Tag: Canada

What is all the Fuss about Tariffs?

For weeks now, I’ve (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) heard nothing but the media and fellow Canadians talking about Trump’s tariffs. I talked to people who fear the tariffs will cause a recession. I know many people who have engaged fully in the “Buy Canadian” campaign as referred to in the article, The Rise of the “Buy Canadian” Movement and What it Means for Businesses. Many Canadians blame Trump’s tariffs for Canada’s high prices and poor economy. Many are angry at Trump and call him a bully (#bullying, #antibullying). If Trump was really a bully, he would have kept the tariffs in place from the beginning. Much of this anger is fueled by mainstream media with headlines like, Donald Trump called an ‘arrogant bully’ after he boasts about world leaders ‘kissing my a**’ over tariffs, The Terror of Trump’s Tariffs: What does it all mean for Ottawa? and Trump’s tariffs would crush Canada’s economy.

According to the article, Trump’s Tariffs: A timeline of the ongoing global trade tension, it all started not long after President Trump was sworn in, when he announced 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico starting February 1. What I’ve observed is a pattern with Trump. He announces a tariff on some country, then when that date approaches, he pulls back, like in the article, Trump pauses tariffs for most nations, unclear if it affects Canada. CBC claims Trump has started a Trade War as in its article, Trump’s trade war goes global… This is not about a trade war as there is always more to any story. President Trump is signaling something else.

Let’s focus on Canada. Why is President Trump imposing tariffs on Canada? According to the White House’s Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Imposes Tariffs on Imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the USA is placing tariffs on Canada for the following three reasons; to secure the Canada-US-Mexican border to stop the flow of illegal drugs, to stop the flow of illegal immigration, and to bring about balanced trade. The article states:

President Trump is taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country….There is also a growing presence of Mexican cartels operating fentanyl and nitazene synthesis labs in Canada…A recent study recognized Canada’s heightened domestic production of fentanyl, and its growing footprint within international narcotics distribution…While trade accounts for 67% of Canada’s GDP, 73% of Mexico’s GDP, and 37% of China’s GDP, it accounts for only 24% of U.S. GDP. However, in 2023 the U.S. trade deficit in goods was the world’s largest at over $1 trillion.

The questions are: Is Canada really a gateway for fentanyl and other narcotics? Is illegal immigration happening where illegal aliens are entering the US from Canada? Is there a trade imbalance between Canada and the US? Those who know me know I never accept at face value what mainstream media (MSM) says. I do my own research and do my own thinking.

Is Canada producing fentanyl and other narcotics? Now if you believe the CBC—which I don’t—”less than one per cent of the synthetic opioid seized at American borders is at the northern border” according to a CBC report. Is the CBC right?

The book, Wilful Blindness: How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents infiltrated the West, by Sam Cooper essentially claims Canada is a major fentanyl portal. Coopers research uncovers an intricate network where the ingredients to make synthetic opioids like fentanyl move from China to Vancouver, where they are processed into fentanyl and released all over North America. The money profited from these illegal drugs is then laundered through casinos, real estate, and Chinese exports. Mr. Cooper even suggests that the Liberal Party in Canada is profiting off of the fentanyl crisis. Might that be true? That’s a very brief explanation, so listen to the following interview with Mr. Cooper to learn more.

News articles like, How Chinese gangs are laundering drug money through Vancouver real estate, Triad money laundering is fueling Canada’s fentanyl nightmare, Canadian organized crime making more fentanyl: Police report. and TD Bank fined $3B US after pleading guilty in historic U.S. money laundering case all support what Sam Cooper is claiming. Even the Government of Canada website lists seven transnational criminal organizations that are active in Canada According to the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada Summary – 2024 Public Report on Organized Crime, a threat rating was assigned to 668 Organized Crime Groups as part of the 2024 Integrated Threat Assessment. Mr. Trump’s claim seems legit to me.

Is illegal immigration happening where illegal aliens are entering the US from Canada? The CBC is reporting U.S. Republicans are now warning: Migration from Canada is a problem. The Toronto Sun says, Canada becoming a source of illegal immigrants into USA. Now that’s MSM making this claim, so it must be true, right? Newsweek says, U.S. Northern Border Crossings Break Record In 2024. The Hill’s article, The overlooked threat: America’s northern border, reports that in 2024, in Canada’s Swanton Sector, in 2024, 19,000 illegal crossers were apprehended by U.S. border agents, more than the last 17 years combined. That sounds like a problem to me. Maybe the US president is right again.

