Another day, another Houdini act. The Carney Liberals have now survived four confidence votes in under two weeks — not because they command confidence, but because they’ve mastered the oldest trick in Ottawa: duct-taping a minority together by procedural fog, last-minute pleas, and the hope that no one wants to knock on doors in December.
What unfolded in the House wasn’t governance — it was triage. A 600-page Budget Implementation Act dropped the moment the vote ended, a legislative brick too thick to read and too fragile to withstand scrutiny. The vote itself wasn’t even a vote. MPs “agreed to carry it on division,” the parliamentary equivalent of everyone looking at each other and pretending this isn’t happening. No tally, no courage, no accountability — just enough ambiguity to keep the government’s heartbeat going.
Monday night’s cliffhanger already exposed the underlying truth: this minority is held together by accident, fatigue, and fear. The Liberals won by two votes — 170 to 168 — saved only by a last-minute switch from the Greens and four abstentions: two Conservatives who didn’t show up, and two NDP MPs torn between their communities’ needs and their party’s collapsing discipline. That isn’t confidence. That’s survival instinct.
The Bloc’s Yves-François Blanchet said it plainly: this method of governing is “not sustainable.” He’s right. The Liberals are governing as though they have a majority, negotiating like a government that doesn’t need partners, and relying on a voting app error and Christmas travel plans to hold power. You cannot run a country on procedural luck and hope that your opponents stay home or your allies don’t rebel.
And yet Carney spins it as triumph. “I salute the 170 members who supported it,” he said — as if a near-death experience counts as parliamentary consensus. Champagne promises “constructive engagement,” even as every opposition party complains they were ignored. MacKinnon insists “the minority Parliament is working,” which is like declaring a hospital patient healthy because they still have a pulse.
What’s really happening is simpler: a government with no mandate, no majority, and no partners is clinging to power through opacity and exhaustion. The budget is already falling apart, the fiscal math doesn’t work, and the political coalition that held Trudeau upright for years is fracturing under Carney’s technocratic confidence.
This is not stability.
This is a countdown — delayed by weather, holidays, and procedural blur.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
What unfolded in the House wasn’t governance — it was triage. A 600-page Budget Implementation Act dropped the moment the vote ended, a legislative brick too thick to read and too fragile to withstand scrutiny. The vote itself wasn’t even a vote. MPs “agreed to carry it on division,” the parliamentary equivalent of everyone looking at each other and pretending this isn’t happening. No tally, no courage, no accountability — just enough ambiguity to keep the government’s heartbeat going.
Monday night’s cliffhanger already exposed the underlying truth: this minority is held together by accident, fatigue, and fear. The Liberals won by two votes — 170 to 168 — saved only by a last-minute switch from the Greens and four abstentions: two Conservatives who didn’t show up, and two NDP MPs torn between their communities’ needs and their party’s collapsing discipline. That isn’t confidence. That’s survival instinct.
The Bloc’s Yves-François Blanchet said it plainly: this method of governing is “not sustainable.” He’s right. The Liberals are governing as though they have a majority, negotiating like a government that doesn’t need partners, and relying on a voting app error and Christmas travel plans to hold power. You cannot run a country on procedural luck and hope that your opponents stay home or your allies don’t rebel.
And yet Carney spins it as triumph. “I salute the 170 members who supported it,” he said — as if a near-death experience counts as parliamentary consensus. Champagne promises “constructive engagement,” even as every opposition party complains they were ignored. MacKinnon insists “the minority Parliament is working,” which is like declaring a hospital patient healthy because they still have a pulse.
What’s really happening is simpler: a government with no mandate, no majority, and no partners is clinging to power through opacity and exhaustion. The budget is already falling apart, the fiscal math doesn’t work, and the political coalition that held Trudeau upright for years is fracturing under Carney’s technocratic confidence.
This is not stability.
This is a countdown — delayed by weather, holidays, and procedural blur.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
💯3👍1
A fugitive murderer from India makes it to the U.S., slips past American authorities for a year, strolls toward the Canadian border under a fake identity — and the only reason he’s not inside Canada right now is because U.S. officers caught him first. Ottawa will call this “border security.” Everyone else sees a system asleep at the wheel.
Vishat Kumar, 22, wanted for murder under an Interpol red notice, tried to cross into Ontario at the Peace Bridge using a fake name and birthday. He wasn’t stopped because Canada flagged him — he was stopped because CBP pulled him into secondary and ran biometrics. That’s the uncomfortable reality no one in Ottawa wants to acknowledge: our border system is now downstream from Washington’s vigilance, not our own.
Kumar had already entered the U.S. illegally last year and skipped his asylum interview, yet still reached our doorstep without either country being notified of the red notice until the final moment. He was denied entry, handed back to ICE, and now sits in federal custody in Batavia awaiting removal. No Canadian enforcement, no Canadian arrest — and no Canadian confirmation that we’d have caught him if CBP hadn’t.
Officials in both countries always praise “collaboration,” but the truth is harder: our border is reactive, not preventative, and Ottawa’s political class has spent years pretending otherwise. Canada talks endlessly about “values-based immigration,” yet we rely on foreign officers to catch dangerous actors before they reach us. It’s not a system — it’s outsourced security dressed up as policy.
It doesn’t help that Interpol red notices, often tied to major crimes like murder or child abuse, aren’t warrants. They rely on national governments to act. But when your bureaucracy is bloated, distracted and politically allergic to admitting risk, even basic enforcement becomes a political liability. So stories like this get quietly applauded, while the systemic failures behind them remain politically untouchable.
And with Ottawa simultaneously freezing, reshaping, and politicizing its intelligence relationships with India, this case only deepens the contradictions. We’re told relations are “resetting.” Sikh activists are told accountability is coming. Yet a wanted murder suspect nearly walked in undetected — and no one in the government seems eager to explain why.
The Americans are right to say the arrest shows the importance of vigilance. What it really shows is how fragile our own system has become, and how our political class prefers slogans to sovereignty.
#Ontario #NY #India
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Vishat Kumar, 22, wanted for murder under an Interpol red notice, tried to cross into Ontario at the Peace Bridge using a fake name and birthday. He wasn’t stopped because Canada flagged him — he was stopped because CBP pulled him into secondary and ran biometrics. That’s the uncomfortable reality no one in Ottawa wants to acknowledge: our border system is now downstream from Washington’s vigilance, not our own.
Kumar had already entered the U.S. illegally last year and skipped his asylum interview, yet still reached our doorstep without either country being notified of the red notice until the final moment. He was denied entry, handed back to ICE, and now sits in federal custody in Batavia awaiting removal. No Canadian enforcement, no Canadian arrest — and no Canadian confirmation that we’d have caught him if CBP hadn’t.
Officials in both countries always praise “collaboration,” but the truth is harder: our border is reactive, not preventative, and Ottawa’s political class has spent years pretending otherwise. Canada talks endlessly about “values-based immigration,” yet we rely on foreign officers to catch dangerous actors before they reach us. It’s not a system — it’s outsourced security dressed up as policy.
It doesn’t help that Interpol red notices, often tied to major crimes like murder or child abuse, aren’t warrants. They rely on national governments to act. But when your bureaucracy is bloated, distracted and politically allergic to admitting risk, even basic enforcement becomes a political liability. So stories like this get quietly applauded, while the systemic failures behind them remain politically untouchable.
And with Ottawa simultaneously freezing, reshaping, and politicizing its intelligence relationships with India, this case only deepens the contradictions. We’re told relations are “resetting.” Sikh activists are told accountability is coming. Yet a wanted murder suspect nearly walked in undetected — and no one in the government seems eager to explain why.
The Americans are right to say the arrest shows the importance of vigilance. What it really shows is how fragile our own system has become, and how our political class prefers slogans to sovereignty.
#Ontario #NY #India
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤7💯5🙏1
Only in Ottawa could a government drowning in deficits brag about “fiscal discipline” while presiding over the single largest expansion of the federal bureaucracy in modern Canadian history — a 9% jump in one year and nearly 100,000 new public servants since 2015.
The new Public Accounts land like a brick: $71.4 billion now goes to the federal bureaucracy — almost double what it cost a decade ago. Add another $23.1 billion in consultants and contractors and you suddenly have a capital city where the only thing growing faster than red tape is the bill taxpayers are expected to swallow. The private sector automates and streamlines to survive. Ottawa multiplies headcount and outsources at the same time — a paradox only a government this bloated could create.
And now, after inflating the civil service to historic levels, the Carney Liberals claim they’ll cut 40,000 positions over five years, mostly through “attrition.” That’s not reform — that’s hoping retirees solve a political problem. Meanwhile the deficit explodes: a projected $78.3 billion this year, the largest non-pandemic shortfall in Canadian history. Nearly half of the country’s total debt has been added in the past five years alone. This isn’t public administration — it’s institutionalized denial.
Even former Finance mandarins are sounding the alarm. Don Drummond points out the obvious: if Ottawa is adding staff and doubling consultant spending, something fundamental is broken. Consultants are supposed to substitute for permanent hires — not sit on top of them like a second, even more expensive bureaucracy. The message is unmistakable: the system is no longer designed to function efficiently. It’s designed to grow.
And what grows fastest? The deficits. The bureaucracy. The layers of oversight no one asked for. The debt load that will bury future generations. What doesn’t grow? Productivity. Service quality. National capacity. The things this country desperately needs in an era of geopolitical realignment and economic tightening.
Carney insists this is the price of “nation-building.” In reality, it’s the price of a state that can no longer distinguish between investing in the country and feeding its own machinery. When nearly $600 billion in new debt accumulates in just five years while Ottawa simultaneously expands its payroll and its outsourcing budget, you’re not building a nation — you’re hollowing one out.
The private sector is asked to innovate. Families are told to tighten belts. Provinces are told to do more with less.
Only Ottawa gets to balloon endlessly and call it progress.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
The new Public Accounts land like a brick: $71.4 billion now goes to the federal bureaucracy — almost double what it cost a decade ago. Add another $23.1 billion in consultants and contractors and you suddenly have a capital city where the only thing growing faster than red tape is the bill taxpayers are expected to swallow. The private sector automates and streamlines to survive. Ottawa multiplies headcount and outsources at the same time — a paradox only a government this bloated could create.
