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Source: National Post (Politics)

“No country in the western world has concentrated as many (government) employees in the national capital region as has Canada,” says Donald Savoie.

Donald J. Savoie has spent decades studying the inner workings of Canada’s federal bureaucracy. He’s watched Ottawa grow more centralized and more crowded with what he calls “poets,” policy thinkers and advisers, while the “plumbers,” the front-line workers delivering services to Canadians, have not been prioritized. In an interview with National Post about the concept, as discussed in his recent book

Speaking Truth to Canadians About Their Public Service

, Savoie explains why that imbalance matters. Savoie is Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at Université de Moncton.

Please briefly define what you mean by “plumbers and poets” when it comes to the civil service.

Thank you for the question, that’s a good one. A lot of times I’ve been interviewed about the book, and not many have caught on to the poets and the plumbers, and I think it’s key.

Poets are people mostly in Ottawa, that are part of the government who work on policy issues, who work on liaison, on coordination or dealing with media or dealing with ministers so they define policy.

Plumbers are the ones delivering services to Canadians. Plumbers are the ones you applied to for a passport, plumbers are the ones you applied to for old age pension or whatever program that you want to access; they’re the ones that deliver programs and services to Canadians. So the differences between poets to plumbers is fairly pronounced.

How much has the federal civil service grown in the last decade or so?

It’s grown by leaps and bounds over the past 10 years. In 2014 it was 340,000, in 2025 we’re up to 445,000, so you can see the difference there. It’s over 100,000 more.

How has that growth affected the ratio of plumbers to poets, and what’s the correct ratio?

The growth has clearly favoured the poets. And the reason I say that is just the sheer numbers of public servants in Ottawa — the number has grown. And it has not grown anywhere near the same amount in local and regional offices.

What’s the right number? What’s the right percentage? Frankly, it’s difficult to answer that. I would remind you that 40 years ago about 25 per cent of federal public servants were in Ottawa, and 75 per cent out in the regions, and that sounded like a proper number. So my view is that we should strive towards that.

I can tell you that in France, England, and the United States, the number of public servants in the national capital, whether in London, or Washington, or Paris, is nowhere near the percentage we have in Canada.

Is there any government, in Canada or elsewhere, getting this right?

In the U.K. for example, I’m taking a stab here, but like 75 per cent of public servants are outside of London, and the government over the past several years has made a deliberate attempt to move more and more public servants outside of London.

No country in the western world has concentrated as many employees in the national capital region as has Canada.

You are an academic, which is to some extent the domain of poets and not plumbers, should we be surprised by your position? Don’t we still need people thinking big thoughts in a country of our size?

There’s no shortage of people in Ottawa trying to think big thoughts. I think if there’s a problem it’s at the service delivery. It’s people trying to call Revenue Canada to get answers about income tax, and it’s having issues with supplying passports.

So, big thoughts, there’s thousands of them in Ottawa paid to have big thoughts. I don’t think there’s a lack of big thoughts, there’s a lack of people delivering services to Canadians.

You don’t need an army of people to come up with big thoughts.

Do you think there are any lessons in your theory for the private sector?

I think the private sector has no choice (but) to get it right, has no choice to strike a proper balance, because if a large private-sector firm doesn’t strike a proper balance, the market will tell it to strike the proper balance. The competition will tell it to strike the proper balance.

There is a natural equilibrium in the private sector that happens just because there’s competition, there’s market forces, there’s all kinds of forces that dictate how important it is to run an efficient operation; those forces are not present in the public sector.

The Carney government has announced 15 per cent budget cuts across the board. Does this address your issue?

What I can say is that I wish them well. I think a better solution would be, we have nearly 300 federal organizations, we have 100 federal government programs, I think a better solution would be for the federal government to take a strong look at all its organizations and all its programs and see which ones have long passed their best-by date. See which programs no longer resonate like they did when they were first established. I think there’s a lot of pruning of organizations and programs that could take place.

The 15 per cent cuts sends a message that every program, every organization holds the same priority, just squeeze 15 per cent. I would’ve thought a better solution was to see that we have programs that don’t fit our agenda. We have organizations that don’t serve the purpose that they were initially set up for so why don’t we look at that once we’ve cleaned that up then maybe we can look at the 15 per cent.

