Riding Roughshod Over Canada Releases a Hornet's Nest

"We can't back down. We need a full Team Canada approach.Everything is on the table, but Ontario can't do it alone. We need the support."

"I'm tired of the bully trying to take our lunch money all the time. We always seem to be on our back heels. We need to be on the offence ... We need to stand up to the bully, and we need to hit him tariff to tariff -- all the way across the board."

"And that's my message to the prime minister. We need a plan moving forward."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

 

"There is not a chance in hell that U.S. alcohol is going back on a shelf in British Columbia. And I'm proud of that, and I know the British Columbians support that."

"And the idea of the president that he can bully us into whatever he wishes is incorrect."

"This attempt by the president to hurt Canadians to, for some reason, attack our country was entirely predictable. [He] will probably do it again. And there's no reason to believe that this is the bottom in terms of where he's willing to go."

"The end of the trade agreement between the United States and Canada would be devastating for Americans and for Canadians alike. The extent of that self-inflicted injury on the United States would be profound. U.S. business will be very clear with the president about that." 

British Columbia Premier David Eby

 

"It most certainly is time for us to intensify our negotiations, be very ambitious."

"The ultimate goal isn't to counter-tariff and further weaken the North American economy. The ultimate goal is to get to a renewed agreement, a trade agreement that is going to build and ensure that our North American economy is more competitive moving forward."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, watches as a Spanish soccer player shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World Cup final on Sunday. The next day, Trump hit Canada with threat of 50 per cent tariffs. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

 

Fighting another war in the Middle East that is beginning to wrack up American casualties, making the Trump administration very unpopular in significant sectors of the U.S. voting public, hasn't distracted Donald Trump from his delusionary vendetta-pathology of making his trading partners and neighbours suffer pangs of trade punishment for imagined trade imbalances that Mr. Trump insists preys on the American economy. Even nature herself has come in for some extraordinary treatment, assigning her extreme weather tantrums to Canadian forest-management malpractise.

 

As for a generous move by the Government of Canada to improve truck traffic flows between the U.S. and Canada in the busiest such trade exchange benefiting the U.S. as much as it does Canada, by fully committing to paying for the enormous cost of installing a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit, riled President Trump who claimed the U.S. was being cheated again, despite Canada paying the complete $6.4 billion cost of building the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Toll revenues in the initial years of operation were to have paid off this debt but yielding to Trump pressure Canada is now deprived of that debt-revenue in the interests of Trump's 'permission' to open the bridge to traffic as intended.

 

Canada's wildfires sending plumes of smoke over the border another wrathful issue, and the punishment for Canada in not immediately shielding the U.S. from the out-of-control wildfire smoke wafting over to the U.S. necessitated another round of tariffs subject to the new Section 338 invoked by Mr. Trump's ire, where cement, dairy products, wood products, alcoholic beverages, paper products, sporting equipment, jewelry, glass products, salt, essential oils, clothing, swimming pools, gaming consoles, smartphones, lamps and furniture products now come with hefty 50 percent tariffs attached. 

 

Financial Times

 

Yet when the provinces respond to these devastating tariff impositions by imposing tariffs of their own, the Canadian boycott of U.S. alcoholic products by provincial liquor commissions enrages the Trump administration. According to a White House fact sheet Canadian imports of U.S. alcohol have decreased between March 2025 to February 2026 by 81 percent, an intolerable situation. Canadian provinces have made it abundantly clear that as soon as Mr. Trump moves the needle downward on his ever-increasing tariffs, they have no intention of lifting their boycotts.  

"I think this does provide a big reset to the negotiation agenda and will force Canada into difficult decisions in the coming 29 days."

"What we're hearing from our clients right now is those that are hit, that are caught by this list, their export sales are going to go to zero, and this is actually quite catastrophic. Because the 50 percent tariff is very, very high, and no one else in the world has to pay that. Right? This is a new tariff unique to Canada."

William Pellerin, international trade partner, McMillan LLP 

Prince Edward Island premier Rob Lantz speaks to reporters with fellow premiers at a press conference closing the Council of the Federation meetings in Charlottetown on Wednesday July 22, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

 

Economists are aware of the documentation studies that reveal when governments impose tariffs seeming to be paid by exporters, what is actually occurring is that their own citizens are being taxed. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper by a Harvard University economist and a economist at University of Chicago which studied the extent to which the 1918-19 [Trump's previous administration] as well as 2025 tariffs ended up with the American public and not the exporters. The tariff pass-through rate to U.S. importers, they concluded is "pervasively high, during both the 2018-2019 and 2025 episodes". With 80 percent of the burden of the former and 94 percent of the latter tariffs paid by the U.S. public.

