Canada

Just to provide context that the narrative Trump conveys is fake as usual and extremely hypocritical. America by sheer numbers trades more with China but even by percentage:

Source: https://youtu.be/eQKmPACbKQA?t=911

Source Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/exports-by-country

Documents reveal that Epstein visited Canada in 2014, despite having a criminal record that made him inadmissible to the country.

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The latest files reveal Epstein was denied entry into Canada in 2018 due to his criminal record, but that he was allowed into the country for a TED conference in Vancouver after his conviction.

https://archive.is/TZcTG

Archived link

The federal government’s proposal to appoint Anton Boegman as Canada’s first Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner marks a significant milestone in the country’s ongoing efforts to safeguard democratic institutions. This nomination reflects both the urgency of addressing foreign interference and the confidence placed in Mr. Boegman’s longstanding leadership in election administration.

An alumnus of Royal Roads Military College / Royal Military College, Class of 1988, Mr. Boegman brings more than three decades of public service and electoral management expertise to this new role. His academic foundation includes a B.A. from RMC (1988) and an MBA from Athabasca University (2001), complementing a career characterized by operational rigor, integrity, and a commitment to transparent democratic processes.

Mr. Boegman served as British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Officer from 2018 to 2025, following eight years as Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for Operations, and senior leadership roles within Elections BC dating back to 2004. In these capacities, he oversaw the administration of multiple provincial general elections and referenda—including several conducted fully by mail—and led complex modernization initiatives enhancing electoral security, accessibility, and public trust.

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B.C. Transplant is encouraging more British Columbians to consider signing up to be organ donors after 2025 saw a record 575 people receive life-changing surgeries in the province.

“It’s in our interest to know what citizens are doing, but it’s also in our interest in terms of national security and public security.”

When Chinese interference operations in Canada go unaddressed, regional partners draw conclusions about whether Canada can be counted on as a serious security partner in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region.

Archived link

Foreign interference in Canada is no longer an abstract concern whispered about in security circles. It is a lived reality – one that touches elections, communities, universities, and even the everyday trust that Canadians place in their democratic institutions.

While no single country has a monopoly on these activities, a growing body of evidence shows that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been a particularly active and consequential player. The cumulative effect is a slow erosion of sovereignty, confidence, and credibility at a moment when the global rules Canada has long relied upon are fraying.

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[In January 2025, a public inquiry led by Justice Marie-Josée] Hogue concluded that “foreign interference is real” and that “some foreign states (China) are trying to interfere in our democratic institutions, including electoral processes.” The report specifically noted that while Canada’s democratic institutions “have thus far remained robust,” the phenomenon of **foreign interference “poses a major risk to Canadian democracy” **and constitutes “an existential threat” particularly through information manipulation.

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Specific documented cases reinforce these findings including:

• The 2023 arrest and charging of RCMP officer William Majcher under the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act for allegedly using his knowledge and contacts to help the Chinese government identify and intimidate individuals who posed credible threats to Chinese state interests (Banerjee 2024; Onishi 2023).
• The ongoing investigation into alleged Chinese police stations operating in Canada without authorization – with RCMP charging three individuals in June 2023 – that demonstrate Chinese operational presence on Canadian soil (Thompson 2024).

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Chinese state interference operations systematically target diaspora communities through intimidation, surveillance, and coercion, creating what experts describe as “transnational repression” (Privy Council Office 2025). The Hogue Commission specifically noted that diaspora communities face “particular vulnerability” to foreign interference, with community members reporting self-censorship due to concerns about family safety in countries of origin.

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Foreign interference extends beyond electoral politics to target research institutions, critical infrastructure, and technology sectors ... [For example] Alliance Canada Hong Kong’s report documented systematic exploitation of Canadian research institutions: “Due to the vulnerable funding environment in Canada, the Communist Party of China utilizes its capital and resources so that it is able to fund specific research in Canadian institutions. In the end, it’ll be able to trade the intellectual property for a very low cost.” The report noted that Canada’s National Research Council had collaborated with entities linked to China’s military-civil fusion strategy, raising concerns about inadvertent technology transfer.