Are there any obvious markers as to a civil service job’s usefulness?

There are some, not many, I’ll give you an example. If you hire an auditor at Revenue Canada, every auditor you hire can generate X amount of revenue. So you hire an auditor and you can expect a return.

But for most cases, at least for poets, how do you assess the performance of a poet? That’s in the eye of the beholder. The poet can have 101 reasons why things don’t work. Fault the politicians, it’s the media, not enough resources, there’s all kinds of reasons you can grab.

You can find markers that work on the delivery side, you don’t find markers that work on the poet side.

This is the latest in a National Post series on How Canada Wins. Read earlier instalments here.

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NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh, left, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hold a joint news conference before the NHL draft in Los Angeles, June 27, 2025.

Five former world junior hockey players acquitted in a high-profile sexual assault case will remain ineligible to play in the NHL, according to the league. This move has drawn backlash from the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA), which says the players deserve to return to work.

On Thursday, in a London, Ont., courtroom, Justice Maria Carroccia found Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Michael McLeod

not guilty

, more than seven years after an allegation of group sexual assault emerged involving members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team.

Despite the verdict, the players’ conduct is still under review, and they are still sidelined according to a statement from the NHL.

“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior at issue was unacceptable,” the league said. “We will be reviewing and considering

the judge’s findings

. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the League.”

The decision drew criticism from the NHL Players’ Association, which argued that the league was ignoring due process and overstepping its authority under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

In a statement, the NHLPA said that the players were acquitted of all charges, and that “after missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work.

“The NHL’s declaration that the Players are ‘ineligible’ to play pending its further analysis of the Court’s findings is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA.”

They added, “we are addressing this dispute with the League and will have no further comment at this time.​”

The case first drew major attention in 2022, when Hockey Canada settled a civil case. It resulted in a broader scandal surrounding Hockey Canada, which triggered widespread scrutiny of how sexual violence is handled in sport, the loss of corporate sponsorships, and forced the resignation of top Hockey Canada executives.

Since 2022, Hockey Canada has suspended all players involved in the case from sanctioned programming, and those suspensions remain in effect pending the outcome of an internal appeal process.

In a lengthy statement, Hockey Canada said it would not comment further due to the ongoing appeal of a previous adjudicative panel decision that had examined whether players breached the organization’s code of conduct.

“To ensure that we do not interfere with the integrity of the ongoing appeal … we are not able to comment further at this time,” the statement said.

The organization added that it has since introduced mandatory consent training, achieved gender equity on its board, and expanded third-party reporting structures, along with other initiatives.

“As the national governing body for amateur hockey in Canada, Hockey Canada recognizes our role, responsibility and duty to be a leader in delivering a sport that is rooted in safety, inclusiveness and respect,” the statement said.

The case caught the attention of many outside the hockey world as well, with federal secretary of state for sport, Adam van Koeverden, releasing a statement where he called the case a “critical moment” in Canadian sports. He said it sparked a national conversation on the culture of men’s hockey.

“It is the voices of women, and the courage and bravery it takes to come forward, that have led to the changes and toxic culture that we are seeing,” he said. “It’s critical that this work on safe sport continues across the sports system, because we know that when safeguards are weak or absent, real harm occurs.”

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NASA astronaut Suni Williams conducts an eye exam on the International Space Station.

A new study from NASA

, conducted over several years of long-duration spaceflights on the International Space Station, has found that more than half of U.S. astronauts started noticing changes in their vision after more than six months aboard the ISS. Here’s what to know.

What does the study say?

“Many found that, as their mission progressed, they needed stronger reading glasses,” the study says. “Researchers studying this phenomenon identified swelling in the optic disc, which is where the optic nerve enters the retina, and flattening of the eye shape.”

Does the condition have a name?

The acronym-loving space agency calls the condition SANS, short for Space-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome.

What is causing it?

“Microgravity causes a person’s blood and cerebrospinal fluid to shift toward the head, and studies have suggested that these fluid shifts may be an underlying cause of SANS,” researchers at NASA found.

A

Canadian-led study

with an even longer acronym — Space Flight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome Ocular Rigidity Investigation, or SANSORI — was carried out to determine whether stiffness of the eye, called ocular rigidity, contributes to development of SANS.

