U.S. lawyer targeted by Trump cautions Canada on AI and attacks on dissent
VANCOUVER - An American lawyer stripped of his security clearance by U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadians need to be 'vigilant' about attacks on political freedom south of the border.
Mark Zaid, a speaker at the Web Summit Vancouver tech conference, also says Canadians need to be wary of the rise of artificial intelligence that could be used to either target political dissent or 'shield' it.
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CBC
9 minutes ago
- CBC
Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw chiefs
Social Sharing Nova Scotia's continued failure to consult with First Nations on uranium exploration is a mistake that will further erode the province's relationship with Mi'kmaw communities, says the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs and a lawyer from Sipekne'katik First Nation. Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Tamara Young said the Mi'kmaw people were neither consulted nor notified when Nova Scotia introduced then passed a bill that opens the province up to potential uranium mining and fracking. "The lack of consultation is unacceptable and goes against the UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)," Young said in a statement to The Canadian Press on Wednesday. The assembly has said they will continue to oppose both uranium exploration and hydraulic fracturing until their environmental concerns have been addressed. The provincial government added uranium to its list of priority critical minerals May 14, and it issued a request for exploration proposals for three sites with known deposits of the heavy metal. Interested companies had until Wednesday to submit their proposals. U.S. tariff consideration Premier Tim Houston has said the legislative changes are needed to help the province withstand economic challenges from American tariffs. "We recognize there are international pressures and influences affecting our economy, but any resource development in Mi'kma'ki must include our consent and participation as we are the rightful owners of these lands, waters and resources," Young said in the statement, speaking as co-lead of the environment, energy and mines portfolio on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs. Rosalie Francis, a Mi'kmaw lawyer whose firm is based out of Sipekne'katik First Nation, said the province risks further damaging their relationship with Mi'kmaw communities and sabotaging the potential uranium industry by failing to consult adequately and early. "By choosing not to consult, it scares away investors, destroys the relationship and gets us back to starting at zero," Francis said in an interview Tuesday. Why Nova Scotia's history with uranium mining is complicated 4 months ago Duration 3:28 The Nova Scotia government has announced it will lift blanket bans for future natural resource development, allowing for future uranium research. The decision is a big change in course for a province that hotly debated developing a uranium industry 40 years ago and again in 2008. "It all comes down to trust, and this completely diminishes any kind of trust." Meanwhile, four municipalities have recently called on the government to slow down its push for uranium exploration. 3 plots of land opened for uranium proposal Pictou County was the first to do so, followed by the West Hants Regional Municipality, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg and the Municipality of the County of Annapolis. Each council is asking the province for an indefinite delay to allow for consultations and information sessions. Nova Scotia has opened up three plots of land for uranium project proposals: an 80-hectare site in Louisville in Pictou County; a 64-hectare site in East Dalhousie in Annapolis County; and a 2,300-hectare site in Millet Brook in Hants County. Much of this is on private land. The government has previously said companies selected by the province would have to seek permission from landowners to explore. However, Section 26 of the province's Mineral Resources Act allows the natural resources minister to intervene if there is a stalemate. A spokesperson with the Department of Natural Resources said if a company decides it wants to develop a mine on one of these sites, then there is duty to consult with Mi'kmaw communities. Francis said that position is backwards, and is not in line with case law on the matter. "It's been clear that duty to consult begins when, in the minds of government, they're anticipating activity that will affect rights," Francis said, adding that should happen before a company has made a decision on the site. Alton Gas Lessons The lawyer said it would appear the province has not learned from the fallout of the Alton Gas cavern project, which was officially scrapped in fall 2021. The Alberta energy company abandoned its plan to create huge salt caverns north of Halifax to store natural gas more than 13 years after starting construction. The company said at the time the project experienced challenges and delays, referring to opposition the project faced from Indigenous protesters and allies who opposed the company's plan to remove large, underground salt deposits by flushing them out with water from the nearby Shubenacadie River. The plan also called for dumping the leftover brine into the tidal river, where it would flow into the Bay of Fundy. In March 2020, a decision by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ordered the province to resume consultations with Sipekne'katik First Nation on the matter and determined the former environment minister was wrong when she concluded the province had adequately consulted with the First Nation about the project. "The province should have walked away from that decision and said, 'OK, lesson learned.' The project never went forward. All the gas investors looked at it and said, 'This is just a mess now. Let's just walk away,"' Francis said. The lawyer said it will be telling in the coming weeks if the province chooses to engage with Mi'kmaw communities or "if the province will march along in the same way it did before." "Either we'll have a success story or we'll have another Alton Gas play out," she said. Canada-wide trend Shiri Pasternak, a criminology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-investigator of a research project called Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism, said the situation in Nova Scotia mirrors the expedited extraction movement that's happening across the country. "What's happening to the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia is really proliferating as an attack on Indigenous and environmental rights across the country right now," she said in an interview Tuesday. Pasternak said Nova Scotia is one of several provinces working to speed up extraction and development projects — moves that are supported by the federal government. "We have this sweep of fast-tracked legislation and policy changes to the Environment Assessment Act, both provincially in Nova Scotia and in other places, but also federally in terms of the Impact Assessment Act in order to expedite development and extraction — most of which will be against the desires and the consent of Indigenous people across the country."
CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
Canada-U.S. talks on economic and security deal intensify: sources
Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump meet in the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld The U.S. and Canada have intensified talks for an economic and security deal in recent weeks — with a framework for such an arrangement trading hands between the two parties — sources tell CTV News. Sources who spoke to CTV News on the condition of anonymity all universally cautioned the finalizing of such a deal requires sign-off directly from U.S. President Donald Trump, and there are no explicit assurances that will happen on a certain timeline. A senior government source, speaking on background, also confirmed that documents are going back and forth between Canadian and American sides of the negotiating table, but would not confirm the documents' contents. The source described it as 'part of a normal negotiation,' adding the government 'will not negotiate in public.' Sources say there has been substantial progress on a deal, but that Trump's own mercurial nature, plus recent domestic pressures — such as the protests in Los Angeles, Calif. and the president's feud with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — are making any certainty around a timeline even more unpredictable. The U.S. and Canada have been embroiled in a trade war since February, when the president began implementing a series of tariffs on Canadian goods. Prime Minister Mark Carney has frequently said in response to Trump's levies that the decades-old Canada-U.S. relationship is 'over,' but that a new economic and security relationship between the two countries remains possible. Speaking to reporters on his way into a caucus meeting Wednesday morning, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the talks are a 'very dynamic situation,' adding he would defer to the prime minister and the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade. 'We're all on the same page. We're fighting for Canada, we're fighting for industry, making sure that they understand that this is damaging on both sides of the border,' Champagne said. Last week, Industry Minister Melanie Joly confirmed Carney and Trump have been in direct talks in recent weeks, with readouts of those calls not being made public. Meanwhile, during a fireside chat hosted at the Canadian Club of Ottawa on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said that 'all the indications are that we could move to a very positive agreement.' 'Let's see what's in here, because there's also the possibility you could end up with something like no deal or whatever,' Hoekstra said. 'That wouldn't be ideal, but until a deal is announced, you really won't know what's in it, and you won't know that it's finalized.' Hoekstra, who attended the luncheon following Carney's visit to Washington last month, also said the two leaders are 'in a hurry to get things done,' adding 'the pace is unprecedented.' 'Premature to break out the champagne': Bolton Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday that he too has heard of increased speculation of an imminent deal, but cautioned 'there could still be a long way to go.' 'I think that is a risk,' Bolton said, when asked whether a deal in the traditional sense is possible with Trump, considering the president's tariffs contravene the existing trade pact he signed during his first term. 'I think what Trump wants more than anything else is to be able to announce that he's got a deal that solves the problem. Now, whether it does or not is, is anybody's guess.' 'I think it's premature, based on the speculation to break out the champagne,' Bolton also said. Carney announced Monday that he plans to boost spending to finally meet the NATO target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence this year. That's later than Canada first signed onto the target more than a decade ago, but five years earlier than Carney committed to during the election. 'It's probably worth what you paid for it,' Bolton told Kapelos. 'It is a sore point for many Americans, not just Donald Trump, that going back to (former U.S. president) Barack Obama, who called NATO allies who didn't hit the two per cent target 'free riders.'' 'And if that's part of the deal, I could see that coming,' added Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor from 2018-2019, during Trump's first term as president. With files from CTV News Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos, Senior Political Correspondent Mike Le Couteur, and Supervising Producer Stephanie Ha
CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
Protests at G7 summit in Alberta set to be largely peaceful, targeting Trump policies
