Your middle-of-the-week gentle breeze ...
Your untrustworthy Eurocrat:
Mark Carney’s
admiration for the European Union is so deep that he was accused of aiding and
abetting Project Fear, the campaign to stop the U.K. exiting the massive
economic bloc.
As governor of the Bank of England, he failed to stop
Brexit but as prime minister his Project Fear II against the U.S. has been far
more successful and far more galvanizing. If Wall Street Journal is to be
believed, Carney is now trying to integrate Canada into the European Union, a
move that would surely entail a loss of sovereignty and independence far
greater than anything we could surrender to America. The prime minister
suggested on Sunday that the Journal’s reporting overstated what the government
is seeking.
**
When asked what a
“unique alliance” might look like, Barnard said nobody knows and pointed to the
difference between the political and legal dimensions.
“The EU wants to be close to Canada and supportive of
Canada — that’s the political side,” she said.
Legally, however, “there is just no possibility (of that)
as the EU stands,” she said, pointing to the Michel Barnier staircase of the
available models. At the top is full membership, followed by looser forms of
economic integration — European Economic Area (EEA) participation, Swiss-style
bilateral accords, customs-union arrangements, and free-trade agreements.
Canada is already on the bottom step with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement (CETA), an EU-Canada free-trade agreement provisionally in place
since 2017.
Simon Usherwood, professor of politics and international
studies at The Open University, also pointed to the lack of “off-the-shelf
relationships with other countries.”
While Carney has said he’s not seeking it, full
membership would simply not be feasible under the EU treaties as they stand.
“People jokingly say, ‘Oh, yes, Canada could join, join
the EU,’” Barnard said. “Well, legally that’s impossible because Article 49 of
the treaty says you’ve got to be a European state, and Canada is not that.”
Even if the focus is just on a bespoke partnership, the
political room for this remains uncertain as it’s not just a question of what
Canada hopes to obtain but also what privileges — and demands — the EU is
willing to extend to Ottawa.
The EU could, in theory, devise a new arrangement for a
country it wants to draw closer. But Barnard said Brussels would be wary of
creating a precedent because any generous concession to Canada could prompt
Britain, Switzerland, the EEA states, Ukraine and other countries outside the
bloc to demand comparable
**
**
I read that as cronyism:
Prime
Minister Mark Carney says his government will open up Canada's four largest
airports to private investment, but that Ottawa will maintain ownership of
airport land.
The prime minister said the private money will be sought
through "long-term concessions" to operate these airports, which
would include Toronto Pearson International Airport, Vancouver International
Airport, Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and Calgary International
Airport.
"The government of Canada will retain ownership of
the underlying land and assets, but we will unlock their true value by bringing
in new capital and expertise to their operations and growth," Carney said
during an address at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto on Tuesday
morning.
"We will reinvest the tens of billions of dollars of
capital we raise into the infrastructure that Canada needs for the next
generation."
Carney has invited over 100 of the world's largest
investors from around the world to the summit in the hopes of securing $1
trillion in investments in some 167 projects across Canada over the next five
years.
He is selling this country piece by piece.
But, please – worry about Trump is saying today.
Also:
Former prime minister Jean Chrétien proudly affirmed
recently, in the context of trade issues, that Canadians do not bow to anyone —
so true, Monsieur. But au contraire, you support Canadians who bow to the
Laurentian Elite (LE). Quebec is a charter LE member, as its interests prevail,
regardless of the Constitution and those of other provinces.
The most blatant example is the recent rush to immunize
the dairy cartel from any trade agreements. This benefits Quebec, the major
player in Canada with respect to dairy products, eggs, and chicken. Prime
Minister Mark Carney (as did Chrétien) bowed to Quebec to confirm the
provincial Marketing Board’s power to allocate production limits.
This socialist intervention, versus the competition of
free markets, maintains high prices for Canadian consumers, limits choice, and
enrages Donald Trump. He believed this issue had been otherwise dealt with when
the original CUSMA was negotiated almost a decade ago.
Other problems abound. Sometimes the cows don't cooperate
and overproduce the quota — that milk gets poured down the drain. Should
Canadians accept policy that supports such irresponsible waste?
This cartel also raises a basic question — are we a free
trading country? The non-answer, also sad but true, is that an important Quebec
industry risks the articulated national priority of a free-trade agreement with
the world’s largest economy sharing the world’s longest border.
Why then the policy?
Having spent much of his career in the Department of
Finance in Ottawa, our smooth-operating Prime Minister understands ‘The Road to
Power.’ Such special perks for Quebec are conditional on support for the
Natural Governing Party, i.e. the Liberals. This explains why most federal
elections are over before the Manitoba border, and why half of the Conservative
caucus also supported this insidious legislation.
