Canada

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/54040397

Wtf

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/54039364

The Latest.

• U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods if the country "makes a deal with China."
• Prime Minister Mark Carney has not taken questions about the threat, but posted an ad online this afternoon reiterating that Ottawa's response to economic threats will continue to be focusing on what it can control.
• Ministers on Parliament Hill today acknowledged the threat is serious, but they said it only confirms Canada needs to stay the course with its strategy to move trade dependency away from the U.S.
• Carney made a trade deal during a recent visit to China, calling the country "a reliable and predictable" trading partner. Then, in Davos, Switzerland, he also encouraged European leaders to work with the nation.

Blatantly funded by the US. Where are all the "foreign interference!!!" Conservatives now? How is this legal??

Just proving Carney’s point.

Edit: I've dire tly linked to the youtube video (irony noted) but this comes from CBC Radio

Scroll down a bit for this gem:

WATCH | Tod Maffin's GUARD:

He uses the acronym GUARD — “as in on guard” — to explain.

G stands for getting serious about your next vote.

“There are things that are important to me as a voter — labour things, environmental things,” he said during an interview on Cross Country Checkup. “I may have to choose to shelve those priorities temporarily for one election cycle to make sure that the border and to make sure that sovereignty [are protected].

“If we're not looking after our vote and being strategic about it in this sort of national sense, I mean, we may not have a country to argue about.”

Tod Maffin is a former CBC journalist who makes content about Canadian life and identity. (CBC)

The U in GUARD is all about unplugging from what Maffin described as “outrage platforms” — social media spaces like Facebook and X, where people can get riled up about certain posts and comments.

“It's profitable for you to be enraged because enraged means you're also engaged. So take a moment off of those platforms. There are other platforms out there. Or just do some reading. You don't have to comment.”

A stands for anchoring spending in Canada, or buying Canadian as it were.

Maffin said the Buy Canadian movement came out strong in the beginning, but seems to have slipped in recent months.

“We need to recommit to the boycott of American products.”

The R in GUARD is about reinforcing Canadian media, including independent Canadian media, Maffin said.

“We get a lot of our news from the U.S.,” he said. “It's important for us to not see this dispute through the lens of people that are against us and CNN … it is still an American filter.”

The most important part of GUARD, Maffin said, is D, which stands for distinguishing people from a regime. In this case, it means recognizing there is a difference between American people and the government and authorities that are making decisions for the country.

“The people putting their kids through school, trying to put food on the table — those people are not our enemies. Those people are just like us, caught in something that perhaps they didn't vote for, perhaps they don't want.”

A provincial court judge has reserved her decision on the sentence for a former Regina police officer who used internal databases to pursue intimate and personal relationships with nearly three dozen women.

Robert Eric Semenchuck, 53, pleaded guilty to breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer in November 2025 at Regina provincial court.

During his sentencing hearing on Friday, court heard that the 22-year veteran of the RPS contacted 33 women.

Semenchuck would pursue the relationships while on duty and use police resources, such as his work phone and police cruiser, to contact or visit the women.

A joint submission from Crown prosecutor Chris Browne and defence lawyer Nick Brown proposed a two-year suspended sentence to be served in the community, followed by three years of probation.

Justice Marilynn Beaton reserved her decision until Feb. 6, saying she wants more time to consider the lawyers' arguments and victim impact statements.

When the guns fell silent, a man lay dead. Another man riddled with bullets escaped with his life. Two teens fled, but in the small northern Ontario community, they really had nowhere to go.

Ginoogaming First Nation, a remote community of 200 people living in 90 homes, is not the kind of place that usually makes headlines. It is a 68-square-kilometre Anishnawbe reserve, tucked just south of the TransCanada Highway and next door to the tiny lakeside town of Longlac.

Details of the shooting are still foggy. The Ontario Provincial Police and the local Anishinabek Police Service are not discussing the particulars. The community and the survivor say it was about drug trafficking. But when police arrested the teens — two Black youth from Brampton, Ont., one aged 15, the other 18 — what happened took on a sharper focus.

Parents, activists and police all say that for years Black teenagers, sometimes as young as 13, have been going missing in the GTA. But they are not runaways. These boys have been groomed and lured into drug trafficking gangs with promises of money and status.

For activists raising the alarm about the issue, the answer is clear — these boys are being trafficked as criminal labour. But police say it is not that simple, and laying a trafficking charge requires the boys who end up selling drugs out of town, or "OT," to testify against their gang leaders — something they rarely do.

Former Winnipeg police officer Elston Bostock has been sentenced to seven years in prison, after an internal investigation revealed years of corruption and other crimes — sometimes committed on the job.

While prosecutors and Bostock’s lawyers initially made separate sentencing recommendations of seven years and just over two, the disgraced officer accepted a joint sentencing recommendation for the seven-year term Friday, after the judge deciding the case indicated he was considering an even longer sentence, because there was no joint recommendation.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Kenneth Champagne said his decision as it stood at the beginning of Bostock’s sentencing hearing "comes out to 13.5 years," though he expected that could have been reduced after considering the principle of totality — which aims to avoid excessive sentences on multiple charges.

"Holy f–k," Bostock said in response from his seat in the prisoner’s box, covering his face with his hands and shaking his head.

When lawyers returned from a brief recess to consider those comments, defence lawyer Richard Wolson told court Bostock had accepted the seven-year joint recommendation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promoted the idea of the province of Alberta voting to exit Canada as his boss lusts for U.S. expansion.

The top Trump officials leaned into “rumors” during an interview on the right-wing streaming channel Real America’s Voice.

