Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure from all sides.
At the forefront is a conflict first sparked over indigenous opposition to a natural gas pipeline project, that has now evolved to include broader complex issues like indigenous governance and indigenous rights.
It has led to rail blockades and protests that have crippled rail lines and disrupted the flow of the country’s economy.
Those events have underscored a pressure point for Mr Trudeau – he has struggled to deliver on his promise to chart a path for Canada that balances oil and gas development, environmental stewardship and indigenous reconciliation.
Here are five reasons why the current unrest is a big deal.
1 – It’s bad news for Justin Trudeau
The conflict has forced work to be paused on a major natural gas pipeline, the Coastal GasLink project, that Mr Trudeau’s Liberal government supports.
Until this week, his ministers had a hard time trying to set up a meeting with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who led the calls for protests in support of their cause.
It is the latest resource project to hit gridlock amid opposition by some First Nations and environmental campaigners.
The prime minister’s political opponents have seized on the crisis to argue that he has shown weak leadership in his handling of the rail blockades and upholding of the rule of law.
They are also laying the blame for the country’s struggling oil and gas sector at his feet.
Three areas – resource development, environmental stewardship and indigenous rights – have become more challenging for countries like Canada as climate change becomes a greater public concern and indigenous communities are increasingly empowered, says former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae.
Says Mr Rae: “Where governments and companies are prepared to embrace the need for dialogue and inclusion and recognition and so on, projects proceed and in fact benefit the First Nations quite significantly in terms of economic development”.
“Frankly nothing else works.”
2 – Businesses are hit by crippled rail troubles – and farms are getting cold
Rail blockades have meant that parts of the cross-country rail system have ground to a halt over the past weeks as the current conflict drags on.
Almost 1,500 rail workers are temporarily out of work and many industries are struggling with the impact, including agriculture.
Quebec dairy and grain farmer Martin Caron says farmers are under “real stress” amid shortages of soy and propane used for food and heating.
About 80% of the province’s propane and 65% of its soy is transported by rail, he says. Some is now being shipped by trucks at a significant mark-up.
Propane is used to heat buildings holding livestock, critical in Canadian winters.
“[There is] stress because we have animals and if we can no longer heat them properly, we put them at risk,” says Mr Caron. “So there’s an economic stress but also a mental health aspect to this – the animals are part of our families. The producers don’t want to put the animals at risk.”
While rail blockades have subsided this week and the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have sat down with government officials, it will take a number of weeks before the rail system is fully up and running.
“People are hoping with all their hearts that the federal government, among others, will position itself quickly to prevent crises like this,” says Mr Caron.
3 – Companies are spooked by the uncertainty
The University of Calgary’s Harrie Vredenburg, an expert on the global energy industry, says Canada has traditionally been a low risk political environment for investment. This helped it become the world’s fourth largest oil and gas exporter.
But the lack of certainty around the regulatory and approval process is now chilling business interest in the sector, he says.
A company can spend years getting environmental and First Nations approvals.
“In Canada you do all that and at the end it’s still a political decision that depends on what activists are doing and what the media is saying and it’s a totally unpredictable outcome,” says Mr Vredenburg.
This month, mining company Teck Resources pulled its application to build a major oil sands mine in northeastern Alberta.
The firm said the global capital markets, investors and customers are looking to places that reconcile “resource development and climate change”.
“This does not yet exist here today and, unfortunately, the growing debate around this issue has placed [the project] and our company squarely at the nexus of much broader issues that need to be resolved.”
The decision also came amid questions about the project’s financial viability.
“It had become a political football and I think in the end, the Teck board and management just said it isn’t worth it,” says Mr Vredenburg.
4 – It adds to the sense of ‘western alienation’
The economic recovery in the province of Alberta, after an overabundance of supply caused the worldwide price of oil to plummet a few years ago, has been slow.
The oil woes led to the loss of more than 100,000 jobs in Alberta and a full-on recession.
In October’s general election, the resource-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan turned solidly away from Mr Trudeau’s Liberal party amid a sense in western Canada that its interests were not represented.
Several pipeline projects – seen by the industry as critical for gaining access to global markets – hang in limbo, fuelling more frustration.
Some provincial premiers are also at loggerheads with Mr Trudeau over his main climate initiative, a carbon tax, which will be challenged in the country’s top court.
The Teck decision and the Wet’suwet’en conflict have only ramped up tensions.
Mr Vredenburg says “constant bickering” between provincial and federal leaders over energy and climate “doesn’t help Canada’s brand”.
5 – It highlights the challenges facing indigenous reconciliation and rights
This conflict has highlighted the challenges involved in moving forward with that reconciliation.
Karen Joseph, CEO of the charity Reconciliation Canada, says the country is at the “very early stages of this process of reconciliation” with many systemic challenges that reinforce inequality still in place.
She says amid the unrest everybody needs “to stop and think about how we can do better, how we can show our children how we resolve conflict as leaders and as peoples so that they can move forward”.
Canada has a duty to consult with indigenous peoples before they begin any projects on their land.
But there is ambiguity around the rules for consultation – one of the roots of the civil unrest seen in recent weeks.
Coastal GasLink received the support of 20 First Nations along its route, including some Wet’suwet’en and their band council, though not a number of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.
Some First Nations have been vocal opponents of major resource projects.
Other indigenous communities have chosen to participate in the oil and gas sectors, seeing agreements with resource firms as an opportunity to close the gap in living standards that exists between indigenous peoples and the rest of Canada.
Canada is not alone in facing many of these challenges that need a “significant shift” in how countries look at issues raised by the Wet’suwet’en conflict, says Ms Joseph.
“The difference in Canada is we have a opportunity and a number of policies that can facilitate a new way forward that’s potentially shareable globally.”
GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said Thursday “there’s no animosity” toward the organization following an offseason in which his name was prominently mentioned in trade rumors.
“It’s part of the business of hockey,” Trouba said following the first day of training camp for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers.
According to reports, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury had negotiated a trade that would send New York’s captain to Detroit in late June. The trade fell apart, however, when Trouba submitted his 15-team no-trade list to the Rangers on June 30 and included the Red Wings on it.
“Obviously, had the no-move that turned into the partial no-trade,” said Trouba, whom New York acquired in a trade with Winnipeg in June 2019 and signed to a seven-year, $56 million contract one month later. “That’s life, contracts, hockey business, whatever you want to call it.
“I knew that was coming that summer. It’s not by surprise. It was obviously something that was negotiated at the time.”
The 30-year-old’s insistence that his relationship with Drury is fine echoes what the executive said in a pre-training camp conference call with reporters.
“Jacob and I talk all the time as GM and captain should,” Drury said. “We’ve had a number of different conversations over the course of the summer on a lot of different things. He is very clear as to where he stands with me and what I think of him as a player and as a leader.”
Still, Trouba realizes that the 2024-25 season is likely the last for the current iteration of the Original Six franchise. The Rangers have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last three seasons, and have reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 and 2024. Following last spring’s six-game series loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, Drury wondered aloud in a conference call with reporters if the Rangers’ core players could lead the franchise to a Stanley Cup.
“(It’s) an opportunity that we have in front of us that in all likelihood will probably be the last crack for this core,” Trouba said. “I don’t think that’s a secret by any means. (A) group that’s kind of grown together, spent some years together here, and there’s something we want to accomplish.”
Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.
WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).
Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.
“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.
“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”
Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.
Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.
Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.
Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.
The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.
Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.
The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.
WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.
The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.
Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.
Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad
Forwards
Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);
Backs
Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
