Canada/U.S. Trade Negotiations: The Public's Need to Know

"On Trade, and in other ways, also they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with."

"They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON'T NEED CANADA THEY NEED US!"

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

 

"Canadians must see it [the proposed agreement] to judge what options are on the table."

"[It's time for the prime minister to release the text of the deal]."

Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre

 

"If there was a draft text of any agreement that both governments have seen please release it The U.S. administration has seen [it]. Your government has seen it. Canadians deserve to see it."

"We are here to help and fight for a good result for Canadians. But we expect the Prime Minister to be transparent and open with Canadians about what the President offered and/or threatened in these talks."

"...We are asking for information that both the U.S. administration and your own government would already know, because both were involved in the back and forth. This information will allow all Canadians to debate and discuss the way forward as a country."

Conservative Member of Parliament Shuvaloy Majumder, shadow minister for Canada-U.S. relations 

Carney has a weak hand in Canada-U.S. Trade negotiations, Shuvaloy Majumder

 

What a truly awkward time for Parliament to be adjourned for its traditional summer break so that ostensibly Members of Parliament can be available to their home constituents rather than be gathered in the House of Commons to debate matters of great public interest in the ongoing conflict and contradictions between two North American trading partners. Canada-U.S.  relations have never in modern history been so fraught with the impending potential of economic travails as a result of injuriously steep tariffs imposed by the United States on Canadian goods and services.

 

With a matter of such grave vital interest to all Canadians, in that it directly impacts their already steep cost of living, issues that should be openly and transparently available for public consumption with accompanying explanations as required, remain an opaque mystery. News reportage, while hazarding possible scenarios informed by questioning the opinions and possible scenarios of impact on Canada's economy by trade and economic professionals and academics can only conjecture, since no release of actual discussions and tariff proposal settlements have been released.

 

The Liberal government has dominated the issue and made decisions on behalf of the country as they should and must as the current executive administrative government. Yet it behooves them to share what information they have not only with the official Parliamentary opposition, along with provincial premiers, with appropriate segments of the talks and subsequent disagreements being released to the public. A week has passed since the trade/tariff negotiations between the two sparring partners, Canada/U.S. called off the talks when Canada refused the last-call additions of an agreement set to be signed.

 

There is more than ample reason to suspend total belief in what this government, this Liberal prime minister offers publicly as a description of events and negotiations and the government's position. It may very well be true that the U.S. introduced last-minute measures, as PM Mark Carney contends, that proved impossible for Canada to accept. Limiting Canada's sovereign trade options with countries other than the U.S. as a demand by the U.S. would clearly be unacceptable, as would claims that the U.S. attempted to "restrict our protections of our language our culture, and in effect, our sovereignty. In short, they asked too much and offered too little"; a snappy line that Mr. Carney treated us with, but not much else. 

 

He was anything but forthright on a number of previous occasions, that later caught up with him. The most conspicuously in avoidance of truth and reality when he characterized the discussions between Canada and the United States over the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario with Detroit, Michigan. He failed on that occasion to describe in entirety what the end result was that led to U.S. President Donald Trump finally permitting the bridge to open. A bridge whose cost was totally underwritten by Canada, which planned to recover investment costs over time through bridge tolls.

 

Gordie Howe International Bridge    CTV

 

When in reality, Donald Trump demanded that bridge tolls be shared immediately with the U.S., before Canada could recover its $6.4 billion outlay. The original agreement between Canada and Michigan, signed and delivered, for Canada to recoup its costs, then share half-and-half of the bridge tolls, and generously handing over half-ownership of the bridge to Detroit was summarily struck null and void by the American president. None of which details Mr. Carney disclosed, while characterizing the 'deal' with Washington, as a 'win' for Canada.

 

Member of Parliament Majumdar subtly reminded Mr. Carney of his election promises that he would be the only candidate that Canada could rely on to subdue the U.S. president's enthusiasm for flummoxing other world leaders by treating them as flunkies and imposing steep tariffs on their countries' hitherto trade relations with the U.S. He would, he asserted, have a trade agreement with the U.S. for Canada that would do this country proud. He, and only he, as a seasoned economist, a former governor of the Bank of England had the professional expertise to do the job creditably. 

