Canada supplies nearly zero per cent of fentanyl seized in U.S.: report
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
21 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, while shootings kill 20 people waiting for aid
DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid, the hospital morgue that received their bodies told The Associated Press. At least 15 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, including eight women and one child. Another 20 were shot while waiting for aid, according to Nasser Hospital, including two who were killed near distribution sites in Rafah and 18 who were waiting for trucks to deliver supplies elsewhere in southern Gaza. The recent killings took place as efforts to halt the 21-month war appeared to be moving forward. Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. Hamas will give its final response to mediators after the discussions have concluded, the statement said. The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. According to Palestinian witnesses and Gaza's Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed or wounded by Israeli troops when trying to reach the aid sites since they opened in May. The military has repeatedly said it's fired only warning shots, denies deliberately firing towards civilians, and says it's looking into reports of civilian harm. ___ Kullab reported from Jerusalem.
CTV News
37 minutes ago
- CTV News
Second-generation Canadians weigh the cost of carrying on the family business – and their parents' legacy
Salad King owner Alan Liu poses in front of a mural featuring his parents at his restaurant in Toronto on Thursday June 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn In the corner of her family's downtown Toronto restaurant, Jeanette Liu's young son eats a plate of chili chicken as customers gather around tables and servers bustle across the floor. Her son spending the summer at Yueh Tung is 'full circle' for Liu, whose own childhood memories are flooded with the sound of clattering dishes and the smell of her parents' cooking in that very space for decades. She also remembers her parents' gruelling 15-hour days as they proudly served customers who lined up out the door, chasing what she describes as their 'Canadian dream' after they moved to Toronto from India in the early 1980s. 'My dad worked seven days a week. He only took one day off during Christmas Day, only for the morning, and then he would go right back into work by himself to prep for the next day,' Liu recalled. Yueh Tung quickly became a place where members of their community could enjoy traditional Chinese cooking with Indian flavours, she said. Liu and her sister Joanna decided to fully inherit the restaurant six months ago, not only so their parents could retire but so they wouldn't have to face the fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, the rising cost of running a small business and changes in public dining habits. All of those factors have made it difficult to sustain their Canadian dream from decades ago, she said. Amid the economic uncertainty, second-generation immigrant business owners like Liu say they're grappling with how they can carry on their parents' legacy – and what it could cost them. 'We didn't want them to retire knowing that everything that they built and put all of their hard work into ended in this way,' Liu said. 'It's really difficult. Rent has gone up, inventory has gone up, groceries have gone up and you can only increase your menu so much without having your customers get sticker shock.' Alan Liu, who has no relation to Jeanette Liu, is the owner of Salad King, a Thai restaurant with two locations in Toronto's downtown. His family moved to Canada from Hong Kong in 1990 in search of new opportunity, and his parents soon took ownership of the restaurant before passing it on to him in 2010. Due to the impact of tariffs, Liu said his food costs over the past few months have gone up 'much faster than we've ever seen.' He predicted his cost for chicken will likely go up by as much as 50 per cent by the end of summer. 'Looking at a second-generation business you kind of have to go, 'OK, so this is what we're good at. This is what we love doing and we've been doing this for 35 years. But the market is changing,'' he said. 'Is this a temporary change? Is this long-term change? And how are we going to survive beyond that?' He prides himself on keeping the restaurant affordable for families and students but said in addition to tariff impacts, people's eating habits have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. More people are working from home and they are generally eating out less and reducing their spending, he said. In the two decades his parents ran Salad King, he said they never experienced this level of economic precarity. They weathered recessions and even a partial building collapse the year he took over, he said, but nothing like this. The whole thing has him feeling 'punch drunk,' Liu said. 'It means you've been punched so many times in the head that you no longer feel anything. You're basically perpetually stunned and perpetually in survival mode.' Family-run restaurants aren't the only ones feeling the pinch of the current economic climate. Maria Cronk, who inherited a Kingston, Ont., boutique from her mother, said one of her suppliers has raised their prices because of tariffs and she expects to see others do so in the future. 'I think that our consumers are at their limits for what they want to pay,' Cronk said, speaking from the back storeroom of Fancy That. She also noted that some clothing lines have told her they don't have production plans for next spring because they can't afford it. Cronk's mother immigrated to Canada from Sweden in the early 1970s and opened the store. Cronk took over after her mother became ill, and now her own daughters have become involved. Continuing a family business — and passing it on — means going through all sorts of ups and downs, said Cronk. But what makes it worth it, she said, is the hard work and love her family has poured into it. 'I'm so proud of what my mother started with and what I've been able to create on my own, even without her,' said Cronk. 'It's not about the money. It's about building this community of people.' Back at Yueh Tung, Jeanette Liu cashes out customers and wraps takeout orders, while her sister Joanna fires a wok in the kitchen and makes plates of noodles. 'I feel like my parents always just told me — and it's very true of immigrant culture — you put your heads down and you work,' Liu said. Just two months ago, the restaurant was on the brink of closure. They took to social media for 'one last push,' and Yueh Tung has had more diners since, which she hopes will last. Yueh Tung is not just a restaurant – it's symbolic of their parents' sacrifice and the community they found in Canada, Jeanette said. 'Carrying on the legacy was really the crux of everything having to do with us taking over the restaurant,' she said. Yueh Tung has been the eighth member of their family, said Liu, who grew up with four siblings. 'My hope is that when I bring my dad back in, when my mom comes back in to dine as guests, they will be able to really sit and feel everything that they put into this restaurant and receive it back.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025. Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press
