BlackRock CEO does U-turn on Iran war optimism

https://www.rt.com/news/636269-blackrock-fink-iran-war/

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has warned of an impending global recession if the US-Israeli war on Iran drags on and oil prices remain above $100 a barrel. The stark prediction comes just weeks after Fink framed the conflict as a good long-term investment opportunity.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC this week, Fink said oil prices could stay above $100 per barrel for years if Iran “remains a threat,” potentially hitting $150 and sparking “a probably stark and steep recession.”

He described two scenarios for the conflict – one in which Iran is “accepted again by the international community,” allowing oil to fall below pre-war levels, and another in which tensions persist, leading to sustained high energy costs with “profound implications” for the global economy.

However, earlier this month, Fink, whose company holds significant stakes in major US defense contractors, struck a markedly different tone. During an appearance on Fox News, he dismissed the notion of a prolonged war, predicting that oil would “revert back to where it was and maybe even lower” once the conflict ends. Continue…

The growing list of journalists and commentators targeted by Jonathan Yaniv

https://www.rebelnews.com/the_growing_list_of_journalists_and_commentators_targeted_by_jonathan_yaniv

Rebel News revisits one of Canada’s most controversial figures, as David Menzies and Sheila Gunn Reid react to reports that Jonathan Yaniv has adopted a new identity — and a long trail of past incidents continues to follow. Continue…

Pro Islamic Regime Supporters Clash with Freedom-Loving Iranians in Montreal

https://www.rebelnews.com/pro_regime_flags_and_anti_regime_marches_clash_in_montreal

On one side, pro-regime activists waving Palestinian and Islamic Republic flags, joined by two controversial Quebec MPs and a Quebec Solidaire banner. Continue…

Canada’s House of Commons passes ‘anti-Christian’ bill that would criminalize quoting Bible

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-canadas-house-of-commons-passes-anti-christian-bill-that-would-criminalize-quoting-bible/

The majority of Canadian MPs have voted to pass a Liberal bill that will allow the criminalization of religious expression and belief when quoting parts of the Bible, including about homosexuality and gender.

Early Wednesday evening, MPs from the Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois, in a 186–137 vote, passed Bill C-9, known as the “Combatting Hate Act.” Conservatives, NDP, and Green Party MPs voted against the bill in a rare form of unity among the usually opposing parties.

The bill now heads to Canada’s rubber-stamp Senate for review.

A last-minute effort by the Conservatives to change the wording of the bill failed to pass.

Earlier this week, Liberal MPs forced the bill through the report stage, after earlier, as reported by LifeSiteNews, shutting down all debate on the bill in the committee stage.

In comments sent to LifeSiteNews, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) blasted the passage of Bill C-9 and called upon “Christians and pro-life advocates to prepare for increasing hostility.”

“With the passage of Bill C-9 in the House, Christians and pro-life advocates will almost certainly face an entirely new level of hostility, as the door swings open to actual persecution under a cloak of supposed legality,” said CLC’s Campaigns Manager David Cooke, who is also a Christian pastor.

Cooke said the Bill C-9 was framed as a law going after “hate,” but, in reality, it is a bill that religious leaders from various faith communities “say could lead to hate-related charges against believers – empowers ideologically-driven police officers and judges to target, for the first time, the very word of God on matters of life, family, and faith.” Continue…

Alberta's energy deal with Carney Liberals continues facing hurdles

https://www.rebelnews.com/alberta_s_energy_deal_with_carney_liberals_continues_facing_hurdles

The memorandum of understanding on energy between Alberta and the federal government is facing delays as an April 1st deadline for finalizing details is expected to be missed. Continue…

Canadians rejecting unfettered immigration as unemployment and cost of living soar

https://www.rebelnews.com/unfettered_immigration_pushing_canadians_to_their_breaking_points_sheila

A recent Nanos survey found 52% of Canadians want fewer immigrants and temporary residents, while just 9% support increasing immigration levels. Continue…

UFC’s Dana White offers to pay full healthcare costs for 12-year-old victim of Tumbler Ridge trans shooter

https://www.rebelnews.com/ufc_s_dana_white_offers_to_pay_full_healthcare_costs_for_12_year_old_victim_of_tumbler_ridge_trans_shooter

Maya Gebala continues to fight for her life in a BC children’s hospital as her mother shared the positive news on social media of the UFC boss’ offer to help.

