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Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa — Photo: Wladyslaw, CC BY-SA 3.0

Accountability · Canada

Supreme Court of Canada will hear Ottawa’s appeal over the 2022 Emergencies Act, and the civil-liberties side’s cross-appeals

On 22 October the Supreme Court of Canada granted the Attorney General of Canada leave to appeal 2026 FCA 6, the Federal Court of Appeal ruling that upheld findings that the 2022 invocation of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and that its protest ban and account-freeze order breached the Charter. The Court also granted cross-appeals by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation. No hearing date is set.

Daily Teabag DeskCentre

Verified brief

Verified brief — 23 October 2026 (covers 21–23 October, with tech-beat addendum)

Alberta’s four constitutional questions now trail as the count nears completion, while remain holds at 74.9%. The Supreme Court of Canada will hear Ottawa’s Emergencies Act appeal. The full Fifth Circuit rules there is no due-process right to a bond hearing for migrants held under § 1225. Also: the PBO’s deficit outlook, UK debt passes £3 trillion, and an EU case against Booking.com. Afternoon addendum on our new beats: FERC rejects PJM’s data-centre curtailment plan, Hydro-Québec seeks a ~13¢ data-centre rate, NHTSA proposes cyan lamps for driverless cars, the first appeals ruling on AI training, new EU AI Act dates, the UK’s cancelled digital ID, and Ofcom’s age-check enforcement.

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Topic hubs

Parents & schoolsOnline speechImmigration capacityBail & street safetySex-based rightsEnergy & net-zeroTaxes & groceriesDigital IDMunicipal overreachData centresRobots & automationAICarneyIndependent pressFarmers & regulatorsCarbon & fuelHousing

Watchlist

Bills, courts, agencies, and projects we are tracking.

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agency · 9 Oct 2026: 50 MW Large Load definition and registry accepted (effective 12 Oct); IRAS curtailment and BYONC rejected; compliance filing due within 30 days (~8 Nov)

U.S. — FERC on PJM’s large-load (data-centre) tariff, Docket ER26-3515

United States (FERC / PJM)

regulation · Hydro-Québec evidence heard 1–9 Oct 2026; intervenors 7–11 and 15–18 Dec; no decision

Quebec — Hydro-Québec’s proposed data-centre rate (Rate CD) and crypto-mining rate (Rate CB), Régie file R-4333-2026

Canada (Quebec, Régie de l’énergie)

regulation · NPRM publishes 26 Oct 2026; comments due 25 Nov 2026 (30 days); AQ26002 and DP26010 open

U.S. — NHTSA proposal to adapt FMVSS No. 108 (lighting) for driverless vehicles; Tesla Cybercab audit

United States (NHTSA)

regulation · In force 27 Jul 2026; new deepfake/CSAM ban and Art. 50(2) marking deadline 2 Dec 2026; high-risk rules 2 Dec 2027 / 2 Aug 2028

EU — AI Act as amended by the Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744

European Union

How we verify

Primary documents and public statistics first. Every piece carries sources, a lean meter with rationale when set, and — on key files — a claim → finding box. We publish refused claims when rumours outrun evidence.

MethodologyCorrectionsTip lineRSS

Data snapshots

Illustrative public stats

Canada

Canada diesel (Kalibrate)

266.8 ¢/L

+1.8 ¢/L DoD

Source: Kalibrate Daily Pump Price Survey, 23 Oct 2026 (national volume-weighted average; still latest as of 24 Oct, no weekend survey)

Canada

Canada regular gasoline

178.2 ¢/L

−1.3 ¢/L DoD

Source: Kalibrate Daily Pump Price Survey, 23 Oct 2026 (national volume-weighted average; still latest as of 24 Oct, no weekend survey)

United States

U.S. on-highway diesel

$6.276/gal

+$0.097 WoW

Source: EIA GasDiesel, week of 19 Oct 2026 (released 20 Oct; still latest as of 24 Oct; next release 27 Oct)

United States

U.S. regular gasoline

$4.284/gal

−$0.047 WoW

Source: EIA GasDiesel, regular all formulations, week of 19 Oct 2026 (released 20 Oct; still latest as of 24 Oct; next release 27 Oct)

European Union

EU-27 diesel

€2.139/L

+0.1% WoW

Source: EC Weekly Oil Bulletin (weighted EUR27), prices at 19 Oct 2026 (file posted 22 Oct, still latest as of 24 Oct; vs €2.136 at 12 Oct)

European Union

EU-27 Euro 95 petrol

€1.991/L

−0.9% WoW

Source: EC Weekly Oil Bulletin (weighted EUR27), prices at 19 Oct 2026 (file posted 22 Oct, still latest as of 24 Oct; vs €2.010 at 12 Oct)

Canada

Canada federal debt / GDP

41.1%

+0.4 pp YoY

Source: Dept. of Finance Canada Spring Economic Update 2026 (2025–26; 2025–26 Annual Financial Report not yet published as of 24 Oct)

United States

U.S. unemployment rate

4.2%

+0.1 pp MoM

Source: U.S. BLS Employment Situation, Sep 2026 (released 2 Oct; still latest as of 24 Oct — Oct release due 6 Nov)

European Union

Euro area HICP (YoY)

