Carney highlights aid Gander residents gave U.S. during 9/11 at N.L. campaign stop
Carney's podium speech included a nod to Gander's response during the attacks, which saw residents step up to support travellers when planes were diverted to Gander.
"We have to look out for ourselves, and we have to look out for each other like you did in Gander," Carney told a crowd that had gathered.
"Unfortunately, President Trump's actions have put that kinship under greater strain."
Carney's speech concluded by telling the crowd he would fight for Canada in his mandate.
His visit also included conversations with residents of Gander who helped travellers — and particularly, Americans — during 9/11. Diane Davis told CBC News she spoke with Carney for about an hour.
"We talked about the fact that, you know, we have to be proud of who we are, and we can't let threats change how we react to people in need," Davis said.
WATCH | Liberal Leader Mark Carney draws on Canada's 9/11 response at a Gander, N.L., campaign stop:
Carney talks 9/11 response at Gander campaign stop
4 hours ago
Duration 1:48
"We had a lot of things in common in our conversation. He's very easy to talk to."
Davis said she also told Carney of the positive repercussions that have come in the decades that have followed Sept. 11. She'll soon be meeting virtually with high school students in Maine to tell them about it, and said it's important that Americans be reminded of it.
"I showed [Carney] cards where Grade 8 students had thanked me…. One of the cards that I just happened to pull out, the little girl said 'Your stories of kindness inspire me to be more kind," Davis said.
"I think it's important to be kind. It's also important to put your foot down and be strong, and I think we can do both."
Among the crowd was 17-year-old Joseph Scott, who told CBC News he resonated with Carney's words.
"I guess it's good to have somebody on Canadians' side. I'm proud to be Canadian, but there's a lot of stuff going on right now," Scott said. "[I heard] some good stuff, some promising things, and I hope, you know, it will come true."
Central candidate commits to supporting harvesters
Carney kicked off his election campaign in St. John's on Sunday, promising tax cuts while addressing the hundreds of protesting fish harvesters that had gathered outside the city's convention centre.
During his speech, Carney acknowledged the protesting harvesters, and said he is there to listen. He said his government will take a closer look at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, with the goal of creating a sustainable fishery and potentially restructuring the department.
Lynette Powell, the acclaimed Liberal candidate for Central Newfoundland, said she's hoping to learn more about the issue from voters but backed Carney's commitment.
"I'm going to figure out what their concerns are, and I'm going to work on their behalf. I know they're frustrated and it's their livelihood. I see what happens when they can't work, so I am very invested," Powell said.
"All of us want this fishery to be around so that our grandkids are still able to fish."
Powell said she's running to ensure that rural Newfoundland is properly represented nationally.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
23 minutes ago
- Global News
Realtor helping LGBTQ2 Americans find acceptance by relocating to N.S.
A Halifax Realtor is helping LGBTQ2 Americans find safety and acceptance by relocating to Nova Scotia. With ongoing tensions in the U.S., Jody Allen offers those in fear a fresh start in a welcoming environment. He says it started as a simple social media reply to a post from someone looking for a queer-friendly realtor in the province. 'The next thing I knew, they were sharing my contact information through their network and just kind of spiralled and then I was getting emails from people saying, 'You know, I'm really interested in what you're doing,'' he said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Allen says what seems easy on paper was not what it turned out to be. Canada does not have refugee status for same-sex couples and immigration claims are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Story continues below advertisement So he contacted six immigration firms looking for guidance on the immigration process. He only heard from one willing to help. Currently, Allen is working with Americans from several states who are interested in moving to Nova Scotia. 'You have people who have been married or were some of the first same-sex couples in the United States who were legally married who now have that union threatened,' he said. Allen says his goal wasn't to become an advocate or boost his career, but he knows personally how difficult it was to come out in the early '90s in rural Nova Scotia. That's what inspires him to help those in the LGBTQ2 community feel safe. 'Some of the people that I work with have been advocates for their entire adult lives. So if I can do anything to impact someone's life who has impacted mine unknowingly, of course. No question,' he said. For more on this story, watch the video above.
