorized a probe into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Prost, a Canadian citizen who was raised in Winnipeg, will have any U.S. assets frozen, and she could have difficulty accessing financial services in Canada.

The U.S. State Department also sanctioned citizens of France, Fiji and Senegal over their role in the ICC’s investigation of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

Training revamp underway for Ukrainian troops

With the prolonged war in Ukraine intensifying and no end in sight, the training being provided to Ukrainian soldiers by Canadian Forces personnel is being honed to better reflect the needs on the battlefield.

Operation UNIFIER is the Canadian Armed Forces’ military training mission in support of Ukraine.

Launched a decade ago at the request of the Ukrainian government, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, it was modified three years ago after the Russian invasion.

Canadian troops, along with some NATO partners, provide training on a variety of basic and advanced military skills, including tactical medical training, combat engineering, and leadership skills and education in secret bases across Poland.

Smith’s panel hears major cheers for deportations

Loud cheers for mass deportations and Alberta separation were the peaks of an otherwise tame and quiet town hall for Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel in Lloydminster.

Smith’s panel, which is touring the province to hear from the public on ways to shield the province from federal overreach, drew a friendly crowd of about 350 to a public recreation centre Wednesday night.

The panel’s pre-selected topics, which range from asking Albertans if they’d support creating a provincial pension plan to supporting changes to the Canadian constitution, we’re easily approved by the crowd.

Some said Smith needed to just get to work already.

Was coroners’ treatment a factor in missed bodies?

When police attended a single-room occupancy building in East Vancouver three years ago, they found the body of “Jimmy” Van Chung Pham, a man with a criminal history who would later be described as a predator by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

What police did not notice at the time were the bodies of missing Indigenous teenager Noelle O’Soup and a woman called Elma Enan, whose decomposing remains were only located months later in the tiny room that Vancouver police told the CBC was occupied by an “extreme hoarder.”

The attending officer is now facing a neglect-of-duty investigation by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, B.C.’s civilian police oversight agency.

But the two bodies had also gone unnoticed by a second investigator — the community coroner, or field coroner, tasked with Pham’s death scene.

85% of Canadians want AI regulation: poll

A new poll indicates an overwhelming majority of Canadians are in favour of regulating artificial intelligence.

The Leger poll found 85 per cent of respondents believe governments should regulate AI tools to ensure ethical and safe use.

More than half, 57 per cent, said they strongly agreed with that statement.

The survey, which polled 1,518 people between Aug. 22 and Aug. 25, was conducted online and can’t be assigned a margin of error.

Canada’s artificial-intelligence minister has said he will put less emphasis on AI regulation, amidst a global shift in which governments are focusing on AI adoption and away from safety and governance.

Federal sport panel to deliver first abuse report

Canada will get its first look today at a national report examining how abuse and maltreatment are handled in sport, and where protections for athletes are falling short.

The Future of Sport in Canada Commission, created by the federal government in 2023 after athletes spoke out about systemic abuse, is led by commissioner Lise Maisonneuve, the former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice.

It is releasing its first report after hearing from Canadians through consultations in a dozen cities, as well as written submissions and survey responses.

The report is expected to detail jurisdictional gaps that leave most complaints outside federal oversight.