Good morning. In focus this week: Canada is pursuing many paths toward sovereignty, Washington hosts Beijing, and BlackBerry is expected to keep rolling as a successful automotive software company. (Still, if the company were considering a short run of made-in-Canada smartphones with physical keypads, I could think of worse times.)

Tech: Ottawa builds a sovereign AI ecosystem for Canadian defence operations.

Mining: Cameco expected to boost dividends after win on Westinghouse investment.

Pot: The cannabis industry is urging Ottawa to use surging marijuana exports as a means of diversifying Canadian trade with non-U.S. markets, warning Canada could soon lose its competitive advantage to rivals.

1. Back in session: The federal government plans to kick off today’s return of parliamentary sittings with the introduction of a bill called the Building Canada Strong Act, which would ensure that federal projects face a single review and a decision within one year.

“This is a crucial session of the House of Commons,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told Liberal MPs in a public speech on Friday. “We are going to introduce some of the most consequential legislation – not just of this government, but in decades.”

In an open letter yesterday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the government to simplify the tax code, repeal development laws that delay project approvals and give MPs clarity on its plans amid talk of Canada becoming an associate member of the European Union.

“Canadians are not pawns on a global chessboard,” Poilievre wrote.

After meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday on Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Carney announced Canada and France will begin sharing space-launch systems and satellite data reception facilities.

The two leaders could have met this week in New York, where both are headed for United Nations General Assembly sessions. But they chose to hold a working lunch on the archipelago of nearly 6,000 French citizens located 25 kilometres off Newfoundland and Labrador’s Burin Peninsula.

The meeting was meant as a show of solidarity and confirmation of sovereignty in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex America’s neighbours, The Globe’s Steven Chase and Paul Waldie report.

2. A (wide) eye on economics: Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem is speaking on “economic developments” today in Halifax.

That’s a big umbrella, as they say. Developments may include, but are not limited to: why July retail sales on Thursday are expected to show a small drop after six months of gains; new national population estimates this week will likely show a third-consecutive decline as the number of non-permanent residents continues to fall; Ottawa is pursuing a new alliance with the European Union; the Trump administration says it might consider an associate partnership with the economic bloc a “hostile act,” even as it threatens to raise tariffs on Canada and EU members so they stop selling their goods more cheaply into the U.S., effectively pushing those countries toward new agreements with each other; calls from some of the world’s biggest AI companies to slow development are raising questions about the investment boom that has helped power U.S. growth; with no end to the Iran war in sight, energy prices are expected to remain elevated; central banks around the world are entering a cycle of interest rate hikes to tame inflation, pushing up borrowing costs just as higher energy prices threaten to slow growth; and controversy is rippling through the Ed Sheeran economy.

Macklem’s next decision is on Oct. 28.

3. BlackBerry keeps driving: To be clear, we’re not keeping our thumbs crossed for a new BlackBerry smartphone. The tech pioneer is riding higher these days as a software leader in the automotive and secure communications space. In its last quarter, the company raised its forecast for the year, in large part owing to the strength of its QNX automotive software division, which is expanding into robotics and industrial applications. The company expects a new platform called Alloy Kore to at least triple per-vehicle revenue.

In a preview note to clients ahead of the earnings report on Thursday, CIBC analysts said its forecast is “aligned” with BlackBerry’s sunny outlook, raving: “Expectations Conservative And Achievable.”

4. Beijing presses on Taiwan: Chinese President Xi Jinping is slated to visit the White House this week for the first time in a decade. He and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to have high-level talks on trade, technology and war.

U.S. allies in Asia are concerned Trump could soften Washington’s support for Taiwan in return for an economic win with Beijing.

Allen Carlson, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Cornell University, said the U.S. has expended munitions in Iran faster than they can be replaced, and China holds the rare earths that are needed to make new ones.

With about 40 days before the midterm elections, in which the Republicans are in danger of losing seats, Trump could be negotiating from weakness, but under the belief he is strong, he wrote on Friday. “Who knows what deals he may be willing to make to declare himself a winner?”

5. AI’ll take care of that: The increasingly apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence are weighing on investors. The CEO of Anthropic and other top AI players have called for the industry to “pace” its development.

Those warnings were a bummer to investors, who sold tech stocks as existential fears set in.

A cynic might wonder if that is exactly what the AI leaders were hoping for in the first place: If they aren’t able to show improvements at an increasingly astronomical rate, their stocks would get punished anyway. And Chinese companies aren’t likely to fall in line with Silicon Valley. It’s hard to say, in other words, what else these leaders might be expecting.

In any event, Aidan Gomez, the CEO of Toronto-based Cohere Inc., said at last week’s Canada investment summit that the top dogs shouldn’t get to define the terms of safety and development.