National Observer
38 minutes ago
- National Observer
Wet'suwet'en complaint to bank puts Ottawa on notice over nation-building agenda
The Wet'suwet'en Nation has spent years fighting fossil fuel projects that rip through their land in British Columbia without consent. Now, as familiar threats mount, the nation has taken the issue to Tokyo — where a corporate battle could serve as a warning for Prime Minister Mark Carney as he pursues his infrastructure agenda. Wet'suwet'en hereditary Chief Na'Moks filed a complaint last week with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation's (JBIC) independently appointed environmental examiners — tasked with investigating alleged environmental wrongdoing — detailing environmental harms and human rights abuses from the construction of the Coastal Gaslink project that transports fracked gas from the Montney region in the province's northeast to LNG Canada's export terminal on the coast. The bank loaned US $850 million to the project in 2021. 'Despite the Wet'suwet'en having repeatedly rejected the project, JBIC proceeded to approve financing for the LNG Canada terminal and the associated Coastal GasLink pipeline without securing proper [free, prior and informed consent],' the filing reads. The filing called the approval without the hereditary chiefs' consent 'a fundamental breach of both Canadian law and international human rights standards.' The issues raised in the complaint may hinge on actions taken in the past, but as Carney prioritizes major projects in the name of nation-building, the concerns detailed in the filing serve as a warning for the risks ahead, Na'Moks told Canada's National Observer. 'We're living in a petrostate being enforced by a police state,' he said in a phone call from the sidelines of the First Nations major projects summit. 'Everybody goes 'Oh not in Canada.' 'I said, 'Wait until they come through your doors with axes and power saws. Wait until you step outside and have snipers.'' 'We're living in a petrostate being enforced by a police state,' Wet'suwet'en Nation Hereditary Chief Na'Moks said. "Wait until they come through your doors with axes and power saws. Wait until you step outside and have snipers.' At the First Nations summit last week, Carney said no major projects have been finalized and he was there to listen to Indigenous leadership. However, as Canada's National Observer reported, there are more than a dozen megaprojects already under consideration. Multiple government sources have told Canada's National Observer that an expansion to LNG Canada is very likely to make Carney's list. Ultimately the decision to invest rests with LNG Canada's owners (Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and the Korean Gas Corporation), but incentivizing the companies to invest appears to be a major priority for Carney's government. That's concerning to We'suwet'en hereditary leadership. The complaint filed against JBIC urges the bank to 'immediately suspend any further financing' of the LNG Canada project, including potential expansions. Na'Moks said his experience watching a major project built through his nation's territory without consent gives him an up-close view to the risks that are now afoot as Ottawa contemplates a renewed push to build. 'We know we were the template for how they're going to protect industry without our approval,' he said. Battling the banks As the Coastal Gaslink pipeline was being built four years ago, land defenders from the nation and its allies blockaded roads and set up camp at the Gidimt'en Checkpoint to slow construction and push costs up in a bid to stop the pipeline. Armed RCMP officers hacked through the door of one small cabin to arrest those inside in a dramatic scene captured by photojournalist Amber Bracken and filmmaker Michael Toladano (an event that is now the subject of a lawsuit from Bracken's employer, The Narwhal). Weeks later, more land defenders were arrested at standoffs with police, with several claiming dehumanizing treatment as they were hauled to police headquarters and held in enclosures the size of a 'dog kennel.' The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in 2022 it 'profoundly regrets and is concerned' that Canada is forcibly removing Indigenous land defenders from their unceded territory, and the provincial and federal governments have been similarly condemned by leading human rights group Amnesty International. As the furor around those arrests faded, Wet'suwet'en hereditary leadership continued to fight the pipeline by targeting its financiers. They attended shareholder meetings and confronted bank leadership. Nevertheless, the pipeline was built and the first shipment of LNG from Kitimat departed this summer. Na'Moks said the nation decided to file a complaint with the JBIC because the bank finances LNG Canada. The bank has environmental and social guidelines to help determine which projects to invest in, but the complaint alleges JBIC failed to meaningfully implement them. Na'Moks said that filing the complaint is to provide the 'right information' because the reports the bank has received are 'a copy and paste from industry and government.' 'Without the CGL pipeline, the LNG Canada terminal would not be viable; and without JBIC's financing, this export infrastructure system would not have progressed at its current scale,' the complaint reads. 'JBIC's financing played a decisive role in enabling this interconnected system. And by failing to adequately review the impacts of its associated facility, JBIC bears responsibility for contributing to the resulting harm.' JBIC did not return a request for comment. De-escalating a fraught situation LNG Canada's first shipment overseas marks a turning point for the gas sector in Canada. Before the LNG export terminal began sending shipments abroad, 99.9 per cent of Canadian gas exports headed into the United States. With US President Donald Trump threatening a drawn-out trade war, Carney riding to victory in April's election on a promise to build up Canada's economic resilience, and the fossil fuel industry lobbying for more oil and gas infrastructure, the country is staring down the barrel of a major fossil fuel expansion — including in Kitimat itself. If LNG Canada Phase 2 is built, expanding export capacity at the site will involve increasing storage tanks, new processing facilities and more tanker traffic through vulnerable coastal waters. But it will also mean increasing the amount of gas fracked in northeastern BC, and sending more gas through the Coastal GasLink pipeline. To do that, additional compressor stations will need to be built to squeeze more gas into the pipeline. 