UFC president Dana White has offered to cover all medical expenses, including treatment at a top-tier Los Angeles brain trauma hospital, for 12-year-old Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor Maya Gebala.

Maya's mother, Cia Edmonds, shared the great news on social media this past Wednesday, March 25, where she has been chronicaling her daughter's healing process since the tragic shooting by a transgender perpetrator last month.

“After a week of being in the ICU we were contacted by the president of the UFC, Dana White, he'd offered Maya full paid medical in one of the world's most top tier hospitals in LA California,” she wrote.

The UFC boss had previously included Maya Gebala’s name in the octagon ring to help raise awareness about her plight.

More recently, Edmonds has described positive progress made by her daughter, noting that she's slowly becoming stable enough to be able to travel and accept the UFC boss’ offer.

“The children's hospital has an extensive brain trauma clinic and more resources. However, Maya hadn't been stable enough to travel. Until now,” Edmonds wrote.

12 year old Maya was targeted in the tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge on February 10, 2026. She was shot in the head and neck after attempting to lock the school library’s door amid gunfire by transgender Jesse Van Rootselaar.

Edmonds has gained over 100k followers on Facebook as she posts uplifting news of her daughter's progress. Doctors initially believed that she would not survive the night she arrived, yet Maya has shown great resilience following several successful surgeries so far. However, she cannot yet verbalize due to a breathing tube in her throat.

“Maya had a bullet enter above her left eyebrow, shatter her skull, and drag bone fragments creating a path of destruction and exiting the same. She had another in her throat, with minimal injury. I believe with my entire heart that she was truly 'living on a prayer,'" an update from two days ago reads.

=Pro-life Conservatives blast passage of anti-Christian bill: ‘Dark day’ for Canada

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-life-conservatives-blast-passage-of-anti-christian-bill-dark-day-for-canada/

Pro-life Conservative MPs did not hold back in their negative and dire assessment of the state of affairs in Canada after yesterday’s passing of the Liberal bill criminalizing religious expression and belief when quoting parts of the Bible, including about homosexuality and gender, noting that Canadians’ “freedoms” are at risk.

“The Liberals and Bloc voted to pass Bill C-9 and send it to the Senate. They are voting to remove important safeguards that protect Canadians’ fundamental religious freedoms. These protections matter,” wrote Conservative MP Rachael Thomas on X after Bill C-9 passed.

Thomas warned that Canadians’ “safeguards” when it comes to holding religious beliefs are at risk now, “including quoting their sacred texts, without fear of legal consequences.”

“Stripping away these safeguards and pushing the bill through the House of Commons should concern every Canadian. This is how freedoms are eroded: not all at once, but step by step, bill by bill. Canadians have fought hard for our fundamental freedoms. Conservatives will always stand up for them,” she observed. Continue…

Chief tells senators Kamloops residential school ‘graves’ search could take decades

https://www.westernstandard.news/news/chief-tells-senators-kamloops-residential-school-graves-search-could-take-decades/72250

A search for alleged unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site could take decades before yielding answers, the chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation told a Senate committee, while acknowledging no remains have yet been recovered nearly five years after the initial claim.

Chief Rosanne Casimir said the timeline for confirming what happened at the site will be long and uncertain, comparing the process to historical investigations that have stretched across generations.

Blacklock's Reporter said she told the Senate indigenous peoples committee that the passage of five years since the announcement of 215 suspected unmarked graves has not been enough time to complete the work required to verify the findings.

Casimir said her First Nation has received $12.1 million in federal funding earmarked for exhumation, forensic testing and DNA analysis, but confirmed no excavation work has been undertaken to date.

She warned that the absence of physical evidence has contributed to growing skepticism, while maintaining that uncovering the truth remains the priority.

“The truth cannot be confirmed,” she said, adding that the process cannot be rushed or confined to short-term timelines.

Sen. Mary Jane McCallum, a former residential school student, pressed for action, saying families deserve to have remains returned.

She argued that those believed to have died at the site should be exhumed and brought home to relatives.

Casimir responded that the First Nation continues to weigh options between excavation and memorialization, but provided few specifics on when any recovery efforts might begin.

Alberta Sen. Scott Tannas also questioned the lack of progress, raising concerns that delays are fuelling doubt and prolonging uncertainty.