"There have been no wins. U.S. tariffs on Canada are far higher than when the Prime Minister took office."

"As we move forward, it is critical that we maintain the trust and unity of our people with transparency on the efforts you have made to date, and about the circumstances of these negotiations that are so important for Canada."

Conservative Member of Parliamentary Opposition, Shuvaloy Majumdar 

Shuvaloy Majumder in the House of Commons  Still from Video

 

Come One, Come All!

"Never use threat, force or pressure to make someone have sex."

"Women can ... choose who they marry."

"If you have sex with someone without their consent, this is called rape"

"Rape is a serious crime in the U.K. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim."

New U.K. orientation manual for migrants 

 

"All permanent residents and protected persons are eligible for IRCC-funded settlement services [to] help them integrate and build a successful life in Canada as quickly as possible and include information on rights and freedoms of individuals according to Canadian law, understanding of Canadian values, as well as their responsibilities and obligations."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson

600 Gaza refugees enter Canada in 2005  CBC News

 

The United Kingdom, overwhelmed by the presence of migrants, faces a long string of social/cultural problems related to different customs and values being transplanted alongside the migrants into Britain. An epidemic of violence has erupted for several years unlike what the United Kingdom has previously experienced, a stream of non-stop incidents that fall far outside the normal social contract of the Emerald Isle's traditional population. Rapes by migrants perpetrated against vulnerable men, women, teens, even children, taking place in wooded areas, parks, beach change-rooms and rental units.

 

Grooming Gangs in the U.K. Machiavelli Foundation

 

It took long enough for the British Government to pay attention to the scandals that for years had stalked communities where Muslim men, mostly of Pakistani origins, whose sex culture was responsible for grooming gangs focused on raping and using young Caucasian girls as sex slaves, renting out their services for fun and profit. It wasn't that the situation was unknown to British authorities, but that it was quite simply too inconvenient for them to 'notice' much less act on the practise, given the large Muslim population and accusations of 'Islamophobic' racism to be avoided at all costs.

 

Canada too, as it happens, finds itself in inconvenient waters with the surge of the past decade of immigrants, refugees and migrants infiltrating Canadian society. And in Canada not-too-subtle incidents of migrants in the country bringing with them customs contradictory to Western human rights values where incestuous relations, stranger-rape, organized crime, underage marriages, polygamy, genital mutilation offend Canadian customs and laws.

 

In 2015, during the federal election Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election campaign was rife with outrage from civil rights groups and the growing Muslim community in Canada over his government's release of 'instructions for immigrants' booklet Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship that advised foreigners entering Canada as landed immigrants and permanent residents on their way to achieving citizenship, that Canada's welcome did not include 'barbaric cultural practices' such as spousal abuse, 'honour killings', female genital mutilation, and forced polygamy.

 

Burqa ban in Great Britain?  Independent

 

How times have changed; the instructions of yesteryear rejected by the electorate have, by necessity since then been rejuvenated where marriage fraud warning is circulated by government auspices. In Canada too there are those requiring an explanation why it is frowned upon to rape children. A 'Pre-Departure Guide for Newcomers to Canada', published in 2025 focuses on newcomer rights rather than their responsibilities to the new country they will inhabit. 

 

Gently there are hints as to what is now of vital importance to this current progressive government; an acceptance of the presence of transgenderism, where readers are instructed that the LGBTQ-2 community in Canada is not only accepted, supported and valued, but so too is the right of the nation's children to question their from-birth designation as male or female. Issues such as 'lining up', 'making eye contact' and 'using underarm deodorant' are given their due place in the booklet.

 

Criminal activities are also addressed such as a jail term will come with carrying a firearm without a permit, and unwanted sexual touching or remarks may elicit a fine, or even prison. Bribery, polygamy, female genital mutilation and 'Making, sharing or owning photos of naked children', 'forcing others into marriage', and 'having sex with children', are similarly frowned upon and the letter of the law may be applied. Although truth to tell, the justice system goes easy on skin tones and ethnicity and cultures, with reduced sentences applied.