But inevitably, even these managed chickens come home to
roost. Tolerance for this hypocrisy and political maneuvering for power no
longer exists in many other parts of Canada, particularly Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
The ‘smooth operator’ has made Canada his playground
until he moves on to a global role. Already with a global brand, Canada is just
a stairway to Carney’s greater ordained heights and destiny. His book compares
himself to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius — “rising in the morning to do the
work of mankind.”
Yes, he wrote that.
Out-of-control ambition and superiority, claiming his
“human values” are superior to “market values.”
He wrote that too.
Isn’t the market the outcome of millions of
self-interested decisions and actions that ultimately reflect society’s values,
not Carney’s?
The consequence of this superiority is the risk of
consummating a free trade agreement with a difficult counterparty who clearly
dislikes Carney and what he stands for.
It is only for crass political purposes that Quebec
receives special treatment to enjoy an enhanced level of citizenship in our
country. This is augmented by the Ottawa civil service, especially at the
senior level, which requires bilingualism, also inevitably favouring Quebec.
Another significant manifestation of the LE is
appointments; what follows is an abbreviated scan of actions by Carney, the
unofficial head of the LE.
Jonathan Wilkinson was named Ambassador to the European
Union. A previous adviser to Premier Roy Romanow and the Saskatchewan
government, as Trudeau’s Minister of Energy, he led the attack on the energy
sector. He has a heart, though, assuring a “just transition” for those destined
to lose their jobs — what a guy!
Another Westerner cum globalist, Chrystia Freeland, was
also an important Trudeau cabinet minister leading the original CUSMA
negotiations, among other key roles resulting in Canada’s “lost decade.”
In addition to her recent appointment as advisor on
Economic Development of Ukraine, this former deputy prime minister and author
now presides over the Rhodes Trust at her alma mater, Oxford University. She
continually takes potshots at the US President from the cheap seats, probably
infuriating Trump more than any other Canadian.
Another Saskatchewan politico, also a LE, is Ralph
Goodale. First elected in 1974, this USask law graduate made a career as one of
the most talented politicians. He excelled at nodding his head for emphasis
while saying almost nothing. That served him well — as other Trudeau colleagues
stumbled, he became Minister of Finance notwithstanding a sparse background.
After his defeat, Goodale was named High Commissioner for Canada in the United
Kingdom from 2021 to 2025, a Trudeau appointee.
The most egregious appointment belongs to former Leader
of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh. Roughly
mirroring the career of Justin Trudeau, he kept Trudeau in power through his
second and third terms.
The ‘smooth operator’ rewarded Singh as the new Chief
Executive Officer of Destination Canada, the country's national tourism
marketing organization. His salary of $350,000 will be a handy top-up for his
already lucrative pension. The Ottawa cesspool is at work.
How many lower-profile appointments, made daily,
institutionalize this reward system?
The dairy cartel is a clear example of tiered citizenship
in Canada — Quebec’s special status, Ontario the base case, and the West with
absolutely no say, even regarding important national issues like a free-trade
agreement renewal.
And:
As Russian soldiers attacked trench lines in eastern
Ukraine in 2024, Ukrainian artillery crews opened fire. But the rounds, instead
of exploding near the advancing troops, flopped out of launch tubes or landed
with quiet thumps, kicking up puffs of dust.
A Ukrainian arms factory, it turned out, had supplied the
military with thousands of defective mortar rounds. A burly weapons factory
boss, Leonid Shyman, would eventually be arrested and charged in one of the
war’s most public examples of defense-industry fraud.
But even as the officials noticed that weapons were
arriving faulty, government audits obtained by The New York Times show,
Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency continued to award Mr. Shyman’s factory
new contracts.
The case reflects a persistent phenomenon of the war in
Ukraine. Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business
despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier
deals or the arrest of chief executives for corruption, according to the
government audits obtained by The Times, court records and Ukrainian news
accounts.
Mr. Shyman, for example, had been the subject of multiple
investigations by anti-corruption agencies, including for embezzlement and
fraud, when he won that first mortar contract. The government awarded the $280
million deal while he was out on bail on corruption charges.
Confidential reviews by the State Audit Service and an
internal Ministry of Defense auditing department reveal a military procurement
system riddled with mismanagement. Warning signs go unheeded, the records show,
and there are seldom consequences for overcharging or failing to deliver.
Companies won contracts without demonstrating that they
could supply the weapons, or without licenses to deliver them. Auditors
identified 18 companies that signed deals despite defaulting on previous
agreements. Six of those companies failed to fulfill a single contract.
Military contractors around the globe, including the
world’s richest arms dealer as well as Ukrainian and American companies, have
gotten wealthy through this system.
The internal government audits showed that in 2024 alone,
Ukraine lost about $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement.
Those losses, which have not been made public, piled up
even as President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to allies for more weaponry and
financial aid.
Ahem …
It’s just money:
Manitoba
Premier Wab Kinew called Donald Trump’s tariffs “immoral” after Canadian
trade talks with the United States (US) fell apart.
