Category Archives: Canada

Canada sees third straight trade surplus; gains ‘no longer a blip’

Canada posted a third consecutive monthly trade surplus in January, the first such stretch since 2014, in another signal that the economy is gaining momentum after slumping for more than two years due to low oil prices.

Statistics Canada on Tuesday reported a surplus of $807-million, which slightly exceeded analysts’ forecasts of a $700-million surplus. Statscan revised December’s surplus sharply lower to $447-million from an initial $923-million.

The last time Canada recorded trade surpluses for three months in a row was between July and September 2014.

The value of exports rose 0.5 per cent in January while volumes expanded 1.0 per cent. Imports slipped 0.3 per cent but volumes climbed 2.5 per cent.

“The gains in two-way trade volumes signal an economy that

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Canadian companies now eyeing Canada-EU trade outcome

Feeling a sense of relief following Donald Trump’s remarks on the future of U.S. trade with Canada, business leaders are now hoping for a second wave of positive news out of Europe.

Corporate Canada is shifting its focus to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip across the Atlantic later this week.

Mr. Trudeau’s visit is expected to coincide with the European Union’s ratification vote on its free-trade deal with Canada, an agreement nearly scuttled last fall due to opposition from a small region in Belgium.

“The Prime Minister is now off to hopefully put [the Canada-EU free-trade deal] in his pocket and bring it home from Europe, which would also be good news,” John Manley, the president of the Business Council of Canada, said in an interview.

Canada is expected to ratify the deal after the European Parliament gives its okay.

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Everything you need to know about the Trump travel ban

60,000 people have had visas cancelled under the ban

CBC News
Feb 06, 2017

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that roughly one in two Americans support the travel ban.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that roughly one in two Americans support the travel ban. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump says a temporary suspension of a travel ban he introduced has put his country “in such peril” — an assertion currently being tested in the courts in what is shaping up to be his administration’s first major legal challenge.

The ban, which was issued as an executive order in the name of national security, caused confusion at airports and affected 60,000 foreigners. Here’s the latest on where the ban sits now and what lies ahead in the courts.

 

Is the ban being enforced right now?

People with valid visas from the seven Muslim-majority countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — can now enter the United States. Refugees who were destined for the U.S. before the order was signed will also now be granted entry.

The ban, which also suspended the Syrian refugee program indefinitely, was introduced as an executive order on Jan. 27.

Where does the ban stand now with the courts?

U.S. District Court Judge James Robart on Friday temporarily suspended parts of Trump’s executive order. The challenge was put forward by the attorneys general of Washington state and Minnesota.

Robart’s decision drew sharp criticism from the president.

The White House then filed an emergency request to resume the ban, but it was rejected by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal appeals court based in San Francisco, on Sunday.

Lawyers for Washington State and Minnesota on Monday submitted a brief from former U.S. officials, including past secretaries of state John Kerry and Madeleine Albright.

They warned, “Blanket bans of certain countries or classes of people are beneath the dignity of the nation and constitution that we each took oaths to protect.”

Representatives from tech companies including Apple, Google and Uber also submitted briefs that argued the executive order would hurt their business operations. Hawaii’s attorney general has also filed a motion to join the lawsuit opposing the travel ban.

The Justice Department filed its appeal Monday afternoon. The appeals court will hear arguments in the case Tuesday in an hour-long telephone conference.

The three federal appeals court judges — Judge William C. Canby Jr.  (an appointee of Jimmy Carter), Judge Michelle T. Friedland (an appointee of Barack Obama), and Judge Richard R. Clifton (an appointee of George W. Bush), will then determine if the ban will be upheld or continue to be suspended. It’s unclear when a ruling will come.

What happens next?

Whichever way the federal appeals court rules, the case may ultimately proceed to the Supreme Court, given that both sides are likely to file an appeal. Five of the eight Supreme Court justices would need to agree to overturn Robart’s order, otherwise the appeals court’s ruling would stand. The court is currently split with four conservative and four liberal judges.

Is there actually support for the ban in the U.S.?

Support for the ban has been difficult to gauge. Immediately after the order was issued, demonstrators gathered in airports across the country to protest the ban. But a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that roughly one in two Americans support the ban while 31 per cent of respondents said it made them feel safer.

executive order

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. It gathered poll responses from 1,201 people including 453 Democrats and 478 Republicans. A probabilistic sample of this size would yield a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Has there been any fallout in Canada?

hi-nexus-852

Nexus memberships have been revoked from all Canadian permanent residents with citizenship in any one of the seven majority-Muslim countries affected by the U.S. travel ban.

Canadian residents with citizenship in one of the seven countries affected by the travel ban have had their Nexus memberships revoked, the Canada Border Services Agency said Friday.

