Canola's Canadian roots targeted and tested by Chinese tariffs, Saskatchewan farmers say
Article content
Canola is used for cooking oil, high-protein animal feed and biodiesel. The crop's development led to the boon it is today for farmers' pocketbooks, with more than half of it grown in Saskatchewan.
Article content
Article content
In Rigetti's yard, there are massive steel bins where her husband and son empty dark brown canola seeds into a truck. They're off to deliver the product to a grain terminal.
Article content
Rigetti says her son will plant his first field of canola this year.
Article content
'We have to be careful to keep things in perspective and not scare our kids,' she says.
Article content
'I do try to keep the focus on what we can actually control, which is planting a crop, growing the best crop we can grow, manage our costs and manage our mental health.'
Article content
At a farm near Fillmore, southeast of Regina, producer Chris Procyk says history is repeating itself.
Article content
Article content
'We are unfortunately once again caught in the middle of a trade dispute that we didn't cause or we didn't create, and we're left paying the bill,' says Procyk, vice-president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
Article content
He also says there would be greater problems if the U.S. imposes levies on agricultural goods. Canadian crops and potash go south and farm machinery comes up north.
Article content
Procyk says the federal government should provide financial aid or other supports to farmers who have been affected by the trade war.
Article content
'There's not really a place to pivot,' he says. 'The whole farm is under a trade dispute, and we don't have control of how these things play out.'
Article content
Farms have faced headwinds from China before.
Article content
Article content
In 2019, Beijing blocked Canadian canola imports from two companies, citing contamination issues, though the move was believed to be in response to Canada detaining Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese business executive. Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were also detained in China days after Wanzhou's arrest.
Article content
Wanzhou and the two Canadians were released to their countries in 2021. China lifted its ban on canola the next year, but it's estimated the Canadian economy lost about $2 billion as a result of the dispute.
Article content
'Farms can withstand some short-term pain,' Rigetti says. 'If it goes on longer, it calls things into question.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
41 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Amid upheaval abroad, universities urge Ottawa, Quebec to invest in attracting talent
MONTREAL - Four major Quebec universities are proposing initiatives to make the province a landing spot for high-level researchers. A joint statement released today highlights a number of moves, including co-ordinated steps at the national level to attract talent. The four universities — Université Laval, McGill University, Université de Montréal, and Université de Sherbrooke — hope to leverage political and social tensions affecting researchers around the world to lure them to Canadian schools. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The group of universities, going by the name Polaris, say both Quebec and Ottawa have a role to play in making that happen. Vincent Poitout, vice-rector of research and innovation at Université de Montréal, says there is a window to transform a very unfortunate situation in science, particularly in the United States, into an opportunity for Canada. The universities note a recent survey published in Nature, a journal, that 75 per cent of researchers in the United States are considering leaving the country. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Amid upheaval abroad, universities urge Ottawa, Quebec to invest in attracting talent
MONTREAL – Four major Quebec universities are proposing initiatives to make the province a landing spot for high-level researchers. A joint statement released today highlights a number of moves, including co-ordinated steps at the national level to attract talent. The four universities — Université Laval, McGill University, Université de Montréal, and Université de Sherbrooke — hope to leverage political and social tensions affecting researchers around the world to lure them to Canadian schools. The group of universities, going by the name Polaris, say both Quebec and Ottawa have a role to play in making that happen. Vincent Poitout, vice-rector of research and innovation at Université de Montréal, says there is a window to transform a very unfortunate situation in science, particularly in the United States, into an opportunity for Canada. The universities note a recent survey published in Nature, a journal, that 75 per cent of researchers in the United States are considering leaving the country. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2025.
