The Toronto Star September 10, 2026

0:00Hello, this is Jane and for the next hour I'll be reading from the September 10 issue of the Toronto Star on the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. And I'm going to start with the big headline on the front page which says Statue of Litigation. Giant North York sculpture at Center of $1 million dollar lawsuit about copyright. And there's a giant picture of the Statue which shows a bear sitting in a giant throne like chair sort of. And underneath the picture it says, artist David Blackmore is suing Dean Drever who is credited with this figure, sometimes jokingly called Bearham Lincoln. Blackmore claims he was involved in the creation of this and other works of art and that the two had a profit sharing deal. And the entire article is on the inside of

1:04the paper and there's another headline there which reads, artist files suit over bear sculpture. Toronto man seeks to enforce profit sharing deal with sculptor who he says has gone silent. And this is by Alicia Hasham. When the towering statue of a female grizzly bear seated like Abraham Lincoln was unveiled in North York last year and artist who says he was instrumental in creating it had no idea it was finished. And now he's asking a court to make sure he's fairly paid. David Blackmore said a friend saw the 10 meter tall public art piece on social media and asked, hey, are those Dave's bears? The Toronto based artist has filed a lawsuit to enforce a profit sharing deal. He said he has with Dean Drever the artist publicly credited with seated bear and

2:07friends, sometimes jokingly called Bearham Lincoln. The lawsuit filed in April also asks for one million dollars in damages for breach of Blackmore's copyrights and moral rights. I don't feel great about it but when it's necessary it's necessary said Blackmore. I just want to make sure that the agreement Dean and I have is respected and honored. Blackmore also wants the court to order tracing of what could be millions and profits from seated bear and other sculpture projects. He says he worked on with Drever since 2020 raising questions about who ultimately owns and should profit from collaborative works of our. Blackmore said he is pursuing legal action because Drever stopped communicating with him in November 2025 and he doesn't know if any of the

3:10private sales were made of their work. Despite multiple attempts to serve Drever with the lawsuit at his home and by email there has been no response from him according to a court order issued on August 10. The star also attempted to contact him and received no response. The allegations in the statement of claim have not been tested in court. Blackmore first worked with Drever a HADA sculptor and artist in 2009 assisting him on some public art projects including the bear with salmon in the lobby of the Epcourt building and downtown Edmonton. They reconnected in 2019 and when the global pandemic shut down Blackmore's job designing movie sets he used a digital sculpting tool to make a 3D model for a character named bear mother using Drever's instructions.

4:12The model was to be printed in pieces and used to cast the sculpture in the in metal. The idea has always come from Dean said Blackmore it would be a case of back and forth about how exactly to execute this. As they worked together Blackmore said he took on more and more of the creative decisions. Their initial deal was that Blackmore would get paid up front for projects he worked on 5% of the first 5 million dollars and 3% of any subsequent million. With the exception of bear mother for which he'd received 5% of any subsequent million. The star has viewed texts and emails where it appears these terms were agreed to by Drever though no formal contract was signed. Then the mother bear project warped into a series of seven statues they called G7 which would

5:17take much longer to design. The lawsuit alleges Drever told Blackmore each G7 set could be sold for 10 million dollars. It also meant Blackmore said that there would be no immediate down payment from a prospective buyer on bear mother and therefore no payment for the work he'd been doing so far. At this point Blackmore said their deal changed with Drever suggesting a 5050 share in profits from the G7 work and other projects they would do together. Blackmore said the new deal was agreed to in messages also shown to the star but Drever never signed the partnership contract Blackmore provided. Drever suggested doing some public art commissions alongside the G7 work so there would be some money coming in allowing Blackmore the time to design the G7 sculptures. They first produced a

6:20bear mother and cubs in bronze and painted green called free time for the ice condo towers in downtown Toronto. Blackmore said he received about $55,000 for his work on it. Then they won the $1 million commission for the cross-town condos at Don Mills Road and Eglington Avenue East with the proposal for seated bear. The concept for a female bear sitting and a replica of the Lincoln Memorial came from Drever and then Blackmore created the entire bear from scratch. Blackmore said. Blackmore visited the bear statue last week his first time seeing it in person. I completely had to invent that stylized version of realism from my own creative brain to get that bear into existence. He said I spent a lot of time making sure that every curl of that fur for example in the chest or every

7:24falling of the fur around the claws was specifically done. He is proud of how the statue turned out but those feelings are tarnished by the financial dispute. Blackmore didn't attend the official unveiling. Only Drever's name is listed on the statue's plaque which describes the work as symbolizing the balance of great power and responsibility. Blackmore said he also didn't know the budget for the mammoth piece had more than doubled from the initial $1 million until he read it in an article. Blackmore received $75,000 in total for his work unseeded bear. Over the course of the project he said he doesn't know what the costs and final product were for the piece. He also doesn't know if any sales were made of the G7 set though he says a small-scale version has been produced and displayed under the title everyone that came before me.