 

Family violence is frowned upon and "Killing a family member as a way to save a family's honour", is definitely unacceptable. Also addressed is the virtue of working for a living, rather than becoming wholly dependent on Canada Child Benefit payments which, when enough children in a family receive those generous benefits can sustain a family, without a breadwinner breaking a sweat. ($679.75 per month ($8,157 per year) for each child under 6, and $573.58 per month ($6,883 per year) for each child aged 6 to 17 for the 2026–2027 year.

 

What Muslim female dress means as a  wedge issue in Canada  TVO Today

 

 

Hatred and Incitement Target Toronto's Jewish Community

"This kook sounds like a Sacha Baron Cohen parody. But sadly, he is all too real. An avatar of the Islamist-left coalition that is fuelling out-of-control antisemitism, particularly at our universities and colleges."

"Cut funding for these colleges if he is not fired immediately. Charge him with inciting hatred under the Criminal Code. Revoke his visa if he is not a citizen. And hold the college administrators who hired this lunatic to account."

"No more BS from politicians that 'antisemitism has no place in Canada'. It has a large and dangerous place, including in many of our public institutions."

Jason Kennedy, former premier of Alberta 

 

"The British colonizers have planted this cancerous, false Zionist state of Israel in the Palestine and right in the heart of the Muslim countries and right in the heart of Islam."

"This is not coincidence. These Zionists have never had a country of their own, because of their mischief. They are the most kicked-out people in the world, for making black magic and horrible things."

"We can see the corruption crystal-clear in the Epstein island, where they have seduced leaders from all around the world, including Trump. They have raped and killed and ate children at the same time. They have done the unimaginable to blackmail them and control them." 

"That's why you can see now a guy like Trump, who causes genocide in Gaza, kidnaps the president of Venezuela, kills the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may God sanctify his soul, and stays on the throne. It is because of them, the terrorist Zionists."

Abbas Hamze, Pro-Hamas Antisemite extraordinaire  

University instructor “Dr.” Abbas Hamze decided to take time from his busy schedule to make a speech at the Jewish neighborhood of Bathurst & Sheppard where he talked about Jews being kicked out of every country, their “black magic”, and how they rape, kill & eat children. Leviathan

 

This illiterate man with a known hate profile for Jews describes his professional credits on Linked In as: I  have five years of conscientious studies in Electrical Engineering, Master 2 research, and links himself to Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario, an hour's drive from Toronto. With the use of a bullhorn this past weekend he stood prominently with a keffiyeh wrapped around his neck, to promote the good work done by Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Shia terrorist group, in opposing Israel's right of existence. 

 

He spouted  his racist slander in a carefully chosen location, the very heart of Toronto's North York Jewish neighbourhood. He was not the only one to do so; many previous Jew-hating groups also chose that location at Bathurst and Sheppard. That location is one that is commercially zoned. Others in the recent past have gone past that location to enter streets of mostly Jewish homes, to march through the streets shouting invective at the home-owners in the community. Activities that are clearly meant to be stopped in their promotion of hate and violence.

 

Eruptions of this nature, particularly targeting university campuses organized by Palestinian groups have been common in Ontario and Quebec and British Columbia since the slaughter of 7 October 2023 in southern Israel by Gaza's Hamas group, sworn to the eradication of Israel. A 'little brother' of the Muslim Brotherhood that has its tentacles world-wide in a vast caliphate scheme to delegitimize and destroy Israel through innuendo, slander, blood libel and threats, Hamas is the violent arm along with Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, while the Brotherhood acts the 'diplomatic' role, subtly instigating virulent antisemitism in a multi-faceted infiltration/disarming role.

 

The past decade has seen Canada swamped with Muslim extremists through immigration, migration intake and refugee claims that the governing Liberal party has seen fit to encourage. The verbal assaults, threats and disorderly conduct exhibited by these Islamists contravene Canadian civil law, but an attitude of care not to contribute to 'Islamophobia' has stifled any governmental or security responses to restore order and civil respect to a country that has allowed itself to fall into a moral swamp of Islamist entitlement; their sheer numbers within the general population convincing politicians of their vote potential. 

 

The Toronto Police Service made it known that it would no longer tolerate the kind of action that allowed this unregenerated Islamist racist to spout his vitriolic fantasies. That they would take immediate action to head off or intercede when such public outrages occur in vulnerable neighbourhoods. After an initial show of doing just that a year ago, the Service appears to have slumped back to their holding position that pairs nicely with Toronto's municipal government's own lethargic-to-absent responses to such events where a deranged mind cab spout utterly incomprehensible absurdities. "Those Israelis on the other side of the street. Your mischief will cause your annihilation, and it is coming soon and as it is prophesied it will be from the north, from the resistance in Lebanon."  

