Kasandra Turbide finds her footing on the dry, rocky exterior of Sinkut Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Saik’uz First Nation territory, an hour’s drive west of Prince George. The forest below looks mottled, as if it has been gouged by giant razor blades and painted in shades of yellow and green.
“This is what we’ve been up against historically,” says Turbide. “And it’s what we’re trying to save.”
Located in the saucer-plate indent of the Nechako Plateau, Saik’uz territory is home to one of B.C.’s few truly wide-open skies. Lumbering glaciers etched its sloping hills millions of years ago, forming fertile valleys threaded with rivers, lakes and wetlands.
More recently, the territory became an easy-access buffet for the farming, mining and logging that gripped the region. And now, after a century of persistent development, many of its ecosystems risk collapse.
Tomorrow, the Montreal police will arrest me for posting to social media against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Today, I received a phone call from a Montreal police officer by the last name of Crivello. She asked me to come to a downtown police station where I will be charged for harassment and indecent communication. Crivello said a complaint was submitted against me months ago by a legal firm on behalf of racist media personality Dahlia Kurtz. Crivello said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter. Guilty as charged.
As the political and economic instability created by the goings-on south of the border continue, it is time for all of us to recall how we arrived at this juncture.
It is also time to acknowledge that, despite common belief, there has never really been “free” trade with the United States, but rather only a series of measures that have encouraged the unhealthy integration of the Canadian economy into that of our southern neighbours and the ensuing enrichment and concentration of wealth in the hands of transnational corporate giants.
Throughout these so-called free trade agreements (FTA, FTAA, NAFTA, CUSMA) the US has often filed unfair trade practice complaints that have led to international trade dispute panels.
On Thursday morning, as scheduled, author and activist Yves Engler was arrested by the Montreal police for his social media posts criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Before turning himself in to Montreal Police at 980 Guy Street, Engler addressed the media, denouncing the politically motivated charges against him and the broader crackdown on those speaking out against Israeli violence.
Surrounded by supporters, Engler reaffirmed his commitment to freedom of expression and criticized the Montreal police’s collaboration with anti-Palestinian figures. He highlighted the absurdity of the new charges, which claim he harassed the police simply by writing about the accusations already brought against him.
This arrest follows a campaign led by anti-Palestinian media personality Dahlia Kurtz, who lobbied for Engler to be charged after he called out her pro-Israel rhetoric. Over 2,500 people have emailed the Montreal police, demanding they drop the charges.
Watch Engler’s final words before entering police custody.
If a political analyst had said a year ago that the U.S. would soon make a serious play to annex Canada and absorb it as the 51st state, that analyst would have been laughed off the stage. Canada and the U.S. have been close allies and trading partners for so long that it’s impossible to imagine one taking an adversarial stance against the other. Fast forward to 2025, and the unimaginable has…
A B.C. Supreme Court decision issued yesterday is “precedent setting,” according to a lawyer for three Indigenous land defenders arrested in 2021 along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route.
“The courts found the conduct of the police officers abused the court’s process. This is an extraordinarily rare finding, and it demonstrates how serious the police officers’ misconduct was,” Frances Mahon said during a press conference following the decision.
“In particular, it was a rebuke to the C-IRG members who thought it was appropriate to say the most egregious, racist things about beautiful Indigenous women when they thought nobody could hear them.”
Emile Dirks, Noura Aljizawi, Siena Anstis and Ron Deibert wrote in the The Globe and Mail of 10 February 2025 about the problem of transnational repression.
The final report of the public inquiry into foreign interference (the Hogue Commission) offers a measure of reassurance to Canadians; there is no evidence that Canadian MPs worked with foreign states to undermine the 2019 or 2021 federal elections. Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s findings, however, are cold comfort to people at risk. While the commission’s work has ended, distant autocrats continue to target Canadians and Canadian residents with transnational repression, the most coercive form of foreign interference.
Commissioner Justice Marie-Josee Hogue Patrick Doyle/Reuters
Through digital harassment, assault and even assassination, authoritarians reach across borders to silence their foes abroad. Victims include activists, human-rights defenders, exiled critics and asylum seekers tied by citizenship or ancestry to repressive states like China, Russia, India or Saudi Arabia. For authoritarians, these people are not citizens, but disloyal subjects to silence.
The danger that transnational repression poses is not new. A 2020 report by the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China demanded the Canadian government address threats against pro-democracy activists, while a 2022 report by the Citizen Lab highlighted the lack of support to victims of digital transnational repression. Prior to the 2024 election, the Biden-Harris administration adopted a whole-of-government approach to ensure government agencies like the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and the FBI worked together to provide recommendations to victims on how to better protect themselves.
Researchers and civil society have long worried that Canadian authorities are overlooking transnational repression as a unique challenge that requires tailored responses. Considering the seriousness of the threat and the stark absence of action by the government, many researchers anticipated the commission’s final report would explore transnational repression as a distinct form of foreign interference. Yet, while Justice Hogue wrote that “it would be challenging to overstate the seriousness of transnational repression,” she ultimately reasoned the issue lay outside her mandate.
This was a mistake. The final report was a missed opportunity to fully explore the corrosive impact of transnational repression on Canadian democracy. A recent report by the Citizen Lab highlights the profound toll transnational repression takes on vulnerable people, especially women, in Canada and beyond. Intimidation, surveillance and physical attacks prevent victims from participating fully in civic life and create a climate of persistent fear.
Transnational repression harms victims in more subtle ways, too. Our research shows that the mere threat of an online or offline attack is enough to frighten many diaspora members into silence. Victims become wary of participating in social media or even using digital devices. They report being afraid to engage with members of their communities, leaving them increasingly isolated. It has an insidious, chilling effect on targeted communities.
Unfortunately, the future looks bleak. Democratic backsliding in the United States threatens to deprive Canada of an ally in the fight and reverse whatever measures U.S. agencies might have taken on the issue. Our research shows that suspicion of law enforcement discourages victims from contacting authorities. Proposed moves by the Trump administration – including halting asylum hearings, ending resettlement programs, and sending “criminal” migrants to Guantanamo Bay – will further erode victims’ confidence in the U.S.’s willingness to protect them.
Big Tech is also worsening the problem. Across social-media platforms, state-backed harassment of vulnerable diaspora members is rife. Elon Musk’s X tolerates and even promotes hate-mongering accounts, while Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta will stop using “politically biased” fact-checkers signals a worrying disinterest in robust content moderation. We should expect a tsunami of digital transnational repression targeting vulnerable Canadians now that tech CEOs are loosening the restraints.
Canada cannot rely on outside leadership or corporate actors to tackle this problem. What is needed is a commission on transnational repression. On Jan. 24, the British parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights launched such an inquiry. Once our House of Commons sits again we can follow our British counterparts and resume the Subcommittee on International Human Rights’s work on transnational repression. The new Parliament should launch a multiparty inquiry into the crisis, with a mandate to examine repression outside of federal elections. Crucially, it must earn the trust of victims, something the Hogue Commission lacked. The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canadian Friends of Hong Kong both pulled out of the inquiry, citing the participation of three legislators with alleged links to the Chinese government.
This is not a partisan issue. Whoever wins the next federal election will have a duty to contend with the continuing threat transnational repression poses to Canada. With global authoritarianism on the rise, the problem is only likely to worsen in the years to come.
United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada are understandably causing much consternation and debate. Some business leaders are forecasting dire warnings, union officials are calling for retaliation and relief while also sidling up with their corporate counterparts to present a united front. But these developments are about much more than tariffs. Trump’s tariff plan exposes the perils of Canada’s dependency on the US and the price of integration within the American Empire.
To discuss these issues, last week I sat down with Sam Gindin. For more than 25 years, Sam was research director of the Canadian Auto Workers union.
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.
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.
Romeo Dallaire has greatly enabled the “Butcher of Africa’s Great Lakes” region. The Canadian general’s fairy tale has repeatedly justified Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame who has once again unleashed horrible violence in Congo.
Two months ago a man in front of me at Salon du livre de Montréal asked Dallaire if his “opinion of Rwanda has changed since the M23 movement emerged in the Congo?” The retired general’s response to this question about a Kigali spurred force, which has recently killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in capturing the Congolese city of Goma, was extreme Kagame propaganda. He said: “No because the M23 is but one group who are trying to save the lives of Tutsis, who are Congolese Tutsis, while the Kinshasa government has a dozen or so rebel forces and so on who are slaughtering them. So the M23 are defending. And then the philosophy of Kagame has always been one to be on the offensive so he’s not going to [be] waiting to cross the border into his country to fight; he’s going to sort them out on the other side. So he’s simply continuing to get rid of the threat of extremists on the Congolese side and the Rwandan extremists who are there in the Congo still seeking the elimination of the Tutsis.”
Twenty-nine years after Rwanda first invaded Congo purportedly to target genocidaires, Dallaire is promoting Kigali’s apologia for mass slaughter. The Globe and Mail, New York Times, and Financial Times no longer even promote this framing of Rwandan aggression.
It’s not a one off. Dallaire has repeatedly called Kagame an “extraordinary man” and raved about his government. In April, Dallaire stated,“the past thirty years in Rwanda have stood as the most profound example of noble and brave peacemaking I have ever witnessed; perhaps that ever existed…. I join you in celebrating Rwanda and its people, who are leading all of Africa by the example of moral strength and commitment to harmony and prosperity.”
Dallaire made that statement two years into a new wave of Kigali/M23 instigated violence against its highly impoverished neighbour. Over the past three decades Rwanda’s repeated invasions have killed millions of Congolese.
Dallaire has assisted the US military college-trained Kagame since leading the military component of a UN mission designed to help end the conflict caused by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)/Uganda invasion of Rwanda. Between fall 1993 and July 1994, Dallaire is credibly accused of favouring the US-backed RPF in contravention of UN guidelines. In response to the Canadian general’s self-serving portrayal of his time in Rwanda, the overall head of the 1994 UN mission in Rwanda, Jacques-Roger Booh Booh, published Le Patron de Dallaire Parle (The Boss of Dallaire Speaks). Almost entirely ignored by the Canadian media, the 2005 book by the former Cameroon foreign minister claims the Canadian general backed the RPF and had little interest in their violence despite reports of summary executions in areas controlled by them.
Dallaire has propagated Kagali’s wildly simplistic account of the Rwandan Genocide. He has ignored the overwhelming evidence and logic that points to the RPF’s responsibility for blowing up the plane carrying the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (and much of the Hutu-led Rwandan military command), which unleashed the mass genocidal killings in April 1994.
To align with Kagame’s claim of a “conspiracy to commit genocide,” Dallaire has changed his depiction of the Rwandan tragedy over the years. Just after leaving his post as UNAMIR force commander, Dallaire replied to a September 14, 1994 Radio Canada Le Point question by saying, “the plan was more political. The aim was to eliminate the coalition of moderates…. I think that the excesses that we saw were beyond people’s ability to plan and organize. There was a process to destroy the political elements in the moderate camp. There was a breakdown and hysteria absolutely…. But nobody could have foreseen or planned the magnitude of the destruction we saw.”
To a large extent the claim of a “conspiracy to commit genocide” rests on the much celebrated January 11, 1994, “genocide fax”. But, this fax Dallaire sent to the UN headquarters in New York is not titled, to quote International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda lawyer Christopher Black, “‘genocide’ or ‘killing’ but an innocuous ‘Request For Protection of Informant.’” The two-page “genocide fax”, as New Yorker reporter Philip Gourevitch dubbed it in 1998, was probably doctored a year after the mass killings in Rwanda ended. In a chapter devoted to the fax in Enduring Lies: TheRwandan Genocide in the Propaganda System, 20 Year Later, Edward Herman and David Peterson argue two paragraphs were added to a cable Dallaire sent to UN headquarters about a weapons cache and protecting an informant (Dallaire never personally met the informant). The two (probably) added paragraphs said the informant was asked to compile a list of Tutsi for possible extermination in Kigali and mentioned a plan to assassinate selected political leaders and Belgian peacekeepers.
Mission head Booh-Booh denies seeing this information and there’s no evidence Dallaire warned the Belgians of a plan to attack them, which later transpired. Finally, a response to the cable from UN headquarters the next day ignores the (probably added) paragraphs. Herman and Peterson make a compelling case that a doctored version of the initial cable was placed in the UN file on November 27, 1995, by British Colonel Richard M. Connaughton as part of a Kigali–London–Washington effort to prove a plan by the Hutu government to exterminate Tutsis.
Even if the final two paragraphs were in the original version, the credibility of the information would be suspect. Informant “Jean-Pierre” was not a high placed official in the defeated Hutu government, reports Robin Philpott in Rwanda and the New Scramble for Africa: From Tragedy to Useful Imperial Fiction. Instead, “Jean-Pierre” was a driver for an opposition political party, MRND, who later died fighting with Kagame’s RPF.
Incredibly, the “genocide fax” is the primary source of documentary record demonstrating UN foreknowledge of a Hutu “conspiracy” to “exterminate” Tutsi, a charge even the victors justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) failed to convict anyone of. According to Herman and Peterson, “when finding all four defendants not guilty of the ‘conspiracy to commit genocide’ charge, the [ICTR] trial chamber also dismissed the evidence provided by ‘informant Jean-Pierre’ due to ‘lingering questions concerning [his] reliability.’”
At the end of their chapter tracing the history of the “genocide fax” Herman and Peterson write, “if all of this is true, we would suggest that Dallaire should be regarded as a war criminal for positively facilitating the actual mass killings of April-July, rather than taken as a hero for giving allegedly disregarded warnings that might have stopped them.”
Thirty-one years later Dallaire continues to cover for Kagame’s crimes, claiming Rwanda has the right to destabilize and kill millions in Congo.
