U.S. Plastics Supplies Could Get Hit by Tariffs
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Hamilton Spectator
8 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
As Canada Post workers reject Crown corporation's final offer, next steps are unclear with both sides urged to return to bargaining
Canada Post workers have voted down the Crown corporation's 'final' contract offer, and labour experts say it's unclear exactly what will happen next in the already bitter dispute. Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers' urban unit voted the offer down 68.5 per cent to 31.5, while members of their suburban and rural unit turned it down 69.4 per cent to 30.6. Just under 81 per cent of the 53,000 eligible CUPW members cast their ballot. The voting, ordered by the federal government and monitored by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, opened on July 21 and wrapped up Friday at 5 p.m. In an emailed statement, CUPW urged Canada Post to come back to the bargaining table, and said the federal government should encourage bargaining to continue. 'The Government has stated its support for unions and fair bargaining. It needs to back its words with action by supporting a return to the bargaining table by both parties for meaningful negotiations. The best collective agreements are negotiated at the bargaining table,' CUPW said. 'CUPW is committed to staying at the bargaining table and expects Canada Post to do the same. CUPW's Negotiating Committees stand ready to negotiate good, ratifiable agreements.' The Crown corporation, which has said it lost $10 million per day during June, said it's considering its next steps. 'This result does not lessen the urgent need to modernize and protect this vital national service,' Canada Post said. 'However, it does mean the uncertainty that has been significantly impacting our business — and the many Canadians and Canadian businesses who depend on Canada Post — will continue. We are evaluating our next steps.' Those next steps, said labour relations experts, could include layoffs. But it all depends, said U of T professor Rafael Gomez, on whether the government gives a clear signal of whether it wants the Crown corporation to implement the restructuring recommended by veteran mediator William Kaplan in May. 'The government really needs to signal to both sides what it wants to do with the Kaplan report,' said Gomez, director of U of T's Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Kaplan's report, combined with rejection of the 'final' offer, means Canada Post management has a more free hand to cut costs than it did, said Gomez. 'What actions can Canada Post take on their own that don't require the government changing its official mandate? They probably now have a mandate to do it if they want to,' said Gomez. The 'final' offer vote, argued Brock University labour studies professor Larry Savage, prolonged the dispute without bringing it any closer to a resolution. 'The vote turned out to be major distraction. It didn't bring the parties any closer to concluding an agreement. And arguably, it only drew them further apart,' said Savage. 'The path to a negotiated settlement is as muddy as ever.' Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged the two sides to return to the bargaining table. 'It is now up to the parties to return to the table and come to an agreement that works for both of them,' Hajdu said in a post on X. 'The Government is monitoring this situation closely and expects the parties to reach a resolution as soon as possible.' On May 28, Canada Post made what it called its 'final' contract offer, which included a 13 per cent wage hike spread over four years, as well as a $1,000 signing bonus. Two days later, it asked Hajdu to order a vote on the offer. On June 12, Hajdu ordered the CIRB to organize a vote. The order came roughly a month after a key report from Kaplan, who said the Crown corporation was effectively insolvent. The union has repeatedly criticized the Crown corporation, saying it was trying to avoid a negotiated settlement . The report was done as part of an Industrial Inquiry Commission ordered in December by then-labour minister Steven MacKinnon, ending a month-long strike which began last November. Kaplan also said there's an impasse in bargaining, suggested arbitration wouldn't be a good choice to deal with Canada Post's need for restructuring, and said a 'final' offer would be the third option for an end to the dispute. Kaplan's May 15 report suggested the use of community mailboxes, the elimination of home delivery except for parcels, and getting rid of some post office locations and replacing them with franchises. Kaplan also suggested expanding parcel delivery to seven days a week, with the use of part-time and temporary employees. CUPW members have been in a legal strike position since May 23, but their strike action has so far been limited to a ban on overtime work. CUPW actively encouraged its members to vote against the offer. The Crown corporation has repeatedly insisted that it needs substantial restructuring, and has said it lost $10 million per day in June, calling those losses 'unsustainable.' The association representing Canada's small businesses pleaded with the federal government to extend CUPW's previous contract to avoid another work stoppage. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, small businesses lost between $75 million and $100 million per day during last year's strike. 'This just brings more uncertainty at a time when small businesses are already struggling to plan ahead. We can't keep doing this,' said CFIB president Dan Kelly. A member survey by CFIB last month found that another strike could lead up to two thirds of businesses to ditch Canada Post for good.
