Politics Insider for April 23: Trudeau announces $9 billion in funding for students, the rumours of a secret lakeside mansion for the PM are debunked and a wormhole expert wants to lead the Green Party

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Add another emergency aid acronym to Canadas growing lexicon: CESB (pronounced sess-bee?). Prime Minister Justin Trudeauyesterday announced the Canada Emergency Student Benefit, a nearly $9-billion program for post-secondary students and recent grads, doled out in $1,250 monthly payments from May until August ($1,750for applicants with dependents or disabilities). The money, not surprisingly, needs new legislation to start flowing. Jagmeet Singhsaid the money wont be enough to pay the same bills as everyone elseand repeated his consistent call for a universal $2,000 benefit.

The PM also announced theCanada Student Service Grant, which gifts up to $5,000 to students who help their communities during the pandemic. Trudeau also announced a beefing-up of the federal summer jobs program and expanded financial assistance. Click here for the details. (Read a full transcript of Trudeaus remarks.)

This latest tranche of funding bumps total emergency-aid spending to $145.6 billion, according to a new federal costing (spotted by the eagle eyes of CBC Newss Aaron Wherry) that perhaps oddly categorizes a wage subsidy as support for individuals. When the feds lump in their liquidity support for businessesin the form of new loans and tax deferralsthe whopping $230.6 billion total amounts to 10 per cent of Canadas GDP.

Meanwhile, Conservative MPs are watching for cracks in the federal coronavirus response. Dan Albas, Karen Vecchio and Stephanie Kusie wrote a letter to cabinet that said pregnant women are being denied the Canada Emergency Response Benefitand, anecdotally, theyre being told they must start taking their maternity benefits immediately, even if their child is not due for several months.

When the Costa Deliziosa docked yesterday in Genoa, Italy, the cruise ships arrival marked the moment at which there were officially zero Canadian passengers still at sea. But some Canadians do remain onboard cruise ships. A Global Affairs Canada update said the feds are tracking 86 vessels with 300 Canadian crew.

Lest anyone thinks lobbyists arent lobbying these days,The Logics coast-to-coast analysis of federal, provincial and municipal registries reveals the opposite is true. There are 657 organizations that have registered to lobby on some aspect of the pandemic in recent weeks, they report, citing medical technology companies as among the most prominent.

The federal government has dropped a five-year legal fight against court rulings that solitary confinement is unconstitutional. The Globe and Mail reportsthat Ottawa gave notice in court filings that its lawyers are off the case as the feds wholly discontinues the appeal. Back in 2016, Scott Gilmore wrote in Macleans about the 52 months of torture faced by Thunder Bay inmate Adam Capay, who ultimately spent more than 1,600 days in a Plexiglas box, in an empty cellblock with no windows, and with the lights kept on for 24 hours.

This morning, Statistics Canada is publishing its first analysis of a massive COVID-19 crowdsourcing initiative. More than 200,000 Canadians signed up for the voluntary survey thatll tell the story of how the pandemic is hitting home for Canadians. The nations statisticians are also launching maps that show the neighbourhood-level impact of the coronavirus. Check all the results here.

Remember the rumours of a brand new lakeside mansion, alleged to have been surreptitiously built on Trudeaus orders at Harrington Lake? A combination of Google Maps and Apple Maps archived satellite imagery that appeared to show new construction at the PMs retreat in Gatineau Park roused suspicions among certain critics of the PM, including MP Pierre Poilievre. Well, the Canadian Press called the National Capital Commission and got some answers: the new building is a relocated guest house, known as the farmhouse, and its rehabilitation is no secret at all.

Amita Kuttner is the Green Partys newest leadership candidateand could be Canadas first non-binary party leader. Kuttner holds a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics and has researchedblack holes, wormholes, quantum effects and the early universe. Kuttner is also a trained opera singer and lives on an island, off the grid, in a home powered by solar and micro-hydro power.

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There are officially zero Canadians still on cruise ships sailing the high seas - Maclean's