Ford warns Trump could ‘pull the carpet out from underneath us' on CUSMA
Ontario Premier Doug Ford warns Donald Trump could end CUSMA 'tomorrow, with one signature,' and that all Canadian leaders are on the same page.
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CTV News
7 minutes ago
- CTV News
Trump's broad tariffs go into effect, just as economic pain is surfacing
A customer shops a grain isle at New India Bazar, where most merchandise is imported from India and Canada, on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, in Fremont, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump began levying higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday, just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats has begun to create visible damage for the U.S. economy. Just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10 per cent or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15 per cent, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20 per cent. Trump also expects the EU, Japan and South Korea to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. 'I think the growth is going to be unprecedented,' Trump said Wednesday afternoon. He added that the U.S. was 'taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs,' but he couldn't provide a specific figure for revenues because 'we don't even know what the final number is' regarding tariff rates. Despite the uncertainty, the Trump White House is confident that the onset of his broad tariffs will provide clarity about the path of the world's largest economy. Now that companies understand the direction the U.S. is headed, the administration believes they can ramp up new investments and jump-start hiring in ways that can rebalance the U.S. economy as a manufacturing power. But so far, there are signs of self-inflicted wounds to America as companies and consumers alike brace for the impact of new taxes. What the data has shown is a U.S. economy that changed in April with Trump's initial rollout of tariffs, an event that led to market drama, a negotiating period and Trump's ultimate decision to start his universal tariffs on Thursday. Risk of economic erosion Economic reports show that hiring began to stall, inflationary pressures crept upward and home values in key markets started to decline after April, said John Silvia, CEO of Dynamic Economic Strategy. 'A less productive economy requires fewer workers,' Silvia said in an analysis note. 'But there is more, the higher tariff prices lower workers' real wages. The economy has become less productive, and firms cannot pay the same real wages as before. Actions have consequences.' Even then, the ultimate transformations of the tariffs are unknown and could play out over months, if not years. Many economists say the risk is that the American economy is steadily eroded rather than collapsing instantly. 'We all want it to be made for television where it's this explosion — it's not like that,' said Brad Jensen, a professor at Georgetown University. 'It's going to be fine sand in the gears and slow things down.' Trump has promoted the tariffs as a way to reduce the persistent trade deficit. But importers sought to avoid the taxes by importing more goods before the taxes went into effect. As a result, the US$582.7 billion trade imbalance for the first half of the year was 38 per cent higher than in 2024. Total construction spending has dropped 2.9 per cent over the past year. Dismay in India and Switzerland The lead-up to Thursday fit the slapdash nature of Trump's tariffs, which have been variously rolled out, walked back, delayed, increased, imposed by letter and frantically renegotiated. The process has been so muddled that officials for key trade partners were unclear at the start of the week whether the tariffs would begin Thursday or Friday. The language of the July 31 order to delay the start of tariffs from Aug. 1 only said the higher tax rates would start in seven days. Trump on Wednesday announced additional 25 per cent tariffs to be imposed on India for its buying of Russian oil, bringing its total import taxes to 50 per cent. A top body of Indian exporters said Thursday the latest U.S. tariffs will impact nearly 55 per cent of the country's outbound shipments to America and force exporters to lose their long-standing clients. 'Absorbing this sudden cost escalation is simply not viable. Margins are already thin,' S.C. Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, said in a statement. The Swiss executive branch, the Federal Council, was expected to hold an extraordinary meeting Thursday afternoon after President Karin Keller-Sutter and other top Swiss officials returned from a hastily arranged trip to Washington in a failed bid to avert steep 39 per cent U.S. tariffs on Swiss goods. Import taxes are still coming on pharmaceutical drugs and Trump announced 100 per cent tariffs on computer chips. That could leave the U.S. economy in a place of suspended animation as it awaits the impact. Stock market remains solid The president's use of a 1977 law to declare an economic emergency to impose the tariffs is also under challenge. The impending ruling from last week's hearing before a U.S. appeals court could cause Trump to find other legal justifications if judges say he exceeded his authority. Even people who worked with Trump during his first term are skeptical that things will go smoothly for the economy, such as Paul Ryan, the former Republican House speaker, who has emerged as a Trump critic. 