Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams stressed at a news conference that the government isn't banning books. He held up a page of a graphic novel with a sexually explicit example of the images they seek to restrict.

"We will require that they are put behind a counter in a place that children cannot find them while wandering these libraries," Williams said after tabling the bill.

"When a family walks into a public library, they should feel confident that appropriate safeguards are in place, that their children will feel comfortable there."

He said pornographic material paid for by the taxpayer shouldn't be accessible to children.

"It's a reasonable expectation to balance the needs of the family along with the ability for libraries to continue offering services."

The proposed legislation looks at steps to make sure children ages 15 and under can't access visual depictions of sex. Options, in regulations that could come later this spring, include having such material controlled by library staff or put in separate areas.

Williams said stand-alone public libraries are often used for education by young families, so the changes wouldn't be limited only to public libraries co-located in schools.

He said he trusts librarians but also pointed to the importance of "parental authority."

"Any parent that wants kids to have access to any material in the library, they can grant that authority to their children. It's not my job to get in the way of that."

The bill would also give Williams the power to initiate reviews or respond to complaints related to public libraries.

He said he's not aware of anyone suggesting that intellectual freedom protects kids' access to pornography.

"This is not a question of freedom of expression or censorship. This kind of material can be very damaging to young children that see it as a cartoon."

The Coalition of Alberta Public Libraries said in a statement that the changes would affect 324 public library points across the province serving 99 per cent of Albertans.

"CAP Libraries has been engaged in conversations regarding intellectual freedom with the ministry of municipal affairs and provincial representatives since fall 2025, but were not consulted on the changes announced today," it said.

The coalition said polling suggests public libraries are among the province's most trusted and widely used institutions, with 82 per cent of respondents saying they trust their local public library to make appropriate decisions about available materials.

Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party government previously made rule changes to ban graphic sexual material in school libraries, resulting in dozens of books being pulled from shelves.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi mocked Williams' bill.

“This government with its $9.4-billion deficit, its inability to spend any money correctly, is now building a team of library inspectors," Nenshi told reporters at the legislature.

"Can you imagine? What do they wear? What are their uniforms? Do they read every book? Are they librarians?

"This is insanity, and it's taking away the ability of people to make their own decisions.

"This government doesn’t believe in human rights," he added. "It believes in dictating what people read, what people see, what people think."

Nenshi said while parents should have a say in what kids are signing out, librarians are professionals.

"They know what they're doing. They're ensuring that kids are signing out age appropriate material."

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters the city is reviewing the bill and its possible effects.

"My understanding is the intent, at least from the various conversations I've had with ministers as well as public statements, was this was not intended to capture stand-alone libraries and that municipal autonomy would be respected."

Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack said in a statement he's still reviewing the bill, but praised the work of the Edmonton Public Library to ensure everyone has access to information.

"They set a gold standard for inclusivity and accessibility and are developed as professional environments, allowing parents to monitor their children's activities, including what they borrow and view," he wrote.

The bill includes more than library changes.

It proposes the creation of a provincewide councillor accountability framework with enforceable standards of conduct and third-party investigations for serious misconduct.

It includes measures to: fast track the approval of housing builds, prohibit higher property taxes on homes that are vacant for most of the year, and allow publicly funded charter schools to access municipal and school reserve land.

Municipalities would also have to publicly disclose salaries above a specified threshold.

Farkas said he's happy to endorse the bill, especially on accountability measures and code of conduct.

Williams' predecessor in municipal affairs, Ric McIver, broached the plan to overhaul council oversight last spring when he introduced legislation that repealed local codes of conduct.

McIver also introduced a series of reforms affecting municipal governance, including giving the province the power to overturn local bylaws.

Nenshi said the UCP's constant tinkering with the law governing municipalities doesn't show respect or allow municipal officials to do their jobs.

"It costs so much money, so much time and so much effort for municipal officials just to keep up with the forever changing rules."

When asked if he believes cities should operate at the behest of the province, Williams said municipalities have autonomy, but ultimately it's the province's responsibility to oversee them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2026.

— With files from Bill Graveland in Calgary

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press

U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert said employees can refuse to take part in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation but the agency “needs the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination.”

He mostly upheld a subpoena but said Penn does not have to disclose any worker’s affiliation with a Jewish-related organization nor must it provide information about three Jewish-affiliated groups.

A university spokesperson said in an emailed response that the school is committed to confronting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination and has “taken multiple steps to prevent and address these despicable events.” Penn plans to appeal.