Hamilton Spectator
10 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Donald Trump's next target could be deal that shields most Canadian imports from tariffs, experts warn
Canada's biggest shield against U.S. tariffs is still intact after Donald Trump's latest trade deadline, but that could change by next year, experts warn, as Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares for a new round of talks with the mercurial American president. While Trump raised the tariff on Canadian goods to 35 per cent in an executive order Thursday night, an exemption for goods which comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was maintained. The order was signed after Ottawa and Washington failed to reach an economic and security deal. That means, most economists agree, that roughly 90 per cent of Canadian exports will still enter the U.S. tariff-free. But, warned BMO chief economist Douglas Porter, that agreement is up for renegotiation in 2026. 'Even though we're in a relatively good spot right now, I don't think that should give us much confidence in the longer term,' Porter said Friday. With CUSMA-compliant goods facing no tariffs, and sector-specific tariffs of 50 per cent on steel and aluminum, Canadian goods currently face an average tariff in the low single digits. But that could easily change when the agreement is renegotiated, Porter added. The fact that Canadian negotiators weren't able to get any agreement lowering the 35 per cent tariff — or cutting sector-specific tariffs — ahead of Trump's Aug. 1 deadline isn't exactly reassuring either, Porter said. 'It really does raise some questions over how smoothly the renegotiation of (CUSMA) is going to go,' said Porter. 'We're going to come into it with the U.S. holding this 35 per cent over our head.' Shortly after midnight on Thursday, just after the hike came into effect, Carney said he was 'disappointed' by Trump's decision, after Canadian officials spent several days this week hunkered down in Washington meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and representatives of Senate Republicans. 'We remain committed to CUSMA, which is the world's second-largest free trade agreement by trading volume,' Carney's statement read. 'Other sectors of our economy — including lumber, steel, aluminum, and automobiles — are, however, heavily impacted by U.S. duties and tariffs. For such sectors, the Canadian government will act to protect Canadian jobs, invest in our industrial competitiveness, buy Canadian and diversify our export markets.' Dominic LeBlanc, Carney's point-person on Canada-U.S. trade, told Radio-Canada's 'Midi info' that Canadian officials have always maintained that they 'wouldn't accept just any agreement.' 'We'd accept an agreement that was in the interests of workers, of the Canadian economy, and at the end of the day yesterday that agreement wasn't in sight,' LeBlanc said Friday, as he was set to leave Washington after meeting with Lutnick on Thursday. The head of the association representing small businesses said Canada avoided the worst-case scenario this week by keeping CUSMA-compliant goods tariff-free, but said the country is not out of the woods yet. In next year's renegotiation, the U.S. could give preferential status to goods which comply with CUSMA — but that doesn't mean they'd still be duty free, warned Dan Kelly, CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. 'That's absolutely one of the prospects I fear,' said Kelly of the idea that U.S. negotiators would try to put tariffs on CUSMA-compliant goods. 'There's also nothing stopping him from pulling out of CUSMA altogether. That would be the nuclear scenario.' A senior official with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce also said Canadian businesses need to be wary of the CUSMA revamp, and any lingering uncertainty until it's completed. 'The review could start Monday,' said Matthew Holmes, the chamber's head of public policy. 'But we're going to be talking about CUSMA until 2026, and that's the third act of this play.' At the moment, Holmes estimated, Canadian exports to the U.S. face an average tariff of anywhere from 2.9 to five per cent, which still gives this country the best treatment of any American trading partner. Still, Holmes isn't under any illusion that that low rate will continue — even if Canada's access remains better than most. 'I think it's reasonable to expect they come to the table with a baseline tariff,' Holmes said of U.S. negotiators. 'If they establish a floor of 15 per cent on the world and we come in at 10, we're in relatively good shape, but it's still not great for our businesses.' For sectors like steel and aluminum which still face targeted tariffs, the continuation of the CUSMA exemption didn't provide much comfort at all, said Catherine Cobden, CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association. 'What we see is some of our largest trading allies, both with us and the United States, accepting and normalizing 50 per cent tariffs,' said Cobden. 'That cannot happen in the case of Canada.' 'We don't have months to wait for a USMCA process. We are in the thick of it now,' she said. Dan Ujczo, an Ohio-based international trade lawyer, said in spite of sectoral pressures, Canada needs to get a clearer sense of the deals the White House has struck with the European Union, Japan and South Korea. 'Canada and Mexico started these negotiations with the best access to the United States in the world. They don't want to put themselves in a position now to accept a deal where that's going to get them less access to the United States than any other trading partner, so I think we still need to see what those other parties have agreed to,' said Ujczo, who has also worked for both Canadian and U.S. governments. Ujczo also said it's time for Carney and other Canadian political leaders to dial down the partisan rhetoric. On Friday, the Conservatives and the NDP accused Carney of failing to improve circumstances for Canadian workers. 'This is a negotiation,' Ujzco said. 'The political campaigns are over now.'
