🇨🇦🇬🇱 Canada & Greenland: Holding the Line in the Arctic Against American Imperialism?

Donald Trump has once again revived his obsession with “getting” Greenland — talking as if an entire nation is a real estate deal. For Greenlanders, it’s a fresh reminder of how Washington treats smaller nations: as pawns on a board, not peoples with sovereignty.

But Greenland’s answer remains firm: “We are not for sale.” With Denmark, it’s building security and capacity in the Arctic. And it’s looking west — not to the U.S., but to Canada — as its closest neighbour and natural partner.

The truth is, the Arctic is changing fast. Melting ice is opening shipping routes. Global powers are watching closely. And while Washington rattles on about bases and minerals, Canada and Greenland share something deeper — Inuit ancestry, family ties, and a lived history of the North.

Even Canada’s ambassador, Carolyn Bennett, admitted: “This isn’t foreign affairs, this is family.” That matters. Because the choice is clear: either the Arctic becomes another stage for great-power land grabs, or Canada and Greenland act together to defend sovereignty, culture, and real security.

Trump’s bluster may make headlines, but it only proves one thing: in the new world taking shape, those who treat nations like real estate transactions will find themselves left behind.

#Canada #Greenland #Denmark #USA

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🇨🇦📮 Canada Post Crisis Deepens

The standoff between Canada Post and its 55,000 striking workers shows no signs of ending — and now the Crown corporation is denying that Ottawa’s sweeping reforms have given it leverage at the bargaining table.

Last week, the Liberal government announced drastic measures: ending home delivery, closing rural outlets, and demanding a cost-saving plan within 45 days. Ottawa insists these steps are necessary to stop Canada Post from “bleeding” $1.5 billion this year.

But union negotiator Jim Gallant says the reforms aren’t Ottawa’s idea at all — they came directly from Canada Post management. “Canadians should decide what Canada Post is and how it goes through the future,” he told CBC, dismissing talk of insolvency as a political ploy: “Are the RCMP insolvent? Are the Armed Forces insolvent?”

Meanwhile, small-town leaders warn of devastating fallout. Nancy Peckford, mayor of North Grenville, Ont., says losing her community’s post office would be a severe blow: “It’s not just about mail — it’s a hub where people connect.”

With reform plans colliding head-on with worker demands and community needs, the strike is fast becoming a test of whether Canada Post will remain a true public service — or be reshaped into something very different.

#Canada

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🇨🇦✈️ Passport Kiosks Crash, Chaos at Canadian Airports

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed Sunday that a nationwide outage has hit passport inspection kiosks at major airports including Toronto's Pearson, Montreal's Trudeau, Calgary, and Vancouver.

The agency says the glitch was triggered during “routine systems maintenance,” forcing thousands of travellers into long manual customs lines. CBSA insists safety and identity checks are still intact, but passengers are bracing for chaos if the problem extends into Monday.

This marks the third Canada-wide kiosk failure in 2025 — with similar breakdowns in April and June.

Frustrated passengers are already reporting missed flights and confusion. “A technical glitch is causing a lot of frustration,” one traveller in Calgary said after missing two flights before finally making it home.

Airports are urging patience, but the bigger question looms: how many “glitches” before Canadians demand answers about why critical border infrastructure keeps failing?

#Ontario #Quebec #BC #Alberta

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🇨🇦 Ontario’s Liberal Party has begun the process of selecting a new leader after Bonnie Crombie announced she will step down.

Crombie, who took the leadership in 2023, confirmed she would vacate the role once a successor is chosen. The move comes after she secured just 57 per cent support in a leadership review earlier this month, a result that exposed divisions within the party.

On Sunday, the Ontario Liberal Party’s Executive Council approved the creation of a Leadership Vote Committee to guide the process. The committee will consult with members, study best practices, and provide recommendations on how the contest should be structured.

