The British Consulate in Jerusalem, which Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last month said would be shuttered, will be renamed the UK Mission, Jerusalem, and operate from the same building with a smaller staff, according to statements published on Thursday by Jerusalem and London.

Twenty diplomats, including the consul general, will end their assignments and leave Israel, Sa’ar said. The consulate’s sign has been removed. Britain retains ownership of the building and may operate a small task force there, Sa’ar said.

“We have allowed the British Government to operate a task force of only seven diplomats from the building, which ceased to function as a consulate today. Their scope of activity will be very limited,” he wrote.

Sa’ar announced the closure on Sept. 8, immediately after the U.K. introduced an import ban on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.

“A boycott of goods from Judea and Samaria is a despicable practice that harms hard-working, law-abiding citizens,” Sa’ar said last month. “The Labour Government has decided to employ this practice of boycotts and BDS only against the Jewish state.”

Sa’ar added that the Israeli public overwhelmingly supports the Jewish communities in the West Bank and just as overwhelmingly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state in its heartland. “This is something that the Labour government is attempting, through measures that are doomed to fail, to force upon Israel. It will not work,” he said.

We established a clear principle: It is not possible to act against Israel without Israel taking appropriate measures in response.

In this spirit, the measures I announced on 8 September have been implemented:

1.The removal of the British representatives from the International…

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) October 8, 2026

The U.K. and Israel had conducted weeks of talks to prevent a deterioration in bilateral relations, Sa’ar said on Thursday. Understandings were reached on Wednesday night and the two governments agreed to continue dialogue. Under the current understandings, “no measures will be taken against Israel as a result of the implementation of the decisions,” he wrote.

Ed Miliband, Sa’ar’s British counterpart, wrote in a statement on Thursday: “Following discussions with the Government of Israel, our Consulate General building will not be closing, and will be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem from today. The UK Mission, Jerusalem is independent, operational, and will continue to deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people.”

The arrangement would preserve Britain’s longstanding presence and its role in supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Miliband said.

“Without an understanding, we would not have the necessary assurances for the security and protections of our staff and premises. Accordingly, the UK has temporarily withdrawn a number of staff and families to ensure their safety and security,” he wrote.

Miliband said the U.K. “will work in the coming months to build back up our presence, and we will not take reciprocal action while such discussions are underway and credible.”

Britain remains “committed” to the measures it adopted on Sept. 8, Miliband said, describing them as coordinated with the international community and intended to support a two-state solution delivering peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Sa’ar said Israel had implemented all of the retaliatory measures he announced on Sept. 8, which included banning British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center (previously known as the Civil-Military Coordination Center) in Kiryat Gat.

Other Israeli sanctions included terminating British training for Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank, and barring 12 British officials and other citizens from entering Israel over what Sa’ar called their involvement in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity.

“We established a clear principle: It is not possible to act against Israel without Israel taking appropriate measures in response,” he wrote.

Miliband, in his statement, wrote, ”We have been clear that we do not accept that the Government of Israel has the legal right to close the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, which has been there for nearly 200 years. The UK government reiterates its long-standing view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.”

Sa’ar assigned responsibility for the crisis to Britain’s Labour government.

“We did not want to reach this point, but the actions of the UK Labour Government brought us here. Their latest decision in this series was to initiate a range of far-reaching sanctions against the communities in Judea and Samaria, as well as additional sanctions on defence exports to Israel,” he wrote.

“All this was accompanied by hostile rhetoric, including false accusations against Israel, such as accusations of ‘ethnic cleansing.’”

Sa’ar described the measures as part of an escalating series of unilateral actions against Israel since Labour took office in July 2024.

These included Britain’s unilateral recognition of what he called a “virtual Palestinian state” in September 2025; renewed funding for UNRWA; the suspension of defense export licenses; sanctions on Israeli ministers and other individuals and entities, and the suspension of talks on a free trade agreement.

He also listed restrictions on Israel’s participation in an international defense exhibition in Britain, the exclusion of IDF officers from training at the Royal College of Defence Studies, and repeated “biased attacks” against Israel internationally.

