Taking Trump at his word
PM says he believes president’s promise only minor tweaks coming on NAFTA
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he takes President Donald Trump at his word when it comes to upcoming trade negotiations and continues to believe adjustments to NAFTA will be minor.
The prime minister made the remarks in an interview with NBC stalwart Tom Brokaw on an empty Broadway stage Wednesday, following a high-profile screening of a Canadian-themed play that was attended by the president’s daughter Ivanka.
It also followed a few days of signals from some key actors in the U.S. that they want important changes in the deal. That includes members of an influential Senate committee who want to open up Canada’s controls on dairy and poultry imports.
It’s not yet clear whether those demands will wind up on the negotiating table when talks eventually start, or whether the lawmakers’ remarks about home-state industries reflect their own domestic politics.
Their remarks were a departure from the president’s: when he met Trudeau at the White House, Trump spoke of making only minor tweaks to the trade relationship with Canada and more significant ones with Mexico.
“I very much take him at his word when he talks about just making a few tweaks,” Trudeau told Brokaw, in an interview that aired on Thursday’s Today Show.
“Because that’s what we’re always happy to do.”
He noted that NAFTA had been altered a dozen times over the past 20 years — although those really were minor tweaks to rules of origin that did not require a vote in Congress.
It appears the changes this time will require a vote. The administration is committed to working with Congress now and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is talking about adding entire new chapters.
Trump’s nominee for trade czar was peppered with questions this week by the Senate committee that will be involved in consultations, and he expressed a willingness to raise supply management when senators pressed him on the effect that import controls have on their home-state economies.
The administration itself has made conflicting noises on whether Canada is an ally or adversary in these trade talks. On the one hand, Ross has spoken about tough negotiations with Canada and Mexico. On the other, trade adviser Peter Navarro is floating a North America First-type idea wherein car parts produced in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico would get more favourable treatment at the expense of imports from Asia.
NBC’s interview occurred after a Broadway play about Canadians helping Americans following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Trump’s daughter Ivanka was in attendance and, on the day a U.S. court halted the president’s revised ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, some media drew attention to the fact that Trudeau brought her to a show about welcoming stranded outsiders.
“Justin Trudeau Brings Ivanka Trump to Broadway Show on Welcoming Outsiders,” was the New York Times headline, while Time Magazine similarly reported, “Justin Trudeau and Ivanka Trump Went to See a Broadway Show on Welcoming Refugees Together.”
In fact, the prime minister, his wife, diplomats from 125 countries, and cabinet ministers took in the play, Come From Away, about residents of Gander, N.L., welcoming thousands of stranded passengers on 9-11.
One subplot of the play involves discrimination against a Muslim traveller in the group — the man is a world-class chef, sidelined from participating in kitchen tasks because, in the aftermath of the attacks, people are scared of him.
After the play, Trudeau did little to discourage or encourage comparisons that might strain relations with the White House as he met with audience members and exchanged hugs with the real-life people whose experiences inspired the story.
Texan Kevin Tuerff, who inspired one of the characters, said the event changed his life. After the tragedy, he gave employees at his company the day off on anniversaries of the attack and ordered them to spend the day committing acts of kindness.
He told the prime minister that he appreciated his approach to welcoming refugees, contrasting that with his own country.
It was a similar, albeit longer exchange on that theme with Brokaw.
The NBC interviewer invited Trudeau to draw contrasts between himself and Trump: “(Trump has) made another effort to shut down or at least diminish the opportunity for immigrants to come here. Another judge has stepped in. You say, ‘Everyone is welcome here.’ What’s going to be the impact of that long-term, not just politically but economically and culturally?’”
Trudeau replied: “We’ll agree to disagree on certain things. But I know, and I’ve always felt for Canada, that we recognize that diversity is a great source of strength.”
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A man wanted in Canada for alleged involvement in online abuse in the case of Amanda Todd was sentenced Thursday to nearly 11 years in prison by a Dutch court for cyberbullying dozens of young girls and gay men.
The court convicted Aydin Coban, 38, for fraud and blackmail via the Internet, according to a statement from the Dutch legal authorities.
It gave him the maximum possible sentence of 10 years and eight months, “because of the devastating consequences his behaviour has on the young lives of the girls” in particular, and out of fear that he could commit new offences if released, the statement said.
Under Dutch privacy laws the man at trial is only identified as Aydin C.
An Associated Press story from Amsterdam on Thursday reported Aydin C is the same man charged in the Todd case and that a Dutch court has approved the man’s extradition following his trial in the Netherlands. He has appealed that decision and denies involvement in any cyberbullying.
The court in Amsterdam heard that he pretended to be a boy or girl and persuaded his victims to perform sexual acts in front of a webcam, then posted the images online or blackmailed them by threatening to do so. He was accused of abusing 34 girls and five gay men, behaviour the court called “astonishing.” In some cases, the abuse lasted years.
In Canada, Coban faces a separate trial in the cyberbullying of Todd, a 15-year-old girl from Port Coquitlam, B.C., whose suicide drew global attention to online abuse.
Todd’s mother, Carol, travelled to Amsterdam for part of the trial and expressed her relief Thursday at the outcome.
“I am grateful to the judges that they looked over all evidence and the testimony and realized that this person was guilty,” she said in an interview from Winnipeg. “I am saddened that someone has to go through those behaviours in order to bring joy to himself.”
In the Canadian case, Coban faces charges including extortion, possession of child pornography and attempting to lure a child online.
Carol Todd said it is important for the case to be tried in Canada.
“There’s a lot of people who are looking for some satisfaction to this story, the end result, so it’s not only for me. It’s for all those others who have followed it and felt deeply about it for whatever reason. Amanda’s story has touched the hearts of many.”
Amanda Todd brought cyberbullying to mainstream attention by posting a video on YouTube in which she told her story with handwritten signs, describing how she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam.
The picture ended up on a Facebook page made by the stranger and she was repeatedly bullied, despite changing schools. She took her own life weeks after posting the video.