Tensions flared Saturday in Quebec City as Christine Fréchette and Bernard Drainville faced off in the first debate to succeed Premier François Legault as leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec.

The proposed “third link” bridge connecting Quebec City and Lévis quickly moved to the centre of the clash.

Fréchette accused Drainville’s preferred route of serving his “ego,” while Drainville countered that she was blocking the project with too many conditions.

“To sum it up: I’ll do it, and Christine is putting it on hold because she’s imposing so many conditions that it won’t happen,” he said.

The “third link” refers to a long‑proposed transportation project to build a new highway link, likely a bridge‑tunnel, across the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis — a city on the south shore of the river — to improve mobility and freight access and reduce pressure on the two existing inter‑river crossings.

Fréchette, who proposes a corridor farther east in partnership with the private sector, said she had consulted local residents and found little support for Drainville’s route.

“I called people to consult them, and very quickly I was told that no one had ever been asked, even in Lévis,” she said. “The route is chosen for them, for the people here, not for you, not for your ego.”

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

Drainville responded: “I don’t think it’s a good idea to get into personal attacks. I think we need to stay respectful because we’re going to have to work together afterward.”

Drainville and Fréchette are the only two candidates vying for the top role, which opened up when Legault announced in January he was stepping down as leader.

On shale gas, Drainville said he supported natural resource development but opposes hydraulic fracturing.

“If you ask me to choose between water and gas, I will always choose water,” he said.

Fréchette said she is open to reopening the discussion but would prioritize social acceptance and environmental standards.

“The proposal I made is to discuss it, to debate it. The context has changed a lot in recent months, even in recent days, with the conflict in Iran,” she said.

Both candidates agreed on the need to shrink the size of government. Drainville said he would reduce the cabinet to 20 members, though he declined to say which ministers would be cut. Fréchette did not give a number but emphasized efficiency and promised that Drainville would have a role at the cabinet table if she won.

Drainville pledged to make Fréchette deputy premier if he became CAQ leader.

Both candidates outlined their broader plans. Fréchette said she aimed to build a “more sustainable and efficient public sector,” while Drainville highlighted his focus on reducing government bureaucracy and supporting regional development.

About 300 people attended the debate at the Espace Saint-Grégoire, a former church in Quebec City converted into an event hall. The event was also streamed online.

Just before the debate, Treasury Board president France-Élaine Duranceau endorsed Fréchette.

“We share the same vision of a more effective state, focused on its core missions. A government that fully leverages its tools, including public contracts, to support our (small and medium-sized enterprises) and our economy,” se said on social media.

This was the first of at least two debates in the CAQ leadership race, with the next scheduled for Laval next week. The party has just under 20,600 members eligible to vote in a party-wide membership vote.

The deadline to join and secure the right to vote was March 13, and the new leader is expected to be announced on April 12.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

More than two years after a Toronto father vanished without a trace, his sister is speaking out, pleading for answers as police continue to investigate his disappearance as a homicide.

Taron Stepanyan, 40, was last seen leaving his apartment building near Chichester Place on Dec. 23, 2023.

On Saturday, his sister, Tatev Stepanyan, spoke with Global News during a visit to Toronto, where she has travelled from Armenia in search of answers.

“Till now we have no answer… what happened to him, where is he… is he alive?” she said.

Stepanyan said the last time she spoke with her brother was just days before Christmas.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

“He going to celebrate Christmas with his son, with his friends… yes, it was the last time,” she said

When her family stopped hearing from him, she said they immediately knew something was wrong.

“Oh, maybe every day… if not with me, with my mother,” she said, describing how often he would check in.

Taron, a father, had been living in Canada since 2013 after moving with his wife and son in search of a better life.

His sister described him as a devoted family man, saying it is “impossible” he would suddenly cut off contact.

“It’s just impossible… he go without any reason, without any call,” she said.

In January, Toronto police upgraded the case to a homicide investigation, saying there is a strong possibility foul play was involved. Investigators have not released details about what led to the shift.

More than two years later, there have been no arrests and no clear answers for the family.