He’s gone beyond words. As part of his support for the most bloodstained dictator on the continent, the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security established their headquarters in Kigali. It works closely with the Rwandan military. In August 2023, Dallaire met with Kagame and Rwandan Minister of Defence Juvenal Marizamunda. The Rwandan military’s website has multiple posts about working with Dallaire’s Institute. The institute trains Rwandan forces as part of the 2017 Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers.
Global Affairs Canada has provided over $20 million to the Dallaire Institute. According to the Globe and Mail, aGlobal Affairs director wrote a memo raising concerns about funding the Dallaire Institute because it worked closely with a Rwandan military using child soldiers in Congo.
When the regime in Kigali finally falls, the history books will not look kindly on Romeo Dallaire. Rather than a humanitarian who worked to stop violence, he’ll be seen as someone who enabled mass killings in Africa’s great lakes region.
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.
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.
Hawa Hunt’s detention a month ago was politically motivated, say daughter and rights groups, who also raise concerns about her treatment in jail
Fears are mounting over the mental and physical health of a social media influencer who has been in prison in Sierra Leone for more than a month after she was arrested on live television.
Hawa Hunt, a dual Canadian and Sierra Leonean citizen, was arrested on 22 December while starring in House of Stars, a reality TV show, for comments she made on social media about the president of Sierra Leone and the first lady in May 2023.
It generally ends badly. An old tyrant embarks on an ill-considered project that involves redrawing maps.
They are heedless to wise counsel and indifferent to indigenous interests or experience. Before they fail, are killed, deposed or otherwise disposed of, these vicious old men can cause immense harm.
To see Trump through this lens, let’s look at a group of men who tested their cartographic skills and failed: King Lear and, of course, Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte, and latterly, George W Bush and Saddam Hussein.
I even throw in a Pope. But let’s start first with Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump himself.
Benjamin Netanyahu and a map of a ‘New Middle East’ — without Palestine
In September 2023, a month before the Hamas attack on Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to an almost-empty UN General Assembly. Few wanted to share the same air as the man.
In his speech, he presented a map of a “New Middle East” — one that contained a Greater Israel but no Palestine.
In a piece in The Jordan Times titled: “Cartography of genocide”, Ramzy Baroud explained why Netanyahu erased Palestine from the map figuratively. Hamas leaders also understood the message all too well.
“Generally, there was a consensus in the political bureau: We have to move, we have to take action. If we don’t do it, Palestine will be forgotten — totally deleted from the international map,” Dr Bassem Naim, a leading Hamas official said in the outstanding Al Jazeera documentary October 7.
Hearing Trump and Netanyahu last week, the Hamas assessment was clear-eyed and prescient.
Donald Trump In defiance of UN resolutions and international law, he recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, recognised the Syrian Golan Heights as part of Israel, and now wants to turn Gaza into a US real estate development, reconquer Panama, turn Canada into the 51st State of the USA, rename the Gulf of Mexico and seize Greenland, if necessary by force.
And it’s only February. The US spent blood, treasure and decades building the Rules-Based International Order. Biden and Trump have left it in tatters.
Trump is a fitting avatar for the American state: morally corrupt, narcissistic, burning down all the temples to international law, and generally causing chaos as he flames his way into ignominy.
The past week — where “Bonkers is the New Normal” — reminded me of a famous Onion headline: “FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States”.
The Iranians made a brilliant counter-offer to the US plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and create a US statelet next to Israel — send the Israelis to Greenland! Unlike the genocidal US and Israeli leadership, the Iranians were kidding.
Point taken, though.
King Lear: ‘Meantime we will express our darker purpose. Give me the map there.’
Lear makes the list because of Shakespeare’s understanding of tyrants and those who oppose them.
Trump, like Lear, surrounds himself with a college of schemers, deviants and psychopaths. Image: www.solidarity.co.nz
Kent: My life I never held but as a pawn to wage against thy enemies.
Lear: Out of my sight!
Kent and all those who sought to steer the King towards a more prudent course were treated as enemies and traitors. I think of Ambassador Chas Freeman, John Mearsheimer, Colonel Larry Wilkerson, George Beebe and all the other wiser heads who have been pushed to the periphery in much the same way.
Trump, like Lear, surrounds himself with a college of schemers, deviants and psychopaths.
Napoleon Bonaparte I was fortunate to study “France on the Eve of Revolution” with the great French historian Antoine Casanova. His fellow Corsican caused a fair bit of mayhem with his intention to redraw the map of Europe.
British statesman William Pitt the Younger reeled in horror as Napoleon got to work, “Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these 10 years,” he presciently said.
Bonaparte was an important historical figure who left a mixed and contested legacy.
Before effective resistance could be organised, he abolished the Holy Roman Empire (good job), created the Confederation of the Rhine, invaded Russia and, albeit sometimes for the better, torched many of the traditional power structures.
Millions died in his wars.
We appear to be back to all that: a leader who tears up all rule books. Trump endorses the US-Israeli right of conquest, sanctions the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trying to hold Israel and the US to the same standard as others, and hands out the highest offices to his family and confidantes.
Hitler “Lebensraum” (Living space) was the Nazi concept that propelled the German war machine to seize new territories, redraw maps. As they marched, the soldiers often sang “Deutschland über alles”(Germany above all), their ultra-nationalist anthem that expressed a desire to create a Greater Germany — to Make Germany Great Again.
All sounds a bit similar to this discussion of Trump and Netanyahu, doesn’t it? Again: whose side should we be on?
Saddam Hussein and George W Bush When it comes to doomed bids to remake the Middle East by launching illegal wars, these are two buttocks of the same bum. Now we have the Trump-Netanyahu pair.
Will countries like Australia, New Zealand and the UK really sign up for the current US-Israeli land grab? Will they all continue to yawn and look away as massive crimes against humanity are committed? I fear so, and in so doing, they rob their side of all legitimacy.
Pope Alexander VI There is a smack of the Borgias about the Trumps. They share values — libertinism and nepotism, to name two — and both, through cunning rather than aptitude, managed to achieve great power.
Pope Alexander VI, born Rodrigo Borgia, father to Lucretia and Cesare, was Pope in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
1494. The Treaty of Tordesillas hands the New World over to the Spanish and Portuguese. Image: www.solidarity.co.nz
He was responsible for the greatest reworking of the map of the world: the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the “New World” between the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Millions died; trillions were stolen.
We still live with the depravities the Europeans and their heritors unleashed upon the world.
I’m sure the Greenlanders, the Canadians, the Panamanians and whoever else the United States sets their sights on will resist the unwelcome attempt to colour the map of their country in stars & stripes.
History is littered with blind map re-makers, foolish old men who draw new maps on old lands.
Like Sykes, Picot, Balfour and others, Trump thinks with a flourish of his pen he can whisk away identity and deep roots. Love of country and long-suffering mean Palestinians will never accept a handful of coins and parcels of land spread across West Asia or Africa as compensation for a stolen homeland.
They have earned the right to Palestine not least because of the blood-spattered identity that they have carved out of every inch of land through their immense courage and steadfastness. We should stand with them.
Eugene Doyle is a community organiser and activist in Wellington, New Zealand. He received an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian award in 2023 for community service. His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam War. This article was first published at his public policy website Solidarity and is republished here with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic.
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest of the world also “should stop tip-toeing” around President Donald Trump and must stand up to any threats he makes against allies, no matter how outlandish they seem.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that New Zealand would not comment on the plan until it was clear exactly what was meant, but said New Zealand continued to support a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Dr Patman said the president’s plan was “truly shocking and absolutely appalling” in light of the devastation in Gaza in the last 15 months.
It was not only “tone deaf” but also dangerous, he added, with the proposal amounting to “the most powerful country in the world — the US — dismantling an international rules=based system that [it] has done so much to establish”.
“This was an extraordinary proposal which I think is reckless and dangerous because it certainly doesn’t help the immediate situation. It probably plays into the hands of extremists in the region.
“There is a view at the moment that we must all tiptoe round Mr Trump in order not to upset him, while he’s completely free to make outrageous suggestions which endanger people’s lives.”
Professor Robert Patman . . . Trump’s plan for Gaza “truly shocking and absolutely appalling”. Image: RNZ
Winston Peters’ careful position on a potential US takeover of Gaza was “a fair response . . . but the Luxon-led government must be clear the current situation is unacceptable” and oppose protectionism, he said.
“[The government ] wants a solution in the Middle East which recognises both the Israeli desire for security but also recognises the political right to self determination of the Palestinian people — in other words the right to have a state of their own.”
New Zealand should also speak out against Trump’s threats to annex Canada, “our very close ally”, he said.
He was “not suggesting New Zealand be provocative but it must be robust”, Dr Patman said.
Greens also respond to Trump actions The Green Party said President Trump had been explicit in his intention to take over Gaza, and New Zealand needed to make its position crystal clear too.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Prime Minister needed to stand up and condemn the plan as “reprehensible”.
“President Trump’s comments have been pretty clear to anybody who is able to read or to listen to them, about his intention to forcibly displace, or to see displaced, about 1.8 million Gazans from their own land, who have already been made refugees in their own land.”
France, Spain, Ireland, Brazil and other countries had been “unequivocal” in their condemnation of Trump’s plan, and NZ’s Foreign Affairs Minister should be too, she added.
“New Zealanders value justice and they value peace, and they want to see our leadership represent that, on the international stage. So [these were] really disappointing and unfortunately unclear comments from our Deputy Prime Minister.”
Yesterday Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that New Zealand still supported a two-state solution, but said he would not comment on Trump’s Gaza plan until officials could grasp exactly what this meant.
Dozens of countries have expressed “unwavering support” for the ICC in a joint statement, after the US President imposed sanctions on its staff.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
Trump has accused the court of improperly targeting the US and its ally, Israel.
Neither New Zealand nor Australia had joined the statement, but in a statement to RNZ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had always supported the ICC’s role in upholding international law and a rules-based system.
University of Victoria law professor Alberto Costi said currently New Zealand is at little risk of sanctions and there’s no need for a stronger approach.
“At this stage there is no reason to be stronger. New Zealand is perceived as a state that believes in a rules-based order and is supportive of the work of the ICC.
“So there’s not much need to go further but it’s a space to watch in the future, should these sanctions become a reality.
“But as far as New Zealand is concerned, at the moment there is no need to antagonise anyone at this stage.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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.”
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.
Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – Bobsled fans watching Team Canada compete at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup in Norway today may have noticed something unusual.
Credit: GDF Media / Gisle Johnsen
Environmental Defence Canada sponsored one of the Canadian athletes competing in Norway, Jay Dearborn, to draw attention to sponsorship by oil and gas companies. Bobsleigh Canada is sponsored by Athabasca Oil Corporation as well as Canada Action. This is part of a global trend of oil and gas companies sponsoring athletes, or sportswashing. Sportswashing refers to when companies use the immense popularity of sports to redirect public attention away from their unethical conduct. This includes sponsoring sports teams and athletes in an attempt to improve their image, particularly in the face of growing calls for climate action.
“The fossil fuel industry has known that its products are fueling the climate crisis for decades. These companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising every year to hide their impacts and make sure their brands are socially accepted,” said Julia Levin, Associate Director, Environmental Defence. “The logic is the same as other types of greenwashing: sportswashing is an attempt to associate Big Oil’s brands with something positive to boost their public image and push their agenda.”
Canada Action is an oil and gas industry advocacy group. Since their launch in 2012, the organisation has dedicated itself to encouraging Canadians to pledge support for the fossil fuel industry. Their greenwashing efforts include running nationwide ads on billboards, buses and social media promoting fossil fuels and engaging in misinformation to mislead the public about the impact of oil and gas. They also use their supporter base and their reach to sabotage climate policy, such as the proposed cap on pollution from oil and gas companies. Though Canada Action claims to be grassroots, they are funded by major oil and gas companies, such as Cenovus and ARC resources.
“The health of our planet has always been important to me,” said Jay Dearborn, Canadian bobsled pilot. “That’s why I was happy to partner with Environmental Defence and use my platform to promote renewable energy, action against climate change, and our most valuable resource: wide open untouched, healthy nature. I want to do what I can to protect the places and sports that I love.”
For winter athletes, climate change poses existential risks to doing what they love. It makes sense that Canadian athletes want to show their support for climate action. Replacing fossil fuels like oil and gas with renewable energy is critically important for addressing climate change.
Advertising campaigns by the oil and gas industry have derailed climate action for decades. Intervention at all levels is required to limit the harmful influence of industry greenwashing.
“We ended tobacco advertising once we understood the harm caused by smoking,” said Levin. “Fossil fuels cause climate change, which has devastating consequences for people and the environment. It’s time we apply the same logic as we did to smoking, and limit advertisements that try to sell and promote fossil fuels. This includes governments at all levels implementing bans on advertising, as well as sports organizations taking steps to end the practice of sportswashing.”
Backgrounder Information
Jay Dearborn is a Canadian bobsled pilot, an Olympian, and a former CFL player from Ontario. He graduated from Carleton University in 2023 with a degree in Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering.
Canada Action ran a massive advertising campaign on streetcars in Toronto last year, in the lead-up to a decision from Toronto City Council to limit greenwashing and fossil fuel advertising on the TTC. Ads by Canada Action promoting “natural” gas, which is a fossil fuel, were called out by Canada’s advertising regulator for being inaccurate and misleading.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
– 30 –
For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Stephanie Kohls, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca, 647-280-9521
State and market solutions to the ecological crisis have only increased the wealth and power of those on top, while greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Nearly all the experts and professionals are invested, literally, in a framework that is only making things worse. With so much power concentrated in the very institutions that suppress any realistic assessment of the situation, things seem incredibly bleak. But what if we told you that there’s another way? That there are already people all around the world implementing immediate, effective responses that can be integrated into long-term strategies to survive these overlapping, cascading crises?