 

A German think tank, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, analyzed $4 trillion of shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, concluding that U.S. consumers and importers paid 96 percent of the cost of Trump's tariffs; foreign exporters paid four percent. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper and an analysis by New York Federal Reserve researchers estimated approximately 90 percent of the U.S. tariffs' economic burden fell on Americans.

 

Across the border, Canadian studies document how protectionism harms Canadian consumers. A Montreal Economic Institute study lat month estimated supply management -- which involves quotas and high tariffs on dairy eggs and poultry -- cost the average Canadian $224 annually in inflated food prices. Statistics Canada's income survey and low-income cutoffs [a threshold for relative poverty] suggested that inflated food prices effectively slid about 120,000 Canadians below the poverty line. So much for supply management. 

"A lot of that [Canadian tourism to Vermont dropped 40 per cent] has to do with the rhetoric that the president has used, [referring to Trump’s threats to turn Canada into the 51st state and repeatedly calling the prime minister 'governor'."

"We really value our relationship with Canada both emotionally and financially, and economically."

Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch

 

"How are you [Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade negotiator] approaching the risk of retaliatory tariffs from Canada now that you’ve imposed 50 per cent duties on a wide range of products that were previously exempt?"

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet  

 

"Yes or no, when the new tariff on Canada takes effect, will Canada have higher tariffs than China on some products?"

"Let me work through that math. The 50 per cent tariff is higher than a number of tariffs on China."

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden 

Left: Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. Right: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. CTV News

 

 

 

Canada 'Poisoning' U.S. Atmospheric Conditions

The U.S. is the world’s most tornado-prone country, recording more than 1,100 tornadoes during an average year.  The Weather Network

"The U.S. is the world’s most tornado-prone country, recording more than 1,100 tornadoes during an average year."

"Tornado activity there this year is unfolding a bit different than normal, with many twisters touching down early in the season across the Midwest and Deep South."

"An odd tornado season south of the border has sent storm chasers and news outlets looking north toward Canada for decent storm chasing opportunities."

The Weather Network 

Tornadoes originating in the American Mid-West have increasingly slopped over into Canada for the past decade, presumably part of Climate Change where weather patterns are discovered to be more extreme and such events presenting more frequently. Although these tornadoes hitting Canada are fearfully inconvenient, causing loss of life and infrastructure damages, it is  highly unlikely that the Government of Canada would persistently rag its American counterparts to 'do something' to stop those immense forces of nature from crossing the border in a northerly direction. 

"I [President Trump] told him [Prime Minister Carney] you've got to stop these fires [forest wildfires] from coming in and poisoning our air, our air's been poisoned."

"I have a good relationship with Mark Carney but, you know, we've got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them we'll help them but maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs?" 

"It was terrible. I mean, you had businesses closing. In particular Michigan ... Detroit, Michigan, they had to close everything, they had to close car plants and a lot of other things. I've never remembered this happening. Over the last four or five years you saw it starting to take place."

"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!"

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying." 

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Discussing various governmental matters in New Jersey at the FIFA World Cup final, the U.S. President and Canadian prime minister certainly would have had much to discuss between them, but the first order of business would surely have centered around the trade-crippling tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on its neighbour, while ragging Canada over becoming the 51st star on the Star-Spangled Banner. On the other hand, anything that rankles Mr. Trump will come up in any conversational gambit informing of his displeasure and Canada's wildfires in its great boreal forests certainly ranked.

 

There's Climate Change in action again, as the climate warms and forests become more susceptible with thunderous rainfalls or in some instances, lightning storms minus rain, that spring forest fires into action on dry underbrush, the parched forest understory, leaping to the forest canopy with high winds whipping the fires to a fury, sending sparks in every direction to alight on nearby forest tracts and spread the menace of wildfires out of control. Some of which are in such remote areas fire-fighting crews are unable to reach them in a timely manner. They're air-dropped into these flammably-dangerous scenarios and get right to work.

Wildfire smoke is seen above Lake Superior in Thunder Bay, Ont., in this photo from July 20. (Marc Doucette/CBC)

 

But the weather itself can aid the process or continue the trajectory of moving curtains of flame. There are a limited number of water-bombers when hundreds of wildfires are burning the land and priority is given to those fires which threaten human settlement, with hopes that more far-flung wildfires in remote forested areas will eventually burn themselves out -- with or without nature's help.

 

"When California was burning, Canada sent fire fighters, planes and assistance -- not insults", responded Democratic Senator Adam Schiff from California. "I was proud to meet them, and to thank them, when they would break for dinner. As California and other states step up to repay the favor, we should do so without the threats and ramblings of a failing leader. We should show some humanity."

 

"Maybe if he got rid of the tariffs on softwood lumber it might make a difference, until we can harvest these areas and ship them down."

"I've got to remind President Trump that 33 percent of the lumber -- and we have better quality lumber here in Canada -- comes from Canada to build their homes."

"He's wondering why the housing costs of building is going up. Because he's putting tariffs on his number one trading partner."

"Maybe President Trump would offer his closet allies and friends some support rather than sit there and threaten tariffs."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

 

Premier Ford also spoke of the reality that at the present time 3.9 million acres of forest fires are burning in the United States; one of the largest began in Minnesota "and that's not a knock against Minnesota, because Governor Walz and I have a tremendous relationship." When Hurricane Helene devastated areas of the U.S. in 2024, he recalled, Ontario sent hydro crews to assist in the restoration of power. 

"That's what we do."

"So rather than criticize and threaten Canada, your closest friends, maybe one day you're going to need our help, like you did last year, and we deployed the people."

"I get frustrated just listening to this bunch of rubbish."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

Premier Doug Ford has pledged that the province will spend whatever is necessary to combat the fires. CBCNews

"Where Freedom, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law Prevail"

"I want to speak to you from the heart about a photo going around from last weekend. I'm so sorry for the harm it caused."

"At one of the many public events at Stampede, I was approached by the Israeli ambassador. We had a very brief and frank exchange during which a photo was taken."

"After talking to many people in the community over the last couple of days, I better understand the immense hurt this has caused a lot of folks [taking into account the famine, children's deaths, the horrors of the war in Gaza]." 

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi

 

"It always starts with anti-Israel talk and then grows into something far, far worse."

"If you want to be premier, start acting like it."

"We meet with the ambassador of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. The Aga Khan comes this year You have to respect them and refrain at all costs from demonizing."

"[Nenshi's action] shows a real lack of maturity."

Rob Anderson, chief of staff, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi with Iddo Moed, Israeli Ambassador to Canada, at the Calgary Stampede. (Photo credit: Embassy of Israel photo/via Facebook)

 

The provincial NDP leader, Naheed Nenshi saw fit to publicly apologize for his photo in which he stands smiling next to Iddo Moed, the Israeli ambassador, during the Calgary Stampede festivities. In so doing, more than adequately demonstrating the lack of honour and judgemental capabilities that reside deep within the New Democratic Party and Nenshi's own sense of self-preservation within that atmosphere. 

 

For a more well-rounded perspective on democratic points of view and an obviously better understanding that the Israel Defense Forces entered Gaza following the devastatingly grotesque invasion by thousands of Palestinian terrorists -- hell-bent on slaughtering Israeli civilians, from children to entire families, the elderly and the young alike, while triumphantly videoing the mass rape and torture of Jewish girls and women -- in a reaction that any country within the international community would commit to in defense of its own, Quebec Senator Leo Housakos unequivocally stated that he stands "shoulder to shoulder" with Ambassador Moed and the people of Israel, "the only democracy in the Middle East, where freedom, human rights, and the rule of law prevail".

 

When that photo of the two men; Nenshi and Ambassador Moed went public the response from among the public element that decries Israel's very existence and considers mass rape and slaughter of Jews to be nothing less than a 'push-back' against 'occupation' reminded Nenshi of his NDP-stripe obligations where the October 7, 2023 atrocities were hailed as pay-back for Israel's very existence. That his stance, having the effect of empathizing with 'Palestinian victims' of a response to their terrorist government's declaration of war, mentioning nothing that might have caused the Israeli military's campaign to destroy Hamas, adds substantially to the current climate of faulting Jewish Canadians for Palestinian feral war-mongering, is obviously of no concern to Naheed Nenshi. 