And now, after inflating the civil service to historic levels, the Carney Liberals claim they’ll cut 40,000 positions over five years, mostly through “attrition.” That’s not reform — that’s hoping retirees solve a political problem. Meanwhile the deficit explodes: a projected $78.3 billion this year, the largest non-pandemic shortfall in Canadian history. Nearly half of the country’s total debt has been added in the past five years alone. This isn’t public administration — it’s institutionalized denial.
Even former Finance mandarins are sounding the alarm. Don Drummond points out the obvious: if Ottawa is adding staff and doubling consultant spending, something fundamental is broken. Consultants are supposed to substitute for permanent hires — not sit on top of them like a second, even more expensive bureaucracy. The message is unmistakable: the system is no longer designed to function efficiently. It’s designed to grow.
And what grows fastest? The deficits. The bureaucracy. The layers of oversight no one asked for. The debt load that will bury future generations. What doesn’t grow? Productivity. Service quality. National capacity. The things this country desperately needs in an era of geopolitical realignment and economic tightening.
Carney insists this is the price of “nation-building.” In reality, it’s the price of a state that can no longer distinguish between investing in the country and feeding its own machinery. When nearly $600 billion in new debt accumulates in just five years while Ottawa simultaneously expands its payroll and its outsourcing budget, you’re not building a nation — you’re hollowing one out.
The private sector is asked to innovate. Families are told to tighten belts. Provinces are told to do more with less.
Only Ottawa gets to balloon endlessly and call it progress.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤡7❤4🤬3😁1
🇨🇦💸 Carney’s “capital vs. operating” trick was always too slick to survive daylight. When a government starts rewriting accounting categories to flatter itself, it signals only one thing: the books don’t balance, the economics don’t work, and the public is being managed, not told the truth.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has now said the quiet part out loud: the Carney government shoved $94 billion of regular, operational spending into the “capital” column simply to claim a balanced operating budget in three years. Investment tax credits, subsidies, corporate tax giveaways — all magically rebranded as capital formation. It’s accounting alchemy, not economic discipline. Even the U.K. and international standards Carney pretends to emulate wouldn’t classify this spending as “capital.” Canada, once again, is improvising definitions because the math doesn’t add up.
The result? A budget that boasts a shiny $311.5-billion “nation-building” capital plan while hiding the reality: the real deficit is nearly double what Ottawa projected, debt-to-GDP is so bad they stopped using it as a metric, and the only reason charts point downward at all is because they quietly switched the metric. When a government abandons debt-to-GDP for deficit-to-GDP, it isn’t telling a story of strength — it’s confessing weakness.
And credit agencies noticed immediately. Fitch isn’t buying the spin. Within days of the budget, it issued a warning: Canada’s bond rating could deteriorate because of “persistent fiscal expansion and a rising debt burden.” That’s diplomatic language for: stop playing games, the fiscal trajectory is not credible. Ottawa keeps talking like a global powerhouse, but markets see the same thing Canadians do — a government sliding into structural deficits, hoping jargon will mask gravity.
It didn’t have to be this way. But when a government grants itself the power to decide what counts as capital spending, the temptation to blur the lines becomes irresistible. Alberta tried the same trick a decade ago — inventing its own categories to make deficits appear smaller — and the auditor general shredded it as misleading. They abandoned the experiment. Ottawa learned nothing.
And that’s the real danger: instead of clarity, Canadians get gimmicks. Instead of transparency, they get frameworks designed for political survival. Meanwhile, business investment — the lifeblood Carney claims he’s stimulating — has fallen from 13% of GDP in the early 2000s to 10.5% pre-pandemic. Companies aren’t expanding; they’re holding back, conserving cash, and preparing for turbulence. Tax credits alone won’t reverse that, and certainly not when corporate Canada is being told to trust a budget held together by creative categorization.
Even the Bank of Canada’s latest business outlook shows the same pattern: soft demand, frozen staffing, investment postponed. Firms are maintaining, not building. Confidence is brittle, and fiscal sleight-of-hand won’t restore it.
Carney is making a massive, multi-year bet on capital investment — billions borrowed upfront, benefits promised sometime down the road. That’s not inherently wrong. But trust is the currency that makes long-horizon policy possible. And trust evaporates the moment people sense the books are being treated as political theatre.
If Carney wants Canadians to believe in his grand project, he needs transparency — not a budget that looks like it was assembled with a magician’s wand. You don’t rebuild confidence by cooking the definitions. You rebuild it by telling the truth.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
The Parliamentary Budget Office has now said the quiet part out loud: the Carney government shoved $94 billion of regular, operational spending into the “capital” column simply to claim a balanced operating budget in three years. Investment tax credits, subsidies, corporate tax giveaways — all magically rebranded as capital formation. It’s accounting alchemy, not economic discipline. Even the U.K. and international standards Carney pretends to emulate wouldn’t classify this spending as “capital.” Canada, once again, is improvising definitions because the math doesn’t add up.
The result? A budget that boasts a shiny $311.5-billion “nation-building” capital plan while hiding the reality: the real deficit is nearly double what Ottawa projected, debt-to-GDP is so bad they stopped using it as a metric, and the only reason charts point downward at all is because they quietly switched the metric. When a government abandons debt-to-GDP for deficit-to-GDP, it isn’t telling a story of strength — it’s confessing weakness.
And credit agencies noticed immediately. Fitch isn’t buying the spin. Within days of the budget, it issued a warning: Canada’s bond rating could deteriorate because of “persistent fiscal expansion and a rising debt burden.” That’s diplomatic language for: stop playing games, the fiscal trajectory is not credible. Ottawa keeps talking like a global powerhouse, but markets see the same thing Canadians do — a government sliding into structural deficits, hoping jargon will mask gravity.
It didn’t have to be this way. But when a government grants itself the power to decide what counts as capital spending, the temptation to blur the lines becomes irresistible. Alberta tried the same trick a decade ago — inventing its own categories to make deficits appear smaller — and the auditor general shredded it as misleading. They abandoned the experiment. Ottawa learned nothing.
And that’s the real danger: instead of clarity, Canadians get gimmicks. Instead of transparency, they get frameworks designed for political survival. Meanwhile, business investment — the lifeblood Carney claims he’s stimulating — has fallen from 13% of GDP in the early 2000s to 10.5% pre-pandemic. Companies aren’t expanding; they’re holding back, conserving cash, and preparing for turbulence. Tax credits alone won’t reverse that, and certainly not when corporate Canada is being told to trust a budget held together by creative categorization.
Even the Bank of Canada’s latest business outlook shows the same pattern: soft demand, frozen staffing, investment postponed. Firms are maintaining, not building. Confidence is brittle, and fiscal sleight-of-hand won’t restore it.
Carney is making a massive, multi-year bet on capital investment — billions borrowed upfront, benefits promised sometime down the road. That’s not inherently wrong. But trust is the currency that makes long-horizon policy possible. And trust evaporates the moment people sense the books are being treated as political theatre.
If Carney wants Canadians to believe in his grand project, he needs transparency — not a budget that looks like it was assembled with a magician’s wand. You don’t rebuild confidence by cooking the definitions. You rebuild it by telling the truth.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
💯5🤬2❤1
Canada Post isn’t “struggling.” It’s collapsing — and Ottawa is quietly preparing Canadians for a future where a once-national institution is gutted, privatized, or left to die. When the CFO of a Crown corporation openly admits it is “effectively insolvent,” that’s not transparency. That’s a warning flare for a state losing control of its own basic infrastructure.
At its annual public meeting, Canada Post revealed more than $1 billion in operating losses so far this year, capped by the largest quarterly loss in its history — a staggering $541 million before tax. The political class will blame “labour disruptions.” But a corporation doesn’t slide into insolvency because of a few months of strikes. This is a slow-motion system failure built through a decade of mismanagement, political interference, and a government that treats essential services as ideological experiments rather than national assets.
And while Ottawa talks about “modernization,” the federal government already floated the real plan in September: end door-to-door delivery, close rural outlets, and carve off operations piece-by-piece. Austerity by another name. Not reform. Not efficiency. Just the quiet dismantling of a public service that millions rely on. The bureaucracy explodes in every direction — 99,000 new federal employees added since 2015 — but somehow the one organization meant to serve rural Canada, seniors, and small businesses is starved into insolvency.
Canada Post’s CEO now hints at massive job cuts through attrition — 16,000 positions disappearing by 2030, another 14,000 by 2035. The pitch is that it can all be done “with respect for our employees.” But everyone knows what this really means: shrink, automate, outsource, and hope no one notices until the damage is irreversible. The union, blindsided and furious, says Canadians have been “kept in the dark.” They’re right — because Ottawa isn’t rebuilding Canada Post; it’s setting the stage to walk away from it.
This collapse isn’t happening in isolation. It fits a broader pattern: a federal government drowning in deficits it created, expanding a bureaucracy it can’t control, and running essential public institutions into the ground while insisting everything is “transformative.” Everything except functioning. The Carney government’s entire fiscal plan now rests on shifting definitions, moving numbers between columns, and praying credit rating agencies don’t notice the holes in the hull.
Meanwhile, Canada Post workers have been striking across the country — first nationwide, now rotating — not because they oppose change but because the “change” being forced on them seems designed to kill the service they deliver. They stopped delivering flyers in parts of Quebec and Ontario, but they’re still delivering addressed mail, trying to hold the system together while negotiations stretch into an 18-month stalemate. That’s not labour instability — that’s a warning sign of a system falling apart.
And through all of this, Ottawa insists an agreement is coming, that everything is fine, that insolvency is just a word. But insolvency in a Crown corporation means one thing: the federal government has lost the political will to fix the mess it created. The people who rely on Canada Post — rural communities, small businesses, seniors, northern regions — are simply collateral damage.