"An individual who is reportedly a university instructor stood in a Jewish neighbourhood and repeated some of the oldest and most vile lies and conspiracy theories about Jews ... These are antisemitic blood libels that have been used for centuries to justify hatred and violence against Jews."

"There must be consequences for those who repeatedly use public demonstrations as cover to spread hatred, incitement and target Toronto's Jewish community."

"Allowing this behaviour to go unchecked is to normalize antisemitism as an everyday feature of life in this city."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs/B'nai Brith Canada/Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre 

Pro-Palestinian protestors gather across from a Hanukkah event on the corner of Bathurst and Sheppard in an earlier event. Photo by Getty Images

 

"The Hate Crime Unit is investigating comments made by a demonstrator in the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West area over the weekend."

"We are asking anyone who witnessed the incident or has additional information to contact police."

Toronto Police Service 

Friendly Fire Between Neighbours

"On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with."

"They feel entitled, and  yet, WE DON'T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!" 

"[Canada is one of the most] entitled [countries to deal with in terms of trade]."

"[Canada] wants the benefits of being a State, without being one." 

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

 

"As we drilled down, what we discovered was that what our understanding of what had been agreed to was quite different from what was showing up in the documents. When that kind of happens once or twice, it's kind of understandable, but when it happens consistently, and every interpretation is the most negative interpretation [then it] got to a point [where they walked away]."

"That's just something we could not accept [dispute over tariff of medium and heavy vehicles] because we want to protect the existence of an automotive assembly industry in Canada for cars, light trucks, you know, medium trucks and heavy duty trucks."

"We're disappointed. We worked hard, but at the end of the day, the terms that were put forward on a deadline -- that was created by the United States -- it didn't work for us."

"[The U.S.]  has changed its view of economic partnership [and] in the face of that, Canada, among other things, has said that we will look to diversify. So we have to ensure that any agreement we would come to with the United States does not constrain our ability to create trading relationships, open and free trading relationships with other jurisdictions."

"We're just not willing, at the end of the day, to accept terms that were unfair, uneconomic and actually, you know, called into question the reliability of the deal."

"Because you know one of the things that you'd hate to see happen is you agree on something and then, after agreeing to it, it gets undermined."

Mark Wiseman, Canadian ambassador to the United States 

President Trump's notional 'next up'

 

A range of issues contributed to the collapse of the trade talks between the U.S. and Canada. The written text of a potential deal failed to match what the Canadian side believed it had agreed to. Following the collapsed talks when the Canadian delegation walked away from a deal both sides felt would finally be the solution to the awkward, prolonged trade talks between the two neighbours, political and security allies and for the most part, longstanding friendly relationships, the U.S. took steps to apply a punishing 50 percent tariff on some $20 billion in Canadian goods.

 

Canada was faced with little option but to respond in kind, a retaliation that the U.S. warned would cost Canada even more once Canada's move takes effect on September 8. Further escalation of U.S. tariffs is now a certainty, although it remains unclear whether there will be a resumption of negotiations between    the present and the September 8 date. 

 

There was a dispute over tariff treatment of medium and heavy vehicles with the U.S. resisting cutting tariffs, despite Canadian negotiators explaining that they are produced by both General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., automakers with operations in Canada. That balking on reduced tariffs for those vehicles fits right into President Trump's oft-repeated urging for American manufacturing integrated with Canadian counterparts in shared production, be put to a stop, for U.S. companies to withdraw their Canadian presence and return to full manufacturing in the United States.

 

Richmond Plywood Corporation in Richmond, B.C., says it has paused its U.S. sales because importers won't pay the 50 per cent tariffs and the company can't absorb the cost. (Bhavjit Thandi)

 

Another contentious issue for Canada is the heavy tariffs on Canadian steel exports aluminum  and lumber. President Trump is fond of repeating that Canada has nothing that the U.S. needs or wants, but the United States has everything that Canada desires. Canadian electrical energy, oil and liquid natural gas exported to the United States is critical to American energy needs. Without Canadian steel and aluminum and lumber the costs of domestic architecture in the U.S. will deal a blow to U.S. consumers in higher construction costs for houses.

