City Ottawa Financial News

The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady and kept the door open to further hikes, with economists seeing its historic tightening cycle at its likely end point.

By Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada's trade deficit with the world narrowed to C$987 million ($722.97 million) in July, as imports were dragged lower by a west coast port strike while exports rose slightly, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.

OTTAWA—Economists believe the Bank of Canada is likely to keep its main interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, as data suggest the economy has shifted into a lower gear after 10 rate increases over a 16-month span.  

Crown prosecutor Tim Radcliffe says that “Freedom Convoy” organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber’s political views are not on trial, but rather the means they allegedly employed to achieve their ends.

OTTAWA—Economists believe the Bank of Canada is likely to keep its main interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, as data suggest the economy has shifted into a lower gear after 10 rate increases over a 16-month span.  

NEW DELHI : India has all the potential that China had a decade ago, former Canadian foreign and defence Minister Perrin Beatty said. Beatty, who serves as President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said India is a high priority for Canadian businesses looking for an alternative to China. Critical minerals, renewable technologies and fertilizers will be a key focus.

Huawei Technologies' breakthrough in making an advanced chip underscores China's determination and capacity for fighting back against US sanctions, but the efforts are likely very costly and could prompt Washington to tighten curbs, analysts said. Huawei unexpectedly unveiled the latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone last week during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit in China, as the government readies a new $40-billion investment fund to bolster its developing chip sector.

By David Kirton and Max A. Cherney

Freedom Convoy” protest are set to stand trial in Ottawa starting Tuesday.Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are both accused of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief, and intimidation.As the trial gets underway and is expected to last 16 days, Global News breaks down what these charges mean.Under the Criminal Code, mischief has a broad definition. It’s characterized as the willful destruction of property, making it dangerous or useless to others and/or obstructing, interrupting or interfering with the lawful enjoyment of property of others.“To the layperson, it can seem sort of trivial or minor.

By Steve Scherer

Canada’s status within the Indo-Pacific region is set to get a boost as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prepares to make Ottawa its latest strategic partner when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Indonesia.

Two Toronto men are dead and six other men were injured, including an American, after a shooting outside of a wedding venue in Ottawa on Saturday night.

Psilocybin, or “magic mushroom,” stores are popping up across Canada despite the drug being illegal — a development that closely mirrors what happened with cannabis before its legalization, according to an expert.

Ottawa police say a shooting at a wedding Saturday night has left two men dead and six people injured.

G20 Summit in national capital Delhi. According to a Bloomberg report, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government first pressed pause and requested India to follow suit last month. Canadian Press had first reported the request to ‘pause’ trade talks between India and Canada.

Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steve Guilbeault, couldn’t resist taking a swipe at Suncor’s CEO, Rich Kruger — not even as the minister visits China, the biggest GHG emitter of all. Tuesday, he criticized Kruger’s recent statement that Suncor has been focusing too much on the energy transition and not enough on its core business. Using this as a pretext, Guilbeault made clear that his government’s made-up cap on oil and gas emissions — an arbitrary 42 per cent reduction by 2030 — is even more necessary to force companies to comply than he had been arguing. Let’s see how he does persuading his Chinese hosts to stop building two new coal plants every week.

climate crisis, a new poll suggests. Many respondents agree this year’s record-breaking wildfire season has driven home the need for urgent action.However, those Canadians are torn over when action should be taken, according to the Ipsos survey conducted for Global News.

transgender and nonbinary kids in a “life-or-death situation.”And while Marci Ien declined to comment on whether Ottawa sees a role for itself in any potential court challenges, the cabinet minister said the Liberal government is keeping an eye on what unfolds.“What I can tell you is that we’re watching closely as this develops,” she told The Canadian Press in an interview Wednesday.“Obviously anything is possible, but I’m not going to comment on anything hypothetical at this time.”Saskatchewan recently became the second jurisdiction to change its policy around pronoun use and name changes for students younger than 16, making it a rule that teachers must first seek permission from those students’ parents. The provincial government says the change originated out of concerns from parents and a desire to apply one uniform policy across all school divisions.Premier Scott Moe signalled plans to make the change ahead of the coming school year, after the topic of parental consent over issues of sexual health, orientation and gender identity was in the summer spotlight.The Saskatchewan government suspended Planned Parenthood from giving sexual health presentations in schools this spring after a Grade 9 student in Lumsden, north of Regina, took home a pamphlet containing graphic, sexual words.

OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada is concerned about the overall integrity of the system that educates hundreds of thousands of international students and not just the added pressure they put on housing, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Meta is being accused of endangering lives by blocking news links in Canada at a crucial moment, when thousands have fled their homes and are desperate for wildfire updates that once would have been shared widely on Facebook. The situation «is dangerous,» said Kelsey Worth, 35, of one nearly 20,000 residents of Yellowkife and thousands more in small towns ordered to evacuate the Northwest Territories as wildfires advanced. She described to AFP how «insanely difficult» it has been for herself and other evacuees to find verifiable information about the fires blazing across the near-Arctic territory and other parts of Canada. «Nobody's able to know what's true or not,» she said. «And when you're in an emergency situation, time is of the essence,» she said, explaining that many Canadians until now have relied on social media for news. Meta on August 1 started blocking the distribution of news links and articles on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in response to a recent law requiring digital giants to pay publishers for news content. The company has been in a virtual showdown with Ottawa over the bill passed in June but which only takes effect next year. Building on similar legislation introduced in Australia, the bill aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade. It requires companies like Meta and Google to make fair commercial deals with Canadian outlets for the news and information — estimated in a report to parliament to be worth Can$330 million (US$250 million) per year — that is shared on their platforms, or face binding arbitration. But Meta has said the bill is flawed and insisted that news outlets share