The Final Countdown: Climate, Disinformation & the 2025 Election
With election day just days away, the stakes for Canada's climate future and democracy have never been higher. Columnist Max Fawcett and journalist Rachel Gilmore join CNO's Managing Editor David McKie to discuss political disinformation, media harassment, and what's really at play in these final crucial days before Canadians vote.
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Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
As Trump heads to the G7, Canada hopes to avoid another Charlevoix-style eruption
OTTAWA - U.S. President Donald Trump is set to arrive Sunday in Alberta for the G7 summit — his first visit to Canada since leaving in a huff seven years ago. Ottawa could use everything from golfing and creative scheduling to special cabinet orders to make the visit successful and avoid a repeat diplomatic disaster. 'He is somebody who is very prickly when he feels like he's not being fully respected,' said Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a cross-border consultancy. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'You want to make absolutely sure that … he walks away and says, 'You know, those Canadians aren't so bad after all.'' Better than last time The last time Trump was in Canada — for the G7 summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec — things ended in a blowout. Trump refused to sign the communiqué, the published list of statements on common G7 issues that are mostly negotiated and agreed to by member nations ahead of time. He left early and lambasted Trudeau as 'very dishonest and weak' in a spat over tariffs. The summit included what Miller called the 'photograph for the ages' — of then German chancellor Angela Merkel and others standing sternly over a seated Donald Trump, who appeared to be glaring back with crossed arms. German Ambassador to Canada Matthias Lüttenberg put it bluntly when he told a June 4 panel that Ottawa was again navigating 'very difficult circumstances' as G7 chair — and capably, in his view. 'I mean, I wouldn't like to negotiate with a country at the table who's questioning my sovereignty as a state,' he said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Sen. Peter Boehm, who was summit head in 2018, recalled two late nights of negotiations because the Trump administration didn't align with the others on including climate change or references to the 'rules-based international order.' Informal talks Prime Minister Mark Carney won office in April after repeatedly saying he could stand up to Trump's threats to ruin the Canadian economy in order to make the country an American state. Carney had a cordial visit to Washington in early May and even got praise from Trump on social media and in person, despite the president insisting Canada should still become a U.S. state. The two have continued talking. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra revealed earlier this month that the president and Carney have exchanged frequent calls and texts on trade and tariffs. Miller said facetime between the two leaders in Alberta could help them make progress on economic concerns, as well as Trump's pitch to bring Canada into his proposed Golden Dome missile shield project. 'Given that there is this conversation underway, it is important that they have an opportunity to continue that, and to meet perhaps in a setting that is less structured and formal than the Oval Office,' Miller said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Life is about imperfect choices, and it's absolutely the right thing to have Mr. Trump come to Canada.' He said he's not sure if there will be any formal announcement, though he added Trump is keen to sign agreements with multiple countries ahead of his self-imposed July 9 deadline for so-called retaliatory tariffs. Miller said both Canada and the U.S. are likely to take credit for Ottawa announcing this month it will drastically speed up its pledge to meet NATO's defence spending target. Trump might also take note of the fact that he's in one of the few provinces that have opted to resume sales of U.S. alcohol, after all provinces banned it from their liquor store shelves in response to U.S. tariffs. Lower expectations Ottawa's decision to schedule relatively short group discussions among G7 leaders, and to invite numerous other world leaders, could mean more of the one-on-one meetings that Trump prefers. 'Trump does not like multilateral meetings particularly. He loses interest,' Boehm said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Canadian officials have said they are concentrating on releasing shorter, focused statements, which could avoid the sort of major blowups that may come from trying to craft the massive joint communiqués typical of almost all prior G7 summits. Former prime minister Jean Chretien told a panel Thursday that if Trump does have an outburst, G7 leaders should ignore him and 'keep talking normally.' Miller said that for Canada, 'ensuring a positive agenda that doesn't lead to acrimony afterwards' means advancing its interests without isolating the U.S., particularly with so many guest leaders attending. 'The trick that Mr. Carney has to pull off is to reassure the U.S. that it wants a good, positive relationship — while at the same time running vigorously, as quickly as possible, to try to build new relationships,' he said. It's also entirely possible that Trump will leave before the meetings conclude. A visiting felon Keeping it positive is also likely why Ottawa will skirt rules that might bar Trump from crossing into Canada after he was found guilty on 34 criminal counts in a 'hush money' trial in May 2024. Immigration lawyers say those convicted of serious crimes abroad must serve their time and wait five years before seeking a certificate of admissibility to Canada, though there are loopholes if someone seeks a visa for a compelling reason. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The federal cabinet passed a formal order published in February that gives diplomatic immunity and privileges to 'representatives of a foreign state that participate in the G7 meetings.' The office of Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab would not say whether she had issued a special exemption, with her department citing privacy legislation. 'Inadmissibility decisions are made on a case-by-case basis,' spokesman Remi Lariviere wrote. Fore! Another way Canada could ensure a successful visit could be to get Trump to the Kananaskis Country Golf Course — a prospect much discussed in media reports that remained unconfirmed as of Friday afternoon. Carney gave Trump a hat and golf gear from that course during his visit to the Oval Office in May. Miller said that wasn't just a gimmick — Trump loves making deals while teeing off, and it could provide Carney or others with hours of facetime on a golf cart, which is Trump's comfort zone. 'Golf has been pretty central to his life,' he said. 'It makes eminent sense to have Mr. Trump playing at a high-quality golf course.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2025. Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Yes, I'd also like to receive customized content suggestions and promotional messages from the Star. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Politics Headlines Newsletter You're signed up! You'll start getting Politics Headlines in your inbox soon. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.