 

At that same event, Ambassador Moed had set up brief greeting and photo ops with a number of others. Premier Danielle Smith, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, and former federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair had no problems with such standard diplomatic overtures, but then none of them are infused either, with that very special undercurrent that operates in certain circles, of opposition to the very reality of existence of the Jewish state.  

"No democratic leader should apologize for engaging with the accredited representative of a sovereign democratic nation."

"Such remarks reinforce efforts to isolate Israel, legitimize anti-Zionist exclusion, and contribute to an environment in which antisemitism increasingly flourishes."

Abraham Global Peace Initiative president Avi Abraham Benlolo 

Stand With Us Canada

Ukraine's 'Blood Experience' Parlaying Drone Expertise for Military Technology

 

"One night in March, a two-person Ukrainian crew established a record  for the Ukrainian Armed Forces by shooting down, in one engagement, 23 Russian Shahed drones with Sting interceptor drones designed by the Ukrainian military technology company Wild Hornets. The story is noteworthy not only for the number of intercepted drones, but also for the operation’s cost efficiency and Ukraine’s interceptor-production capacity behind it."

"A Sting interceptor costs about $2,500. In comparison, a single U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missile that does the same job costs more than $3 million and requires significantly more time and resources to build and operate than a drone. Lockheed Martin produced approximately 600 of the most advanced PAC-3 type of Patriot missiles last year; meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used about 700 of these interceptors in the span of only four winter months in 2025-2026."

"The conflict in the Middle East has further exposed the shortcomings of a high-end, slow-production approach to defense systems. In March 2026, when Iran launched hundreds of Shaheds at Persian Gulf states, countries with the most advanced U.S.-supplied air defense systems outside NATO watched their defense capabilities erode as their interceptor stockpiles drained quickly. The air defense systems worked as intended, yet they were not designed to protect against the intensity and scale of Iran’s attacks."

"Kyiv is building drones in massive quantities out of wartime necessity against Russia’s ongoing full-scale assault, now in its fifth year. A key part of that necessity is Russia’s large-scale use of Iranian-made Shahed drones against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. That Russian campaign has raised serious questions about Iran’s responsibility under international law. In response, Ukraine is rewriting the global rules of air power and air defense, replacing sheer mass and large stockpiles of weapons as key factors in warfare with the benefits of quantity, speed, and the ability to learn faster than the enemy. It is a novel and adaptive, low-cost military-industrial model that is already catching the interest of other countries."

Lesia Bidochko, Just Security

 

Ukrainians train with handheld drones. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

 

"Together we can work on joint production, on making all of the components of the systems work, and provide both defense industrial bases with the impetus needed to step up investments and production [following The European Union and Ukraine's drone deal to merge Ukrainian expertise in unmanned warfare with the continent’s industrial capacity, with the goal of ramping up production of drone and counter-drone systems]."

"In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed. And we have safe and secure production sites that can help to scale up. But we do not have that battle-tested knowledge and expertise that Ukraine has forged. So the point I am making is that we need to combine our strengths. Together, we can work on joint production."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen 

EU launches Ukraine defence industrial partnership, Drone Deal and disburses €1 billion for drones  EU Neighbours East

 

Kyiv can be credited with many outstanding features in this uneven war imposed upon Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore Greater Russia; among them the courage and intestinal fortitude to counter the full-scale invasion in its fifth year and add to that the determination to win this war, whatever it takes to repel the Russian beast. And nor can its ingenuity in designing new technological weapons of its own manufacture to match anything Russia obtains from the Islamic Republic in this new era of drone warfare, much less its entrepreneurial enterprise in marketing its products and its experience be overlooked.

 

So while Russian drones -- the Iranian Shaheds -- have wrought their weight in deadly measure as a means to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, countermeasures to Russia's innovative first-person-view vehicles, jet power, fibre-optic tethers and similar innovations have led to Ukraine developing its own versions in countering the Russian military's. EU member-states such as Croatia, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Germany now see their own firms aligning with Ukrainian companies that specialize in first-person-view combat drones.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyer Zelenskyy, pushing the drone deals whenever and wherever he can now realizes a ready market. Where Hezbollah deploys unmanned aerial vehicles to attack Israel, and Iran uses them against several regional countries, a case in point. Kyiv has signed ten-year security agreements with Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates since the joint U.S.-Israel aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic which led to its missiles and drones hitting its neighbours' U.S. military bases. A proposal, Zelenskyy stated is "also on the table for our American partners".