3.8%

+0.6 pp MoM

Source: Eurostat full HICP, Sep 2026 (released 16 Oct 2026; confirms 2 Oct flash; still latest as of 24 Oct)

Latest

Data Desk →
Data centre buildings in Ashburn, Loudoun County, Virginia — Photo: Theodore Christopher, CC0

Policy Watch|United States

FERC rejects PJM’s plan to cut power to new data centres first in a shortage, but approves a registry of every 50 MW load

On 9 October the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted PJM’s new definition of a ‘Large Load’ (50 MW or more at one site) and a Large Load Registry, effective 12 October. It rejected the core of the plan: an ‘Interim Resource Adequacy Service’ that would have let new data centres connect without matching new generation if they agreed to be curtailed first, plus ‘bring your own new capacity’ rules. FERC said the curtailment plan appears to regulate retail electricity service, which is the states’ job.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Hydro-Québec 450 kV transmission line along Route 20, Quebec — Photo: Azumanga1, CC BY-SA 3.0

Cost of Living|Canada

Hydro-Québec asks the regulator to make large data centres pay about 13¢/kWh, roughly double today’s rate

In Régie de l’énergie file R-4333-2026, Hydro-Québec proposes a new Rate CD for data centres with 5 MW or more of authorized demand, priced at about 13 ¢/kWh in 2026 dollars against an estimated 6.82 ¢/kWh under current rates. It says new supply costs 12 ¢/kWh at the margin, against an average of 4.8 ¢. The Régie heard Hydro-Québec’s evidence from 1 to 9 October; intervenors, including Google, are heard in December. No decision yet.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
A driverless Waymo Jaguar I-Pace on a San Francisco street, 2023 (not a vehicle named in this article) — Photo: Dllu, CC BY 4.0

Policy Watch|United States

NHTSA proposes lighting rules for cars with no steering wheel, including optional cyan ‘self-driving’ lamps, as it questions Tesla’s Cybercab

A proposed rule placed on public inspection on 23 October, to be published 26 October with a 30-day comment period, would drop manual turn-signal, hazard and beam-switch control requirements for vehicles with no manual driving controls and allow four to eight cyan lamps that show an automated driving system is in charge. Separately, NHTSA is auditing how Tesla certified its pedal-less Cybercab, and on 9 October opened a review of a petition alleging Tesla robotaxis speed in school zones.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
James A. Byrne United States Courthouse, Philadelphia, seat of the Third Circuit — Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0

Accountability|United States

First U.S. appeals ruling on AI training: copying Westlaw headnotes to train a rival legal search tool was not fair use

On 29 September the Third Circuit affirmed that ROSS Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters’ copyright by using 2,243 Westlaw headnotes to train a non-generative AI legal search engine meant to compete with Westlaw. Three of the four fair-use factors weighed against ROSS, including harm to a developing market for licensing headnotes as AI training data. The court stressed that ROSS’s tool could not generate new text, leaving the generative-AI question open.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Berlaymont building, European Commission, Brussels — Photo: EmDee, CC BY-SA 4.0

Policy Watch|European Union

EU AI Act: a ban on AI that makes non-consensual sexual deepfakes applies from 2 December; high-risk rules are pushed to December 2027

The ‘Digital Omnibus on AI’, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, has been in force since 27 July. It adds a new prohibition on AI practices that generate non-consensual sexual or intimate content and child sexual abuse material, applying from 2 December 2026, and sets the same date as the deadline for older generative systems to mark synthetic content. It fixes the delayed start of the high-risk rules at 2 December 2027 (listed uses such as hiring, schooling and biometrics) and 2 August 2028 (AI in regulated products).

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Palace of Westminster, London — Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5

Policy Watch|World

Britain’s national digital ID is cancelled, but One Login, the GOV.UK Wallet and certified ID checks carry on

In a response published 18 September, the government told the Commons Home Affairs Committee it has cancelled the national Digital ID programme, including mandatory digital right-to-work checks. It also said GOV.UK One Login, the GOV.UK Wallet, the digital driving licence and the statutory register of certified ID-check providers continue. Since 1 October, employers who choose a digital provider for right-to-work checks must use a certified one. On 19 October the Public Accounts Committee questioned officials on what the long-term plan now is.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Riverside House, Bankside, London, Ofcom’s headquarters — Photo: Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0

Policy Watch|World

UK age checks: Ofcom has fined three porn sites for failing to verify ages and is now investigating Pornhub, TikTok and Meta

Ofcom’s 15 October Online Safety bulletin lists fines of £630,000 (fapello.com), £730,000 (Xgroovy.com) and £80,000 (First Time Videos) for failing to use ‘highly effective age assurance’, provisional decisions against four more providers, and open investigations into Pornhub’s owner Aylo, TikTok and, from October, Meta over Instagram’s ‘Instants’. Ofcom is also assessing what age checks would work for a planned under-16 social media ban.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, Texas — Photo: Yinan Chen, public domain

Accountability|United States

Full Fifth Circuit rules detained migrants who entered without inspection have no constitutional right to a bond hearing

Ruling 10–7 on 23 October in Sosnava Rodriguez v. Vergara, the en banc Fifth Circuit reversed three Texas district courts that had ordered bond hearings for long-time residents held under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A). The majority held that due process does not require individual hearings on dangerousness or flight risk, however long removal proceedings last. Seven judges dissented. The ruling binds federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre