'This is a particularly bad time': How the U.S. tariffs could affect the Canadian film and television industry
Still, the anxiety around the tariffs is lingering, and so many questions still remain about what it will mean for Canadians. While many have speculated about the price of groceries or the future of the auto industry, there's another sector left to consider: the screen industry.
"This year, there seems to be so many different crises, one piled atop another, that it is just a bad time. It's never a good time, hasn't been a good time in a long time. But this is a particularly bad time," says The Globe and Mail's film and deputy arts editor Barry Hertz.
Today on Commotion, Hertz checks in with host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to explain how the U.S. tariffs could impact the Canadian film and television industries.
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Winnipeg Free Press
24 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canadian teen visits Ukraine to support efforts to recover children taken by Russia
OTTAWA – Sixteen-year-old Jaden Braves says he chose to travel to Ukraine and volunteer for a humanitarian aid group operating in a war zone because he thinks young people need to step up when others are suffering. Braves, who is from Toronto and is the founder of the Young Politicians of Canada, was in Kyiv for about two weeks in July. He told The Canadian Press he was there to support the organization Save Ukraine, which organizes rescue missions to return Ukrainian children taken by Russia. 'That's kind of pushed me to come to a war zone for the first time,' he said. 'I think it's about totally humbling yourself and saying that you're prepared to, you know, put yourself at risk for something that you understand is so important to the greater good.' A team of experts at Yale University has estimated that as many as 35,000 Ukrainian children may be held in Russia and its occupied territories. It is feared that many have been taken by Russian forces and sent to military camps or foster care, or have been adopted by Russian families. Braves said that while he was in Ukraine, he met with the Canadian and Austrian ambassadors and other officials to see how countries like Canada and those in the EU can support Ukraine, especially in the wake of U.S. cuts to overseas aid. 'It's just about slowly figuring that out, how can we be successful in ensuring Ukraine wins and ensuring that 30,000 kids that have been wrongfully kidnapped and are experiencing sexual abuse and are experiencing militarization and brainwashing can be brought home,' Braves told The Canadian Press Tuesday from the basement of the InterContinental hotel in Kyiv during an air raid alert. Braves said he also attended an anticorruption protest in Kyiv and met with young people who have been rescued by Save Ukraine to hear their stories. He said he spoke to people from England and New Zealand who are in the country doing humanitarian work. 'We've definitely worked on figuring out where there's opportunity to collaborate,' he said. The Government of Canada website says Canada has committed $6.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of 2022. It also says Canada has allocated more than $585 million in development assistance and $372.2 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Braves said he's been working to figure out how Canada can effectively roll out that support for Ukraine. He said that before heading to Kyiv, he attended various conferences in other European countries for about a month, including the UN Ocean Summit in Nice and the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague. He said he also visited Cambridge, U.K., to work on data projects and Georgia to deliver lectures and host an English leadership camp. Braves said his journey to Kyiv was long and included a 17-hour train ride from Poland. He said that while he stayed in an apartment most of the time in Kyiv, he spent two nights in an underground metro station filled with civilians sheltering from Russian airstrikes. Braves said being in Kyiv allowed him to learn about the 'incredibly vibrant' Ukrainian culture and the country's strength. 'I've witnessed a story of resilience when a country continues to be under fire that just decides they will not take missiles as an excuse to move out of the land that they call home,' he said. 'I understand that democracy and Western civilization has been the best representation of successful society as we know it, and that must be preserved, and that's compelled me sufficiently to figure out how I can help.' Braves said he was inspired to get involved when participating in the NATO summit in Washington in 2024 as a representative of NATO Canada. 'I was kind of enlightened to a global movement to protect the front lines of democracy,' he said. 'That NATO summit really woke me up to the need to commit to Ukraine and I saw the efforts that Canada has been putting in.' Braves said that Canada is co-chair of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and that, as a Canadian, he also felt responsible for that work. Braves said he's working on forming a coalition of young Canadians to press for the return of Ukrainians taken by Russia. He said he has been in touch with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand's office to discuss how Canada can help bring those children home. 'I look forward to coming back to Canada and continuing to ensure Canada can collaborate further with Ukraine,' Braves said. 'We as young people need to go support other young people that are in very dire situations like other places in the world where we're seeing humanitarian crises. This is certainly one of them.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2025.
