Juno News - Prime Minister Mark Carney is on vacation again？

00:00:00.000 After tariff warnings and a failed Mexico deal, Prime Minister Mark Carney is on a

00:00:09.080 quote, reduced schedule vacation. Female athletes on Team Nova Scotia's girls volleyball team 0.60

00:00:15.400 face sanctions for privately objecting to sharing dorms with a male teammate who identifies as a

00:00:21.540 girl. Conservative MP Marilyn Gladue is seeking a federal apology after Parks Canada revoked

00:00:26.800 U.S. Christian singer Son Foyke's performance permit, citing a violation of Canadians' charter

00:00:32.840 rights. Hello Canada, it's Tuesday, August 12th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.

00:00:38.280 I'm Isaac Lamoureux. And I'm Alex Zoltan. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:43.200 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:50.460 Prime Minister Mark Carney is on a reduced schedule vacation this week, despite his warnings about

00:00:55.680 U.S. tariffs. This follows his Cabinet's failure to secure a trade deal with Mexico and his inability

00:01:01.180 to resolve the tariff issue. The Prime Minister's office's press team released a media advisory

00:01:06.720 Sunday announcing Carney would quote, reflect a brief period of local vacation for the week of

00:01:12.020 August 11th. He will remain in the national capital region and surrounding area. This marks Carney's

00:01:17.200 second vacation since becoming Prime Minister in April. Carney, still without a trade deal with the

00:01:22.480 United States amid an escalating trade war, will quote, remain in close coordination with his team

00:01:27.160 and officials on several economic and security priorities. Despite the many economic issues

00:01:32.180 Canada is currently facing, Parliament has only sat for 20 days this year. Carney said he would speak

00:01:37.600 with U.S. President Donald Trump when it quote, makes sense, four days after the recently passed trade

00:01:42.520 deal deadline on August 2nd. The Prime Minister made the comments last week in British Columbia after

00:01:47.040 Trump announced the U.S. would increase tariffs on Canadian imports to 35% on all goods not covered

00:01:52.260 under the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement. His vacation also comes on the heels of news that

00:01:57.140 Mexico would not be engaging in a bilateral trade agreement with Canada, signaling a growing divergence

00:02:02.180 in North American diplomacy. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Finance Minister

00:02:06.720 Francois-Philippe Champagne traveled to Mexico last week for trade meetings that included Mexican

00:02:11.740 President Claudia Scheinbaum. Scheinbaum called her meeting with Anand and Champagne, quote,

00:02:16.540 very good but clarified a new trade deal was not on the table. So Alex, has Carney made any progress

00:02:22.140 on securing a beneficial trade deal with the U.S. or are Canadians worse off than they were before the

00:02:27.060 election? So the short answer to the question of has Carney made any progress at all on securing a

00:02:33.080 beneficial trade deal for Canadians, the short answer would be no. He certainly hasn't. But I'm going to

00:02:37.680 go a little bit off script here, Isaac, in the sense that I'm actually going to grant a little bit of

00:02:43.300 forgiveness to Mark Carney on account of the fact that I think it would be almost a fool's errand for him to

00:02:48.320 try at this point. They did have some bilateral trade meetings, and the ambassador to Canada from the

00:02:55.800 United States later went on CBC and said that they weren't able to secure a deal because the vibes weren't good.

00:03:02.000 Then Donald Trump infamously put out another letter via Truth Social saying that he was going to increase

00:03:07.540 tariffs on Canada because we hadn't done enough about the fentanyl crisis. This in the face of the

00:03:13.140 fact that U.S. Border and Customs is responsible for ensuring fentanyl does not flow in over the

00:03:18.960 northern border, and they have not been able to identify anybody bringing over a significant amount

00:03:24.380 of fentanyl. So I'm not really sure that Mark Carney is operating with a rational actor. That's my

00:03:31.000 personal opinion. But again, the short answer to the question of has he achieved anything because he's

00:03:36.180 ultimately responsible to Canadian taxpayers is no, he is not. The reasons for that, though,

00:03:41.500 I suppose are more subjective. And just one thing I wanted to add, Alex, that we didn't mention was,

00:03:45.800 of course, Carney called Trump the day before the tariff deadline, that being July 31st, and Trump

00:03:50.660 publicly stated he did not answer his call. And we'll remember before the Canadian election even

00:03:56.160 concluded, Trump said on the record that he would prefer a Liberal Prime Minister. Well, I think he had said

00:04:01.220 that he thought a Liberal would be easier to negotiate with, as I seem to recall. 0.98

00:04:05.820 The Conservative that's running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don't know him, but he said 0.91

00:04:10.660 negative things. So when he says negative things, I couldn't care less. I think it's easier to deal

00:04:15.080 actually with a Liberal. And maybe they're going to win, but I don't really care. It doesn't matter to

00:04:20.780 me at all. But Isaac, I mean, I think you make a good point there. It's impossible to negotiate with

00:04:25.040 somebody who isn't answering the phone. And so there's a little bit of a part of me, you know,