This is what happens when a government treats essential national services like disposable line items rather than pillars of sovereignty. Canada Post is effectively bankrupt. The question now isn’t whether it can be saved — it’s whether Ottawa even wants to.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
At its annual public meeting, Canada Post revealed more than $1 billion in operating losses so far this year, capped by the largest quarterly loss in its history — a staggering $541 million before tax. The political class will blame “labour disruptions.” But a corporation doesn’t slide into insolvency because of a few months of strikes. This is a slow-motion system failure built through a decade of mismanagement, political interference, and a government that treats essential services as ideological experiments rather than national assets.
And while Ottawa talks about “modernization,” the federal government already floated the real plan in September: end door-to-door delivery, close rural outlets, and carve off operations piece-by-piece. Austerity by another name. Not reform. Not efficiency. Just the quiet dismantling of a public service that millions rely on. The bureaucracy explodes in every direction — 99,000 new federal employees added since 2015 — but somehow the one organization meant to serve rural Canada, seniors, and small businesses is starved into insolvency.
Canada Post’s CEO now hints at massive job cuts through attrition — 16,000 positions disappearing by 2030, another 14,000 by 2035. The pitch is that it can all be done “with respect for our employees.” But everyone knows what this really means: shrink, automate, outsource, and hope no one notices until the damage is irreversible. The union, blindsided and furious, says Canadians have been “kept in the dark.” They’re right — because Ottawa isn’t rebuilding Canada Post; it’s setting the stage to walk away from it.
This collapse isn’t happening in isolation. It fits a broader pattern: a federal government drowning in deficits it created, expanding a bureaucracy it can’t control, and running essential public institutions into the ground while insisting everything is “transformative.” Everything except functioning. The Carney government’s entire fiscal plan now rests on shifting definitions, moving numbers between columns, and praying credit rating agencies don’t notice the holes in the hull.
Meanwhile, Canada Post workers have been striking across the country — first nationwide, now rotating — not because they oppose change but because the “change” being forced on them seems designed to kill the service they deliver. They stopped delivering flyers in parts of Quebec and Ontario, but they’re still delivering addressed mail, trying to hold the system together while negotiations stretch into an 18-month stalemate. That’s not labour instability — that’s a warning sign of a system falling apart.
And through all of this, Ottawa insists an agreement is coming, that everything is fine, that insolvency is just a word. But insolvency in a Crown corporation means one thing: the federal government has lost the political will to fix the mess it created. The people who rely on Canada Post — rural communities, small businesses, seniors, northern regions — are simply collateral damage.
This is what happens when a government treats essential national services like disposable line items rather than pillars of sovereignty. Canada Post is effectively bankrupt. The question now isn’t whether it can be saved — it’s whether Ottawa even wants to.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤4🤬3💯3😢2👍1
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Ontario Politics: NDP Leader Marit Stiles Ejected from Legislature After Clashing with Government Over Skills Development Fund
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles was ejected from the Legislature at Queen’s Park on Wednesday following a heated exchange over the province’s $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund.
During questioning of Labour Minister David Piccini, Stiles accused the government of being “corrupt,” referencing donors, lobbyists, and what she called “the endless grift of an anti-democratic and corrupt government.”
Speaker Donna Skelly asked Stiles to withdraw her remarks for using unparliamentary language. Stiles refused. After a final warning, she was ordered to leave the chamber and was escorted out — drawing applause from opposition benches.
It should be noted that no quid-pro-quo has been proven, and no charges have been laid in connection with the Skills Development Fund. One recipient of the fund has been referred to the Ontario Provincial Police for a forensic audit.
The Skills Development Fund includes $1.5 billion for retraining workers in in-demand professions, plus an additional $1 billion allocated this year to support Ontario’s economy amid ongoing tariff pressures.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles was ejected from the Legislature at Queen’s Park on Wednesday following a heated exchange over the province’s $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund.
During questioning of Labour Minister David Piccini, Stiles accused the government of being “corrupt,” referencing donors, lobbyists, and what she called “the endless grift of an anti-democratic and corrupt government.”
Speaker Donna Skelly asked Stiles to withdraw her remarks for using unparliamentary language. Stiles refused. After a final warning, she was ordered to leave the chamber and was escorted out — drawing applause from opposition benches.
It should be noted that no quid-pro-quo has been proven, and no charges have been laid in connection with the Skills Development Fund. One recipient of the fund has been referred to the Ontario Provincial Police for a forensic audit.
The Skills Development Fund includes $1.5 billion for retraining workers in in-demand professions, plus an additional $1 billion allocated this year to support Ontario’s economy amid ongoing tariff pressures.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
👏5🤬4❤1👎1💩1
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Seven Canadians Charged in U.S. Transnational Drug Probe Linked to Fugitive Ex-Olympian
U.S. authorities have charged seven Canadian citizens in a sweeping cross-border investigation tied to Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder now accused of running a violent, cartel-connected drug-trafficking empire stretching from Colombia to Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The arrests were announced Tuesday as part of Operation Giant Slalom, a multi-agency U.S. probe targeting what officials describe as a “multi-million-dollar narcotics and money-laundering network” allegedly overseen by Wedding, who remains a fugitive. The U.S. State Department has raised its reward for information leading to his capture to US$15 million, calling him one of North America’s most dangerous wanted criminals.
According to U.S. prosecutors, the seven Canadians played various supporting roles in the network — from logistics and drug-distribution assistance to alleged financial and legal facilitation. Among them is a GTA-based lawyer, accused by U.S. authorities of laundering money, coordinating drug transactions, and arranging bribes tied to the enterprise.
Wedding, once a B.C. Olympic hopeful, is now the target of an Interpol Red Notice and multiple U.S. federal indictments, including allegations of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to traffic cocaine at scale, weapons offences, and obstruction of justice. Investigators say he used his athletic background as cover while building a criminal network that allegedly moved multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments into North America.
The RCMP is cooperating directly with American agencies, including the FBI, DEA and Homeland Security Investigations. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme stood alongside U.S. officials at the announcement, underscoring that the Canadian arrests are part of a broader strategy to dismantle Wedding’s network across borders.
U.S. officials said the operation reveals how major transnational crime groups increasingly rely on Canadian support networks — from money-handlers to professional intermediaries — to move drugs, launder profits, and evade detection. Canadian suspects now await extradition proceedings.
Authorities emphasize that the investigation is ongoing. Wedding remains at large.
#Canada #USA #Mexico #Columbia
🍁 Maple Chronicles
U.S. authorities have charged seven Canadian citizens in a sweeping cross-border investigation tied to Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder now accused of running a violent, cartel-connected drug-trafficking empire stretching from Colombia to Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The arrests were announced Tuesday as part of Operation Giant Slalom, a multi-agency U.S. probe targeting what officials describe as a “multi-million-dollar narcotics and money-laundering network” allegedly overseen by Wedding, who remains a fugitive. The U.S. State Department has raised its reward for information leading to his capture to US$15 million, calling him one of North America’s most dangerous wanted criminals.
According to U.S. prosecutors, the seven Canadians played various supporting roles in the network — from logistics and drug-distribution assistance to alleged financial and legal facilitation. Among them is a GTA-based lawyer, accused by U.S. authorities of laundering money, coordinating drug transactions, and arranging bribes tied to the enterprise.
Wedding, once a B.C. Olympic hopeful, is now the target of an Interpol Red Notice and multiple U.S. federal indictments, including allegations of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to traffic cocaine at scale, weapons offences, and obstruction of justice. Investigators say he used his athletic background as cover while building a criminal network that allegedly moved multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments into North America.
The RCMP is cooperating directly with American agencies, including the FBI, DEA and Homeland Security Investigations. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme stood alongside U.S. officials at the announcement, underscoring that the Canadian arrests are part of a broader strategy to dismantle Wedding’s network across borders.
U.S. officials said the operation reveals how major transnational crime groups increasingly rely on Canadian support networks — from money-handlers to professional intermediaries — to move drugs, launder profits, and evade detection. Canadian suspects now await extradition proceedings.
Authorities emphasize that the investigation is ongoing. Wedding remains at large.
#Canada #USA #Mexico #Columbia
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤3👍2🔥2
Carney’s Top Aide Quietly Dumps Brookfield Shares to Avoid Conflict Headaches
Clerk of the Privy Council reveals he sold off holdings within minutes of being alerted by ethics watchdog
OTTAWA — Michael Sabia, Canada’s most senior public servant and one of two officials empowered to enforce Prime Minister Mark Carney’s sprawling conflict-of-interest screen, told MPs Wednesday he immediately divested his Brookfield shares after the Ethics Commissioner alerted him he owned them.
Sabia, who became Clerk of the Privy Council in July, said he was informed on Sept. 24 that he held investments connected to Brookfield — the same corporate empire at the centre of Carney’s own conflict-of-interest scrutiny. He testified he sold the assets “within about 15 minutes” to better manage the prime minister’s screen and avoid even the perception of impropriety.
Carney, by contrast, has placed his Brookfield and Stripe holdings in a blind trust. The prime minister has rejected calls for full divestment, despite the more than 100 entities included in his official conflict screen. Conservatives argue the scale of Carney’s entanglements is unprecedented for a sitting PM.
Sabia insisted the blind-trust model remains “rigorous,” and that refusing to divest personally would have undermined his ability to administer Carney’s conflicts. His testimony comes as the ethics committee continues its review of the Conflict of Interest Act, triggered by concerns over the prime minister’s former roles as Brookfield chair and Stripe board member.
According to Sabia, Carney has been flagged for potential conflicts only 13 times since July — a number critics say is implausibly low given Brookfield’s vast footprint. Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher called the testimony “an admission of massive loopholes,” noting the law does not prevent a prime minister from taking decisions that incidentally benefit companies they hold stakes in.
The committee will hear next from Carney’s chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard — the second official authorized to police the PM’s conflict screen.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Clerk of the Privy Council reveals he sold off holdings within minutes of being alerted by ethics watchdog
OTTAWA — Michael Sabia, Canada’s most senior public servant and one of two officials empowered to enforce Prime Minister Mark Carney’s sprawling conflict-of-interest screen, told MPs Wednesday he immediately divested his Brookfield shares after the Ethics Commissioner alerted him he owned them.
