Juno News - Carney prepares Canadians for indefinite tariffs

00:00:00.000 During a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that an upcoming

00:00:09.420 trade agreement with the United States is expected to involve certain tariffs remaining on Canadian

00:00:15.260 goods. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has said Canada needs a reduction in net migration

00:00:20.200 with fewer immigrant arrivals than departures to allow for Canada's infrastructure and services

00:00:25.600 to catch up. A BC man previously convicted of strangulation and uttering threats is now facing

00:00:32.640 murder charges for a hammer attack on his estranged wife just hours after his release.

00:00:39.620 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, July 16th and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Jirja.

00:00:45.960 And I'm Alex Zoltan. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the

00:00:51.020 top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:55.600 Prime Minister Mark Carney told the media on Tuesday that a new trade deal with the United

00:01:04.360 States will likely include tariffs. Speaking in French ahead of a cabinet meeting in Ottawa

00:01:11.080 focused on escalating trade tensions, Carney told reporters, quote, there's not a lot of evidence

00:01:17.120 right now that the US will agree to a tariff free deal, noting that Trump's prior agreements,

00:01:24.300 including one with the United Kingdom, have tariff baselines 10% in the UK's case.

00:01:31.640 The comments come the same day new polling showed Canadians are divided on Carney's ability to secure

00:01:37.620 a favorable agreement. The number of Canadians confident that the Prime Minister can deliver a new deal

00:01:43.800 versus those who think he can't is almost split down the middle at 46% and 45% respectively.

00:01:52.400 Almost two-thirds, 63%, said the federal government should take a harder line in negotiations,

00:02:00.020 while 37% preferred a softer approach. Carney did not say whether his government is prepared

00:02:06.080 to accept tariffs in a final agreement, but emphasized that Canada is working to protect

00:02:11.240 its national interests. The Prime Minister also pointed to Canada's almost free trade status under

00:02:17.680 the Canada-US-Mexico agreement, though he acknowledged problems remain with ongoing sectoral tariffs applied

00:02:25.420 by Washington on steel, aluminum, and automotive goods. The tariffs on sectors such as the Canadian

00:02:32.300 automotive industry have been devastating, contributing to thousands of job losses as manufacturers

00:02:38.260 shut down plants, and in some cases, prompting companies to relocate to the U.S.

00:02:44.700 Last week, Trump announced his intention to increase the existing 25% border tariff to 35%

00:02:50.820 on non-CUSMA-compliant goods beginning in August. The U.S. administration has tied the move to Canada's

00:02:58.940 handling of fentanyl trafficking and supply management in the dairy sector as major blockades to free trade.

00:03:06.020 During the election, Mark Carney sold himself to Canadians as the ultimate crisis manager. He called

00:03:14.320 himself the guy who saved two economies, who could negotiate under pressure and make business work

00:03:22.100 for the average Canadian. And right now, I'm paraphrasing him directly during the liberal leadership

00:03:29.440 race when he was running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now that we're staring down the barrel

00:03:36.360 of a trade war with the United States, tariffs on key industries, and no clear wins at the table,

00:03:43.000 Alex, do you think he's actually delivering the results Canadians elected him for? Because that's

00:03:49.940 why a lot of people voted for him, or at least the image he presented. Or was that campaign pitch

00:03:56.000 just smoke and mirrors? Well, despite the promise to stand up to Trump's economic bullying,

00:04:02.680 as Mark Carney would put it, the actual economic pressure from American tariffs remains largely

00:04:08.200 unrelieved. Specifically, U.S. tariffs on Canadian auto, aluminum, and steel remain in force as of today,

00:04:16.100 with no rollback commitments from Washington. Canadian manufacturers, particularly in Ontario and Quebec,

00:04:21.740 have reported surging costs, as he had mentioned layoffs, and frozen investment plans directly

00:04:28.320 contradicting Carney's promise to shield Canadian workers from Trump's tariffs. The Canadian Chamber

00:04:33.300 of Commerce and Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association have also warned that the retaliatory

00:04:38.220 tariffs are not having the desired deterrent effect. It may actually be entrenching a trade war that

00:04:43.420 Canada probably can't win. So I would say that Carney's pledged plan for a dollar-for-dollar pain-for-pain

00:04:49.840 strategy, in reality, is just not materially shifting U.S. trade policy. And Trump has, if anything,

00:04:56.020 doubled down, threatening additional tariffs on Canadian lumber, EV batteries, and even food. He is

00:05:02.120 also, Donald Trump, continued to take aim at Canada for what he perceives as its inaction on the fentanyl

00:05:08.340 issue, and has also now brought up another issue, which is the 400%, as he calls it, dairy tariffs above

00:05:15.880 quota. And so I would say that in terms of ending the crisis, Carney has not delivered on his promise,

00:05:22.020 and I think that he may even be making it worse.