We spoke with three revolutionaries on the front lines resisting capitalist, colonial projects. Sleydo’ from the Gidimt’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation, in so-called British Columbia, Isa from the ZAD in the west of France, and Neto, a militant with the Landless Workers’ Movement based in the northeast of so-called Brazil. They share their experiences gained from years of building collective power, defeating repression, and defending the Earth for all its inhabitants and for the generations still to come.
They share stories of solidarity spreading across a continent, of people abandoned to poverty and marginalization reclaiming land, restoring devastated forests, and feeding themselves communally, stories of strangers coming together for their shared survival and a better future, going head to head with militarized police forces and winning. And in these stories we can hear things that are lacking almost everywhere else we look: optimism alongside realism, intelligent strategies for how we can survive, love and empathy for the world around us and for the future generations, together with the belief that we can do something meaningful, something that makes a difference. The joy of revolutionary transformation.
We learn about solutions. Real world solutions. Solutions outside of the control of capitalism and the state.
The Revolution is Already Here.
Next up: how do we make it our own?
Revolution or Death is a three-part collaboration between Peter Gelderloos and subMedia. Part 1, ‘Short Term Investments,’ examined the official response to the climate crisis and how it’s failing. In Part 2, ‘Heads Up, the Revolution is Already Here’ we talk with movements around the globe that provide inspiring examples of what realistic, effective responses look like. Part 3 ‘Reclaiming the World Wherever We Stand’ will focus on how we can all apply these lessons at home.
Trump’s threats of tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico have wreaked havoc on US relations with its closest trade partners. While the tariffs against Canada and Mexico have been deferred by a month, lasting damage has likely been done to US relations with the only countries with which it shares land borders. The fallout of the trade spat is already remaking Canadian politics, with many wondering whether the dispute has truly ended given Trump’s repeated calls for the US to annex its northern neighbor. How will all of this shape Canada’s already tumultuous political situation, with Justin Trudeau having just announced that he was stepping down as the country’s Prime Minister, with a high-stakes national election in October looming, and with Canada taking its own rightward political turn led by Pierre Poilievre? What impact will these trade wars have on working people across North America, and how can we fuse our common struggles across borders?
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino, David Hebden, Adam Coley
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome to the Real News Network and welcome back to our weekly live stream. President Donald Trump sparked waves of panic, confusion, disbelief, betrayal, and anger this weekend after announcing on Saturday that he would be imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and a lower 10% tariff on Canadian oil, natural gas, and electricity. Trump’s announcement also included new 10% tariffs on Chinese goods. Now these are in addition to existing tariffs on Chinese products and already two thirds of all US trade with China is around under 20% tariffs, which Trump imposed during his first term. And the Biden administration actually raised tariff rates to a hundred percent on electric vehicles, 50% on solar cells, and up to 25% on select products like EV batteries, critical minerals, steel, aluminum, and face masks. Now, Canada and Mexico are the two largest trading partners of the us. China is the third.
Together they account for over 40% of all imports into the US according to data from the United States International Trade Commission. Now tariffs are taxes imposed by the government on imported goods, and those taxes are paid to the government by the American buyers of those foreign goods. And often those higher costs are passed on to the consumer either because prices for the same goods are now higher and businesses just don’t want to eat those costs themselves. Or because domestic supply of those goods decreases as a result of the tariffs and the demand in price in the domestic market increases Either way. The point is that we would feel the brunt of it. Now, Trump repeatedly waved away concerns that the cost of his tariffs would be born by regular people already hurting from punishing inflation and an ongoing cost of living crisis on Friday before announcing the new tariffs. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that tariffs don’t cause inflation, they cause something else. Let’s take a listen.
Donald Trump:
Tariffs don’t cause inflation. They cause success. They cause big success. So we’re going to have great success. They could be some temporary short-term disruption and people will understand that.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So that short-term disruption is worth it, and these tariffs are necessary according to Trump in order to correct what he has long called an unfair trade arrangement between the United States and the rest of the world, and to supposedly force America’s neighbors and trading partners to do more to stop illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the United States. And the White House actually said on Saturday after announcing the tariffs, the extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, constitutes a national emergency. Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, president Trump is taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country. So Trump’s tariffs on all Chinese products already went into effect at midnight on Tuesday and Beijing quickly hit back as the New York Times reports, the Chinese government came back with a series of retaliatory steps including additional tariffs on liquified natural gas, coal, farm machinery, and other products from the United States.
It also said it had implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, many of which are used in the production of high-tech products. In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Google. Now Canada and Mexico, on the other hand, managed to avoid the same fate as China. For now, at the 11th hour after this whole melodramatic Trumpian spectacle played out into Monday, president Trump spoke with Mexican president Claudia Scheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and agreed to a 30 day pause on his tariff threat. At 5:00 PM on Monday, Trump posted to truth Social. I am pleased with this initial outcome and the tariffs announced on Saturday will be paused for a 30 day period to see whether or not a final economic deal with Canada can be structured fairness for all he wrote in all caps. So Trump’s line about reaching a final economic deal with Canada is pretty much a direct sign that this was never just about immigration and fentanyl.
And minutes before Trump’s announcement on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau posted himself on the platform X. I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel enhanced coordination with American partners and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border. In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a fentanyl czar. We will list cartels as terrorists ensure 24 7 eyes on the border launch a Canada US joint strike force to combat organized crime, fentanyl, and money laundering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million. So what does this deal with Canada to avoid this week’s tariffs actually mean in practice. What deals are going to be struck and what concessions are going to be extracted in the future under Trump’s tariff threats?
What the hell is going on and what does this all look like from the Canada side? How will all of this shape? Canada’s already tumultuous political situation with Trudeau having just announced that he was stepping down as the country’s prime minister with Canada now facing its own high stakes election in October. And with the country like many around the world, taking its own hard right turn and with a very Trump like, but also very uniquely Canadian, far right figure ascending in Pierre Pev, what impact will these trade wars have on working people across North America and how can we help each other understand what’s happening with an international perspective and how can we fuse our common struggles across borders? We’re going to dig into all of this today, and I really could not be more honored and excited to have this incredible panel of journalists, media makers, colleagues, and collaborators joining us today from across the border in Canada.
And joining us today, we’ve got Samira Moine. Samira is a journalist and broadcaster and founder of On The Line Media. We’ve got Desmond Cole. Desmond is a journalist based in Toronto and he is currently working with the Breach, an independent media outlet in Canada. He is also the author of the bestselling 2020 book, the Skin. We’re in a Year of Black Resistance and Power. And last but certainly not least, we’ve got Andrea Houston, who has spent more than two decades as a journalist, human rights advocate and journalism instructor. Andrea is currently the managing editor of Ricochet Media in Canada. She is also an instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University School of Journalism where she developed and teaches Canada’s first ever queer media course. So Samira, Andrea Desmond, thank you all so much for joining me on The Real News today. It’s been a hell of a week, but I’m so grateful to have you all here. Thank you.
Andrea Houston:
Thanks for having us
Maximillian Alvarez:
As always. I wish it was under better circumstances, but I could not think of a better panel to help us dig in to all of this. And before we really dig into the real meat and potatoes of the deal that was struck this week and what this all means moving forward, I want to kind of do a quick round around the table and kind of take us back to this weekend. And I want to ask what this all looked like and felt like from where you guys are sitting because after Trump’s announcement on Saturday, like he was squeezing lighter fuel onto a barbecue, Trump escalated fears about what’s behind this massive impending trade war with Canada when he posted on Sunday on truth social, we pay hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize Canada. Why? There is no reason Trump says we don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited energy, should make our own cars and we have more lumber than we could ever use without this massive subsidy. Canada ceases to exist as a viable country. Harsh but true. Therefore, Canada should become our cherished 51st state, much lower taxes and far better military protection for the people of Canada. And he writes in all caps, no tariffs. So Samira, Desmond, Andrea, what do you see when you see our president posting batshit stuff like this? Walk us through what this weekend was like for you. Samira, let’s start with you.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean it’s just full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Canada’s not going to become the 51st state. It’s just absurd. We do just on a daily basis, there’s about $3.6 billion worth of trade coming across the borders. So America needs Canada just as much as Canada needs America. What I can say though is that what’s really interesting is seeing this Canadian nationalism because we’re not really rah rah rah, cis boonah type people here. We’re quite muted in our patriotism. So there’s a lot of bilocal happening, grocery stores, putting signs, showing you exactly what is and isn’t Canadian. These are Peruvian grapes that I’m enjoying. So that’s been really interesting to watch. I didn’t go through the weekend thinking, oh my God, the tariffs are coming. That is not is something that scares me, but I’m seeing sort of the ripple effects of the politicians here and how they’re responding. Like our premier here in Ontario manufactured hats saying Canada is not for sale and all the politicians are finding ways so that they could flex their patriotic muscles. That has been really interesting to watch for me.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, it’s like truly the Trumpian age where everything is a branding opportunity for Christ’s sake. Andrea, what about you? And then Desmond, let’s go to you.
Andrea Houston:
I think for me like Samira, I was less focused on the tariffs and more focused on some of the other announcements that were coming out that were absolutely gut wrenching and sickening and heartbreaking all at once. What we’re seeing right now is a fire hose of news. We’re just seeing constant bad announcements, bad decisions and executive orders meant to confuse and overwhelm us. So it’s really what I was really focused on was the USAID cuts and the loss of foreign aid and the impacts of that, the devastating loss of life that we’re going to see. I sit on the board of a small NGO in Uganda and L-G-B-T-Q-N-G-O in Uganda, and it’s just one of many that will likely see the impacts of this. Everything from HIV positive people not getting their meds, which could result in a generation of babies being born who are HIV positive because their mothers didn’t get the medication for even a pause.
That is the devastation that that’s can have. That is really what I was focusing on and absolutely in pain over what this is going to have on a global stage. We are seeing an unelected unaccountable non-American who is directing some of the most important political person in the world and how it impacts the lives of everyday people, not just in America but around the world. He’s even called USAID evil. This impacts 25 million people who are living with AIDS around the world, hiv aids, who are suddenly without warning, cutoff from lifesaving medications. This is nothing short of a crime against humanity. Honestly. All of this has been in many ways predicted this is all playing out very much in how at least I have been saying it’s going to play out. And many people that I’ve gone to parties with have heard me talking like We’re going to see a dictator probably rise in North America. Trump is going to come back. Trump is going to win again. To me, this is not shocking. All of this is really watching the history of especially the last 10 years, shows that this has all been written out for us. We’ve seen that the patterns of this. So it’s really surprising to me how so many Americans seem really blindsided by all of this. This is an assault on democracy by far right extremists, and I think the only way we have to fight against it is doing exactly what we’re doing right now, is talking in very frank terms about what we’re seeing. We’re seeing a dictatorship rise.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I think that was beautifully, powerfully put. Desmond, how about you, man? What was this weekend like for you? What are you seeing when you’re seeing all this shit?
Desmond Cole:
Thanks for the invitation Max, and it’s really great to be here with Samira and with Andrea. The circus is back in town, isn’t it? I here we are and I have been really, I think that the game of people like Donald Trump is to suck all the energy from the room is to try and force everybody to pay attention only to them. Nothing exists except what they want. Trade is no good because trade benefits two sides instead of only the United States. Me, me, the baby trying to grab every toy at the same time. It’s just, we’ve known what this is about and we’ve seen it before. I find it exhausting. So it’s not about just pretending it’s not happening and tuning it out, but I have been trying since last weekend to think about what are the things that are going to be missed in the kind of wake of this crisis?
What are we on a domestic level in Canada marginalizing while we turn so much energy and attention towards this threat of tariffs. We have a provincial election happening in Ontario right now. Our premier, Doug Ford wanted initially to have an election early. You can call your own elections here in the parliamentary system of Ontario and of Canada. So Doug Ford chose to decide to have an election earlier than the end of his term, and he wanted to run against Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister because Justin Trudeau is very unpopular and very weak right now. And so Ford’s idea was, I’m going to have an election and I’m going to kind of campaign against this other guy in another jurisdiction who will make me look strong by comparison of then of course Justin Trudeau announced that he was resigning, so now you can’t campaign against him anymore.
What do you do? And here comes Trump, and here comes the tariff threat. And so Doug Ford says, ah, I’ll just pivot to running against the president of another country and I’ll talk about how I’m going to keep you safe from him and all of the threats that he poses to business and to our economy. And it’s working out quite well. I have to say strategically for Doug Ford, the only problem is that we have a dramatically underfunded healthcare system in Ontario that’s been devastated by Covid and no one’s talking about it. We have, I don’t even want to call it a housing crisis because the housing situation in Ontario is happening on purpose and to the benefit of landlords and developers, but against the interests of particularly tenants. We have an explosion of homeless people, of tents popping up in every town and city across the province of Ontario because people cannot afford to pay rent anymore.
These things are becoming secondary to how do we fight Trump? How do we all fight Trump even if the premier, for example, doesn’t negotiate directly with Trump on a daily basis? And that’s not his job. It’s still all kind of funneling down towards this conversation. And we’re also seeing things like Pierre Pev has been mentioned, the conservative leader who wants to take over for Justin Trudeau, and we’ll probably be having an election at the federal level shortly. That conversation has shifted as well because Pierre Pev for what two years now has been telling us that the next election in Canada was going to be about whether or not we have a carbon tax.
And he can’t do that anymore because this conversation about tariffs and protecting ourselves from America has become so dominant that it’s like if you don’t play into that paradigm now, you’re not really talking about anything. So it has changed the conversations that we’re having here politically, and I don’t think that that’s for the better because while we do have to address the issue of tariffs and our trade situation with the United States, we’ve got a lot of other things going on in this country. We can’t live or die by whether or not we buy fruits and vegetables from our country instead of America. Whether we support Galen Weston and corporate billionaires in Canada instead of supporting corporate billionaires in the United, that’s not going to really materially change things for us.
