CBC says that the attacks of September 11, 2001, should not be called terrorist attacks. This was in a memo from Basem Boshra, the Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust for CBC News.
“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo read.
Someone who got the memo leaked it to my friend and colleague, Warren Kinsella, who wrote it up for the Toronto Sun. I don’t know about you, but this makes me so angry.
It’s bad enough that CBC won’t call Hamas or Hezbollah terrorist groups. They stick to a variation of the old saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”
That’s not how CBC actually phrases it, but the end result is the same.
The Devil Is in the Details...
Why did the trade talks with the United States break down?
Well, there are competing narratives out there, with the Americans blaming Canada for inserting last-minute changes and Canada claiming it was the Americans who put in the last-minute changes.
I’ve been listening and talking to all sides for days, trying to figure out how they could both claim the other was responsible for these last-minute changes. I had a theory, put it to several people in various government and industry positions, and it seems that my hunch was right.
The two sides were, in some ways, talking past each other.
The Americans offered to reduce the tariff on autos from 25% to 15%, but when the draft agreement was presented, this was just on cars and light trucks, not the medium- and heavy-duty trucks produced by GM in Oshawa and soon to be produced by Ford in Oakville. The Canadian side cried foul, said this isn’t what they agreed to, and each side claimed the other was asking for last-minute changes.
I wrote about this extensively in the Toronto Sun today. Check out the column for all the details, or watch the video below.
Some people have asked me how this could happen, and the answer is simple. Negotiations start out verbally and then turn to people writing out details and agreeing on the written word.
Saying you will reduce tariffs on autos could mean all autos to Canada but not include medium- and heavy-duty trucks to the Americans.
I’ve spoken to several people who know what was on the table who said the Canadian team was not informed about the medium- and heavy-duty trucks being part of the tariff reduction until Friday. As I reported in the Sun, executives from GM and Ford, out of their Detroit offices, told Washington they needed the medium- and heavy-duty pickups to be part of the tariff exemption.
What About the Politics of This for Carney?
Now, let’s talk about the politics of Mark Carney deciding that he would walk away from the deal last Friday. I’ve been saying for months that Carney’s plan has been to wait out Trump and hope for the Democrats to win big in the midterms.
It’s a horrible strategy.
At one point, it looked like the Democrats would win the House and the Senate. Now, it looks likely that the Democrats will win the House but not the Senate.
Though, as I was writing yesterday, even Republicans on Fox were questioning the wisdom of Trump’s trade war with Canada, given close Senate races in states like Maine, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
But beyond waiting out Trump, does Carney have a plan to stand up to Trump now, look tough, get the country excited, and then use his stance on this round of talks to sell the next deal?
Think about it.
A friend with extensive political experience was bending my ear about this idea this morning as Chloe and I chilled in the late-summer sunlight.
If Carney looks tough now, after making several concessions but getting nothing for those concessions, it makes the future deal seem palatable. I mean, the guy stood up to Trump. Now he’s getting the best deal possible, will be the narrative.
It is possible.
I feel sad for Basem Boshra! I also, on behalf of all Canadians, want to apologize to Basem Boshra for ever giving him the impression that these kind of outlandishly weak and effeminate statements would ever be acceptable in a country where our grandfather’s spilled their blood so that men who lack intestinal fortitude can carry these kinds of sentiments and publicly vomit them on the rest of us.
CBC is a joke and their propaganda needs to be stopped - read that as no more funding!! Carney is trying to maintain his majority, while meeting his commitments to the WEF and his globalist buddies.