Headline

Canadians Cancel Summer Trips To Trump’s America Amid Annexation, Tariff Threats

Published

6 months ago

March 26, 2025

Rosalie Cote and her parents vacationed in the US state of Maine every summer for 25 years — but this year they are staying home, incensed like many Canadians by Donald Trump’s threats of annexation and tariffs.

The United States was the top destination for Canadian tourists, with 20.4 million visits reported last year by the US Travel Association, pumping some US$20.5 billion into the American economy and supporting 140,000 jobs.

But that number is expected to plummet this year as Canadians — the targets of relentless attacks by an America First president intent on wielding tariffs as a policy tool and who speaks frequently of turning their country into the 51st state — cancel their travel plans.

“We don’t want to support the United States. It’s a matter of principle,” explains Cote.

Romane Gauvreau cancelled her mountain biking trip to Vermont and a family vacation to Maine.

“We don’t want to go to a place where democracy is in danger, where people suffer great injustices, and where people are being deported,” Gauvreau told AFP.

They are not outliers. A recent Abacus Data survey found 56 percent of Canadians have changed or cancelled their travel plans to the United States.

Bookings to American destinations in February alone fell 40 percent compared to the same month last year, while 20 percent of pre-existing reservations were cancelled, according to the travel agency Flight Centre Canada.

Canadians who typically spend winters in warmer southern US states, colloquially known as “snowbirds” and whose numbers are estimated to top one million, are also rethinking their plans.

Andre Laurent, a retired civil servant, spent half of each of the past 22 years in Florida to escape Canada’s frigid winters.

But he says everything has changed and become “unpleasant” since the return of Trump to the Oval Office in January. And so, he decided to sell his Florida home.

Gold tops $3,000 for first time on Trump tariff threats
Trump threatens 200% tariff on wine, champagne from France, others
“I no longer felt welcomed and I even felt like I was betraying my country,” he said.

Five of the six Canadians who lived in his Florida gated community also decided to leave the United States permanently.

– ‘Choose Canada’ –
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose final days in office were marked by Trump slapping tariffs or threats of tariffs on many Canadian goods, urged his countrymen to consider vacationing closer to home to show their patriotism.

“Choose Canada” videos quickly spread on social media, touting Canadian destinations such as the majestic Rocky Mountains in the west or Prince Edward Island, which inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery’s best-selling novel “Anne of Green Gables,” in the east.

Travel agencies were quick to leap on the trend.

At Nuance du monde, they no longer promote trips to the United States. “We’re boycotting them in light of the current situation,” said company director Samy Hammadache, adding that the loss of tourism will have “quite a significant” impact on the US tourism sector.

Agencies are already noticing a shift in Canadian bookings to destinations such as Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, and Canada instead of the United States.

Canadian airline Flair Airlines responded to a decline in demand for flights to popular US destinations by increasing flights to Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

“These decisions are based on market needs and demand,” said Kim Bowie, director of communications for the airline said.

Tourism professor Michel Archambault predicted that the trend will see Canadian “domestic tourism reach record levels this year.”

He pointed to a Leger survey that found six out of 10 Canadians plan to vacation in Canada, adding that this is quite unusual.

A recent drop in the value of the Canadian dollar also made US travel less affordable.

For Cote, however, it’s about standing up for Canada: “We must spend money at home rather than with our neighbors who play dirty tricks on us.”

AFP

Headline

Gunmen On Motorbikes Kill 22 At Baptism Ceremony In Niger

Published

12 hours ago

September 17, 2025

Editor

Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead 22 villagers in western Niger, most attending a baptism ceremony, local media and other sources said Tuesday.

The shootings happened on Monday in the Tillaberi region, near Burkina Faso and Mali, where jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (IS) are active.

A resident of the area told AFP that 15 people were killed first at a baptism ceremony in Takoubatt village.

“The attackers then went to the outskirts of Takoubatt where they killed seven other people,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

Local media outlet Elmaestro TV reported a “gruesome death toll of 22 innocent people cowardly killed without reason or justification”.

“Once again, the Tillaberi region has been struck by barbarism, plunging innocent families into mourning and despair,” Nigerien human rights campaigner Maikoul Zodi said on social media.

Niger’s military leaders, who came to power two years ago in a coup, have struggled to contain jihadist groups in Tillaberi, despite maintaining a large army presence there.

Around 20 soldiers were killed in the region last week.

Human Rights Watch has urged Niger authorities to “do more to protect” civilians against deadly attacks.

The rights monitoring group estimates that the Islamic State group has “summarily executed” more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.

Meanwhile, the NGO ACLED, which tracks conflict victims worldwide, says around 1,800 people have been killed in attacks in Niger since October 2024 — three-quarters of them in Tillaberi.

Niger and its neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, also ruled by military coup leaders who claim to pursue a sovereignist policy, have expelled the French and American armies that were fighting alongside them against jihadism.

AFP

Headline

Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy

Published

1 day ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.

The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.

“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.

Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.

The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.

The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.

The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.

That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.

In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.

AFP

Headline

Kazakhstan Bans Forced Marriage, Bride Kidnapping

Published

1 day ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Kazakhstan has banned forced marriages and bride kidnappings through a law that came into effect Tuesday in the Central Asian country, where the practice persists despite new attention being paid to women’s rights.

Forcing someone to marry is now punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Kazakh police said in a statement.

“These changes are aimed at preventing forced marriages and protecting vulnerable categories of citizens, especially women and adolescents,” it added.

Bride kidnappings have also been outlawed.

REAS ALSO:What To Know About Albania’s AI Minister, Diella

“Previously, a person who voluntarily released a kidnapped person could expect to be released from criminal liability. Now this possibility has been eliminated,” the police said.

There are no reliable statistics of forced marriage cases across the country, with no separate article in the criminal code prohibiting it until now.

A Kazakh lawmaker said earlier this year that the police had received 214 such complaints over the past three years.

The custom is also present in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where it mostly goes unpunished due to indifferent law enforcement and stigma surrounding whistleblowers.

The issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan gained media attention in 2023 following the murder of a woman by her husband, a former minister, a case that shocked Kazakh society and prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to react.

“Some people hide behind so-called traditions and try to impose the practice of wife stealing. This blatant obscurantism cannot be justified,” Tokayev said last year.

AFP