Ashamed And Disgusted

Those two adjectives perhaps succinctly sum up the feeling of many people over Mark Carney's attempt to appease Trump by rescinding the Digital Services Tax. While some commentators are trying to put lipstick on a pig, twisting themselves beyond recognition to justify what the prime minister did, savvy readers of newspapers are having none of it.

Here are some letters from Globe and Mail readers:

Yes, Mr. Trump

Re “Ottawa says talks with U.S. back on after pulling digital services tax” (June 30): By rescinding the digital services tax within a weekend of Donald Trump’s withdrawal from tariff negotiations, Mark Carney has shown that he is no longer negotiating with Mr. Trump to protect Canadians. He is, in fact, continuing to bow down to threats from a bully who belies all reason when it comes to decision-making. Canada may vehemently refuse to become the 51st state, but it seems to have no problem capitulating to Mr. Trump’s demands without much of a fight.

From committing to a 5-per-cent increase in defence spending, at the expense of more pressing domestic priorities, to bulldozing a bill through Parliament that steps all over Indigenous rights and territories and now immediately backing out of a digital services tax more than a year in the making, this government is showing no signs of standing up to fight for Canada and Canadians.

Themrise Khan Ottawa

So Trump has a tantrum and we blink. Is this elbows up? Is this negotiation? Many other sovereign nations have implemented a digital services tax. But I guess the eventual 51st state should not. What’s next, supply management? It is protected by an Act of Parliament? But that law can also be rescinded when Mr. Trump pulls out again in a couple of days.

Sinclair Robinson Ottawa

Knuckling under to Mr. Trump’s blackmail on the digital services tax is a shameful betrayal. Not only is it a weak and pathetic response, it is also stupid. Giving in to blackmail only invites him to do it again and again and again – and he will.

Trevor Hancock Victoria

I used to tell my students that we are as Canadian as the U.S. lets us be. Sadly proven true yet again.

Kevin Byrne Sarnia, Ont.

So we implement a digital services tax, a questionable move on its own, and then we withdraw it because Mr. Trump has a public tantrum. Now we look foolish and weak. Mr. Trump’s bombast, disinformation and bullying represent one end of the negotiation tactic field. The Prime Minister has just identified the other end of that playing field.

Mark Knudsen Mississauga

One of the first rules of negotiation is to give to the other side only if you get something in return. Otherwise, it will encourage them to push for further concessions. Eliminating the digital services tax on U.S. tech giants is a step backward for Canada. We are chipping away at Canadian sovereignty by allowing the president of another country to set our tax policy.

Neil Tudiver Ottawa

And this one from The Star:

Carney cancelling the digital services tax a weak move

Canada cancelled its digital services tax. What was it and why did the U.S. hate it? June 30

I am horrified to see that Prime Minister Mark Carney has given in to Trump and cancelled the digital services tax.

What makes Carney think Trump will now treat Canada fairly? Is he afraid of the big online companies, the oligarchs?

It’s past time to stand up to Trump and his gang, and make Canada self-sufficient.

Kate Chung, Toronto 

No one more than me would like to be proven wrong in condemning Carney for this move. I just don't see that happening, however.

UPDATED: What Canadian Pride?

On the day before Canada Day, I doubt I am the only one to feel utterly outraged this morning. Our government, which has gone to great measures to stoke our Canadian pride,  has betrayed all of us. It has succumbed to Trump's threats and rescinded the Digital Services Tax.

The announcement came following a phone call between Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump, and just hours before the first payment under the tax was going to come due for major tech companies like Amazon and Google. 

On Friday Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social he was terminating all trade discussions with Canada because of the tax.

The tax, which was set to be collected starting today, was unpopular with the U.S., and Trump had one of his many tantrums. In rescinding it, as opposed to possibly suspending it, Canada has shown itself to be at Trump's mercy.

Daniel Béland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal, called Carney’s retreat a “clear victory” for Trump.

“At some point this move might have become necessary in the context of Canada-US trade negotiations themselves but Prime Minister Carney acted now to appease President Trump and have him agree to simply resume these negotiations, which is a clear victory for both the White House and big tech,” Béland said.

He said it makes Carney look vulnerable to President Trump’s outbursts.