Israel continues to believe in dialogue, Sa’ar said, although no genuine dialogue had taken place with the Labour government in recent years. “This is despite good relations with Britain, reflected, among other things, in security and intelligence cooperation,” he said.

Bilateral relations and security and intelligence cooperation have repeatedly helped protect British lives and interests, Sa’ar also said. Israel had recently provided Britain with “vital information” concerning the RAF Fairford incident, he added. British security forces last month arrested several people who are suspected of planning a terrorist attack at the base.

Sa’ar thanked those on both sides who contributed to the understandings, which he said served Israel’s interests.

“I cannot promise that there will not be further crises in the future. If there are, we will face them on the basis of our core principles,” he wrote, adding, “Israel will no longer turn its cheek to diplomatic attacks against it.”

• ‘There will be surprises’: Netanyahu departs for U.S. ahead of UN General Assembly speech
• Netanyahu tells New York mayor Mamdani that he will ‘expose the truth’ about him at UN

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The political pendulum appears to be swinging left south of the border, with November’s midterm elections expected to give Democrats a House majority. Depending on how a few toss-up races go, Democrats may also have a credible path to winning control of the Senate.

Some Republicans, meanwhile, are already wondering how the party might respond to those losses.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has been in a long-running feud with President Donald Trump and is retiring in January rather than defending his seat, pointed to a “risk” that Trump could lash out if the GOP does as poorly as polls suggest during an interview this week on “60 Minutes.”

Tillis fears Trump could attack fellow Republicans or dispute the election results, or both.

But there may be another target for GOP blame: Canada.

Last week, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told Canadian lobbyists to “get the hell out of our country” and warned that “if you interfere in our elections in Maine and Michigan, you will pay even more dearly.”

Navarro’s approach? Blame Canada !

We heard a similar accusation last year from Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who equated Canada’s anti-tariff advertising in the U.S. to electoral meddling and warned of consequences.

So could Canada become a scapegoat for Republican losses? And, even if it does not, would a weakened Trump be any easier on Canada?

“It’s certainly the case that the administration will probably latch onto any sort of external cause to blame bad election results,” said Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington.

“I think it’s not off the table that someone like Peter Navarro could go onto whatever news outlet he gets interviewed at these days and say that Canada is at fault,” he added.

“But I just don’t see that becoming the primary explanation or the primary narrative coming out of the White House.”

Most pundits and trade watchers agree that Trump will likely lash out, but their views vary on how the president will focus that anger. For Canada, most say there’s little good news either way.

Christopher Sands, ​​director of the Center for Canadian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, is not worried about the “gloves coming off” as Trump enters his lame-duck phase.

When asked whether Trump will be less restrained with Canada after the election, Sands said he doesn’t expect major changes in the approach either way.

“I’m not worried because I don’t think (Trump) took the midterms as much of a constraint,” he said.

Sands is more concerned about Canada becoming a target of partisan recrimination.

There is a risk, he said, that “if Democrats do well but are nonetheless seen as the enemy, and Canada is associated with just one party, then it becomes harder to have conversations with Republicans who you’ll need unless the Republicans are completely wiped out.”

“That may be part of what the Trump administration’s hoping — to push Canada into a partisan alliance that it can then condemn Mark Carney with all the Democrats that they don’t like,” Sands explained.

Politicians have an incentive to shift blame for the costs of their policies, says Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom, referring to the unpopular tariffs.

The U.S. administration has been trying to paint the tariffs as a foreign policy tool that foreigners pay for when they are really “an offensive, aggressive tax that’s been levied on the American people,” he said.

Politicians running for reelection “don’t want to tell voters, ‘I’ve done something terrible to you,’” Stern said. “They want to point the finger overseas and at other people.”

But even if Navarro, Trump, or other leading Republicans try to direct blame north, most experts agree that it’s unlikely to land with the American public.

“I think President Trump lashing out in the face of a loss is … almost a certainty,” said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director and senior fellow at the Americas Program of CSIS in Washington.

