Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to U.S. President Donald Trump comment that "Canada lives because of the United States" on Thursday by saying Canada thrives because of Canadian values. Carney says Canada can show the world that the future doesn't have to be autocratic after returning from Davos where he gave a speech that garnered widespread attention. In Davos at the World Economic Forum, Carney condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries without mentioning Trump. Upon returning home to Canada, Carney says his country "can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history isn't destined to be warped toward authoritarianism and exclusion; it can still bend toward progress and justice."
Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies are converging on southern Ontario as tensions rise between the U.S. and traditional allies like Canada over defense spending and trade. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand tells The Associated Press "the relationship has to continue across a range of issues." Anand hosts U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Anand also has invited the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine. The meeting comes after the U.S. ended trade talks with Canada when the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement.
The Vatican is expected to soon announce that it will return a few dozen artifacts sought by Indigenous communities in Canada. It's part of its reckoning with the Catholic Church's troubled role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas. The items, including an Inuit kayak, are part of the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural artifacts taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periods. Officials say negotiations are proceeding positively and that an announcement could come from the Vatican in a few weeks.
U.S. President Donald Trump and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney faced off in the Oval Office on Tuesday and showed no signs of retreating from their gaping differences in an ongoing trade war that has shattered decades of trust between the two countries. The two kept it civil, but as for Trump's calls to make Canada the 51st state, Carney insisted his nation was "not for sale" and Trump shot back, "time will tell." Asked by a reporter if there was anything Carney could tell him to lift his tariffs of as much as 25% on Canada, Trump bluntly said: "No." The U.S. president added for emphasis, "Just the way it is."
The Canadian government has ordered the country's two major freight railroads to enter binding arbitration. Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the decision at a news conference Thursday, moments after The Associated Press broke the news publicly. The railroads have said that once the dispute enters arbitration the trains will be able to get moving again.
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador says he would consider accepting more migrants than previously announced under President Joe Biden's plan to turn away people who cross illegally into the United States. The comments came Monday as López Obrador, Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gather in Mexico City for a North American summit. They'll be discussing migration, trade and climate change. On Tuesday, the three leaders have their main summit meeting. Biden says the gathering will advance "shared priorities for North America." The leaders will discuss migration, climate change, the economy and other issues.