Sabia, who became Clerk of the Privy Council in July, said he was informed on Sept. 24 that he held investments connected to Brookfield — the same corporate empire at the centre of Carney’s own conflict-of-interest scrutiny. He testified he sold the assets “within about 15 minutes” to better manage the prime minister’s screen and avoid even the perception of impropriety.
Carney, by contrast, has placed his Brookfield and Stripe holdings in a blind trust. The prime minister has rejected calls for full divestment, despite the more than 100 entities included in his official conflict screen. Conservatives argue the scale of Carney’s entanglements is unprecedented for a sitting PM.
Sabia insisted the blind-trust model remains “rigorous,” and that refusing to divest personally would have undermined his ability to administer Carney’s conflicts. His testimony comes as the ethics committee continues its review of the Conflict of Interest Act, triggered by concerns over the prime minister’s former roles as Brookfield chair and Stripe board member.
According to Sabia, Carney has been flagged for potential conflicts only 13 times since July — a number critics say is implausibly low given Brookfield’s vast footprint. Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher called the testimony “an admission of massive loopholes,” noting the law does not prevent a prime minister from taking decisions that incidentally benefit companies they hold stakes in.
The committee will hear next from Carney’s chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard — the second official authorized to police the PM’s conflict screen.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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Ottawa Signals “National Debate” on Lifting Tanker Ban as Alberta Pushes for Pipeline Access: Critics Say Canadian Energy Still Being Held Hostage
The fight over Canada’s northern B.C. tanker ban is erupting again — and even Liberal MPs admit the debate will be “contentious.” As Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith negotiate the final terms of a new energy relationship, a central question hangs over Ottawa: Will the federal government finally lift the moratorium blocking Alberta’s access to global markets?
Liberal MP Karina Gould said Wednesday the ban was imposed under Trudeau “out of huge public demand,” and warned that amending it now requires a “national conversation” — with priority given not to Alberta or national economic interests, but to coastal communities and B.C.’s political class.
Translation: Ottawa is preparing Canadians for a battle, and the Carney government knows it is walking into sacred Trudeau-era territory.
But Alberta’s position is unmistakable. Smith wants the tanker ban removed, rewritten, or carved out to allow a bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s northwest coast — the only route capable of cracking open access to Asian markets and ending the U.S. monopoly over Canadian oil exports.
Her spokesman says the province wants an agreement “to work towards ultimate approval of a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets.”
Ottawa says those talks are in the “final stages.”
Yet B.C.’s political line remains unmoved. Premier David Eby is still opposed. B.C. Liberal MPs insist Indigenous consent and provincial agreement are non-negotiable. Coastal First Nations groups are already warning Carney to hold the line. And Green Leader Elizabeth May says any attempt to lift the ban is “barking up the wrong forest.”
Meanwhile, Alberta and Saskatchewan — the backbone of Canada’s energy wealth — remain landlocked by federal design.
Western frustration is boiling over:
• Trudeau rejected Northern Gateway in 2016
• Ottawa legislated the tanker moratorium in 2019
• B.C. expanded LNG with federal blessing
• Alberta’s access to tidewater remains frozen
Even Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed conceded the ban aligns with the identity of his riding — and that B.C. caucus members intend to defend it.
Conservatives say this is exactly the problem: a federal government willing to negotiate with Alberta on carbon pricing and emissions caps while refusing to give the West what it actually needs — unrestricted access to global energy markets.
As one Alberta voice put it: “Canada can’t be an energy superpower if we keep our energy trapped behind our own laws.”
With Carney promising a Canada that “leads on energy,” Western premiers now want to see if that promise survives its first real test.
Because after a decade of federal vetoes, moratoriums, and political choke points, many in the West say what’s unfolding isn’t a national conversation at all — it’s the latest chapter in holding Canadian energy hostage to preserve B.C. politics and Ottawa ideology.
#BC #Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
The fight over Canada’s northern B.C. tanker ban is erupting again — and even Liberal MPs admit the debate will be “contentious.” As Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith negotiate the final terms of a new energy relationship, a central question hangs over Ottawa: Will the federal government finally lift the moratorium blocking Alberta’s access to global markets?
Liberal MP Karina Gould said Wednesday the ban was imposed under Trudeau “out of huge public demand,” and warned that amending it now requires a “national conversation” — with priority given not to Alberta or national economic interests, but to coastal communities and B.C.’s political class.
Translation: Ottawa is preparing Canadians for a battle, and the Carney government knows it is walking into sacred Trudeau-era territory.
But Alberta’s position is unmistakable. Smith wants the tanker ban removed, rewritten, or carved out to allow a bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s northwest coast — the only route capable of cracking open access to Asian markets and ending the U.S. monopoly over Canadian oil exports.
Her spokesman says the province wants an agreement “to work towards ultimate approval of a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets.”
Ottawa says those talks are in the “final stages.”
Yet B.C.’s political line remains unmoved. Premier David Eby is still opposed. B.C. Liberal MPs insist Indigenous consent and provincial agreement are non-negotiable. Coastal First Nations groups are already warning Carney to hold the line. And Green Leader Elizabeth May says any attempt to lift the ban is “barking up the wrong forest.”
Meanwhile, Alberta and Saskatchewan — the backbone of Canada’s energy wealth — remain landlocked by federal design.
Western frustration is boiling over:
• Trudeau rejected Northern Gateway in 2016
• Ottawa legislated the tanker moratorium in 2019
• B.C. expanded LNG with federal blessing
• Alberta’s access to tidewater remains frozen
Even Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed conceded the ban aligns with the identity of his riding — and that B.C. caucus members intend to defend it.
Conservatives say this is exactly the problem: a federal government willing to negotiate with Alberta on carbon pricing and emissions caps while refusing to give the West what it actually needs — unrestricted access to global energy markets.
As one Alberta voice put it: “Canada can’t be an energy superpower if we keep our energy trapped behind our own laws.”
With Carney promising a Canada that “leads on energy,” Western premiers now want to see if that promise survives its first real test.
Because after a decade of federal vetoes, moratoriums, and political choke points, many in the West say what’s unfolding isn’t a national conversation at all — it’s the latest chapter in holding Canadian energy hostage to preserve B.C. politics and Ottawa ideology.
#BC #Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
💯5❤3🙏1
🇨🇦 Ottawa and Provinces Sign New Internal Trade Pact, But Critics Say It’s Absurd Canada Still Doesn’t Have Full Free Trade Within Its Own Borders
Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments have signed a new Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement, a deal set to take effect this December that will finally allow most goods approved in one province to be sold in any other — except food.
Officials are calling it a breakthrough. Business groups are calling it progress. But the real story is this: Canada still does not have true internal free trade in 2025 — and that remains one of the country’s most ridiculous, self-inflicted economic barriers.
Ontario’s economic development minister Vic Fedeli touted the agreement as “common sense,” noting that if a safety vest or construction product is approved in one province, it should be accepted everywhere. He estimates Ontario alone stands to gain $23 billion from the changes.
Economists say the potential national upside is massive — up to $200 billion in added economic output, though some studies put the real-world lift closer to 4% of GDP. Even then, the gains dwarf many federal stimulus programs.
But the limitations of the new pact are already clear:
• Food is excluded
• Services are excluded
• Alcohol is excluded until at least 2026
• Provinces are still clinging to carve-outs
And while Canada fights a messy trade war with the United States, internal trade as a share of Canada’s overall commerce is shrinking — down to 35% today from 52% in the early 1980s.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business welcomed the agreement but said what every frustrated entrepreneur already knows: there is no economic justification for barriers within a single country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney likes to say there should be “one Canadian economy, not 13.” But until food, services, alcohol, licensing, and professional certifications move freely from coast to coast, Canada will remain a country that trades more easily with America and Mexico than with itself.
A new deal is fine — but the simple truth remains: It is absurd that Canada still hasn’t achieved complete internal free trade.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments have signed a new Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement, a deal set to take effect this December that will finally allow most goods approved in one province to be sold in any other — except food.
Officials are calling it a breakthrough. Business groups are calling it progress. But the real story is this: Canada still does not have true internal free trade in 2025 — and that remains one of the country’s most ridiculous, self-inflicted economic barriers.
Ontario’s economic development minister Vic Fedeli touted the agreement as “common sense,” noting that if a safety vest or construction product is approved in one province, it should be accepted everywhere. He estimates Ontario alone stands to gain $23 billion from the changes.
Economists say the potential national upside is massive — up to $200 billion in added economic output, though some studies put the real-world lift closer to 4% of GDP. Even then, the gains dwarf many federal stimulus programs.
But the limitations of the new pact are already clear:
• Food is excluded
• Services are excluded
• Alcohol is excluded until at least 2026
• Provinces are still clinging to carve-outs
And while Canada fights a messy trade war with the United States, internal trade as a share of Canada’s overall commerce is shrinking — down to 35% today from 52% in the early 1980s.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business welcomed the agreement but said what every frustrated entrepreneur already knows: there is no economic justification for barriers within a single country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney likes to say there should be “one Canadian economy, not 13.” But until food, services, alcohol, licensing, and professional certifications move freely from coast to coast, Canada will remain a country that trades more easily with America and Mexico than with itself.
A new deal is fine — but the simple truth remains: It is absurd that Canada still hasn’t achieved complete internal free trade.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤7💯3🤯2
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🇨🇦🤨 Canada Border Services agent says they allow refugees free entry due to staff shortage
'We're short-staffed, so we let them into the country without doing a security screening'
'Wait, hold on...'
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
'We're short-staffed, so we let them into the country without doing a security screening'
'Wait, hold on...'
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤡15🤬7😢7🤯4🤔1
🇨🇦 Carney’s Chief of Staff Sparks Backlash After Comparing PM’s Ethics Problems to Nigel Wright
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s sprawling conflict-of-interest screen — already one of the largest in Canadian history — set off a political firestorm today after his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, compared Carney’s situation to that of Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff.