It studied 26 eyes (or 13 crew members) that spent between 157 and 186 days on the ISS, and revealed a drop in ocular rigidity (33 per cent), intraocular pressure (11 per cent) and ocular pulse amplitude (25 per cent) following the missions. “These findings reveal previously unknown effects of microgravity on the eye’s mechanical properties, contributing to a deeper understanding of … SANS,” researchers wrote. “Long-term space missions significantly alter ocular biomechanics and have the potential to become biomarkers of disease progression.”

What kinds of treatment have been tried?

NASA has a study taking place now on the space station with a device called

the Thigh Cuff

. The ongoing investigation has 10 astronauts using tight leg cuffs to change the way fluid moves around inside the body, especially around the eyes and in the heart and blood vessels.

That study is expected to wrap up next year but, if successful, the team behind the device says, “the cuffs could serve as a countermeasure against the problems associated with fluid shifts, including SANS.”

He smashed the world record by spending 878 days in space. His body is likely not the same

They add: “A simple and easy-to-use tool to counter the headward shift of body fluids could help protect astronauts on future missions to the Moon and Mars. The cuffs also could treat conditions on Earth that cause fluid to build up in the head or upper body, such as long-term bed rest and certain diseases.”

Other possible treatments have been considered. Last year,

a paper was published

about an unnamed female astronaut with a particularly severe case of SANS. Her condition improved after she started taking a prescribed B-vitamin supplement that was flown to her on the station; however, there was

coincidentally a reduction in cabin carbon dioxide at the same time, so researchers weren’t certain if that may have also helped.

Are there long-term effects?

The good new is that SANS does not seem to be a lifelong condition.

In an interview

, Dr. Andrew G. Lee, a Houston ophthalmologist and one of the authors of the above study, was refreshingly blunt about the longterm consequences.

“Astronaut vision is super important, not only for their safety but for mission quality,” he said. “It’s really important not to have blind people going to Mars.”

He added: “But so far so good. We have not seen any permanent vision loss from any SANS case, and the treatment seems to be come home. So once you get back to the gravitational field of the planet it seems to just go away after a while.”

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Halifax MP Lena Metlege Diab.

OTTAWA — When Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab dropped by a church kids camp this summer, she came

to pose for photos

to highlight the funding that came from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

It might not have seemed unusual: members of Parliament have a hand in helping organizations in their riding get the summer-job subsidies in the first place. MPs get lists of organizations in their ridings that apply for the subsidy, and recommend who should get it.

But Metlege Diab had a more personal relationship with this particular Lebanese parish church in Halifax than just representing it as an MP. She has been a parishioner there since the 1980s.

The situation does not seem to violate either the Conflict of Interest Act or codes that public office holders must follow, but one government ethics specialist said it touches on issues around perceptions of conflict,

as well as what questions the department responsible for administering the money asks of MPs who may have ties to the organizations whose requests they review.

“Do I think that the minister, in this case, has broken the act or code? No,” said Ian Stedman, who previously worked for Ontario’s integrity commissioner and now teaches as an associate professor at York University.

“Do I think that the program may want to protect itself by having a higher bar or a higher standard than the act or code? Yes.”

The Canada Summer Jobs program offers a wage subsidy for employers to hire those aged 15 to 30 each summer. This year, the government announced it would spend $25 million more to create another 6,000 spots to combat the country’s high youth unemployment rate.

How it works is simple: An organization, including religious ones, applies for the subsidy. The department that administers it assesses the application to ensure it meets the criteria and then asks MPs for their feedback based on a recommended list, which, according to the program’s website, is to ensure “local priorities” are met.

Their feedback, it says, is then used to inform the government’s final decisions.

In Metlege Diab’s case, a spokeswoman in her Halifax West constituency office said she provided her feedback back in March, two months before Prime Minister Mark Carney promoted her to cabinet. She has represented the riding federally since 2021.

“The final funding decisions by (Employment and Social Development Canada) were made during the writ period,” the spokeswoman wrote, referring to the period during the spring federal election.

Her office also confirmed she had been a parishioner of the church in question since its was established in the 1980s

“It was wonderful to visit Our Lady of Lebanon Parish and see how the Canada Summer Jobs program is helping our youth gain valuable work experience while supporting meaningful summer opportunities. Thank you for welcoming me — enjoy the rest of your summer!” Metlege Diab

wrote in a recent Facebook post

.