“This is an exciting moment for our Party,” OLP President Kathryn McGarry said, stressing the opportunity to “rebuild and renew” ahead of the next provincial election.

In the coming weeks, members will receive a survey to give feedback on how the vote should be conducted. The responses will shape the rules and process for the contest.

The committee is chaired by OLP Treasurer Gabriel Sékaly and includes senior party officials Kathryn McGarry, David Farrow, Jonathan Espie, Mandy Moore, Tim Shortill, Sean Torrie, and Simon Tunstall.

Party officials say the process is an “important milestone” in preparing to present a stronger, more unified alternative to Ontarians in the next provincial campaign.

#Ontario

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Did Carney Fooled Canadians on U.S. Tariffs?

Canadians were told by PM Mark Carney in August that counter-tariffs would only be lifted on goods “specifically covered under CUSMA.” Reality? An order-in-council quietly dropped almost all retaliatory tariffs — except for steel, aluminum, and autos.

That means Canadian tariffs are no longer reciprocal, even as Trump ramps up U.S. levies — 100% on branded drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets, 30% on furniture, and more, effective Oct. 1.

Carney sold this as “elbows up” trade toughness. Instead, he gave away leverage, made concessions, and got nothing in return. Even his own finance officials admit this is about “advancing trade talks,” not protecting Canadian workers.

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused him of making “generous concessions” and mocked the vanished “elbows up” slogan.

Canada went from retaliating on nearly $100B in U.S. goods to folding quietly under pressure. Workers and industries are left exposed — while Carney tells Canadians “we have the best deal in the world.”

#Canada

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🇨🇦🛢️Big Oil shakeup in Alberta

Calgary-based Imperial Oil just announced it will slash **20% of its workforce — about 900 jobs — by the end of 2027. Most of the cuts will hit Calgary, with the remaining head office roles eventually moved to Edmonton’s Strathcona Refinery by 2028.

The company says it will spend $330M upfront on restructuring but expects to save $150M annually once the plan is complete. Imperial reported nearly $1B in net income last quarter, though that was down from the year before.

Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson called the move “deeply disappointing,” while policy analysts suggest it’s less about oil demand and more about efficiency, tech adoption, and possibly artificial intelligence replacing jobs.

For Calgary, once the oil patch’s corporate hub, this is another blow to its downtown economy and energy identity.

Question is: is this just cost-cutting, or the start of a much bigger restructuring of Canada’s energy sector under AI and global transition pressures?

#Alberta

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🎮💰 $55B Shockwave Hits Canadian Gaming

Electronic Arts — the studio behind FIFA/EA Sports FC, NHL, Madden, The Sims, Battlefield — has just been swallowed in the largest leveraged buyout in history.

The $55B deal will take EA private under a three-headed investor group:
• Silver Lake Partners (private equity giant)
• Saudi Arabia’s PIF (Crown Prince MBS’s sovereign wealth fund)
• Affinity Partners, run by Jared Kushner (Donald Trump’s son-in-law)

EA’s Vancouver hub alone employs ~2,400 developers, making it one of the beating hearts of Canada’s gaming industry. But history says when private equity takes over, the word “efficiency” usually means layoffs, cost-cutting, and debt restructuring.

EA is taking on $20B in debt just to make this deal work. And this is after they already cut 5% of their staff in 2024, plus more layoffs this past May.

⚠️ Why it matters for Canada:
• EA Vancouver has been building iconic noscripts since 1991 (Distinctive Software acquisition).
• Private equity now controls one of Canada’s biggest creative employers.
• Saudi Arabia’s influence in gaming expands: already invested in Nintendo, Capcom, Take-Two (Grand Theft Auto), and now one of the industry’s crown jewels.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson calls it “a new era of opportunity.” But workers know the pattern: Wall Street profits, Middle East soft power, Silicon Valley insiders… and uncertainty for the people who actually make the games.