CBC
25 minutes ago
- CBC
This is the court case that could kneecap most Trump tariffs
Most of the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed on countries around the world face a crucial legal test on Thursday. The hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit involves a pair of lawsuits challenging the 25 per cent tariff Trump levied on imports from Canada and Mexico in March and what Trump called his "Liberation Day" tariffs, imposed on nearly every other country in April. At issue is whether Trump's justifications for the tariffs hold any legal water, given the president has limited powers to levy duties on foreign countries. Canada is watching the case closely because of its implications for the tariffs Trump imposed ostensibly to combat cross-border fentanyl trafficking — tariffs that he's threatening to raise to 35 per cent on Friday. Todd Tucker, director of industrial policy and trade at the Roosevelt Institute, a Washington think-tank, says the legal challenge to Trump's tariffs has global economic implications. "Trump is disrupting global trade relations in a way that we haven't seen since the 1930s," Tucker said in an interview with CBC News. WATCH | Carney on European Union's trade deal with U.S.: Carney says Canada is 'in a different position' than EU on trade deal with U.S. 3 days ago When asked by a reporter if Canada could see a similar trade deal with the United States as the European Union's, which includes a 15 per cent tariff, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Europe and Canada have different relationships with the U.S., particularly because the U.S. needs Canadian energy. "Some kind of favourable, even partial victory for the plaintiffs in these cases will sort of put the global economy back on a more secure footing," he said. The case, which has moved further through the courts than any other legal challenge of Trump's tariffs, brings together two related lawsuits: Five small businesses, led by a New York wine importer, challenging the Liberation Day tariffs. Twelve states, led by Oregon, challenging both the Liberation Day tariffs and the tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Both sets of plaintiffs won their case at the U.S. Court of International Trade in late May. That ruling found the president overstepped his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the statute Trump used to impose both sets of tariffs. Oral arguments take place Thursday in the Trump administration's appeal of that ruling Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center, a non-profit public interest litigation firm representing the five small businesses, says the case aims to rein in what he describes as presidential overreach. "The case is about whether the president has the power to unilaterally impose tariffs on any country he wants, at any rate he wants, at any time he wants, for any reason he wants," said Schwab in an interview with CBC News. "Congress ultimately has that power under our constitution, and although Congress can delegate that power to the president, they have not done so." Do tariffs 'deal with' fentanyl crisis? The IEEPA gives the president the authority to use emergency economic measures to "deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." The Trump administration's argument — both in his executive order levying the tariffs on Canada and in its legal brief filed for the appeal — is that the flow of fentanyl across the country's northern border constitutes that "unusual and extraordinary threat." The administration claimed the tariffs "deal with" the fentanyl threat by giving the U.S. leverage to pressure Canada to address the issue. Trump's justification for the tariffs on Mexico is similar: that drug trafficking and illegal immigration across the southern border constitute an emergency, and that tariffs provide leverage to force the Mexican government to take action. But the Court of International Trade didn't buy those arguments. WATCH | Canada might not get deal on tariffs by deadline, says Trump: Trump says U.S. 'hasn't had a lot of luck with Canada' in trade talks 5 days ago 'Pretty major national significance' The court ruled that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico do not actually deal with the specific threats Trump cited. It also ruled that the "Liberation Day" tariffs were applied too broadly across the globe to be truly addressing an emergency. That ruling struck down both sets of tariffs, but almost immediately, the Trump administration requested and obtained a stay, which meant the tariffs have continued to apply. Molly Nixon, a Washington-based attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, a national public interest firm, says whichever side wins the appeal, it's very likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. "This is a question of pretty major national significance," Nixon told CBC News. "I would be very surprised if the Supreme Court didn't review the case." No president before Trump has used the IEEPA to impose tariffs. His predecessors have used its powers to levy sanctions on enemy regimes, to ban transactions with groups that are deemed terrorist organizations or to freeze the assets of designated transnational criminal organizations. Small business owner 'deeply invested' in case While