That’s quite a charge coming from a Canadian politician.
“[T]he government of Manitoba is 100 percent behind the
prime minister’s direction to retaliate against Donald Trump’s unjustified and
immoral tariffs,” Kinew said at a press conference at the Manitoba legislature
on August 22.
The “immoral” actions Kinew referred to were the 50%
tariffs Trump imposed on upwards of $20 billion of Canada’s annual exports to
the US. Yes, that is a heavy burden on the affected products, but it is only 5%
of the roughly $400 billion in total Canadian exports to the US.
Trump imposed those tariffs under Section 338 of the US
Tariff Act of 1930, which allows a president to impose tariffs of up to 50% in
response to discriminatory treatment of American commerce. The White House said
Canada’s treatment of US autos, alcohol, and dairy justified its use.
In other words, Trump didn’t pull the 50% figure out of
thin air. Whether his use of the law is justified is another question, but the
law itself sets 50% as the maximum.
There’s a far more important number nearing 50% that
Trump has nothing to do with: the annual tax burden on Canadians. According to
the Fraser Institute, in 2026, the average Canadian family will earn $166,790
in income and pay an estimated $72,539 in total taxes. That’s 43.5% of their
income.
Even worse, Fraser estimates that government spending is
roughly 49% of Canadian incomes.
What is more immoral? An American president erecting 50%
trade barriers on 5% of imports from another country, or Canadian governments
spending the equivalent of nearly half of everything Canadians earn?
And if Trump’s approach is “immoral,” how does Canada’s
reciprocal response become righteous?
That’s the first problem with Kinew’s argument. Canada’s
retaliatory tariffs, which he supports, will also add costs for Canadian
consumers.
“Gas prices are higher than ever because of the war in
Iran. Prices at the grocery store are higher than ever because of his domestic
policies, and now he continues to add to your cost of living woes by bringing
in more tariffs, which is a tax on you. It’s a tax on you as the American
people,” Kinew explained.
But Statistics Canada disproves Kinew’s fuel price claim.
Winnipeg gas prices averaged $2.05 in June 2022 and just $1.66 in the latest
figures in July 2026. Even stateside, the US Energy Information Administration
recorded gas prices at $5.02 per gallon in June 2022 and $4.06 in August 2026.
Kinew’s grocery-price claim also needs context. In
Canada, year-over-year grocery inflation was 11.4% in January 2023, 5% in
December 2024, and just 3.1% in July 2025.
While energy costs can feed into grocery prices, blaming
Trump for Canada’s affordability problems ignores what Canadian governments
themselves have done. Industrial carbon taxes, clean fuel regulations, and
electricity regulations make transportation and energy more expensive.
Pipeline-killing regulatory regimes also handicap our energy sector’s
potential.
How’s that for “immoral?”
And then there are the trade barriers Canada imposes on
itself.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that internal
trade barriers function like a 9% tariff in our own country, a barrier that
rises to 40% in sectors such as education and healthcare. The cost to GDP is
$210 billion.
Trump did not create those barriers.
Nor can Canada put all the blame on Trump for the failure
to reach a trade deal. Canada and the US were very close to a deal when both
sides introduced fresh demands. Canada walked away to protect aluminum exports,
ensure French-language content appears first on Netflix screens in Quebec, and
keep the door open for new trade deals with China.
But isn’t China the country Mark Carney called Canada’s
“largest geopolitical threat” in the last election?
**
While
not as expensive as lodging can be in Tuscany, Italy, where Carney vacationed
this summer, staying in that Canadian castle is certainly not affordable.
(Sidebar: boy,
does he love Europe!)
Hopefully they got a special rate, but renting a room or
hosting a conference does not come cheap. While booking sites say you can find
a room there for $534 a night, the cheapest availability when trying to look
for availability was in the $1,300 a night range on the low and $2,200 on
average.
Renting the conference rooms and ordering the available
dining menus are not cheap either. In fact, there is nowhere in Canada grander
to hold a government meeting than where these people flying in there today are
holding it. They could have these meetings in Ottawa where they all already
have apartments and there is plenty of available space already paid for by
Canadians.
**
Two
Canadian steel companies and one of their part owners agreed to pay US$19
million as part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice
(DOJ) that they illegally circumvented duties on steel from China, Indonesia,
Italy, Turkey and Vietnam.
Brampton, Ont.-based Royal Canadian Steel Inc., Farjess
Inc. and Feroz Jessani, president and part-owner of the two companies,
allegedly misrepresented the steel as being from Canada or the U.S., according
to the DOJ.
Jessani did not respond to emails and the person who
picked up the phone at Royal Canadian Steel said he is currently on vacation
outside of Canada.
Royal Canadian Steel has a processing plant in Brampton
and other facilities in China, Pakistan and India, according to its LinkedIn
page.
