Canada

Poilievre, Conservative MPs criticize Crown ahead of Freedom Convoy leaders’ sentencing

Several Conservative MPs and leader Pierre Poilievre are criticizing the Crown’s approach to prosecuting two key organizers of the Freedom Convoy protests, with the party’s deputy leader calling it an act of “political vengeance.”

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were convicted of mischief in April for their roles in organizing the demonstration, which blockaded streets around Parliament Hill in Ottawa for more than three weeks in early 2022.

They may do more time than the ISIS Bitch, she got a whole day.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", Canada

A Chinese research vessel returns to Arctic waters — and it appears Canada is watching

The Canadian military and possibly the coast guard appear to have been keeping tabs on a Chinese research vessel as it returns to Arctic waters off Alaska for the second year in a row.

Data compiled by an independent researcher and ship tracker, Steffan Watkins, shows a Canadian air force CP-140 surveillance plane was flying in the vicinity of the Xue Long (Snow Dragon) 2 as it exited the Bering Strait on Sunday.

The aircraft, according to Watkins’s research, relocated to Anchorage, Alaska, from its base in Comox, B.C., on July 9. It has conducted four patrols since then, including the most recent one involving the vessel, which is China’s first domestically built polar research ship.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Canada

Trump thinks Canadians ‘nasty’ for avoiding U.S. travel, banning booze: ambassador

Canadians avoiding travel to the United States and banning American alcohol are among the reasons U.S. President Donald Trump thinks the country is “nasty” to deal with, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said Monday.

Pete Hoekstra told a conference audience on Monday that such steps “don’t send positive signals” about Canada treating the United States well.

Hoekstra was speaking at the annual Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Foundation summit in Bellevue, Washington.

Leave it to Ford…

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Lutnick Says Trump Will Renegotiate Trade Pact With Canada, Mexico Next Year

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said on Sunday that President Donald Trump will renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) when the trade pact is due for review next year.

The USMCA, enacted during President Donald Trump’s first term in July 2020, replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The agreement requires that 75 percent of automobile components be made in the United States, Mexico, or Canada for a vehicle to qualify for tariff-free treatment. The trade agreement also mandates that up to 45 percent of parts and components be made by workers earning at least $16 per hour, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Jesse Kline: Give 16-year-olds the vote? Only if you want never-ending socialism

If you think politics is bad now, just wait till an army of pimple-faced teenagers who get most of their “news” from TikTok are given a say over who’s in charge.

This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his Labour government will introduce legislation to enfranchise 16- and 17-year-olds before the next general election in the summer of 2029.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

We’re not just outsourcing ships. We’re outsourcing opportunity

On June 10, B.C. Ferries announced it would buy four new vessels from a Chinese shipyard. Unsurprisingly, the decision was met with disappointment and frustration.

And for good reason.

Despite the massive public investment, there is little benefit for B.C. workers, local shipyards and domestic steel producers.

Canada’s shipbuilding industry has been hollowed out by decades of offshoring.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada's China Class", "China - Communist Slave State", Canada

Stellantis warns of $3.7B Cdn loss for first half of 2025 due to tariffs and some big charges

Stellantis, the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles, says its preliminary estimates show a 2.3-billion euro (nearly $3.7-billion Cdn) net loss in the first half of the year due to U.S. tariffs and some hefty charges.

The head of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) says plants like those in Windsor and Brampton, both in Ontario, can’t survive that kind of storm.

The automaker anticipates an impact of about 300 million euros (about $480 million) for net tariffs incurred, and also expects planned production losses related to implementing its response plan.

I doubt that EV Battery plant will ever be finished.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Canada Is the Best Friend America’s Got

We should be working together to counter China, not trapped in a harmful trade war.

When President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, I was profoundly disappointed. In 2015, as Canada’s minister of international trade, I helped negotiate the ambitious agreement that set high standards for the global economy and countered China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region. It was more than a trade deal—it was a strategic blueprint for shared prosperity and security among like-minded nations.

That withdrawal signaled a larger shift. The Trump administration over its two terms has steadily retreated from the multilateral, rules-based order the U.S. had built since World War II. It has refused to appoint judges to the World Trade Organization’s appellate body, effectively paralyzing the system that enforces global trade rules. It has turned to tariffs as a blunt instrument of coercion, wielding them against strategic competitors like China and longtime partners such as Canada.

Canada is riddled with ChiCom interference, not sure the USA would risk its security any further than it has with Canada’s Liberal government.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Canada, USA

How Canada became the centre of a measles outbreak in North America

Morgan Birch was puzzled when her four-month-old daughter, Kimie, suddenly fell ill with a fever and rash.

At first, the Alberta mother assumed it was a common side effect of immunisations – or perhaps a case of chicken pox. Ms Birch then consulted her 78-year-old grandmother, who recognised Kimie’s illness immediately.

“That’s measles,” her grandmother said. Ms Birch was stunned, as she thought the disease had been eradicated.

A lab test later confirmed her grandmother’s hypothesis: Kimie had measles, likely contracted after a routine visit to the hospital in the Edmonton area a few weeks earlier.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

New York Magazine’s cover about Canadian fury got people talking. This is why it matters

A buck toothed national mascot throttling a squawking bald eagle under the headline “You Have No Idea How Furious the Canadians Are” had to get people talking. I suspect many who opined about it have not even read the extensive cover story in a recent issue of New York Magazine by Simon Van Zuylen Wood that attempted to let Americans know just how angry Canadians are about President Trump’s trade war.

I promptly posted about it on LinkedIn with the caption: “Captain Kirk is quoted in New York magazine”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

‘I don’t really use it’: Canadians split on value of Canada Post ahead of strike vote

Canada Post?

Fifty-five thousand Canada Post employees are set to vote this week on the latest offer for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The potential new deal would see wages jump more than 13 per cent while adding more part-time workers.

Negotiations between the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been ongoing for more than 18 months.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

Family of Montreal woman detained by ICE for over 3 months living a ‘nightmare’

… On March 28, Callejas was arrested for battery after family said there was an altercation with her then-boyfriend. Family say Callejas maintains her innocence in the situation and said she was defending herself.

After posting bail, her family said Callejas was taken into ICE custody.

An ICE spokesperson said Callejas entered the United States on a non-immigrant visitor visa and violated the terms of her admission. ICE said she will “remain in custody pending completion of her immigration proceedings.”

The CBC makes this woman out to be a martyr.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA, WTF?

Tale of two cities: Why Edmonton builds homes faster than Toronto

Canada started building only slightly more homes in June than it did in May, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) said on Wednesday.

Compared to May, the annual rate of housing starts was largely flat with a 0.4 per cent increase, but it rose 14 per cent compared to this time last year.

The national numbers mask stark regional disparities, however.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada, WTF?