 

Ukrainian soldiers of the 127th Heavy Mechanized Brigade carry a Heavy Shot UAV across a field on May 8, 2026, in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Yevhen Titov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Image

 

"Latvia will adopt Ukraine's unique combat experience in airspace defence against drone attacks." 

"[The deal includes] immediate access to technologies, but most importantly, the immediate arrival of Ukrainian anti-drone combat unit experts in Latvia."

"Our skies can only be protected if we follow Ukraine's example, know-how and experience." 

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kilbergs  

A joint drone production facility is to be built near Latvia's border with Russia. Russia's Eastern Europe neighbours are fully cognizant of the potential danger they are in, following Ukraine's invasion, led by the Russian President's roving eye and territorial acquisitiveness. Kyiv anticipates more military and economic support, in particular American-produced Patriot missiles in short supply, given U.S. forces fighting Iran. Its breakthrough arrived when President Trump stated Kyiv would be allowed to make Patriot missiles itself in Ukraine.

 

"The terms must be beneficial for Ukraine, and the proceeds from exports must strengthen Ukraine's defence", stated President Zelenskyy of plans to release exports of Ukrainian drones. Reliance on early warning systems, radar, electronic warfare, mobile fire groups, helicopters, jet fighters and interceptors encompass Ukraine's anti-drone defences. Interceptors are increasingly being realized as the main line of defence for intercepting drones.

 

Over 100 Ukrainian companies produce interceptors. "We have approximately 15 to 20 very effective interceptors, which are also extensively used at the front", revealed Andrii Hrytseniuk, chief executive of Ukrainian government organization Bravel, providing a platform for the country's defence tech sphere. 

 

A Sting interceptor drone flies during drills at the Yatagan School for Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, Efrem Lukatsky/AP

 

"There is no one single bullet. There is sort of this funny magical thinking that a lot of people are doing in terms of 'hey, just send us all your drones or your interceptors'. "

"And what people are sort of missing is that is, even though there's tech and that's what everybody sees, it's only one piece of everything." 

Deborah Fairlamb, American investor in military technology 

Natural Disasters Equal to Wars Compelling Government Responses

"FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year."

"Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met [we offered you status as the 51st state, after all]."

Michigan Rep. John James

Hazardous air quality is creating another day of inconvenience across Metro Detroit, forcing families, visitors, and event organizers to rethink plans as smoke lingers in the region. (WDIV ClickOnDetroit)

 

"If there's some politician out there chirping away, maybe what you should do instead of complaining is send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends." 

"I find it a shame the administration in the U.S. and Congress people [are] writing these letters and blaming us."

"We had the water bombers and everyone going over to California. It was last year.... That's what neighbours do." 

"You don’t get on and start threatening and criticizing, because guess what, one day it's going to be your turn and we're going to be down there without hesitation to support our neighbours, which we should be."

"It's unfortunate they want to politicize this." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

A new evacuation centre has opened in Thunder Bay for people displaced by northern Ontario wildfires. Premier Doug Ford warned that people refusing evacuation orders are hindering firefighting efforts.  Still from video/CBC

 

Thankfully, some of Canada's friends in the United States have chosen a different approach to the matter of conquering the wildfires. In comparison, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, offered  state personnel to assist with wildfire prevention. There are 191 active wildfires across northern Ontario as of Saturday afternoon, 73 of which while being fought, are not yet under control, according to the provincial Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) agency. 

 

The U.S. Republican myth -- which saw a number of U.S. Republican politicians writing a joint letter of warning to Ontario's premier -- that Canada is failing through "inaction" to meet the challenge of the wildfires is simply inaccurate. Ontario, pointed out Premier Ford, is twice the geographic size of the State of Texas. And in Texas authorities there have been battling catastrophic flooding following heavy rains. Were they negligent?

 

In Ontario last year $125 million was budgeted for emergency forest firefighting, but by year's end that budget expenditured to over double, reaching $271 million. Complaints aimed at the Conservative government in Ontario have also arrived from NDP and Liberal MPPs criticizing base budgeting numbers as too low.

