5 Things posted Apr 17, 2025 @ 08:00am by Iain Burns

5 things you need to know this morning: April 17, 2025

Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.

Five things you need to know

1. Federal leaders discuss pipelines, immigration and Donald Trump in French debate

Leaders of four federal parties were asked about Quebec, immigration, energy, Donald Trump, housing and more in a French-language debate in Montreal on Wednesday. Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre appeared to generally agree on the need for new oil and gas pipelines, while Jagmeet Singh and Yves-Francois Blanchet rejected the idea. Tonight, the quartet will go head-to-head in English.

Carney, Poilievre align on pipelines as Trump and trade loom over French debate.https://t.co/tpbzWGyPWU via @Barrie360
— Barrie 360 (@Barrie360) April 17, 2025

2. Canadian Press probes presence of 'right-wing media outlets' at debate press conference

The left-liberal news agency Canadian Press has written an article highlighting the presence of what it calls "right-wing media outlets" at the post-debate leaders' press conference in Montreal last night. The article focuses on independent outlets Rebel News and Juno News, and includes two comments from individuals who were displeased about their prominent role in the Q&A, but none from anyone in favour.

Right-wing media including Rebel News dominate post-debate news conferences https://t.co/lJXxj0JU7v

Find out more at https://t.co/1zbPY5GAhV pic.twitter.com/PIQpzJB9hy
— National Newswatch (@natnewswatch) April 17, 2025

3. China dramatically cuts oil imports from US while boosting imports from Canada

Out with the American, in with the Canadian: that's been China's approach to oil imports recently, anyway. The communist empire has slashed purchases of US oil by about 90 per cent while at the same time increasing its imports from Canada to 7.3 million barrels in March alone.

China pivots from U.S. to Canada for more oil as trade war worsenshttps://t.co/zGoq0wAFdb pic.twitter.com/oJ8j5FYkj2
— Financial Post (@financialpost) April 16, 2025

4. UK must return to freedom of speech if it wants trade deal with US: report

In more commerce news, a reporter in the UK is claiming to have spoken to a Washington insider about the UK–US trade deal that is supposedly close to completion. The Americans have allegedly demanded that the British reintroduce freedom of speech to their country – where more than 12,000 citizens were arrested in 2023 for online posts – as a precondition of the deal, a requirement that might cause the Liberal Party, which is devoted to introducing speech laws similar to those in the UK, cause for concern.

Starmer told UK must repeal hate speech laws to protect LGBT+ people or lose Trump trade deal https://t.co/7VDsHnmyBZ
— The Independent (@Independent) April 16, 2025

5. Scientists announce breakthrough in search for life beyond Earth

Scientists reckon they've discovered some of the strongest evidence yet that there is life elsewhere in the universe. A University of Cambridge team said it has detected certain molecules associated with life on Earth on a planet, K2-18b, 124 light years away.

A team of scientists said they have found the strongest signs yet of possible alien life on a massive planet beyond our solar system.

While studying the planet, they found signs of chemicals only produced on Earth by simple organisms like bacteria.https://t.co/oyyZ6lk80H pic.twitter.com/OEKICuOpsC
— DW News (@dwnews) April 17, 2025