So I had some fun on Twitter on Sunday memeing about having to give up my cherry blasters and Oreos because of this intending trade war. And I do try to have a little bit of fun and lightness with it because I don’t want to talk about this shit. I want to talk about the things that I do as a journalist on a daily basis that relate to immigration, housing, policing, things that are affecting people in their local communities, the rates of welfare and disability. I want to talk about the things that allow people to live a decent life here on the day to day. And again, I’m not saying tariffs don’t factor into that, but we cannot eshoo the rest of our political responsibilities to fight the president of another country.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, I think that’s a really powerful and poignant point and something that we mention
Maximillian Alvarez:
On a previous live stream with Hassan and Francesca Fiorentini and a subject that I spoke with Sarah Nelson about the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. And Sarah, let’s not forget, became a household name during the Trump led government shutdown in 2019 when she called for a general strike to end the shutdown. And within a day the shutdown ended after 35 days, the longest shutdown in US history. And out of that example, Sarah really gave us a poignant lesson that you were articulating there, Desmond, is that we cannot define our struggle solely by how we respond to Trump. We have to have a sort of shared basis of understanding of what we are fighting for as working people, what our needs are and our methods of getting those needs met. It can’t just all be reactive. We have to be moving forward and advancing the clearly defined causes that unite working people across red states, blue states union, non-union, and even across North America and beyond.
If we don’t have that shared basic understanding of what we’re fighting for, then we’re going to be exhausted by the end of year one of the Trump administration because all we’re doing is fighting against what’s coming and there’s always more coming. So we’re going to talk about this more as the stream goes on, and I want to kind of, before we talk about the details of the trade deal and what this portends moving forward, I want to use a few minutes here to address some of what you guys were already bringing up because we have folks tuning in across the United States and even in Canada. The Real News was actually founded in Canada, so it’s all in the family here, but we know that folks in the US and Canada do not have the shared basis of understanding of what’s going on in Canadian politics right now.
And so I want to just spend a few minutes here clarifying our terms and letting folks know, especially here in the US what the basic context is. What do they need to understand right now about Canadian politics for the rest of our discussion to make sense? You mentioned Paul Ev, we mentioned the upcoming elections and how this is already changing the dynamic. Do we all have a shared understanding of what a tariff is? So let’s take just five to eight minutes here to just sort of clarify any terms that we feel need to be clarified for everything else to make sense. So Samir, let’s start again with you.
Samira Mohyeddin:
A tariff is a tax on goods coming from another country. That is what a tariff is. Actually. I’m constantly looking up what a tariff is, but this is not something that just affects Canadians. When you put a tariff on us, it affects Americans. What is so asinine and absurd is that Trump never talks about the fact that the tariff affects the domestic business that buys that product. So American business owners will be just as affected by high tariffs on Canada. That’s the absurdity of what Trump is doing. But that’s never talked about, unfortunately, when he talks about this. And then at the same time, you’re seeing very different reactions to this imposition of tariffs when if it comes from the different political parties here, poly, for instance, has taken this route that many people have talked about before, but which is to reduce the barriers that are here between sort of provincial businesses.
So we have provinces here in Canada and there are barriers that they’re pushing to have taken away. For instance, if I’m in Ontario, I can’t get wines from British Columbia because the LCBO has this sort of monopoly on what comes in and what goes out. So that’s sort of the route that Paul is taking in pushing back on this. But everyone is sort of wearing a different patriotic hat in looking at how to respond to tariffs. And then you have Mark Carney who’s this sort of showing himself as being the outsider he’s supposed to take over. He’s the new running for the liberal leadership. We have a leadership race here. Also, as you said, Trudeau has stepped down. So there is that aspect too. Carney was the running the Bank of England. He was running the Bank of Canada before. So these, everybody is sort of coming at this in a different way, but I really firmly believe that Trump is just doing this whole tariff thing to divert attention away from a really a coup that is taking place within America.
And I know that some people say, oh, he is just an idiot. I say that at times, but I firmly believe that this is dangerous. I really think that people do need to respond to what is happening and what Trump is doing. And if it’s not taking to the streets, I really think that something needs to happen in the US and I hope this is a bit of a wake up call, not only for people in the United States, but for people in Canada. I have a lot of friends in the food industry, for instance, who for years have been talking about us producing, being more self-reliant in terms of production on food products in supply chains. I firmly believe that this needs to be a bit of a wake up call for all of us.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, I mean it’s pretty wild to be having this conversation while an unelected oligarch and the richest man in the world and his techno fascist Silicon Valley oligarchs who are cheering it all on are storming my government an hour away. But what we’re trying to do on these streams is channel our focus. Our focus is a form of resistance. As we said. If we’re all just sort of frenetically responding to the endless bad news that’s coming, we can’t stay focused on a given thing. And so of course we are focusing today on Trump’s trade war, the tariffs, the relationship between the US and Canada. But we can’t ignore the fact that that conversation is happening in a context where the corporate led is happening as we speak. So we’re trying to kind of balance those two things, of course. But yeah, I really appreciate you kind of underlying that
Samira Mohyeddin:
Point. I’m only saying that because I’m only saying that because I just keep thinking of what Andrea said about the global implications of this sort of beyond Canada and the us. I mean, she brought up USAID for instance. It’s not just Trump. I mean you saw Marco Rubio today, Elon Musk yesterday saying they’re thieves. I mean, this is very dangerous and this is how fascism starts. This little trickles keep coming at you until you’re like a massive wave and you don’t even know what to focus on, right? Because there’s so much coming at you all the time.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And with all that, it’s even easier to lose again, the sort of context we need to understand any given subject like the tariffs here. And so I guess in that vein, are there more points here that folks watching in the US need to understand about the rise of poly ev, the kind of right word turn and just the key political issues in Canada right now that we should get out on the table before we kind of dig into the deal that was struck this week?
Desmond Cole:
Well, can I try a couple of things maybe in terms of myth busting, Trump has been saying repeatedly that there is all of this fentanyl, particularly flowing from Canada into the United States. The numbers that we have here in Canada is that in 2023, sorry, between 2023, October and September, 2024, the United States seized 19 and a half kilograms of fentanyl coming across the border from Canada. Fentanyl we know is one of the most potent drugs out there. So 19 and a half kilograms of fentanyl can certainly do a lot of damage, but I could fit 19 and a half kilos of fentanyl on the desk that I’m sitting in front of. If you compare that with Mexico, US border agents seized about nine and a half thousand kilograms of fentanyl from the Mexico US border. I don’t think I could fit that on this desk. And that’s not to scapegoat Mexico, by the way, because most of the drugs coming in the United States are coming through ports and places that are just normal business areas. They’re coming on planes. The idea that this is just a strictly border issue is a complete fabrication of Trump. He has also
Maximillian Alvarez:
And smuggled in by Americans.
Desmond Cole:
Sure, of course.
But Trump also says there’s all these people pouring into the United States. He loves the specter of so-called as he wants to say, illegal people. I reject that term out of hand. We’re talking a lot about goods being able to move across borders. People ought to be able to move across borders freely as well. But again, it’s just a myth that there are all of these people entering the United States from Canada without any kind of permissions or visas or supervision. What’s actually happening and has been happening throughout the Trump administration for a long time, but particularly during Trump, is that when he does these anti-immigrant fear mongering, when he says he’s going to get ice to deport 20 million people, they actually come to Canada, they come to our country. It’s the opposite of what he’s saying. So that’s another maybe important thing for American audience to know.
And again, I’m not saying that because I want to demonize anyone crossing any borders. I’m just trying to tell people what the facts of the real conversation here are. And maybe a final thing for people to think about is that this idea of trade between two countries, Trump says that there’s a huge trade deficit between Canada and the United States, meaning that services and goods go across the border both ways, as Samira was saying. But basically the United States exports more goods to us in Canada, then it receives back the other way. And for Trump, that’s a huge problem. Like, sorry, I’m sorry, I’m getting it backwards already. See, because I’m not an economist, the trade deficit is, I had to even write notes because it’s not like I talk about this stuff every day, but basically there’s an imbalance in how much the united exports to Canada versus how much it imports. And Trump thinks that that’s really bad. The only thing is when you buy goods from another country, you get the goods. It’s a trade. That’s the whole idea. So this idea that Canada is somehow screwing over the United States, or I think in the clip that you played, max, that were being subsidized? No, that’s called business, right? I don’t have a trade deficit with the grocery store because when I go to the grocery store, they feed me and I have food in my house.
But again, to this narcissist called Trump, as long as someone else is getting an equal fair exchange, it’s a ripoff. America should get all the benefits, every benefit should come to America and no benefits should go to anyone else. Everyone should buy America’s goods, but no one should receive any benefits back the other way. So I think it’s important for people to understand trade, not as some zero sum thing the way that Trump is trying to paint it, but this is one of the greatest traders. It is the largest actually trading partnership in the world. And the idea of doing these punitive tariffs, Europe and the European Union is essentially founded in part on the premise that this destroys countries. This makes countries want to go to war with each other. This makes it so much more likely that there’s going to be political strife and instability. So when you start fucking around with tariffs and trade, you’re making other kinds of problems and conflicts between your allies by the way, far more likely.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And I’ve got two more clarifying points I want to kind of throw in there, building off what Desmond said, and then Andrea, I want to kind of come to you after that and ask if we could talk a bit more about how this is already reshaping the political landscaping Canada as we head into the federal elections later this year. Sure. But two other,
Andrea Houston:
Can I, oh, sorry. Oh, please. I was just going to jump in just on something that both of them was talking about with regard to trade and that these are just taxes. And it’s actually something that the left in Canada at least many, many years ago, back when the trade deals were first being crafted, the left in Canada was talking about imposing tariffs on many of these American companies back then. And maybe we would be in a different scenario today if say American tech companies had tariffs or taxes imposed on them when they were first rising up, maybe journalism wouldn’t be on the chopping block the way it is currently. There’s a lot of industries, oil and gas immediately comes to mind that we’re not taxing them nearly enough. In fact, we give them money, we give them subsidies. So we give them billions of dollars in subsidies.
So I think you’d find a lot of people on the left in Canada and probably in the US as well, would be very much in favor of raising, dramatically raising the taxes and tariffs on some of these industries, lumber and all these other things that we do trade as countries, the harmful industries. I just want to make sure that that was put out there and especially with the Online News Act here in Canada, that we really, there’s a lot that pro tariffs that we could be doing that we can’t talk about right now because we’re inundated with terrible Trump news.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And let’s not kind of throw the baby out with the bathwater. Tariffs are a commonly used tool. It could be used for many purposes. I mean, the United Auto Workers Union President Sean Fein just came out with a statement this week like saying that the UAW is in favor of tariffs that are going to help the auto manufacturing industry. They’re not like blanket bad or blanket good one way or the other. But FE did also say that he explicitly rejects workers in America being used as political poise in this trade war to demonize immigrants and further fascist agenda. So there is more nuance here than what we’re getting in a lot of the news reports and certainly from them what we’re getting from the White House. So we want to be clear about that too. Building off what Andrea was saying. And we also got to be clear about one other thing when it comes to tariffs here, because the tariffs are not just Trump’s method of diplomatic, strong arming.
They are in fact a key policy that makes the rest of his project work going all the way back to his previous administration. Let’s not forget that the singular like achievement, the biggest achievement from the first Trump administration was a giant tax cut in 2017 that the Congressional budget office estimated at the time would cost $1.9 trillion over 10 years. And Trump has already vowed to make the 2017 cuts permanent and to even add on more tax cuts in his new term. And these are tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations. These are tax cuts that are coming on top of the Bush era tax cuts from 20 years ago. All of this is eroding the tax base that pays for the shit that our government needs or that it is spending money on. And we got to make up for that loss somehow, especially as the Trump administration, like the Biden administration before that keep shelling out money to the military industrial complex.
Trump wants to build his border walls, mobilize like law enforcement, all of that costs money and tariffs are one of Trump’s main answers. The problem of where do we get the money when we’ve been cutting all the taxes of the rich and eroding the American tax base for so long? That’s where you and I come in, as we’ve said consumers, people in these countries working, people like you and me are going to feel the brunt of these tariffs, especially if they’re not offset with increased manufacturing and all that stuff. So, and when those costs are passed on to you and me, it’s not just that we are the ones who are being hurt by the trade war, it’s that the pain that we are feeling in our wallets is paying for these goddamn tax breaks for the rich. That is also another thing to talk about here when we’re talking about tariffs and who they’re actually hurting.
That needs to be understood before we move forward. And also, as Desmond kind of pointed out, and Samir did as well, there is a distraction element here, and Trump already signaled that he claims that these tariff threats were to fight illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl. And then on Monday when he struck this deal with Shine Baum and Trudeau immediately said that we’re going to pause for 30 days until we have this new economic plan with Canada. So it wasn’t about immigrants and it wasn’t about fentanyl or it wasn’t just about those, it’s about restructuring the relationship between these countries. And that may help explain Trump’s ish, like joking, but deadly serious sort of lines about Canada should become the 51st state. I recognize this line as I’m sure you guys do, having grown up in the same generation. Let’s not forget, as I’ve said on this stream, I grew up deeply conservative.
My conservative friends and I in the early aughts loved punching Canada as the 51st state or America’s hat, right? I mean these sort of tired, old conservative jokes are constantly recycled through Trump’s mouth. And so there is an element there that I think we also need to pay attention to when Trump makes these proclamations and invokes like that outdated sort of bullyish humor. What he is trying to do is basically take school yard dick measuring bully stuff and scale it up to the level of international diplomacy because that’s what he wants out of Canada, for Canada to become the sort of subservient sidekick held under America’s arm, getting a nogi and giving us whatever we want. And that’s what he needs the relationship between Canada and the US to be for so much of his other sort of policy goals to actually work. So like Samir said, Canada’s not actually going to become the 51st state, but in invoking that kind of line, Trump is doing this.
Schoolyard bully politics is going to have real long-term implications that are going to not just affect Canadians and Americans, but are going to ripple across the world. So with all of that, I want to turn to what this is going to mean for Canada and Canadians in the coming months, right? We’ve already sort of addressed the fact that this is kind of hitting like a bombshell in an already tumultuous time in Canada. I wanted to ask if we could dig into that a little bit more, and Andrea, I want to come to you and then Samir, then Desmond. But yeah guys, give us a little more, tell us a little more about who Pierre Pev is, what these elections represent, how the new Trump administration is changing the political dynamic in your country.
Andrea Houston:
I mean, Pierre Pollara is somebody that is a type of leader that Canadians are not used to. This is not a traditional Canadian political leader. He could be described as the most online political leader that we’ve ever seen in how he conducts himself, how he runs his campaign. It is very American to a lot of Canadians. And with regard to Polly ever and his rise in Canada, again, you can point to our history as the roadmap for this very similarly, how we can point to American history as the roadmap for Trump. While Canada has certainly done more to look back on our history and the road to reconciliation, we have a truth and reconciliation process that we have gone through, but it’s barely scratched the surface. And there’s a reason why it’s called truth and reconciliation, not truth reconciliation and accountability.
Many people in Canada, myself included, and people in my circles, I put the blame for where we are right now on the shoulders of both liberals and NDP in many ways, especially the NDP for not responding to the moment and not standing up to poly in ways that would have maybe been a clear resistance to this kind of onslaught. And I’m talking back when he first started to really rise up as the leader around the trucker protests, there was moments when we could have had a different outcome to the road that we’re currently on. The NDP had numerous opportunities to swing extremely left doing the kind of policy initiatives that Desmond talked about with housing and climate and populous policies that would’ve really launched a challenge to poly era and the kind of populism that he has put forward that is clearly popular in Canada, that especially out west, this loyalty to oil and gas, connecting the oil and gas industry to Canadian patriotism and the sort of dominion that we do see coming out of the histories of colonialism and white supremacy. It’s all connected, right? When you study these systems, it’s not surprising where we are right now in both of our countries.
Both countries have undemocratic voting systems and our leaders have done everything to maintain that status quo. Even in Canada, when we had a few elections ago, the liberals ran on changing the voting system. That was the main point of 20 fifteen’s election saying this will be the last run on first pass. The post first thing they did when they were elected is they reversed that policy and like, Nope, we’re not going to do that after all. As soon as they figured out that if they did change the voting system, then it would ensure that it wasn’t just a liberal and conservative likely majority government in power. So all of these moments of opportunism, these missed opportunities from the left have all played into this. And then of course, this fragmenting of the left, the populace has also played into this. We don’t have a solid anti-war movement to stand up against Trump. Where are, where’s the media to really highlight the left in Canada? I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen really left wing perspectives on our mainstream media. So we have only ourselves to blame for creating an environment that is fertile for a far right extremist like Pier Pra
Maximillian Alvarez:
Samir, Desmond, anything you want to add to that
Maximillian Alvarez:
Before we talk about what comes next?
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, Pierre Poly is a man for these times, and I firmly agree with Andrea that we created this monster because I don’t think people responded to him the way they should have. He has really become a figure, he’s almost like the little brother that Trump wouldn’t let in the room when they were growing up together. Pierre Pev recently did this interview with Jordan Peterson, and I think it was like 12 hours long. I couldn’t sit through the entire thing, but it was all about woke and DEI. And these are the same things that you’re hearing in the US across the administration right now in the United States. Woke is the enemy. Diversity, equity, inclusion are the reasons why planes are going down. This is what we’re actually seeing replicated in our country. And a lot of the politicians who know that it’s wrong, and I’m speaking about the liberals and the NDP are not pushing back on it the way they should be.
I know that a lot of the things that Pierre Pev says are ridiculous, but they’re also dangerous because they’re not being taken seriously. And it’s unfortunate because in a lot of ways I like to think that Canada is better than that, but we end up just replicating what our neighbors to the South are doing politically, unfortunately, because you have figures, and I don’t know if we’re going to touch on this, but I think it’s really important that Gaza, Palestine, what’s happening over there has really influenced and affected our politics here. A lot of our politicians here in Canada are using what is happening in Gaza as a platform for themselves to try and garner support in the federal election that is coming up. And a lot of them are making some big mistakes in the way they’re responding.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, yeah, say a little more about how,
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, you’re seeing people like we have a member of parliament here named Kevin Vong who runs as an independent in the federal politics. He has really made this his like thing. He even traveled to Israel and we had a whole bunch of our politicians, our prime minister didn’t go, but a whole bunch of these low level politicians going over to Israel and then chirping all over social media about this person is an antisemite or that person is an antisemite and they’re getting a lot of support from communities because of that, right? And we’re not seeing our more left-leaning like the NDP party rising up and speaking out against this in the way that they really should be. They are not responding in the way that they should be. You’re hearing people, say, for instance, recently the reaction to Trump saying that we’re going to own Gaza and we’re going to make a Riviera of the Middle East there, et cetera.
Paul F for instance, didn’t even respond to it. He had nothing to say, but the liberals came out and said, we believe in a two state solution. How can you say you believe in a two state solution when you don’t even recognize officially the other state, meaning Palestine, right? Canada voted at the United Nations to not recognize it. It didn’t recognize Palestine as a state. So how can you say you believe in a two state solution when you don’t even recognize one of the states that you say that you believe there’s a solution to? And the NDP Jagmeet Singh did come out and say that this is a preposterous thing that Trump is saying, but why are we only reacting when says something the same? NDP is not allowing their member of provincial parliament, Sarah Jama, to come back into the fold. So there’s a lot of talking out both sides of their mouths here. And I don’t think people are taking what is happening seriously, because a lot of people are winning on the progressive conservative side are winning writings because of their responses to what is happening in Gaza.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I want to hover on this point for a second. It reveals a lot for the larger conversation that we’re having here, and we’ve got another 30, 40 minutes here on the stream. So I want to kind of zero in on this because as you all have said, there are so many kind of mirror reflections of the political reality in the US that are being reflected in Canada. But there are also many ways in which Canada is not the United States, and so many times, especially here in the us, we just kind of assume what’s happening here. And the conditions that we have here are the same as they are up there, and that is not always the case. And for example, the latest statistics just came out showing that the United States is now in single digit union density numbers, meaning that less than 10% of workers across this country are in a union.
Canada has around 30%, which is where we used to be at our height back in the fifties and early sixties. So you can’t just talk about the labor movement in the US and Canada as if they’re the same thing. So the point I’m trying to make here is that when it comes to the role of Gaza Israel and its genocidal US and Canada supported war on Gaza and the right of Palestinians to exist, I wanted to ask in terms of how that is shaping the political scene in Canada. What factors are the same Israel’s lobbying influence relatively similar in Canada as it is here in the United States, is the crackdown from universities to the media on pro-Palestinian anti genocide voices following the same kind of playbook is the involvement of big tech. You guys have had Facebook intervening in your news feeds in a way that we haven’t in the past couple years. So I just wanted to kind of through the question of Gaza, sort of try to answer some of those other questions about how circumstances in Canada are very similar to what they are here and also how they are not.
Samira Mohyeddin:
We should start.
Yeah, who do you want to take that on? I mean, in terms of the university campuses, it’s identical. Not so much. We haven’t gotten to the place where we speaking about Zionism as a protected class of people. I think NYU and Harvard both now are seeing Zionists as a protected class like any other race, gender. So we have a political ideology being protected and that is unheard of. We haven’t done that here yet. However, I can tell you that there are numerous professors, numerous students who have been chided for speaking out against genocide, dean’s, provost bringing people in, and the students who were on the University of Toronto encampment were actually taken to court. They were part of an injunction that the university got to have the encampment disbanded. So we don’t have things here like apac, but we certainly have cja, the Center for Israeli Jewish Affairs.
They may not be doling out the same amount of money that politicians in the US get, but they’re still getting free trips to Israel and they’re still getting some funding. So there is, it’s like a little baby replication. We just don’t have that type of funding. But we haven’t gone there yet. The UFT has not adopted ira, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which conflates antisemitism with critiques of Israel, but we certainly had our Canadian Broadcasting corporation use that term, use that definition when they recently gave a workshop to their journalists. So these things are happening here, just not on such a grand scale.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah. Desmond, what about you, man? I see you shaking over there. You got a lot to say. It doesn’t have to necessarily be about Gaza, but yeah, hop in here. Are there other kind of aspects that are similar or distinctly different that you want to highlight or other kind of areas in which this is reshaping the political map in Canada that you want folks to pay attention to?
Andrea Houston:
Sorry, is that for me?
Maximillian Alvarez:
So I was tossing it to Desmond just because I feel like I skipped Desmond by accident.
Desmond Cole:
No, no, no. That’s okay. I mean, it’s public, so I might as well say it on this stream. I’m one of, I believe just over a hundred people in the city of Toronto anyway who have been arrested, and I’m still facing charges because I participated in a Palestine solidarity demonstration last January. We are being treated for these acts as though we are not just allegedly breaking the laws of Canada, but that we are also doing something specifically harmful to the Jewish communities in Canada. That’s the allegation, and I say that specifically because there’s been a lot of conflation, as Samir said, with this idea that if you speak out for Palestinian life and liberation in this moment, it’s because you are an antisemite because you want something specifically bad to happen, not even around Israel, but to Jews all over the world, wherever they happen to be, including in Canada, an absurd claim. So I’ve been caught up in that. I’ve been reporting on other people who have been caught up on it. Samir has been doing some of the best work in this country around that, and we salute that.
It’s been a really awful climate. Canada’s been an enabler of the United States and of Israel. Canada sent weapons to Israel in the last 15 months, but has been doing that for the partnership has decades old Canada’s policy towards Israel and Israeli aggression inside of Gaza and Palestine. They align pretty, I think directly Israel makes the decisions about what’s going to happen in that region and it’s allies, Canada, United States, Germany, France, great Britain. They say, what do you need? How can we help you to the detriment of the Palestinian people? It’s a little different here, I think because the Muslim population, the Arab population, not so much the specifically Palestinian, but the Muslim and Arab population in this country has a fair amount of influence. A growing, I would say, amount of influence in Canada, has people elected in government, has large organizations that have a voice and is part of a lot of conversations that can put a lot of pressure on the government.
And I think Canada has tried to tread a little more carefully than Joe Biden did in the United States during his time. Canada has tried to portray itself as being more even-handed, even signaling towards the formal end of this conflict that maybe it was going to start withholding some weapons in some circumstances that maybe it was going to change its votes at the UN in some circumstances in order to signal to people that it was getting frustrated with Israel’s ongoing siege. But for the most part, I think those things have been similar between the two countries. I think I actually wanted to go back to this idea of the trade and the things like this because we were talking about Pier Polley of the leader of the federal conservative party. So he just recently came out this week with a statement about what he wants to do with fentanyl.
He’s trying to appear as though he’s taking Trump’s fake claims about fentanyl very seriously and that he’s going to do something about it if he’s elected prime minister of Canada. So now he has a proposal that says if he becomes Prime Minister, he’s going to propose a legal change that if you’re caught selling 20 to 40 milligrams of fentanyl, you’ll automatically receive a 15 year sentence. So we are reviving the war on drugs that has existed in this country for decades that we’ve been trying to fight so hard to get rid of. And then he says, if you have 40 milligrams or above, then you get an automatic life sentence. This is his proposal to try and demonstrate how tough that he is. And I bring that up. I want to demonstrate that there are consequences for how people say that they’re going to kind of pursue remedies to this trade war between the United States and Canada that are going to have really, really bad harmful outcomes, not for because this policy by Paul, he’s so stupid.
He claims that that policy is to target who he calls drug kingpins, a kingpin carrying 20 milligrams of fentanyl. That’s somebody who’s probably got that amount of drugs to feed a habit, to sell a little bit to some people around them and to have some for themselves. That’s what 20 milligrams is. It’s not a kingpin of drugs, but because of the specter raised by Trump and because conservative forces in this country want to be seen to respond to that, now we have a renewed kind of front on the war on drugs when we should be going the complete opposite direction. So I just want to say that to talk about some of the impacts that it has domestically on us to have to deal with these things.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I really, really appreciate those points and I
Maximillian Alvarez:
Do in this kind of last half hour, really want to kind of channel our focus on what this is all going to mean for working people, regular people who are trying to get by in a world that is making it increasingly hard for us to do so. And now we got all this shit kind of piling on top of us, but for your average viewer, I want us to talk about what we’re facing and how we actually see our fates as necessarily intertwined. And whatever we do to resist this and get out of it is going to need to be done with a kind of cross border sense of solidarity that allows us to see beyond our own domestic sphere. So I want us to talk about that in this last half hour, but by way of getting us there, Andrea, I did want to toss it back to you in case you had any other thoughts about kind of like yeah, how this week’s bombshell is reshaping the political map, how we got the current political map in Canada that we got. Why is PEV ascending and so popular? What explains this right wing drift that maybe we haven’t covered yet? Anything like that that you wanted to get on the table too?
Andrea Houston:
Well, the short answer is white supremacy. That is the short answer. I mean it’s oil and gas I think is a big part of this. I think that the binds both of our countries, and we can see that in the groups that have been at the forefront of the Project 2025 document, the Heritage Foundation and the Atlas Foundation, and a lot of these sort of far right groups that are, some of them started in Canada, some of them started in the us but they definitely work in both countries and they’re very much interconnected in the lobbying efforts that they do. So I really think that we have to follow the money good journalists do and we follow that money through the groups that are advocating and lobbying and pushing for these wild policies, these crazy policies. I mentioned American exceptionalism before, but there’s also Canadian exceptionalism, right?
This idea that we as North American white people have a more claim to the land, more claim to policy, more claim to direct how things should happen around the world, where the money should flow and who should benefit. And I think that when we really name this, this is not just an American problem, this is a Canadian problem. And again, it’s how both of our intertwined histories of really played out. I actually do think that Canada could become the 51st state. I actually do think that there is a real possibility that Canada could be annexed, that I think our resources, particularly our water and our oil and gas and natural minerals, like the minerals that power the EVs and phones and all that other stuff, the green transition as it’s like to be sold to us, I think is extremely appealing. Whether Trump is smart enough to understand the wealth that he can glean from Canada, the people who surround him most certainly do. And I think that that is a plan for him. Whether he knows how to strategically to execute that plan, I don’t know. But I do think that that is absolutely on the table is something that could happen. And I don’t know what Canada could really do to stop it, to be honest with you,
Maximillian Alvarez:
Burn the
Andrea Houston:
White House, we’ll burn down the White House again. Again.
Maximillian Alvarez:
But is I think a really crucial point, right? Because we are in a new era. I mean, whatever it is, we know it’s not the old one. This is not neoliberalism, this is something new. This is a 21st century where the sort of inviable kind of discourse that we grew up with is very viable right now, by which I mean the very concept of national sovereignty and just people a country’s right to exist and not be invaded. I mean, we grew up sort of believing that, yeah, we don’t do that anymore, but here we are in 2025, Trump’s talking about taking Greenland, taking back the Panama Canal, annexing Canada is the 51st state. Now, of course, the tragic comic irony of all this is that indigenous people here in North America will remind us. People in the global south around the world will remind us that we have been violating other countries, national sovereignty and right to exist in perpetuity.
I mean, that is what we have been doing through our imperial exploits for decades. But that also helps explain what’s happening now because folks watching may have heard the refrain that the empire is coming home. I mean, it always comes back. And that is in many ways, sort of what’s so shocking to people right now. We could 20 years ago be perfectly fine with compromising and violating the national sovereignty of a country like Iraq, but now when we’re talking about doing it to Canada, suddenly everybody is spooked because it’s so close to home. But to Andrea’s point, I mean, I think it really does behoove us to sort of consider this as not just Trumpian bluster and not just sound in fury, though it is a lot of that too. But when Trump says he wants to take Greenland, it’s not for nothing. It’s because Greenland has all the goddamn minerals that we want and want to take for our economic future as green technologies become in higher demand to say nothing of the shipping roots and military strategic positioning of Greenland, as climate change gets worse and as the ice melts and opens up new routes that we want to have control over.
So there is a logic underlying these ridiculous claims about Trump wanting to take Greenland or even Trump wanting to take Canada, whose biggest export is crude oil, right?
Desmond Cole:
I mean, okay, can I say something though? Because yeah, maybe there’s a certain logic there, but these are allied countries. These are countries that as Trudeau was trying to remind everyone the other day have gone to war together and have died alongside of each other. These are countries who are part of the five eyes. These are countries that are part of nato. The idea that Canada is the number one threat or conquest in the eyes of the United States right now is it’s pretty fucking stupid. I’m sorry. At the end of it, we’re not the target we’re being played with so many other countries are being played with because I think that there’s a certain strategic kind of chaos that Trump is trying to sow, as has already been said here, because it also helps him domestically looking like he’s beating up on all these other countries, helps him look strong at home, and it distracts from things that are happening at home.
It’s very convenient for him to do that. We just can’t formulate a politics about worrying about whether or not we’re going to be annexed. Why would you annex your partner when they’re having such nice, Trump was the one that negotiated the Kmsa trade agreement just like five years ago with Trudeau and with Mexico. The idea that he’s not getting everything that he needs or that country isn’t, or that they’re going to upend everything. We have to remember some of these things when Trump says, I’m going to put troops in Gaza. Does the United States actually want to send people there? Does the man who campaigned on saying that all the wars were going to end and all of this nation building was going to stop? Is he really going to be able to turn on a dime and convince people, actually we just have to start putting boots on the ground and all these other parts of the world.
We’re going to be following this little toy on a string for the entire four years if it goes like this. I do think we have to be somewhat careful. And just to the other point that was being brought up before about leftist or leftish entities in Canada, like the new Democrat party, the NDP, I’m guilty of what I’m about to say. So I’m speaking as much to myself as I am to anyone out there listening. But the only way that the NDP is ever going to accept a leftist agenda is if there’s essentially a socialist takeover of that party or if they collapse and there’s a new party that comes up in their place. That’s it. The people who run that party today don’t share the socialist values that maybe some of us do. They just don’t. And they’re not going to take socialist positions out of political opportunism.
I’m saying that knowing people like Sarah Jama, who’s been brought up in this conversation, who are formerly part of the NDP, who really believe this stuff, who are actually trying to shift politics in a more socialist egalitarian direction. Those people are the minority. And the reason that I still kind of orient a lot of my thinking towards the NDPs. I know that there’s people like that in there, and it’s like y’all are trapped because you’re in an entity that wants to bring you along for the ride, but is not about to move to the left. And so when I say this, I’m thinking for Canada, and I’m thinking for Americans who had some hope in Bernie Sanders a little while back and who’ve been looking to the Democrats and being really disappointed that the Democrats don’t stand up to Republicans, we have to stop asking political entities that don’t explicitly have a socialist or leftist agenda to do so out of pragmatism. It’s just not going to happen.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I think that’s really, really clearly and powerfully put, brother. I think something that we all need to sit with and
Maximillian Alvarez:
Something that folks here in the states are trying to kind of work through too. Because when we say the left, I don’t know who that means here or what that means. I think a lot of folks are kind of waking up to the reality that we and others have been warning about for years, which is if Trump comes back, or even if Harris wins and the Democrats prove that they can win without the Bernie wing of the party, then where does the left live? What is the left? Are these terms even useful anymore in the kind of world that we’re living in? That’s a subject for another live stream. But these are the questions that we were kind of asking ourselves right now. But more than that, and again, sticking with the sort of theme here, we’ve got to be looking and thinking and acting bigger.
The left is not, there is no sizable left in the United States to mobilize that even if it was mobilized around a united front back in the forties, could take on the raid forces that are taking over the government right now. It does not exist. And so if you want to fight this, and if you want a world that is different from the one we’re careening towards, you need to stop trying to organize the left. You need to start trying to organize the working class. You need to get out there and talk to your neighbors, workers union, non-union, anyone and everyone that you can to bring us around kind of a shared basis of fact-based reality, like basic human rights and principles, just like the most essential shit that actually unites us. But as far as what that means on the institutional left in this country, again, even if we have an answer to that, it’s a combination of DSA nonprofits, community orgs, all of which are doing invaluable work, but none of which actually have the size and capacity to be a robust bull work against what’s happening right now. So I think we do need to really have some hard questions.
Samira Mohyeddin:
We need small acts from millions of people, and I firmly believe that that is what needs to happen. I mean, I’ll just give you an example, max. We live in a country here in Canada that has a lot of monopolies on different sectors. So for instance, I mean Desmond brought up the Western family. This is a family here who owns multiple grocery chains that really just, and they were involved in, what was that bread they were fixing? The price of
Desmond Cole:
Price fixing. Yeah,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Okay. That’s a reason to have a revolution if you’re in France, people in Canada need to understand the powers that they have. There was a whole movement, the chain is called Loblaw. There was a whole movement to boycott Loblaw right now when these tariffs, they were talking about them. There is Independent Grocers Federation here in Canada, 7,000 independent grocers. I firmly believe that people should just stop shopping at these big grocery stores and support the mom and pop shops at the corner. Trust me, their produce is amazing. They may not have certain things, but you don’t need that right now. I really think that people need to start doing these small acts of being more conscious of where they spend their money, what they do with it, and who they’re giving it to. It makes a difference. BDS, and I’ll bring this back to Gaza again. BDS makes a difference. Companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s are hurting right now, and they have been upfront that it’s hurting them. So I think people need to realize the power of their own pockets.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, I mean, I think that’s a great sort of lead into this kind of final turnaround, the table, right? I mean, I wanted to ask a, we did pose the question right about the deal that was struck between Canada and the US this week, and it feels like there’s a lot of sound in fury. There are some additional resources being committed, but a lot of the details of this new economic plan between Canada and the US have yet to be seen. We’re going to find out in the coming weeks, but I think one of the key questions that’s come out of this discussion is what other concessions will Trump be able to extract out of Canada and Mexico to align them with his own policy priorities to avoid these tariff threats in the future? And so that’s a question that we all need to be asking ourselves moving forward.
So if any of you have something to say on that, this last term would be our time to do it, but also the soul of the kind of question I wanted to ask given that we’re all in the media. We all work in independent media. We are all trying to report on the stuff that matters, and we all believe that people with good information are the stewards of democracy. They’re the ones that we’re trying to inform so that they can safeguard the society that we’re trying to build here and take care of and all that good stuff. Point being is that as media makers, as people in North America facing this shit, and as people who live in countries, that so much of what happens in the coming years here in the United States is going to depend on how Canada and the US respond to it and vice versa. So with all that in mind, how do we get ourselves, everyone watching right now, the folks that we do journalism for, how do we get people to see our fates as intertwined and to see these domestic issues through an international lens, and what opportunities does that give us to resist what’s coming? So there’s a lot there. Please take whichever question you want. Don’t answer all of them, but anything you guys want to say in this final round, Samir? I’ll start again with you and then Andrea, then Desmond,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Close us out. I’m talking too much. Start with Andrea.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right, Andrea, we’ll start with you.
Andrea Houston:
Okay. I mean, I think the left has to start with a new baseline. I think we need to recalibrate what it means to be on the left and problematic with that term as it is, obviously. But I think the baseline for any movement going forward, for us to collaborate and come together, cross borders, but also globally, we have to agree on democracy and human rights as a baseline, and that has to also be an anti-capitalist analysis. The problem with, as Des was talking about with the NDP and has been a concern for the left in both of our countries is that the left is an anti-capitalist. The Democrats in your country are not anti-capitalist. They’re very much very capitalist, which is breeding all of these issues. We can’t all agree on something when we’re talking about Gaza, whether we’re talking about housing, whether we’re talking about corporations and corporate tax rates, whether we’re talking about any of these issues, climate change, the fundamental facts of climate change, we can’t agree on because of capitalism.
We have to make concessions to corporations. We have to create these kangaroo courts that corporations can go and say, well, these climate activists are cutting into my profits and therefore they can take activists to court. Activists are going to jail because they’re standing up for human dignity, for the possibility of future generations to have a future. God forbid. I think we need to recalibrate, recalibrate what it means to be a left wing person, what it means to support democracy and human rights. We’re living in not just tumultuous times politically, but tumultuous times in our world. I don’t have to tell anybody listening or anybody on this panel the reality of the climate crisis, but it’s so much worse than what we’ve been told so much worse. We are living in a collapse, and I think we need to recalibrate how we talk about the climate crisis.
We are living in an era of collapse and everything that we’re seeing from the rise of dictators, from the shift to far right politics all around the world, to the rise of anti-gay laws, an increase in anti-gay laws in places like Uganda to everything that we’re seeing right now can really be traced back to we’re living through an era of collapse. Meta crisis is actually what it’s called by climate scientists. And so a lot of what I’m seeing is filtered through this lens, and I agree with Samira small acts, we need much more people to come out and do those small acts, take to the streets, join us in protest, stand up locally, get to know your neighbors, mutual aid, all of those things. But we also need big acts. I’m reading how to blow up a pipeline right now, and I know I’m late to the game, but I want big acts, want to see people take big swings.
I want people to really put their bodies on the line, their lies on the line. That’s what it’s going to take. I wouldn’t ask anybody to put themselves in danger, but I think that we are going to all face that in our life at some point over the next five to 10 years, whether we actually see the collapse of our democracy. I think that’s possible. I think that’s on the table, whether we’re seeing collapses of economies all around the world, we’ve already seen that more displaced people, more refugees, more economies in disarray. And so it’s really important that we recalibrate how we talk about these issues and we stop being a slave to capitalism and we stand up and say, unapologetically what this means and what is coming down the pipe. Don’t be afraid to be that annoying person at parties. I know I have been for many, many years, so I think it’s totally fine, but I do think that building the big tent of workers of different movements, L-G-B-T-Q, people, women, civil rights movements all around the world, we all have to come together under a uniform to just help humanity and human rights and democracy.
That has to be the baseline
Samira Mohyeddin:
And not be cynical about those two words too, because we’ve allowed the right to take those two words and ruin them where you see a human, the entire rules-based order and all of these things, I mean, the West went and died in Gaza. So these terms that we’re using, we have to sort of breed life into them again because they’ve been killed in such an abhorrent way. And I’m all for big X, big X, but I’m just one person. What I can say though, before I let Desmond come in here, is to support your independent local media support, the people who are talking about these things, who are covering these things. You have to pay for journalism. It’s not free. We do this work. It’s exhausting. Sometimes there’s only one or two of us. It may look like there’s a lot of us on a team, but sometimes there’s only one or two people, and we’re trying to bring these stories to you. They’re important. And when we do, don’t call us alarmist. Shit’s crumbling, and we’re just sounding the alarm. So don’t shoot the messenger.