“They can … try to blame Canada, but … I don’t see how that’s really gonna get much traction.”

“One thing is lashing out and threatening to do things. Another is actually … creating some sort of a crisis,” he added.

Still, many experts expect Trump to continue being tough on Canada.

Stephen Nagy, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says the president will likely stick to his usual playbook.

“I suspect Trump will do what he always does based on Roy Cohn’s rules of winning, taught to a young Donald Trump: centre on relentless aggression, total denial, and never admitting defeat,” he said.

“Based on that, he will say that the vote was against bad candidates, not a vote against himself,” Nagy added, noting that Trump’s lost latitude domestically means he will probably focus increasingly on foreign policy.

Many experts agree that the president’s last two years in office, especially if Republicans lose control of the House, will be focused more on international affairs, and that it’s likely bad news for Ottawa.

“I doubt very much the president is going to be in any sort of accommodating mood with Canada,” said Hernandez-Roy.

“I think the likely scenario is that he’ll continue to put a lot of pressure on Canada… and driving a very hard bargain with Canada, even if, the Congress, now in Democratic hands, would be much more sympathetic to Canada,” he added, noting that the Democrats are unlikely to win enough seats to have a veto-proof majority.

So, even if Trump and other MAGA Republicans can’t make Canada their scapegoat for a GOP midterm collapse, the country may still need to brace itself.

“I would expect the next four, five, six months to be rather difficult for Canada,” said Hernandez-Roy.

But consistent criticism of Ottawa and making demands may continue without a sharp uptick in post-election targeting, too.

Unlike those who think a more Democratic Congress could be friendlier toward Canada but without much effect, leaving Canada subject to a tougher tone from Trump, Inu Manak, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, expects pressure to build on the president to tone things down.

“We will probably see a little bit more moderation in … the tone towards Canada,” she said, noting that while Trump will likely focus more on foreign policy in his final months, he will also be keen to shore up his place in history.

“Presidents tend to focus on foreign policy in their second term,” she said. “But he also has to think about his legacy, and how much time do you want to spend in your last two years berating Canada?”

National Post

• A Trump adviser’s outburst and a new poll suggest Canada’s tariff strategy is landing
• Trump administration muses about hitting Canada with EU-style tariffs over Carney’s EU pivot

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OTTAWA — More than one year after Industry Minister Mélanie Joly ordered the government rip out all Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision gear from its properties, multiple key federal organizations refuse to say if they have done so.

In statements provided over the last two months, the Canadian Space Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), Environment and Climate Change Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Parks Canada all declined to say if they continued to use Hikvision cameras at their offices.

Furthermore, two government agencies — the National Research Council and the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority — told National Post that they continue to use Hikvision cameras.

That’s despite a clear order from Joly over one and a half year ago that she wanted all those devices out of every single federal government office.

“The silence actually to me is the story itself,” said Dennis Molinaro, a former federal national security analyst and author of Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada.

“The products are ordered out, and refusing to say … whether the cameras are actually removed undercuts the government’s own findings.”

In June 2025, Joly issued a federal ban on Hikvision Canada — a global leader in surveillance camera gear that is partly owned by the Chinese government — due to national security concerns. She gave the company 120 days to pack its bags and shut down its Canadian operation.

According to the minister, the company’s work in Canada created an unacceptable risk of espionage and mass surveillance which raised significant concerns among the federal security and intelligence community.

Hikvision is the most valuable manufacturer of surveillance equipment in the world, but also one of the most controversial. It is partly state-owned by the Chinese government and benefits from PRC subsidies that allow it to sell its equipment cheaper than most competitors.

But over the last decade, the company has been linked to multiple major cybersecurity vulnerabilities, allegedly used by the Chinese government for mass surveillance of Uyghurs and other minority groups, and has been blacklisted governments around the world over espionage concerns.

The ban also extended to federal departments, agencies and crown corporations, who were henceforth barred from purchasing or using any Hikvision equipment.

“The Government of Canada is further conducting a review of existing properties to ensure that legacy Hikvision products are not used going forward,” Joly said, all the while “strongly” encouraging Canadians to “take note of this decision and make their own decisions accordingly.”

Hikvision is currently challenging the ban in Federal Court and has dismissed the government’s claims as baseless and unfounded.

“Since entering the Canadian market, we have followed all applicable laws and regulations, and will continue to defend our position that Hikvision products and technology have not endangered the national security of Canada or any other country in which we operate,” Hikvision said in response to the June 2025 order .

In September 2025, a judge refused to temporarily suspend the application of the order pending a final judicial decision, citing the “serious public interest harms” linked to the national security risks posed by Hikvision.

According to a 2024 document tabled in Parliament, over a dozen federal departments and agencies declared using Hikvision gear. Many more said they had previously purchased or used equipment from the company but had since stopped, sometimes citing security concerns.

Contacted by National Post in recent weeks, the majority of the federal bodies who declared Hikvision gear on their properties in 2024 said they had complied with the June 2025 to remove the equipment. That included Justice Canada, Via Rail, Veteran Affairs Canada and the Military Police Complaints Commission.

But a slew of departments and agencies, including some who host troves of sensitive personal data such as ESDC or conduct classified research and work like the Canadian Space Agency, refused to say if they’d complied with the 2025 order.

In all cases, they pointed to Hikvision’s lawsuit against the government to justify their silence.

But more surprisingly to national security specialists is the fact that the National Research Council (NRC) and Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority continue to use such gear, in apparent violation of Joly’s 2025 order.

“The cameras referenced in the 2024 (document) remain in use at WDBA’s community office, which serves as a space for WDBA to share non-confidential information with the public. The cameras will no longer be in service as of November 2026,” said bridge authority spokesperson Heather Grondin.

In a statement, NRC spokesperson Pamela Pilon said the organization removed all Hikvision gear from its security systems in 2025, but continues to use them to monitor “non-sensitive experiments and work areas.”

“None of the NRC’s remaining Hikvision cameras are connected to the internet or NRC networks,” Pilon said. “The cameras used in research will be eliminated this year.

Neither of those explanations satisfied Molinaro or Andrew Kirsch, a former CSIS intelligence officer and founder of risk consultancy Kirsch Group.

“You’d like to think that if the government’s going to implement a ban, at the very least the government can follow it, right?,” Kirsch said.

“If it’s important enough for us to want to look at it, it may be important enough for someone else to want to look at,” Kirsch said.

For Molinaro, the Chinese government’s or hackers’ interests in espionage isn’t just towards classified or sensitive information. Seeing who may be transiting through a federal office, everyday conversations or finding out more about NRC experiments can all be extremely valuable to a foreign intelligence service.

Andrew Elvish, vice-president at Montreal-based security software firm Genetic, said that his company has essentially barred clients from connecting Hikvision hardware to their tech because of the risks.

“If you should wish to make a terrible technology decision, you will have to sign a waiver to hold us harmless when the sh-t hits the fan, as we believe it surely will, and (you) did that against our own financial interests,” Elvish said.

“These cameras, they’re not just cameras,” he continued. “They are computers, and … they are designed intentionally to be insecure computers on a network, so that they can gain a toehold.”

According to Sami Khoury, a recently-retired top government cybersecurity official, it would be “doable” but challenging to use such cameras in a safe way.

“If your networks are not properly segmented, you run the risk of the vulnerability being exploited indirectly,” he explained.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

• Ottawa has new powers to ban Chinese telecom companies. It says it’s not planning to use them
• Huawei ban won’t solve the problem of Chinese spying on Canada, experts say

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Shortly before a large shipping crate of gold bars and cash worth more than $22 million was stolen from Toronto’s Pearson airport, a worker inside the Air Canada cargo warehouse where it was stored received two mysterious phone calls.

They seem mysterious now, when revealed in court and knowing what was about to happen — the largest gold heist in Canadian history — at the time, though, it all seemed normal, the employee testified. Court heard on Wednesday from several staff who moved the crate stuffed with gold and cash — seemingly unknowingly — around the large facility without anything seeming suspicious.