In the U.S., companies must declare the country of origin
and value of the goods being imported to U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP).
Between May 2019 and January 2025, Royal Canadian Steel,
Farjess and Jessani avoided duties by "knowingly misrepresenting … the
country of origin of certain flat-rolled steel," the DOJ said.
Shamsh Dhala, a broker who worked with Farjess, tipped
the government off by filing a civil suit in the U.S. under the False Claims
Act, which allows whistleblowers to receive a portion of any money recovered by
the government. The DOJ said Dhala would receive US$3.61 million of the
settlement.
"Our border is the frontline of American industry.
Approximately half of all U.S.-Canada land trade flows through our
district." Jerome Gorgon Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of
Michigan, where the case was filed, said in a press release. "And we will
continue to protect our businesses from foreign fraudsters."
U.S. steel companies have long complained that Canada has
acted as a backdoor for cheaper, unfairly subsidized steel to enter the U.S.
They, along with U.S. trade representatives, said Canada's steel import
regulations are too lax, which allows other countries to transship their steel
through Canada and then into the U.S.
Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump placed 25 per cent
tariffs on Canadian steel, which he eventually doubled to 50 per cent under
section 232 of the Fair Trade Act. That has affected all steel exports,
including those that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, and
devastated domestic steel producers, many of whom relied on the U.S. for a
major portion of their sales.
**
Federal
researchers will spend three years and $12.6 million attempting to substantiate
claimed benefits of a Trudeau-era venture, the $1 billion National School
Food Program. “More data are needed,” the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research said in an internal memo.
**
Most Canadians who
applied for subsidized dentistry under the federal Dental Care Plan were
already regular patients in private care, new data show. Federal agencies
to date have not accounted for billions in cost over-runs on the program: “If
employers were to start dropping their plans because there is some new federal
plan, that is a potential concern.”
It was never about a virus:
Canadian corporate
media from the outbreak of the pandemic acted as government propagandists,
says a former foreign correspondent. Speaking at a public hearing, Rodney
Palmer said media dependent on cabinet for licenses or subsidies worked to
quash criticism of Covid-era mandates: “I know they shifted their allegiance
from the people of Canada.”
**
A federal labour
board has ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to pay a total $13,500 in damages
to two Christian employees suspended for defying its vaccine mandate. The
discipline was discriminatory, an adjudicator ruled: “How does a manager
decide?”
**
Conservative
MPs became emotional during a public hearing as Canadians described deaths and
serious health problems they attributed to COVID-19 vaccines, including the
case of a longtime parliamentary aide who qualified for federal vaccine injury
compensation before his death.
“I don’t think we have properly acknowledged the harm
that was done to many people,” Conservative MP Blaine Calkins, who represents
Ponoka-Didsbury, Alta., said at the hearing.
Among those discussed was Scott Gorry, who worked in
Calkins’ office for nearly a decade. Gorry died July 4 at the age of 48.
“Scott worked for me for almost a decade,” said Calkins.
“I don’t have any expert knowledge that I can impart here other than just to
say he was a great friend.”
Blacklock's Reporter said Gorry was diagnosed with
myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after receiving a COVID
vaccine while Parliament's vaccination mandate was in effect.
His sister, Barrie, Ont., physician Dr. Crystal Luchkiw,
told MPs Gorry received the vaccine because it was required for him to continue
working.
“He needed to get the vaccine to maintain his
employment,” said Luchkiw.
“He ended up in hospital multiple times.”
Luchkiw said the evidence linking her brother's condition
to vaccination was “irrefutable” and that his claim had been approved through
the federal Vaccine Injury Support Program.
The $75-million program was established to provide
financial support to people who experienced a serious and permanent injury
after receiving a Health Canada-authorized vaccine.
Conservative MP Glen Motz, who represents Medicine
Hat-Cardston, Alta., wept while remembering Gorry.
“Scott was a big man,” said Motz. “He made me look pretty
small.”
Conservative MP Arnold Viersen of Peace River-Westlock,
Alta., recalled discussing Gorry's health problems with him.
“I had a conversation with him about it,” said Viersen.
“He seemed somewhat relieved by the fact that it was acknowledgement that he
was injured, but that was about the extent of his relief.”
The hearing also revisited Parliament's vaccination
rules, which prohibited people from working on Parliament Hill without
providing proof of vaccination.
Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall of Yorkton-Melville,
Sask., was prevented from taking her seat after declining to disclose her
vaccination status.
“It’s not just about me,” Wagantall told reporters at the
time.
“I have all kinds of people in my constituency. My office
has dealt with people just beyond stressed, crying, because they have lost
their jobs or they can’t get from where they are to where they want to go, and
it’s deplorable.”
The House of Commons voted 180-140 in 2021 to uphold the
vaccination requirement. Wagantall was escorted from the chamber after
challenging the order.
