Plea for Carney to leave committees alone; victim in horrific rape case tells her story; and more

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer speaks during a news conference held at the foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa on Thursday, April 16, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia

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It’s Thursday, April 16. Here are the top stories we’re following today.

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Conservatives call on Mark Carney not to ‘stack the deck’ by using majority to shut opposition out of committees

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“We are in unprecedented territory,” Conservative Andrew Scheer said, referring to how the Liberal government reached majority status largely because five opposition MPs crossed the floor to join them. He called on Carney to “uphold the tradition” that the makeup of parliamentary committees be decided by the outcome of the last election.

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Gisèle Pelicot leaves the courthouse after a judge sentenced her ex-husband to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and arranging her mass rapes with dozens of strangers he recruited online, in Avignon, France, on Dec. 19, 2024. Photo by Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images

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Gisèle Pelicot vs. a pack of rapists: 50 strangers and my former husband

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In excerpts from her new autobiography, Pelicot describes how she discovered her then-husband had been secretly drugging her and raping her for years — and had invited strangers into their home in Mazan, France, to do the same.

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Detail from a chart tracking opinion polling since the 2025 federal election. Photo by Wikimedia Commons

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FIRST READING: Why the massive Liberal poll leads might be an illusion

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This week, Abacus Data’s CEO suggested that many of his peers are chronically undercounting Conservative voters, presenting a “distorted version” of the electorate to the public, Tristin Hopper writes. Their own surveys have also shown a Liberal lead for the last few months, but at narrower margins than other polls.

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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, walks with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney before their meeting at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on March 2, 2026. Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images

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A month after Carney’s India trip, B.C. police warn another Sikh activist of threat to his life

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Narinder Singh Randhawa says that police told him they could not tell him who was behind the threat. But he believes it comes from agents of the Indian government who oppose his activism for the establishment of an independent Khalistan within India and his criticism of the Indian government.

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An Ontario Superior Court of Justice courthouse in Toronto. Photo by Stan Behal/Postmedia

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Diplomat’s son gets race-based discount on kidnapping sentence

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“I am satisfied that there is some connection between Mr. Abdelgadir’s life experience, anti-Black racism, and his commission of the offence such that it mitigates somewhat his degree of responsibility,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

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