Is there a trade imbalance between Canada and the US? What is a trade imbalance anyways? A trade imbalance occurs when a country has either a trade surplus or a trade deficit. A trade surplus occurs when a country exports more goods than it imports, while a trade deficit happens when imports exceed exports.

Wikipedia’s article, Canada–United States trade relations, says

the trade imbalance between Canada and the United States has historically favored Canada, with the U.S. experiencing a trade deficit. In 2023, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada was approximately $41 billion, with U.S. exports at $441 billion and Canadian exports at $482 billion.

The Financial Post reported that, Canada’s trade surplus with US widens before Trump’s return . Mr. Trump has made statements such as, If we are subsidising Canada, Mexico let them become a state of US. In Donald Trump’s view, if countries, like Canada and Mexica, have a trade surplus with the USA, then the US is subsidizing them. Investopedia defines a subsidy as a benefit given to an individual, business, or institution, usually by the government. I suppose by definition, it is kind of a subsidy as Canada is benefitting by having a trade surplus. As I already mentioned, a trade surplus occurs when a country exports more goods than it imports, while a trade deficit happens when imports exceed exports. In 2023, the U.S. exported $441 billions of goods while Canada exported $482 billion indicating Canada has a trade surplus and USA a trade deficit of approximately $41 billion. So, the real question is: Is a trade deficit a bad thing? Mr. Trump seems to think so. Does the US have a legitimate complaint? The article, Should we worry about a trade deficit? basically says it’s open to debate. The article, History of Tariffs between Canada and the United States, provides the history of Canada-USA trade wars, so we mustn’t forget—as the article shows—that Canada also imposes tariffs on US goods as well. It’s not just “big bad Trump” doing this to Canada, as the MSM wants us to believe.

What is my conclusion? I think President Trump has legitimate complaints when it comes to Canada producing narcotics and illegal immigration into the US from Canada.  There is definitely a trade imbalance between Canada and the US, but whether that’s good or bad is open to debate. Having said that, balanced trade should be what happens; it’s logical. Canada does need to deal with the fentanyl crisis and border security. Canada is not the “innocent” country most Canadians think it is. President Trump is not initiating a Trade War with Canada. Mr. Trump wants us Canadians to wake up to the corruption in our country; a corruption permitted by our corrupt political system and politicians, and to do something about it. That is what I think is happening with these tariffs.

Is Canada Real?

For years now, I (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) have read books that say things like “everything is an illusion.” For a long time I have tried to understand what that means, because I am the type of person who must understand things, so I research a topic until I do. Since the Covid era, I’ve looked into many topics and learned some disturbing things. I now question everything because I no longer blindly accept the “official narratives” of officialdom. I believe I now understand what is meant by “everything is an illusion.”  Ironically, I just recently learned about a video by Timm Stein titled, Canada – the Illusion. I was immediately intrigued.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about Trump trolling Trudeau and calling him ‘governor’ of the ‘Great State of Canada’. President Elect, Donald Trump seemingly wants to take over Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal and his son, Eric Trump even posted an image of Donald Trump ‘Buying’ Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal in a social media post. The CBC says, it’s No longer a joke: Ministers say Trump’s threats to absorb Canada need to be taken seriously. This article quotes Trump as saying, “You get rid of the artificially drawn line [the Canada-US border] and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better national security.”  Is he wanting Canada and the US united for security reasons? I think there is way more to it. Trudeau wrote in a social media post, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.” Now that’s laughable, since he is a “lame duck,” has clearly shown in his years as PM that he doesn’t care about this country, and I don’t believe he has the confidence of Canadians to make a decision as huge as this one. There certainly would be pros and cons to the two countries uniting in some form.  

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the new Parti Québécois leader, called Canada an ‘imaginary country’ but The National Post says, Experts agree: Canada is a real country (and Pierre Karl Péladeau is wrong). First of all, who are these experts?Is Parti Québécois leader right? Is Canada an imaginary country? Let’s explore that.

