The matters, by jurisdiction
United States
Immigration detention
Habeas granted. The claim has no number after two months.
The petition that ended twenty and a half months of immigration detention was granted on 27 February 2026. What follows from it runs on the record: an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, filed 30 July 2026, and records requests to the immigration court system, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. One of those requests has already produced the full record of proceedings and the audio of every hearing. The claim has carried no claim number since it was filed, although one was asked for on 19, 23 and 26 August. Immigration and Customs Enforcement closed its records request administratively on 5 August; the appeal, 2026-ICFO-35689, was filed on 9 September.
Canada, federal
Defence against nuclear attack
No record produced by anyone asked. Before the Senate committee.
Canada has no nuclear weapons, and its defence against a nuclear attack rests on the assurances of allies. Three requests under the Access to Information Act asked National Defence for the instrument in which any obligation to defend Canada is written down. On 17 September 2026 it answered that it will not say whether one record exists. Written testimony has been before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs since 29 August and was placed before its members on 22 September. The committee of the Australian Parliament that covers defence answered in seven hours that it holds no such record. A request under the American Freedom of Information Act to NORAD and USNORTHCOM received case number 26-R-057; its fee waiver was refused in three words and is under appeal as 26-AC-0132-A1. The Information Commissioner registered the complaints against National Defence as files 5826-04346, 5826-04347 and 5826-04348, and the complaint against the Privy Council Office as 5826-04322. The same question is now registered abroad: FOI2026/21329 at the Ministry of Defence and FOI2026/19074 at the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom, LEX 14213 at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and FOI 571/26/27 at the Department of Defence of Australia.
The Crown
The same questions before four governments and the Commons committee.
Since 7 January 2025 the United States has said it wants Canada as its fifty-first state. The King of Canada is also King of the United Kingdom, of Australia and of New Zealand. On 29 and 30 September 2026 the same questions went in writing to the governments of all four: whether any other realm of the King holds an instrument that obliges it to defend Canada, what each has said in public in support of the independence of Canada, and what passed between the King and his governments on the American statements. Requests went under the Access to Information Act to Global Affairs Canada, the Privy Council Office, Canadian Heritage, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Department of Justice, the last two on the wording of the oath of citizenship since 8 September 2022; under the Official Information Act to two departments of New Zealand; and to the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia. The Commonwealth Secretariat was asked for every statement of solidarity with Canada since 7 January 2025, and the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General for its correspondence with the King and the Royal Household on the American statements. A brief and a request for a study went to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, with letters to its ten members, to the member who moved on 25 October 2022 that the House sever ties between the Canadian State and the British monarchy, and to the eighteen sitting members who voted for it. The Cabinet Office registered its request as FOI2026/19272 on 30 September. On 1 October the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of New Zealand asked whether the requester is eligible under section 12 of its Act.
Federal pensions
Found. Confirmed in writing by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Three federal statutes pay the pensions of the RCMP, the public service and the Canadian Forces. Only the RCMP statute lets a board withhold the employer-funded share of a pension from a member dismissed for misconduct. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat confirmed the gap in writing on 23 September 2026.
Policing: White Butte, Saskatchewan
Complaints filed. The border agency’s own note released.
On 6 May 2026 a member of the RCMP White Butte Detachment drove a police vehicle at Danilo Dzyuban while he was praying in a business parking lot. Ten days later she told the Canada Border Services Agency it was “perhaps mental health issues”, and 6 days after that the Agency arrested him in Ottawa. The note was released under the Privacy Act on 24 September 2026. Complaints were filed the same day with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, with a preservation demand to the detachment. The Commission registered the complaint as R2026-008858. Complaints to the Privacy Commissioner followed against the RCMP on 25 September and against the Agency on 28 September.
Environment
Petition 0550 registered and forwarded to four ministers.
Section 17 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 allows any resident of Canada to apply to the Minister for an investigation, and section 18 requires the Minister to acknowledge receipt within twenty days. An application concerning gene-edited organisms was filed on 2 September 2026. The twenty days ran out without an acknowledgement. The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development registered the petition as file no. 0550 and forwarded it on 24 September 2026 to the ministers responsible. The ministers must acknowledge it by 9 October 2026 and answer it by 22 January 2027.
Equality of the sexes in sentencing
Draft Act published.
