As geopolitical friction between Canada and the United States intensifies, particularly on the trade front, the real battleground may not be in boardrooms or policy circles – it may be in grocery aisles across the country.
Author: Blazingcatfur
Finland’s Plan To Exit Ottawa Landmine Treaty Sparks International Debate
Finland’s government on Tuesday, April 1st, announced plans to begin withdrawing from the 1997 Ottawa Treaty which bans the use, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated that the “fundamentally changed security environment in Europe” prompted the decision and emphasized the need to boost national defense, particularly as Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia.
“We propose that Finland starts to prepare for withdrawal from the Ottawa agreement,” Orpo said. Finland’s parliament must approve the move, which would come into effect six months after ratification.
Such a dopey idea could only be hatched in Ottawa.
How the NDP’s Gamble Backfired
After ending his party’s supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals in September 2024, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh consistently voted against the Conservatives’ confidence motions that sought to bring down the minority government.
“We’re not going to let [Conservative Leader] Pierre Poilievre tell us what to do,” Singh said on Sept. 19 ahead of the tabling of the first of several such motions by the Tories.
Here’s Why Trump Will Win The Tariff Standoff
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear in an interview with CNN that the era of trade imbalances is over, and under President Trump, the U.S. will no longer tolerate unfair treatment.
During a discussion with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Bessent confidently explained the administration’s position on tariffs and trade policy, signaling that Trump’s economic strategy is deliberate and well thought out.
h/t DS
Mystery Man arrested after barricading himself in East Block
Arrest made after man ‘barricaded’ himself in Parliament Hill’s East Block, say police
Ottawa police say one man has been arrested after an hours-long lockdown on Parliament Hill.
“The barricaded man call at East Block has ended without incident. One man is in custody,” Ottawa police said in a social media post shortly before 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. The post also said the criminal investigation is ongoing and an update will be provided in the morning.
There was no immediate word on charges.
Brampton Men …
Vibrant diversity strikes again.
I heard the full story of the woman jailed for two years for a tweet. Her injustice shames Britain
It is many years since I clambered into a cage in Cambridge’s King’s Parade for Amnesty International and stared glumly through the bars at a photographer who snapped me for the front page of the student paper. On that drizzly, damp day, we were trying to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in authoritarian countries where people could be thrown into jail for no reason, except to deter other critics of the regime, and denied their basic human rights.
In the past few days, I’ve found myself wondering what that idealistic young student would have thought if you’d told her that, 40 years in the future, she would be writing about a woman thrown into jail in our own country largely to act as a warning to others. A widely-respected and adored childminder described by one parent as “the kindest British person I’ve met”, a mother of two children (one living, one dead), a carer to a sick husband, by whose side she also appeared in his role as a Tory councillor.
France braced as “far right” and leftwing parties plan rallies in wake of Le Pen decision
France’s far right is hoping for a massive public show of support tomorrow in a “people’s protest” against Marine Le Pen being barred from standing for president in 2027.
The Rassemblement National (National Rally – RN) party called for a nationwide demonstration under the banner “Save Democracy” after Le Pen was found guilty in a €4m (£3.4m) embezzlement trial.
Leftwing and centrist parties have also called for separate gatherings in and around the capital in support of the law being enforced – as well to back the court, and judges who have been subject to death threats requiring police protection.
Trump has Canadian voters tuned in. But on election day, who will turn out?
A week can feel like a lifetime in an election campaign.
Over the past several days, candidates from all parties have traversed the country, delivering carefully honed messages on everything from job creation to national security. But as I’ve said before, amid the headlines and horse-race chatter, there are often subtler signs of where things might be headed. With the second week of the campaign winding down, I see three polling numbers worth paying special attention to.
Are Islamist gangs in control of Britain’s most secure prison?
HMP Frankland, in Durham, is supposed to be one of the most secure jails in the country. The category A prison holds terrorists and murderers, including Soham child killer Ian Huntley. Frankland should be a place of order, where the state is in absolute control. Yet the jail is said to be so overrun with Islamists that inmates who refuse to join their gangs are being forced into separation units for their own safety.
America is raising feral children
We were posted at the front of a large public high school auditorium in the Land of the Free in 2015. Both of us were responsible for maintaining some semblance of order as 150 to 200 students socialized, did homework, and ate lunch.
I can’t tell you what my partner saw, but I saw girls sitting on their boyfriends’ laps. I noticed a student climbing over chairs to get from A to B. Some students were throwing things.
Fissure among Conservatives undermining Poilievre’s pitch he’s a national unifier: experts
Long-simmering tensions within the Conservative movement are bursting out into the federal election, experts say — undercutting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s efforts to present himself as a unifier who can take on U.S. President Donald Trump.
Those tensions materialized again after ex-Reform Party leader Preston Manning and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, both Western-populist-styled Conservatives, made a series of controversial statements that raised the ire of former Stephen Harper cabinet ministers James Moore and Jason Kenney.
Liberals have 11-point lead over Conservatives; Carney opens up 22-point advantage over Poilievre as preferred PM
The federal Liberals now have an 11-point advantage over the Conservatives on Day 14 of the federal election campaign, while Mark Carney has opened up a 22-point lead over Pierre Poilievre when it comes to Canadians’ preferences for prime minister.
Worth the read – from Nick Kouvalis
3 weeks ago, I wrote the post below and I wanted to update it with my thoughts today:
Thank God, Pierre/CPC has recalibrated re: Trump/ Tariffs and that Garbage. **I already see improvement in the numbers in Ontario**. ✅
Again, I will reiterate that Trudeau is gone and… https://t.co/0SVi98VxQK
— realNickKouvalis (@NickKouvalis) April 5, 2025
I fear for the Bear
Labour MP Dan Norris is arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences after police raid
The Christian right has set the US on the road to Gilead. Without a fight, other nations may follow
With Donald Trump as president, there is now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel turned TV show set in Gilead, a fundamentalist, fascist version of the US where women have no rights. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. This road to Atwood’s Gilead is charting a course straight through the UK and Europe, and we may well be sleepwalking on to it.
The Guardian has no shortage of hysterics.