 

U.S. trade negotiators introduced another unexpected item when the demand was made that Canada pedal back on its search for alternative trade and export routes to other countries. Separate trade agreements with other nations to swerve away from total dependence of exporting Canadian goods and services to the United States did not sit well with the Trump administration. Other U.S. trade irritants are issues such as American spirits that are currently black-listed from entry to Canada in a retaliatory move against unfair trade practices that include new and growing tariff inclusions on goods meant to be protected under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement (CUSMA).

 

The federal government is laying out its plan to hit the U.S. with dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs that will impact around 700 different American products.  CTV

 

New issues brought to the negotiating table such as bilingual French-English signage on U.S. exports to Canada have surprisingly cropped up, when for as long as trade has existed between the two countries the two official language requirements for export to Canada have been routine. "It is non-negotiable, in terms of our ability to protect - and to not just protect, but to be able to enhance and grow the French language in Canada, in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. Those that want to do business in Canada, be it digital or anything else, must respect that fundamental reality", observed Ambassador Wiseman. 

 

President Trump's constant goading of Canada, referring to the nation as the 51st State, calling its prime ministers 'governors', his AI-assisted videos with the U.S. flag superimposed over the northern half of North America, his complaints that Canadians for some unknown reason don't care for his style, have not endeared him to the Canadian public. As a result of the new U.S. tariffs imposed on Canada, 87,000 Canadian jobs have been placed at risk and the Canadian unemployment rate bloat to 6.8.

 

Canada is prepared to respond with counter tariffs on U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, electronics and other products. Canada's economy will be hurt, and it won't take very much longer before the American economy too will feel the pain. Canada exported $454 billion in goods and services to the U.S. last year, much of it in energy, while importing $426 billion, according to U.S. Commerce Department data. 

 

"We're going to need a suite of programs, probably not unlike we did through the COVID era, to support working people and the industries that they depend on", observed Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, representing workers in the automotive as well as other sectors in Canada. 

 

"The last thing we need right now, as our economy is getting back on its feet, is a trade war with Canada". opined former Trump earlier administration vice-president Mike Pence. 

 

Ottawa announced new support support for workers and businesses facing U.S. tariffs. CTV

 

Great and Unfortunate Things

"[Some universities] failed to do the proper due diligence."

"We see now that he was not completely honest and he clearly did have frailties and failings. But he was teed up by a number of academic institutions because they desperately wanted a wunderkind."

"They desperately wanted to play on the fact he was young and Black and good-looking, and they wanted him to be their poster child."

James Cleverly, Black member of Parliament 

 

"[Rather than trumpeting Arday's position as the university's youngest-ever Black professor Cambridge] could quietly have nurtured his talents and sorted out his problems, which were surely those of a young man out of his depth rather than a brazen impostor."

"It was the university, not the press, which was obsessed [with the colour of Arday's skin."

Charles Moore, former editor, Daily Telegraph

 

"Academic plagiarists don't usually make headlines, but Arday was not any old academic."

"He was publishing a high-profile memoir with celebrity blurbs ... He had chosen the spotlight."

Sarah Ditum, Times of London

Superstar academic Jason Arday, Guardian

 In 2023 Cambridge University announced they had hired their youngest Black professor in the history of that grandest of academic institutions in Britain. Glowing with pride that they weren't too grand to welcome aboard a prodigy who just happened to be a young Black man with a self-confessed misfortune of ill health as a child, yet managed to overcome all odds to become what he presented himself as more latterly, an over-achiever whose accomplishments in sports and cerebral functioning were truly heroic.

 

Unfortunately his tenure at Cambridge came to an embarrassingly abrupt cessation. After three years of adulation as a Black Cambridge professor, hired as such at age 37, scandalous charges began to erupt, thanks to the efforts of a former Cambridge researcher who had balked with rage over the diversity agenda that had overtaken Cambridge. From his new perch in the Australian halls of academia, Nathan Cofnas announced evidence of plagiarism in Professor Arday's PhD thesis.

