Canada

Saturday September 15, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 15, 2018

Canadians who smoke marijuana legally, or work or invest in the industry, will be barred from the U.S.: Customs and Border Protection official

Canadians will be barred from entering the United States for smoking marijuana legally, for working in Canada’s legal marijuana industry and for investing in legal Canadian marijuana companies, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official says.

Todd Owen, who spoke to the U.S. website Politico, said the U.S. does not plan to change its border policies to account for Canada’s marijuana legalization, which takes effect on Oct. 17.

“We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” said Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the office of field operations.

Owen’s comments corroborated anecdotal reports that have accumulated over the course of the year. Canadians with links to the nascent legal industry, including venture capitalist Sam Znaimer and the chief executive of a B.C. agricultural machinery company, have already been given lifetime entry bans.

Owen said border officers will not begin asking every Canadian about their marijuana use.

He said, however, that officers might ask if “other questions lead there,” or “if there is a smell coming from the car,” or if a dog detects marijuana residue.

Owen did not specify how much equity a Canadian has to hold in a cannabis company to be denied entry. Scott Bernstein, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, said he is troubled by the lack of clarity.

Thousands of Canadians have shares in cannabis companies, which are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“They’re investing in a completely legal industry in Canada, but it happens to be the cannabis industry …. That person who owns a mutual fund and maybe doesn’t even know where their money is going, are they going to be covered as well?” Bernstein said.

Bernstein, who also expressed concern about U.S. profiling of people stereotyped as likely marijuana users, said the Canadian government should negotiate with the U.S. at least to secure entry for workers and investors.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that he does not think he has the right to press the U.S. on its admission policy. (Toronto Star) 

 

Friday September 14, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 14, 2018

Why would Trudeau leave it to Mulroney to defend the Charter of Rights?

When one Canadian province decides to opt out of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, you expect prime ministers to speak out strongly.

February 3, 2018

But it probably tells us something that the most spirited words against the use of the “notwithstanding” clause this week have come from a former prime minister, not the current one.

It was Brian Mulroney who came out swinging on Tuesday against the idea of provinces sidestepping the Charter — “how the hell did this thing get in our Constitution?” — while the current prime minister seemed to be trying to say as little as possible.

While Justin Trudeau can be hard line about people adhering to the Charter of Rights when it comes to summer-job applications or candidacy for the Liberal party, it took the prime minister more than a day after Premier Doug Ford’s staggering announcement on Monday to say anything publicly. And when Trudeau did speak on Tuesday, he chose a relatively mild adjective: “disappointing.”

Mulroney, on the other hand, seems to feel fewer constraints, despite a potentially awkward family conflict.

September 7, 2009

In a free-wheeling conversation at the National Library and Archives on Tuesday, Mulroney made abundantly clear that he has never been a fan of this opt-out provision in the Charter — and he’s no more fond of it now that it’s being used in a province where his own daughter, Caroline Mulroney, is the attorney-general.

“Everybody knows I’m not a big fan of it and I never have been,” Mulroney said, while sidestepping any direct criticism of his daughter’s government. “Look, to me, the backbone and the enormous strength of Canada is the independence and the magnificence of our judiciary. … That is a major thrust of our citizenship.”
 
Mulroney said he hasn’t discussed this with his daughter, but she probably already knows how he feels, since it’s also in his memoirs, as “the most abject surrender of federal authority in our history.” 
 
That’s a shot at former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who put the clause into the Charter to win a deal with the provinces nearly 40 years ago. He’s also the father of the current PM, of course — all this proving that constitutional dramas in Canada are also historical family sagas, minus the lush scenery or film deals. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Thursday September 6, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 6, 2018

NAFTA talks resume as questions grow about Trump’s ability to deliver

Canada returns to the NAFTA table in Washington Wednesday after a four-day break in negotiations that appeared to be pretty stressful … for the American side.

August 28, 2018

The Trump administration’s failure to secure a deal before last Friday wasn’t well-received by key voices in Congress, where NAFTA’s fate ultimately will be decided.

By the end of the weekend, the White House seemed to have fallen out with an ally it had hoped would back a revised NAFTA: a union representing millions of working-class Americans, now souring on President Donald Trump’s ability to deliver.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday that officials continued their work over the weekend after negotiations broke off Friday. 

“We are looking forward to constructive conversations today,” she said before heading to the offices of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Fresh signs of perceived weakness in Washington may bolster Canada’s determination to reject a bad deal, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed publicly to do. Trudeau’s team spent the weekend talking to stakeholders and advisers to prepare for this week.

The tone Freeland set early in her public statements during the negotiations — a no-drama approach of working “intensely” and “constructively” and praising the “goodwill” of counterparts — seems to be holding firm.

Work continues to finalize the text before the next Congressional deadline at the end of the month. If all three parties remain serious about a signing ceremony before Mexico’s government changes hands Dec.1, the negotiated text is due by Sept. 30. (Source: CBC) 

 

Saturday September 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 1, 2018

Pipeline ruling comes at bad time for Trudeau Liberals

April 11, 2018

For Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberals, the timing couldn’t have been worse. On Thursday, as Canadian negotiators in Washington were struggling to salvage whatever they could from the floundering NAFTA talks, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against the government’s signature Trans Mountain Pipeline project.

Both the North American Free Trade Agreement fiasco and the pipeline decision strike at the heart of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic strategy. That strategy relies on free trade deals and oil exports to keep the economy humming while the government concentrates on its ambitious social policy agenda, such as bettering the lot of Indigenous Canadians.

Of the trade deals, the NAFTA pact tying together Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was the most crucial. Similarly, of the pipeline projects, none was more important to the federal government than the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion. It would bring heavy oil from the Alberta tarsands to British Columbia’s Pacific coast, where it could be loaded into oceangoing tankers.

Indeed, the Trudeau government deemed the Trans Mountain Pipeline so important that it agreed to buy it for $4.5 billion from its U.S. owner and pay all the costs of expanding it. This no longer seems like such a good deal.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s National Energy Board failed to take into account the effect of increased tanker traffic on B.C. coastal communities. It also ruled that the government failed to adequately consult Indigenous communities affected by the pipeline. It said construction cannot continue until these two defects are remedied. (Continued: Toronto Star) 

 

Thursday August 30, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 30, 2018

U.S. is intent on ending supply management for Canadian dairy: Trudeau

April 20, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is obvious the Trump administration is intent on dismantling Canada’s supply management system.

But he says Canada won’t buckle on the issue at the NAFTA talks.

The vexing question of greater U.S. access to the Canada’s protected dairy sector is now pivotal as the NAFTA negotiations in Washington draw closer to President Donald Trump’s Friday deadline for a three-country deal.

A concession on dairy — which is explosive politically in Canada — is one of the few cards the Trudeau government has left to play at the bargaining table after the U.S. and Mexico reached their own side deal on Monday.

Experts say Trump has not specifically set his sights on dismantling supply management, and is more angry with a new classification of milk products that Canada introduced two years ago that he says has undercut U.S. exports and hurt his country’s farmers.

Trump says he’s optimistic a deal can be worked out with Canada by the end of week. (Source: Financial Post)