Section 233 of the Criminal Code defines an offence that only a woman can commit, punishable by five years at most. The same act by the father is murder, punishable by imprisonment for life. The distinction is printed in the statute, in words. The draft Act amends the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to remove it.
Accountability of public bodies
Two draft Acts. A brief before the Commons committee.
A federal body that breaks an obligation it published itself carries no price at all. The Public Accountability Bounty Act puts one on it, paid by that body, and is before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates as a brief to the Comprehensive Expenditure Review. The Statutory Duty Compliance Act gives every statutory duty a date by which it must be performed.
Access to information
Seventeen federal requests open. Complaints before the Information Commissioner.
Seventeen requests under the Access to Information Act are open across six federal institutions, and five more abroad. Complaints to the Information Commissioner are open against National Defence, the Privy Council Office, Global Affairs Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat. Two reversals came out of this work, both after a written demand.
Ontario
Social assistance
Application for judicial review issued by the Divisional Court.
Social assistance was refused, the stated reason changed more than once, and no officer has ever named the provision of the regulation being applied. The first finding comes out of that file: a debt owed to the state enforces itself automatically, while an order directing payment to the person enforces by nothing.
On 22 September 2026 the Divisional Court issued an application for judicial review against the Administrator of Ontario Works for the City of Ottawa and the City, file DC-26-00003254-0000, with the court fees waived. It was served on the Attorney General of Ontario on 24 September. The file was put on hold on 23 September; after a written request for internal review at 2:07 on 29 September, the caseworker wrote at 9:38 the same morning: “I have unsuspended your file.” Notice of a claim against the Crown under section 18 of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019 was served the same day.
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Before the Minister and the Ombudsman of Ontario.
The Foundation paid $194,700 of provincial money to make a refugee employment programme accessible. Asked what the grant agreement requires, it answered on 24 September 2026 that accessibility is outside its oversight role. The questions went to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming and a complaint about the Foundation to the Ombudsman of Ontario on 22 September.
Access fees
Draft amendment published.
Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act treats every time limit as a potential barrier to access, and the fee that locks the same right as no barrier at all. The amendment copies the Legislature’s own words across to the fee.
Ottawa
The flag protocol
Documents demanded. The rule records its own authority as none.
The City of Ottawa’s flag protocol directs that the City will not fly the flag of a group whose undertakings or philosophy are “politically or religiously motivated”. Under the heading Legislative and Administrative Authorities, the protocol’s own entry reads: None. An officer approved it in 2006 and the Clerk revised it twice; no by-law and no recorded vote of Council appears in the record. Written demands are with the City Clerk, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the police services board. Asked about the delegated authority, the Auditor General answered on 29 September 2026 that the matter “does not fall within the OAG’s mandate”.
Municipal election 2026
Candidate register open.
On 2 September 2026 every certified candidate whose address the City publishes received the same six questions on identical terms.
Telecommunications
Prepaid line
Complaint before the CCTS. The provider has refused in writing.
A prepaid line was charged for a cycle that the provider states ran with another carrier, and the only notice it relies on was sent by text to a line whose text messaging did not work. Asked what its records show, the provider gave three different accounts of the same evening and has not produced the delivery records. The complaint is before the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom-television Services.
International
Ukraine: consular services
Before the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
On 30 and 31 July 2026 applications went to the Consulate General of Ukraine in Toronto and to the Consular Section of the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada for a passport for travel abroad, and on 14 August for a duplicate birth certificate. The thirty days that article 20 of the Law of Ukraine on Citizens’ Appeals allows ran out on each, with no passport and no decision. On 25 September 2026 the Consular Section answered in writing that “for men aged 18 to 60, all consular services, including the reclaiming of duplicate certificates, are provided only on presentation of a valid e-VOD from Reserv+”, the electronic military registration document. The same letter requires the passport for travel abroad as a condition of the birth certificate: the document is demanded as the condition of issuing it. Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine guarantees equality regardless of sex, article 25 guarantees care and protection to citizens abroad, and article 64 forbids restricting either even under martial law. The complaint went to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on 26 September; the complaint and its supplement were registered on 30 September. The answer is due by 30 October 2026.
United Nations
Submission before the Special Procedures.
A communication was submitted on 14 August 2026 and acknowledged.
Article V of the Outer Space Treaty
129 states asked in writing.
On 2 September 2026 the same question went to 129 diplomatic missions in Ottawa: does Article V protect every person who goes into space, whatever their citizenship or immigration status, or only nationals of the launching state?