Bill C-18 has become law and remains unworkable. The Government has not given us reason to believe that the regulatory process will be able to resolve structural issues with the legislation. As a result, we have informed the Government that we have made the difficult decision that when the law takes effect we will be removing links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products and will no longer be able to operate Google News Showcase in Canada. [Google]

Michael Geist: The worst case scenario for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the Canadian news sector, and the Canadian public has come to pass: Google has announced that it will block news links in Canada in response to the mandated payment for links approach established in Bill C-18. The decision will have lasting and enormously damaging consequences for Canadians and represents a remarkable own-goal by Rodriguez who has managed to take millions away from the news sector and left everyone in a far worse position than if he had done nothing at all. [MichaelGeist.ca]

Google said Thursday that it will strip Canadian news from its services in response to a new federal law that forces tech giants to pay publishers for news. [CP]

As the fallout from the federal government's Online News Act continues, Facebook parent Meta is terminating a contract with The Canadian Press that saw the digital giant support the hiring of a limited number of emerging journalists at the national newswire service. [CP]

Saint John Liberal MP Wayne Long says his own government didn’t listen to Irving Oil’s concerns over its new clean fuel regulations. Instead, he says the feds implemented a “top down” system that “penalized” the country’s largest oil refinery from receiving incentives to transition to less carbon intensive fuel, while ignoring the realities of the region. [Telegraph-Journal]

The Communications Security Establishment has resumed sharing ‘metadata’ with Five Eyes countries after the program was stopped due to privacy issues. [Global]

At 1.29 per cent of GDP in 2022, Canada's defence spending as a percentage of GDP is about the same as it was in the late 1990s, according to NATO. [Global]

Global News obtained a letter confirming 26 of 46 current riding presidents were moving ahead with the review, which could force Blaine Higgs out. [Global]

Tory insiders, blindsided by former Kanata-Carleton Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon’s return to politics, fear they could lose a traditional Progressive Conservative riding in Ottawa while picking up a Liberal riding in Toronto. [TorStar]