What a week — and get used to it. If there’s one lesson from recent events, it’s that tariffs are now the new normal, whether we like it or not.
In just a few weeks, the United States under President Donald Trump has leveraged tariffs to escalate tensions with several countries, including Colombia, Mexico, and, of course, Canada. Critics argue that no country has caved to U.S. pressure, but the reality is quite different. We have.
Well, that didn’t take very long.
Just about 24 hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that U.S. President Donald Trump would be delaying his 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports by at least 30 days, and right after Trudeau proclaimed Canadians are “more united than ever,” Quebec Premier Francois Legault insisted there was no way his province would accept a pipeline being built across its land.
Canada’s last-minute reprieve from crushing U.S. tariffs came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a series of measures aimed at controlling the trafficking of fentanyl, a key reason President Trump has cited for wanting to impose levies.
Fentanyl has flooded North America’s drug supply over the last decade, killing tens of thousands in Canada and the United States, and generating enormous profits for criminal organizations using basic chemistry skills, improvised equipment and home laboratories to produce millions of doses.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly talked about fentanyl as a major public health threat to Americans and holds Mexico and Canada responsible for allowing the drug to enter the United States. But last year, less than 1 percent of the fentanyl arriving in the United States came from Canada.
That 1% number is disputed and there is no data on the import/export of precursor drugs.
OTTAWA — Provinces that are sending conservation officers and other local authorities to patrol the Canada-U.S. border are setting up what the president of the union representing border officers calls “history’s most expensive taxi service,” given that anyone caught crossing illegally must ultimately be delivered to border agents.
US president Donald Trump will try to force Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire with Russia by Easter under a peace plan, according to a report.
Trump, who has long claimed that he would be able to negotiate an ending to the brutal invasion of Ukraine in a single day, is said to be working to end the war within 100 days.
The unconfirmed plans, reported by Ukrainian outlet Strana, have been doing the rounds in ‘political and diplomatic circles’ in Ukraine, and will include a ceasefire by April 20 that would freeze Russia’s steady advance, a ban on Ukraine from joining NATO, and a demand for Kyiv to accept Russian sovereignty on annexed land.
h/t XC
Canada faces calls to suspend asylum agreement with U.S., saying Trump orders undermine migrants’ rights
The federal government is facing calls to suspend a long-standing agreement with the U.S. to return asylum seekers at the border, with immigration experts saying the United States should no longer be considered a safe place for people fleeing persecution.
They say U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders that make it easier to deport or detain migrants – including plans to hold 30,000 migrants accused of criminality in Guantanamo Bay – undermine their rights to such an extent that Canada should halt returning asylum seekers to the U.S.
The U.S. Army recently announced it shattered previous recruiting records, with December 2024 being the most productive December in 15 years.
The branch reported it enlisted nearly 350 soldiers every day that month, Army officials announced Tuesday on social media.
“Our Recruiters have one of the toughest jobs – inspiring the next generation of #Soldiers to serve. Congratulations and keep up the great work! #BAYCB,” Army recruiting officials wrote in a post on X.
h/t DS
President Trump on Thursday laid out how his proposed US takeover of the Gaza Strip would unfold, insisting it wouldn’t need military action and would ensure that “stability for the region would reign.”
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump stated in an early morning Truth Social post.
“The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” he continued, with a knock on the Democratic New York senator.
Interesting and supportive take by Murray
— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) February 6, 2025
Even the NYTimes is almost on board …
Trump’s Gaza Plan Has Many Pitfalls, Hamas Among the Biggest
President Trump took the world aback with his declaration that the United States was going to “own” Gaza and move out the Palestinians there to build “the Riviera of the Middle East.” As unrealistic and bizarre as it may seem, Mr. Trump was pointing to a serious challenge: the future of Gaza as a secure, peaceful, even prosperous place.
A former French ambassador to Washington, Gérard Araud, put the dilemma neatly. “Trump’s proposal for Gaza is met with disbelief, opposition and sarcasm, but as he often does, in his brutal and clumsy way, he raises a real question: What to do when two million civilians find themselves in a field of ruins, full of explosives and corpses?”