The government confirmed the church received around $50,000 to fund 10 jobs.

Last year, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s office released an advisory opinion directing MPs on when they should refrain from giving their opinion on whether a particular organization should receive funding.

It added that an entity is not precluded from applying for government money just because an elected official or appointee has a personal connection to it, like a membership.

The office advised that MPs should not provide opinions on applications from groups that employ or are owned by a family member, or where they have a “private interest.”

Stedman says under the rules, “private interest” is defined in terms of it being a financial interest, which is narrow.

He says that narrowness is evident when it comes to the Canada Summer Jobs program, which he said is unique in that the government asks MPs to directly weigh in on a funding decision. “This is really them saying outright, ‘We want you to help influence how our money is spent.’”

While federal ethics rules concentrate on the issue of a public officer using their influence to benefit financially, the program itself is about the community.

“It’s an organization she cares about. It’s a church that she cares about, and the better they do, the longer they survive to be there for her and her community. And she benefits from that in a kind of interpersonal way,” Stedman said.

“It’s just not the kind of benefit that’s contemplated by the act, which can be unpalatable … for I think our modern take on what conflicts of interest could be.”

He said he believes the program, in asking MPs for their recommendations on funding, should also ask whether they have any personal connections to the organizations on the provided lists.

“The public expects that their members of Parliament are going to do everything they can to avoid the perception of a conflict, because we want our government officials to care about public trust in their behaviour, and public trust is about perception as much as it is about reality.”

In a statement, Employment and Social Development Canada did not directly say whether it asks MPs about having any personal ties to the organizations whose applications they review, but members are reminded of the rules under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code of Conduct.

“To ensure their recommendations are considered, they must attest to their compliance with the code by completing the required electronic confirmation. The code provides guidance to MPs regarding the disclosure of conflicts of interest and ensures transparency and accountability in their decision-making, including in the Canada Summer Jobs MP recommendation process,” wrote spokeswoman Liana Brault.

“The department provides final recommendations of projects to be funded after examining all applications against program criteria and national priorities and reviewing feedback from members of Parliament.”

National Post

staylor@postmedia.com

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Reputed Mafia boss Vincenzo

In the middle of a high-stakes deportation hearing against an alleged Mafia boss living in Canada, the government unexpectedly declared it will no longer rely on any evidence obtained from controversial Italian police wiretaps covertly made using the phones of visiting members of a mob family to Canada.

The announcement Friday threatens to derail yet another attempt to deport Vincenzo (Jimmy) DeMaria, a man accused of being a Mafia boss in Ontario who has successfully fought off deportation for more than 40 years.

An Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing is underway on the government’s latest attempt to deport DeMaria based on allegations he is a member of the ’Ndrangheta, the proper name of the powerful Mafia that formed in Italy’s region of Calabria. DeMaria has denied the allegation.

Lawyers for DeMaria had repeatedly called for the Italian police wiretaps to be rejected, calling them illegal foreign interference. On Friday, however, they said the government’s sudden agreement in the middle of the hearing was absurd.

“What we have here is an abuse of process by the minister (of public safety),” said Shoshana Green, one of DeMaria’s three lawyers at the hearing.

“It is an absurdity that the minister, on a whim, is changing the nature of this entire hearing. How can Mr. DeMaria properly prepare for a matter when they are literally changing the foundation of their case four days in?”

Green said information from the wiretaps has already been extensively “co-mingled” with other evidence entered in the case over years, including in two days of testimony earlier this week by a senior police officer from Italy who was the government’s first witness at this hearing against DeMaria.

Green asked Benjamin Dolin, the IRB member deciding the matter, to issue a stay of proceedings, which would suspend the government’s appeal of an earlier immigration board decision

to allow DeMaria to remain in Canada

, where he has lived since moving from Italy as an infant.

“Or in the alternative, we would certainly consent to the minister abandoning their appeal,” Green said.

Andrej Rustja, arguing on behalf of Canada Border Services Agency, said that after reviewing its strategy for the case Thursday night, the government decided to not rely on the wiretaps recorded by Italian police in Canada in 2019 and told DeMaria’s lawyers as a courtesy and to save time at the hearing.

