Business
Trudeau Promises ‘Fentanyl Czar’ and US-Canada Organized Crime Strike Force To Avert U.S. Tariffs

Under the looming threat of U.S. tariffs—framed by officials as a response to deadly fentanyl trafficking linked to Chinese precursors rather than a conventional trade dispute—Canada has moved swiftly to appease the White House.
This afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), announced the appointment of a “Fentanyl Czar” alongside a $1.3 billion border security plan. The initiative includes new helicopters, advanced surveillance technology, additional personnel, and closer coordination with U.S. agencies to stem the flow of fentanyl.
“I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”
Trudeau also outlined plans to designate cartels as terrorist organizations, implement 24/7 surveillance, and launch a Canada–U.S. Joint Strike Force targeting organized crime and money laundering. He signed a new $200 million intelligence directive on fentanyl, asserting that these measures helped secure a 30-day pause on proposed tariffs against Canadian goods.
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping new trade penalties: a 25% tariff on exports from Mexico and Canada and a 10% duty on Chinese goods. While those levies took effect two days ago, Trump has now granted Mexico a one-month reprieve—on the condition that President Claudia Sheinbaum deploy 10,000 soldiers to the northern border to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration.
In exchange, senior U.S. officials—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—will negotiate with their Mexican counterparts on a long-term solution before tariffs are reinstated.
Trump emphasized that Mexico’s forces were “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal migrants,” stressing that cross-border cooperation was essential in tackling what U.S. authorities call a national drug crisis.
Markets initially tumbled over fears of an escalating tariff war among the world’s largest economies but rebounded on news of the temporary reprieve for Mexico and Canada. Now, both governments face a critical deadline.
More to come.
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Business
‘Let’s Do A Deal’: Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Says Yes To Trump’s Demands

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Zelenskyy said he was open to making a deal with the U.S. regarding Trump’s request for Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in exchange for continued financial aid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters on Friday that he hopes to make a deal with President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war with Russia.
During his campaign for office, Trump vowed to bring peace to the world, as multiple foreign wars had been pushed during the Biden-Harris administration. In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was open to making a deal with the U.S. regarding Trump’s request for Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in exchange for continued financial aid.
“These deposits are priceless, it is huge amounts of money, huge. That’s why we need to protect it,” Zelenskyy said. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it.”
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The Russia-Ukraine war has lasted more than two years, with the Biden-Harris administration providing $175 billion in economic and military aid to Ukraine, but the conflict shows no signs of ending. Last year, Ukraine presented a “victory plan,” suggesting the idea of allowing allies to invest in its essential minerals, according to Reuters.
With Russian occupation controlling less than 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including roughly half of its rare earth deposits, Zelenskyy told Reuters that Moscow could potentially strike deals with North Korea and Iran.
“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told the outlet.
Just days after his election, Trump warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war against Ukraine during a phone call, reportedly reminding him of the U.S.’s large presence in Europe. The call with Putin came after a conversation between Trump, Department of Government Efficiency’s Elon Musk and Zelensky, in which the Ukrainian president reportedly said he left the meeting feeling content.
“We will protect those trillions. We will prevent Russia from mining the minerals which will later be used to produce technologies for the three countries of the axis of evil. The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most. And in rebuilding Ukraine, they should have this priority. And they will.”
Business
Mark Carney’s carbon tax plan hurts farmers

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney recently announced his carbon tax plan and here are some key points.
It’s expensive for Canadians.
It’s even more expensive for farmers.
Carney announced he would immediately remove the consumer carbon tax if he became prime minister.
That sounds like good news, but it’s important to read the fine print.
Carney went on and announced that he would be “integrating a new consumer carbon credit market into the industrial pricing system.” Carney also said he would “improve and tighten” the industrial carbon tax and impose carbon tax tariffs on imports into Canada.
If that sounds like Carney isn’t getting rid of the carbon tax, that’s because he isn’t. He’s trying to hide the costs from Canadians by imposing higher carbon taxes on businesses.
What that means is that Carney’s plan would tax businesses and then businesses will pass those costs onto consumers.
That also means farmers.
Under the current carbon tax, farmers have an exemption from the carbon tax on the gas and diesel they use on their farm. The hidden industrial carbon tax is applied directly to industry. Businesses are forced to pay the carbon tax if they emit above the government’s prescribed limit.
But businesses don’t just swallow those costs. They pass them on. The trucking industry is a great example.
“Due to razor thin margins in the trucking industry, these added costs cannot be absorbed and must be passed on to customers,” said the Canadian Trucking Alliance when analyzing the current Trudeau carbon tax.
The same concept applies to the Carney scheme.
If Carney removes the consumer carbon tax and replaces it with a higher tax on businesses under the hidden industrial carbon tax, that means more costs for farmers.
There isn’t any exemption for farmers under the industrial carbon tax. Oil and gas refineries will be paying a higher carbon tax and they will be forced to pass that cost onto their consumers. Farmers use a lot of fuel.
The pain doesn’t stop there. Farmers also use a lot of fertilizer and Carney’s carbon tax means higher costs for fertilizer plants. Then farmers will be stuck paying more for fertilizer.
Some businesses, like those fertilizer plants, could pack up and move production south. But farmers are still going to need fertilizer. Carney’s plan compounds the pain with carbon tax tariffs.
Fertilizer is only one example. If Canadian farmers need to buy a part to fix equipment that can only come from the U.S., it could be more expensive because of Carney’s carbon tax tariffs.
This will hurt Canadian farmers when they’re buying supplies. But it’ll also hurt when farmers when they go to market. Canadian farmers compete with farmers around the world and majority of them aren’t paying carbon taxes.
Farmers wouldn’t be at a disadvantage because American farmers are smarter or farm better, but because, under Carney’s carbon tax, they would be stuck paying costs competitors don’t have to pay. And farmers know this all too well.
“My competitors to the south of me in the United States do not pay that [carbon] tax, so now my cost goes up and I have no alternative,” said Jeff Barlow, a corn, wheat and soybean farmer in Ontario. “By penalizing me there’s nothing else that I can do but just be penalized.”
And if farmers won’t be the only ones hurt.
Families across Canada are struggling with grocery prices and increasing the cost of production for farmers certainly won’t lower those prices.
Carney says that he wants to cancel the consumer tax because it’s too “divisive.” That statement misses the nail completely and hammers the thumb. Canadians don’t want to get rid of the carbon tax because of perception, they want to get rid of it because it makes life more expensive.
Carney needs to commit to getting rid of carbon taxes, not rebranding the failed policy into something that could end up costing Canadians and farmers even more.
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