Voyageur 32
Alberta separatists meet Trump officials in classified rooms; BMO fined $4M for 14 years of overcharging
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Alberta Separatists Are Three Meetings Deep with Trump Officials
If you’ve been watching the Alberta independence petition from afar and dismissing it as prairie theatre, it might be time to pay closer attention.
The Alberta Prosperity Project - the group collecting signatures for a sovereignty referendum - has now held at least three meetings with senior Trump administration officials in Washington. A fourth is scheduled for this month. The meetings took place inside a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, which is the kind of room where classified state business happens. That’s not a casual coffee chat.
BC Premier David Eby called it what many are thinking: “There’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is ‘treason’.” PM Carney told reporters he “expects the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty.” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, went on television to say Alberta is “a natural partner for the US” and suggested the province should “come down into the US.”
The Walrus published a detailed analysis this week arguing the movement has now crossed the line from lawful political advocacy into potential national security threat territory - the kind that triggers CSIS collection mandates under Canadian law. The distinction: a domestic political movement is protected; one working in concert with foreign actors to interfere in Canadian democratic processes is not.
Read more: The Walrus | BBC
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BMO Fined $4 Million for Overcharging 101,000 Customers Over 14 Years
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has hit Bank of Montreal with a $4-million slap after finding that the bank charged monthly fees that should have been waived or discounted. For 14 years.
Between 2010 and 2024, 101,091 customers were affected. The overcharges hit some of the bank’s most vulnerable account holders: newcomers to Canada, medical and dental students, Indigenous banking clients, and participants in a home financing promotion. In each case, BMO failed to properly disclose fee details and charged accounts that were supposed to be discounted.
BMO has refunded more than $3 million and donated another $600,000 for amounts that couldn’t be returned. The FCAC said that the bank received more than 500 customer complaints about the fees before the problem was caught, but that raises the obvious question of how 500 complaints weren’t enough to trigger a fix sooner.
If you’re banking with BMO from abroad and have (or had) any of these account types, it might be worth checking your statements.
Read more: The Globe and Mail