Good morning. Danielle Smith wants more control over Alberta’s judges and she’s willing to withhold funding to get it – more on that below, along with Ottawa’s scrapped EV mandate and Canada’s best shots at Olympic medals. But first:

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith isn’t wildly keen on her province’s top courts. In a radio show last December, she suggested that its judges – appointed by Ottawa to the provincial, superior and appeals benches – are beholden to the Liberal government that put them there. “Democracy is not when unelected judges unilaterally make decisions,” Smith told listeners. “The will of Albertans is not expressed by a single judge appointed by Justin Trudeau.”

To be clear: Alberta does have some influence over who sits on its highest courts. The province’s minister of justice, chief justice and law society all name people to a seven-member judicial advisory committee. But Smith wants more power over the appointment process, and in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney posted this week, she proposed a stripped-down panel of “four non-partisan experts.” Two picks would come from her United Conservative Party government, two from the federal side.

Smith – who has spent the past few months blasting “activist” and “unelected” judges – said this new committee would “strengthen public confidence in the administration of justice.” She also requested a greater say in appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada. And if Ottawa doesn’t bite? Smith promised to withhold the funding that pays for judges’ support staff, including legal counsel, judicial assistants, sheriffs and court clerks.

Ottawa didn’t bite. Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser told reporters yesterday he had no plans to alter the appointment process. He said a judiciary must be able to make decisions without fear or favour – and a big part of protecting that independence is “ensuring there’s not political threats about the resources that are going to be made available to do their jobs.”

It’s not the only lesson on judicial independence aimed at Smith lately. Last week, in an extremely rare public statement, the chief justices of Alberta’s top courts insisted that a “properly functioning democracy” requires its executive, legislative and judicial branches of government to operate separately. “It is equally important,” they continued, “that each branch respect and support the independence of the others.”

Judges hardly ever speak out beyond the decisions they hand down in court, and the chief justices did not mention Smith or her party by name. But their statement came on the heels of another radio show from the Premier, where she sympathized with a caller complaining about Canada’s bail laws. “The judges get very, very prickly when you criticize them, but boy, the example you just raised, they deserve the criticism,” Smith told him. She also said, “I wish I could direct the judges, honestly.”

Instead, she’s opted to bypass the judges altogether – protecting four different laws from Charter challenges in court by invoking the notwithstanding clause. In November, Alberta leaned on the clause to override teachers’ right to strike and send them back to school. The next month, Smith used it to stop judges from derailing her three sweeping bills limiting the rights of trans and gender-diverse youth. Alberta previously said it would “vigorously” defend its restrictions on gender-affirming health care in court, but Smith appears to have lost her enthusiasm for that.

Before this recent notwithstanding blitz, Alberta had invoked the clause exactly once, a quarter century ago, to pass legislation banning same-sex marriage. That use of the clause expired in 2005, right around the time same-sex marriage became legal across the country.

White House border czar Tom Homan said 700 federal immigration enforcement agents would withdraw from Minnesota – though that still leaves about 2,000 agents, a number the state’s leaders say is far too high. Read the latest on the crackdown here.

At home: The federal government is set to scrap its policy requiring electric vehicles to make up a growing share of passenger-vehicle sales.

Abroad: The Trump administration has launched a charm offensive in West Africa to revive U.S. relations with mineral-rich countries.