Neither Rustja nor government lawyer Daniel Morse said why they shifted their strategy.

Vincenzo “Jimmy” DeMaria, right, is led to a police cruiser after being arrested in Toronto on April 20, 2009.

Dolin told Green the government’s change “would seem to benefit” her client. “I don’t see any prejudice to Mr. DeMaria,” but he adjourned the hearing to allow DeMaria’s lawyers to file a written motion for a stay and for the government to respond.

DeMaria had been scheduled to testify in the case Friday morning.

The Italian wiretaps have been under scrutiny for years.

The recordings provided an intriguing and colourful peek into activities of the ’Ndrangheta and revealed links between those under investigation in Italy to alleged affiliates in Canada.

In 2019, Italian police learned that a mobster in Calabria named Vincenza Muià was coming to Toronto to speak with people here to find out who within the ’Ndrangheta had murdered his brother in Italy, so that he could properly avenge his death.

Muià said he needed to be 100 per cent certain before enacting his vicious retribution for his dead brother because of organizational volatility. He wanted to check with DeMaria and other alleged ’Ndrangheta bosses in Canada about it, according to

Italian police testimony heard earlier

.

In one recording, according to a transcript translated into English, Muià told a Canadian who was travelling between Toronto and Calabria to tell “Jimmy” (who police identified as meaning DeMaria): “For my brother, once I know who it was, if I can, I’ll eat him in pieces, in pieces, but I have to be sure…. I’ll eat him in small pieces, small pieces on the barbecue, and I invite him to come eat.”

Police could listen to Muià’s plotting because they inserted a Trojan house virus into his phone that turned it into a microphone — recording not just what was said in phone calls but all sound in the room where the phone was, even when it was not in use.

The recordings are controversial because while the bugging was approved by an Italian judge, there was no judicial authorization by a Canadian court for communications to be intercepted in Canada when Muià visited, bringing his bugged phone with him.

The hearing heard this week that Italian police had asked police in Canada to help them bug the airplane that the visitors were arriving and departing on so they could hear what they said during the flights.

The Italian authorities were told by Ontario prosecutors that intercepting such communications in Canada without judicial authorization was illegal. While Canadian police helped Italian police retrieve a listening device that had been installed in Italy on an Alitalia jet once it landed in Toronto, they refused to help install bugs for the return flight.

Complaints were made about the wiretaps in Italy, as well.

Some of those charged in Calabria based in part on the recordings made in Canada appealed their conviction, but Italy’s high court accepted the operation was legal in Italy because the bugs were installed on the phones in Italy and the recordings captured on them in Canada were transmitted to Italy before they were listened to by police.

In Canada last year, in anticipation of this deportation hearing, DeMaria’s lawyers asked the IRB to exclude the wiretaps, along with other evidence, from the record of the case. They said the wiretaps would be considered illegal in Canada’s courts.

Dolin refused their motion in October, saying that under Canadian law, immigration hearings used different rules of evidence than criminal courts.

“When it comes to entering documentation as evidence, almost anything will be admissible as long as it is relevant to an issue to be decided by the IAD (Immigration Appeal Division),” Dolin wrote in that ruling.

The interruption to this hearing and complaints and arguments over evidence and process are not as surprising in a case against DeMaria as they might otherwise be.

Ottawa has been trying and

failing to kick him out of the country

for more than 40 years.

DeMaria has lived in Canada for almost all his 71 years after emigrating from Italy with his parents when he was nine months old, but he never became a Canadian citizen. The door to citizenship slammed shut after he was convicted of shooting a man who owed him money, killing him at a fruit store in Toronto in 1981.

Ever since his second-degree murder conviction, the government has been trying to deport him, with each attempt fully challenged and litigated by DeMaria and a battery of lawyers.

He was released from prison on full parole in 1992 and lived without legal problems for some time. Over the years, however, various police investigators alleged he grew to become an influential member of the ‘Ndrangheta in Toronto.

At one immigration hearing a police officer named him as the mob’s “top guy in Toronto.”

At a previous immigration hearing in 2023, DeMaria denied being a mobster, or knowing anything about the ’Ndrangheta, apart from what he had read in newspapers. He

claimed ethnic profiling

and anti-Italian prejudice was behind efforts to deport him.