“While we acknowledge the important role of the EEOC to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees. We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns. The University does not maintain employee lists by religion,” the university’s statement read.

It is not unusual for federal investigators looking into employment discrimination to request identities of employees of a particular religion, to facilitate outreach to people who may have been victims, according to a former federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Pappert wrote that the university and others who joined the litigation “significantly raised the dispute’s temperature by impliedly and even expressly comparing the EEOC’s efforts to protect Jewish employees from antisemitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ compilation of ‘lists of Jews.’” The judge called that “unfortunate and inappropriate.”

Pappert wrote that Penn and the others who opposed the subpoena were primarily concerned about linking employees to Jewish groups, saying “the EEOC no longer seeks any employee’s specific affiliation with a particular Jewish-related organization on campus.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation was prompted in part by a series of incidents, including that someone had shouted antisemitic obscenities and destroyed property at a Jewish student life center, a Nazi swastika was painted on an academic building and “hateful graffiti” was left outside a fraternity.

The investigation has also focused on actions related to protests over the war in Gaza, and Penn’s response to that and other incidents.

The EEOC claimed in a November filing that Penn’s “workplace is replete with antisemitism,” and it told the judge that investigators think “identification of those who have witnessed and/or been subjected to the environment is essential for determining whether the work environment was both objectively and subjectively hostile.”

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Binkley reported from Washington, D.C.

Mark Scolforo And Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

The crash involving a Tennessee Department of Transportation dump truck, a Chevrolet Trailblazer and the school bus took place at about noon on Highway 70 in Carroll County, said Maj. Travis Plotzer, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Plotzer said details of the crash were still being sorted out, but it appeared that the transportation department dump truck did not contribute to the crash itself.

Plotzer said there were a total of 25 students and five adults on the bus. The school bus was carrying students and employees from Kenwood Middle School in Clarksville for a field trip to Jackson, Tennessee, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System said in a statement. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

Plotzer announced the deaths of two students in the crash during a news conference. Officials said at least seven other people were taken by air ambulance to hospitals in Tennessee. The nature of their injures was not immediately disclosed. Plotzer called the crash “a parent’s worst nightmare.”

The school's principal, Karen Miller, said counselors will be available starting Monday. In a written message to families shared on Facebook, she called the crash an unimaginable tragedy and encouraged parents to be attentive to their child’s emotional needs as they process the deaths of their classmates.

“Please continue to pray with us for our students, families, faculty, and staff,” Miller wrote. “I am grateful for the strength of our Kenwood community, and I trust we will all support each other during this difficult time.”

Four people were taken to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville and were in stable condition Friday, according to a Vanderbilt Health spokesperson.

Another 19 people were taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Carroll County, said Kim Alexander, a spokesperson for Baptist Memorial Health Care. All were evaluated and released, though it was unclear how many actually were injured, she said.

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This story corrects the name of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which is not spelled Carrell.

The Associated Press

The Yukon First Nation Education Directorate Society filed an application in Federal Court this month, seeking to compel Indigenous Services Canada to make a decision on an appeal of the funding cut.

The application says the society's rural nutrition program served about 900 First Nations children, delivering food to rural communities for around $15 a day per child since 2019.

The funding came from the federal government under Jordan's Principle, which is supposed to ensure First Nations children have equitable access to government services.

The society claims it applied for another round of funding for the program for 2025-2026, but Indigenous Services Canada denied the funding request in August 2025.

The society appealed the denial, but claims the federal department has shirked its legal obligation to deliver a "timely appeal decision."

"Yukon First Nations children who depend on its services are irreparably harmed by the ongoing delay," the application says.

"As a result of the delay, approximately 900 First Nations children have lost access to nutritious daily meals, which significantly increases food insecurity and prejudices their equal opportunity to succeed in school."

The society says Indigenous Services Canada has missed a 30-day deadline by several months, but the federal department has committed to delivering a decision by June 2026.

The Yukon First Nation Education Directorate Society, its lawyers and Indigenous Services Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The application says the department blamed the delay on "a significant increase in demand for products, services, and supports under Jordan’s Principle."

It says the program operated in 13 rural First Nations communities, which provided funds to hire cooks, maintain kitchens and deliver food to kids, including breakfast and school lunches, and seasonal food hampers.

The society's application says the Liard First Nation is the biggest community served by the education directorate's programs, where more than 60 per cent of households with children are "classified as food insecure."