00:04:29.760 I'm a little bit of a Conservative partisan, we all have our biases that can't help but imagine

00:04:34.180 Pierre Polyev is having the best summer ever, right now, because he's not the Prime Minister. And he

00:04:39.920 doesn't have to deal with what I think, again, is kind of a fool's errand. Mind you, all of this will 0.67

00:04:44.400 be consequential and will matter when the USMECA agreement has to be renegotiated in the next year

00:04:49.780 too. So yeah, the question remains, of course, would he have answered the call if Pierre Polyev

00:04:54.740 was the Prime Minister? I guess we'll never know. Members of Team Nova Scotia's girls volleyball

00:05:01.980 roster returned from the Canada Cup in Toronto under threat of sanctions after raising private

00:05:07.040 concerns about competing against and sharing private spaces with a male teammate who identifies

00:05:11.960 as a girl. The 17-year-old male MVP athlete was selected for the Team Nova Scotia roster after a

00:05:18.160 strong club season in which he was named the most valuable player after his team won the

00:05:22.480 championship. However, the male's inclusion on the girls' provincial team required him to travel

00:05:27.320 to Ontario and share accommodations with female athletes. According to multiple sources who spoke

00:05:32.480 with True North, no prior disclosure or consent process was offered to the female players or their

00:05:37.620 parents regarding his placement in female spaces, which left the girls grappling with an imposed

00:05:42.420 reality that they had no power to challenge. At the Canada Cup, players discovered the teenage boy

00:05:47.500 had been assigned to the girls' dorm. An anonymous source alleged that while each player had their

00:05:51.760 own room, bathrooms were shared. Some teammates expressed concern in a private Snapchat group

00:05:56.740 where they discussed their discomfort with the arrangements and the lack of prior consultation.

00:06:01.380 Screenshots reached head coach John Elliott, who summoned players from the program's elite team

00:06:05.560 for a meeting. According to an anonymous source, Elliott condemned the chat as, quote,

00:06:10.000 disgusting and alleged that it was laced with, quote, transphobia and, quote, homophobia.

00:06:14.840 He threatened to expel any girls involved from the team for the upcoming season. A subsequent email 0.64

00:06:19.880 to parents echoed this stance, alleging an LGBTQ plus athlete had been targeted with, quote,

00:06:25.480 rude and disrespectful remarks, yet omitted any mention of the trans athlete male biology.

00:06:30.800 Another email sent to parents revealed even fewer details. At no point was the athlete's male sex

00:06:35.640 dated in any of the communications known to the anonymous source. The matter was framed as an equity and

00:06:40.580 inclusion issue with reference to breaches of Team Nova Scotia's values and code of conduct.

00:06:44.780 The wording of Volleyball Nova Scotia's diversity, equity and inclusion policy uses broad language to

00:06:49.840 protect LGBTQ plus athletes, but does not address fairness or safety concerns for female athletes when

00:06:55.760 biologically male players are included. True North reached out to the male athlete, Volleyball Nova

00:07:00.720 Scotia and coach John Elliott to provide them with an opportunity to comment, but they did not

00:07:05.260 respond. The male athlete's mother responded to an email which described multiple allegations made by the

00:07:10.160 source. She said that, quote, the claims outlined in your message are false and harmful, but declined

00:07:15.460 further requests to clarify which claims, adding that it's inappropriate to approach a minor for

00:07:20.540 comment without parental consent, particularly on matters of this nature. The Canadian Centre for

00:07:25.700 Ethics in Sports Scientific Review, which informs these policies, acknowledges that

00:07:30.480 testosterone suppression does not eliminate male advantages such as muscle mass, bone structure and

00:07:35.420 jump height, attributes critical in volleyball, yet it imposes no domestic eligibility standards,

00:07:41.040 leaving such decisions to provincial bodies. So Isaac, where do Mark Carney and Pierre Polyev

00:07:45.800 respectively stand on the issue of men, biological men in women's sports and women's spaces?

00:07:51.720 Yeah, Alex. So Mark Carney and Pierre Polyev have taken sharply different positions on the issue of

00:07:56.880 biological males in female sports and other women-only spaces. Carney has avoided taking a clear stance. 0.99

00:08:03.260 You'll remember Alex in an April 2025 French-language federal leadership debate during the question-and-answer

00:08:09.340 period when you asked him about whether biological women should have the right to their own spaces

00:08:14.220 free for males, that being in sports, change rooms, washrooms, prisons, shelters. He, of course, 0.92

00:08:18.920 gave a non-committal answer. He said, quote, this is Canada, that as a general objective, yes, we work

00:08:24.780 where we value all Canadians for who they are and will continue to do so. He did not address whether

00:08:30.480 policies should exclude males from female categories in competitive sport, and his government has not 0.97

00:08:35.920 proposed changes to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport Framework, which allows sport bodies to set

00:08:41.440 their own rules without requiring consideration of fairness or safety concerns for female athletes.