 

Cambridge's vaunted "respected scholar" who focused on developing representation of Black, Asian and other minorities in higher education had stumbled and toppled off his pedestal. The young man who asserted having been born with a form of autism spectrum disorder, affecting him with an inability to vocalize until he reached 11 years of age, speedily obtaining reading and writing skills several years later, stewed for weeks in media reports that claimed all of this to be fiction.

 

The focus of British universities on the hiring of academics representing racial and ethnic minority groups in a virtuous dedication to seeing their faculties reflect the characteristics of their greater presence in the evolved Britain that immigration, refugee and migrant intake had resulted in, arrived at a thudding obstacle. A setback for their program of hiring academics from racial and ethnic minorities in a Britain sensitive to the new faces stippling its population.

 

The feeding frenzy of the news media in analyzing Professor Arday's thesis, questioning his claims of having run 30 marathons in 35 days and raising $5.5 million pounds for charity all came under deep scrutiny. Professor Arday's memoir, "Great and Unfortunate Things" published only two weeks earlier, fed the race to debase the claims made by this man caught up in a maelstrom of defamation.

 

While Cambridge initially supported their Black prodigy, the scorn was just too much to bear for that august institution. If they melted under the heat of media publishing hundreds of debunking stories, it can only be imagined the desolation and despair that overtook young Jason Arday, helplessly seeing his world crumble at his feet. He resigned the very day that Cambridge stated it would open an investigaton in view of "new information" received about their young professor's "qualifications".

 

Simon Baron-Cohen, director of Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre warned that the focus of the media on a "vulnerable autistic man" rasied "safeguarding issues", which resonated with large segments of the population, who signed an open letter for the government to commission a public enquiry into the role the media played in dismissing and denigrating a socially and psychologically vulnerable man.

 

Social activist Patrick Vernon wrote that people should remember Jason Arday as a husband and father and not how the headlines portrayed him. I was his initiative that created a GoFundMe campaign to assist Arday's family after he committed suicide in a state of despair and humiliation. Dead at age 41, his life story, his dignity, his accomplishments reduced to lies that led others to believe he was what he imagined himself to be, not as he truly was. He has paid the ultimate price from an unforgiving public. 

 

Alamy

 

"He's not the prime minister of this country. He's not a current secretary of the civil service or local government or the [National Health Service]."

"But he was treated at the same standard, which is outrageous."

This [GoFundMe campaign] tells you that Britain still cares about justice, they care about inequalities."

"And more importantly, they really want to support Jason and his family in their hour of need."

Sir Patrick Vernon, British social commentator, social activist

Debating Israel's Legitimacy in Montreal

"The consequences of this conflict are already being felt here."

"In 2025, Jewish people were the target of approximately 72 percent of police-reported hate crimes in Canada motivated by religion."

"Jewish schools in Montreal have been shot at, Jewish people have been assaulted, synagogues have been attacked, and antisemitism has manifested itself in academic and professional settings through intimidation, threats and exclusion."

Open letter to Montreal city council

 

"[It] is appalling to see the official opposition at city council, for the second time in a few months, try to preserve political capital by calling on Montreal to cut ties with Israel."

"The motion is perplexing as it offers no solutions and fails to advance any debate."

"Worse, it adds fuel to the fire and risks jeopardizing the safety of the Jewish community. And thousands of Montrealers spoke out against this motion in June."

Op-ed, Montreal Gazette 

The motion, proposed by Projet Montréal in June, has been pushed back to the city council meeting on August 24. Photo Samuel Kayll

 

On June 4, the Montreal municipal council's opposition Projet Montreal called on the city to suspend institutional ties with the government of Israel, its institutions and municipalities. That would result in Israeli state representatives not being invited to official city hall events "until Israel returns to its internationally recognized borders, ceases its violations of the rights of Palestinian people and ends its violations of international law", according to the motion. The motion calls on the city to "recognize and denounce the apartheid regime in Palestine and the genocide being perpetrated there", urging the city to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians along with other civilian victims in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

This is a motion devoid of logic and purpose. The internationally recognized borders have as yet not been formally fully identified. This lopsided, one-sided motion mentions nothing of Israel's forced constant vigilance against Palestinian terrorism targeting Israeli citizens in deadly attacks. Palestinian rights to have its leaders negotiate with Israeli leaders to conditions appealing to both sides that would result in the formal recognition of a Palestinian state in exchange for a formal Palestinian recognition of the Israeli state have never been violated. Each attempt by Israel to persuade Palestinian leaders to accept Israel's sovereignty has failed.

