In the wake of the U.S.-initiated military raid on Venezuela last weekend, in which “helicopter-borne troops … swooped into Caracas in the middle of the night, scooped up Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and disappeared back into the darkness,” Canadian Dimension contributors John Kirk and Stephen Kimber lament Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “supine” reaction to the move.

“In a mealy-mouthed, three-paragraph, 190-word post on X, (Carney) danced and dodged, avoiding any direct criticism of what most experts consider the United States’ flagrant violation of that international law.”

In fact, the post “began with its own expansive version of virtue-signalling,” pointing out that “one of the first actions taken by Canada’s new government in 2025 was to impose additional sanctions on Maduro’s brutally oppressive and criminal regime. Finally, 112 words into his self-justifying, self-satisfied statement, Carney offered nine words that actually, sort of responded to what was happening” by urging “all parties to respect international law,” but “never once called out the United States for its failure to respect that same international law,” they point out.

“The Canadian government, cowed by an erratic and often vindictive Trump, has seemingly adopted what it believes is the pragmatic position, placing trade concerns with Washington (and the need to renegotiate the Canada-Mexico-US trade deal) above international law and self-respect. By contrast, our other partner in that trilateral trade arrangement, Mexico, did not shy away from the crux of the situation … specifically describing Washington’s actions as a ‘clear violation of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations.’”

The midnight strike on Venezuela “may be just the opening gambit in implementing Trump’s grand vision of a radically expanded, expansive version of the Monroe Doctrine, which sees the entire Western Hemisphere as Washington’s plaything,” they point out.

“In light of all that, can we really afford to be so quiescent and cowardly?”

Elsewhere on the site, Owen Schalk warns that “Trump’s war on Venezuela is not over,” as the president “has already threatened a second, larger strike if the Venezuelan government does not submit to his demands for a total economic and political remaking of the country.”

And yet, “Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand tacitly endorsed the kidnapping of Maduro by immediately affirming that Ottawa has ‘refused to recognize any legitimacy of the Maduro regime,’” he observes.

“Amid these escalating US aggressions, the Liberal government remains silent and refuses to stand up for the sovereignty of the region’s peoples. This is unacceptable. Canadians who oppose Washington’s barefaced imperial violence — and Ottawa’s complicity in it — must mobilize and raise our voices for change. It is our responsibility to the hemisphere, and to the planet, on which we live.”

Also keeping a close eye on the shifting geopolitical dynamics south of the border: Alberta-based Rabble writer David Climenhaga.

“When the dust settles on (Trump’s) effort to take over Venezuela and its massive heavy oil reserves, the outcome is unlikely to be good for Alberta,” he warns.

“Beyond vague statements about more attacks and boots on the ground, Trump and his enablers seem to have paid very little attention to who will run Venezuela or its giant Orinoco tarpatch, and who will pay for this imperial resource grab.   Add to that the facts the number of North American refineries that can process Alberta and Venezuelan heavy crude is limited, with more unlikely to come on stream soon, and that China is moving as fast as it can toward complete electrification, and that in effect puts a cap on demand.”

His takeaway: “None of this is good news for a province with a one-note economy and a government focused on ideological projects and propping up the fossil fuel industry.”

Meanwhile, his fellow Rabble writer Paul Kahnert has some advice for the hundreds of card-carrying Conservatives set to descend on Calgary for the party’s biennial convention later this month: namely, take a critical look at current policies that “clearly have been taken from (Trump’s) play book,” in his view.

“The outright hatred being promoted against the transgendered by Alberta premier Danielle Smith who used the notwithstanding clause to strip them of their rights is as dangerous as it is outrageous,” he contends.

“Echoing the US, (Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre) is still promising to cut foreign aid and the bureaucracy. with his ‘Canada first’ and ‘common sense’ slogans. ‘Common sense’ is wreaking havoc in the US as it did under premier Mike Harris in Ontario in the 1990’s. ‘Common sense’ is a reverse Robin Hood policy, taking from the people and giving to the rich.  Poilievre’s policies are only going to further dismantle democracy and enable the upward transfer of wealth to the wealthy.”

Also in the Rabble rotation: Bianca Mugyenyi explains why she’s filed the necessary paperwork to join the race to lead the federal New Democrats after the party rebuffed an earlier bid by her husband, Yves Engler, to get his name on the ballot.

“Over the past six months, I’ve co-managed an NDP leadership campaign under the banner ‘Socialism. Activism. Justice,’ she notes.

“In a functioning democratic party, members would decide whether they support a leadership candidate advancing these ideas. Instead, an unelected three-person vetting committee blocked the candidate promoting this platform. The decision to exclude my husband Yves Engler was undemocratic, but this campaign was never about one person. The greater harm is shutting these ideas out of the leadership race altogether.”

She also makes it clear that, “if the party reverses this undemocratic decision,” she “would step aside,” as “members, not a secret committee, should decide who runs and who leads.”

Rounding out the progressive-left circuit, The Maple’s Adam D.K. King reflects on how “Canadian workers and unions fared” in 2025, and concludes that it was a “mixed bag,” as “union wage gains were relatively healthy,” but “the overall economy continued to cool with unemployment creeping up and many workers still feeling the cost-of-living crunch.”

Trending on the right-of-centre side of the Canadian activist mediaverse:

• Rebel News commander Ezra Levant weighs in on Chrystia Freeland’s “controversial decision to take on the role of economic advisor to Ukrainian President Zelensky despite the multitude of potential conflicts of interest,” and announces  that the Rebel “will be deploying its billboard truck to call on Mark Carney to immediately fire Freeland.”
• Montreal-based Rebel Alexa Lavoie headed to Florida to cover reaction to the “liberation of Venezuela” amongst “Venezuelan exiles living in Miami,” who “were surprised by this miraculous removal of the tyrant, someone who had haunted them and until now seemed impossible to remove.”
• West Coast Rebel Drea Humphrey details how Othman Mekhloufi, who she describes as the “man at the centre of the OneBC Party split,” launched a “bizarre attempt to to reshape (the) public record” with an unsuccessful bid to “insert misleading statements into Rebel News’ coverage of the party’s recent implosion.”
• Juno News contributor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa sounds the alarm over a “self-described ‘militant’ Antifa cell based in Canada is openly calling for sabotage, attacks, and anti-American riots in response to the arrest of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.”