Dolin gave lawyers for both sides at this hearing until the end of August to send him all of their arguments and responses in writing for him to rule on DeMaria’s stay motion.

The hearing was scheduled to reconvene in October unless he told the lawyers otherwise.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter:

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The American Fine Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz.

A thief who was arrested on the roof of an art gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz., has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing seven artworks, including three Picassos and two Warhols, worth a quarter of a million dollars.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell

announced

that Harpreet Singh, aged 33, pleaded guilty to one count of theft.

“Art heists may seem glamorous in the movies, but in Maricopa County, they end with a prison sentence instead of a dramatic getaway,” Mitchell said. “Thanks to the quick response from Scottsdale Police and MCAO prosecutors Richelle Burch and Jonathan Hutcheson, the only art this thief will be looking at for the next few years will be whatever’s etched on the walls of his cell.”

According to a release from the Attorney’s office and police reports, the theft occurred in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. The owner of American Fine Art Gallery arrived and noticed several paintings missing as well as noises from the floor above, and called police.

Scottsdale Police arrived and found Singh’s BMW parked directly below an emergency access ladder leading to the roof. Atop the gallery, they found art pieces scattered around, along with a face mask, gloves and several tools.

With the help of a drone, they were able to spot Singh lying on the roof of another gallery nearby, where he was arrested. He told police he was homeless and came up to the roof to sleep, and denied owning a BMW. Police found the keys for the car next to him.

After his arrest, Singh was released on $50,000 bail and ordered to wear and ankle monitor and not to leave Arizona, but court records say the monitor was found in a trash bin on March 6. Meanwhile, Singh didn’t show up for hearings in April or May, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was taken into custody again in Nevada.

Singh has also pleaded guilty to one count of interference with monitoring devices for cutting off his ankle monitor. He was given 3.5 years of supervised probation for that offence.

Meanwhile,

ABC News reported

that Singh had been arrested less than a month earlier on a separate art theft in West Hollywood, Calif. He had been charged with breaking into the Hamilton-Selway Fine Art gallery on Dec. 22 and stealing two Warhol edition prints valued at nearly $100,000.

Less than a week later, detectives arrested Singh outside another art gallery in West Hollywood. He was allegedly carrying one of the stolen Warhol prints; the other was found in his car.

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Justice Maria Carroccia’s acquitted five former Canadian

world junior hockey players

of sexual assault in a high-profile trial in London, Ont. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote had been charged in relation to a 2018 incident involving the complainant,

identified as E.M.

due to a publication ban, in a London, Ont., hotel room. “Considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts,” she said, adding that she did not find the complainant’s testimony to be “either credible or reliable.”

Read the full text of the Ontario Superior Court justice’s verdict, which was delivered in a London courtroom on July 25, 2025:

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Justice Maria Carroccia’s acquitted five former Canadian

world junior hockey players

of sexual assault in a high-profile trial in London, Ont. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote had been charged in relation to a 2018 incident involving the complainant,

identified as E.M.

due to a publication ban, in a London, Ont., hotel room. “Considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts,” she said, adding that she did not find the complainant’s testimony to be “either credible or reliable.”

Read the full text of the Ontario Superior Court justice’s verdict, which was delivered in a London courtroom on July 25, 2025:

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A Canada Border Services Agency photo of a traveller handing their passport to an officer at a land port of entry.

Canadians have one of the most powerful passports in the world, ranking ahead of the United States in a global index.

U.K.-based consultancy firm Henley & Partners recently released this year’s

global passport ranking

. It’s based on mobility, meaning where in the world the holder of the passport can travel to without a visa. In order to rank the countries, it relies on exclusive information from travel information database, the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The top-ranking country is Singapore. That’s because its passport holders have visa-free access to the most global destinations included in the list, at 193 destinations.

Passports receive a score if no visa is required. The same score is given if the passport holder can obtain a visa on arrival (VOA), a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination. An ETA, for example, is needed when Canadians enter the United Kingdom for travel purposes such as tourism, family visits, business, and short-term study.

Passports receive a different score if a visa is required, or if a passport holder has to obtain a government-approved electronic visa (e-Visa) before departure, or pre-departure government approval for a visa on arrival. For example, Canadians require a visa to enter Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Cuba.