The public hearing was organized by Conservative MP Dean
Allison of Niagara West, Ont., to hear testimony from Canadians about vaccine
mandates and their experiences with the Vaccine Injury Support Program.
“We had over 1,400 people apply to be here,” Allison
said. “Unfortunately not all could make it.”
**
Remember
– we have no “core values”, we’re a “post-national state” and apparently no
history:
What, then, do Canadian teens know of their history?
National Post asked a half-dozen high school students or recent grads two
questions: “Who was the first prime minister of Canada?” and “What happened in
Halifax in 1917?”
One gave a lightning-fast response on the prime minister:
“John A. Macdonald.” Another said: “Holy, I should know this.”
Among the other four, two got it right when hints were
given. Two more confessed to learning about the first prime minister but
couldn’t remember. “It’s been too long,” said one.
On the Halifax question, one student answered correctly
that the 1917 explosion that levelled much of the city and killed up to 2,000
people involved “two boats crashing into each other and causing a major blast.”
Two more students provided correct answers, and two more
were unsure.
Canada the cruel:
Canada’s
9-8-8 suicide prevention helpline has received more than 1 million calls and
text messages since its launch in late 2023. That averages out to more than
300,000 per year.
Yet under current law, Canada is set to expand
euthanasia, or medical assistance in dying (MAID), to people with mental
illness as their sole underlying condition beginning March 17, 2027. If that
expansion happens, some will be deemed worthy of suicide assistance while
others will receive suicide prevention.
That contradiction goes to the heart of Canada’s suicide
prevention efforts. Canada must continue to direct people to the help they need
rather than offering MAID to people suffering from mental illness. …
Crawford also noted fears of suicide contagion due to
public messaging that promotes death via MAID as a solution for mental
suffering, undermining suicide prevention efforts.
This time, the committee has gone further, recommending
an indefinite exclusion of MAID for mental illness. Despite repeated study, the
problems with MAID for mental illness have not gone away since Parliament first
took up the issue in 2021.
In addition to concerns about undermining suicide
prevention, there are no consensus or established criteria for determining
whether mental illness can ever be considered irremediable. If it cannot be
determined that a person will not recover, offering MAID rather than continuing
treatment risks ending the life of someone who could get better.
As a result, most psychiatrists continue to oppose MAID
for mental illness and instead seek to treat hopelessness and prevent suicide.
**
Sisters
Alicia and Christie Duncan were originally only granted 48 hours notice that
their mother was going to be euthanised.
It was Sunday, October 24, 2021, when 61-year-old Donna
confessed to her family that she had been approved for Canada’s assisted-dying
programme, officially known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).
Her death was scheduled for the following Tuesday -
expedited due to her having qualified for Canada's streamlined 'Track 1'
pathway, reserved for individuals whose natural death is reasonably
foreseeable.
But Donna was not terminally ill, according to her
daughters, who insist she was in the midst of a spiralling mental health
crisis, triggered by a car accident and exacerbated by the isolation of the
Covid-19 lockdown.
The retired psychiatric nurse was exhibiting peculiar
behaviour: she was too paranoid to leave her own house, in case she was shot by
a sniper, and was paying $6,000 to a 'medical' psychic, who was informing her
about the heavy metals apparently lurking in her food.
Hellbent on preventing their mother's death, Alicia and
Christie delayed the appointment by calling the police, and persuaded a judge
to grant them a last-minute arrest warrant under the Mental Health Act, which
would see Donna transferred to a psychiatric ward.
But once the cogs were set in motion, MAiD seemed
inevitable: Donna was discharged from the ward without her daughters'
knowledge, and died via lethal injection on the Friday.
The sisters didn't have time to say goodbye, and the next
time they saw their mother was in the crematorium.
We don’t have to trade with China:
Foreign Minister
Anita Anand in 2023 had experts with the Canadian Armed Forces train members of
the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, newly-disclosed Access To Information
records show. Internal records indicate staff tried to conceal the fact, but
were warned to be truthful if asked: “We know we will be training and we have
Minister approval to do so.”
**
Several Chinese
state-backed investors are taking part in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Canada
Investment Summit, another sign of warming relations with Beijing after years
of Ottawa publicly spurning money from China.
(Sidebar: the Liberals have never kept China
at bay.)
The Prime Minister’s Office said Monday that, like
everyone else, Chinese investors will be subject to federal rules governing
foreign investment in this country.
Both China International Capital Corp. (CICC) and China
Investment Corp. − China’s sovereign wealth fund − are attending Mr. Carney’s
summit. CICC is roughly 40-per-cent owned by Central Huijin Investment, a
subsidiary of China Investment Corp.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which manages
investments for the territory’s Exchange Fund, is also a participant.
In a blog post Monday, Michael Kovrig, a geopolitical
analyst and former diplomat, and researcher Patricia Xavier warned of the
possible consequences of Chinese state-backed investment.