 

More communities are under evacuation orders as wildfires rage across Ontario, with smoke affecting air quality across much of the province. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is throwing all resources at the response. Still from video/CBC

 

"In times of crisis, all levels of government, including the opposition, need to come together." The criticism was "absolutely disgusting", responded Mr. Ford. "What I find despicable and disgusting is that opposition (members) would politicize the amount of being being spend and go out there and put false information out." 

 

Some northern communities in Ontario have complained that the response to wildfires by the provincial government was not sufficiently swift to react to rapidly changing conditions. As well, union members representing workers in forest fire response also commented that funding allocations have not kept pace with increasingly severe wildfire seasons in Ontario. 

 

Members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation are seen in Thunder Bay, Ont., following an evacuation of the entire community on Monday due to a wildfire. (Sarah Law/CBC)

 

According to Mike Harris, Ontario minister of natural resources, the sheer scale of the wildfires leaves provincial authorities in the position of not being able to be everywhere at once. North of Thunder Bay, in Collins, a large fire broke out close to the community, moving so swiftly it reached the town even before a provincial response could be co-ordinated. Residents were evacuated to Thunder Bay, one of several places hosting those displaced by the fires ranging from Sioux Lookout to Niagara Falls, to Toronto.

 

In battling 191 separate fires in Ontario fire crews are performing at their utmost professionalism. Ten communities have been either evacuated or are under evacuation notice, with another four on standby pending the status of nearby fires. Last year's fire season saw some 600,000 hectares of forest burned. This year's total has already reached 650,000 hectares. Over 150 crews are currently engaged with forest fires in the north, with over 80 firefighting aircraft at work in the region, pointed out provincial minister of emergency preparedness and response, Jill Dunlop.  

Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. "

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to increase import tariffs on Canada over the 'unnecessary invasion' of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires that have destroyed communities and forced people from their homes. CBC News

 

 

The One-Time 'Toronto The Good' has Disappeared into a Maisma of Criminality

"These individuals trafficked, and conspired to traffic, more than 100 firearms from Florida to Canada in 2023 and 2024."

"Of those firearms, 29 were recovered from Canadian crime scenes, including homicides."

U.S. Department of Justice press release 

 

"[The victim was] beaten and tortured by his assailants for several hours."

"After succeeding in obtaining from the victim the details required to enable a cryptocurrency transfer, the suspects fled."

Montreal law enforcement

Police investigating after early morning shooting near Polson Street and Cherry Street in Toronto on Sunday July 12, 2026 (CP24 photo)

 

Toronto Police on Sunday announced that 25-year-old Omar Abdul Singateh was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm in connection with a 3:30 a.m. shooting outside the Rebel nightclub where he opened fire on the nightclub crowd, then ran over pedestrians in a stolen ride-share vehicle. This is the same man who had been arrested in a torture investigation last year and had been freed on bail. 

 

The police report described a man opening fire on patrons leaving the nightclub, then hijacking a ride-share vehicle "that had customers on board". 

 

In his getaway attempt Singateh "struck pedestrians and vehicles" with the four passengers trapped in the car with him. This at a time when he was awaiting sentencing for a home invasion and extortion case of singular brutality. Singateh and two other men broke into the home of a Montreal-area cryptocurrency entrepreneur in 2024. They beat and tortured their victim, forcing him finally to surrender to them $15,000 in cryptocurrency. 

 

A remarkably violent weekend in Toronto has left communities on edge and anti-gun violence advocates calling for action. Still from video/CBC

 

Seven months ago Singateh was named in a U.S. indictment respecting a smuggling ring specializing in transferring over 100 illegal guns into Canada. Some of those guns are known to have been used in various incident of criminal activity. This, at a time when gun crimes in Toronto have been on a rapid increase; law enforcement crediting a surge of smuggled weapons entering Canada through the United States.

 

During a gang war outside a recording studio, 100 shots were fired. Of 16 distinct firearms used in the shootout, all had originally come from the U.S. Another charge against Singateh is that of "causing bodily harm" through dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, in addition to four counts of forcible confinement in reference to the ride-share passengers who were trapped in the vehicle that Singateh had hijacked in his escape bid following the chaotic gunfire at the Toronto Rebel nightclub. 

 

"Non-life-threatening" injuries were sustained by those whom Singateh shot, or hit with the escape vehicle, while Singateh himself sustained "gunshot injuries" during the shooting spree. Simultaneous to the Rebel nightclub event other high-profile public shootings occurred in Toronto over the weekend. One being a "targeted" shooting during the city's Salsa event at the St.Clair street festival. There, two people were shot dead and four injured after two gunmen fired at one another, forcing crowds to flee the festival. 