As for the motion's confusion in denouncing 'the apartheid regime in Palestine' when it mean its target to be Israel, it was a felicitous reality reached by accident, for it is the Palestinian Territories that in effect and in real time are true apartheid regimes; no Jew would ever be able to live freely among Palestinians who have been taught to loathe their presence and react with deadly violence. Whereas in Israel, there are two million Palestinian Arabs who have Israeli citizenship, are able to vote, have representatives in the Knesset, are appointed judges, and work alongside Israeli Jews in academia, medical institutions and other key civil areas. 

 

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations at Quebec universities  universityaffairs.ca

 

"I am not going to debate a war on the other side of the world, and that is exactly the point. A municipal government has no jurisdiction over foreign policy. Cities do not end wars."

"This city has been a safe haven for my family and so many others, and it must remain one for everyone."

Shopify president Harley Finkelstein

 

"[B'nai Brith] continues to advocate against the so-called anti-Apartheid motion being proposed by Projet Montreal."

"The motion is a one-sided invective that unduly targets Israel. It is unacceptable for this unreasonable and irresponsible motion to be passed while Canada is experiencing a national crisis of antisemitism."

Paola Samuel, B'nai Brith spokesperson  

One of Montreal's most prominent and successful entrepreneurs, Harley Finkelstein, deplores the motion, writing that he is "speaking up because this motion is dangerous for Montreal, and my reason has nothing to do with which side of that w are you are on". His family, he recounts arrived in Montreal as refugees in 1956. The city, he wrote, gave them "safety dignity and the chance to build. That promise has drawn generations of immigrants here from every corner of the world".

 

Condemnation of the motion before Montreal council took the form of an open letter when Montreal's legal and medical communities stated that the motion "goes far beyond an expression of solidarity with Palestinian civilians. It asks Montreal ... to declare that a 'genocide' is underway',", while urging the city to suspend ties with the Israeli government. Lawyers point to the legality of the proposed measure falling within the powers conferred on the city by the provincial legislature; city councils do not determine international law.

 

To parallel the advocacy efforts, an opinion piece was published in the Montreal Gazette by the senior vice-president (Quebec) at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Eta Yudin, along with Yair Szlak, president and CEO at Federation CJA. Pointing out the absurdity of the motion's thesis, while its slanderous accusations pose a real risk to the security of the Montreal Jewish community which has received far more of its share of aggravated harassment and threats than rational reality can account for.  

"Montreal can acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians and Israeli civilians, call for respect for international law, and recognize Hamas's responsibility, and the realities Israel has faced since October 7."

"It does not need to enshrine legally contested allegations in a resolution or lay the groundwork for an institutional, economic or cultural boycott that exceeds its powers and threatens rights protected by our Charter."

Open letter to Montreal city council 

Council meets at city hall in Montreal on June 15. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

  

"Since the 2023 attack on Israel, hatred and violence against the Quebec Jewish community have skyrocketed. Synagogues and schools were targeted, and citizens were insulted and dehumanized. The latest hate crime statistics from the Montreal police and across the country are damning. Jews, representing less than one per cent of the population, are the No. 1 targets of hate."

"Meanwhile, a radical fringe element is taking advantage of political laxity to impose an agenda contrary to Quebec’s shared values. Given the ties forged during the last municipal election campaign, some have seemingly succeeded in advancing an agenda that rejects living together. By giving in to these pressures, Projet Montréal and its elected officials are only undermining cohesion among our communities."

"As the Aug. 24 city council meeting approaches, Projet Montréal’s reintroduction of its divisive and incendiary anti-Israel motion, which is written in a haphazard, unnuanced and biased manner, once again appears more like a political manoeuvre than a genuine desire to serve Montrealers."

Eta Yudin and Yair Szlak, Special to Montreal Gazette 

Delusions of Existential Grandeur

"It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity."

"The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasize that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world."

"They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation. All the commitments concern the other side."