“But we don’t want to believe… we have a little bit hope that maybe he’s somewhere,” Stepanyan said.

She added she is determined to find answers for herself and her mother.

“I promised her to find the answers,” she said.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Canadians can expect to pay more for their Easter meals as pork and chicken join beef price surges on grocery store shelves.

Beef prices in Canada are up nearly 14 per cent compared to last year, according to the latest consumer price index data, continuing a trend that has seen costs surge in recent years.

While there are early signs that price growth may be slowing, experts say relief is still a long way off.

In an interview with Global News, Dalhousie University professor Sylvain Charlebois said prices are not expected to stabilize before mid-2027, pointing to low cattle inventory in both Canada and the United States.

“I don’t think it’s much of a surprise to listeners. Beef prices are up 13.9 per cent year to year, and we’re not expecting beef prices to stabilize before midyear 2027,” he said.

That supply crunch stems from years of challenges in the beef industry, including drought conditions in Western Canada that reduced herd sizes and limited production.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

While cattle numbers have started to tick up slightly, it can take years to rebuild supply.

Other meats are also becoming more expensive as consumers respond to the surge. Pork prices are up 9.2 per cent year over year, meaning shoppers planning to buy ham for Easter could pay significantly more.

“For people who are going to be looking for ham in a couple of weeks for Easter weekend, expect to pay more, probably eight to 10 per cent more compared to last year,” Charlebois said.

Chicken prices also climbed in February, in part because consumers are shifting away from beef toward more affordable proteins.

“People are pivoting. They’re basically moving away from beef and demand for chicken has gone up,” he said.

But Charlebois warned there may be further pressure ahead. Rising energy costs could drive food prices even higher in the coming months, especially for products that rely on refrigeration and transportation.

“We’re likely going to see food inflation go up again in March, April… any products that would require a cold chain, including, of course, meat products,” he said.

Despite the higher prices, demand for beef remains strong, and experts say consumers are adapting by shopping more strategically, buying items on sale and adjusting when they make purchases.

Charlebois said there may yet be Easter bargains to be had, for consumers patient enough to wait for last-minute bargains in the meat aisle.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Toronto police say a man has been arrested and charged in connection with a homicide investigation in the city’s north end.

Officers were called to a home near Threadneedle Crescent and Cresthaven Drive at around 1:32 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11, where a woman was found dead inside a residence.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

Police said the circumstances of her death were deemed suspicious.

The victim has been identified as 60-year-old Xian Wei Shao of Toronto.

Police have since arrested Sheng Long Wang, 60, of Toronto.

He has been charged with second-degree murder and is scheduled to appear in court at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre on Finch Avenue West on Saturday at 10 a.m.

This marks the city’s 4th homicide of the year.

Police continue to investigate and anyone with information is asked to contact Toronto police.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States is “getting very close” to meeting its military objectives in the Middle East, as tensions escalate over Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a post on TruthSocial, Trump outlined what he described as key goals of the U.S. military effort, including degrading Iran’s missile capabilities, dismantling its defence industry and preventing it from developing nuclear weapons.

“Never allowing Iran to get even close to nuclear capability,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. must remain ready to respond “quickly and powerfully” if needed.

He also said the United States may look to reduce its direct role in securing the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting other nations that rely on the waterway should take on more responsibility.

“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed … by other nations who use it,” Trump said, adding the U.S. would assist if asked.

Trump’s comments come as Canada and more than 20 other countries issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s actions in the region.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

The statement condemns Iran of attacking unarmed commercial vessels, targeting civilian infrastructure including oil and gas facilities, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Three Canadians recently made it back home following weeks stranded aboard a Quebec cargo ship in the narrow passage.

Leaders said such actions threaten global energy supplies and international security.

“Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principle of international law,” the statement said, calling on Iran to immediately halt attacks, including the use of drones, missiles and naval mines.

Countries also warned the disruption of shipping routes could have widespread global impacts, particularly for vulnerable populations.

The group said it is prepared to support efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait and stabilize global energy markets.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bennet said the Trump administration is taking steps to counter the economic impact of the conflict.