Canada came in 8th place in the 2025 list, tied with Estonia and the United Arab Emirates. This is ahead of the American passport, which came in 10th place this year. Historically, according to the firm’s list, Canada has maintained a high ranking. Since 2006, it has not fallen below 9th place. At its peak, the Canadian passport came in second place in 2014.

 

Canada’s ranking is “based as much as anything on other countries’ confidence that Canadians won’t overstay their welcome (and likewise for any set of countries),” University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy professor Drew Fagan told National Post over email on Thursday.

“Canada’s relative safety and prosperity means that other countries can be confident that Canadians are coming for a good time, not a long time,” he said.

In 2025, Canadians can visit 184 countries without needing a visa, according to the Henley & Partners ranking.

“Countries at the top of the ranking however must work to maintain it, or they will be overtaken. Looking back slightly further, the U.S. was number one on the ranking in 2014, but by only gaining net access to 8 destinations since then, the U.S. has fallen by 9 spots as other top ranking countries outpaced them,” said Souad Ouared, associate director, private clients at Henley & Partners Canada, in an emailed statement to National Post on Friday.

“Japan on the other hand has added 19 destinations to its score since 2014 and gained one spot in the ranking from 3rd to 2nd. Canada sits in the middle of these two. It was ranked 2nd in 2014 and has lost 6 places since then, with a net access gain of 11 destinations.”

The ranking shows travellers the relative strength of the passport they hold and the global access it gives them, explained Ouared.

“There are many factors that affect a passport’s ranking, including countries updating their visa systems, or diplomatic relations including bi-lateral visa free agreements. It is unusual for a passport’s ranking to change significantly from year to year, but rather will see a trend of incremental gains and losses over time,” she said.

One of the recent changes that has affected Canada’s ranking is the country being

excluded from China’s list of countries that can visit without a visa

. Canadians still require a visa to visit China for tourism, business, study or work.

Another recent change? “The Canadian passport lost access to Brazil, with Brazil citing a lack of reciprocity as the reason,” said Ouared.

“That being said, the Canadian passport remains one of the most powerful in the world, and it is a privilege for all who hold it, considering the broad global access it provides to key destinations.”

Roughly 70 per cent of Canadians hold valid passports and more than 24.6 million passports are in circulation, according to data from the federal government updated in 2022.

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An aerial view of steel coils sitting in the yard at ArcelorMittal Dofasco's steel mill on June 9, 2025 in Hamilton, Canada.

For the hundreds of Canadian steelworkers who lost their jobs this year amid President Donald Trump’s trade war, talk of reaching a trade deal between Canada and the U.S. is coming too little, too late. 

For Trump, the effects — driving down imports, boosting the U.S. steel industry and winning concessions from Canada — seem to be getting him what he wants.

Initially faced with a 25 per cent tariff on exports to the U.S., which ballooned to 50 per cent in June,
Canadian steel is desperate for a resolution.
Trump imposed the levies under
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, declaring steel imports a threat to national security and citing the need to protect American industry. His rationale was that curbing imports would reduce supply and ramp up prices, giving U.S. steel additional revenue to invest in strengthening domestic production.

FILE: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive for a family photo during the Group of Seven (G7) Summit at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025.

About US$7.7 billion ($10 billion) in Canadian steel and iron was exported to the U.S. last year, with the American market worth 90 per cent of Canadian exports.

While

Prime Minister

Mark Carney’s team has been trying to get the steel tariffs lifted, he has lately tried managing expectations, publicly acknowledging that any trade deal will likely involve tariffs. 

Negotiating teams are staring down an Aug. 1 deadline, when Trump said he’ll be hitting Canada with yet more tariffs — on top of the steel, aluminum, lumber, copper, autos, and energy already being whacked, as well as any goods not exempted by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA).

With the deadline less than a week away, Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc was in Washington on Thursday for the latest trade discussions.

The talks, said one
 Canadian government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, “
have been volatile.” 

A Canadian national flag is seen in the background as workers cross the street in front of ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s steel manufacturing buildings in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.

Canada’s pain worsens

So far, the Canadian steel industry has been one of the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs, and it’s bracing for things to get uglier.

“By the end of May, before we even hit the 50 per cent tariffs, we saw a 30 per cent decline in production across the country,” said Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA). She doesn’t have the June numbers yet, but she expects it be “
much worse.”

