OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly plans to welcome her G7 counterparts to Charlevoix, Quebec, with a warning: “If the U.S. can do this to us, their closest friend, then nobody is safe.”
On the official agenda this week as Canada hosts the G7 foreign ministers: Ukraine, the Middle East, Haiti and Venezuela, but nothing about President Donald Trump’s trade war or sovereignty threats. Yet Joly told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that she plans to raise the issue with the European and British members, while advising them that “Canada is the canary in the coal mine.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive fresh from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he was negotiating the terms of a 30-day Russia-Ukraine truce.
Speaking to reporters from Ireland on Wednesday, he pointed out that G7 leaders will have plenty to talk about when they assemble. “It is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada.”
But amid Trump’s steep tariffs on his northern neighbor, Joly is not standing by. She plans to meet with Rubio on Thursday morning in an effort to apply “maximum pressure” over the protection of Canada’s sovereignty and way of living.
“We have done nothing to justify Trump’s attacks on our country, on our economy and our identity,” Joly said. “Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally.”
Rubio told reporters his expectation for the G7 is that the U.S. will work in a “constructive way with our allies and friends and partners.”
But Canadians increasingly express that they feel like the U.S. is abandoning a longstanding friendship, with some even calling it an “enemy country.”
Rubio’s bilat will take place amid the latest fallout in an ongoing trade war. On Wednesday, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum — the latest in rolling tariff threats and announcements.
In response, Joly delivered a blistering speech in Ottawa, arguing Trump’s tariffs are an excuse for taking Canada by economic force. Canada has also lodged new counter-tariffs on about $20 billion worth of imports of American goods.
“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talks of annexing our country through economic coercion,” Joly said. “He called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric. Well, Canadians have made it very clear that we will not back down, and we will not give in to this coercion.”
As for Canada’s sovereignty, Joly said that in the G7 meetings, she is looking to find new ways to cooperate with Europe on military exercises and purchasing weapons and other defense equipment. Rubio told reporters he’s focused on discussing such issues as Ukraine and the defense of North America through NORAD.
This week Trump reiterated that the U.S.-Canada border is an “artificial line” that looks like it was drawn “with a ruler.”
“When you take away that, and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States, there’s no place anywhere in the world that looks like that,” Trump said Tuesday.
Rubio downplayed Trump’s annexation comments, saying Trump believes Canada should become the 51st state “from an economic standpoint.”
“He says if they became the 51st state, we wouldn’t have to worry about the border and fentanyl coming across because now we would be able to manage that,” he added.
Joly is leading the charge on Canada’s tariff response alongside Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, as Canada prepares to swear in a new prime minister. Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spent the week packing up his office.
Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney has identified Trump’s trade assault as an “economic and sovereign crisis” and has vowed to stop the president from his goal of “dominating the hemisphere” by taking Canada and Greenland.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country,” he warned Sunday as he claimed victory in the race to replace Trudeau. “Think about it. If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life.”
During his farewell speech, Trudeau said Canada is in a nation-defining moment. “Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given,” he said.
Canada sounds alarm at G7: ‘Nobody is safe’ from Trump’s tactics
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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