"Today, we believe that all our commanders and armed forces are fully prepared to defend the country with all their might and with their lives in their hands. They also believe that the government is wholeheartedly seeking to serve the people." 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian waves during a campaign event in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

 

"Sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue."

"China calls on all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian  

China's spokesman sounds as though wisdom and world peace is always uppermost in the minds of Beijing's Communist Party elites. This is the country, of course, that shot down pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square, who wanted the end to one-party dictatorship of China. Any Chinese citizen who dares to publicly commemorate the event and mourn the death of thousands of protesters, under Chinese law is held guilty of "incitement to subversion" and faces a long prison sentence. In China, furthermore, Muslims such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang face cultural obliteration, but as long as Islam is kept out of China, Beijing is front and centre in support of an Islamist regime even more brutal than its own. 

 

The U.S. war in Iran against the Islamic Republic that began in February with U.S. and Israeli coordinated aerial bombardments of the country, is at a standstill. The issue of the IRGC closing the Strait of Hormuz to normal marine traffic moving oil, LNG, fertilizers and other products valued by the global community threw a spanner into President Trump's plans to remove the Iranian regime to ensure that no further efforts would be made in pursuit of nuclear and long-range missile development to threaten the world community, as well as rescue Iranians from the persecution of the Ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps they have suffered under since 1979.

 

Oil residue lines the shore near fishing boats on Qeshm Island, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, amid ongoing wartime attacks on vessels and infrastructure in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though the spill’s source has not been independently determined.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

 

The unpopularity of the war in the United States resulted in political vulnerability for the American president, with the understanding that if he ordered a ground invasion to complement and support the air and sea bombardments, he would face certain political repercussions in the future, and the Republican Party would be in a poor position with upcoming Congressional elections through voter resentment of having their country dragged into another 'forever' war in the Middle East. Issuing threats rather than taking firm action has resulted in a half-completed war, leaving the Iranian regime exultant that its ploy to provoke its neighbours through strikes that would leave them less enamoured of hosting U.S. military sites created a rift that in the end profited Iran's regime.

 

The hyperbole emanating from the Iranian government which has seen its geography relentlessly bombed, its political and theocratic leaders targeted and eliminated along with its military and scientific elite, its weapons stocks destroyed, its airfields and naval assets destroyed, creates an aura for interior consumption of a valiant nation courageously confronting an alien power set on its destruction. While countering the American offensive, the regime was also engaged in destroying its citizens' hopes of rescue from its theistic Islamist rule, through arrests, torture and the death penalty for those who had been detained among the hundreds of thousands who attended mass protests throughout the country in December. 

 

Now the Iranian president acts out a role of peacemaker, that his country is prepared to accept certain conditions demanded by U.S. negotiators in Tehran's projected belief that its position is in a better place  than that of its nemesis, Washington. The on-hold talks aside, Tehran is still blocking access to passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as its victory centrepiece. As though it is of no concern that Washington has instituted a naval counter-blockade of Iran.

 

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with technology leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 

The prospect of signing an agreement which Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei purportedly approved, despite 'differing views', toward the goal of ending the war, will allow the Iranian regime to proclaim victory. Even as Iran's parliamentary hard-line lawmakers criticize the government, accusing it of concessions to placate the US. including reopening of the strategic Strait, even as the U.S. Navy organizes and protects convoys of tankers through the Strait's southern sector, such an event would allow the regime to retain its power and exult over its having 'won the war'. 

 

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the US. of "economic terrorism" and "crimes against humanity", in a sanctimonious reversal of the regime's modus operandi. "The perpetrators and instigators of these sanctions are deserving of trial and punishment for committing such heinous crimes", they stated, following U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's declaration that Washington would "collapse" the Iranian regime with an economics sanctions campaign.

 

U.S. politics, with the Republicans taking the  temperature of the U.S. public over the prolonged Middle East conflict has led the Trump administration to abandon its half-successful aerial bombardments and threatening naval presence in favour of an economic embargo. The plan, which Bessent elaborated on to a degree is to intensify economic sanctions, favouring that route over a continuation of heavy military operations.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister had his own interpretation of these events: "The so-called 'Economic D-Day' is a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt and surging interests costs", spat Abbas Araghchi in an X post. 

An Iranian missile is displayed during a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)