"Rural Yukon First Nations have high rates of food insecurity," the application says. "This food insecurity reflects lower household income in the community, paired with considerably higher food costs. The lack of nutrition services has a disproportionate impact on rural First Nations children because of their historical experiences with public education."

It says the funding denial spelled the end of the program in seven months ago.

The Yukon First Nation Education Directorate said in a statement released in September that it believed Indigenous Services Canada "was grossly misinformed in their denial."

The statement said the funding denial came amid the federal department claiming earlier funding was only temporary as families were to be connected with other existing community support services.

"There are no such existing services or supports. Only four of the 13 communities receive monthly food boxes from Yukon Food Bank — non-perishable, nutrient-poor cans and boxes that last a family only a week," the statement said.

The Federal Court application says the rural food program was also heralded as a success story by the federal government, and featured as a "promising case" in a study by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan.

"This denial has left Yukon’s most vulnerable children without nutritious daily meals, children who regularly go hungry and have inconsistent and unreliable sources of food," the application says.

Indigenous Services Canada has not filed a response to the court application.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

In a new report released Monday, Hogan said her audit found the immigration department does not have the resources to meet the demand for student visa investigations — and simply didn't act when claims of fraud came up in hundreds of approved applications.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab told the House of Commons immigration committee Monday that the report offers "a preliminary look" at a four-years-plus plan to reform the international student program. She said she was minister for only four of the 18 months covered by the audit.

"The early audit cannot offer a complete picture of these reforms. It can inform, though, what we do as a go-forward basis," Diab told the committee.

An audit of the program released Monday says about 150,000 cases in 2023 and 2024 were flagged because the student visa holders may not have been complying with the terms of their study permits. Such files are most often flagged because students are not attending the academic institutions that accepted them.

The report says the federal government launched only about 4,000 investigations of those flagged cases — and 1,600 of those were marked as inconclusive because the student in question did not respond to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Hogan said during a Monday news conference that she expects the department to complete these investigations, even if student visa holders don't respond to questions.

"That should be happening no matter where you are in the reforms. That should be acting on the data you have — to preserve the integrity of programs should be something you worry about at the start when you get an application, throughout the application and when the permit has expired," Hogan said.

IRCC makes two attempts to reach out to students involved in these investigations before a file is marked inconclusive, an official from the auditor’s office explained in a background briefing. The official said this process takes about six months.

Immigration department officials told the auditor they only have the budget to conduct about 2,000 of these investigations annually until 2028.

Diab said during a Monday news conference that the department will begin "centralizing" and "streamlining" investigations. She did not say how many more investigations she expects to be completed annually and if the budget for investigations is being increased.

The department reports about 1,400 students whose files were investigated were found to be studying at the right school, while just 50 were found to be non-compliant. Another 915 investigations were cancelled and 37 investigations are still in progress, the auditor reports.

The department also did not follow up on 800 cases of applicants for approved study permits using bogus documents or misrepresented information on their applications between 2018 and 2023, Hogan found.

"There (are) clearly tools in their tool kit, things they can do when fraudulent documentation was used or if a student isn't following the conditions of their permit. We didn't see them consider that in these 800 cases," Hogan said.

"Their own risk process identified these 800 cases, and then no action was taken."

The report said this lack of action is a source of “serious concern” because the department would have no warning on file if any of these individuals made immigration applications.

The audit says 92 per cent of these problematic visa holders applied for some other kind of immigration status to stay in Canada, and 456 of them received approvals, including 105 receiving permanent residency.

When asked specifically about these permanent residency approvals, Diab said student visa extension applications are all reviewed.

"At any point that there's an extension of any of the students that were under the direct student program, they are being reviewed," she said.

Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative immigration critic, was watching Diab's press conference and said responses like the minister's will make more Canadians lose faith in the immigration system.

"The fact that she's coming out here and cannot come up with a few key clear deliverables to change the system and ensure that all of these cases are being reviewed is crazy to me," Rempel Garner said.

"Some of the things she said were just wrong. For example, she said that some of these permits were extended, but they got (permanent residency). That's not the same thing."

The audit also found that IRCC has no way of knowing how many international students with expired visas are leaving Canada.

The report looked at 549,000 people with expiring study permits in 2024 and found that 93 per cent of them were allowed to remain in Canada, leaving 39,500 who were ordered to leave the country.

