In the news today: Prime Minister Trudeau to attend summit in Ukraine

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

PM Trudeau arrives in Kyiv with other leaders

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders have arrived in Ukraine’s capital to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of that country.

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The visitors arrived by train in Kyiv and were greeted at the station by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and the president’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among the group.

In a post on X, von der Leyen wrote that Europe was in Kyiv “because Ukraine is in Europe.”

She wrote that Europe’s destiny is at stake in the ongoing conflict.

The guests, also including European Council President Antonio Costa as well as the prime ministers of Northern European countries and Spain.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Liberal leadership hopefuls square off tonight

The candidates in the race to be the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada will square off tonight in the first of two live debates.

With just two weeks left until the winner is announced and two days until voting begins, the two events are the only chance Liberal supporters will have to see the candidates together.

Former central banker Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, former House leader Karina Gould and former MP Frank Baylis are the only candidates still in the contest.

The party disqualified former Ontario MP Ruby Dhalla on Friday afternoon alleging she broke the rules, though she announced yesterday she had filed an appeal for reinstatement.

Former TVA-Québec anchor Pierre Jobin is expected to moderate the French language debate tonight.

Canadian hardware firms bracing for tariffs

Ramee Mossa was months into fundraising for his power hardware company FTEX when U.S. President Donald Trump started looming over the negotiations.

As soon as Trump took office, potential financiers in the U.S. began feeling “uneasy” and started asking questions about what a succession of tariffs would mean for Mossa’s Montreal-based company.

He imagines the tariffs will be more of a “minor inconvenience” than a catastrophe for FTEX because it makes its systems that power e-bikes, e-scooters and other micro-mobility vehicles in Malaysia with components from Taiwan.

Its clients are mostly Canadian, American and European brands manufacturing their products in China or Vietnam, which allows FTEX to circumvent the forthcoming 25 per cent duty on Canadian goods and the U.S.’s present 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.

Ontario votes: Campaign in final week

Ontario’s main political party leaders are keeping things hot on the campaign trail to start the final week of the provincial election campaign.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is expected to release his party’s official platform today — just three days before voters head to the polls.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie released their full platforms Friday and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner released his platform on Feb. 12.

The leaders will fan across the province today, with both Ford and Crombie in the Toronto area and Stiles campaigning in western Ontario.

Schreiner, meanwhile, will campaign in cottage country with a local candidate.

The snap election is this Thursday.

B.C. Conservative MLA joins residential school row

British Columbia’s Opposition attorney general critic is questioning the “apparent mistreatment” of a lawyer after he asked for the rewording of Law Society training material about residential schools.

Dallas Brodie of the B.C. Conservatives says on social media that she’ll reach out to B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma and the Law Society of British Columbia in the coming days about the situation facing lawyer James Heller.

Brodie’s posts on Saturday shared a link to an article about Heller, who unsuccessfully pushed last year for the society’s training material to say there were “potentially” burial sites at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., instead of using more definitive language.

Heller is now suing the society over what he calls “false and defamatory” imputations of racism that he says the society republished, while Brodie says in her posts that there are “zero” confirmed child burial sites at the school.

The Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation said in 2021 that ground penetrating radar provided “confirmation of the remains of 215 children” at the school site but last year said the radar found “confirmation of 215 anomalies.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2025.

The Canadian Press