Canadians are predominantly interested in the case for its impact on the fentanyl tariffs, David Levi, an electrical engineer in Charlottesville, Va., is deeply invested in the "Liberation Day" side of the case. Levi owns MicroKits, a small business that designs and sells make-them-yourself gadget kits and musical instruments. His company is one of the five small-business plaintiffs pursuing the lawsuit. "The tariffs really affect me, because I have to buy parts internationally," Levi said, adding that the high tariff rates announced on Chinese imports and the uncertainty over costs disrupted his business. "My worker who actually puts all the parts together, her hours have been cut 40 per cent and in the last three or four months we've missed out on thousands of units of production," he said. WATCH | Trump press secretary reacts to court ruling on tariffs: White House accuses 'unelected judges' of interfering with Trump's tariff agenda | Power & Politics 2 months ago Appeal court ruling expected within weeks Thursday's hearing is before the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit. The case is moving through the courts at what is, for the U.S. legal system, lightning speed. Legal observers say they expect the appeal court to issue a ruling within weeks, likely by early September. That could soon be followed by the losing party petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal. The case does not address Trump's 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from around the world, which he imposed using a different statute, the president's long-established power to levy duties on imports for reasons of national security. Other Canadian exports that comply with the rules of origin in the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement are exempt from the fentanyl tariffs, which means .
CBC
25 minutes ago
- CBC
We asked: How are you boycotting the U.S.?
Social Sharing As a trade deadline with the U.S. hangs over Canada, we have been hearing about Canadians taking the ongoing trade war into their own hands. So we asked you to email ask@ to tell us how and why you have been boycotting U.S. goods and travel. Dozens of you answered the call and told us what you're doing. Unsurprisingly, most mentioned searching out more Canadian products and adopting an "anything but American" mentality when Canadian alternatives aren't available. You also told us about skipping out on travel to the U.S. and becoming more mindful about where you are spending your money. 'Rabid label readers' One of the most common things we heard from Canadians is that they have become more vigilant when it comes to reading labels in the grocery store to see where a product has been made. "I'm still checking labels to make sure everything I buy is made in Canada or a trade-friendly country," Rita Bailey told us. Bailey also said she's willing to take the time to research where a product comes from before buying it. "Shopping this way makes me stop and think, 'Do I really need this?' It has encouraged me to take a step outside the consumer culture, and that is good for my bank account and for my mental/spiritual well-being." Larry Sharpe told us that he and his wife have been boycotting U.S. goods since the day Donald Trump was sworn into office and that the U.S. president's latest tariff policies have only reinforced his position. "My wife and I are fervent buyers of Canadian products, almost since day one." Sharpe wrote. "We became rabid label readers." Refusing to cross the border Sharpe told us that his boycott extends beyond reading labels and buying Canadian. He says he won't cross the border despite living about a 20-minute drive away. "We refuse to cross the border although we frequently did so in the pre-Trump era." Gino Paolone also says he won't be travelling to the U.S., despite living close to the border in Thorold, Ont., and being a frequent traveller there in the past. "I would go to the States two times every month either for shopping, gas, dinner and an annual golf trip," Paolone told CBC News. "Now I refuse to go over and support their economy while they try to destroy ours." Local alternatives We also heard from people who are moving personal property or investments from the U.S. to Canada, cancelling streaming services, halting their snowbird migration patterns and finding alternatives in their communities. "[I] try to buy all my produce at the local farmers market," Karen Mount wrote. When she can't find a good Canadian option she told us she looks for a non-American substitute. "I was buying produce from Mexico during the winter, which I did not do prior to January 2025. I check to see where things are made and put them back if made in the U.S." Mount says she's only relented for one product during her boycott. "The only item I have caved on is Smartwool socks. They are really good." A lifetime boycott Others wrote to us to say they can't ever see themselves ever going back to buying U.S. goods or travelling to the country again. "I may never shop again without making sure it's a Canadian product," Garry Semple told CBC News. "I get angrier the more this goes on." Rita Bailey told us something similar. "I am 75 and I can't see this changing for the duration of my life. I won't back down and I pray that our leaders won't either," she said.
