Canada's auto industry at 'hinge moment' between survival and slow death, says former executive
In 2024, Canada manufactured less than half the number of vehicles it was producing 25 years ago.
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Despite commitments in recent years from federal and provincial governments to invest tens of billions of dollars into an electric vehicle supply chain here, the country's auto sector is still in trouble.
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The most immediate threat is U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on vehicles, vehicle parts, and also steel and aluminum, all of which erect barriers to the main marketplace where the industry sells its products.
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On this episode of Down to Business, Stephen Beatty, a former corporate vice president at Toyota Canada, who spent years working on trade issues, discusses the landscape of threats to the country's auto sector, and describes what he sees as the best solution to the problem.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
The Latest: 7 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza as Iran-Israel ceasefire holds
Seven Israeli soldiers were killed Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when their armored vehicle was struck by an explosive, an Israeli military official said Wednesday. The announcement comes a day after witnesses and hospitals in Gaza said Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 44. Meanwhile, people in Iran began returning to their lives as a ceasefire with Israel, negotiated by President Donald Trump, appeared to be holding. State media described heavy traffic around the Caspian Sea area and other rural areas outside of the capital, Tehran, as people began returning to the city. The Iran-Israel conflict lasted 12 days with Israel targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, saying it could not allow Tehran to develop atomic weapons. On Sunday, the U.S. intervened by dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. Here is the latest: 7 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza Israel's military said Wednesday that seven soldiers had been killed the day before inside Gaza. A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said that the seven were killed around 5pm when an explosive struck their armored vehicle in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The military said another soldier was badly wounded Tuesday from RPG fire. The incident was an unusually deadly one for Israel's troops operating inside Gaza. The military says over 860 soldiers have been killed since the war began with the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack — including more than 400 during fighting inside Gaza. —— By Julia Frankel in Jerusalem Hamas claims attack on Israeli soldiers Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said on its Telegram channel Tuesday it had ambushed Israeli soldiers taking cover inside a residential building in the southern Gaza Strip. Some of the soldiers were killed and other injured after they were targeted by a Yassin 105 missile and another missile south of Khan Younis, Hamas said. Al-Qassam fighters then targeted the building with machine guns. It was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to the Israeli military's announcement that seven of its soldiers were killed Tuesday in Gaza. Iran executes more prisoners Iran executed three more prisoners Wednesday over allegedly spying for Israel, its state-run IRNA news agency reported, the latest hangings connected to its war with Israel. Iran identified the three men executed Wednesday as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and Iraqi national Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul. Iran is one of the world's top executioners. After the brutal 1980s Iran-Iraq war, Iran carried out the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners and others, raising concerns among activists about a similar wave coming after the war with Israel. The hangings happened in Urmia Prison in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, which is the country's most northwestern province. IRNA cited Iran's judiciary for the news, saying the men had been accused of bringing 'assassination equipment' into the country. Wednesday's executions bring the total number of hangings for espionage around the war up to six. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Israeli strikes killed more than 1,000 in Iran, group says Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 1,054 people and wounded 4,476 others, according to figures released Wednesday by the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said of those killed, it identified 417 civilians and 318 security force personnel. Iran's government provided sporadic casualty information throughout the war. Its latest update on Tuesday put the death toll at 606 people killed, with 5,332 others being injured. In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
A ceasefire — is it fact or fiction?
Opinion Israel, Iran, the United States. Ceasefire, no ceasefire. Confused? We don't blame you. This isn't the fog of war. This is an epic constellation of deliberate confusion. U.S. President Donald Trump And it's hard to keep up. Israel attacked Iran on June 13, saying its pre-emptive strike was needed to keep Iran from building nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated. Missiles flew — people died. The Americans then supported Israel in its attack on Iran by attacking Iranian uranium enrichment sites, using B2 bombers that had flown for hours and dropped huge bunker-buster bombs. But there has apparently been no release of radioactive materials, U.S. President Donald Trump's social media claims that the enrichment sites were completely destroyed has been called into question, and there are reports that the Iranian government had moved its stock of enriched uranium to a new location before the attacks even occurred. There were even suggestions that back-channel American communications had warned the Iranians the attack was coming, giving them time to prepare. The Iranian government then launched a relatively feeble and ultimately unsuccessful missile attack on an American base in Qatar, while there were reports that back-channel communications from Iran had given the Americans their own warning about when and where the attack would land. (Trump, once again on social media, said he 'wanted to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.') Confused yet? Just wait. Monday night, Donald Trump announced a 'complete and total ceasefire', which was at first denied, then partially confirmed, and then promptly ignored by both Iran and Israel launching attacks on each other, while Trump launched all-caps screeds on his Truth Social app like 'ISRAEL DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PLANES HOME, NOW. DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.' Meanwhile, the White House X account retweeted Trump as saying 'CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT'S TIME FOR PEACE'. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. The next morning, Trump's analysis of the failure of the 'cease' part of the ceasefire? 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f—k they're doing. Do you understand that?' The Associated Press was reporting that 'ceasefire status is unclear', Israel was warning its citizens about an incoming Iranian missile attack, and the timeline before the 'complete and total ceasefire' was broken was reported to have been a mere 31 minutes. It may well be that there is no way whatsoever to establish what is happening in the Middle East. President Trump has demonstrated that he's willing to tell baldfaced lies about something as simple as the actual price of eggs and gasoline. The Iranian government makes up whatever narrative it wants to, and force-feeds that information to its population through thoroughly-controlled state media. And there's no accounting for Israel: it will keep its own counsel and act in its own interests, and its statements about its actions will be no more complete and truthful than anyone else's. So what should Canada and Canadians be doing in all this mess? Maybe what Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be trying to do. Keep a low profile, and stay out of the Trumpian spotlights by neither rushing in to be a fawning supporter nor putting up principled opposition. Keep making new deals with countries other than the United States, broaden our global economic footprint, and let history be the one to sort out what's happening now. This will almost certainly all be outdated by the time you read it. But the critical thesis won't be: keep your head down, your antennae up, and your skepticism front-and-centre.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Asian shares gain as investors shift focus to Federal Reserve, tariffs
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