Time Business News
11 hours ago
- Time Business News
Protecting Your Privacy With Offshore Identities
**VANCOUVER, British Columbia —**As privacy erodes under the weight of mass surveillance, biometric data collection, and digital profiling, more individuals are exploring a solution that is not only legal—but practical: offshore identities. These identities, when established through lawful means such as legal name changes, second citizenships, and international residency, offer a powerful buffer between individuals and the institutions or actors that track, monitor, or exploit personal data. Contrary to the stereotype of offshore identities being tools for deception, they are increasingly viewed as mechanisms for self-preservation, used by professionals, activists, entrepreneurs, and families to reclaim control over their personal lives. Through careful structuring, these offshore identities enable people to reduce their visibility to prying systems while fully complying with international law. Amicus International Consulting, a leader in discreet legal identity solutions, explores in this report how privacy-conscious individuals are using offshore identities to build safer, more autonomous lives. The Erosion of Privacy in the 2020s From financial institutions and government agencies to social media companies and data brokers, the ecosystem of surveillance has never been more intrusive. Artificial intelligence, facial recognition, behavioral algorithms, and smartphone tracking have created a world where privacy is no longer the default—but a privilege earned through strategy. In 2025, the average person has more than 2,000 data points stored across global systems—from banking histories and location data to biometric identifiers. For those facing reputational risk, targeted harassment, political instability, or even simple overexposure, this creates significant vulnerabilities. Case Study: Data Breach Victim Opts for Privacy Shield A Canadian e-commerce entrepreneur suffered a massive privacy breach in 2023 when hackers accessed her professional accounts and exposed financial records. She endured public shaming, extortion attempts, and threats to her safety. In response, she used Amicus International Consulting to initiate a legal name change, establish a second residency in Portugal, and create a new corporate structure in Cyprus. Her new identity, layered through offshore residency and reissued credentials, now serves as a privacy firewall. She runs her new business anonymously and legally. Offshore Identity: Defined and Demystified An offshore identity is a legally established personal or corporate identity created through mechanisms in jurisdictions other than one's home country. These identities are fully supported by national and international law and may include: Legal name changes through recognized court or administrative processes Dual or second citizenship obtained via Investment, descent, or residency Residency permits and tax identification numbers in privacy-respecting nations Offshore companies, trusts, and foundations with nominee structures ID cards, passports, and legal instruments issued by foreign governments Unlike false identities, these structures rely on transparency, lawful issuance, and mutual recognition under treaties such as the Hague Apostille Convention and Vienna Consular Agreements. Legal Protections Embedded in International Frameworks Several legal doctrines support offshore identities: Sovereign Right to Nationality: Each state determines who its nationals are and what identity documentation it issues. Right to Privacy: Articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protect individuals from arbitrary interference. Freedom of Movement: Includes the right to leave any country and to choose a country of residence. Mutual Recognition of Civil Status: Allows lawful identity documents from one country to be validly used in others. These principles create a framework within which a legally issued offshore identity becomes an effective and protected tool for personal privacy. Case Study: Political Activist Escapes Biometric Tagging A South Asian activist advocating for minority rights was placed on a biometric watchlist by his home country. Facing detention and permanent tracking, he reached out to Amicus International. He secured Dominican citizenship via Investment and a legal name change in Central America. His biometric data—collected under his original identity—could no longer match his new profile. International law protected his status, and he relocated to a non-extradition country, continuing his work in safety. How Offshore Identities Protect Privacy in Real Terms The protections provided by offshore identities are not theoretical—they are practical. They can shield you in the following ways: Banking Under a New Identity : Open international accounts disconnected from your prior credit reports or KYC trails. : Open international accounts disconnected from your prior credit reports or KYC trails. Avoiding