Mark Carney plans to thread the needle on trade with
Asia, Europe through investment summit
“Money is a diplomatic tool: once investments
materialize, as Canadian projects, provinces and unions feed on Chinese
funding, expect growing domestic resistance to any future re-hardening of
Canada’s China policy,” they wrote.
(Mr. Kovrig was arrested in China in December, 2018,
along with fellow Canadian Michael Spavor, ostensibly in retaliation for the
arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the U.S.
Department of Justice. The two men were released on Sept. 24, 2021, after the
U.S. reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Ms. Meng.)
Audrey Champoux, deputy director of communications in the
PMO, when asked about potential Chinese state-backed investment, said
investment screening rules would protect Canadian interests.
“We have existing laws in place to protect Canadian
economic and national security assets, such as through the Investment Canada
Act. The government will continue to apply that,” Ms. Champoux said Monday in
an e-mailed statement.
Bull. Crap.
**
Canadian
exports to China rocketed by 30 per cent in the first half of 2026, with
overall trade up 3.6 per cent year over year, according to Statistics Canada
data analyzed by researchers.
The numbers, part of a new report published by the Canada
China Business Council and the University of Alberta's China Institute, appear
to reflect the re-engagement between the two countries, which is part of
Canada's attempt to diversify its economy amid deteriorating relations with the
U.S.
Overall trade in goods between Canada and China totalled
$66.6 billion in the first half of 2026, up 3.6 per cent, while exports
increased 30 per cent to $21.74 billion year over year.
Energy and minerals dominated, making up 58.4 per cent of
all domestic exports to China in that time period, with energy (largely crude
oil and liquified propane) alone growing by 81.8 per cent. Metal ores and
non-metallic mineral exports (including copper ore) rose 29 per cent.
"This is a record for our first half of the year
exports to China," said Bijan Ahmadi, executive director of the Canada
China Business Council.
While there has long been trade between the countries —
even through the geopolitical tensions of the last few years — the recent jump
is likely a result of a confluence of factors.
**
As
the White House notes, “President Trump is taking decisive and appropriate
action to respond to Canada’s additional retaliation and continued
discriminatory treatment of crucial American exports.”
This means that as of September 29, Canadian beer, wine,
spirits, whey, molasses, and heavyweight motorcycles will not merely be taxed
at the American border. Under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, they will
be banned.
This is the lawful and entirely predictable consequence
of a choice Prime Minister Mark Carney made three weeks ago. It will end very
badly, not for America but for the Canadian economy and people.
Roughly three-quarters of everything Canada sells abroad,
it sells to the United States. A country in that position launching a tariff
war against its largest customer is a rowboat opening fire on an aircraft
carrier. The carrier will notice. The rowboat will sink.
And here’s Carney’s worst mistake: he and his Keystone
Kops sidekick, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, are trying to outflank the U.S. by
lying down with the mercantilist and predatory dog of Communist China.
**
At
a moment when Canada is reassessing its economic sovereignty and Prime Minister
Mark Carney is charting what he describes as a deeper strategic partnership
with China, a long-running but poorly understood vulnerability is quietly
advancing — one that cuts across the most sensitive fault lines in Canadian
public life: Indigenous land rights, natural resource development, and
Beijing’s patient, methodical campaign to secure the commodities it needs
without ever having to negotiate with Ottawa.
(Sidebar: damn
UNDRIP …)
The strategy, as intelligence documents obtained
exclusively by The Bureau reveal, is not new. It is simply becoming more
consequential.
Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of
Parliamentarians, in a Top Secret 2019 report obtained by The Bureau, found
that Beijing was already targeting First Nations leaders through intelligence
operations disguised as tourism. The goal, a People’s Republic of China Embassy
official acknowledged in intercept reports reviewed by Canada’s intelligence
watchdog, was never cultural exchange.
The tourism invitation extended to a national-level group
of Aboriginal leaders, the report says, was merely “beipian” — Mandarin for “to
be fooled.” The true purpose was to pursue Aboriginal-controlled natural
resources. Chinese intelligence, the report notes, conducted research on each
delegate before they arrived, seeking to identify their “potential usefulness.”
That is the covert face of Chinese resource strategy in
Canada’s north.
But it has an overt companion, pursued through British
Columbia Indigenous business councils, Canada’s most powerful pro-Beijing trade
lobby, and quickly evolving legal frameworks.
China’s overt power play — which seeks to leverage not
only direct access to resources on lands claimed by Indigenous groups, but to
rhetorically counter Canada’s arguments against Beijing’s human rights abuses
by citing Canada’s own historical abuses against First Nations, and to do so,
in some cases, at the behest of Canadian First Nations leaders themselves — is
no less significant than any activities uncovered by Canadian intelligence.
It is conducted in plain sight, in Canadian courts and
political offices and public forums, and it is moving quickly.