Bennet described Iran as a central actor in global terrorism and said the U.S. is accelerating its military and economic response.

He announced on social media that through  short-term authorization, they are allowing the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea, aimed at increasing global supply.

“Today, the Department of the Treasury is issuing a narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea,” the post read.

The move is expected to release roughly 140 million barrels of oil into global markets, helping ease pressure on energy prices.

Bennet said the measure is limited to oil already in transit and does not allow new purchases or production, adding the U.S. will continue to restrict Iran’s access to financial systems.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

MPs will return to the House of Commons Monday after a March break week back in their ridings and, once back in Ottawa, will take up consideration of the Carney government’s 2026-2027 spending plan, new details of which were tabled in the House of Commons on the Friday before that break.

Those details, outlined over hundreds of pages in more than 80 departmental plans, confirm a shift in the Carney government’s budget priorities, with an emphasis on heightened defence spending and capital investment at the expense of some spending on, for example, science and foreign aid.

“We say we’re going to spend less so we can invest more,” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Friday in Montreal. “We found $60 billion of savings across different departments of the Government of Canada.”

But not all savings or spending reductions are equal, Champagne said, taking issue with a Global News analysis of the government’s spending plan. The Global analysis calculated that planned spending across 85 departments would be about $31 billion less next year than last year. Meanwhile planned spending across 40 departments will increase by $23 billion in 2026-27.

“Without going too technical… you need to separate what is … the sunsetters, some programs that we have to review on a yearly basis, some other programs that we have decided to rationalize, to use technology to merge, to look at back office,” said Champagne. “Some others where we said… we need to bring back the civil service to a more sustainable level, going back to levels that were there before the COVID.”

Champagne’s own department, the Department of Finance, presented a 2026-2027 spending plan that provides for the single biggest year-over-year increase in budgetary spending among all federal government departments and agencies. In its departmental plan, finance officials explained that the increase in its spending authority was required due to higher interest payments on Canada’s debt as well as increases in transfer payments to the provinces and territories.

“I can assure you, the finance department is not a winner in this exercise,” Champagne said.  “The finance department is the one who does the transfer.”

Champagne, as well as officials from several other departments, also said some of the spending adjustments described in both the departmental plans and the broader spending plan, known as the Main Estimates,  require important context beyond simply calculating the difference between the most recent approved spending levels and projected spending levels for the next year.

2:02
Canada spending $200M on space launch pad, cuts funds elsewhere

Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali went further on social media. “The method used to generate the story over-simplified how Parliament accounts for money and compared apples to oranges,” he wrote. “This misrepresented key numbers and facts.”

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

And yet, the Treasury Department has for years published a table in its Main Estimates titled “Estimates by Organization.” It clearly invites Canadians to make comparisons across columns in which the government presents the name of each organization along with “2025-2026 Estimates To Date” and “2026-2027 Main Estimates” or planned spending for the next year. The Global News analysis drew on data in that table combined with further detail in the departmental plans.

Nonetheless, Champagne argued, the numbers do not tell the whole story.

“It would be worthwhile… that we spend time together to review that and certainly provide a more comprehensive picture so that Canadians can form their own view about the exercise,” he said. 

Canada Post, for example, is supposed to be a self-financing Crown corporation but ran into serious financial difficulty in 2025. As a result, it received more than $2 billion from the federal treasury to help pay its bills. That was an extraordinary one-time payment and one the government does not anticipate having to make in 2026-2027.

As a result, in the “Estimates By Organization” table published by Treasury Board, the  approved spending by the government on Canada Post is listed for 2025-2026 at $2.064 billion while projected spending by the government on Canada Post next year is listed at $22.2 million — a reduction of 98.9 per cent — and a reflection of the fact that the government hopes Canada Post does not need the cash infusion next year that it did in the current year. Canada Post will continue to be responsible for generating its own revenue.

The Canada Revenue Agency shows that approved spending for the current year was $10.6 billion while Parliamentarians will be asked to authorize the agency to spend up $6.3 billion next year, a drop of more than $4.3 billion, or more than 40 per cent.

