Terry Glavin: We're not Los Angeles yet, but it might be coming
After several days of riots and rabble-rousing in response to the Trump administration's ham-fisted determination to round up illegal immigrants, downtown Los Angeles was placed under curfew on Tuesday. The disorder has spread to more than a dozen American cities. There have been scores of arrests.
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It has all made for great television and amusing political theatre, with Democrats shouting righteously about the rule of law and due process while ignoring their own support for 'sanctuary' laws that undermine their own government's capacity to enforce federal immigration legislation. Not to be outdone, Donald Trump's Republicans have invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to back their plans for mass deportations. The 1798 law was about pirates.
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Despite heartrending accounts of children torn from their parents' arms, Americans are not generally overwrought about Trump's hardline remedy to the preposterously intractable American political quagmire involving undocumented workers and border security. A CBS-YouGov poll shows Trump is polling better on this file than on the economy or inflation, with 54 per cent of respondents expressing approval.
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In the popular imagination, Canadians would not abide such lowbrow measures as mass deportations of illegal immigrants, but in fact we would. Or rather roughly half of us would, which is more or less the same as the American polling results. Nearly half the respondents to a Leger poll undertaken for the Association of Canadian Studies last December said mass deportations are necessary to deal with illegal immigration in Canada.
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It's not for lack of evidence that 65 per cent of Canadians say Ottawa's immigration levels are set too high. That was the view of only 35 per cent of respondents in 2019, and even after the Liberal government's recent pledges to get its act together and scale back on the annual volume of newcomers, that's the standpoint of nearly two-thirds of us. It's becoming increasingly difficult to argue against it.
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Statistics Canada's 'population clock' counted 41,681,71 people who were living in Canada as of Wednesday morning this week, up from 35,851,800 in 2015. This was the biggest spike in immigration in 60 years, contributing to Canada's rank as the second-worst country for housing affordability, after Portugal, in the 38-member Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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Despite reassurances from Prime Minister Mark Carney that his government intends to scale back the influx, the numbers keep going up.
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
No Kings protests against Trump's policies expected to sweep U.S. on Saturday
Social Sharing A U.S.-wide demonstration against President Donald Trump, planned for months and to be held Saturday, has ballooned in scope since protests against the administration's immigration raids broke out last week. Cities across the U.S. and the world are preparing for nearly 2,000 planned "No Kings" rallies this weekend — which were organized in response to the flamboyant military Flag Day parade Trump is holding in Washington, D.C. Flag Day happens to fall on the president's birthday — Trump turns 79 this year. The number of rallies has grown throughout the week, but there is not one planned for the U.S. capital. Organizers say that they want to draw attention elsewhere. Though initially unrelated to widespread protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past week, the No Kings "day of defiance" couldn't be more timely, says Vicki Miller, whose group has been planning the Philadelphia No Kings demonstration since April. "It makes the urgency of everything we're talking about even more clear," said Miller, the Philadelphia leader of Indivisible, an organization that was created after Trump was first elected in 2016. The No Kings website says the aim of the demonstrations is to take action "to reject authoritarianism" of the current U.S. government. "They've defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too far," the group writes. The website features a map of the U.S. with black dots showing all the locations where rallies are planned. Rallies are also being held in other countries in solidarity. In Toronto, a "No Tyrants" demonstration is planned for noon local time across from the U.S. consulate on University Avenue. Organizers like Miller have sought to make a distinction between their rallies and the clashes that have erupted in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, in recent days. Trump federalized and deployed California's National Guard without Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's consent in response to the protests. The move has been criticized as a display of the very authoritarianism protesters are trying to denounce. However, No Kings organizers say their plan is to remain on the straight and narrow. "We've never had any hint of violence in any of our protest rallies in Philadelphia," said Miller, a retired lawyer. "We're working with the city very closely." Miller said Indivisible is planning for at least 60,000 people to attend its rally Saturday. There will be 100 volunteer marshals present, who have been trained on de-escalation, and the group holds regular meetings on how to defuse tense situations, Miller said. But with protests gaining momentum across the U.S. and now elsewhere in the world, U.S. city and state officials are on high alert for what could unfold. Parade to feature 7,000 troops Washington, D.C., where the Flag Day parade will take place, has declared the event a "National Special Security Event," with a heavy Secret Service and law enforcement mobilization. The parade will feature more than 7,000 military troops, 150 vehicles and 50 helicopters. Texas's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has put his state's National Guard "on standby" ahead of the No Kings rallies. At a news conference Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed concern that Trump was "determined to insert chaos" ahead of the rallies. "Our responsibility is to continue to provide calm and structure to the situation," Johnson said. He said the city would "protect the fundamental right to protest and demonstrate peacefully, and if individuals work outside of those confines, will hold them accountable." Tuesday, Trump said he hadn't "even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force." Protesting 'with the young ones' Many of the people CBC News spoke with who plan to attend No Kings rallies said they are not regular protesters. Armida Vicente-Sanchez, a 29-year-old welder who is organizing the No Kings rally in the small city of Dalton, Ga., where she lives, said her rally "has nothing to do with what's going on in L.A. Like, this is our own protest." "We're not trying to start anything like riots or nothing like that," said Vicente-Sanchez, who says she has family members who fear being targeted by ICE. For Clara Cáceres Contreras, though, No Kings is nothing new. The 70-year-old from McAllen, Texas, which sits across the Rio Grande from Reynosa in Mexico, says she has protested Trump every opportunity she's had. "I go out there and I protest with the young ones and I'm wearing my heels," she said. Cáceres Contreras said she is dismayed by the Republican Party's immigration policies under Trump. "They're arresting people that are working. These are working people," she said. "It's like going fishing in an aquarium." The retired education worker says the immigration raids in Los Angeles have given her "more" motivation to join the Saturday rally in McAllen. "Absolutely. My sister lives in L.A. Yes ma'am," she said. "I see the people there and I'm with them. They have a voice." She said she protested the border wall Trump used taxpayer money to build in his first term and that she is now protesting the Flag Day parade he is using taxpayer money to fund. The U.S. was built on rejecting a monarchy, Cáceres Contreras said, "and he thinks he's the king or something."
