It’s Tuesday, August 11. Here are the top stories we’re following today.

Conservatives call for Liberals to block ‘candy sentences’ for immigrants convicted of crimes

“Practices that let certain people commit crimes with impunity are corrosive to a high-trust society. It makes Canada unsafe, leading to a society that is less trusting to everyone, including immigrants who have come to Canada and work hard and play by the rules,” said Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner.

Canadian colonel’s medal raises questions about Canada’s role in U.S. war with Iran

The federal government recently announced that Col. David K. Turenne had been approved for the Meritorious Service Cross “for extraordinary leadership and diplomatic skill as director of the Combined Air Operations Center during the Israel-Iran conflict” in June 2025.

The slow, heartbreaking death of Kramatorsk, Ukraine

Kramatorsk is preparing to become a battlefield as Russian forces close in, yet there are signs of attempts at normal life, this firsthand account explains. “I am torn in two over whether to leave. This cafe is my child, this city is my child,” says a 61-year-old cafe owner.

Tasha Kheiriddin: Quebec the fly in the ointment to new U.S. trade deal

Mark Carney “must weigh the implications of not getting a trade deal if he clings to supply management, against the costs to his party and the country if he does,” Kheiriddin writes. Sacrificing supply management, which is popular in Quebec, would hurt the Liberals in upcoming federal byelections in the province and help the separatist Parti Québécois in the fall provincial election.

‘Wasteful’ government spending on ‘corporate welfare’ could be replaced by business tax relief, says study

When accounting for both inflation and population, spending on corporate subsidies has increased in every province and at the federal level between 2015 and 2024, the study found. The authors argue that “there is little connection between sustained, widespread economic growth or job creation and corporate subsidies.”

Jamie Sarkonak: Anti-abortion protests the new psychological ‘hazard’ in Alberta

Sarkonak writes about an arbitrator who ruled that anti-abortion displays at Calgary’s Mount Royal University constitute a psychological hazard to a staff member who had a miscarriage more than a decade earlier. This despite years of the university taking steps to respect free speech while taking steps to accommodate those who did not wish to see the protesters’ posters.