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Canada’s 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy positions Canada as a reliable partner for regional democracies and a contributor to rules-based order (Global Affairs Canada 2022) ... However, documented Chinese interference operations undermine this positioning in multiple ways.

When Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra, New Delhi, and other regional partners observe Chinese state actors successfully penetrating Canadian institutions without robust countermeasures, questions arise about Canada’s commitment and capability as a security partner. The Alliance Canada Hong Kong report notes that “Canada lacks a comprehensive foreign interference framework to address these issues” and that “existing infrastructures in Canada are ill-equipped to address foreign state influence and interference today”

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Policy Recommendations

• Implement Comprehensive Foreign Influence Transparency Legislation ...

• Enhance CSIS Operational Authorities Against Disinformation ...

• Strengthen the Research Security Framework Against IP Theft ...

• Create a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office ...

PM Carney’s emerging foreign-policy doctrine emphasizes flexible coalitions among middle powers. But a closer look at Chrystia Freeland’s earlier vision raises a sharper question: are shared interests enough without shared democratic values?

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The Canadian Prime Minister’s speech [in Davos at the World Economic Forum] articulated and is shaping an emerging consensus that the liberal international order has ended with “a rupture, not a transition”, and that President Trump cannot be dealt with as if he acted within the bounds of normal statecraft. [Then-foreign minister Chrystia] Freeland’s speech came earlier in the gradual unravelling of that order, and before Trump’s return to the White House, but noted the return of aggressive great-power competition, above all with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The crucial difference lies in the emphasis of their respective prescriptions. Carney called for collaboration among “middle powers like Canada” on the basis of “variable geometry” through “different coalitions for different issues”. He noted that “not every partner will share our values” but that “we actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be.”

Freeland, like Carney, rejected autarchy within national fortresses, but called not for ad hoc coalitions but for cooperation with fellow democracies, urging an effort “to identify shared values” and practice “friend-shoring”, so that “where democracies must be strategically vulnerable, we should be vulnerable to each other.”

The question is whether it is shared middle power status or common values that provide the more reliable basis for cooperation.

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[China] has targeted Canadian sovereignty more aggressively than Trump has yet to do, through interference in our elections and intimidation of the Chinese-Canadian diaspora. The peril against which Carney warned, the “weaponization” of economic ties, is perfectly exemplified in China’s efforts to maximize others’ dependence on it for key emerging technologies while reducing their leverage in return.

Moreover, China’s increasing belligerence towards Taiwan suggests that sometime soon we will see an attack that would be as brutal a departure from international norms as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or, for that matter, a US attack on Greenland or indeed Canada.

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Russia, China, and such regional auxiliaries as North Korea and Iran are not ideologically identical and are unlikely to run serious risks for one another’s interests. Yet they share an antipathy to the passing liberal order and those who uphold it, and have forged a remarkable degree of military interdependence to undermine it. North Korean troops and Chinese and Iranian weapons have been employed against Ukraine, with the benefits of battlefield testing flowing in return.

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Acknowledgement of the emerging polarization of world politics by the liberal democracies would provide a clarity of purpose not found in ad hoc coalitions. A self-aware loose democratic coalition aligned against the illiberal powers would encompass many of the world’s largest markets, linking the EU, MERCOSUR, ASEAN, and others. It would provide a framework for deepening liberal trade and diversifying opportunities for Canada. In defence, where US unreliability poses the gravest threat, economic potential must be converted into hard power.

The SAFE initiative for common EU defence procurement, to which Canada is now affiliated, must lead to production and deployment on an alliance-wide scale. Financial tools against U.S. pressure, such as the EU “bazooka” that forced Trump to retreat on his threats against Greenland, must be broadened. Above all, NATO’s other members must step up aid to Ukraine, including Germany’s long-range Taurus missiles. As Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted in his speech at Davos, vain hopes of bringing Trump along have discouraged European allies from supporting Ukraine as vigorously as they might.