The auditor general’s office worked with the Canada Border Services Agency to confirm that only about 16,000 of those expired 2024 student visa holders actually left the country.

Diab said the department will share more information on expiring student visas with the CBSA, as the auditor recommended.

The annual Immigration Levels Plan outlines a broader goal of reducing the number of temporary immigrants in Canada to less than five per cent of the total population by the end of 2027. A key part of this plan is putting hard caps on the number of international students admitted to Canada each year.

The auditor's report says that new student visa approvals were far below their predicted levels in both 2024 and 2025.

Roughly 150,000 student visas were approved in 2024 when the anticipated target was nearly 349,000 visas — a 41 per cent approval rate. Only 50,000 had been approved as of Sept. 30, 2025, when officials had expected to approve just over 255,000 visas for the year — a 38 per cent approval rate.

The study permit approval rate was 58 per cent in 2023 and 54 per cent in 2022, the auditor's report says.

The immigration department says it is not sure why approval rates are dropping, the report adds.

The auditor investigated whether the decline could be linked to new letter-of-acceptance verification rules or increased financial requirements but found neither measure could account for the extent of the approval drop.

The report found that all provinces saw larger-than-anticipated declines in study permit approvals, with all provinces but Quebec seeing reductions in study permit approvals of more than 59 per cent in 2024.

The department reported it expected to see a fluctuation of about 10 per cent in study permit approvals in all provinces except for B.C. and Ontario.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press

The lawyers also argued the Quebec government overstepped its provincial jurisdiction on matters of linguistic minorities, religious freedoms and gender equality when it introduced Bill 21.

Ichrak Nourel Hak, named as an appellant in the case, said the law discriminates against and excludes religious minority groups and places them at a disadvantage by preventing them from working in fields like education.

“Instead of making room for them, they are being erased,” she told reporters. “A society that tells people to choose between their careers and their identity is not a fair society.”

The case stems from a law passed in June 2019 by the Quebec government led by François Legault. It bans certain public-sector workers — including teachers, police officers and judges — from wearing religious symbols on the job in the name of state neutrality.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government pre-emptively invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to shield the law from most court challenges over fundamental rights violations.

Eight lawyers representing the school board, a teachers union, the World Sikh Organization, the Lord Reading Law Association and individual appellants pleaded their case on the first day of what is expected to be a four-day trial.

The outcome of the Supreme Court case could affect how provinces can use the clause to circumvent Charter rights. It could also threaten Canadian unity ahead of a Quebec election with an independence referendum on the line.

Perri Ravon, a lawyer representing the English Montreal School Board — the main appellant in the case — told the panel of judges that freedom of religion is protected by articles guaranteeing linguistic minority rights and gender equality.

Ravon argued that religious diversity is part of Quebec’s anglophone culture and is therefore protected by a clause that cannot be overridden by the legislation.

When the case was first heard at the Quebec Superior Court, Judge Marc-André Blanchard suspended some provisions of the law for English schools. His exemptions were overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Several Supreme Court justices, including Malcolm Rowe and Suzanne Côté, suggested Quebec does have some say over how it manages schools and public institutions, including hiring standards.

They also pressed Ravon on whether multiculturalism truly falls under linguistic minority protections. He insisted culture and language are deeply tied.

The lawyer also argued Bill 21 goes against Charter articles protecting gender equality, which are not subject to the notwithstanding clause.

“That is the constitutional bargain,” she said. “It was not just the notwithstanding clause that was crucial to the Constitution, but also the scope.”

Several rights groups and lawyers have argued Bill 21 particularly affects Muslim women, who cannot wear the hijab while performing their duties as teachers and daycare workers.

While a grandfather clause protects those already working in the system, allowing them to keep wearing their religious garb, they cannot change sectors or accept a promotion.

Prior to the hearings, stakeholders and members of rights groups told journalists that religious minorities — namely Muslim women, Sikhs and Jewish people — have been made to feel like second-class citizens.

Olga Redko, a lawyer representing appellants including Nourel Hak, argued Bill 21 is legislation motivated by morality, which is outside provincial jurisdiction. She added that Quebec is implying those expressing their religious faith are harmful.

“The state is sending the message they are not worthy of participating in public life because they go against Quebec values,” she said of those like her clients.

Lawyers representing the World Sikh Organization pointed to pre-Confederation laws from 1852 protecting minority rights, including the right to choose and practise the religion of one's choice.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner asked whether Quebec's unique relationship with religion — the provincial government's close ties with the Catholic Church until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s — should be taken into account.