I just watched the video, Canada – the Illusion, which left me stunned after watching it. It immediately starts off with the words on the screen, “The following film is entirely based on facts, not opinions. The viewer is strongly encouraged to verify each fact!”  Now I always told my students that “your opinions aren’t worth anything unless you back them up.” In other words, if you’re going to make a claim, you better be prepared to back it up with factual information. This video convincingly did exactly that. You can watch the video below:

The website, Canada – The Illusion, has links to watch it on other platforms and even gives you the option to download it. I strongly encourage you to watch it! So, what is the video’s premise? An illusion is an idea or belief that is not true, or something that is not really what it seems to be. The title of this video seems to suggest that Canada is not really what we’ve been taught it is. The Facebook page titled, The video Canada: The Illusion… – Alberta: The Grassroots, describes the video as critically examining:

“Canada’s legal and historical foundations, exposing that the nation was established through fraud and deception. It exposes that Canada operates without a legitimate legal government, rendering its authority—and practices such as law enforcement and taxation—unlawful. Furthermore, the documentary exposes that the “government,” as it exists today, functions as a criminal entity, nothing more than an illegal corporate theft of the lands of Canada, which legally belong to “we the people,” creating unlawful laws and agreements to enrich powerful elites while systematically misleading and controlling the population through misinformation and deception.”

Now those are strong allegations! Essentially, the video asserts that Canada is NOT a legitimate country, that it is a corporation instead. The legal dictionary defines a “corporation is a legal business entity in which the owners are protected from liability for the company’s actions and financial status.” Is Canada just a business entity? Some say so, as the article, Fact Check: Canada NOT Owned By The ‘United States Corporation’, is refuting someone’s claim that  “the corporation of Canada is owned by the United States Corporation.”  Wait, now are people claiming the USA is a corporation too? Let me be clear. I don’t give any credibility to fact checkers as they are hired to discredit anything that goes against the “official narrative,” but could that be true?

The Cambridge University Press has an article, Is the U.S. Government a Corporation? The Corporate Origins of Modern Constitutionalism, saying in its abstract, “The U.S. Constitution is best understood not as a “social contract,” but as a popularly issued corporate charter.”   The article, What Every American Should Know: The Republic vs The Corporation, says, “The corporation was created for the District of Columbia, aka Washington, D.C., via the Act of 1871. THE UNITED STATES corporation operates under private international law with their own corporate constitution.” It goes on to say, ‘If you want proof of this, look at subsections 15 and 15(A) in Title 28 U.S. Code § 3002 and you should see this sentence, “United States” means— (A) a Federal corporation.” Another article, The United States Isn’t a Country — It’s a Corporation! also claims that the USA is a corporation. If the US is, then it is likely Canada is as well. The YouTube video, Is Canada a CORPORATION? Canada is CORPORATION PROOF gives pretty convincing evidence.  I did what the gentleman in the video did and sure enough CANADA (CIK 0000230098) comes up as a company name. Now don’t take my word for any of this. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions.

The video ends saying, “Since the people on the land mass known as “Canada” have been indoctrinated for decades, and conditioned to be obedient slaves of the system, many may have to suffer immensely to be broken enough to accept the truth, and to have the will to change.” Have we been lied to? Have we been indoctrinated to believe an illusion? I spent much of my career as a teacher proudly teaching Canadian history, a history like that described in the Canadian Encyclopedia article, Constitutional History of Canada. I taught that Canada was a confederation with Sir John A MacDonald being one of the founders. The video claims this is false. Was I teaching lies? Was I just an indoctrinated teacher used to indoctrinate others? Canada’s National Anthem has a line that says, “True North strong and free.” Now I question if we were ever free.

Care Learning has an article titled, The key features of the different types of bullying (#bullying, #antibullying) which talks about Indirect Bullying, a less direct type of bullying, involving manipulation and sabotage. This type of bullying is much harder to detect and undermines trust. If the video is truth, then we Canadians have been indirectly bullied through manipulation and sabotage.

I did my own research and I have come to my own conclusions. Since the Covid era, I no longer believe everything I’ve been told. I’ve said many times in other blog posts, “question everything,” which I do. As the Buddha allegedly said, “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” And before you label me crazy, remember what Danish theologian and philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard said,  “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”