#BC

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Doug Ford considers using decommissioned speed cameras for crime detection

Doug Ford is back on the crime file — this time vowing to flood Ontario communities with surveillance cameras to crack down on home invasions and car thefts.

At a Hamilton news conference Monday, the premier said he wants municipalities to embrace CCTV expansion, citing violent crime spikes in York Region, Etobicoke, Peel, Halton, and Durham. The idea, he explained, is for cameras to automatically scan plates and instantly flag stolen vehicles to police. He pointed to Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca as already on board, with earlier provincial grants helping fund similar setups.

But Ford’s office was light on specifics: what cameras, how they’d work, what oversight — and who exactly would store or monitor the footage. The Toronto Police already run CCTV in some areas, but footage must be deleted within 72 hours unless it’s evidence. Ford hinted that his program would expand and standardize this across Ontario, though only “if residents want it.”

The price tag isn’t small. Ford said Del Duca quoted him $15,000 per camera, with municipalities eligible for provincial cost-sharing of up to $300,000 a year. Yet, critics will notice the timing: just days after Ford vowed to ban speed cameras as a “cash grab,” he’s now floating a provincewide surveillance regime. Asked if old speed cameras could be repurposed, his office ducked the question.

Ford insists the push is community-driven. He says his own Etobicoke neighbourhood has seen four armed home invasions in 10 days, and residents are demanding action. Over the weekend, he visited a family whose home was stormed by four masked men with guns. “It traumatizes people,” Ford said. “You have PTSD. People want to move out of their homes. We have to clean up the streets. Like big time.”

It’s a classic Ford move: tapping into fear of crime to justify new powers. But with surveillance comes its own set of questions — privacy, costs, oversight, and whether the government can be trusted with a tool this intrusive.

#Ontario

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🇨🇦🇺🇳 'Canada does not retreat' during a crisis, Anand tells United Nations

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand took the UN stage with lofty rhetoric — “Canada does not retreat” — pledging loyalty to multilateralism at a time when those very institutions are crumbling.

She vowed Canada would not “turn inward,” tying Ottawa’s foreign policy to three pillars: defense through NORAD and NATO, economic resilience through trade deals, and the usual checklist of progressive values — gender equality, Indigenous rights, and environmentalism.

On Israel-Palestine, Anand echoed Carney’s recent recognition of Palestine but framed Canada’s role as selling peace plans, working with Marco Rubio, and ensuring “Hamas has no role in governance.” The subtext: Canada positioning itself as a junior broker in a U.S.-led deal that Netanyahu already backs, while Hamas remains unconvinced.

At home, Carney had quietly ducked giving Canada’s UN speech himself, leaving Anand to carry the file while he tended to other engagements in New York. It was Carney, however, who just days earlier floated Canada’s possible involvement in multinational forces to “secure Gaza” after the war.

The message is clear: Canada’s foreign policy is hitching itself even tighter to U.S. security interests and the fragile scaffolding of the UN — even as both wobble under geopolitical realignments, financial cutbacks, and declining credibility.

#Canada

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Poilievre: “Christians may be #1 target of hate-based violence”

Pierre Poilievre is claiming that Christians may now be the number one target of hate-based violence in Canada, pointing to a wave of church burnings across the country that he described as “terrorist attacks.” He said more than 100 churches have been burned in recent years, warning that Christians and their places of worship are increasingly under threat, even if it is “not politically correct to say it.”

The data tells a more complicated story. According to Statistics Canada, the vast majority of religion-based hate crimes reported in 2023 targeted Jews, at 70 percent, and Muslims, at 16 percent. Hate crimes against Catholics, however, spiked dramatically in 2021 after revelations about unmarked graves at former residential schools, rising from 43 in 2020 to 155 in 2021 before declining again. Still, arson attacks on churches have remained common. A report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found 238 church and religious institution arsons between 2021 and 2023, up sharply from the previous three-year period.

