Canada’s New Reality: What can we learn from Canada’s pivot away from the U.S.?

I’m still processing how the world changed last week. President Trump’s wild threats against Greenland — and by extension against America’s NATO allies — crystallized for many leaders what they already believed but perhaps were too scared to say out loud: The rules-based international order is no more.

The man who said it out loud, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, became something of a hero in Davos. Today, I’m writing about what Canada’s efforts to pivot away from an increasingly volatile America can teach other countries.

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Katy Perry urges fan to contact their U.S. senator and demand they block funding for ICE

Looks like Trudeau but more butch

Since returning from space last spring, pop star Katy Perry has been jet-setting to Davos and beyond with her boyfriend, former Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau. But she found time in her very busy schedule to urge her more than 200 million Instagram followers to contact their U.S. senator and demand they block funding for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).

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GM Canada layoffs hit Oshawa plant, putting up to 1,200 autoworkers out of work Friday

The day Oshawa, Ont., autoworkers have dreaded for months has arrived, as GM Canada is poised to cut a shift at the city’s plant, costing over a thousand workers their jobs.

Up to 1,200 workers throughout the auto supply chain are expected to complete their final shift on Friday as the company scales back its Canadian operations, according to the union president who represents them.

GM Canada confirmed Thursday approximately 500 of those people are its employees.

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Live TV report on cougar capture in San Francisco neighborhood interrupted by coyote

Live television reporting about an incident where a young mountain lion was safely tranquilized and captured in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when a coyote wandered into the background during the broadcast.

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Ottawa spends $885M on health care for migrants and refugee claimants

Ottawa spent nearly $885 million last year providing a wide range of health services to illegal immigrants and refugee claimants, according to newly released figures tabled in Parliament that have triggered a Commons committee audit.

Blacklock’s Reporter says records disclosed through an inquiry of ministry show the Interim Federal Health Program cost taxpayers $884.6 million annually, including hundreds of millions for services not typically covered under provincial health plans.

(Incognito)

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Iran has ‘fingers on the trigger’ as standoff with US intensifies

Iran has its “fingers on the trigger” and is ready to respond to another attack from the United States, the regime’s foreign minister has warned, in an escalation of the standoff between the two countries.

The threat came after President Trump declared that Tehran must abandon its nuclear programme or face a “far worse” attack than the strike on its uranium enrichment facilities in June last year.

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Opting out of F-35 purchase would be ‘three ways from Sunday stupid,’ says retired major general

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra created the diplomatic equivalent to a sonic boom recently by stating that if Canada doesn’t go ahead with the purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets, that will mean the United States would have to buy more of the advanced fighter aircraft for its own air force, and fly them more often into Canadian airspace to address threats approaching the U.S.

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ICE Arrests Foreign Terrorists Living in US

The Department of Homeland Security in the past year has arrested multiple illegal aliens it says have known ties to terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qaeda.

According to the agency, the illegal aliens include members of al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Islamic Republic Guard Corps of Iran, and MS-13, which President Donald Trump designated a foreign terrorist organization when he returned to office.

“Just a year ago, under [President] Joe Biden, our border was wide open, and criminals, gang members, and terrorists were released into our communities,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, stated.

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Mother of man jailed in Syria for Islamic State links calls for his repatriation to UK or Canada

The mother of a British-born man detained for nearly nine years without trial in Syria has called for his repatriation to the UK or Canada as the US plans to airlift 7,000 Islamic State-linked prisoners from Syria to Iraq.

Sally Lane, the mother of Jack Letts, 30, said she was “frantically trying to find out as much as possible” and that it was unclear if he would face the death penalty in Iraq or remain in Syria – or be sent to Canada or the UK in line with US demands.

Neither the Canadian nor British government has updated her after an outbreak of fighting in Syria last week left the future of Letts and other prisoners from up to 70 countries uncertain. “We’ve heard absolutely nothing. They think we don’t deserve to know,” Lane said.

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Majority of Europeans Disagree with Fast-Tracking Ukraine’s EU Membership

Answers to Mrs. Hitler

According to the latest findings of Hungarian think tank Századvég’s Europe Project, most Europeans do not support Ukraine joining the European Union through an accelerated accession process that bypasses established membership criteria. While the European Commission is increasingly discussing the possibility of admitting Ukraine as early as 2027 under a fast-tracked procedure, public opinion across the EU clearly moves in the opposite direction.

Survey data show that 75% of respondents do not support accession before the required conditions are fulfilled.

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Indigenous crime victims get ‘less justice’ by government design

Our friends at the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) published some important data over the weekend with respect to Indigenous female victims of crime. This is perhaps the most-discussed group of crime victims in recent Canadian history, culminating in the 2019 report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). And yet, the IJB analysis found, their criminal assailants tend to get off easier than when the victim is non-Indigenous.

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