“President Trump forced PM Carney to do exactly what big tech wanted. U.S. tech executives will be very happy with this outcome,” Béland said.

Notably, the U.S. finalized a trade deal with the U.K last month, despite the fact that country has a 2% DST.

One can only expect more American abuse and craven Canadian submission ahead. 

In Sunday’s interview [on Fox], Mr. Trump also criticized Canada’s supply-management system, which strictly controls imports of eggs, dairy and poultry to protect domestic producers.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow on Canada Day. One thing I won't  be doing is celebrating Canadian 'pride'. 

UPDATED: If, despite the above, your pride is still intact, try this one on for size:

Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s chief spokeswoman, told a press briefing Monday that Mr. Carney telephoned Mr. Trump to inform him that Ottawa would be cancelling the tax, two days after Mr. Trump threatened to walk away from trade talks and impose retaliatory tariffs over the levy, and one day before the first payment of the tax was meant to be collected.

“It’s very simple: Prime Minister Carney and Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America,” Ms. Leavitt said. “The President made his position quite clear to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister called the President last night to let the President know that he would be dropping that tax.”

And from the horse's mouth: 

UPDATED UPDATE: 

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who is Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, said Canada came out of this exchange over the DST looking weak.

By scrapping the DST now, Canada has “given up what was a non-trivial card and they basically used it to get back exactly where they were a week ago,” Prof. Geist said. 

And this from The Globe and Mail's Robyn Urback: 

Killing the DST now reeks of desperation. It is a capitulation without reward; the U.S. has since agreed to resume negotiations – but that’s it: talks. The mercurial Donald Trump could decide that supply management is his real gripe, and call talks off again. Should that happen, we would be weaker than we were before since we have robbed ourselves of a bargaining chip in the DST that we could have used if, for example, Mr. Champagne announced that Canada was pausing or delaying collections, rather than rescinding the legislation altogether.

The message this decision sends to Canadians is that our domestic policy is being set by the White House, and the message it sends the White House is that we are pathetic little weaklings who will bend to the President’s whims. 

Silence Is Not An Option

About a week ago, Gabor Mate wrote a heartfelt piece about the genocide in Gaza. His thesis was that we must speak out against the carnage. Mate is Jewish, and that fact lent heft to his argument that criticism of Israel cannot be conflated with anti-semitism, a stance I have long held. For too long,  condemnation of Israel's slaughter of Gazans has been muted for fear of wearing that odious label. If you have access to The Star, I would encourage you to read it.

Star readers are united in their agreement with Mate. Following are some letters to the editor that unconditionally support his position.

Silence is not an option, and if images coming from Gaza of emaciated children being deliberately starved don’t get us to speak up loudly, nothing will. Gabor Maté lays out the reasons we should be able to do so without fear of being called antisemitic. It seems that the true meaning behind the phrase “never again” has been forgotten.

Paul Kahnert, Markham, ON

I agree 100 per cent with Maté that silence is not an option when Israel continues to slaughter children, as well as hospital patients and workers. This whole situation is enraging. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays on our collective guilt about the Holocaust, but enough is enough. His behaviour is that of a crazed and power-hungry leader who’s bent on destroying Palestine, and it’s being abetted by the United States. Starving innocent Gazans while destroying their homes and their country is inhumane. I have many Jewish friends who don’t support Netanyahu’s actions. Silence will only enable Israel. It’s about time the rest of the world woke up and called a spade a spade.

Lillian Shery, Toronto

Maté deserves thanks for writing this article, and the Star deserves praise for having had the courage to publish it. Governments, workplaces and school boards in Canada have too often assented to the notion that criticism of Israel is automatically antisemitic and deserving of punishment. The fact that some Jewish children don’t feel safe is used as an excuse to ban expressions of sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza, where people also don’t feel safe — and for much clearer reasons. My opinion of what Netanyahu and the Israeli military are doing to Palestine doesn’t make me pro-Hamas or pro-terrorism. As Canadians, we should never be discriminated against for speaking out about injustice, wherever it occurs. And Israel should not be exempt from a clear examination of what it’s doing in Gaza.