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
CTV National News: Former PM Chretien's advice on dealing with Trump
Watch Jean Chretien's advice to world leaders on how to deal with U.S. President Trump is to keep their cool, before joking about grabbing him by the neck.
CTV News
7 hours ago
- CTV News
Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control
DHS police and National Guard protect the outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. President Donald Trump must return to California's governor control over National Guard troops his administration deployed to Los Angeles to assist in immigration enforcement and controlling unrest, a federal judge said in a temporary restraining order Thursday. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Trump overstepped his bounds in ordering the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members to LA after protests erupted over the immigration crackdown. The order, which takes effect at noon Friday, applies only to the National Guard troops and not Marines who were also deployed to the city. 'Today was really about a test of democracy, and today we passed the test,' Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had asked the judge for an emergency stop to troops helping carry out immigration raids, said in a news conference after the decision. The deployment of the Guard was illegal and both violated the Tenth Amendment and exceeded Trump's statutory authority, Breyer said. The White House had no immediate comment on the ruling, but the federal government immediately filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit court. The Trump administration called the lawsuit a 'crass political stunt endangering American lives' in its official response Wednesday. Newsom's case was solely focused on the National Guard, and the judge said when the state attorney asked about whether this could apply to the Marines that he would not rule on that because they were not on the streets yet. About 700 Marines have been undergoing civil disturbance training at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in Orange County, California. Nicholas Green, an attorney for the state, told the court: 'I have been told by the office of the governor that within the next 24 hours, 140 Marines will replace and relieve National Guard members in Los Angeles.' Typically the authority to call up the National Guard lies with governors, but there are limited circumstances under which the president can deploy those troops. Trump federalized members of the California National Guard under an authority known as Title 10. Title 10 allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service under certain limited circumstances, such as when the country 'is invaded,' when 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,' or when the president is unable 'to execute the laws of the United States.' Breyer said in his ruling that what is happening in Los Angeles does not meet the definition of a rebellion. 'The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of 'rebellion,'' he wrote. It was not immediately clear how that would change the situation on the ground. Newsom sued to block the Guard's deployment against his wishes. California later filed an emergency motion asking the judge to block the Guard from assisting with immigration raids. The governor argued that the troops were originally deployed to protect federal buildings and wanted the court to block the troops from helping protect immigration agents during the raids, saying that involving the Guard would only escalate tensions and promote civil unrest. Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51, which is overseeing the Guard troops and Marines sent to Los Angeles, said that as of Wednesday about 500 of the Guard troops had been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations. Photos of Guard soldiers providing security for the agents have already been circulated by immigration officials. None of the Marines have been trained to go on immigration raids, and it is not yet clear if they eventually will, Sherman said. In his broad ruling, the judge determined Trump had not properly called the Guard up in the first place. The lawsuit argued that Title 10 also requires that the president go through governors when issuing orders to the National Guard. Brett Shumate, an attorney for the federal government, said Trump complied with the statute by informing the general in charge of the troops of his decision and would have the authority to call in the Guard even if he had not. In a brief filed ahead of the Thursday hearing, the Justice Department said Trump's orders were not subject to judicial review. 'Courts did not interfere when President Eisenhower deployed the military to protect school desegregation. Courts did not interfere when President Nixon deployed the military to deliver the mail in the midst of a postal strike. And courts should not interfere here either,' the department said. 'Our position is this is not subject to judicial review,' Shumate told the judge. Breyer, who at one point waved a copy of the constitution, said he disagreed. 'We're talking about the president exercising his authority, and the president is of course limited in that authority. That's the difference between a constitutional government and King George,' he said. The protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles intensified after Trump called up the Guard and have since spread to other cities, including Boston, Chicago and Seattle. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. The Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles, and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters. Olga R. Rodriguez, The Associated Press