He asked how many individuals had been identified among the reported graves and when tangible steps toward exhumation might occur.

Casimir said such determinations are not yet within her scope to answer and reiterated that the process would extend well beyond a typical multi-year timeline.

The federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, which provided funding for the investigation, has not released internal communications regarding the absence of fieldwork at the site.

A 2022 departmental briefing note stated Canadians deserve to know the “heartbreaking truth” about residential school burial sites, even as key questions in Kamloops remain unresolved. Continue…

Canada Meets NATO’s 2 Percent GDP Defence Spending Benchmark

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/canada-meets-natos-2-percent-gdp-defence-spending-benchmark-6004209?ea_src=ca-frontpage&ea_med=section-1

Canada has hit NATO’s defence spending target of 2 percent of GDP, after a year marked by the biggest jump in military expenditures “in generations,” Prime Minister Mark Carney says.

“For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we'll be spending that 2 percent of GDP on defence,” Carney said at a press conference in Halifax on March 26, noting Canada has spent more than $60 billion on defence and security to meet the target. He said this fiscal year saw the “largest year-on-year increase in defence investment in generations.”

Carney also announced $3 billion in additional funding for infrastructure and defence-related initiatives in Atlantic Canada.

The 2 percent milestone follows criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump and other NATO allies over Canada’s failure to reach the defence spending benchmark. It also came on the same day as NATO announced in an annual report that all allies who have reported defence expenditure met or exceeded the target, with many members making “steep increases” in defence spending.

Despite the boost, Canada remains among the lowest defence spenders, in line with countries such as Portugal, Spain, Albania and Belgium. The NATO report indicates Canada’s defence expenditure hit exactly 2 percent of GDP this fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Carney said Canada now aims to work toward NATO’s new target of spending 5 percent of GDP by 2035. That target includes 3.5 percent on core defence and 1.5 percent on defence and security-related infrastructure. Continue…

Ontario music teacher to face sex offence charges involving male student

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-music-teacher-to-face-sex-offence-charges-involving-male-student

Barrie, Ont., music teacher, Jennifer Elise Lawrence, is headed to criminal court to face charges of sex‑related offences involving a male student.

The charges against Lawrence, 32, include including sexual exploitation, child luring, sexual assault, and making sexually explicit materials available to a person under 18, reports the New York Post.

The allegations stem from incidents between February and April 2025.

Police charged her following an investigation.

Lawrence was a teacher at Maple Ridge Secondary School in Barrie. She had been a teacher for about four years.

She was removed from the classroom in April of last year, reports CTV.

Lawrence has been released on a promise to pay $1,000. She has also been prohibited from working as a teacher. She cannot volunteer or be in a position of trust or authority or have any contact or communication with children.

A provincial judge has committed the matter to trial, with the prosecution having enough evidence for a trial to proceed.

Two publication bans were ordered last April protecting the identity of the complainant and any evidence heard in court from being released.

The allegations against Lawrence have not been tested in court.

The trial is set for the September 2026 in Barrie.

Iranians converting to Christianity 'the easiest way' to get asylum in Canada

https://nationalpost.com/news/iranians-converting-to-christianity-asylum-in-canada

At a downtown Vancouver church, a Christian baptism takes place during a recent Sunday service. Amid the incense and infants dressed in white getting ready to receive the holy water is a group of four Iranian nationals also waiting to receive adult baptisms.

As with past baptisms, some of them will likely not return to the church after receiving their baptismal certificate. It is simply a means to an end — claiming asylum.

When a parishioner congratulates one of the newly baptized Farsi speakers, mentioning Iran’s significant Christian and Jewish populations, as well as Muslim, they reply in heavily accented English.

“I hate Muslims.”

While not quite the Christian message one might have expected, the conversion of Iranians to Christianity has been an increasingly popular trend over the past decade (one study suggests as many as 1.2 million Christian converts in Iran alone).

It seems partly motivated by contempt for Iran’s authoritarian regime, which is conflated with the faith of over a billion people — the same sentiment shared by crowds of anti-regime protesters flooding the downtown cores of Canadian cities most weekends since late December.

But it’s also a pragmatic way to gain asylum at a time when war and sanctions make Iran a difficult place to live, say community leaders, experts and other insiders. Continue…