Of course the Muslim Party of Canada is against Trump’s fabulous plan for Gaza…
Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal would amount to ‘ethnic cleansing,’ Liberal MPs say
“Tough trade negotiations are on the horizon, and I don’t trust our sui socked, ersatz, black faced sultan from handling it without adult supervision.”
On January 30, 1649, King Charles I of England was beheaded. People from all ranks of society were shocked. The king, chosen by God, was killed by men.
Charles believed in the divine right of kings and felt no deep connection to Magna Carta, first signed in 1215. And he certainly was not fond of the institution spawned by that odious document — Parliament. He should have kept his thoughts to himself. The High Court of Justice declared that Charles was guilty of “…attempting to uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people.
As protests against mass deportations continue at Los Angeles and other American cities, Republican members of Congress are growing increasingly irate with crowds forcing the shutdowns of major highways — so much so that one is reintroducing a bill to make the act a federal-level crime.
“I will soon reintroduce legislation to make blocking a highway intentionally a federal crime,” a Republican from Georgia, Congressman Mike Collins, said in a post on X in response to reports from KTLA showing video footage of the 101 freeway at Los Angeles being blocked by protesters on Sunday.
Try waving an American flag in Beijing and blocking a freeway. See what happens to you.pic.twitter.com/d4pP5XXDeN
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) February 3, 2025
For years, loads of cash, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, have bolstered migrant resettlement services, often administered by faith-based nonprofits. In fiscal year 2024 alone, the U.S. government spent more than $2.7 billion on “refugee and entrant assistance” programs, and more than $1 billion went to nonprofits connected to four major Christian denominations: Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, and the United Methodist Church.
They choose to harm their fellow citizens.
Newly minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been saying all the right things. His immediate maneuvers on DEI and deportations have set a promising tone.
However, his department warrants more tempered optimism than most. For one, his 99-0 Senate confirmation indicates U.S. foreign policy might not have major shakeups in store. More importantly,
Rubio’s hawkish track record suggests regime-change adventurism is firmly on the table.
The analysis thus far has focused on Latin America, where Secretary Rubio has deep personal and political ties, as well as Iran and China. The new Trump administration is maneuvering to end the war in Eastern Europe though, while unrest is simmering nearby in Serbia and Slovakia. The latter especially presents a policy-defining scenario, as it is an EU and NATO member and a direct neighbor of Ukraine.
“Doug Ford lost his reason for an election,” Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said Tuesday on the campaign trail.
Crombie was trying to take the wind out of the Progressive Conservative leader’s sails given the 30-day reprieve that U.S. President Donald Trump gave Canada on the threat of 25% tariffs. But Ford wasn’t backing away from the issue, saying the tariff threat from Trump will come again.
Trump made a promise to US autoworkers.
“Now everyone knows —
What does it take to make Canada wet its pants? Threaten to shut down the GM plant for 2 weeks and you can get anything you want.”PODCAST: Blacklock’s and @sauga960am host @richardsyrett https://t.co/Cu7ZL6VXe4 pic.twitter.com/G068c3lS7H
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) February 5, 2025
h/t Mauser
On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that he and the Liberal party had failed in its negotiations to protect Canadians from 25 per cent tariffs, except that’s not how he framed the situation. Instead, he made it look like his government was powerless to address American concerns about securing our border from potential security threats posed by the crossing of illegal migrants and drugs from Canada into the U.S.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Wednesday that he will change the Criminal Code if he’s elected so that all drug “kingpins” convicted of trafficking what he’s calling major quantities of fentanyl are hit with a mandatory life sentence in prison.
The policy announcement comes as President Donald Trump presses neighbouring Canada and Mexico to take a harder line on fentanyl to stop the flow of the deadly drug into the U.S. or face big tariffs.
U.S. government data shows comparatively little of the drug is coming over the northern border, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed more money and resources — including the appointment of a fentanyl “czar” — to crack down and satisfy Trump’s concerns.