Blanchard made the remarks while testifying before the House of Commons ethics committee, where MPs are reviewing the Conflict of Interest Act. His defence of Carney’s entanglements came just a day after clerk of the Privy Council Michael Sabia revealed the PM’s ethics screen has already been triggered 13 times since July.
Blanchard argued that Canadians chose Carney because of his extensive private-sector background — including his years at Brookfield Asset Management, a global behemoth with over US$1 trillion in assets — and insisted the PM’s conflicts are no different from Wright’s when he entered Harper’s office.
Conservatives immediately pushed back.
MP Michael Barrett said the comparison was “absurd,” noting that Wright wasn’t the head of government, nor did he oversee files that could directly influence his former employer’s interests across dozens of sectors.
MP Shuv Majumdar added that Onex — the company tied to Wright — was far narrower in scope than Brookfield, a firm with tentacles in energy, infrastructure, real estate, finance, private equity, and clean tech. “This is a different standard entirely,” he said.
Sabia, meanwhile, defended the internal process. Of the 13 files flagged so far, six required applying the ethics screen — meaning Carney cannot be briefed on or participate in those decisions. Several remain active, and details cannot be disclosed without violating the screen itself.
But the committee zeroed in on a deeper issue:
Does the ethics screen even work when the prime minister’s former company holds positions in more than 100 entities across the economy?
Bloc MP Luc Thériault raised the example of new tax credits for small modular nuclear reactors — a technology dominated in Canada by Westinghouse, a company owned majority-stake by Brookfield. According to Blanchard, because the credit is of “general application,” the ethics screen didn’t need to be triggered.
That loophole — where massive corporate interests can still benefit from government policy so long as it’s framed as broadly applicable — is now drawing scrutiny.
Blanchard insisted Carney applies “strict ethical rules” to himself, including on informal communications such as late-night texts from U.S. President Donald Trump. But critics say the entire system relies on discretion rather than clear, enforceable divestment requirements.
As Democracy Watch warned earlier this month, the current rules allow politicians to participate in decisions from which they could indirectly benefit — a flaw the group says leaves “huge loopholes” in the law.
The ethics committee continues its hearings Thursday, with Blanchard back on the hot seat.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s sprawling conflict-of-interest screen — already one of the largest in Canadian history — set off a political firestorm today after his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, compared Carney’s situation to that of Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff.
Blanchard made the remarks while testifying before the House of Commons ethics committee, where MPs are reviewing the Conflict of Interest Act. His defence of Carney’s entanglements came just a day after clerk of the Privy Council Michael Sabia revealed the PM’s ethics screen has already been triggered 13 times since July.
Blanchard argued that Canadians chose Carney because of his extensive private-sector background — including his years at Brookfield Asset Management, a global behemoth with over US$1 trillion in assets — and insisted the PM’s conflicts are no different from Wright’s when he entered Harper’s office.
Conservatives immediately pushed back.
MP Michael Barrett said the comparison was “absurd,” noting that Wright wasn’t the head of government, nor did he oversee files that could directly influence his former employer’s interests across dozens of sectors.
MP Shuv Majumdar added that Onex — the company tied to Wright — was far narrower in scope than Brookfield, a firm with tentacles in energy, infrastructure, real estate, finance, private equity, and clean tech. “This is a different standard entirely,” he said.
Sabia, meanwhile, defended the internal process. Of the 13 files flagged so far, six required applying the ethics screen — meaning Carney cannot be briefed on or participate in those decisions. Several remain active, and details cannot be disclosed without violating the screen itself.
But the committee zeroed in on a deeper issue:
Does the ethics screen even work when the prime minister’s former company holds positions in more than 100 entities across the economy?
Bloc MP Luc Thériault raised the example of new tax credits for small modular nuclear reactors — a technology dominated in Canada by Westinghouse, a company owned majority-stake by Brookfield. According to Blanchard, because the credit is of “general application,” the ethics screen didn’t need to be triggered.
That loophole — where massive corporate interests can still benefit from government policy so long as it’s framed as broadly applicable — is now drawing scrutiny.
Blanchard insisted Carney applies “strict ethical rules” to himself, including on informal communications such as late-night texts from U.S. President Donald Trump. But critics say the entire system relies on discretion rather than clear, enforceable divestment requirements.
As Democracy Watch warned earlier this month, the current rules allow politicians to participate in decisions from which they could indirectly benefit — a flaw the group says leaves “huge loopholes” in the law.
The ethics committee continues its hearings Thursday, with Blanchard back on the hot seat.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬2❤1😁1
🇺🇸🇨🇦 U.S. Ambassador Hoekstra Warns Canada on ‘Meddling,’ Says He Doesn’t Get Why Canadians Are Angry About the ‘51st State’ Talk
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra sparked a fresh round of outrage on both sides of the border after accusing Canada of interfering in American politics — while simultaneously insisting he “doesn’t understand” why Canadians are furious about Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state.
Speaking at the National Manufacturing Conference in Ottawa, Hoekstra claimed Ontario’s pro–free trade ads — which aired in U.S. markets ahead of local elections and a critical Supreme Court case on Trump’s tariff powers — crossed a line.
“You do not come into America and start running political ads — government-funded political ads — and expect there will be no consequences,” Hoekstra said, calling the tactic unprecedented and warning Canada that there would be “reaction from the Trump administration.”
He was referring to provincial ads that criticized U.S. tariffs and urged Americans to defend free trade — a move Washington interpreted as political messaging aimed directly at the president during an electoral cycle.
But his next line landed hardest in Ottawa:
“I go around the country and people will say, ‘Pete, you just don’t understand why we’re so mad about the 51st state.’ Yeah, you’re right. I don’t.”
The remark reignited a long-simmering tension: Canada’s anger at Trump’s off-hand annexation jokes, and the growing frustration over a trade war that has hit Canadian workers, exporters, and consumers at a scale not seen since the 1930s.
Hoekstra insisted the real issue wasn’t American rhetoric — it was that Canadians “don’t understand” the depth of U.S. anger over the ads, which were aired less than two weeks before key U.S. elections and a Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
For context, the ambassador also made light of Canada’s national emergency alert test, quipping:
“It is so nice of them to put out a national emergency that the U.S. ambassador is again speaking. Watch out!”
Trade talks between Ottawa and Washington remain frozen. Hoekstra suggested negotiations “will restart,” but offered no timeline.
Behind the scenes, U.S. officials continue to insist that Canada “inserted itself” into domestic American politics — while many Canadians argue that Trump’s own rhetoric, tariffs, and the “51st state” narrative represent a political intrusion of a different kind.
The diplomatic rift shows no signs of cooling.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra sparked a fresh round of outrage on both sides of the border after accusing Canada of interfering in American politics — while simultaneously insisting he “doesn’t understand” why Canadians are furious about Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state.
Speaking at the National Manufacturing Conference in Ottawa, Hoekstra claimed Ontario’s pro–free trade ads — which aired in U.S. markets ahead of local elections and a critical Supreme Court case on Trump’s tariff powers — crossed a line.
“You do not come into America and start running political ads — government-funded political ads — and expect there will be no consequences,” Hoekstra said, calling the tactic unprecedented and warning Canada that there would be “reaction from the Trump administration.”
He was referring to provincial ads that criticized U.S. tariffs and urged Americans to defend free trade — a move Washington interpreted as political messaging aimed directly at the president during an electoral cycle.
But his next line landed hardest in Ottawa:
“I go around the country and people will say, ‘Pete, you just don’t understand why we’re so mad about the 51st state.’ Yeah, you’re right. I don’t.”
The remark reignited a long-simmering tension: Canada’s anger at Trump’s off-hand annexation jokes, and the growing frustration over a trade war that has hit Canadian workers, exporters, and consumers at a scale not seen since the 1930s.
Hoekstra insisted the real issue wasn’t American rhetoric — it was that Canadians “don’t understand” the depth of U.S. anger over the ads, which were aired less than two weeks before key U.S. elections and a Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
For context, the ambassador also made light of Canada’s national emergency alert test, quipping:
“It is so nice of them to put out a national emergency that the U.S. ambassador is again speaking. Watch out!”
Trade talks between Ottawa and Washington remain frozen. Hoekstra suggested negotiations “will restart,” but offered no timeline.
Behind the scenes, U.S. officials continue to insist that Canada “inserted itself” into domestic American politics — while many Canadians argue that Trump’s own rhetoric, tariffs, and the “51st state” narrative represent a political intrusion of a different kind.
The diplomatic rift shows no signs of cooling.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦💸 Budget Watchdog Says Carney Has a 7.5% Chance of Hitting His Own Fiscal Targets
Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer delivered a blunt verdict today: the Carney government is almost certain to miss the fiscal “anchors” it set for itself just months ago.
Appearing before the House of Commons Government Operations Committee, interim PBO Jason Jacques said there is only a 7.5% probability Ottawa will manage even one of its core commitments — reducing the deficit-to-GDP ratio over the next several years.
The government originally announced three long-term fiscal goals:
• balance the operating budget within three years
• push the deficit-to-GDP ratio downward
• lower Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio
One of those has already quietly been abandoned. The government dropped the debt-to-GDP target in its Nov. 4 budget because meeting it was mathematically impossible in the face of a $78.3B deficit — the largest in Canadian history outside the pandemic.
Jacques has not minced words since taking over as PBO this fall. He’s called the government’s trajectory “stupefying,” “shocking,” and “unsustainable.” His office also flagged that Ottawa has shifted $94 billion in regular operational spending to the capital ledger — effectively re-labelling day-to-day expenses as “investments” to make the books look cleaner.
Under that reclassification, corporate tax expenditures, investment tax credits, and operating subsidies are all being counted as capital — a definition Jacques called “too broad” and outside international norms.
The broader picture is stark:
• Canada’s deficit is projected to average $64B annually until 2030 — double last year’s estimate
• the national debt now stands at $1.27 trillion, with nearly half accumulated in just five years
• by the end of the decade, Ottawa will have added another $320B in new debt
Finance officials argue the spending is necessary to fund “pro-growth” initiatives in energy, AI, critical minerals, and infrastructure. But the PBO’s numbers suggest the government’s own benchmarks — its promised guardrails for accountability — are unlikely to be met under current policy.
