Canada

The billboard at the centre of the firestorm features a picture of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith posing with U.S. President Donald Trump, along with the words: "Tell Danielle! Let's join the USA!"

A Canadian activist and author was released after five days in prison following accusations by an anti-Palestinian media personality that he had harassed her, and his refusal to stay quiet about his case.

Yves Engler was taken into custody on the morning of 20 February in Montreal and spent five days in Bordeaux prison in Montreal before being released Monday after a court appearance.

“I think the key issue is I had to go to jail for five days to win the right to (publicly) criticise charges brought against me. The police, and then the crown, wanted to restrict my right to write about my case. When I wrote about it, they claimed I was harassing the police. I was in jail for five days over a technical condition. When I went on Thursday morning, they could have processed and let me go.”

Engler’s detainment is part of a larger crackdown on free speech in Canada, he says.

Seems it was a waste of our time and money. If anything, Canada should be asking the USA to increase their own border security as guns and drugs come into Canada at a much larger scale. And why even have a fentanyl czar etc if none of our actions will stop the tariffs? This was never about the border or drugs but Trump said jump and Canada asked How high?

Peter Navarro wants to increase pressure on country that Donald Trump has threatened to annex

Despite falling flat in the past, Rustad is reviving the deceptive and potentially costly strategy of targeting environmental groups because it appeals to the Conservative Party base, provincially and federally, that backs unimpeded oil and gas expansion, he said.

"It's good politics," Bratt said. "That base is convinced that environmental groups are illegitimately blocking energy projects."

However, Conservative politicians don't apply the same standard when it comes to the comparatively massive U.S. investment into Canada's oil and gas industry or as a market for B.C. or Alberta's fossil fuel, Bratt noted.

Nearly 37 per cent of Canada's oil and gas assets are under foreign control withAmerican investment controlling the lion's share at 16 per cent, followed closely by Asia with 15 per cent, and the European Union at five per cent in 2022. Both Rustad and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith originally advocated against the B.C. or federal government imposing any retaliatory tariffs in response to a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump that would harm the Canadian fossil fuel sector.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39711547

CBC's funding increases

CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding by the federal government is well below the average funding of G7 countries, which is $62.20 per capita. Currently, the government grants approximately $1.38 billion to CBC/Radio-Canada, which represents approximately $33.66 per capita, thereby placing Canada in sixth place in the Group of Seven (G7) in terms of public funding per capita for its national public broadcaster. The per capita funding that CBC/Radio-Canada receives is therefore equal to approximately half of the G7 average. The Minister intends to bring Canada more into line with its G7 counterparts.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39708407

Diners in a Windsor, Ont., restaurant were stunned and elated over the weekend when an American couple picked up the bill for the packed establishment — citing U.S. President Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric and their love of Canada.

AMID US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Sigmar Gabriel, former German vice chancellor and foreign minister, made a curious suggestion in an interview with German media outlet The Pioneer: invite Canada into the European Union. Soon after, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, addressed Canada on X to say that “[t]here is no reason why EU membership should be off the table.” The thought of this North Atlantic alliance excited some Canadians and Europeans—one YouTube video even theorized how “CANEU” (read: canoe) would be a “global superpower.”

To learn more about what the possibilities are for Canada and the EU, I spoke with Mark Camilleri, president and CEO of the Canada EU Trade and Investment Association—CEUTIA—based in Brussels.

"In terms of trade, what similarities do Canada and the EU share?"

There’s a lot of complementarities when you go across sectors. Take mining, for example. Canada has an abundance of natural resources that the EU doesn’t have, but Europe creates and makes a lot of industrial equipment that helps extract those resources. Europe has a certain need for these resources as part of their own economic security.

If you take a look at the fertilizer that Canada produces, Europe needs it to support their agricultural sector. Another example is nuclear energy. Nuclear is going through a renaissance at the moment, and Canada can basically cover the full supply chain from mining uranium to building nuclear reactors.

A B.C. Conservative MLA has refused her leader's request to take down a social media post that critics say amounts to residential school denialism — a charge Official Opposition attorney general critic Dallas Brodie refutes.

Brodie is facing backlash for a post on X.

"The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero. Zero. No one should be afraid of the truth. Not lawyers, their governing bodies or anyone else."

China has lodged a diplomatic protest against Canada for including Chinese companies in new sanctions against Russia, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"China has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack a basis in international law and are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council," Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, told a regular news conference on Tuesday, in reference to the sanctions announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday.

On Monday, Trudeau announced new sanctions targeting 76 individuals and entities who the government says are providing support to Russia's military, are involved in the forced transfer of Ukrainian children or support Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.