Canada

A secret list of hundreds of alleged Nazi war criminals welcomed by Canada after the Second World War, drawn up 40 years ago, should remain secret, the information watchdog ruled Friday.

The list of more than 700 suspected Nazi war criminals who settled in Canada has remained unpublished since it was drawn up as part of an official inquiry in 1986.

• Globe and Mail

Avoid paywall link: https://archive.ph/yt1KT

'We won't put all our eggs in one basket,' foreign affairs minister says

Archived link

Following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement in Beijing that Canada will allow a limited annual quota of Chinese electric vehicles (EV) into the domestic market at reduced tariffs, the federal government has framed the agreement as a pragmatic response to rising vehicle costs and slowing EV adoption in Canada.

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While the agreement may ease immediate price pressures, it introduces longer-term risks that deserve closer scrutiny. In particular, it raises questions about Canada’s industrial resilience, environmental accountability and strategic autonomy at a time of growing global economic fragmentation.

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There is little dispute that affordability has become a binding constraint on EV adoption in Canada. Recent policy shifts, including the removal of consumer incentives and a pause on the EV availability standard, a regulation intended to require automakers to ensure a minimum supply of electric vehicles in the Canadian market, have coincided with a measurable slowdown in EV uptake.

Allowing a quota of lower-cost imports could help temporarily bridge this gap. In that sense, the agreement responds to a real political and economic challenge. However, the concern is not whether prices fall in the near term, but whether trade policy aimed primarily at correcting short-term market failures creates structural vulnerabilities if it is not paired with a broader industrial strategy.

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Chinese EV manufacturers operate within a political economy that differs fundamentally from that of Canada and most OECD countries. Their cost competitiveness reflects not only technological efficiency, but also extensive state support, preferential financing, controlled energy prices, and regulatory frameworks that do not fully internalize environmental and labour costs.

Allowing a limited number of these vehicles into the Canadian market falls short of neutral competition in the conventional sense. It introduces a degree of dependence on an external industrial system over which Canada has limited regulatory influence and little leverage in the event of trade disruption or geopolitical tension.

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Lower vehicle prices are often presented as an unequivocal benefit to consumers. Industrial economics suggests a more complex reality. Sustained exposure to heavily subsidized imports compresses margins for domestic manufacturers and suppliers, discourages investment, and erodes production capacity over time.

This dynamic can reduce competition rather than enhance it, leaving consumers more vulnerable to supply concentration and price volatility in the future. Similar patterns have been observed in sectors such as solar manufacturing and consumer electronics, where early affordability gains were followed by industrial hollowing out.

From a policy perspective, the relevant question is not whether prices fall over the next year or two, but whether Canada retains the capacity to participate meaningfully in the value chains that underpin its transportation system.

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Reliance on external suppliers for critical transportation technologies may reduce costs in the short term, but it also constrains future policy options. Once domestic capacity erodes, rebuilding it becomes costly and politically difficult. Strategic exposure accumulates gradually and is often recognized only after options have narrowed.

From this perspective, the EV quota agreement should be evaluated not only in terms of consumer prices and adoption rates, but also in terms of its implications for Canada’s long-term autonomy in mobility and manufacturing.

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Alternative approaches exist. These include conditional imports tied to Canadian job creation, local manufacturing, or supply chain participation, binding technology transfer requirements, stronger recycling and materials recovery mandates, and a greater emphasis on smaller, less mineral-intensive vehicles. These measures are more complex to design, but they better align affordability goals with long-term capacity building.

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In an era defined by uncertainty, durable policy frameworks matter more than quick fixes. The challenge for Canada is not simply to accelerate the EV transition, but to ensure that the transition strengthens rather than weakens the foundations on which it depends.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42135952

There are a few Canada specific Social Media platforms coming up as well. EH Social and Monnett.Social are topping the list.

I hope this can help you or others make the switch to support a local business 💪

Intense cold weather across Canada on Saturday has prompted utility companies to issue warnings to customers and airlines to delay or cancel flights.

From the Atlantic provinces through to the Prairies, residents have been hunkered down to wait out a bone-chilling cold snap, with parts of the Prairies expected to reach lows of –55 C with the wind chill.

In Ontario, wind chill temperatures in Toronto and Ottawa fell below -30 C, and warming centres in Hamilton were forced to extend hours or open new spaces due to high demand.

An official in Montreal said the occupancy rate at warming centres exceeded 90 per cent.

Calgary police said more than 140 collisions were reported across the city, with a spokesperson attributing the high number to snowy conditions.

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.