The province has debated reasonable accommodation of religious minorities for decades.

Other lawyers brought up the far-reaching domino effect of Quebec's pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause.

Frédéric Bérard, a lawyer for the teachers union Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, said the clause has been used in unprecedented ways.

He pointed out that it has been used pre-emptively to circumvent Charter rights in Alberta and Saskatchewan since Quebec adopted Bill 21.

He added that the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause goes against the spirit of the law, which is meant to encourage dialogue. He argued the law should only be used after courts try to intervene on legislation.

Justice Rowe told Bérard dialogue is a "fable" if judges can impose their decisions on provinces, which can then invoke the notwithstanding clause to have the "final say." Justice Côté also asked him if it should be up to the electorate to pass judgment on a government that circumvents rights, since the notwithstanding clause must be renewed every five years.

Bérard argued that assumption rings false in the current political climate.

"The vast majority of politicians in Quebec are saying they need the notwithstanding clause because … Ottawa is not going to decide for us," he said.

The Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal have mostly sided with the provincial government in its rulings, while also criticizing how the government has employed the notwithstanding clause.

The hearings will resume Tuesday with lawyers from pro-secularism groups.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.

-- By Erika Morris in Montreal.

The Canadian Press

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another missive in a protracted battle between the administration of President Donald Trump and the elite university.

“The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply” with federal civil rights law, the Justice Department wrote in the lawsuit, “and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution.”

Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit comes after negotiations appear to have bogged down in the months-long battle with the Trump administration that has tested the boundaries of the government’s authority over America’s universities. What began as an investigation into campus antisemitism escalated into an all-out feud as the Trump administration slashed more than $2.6 billion in research funding, ended federal contracts and attempted to block Harvard from hosting international students.

In a pair of lawsuits filed by the university, Harvard has said it’s being unfairly penalized for refusing to adopt the administration’s views. A federal judge agreed in December, reversing the funding cuts and calling the antisemitism argument a “smokescreen.”

Even so, Harvard and the Trump administration have held some negotiations, and the two sides have reportedly been close to reaching an agreement on multiple occasions. Last year, the administration and the university were reportedly approaching a deal that would have required Harvard to pay $500 million to regain access to federal funding and to end the investigations. Almost a year later, Trump upped that figure to $1 billion, saying that Harvard has been “behaving very badly.”

At the same time, the administration was taking steps in a civil rights investigation that had the potential to jeopardize all of Harvard's federal funding, including federal student aid.

In June, the Trump administration said a civil rights investigation had led to a formal finding that Harvard tolerated antisemitism.

In a letter sent to Harvard, a federal task force said its investigation had found the university was a “willful participant” in antisemitic harassment of Jewish students and faculty. The task force threatened to refer the case to the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit “as soon as possible,” unless Harvard came into compliance.

Harvard responded that it strongly disagreed with the government’s findings and was committed to fighting bias.

“Antisemitism is a serious problem and no matter the context, it is unacceptable,” the university said in a statement. “Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism in its community.”

Since he took office, Trump has targeted elite universities he believes are overrun by left-wing ideology and antisemitism. His administration has frozen billions of dollars in research grants, which colleges have come to rely on for scientific and medical research.

Several universities have reached agreements with the White House to restore funding. Some deals have included direct payments to the government, including $200 million from Columbia University. Brown University agreed to pay $50 million toward state workforce development groups.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Moriah Balingit And Michael Casey, The Associated Press

Under an agreement announced Thursday, the Treasury Department will take over management of student loans whose borrowers are in default, meaning they are months behind on payments. Those loans add up to about $180 billion, or 11% of the government’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio.

Eventually, the Treasury Department is to take responsibility for all student loans, according to the agreement. A second phase with no timeframe says Treasury will “assume operational responsibility” over non-defaulted loans, “to the extent practicable.”

Borrowers do not need to do anything as the change goes through, the administration says. They will continue to work with the same loan servicer and repay their loans the same way.

The 17-page agreement outlines a stunning realignment of the nation’s federal student loan programs, which have been overseen by the Education Department since it was created more than 40 years ago.

The agreement “marks an intentional and historic step toward breaking up the Federal education bureaucracy and dramatically improving the administration of Federal student aid programs,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

In justifying the change, Trump officials said the Education Department is “ill-equipped” to handle such a big loan portfolio. They blamed the Biden administration for focusing on efforts to cancel student loans rather then help borrowers get back on track with payments. Officials cited recent data showing that fewer than half of all borrowers are currently making payments on their loans, with almost a quarter in default.