Caroline Andrews, Toronto

It’s been well-documented that the Israeli Defense Forces have committed atrocities in Gaza. As citizens, we should be able to express our opinions about Israel’s actions without fear of being branded antisemitic. I have Jewish and Palestinian friends, and all any of us wants is peace in Gaza and a settlement that is amenable to both parties in the conflict.

Bill Melvin, Toronto

Speaking out may seem thin gruel when one contemplates the carnage in Gaza. However, remaining silent does no service to the starvation, mutilation and death taking place there, and can only compound the moral injury many of us feel when bearing witness to the slaughter.

I'll close with an small excerpt from Mate's piece:

The only resolution is the freeing of the discussion around Gaza. People deserve the right to experience as much liberty to publicly mourn, question, oppose, deplore, denounce what they perceive as the perpetration of injustice and inhumanity as they are, in this country, to advocate for the aims and actions of the Israeli government and its Canadian abettors amongst our political leadership, academia, and media.

We Should Not Be Surprised

Well, the news has come in that Trump is cancelling trade negotiations with Canada over our digital services tax, which he says is an attack on the U.S. He promises punishing tariffs for our 'temerity'.

No doubt he expects us all to quiver and cave. I think it's time to take the gloves off and really hurt the Americans at least as much as they intend to hurt us.

Here's a video that articulates a Western view about life in the U.S. and the need to act:

The Mighty Euphemism

I have still not recovered my equilibrium vis-a-vis the world, so the following are not my words. I got them from a Facebook group called Films for Action. Nonetheless, they echo exactly what George Orwell said so many years ago.

Propaganda starts with the manipulation of language. The goal is to render violence morally palatable when committed by those aligned with imperial interests.

Noam Chomsky has long argued that the most effective propaganda in democratic societies is not the outright lie, but the strategic framing that defines the bounds of acceptable thought. This happens not by controlling what we think, but by controlling what we think about, and more crucially, how we talk about it.

Consider the way governments are described. Allies of empire are governed by “administrations” or “democracies,” while enemies have “regimes.” Allies engage in “preemptive strikes” or “targeted operations,” while others “attack” or “escalate.” Our allies “defend themselves”; their enemies are “aggressors.” When a powerful nation stockpiles nuclear weapons, it is “deterrence.” When an enemy pursues the same, it’s a “threat.”

These choices aren’t accidental. They signal who the audience should empathize with and who they should fear. They suggest legitimacy or illegitimacy without ever needing to make a direct argument. It’s not that one country does self-defense while another does terrorism—it’s that the label itself is a tool of propaganda, applied selectively to support imperial policy.

This manipulation of language also defines who is human and who is not. Our civilians are “families,” “children,” “innocent lives lost.” Theirs are “collateral damage.” We never “bomb a city”; we “neutralize targets.” They never “resist”; they “foment instability.”

This is how public consent is engineered—not with force, but with framing. Through decades of this conditioning, populations come to internalize the narrative: that our wars are necessary, our allies righteous, our enemies barbaric. Even when the facts are plain, the language inoculates the public against outrage.

But once you start seeing these linguistic patterns, you can’t unsee them. And that’s when the real work begins—challenging the narrative, exposing the frame, and refusing to accept the moral double standards that justify endless war under the banner of peace.

Given the Americans' involvement in yet another war, one might be well-advised to look for ongoing, even greater, perversions of language and thought.

Time For Reflection

Just a short note to let you know my posting may be less frequent for the next while. The world is too much with me, so I am planning on reducing my consumption of the news of that world; the dance of death grows wearying, so I think it's time for a break from it

Therefore, I'll probably write only when I feel strongly about something in particular,  or challenged by it.

It Has Come To This

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a new tip line to encourage the public to report illegal immigration and criminal activity related to undocumented individuals. The hotline, operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), can be reached at 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423). This initiative aims to assist law enforcement in locating and apprehending illegal aliens. The DHS has issued public statements urging citizens to use the tip line to help restore law and order.

If you're a real American, Uncle Sam wants you to do your patriotic duty. Be vigilant and report all those you suspect are foreign invaders. (The English teacher in me will not carp on the obvious redundancy here, but I have never heard of domestic invaders). One also notes that the deportation criteria have expanded to include all undocumented immigrants as criminals, something that has no basis in law.

Here is an example of the authorities' zeal for 'purifying' Amerika.

Can loyalty oaths be far behind?