00:08:46.460 But Pierre Polyev, by contrast, has been pretty consistent with his answers. He has repeatedly stated

00:08:51.720 that female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males. That, of course,

00:08:57.620 again, includes sports, change rooms, bathrooms, prisons, and shelters. He has, in fact, pledged that under

00:09:03.400 his leadership, there would be no male prisoners in female jails. And he's also said that he would support

00:09:09.520 protections to ensure men cannot compete in sports, saying that that's common sense, to protect women's 0.85

00:09:16.100 opportunities and safety. And another time when he was commenting, he said he was only aware of two genders,

00:09:21.760 and that he also supported Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's introduction of similar protections wherein

00:09:27.500 males are prohibited from entering female spaces. But unsurprisingly, perhaps, Carney has continued his 0.97

00:09:33.520 non-transparent nature with this stance. He has not tabled a budget for Canadians to know how much he's spending.

00:09:39.040 He's stopped publishing immigration numbers. So Canadians don't even know how many immigrants are entering

00:09:43.620 the country. And of course, again, with this one, he sidestepped the question, not really letting Canadians know

00:09:48.900 how he really feels. Well, I also think it's important, Isaac, for listeners to understand that

00:09:53.800 I don't know any of the people involved in this story, but essentially, the volleyball coach is

00:09:59.680 following the law. So the Trudeau Liberals, in their infinite wisdom, passed Bill C-16, which now

00:10:07.740 protects gender identity under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. So if they were to disallow this

00:10:14.580 biologically male player, assuming that he is biologically male from the team, then they could

00:10:18.800 face a charter challenge and potentially a lawsuit. So unless our legislators change that law,

00:10:26.000 I think we're going to see more and more of these issues going forward.

00:10:32.220 Conservative MP Marilyn Gladue is demanding a federal apology after Parks Canada revoked a permit

00:10:37.720 for U.S. Christian singer Sean Foyke's planned performance, saying the decision violated Canadians'

00:10:42.900 charter rights. In a letter sent on Friday to Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Stephen Guibault,

00:10:49.540 Gladue stated the cancellation excluded both him and the many Canadians who planned to attend and

00:10:54.960 contradicted the agency's goal of preserving inclusivity. Gladue urged Guibault to apologize

00:11:00.400 to Foyke and quote, all Canadians for this violation of our cherished freedoms, and to ensure similar 1.00

00:11:06.100 actions do not occur at federal venues in the future. The Parks Canada cancellation is the latest setback

00:11:11.700 for Foyke's cross-Canada tour, with several stops scrapped by local authorities citing safety concerns.

00:11:18.660 On August 1st, the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia, denied Foyke to permit for an August 22nd

00:11:24.060 concert at Mill Lake Park, citing risks of significant numbers of protesters and counter-protesters,

00:11:30.240 and the inability to find permit conditions that would adequately address public safety.

00:11:34.740 The decision drew criticism from local conservative politicians, including MP Sukham Gill and BC

00:11:41.920 conservative MLA Heather Moss, who accused the city of undermining freedom of religion and applying a

00:11:47.580 double standard to Christian gatherings compared to pro-Palestinian protests. Foyke, a former California

00:11:53.720 congressional Republican candidate and vocal supporter of Donald Trump, denounced Abbotsford's move on social

00:11:59.600 media, writing, quote, you can no longer call Abbotsford the Bible belt of BC when they cancel outdoor worship to Jesus.

00:12:06.780 So, Alex, is there a double standard when it comes to how the federal government treats Christians compared to other

00:12:12.380 religious groups?

00:12:13.880 I would say that there is, based off of the media and, at various levels, governmental backlash to Sean Foyke's tour across

00:12:22.500 Canada. I think that most of the same media who are up in arms over the fact that he is doing Christian rock

00:12:30.420 concerts around Canada, I would say that it's a remarkable double standard in the sense that, I'll give you an

00:12:38.160 example, in British Columbia, politicians were recently seen posing with rather outspoken Calistani

00:12:45.260 activists. So, Calistan is a fictitious state that a sub-minority of six in Canada would like to carve out of the

00:12:53.520 Punjab region of India. And it has been involved in various acts of violence, including one of its members being

00:13:01.360 implicated in a judicial inquiry for the largest terrorist attack in Canadian history. And politicians seem to be quite okay with

00:13:09.560 those musicians touring around Canada and spreading their message. But they do not take the same approach to this

00:13:15.180 Christian rock singer. I think a lot of it has to do more with politics than with religion. And I think that

00:13:20.720 they're offended by his, I guess you could call them, make America great again sensibilities. But it's not

00:13:28.640 politicians' job to be the arbiters of what politics is and isn't acceptable. And so I think that it is not only a

00:13:35.580 double standard, but it's also in a face to people's democratic rights to gather and to speak their mind and

00:13:42.840 engage in free expression and all the things that we love in this country.

00:13:49.440 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

00:13:54.400 subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with a

00:13:59.580 five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - August 12, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney is on vacation again？

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