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Canada Races to Sign a Trade Deal with South America, and Bill 21 Went to the Supreme Court This Week. It Got Uncomfortable.
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Canada Is Racing to Sign a Trade Deal with South America
Canada and the Mercosur bloc - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay - are closing in on a free-trade agreement that could be signed as early as September. Negotiations resume next month in Brasilia, and diplomats say talks are moving at "record speed."
With U.S. tariffs hanging over every Canadian export and CUSMA's future still uncertain (Voyageur 64), Ottawa is on the hunt for new partners. Mercosur is a big one - it's a market of more than 260 million people, and South America's largest trading bloc. PM Mark Carney is expected to visit Brazil next quarter.
Ontario's trade minister Victor Fedeli pulled no punches when he told the Globe and Mail that "the Canadian government is serious about diversifying away from the U.S." Bolivia is expected to join Mercosur as a full member in 2028, which would stretch the bloc even further.
A year ago, a Mercosur deal felt like a polite talking point. Now it might make for more like a lifeline.
Read more: The Globe and Mail
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A photo from the old country:
Bill 21 Went to the Supreme Court This Week. It Got Uncomfortable.
Seven Supreme Court justices spent four days this week hearing arguments over Quebec's Bill 21 - the 2019 law that bans public servants like teachers, judges, and police officers from wearing religious symbols at work. A decision is months away, but the hearings are heated.
Lawyers challenging the law warned that Quebec's unlimited use of the notwithstanding clause could open the door to authoritarianism. "What if there was ever a mini-Trump in Canada?" asked one union lawyer, arguing a government could dismantle democratic values "in a perfectly constitutional manner." Chief Justice Richard Wagner pressed Quebec's lawyer on the same point. She responded that "we must have faith in our democracy."
The human cost came through, too. A Montreal Orthodox Jewish lawyer hasn't been able to accept public mandates since 1988 because of his faith-based clothing. Muslim women in Quebec, advocates said, face "increased prejudice, harassment and hate crimes" tied directly to the law. One lawyer pointed out that a hijab-wearing, publicly funded Quebec lawyer could not even appear before the court hearing her case.
Bill 21 is technically about secularism in Quebec's public sector, but the Supreme Court arguments turned it into a test of whether the notwithstanding clause has any limits at all.
Read more: CBC News / Ricochet Media