National Observer
an hour ago
- National Observer
Losing confidence in Carney's willingness to prioritize action on the climate crisis
Prime Minister Mark Carney has described the Trump administration's economic and political disruption of the international order as game-changing. His efforts to manage this transition internationally and domestically are occurring in the context of the existential threat to the planet. A 2024 UN Environment Program (UNEP) report concluded that, under a status quo scenario, the Earth is on track to reach an approximate 2.7°C increase in planetary warming by 2100. A study by leading climate scientists in the journal Oxford Academic warned: 'We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster… Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled… We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives…' Canadians are witnessing it firsthand as devastating wildfires rage across Western Canada. Carney has long been an authority on the risks posed by climate change. In 2015, as Bank of England Governor, he gave the 'tragedy of the horizon' speech, which introduced climate change to bankers as a threat to international financial stability. In his 2021 book Value(s), Carney critiques free market fundamentalism for its disregard of the human condition. The existential threat of climate change, state of inequality etc., all stem from a common crisis in values. A practicing Catholic, Carney sat on the Vatican's Council for Inclusive Capitalism. In an interview shortly after he was appointed UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance in December 2019, Carney described climate change as the world's greatest existential threat. He urged people everywhere to keep up the pressure in calling for climate action. How will the Carney government navigate 'fighting climate change' and bending to the priorities of corporations and their political enablers? writes Bruce Campbell Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction record Canada's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), represent its commitment under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by 45 to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035, building on its emissions' reduction plan of 40 to 45 per cent by 2030. Canada's commitment to reach net-zero by 2050 is codified in law through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act. Canada has been a laggard in meeting its emissions reduction targets. In his 2024 report, Canada's commissioner of the environment and sustainable development warned that since 2005, Canada's emissions have declined by 7.1 per cent, still a long way from reaching the reduction of at least 40 per cent required by 2030. Canadian banks and other financial institutions continue to invest heavily in fossil fuel projects. The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a global, member-led initiative supporting banks to lead on climate mitigation in line with the Paris Agreement goals, has seen more than 140 banks, including Canada's big banks, leave the alliance since the election of the Trump administration. The Canada Pension Plan recently dropped its commitment to align its investments with the country's net-zero action targets. Carney Government climate-related actions In his election victory speech, Carney said, 'It's time to build an industrial strategy that makes Canada more competitive while fighting climate change.' Carney also promised action to increase clean energy infrastructure, particularly interprovincial transmission ties to help electrify the economy. Carney appointed Tim Hodgson — former chairperson at Ontario Hydro One and formerly on the board of fossil fuel company MEG Energy — to serve as energy and natural resources minister; Hodgson is a former Goldman Sachs banker and worked alongside Carney at the Bank of Canada. Hodgson's speech at a Calgary gathering pressed for the Pathways Alliance project to proceed with a proposed carbon-capture facility in the oilsands region of northern Alberta. Negotiations are currently underway which suggest that the carbon emissions cap could be changed if there are meaningful advances toward the realization of its carbon capture and storage project (CCS). Many questions remain about carbon capture and storage feasibility. An Oxford University study concluded that regarding CCS 'as a way to compensate for ongoing fossil fuel burning is economically illiterate.' While Hodgson has been at the forefront of Carney government pronouncements, Julie Dabrusin, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, has been missing in action. Michael Sabia, recently appointed by Carney as the Clerk of the Privy Council, the head of the public service, is woven from the same cloth as both Carney and Hodgson. Carney's mandate letter to cabinet stated the government's intention for Canada to become an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy. The letter outlined seven priorities, none of which explicitly mentioned climate. It simply stated: 'We will fight climate change.' The Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III mentioned the creation of a federal project office committed to building an industrial strategy to make Canada more globally competitive, 'while fighting climate change.' At the meeting between the federal government and premiers, a joint statement was issued reading, in part, 'First Ministers agreed that Canada must work urgently to get Canadian natural resources and commodities to domestic and international markets, such as critical minerals and decarbonized Canadian oil and gas by pipelines…' The very term 'decarbonized oil and gas' has been denounced by the co-chair of the federal Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB), climate scientist Simon Donner, as Orwellian. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was 'encouraged' by the federal government's change of tone on pipelines. On June 6, Carney introduced Bill C-5. The bill includes the Building Canada Act, which gives the government the power to circumvent environmental laws to get major resource projects built. The Canadian Environmental Law Association warned that Bill C-5 could fast-track environmentally risky mega-projects across the country while undermining federal laws designed to safeguard the environment, human health, and Indigenous rights. Navigating between corporate interests and the health of the planet For someone very knowledgeable about the climate threat to the planet, Carney's actions thus far are not encouraging. Going forward, will he implement measures necessary to ensure the government meets its Paris Agreement commitments? What changes will his cabinet make to its emissions cap on fossil fuel company emissions? Will he finalize methane regulations for oil and gas, finalize the clean electricity investment tax credit, establish a made-in-Canada climate taxonomy, mandate the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board to provide binding obligations for public companies, adopt Senator Rosa Galvez' (CAFA) — a bill to ensure financial institutions align their activities with Canada's climate commitments under the Paris Agreement? Carney's actions thus far leave my optimism hanging by a thread.