It was business as usual, cargo workers said.

So much so that nobody realized the crate of gold and cash had been stolen until hours later when the real customer — armed Brink’s guards in an armoured truck — arrived to collect it, and no one could find it for them.

“It was just a regular day, doing the duties, like day to day, whatever was required of me,” said Vatsal Vaid, who helped run the computer end of facility’s automated sorting and moving machinery.

Vaid was one of several workers at the warehouse testifying on the third day of the trial for Parmpal Sidhu, one of those accused of pulling off the notorious Pearson airport gold heist on April 17, 2023.

At the time of the heist, Vaid, 27, was working inside Air Canada’s cargo warehouse for Katlyn International, a third-party contractor to the airline that provided the automation equipment to manage the movement of freight through the facility at Canada’s busiest airport.

The system allows cargo to move around the warehouse on a device not unlike an enormous baggage carousel for passengers at the airport terminal.

Vaid was a controls technologist working in the Hub Operations Control Centre, known as HOCC, which is the control centre for incoming and outgoing cargo. He sat in an office with Air Canada cargo managers providing system assistance and solving problems that came up to ensure containers kept moving to where he was told they should go.

“They would reach out me if there’s any technical problem, otherwise, everything worked automatically most of the times,” Vaid said.

The system was automated to take cargo that is specially tagged to the appropriate pit, a staging area for containers where they are unpacked into their component packages, if that’s what the codes told the workers to do, and moved into a storage space until picked up by a client.

Cargo that must be kept cold, such as food, flowers or pharmaceuticals, goes to one place, called the cool-chain; cargo marked high-value goes to a secure area; those marked priority go to a pit where they are dealt with first by warehouse workers. Containers that aren’t specially coded wait their turn and are distributed randomly to one of five pit areas, court heard.

Vaid testified that after he learned of the gold heist, he thought back to the day before. Police investigators asked him to tell them what he remembered, he said.

He said he got a phone call from inside the building, from a container processing area called Pit 5, sometime after 6 p.m. It seemed a routine call.

The caller said a shipment was going into the system in about half an hour — there “were a couple units ahead of it,” he recalled him saying. The caller said something like “this is a high value cargo going into the system. Tell the managers working at the desk.”

About half an hour later, he received a second phone call, Vaid said. This one appeared to come from the cargo manager’s office phone saying that an import manager required a unit to go down to Pit 1 and told him to generate the appropriate command in the conveyer system, “because the customer is here to pick that unit up, and it’s a priority unit.”

Vaid told court he didn’t know who was on the phone. It was a male voice, he said.

The caller, he said, “knew what they were doing, or they had an idea of the system and everything, like how to approach or do some certain stuff within the system, so I was just following the orders in my job.”

The specific impact of those phone calls on the gold heist was left hanging by court by the end of the day. It was not even said whether the phone calls were legitimate or nefarious, but Vaid said he wanted police to know about them.

John Iheme, who worked as a station attendant within the cool-chain, testified about his unfortunate position of unknowingly delivering the crate of gold to the driver of the heist crew and even helped him load it onto the truck that hauled it away, never to be seen again.

He didn’t know of his role until he was called in to speak with Peel Regional Police investigators.

“When I was called to the police station to go give a statement, I was shown a video and that’s when I realized that I had served the driver that came in to pick up the shipment,” he told court.

“If someone needs help, I just step up and help… the gentleman came to the back and needed help, so, I just got up and went and helped,” he said of the man who came to collect the shipping crate.

Court watched video of Iheme, wearing a bright orange safety vest and a ball cap, striding through the loading bay to a man standing beside the open back of a truck that had backed into one of the loading docks.

In the video, he greets the driver with a fist bump. The driver’s face is covered.

“I can’t even remember dealing with the gentleman to be honest, but on the video, I can see myself serving him.”