A government official argued that without further context, a reader would assume that the reduction in overall spending implied significant job cuts at the agency. In fact, the the reduction in the CRA’s requested spending authority is a result of the fact that the CRA was the government department that paid out the consumer carbon tax rebate and, in 2025-2026, needed Parliamentary authority to “spend” money on those rebates. As the consumer carbon tax has since been cancelled, the CRA does not need to seek parliamentary approval for that extra spending.

There will, though, be some modest job cuts at the CRA as a result. The CRA’s departmental plan says that its current employee headcount is 51,427 and it expects to reduce that by about 2,000 or 3.7 per cent over the next year as a result of the elimination of the federal fuel charge, the end of the temporary two-month GST break and the end of the luxury tax.

Again referring to the “Estimates by Organization” table, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans plans on spending $4.3 billion less, or 69 per cent less, than in 2025-2026. But that’s largely due to moving the costs and responsibility for operating the Canadian Coast Guard out of Fisheries and over to the Department of National Defence. National Defence’s planned spending for next year is set to grow by nearly 12 per cent, or $5.3 billion, compared to this year.

1:52
Carney pledges $35B boost for Arctic defence, infrastructure

Ali, the Treasury Board president, noted in his social media post that the spending plan MPs will begin to debate next week does indeed reflect a government-wide effort to constrain spending, known inside the government as the “Comprehensive Expenditure Review.”

“Most departments were asked to find up to 15 per cent savings over three years, “ Ali wrote “Entities such as Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Indigenous Services, National Defence, Women and Gender Equality, and the Federal Research Granting Councils were asked to find 2 per cent savings, recognizing both the essential nature of their mandates and the need to maintain continuity in the delivery of critical services.”

As a result, the spending reductions have fallen unevenly across government. The Canadian Space Agency, for example, received parliamentary approval to spend $1.4 billion in the current year but is asking for $400 million less, or 33 per cent less, next year.

Global Affairs Canada, in its departmental plan, notes that its spending profile will decline from a peak of $8.5 billion in 2023-2024 to $6.6 billion by 2028-2029. The drop comes from $1.1 billion in savings through the Comprehensive Expenditure Review and from $812 million in savings as Canada ends support of its International Climate Finance Commitment.

“Canadian families are tightening their belt,” Champagne said.  “I think it’s about time that the federal government does the same.”

David Akin is the chief political correspondent for Global News.

A Quebec-based shipping company says three maritime trainees who had been aboard its vessels in the Persian Gulf since late February have returned safely to the province.

In a release issued Friday, Desgagnés confirmed the trainees from the Institut maritime du Québec (IMQ) were on board the N/M Rosaire A. Desgagnés and N/M Miena Desgagnés and had been unable to leave the region since Feb. 28.

The company said it implemented a repatriation plan due to ongoing uncertainty around when security measures would allow the vessels to leave the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

The Strait of Hormuz, the only maritime exit from the Persian Gulf, has been heavily impacted by escalating conflict in the region.

Recent fighting involving Iran, the United States and Israel has led to missile and drone attacks, heightened security risks and severe disruptions to commercial shipping in the narrow passage.

The situation has turned the area into what maritime groups describe as a high-risk zone, with ships facing threats ranging from attacks to navigation disruptions.

Desgagnés said the trainees were flown to Europe from Saudi Arabia, with support from local maritime agents and Saudi authorities, before continuing their journey back to Canada

The IMQ provided support services to the trainees and their families throughout the situation, including personalized psychosocial support.

The trainees had been on board the vessels as part of a sea training program required for their college diploma in navigation and a deck officer’s certificate from Transport Canada.

Desgagnés thanked the crews of both vessels, as well as local maritime agents and Saudi authorities, for their cooperation in ensuring the trainees’ safe return.

– With files from The Canadian Press

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Federal departments and agencies are looking to cut more than 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs over the next three years as part of the Carney government’s spending review.

That figure comes from plans released by federal departments and agencies for 2026-27 outlining how they’ll shed billions of dollars to meet the government’s cost-cutting targets.

