Afternoon front page: Why Canada needs a U.S. trade deal; top Trump official mocks Canadian navy; and more
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford opposes reducing auto tariffs to 15%, warning that a potential 50% tariff by the U.S. on Canadian autos could devastate the industry in Canada.
- Scott Bessent mocked the idea of conflict with Canada and criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney for what he called an anti-American, anti-Trump agenda.
- Ayman Elkasrawy was dismissed after delivering a controversial prayer and, while his Islamophobia claim was rejected, he received $7,000 for injury to dignity and self-respect from a human rights adjudicator.
- The National Association of Christian Lawmakers urged President Trump to expedite U.S. entry for Jewish Canadians fearing persecution amid rising anti-Semitic hate crimes in Canada.
It’s Monday, August 31. Here are the top stories we’re following today.
“Washington’s condition of a minimum 15 per cent auto tariff (down from the current 25 per cent) is something Ontario Doug Ford can’t stomach,” Ivison writes. But, he argues, if President Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to raise tariffs on Canadian autos to 50 per cent on New Year’s Day, it will kill the industry north of the border.
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“How are we going to be at war with Canada? What, are they going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton mall and sic them on us?” Scott Bessent joked. Bessent also accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of coming “to power on an anti-American, anti-Trump agenda.”
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In 2016, Ayman Elkasrawy delivered a controversial Arabic-language prayer at a Toronto mosque. He was afterward dismissed from his job at what is now called Toronto Metropolitan University. A human rights adjudicator rejected Elkasrawy’s claim that he had been fired due to Islamophobia, but awarded him $7,000 for injury to “dignity, feelings and self-respect.”
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Trump posted a news report about a letter written by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, which urges him to create expedited entry into the U.S. for Jewish Canadians “who are experiencing persecution or who credibly fear for their safety because they are Jewish.” The letter comes a month after Statistics Canada data showed that Jews were targeted in 71 per cent of religious hate crimes in Canada last year.
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Author Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard discusses his new book, Anti-Civilization: The Collapse of Society and the Case for the Common Good, which argues that the fetishization of immigration, among other things, is leading to a backlash from people who crave a more collective meaning and identity.
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