00:05:27.800 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev said Canada needs fewer immigrants to come into the country

00:05:32.300 than are leaving for the next couple of years until Canada's infrastructure and services can keep up

00:05:37.160 with the increased demand. While in Ottawa discussing Prime Minister Mark Carney's recently released ethics

00:05:41.900 disclosure, Polyev clarified what he means when he's previously called to limit population growth over

00:05:47.240 the next couple of years. He noted that the millions of individuals whose study or work visas are set to

00:05:52.220 expire in the next couple of years are set to leave and that many will. Hi, Mr. Polyev. So Paul Dutch,

00:05:57.040 Global News. You previously called for severe limits to population growth in Canada. Can you clarify what

00:06:01.980 you mean by that? So first of all, I'll tell you what I don't mean, which is natural population growth.

00:06:07.260 That is almost non-existent in Canada. We have roughly the same number of people who die as who are born.

00:06:13.820 So all of our population growth, in fact, in the last quarter, there were more deaths than births. So

00:06:19.080 what I am referring to is migration, net migration. We have millions of people whose permits will expire

00:06:26.880 over the next couple of years, and they will, many of them will leave. We need to ensure that more leave

00:06:36.220 than come in over the next couple of years while we catch up. Well, housing, health care, and jobs can catch up.

00:06:44.340 We've had population growth of roughly a million a year under the Liberals, while we barely build 200,000 homes.

00:06:53.520 Our job market is stalled, and yet we are adding more people to the workforce. Our young people are facing

00:07:01.700 generational highs in unemployment because the jobs are, the multinational corporations are giving jobs to

00:07:11.380 low-wage temporary foreign workers, and that ultimately leave our young people without opportunities.

00:07:18.640 Our country is divided, and we're not able to integrate people at this pace. So in order to fix the problem, we've got to 0.98

00:07:27.760 have, we need to put very hard caps on immigration levels. We need more people leaving than coming for the next couple of years, 1.00

00:07:36.380 and we need to, so our country can actually catch up. Our immigration policy should invite the right people and the right numbers in a way that puts Canada and Canadians first.

00:07:49.500 He noted generational highs in unemployment for Canada's youth and student population, as jobs, particularly for multinational companies, are being given away to low-wage temporary foreign workers.

00:07:59.500 He noted that more people should be leaving Canada than arriving for the next couple of years, so that Canada can actually catch up.

00:08:07.500 Polyev's pledged to learn from the mistakes of the previous election, but affirmed that his party remains committed to the same vision of Canada that he outlined during the election.

00:08:15.620 Cosman, in your opinion, where is immigration at currently in Canada, and have any liberal policy reversals fixed the situation or alleviated some of the concerns that Pierre Polyev addressed in his recent press conference?

00:08:31.800 Alex, we've got to give credit where it's due. There has been some stabilization, and that's mainly thanks to the federal cap on student visas

00:08:41.340 and some of the restrictions applied on temporary resident status. In fact, Statistics Canada reported that from January to April of this year, Canada's population grew by just 20,000 people,

00:08:55.800 which is basically flat growth when you compare it to how many people the population lost. And it's not a coincidence. Immigration inflows slowed down, more temporary residents left,

00:09:08.760 and most new permanent residents were already living here. And we're already seeing the benefits of that pause. In June, average rent in Canada actually fell by 2.7%.

00:09:21.420 And the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation said the immigration cap played a role in cooling housing demand. So, obviously, there are already benefits showing. 1.00

00:09:32.760 On top of that, the conference board, we just put out an article about this the other day, said that cuts are helping boost wages. After years of the legacy media and politicians insisting

00:09:48.220 that it was a conspiracy theory, it was a myth that high immigration levels were depressing wages. Here we have the conference board saying that cuts

00:09:59.520 to immigration levels to immigration levels are actually helping boost domestic wages are actually helping boost domestic wages. And it's obvious. It's because employers can't rely as heavily on cheap foreign labor,

00:10:10.180 and they actually have to offer competitive wages to attract people here domestically to these jobs. So, yes, some policy reversals have had a real positive impact. But let's not kid ourselves, Alex,

00:10:24.180 because it's not enough, and it likely won't be unless it's sustained in the long term. The damage from years of runaway immigration targets set by the Trudeau government has been untold.