Toronto Sun
3 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
KINSELLA: First casualty of war is truth
Iran, Hamas and their ilk are waging their war not just with bombs and bullets but also with words and images An injured woman is evacuated on a wheelchair in an area hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv on June 13, 2025. Photo by Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images As the Israel-Iran war goes on, be wary about what you see and hear and read. The first casualty of war, goes the clich é , is truth. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account And Iran, in particular, has shown itself to be an unequalled master at promoting propaganda and lies. Around the same time that Israel is commencing its long-overdue effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Natasha Hausdorff agrees to meet. The location is apt: the Nova Festival exhibit in Toronto, where the story is told of the 378 Israelis – and Canadians, and Americans, and Britons – who were slaughtered by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The exhibit is harrowing and disturbing, and the organizers have done an extraordinary job of capturing the sadness and horror of that day. When hundreds of unarmed young people were butchered by Islamist terrorists – simply because they had wanted to dance. Hausdorff frowns, thinking about the question she has been asked: namely, how have the world's media gotten the story of Israel – and, equally, Iran – so completely wrong? How has the truth been so fundamentally distorted, in so many places? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hausdorff is young and attractive and brilliant. She has law degrees from Oxford and Tel Aviv University, and has been clerk to a Supreme Court judge – a coveted role. A few days ago, Hausdorff became a mega-star when she appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored and left the British talk show host looking like a sexist, thuggish jerk. Morgan called Hausdorff 'despicable,' cut her off dozens of times, and resembled a shouty polemicist, not a journalist. Asked about that now-infamous encounter, asked about the media's role in these dangerous days, Hausdorff doesn't hesitate. 'In general, I think it's been shameful,' she said. 'It's been shameful that we have not seen a single piece of reporting from Gaza that has acknowledged that nothing that comes out of the Gaza strip is not controlled by Hamas. The notion that the international media would be parroting Hamas propaganda is deeply, deeply shameful – and indicates to me a complete absence of journalistic integrity.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The misinformation and the disinformation are all having real-life consequences, she said. 'This embracing of Hamas terrorist organization propaganda – not just in the obscene statements that we've had from supposed allies of Israel, like the UK, France and Canada, including promoting blood libels like starvation – (is leading to) Jews being executed on the streets in the capital of the free world.' Read More Hateful deeds are always preceded by hateful words, she said. Which makes the obligation of the media to ascertain the real truth to be not just a journalistic one – it's a moral obligation, too. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Asked if Iran, Hamas and their axis have gotten better at propagating lies, Hausdorff nods her head. 'They certainly have invested a great deal more in time, energy and resources into it. It's certainly a been a key factor of Hamas' planning of this war… I think they have definitely come leaps and bounds. We're seeing the impact of that disinformation campaign. But it's not just Hamas.' Natasha Hausdorff @HausdorffMedia (X) Iran, China and Russia, too, have perfected the telling of untruths, and the manipulation of gullible Western media along the way, she said. Israel itself shares some of the blame for losses in the propaganda war, Hausdorff added. The Jewish state is not good – or not good enough – at telling its side of the story to Western media. 'Israel's very much on the back foot on this. One of the founding features of Israel was that Jews wouldn't need to explain themselves to non-Jews anymore,' she said. 'For a long time, you saw that kind of mentality within Israel: we know what we're doing is right. We don't need to explain ourselves to the international community.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. Photo by Vahid Salemi / AP Photo She paused, then added: '(But) that is fighting it with both hands tied behind our backs.' True enough. In any war – the seven-front war that Israel has been waging since Oct. 7 – truth is elusive. And truth becomes non-existent if media notables, like Piers Morgan, are too easily deceived by Iranian and Hamas propagandists. Israeli flags stand near damaged buildings in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv on June 14, 2025, caused by the fall of a missile fired the day before by Iran. Photo by Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images 'Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, fighting these barbaric terrorists, fighting essentially on behalf of the West. And this is not just Israel's war,' Hausdorff concluded. She's right, of course. It's a war against the West, too – and Iran, Hamas and their ilk are clearly visible on the other side. And they are waging their war not just with bombs and bullets. Words and images, too. Sunshine Girls Golf World World Sunshine Girls
