Good morning. We’re mentally preparing for a big week in trade negotiations, but our reporters have entertaining distractions to offer in the meantime. More on tariffs below, along with a new life for IMAX and the secret sauce behind a successful food festival.

Canada-U.S. trade talks are down to the wire this week as Ottawa tries to avert punitive new tariffs scheduled to be imposed by the Trump administration on Wednesday.

Negotiators were bargaining throughout the weekend, culminating Sunday afternoon with a virtual meeting between Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The two were joined by Canada’s lead trade negotiator, Janice Charette, Mr. LeBlanc’s office said Sunday.

Mr. LeBlanc remained in Washington on the weekend and his office said he would stay through Monday as the fight for a deal heats up.

In advance of Mr. LeBlanc’s Sunday meeting, five sources briefed on the discussions said Section 232 tariffs on autos and lumber remained the biggest points of contention. According to the sources, American negotiators have opposed lowering those tariffs on lumber and proposed reducing the tariffs on autos to 15 per cent – a number that is too high for Canada to accept.

Ottawa, meanwhile, is preparing plans for retaliation if the White House makes good on its threat to slam new levies on US$20-billion worth of Canadian goods on Wednesday, one of those sources and a different source confided.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources who were not authorized to disclose details of the confidential negotiations.

Mr. LeBlanc’s office said that the minister and Ms. Charette had a constructive hour-long meeting with Mr. Greer. “They took stock of the work that has been done by their respective negotiating teams, and discussions are continuing,” spokesperson Gabriel Brunet said.

Read the full story from senior political reporter Marieke Walsh and U.S. correspondent Adrian Morrow.

Explained: Five things you need to know about the Canada-U.S. trade talks.

Opinion: One big, grand trade bargain with the U.S.? The devil is in the sectoral details.

Canadian researchers using artificial intelligence, conducted through Cipher AI, to track foreign interest in the Alberta separatism debate found the political discourse is being targeted online by Russian and American interests, but in different ways. The project is also producing reports for the federal and provincial governments.

Russia vs. America: One study indicates that Russian content farms have been pushing pro-separatist content into communities and using Canadians to “launder” those messages by sharing such material on their social media feeds. Meanwhile, U.S. podcasts and influencers have openly promoted the notion that Canada is a failed state that Alberta should leave.

Trucking industry experts are calling for a significant overhaul of Ontario’s oversight of commercial truck driver training in the wake of a scathing Auditor-General’s report that raised concerns about shoddy enforcement. In a recent letter sent to the Ontario transport ministry, obtained by The Globe and Mail, the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada said the transportation regulator should have a bigger role in monitoring driving schools.

The context: The report found that around a quarter of Ontario’s 216 private colleges offering truck driver training had never been inspected by the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security – noting it employed just eight inspectors to audit all 595 private colleges in the province.