For years, Indigenous organizations in British Columbia
have openly articulated a desire for direct, state-level relationships with
Chinese mining and resource interests — explicitly bypassing Ottawa. The First
Nations Energy and Mining Council launched its “First Nations and China:
Transforming Relationships” strategy in 2011, establishing trade desks in
Vancouver and China and dispatching a ten-day trade mission to Beijing that
same year. The Council was explicit: if the Canadian state was not adequately
representing First Nations interests, First Nations would represent those
interests themselves, including to Beijing.
In his study “Disrupting Canadian Sovereignty? The ‘First
Nations & China’ Strategy Revisited,” York University professor Jean Michel
Montsion examines “the ways BC First Nations are engaging with Chinese
investors and opposing the Canadian state, notably through the First Nations
& China strategy” — describing the Council’s role as “reproducing a third
space of sovereignty to resist the hegemonologue of state sovereignty in
contemporary Canada–China relations.”
It is, in Montsion’s framing, not merely an economic
initiative but a structural challenge to Canadian diplomatic authority over its
own territory.
The national security implications of that posture have
not been lost on experts who have studied Beijing’s methods closely. In a prior
interview with The Bureau on Canadian Security Intelligence Service findings
regarding the covert targeting of Indigenous leaders, Charles Burton, a former
Canadian diplomat, said “the idea of making friends with Aboriginal people for
Chinese strategic purposes, would be part and parcel of their overall agenda to
get access to the Canadian north and the natural resources that are there.”
**
In a statement,
Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di praised links with First Nations
communities and expressed his hope that they would “lay an even more solid
foundation for the China—Canada new strategic partnership.”
“The roundtable meeting discussed the future direction of
China-Canada economic and trade cooperation, including cooperation on green
transition, indigenous finance and community development,” read a summary by
the embassy.
Also in attendance were former federal finance minister
Bill Morneau and B.C. senator Yuen Pau Woo.
Summits between PRC officials and First Nations
representatives have happened before. The Canada China Business Council, for
one, has organized three all-Indigenous trade missions to Beijing, the most
recent in 2024.
But the Sept. 3 roundtable is the Beijing-sanctioned
event convened in the wake of a series of developments that have markedly
increased Indigenous power, particularly in B.C.
Some people are special:
According
to the report, this involves acknowledging the destructive effects of
colonialism, celebrating the veracity of Aboriginal knowledge, and partnering
with indigenous people in conducting research. Decolonizing Science also
stresses the need for employee training and information about “reconciliation,”
while omitting that implementing this concept always involves financial and
other reparations for alleged past and present transgressions against
indigenous peoples.
“How can we as public servants be actors in
reconciliation?” asks the report.
It answers by asserting that “In the spirit of
reconciliation, research practices must free themselves from the colonial
legacy,” claims the 2025 report republished on September 4 for reading by all
federal agencies.
“Ideally, the decolonization of research implies full
Indigenous ownership of research,” the report claims.
What “full Indigenous ownership” means and whether this
ownership should be monopolized by indigenous people goes unmentioned.
Instead, the report admits that “… it is still hard to
fulfil this ideal. At the very least, the simplest expression of decolonization
would represent research undertaken in partnership with Indigenous people.”
This undertaking must acknowledge the “devastating
effects of colonialism” and “recognition of Indigenous knowledge,” the report
also asserts.
Surely, one of these “devastating effects” has been the
exposure of indigenous people to Western scientific knowledge and its
technological and other achievements, phenomena indigenous people have eagerly
embraced from first contact to the present, thereby making them willing agents
of their own colonization.
As for any “partnership,” this would be impossible given
that indigenous and scientific knowings are irreconcilable, as argued below.
The department, in a separate October 7 internal report,
opined, “As a science-based department, Natural Resources Canada has made
important efforts to transform the way it conducts science and research
activities. With efforts often still developing in maturity, case studies
highlight a deliberate shift toward recognizing and respecting Indigenous
knowledge systems, data sovereignty and cultural identity.”
Though promoted for decades in Canada’s universities, the
institutionalization of a radical indigenous assault on Western science, aided
and abetted by the federal Liberal government, took a dramatic leap in July
2022 with the appointment of Myrle Ballard, an Anishinaabe woman from Lake St.
Martin Indian Reserve, as first director of Environment and Climate Change
Canada's (ECCC) new permanent division of Indigenous Science.
This attack was reinforced on September 18, 2023, when
the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research (HCSCSR)
adopted the following motion: “…the committee undertake a study of how best to
integrate Indigenous Traditional Knowledge [ITK] and science into government
policy development; how to resolve conflicts between the two knowledge
systems.”
Terming the relation between both “knowledge systems” as
“conflicts” that need resolution denies the elementary observation that the two
systems are fundamentally incompatible because they are rooted in competing
systems of knowing.