A permanent Parliamentary Budget Officer is expected to be appointed soon. Jason Jacques, who has served in the role on an interim basis since September, is continuing to press for more transparent fiscal reporting as Parliament wrestles with a rapidly expanding federal balance sheet.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer delivered a blunt verdict today: the Carney government is almost certain to miss the fiscal “anchors” it set for itself just months ago.
Appearing before the House of Commons Government Operations Committee, interim PBO Jason Jacques said there is only a 7.5% probability Ottawa will manage even one of its core commitments — reducing the deficit-to-GDP ratio over the next several years.
The government originally announced three long-term fiscal goals:
• balance the operating budget within three years
• push the deficit-to-GDP ratio downward
• lower Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio
One of those has already quietly been abandoned. The government dropped the debt-to-GDP target in its Nov. 4 budget because meeting it was mathematically impossible in the face of a $78.3B deficit — the largest in Canadian history outside the pandemic.
Jacques has not minced words since taking over as PBO this fall. He’s called the government’s trajectory “stupefying,” “shocking,” and “unsustainable.” His office also flagged that Ottawa has shifted $94 billion in regular operational spending to the capital ledger — effectively re-labelling day-to-day expenses as “investments” to make the books look cleaner.
Under that reclassification, corporate tax expenditures, investment tax credits, and operating subsidies are all being counted as capital — a definition Jacques called “too broad” and outside international norms.
The broader picture is stark:
• Canada’s deficit is projected to average $64B annually until 2030 — double last year’s estimate
• the national debt now stands at $1.27 trillion, with nearly half accumulated in just five years
• by the end of the decade, Ottawa will have added another $320B in new debt
Finance officials argue the spending is necessary to fund “pro-growth” initiatives in energy, AI, critical minerals, and infrastructure. But the PBO’s numbers suggest the government’s own benchmarks — its promised guardrails for accountability — are unlikely to be met under current policy.
A permanent Parliamentary Budget Officer is expected to be appointed soon. Jason Jacques, who has served in the role on an interim basis since September, is continuing to press for more transparent fiscal reporting as Parliament wrestles with a rapidly expanding federal balance sheet.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
😁4🤯2💯1
🇨🇦⚖️ One in Seven Sexual-Assault Cases in Canada Collapse Before Trial Due to Delays, New Report Warns
Canada’s justice system is now failing victims at a scale most politicians refuse to acknowledge. A new report from the federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime reveals a staggering figure: one in seven sexual-assault cases in adult courts never make it to a verdict. Not because the evidence is weak. Not because the accused is acquitted. But because the courts cannot bring cases to trial in time.
Under the Supreme Court’s R v. Jordan ruling, provincial courts must try criminal cases within 18 months. Canada is blowing past that deadline with shocking frequency. Between 2022 and 2023, 30.4% of all sexual-assault cases exceeded the Jordan limit, and nearly half of those were simply stayed or withdrawn — erased by procedural failure, not justice.
That translates to roughly 500 sexual-assault cases a year thrown out because the system can’t function. Victims prepare, testify, wait — only to watch their case collapse because a Crown couldn’t get disclosures done, a courtroom wasn’t available, or police took months to turn over key evidence.
The report includes disturbing examples:
— In northern Manitoba, cases were abandoned after RCMP delays of up to four months on digital evidence.
— In Fort Frances, Ont., a victim arrived ready to testify, only to discover the courtroom had been “double-booked.” Her case was delayed seven months — then dropped entirely under the Jordan clock.
— Even in Ontario’s new billion-dollar Toronto courthouse, cases — including sexual assaults — were tossed because the very building built to increase efficiency only amplified the backlog.
This is happening everywhere, including in provinces where premiers campaign loudly about getting “tough on crime.” The reality: no premier, no attorney general, no level of government has fixed the basic bottleneck that lets serious offenders walk free because the system ran out of time.
Politicians are debating mandatory minimums, registries, three-strikes laws, and constitutional showdowns — while the justice system can’t even reliably bring a case to trial.
“Justice delayed is justice denied” isn’t a slogan. It’s now the lived experience of thousands of Canadians — victims, families, accused, and communities left with no closure and no accountability.
Canada doesn’t need more podium rhetoric. It needs courts, prosecutors, judges, and resources that function.
If Canadians ever fully grasp how deeply the rot extends, the political class will wish delayed trials were their biggest problem.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Canada’s justice system is now failing victims at a scale most politicians refuse to acknowledge. A new report from the federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime reveals a staggering figure: one in seven sexual-assault cases in adult courts never make it to a verdict. Not because the evidence is weak. Not because the accused is acquitted. But because the courts cannot bring cases to trial in time.
Under the Supreme Court’s R v. Jordan ruling, provincial courts must try criminal cases within 18 months. Canada is blowing past that deadline with shocking frequency. Between 2022 and 2023, 30.4% of all sexual-assault cases exceeded the Jordan limit, and nearly half of those were simply stayed or withdrawn — erased by procedural failure, not justice.
That translates to roughly 500 sexual-assault cases a year thrown out because the system can’t function. Victims prepare, testify, wait — only to watch their case collapse because a Crown couldn’t get disclosures done, a courtroom wasn’t available, or police took months to turn over key evidence.
The report includes disturbing examples:
— In northern Manitoba, cases were abandoned after RCMP delays of up to four months on digital evidence.
— In Fort Frances, Ont., a victim arrived ready to testify, only to discover the courtroom had been “double-booked.” Her case was delayed seven months — then dropped entirely under the Jordan clock.
— Even in Ontario’s new billion-dollar Toronto courthouse, cases — including sexual assaults — were tossed because the very building built to increase efficiency only amplified the backlog.
This is happening everywhere, including in provinces where premiers campaign loudly about getting “tough on crime.” The reality: no premier, no attorney general, no level of government has fixed the basic bottleneck that lets serious offenders walk free because the system ran out of time.
Politicians are debating mandatory minimums, registries, three-strikes laws, and constitutional showdowns — while the justice system can’t even reliably bring a case to trial.
“Justice delayed is justice denied” isn’t a slogan. It’s now the lived experience of thousands of Canadians — victims, families, accused, and communities left with no closure and no accountability.
Canada doesn’t need more podium rhetoric. It needs courts, prosecutors, judges, and resources that function.
If Canadians ever fully grasp how deeply the rot extends, the political class will wish delayed trials were their biggest problem.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬11👍2💩1
🇨🇦 Carney Wraps U.A.E. Visit With $70B Pledge — But Serious Questions Remain
Prime Minister Mark Carney closed his Abu Dhabi trip with a headline-grabbing announcement: a $70-billion investment commitment from the United Arab Emirates, tied to a new bilateral investment framework and a push to accelerate Canadian projects in critical minerals, AI, logistics, and energy.
Standing alongside Emirati officials — including Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, the powerful ADNOC chief — Carney also unveiled a $1-billion Canadian project aimed at massively expanding domestic critical-minerals processing capacity. Ottawa says it will “boost long-term supply of minerals essential to energy technologies,” though exact details are still to come.
Carney went a step further, personally inviting U.A.E. investors to Canada:
“I will personally host them,” he said, pitching the country as a future hub for AI, quantum, life sciences, and next-gen manufacturing.
But behind the polished language, the gaps are glaring:
• The U.A.E. itself has not publicly announced the deal.
No notice appears on their foreign ministry site.
• Ottawa has not released a timeline for when — or how — $70B would actually flow.
• Media reporting suggests the investments span everything from mining to energy logistics, but none of it has been officially itemized.
Carney’s office calls the money a “vote of confidence” in Canada’s struggling economy — one rocked by declining productivity, the U.S. trade war, and collapsing living standards.
He insists bilateral trade can be more than doubled in under a decade, calling Canada and the Emirates “aligned as trading nations and energy superpowers going green.”
Sudan Shadows the Trip
Carney also confirmed he raised the Sudan civil war with U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Human-rights groups accuse the U.A.E. of helping arm the RSF militia, which has been implicated in ethnic massacres.
Carney wouldn’t say whether he believes the Emirati denials or the human-rights reports — only that the conversation focused on the U.S.-led Quad framework (U.S., U.A.E., Egypt, Saudi Arabia) seeking a ceasefire under President Trump’s diplomatic push.
The timing is delicate: Canada is deepening economic ties with a state whose regional activities are under intense scrutiny.
G20 Next — Without the U.S.
Carney was then off to Johannesburg for the G20, where the U.S. will send no senior officials, accusing South Africa of turning a blind eye to anti-white violence — a claim Pretoria flatly rejects.
Canada’s listed G20 priorities:
• Securing critical minerals
• AI for sustainable development
• Wildfire/disaster prevention
• Debt & development-funding reform
• Advancing gender equality through growth
#Canada #UAE
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Prime Minister Mark Carney closed his Abu Dhabi trip with a headline-grabbing announcement: a $70-billion investment commitment from the United Arab Emirates, tied to a new bilateral investment framework and a push to accelerate Canadian projects in critical minerals, AI, logistics, and energy.
Standing alongside Emirati officials — including Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, the powerful ADNOC chief — Carney also unveiled a $1-billion Canadian project aimed at massively expanding domestic critical-minerals processing capacity. Ottawa says it will “boost long-term supply of minerals essential to energy technologies,” though exact details are still to come.
Carney went a step further, personally inviting U.A.E. investors to Canada:
“I will personally host them,” he said, pitching the country as a future hub for AI, quantum, life sciences, and next-gen manufacturing.
But behind the polished language, the gaps are glaring:
• The U.A.E. itself has not publicly announced the deal.
No notice appears on their foreign ministry site.
• Ottawa has not released a timeline for when — or how — $70B would actually flow.
• Media reporting suggests the investments span everything from mining to energy logistics, but none of it has been officially itemized.
Carney’s office calls the money a “vote of confidence” in Canada’s struggling economy — one rocked by declining productivity, the U.S. trade war, and collapsing living standards.
He insists bilateral trade can be more than doubled in under a decade, calling Canada and the Emirates “aligned as trading nations and energy superpowers going green.”
Sudan Shadows the Trip
Carney also confirmed he raised the Sudan civil war with U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Human-rights groups accuse the U.A.E. of helping arm the RSF militia, which has been implicated in ethnic massacres.
Carney wouldn’t say whether he believes the Emirati denials or the human-rights reports — only that the conversation focused on the U.S.-led Quad framework (U.S., U.A.E., Egypt, Saudi Arabia) seeking a ceasefire under President Trump’s diplomatic push.
The timing is delicate: Canada is deepening economic ties with a state whose regional activities are under intense scrutiny.
G20 Next — Without the U.S.
Carney was then off to Johannesburg for the G20, where the U.S. will send no senior officials, accusing South Africa of turning a blind eye to anti-white violence — a claim Pretoria flatly rejects.
Canada’s listed G20 priorities:
• Securing critical minerals
• AI for sustainable development
• Wildfire/disaster prevention
• Debt & development-funding reform
• Advancing gender equality through growth
#Canada #UAE
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 Seven Canadians Arrested in FBI Takedown of Alleged Ryan Wedding Drug Empire
A Calgary man accused of helping fugitive Canadian drug lord Ryan Wedding arrange the murder of an FBI informant appeared in court Friday, days after his arrest on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Allistair Chapman, 33, is one of seven Canadian residents arrested this week as part of a sweeping FBI operation targeting what authorities describe as a billion-dollar transnational cocaine network allegedly run by Wedding — a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder now on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and believed to be hiding in Mexico.
The joint announcement was made Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme unveiled an unsealed federal indictment outlining the scale of the alleged “Wedding Criminal Enterprise,” said to operate across Mexico, Colombia, the United States, and Canada.
Authorities also raised the reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture to US$15 million, underscoring the scope of the case.
Chapman, brought into a Calgary courtroom shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, faces charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit murder, and retaliation against a federal witness. The indictment alleges Chapman facilitated the killing of “Victim A” by providing a photograph to Gursewak Singh Bal, operator of the crime-focused site The Dirty News. Police say Bal was paid $10,000 to publish the image.
Three months later, the informant was shot five times in the head inside a restaurant in Colombia.
Chapman, a former Alberta Junior Hockey League player, is no stranger to law enforcement. He was previously charged in 2018 in a major cross-border drug and firearms investigation, though those charges were stayed in 2020 due to delays.
Of the 10 people arrested this week, seven are in Canada, and extradition hearings will follow before any prosecution in California. Chapman’s next court appearance is scheduled for December 5, with no date yet set for a full extradition hearing.
The case marks one of the most significant joint Canada–U.S. organized crime operations in recent years, and investigators say additional arrests are possible as the probe continues.
#Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
A Calgary man accused of helping fugitive Canadian drug lord Ryan Wedding arrange the murder of an FBI informant appeared in court Friday, days after his arrest on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Allistair Chapman, 33, is one of seven Canadian residents arrested this week as part of a sweeping FBI operation targeting what authorities describe as a billion-dollar transnational cocaine network allegedly run by Wedding — a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder now on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and believed to be hiding in Mexico.
The joint announcement was made Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme unveiled an unsealed federal indictment outlining the scale of the alleged “Wedding Criminal Enterprise,” said to operate across Mexico, Colombia, the United States, and Canada.
Authorities also raised the reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture to US$15 million, underscoring the scope of the case.
Chapman, brought into a Calgary courtroom shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, faces charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit murder, and retaliation against a federal witness. The indictment alleges Chapman facilitated the killing of “Victim A” by providing a photograph to Gursewak Singh Bal, operator of the crime-focused site The Dirty News. Police say Bal was paid $10,000 to publish the image.
Three months later, the informant was shot five times in the head inside a restaurant in Colombia.
Chapman, a former Alberta Junior Hockey League player, is no stranger to law enforcement. He was previously charged in 2018 in a major cross-border drug and firearms investigation, though those charges were stayed in 2020 due to delays.
Of the 10 people arrested this week, seven are in Canada, and extradition hearings will follow before any prosecution in California. Chapman’s next court appearance is scheduled for December 5, with no date yet set for a full extradition hearing.
The case marks one of the most significant joint Canada–U.S. organized crime operations in recent years, and investigators say additional arrests are possible as the probe continues.
#Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 Canada Quietly Wins the Tourism War as U.S. Travel Industry Slides
While the trade war with Washington continues to batter key sectors of the Canadian economy — from aluminum to steel — there is one front where Canada is quietly and decisively winning: tourism.
New data shows a record-breaking surge in both domestic and international tourism in Canada throughout 2025, driven by global perceptions of Canada as safe, stable, and friendly, and by a sharp backlash against the Trump Administration’s border crackdowns, political volatility, and deteriorating travel experience.
U.S. tourism, meanwhile, is now in contraction.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadian travel to the United States collapsed between February and October:
• Air travel down 21%
• Land crossings down 33.5%
The U.S. Travel Association now forecasts a 3.2% drop in international tourism spending for 2025 — a hit of US$5.7 billion — and lays the blame directly on the disappearance of Canadian visitors, who historically make up the single largest share of all U.S. international tourists.
Border communities in Washington, New York, and Michigan report being “decimated” by the collapse in Canadian traffic — another shock on top of the post-pandemic tourism crash.
Meanwhile, Canada’s numbers tell a very different story.
Destination Canada reports a $3.3 billion increase in tourism revenue from May to August — an unprecedented 6% surge. Domestic travel rose 7%, driven in part by Canadians cancelling or postponing U.S. trips out of concern for safety, political tension, or simply to “stand up for Canada” during the trade war, according to Angus Reid polling.
International tourism to Canada also spiked:
• Overseas arrivals up 2.4%
• Overseas spending up 10.4%
Surveys from the U.K., Germany, and France show more than 50% of Europeans are now choosing Canada over the U.S., citing safety, political stability, and friendlier border experiences.
U.S. border policy — particularly increased detentions, fingerprinting of Canadian snowbirds, and viral images of ICE raids — appears to be accelerating the shift. Experts note that tourism is fundamentally a “safety-based industry,” and the U.S. under Trump is being perceived globally as a riskier, more volatile destination.
Even Mexico, a major source of U.S. tourism, is expected to be hit next year when a new US$250 “visa integrity fee” comes into effect for non-citizens requiring a travel visa — effectively a new tariff on inbound travel.
Canada is expected to benefit further in 2026 when both countries host FIFA World Cup games. But with American politics entering yet another turbulent cycle — and Canadian tourism revenue already at an all-time high — the strategic advantage has shifted north of the 49th parallel.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
While the trade war with Washington continues to batter key sectors of the Canadian economy — from aluminum to steel — there is one front where Canada is quietly and decisively winning: tourism.
New data shows a record-breaking surge in both domestic and international tourism in Canada throughout 2025, driven by global perceptions of Canada as safe, stable, and friendly, and by a sharp backlash against the Trump Administration’s border crackdowns, political volatility, and deteriorating travel experience.
U.S. tourism, meanwhile, is now in contraction.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadian travel to the United States collapsed between February and October:
• Air travel down 21%
• Land crossings down 33.5%
The U.S. Travel Association now forecasts a 3.2% drop in international tourism spending for 2025 — a hit of US$5.7 billion — and lays the blame directly on the disappearance of Canadian visitors, who historically make up the single largest share of all U.S. international tourists.
Border communities in Washington, New York, and Michigan report being “decimated” by the collapse in Canadian traffic — another shock on top of the post-pandemic tourism crash.
Meanwhile, Canada’s numbers tell a very different story.
Destination Canada reports a $3.3 billion increase in tourism revenue from May to August — an unprecedented 6% surge. Domestic travel rose 7%, driven in part by Canadians cancelling or postponing U.S. trips out of concern for safety, political tension, or simply to “stand up for Canada” during the trade war, according to Angus Reid polling.
International tourism to Canada also spiked:
• Overseas arrivals up 2.4%
• Overseas spending up 10.4%
Surveys from the U.K., Germany, and France show more than 50% of Europeans are now choosing Canada over the U.S., citing safety, political stability, and friendlier border experiences.
U.S. border policy — particularly increased detentions, fingerprinting of Canadian snowbirds, and viral images of ICE raids — appears to be accelerating the shift. Experts note that tourism is fundamentally a “safety-based industry,” and the U.S. under Trump is being perceived globally as a riskier, more volatile destination.
Even Mexico, a major source of U.S. tourism, is expected to be hit next year when a new US$250 “visa integrity fee” comes into effect for non-citizens requiring a travel visa — effectively a new tariff on inbound travel.
Canada is expected to benefit further in 2026 when both countries host FIFA World Cup games. But with American politics entering yet another turbulent cycle — and Canadian tourism revenue already at an all-time high — the strategic advantage has shifted north of the 49th parallel.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤5🤡4😁3
🇨🇦🇺🇸 JD Vance Takes Aim at CBC, Carney, and Canada’s “Immigration Insanity”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has waded directly into Canada’s political debate — and he isn’t mincing words. Responding to a chart showing Canada’s collapsing GDP per capita compared to the U.S. and U.K., Vance argued that no G7 nation “leaned harder” into mass immigration than Canada, and that the economic fallout is now impossible to ignore.
“Canada has the highest foreign-born share in the entire G7, and its living standards have stagnated,” Vance wrote on X, taking a pointed swing at the CBC for blaming “bogeymen” like Donald Trump instead of Ottawa’s own policies. He added that Canada’s political class “focuses obsessively on the United States,” while refusing to take responsibility for the pressures they created at home.
The data backs the scale of Canada’s demographic shift: 23% of the population is now foreign-born — the highest level in 150 years. Meanwhile, GDP per capita has been flatlining despite historically high immigration levels, fueling a national debate over housing, wages, productivity, and affordability.
While the federal government frames immigration as “central to our future,” the Trump administration has taken the opposite path. Under its revived enforcement agenda, DHS says hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants have been removed, and “over 2 million” more have self-deported due to tightened protocols. U.S. officials have restored aggressive screening, visa vetting, and border enforcement — a stark contrast to Canada’s liberal approach.