Desmond Cole:
A couple of things. So when it comes to what’s going to happen now with the relationship between the two countries, I don’t want to make too much of a big prediction here, but I do kind of feel like Trump has played a lot of his hand when it comes to Canada and the United States. I don’t think what he’s going to be dangling the tariffs sword of Damocles over our head every month for the next 18 months or something. Like he went for it. He got some disruption. He got some really weak concessions because remember Trudeau already said he was going to do a bunch of things at the border before this threat, and when he announced the Fentanyl czar and all these things, he just announced all the things that he had already promised he was going to do. So I don’t know that Canada’s going to be reaching back into the bag to find all of these new concessions for Trump going forward.
I think he’s gotten a lot of what he’s going to get already. And like I said, I don’t think harassing Canada for the next four years is his plan. This is good for him for now. He’s getting what he needs right now. We’re in week four of this man’s administration, and I don’t even think we’re four weeks in. It’s just felt that way, right? So I think we’ve seen a lot of what we’re going to see on this, and things will hopefully start to recalibrate. I do agree with Samira that there are opportunities now that this conversation has sparked a weird kind of nationalism. It takes a lot to get Canadians fired up about living in their own country, but somehow this conversation has managed to do that. And if we’re able to take that energy, right, the breach just had an interesting podcast conversation last week with Stuart True, who’s at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, and he was talking about this really feels like Green New Deal conversations.
Again, where we’re looking at, for example, we say Canada’s not for sale, and then we say, please buy our oil. Please keep buying our oil. Don’t mess with oil. You know what I mean? It’s very, very silly. But if we weren’t so oil reliant as a country between our relationship with Canada and the United States, that might make us a little secure in the future, that this wouldn’t be able to happen again in the same way we wouldn’t be able to be threatened again. So there are opportunities to do things like that. There are opportunities not simply to buy local. And by the way, there was this really funny list out there telling people to go and for example, don’t shop at Tim, it’s American. Sorry, don’t shop at Starbucks because it’s American shop at Tim Horton’s, a good Canadian brand, which has been owned by Brazilian company for several years now, right?
So we got to brush up on our nationalism. There’s a lot of phony shit going on out there right now. People don’t actually know as individuals what to do, nor should they, because it’s not your individual responsibility to stop Trump and as tariffs. But you might want to try and use this opportunity to start thinking about how do we support people to have decent jobs in Canada, not just buy some products that have a Canada flag on them, but actually supporting better labor in this country. Because what corporate interests want to do in this moment is they want to be like, you know how we should fight back against these tariffs? We should lower taxes. We should get rid of all of the regulations. We should do all of the things that corporate agenda always wants us to do, and that’ll help. But I think we need to actually be pushing backwards in the other direction and being like, wouldn’t it be great if Canada was a place where we were providing better jobs?
Wouldn’t it be great with all of these threats of deporting people in the United States? If Canada was thinking how we could support people, how are we going to support queer people, particularly trans people who are so under assault in the United States? A lot of them are going to try and leave America, and no one can blame them for doing that because of all of the legal crackdowns that are happening. I know people in this country who have been making plans before Trump got elected. How are we going to support trans people coming here and starting a new life because it’s not going to be safe for them to exist as themselves in the United States any further. These are things that we can do as we continue our work and try to continue taking advantage of this moment and what this moment is revealing to us about some of the problems of how we live.
But yes, I agree of also this idea of small acts can mean a lot. Working in our communities locally can mean a lot. It can mean a lot more than people sometimes give it credit for. We talk about a lot of big issues on conversations like this, and it might feel alienating to people, but there’s always something happening in your local community, whether that be around housing or rents that are really expensive to pay, and tenant organizations getting together to support one another, or whether that be about local food issues. There’s always something happening in your neighborhood where you can begin or continue planting these seeds, meeting people, having conversations and organizing. So it’s not all bad news and it’s not all bleak, and we wouldn’t be able to continue doing this work if we didn’t have some hope that something could change in the future.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Oh yeah, I think that’s a beautiful
Maximillian Alvarez:
Point to end on. And we are coming up on our time here. And before we wrap up formally one more time, I really want to thank our incredible guests, Andrea Houston of Ricochet Media, Desmond Cole from the Breach and Samira Moine of On The Line Media. And I want to personally urge all of y’all out there to please support their work and support their outlets because we need them now more than ever, but our work cannot continue without your support. And that is certainly true for us here at The Real News as well. We need you to become a real news member today. Your membership and your support directly translates to more journalism, more live streams like this, more interviews with frontline workers and people brutalized by the police, indigenous Land defenders, more documentaries from Gaza, India, Canada, the US and beyond. We’ve been publishing this stuff year after year, but we can’t keep doing it without you.
So don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. Hit the bell icon so you never miss one of our new reports. And remember, we do not get YouTube advertising money or accept corporate funds. Our survival depends on you. You keep us going, and together we can keep covering the stories that matter, the stories that others won’t cover. And as we close out today’s live stream, I got one more thing I want to say on the topic of independent media and the importance of journalism that still believes in truth and showing the truth and taking together everything that we’ve been talking about tonight and everything that’s going on around us right now. These Trump trade wars, the mass deportations, the emboldened fascists, and outright Nazis who are mobilizing online and offline right now Trump’s horrifying and publicly stated plans for Gaza. These Musk led techno fascists in Silicon Valley oligarchs carrying out a coup on what’s left of our democracy, taking over and shutting down whole government offices, accessing and potentially exposing basically all of our sensitive data and our bank accounts.
And when you add onto this, the fracturing of the digital media ecosystem that we had when Trump was last elected eight years ago with top-down decisions from big tech about injecting AI slop and misinformation into our feeds, or removing news on Canadian Facebook feeds with people fleeing platforms like X and Facebook that they feel are compromised, and with pages and accounts on those platforms getting banned left and right, and with all these pieces falling into place, setting up a free speech, smashing McCarthy, McCarthy Witch hunt on pro-Palestine, anti genocide voices, protests, media outlets, nonprofits. I honestly can’t tell you. I know what’s going to happen in the coming months and years. None of us can, but I want to close with what I do know after interviewing workers for years, I know and have seen the indelible truth upon which the entire labor movement is based, that none of us has the power to take on the bosses alone, but we do have the power to take them on together as individual subjects, as individual media outlets.
None of us can fight what’s happening and what’s coming on our own. We are simply outmatched and outgunned, and that is a fact, and that is why every move these oligarchs make every message they send through their right wing propaganda machine is specifically designed to put us in the powerless position of atomized, isolated, angry, anxious, distrustful, and fearful individuals. They need working people to be divided for all of this to work. They need us to not give a shit about Canadian or Mexican workers so that we cheer on these tariffs that are going to hurt them and us. They need us to not give a shit about immigrants or to actively see them as our enemy for these fascist immigration raids to continue and these concentration camps to be constructed, all while the billionaires, bosses, corporations, tech firms, and Wall Street vampires are robbing us blind.
They need us to not give a shit about union workers and the value that unions have for all of us so that we remain indifferent to the fact that Trump is doing corporate America’s bidding right now by smashing the National Labor Relations Board and effectively rendering most of labor, law and workers’ rights null and void in this country. You want to resist this. Start by resisting every urge that you have, every urge you’ve been conditioned to feel, resist every tempting command you get from people like Trump and Musk and Polly Ev to see your fellow workers as your enemy, Canadian workers and their families, Mexican workers, Americans, immigrant workers, trans and queer workers union and non-union workers. Workers who live in red states and who live in blue states. They want us to focus on what makes us different. So we don’t realize how much more we all have in common with each other than we do with fucking billionaires and zealots who are smashing everything and refashioning our government right now and our economy in order to keep empowering and enriching themselves at our expense.
But we need to do more than resist right now on the individual level. We need to build a real and durable infrastructure that will enable us to survive and resist long-term as a collective, an infrastructure that is welded together by solidarity and tangible commitment. We journalists and media makers across the us, Canada, and Mexico need to form a North American Free Press Alliance with the explicit goal of not only defending journalism, free speech and the people’s right to the truth, but to create a common ground where working people across our countries can find informational stability, where we can find each other and work together on a shared plane of fact-based reality and commitment to basic ass human rights. We need to harness our existing tools and assets to build the infrastructure for a network that will connect us across borders, languages, and algorithmic echo chambers, provide collective protection against censorship and provide working people in North America with news stories, context and analysis that helps us understand what’s happening in our own countries and across the continent through an internationalist lens and with an unwavering commitment to truth class, solidarity and humanity, and a livable planet.
And that network must not and cannot be existentially dependent on these oligarch controlled social media platforms. Doing this, I would argue, is not only necessary as an emergency measure to ensure our survival, but it is necessary for all of us to fulfill our duty to the public as journalists, and to carry out our missions as media making outlets that exist to inform the public with the truth and to empower people to be the change that they’re waiting for. But we won’t do any of this if we just sit and wait. I know that much. I know that competition between journalists and media outlets right now will be a death sentence. Solidarity and collaboration will be our salvation if we choose it. If we don’t stand together, if we just focus on protecting our individual organizations and our subscriber lists and followers, it will be that much easier to pick us off one by one. And for your own sake and for all of ours, don’t let them take action now. Get off the sidelines and get into the fight before it’s too late for The Real News Network and for the whole crew here who has made this live stream happen. This is Maximilian Alvarez signing off. Please take care of yourselves and take care of each other, solidarity forever.
Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories and struggles that you care about most, and we need your help to keep doing this work. So please tap your screen now, subscribe and donate to The Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
At the risk of writing a numbed monotone in response to fifteen months of reported Israeli war crimes in Gaza l note here some of the lesser known efforts to resist the genocide in Gaza. No legal system has countered the atrocities against civilians, civilian infra-structure, humanitarian support, medical and health care, Palestine’s culture, Gaza’s habitat. Governments which have signed the Convention on Genocide have not intervened. And the U.S. has vetoed U.N. and Security Council resolutions toward peace and impeded application of international laws which might prevent the genocide.
The International Criminal Court and the Court of International Justice at the Hague are delaying decisions which could risk countries allied with or supplying Israel with armaments, to prosecution for complicity in genocide. Donald Trump as U.S. President, will likely try to destroy international courts or force them to drop allegations of genocide against Israel and its leaders.
If for genocide resistance one looks to the American military which helped liberate the Nazi concentration camps of WWII, current U.S. policy prefers to assign the New Jersey National Guard to protect oilfields in Syria rather than starving Gazans. U.S. military law is interwoven with the laws of warfare, forbids war crimes, and avoids overt political statements.
Canadian law is inter-reliant on and subject to international law. An ally of U.S. foreign policy Canada is vulnerable to retribution from international justice where the U.S. is not. By ignoring Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide Canada’s Liberal government risks charges of complicity. Former General Romeo Dallaire, a hero to Canadians for his efforts to stop a Rwandan genocide, has called Israel’s actions in Gaza, a genocide.
As government efforts fail, nonviolent attempts to stop the genocide in Gaza rely increasingly on people. There is adequate verifiable evidence to present cases in individual countries under domestic laws, to bring to justice Israeli acts and atrocities.
In Canada a case was brought on October 6, 2024 in Ontario Superior Court, which addresses the issue of genocide directly. The Coalition for Canadian Accountability has alleged that Canada has failed to act to prevent genocide in Gaza, violating rights of Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Since early November little information about the case appears in the press or alternative media. The independent human rights organization Just Peace Advocates (mouvement pour une Paix juste) provides resources for concerned activists.
In the U.S., November 2023, Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden was brought in Federal District Court, Oakland California, attempting to sue U.S. officials Biden, Blinken and Austin for complicity in genocide so that arms shipment to Israel might be stopped. The case was put aside by a familiar legal technicality; the essential allegation was not refuted.
On December 19th 2024, a “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief” was brought in Northern California District Court by taxpayers against their Congresspeople, Seth Donnelly et. al. v. Mike Thompson, and Jared Huffman, a complaint charging the lawmakers with complicity in genocide through the misuses of taxpayer money in funding the Israeli military. I find no U.S. or international media news coverage of the case until January 3rd, 2025, in Marjorie Cohn’s thorough article (“‘We Have to Act’: Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers for Funding Genocide Speak Out,” Marjorie Cohn, Jan. 3, 2025, Truthout) appearing in alternative media.
These brave instances also suggest 1. the failure of the U.S. or Canadian legal systems to address domestically atrocity crimes committed by U.S./Israeli joint citizens; 2. the failure of the U.S. legal system to address complicity in the crime of genocide directly; 3. a North American fear in reporting actions that resist government crimes; 4. a generalized fear of physical retribution, economic retribution, professional retribution and criminalization of those resisting.
The legal systems of other countries are allowing application of laws against war crimes, where Canada and the U.S. are not.
he Hind Rajab Foundation, located in Belgium is possibly the most effective group currently attempting to bring to justice those committing war crimes in Palestine. In October 2024 it filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against a thousand named Israeli Defense Forces soldiers as war criminals in Gaza. And it has brought over fifty cases against IDF reservists in for example South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Thailand, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Cyprus, Argentina.
A Hind Rajab Foundation’s leader is identified by the Israeli press as pro-Hezbollah, ie. partisan ‘on the other side,’ which is a way of avoiding the basic issue of human rights as transgressed by atrocity crimes. Pro-Israeli interests consider all opposition pro-Palestinian rather than as defenders of human rights. As “enemies” they risk retribution by IDF forces throughout the world. Israel’s policy of containing reports of its war crimes is apparent in the ban of foreign journalists in Gaza, the targeting of journalists, and the abnormally high casualty rate of media workers.
Since the commission of atrocity crimes is not normal human behavior the Israeli Defense Forces are being stripped of their own humanity to commit crimes they will eventually be prosecuted for. To say that IDF military are “free” human beings is not true. To say that an entire nation of Israelis is being enslaved by its own war crimes is worth some thought. There is little evidence of attempts from within Israel itself, to counter genocide. When international law is understood as the most humane way to protect against the greed of some powerful elite, the genocide in Gaza may stop.