Lawyers and law students have set up camp at airports in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to offer aid to those affected by the ban. Toronto-based Corey Shefman has joined with other lawyers to respond to the changing policies.

Shefman said the evolving situation is causing some confusion.

“We’ve been telling people and our American colleagues have been telling people, if you think you’re going to be affected by the travel ban, travel now and travel quick because we don’t know how long this stay is going to last,” he said referring to the temporary suspension.

Continue reading Everything you need to know about the Trump travel ban

Ottawa giving $372 million in loans to Bombardier

Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare exits a Global 7000 jet at Bombardier in Montreal on Tuesday February 7, 2017.
ALLEN MCINNIS / MONTREAL GAZETTE

MONTREAL — The federal government says it will give Bombardier $372.5 million in repayable loans over four years to support the Global 7000 and CSeries aircraft projects.

Most of the money would go to the Global 7000 business aircraft program, which is scheduled to go into commercial service next year.

The rest would go to the CSeries passenger jet, which was mired in delays and cost overruns prior to entering commercial service last year.

Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) has been appealing for US$1 billion in federal assistance since late 2015.

Last year, the company received a US$1-billion investment for the CSeries passenger jet program from the Quebec government in exchange for a 49.5-per-cent stake.

As of late November, Bombardier received at least 360 firm orders for the jets.

The federal assistance for the Montreal-based aerospace manufacturer could rile foreign competitors.

Brazil has said it would launch a trade challenge against Canada before the World Trade Organization over financial support for Bombardier, which competes with Brazilian-based Embraer. Bombardier said such a move would be without merit.

Brazil has complained about US$2.5 billion in investments in Bombardier, including money to “ensure the viability of the new CSeries aircraft and its placing on the market at artificially reduced prices.”

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was hopeful a deal with Bombardier could be reached before the spring federal budget, adding that all countries, including Brazil, help their aerospace sectors.

Bombardier has announced job cuts totalling 14,500 positions over the last two years in an effort to regain its financial footing.

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Google and Facebook are teaming up to fight fake news, but not in the US

The fake news epidemic on social media and the internet as a whole reached a climax late last year during the presidential election, and hot spots like Facebook have been battling the beast ever since. You might expect the US to be at the top of the list for US-based companies trying to fight the spread of false narratives, but a new partnership between Facebook and Google aimed at striking down fake news is instead aimed at France, where the upcoming presidential election is at risk of falling into the same quagmire that befell the United States.

Google announced the new initiative, which is called CrossCheck, at the News Impact Summit in Paris today. The company says it’s working in tandem with a total of 17 newsrooms to provide a platform for rapid fact checking, and it expects more partners to be on board soon.

Perhaps the biggest of CrossCheck’s responsibilities will be working with Facebook-owned CrowdTangle, which acts as something of a ranking tool to track and curate the most popular posts across the social network. Posts from news agencies and users alike that see lots of shares and interaction are highlighted in CrowdTangle and oftentimes get amplified with additional coverage or shares elsewhere, meaning that preventing a fake news story from gaining that kind of traction is crucial to Facebook’s goal of providing accurate information to its users.

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Kelly McParland: Liz Sandals should try taking the train. She might see her staff there

Kelly McParland | February 6, 2017 1:18 PM ET

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne watches Liz Sandals

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne watches Liz Sandals
Craig Glover/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network

When your government is engaged in a multi-billion-dollar effort to improve transit facilities as a way to get drivers off the road and into more environmentally-friendly means of travel, it’s generally not a good idea to suggest the people who make use of those facilities are a pack of dimwitted losers who lack the talent to rate a more prestigious form of transport.

This would be news to Liz Sandals, Treasury Board president in Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario government, who let commuters on the province’s GO train system know just how low they rate in her estimation.

Asked how the average GO commuter might view proposals to hand generous pay hikes to executives at some of Ontario’s bigger corporations – including an extra $8 million for the already lavishly-compensated bosses at Ontario Power Generation – Sandals offered a brusque put-down.

“Most of the people sitting on the GO train probably don’t have high-level nuclear qualifications or the business qualifications to run a multi-billion-dollar corporation,” she remarked.

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Man who beheaded passenger on Greyhound bus expected to seek freedom

Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, was found not criminally responsible in the 2008 killing of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba.

Will Baker has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. An absolute discharge would mean there would be no more monitoring to ensure Baker continues to take his medication. (JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

WINNIPEG—A man who beheaded and cannibalized a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba is expected to ask for his freedom today.

Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, was found not criminally responsible for the killing of Tim McLean in 2008.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Baker was initially kept inside a secure wing at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

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