Multiple part-time positions can make up one full-time equivalent position.

Rola Salem, spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said departments were asked to include in their reports details about the savings for each fiscal year until 2028-29.

That included a description of how the savings would be achieved, the number of reductions in full-time equivalent positions and any measures that weren’t included in the last budget.

Among the expected job losses are 1,793 positions at Public Services and Procurement Canada, 900 jobs at Statistics Canada and 942 at Health Canada.

While the plans were supposed to offer clarity on how programs will be affected by the spending review, some departments offered only vague commitments to “streamline” services or “modernize” operations. Others said they were still figuring out where to find savings.

Several departments and agencies offered more concrete details of their plans.

They include the Canadian Space Agency, which said it plans to terminate work on the LEAP Lunar Rover Mission.

The Canada Revenue Agency said it plans to wind down business units that are no longer connected to government priorities, like the units that processed the Digital Services Tax and consumer carbon pricing.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s reducing “non-core research activities” and consolidating laboratory services to focus on essential testing and avoid the need for costly upgrades.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

It says it’s also decommissioning some vehicle washing stations and winding down functions that are no longer required to address health risks linked to the trade in pets.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says it’s reducing the Low Carbon Economy Fund and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says it’s winding down some programs outside of its core mandate, like the Agricultural Climate Solution Living Labs program.

The plan for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces says the military will retire selected fleets that are nearing the end of their service lives, face rising sustainment costs or are no longer align with operational requirements. It says it will also sell off or lease “underutilized, obsolete or surplus” properties.

Library and Archives Canada says it’s gradually reducing Access to Information and Privacy functions and the proactive review of historical records functions over a three-year period. It’s also discontinuing funding for the Documentary Heritage Communities Program.

Public Services and Procurement Canada says it’s winding down the activities of the Canada General Standards Board and reducing funding for Laboratories Canada.

Several departments — including Shared Services Canada, the Department of Justice, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Public Safety Canada — outlined plans to use artificial intelligence to increase efficiency or improve service delivery.

David McLaughlin, former president and CEO of the Institute on Governance, said the plans offer “broad strokes” of the impacts of the spending review. He said while the documents offer “some transparency” about the review, more details are needed.

He said those details will come either from a separate document from the Department of Finance or Treasury Board or from questioning by opposition parties.

“You can’t tell … at this moment, at this stage, what will be the actual impact of that in terms of a service on the ground to certain people, certain demographics or in certain regions,” said McLaughlin. “It’s going to have to come through the detailed committee hearings.”

Appearing before the House committee on government operations this month, Secretary of the Treasury Board Bill Matthews said departments and agencies were told to target programs and activities that were underperforming, overlapped with other programs or were not aligned with government priorities.

Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, said the departmental plans “set the table” for parliamentary review.

He said members of Parliament will be trying to “squeeze out more detail” during committee meetings.

“The game to be played this year is the opposition will be trying to suss out details on what’s being cut, or in some cases augmented, looking for nuggets that they can go after and criticize,” Wernick said.

Conservative MP and Treasury Board critic Stephanie Kusie said the documents offer “no clear road map for the departments.”

“They’ve updated the (full-time equivalent) numbers, but it’s not clear as to line by line how they’re going to achieve this within each department,” she said. “Even though there is a decrease in the full-time equivalents, we’re still seeing an increase in spending.”

Kusie said it’s “concerning” that some departmental reports lack details about which programs and services will be affected by cuts. She said she expected more detailed information and a clearer path, given that departments have had months since the release of the budget.

“It makes me wonder, do they know what they’re doing or are they’re not quite certain as of yet?” she said. “I’m worried about it for transparency.”

“I definitely think after reviewing these plans that it merits more specific questions to departments.”

Federal unions are sounding the alarm over the planned job cuts. Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Sharon DeSousa said the cuts aren’t about efficiency but are an “attack on the public service itself.”