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.
Toronto police say they found a rifle and bullets at the home of a genocidal Jewish supremacist activist who they accuse of uttering death threats. It’s a sign of the violent fascistic tendencies of the city’s Israel supporters.
Eli Schwarz was charged and arrested with uttering death threats and careless storage of a firearm. The 38-year-old resident of Vaughan is alleged to have made threatening statements during a pro-genocide demonstration in Toronto on Sunday. Police say Schwarz threatened “grievous harm” against counter demonstrators during a weekly “rally for Israel” and told an officer he was a member of Kahane Chai (Kach), which Public Safety Canada classifies as a Jewish extremist terrorist entity.
On Monday, Toronto Police say they searched Schwarz ‘s home and discovered Kahane Chai branded clothing. They also found a rifle and scope, 10 boxes of ammunition and a body armour vest.
Schwarz is a prominent pro-Israel activist. In the summer he drove an anti-Palestinian and Muslim digital advertising truck organized by a group calling itself Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses.
First seen at the large June 9, 2024, Walk for Israel, the van read “Is this Lebanon? Is this Yemen? Is this Syria? Is this Iraq?” The vehicle then displayed Muslims praying and protesting in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square with Palestinian flags. The ad then says, “No. This is Canada. Wake up Canada. You are under siege.” Many politicians denounced the van’s messaging as Islamophobic.
Schwarz was regularly at pro-genocide counter protests at the University of Toronto. “Eli Schwarz was constantly outside of the Palestine student encampment at occupy U of T”, reported Samira Mohyeddin, a former CBC journalist. On one occasion Mohyeddin filmed Schwarz, wearing a Jewish Defense League (JDL) hat, next to Meir Weinstein, who formerly lead the violent and racist Canadian branch of JDL (in 2001, the FBI labeled the US JDL a “right-wing terrorist group” and a sister Kahanist organization in Israel was outlawed).
Schwarz’ threats and guns shouldn’t surprise. On a slew of occasions Israel supporters have been recorded threatening violence and Weinstein organized day-long firearms courses under the slogan “Every Jew a .22”. At an April 2024 meeting of the Toronto Police Service Board, film producer Jonathan Pottins said his anti-Palestinian milieu was buying arms. “Everyone I know is getting armed and that should scare everyone,” Pottins told the public meeting.
“Nothing says never again: Like an armed Jew. Jews can shoot. Jews can shoot”, is a patch associated with Magen Herut. With roots in the pre-Israeli state Irgun terror group, Magen Herut Canada members provide “security” at pro-Israel events and descended on the University of Toronto to intimidate students opposing genocide. Members of the vigilante force usually have experience in policing, security or the military. MHC is one of a number Zionist groups in Toronto offering free workshops of Krav Maga, a martial art used by the Israeli military.
Toronto is rife with violent Jewish supremacists. Yet, it is those opposing Israel’s slaughter that are portrayed as dangerous.
Yves Engleris the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is “Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy”.
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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.
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
A widely known caution advises people not to put all their eggs in one basket.
An exemplar is Canada. Has Canada put too many of its eggs in its basket of trade with the United States?
Of course, Canada’s trade is not completely reliant on the United States, but it has cast its lot so much into the American camp that it has cut off or damaged opportunities to diversify its trade. As the junior partner, population-wise, in the trade partnership, Canada’s sovereignty and national dignity are being impugned in full view of Canadians and the rest of the world. US president Donald Trump, on the other hand comes off as a bully and a buffoon to the rest of the world, as well as critically thinking Americans.
Trump demeans Canada’s current prime minister (which isn’t hard to do), and by extension Canadians, by referring to Justin Trudeau as a governor of the 51st US state. He says he is going to impose a 25% tariff starting on 1 February because he claims that Canada is an unfair trader.
The accusation is absurd. Is the US forced to buy from Canada? Should Canada be required to buy items that it doesn’t need or want?
Trump says that the US doesn’t need Canada’s oil, lumber, etc. If so, then that is fine. Then just don’t buy. But by imposing tariffs, it comes across as an admission that US producers can’t compete on price and quality. Is America being made great again by not competing in an open market? If Canada is unfairly subsidizing or skirting the stipulations of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA, a “free” trade agreement proposed by Trump and reached during his first term as president that eliminated most tariffs) or the World Trade Organization (WTO) then grieve the purported unfair trade practices according to the agreed-to mechanism in the trade agreements.
Canadian Relations with China
Outside of trade disputes, just how sovereign is Canada. Justin’s father, former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, likened the Canada-America relationship as a mouse sleeping next to an elephant. Pierre, however, had an independent streak. He went to establish relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1970 — before Richard Nixon in 1979.
Justin, though, has been reticent to stray from the American line.
· Consequently, during the first Trump administration when Canada was asked/demanded to turn overMeng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei. Canada complied and held her under house arrest until the US agreed to drop the extradition request, with no charges forthcoming.
· Even diplomatic niceties went by the wayside. Justin found himself confronted by People’s Republic of China chairman Xi Jinping about his divulging privileged discussion between the two of them. Trudeau didn’t have the decency at that time or afterwards to publicly apologize.
· China is many thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean from Canada. Yet, Canadian warships are engaged in provocative actions – what Canadian media calls “a high stakes global chess game” — in the Taiwan Strait.
· After the US imposed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Canada followed suit with the same tariffs.
Although China is reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, China still desires energy, certain minerals, and other commodities that Canada can supply. Canada might best orient its economy to be accepting of opportunities that China (and other countries) might offer. It would be a seismic shift in orientation, but Canada might be best served by joining BRICS and considering what the Belt and Road Initiative has to offer.
While Trump browbeats and disparages its trading partners to gain the US an upper hand in trade relations, China professes that it is about win-win relations. Such win-win relations are logical and conducive to continued business and greater profit to all sides. Win-win is more likely to preserve continued trade relations and build a good reputation for prospective trade relations elsewhere, whereas taking advantage of a trade partner might well endanger continued trade relations and not promote a positive image among other potential trade partners.
Moreover, Chairman Xi will not demean Trudeau, or his successor, as a governor of China’s 24th province (China has 23 provinces sheng — which includes, of course, the island province of Taiwan — and the governor is a shengzhang. There are also five autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, and two special administrative regions). Chinese are skilled diplomats.
China is assuredly interested in trade with Canada. China may well be a partner for Canadian commodities (which Trump ridicules): oil, gas, lumber, minerals, wheat, other agricultural products, Canadian technology, an end to Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola oil (enacted in response to Canadian tariffs on Chinese EVs), etc. China might even set up automobile plants to produce EVs for the Canadian market, preserving Canadian automobile jobs, and contributing to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
The Chinese economy is ascendant while the US is getting bogged down by exploding debt. Much of the US economic fortunes are dependent on the dollar as a fiat currency. Yet, the pace of dedollarization is increasing. Many European economies are sputtering. Asia and the Global South are rising. Canada has a choice.
Tit-for-tat is a common response to the erection of tariffs, but it harms consumers in all countries. Trade diversification is a superior strategy, and it is something that Canada trumpets and needs to act on. Much of the rest of the world is poised to diversify its trade away from US tariffs against them.
A screenshot from The Canada Files’ interview with Booker Ngesa Omole, the Communist Party of Kenya (Marxist)’s General Secretary.
Written by: Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba
A Canadian military mission is focused on enabling NATO and its’ Kenyan proxy to select gang members in Haiti to guard resource extraction sites, and sanction gang members so when they get into government, they’ll hurt the government’s ability to obtain resources.
A Canadian high commissioner and the CIA’s director were also present at the Kenyan parliament vote to approve Kenya’s proxy-mission – on behalf of NATO – to occupy Haiti.
This comes as NATO sanctions gang leaders who are negotiating with the Haitian national police to take government positions. These plans will serve the purpose of weakening and paralyzing Haiti’s institutions further in the procurement of international goods through exports and imports, the General Secretary of Kenya’s largest communist party has told The Canada Files.
The Canada Files’ chose to look into Canada’s military adventure in Haiti, advertised as “Kenyan led” and codenamed Operation HELIOS, which led us to speak to Communist Party of Kenya (Marxist)’s General Secretary, Booker Ngesa Omole.
Booker revealed the underlying motivations of both NATO and the Kenyan government, behind inciting the gang war in Haiti and sanctioning select “gang leaders”.
Sold as a humanitarian, “Kenyan-led” mission to “restore order”, Operation Helios is preparing a similar situation to what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the DRC, strategic minerals are “guarded” by “rebel groups” – gangs in Haiti’s case- and then sold to multinationals such as the Newmont Corporation.
As mentioned earlier, The Canada Files reached out to the Communist Party of Kenya (Marxist)’s General Secretary, Booker Ngesa Omole. His party has regularly protested the Kenyan intervention into Haiti on the grounds that police deployment abroad is illegal and unconstitutional. Incidentally, he was recently the target of an alleged assassination attempt by eight unnamed individuals, while one was killed by Booker in self-defence. Booker said the one identified body was a former member of the Kenyan National Intelligence, signalling state involvement in the assassination attempt.
According to Booker, the Kenyan government has an opportunistic “wait and see” foreign policy, which is based on patronage and quid pro quo deals largely with the NATO states. Historically Kenya has been involved in serving the interests of NATO as a proxy in the following ways:
Kenya’s contributions to imperialism helped it obtain the strategic position of a major non-NATO US ally on June 24, 2024, one day before Kenya’s soldiers deployed to Haiti. Kenya’s induction as a US major non-NATO ally set the stage for an imperialist and predatory project “led” by a longstanding servant of Western imperialism in Africa.
Canada “taking a back seat” and other falsehoods
Canada’s narrative of taking a back seat and having “Africans be in solidarity with each other” comes from how Operation HELIOS is being conducted. Booker explained that Canadian soldiers, particularly from the combat-focused 22nd Royal Regiment, are training Kenyan police officers and CARICOM (the “Caribbean Community”) military personnel in Jamaica, a member of CARICOM and a colony of the United Kingdom. They are then deployed in Haiti after the training is concluded. The colonial subjects of the United Kingdom being trained are largely of African origin. However, despite the alleged “back seat” being taken, Canada’s government was instrumental in ensuring that Kenya “led” the mission to begin with.
According to Booker, NATO’s chief representatives, especially the USA and Canada, were present at the Kenyan Parliament in order to ensure that the bill authorising police intervention in Haiti was passed. Representing Canada and its “interests” was Christopher Thornley, the High Commissioner for Canada in the Republic of Kenya (also covering Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda), all East African Community states. Representing US “interests” was the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director, Bill Burns. Bill Gates, who Booker aptly referred to as an “international criminal”, was also present.
How a bill authorizing Kenyan police deployment in a foreign country could be passed in parliament, while the current constitution in effect in Kenya (ratified in 2010) only permits the police service to operate within Kenyan territory, is telling:
Establishment of the National Police Service:
243.(3) The National Police Service is a national service and shall function throughout Kenya.
Canada sent the High Commissioner Thornley as an observer to Kenya’s Parliament to ensure that the bill was passed on November 16, 2023 (Pg 9. Senate Votes and Proceedings). As an added point of intimidation, the Director of the CIA was also there. The bill was rammed through despite an ongoing court challenge to foreign deployment of Kenya’s National Police Service. Rather than Kenya “leading”, Canada along with the US and the rest of NATO have been pulling the strings from the start.
Haitian gangs’ reward Booker says, is a hapless national police service less armed and less equipped than they are, securing them the leverage to negotiate for government positions. The weapons for gangs are funneled underground by the US, so sanctions don’t hurt the gangs. They will only debilitate the Haitian government’s abilities to secure resources when a sanctioned gang leader eventually takes a cabinet position in the government. The system is set up in this manner by design, to ensure Haiti’s plunder continues full steam ahead.
House Slave politics: a decisive feature of the NATO strategy
“The most important thing for people to understand is that the whole rhetoric around Kenyans’ mission to Haiti that have actually been choreographed as if it is a pan-Africanist mission is actually a lie to justify the imperialist intervention in Haiti; to make sure that for the first time they can successfully intervene Haiti by putting the black boots on the ground and saying that, ‘these are your sisters and brothers that would like to help you.’”
Booker Ngesa Omole, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kenya (Marxist)
Much like the “altruistic” resettlement of the world’s refugees into Canada and the United States, – in practice a human trafficking program of high quality and cheap labour – the House Slave strategy of using Comprador politicians has been a key and emblematic strategy of colonial powers since Machiavelli’s The Prince. Nazis in Ukraine are serving that purpose against communists and Russians in the country, the Palestinian Authority serves that purpose against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and towards Haiti, CARICOM and Kenya are the compradors, along with the Haitian “gangs” and corrupt politicians, fighting against the general public of Haiti.
This is a time-honoured strategy, which has allowed the NATO white supremacist axis to plunder the rest of the world for ages. It also allows open racists to shift the blame for the social maladies that inevitably come about from these acts of plunder and corruption, all while further dividing the global working class along established racial castes set up by NATO’s “rules-based” international order.
Feeling cornered and realizing that many movements and some governments around the world are finding ways to unravel the House Slave strategy, the racism is, by necessity, becoming more blatant with the likes of politicians such as Donald Trump leading the NATO states. The House Slave strategy is being uncovered, so the charade of masking white supremacy in NATO’s policy is ending.
The only question now is how ugly NATO’s “humanitarian” and “democratic” face will get, and how much damage NATO will cause in the alliance’s inevitable failure and decline:
“Whenever the master would say ‘we’ he would say ‘we’. That’s how you can tell a House Negro…He identified himself with his master more than his master would identify with himself and if you came to the House Negro and said, ‘Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s separate.’, that House Negro would look at you and say, ‘Man you crazy. Whatcha mean separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?’ That was that House Negro.”
Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.
He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.
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