 

A fatal shooting at Salsa on St. Clair in midtown Toronto has raised questions about how to keep street festivals safe in the city. (CBC)

 

"The point is, the location is not the cause of the violence. Period. A simple venue change for public mass festivals is not going to address the gun violence problem."

"[Street festivals, with an open-air environment, are known as] soft targets [for criminal activity]." 

"Basically, we try the best we can to make things as safe as we can [there was lots of visible security at Saturday's festival]."

"The [amount] of adaptations to make a perfectly safe environment would change the entire street."

Jack Rozdilsky, associate professor of disaster and emergency management, York University

WHO Guidelines on Dementia

"While there is no cure for dementia, up to 45 percent of the risks can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol use, social isolation, physical inactivity, air pollution and noncommunicable diseases [NCSs], including high blood pressure and diabetes."

"Dementia can be caused by several diseases which over time damage the brain, typically leading to deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from the usual consequences of biological ageing. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by changes in mood, emotional control, behaviour or motivation."

World Health Organization 

Dementia   World Health Organization

 

"Behind these numbers are individuals, families, and communities navigating profound challenges that affect not only health, but dignity, independence, and well-being."

"This is not a distant issue; it touches all of us."

Devora Kestel, director, WHO, NCDs and mental health department  

According to the World Health Organization, citing modifiable risk factors such as tobacco and air pollution, up to 45 percent of dementia risk could be prevented or delayed. As the seventh global leading cause of death, a major cause of disability and dependency among older people within the international community, this is no small thing, the caution that dementia can be caused by circumstances that can be altered in deliberate change of lifestyle geared to avoidance. 

 

Surrendering to physical lassitude, succumbing to a general disinterest in events around us, failing to remain cognitively engaged, to exercise brain and body, are all critical elements in wasting what we have. Worldwide over 57 million people live with dementia, while some ten million people are diagnosed with it annually. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia is estimated to make up 70 percent of diagnoses.   

Early signs and symptoms are:

• forgetting things or recent events
• losing or misplacing things
• getting lost when walking or driving
• being confused, even in familiar places
• losing track of time
• difficulties solving problems or making decisions
• problems following conversations or trouble finding words
• difficulties performing familiar tasks
• misjudging distances to objects visually.

Changes in mood and behaviour sometimes happen even before memory problems occur. Common changes include:

• feeling anxious, sad, or angry about memory loss
• personality changes
• inappropriate behaviour
• withdrawal from work or social activities
• being less interested in other people’s emotions.

An updated WHO guide was published recently focusing on how health workers and policy-makers can organize themselves to help in the prevention or delay of dementia onset. The first such dementia recommendations by the UN health agency was issued in 2019; since that time new evidence and understanding of dementia has grown significantly. 

 

Early awareness and intervention are addressed as critical issues on the guidelines, for the purpose of reducing he burden of dementia in years to come. The WHO is convinced that the condition is not an inevitable outcome of aging, although its onset is more common after age 65. "We know more today than ever before about what drives dementia risk, and these guidelines translate that knowledge into action", stated WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  

"Dementia is caused by many different diseases or injuries that damage the brain. Alzheimer disease is the most common form and contributes to 60–70% of cases. Other forms include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies [abnormal deposits of protein inside nerve cells], and a group of diseases that contribute to frontotemporal dementia  [degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain]."

"Dementia may also develop after a stroke, in the context of certain infections such as HIV, as a result of harmful use of alcohol, after repeated injuries to the brain, or because of nutritional deficiencies. The boundaries between different forms of dementia are not always clear and mixed forms often co-exist."

World Health Organization 

 Although age is the strongest known risk factor for dementia, dementia can also affect younger people, and young-onset dementia – in which symptoms begin before the age of 65 – accounts for up to 9% of cases.

Evidence suggests that people can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by adopting healthy behaviours and lifestyles, managing health conditions that are known to increase the risk for dementia, and reducing environmental risk factors.

Important actions include:

• being physically active
• not smoking
• avoiding harmful alcohol use
• eating a healthy, balanced diet
• staying socially and cognitively active
• maintaining a healthy weight
• managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels
• using hearing aids where needed
• reducing exposure to air pollution.