“By eliminating thousands of jobs, the government is weakening the very programs people in Canada rely on,” she said.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

A B.C. mother and her daughter, who now live in Texas, have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Edward Warner, his wife Tania and his seven-year-old step-daughter Ayla, who has autism, were coming back from a friend’s baby shower on Saturday when they went through an ICE checkpoint in Sarita, Texas.

“They asked for our identification, which we provided to them. I provided my driver’s licence. She provided her driver’s licence, work visa and her actual visa. Or passport, I’m sorry,” Warner told Global News.

He said they had been through the checkpoints before, which are permanently located on routes 77 and 281, and had never been asked for identification.

Tania and Ayla were born in Penticton, B.C., Warner is from Texas and they have lived together in Texas for five years.

“They brought Tania inside the building because they wanted to fingerprint her for more information and then about 15 minutes later, they came out and got Ayla and said they needed to fingerprint her for more information as well,” Warner said.

“Then, after about a 40- to 45-minute wait, they came back out and told me that they were not legal to be in the U.S. and that I was free to go.”

He said he has spoken with his wife and she and Ayla have now been moved to the Dilley Detention Centre in Dilley, Texas.

“Which gives them at least a bed to sleep on instead of the hard floor,” Warner said.

Previously, he said they were at the Ursula detention center in McAllen, where conditions were worse.

“They were sleeping on the floor using the floor masks to keep warm because all they had were those like tin space blanket things, and they said the food was terrible, the guards were awful, just the whole experience is gonna be very traumatic for the both of them,” Warner added.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

He said that at least in the Dilley Detention Center, he can give Tania money on her commissary and they can speak on the phone.

“I spoke with our attorney this morning, actually, right before this call and she’s going to start getting the packets together to turn in and we just want to get everything moving along,” Warner said.

“Hopefully, we can get them out of there soon.”

Tania applied to immigration four years ago, but was denied because Warner is a registered sex offender in the state of Texas because of an incident when he was a teenager.

Warner said their lawyer found a way to self-sponsor and his name is not attached to any of his wife’s or stepdaughter’s documents.

6:43
Extended: B.C. woman detained in the U.S. returns home

Immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, who is based in Vancouver and not directly connected to the case, said that even if Canadians have their paperwork up to date, they are still in jeopardy in the U.S.

“For any reason, the American immigration system can question your documents,” he said.

“Until those questions are answered, you may find yourself in a detention centre.”

Kurland said that if an agent has a question about someone’s paperwork, even if it is perfectly in order, the agent needs time to resolve that question.

“What’s different is that in Canada, we don’t have immigration checks after you cross the border or get out of the airport,” he said.

“In America, because of the heightened sensitivity to immigration issues, they have introduced domestic immigration checks. So even though this family was not entering the United States from Mexico, but was travelling within the United States, they were subject to American immigration questioning, resulting in detention.”

Kurland said it’s not uncommon and an agent has the right to incarcerate someone and place them in immigration detention until the agent is satisfied that there is confirmation of valid immigration documents.

“It’s a heartache to see a seven-year-old autistic child needlessly detained in an immigration pen that has been known to cage children in detention, and PTSD as an outcome would not be uncommon for that child,” he added.

“We do not do this in Canada. We do not detain seven-year-old autistic kids in immigration detention without solid reasoning. If this family is correct, their immigration paperwork was 100 per cent-a-OK, someone’s got a lot of explaining to do on the American side.”

2:36
Family of Vancouver woman detained after entering U.S. raise alarm

Warner said that later on Friday, he spoke to Tania on the phone and she said she was told she had overstayed her stay and that is why she is being held.

He disputes that because he says her case is still being processed and she has refused to sign a document that ICE gave her that would keep her in detention for another 20 days.

Warner does not know what implications that might have for his wife and stepdaughter’s detention.

In a statement to Global News, Global Affairs Canada said that “Global Affairs is aware of multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the U.S and has received requests for information and assistance from individuals and their family members.”

Warner just hopes his wife and stepdaughter are able to come home soon.

“I know they have beds now,” he said. “I know that there’s a little school in there and there’s some toys, other kids, stuff like that. So it’ll be all right for Ayla.”