Chris Selley: Canadian protectionism is on the march
Article content
Article content
But now consider this headline from hell in the Toronto Star this week: 'Everyone wants the new TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) subway cars to be made in Canada.'
Article content
Article content
'Everyone' in this case is all three levels of government involved: Toronto city council, led by an NDP mayor; the provincial government, led by a Progressive Conservative premier; and the federal government, led by a Liberal prime minister. So, not literally everyone, though I get the sense we're not far away from the latter, even as we're supposedly trying to project a free-trading image to the world. Right and left are united, at least rhetorically, on the 'buy Canadian' thing.
When Rob Ford won the Toronto mayoral election in 2010, bringing brother Doug along with him to city council, one of their major complaints against former mayor David Miller was that under his watch, the city had paid far too much for new subway cars in order to ensure they were built by Bombardier in Thunder Bay, Ont. — which is more than a 15-hour drive from Toronto, and which many Torontonians probably couldn't place on a map.
Article content
Article content
As the 'Canada is not for sale' premier, Doug Ford is now David Miller. 'I am requesting that the City of Toronto recognize this historic opportunity and consider a sole-source procurement with Alstom, which would support Ontario workers in Thunder Bay and across our province,' Ford's provincial Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria wrote recently to the city. (Alstom, a French company, gobbled up Bombardier Transportation in 2021.)
Article content
'With the procurement of these subway trains, I am supportive of any action that accomplishes a build Canada option in a manner that is consistent with the city of Toronto's legal obligations,' federal Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson wrote to Mayor Olivia Chow this week.
Article content
Any action? If I'm Alstom right now, I'm seeing nothing but dollar signs.
Article content
It's one thing to rule out American or Chinese companies. I wouldn't — the best deal is the best deal — but it's at least coherent: China is not a Canadian ally, and Trump is taking dead aim at the Canadian economy. But the past few decades have seen a very welcome move away from protectionism in public-transit procurement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
When cities keep doing the wrong thing
At the Crossroads of Canada, people can once again cross the road. Barriers that stopped pedestrians in Winnipeg from walking across the intersection at Portage and Main for nearly half a century were recently removed. It was an overdue decision, and a reminder that cities shouldn't wait to be forced into doing the right thing. In plenty of places, the right and obvious decision that will build a better city is put off as politicians avoid hard choices. Paraphrasing a sentiment apocryphally attributed to Winston Churchill, cities often do the right thing only after exhausting all other possibilities. The small-town mayor in the movie Jaws stands out, even 50 years after the movie's release, as a fictional epitome of this civic myopia. He is determined to keep the beaches open in spite of a marauding shark. Viewers will recall that a young child gets eaten as a result. Only then were swimmers kept out of the water. In less gruesome ways, that mayor's instinct to try everything but the obvious is equally common in the real world. The benefits of opening Portage and Main have long been clear. It will knit together a city centre now divided by eight- and nine-lane roads, encourage more walking and ultimately make the area safer and more prosperous. But suburban worries about traffic delays took precedence over improving the downtown. So pedestrians needing to get across Portage and Main kept getting shunted down urine-tinged stairways into a bleak underground concourse. To City Hall, this was fine. Only when faced with a $73-million bill to fix the waterproofing of the subterranean passage did it decide it was too expensive to keep doing the wrong thing. The change won't turn downtown Winnipeg overnight into a pedestrian mecca. People navigating on foot the Crossroads of Canada, named for its proximity to the country's longitudinal middle, must still cross many lanes, including multiple turn lanes, but it's a step in the right direction. A nation's crossroads: Winnipeg's famed Portage and Main intersection, shut to pedestrians for nearly half a century, has been reborn Unfortunately, civic foot-dragging is not unique to the City of Winnipeg. Consider the economics of sprawl. Cities that exploded in size in the latter half of the 20th century were able to do so cheaply because of constant expansion. Fees charged on new development helped keep taxes down for existing residents. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a sort of Ponzi scheme. Such an approach works – if one is willing to set aside the loss of green space and increasingly awful commutes that an expanding city requires – as long as there was more land to be developed. When the land within city boundaries runs out, the party stops. And typically that means substantial property tax increases, because it's expensive to provide city services to homes that are spread out. Moderately increased density can both help postpone the day the land runs out and soften the tax blow, because such housing is cheaper to service. Politicians know this, but they pretend otherwise in order to avoid angering residents who don't like change. Or consider how road space is divvied up in a crowded metropolis. It's self-evident in dense cities, where the roads are essentially full, that future residents will not all be able to drive. As a result, the proportion of people who get around by car will gradually decline in Canadian cities. That will require a sea change in how politicians view transportation. Making life better for non-drivers, especially people who take transit, will help cities attract the residents they need. This is why ideas such as bus-only lanes should no longer be controversial. Rejecting them is saying that drivers matter more than transit riders, that existing residents matter more than newcomers. Making it easier to get around by transit, bicycle and on foot is not an ideological stance, it's an acknowledgement that space on the road has to be shared among many users. However, instead of accepting this reality, too many city politicians fight rearguard actions to preserve the status quo. Winnipeg, refreshingly, is turning a downtown street roughly parallel to Portage into a pedestrian zone. It is also refurbishing a park near the arena where the Jets play. Doing all that without improving Portage and Main, which local councillor Vivian Santos called 'the heartbeat of Winnipeg,' would have been foolishly short-sighted. Luckily, after resisting as long as possible, city council eventually did the right thing.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ottawa weighing plans on AI and copyright as OpenAI fights Ontario court jurisdiction
OTTAWA – Canada's artificial intelligence minister is keeping a close watch on ongoing court cases in Canada and the U.S. to determine next steps for the government's regulatory approach to AI. Some AI companies have claimed early wins south of the border and OpenAI is now fighting the jurisdiction of an Ontario court to hear a lawsuit by news publishers. Evan Solomon's office said in a statement he plans to address copyright 'within Canada's broader AI regulatory approach, with a focus on protecting cultural sovereignty and how [creators] factor into this conversation.' But there are no current plans for a stand-alone copyright bill, as Solomon's office is 'closely monitoring the ongoing court cases and market developments' to help chart the path forward. It's unclear how long it will take for those court cases to determine whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted content to train their AI products. The sole Canadian case to pose the question was launched late last year by a coalition of news publishers, and the Ontario Superior Court is set to hear a jurisdictional challenge in September. The coalition, which includes The Canadian Press, Torstar, the Globe and Mail, Postmedia and CBC/Radio-Canada, is suing OpenAI for using news content to train its generative artificial intelligence system. The news publishers argue OpenAI is breaching copyright by scraping large amounts of content from Canadian media, then profiting from the use of that content without permission or compensation. They said in court filings that OpenAI has 'engaged in ongoing, deliberate, and unauthorized misappropriation of [their] valuable news media works.' 'Rather than seek to obtain the information legally, OpenAI has elected to brazenly misappropriate the News Media Companies' valuable intellectual property and convert it for its own uses, including commercial uses, without consent or consideration.' OpenAI has denied the allegations, and previously said its models are trained on publicly available data and 'grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles.' The company, which is headquartered in San Francisco, is challenging the jurisdiction of the Ontario court to hear the case. It argued in a court filing it's not located in Ontario and it does not do business in the province. 'There is no real or substantial connection to Ontario as between the defendants and the issues alleged in the statement of claim,' the company said. OpenAI also argued the Copyright Act doesn't apply outside of Canada. OpenAI is asking the court to seal some documents in the case. The court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the sealing motion on July 30, according to a schedule outlined in court documents. It asked the court to seal documents containing 'commercially sensitive' information, including information about its corporate organization and structure, its web crawling and fetching processes and systems, and its 'model training and inference processes, systems, resource allocations and/or cost structures.' 'The artificial intelligence industry is highly competitive and developing at a rapid pace. Competitors in this industry are many, and range from large, established technology companies such as Google and Amazon, to smaller startups seeking to establish a foothold in the industry,' says an affidavit submitted by the company. 'As recognized leaders in the artificial intelligence industry, competitors and potential competitors to the defendants would benefit from having access to confidential information of the defendants.' A lawyer for the news publishers provided information on the court deadlines but did not provide comment on the case. Numerous lawsuits dealing with AI systems and copyright are underway in the United States, some dating back to 2023. In late June, AI companies won victories in two of those cases. In a case launched by a group of authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, a judge ruled AI systems' use of published work was fair use, and that the authors didn't demonstrate that use would result in market dilution. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. But the judge also said his ruling affects only those specific authors — whose lawyers didn't make the right arguments — and does not mean Meta's use of copyrighted material to train its systems was legal. Judge Vince Chhabria noted in his summary judgment that in 'the grand scheme of things, the consequences of this ruling are limited.' In a separate U.S. case, a judge ruled that the use by AI company Anthropic of published books without permission to train its systems was fair use. But Judge William Alsup also ruled that Anthropic 'had no entitlement to use pirated copies.' Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia University's law school who studies intellectual property and technology, said it would be too simplistic to just look at the cases as complete wins for the AI companies. 'I think both the question of how much weight to give the pirate nature of the sources, and the question of market dilution, are going to be big issues in other cases,' Ginsburg said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Family of Canadian woman detained by ICE says it's a ‘nightmare'
WASHINGTON, D. C. – Paula Callejas was trying to expand her swimsuit business in Florida after taking time off to take care of her ailing father in Canada before his death. Instead of celebrating the fashion line, the Canadian was taken into United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. The 45-year-old's family said their finances are being stretched as they try to navigate the confusing and difficult legal and immigration systems in the United States. 'She was very strong, very strong,' said her mother Maria Estella Cano. 'Now every, every day she (cries), every day and (says) she can't take it anymore.' U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up deportation efforts since his return to the White House in January after successfully campaigning on a promise to take drastic actions on illegal immigration. The immigration crackdown includes controversial actions like targeting students for protesting, as well as sending people to a notorious prison in El Salvador. There has been an increase in raids by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called ICE, at restaurants and farms amid dramatic standoffs with protesters. While Trump's team have said they are targeting criminals first, they also said anyone in the country illegally will be deported. Callejas was born and raised in Montreal after her family immigrated from Colombia. She started her swimsuit line in Canada around 2012 and was gaining momentum but when her father became unwell she paused her dreams to help care for him. Following her father's 2020 death, Callejas restarted her efforts to build a swimsuit company. Family said she did a few runway shows in Florida over the years and saw that there was real opportunity for her fashion line to develop in the state. She even was invited to take part in Miami Swim Week last year. She bought property in Florida, her mother said, and lived a modest life while working to build the brand. Family said they believed she was in the United States on a non-immigrant visa for people with special skills that was set to expire in March. They said she applied for an extension in February, but it was denied for a technical reason around the colour of ink used to sign the document. Family said Callejas reapplied, thinking the issue was solved. On March 28, Callejas was arrested for battery after family said there was an altercation with her then-boyfriend. Family say Callejas maintains her innocence in the situation and said she was defending herself. After posting bail, her family said Callejas was taken into ICE custody. An ICE spokesperson said Callejas entered the United States on a non-immigrant visitor visa and violated the terms of her admission. ICE said she will 'remain in custody pending completion of her immigration proceedings.' Cano said her daughter's detainment has been a 'nightmare' for the family. 'Every time I open my eyes, it is not real life,' Cano said, holding back tears. Family said Callejas has been transferred to at least three different facilities. Finances are being exhausted as they try to get legal representation. They said it cost US$5,000 just for one lawyer to submit paperwork. As Callejas spends more time in detention, her mental health is also suffering, family said. Canos said she wants her daughter to be able to have a fair chance to defend herself in court. Her next appearance for the criminal charge is on Monday. Cano said when that is resolved they want Callejas to leave the United States on her own accord so that she can finish her visa application from Canada and continue her dreams of a swimwear line. Global Affairs Canada said it could not provide information about particular cases because of privacy concerns. The department said on June 27 it was aware of about 55 Canadians detained by ICE. The number of cases has remained relatively stable in recent months, it said, however it fluctuates as cases are resolved and new cases arise. Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian citizen, died in ICE custody in South Florida in June. Noviello was being detained pending removal from the U.S., officials said. He entered the U.S. in 1988 on a legal visa and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. He was convicted of drug trafficking and other charges in 2023 and sentenced to a year in prison, officials said. Noviello was picked up by ICE agents at his probation office last month and charged with removability because of his drug conviction, authorities said. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on social media at the time that 'Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from U.S. officials.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.