'There's no sort of rationale for this other than the president wanting to raise tariffs based upon his whims, his opinions,' Ryan told CNBC on Wednesday. 'I think choppy waters are ahead because I think they're going to have some legal challenges.' Still, the stock market has been solid during the recent tariff drama, with the S&P 500 index climbing more than 25 per cent from its April low. The market's rebound and the income tax cuts in Trump's tax and spending measures signed into law on July 4 have given the White House confidence that economic growth is bound to accelerate in the coming months. As of now, Trump still foresees an economic boom while the rest of the world and American voters wait nervously. 'There's one person who can afford to be cavalier about the uncertainty that he's creating, and that's Donald Trump,' said Rachel West, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation who worked in the Biden White House on labor policy. 'The rest of Americans are already paying the price for that uncertainty.' Josh Boak, The Associated Press
National Post
37 minutes ago
- National Post
Terry Glavin: Synagogue vandalism shows being 'progressive' no shield against antisemitism
Article content Only two weeks ago, Victoria police announced that a 28-year-old man attending one of the anti-Israel rallies at the legislature would be charged with public incitement of hatred, targeting Jews. Khalid El Boyok was arrested June 11. Article content You could say it's somewhat ironic that it was Congregation Emmanu-El's synagogue that was desecrated last weekend. Across town from the legislature, congregants have held their own weekly silent vigils carrying placards bearing the words ' Jews in Mourning for Two Peoples,' expressing dismay at the unprecedented death and destruction in Gaza since Hamas carried out its bloody pogrom in Israel on October 7, 2023. You can be as 'progressive' as you like, and still the antisemites will come after you. Article content Congregation Emmanu-El's vigils are in keeping with the synagogue's long-standing avant-garde traditions. As far back as September, 1895, for lack of a full-time rabbi at the time, the congregation retained a woman, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rachel 'Ray' Frank, to lecture and officiate for the high Holy Days, decades before women were to be regularly ordained. Article content Article content Last weekend's desecration was just the latest in a series of incidents that have become commonplace in Canada since the Gaza War began nearly two years ago, and while the Netanyahu government's crushing military operations may have deeply divided Israeli society, and Canadian opinion, they have also served as a pretext for the recrudescence of ancient antisemitic hatreds in the guise of 'pro-Palestine' activism. Synagogues have been firebombed and shot at in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, and protest groups like Samidoun, which is listed terrorist entity, have been given the run of Canadian cities. Article content 'We have seen a disturbing permissiveness toward these groups in Canada,' said Nico Slobinsky, vice-president of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs. 'Pro-Hamas protesters shut down our streets with chants, threats, and hate, unchecked, unchallenged, and increasingly normalized.' Article content The 150-year-old B'nai Brith organization in Canada says Ottawa has to take some responsibility for this state of affairs. 'You cannot divorce the disgusting antisemitic graffiti found on a synagogue in Victoria, BC, on Shabbat, from the Prime Minister's announcement last week. By declaring its intention to prematurely recognize a Palestinian state, the federal government has further emboldened the vitriolic minority that has been targeting Canada's Jewish community for almost two years. Article content 'This is what happens when our leaders placate those who incite hate and sow division. Synagogues are defiled and Jewish Canadians are threatened.' Article content The most bitter irony in all this is that Congregation Emmanu-El is Canada's oldest synagogue, and from its earliest days Victoria has stood as a beacon of racial and religious toleration. There were perhaps as many Gentiles as Jews among the subscribers to Emmanu-El's construction fundraising drive in the 1860s. Article content Selim Franklin, elected to B.C.'s colonial legislative council in 1859, was the first Jew ever elected to a legislature in Canada. When Lumley Franklin was elected mayor of Victoria in 1865, he became the first Jewish mayor in North America. The year B.C. entered Confederation in 1871, Victoria sent Wharf Street merchant Henry Nathan to Ottawa, Canada's first Jewish Member of Parliament, and an early vice-president of Congregation Emmanu-El was Samuel D. Schultz, the first Jew to be appointed a judge in Canada, in 1914. Article content