“Alberta’s a natural partner for the U.S. They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people,” Bessent said. “Rumor is they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented on the separatist movement in Alberta on Friday — making him the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to weigh in on the province's politics.

While appearing on the right-wing station Real America's Voice, Bessent claimed Canada won't let Alberta build a pipeline to the Pacific, adding, "I think we should let them come down into the U.S."

Bessent says there's a "rumour they may have a referendum on whether they may stay in Canada or not."

Organizers of the Alberta independence movement are collecting signatures in order to trigger a referendum in the province.

Donald Trump says that smart people don't like him. Smart people and those with lots of life experience don't like Pierre Polievre and the Conservatives, either.

Three downtown Las Vegas hotels have begun accepting the Canadian dollar at par with the American dollar in an effort to spur Canuck travel.

Circa Resort and Casino, the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel and Casino have launched the “At Par Program,” which runs until Aug. 31.

“Everybody (in Las Vegas) is talking about really the same thing,” CEO Derek Stevens tells CTV News. “There’s clearly something missing, and that’s the lack of Canadian tourism.”

“We miss our best friends.”

The hotels will all offer on par accommodation and drink prices.

They’ll also allow Canadian guests to redeem up to $500 CAD in slot play, treated at full USD value.

...

The promos will require a valid Canadian passport or government-issued ID.

Stevens says he understands the deal still won’t be enough for many travellers but he hopes some rethink their American boycott.

“Canadian tourism, on a monthly basis, has been down anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent,” he said. “And I realize sometimes when best friends or allies have a spat — yes, they have a spat, but it doesn’t mean everybody wants to fight.“

...

Stevens’ plea comes amidst a massive downturn for the Nevada city.

Data from the Harry Reid International Airport shows ten straight months of declines — with the biggest culprit being flights out of Canada. The country typically makes up Vegas’ largest international market by a wide margin.

The slowing travel demand can be linked directly back to the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump and the trade war he started.

Recent Abacus Data figures show among those Canadians who have not travelled south in the past year, 34 per cent “thought about going but ultimately decided against it because of their feelings about Trump or about how the U.S. is treating Canada.”

Abacus says that works out to roughly 23 per cent of Canadian adults overall.

...

Archived link

When Prime Minister Mark Carney touched down in Beijing last week, he carried with him the hopes of western Canadian farmers crushed under Chinese tariffs — as well as the frustrations of a nation battered by President Trump’s economic nationalism. The visit, hailed by some as the “Carney Doctrine” and lauded as nuanced diplomacy, offered immediate relief. China signaled flexibility on agricultural restrictions. Trade delegations exchanged pleasantries. For a country bruised by its southern neighbor’s “51st state” rhetoric and Greenland ambitions, the embrace felt validating.

...

Beijing understands this dynamic intimately. As this Atlantic Council report documents, China’s economic inducements are strategically designed to align with “the specific needs of recipient countries and their leaders.” The offers are not overwhelming financial packages or corrupt dealings; rather, Beijing “strategically cultivated political and sectoral interests to incentivize” alignment with its objectives. Western Canadian farmers desperate for canola market access represent precisely the targeted constituency China knows how to exploit.

...

The immediate appeal is understandable ... Yet China’s track record demands extreme caution. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute documented 152 cases of Chinese coercive diplomacy between 2010 and 2020, with sharp escalation after 2018. Trade restrictions, tourism bans, arbitrary detentions, and state-issued threats constitute Beijing’s preferred toolkit. The pattern is unmistakable: countries that deepen economic dependence without maintaining leverage become vulnerable to punishment when their policies diverge from Chinese preferences.

Lithuania discovered this when it opened a Taiwanese representative office; imports collapsed by ninety percent within months. Norway endured years of diplomatic freeze and salmon export restrictions after awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. South Korea suffered $15 billion in tourism losses over THAAD deployment. In each case, the asymmetric dependence China cultivated became the weapon China wielded.

...

A Hybrid CoE study of Southeast Asian dynamics reveals this strategy operating at regional scale: China simultaneously employs “carrots and sticks,” rewarding cooperative states while punishing resisters, creating divisions that prevent collective responses to Chinese assertiveness. The Philippines and Vietnam learned that economic inducements came bundled with coercive capacity — tourism restrictions, trade barriers, and maritime harassment deployed tactically against any deviation from Beijing’s preferences.

...

A comprehensive economic security framework with Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian partners would require patient diplomacy and genuine compromise. It would mean forging agreements harder to negotiate than a Beijing handshake but infinitely more durable. It would demand maintaining American ties despite Trump’s provocations, recognizing that administrations change but geographic realities endure.

...

The question now is whether it can recognize the strategic error before the second treat becomes permanently unavailable — before dependence on Chinese markets becomes leverage Beijing deploys at will, and before the coalition of democracies that could have offered genuine security moves forward without Ottawa at the table.

...

Pixelfed link: https://pixelfed.ca/p/reef/920250065482405129

A photo from the VanDusen Festival of Lights (Vancouver)

@canada@lemmy.ca

#vancouver #canada #maple #thenightfeeling

Trump launched the new initiative at the World Economic Forum earlier this week

U.S. President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he is withdrawing an invitation for Prime Minister Mark Carney to join his "Board of Peace" initiative for Gaza.

Trump launched the new initiative at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. Its stated aim is to rebuild the war-ravaged territory.

Some 35 countries have signed up to join the board, but Carney had not yet said if Canada would accept Trump's invitation. The prime minister was not at the official launch in Davos and instead was attending the first day of a cabinet retreat in Quebec City.

MBFC
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