Verified brief — 10 October 2026

Alberta’s top court says, 4–1, that Ottawa’s amended Impact Assessment Act still oversteps on provincial projects. Treasury licenses Russian diesel imports until April 2027 while the dyed-diesel tax relief has yet to appear. The Supreme Court, 5–4, keeps a three-year term in an Indigenous intimate-partner assault case.

Published Oct 10, 2026, 7:45 a.m. EDT

Item 1
Court of Appeal of Alberta, 2026 ABCA 320 (9 October): by 4–1, the designated-projects part of the amended federal Impact Assessment Act and its Physical Activities Regulations are unconstitutional except where they apply to federal undertakings. Justice Feehan dissented and would have upheld the 2024 rewrite.
Read the article →2026 ABCA 320, paras 9, 192, 202
Item 2
Why: the majority said the list of “adverse effects within federal jurisdiction” still reaches beyond Ottawa’s powers, the new “non-negligible” threshold may not narrow much, and ministers can still regulate a provincial project as a whole. Severing the s. 7 ban would not fix it.
Read the article →2026 ABCA 320, paras 49, 117, 137, 188, 195
Item 3
What it is not: a reference opinion is advisory and the Act stays in force. It does not address Pacific Link’s Schedule 1 listing or the Building Canada Act. Ecojustice has urged Ottawa to appeal to the Supreme Court; no federal statement found as of Saturday morning.
Read the article →2026 ABCA 320; Ecojustice statement 9 Oct
Item 4
OFAC General License 135 (9 October) authorizes transactions tied to the sale, delivery, offloading and importation into the U.S. of Russian-origin diesel until 12:01 a.m. EDT on 7 April 2027. Accounts of Russia’s central bank, National Wealth Fund and finance ministry stay blocked.
Read the article →OFAC GL 135; Recent Actions 20261009_33
Item 5
It is a time-limited licence, not a lifting of sanctions: OFAC’s notice lists no delistings, and the licence names no buyer, volume or deal. Claims that Russia “agreed to supply” U.S. diesel rest on press accounts of presidential remarks.
Read the article →OFAC GL 135
Item 6
U.S. dyed-diesel order: published 9 October as Executive Order 14435 (91 FR 64747). As of about 7:40 a.m. ET on 10 October, the IRS release list still ends at IR-2026-120 (7 October), with no dyed-diesel penalty waiver or 7508A deferral announced. The five-day window ran to about today.
Read the article →Federal Register 2026-20855; IRS newsroom (10 Oct)
Item 7
Supreme Court of Canada, R. v. Cope, 2026 SCC 32 (9 October): 5–4, it upheld the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s cut from five years to three for a Mi’kmaw man’s aggravated assault on his Mi’kmaw partner. The majority said prison was required but the trial judge underweighted his mental illness and the sentencing circle.
Read the article →2026 SCC 32; Case in Brief
Item 8
The Cope dissent (Rowe and Jamal JJ, with Chief Justice Wagner and Justice Côté) would have restored five years, saying the appeal court ignored deference and imposed a sentence that did not reflect denunciation, deterrence, the victim’s vulnerability or the danger the trial judge found.
Read the article →2026 SCC 32, para 176
Item 9
Trump v. Kingdom (26A416): still no Supreme Court order on the government’s stay application as of Saturday morning. It has been fully briefed since the Solicitor General’s reply on 9 October.
Read the article →SCOTUS docket 26A416 (checked 10 Oct)
Item 10
Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September after 42,000 in August, and unemployment is 6.5%. The next Labour Force Survey is due 6 November.
Read the article →StatCan LFS September 2026
Item 11
C-38 fuel-excise pause: the PBO puts the cost at $4.943 billion in 2026-27, about $276 per family. The House sits until midnight on Monday 19 October and takes up C-38 at 6:30 p.m.
Read the article →PBO ES-2627-004-S; Journals No. 148