Recent incidents underscore the trend. Just last week, a Ukrainian Orthodox church in Alberta was set ablaze, and several more attacks have been reported this year in rural Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Winnipeg, and Newfoundland. The Catholic Civil Rights League has also tracked dozens of suspicious incidents in recent years.

Poilievre is pledging tougher measures if elected, including mandatory prison terms for arsonists and extortionists targeting churches, deportation of foreign nationals convicted of such crimes, and more resources for police and border services. Whether or not Christians are statistically the most targeted group, the reality is clear: hundreds of churches across Canada have been burned, vandalized, or defaced in just a few years, and the political class has largely ignored it until now.

#Canada

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🇨🇦 Canada Marks 5th National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — But the Wounds of Colonialism Remain Open

September 30 is Orange Shirt Day, now recognized as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. For some Canadians, it has become a day of reflection. For Indigenous families, it is a day of mourning, remembrance, and resilience. The name comes from the story of Phyllis Webstad, a young Secwépemc girl whose bright new orange shirt was stripped from her on her first day at a residential school, a small but devastating act meant to erase her identity, language, and spirit. Her story has become a symbol of how Canada’s system sought to assimilate Indigenous children by force.

This year marks both the fifth official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the tenth anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report. The TRC documented the systemic abuse and neglect of residential schools, estimating that as many as 6,000 children died in those institutions — most from malnutrition, disease, and conditions no child should ever have endured. The legacy is intergenerational, a wound passed down through families, where the trauma of cultural erasure and abuse still echoes.

Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged today that reconciliation is a “generational task,” while Governor General Mary Simon — herself Inuk and the first Indigenous person in the role, urged Canadians to resist denialism and recommit to justice. She pointed to progress: more schools teaching inclusive history, more space for Indigenous languages, and partnerships aimed at community self-determination. Yet she admitted what survivors and their families know all too well — “much work remains.” Out of the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action, just over a dozen have been completed in ten years.

What remains clear is that reconciliation is not about symbolic days or carefully worded speeches. It is about dismantling the colonial mindset that created the system in the first place. Residential schools were not a mistake, they were a deliberate policy of cultural destruction, sanctioned by church and state. Marking Orange Shirt Day without addressing land rights, clean water, housing, health care, and the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls risks turning remembrance into ritualized hypocrisy.

#Canada

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🇨🇦❌🛜 Ottawa Quietly Moves to Give Itself “Kill Switch” Powers Over the Internet

Most Canadians missed it: Bill C-8 was slipped into Parliament in June, reviving the old “cybersecurity” bill (C-26) that never made it through last session.

On the surface, it’s about protecting telecom networks. But deep in the text, it hands sweeping new powers to the federal government:
• If the Minister decides there are “reasonable grounds” of a threat — a vague and catch-all term, Ottawa can order telecom providers to cut service to any individual, group, or even other providers.
• There is no compensation for losses caused by such an order.
• “Manipulation” or “interference” are undefined, leaving interpretation wide open.

Critics warn this is a de facto internet kill switch. One signature from a minister could mean being cut off from phone and internet service entirely.

We’ve seen this movie before: during the 2022 trucker protests, the government froze bank accounts of citizens who opposed its policies. Now, it wants the legal machinery to do the same with digital communications.

The bill is only at first reading, but the fact it was resurrected at all shows Ottawa’s priorities. Where Russia is moving toward freer digital platforms, Canada is shaping up as a WEF laboratory, testing how far a Western government can go in regulating speech, money, and connectivity under the banner of “safety.”

Is this really about cybersecurity or about control?

#Canada

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🇨🇦🇺🇸Trump Hammers Canada Again with New Lumber & Furniture Tariffs

Donald Trump has slapped a 10% tariff on Canadian timber and lumber and a 25% duty on kitchen cabinets, vanities, and upholstered furniture—with rates set to jump as high as 50% by January 2026 if countries don’t bend to Washington’s demands.

