Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Mark Carney as Liberal leader repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” interprovincial trade barriers and create “free trade by Canada Day.”

But Canada’s internal trade barriers won’t all be eliminated by then — not even all the federal ones.

Canada’s supply management system for dairy products, which sets provincial production quotas, will remain. Quebec also has language requirements that will stay in place.

It’s geographically impossible for Canada to completely eliminate trade with the US.

I absolutely agree that it should be minimized, though.

Agreed. If there’s a greater purpose here, keeping it from Canadians is a pretty big blunder.

Even if we reach a deal, it’s not like Trump is stable or trustworthy enough to honour it.

I don’t think this is entirely true - Trump is obviously not trustworthy, but the government has been able to leverage CUSMA to lessen the impact of the attempted tariffs. There seems to be some benefit to having a formal deal in place.

But I’m definitely not comfortable with this capitulation at all.

Despite the move, Canada is still in active discussions with G7 allies to introduce an international tax, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne leading that work, the PMO said.

If this ends up happening, it’s important context to this decision.

If it ends up not happening…pretty weak shit.

Elbows way, way down.

They’ve already passed it unamended.

Yeah, every analysis of the RCMP I’ve ever seen seems to agree that the elimination of their local policing responsibilities has got to be the first priority.

I’d like to know more about the ruling than what’s presented in the article. And I guess I’d need to know more about Canadian defamation law.

Not reading the book is unfortunate (sort of)…but it seems like a person could form a sincerely-held beliefs about a book without reading the thing cover to cover.

The pass, which launches on Friday, doesn’t require registration or a physical card. Instead, the benefits will be available upon arrival at parks, national museums and when booking train tickets. Canadians and foreign tourists are eligible.

It’s not really a “pass” then, but cool.

Moving the Coast Guard from Fisheries to DND is a sneaky way to add $2.5 billion to the defense budget without actually spending more money…

I’m sure more details will emerge, but:

Under the legislation, someone who is certified or licensed to perform specific skilled work in a province or territory that wants to take on a job doing the same thing for a federally regulated project will be deemed to have met that federal standard.

The government says recognizing provincial standards will open up job opportunities to workers and give employers a larger candidate pool to draw upon.

The bill only recognizes provincial standards at the federal level. Workers certified or licensed in one province that want to work in another will only be able to do so when that province or territory agrees to drop their trade barriers.

The federal government has rules and standards for businesses on top of regional requirements that apply across provincial and territorial borders.

Under the legislation, provincial standards for goods and services will be recognized as having already met federal standards. That means a province’s organic standards for food, or energy efficiency standards for appliances, will be treated as having met federal standards.

How about the PMO?

Yeah, the Canadaland piece was mentioned, but not linked.

regular folks

I’m not even going to ask what your definition of that is.

border authorities had the power to open any and all mail weighing over 30 grams, for at least the last 30+ years.

And now that weight limit has been removed. It used to say, the Corporation may open any mail, other than a letter." Now it says, “the Corporation may open any mail.”

It repeals the portion of the Canada Post Corporation Act that says, “Notwithstanding any other Act or law, but subject to this Act and the regulations and to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, the Customs Act and the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, nothing in the course of post is liable to demand, seizure, detention or retention,” and replaces it with, “Nothing in the course of post is subject to demand, seizure, detention or retention, except in accordance with an Act of Parliament,” which is a massive expansion of the circumstances in which it can be done.

It also rewords the section on liability to ensure that there’s…no liability, for anyone, in cases where mail is seized.

Bill C2 gives police the ability to search mail when authorized in order to carry out a criminal investigation.

The bottom line is that these should be considered law enforcement activities, but there’s no warrant required. Just an “Act of Parliament.” There’s no probable cause defined here. Maybe you’re fine with that. I’m not.

But let’s not sweat things right now. This was the first reading, and all points of the bill can (and will) be debated. Expect tweaks, repeals, and amendments.

I agree with you to an extent on this one. But things are more likely to be tweaked if people make some noise.

Even the original YT video under discussion here said that this bill contains some entirely unobjectionable things. But it also contains things that I agree need another look, and in fact are downright Trumpian in some respects.

78 (1) Subsection 101(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is amended by adding the following after paragraph (b):

(b.‍1) the claimant entered Canada after June 24, 2020 and made the claim more than one year after the day of their entry;

That’s the entire passage in question.

There are legal ways to visit Canada for extended periods of time.

If, during that time, a person’s country is invaded or otherwise made unsafe, do you still have no problem kicking them out?

Okay, if you need it spelled out for you, I didn’t say organized crime never involves abuse of the immigration system, postal service, or online service providers. I said the bill reaches well beyond that goal (if indeed that is the goal, which is questionable to say the least).

Go construct your straw men some place else.

all of which reach way beyond organized crime.

C’mon, don’t insult us both by pretending you can’t read.

So you started with “there’s no reason to appease the US,” and have now landed on, “they say they’re trying to appease the US by giving them things they want, but they don’t really mean it”?

And that ignores all of the other things in this bill that are about immigration, and asylum seekers, and being able to sieze peoples’ mail, and forcing online providers to give up user data, all of which reach way beyond organized crime.