Police were interested in the fist bump. It could suggest familiarity. Iheme said he was just being friendly. “I do it with everyone,” he said. “I’ve never seen them before.”

He was asked about the driver’s mask.

“I don’t know why he would be masked up,” he said. “It’s not my job to check what people wear and how they’re dressed. I serve you and I move on. He could be sick. I don’’t know.”

He said there was nothing peculiar about the delivery. He took the air waybill from the driver, which is a receipt for picking up a shipment, and looked at it “to make sure it’s got the stamps that you need,” he said. “There was no stamps missing.”

He then went back to find the container; it wasn’t hard, it was already in the cool-chain area.

“I didn’t have to go and get it out, it was already there and I picked it up,” he said. Video shows him navigating a forklift to raise the hefty crate. He said he didn’t know what was inside — staff aren’t to open containers unless they’re told to.

He drove the forklift back to the loading bay, helped the driver load it into the truck and said goodbye.

Court heard previously that somebody had used Air Canada’s internal computer systems and login credentials for various Air Canada employees to change the routing tags in the systems that tracked and automated cargo handling while the crate was in the air from Zurich, Switzerland.

The tag that it was high-value cargo was deleted, which prevented the automated machines from directing it to the secure storage area, which is locked and guarded. Court heard that the digital hygiene at the facility was dreadful and workers routinely shared logins and passwords and workstations were left logged for weeks, month, or years.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

• ‘Curious’ Air Canada IT worker tried to think like a crook to trace how airport gold heist was pulled off
• India’s search for missing loot from Toronto airport gold heist prevents alleged inside man from returning to Canada for trial

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Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers has broken ranks with U.S. President Donald Trump by saying the trade war with Canada needs to end.

In a 30-second campaign ad shared on social media on Wednesday, Rogers said: “Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now. As Michigan senator, I’ll bring both parties together to lower your prices.”

He also made a reference to Canadian brewing company Labatt, saying: “Drinking a Labatt and watching the Red Wings, man, it just doesn’t get any more Michigan than that.”

Though the former congressman doesn’t mention Trump by name, the ad is a clear reference to the 50 per cent tariffs Trump imposed on $28 billion worth of Canadian goods in August, as well as the retaliatory tariffs Canada imposed on U.S. products the following month.

Prices are too high and Canada is not our enemy. We need to end the tariff war — now.

In the Senate, I’ll bring both parties together to lower costs and put Michigan families first. pic.twitter.com/D5DLkBBdpn

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 7, 2026

And it’s not the first time Rogers has publicly disagreed with Trump on key issues in recent weeks. Last month, he said the war in Iran needs to “end quickly” in another campaign video focused on bringing down energy costs.

In August, he cautioned that tariffs are “necessary, but are not a one-size-fits-all solution” in a press release as part of his campaign.

Trump was asked about Rogers’ latest campaign video during a press conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I viewed him as saying that he thinks Canada should make a deal,” the U.S. president said .

Michigan is one of the states hit hardest by the trade war between the two countries, due to the state’s automakers ​relying on integrated cross-border supply chains. According to the Canadian government , Michigan exports $21.2 billion in goods to Canada annually, and imports $43.5 billion. It adds that 333 Canadian-owned businesses employ 40,300 workers in Michigan.

Meanwhile, Michigan has become a key battleground for the upcoming U.S. midterms and is currently considered a toss-up for the Senate race by The Cook Political Report .

Rogers is running against Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has also focused on the trade war with Canada as part of his campaign.

Responding to Rogers’ recent video, El-Sayed wrote on X: “Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike. You cheerled this tariff war from the beginning and you’re flip-flopping now because your poll numbers are in free fall.”

Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike. You cheerled this tariff war from the beginning and you’re flip-flopping now because your poll numbers are in free fall.

Donald is the reason we’re in a trade war. And he’s the reason you’re running.

Not a serious person. https://t.co/2VwgB8FNf4

— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 7, 2026

The Democrats need to gain four more seats to win back the Senate majority in the upcoming mid-term elections on Nov. 3.