Demonstrators hold a banner reading: "No war, No G7 " during a protest against the G7 summit in Fasano, southern Italy, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) EDMONTON — Protests during the upcoming G7 leaders summit in Kananaskis, Alta., may be starkly different than demonstrations happening this week against immigration crackdowns in the United States. A University of Toronto research group that has been monitoring the meetings of world leaders since 1998 says its analysis shows Canadian protests are more peaceful and smaller. But similar to the recent demonstrations in Los Angeles, they're likely to be against the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. 'The Los Angeles protests will add another (issue) the protesters going there already care about, but it won't do anything much more than that,' said John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group. 'I don't think it'll bring more protesters, too. Nor will the L.A. protests delay Trump from coming here.' Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting Trump and world leaders from France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy and the European Union for the three-day summit starting Sunday in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Calgary. Leaders of several non-member countries, including India, Ukraine and Mexico, are also set to attend. The summit comes as protests in the United States continue against Trump's immigration raids, particularly his government's detainment of migrants. Hundreds of marines have joined about 4,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles. The protests have seen clashes with police, burned cars, rubber bullets shot at journalists and arrests. In Alberta, Kirton said protests during the G7 are not expected to be the same. '(The G7's) distinctive mission from the very beginning was to promote within its own members the values of open democracy,' he said. 'In democracies, people are supposed to protest. It's an integral part.' It's unlikely Canada's government would respond to any clashes like Trump, by calling in the military, Kirton added. The remote Kananaskis location will be closed off to the public. Visuals and audio of protesters at three demonstration zones designated by the RCMP — two in downtown Calgary and one in Banff — are to be shown to the leaders and other delegates at the summit on TV screens. Another zone at the Calgary airport won't be broadcast. Kirton said the distance between officials and protesters ensures the summit unfolds peacefully. 'Trump has been subjected to two assassination attempts, and one almost killed him. So you can see why (RCMP) have to be hypervigilant,' Kirton said. The Calgary Raging Grannies group plans to be at the protest zone at Calgary City Hall on Sunday afternoon. Mary Oxendale-Spensley, 74, said the grandmothers will be far from raging and clashing with police when they call out Trump's tariffs and his pitch to annex Canada. 'We do intend to sing,' said the retired teacher. One of their songs in the lineup: 'U.S.A., you have got a problem.' The song calls the U.S. president an 'orange blob' because of his tan, says he's 'way out of line,' and declares 'our sovereign nation will never be yours,' said Oxendale-Spensley. Ensuring Trump hears their message is vital, she said, even if it's on a screen. 'I'm a Canadian. I was Canadian when I was born. I intend to be a Canadian when I die.' It's hard to say how many grannies will be at the protest, she added. 'My big complaint about the grannies always is that we're grannies. People get sick, people break their ankle, that kind of thing.' Protests at the last G7 summit in Kananaskis in 2002 were peaceful, Kirton said, as demonstrators were also given designated zones. 'I do remember most vividly it was very hot,' Kirton said, and there were not many protesters. 'There were so few of them and it was so peaceful that we didn't even bother to estimate a number.' Aside from protests against Trump, some are expected to address other issues — like calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's war in Ukraine, Kirton said. Kirton said he also anticipates a presence from Canadians who want Alberta to separate from Canada, as well as those opposed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tensions have been high between Canada and India since 2023, when former prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that agents of the Indian government were linked to the killing of a Canadian activist for Sikh separatism outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. The World Sikh Organization of Canada said inviting Modi to the G7 is unacceptable. The International League of Peoples' Struggles, an international alliance of grassroots organizations, is expecting about 200 people for a protest also at Calgary City Hall. Yasmeen Khan, vice-chair of the group's North America chapter, said protesters want to raise awareness about various issues, including Indigenous struggles, housing and climate change. 'We'll have banners. We'll be chanting,' she said. 'We will also have some cultural performances from some Indigenous artists and migrant youth.' Mounties said first responders are prepared for protests. 'While the number of participants may vary, we have strong situational awareness of anticipated demonstrations and are well positioned to respond accordingly,' said RCMP spokesman Fraser Logan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2025. Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
