Jane Stannus

“Canada has what the world wants,” Mark Carney likes to tell people. But what does Canada want? The European Union, apparently. The bloc’s President, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced that Canada would become its first “associate member.” This is happening, she said, because “above all... Europe and Canada believe in democracy.” Really? The EU spent years trying to block Brexit. And in 2015, when Greece voted to reject the conditions on EU loans, Brussels replied with even more stringent conditions. “There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties,” von der Leyen’s predecessor said at the time.

So close, and yet so far. Only last week, Canada and the US were finally on the cusp of reaching a long awaited trade deal. Already Trump had announced the joyous news on Truth Social, already Canadian prime minister Mark Carney had celebrated securing the “best terms” for Canada and called for provinces to lift the ban on US alcohol. Then, somehow, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. Late last Friday, Carney told Canadian negotiators to walk away, saying Washington was offering “a bad deal.” Trump promptly reimposed the 50 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada that had been put on hold pending the signing of the deal. On Tuesday, August 25, Carney announced dollar-for-dollar retaliation, in what some are calling “the dumbest trade war in history.

Two young Canadian pilots were killed in a tragic accident on 22 March. What should have been an occasion for sober reflection, compassion and prayer, has regrettably turned into an undignified dispute about bilingualism. Captain Antoine Forest, 30, and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, 24, died when a fire engine crossed the runway in front of them as they landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The nose of the plane took the brunt of the impact and both pilots were killed. Grateful passengers credited the two young men with saving the lives of everyone else on board by doing their utmost to slow the plane down in the last instants before the collision. The occupants of the fire engine were injured but survived.

Easter is almost here – and Canada’s Liberal government has chosen this sacred season to display its utter contempt for Christianity. It is currently forcing through the outrageous Bill C-9, which could make it a hate crime to quote from sections of the Bible. The Liberal government has laid the foundations for religious persecutionca More than 40 civil and religious groups had asked that for the Bill’s language be clarified and its scope more carefully defined so that religious texts would not be subject to hate crime legislation. But all in vain. After a hot debate in the House of Commons, the Liberals highhandedly ended a Conservative filibuster and fast-tracked the bill.

As Can Force One moved toward Chinese airspace, the delegation’s electronic devices were powered down and secured in signal-blocking bags. Burner phones were passed out: the only machines the public servants, staff and journalists would be allowed to use for the duration of their stay. The Canadian Prime Minister’s security team was taking no risks. But Mark Carney himself was on his way to do something many back home would consider very risky indeed: signing agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping on trade, global governance, energy, media access and law enforcement.

A horrible and incredibly sad tragedy unfolded on 10 February in the small town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, Canada. An 18-year-old, Jesse Van Rootselaar, also known as Jesse Strang,  turned a gun first on his mother and stepbrother, then on young students and a teacher at his former high school, and finally on himself – with nine reported dead, including the shooter, and at least 25 injured. Waves of shock, grief and horror have rippled across the nation. This was one of Canada’s worst school shootings, the deadliest in 37 years. It seemed especially cruel because Tumbler Ridge is such a tightly knit community, with only about 2,400 inhabitants.