The agreement is likely to invite legal challenges. Some opponents note that federal law requires student loans to be overseen by the Education Department. Trump officials believe they've found a workaround by framing it as a partnership, with some components, including the policies underpinning student loans, remaining at the Education Department.

The move is part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shutter the Education Department, an agency he says was overrun by liberal thinking. Only Congress has authority to close the department, but Trump officials are picking it apart through a series of inter-government agreements that relocate the department’s operations to other federal offices.

The future of the government’s enormous student loan portfolio has been one of the biggest unanswered questions. At her Senate confirmation hearing, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called Treasury a “natural” place for student loans. Trump later said they would be overseen by the Small Business Administration.

Conservatives have tried in the past to move federal student loans. During Trump’s first term, his education chief talked about setting up a semi-private bank to manage student debt. The conservative Heritage Foundation promoted something similar in its Project 2025 plan, calling for a new “government corporation with professional governance and management.”

The Treasury Department often has been discussed as an option, yet student loans are seen as a particularly complex form of debt and some question whether the agency has the right technical expertise. In a 2015 pilot, Treasury tried to collect payments from a sample of thousands of borrowers in default. Its success rate was lower than that of the private collection agencies contracted by the Education Department.

Federal student loan borrowers are typically considered in default if they haven’t made a payment in more than 270 days. About 9.2 million Americans are in default on student loans, according to Education Department data released this month. Going into default can bring a heavy hit to credit scores, and the government can withhold pay and Social Security benefits.

The latest deal from the administration indicates a willingness to open up the hood of student loan operations at a perilous moment. About 12 million Americans are behind on federal student loan payments in some way, and the industry is bracing for a potentially historic surge in loan defaults as pandemic-era protections come to an end.

Earlier this year, Trump officials postponed their plans to restart involuntary collections on defaulted loans, which could have meant withheld earnings for millions of Americans. It’s seen as a politically volatile issue during a tough midterm year where affordability is already on voters’ minds.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

Officers received information last week from Interpol and the FBI that two people had been talking online about their desire to attack schools in Rivers, Man., and Bridgewater, N.S.

The 14-year-old boy from Rivers and 15-year-old girl from Bridgewater were arrested this week. The girl faces the most serious of the charges — conspiracy to commit murder.

On Monday in Manitoba, officers pulled over a school bus and arrested the boy.

"We received information that the youth was on a school bus, that he was no longer at his residence. So, we wanted to act quickly and that was the safest way to take him in custody," said RCMP Cpl. Melanie Roussel.

She added that the boy was unarmed. Mounties also seized electronic devices from the teen and from his home, as well as two firearms owned by a relative.

The firearms were seized because of the nature of the threats, Roussel said. She wouldn't say if the firearms were registered.

On Tuesday, police said they searched a home in Bridgewater and found handwritten plans, imitation weapons, a roughly made imitation pipe bomb and assault rifle, and clothing with hate symbols.

Deputy Chief Danny MacPhee with Bridgewater police said the girl wasn't home at the time but family members were. The suspect was later arrested a short distance away.

He said international police agencies provided information that an attack was not imminent, and it also helped that Nova Scotia students are on March break.

"This is a big win for us," he said. "Any time that we can step in at a planning phase of some mass event is so much better for us as police, community, students than anybody walking into an active attack or a major incident."

Neither of the teens can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The girl, who is also charged with uttering threats, was arraigned in Bridgewater court Wednesday, and a bail hearing is set for next week. Police said they're investigating whether hate crime and other offences could also be laid.

The boy is also charged with uttering threats, and RCMP said additional charges are also possible. He's scheduled to appear in court next month in Brandon, Man.

Police allege the pair began talking online at the end of February.

But they say there's no indication their alleged plan were spurred by the mass killing in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

On Feb. 10, an 18-year-old girl in that community shot and killed her mother and half-brother at home before gunning down five students and a teacher's aide at a school. Jesse Van Rootselaar then killed herself.

In the days that followed, it emerged that she had created an online game simulating a shooting massacre in a shopping mall and that she was banned last year from ChatGPT last year over problematic interactions.

MacPhee said investigators located some personal property of the accused in Bridgewater that contained names of several North American mass attackers and the crimes they committed.