Data Brokers : By using new identities, your data no longer feeds into existing surveillance networks. : By using new identities, your data no longer feeds into existing surveillance networks. Social Media Freedom : Disconnect your digital life from legacy profiles through name changes and IP geolocation from new jurisdictions. : Disconnect your digital life from legacy profiles through name changes and IP geolocation from new jurisdictions. Reputation Management : Rebuild your online footprint using legally obtained credentials and domain registrations. : Rebuild your online footprint using legally obtained credentials and domain registrations. Travel Anonymity: Use new passports and residency cards to travel without triggering biometric alerts linked to former documentation. Case Study: Reputation Reboot for a Tech Executive A tech executive in the U.S. was falsely accused of misconduct, resulting in public backlash and career sabotage. Though cleared legally, the Internet preserved the accusations indefinitely. Working with Amicus, he secured a second passport through Antigua, relocated to Asia under a new identity, and started a new consulting firm using a Singapore-based corporate structure. Today, he manages million-dollar contracts under a new name, all legally documented and tax-compliant. Offshore Structures and Corporate Identity Shielding Beyond personal use, offshore identities also serve in corporate contexts. High-net-worth individuals and businesses use layered legal entities to separate control from visibility. Examples include: Belize Trusts and Panama Foundations : Remove personal names from public registries while maintaining legal control. : Remove personal names from public registries while maintaining legal control. Nevis LLCs with Nominee Directors : Allow business operations under third-party names with private agreements ensuring actual governance. : Allow business operations under third-party names with private agreements ensuring actual governance. Malta and Cyprus Holding Companies: Permit re-registration of intellectual property and digital assets under new ownership while maintaining operational secrecy. These structures are recognized under international business law and protected by jurisdictional sovereignty. Case Study: Crypto Founder Uses Offshore Layers for Safety A blockchain entrepreneur faced extortion threats after a crypto token he launched spiked in value. To protect himself, he moved operations offshore. Amicus helped him form a Seychelles IBC owned by a Liechtenstein foundation, with banking in Mauritius. His data was removed from all registries, and only the offshore entity was visible to the public. This legal setup allowed him to continue development safely. Digital Footprint Erasure and Rebuilding Once a new offshore identity is established, clients often pursue a structured digital erasure campaign. Key steps include: Closing accounts linked to prior identities Deleting old social media and website content Replacing domain registrations under new corporate names Requesting de-indexing under international privacy rights (e.g., GDPR 'right to be forgotten') Using VPNs and offshore servers for any remaining public activity Combined with a second passport or legal name change, these steps form the backbone of a truly private modern life. Navigating Legal and Ethical Lines At Amicus International, privacy strategies are implemented with strict adherence to legality. No false documents, no tax fraud, and no concealment of criminal activity are permitted. Every offshore identity plan undergoes due diligence and AML compliance. In 2025, legal identity transformation is less about secrecy and more about discretion. With proper planning, anyone facing political risk, reputational threats, or digital overexposure can step into a life of safety without breaking the law. Case Study: Whistleblower Relocates With Legal Identity Change An EU government contractor blew the whistle on illegal data-sharing between agencies and private firms. Fearing retaliation, she contacted Amicus and was guided through acquiring a legal identity in the South Pacific, complete with new credentials, banking access, and secure residency. She now lives off-grid, consults internationally, and maintains her integrity—all without jeopardizing her security. Conclusion: Offshore Identity Is the Future of Personal Privacy As traditional privacy collapses, offshore identities provide one of the last fully legal, fully effective ways to protect oneself. Whether used to escape harassment, avoid data tracking, or rebuild a life after reputational damage, these tools are not loopholes—they are lifelines. The key is not just to create a new identity, but to do so with clarity, strategy, and legality. Amicus International Consulting leads clients through every stage of this process, ensuring full compliance with international law while building a structure that offers genuine peace of mind. Contact InformationPhone: +1 (604) 200-5402Email: info@ Website:
