Skip to content

Canada

Trump Escalates Trade War With 25% Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum

February 15, 2025 Masao Suzuki, Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
San José, CA – On Monday, February 10, President Trump signed an executive order raising tariffs, or taxes on imports, to 25% on steel and aluminum. The tariffs are to start on March 4. While his first round of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China was based on a “national emergency” of refugees and drugs coming into the country, the latest tariff order used a “national security” rationale. They are seen as less likely to be suspended as the first round was. Trump says that these tariffs will create jobs and expand manufacturing, but in fact they raise prices and cause overall job losses in manufacturing.

Should Canada Be Ready To Switch Sides?

February 15, 2025 Jen St. Denis, The Tyee. , , , ,
Jeff Rubin is the former chief economist for CIBC World Markets and is the bestselling author of a number of popular economics books that have tried to explain how the world is changing and departing from the norms of the 20th century to a more unsettled era of scarcity, inequality, natural disasters and war. His previous books have warned about the end of cheap oil and explained how the middle class “got screwed” by globalization. Rubin’s latest book is called The Map of the New Normal: How Inflation, War, and Sanctions Will Change Your World Forever, and it tackles the rapid inflation that hit economies across the globe in the wake of pandemic measures.

Annual March For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls

February 12, 2025 Harvin Bhathal, Terrace Standard. , , ,
Terrace, British Columbia - The Tears to Hope Society is organizing their annual memorial march for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, transgender and gender-diverse peoples in Terrace on Feb. 14. It is open to the public. "Feb 14 is a special day for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and think it's important that people get out and acknowledge that they are going missing or being murdered, many of them unsolved murders, particularly up here on the Highway of Tears," said Gladys Radek, a Witset elder with the Tears to Hope Society.

Canada OKs ‘Massive’ $20 Billion Loan For Trans-Mountain Pipeline

February 10, 2025 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. , , ,
The Canadian government quietly approved a staggering $20 billion loan to support the Trans-Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline. According to Canadian environmental advocacy organization Environmental Defence, this raises the Canadian government’s total financial commitment to the pipeline to $50 billion, drawing sharp criticism from environmentalists and economists. “At a time when Canada should be accelerating its clean energy transition, providing $20 billion in public financing for the TMX pipeline is a step in the wrong direction,” Laura Cameron, a policy advisor with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) who specializes in fossil fuel subsidies, told DeSmog in an email. 

Trump’s Trade Wars Push US Allies Into Open Rebellion

February 8, 2025 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. , , , , , , ,
In an increasingly multipolar world, Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and the European Union threaten to erode the United States’ global standing. The move has even provoked a backlash from Canada, a historically close ally, where citizens have responded by launching a significant boycott movement. With the notable exception of Israel, Trump has strained relations with nearly all of Washington’s traditional allies. Among the most unexpected targets of his rhetoric has been Canada, a country he has suggested should “become our cherished 51st state.”

Amazon Lays Off 4,500 Workers In Quebec To Bust Their Union

February 8, 2025 François L’Écuyer, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Faced with the prospect of being forced to sign a labor contract as early as this summer, Amazon has gone to extreme lengths to evade its obligations under Quebec’s labor code. On January 22, it announced it is closing all seven of its warehouses in Quebec and outsourcing their operations. Is Amazon closing shop? Not really. It will continue selling its wares online in Quebec; It’s just that warehousing and delivery will now be handled by third-party contractors. But the 4,700 layoffs are very real: 1,900 Amazon employees across the seven warehouses are losing their jobs, including the 230 workers at DXT4, which became the first Amazon facility in Canada to unionize in May 2024.

Trump’s Tariffs Could Cause Huge Global Crisis

February 5, 2025 Michael Hudson and Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , ,
The US designed the global financial system in a way in which the US dollar is at the center, and other countries need to get access to dollars to pay off their dollar-denominated debt, and to pay for imports. Yet, in order for this system to work, the US has to run a deficit with the rest of the world, a current account deficit, so other countries can get those dollars. But Trump wants to disrupt this. He says he wants to tariff other countries to reduce the US trade deficit, which means that other countries won’t be able to get the dollars they need to pay off their debt and to pay for imports.

Mexico And Canada Hit Back, China Pulls Punches On Trump’s Tariffs

February 3, 2025 Erin Hale and John Power, Al Jazeera. , , , , , ,
Within hours of United States President Donald Trump announcing tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico over the weekend, his Canadian and Mexican counterparts hit back with their own levies on US goods. The response from China, Washington’s biggest strategic rival, was notably more restrained. China’s Ministry of Commerce did not announce specific tariffs in its response on Sunday, stating only that it would take “corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests”. The ministry also said it would challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization, a largely symbolic measure since its appellate body has been non-functioning since late 2019 due to Washington’s refusal to support the appointment of new judges.

Canada’s Greatest Foreign Interference Threats Come From Washington

February 3, 2025 Karl Nerenberg, Rabble. , , , , , , ,
Justice Marie-Josée Hogue issued her report on foreign interference in Canada’s last two federal elections on January 28, and her conclusions are reassuring. There are no traitors sitting in Parliament, she says. And she finds no evidence that meddling from China, Russia, Iran, India or any other country had a significant impact on the last two elections. Notwithstanding those sanguine, overarching conclusions, Justice Hogue does warn there is still much we must all do to head off threats to Canada’s democracy. The greatest of those threats, she tells us, is the scourge of false and misleading information

Canada Tariffs: Trudeau Hits Back Against Trump With 25% Levy

February 2, 2025 Michael Race, BBC. , , ,
Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs against the US, in a move that marks the beginning of a trade war between the neighbouring countries. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set out "far-reaching" tariffs of 25%, affecting 155bn Canadian dollars' worth ($106.6bn; £86bn) of American goods ranging from beer and wine, to household appliances and sporting goods. The move matches US President Donald Trump 25% levy on Canadian and Mexican imports to the US - and an additional 10% on China - over his concerns about illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Closures In Quebec Show Amazon Is Scared Of Workers Organizing

January 30, 2025 Pola Posen, Left Voice. , , , , , , , ,
The workers at a Whole Foods location in Center City, Philadelphia, voted to form the grocery chain’s first-ever union on Monday, marking an incredible victory for workers who have been organizing at the store for over a year. Whole Foods was bought by Amazon in 2017, and since then benefits, staffing levels, and working conditions have gotten worse. 130 workers voted in favor of unionizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), while 100 voted against. Through the union, workers are demanding a living wage (the starting salary is currently only $16/hour), better benefits, and more protections.

Trump’s Tariff Threats Could Destabilize The Global Economy

January 26, 2025 Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , ,
Trump told the Davos Economic Forum January 23: “My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth.” Otherwise, if they continue to try and produce at home or in other countries, their products will be charged tariff rates at Trump’s threatened 20%. To Germany this means (my paraphrase): “Sorry your energy prices have quadrupled. Come to America and get them at almost as low a price as you were paying Russia before your elected leaders let us cut Nord Stream off.”

Alberta’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Enforcement Strategy Doesn’t Apply To Polluters

January 26, 2025 Mitch Anderson, DeSmog. , , , , ,
“Alberta is taking a zero-tolerance approach to crime,” bragged Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in 2023 on social media after her government announced more enforcement, greater emphasis on public safety, and limited discretion of prosecutors to let offenders off the hook. “ “There is an increasing sense that the system is not holding criminals properly accountable and letting the public suffer the consequences,” chimed in Alberta Minister of Justice Mickey Amery during the announcement. “This is simply unacceptable.” If only the governing United Conservative Party applied those laudable principles to oil sands companies that repeatedly flout legal requirements not to pollute waterways, air and land.

Meet The Cleaners Taking Control Of Their Work

January 26, 2025 Isaac Phan Nay, The Tyee. , , ,
Lulu Hernández said when she first started working as a cleaner in Vancouver, she just accepted the long hours and low wages that were the industry standard. But two women she met on the job helped her realize her workday could be different, Hernández said. “We were just dreaming about having a company where we are all women and fairly paid and a community,” she said. “We had all these ideas, but we didn’t know what we were creating until we put the name on it.” Hernández is one of the three founders of the Cleaning Co-op. Since incorporating in May 2023, the co-operative has grown to employ about 20 women and gender-diverse employees, including cleaners and administration staff.

Canada’s PM Trudeau: Disaster In Office, Disaster On Departure

January 25, 2025 Radhika Desai, Geopolitical Economy. , , ,
The world regards Canada as nice and boring—nothing exciting happens there—but over the last couple of months, things have been very different. On the one hand, within a week or two of being elected president-elect, Trump started issuing threats against Canada: threats about tariffs, threats about undertaking all sorts of measures because Canada was not helping reduce illegal immigration into the U.S., and of course, the threat about making Canada the 51st state, which he issued first by calling Prime Minister Trudeau “Governor Trudeau.” On the other hand, we have seen that Prime Minister Trudeau has resigned in the last two weeks.
«12345678910»
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.