Unlike earlier rounds, there are no carve-outs for CUSMA-compliant goods. That means Canada, already hit with 35% anti-dumping and subsidy duties, now faces a double wall of tariffs.

Trump justified the move under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Act—claiming Canadian wood is a national security threat because it’s used in housing, transport, even missile-defense systems. B.C. producers call the reasoning “ludicrous,” noting Ottawa has already committed $1.2B in aid just to keep mills alive.

For Canada’s forestry towns, the math is grim: Mills already under strain may close. Furniture and cabinet makers say the 25% tariff will “ultimately shut down” U.S. exports. Mexico and Vietnam are stepping in to take Canada’s market share.

Meanwhile, Trump has cut side-deals with Britain, Japan, and the EU, giving them tariff caps at 10–15%. Canada isn’t on the list.

Once again, Ottawa looks flat-footed, left to spin damage control while Canada’s largest goods export sector to the U.S. gets pummeled.

#Canada #USA

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🇨🇦🛢️Imperial Oil Layoffs Spark Alberta–Ottawa Blame Game

Imperial Oil’s announcement that it will slash 20% of its workforce—about 900 jobs, mostly in Calgary—by 2027 has set off a political storm. Premier Danielle Smith called the cuts “very disappointing,” blaming Ottawa for hobbling the industry with years of federal restrictions and pipeline dead-ends. “This is what happens when you have uncertainty,” Smith said, renewing her call to build pipelines in all directions.

Imperial insists the restructuring is about cutting costs and streamlining operations, not Canadian policy. The company aims to save $150 million annually and plans to relocate many remaining Calgary jobs to its Strathcona Refinery in Edmonton by 2028. Imperial’s parent company, ExxonMobil, also announced 2,000 global layoffs this week.

While Ottawa’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson expressed “deep disappointment,” experts say the move reflects a global trend in oil and gas. Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and others are cutting staff as profits fall, competition from OPEC+ rises, and companies push to squeeze more efficiency out of existing operations.

Analysts argue the industry is now in a “mature phase” — focused less on big new projects, more on cutting costs per barrel. That means job losses even if production levels stay steady.

For Alberta, already struggling with high unemployment and political division, the pain is real. Whether this is Ottawa’s fault or a global market correction depends on who you ask. But the message from industry is clear: the oil patch is no longer a jobs boom machine.

#Alberta

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🇨🇦 Ontario Tech Opens Nuclear Engineering Chair — But Only to Women

Ontario Tech University is advertising a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Nuclear Engineering that’s open only to those who self-identify as women or gender equity-seeking groups. The university says this policy aligns with its equity, diversity, and inclusion mandate.

This is the kind of experiment Canada is increasingly becoming: the state stepping in to mandate identity as a hiring requirement, even in highly technical fields like nuclear engineering. It’s not about merit or qualifications, it’s about ticking boxes.

The absurdity is obvious when you consider the discipline: historically, women have been a tiny minority in nuclear work. The posting even cites the university’s goal to “increase representation” among underrepresented groups.

Let’s be clear: this is the latest chapter in the DEI playbook. It’s not evolving, it’s being imposed. They’re not looking for the best nuclear engineer. They’re looking for the correct identity.

If a qualified male applies, they won’t even be considered — because the rule says “only applicants who self-identify as women … will be considered for this CRC opportunity.”

What this posting really shows is how far Canada’s institutions have drifted. Instead of focusing on merit, excellence, and securing the brightest minds in critical fields like nuclear energy, universities are chasing ideological quotas. When the pool of qualified candidates is already vanishingly small, politicizing the search is not only unserious — it’s dangerous. If Canada’s nuclear future rests on identity politics rather than competence, the entire country is at risk.

#Ontario

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🇨🇦 Canada’s ‘X’ Passports Don’t Work — Ottawa Finally Admits It

The Trudeau–Carney experiment with gender-neutral passports just hit a wall of reality. Global Affairs Canada is now warning citizens with the trendy “X” gender marker that they could face problems entering the United States and other countries. After years of parading this as a triumph of “inclusion,” Ottawa is quietly conceding it doesn’t actually work at the border.