Police in Manitoba said they have seen an influx of reports of online threats but couldn't say what's driving them.

"We take all these school threats very seriously, and we look into each one of them. We will investigate them until we find where these threats are coming from," said Roussel.

Rivers Collegiate is a Grade 7-12 school in the community about 250 kilometres west of Winnipeg. Its website says it has about 140 students.

The Rolling River School Division said it's working with the RCMP to address any safety concerns.

"The (division's) focus is on the safety and well-being of the students and staff," Supt. Jason Cline said in an email.

"Rivers Collegiate is working with the division administration and clinical services to ensure supports are in place for both students and staff."

Bridgewater, about 100 kilometres southwest of Halifax, is a regional centre for other nearby towns and villages.

The school district that oversees the Grade 10-12 Park View Education Centre in Bridgewater, with about 880 students, said in an email that it was notified by police about the arrest.

"We have arranged for additional support to be available at the school next week for students and have reminded staff of the range of available resources," said Ashley Dixon with South Shore Regional Centre for Education.

The Nova Scotia government said it has been in close contact with the district following the arrest and that additional support would be available for students at Park View next week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2026.

Brittany Hobson and Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press

Lawyer Stacey Purser says there are big gaps in the case and that a decision to send Peter Murray to Scotland at his age would have profound consequences.

"(In Scotland), cases like this have taken about five years (to complete),” Purser said in an interview.

“So you surrender someone who's 88 years old (next month) … you're basically just surrendering him to await trial for the rest of his life and not have anything actually happen."

Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has been tasked with making the decision.

Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Thomas Rothwell ruled in February that there's enough evidence against Murray to have the minister decide on extradition.

Murray lives in Wetaskiwin, south of Edmonton, and is out on bail.

"(Murray) obviously denies the allegations," Purser said.

"It's incredibly stressful. It's shocking for his family. He's a dad, a (grandfather) and a great-grandfather who (taught) in Wetaskawin for years … so I would be shocked and disappointed if the minister agreed to extradite him."

Rothwell's Feb. 18 decision says most of the alleged assaults took place between 1965 and 1972, while Murray allegedly worked at two schools operated by the De La Salle Order in Scotland.

He began teaching at St Ninian’s in 1965, when he was 27. He also worked at St Joseph’s before moving to Canada in 1972, the document says.

Murray was allegedly known as "Brother Peter" at the schools.

He's accused of touching, groping or sexually assaulting students while they were sleeping and showering.

In one instance, he allegedly stepped on and broke a teen's ankle. In another, he's accused of twisting and breaking a boy's wrist.

He's accused of stabbing a student in the stomach with a sharp pencil and a screwdriver. He also allegedly dragged multiple students by their hair.

"(One minor) described assaults on him and other students that were so frequent it seemed normal, and daily battering of students with any objects at hand and by punching or kicking," the document says.

Purser said Murray is not the Brother Peter whom the complainants want to bring to justice. She said news reports in Scotland have said the Brother Peter sought in the case had died.

Rothwell says in his ruling that there are questions around the evidence but not enough to change his mind on sending the case to the justice minister for a decision on extradition.

"Even if I accept there are gaps in the evidence, the issues raised by the defence are issues for trial," the judge said.

"There is sufficient evidence in the (case) upon which a reasonably instructed jury acting reasonably could infer Peter Murray is the man the complainants called 'Brother Peter.'"

The extradition case is far from settled.

Purser is also appealing the judge's decision to send the case to Fraser and, if necessary, could appeal the minister's decision.

She also plans to fight the case on broader issues in the submissions she plans to send Friday to Fraser's office.

Purser said a House of Commons standing committee on justice made numerous recommendations in a 2023 report to reform the extradition system., but they haven't been adopted.

The suggestions include changes to help those facing extradition to challenge the case being made against them and to compel Canadian justice officials to disclose anything that could compromise or weaken the request of the country seeking extradition.

Purser said she still hasn't heard from the federal government on possible records it has on Murray.

Fraser has until about mid-May to make a decision and has the option to extend that timeline.

"We cannot speculate on the timing of the minister’s decision," the federal ministry said in an email this week.

Purser said Murray has a clean teaching record in Alberta, where he taught for years and won awards.

He "never had anyone even suggest that he acted inappropriately towards kids," the lawyer said.

"Just the suggestion that someone has committed all of these horrific acts for so long, then came to Canada and quit cold turkey and were on their best behaviour seems a bit far-fetched for me."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2026.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press