Canada’s Industry Minister, ⁠Melanie Joly, has previously been open about the fact that Canadian counter-tariffs were in part designed to “target states” and “put political pressure” on the Trump administration.

• Minneapolis mayor sends message to Canadians boycotting U.S.: ‘We don’t think of you as the 51st state’
• Map shows the U.S. states hit hardest by Trump’s trade war with Canada

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers has broken ranks with U.S. President Donald Trump by saying the trade war with Canada needs to end.

In a 30-second campaign ad shared on social media on Wednesday, Rogers said: “Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now. As Michigan senator, I’ll bring both parties together to lower your prices.”

He also made a reference to Canadian brewing company Labatt, saying: “Drinking a Labatt and watching the Red Wings, man, it just doesn’t get any more Michigan than that.”

Though the former congressman doesn’t mention Trump by name, the ad is a clear reference to the 50 per cent tariffs Trump imposed on $28 billion worth of Canadian goods in August, as well as the retaliatory tariffs Canada imposed on U.S. products the following month.

Prices are too high and Canada is not our enemy. We need to end the tariff war — now.

In the Senate, I’ll bring both parties together to lower costs and put Michigan families first. pic.twitter.com/D5DLkBBdpn

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 7, 2026

And it’s not the first time Rogers has publicly disagreed with Trump on key issues in recent weeks. Last month, he said the war in Iran needs to “end quickly” in another campaign video focused on bringing down energy costs.

In August, he cautioned that tariffs are “necessary, but are not a one-size-fits-all solution” in a press release as part of his campaign.

Trump was asked about Rogers’ latest campaign video during a press conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I viewed him as saying that he thinks Canada should make a deal,” the U.S. president said .

Michigan is one of the states hit hardest by the trade war between the two countries, due to the state’s automakers ​relying on integrated cross-border supply chains. According to the Canadian government , Michigan exports $21.2 billion in goods to Canada annually, and imports $43.5 billion. It adds that 333 Canadian-owned businesses employ 40,300 workers in Michigan.

Meanwhile, Michigan has become a key battleground for the upcoming U.S. midterms and is currently considered a toss-up for the Senate race by The Cook Political Report .

Rogers is running against Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has also focused on the trade war with Canada as part of his campaign.

Responding to Rogers’ recent video, El-Sayed wrote on X: “Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike. You cheerled this tariff war from the beginning and you’re flip-flopping now because your poll numbers are in free fall.”

Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike. You cheerled this tariff war from the beginning and you’re flip-flopping now because your poll numbers are in free fall.

Donald is the reason we’re in a trade war. And he’s the reason you’re running.

Not a serious person. https://t.co/2VwgB8FNf4

— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 7, 2026

The Democrats need to gain four more seats to win back the Senate majority in the upcoming mid-term elections on Nov. 3.

Canada’s Industry Minister, ⁠Melanie Joly, has previously been open about the fact that Canadian counter-tariffs were in part designed to “target states” and “put political pressure” on the Trump administration.

• Minneapolis mayor sends message to Canadians boycotting U.S.: ‘We don’t think of you as the 51st state’
• Map shows the U.S. states hit hardest by Trump’s trade war with Canada

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

OTTAWA — The Carney government should directly target Iran’s leader and his allies with sanctions and legal action to close the “impunity gap” and to ensure that this country doesn’t become a safe haven for repression, a coalition of human rights groups and an all-party group of MPs insisted Wednesday.

Speaking on Parliament Hill on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, the human rights advocates warned that more atrocities in Iran are likely if democratic governments don’t do more to limit the Iranian government’s power.

Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal MP and cabinet minister and now an advocate, told reporters that it’s a critical moment in the battle between human rights and the government of Iran. The government killed an estimated 40,000 protesters and critics over two days in January and has since followed with repressive techniques such as controlling mass communications and detentions, disappearances, torture, rape and more executions.

Cotler, who also faced an Iranian assassination plot for his efforts to call out the regime, said the Iranian regime’s repression tactics extend to other countries, including Canada.