The advisory admits bluntly: while Canada prints passports with an “X,” it “cannot guarantee your entry or transit through other countries.” Translation: the Canadian government knowingly sold people a woke illusion that collapses the second it collides with real-world immigration officials.

The timing isn’t random. Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing all federal agencies to recognize only two sexes: male and female — on official documents. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already purged the “X” option from Nexus cards. Ottawa’s travel notice is damage control, not foresight.

The numbers are small, about 3,600 Canadians carry “X” passports — but the symbolism is massive. These citizens were told they could rewrite biology with a letter on a page. Now they’re being told, at the airport, to pick male or female anyway.

It’s the perfect metaphor for woke policy-making: make big promises, cash in on the virtue signal, then quietly admit it’s unworkable once the cameras are off. Meanwhile, travelers bear the risk of missed flights, denied entry, and humiliating scrutiny at foreign checkpoints.

For all the talk of “progress,” Ottawa is exposing its own citizens to hassle abroad for the sake of domestic ideology. The cold reality is simple: the world doesn’t bend to Canadian identity experiments. At the border, biology still wins.

#Canada #USA

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🇨🇦🛢️Alberta Rolls the Dice Again: Billions Lost, One More Pipeline Dream

After losing more than $1.3 billion on the doomed Keystone XL pipeline and another $1.3 billion on leased oil rail cars that were cancelled before they even rolled out, Alberta is back at the table, this time with Premier Danielle Smith proposing yet another taxpayer-backed pipeline project.

Smith announced a $14 million plan to draft and submit a new pipeline proposal to Ottawa’s Major Projects Office by spring. The project would identify a route to the West Coast and estimate costs, but Smith insists the province won’t directly build or operate the line. The problem? History shows government “partnerships” in Alberta’s energy sector often mean public risk, private reward, until politics kill the deal.

Keystone XL, first proposed in 2005, was supposed to move Alberta oil to the U.S. Midwest. Instead, after Alberta pumped billions into it, Joe Biden killed it on day one in office. Add to that Rachel Notley’s failed railcar plan and Jason Kenney’s massive loan guarantees, and Albertans are already billions poorer from government pipeline gambles.

The oilpatch itself is cautious. Companies like Enbridge and Trans Mountain are on Smith’s advisory group, but none are stepping up with serious capital. Private capital won’t touch it until Ottawa “de-risks” projects — code for stripping away suffocating federal policies like tanker bans and emissions caps. For years, pipeline giants have learned the hard way: in Canada, politics, not geology, decides if oil moves.

Industry voices admit Canada has pipe capacity for now thanks to the Trans Mountain expansion. But forecasts say that capacity runs out by 2030 as Alberta production keeps climbing. By then, the lack of another pipeline could strangle exports and trap Alberta crude at a discount — exactly what Ottawa’s green mandarins want.

Smith’s announcement is bold political theatre, but the math is brutal. Pipelines cost tens of billions and take a decade to build. Even getting to shovel-ready requires hundreds of millions in studies, permits, and negotiations. The opposition is already lining up: B.C.’s Premier David Eby blasted Smith’s move as “taxpayer funded, not a real project, and incredibly alarming.”

It’s a familiar Canadian tragedy: the province that powers the country shackled by Ottawa’s climate bureaucracy, blocked at every turn while global rivals race ahead. Alberta wants to move its oil north, south, east, and west. Ottawa wants to leave it in the ground.

The irony? While Canada drowns its energy sector in red tape and self-sabotage, OPEC+ and Russia enjoy higher revenues, stronger control of supply, and a freer hand in shaping the global energy map. Alberta may dream of pipelines, but for now, Ottawa ensures the only pipelines that flow smoothly are the ones out of Russia.

#Alberta #BC

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