Vance’s comments land at a tense moment in Canada-U.S. relations. Trade talks stalled after Ontario ran anti-tariff ads in American markets, drawing fury from Washington. That dispute has since cooled, but friction remains — especially with President Trump repeatedly referring to Canada as the “51st state.” Carney and Trump have struggled to find common ground.
At home, Pierre Poilievre has already seized on the same GDP-per-capita data, accusing Mark Carney of “importing the same financial disaster he caused in the U.K.” Poilievre argues that wherever Carney goes, “inflation goes up, paycheques shrink, and living standards collapse.”
Vance’s message to Canadians was blunt: don’t blame Trump; blame your own leadership. And for a country already wrestling with affordability, housing shortages, and sliding economic performance, it’s a criticism Ottawa can’t easily ignore.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has waded directly into Canada’s political debate — and he isn’t mincing words. Responding to a chart showing Canada’s collapsing GDP per capita compared to the U.S. and U.K., Vance argued that no G7 nation “leaned harder” into mass immigration than Canada, and that the economic fallout is now impossible to ignore.
“Canada has the highest foreign-born share in the entire G7, and its living standards have stagnated,” Vance wrote on X, taking a pointed swing at the CBC for blaming “bogeymen” like Donald Trump instead of Ottawa’s own policies. He added that Canada’s political class “focuses obsessively on the United States,” while refusing to take responsibility for the pressures they created at home.
The data backs the scale of Canada’s demographic shift: 23% of the population is now foreign-born — the highest level in 150 years. Meanwhile, GDP per capita has been flatlining despite historically high immigration levels, fueling a national debate over housing, wages, productivity, and affordability.
While the federal government frames immigration as “central to our future,” the Trump administration has taken the opposite path. Under its revived enforcement agenda, DHS says hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants have been removed, and “over 2 million” more have self-deported due to tightened protocols. U.S. officials have restored aggressive screening, visa vetting, and border enforcement — a stark contrast to Canada’s liberal approach.
Vance’s comments land at a tense moment in Canada-U.S. relations. Trade talks stalled after Ontario ran anti-tariff ads in American markets, drawing fury from Washington. That dispute has since cooled, but friction remains — especially with President Trump repeatedly referring to Canada as the “51st state.” Carney and Trump have struggled to find common ground.
At home, Pierre Poilievre has already seized on the same GDP-per-capita data, accusing Mark Carney of “importing the same financial disaster he caused in the U.K.” Poilievre argues that wherever Carney goes, “inflation goes up, paycheques shrink, and living standards collapse.”
Vance’s message to Canadians was blunt: don’t blame Trump; blame your own leadership. And for a country already wrestling with affordability, housing shortages, and sliding economic performance, it’s a criticism Ottawa can’t easily ignore.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 Ottawa & Alberta Poised to Sign Breakthrough Energy Deal — Pipeline Back on the Table
After a decade of Ottawa slamming the door on West Coast pipeline access, the political ground has shifted. A senior federal source confirms Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are expected to sign a new energy sector memorandum of understanding this Thursday — a deal that, for the first time since Northern Gateway’s death, explicitly includes language about a path forward for a northwest B.C. oil pipeline.
This is the project Alberta has demanded for years: a corridor that would finally give landlocked Canadian crude direct access to Asian markets. And unlike the Trudeau era, Carney is now open to considering it, provided Alberta leads the Indigenous consultations, negotiates terms directly with British Columbia, and satisfies federal regulatory triggers.
But the politics are already explosive.
B.C. Premier David Eby says he “almost fell out of his seat” when he learned Saskatchewan had been brought into pipeline conversations with Ottawa and Alberta — conversations, he insists, B.C. was never informed about. He’s made it clear he opposes any pipeline to the northern coast and wants Ottawa to uphold the Trudeau-era tanker moratorium.
Yet the federal government is now openly exploring limited exemptions to that ban — and may even use its sweeping powers under the One Canadian Economy Act (C-5) to allow tankers tied to this proposed pipeline to legally bypass the moratorium altogether.
That would be a seismic shift in national energy policy.
At present, no private company has stepped forward to build such a pipeline. Alberta is trying to solve that problem by going first: Smith has already announced her government will draft and submit a full application to the federal Major Projects Office to jump-start the process and draw private capital into the fold.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
A pipeline to the Pacific would reshape Canadian energy sovereignty, rewire Alberta–Ottawa relations, and challenge B.C.’s veto power over national infrastructure. It would also signal a major reversal of Liberal policy and re-ignite the debate over whether Canada should remain a country whose energy wealth is landlocked — or finally behave like an energy superpower.
More details expected Thursday.
#Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
After a decade of Ottawa slamming the door on West Coast pipeline access, the political ground has shifted. A senior federal source confirms Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are expected to sign a new energy sector memorandum of understanding this Thursday — a deal that, for the first time since Northern Gateway’s death, explicitly includes language about a path forward for a northwest B.C. oil pipeline.
This is the project Alberta has demanded for years: a corridor that would finally give landlocked Canadian crude direct access to Asian markets. And unlike the Trudeau era, Carney is now open to considering it, provided Alberta leads the Indigenous consultations, negotiates terms directly with British Columbia, and satisfies federal regulatory triggers.
But the politics are already explosive.
B.C. Premier David Eby says he “almost fell out of his seat” when he learned Saskatchewan had been brought into pipeline conversations with Ottawa and Alberta — conversations, he insists, B.C. was never informed about. He’s made it clear he opposes any pipeline to the northern coast and wants Ottawa to uphold the Trudeau-era tanker moratorium.
Yet the federal government is now openly exploring limited exemptions to that ban — and may even use its sweeping powers under the One Canadian Economy Act (C-5) to allow tankers tied to this proposed pipeline to legally bypass the moratorium altogether.
That would be a seismic shift in national energy policy.
At present, no private company has stepped forward to build such a pipeline. Alberta is trying to solve that problem by going first: Smith has already announced her government will draft and submit a full application to the federal Major Projects Office to jump-start the process and draw private capital into the fold.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
A pipeline to the Pacific would reshape Canadian energy sovereignty, rewire Alberta–Ottawa relations, and challenge B.C.’s veto power over national infrastructure. It would also signal a major reversal of Liberal policy and re-ignite the debate over whether Canada should remain a country whose energy wealth is landlocked — or finally behave like an energy superpower.
More details expected Thursday.
#Alberta
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 Another Alleged Accomplice of Fugitive Ryan Wedding Arrested in Vancouver: FBI
A second associate of fugitive Canadian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been arrested on Canadian soil, according to the FBI.
Rasheed Pascua Hossain, 32, of Vancouver — who investigators say operated under the alias “JP Morgan” — was taken into custody Friday by the RCMP. He now faces U.S. charges related to cocaine trafficking and multimillion-dollar money laundering, detailed in a newly unsealed federal grand jury indictment.
Hossain is described by prosecutors as a key figure inside Wedding’s international laundering network, which allegedly moved cartel-linked cocaine and criminal proceeds across Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States.
The arrest comes as court documents reveal the FBI secured a new cooperating informant — a former Wedding associate who admits to having trafficked drugs with him and assisted with “multiple murders.” That informant is now central to the U.S. case, including the investigation into the January 2025 assassination of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian-Colombian trafficker and FBI source.
Acebedo-Garcia was shot five times in the head inside a Medellín restaurant, in what prosecutors describe as a retaliation killing ordered to protect Wedding’s billion-dollar organization. The newly unsealed indictment alleges Wedding arranged payments, surveillance attempts, and overseas travel to hunt down the witness. Investigators say he even paid to have the victim’s photo posted on a Canadian crime-themed website to crowd-source his location.
According to U.S. filings, Wedding communicated through encrypted apps with the cooperating informant and a Toronto lawyer, discussing whether eliminating the witness could derail the federal indictment. Prosecutors say Wedding openly stated he was willing to spend up to $5 million USD to murder the FBI source.
Ten people were arrested this week across Canada and the U.S. in connection with the sweeping investigation, though Wedding himself remains at large, believed to be protected by powerful criminal groups in Mexico. The FBI has raised the reward for information leading to his capture to $15 million USD, calling him one of the most significant international fugitives linked to the North American cocaine trade.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
A second associate of fugitive Canadian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been arrested on Canadian soil, according to the FBI.
Rasheed Pascua Hossain, 32, of Vancouver — who investigators say operated under the alias “JP Morgan” — was taken into custody Friday by the RCMP. He now faces U.S. charges related to cocaine trafficking and multimillion-dollar money laundering, detailed in a newly unsealed federal grand jury indictment.
Hossain is described by prosecutors as a key figure inside Wedding’s international laundering network, which allegedly moved cartel-linked cocaine and criminal proceeds across Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States.
The arrest comes as court documents reveal the FBI secured a new cooperating informant — a former Wedding associate who admits to having trafficked drugs with him and assisted with “multiple murders.” That informant is now central to the U.S. case, including the investigation into the January 2025 assassination of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian-Colombian trafficker and FBI source.
Acebedo-Garcia was shot five times in the head inside a Medellín restaurant, in what prosecutors describe as a retaliation killing ordered to protect Wedding’s billion-dollar organization. The newly unsealed indictment alleges Wedding arranged payments, surveillance attempts, and overseas travel to hunt down the witness. Investigators say he even paid to have the victim’s photo posted on a Canadian crime-themed website to crowd-source his location.
According to U.S. filings, Wedding communicated through encrypted apps with the cooperating informant and a Toronto lawyer, discussing whether eliminating the witness could derail the federal indictment. Prosecutors say Wedding openly stated he was willing to spend up to $5 million USD to murder the FBI source.
Ten people were arrested this week across Canada and the U.S. in connection with the sweeping investigation, though Wedding himself remains at large, believed to be protected by powerful criminal groups in Mexico. The FBI has raised the reward for information leading to his capture to $15 million USD, calling him one of the most significant international fugitives linked to the North American cocaine trade.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬2❤1🍌1