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[A league of democracies] would be states where liberal democracy has deep roots, including Canada, the EU states, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, but encompass others such as Ukraine, Japan, Taiwan, and Israel ... Others could earn membership as they met the criteria: freedom of conscience and expression; freedom to criticize the government (including freedom from Trump-style lawfare); an independent judiciary; separation of party and state; a free and fair electoral process, confirmed by peaceful transfer of power. Members would rely upon one another for security and privilege one another in economic relations.

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While Carney is right that we cannot “wait around for a world we wish to be”, we and likeminded states can use our concerted efforts and resources to increase the chances of such a world. And that implies a judicious leavening of Carney’s doctrine with Freeland’s.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/59551152

“I know China very well, President Xi is a friend of mine, I know him very well…The first thing they’re going to do is say you are not allowed to play ice hockey anymore. That’s not good. Canada’s not going to like that,” the president added.

Archive article: https://archive.ph/JAX75#selection-1443.0-1443.242

Archived link

When Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government agreed to allow up to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) into Canada at a steeply reduced 6.1 percent tariff, down from 100 percent, much of the media coverage focused on cheaper EVs, consumer choice, how the Chinese government subsidizes its car companies, and how Canada was exercising its sovereignty.

What was largely lost in the conversation is that the Canadian government could be subsidizing the Chinese cars sold in Canada at nearly $1 billion per year, via Canada’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) credit system.

“At 49,000 vehicles a year, that’s about $980 million annually in credit generation,” Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA), told The Hub. “You sell the car to the consumer, and then you turn around and sell the credit that you’ve generated from that sale to a manufacturer. You’re effectively selling the same car twice.”

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Under Canada’s federal ZEV mandate—which is currently under review and was suspended for 2026 by the Carney government last fall—automakers have to hit targets where a rising share of their sales must be EVs to lower emissions. In 2026, the first year quotas were supposed to be compulsory, 20 percent of cars sold from a car company under the mandate would have had to be EVs. By 2035, 100 percent would need to be EV under the current ZEV program’s targets.

Companies that fall short of the ZEV mandate would have to purchase credits from firms with surplus EV sales. Ottawa set the notional value of a credit at $20,000, based on the cost of installing charging infrastructure. Actual market prices of credits are negotiated privately.

“It makes no sense,” Kingston said. “The federal government is creating a revenue line for Chinese-headquartered companies at the expense of Canadian companies.”

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Even using [former Toyota Canada vice-president Stephen] Beatty’s most conservative credit value of $7,000 per vehicle, 49,000 imports would still equate to more than $340 million annually in regulatory income for Chinese automakers, paid indirectly by Canadian automakers and, ultimately, Canadian consumers.

“You’re going to be transferring wealth to China,” Beatty said.

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Both Kingston and Beatty point to China’s structural overcapacity as another underlying problem. Kingston estimates Chinese manufacturers now have two to three times more production capacity than their domestic market requires, supported by an estimated $230 billion USD in Chinese government subsidies, according to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“They’ve gone from exporting one million vehicles to six million [in 2025 within a four-year span],” Kingston said. “They’re selling below market price to gain market share and push out competition.”

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Curious also if this is Canada-wide or just in Ontario:

Recently have had two occasions where Shoppers was pushing me to have the pharmacist prescribe a renewal of something, rather than troubleshoot an error with a renewal request through 1) my family doc and 2) a specialist.

In both cases they wanted to charge me $15.

Case #1 I just said no thanks and called my family doctor, thankfully it was sorted out quickly.

Case #2, Shoppers' automated system waited until Saturday at 5pm(!) to notify me that the renewal (which I'd requested on Tuesday at 11am) had not gone through. When I called, they tried to charge me the $15 - but I successfully pressured them to give me a few days of the medication while I sorted out the issue (which is what they used to offer).

I can't help but wonder if this is the 'enshittification' of pharmacy services, where they tell you they'll take care of the automated renewal, but then - oops! - they mess it up and try to squeeze $15 out of a patient who just needs their medicine, and doesn't have time to make a bunch of calls, or trek over to the walk-in clinic or whatever.

Anyone else having similar issues? If so, it might be worth collecting people's stories and raising a fuss.