CBC
38 minutes ago
- CBC
Workload deluge causing spike in prosecutions being tackled by defence lawyers: Manitoba Crown attorney union
Social Sharing The number of cases where defence lawyers are being asked to prosecute alleged crimes is on the rise and the union for Manitoba's Crown attorneys argues the government is trying to hide the fact there's not enough prosecutors to handle workload demands. Data provided by the government shows from 2021 to July 2025, 78 criminal cases and 19 provincial inquests have been outsourced from the Crown's office and prosecuted by private bar lawyers, costing the government more than $674,000. The majority of the criminal cases — more than 70 per cent — were outsourced in the last two years. Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the increase has nothing to do with a lack of Crown attorneys in the province or workload. But Michael Desautels, a senior Crown prosecutor and vice-president of The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys, disputes that. "It's dancing on the head of a needle," he said. "The reality is we need people and we need bodies in the regions, we need people to do the cases, to analyze the evidence." The data shows the number of outsourced criminal cases grew from three in 2021 to 28 so far this year. Wiebe said the increased outsourcing comes down to logistics, for example a Crown taking maternity leave. He also said there is now more awareness around what could be seen as a conflict of interest between the Crown's office and people connected to the crimes they prosecute. Province says only 14 criminal cases outsourced from workload Hiring a special prosecutor when there is a perceived conflict of interest isn't new to Manitoba's justice system. Defence lawyer Marty Minuk led the prosecution in 2007 against Derek Harvey-Zenk, the Winnipeg police officer accused of drunk driving in connection with the crash that killed Crystal Taman. A case could be farmed out because a Crown attorney is the victim or a witness, or it could happen when a police officer is a victim or the accused, according to a spokesperson for Manitoba Justice. A conflict can also be determined if the relative of a Crown, judge or prosecution service employee has a connection to the case. The current policy on hiring independent counsel, written in 2012, is discretionary and only states it "should be considered" in these types of cases. Government data shows 14 of the 78 cases were outsourced because of a workload issue, while the remainder were related to an undisclosed conflict. The kind of cases outsourced due to workload include charges of assault, weapons possession, fraud, theft and arson. Brandon Trask, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Law, called it "problematic" that the government is turning to defence lawyers to address staffing shortages. He said it is important for victims and members of the public to have a clear explanation as to why a case is being outsourced. "It is really important for the public to see, 'this is how the sausage is made,'" he said. "There could be great reasons for it [outsourcing], but if nobody knows those reasons, are they really all that great?" A former Crown attorney, Trask also stressed the importance of any private bar lawyer filling should additional training so they are "up-to-speed" at the same skill level of a Crown. Reason for conflict not always disclosed in court CBC reporters reviewed several cases, including sexual assaults, that were labelled as a conflict and the prosecution was being led by a criminal defence lawyer. In some cases the reason was clear, such as a sexual assault charge where two Crown attorneys were witnesses. In other cases, there was no apparent reason and the fact a contracted prosecutor was being used was not disclosed in court. Manitoba's executive director of prosecution services, Michele Jules, said that a case such a sexual assault would never be outsourced for a workload issue. "Nothing like child abuse, nothing that would require that sort of enhanced expertise would go out," she said about the decision making that goes behind farming out cases. CBC asked the government to provide more detail about what the type of conflict applied to each case but was told it couldn't be disclosed due to privacy reasons. Desautels says there needs to be more transparency in this process. The current policy does not address circumstances where a prosecutor is being used for a workload issue. "Justice is best served in the light of day," he said. He also argues the victim and public should know when a private bar lawyer is being used and why that decision was made. The best option when a conflict is identified is to bring in a Crown from another office, explained Desautels Crowns have better training and more experience compared to defence lawyers who spend the majority of their time on the other side of prosecutions, he