00:10:39.720 There's sky-high rents, overburdened services, wages get depressed, and that doesn't get fixed overnight. So, sensible immigration policy helps ordinary Canadians.

00:10:50.680 We're seeing it help people at a very real level. And what we had before helped multinational corporations, not the average person. So, we just need to stay the course.

00:11:03.440 James Edward Plover, previously convicted of strangulation and uttering threats, is now accused of murdering his estranged wife in a broad daylight hammer attack,

00:11:18.480 just hours after being released from custody. According to police, two women were returning from their lunch break on the afternoon of July 4th,

00:11:27.440 when the suspect allegedly attacked and beat both of them with a hammer in a busy Kelowna, British Columbia parking lot.

00:11:35.120 True North has confirmed through community sources that Bailey McCourt, mother of two, was one of the victims.

00:11:42.180 She tragically died from her injuries sustained in the attack.

00:11:46.460 Plover was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the attack.

00:11:51.420 Court records show that the 45-year-old had already been convicted of choking and making threats against an intimate partner.

00:11:59.460 He was released just hours before Friday's deadly assault.

00:12:03.280 It was not Plover's first run-in with the law.

00:12:06.300 The B.C. Prosecution Service said he was initially charged in June 2024 with intimate partner violence.

00:12:13.160 He was released on $500 bail, which the prosecutors described as, quote, extensive protective conditions.

00:12:22.120 He was later charged with two additional counts of uttering threats.

00:12:26.900 Last week, Plover was convicted of multiple offenses.

00:12:30.160 However, due to a publication ban, the identity of the victim in that earlier case cannot be confirmed,

00:12:36.720 leaving it unclear whether the woman he strangled is the same woman he is now accused of killing.

00:12:43.220 Despite his history of repeat offenses, particularly related to intimate partner violence,

00:12:48.300 Plover was released pending a feature sentencing hearing.

00:12:52.320 His release, followed just hours later by the fatal assault, has stunned the Kelowna community.

00:12:58.860 So, Alex, you're our top crime reporter, and you've got your finger on the pulse when it comes to what's happening across the country.

00:13:06.720 In the courts, but especially in British Columbia, where you're posted.

00:13:11.500 So, how big of an issue is this in B.C.?

00:13:16.160 Just how often are we seeing violent repeat offenders, like Mr. Plover here,

00:13:22.660 getting out on bail and re-offending to such a tragic degree?

00:13:27.960 Well, in terms of how often, Cosmin, it's virtually daily.

00:13:31.100 There is a story out of B.C., quite literally almost every day, of a repeat violent offender committing crimes.

00:13:39.080 On the issue of bail specifically, we're actually, perhaps you could say, a little bit lucky in B.C.

00:13:45.440 in the sense that B.C. prosecution services are unique in Canada,

00:13:49.680 in that they actually record and make public data on bail hearings.

00:13:55.180 About six months ago, True North reached out to the Department of Justice federally,

00:14:01.220 and we're asking if they had any bail data.

00:14:06.380 They actually, shockingly, do not.

00:14:08.660 So, the federal government is in charge of making amendments to the criminal code,

00:14:13.080 including bail reform, and they don't even have the data to track the efficacy of their results.

00:14:18.300 But in B.C., we do have that data, and the data is, frankly, shocking.

00:14:23.480 So, in 2022, for instance, Crown sought detention in 196 of 779 hearings.

00:14:32.260 That's only 25%.

00:14:33.820 And in 425 bail hearings involving a suspect accused of a violent crime

00:14:39.600 and already with a bail breach on their file,

00:14:42.060 the Crown only sought detention orders in 52% of the cases.

00:14:46.080 So, not only are we allowing people out on bail, I would argue, excessively,

00:14:51.440 particularly violent offenders,

00:14:53.400 repeat violent offenders who have a history of breaching bail

00:14:56.720 are only being detained roughly half of the time.

00:15:01.080 So, I would say that this is a major issue,

00:15:03.580 and it continues to be a major public issue in B.C.,

00:15:07.520 but, of course, it's not just unique to B.C.

00:15:10.080 The issue seems to be fairly endemic and persistent across the country.

00:15:14.860 That's it for today, folks.

00:15:20.160 Thanks for tuning in.

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Juno News - July 16, 2025

Carney prepares Canadians for indefinite tariffs

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