'With more gas flowing you have increased risk,' said Richard Brooks, climate finance director at To stay onside with UNDRIP, as Carney has committed, communities like the Wet'suwet'en First Nation would have to consent to new facilities like compressor stations being built — otherwise their rights under both Canadian and international law would be violated. For Brooks, this is a major lesson Ottawa must learn. When Indigenous rights are 'trampled,' opposition to proposed projects skyrocket — and that then impacts the viability of the projects. He pointed to increased legal costs, security costs and lengthy delays that push construction costs higher. 'Indigenous communities have proven time and time again … that they have the power to slow and stop projects from moving ahead,' he said. 'So this is why it's so important to have First Nations involved from the beginning to be proponents of these projects, to have the process be one that is not imposed, but rather is a collaborative process, whatever project it is.' Carney has said projects will proceed with Indigenous consent, but by putting in place legislation to fast-track projects before securing consent from nations who could be affected, there are plenty of risks ahead, said Senwung Luk, a partner at law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, specializing in Aboriginal rights and title and the Crown's fiduciary obligations to First Nations. Luk said Carney would have been better off starting with a list of projects, and thinking about which nations would need to consent to figure out how to build them — rather than starting with a new law that gives the federal government the ability to bulldoze over concerns. 'It's an odd way to start a conversation, to point a nuclear weapon at the person that you're trying to talk to,' he said. 'If you believe in free, prior and informed consent, you can't only believe in that except for when Indigenous people oppose your project,' he said. 'That wouldn't be any sort of meaningful concept of consent.'
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Montreal group takes campaign to restore U.S. foreign aid to Times Square
OTTAWA – A Montreal-based organization promoting democracy and digital rights is using a billboard in New York's iconic Times Square to urge Americans to resist cuts to U.S. foreign aid. 'A retreat by the United States will mean that the weight balances in favour of digital authoritarianism, and away from what are essentially Canadian values,' said Alex Dalessio, executive director of eQualitie. The organization works to advance digital security for civil society and media around the world, allowing people in oppressive states to circumvent censorship and surveillance to communicate securely. Dalessio's group has partnered with the American branch of Transparency International to post a 10-second message urging Americans to 'support foreign aid' on a video billboard in the heart of Manhattan over 90 days. 'Instability abroad puts American jobs and safety at risk,' the billboard message says, adding that foreign aid builds 'a stronger America.' The message will be displayed more than 11,000 times. Dalessio said the campaign isn't 'targeted' at the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and noted that European countries are also cutting back on foreign aid. His organization says it's politically neutral but wants Americans to think about the impacts of the U.S. pulling back from foreign aid after decades of funding development work that has helped spread democratic values around the world. 'Regardless of who made these changes to foreign aid, we would have made this message,' Dalessio said. 'The role of foreign aid, in the advancement of tools that support informed and educated democracies around the world, cannot be overstated.' Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk with gutting the United States Agency for International Development earlier this year, slashing its workforce and eliminating 83 per cent of USAID's programs. The cuts have led to sudden halts in medical trials, hunger in refugee camps and cutbacks in access to HIV treatment and contraceptives in poorer countries. Dalessio said it's not clear yet what kind of impact those cuts have had on efforts to fight political repression abroad. Washington subsequently restored funding to some of the programs it had cut, while others went through what Dalessio described as 'significant' layoffs. 'We felt to some extent like there were a lot of articles about it, but there wasn't a lot of action being taken,' he said. Transparency International fights corruption abroad by assessing governance in various countries, while eQualitie works to empower those trying to build strong civil societies. Their work involves training locals to use technology to hold their governments to account and push back on repression. Dalessio said that repressive states have been using technology to surveil citizens and block their access to outside news 'as an extension of state power … to manage dissent, to direct election outcomes, or to influence the population at large.' 'This is certainly becoming normalized,' he added. 'We're seeing it in on every continent.' Dalessio said he hopes the U.S. reverses the cuts and that Canada joins its peers in 'leaning in and supporting some of these programs.' He argued that foreign aid spending could even count toward NATO's military spending target for defence-related infrastructure, since instability leads to costly conflict. NATO itself has said that hostile states are actively undermining democracies and neighbouring states. 'What's going on in the U.S. will have implications for democracy worldwide,' Dalessio said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2025.