Canadian producers can’t afford to absorb the 50 per cent tariff on six million tonnes of production, the amount that was destined for the U.S. market and is now subject to the levy, Cobden explains. 

While some analysts expected the U.S. market to keep buying heavily taxed Canadian steel to satisfy demand until domestic production increased to fill the gap, that’s not playing out in practice. At least not yet. 

“The customers on the other end aren’t always willing or able to pay, and they expect the steel companies to absorb that,” Cobden said.

“I talk to our members every day, and the situation is that the order books, for those shipments to the United States, are essentially drying up.”

So far, the downturn has led to more than 1,000 industry layoffs, said Cobden. She said she now fears that the problems will continue to mount as investment dries up and the industry shrinks.

So far, the Canadian steel industry has been one of the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs, and it’s bracing for things to get uglier.

Trump’s done this before

In Trump’s first term in 2018, U.S. steel ramped up production after the president hit Canadian imports with tariffs of 25 per cent. It seems to be happening again.

According to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), which supports tariffs, U.S. mills have been churning out steel at historic rates. In mid-June, weekly raw steel production hit a three-year peak, and the mill capacity utilization rate has averaged around 76.2 to 78 per cent. If it can be sustained near the 78 per cent mark, it will have exceeded last year’s 76.4 per cent, edging closer to the 80 per cent benchmark the Commerce Department wants.

Imports, meanwhile, have dropped 6.2 per cent compared to this time last year.

The 2018 tariffs also saw U.S. steelmakers invest over US$20 billion in modernization efforts, according to the Steel Manufacturers Association, and created 1,000 American jobs, according to the North American Industry Classification System, while saving others from disappearing.

Other studies, however, have questioned the long-term effectiveness of tariffs for job creation. So far this year, the results have been mixed, with a few plant closings and nearly 2,000 job losses mixed with some paused productions and a few summer ribbon-cuttings.

Other American industries are taking a hit, though. A lot of things are made with steel, so price increases impact loads of other industries, most notably automotive and housing. 

FILE: Steel products are seen in a warehouse at North York Iron, a steel supplier in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday, February 11, 2025.

With steel-related input prices rising, the average American car price is expected to jump by nearly US$2,000. Housing construction is set to drop by four per cent, according to the National Association of Home Builders. 

Some analysts question the logic of disrupting supply lines and causing trade uncertainty in a bid to ramp up domestic production. Andrew Hale, a senior policy analyst at Heritage Foundation, acknowledges that the U.S. steel industry needs to modernize, but he says tariffs won’t help solve the underlying problems. 

“We have horrific regulations and zoning laws,” he says. “All sorts of things prohibit us from building new blast furnaces for the production of refined steel.”

“There’s so much red tape,” he adds, noting that it’s impossible to quickly rejig supply lines, as Trump has suggested.

Carney’s conciliation

Last week, Carney introduced new protections against offshore steel importers, with tariffs on even free-trade partners that export steel to Canada over a set quota, and a 25 per cent tax on any steel from any country – except the U.S. – that was originally melted and poured in China. 

These measures offer some help to the domestic industry, said the CSPA’s Cobden. They’re also a signal to Washington, which has long complained that Canada is a back door to the U.S. market for steel from China. 

But Cobden thinks Canada needs to be ready to hit the U.S. with tariffs, too, if there’s no deal before Aug. 1. Still, she’s optimistic that this war can’t last forever.

“Over time, one has to believe (the U.S.) is going to have to start doing steel trade with somebody. And our hope is it will be Canadian steel companies,” she says.

Hale, at the Heritage Foundation, agrees, pointing to the level of integration between the countries and the shortfall in U.S. production.  

“We created this whole NAFTA, now USMCA, trade area, and the whole auto industry and other industries were built around that to have this, effectively, single market,” he says.

Trump has already pushed back tariff deadlines this year. In April, after he announced sweeping “Liberation Day” global tariffs, the U.S. bond market collapsed and the S&P 500 plummeted to its lowest level since the pandemic
. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed for a 90-day tariff pause.

Markets are back to historic highs, but Hale says to watch for signs of market volatility again heading into next week. “If you’re going to lift the pause and implement these tariffs and maintain them, then the same thing could happen again,” he said.

National Post

tmoran@postmedia.com

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