said. " None of it should go to the private bar," he said. " If we're going to have outside counsel doing work, it should be people who are prosecutors, who understand those policies, who understand the law, who have expertise in presenting these cases, and have the background and knowledge to do them effectively." Ongoing grievance between union and government During the same period where outsourcing has increased, the union for Crown attorneys filed a grievance with the province to address what they call "dangerously heavy caseloads." Filed in 2023, it came after Crowns said they were burning out, losing prosecutors to other provinces and dealing with more complex cases. This grievance is why the minister won't blame the outsourcing on workload, says Desautels. "He can give it whatever name he wants, but the reality is it is all still a workload problem. And I think calling it anything other than that is disingenuous," he said. Despite hiring 20 additional prosecutors in the last year, 15 other Crowns have left the office and there are still 13 vacancies, Desautels said. The justice minister said eight more Crown attorneys were hired in July. "The workload is getting heavier and heavier and the burden is getting heavier," Desautels said. "We are not gaining as many people as we need to be gaining in the office." 19 provincial inquests outsourced since 2021 Meanwhile, the outsourcing of provincial inquests began in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic and under the weight of a heavy court backlog. A provincial inquest is a court hearing called by the Chief Medical Examiner. They are mandatory when someone is killed by police, dies in custody or at a correctional institution. The role of the Crown is to marshal evidence about the facts surrounding the death for a provincial court judge in a non-adversarial forum. The judge's role is to make recommendations to help prevent future deaths of a similar nature. But because of the Crown's office's connection to the investigation into these deaths some inquests are being outsourced to be more sensitive to families, Jules said. "We want to bolster the confidence in the process," said Jules. She said, for example, the family of 16-year-old Eisha Hudson were concerned about the Crown's office role in deciding not to press charges after she was killed by Winnipeg police in 2020. It's a point echoed by Wiebe, who said they are "listening to families." Desautels says this isn't about families, but "100 per cent" a workload issue, due to the huge undertaking and time required to lead an inquest. "It's the first and easiest thing to take out of the office," he said. Independent counsel policy under review Justice Minister Wiebe said the number of cases being farmed out is only a small fraction of the some 150,000 cases the service prosecuted in the last four years. The private bar lawyers being hired are" some of the best in the province," he said "We have full confidence in the work that they do and the public should as well." The current policy for hiring outside counsel has been in place since 2012 but prosecution services officials say it is out of date and admit it's not being fully followed. The policy says that when a lawyer from outside the Crown's office is hired, the terms of reference in which they were retained is supposed to be recorded and publicly available upon request. This is to "ensure a transparent process and public accountability," when hiring outside counsel, according to the policy. "That's never been done in the time that I've been here," said Jules, who has led prosecution services since 2017. Instead, she said there is a general retainer agreement that is signed by defence lawyers and used by the department. Previously it was really obvious why they were sending a case out, but now they are taking a more "general determination" of conflict, she said. "The policy should be updated because it certainly doesn't reflect current practice," she said. A dozen of these retainers were provided by the justice department to CBC. They are all nearly identical and is addressed to each lawyer confirming they have been retained to conduct prosecutions, inquests and provide opinions for the province on a "case-by-case basis." The retainer notes that victim services will be available to help the lawyers communicate with victims and their families. It also says they expect the lawyer to take take any training offered on by the department on updates to Manitoba's Victims' Bill of Rights. The hourly rate for each lawyer was redacted. Wiebe said the policy is under review and it is a priority but did not offer a timeline for when it would be completed. "We're working hard to make sure that it fits and that it's appropriate," he said. The grievance filed by the union is scheduled to be heard by an arbitrator in October. Defence lawyers used to prosecute cases as workload strains Crown attorneys 3 minutes ago The union representing Manitoba Crown attorneys says the province is farming out criminal cases to defence lawyers because there aren't enough prosecutors to do all the work.