Toronto Sun
8 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. 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Toronto Sun
9 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
As Trump heads to the G7, Canada hopes to avoid another Charlevoix-style eruption
Published Jun 14, 2025 • Last updated 4 minutes ago • 5 minute read President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Photo by Alex Brandon / AP Photo OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump is set to arrive Sunday in Alberta for the G7 summit — his first visit to Canada since leaving in a huff seven years ago. 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 Ottawa could use everything from golfing and creative scheduling to special cabinet orders to make the visit successful and avoid a repeat diplomatic disaster. 'He is somebody who is very prickly when he feels like he's not being fully respected,' said Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a cross-border consultancy. 'You want to make absolutely sure that … he walks away and says, 'You know, those Canadians aren't so bad after all.'' Better than last time The last time Trump was in Canada — for the G7 summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec — things ended in a blowout. Trump refused to sign the communique, the published list of statements on common G7 issues that are mostly negotiated and agreed to by member nations ahead of time. He left early and lambasted Trudeau as 'very dishonest and weak' in a spat over tariffs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The summit included what Miller called the 'photograph for the ages' — of then German chancellor Angela Merkel and others standing sternly over a seated Donald Trump, who appeared to be glaring back with crossed arms. German Ambassador to Canada Matthias Luttenberg put it bluntly when he told a June 4 panel that Ottawa was again navigating 'very difficult circumstances' as G7 chair — and capably, in his view. 'I mean, I wouldn't like to negotiate with a country at the table who's questioning my sovereignty as a state,' he said. Sen. Peter Boehm, who was summit head in 2018, recalled two late nights of negotiations because the Trump administration didn't align with the others on including climate change or references to the 'rules-based international order.' 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. Prime Minister Mark Carney won office in April after repeatedly saying he could stand up to Trump's threats to ruin the Canadian economy in order to make the country an American state. Carney had a cordial visit to Washington in early May and even got praise from Trump on social media and in person, despite the president insisting Canada should still become a U.S. state. The two have continued talking. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra revealed earlier this month that the president and Carney have exchanged frequent calls and texts on trade and tariffs. Miller said facetime between the two leaders in Alberta could help them make progress on economic concerns, as well as Trump's pitch to bring Canada into his proposed Golden Dome missile shield project. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Given that there is this conversation underway, it is important that they have an opportunity to continue that, and to meet perhaps in a setting that is less structured and formal than the Oval Office,' Miller said. 'Life is about imperfect choices, and it's absolutely the right thing to have Mr. Trump come to Canada.' He said he's not sure if there will be any formal announcement, though he added Trump is keen to sign agreements with multiple countries ahead of his self-imposed July 9 deadline for so-called retaliatory tariffs. Miller said both Canada and the U.S. are likely to take credit for Ottawa announcing this month it will drastically speed up its pledge to meet NATO's defence spending target. Trump might also take note of the fact that he's in one of the few provinces that have opted to resume sales of U.S. alcohol, after all provinces banned it from their liquor store shelves in response to U.S. tariffs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Ottawa's decision to schedule relatively short group discussions among G7 leaders, and to invite numerous other world leaders, could mean more of the one-on-one meetings that Trump prefers. 'Trump does not like multilateral meetings particularly. He loses interest,' Boehm said. Canadian officials have said they are focused on releasing shorter, focused statements — which could avoid the kind of major blowups that could come from trying to craft the kind of massive joint communique that has concluded almost all other G7 summits. Former prime minister Jean Chretien told a panel Thursday that if Trump does have an outburst, G7 leaders should ignore him and 'keep talking normally.' Miller said that for Canada, 'ensuring a positive agenda that doesn't lead to acrimony afterwards' means advancing its interests without isolating the U.S., particularly with so many guest leaders attending. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The trick that Mr. Carney has to pull off is to reassure the U.S. that it wants a good, positive relationship — while at the same time running vigorously, as quickly as possible, to try to build new relationships,' he said. It's also entirely possible that Trump will leave before the meetings conclude. A visiting felon Keeping it positive is also likely why Ottawa will skirt rules that might bar Trump from crossing into Canada after he was found guilty on 34 criminal counts in a 'hush money' trial in May 2024. Immigration lawyers say those convicted of serious crimes abroad must serve their time and wait five years before seeking a certificate of admissibility to Canada, though there are loopholes if someone seeks a visa for a compelling reason. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The federal cabinet passed a formal order published in February that gives diplomatic immunity and privileges to 'representatives of a foreign state that participate in the G7 meetings.' Fore! Another way Canada could ensure a successful visit could be to get Trump to the Kananaskis Country Golf Course — a prospect much discussed in media reports that remained unconfirmed as of Friday afternoon. Carney gave Trump a hat and golf gear from that course during his visit to the Oval Office in May. Miller said that wasn't just a gimmick — Trump loves making deals while teeing off, and it could provide Carney or others with hours of facetime on a golf cart, which is Trump's comfort zone. 'Golf has been pretty central to his life,' he said. 'It makes eminent sense to have Mr. Trump playing at a high-quality golf course.' Read More Sunshine Girls Golf World World Sunshine Girls