Not so said Ballard, who claims she is using a process
called “bridging, braiding, and weaving” in trying to unite Western and
“Indigenous Science.” For her, bridging means raising awareness about
“Indigenous Science” within the government, while braiding is when Western
scientists work together on research with indigenous peoples on the land. “The
weaving process will be when the government, when the department ECCC, starts
weaving Indigenous and Western science for better-informed decision-making,”
she said.
In her November 6, 2023, HCSCSR testimony, Ballard argued
that such “weaving” is possible because:
“Indigenous and Western science are both sciences … For
example, when we develop traditional medicines, we have the traditionalists,
the medicine-makers who take the medicines from the land. They know they have
to take the plant or whatever it is they're using from as far away from human
contamination as they can. They have recipes that they use as well. That's the
same as in a lab. There are recipes that have to be tested. There's the colour
and the consistency. That's the same as Western science.”
Then why not use Western science, Madame Lysenko?
**
A
$5.5-million Winnipeg-area daycare built two years ago with provincial funds
sits vacant, derelict and surrounded by weeds after being plundered by
scavengers and damaged by flooding.
The non-profit group hoping to operate the daycare and an
advocate for not-for-profit daycares are now pleading with the province to open
the East St. Paul facility, which has yet to care for a single child.
The 74-space daycare was built in 2024 on behalf of the
Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust. It was one of 22 daycares built in
Manitoba as part of a project started by the former Progressive Conservative
government along with JohnQ Public, a company owned by 11 Manitoba
municipalities.
The structure has been vacant since, even though the
daycare operator waiting to use the building has 800 kids on its waiting list.
**
An Ontario judge has
ruled that “colonialism” was primarily to blame in a deadly drunk driving crash
that saw a First Nations man kill a 12-year-old girl.
According to police reports, Darris Wilson’s Dodge Ram
pickup truck was strewn with empty and partially consumed cans of beer when, in
2022, it slammed head-on into a vehicle carrying a mother and daughter en route
to a sleepover.
Sierra Beverly, 12, was killed at the scene. Her mother,
Naomi, suffered debilitating brain injuries for which she still requires
24-hour care.
The crash occurred at 4:24 p.m. on a Friday afternoon,
and investigators would determine that Harris seems to have made no attempt to
brake before slamming into the Mitsubishi sub-compact carrying the two
Beverlys. He was also driving at about 90 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
But in a sentencing decision released last week, Ontario
Justice Gethin Edward predominantly focused on how Canada’s “colonial past” had
turned Harris into a drunk driver.
Wilson, he ruled, was suffering from cultural
“disconnection” as a result of colonization, which “crystallized into the
tragic events of Feb. 11, 2022.”
Wilson was convicted of dangerous driving causing death
and bodily harm, a crime which can carry a maximum jail term of 14 years.
Instead, as per a report in the Brantford Expositor,
Edward handed down a sentence of two years of house arrest — and specifically
cited the offenders’ Indigenous background as the reason for the light
sentence.
Also:
A Haitian woman who disfigured a stranger in a
Montreal-area biting attack has been given a reduced sentence by a Quebec judge
on the grounds that a harsher prison term would endanger her “precarious
immigration status.”
Just two days after Christmas in 2022, Macdala Monfiston
spent eight minutes viciously attacking a woman outside a bar in Laval, Que.,
leaving the victim with bite marks all over her arms and face.
Court records described one of the facial wounds as being
“several centimetres long, necessitating repeated treatments and leaving a
prominent scar.”
Video of the assault obtained by The Journal de Montreal
shows Monfiston pulling the victim’s hair, kicking her motionless form on the
ground and straddling her body while biting at her face.
“When I tell people I was bit, they ask me what kind of
animal, if it was by a pit bull. They can’t believe it’s a person who did this
to me,” the victim told the paper in a French-language interview.
Although good Samaritans attempted to intervene, they
were held back by Monfiston’s boyfriend.
After Monfiston pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in
early 2025, a Court of Quebec judge sentenced her to four years in prison – the
sentence already a fraction of the maximum 14-year sentence set for the crime
under the Criminal Code.
But in a decision released this week, the Quebec Court of
Appeal ruled that four years was too harsh, in part because it could possibly
get her deported.
Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, anyone
jailed for longer than two years is deemed guilty of “serious criminality,” and
loses their appeal rights in the case of a removal order.
“The prison sentence has a much greater impact on the
defendant than on other offenders who might have committed similar acts,” reads
the French-language decision, rendered on Sept. 14 by appeals court judges
Suzanne Gagné, Christine Baudouin and Geneviève Marcotte.
The three judges instead handed down a sentence of two
years minus one day, thus shielding Monfiston from any loss of her immigration
appeal rights.
It’s an established Canadian legal precedent that judges
are required to consider the “collateral immigration consequences” of a
criminal sentence.
If a criminal conviction risks getting a foreign national
removed from the country, judges must weigh this as a form of punishment, and
then reduce the offender’s actual punishment accordingly.