Shilan Mirzaee, a democracy advocate and former political prisoner, held up a photo at the press conference of a young couple who were arrested a month ago, just a couple of days before they were to be married. He was then executed while she remains in prison.

Despite the U.S.-led attacks on Iran over the last seven months, that country is still governed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Canada does not have diplomatic relations with Iran and Ottawa has designated its government a supporter of terrorism.

After tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets earlier this year to protest soaring prices and a weak economy, government soldiers opened fire after demonstrators called for regime change. A widespread brutal crackdown ensued.

Less than two months later, the United States and Israel began large-scale strikes on Iranian facilities, reportedly out of concern about the advance of Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. The early attacks in February killed the previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, the current leader’s father, who had ruled since 1989.

The attacks and the war, which have led to oil supply problems and rising prices, have not ended.

The advocates in Ottawa, which included the Iranian Justice Collective and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, also released a report Wednesday with 12 steps that Canada should take to counter the Iranian regime and stand up for human rights.

Beyond sanctioning the leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and other senior members of the government, the list includes:

• Passing Bill C-219, a private member’s bill to strengthen Canada’s ability to fight corruption and human rights abuses. The proposed legislation has passed second reading in the House of Commons and is now being studied by the foreign affairs committee.
• Sanctions against the “shadow” banking, shipping and other networks used to support repression. That could include using sanctions to freeze and forfeit assets to compensate victims and their families.
• Strengthen anti-money laundering efforts, including going after jurisdictions such as Hong Kong seen as money-laundering hubs.
• Support Iranians’ access to the Internet, which has been restricted by the government.

National Post

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OTTAWA — The Carney government should directly target Iran’s leader and his allies with sanctions and legal action to close the “impunity gap” and to ensure that this country doesn’t become a safe haven for repression, a coalition of human rights groups and an all-party group of MPs insisted Wednesday.

Speaking on Parliament Hill on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, the human rights advocates warned that more atrocities in Iran are likely if democratic governments don’t do more to limit the Iranian government’s power.

Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal MP and cabinet minister and now an advocate, told reporters that it’s a critical moment in the battle between human rights and the government of Iran. The government killed an estimated 40,000 protesters and critics over two days in January and has since followed with repressive techniques such as controlling mass communications and detentions, disappearances, torture, rape and more executions.

Cotler, who also faced an Iranian assassination plot for his efforts to call out the regime, said the Iranian regime’s repression tactics extend to other countries, including Canada.

Shilan Mirzaee, a democracy advocate and former political prisoner, held up a photo at the press conference of a young couple who were arrested a month ago, just a couple of days before they were to be married. He was then executed while she remains in prison.

Despite the U.S.-led attacks on Iran over the last seven months, that country is still governed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Canada does not have diplomatic relations with Iran and Ottawa has designated its government a supporter of terrorism.

After tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets earlier this year to protest soaring prices and a weak economy, government soldiers opened fire after demonstrators called for regime change. A widespread brutal crackdown ensued.

Less than two months later, the United States and Israel began large-scale strikes on Iranian facilities, reportedly out of concern about the advance of Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. The early attacks in February killed the previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, the current leader’s father, who had ruled since 1989.

The attacks and the war, which have led to oil supply problems and rising prices, have not ended.

The advocates in Ottawa, which included the Iranian Justice Collective and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, also released a report Wednesday with 12 steps that Canada should take to counter the Iranian regime and stand up for human rights.

Beyond sanctioning the leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and other senior members of the government, the list includes:

• Passing Bill C-219, a private member’s bill to strengthen Canada’s ability to fight corruption and human rights abuses. The proposed legislation has passed second reading in the House of Commons and is now being studied by the foreign affairs committee.
• Sanctions against the “shadow” banking, shipping and other networks used to support repression. That could include using sanctions to freeze and forfeit assets to compensate victims and their families.
• Strengthen anti-money laundering efforts, including going after jurisdictions such as Hong Kong seen as money-laundering hubs.
• Support Iranians’ access to the Internet, which has been restricted by the government.

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.