While some ministers are gathered in Toronto for RBC’s U.S.-Canada Summit, Trade Minister Dominic Leblanc gave the audience an update on CUSMA.

He said he expects to see bilateral agreements negotiated alongside talks on the critical continental trade pact.

“I would expect that we will have bilateral arrangements between Canada and the United States, between the United States and Mexico, sort of adjacent to the trilateral framework,” LeBlanc said at the U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto on Thursday.

“If those agreements resolve issues that all three countries are trying to resolve, I’m hopeful that we might, at that point, have the extension.”

His comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is “not looking to renew” the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, ahead of a July 1 deadline to rubber-stamp a 16-year extension.

“We don’t need anything that Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have,” Trump said, pointing to cars, lumber and energy. “And they should have to treat us better.”

The Canadian Press has more. 

First Nations advocates are making a last-minute push to urge the Liberal government to pass legislation eliminating discriminatory measures in the Indian Act and the contentious second-generation cutoff.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, members of the Caldwell First Nation and other Indigenous leaders marched on Parliament Hill on Thursday to demand that the government push Bill S-2 across the legislative finish line before Parliament rises for the traditional summer recess later this month.

At a press conference prior to the procession, Caldwell First Nation Chief Nikki van Oirschot said the government needs to “separate political convenience from justice” and pass the bill as soon as possible.

“Reconciliation is not measured by speeches, it’s measured by action. It’s measured by whether parliament is willing to remove the barriers that it created.”

Bill S-2 was introduced last year in response to a B.C. Supreme Court decision known as the Nicholas ruling that stuck down measures in the Indian Act that prevented descendants of enfranchised First Nations peoples from receiving status.

Marco Vigliotti has more. 

The Senate committee on transportation and communications released a report Thursday which said recent strikes or lockouts at key Canadian ports and Canada’s two largest rail companies show the risk labour disruptions pose to the economy.

Sen. David Wells of Newfoundland and Labrador said in a press conference that those labour disputes were devastating to grain farmers, meat producers and fertilizer producers who saw their access to overseas markets cut off.

“We believe that our recommendations will help stabilize Canada’s transportation networks, keep our goods and services flowing and strengthen our reputation as a reliable trading partner,” he said.

CP’s got this one too. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, the constant flow of people embarking in small, rickety boats to migrate abroad should force a reckoning as to why we have built a world where so many “must risk death to seek life”, Pope Leo has said as he warned: “We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead.”

Thursday’s speech in the Canary Islands, on the final leg of the pontiff’s week-long tour of Spain, contained Leo’s most pointed comments to date on migration.

Standing near a memorial to the many who had braved the fierce swells of the Atlantic in the hope of carving out a better life in Europe, the pope railed against the world’s “indifference” and called on leaders to treat migrants more humanely.

“Even today, monsters lurk in these seas: mafias that traffic in despair, traffickers who enslave women and children, and those whose indifference allows the poor to be swallowed up by exploitation or oblivion,” he said.

The Guardian has more. 

President Trump said Thursday he’s canceling strikes in Iran for this evening and that a peace deal is imminent. It’s the latest salvo in a series of whiplash proclamations threatening more strikes and promising peace.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” he added.

He said later in the Oval Office: “We should get done over the next few days. We’re going to have a signing, maybe in Europe, and it’s a great thing.”

Trump was asked if they secured an agreement on nuclear issues and he said “yes, conceptually.”

Read more from NPR. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

While the first FIFA match took place today in Mexico City between Mexico and South Africa, Canada’s kicks off tomorrow.

The opening ceremony in Toronto will feature Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara and Michael Bublé before Canada faces Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You would think that Katy Perry would perform something on Canadian soil, but alas, she will be in Los Angeles for the U.S.’s World Cup opening ceremony.

Have a great evening!