8:27Blackmore said questions of credit and copyright weren't of concern to him at first because of the 50-50 agreement and the trust he had and Drever. I was fine with not having my name on the sculpture because it would bring to me and my family a lot of resources and I could use those resources to develop my own stream of work he said. But with the loss of that includes a copyright dispute Blackmore's involvement in the creation of seeded bear and the G7 pieces is now relevant because an idea cannot be copyrighted according to Blackmore's lawyer Paul E. Bain who has authored a book on our law. What matters is who fixed the idea into a tangible form first he said. Copyright law protects the physical expression of artistic intent. It is common for artists to employ other artists to help make projects especially large-scale ones but

9:31usually the conditions are clear. One of Blackmore's first jobs was for the creed painter Kent Monkman where he said his role in the surrender of copyright was established in an employment contract. In this case without David there would be no sculptures Bain said. If Drever does not respond to Blackmore's lawsuit a default judgment can be issued and enforced said Bain. Drever's website which once showed his past work now has a photo of a teddy bear lying on the ground and the text everything is going to be okay again soon. The next article is also from the front page under the byline of trade war. Liberals unfazed by new Trump tariffs officials economists play down impact of new measures on new US measures on the economy and this is by

10:31Tana McCharles. Ottawa the county government says it does not view US president Donald Trump's latest moves in the tariff dispute which included for the first time an outright import ban on certain Canadian products as a dramatic escalation that warrants an immediate response in kind by Canada. A senior Canadian government official speaking Wednesday on a background only basis said the federal government continues to analyze the impact of the series of measures announced Tuesday evening by the White House but at first blush it's not as bad as we thought it would be. The official who the star agreed not to identify in order to candidly discuss the government's strategy said Trump appears to have retaliated for the sake of responding to Canada's own counter tariffs imposed in response to his tariff package that

11:33took effect two weeks ago while at the same time removing other US import duties on Canadian toilet paper, road salt and cement. That shows the official said he's starting to understand those tariffs are not helpful to his economy. It seems like he's playing the game because he said publicly that he would not tolerate any countermeasures or any counter tariffs or any retaliation from Canada so he retaliates even more just for the sake of it said the official. It's not a full-on attack on our economy again the official said referring to Trump's package of 50% tariffs first threatened in July and which ultimately took effect August 22nd after talks to reach a deal collapsed. Those tariffs hit some 27.6 billion dollars worth of Canadian shipments to the

12:34US and Ottawa responded with tit for tat countermeasures against American exports in addition to counter tariffs that matched the US duties of 25 and 50 percent against autos, steel and aluminum. Economists suggested the actual overall impact of Trump's latest moves may not be severe although they will hit Canadian distillers hard. The bands cover only 0.25% of Canada's exports to the US according to a written analysis by Stephen Brown economist at Capital Economics. Trump announced new bands to come on a range of Canadian motorcycles, wine and spirits, certain cheese and dairy products, molasses, non-alcoholic beers and raised tariffs on other products. He also threatened on

13:38social media to buy Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier from selling products in America and to block Canadian companies from bidding on US and state procurement projects. The threatened band on Bombardier products was not outlined in any of the five former formal proclamations issued by the White House but opposition was swift to a move that seemingly undercuts Trump's own justification for his tariff strategy. His goal of forcing manufacturers to establish production in the US. Bombardier already all already employees thousands in that country as the company and its Republican supporters in the US made clear in public statements. The company said its American workers are based all around the United States with sites in Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois,

14:43Delaware, California, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey as well as overall direct employment presence in more than 20 states. Speaking in Edmonton on Wednesday, Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne portrayed the county government as unfazed. We did not wake up one day and say what are we going to do? We had already a number of plans in place. Plan A has always been to build to support, to protect our economy and our workers. I think there is a clear understanding that Canada is going to stand up. Champagne told reporters, when there are US actions that are taken we always have to make sure that our response is proportionate. We don't want to escalate but we at the same time want to make sure we have a level playing field with American companies who

15:46want to sell into Canada. Derek Holt, economist at Scotia Bank called Trump's threat to prevent Canadian businesses from supplying US government agencies in material and a note to clients published Wednesday. Trump specifically cited multiple award schedule schedule's program which covered roughly $50 billion dollars that US dollars in purchases last year. We figured that the share of this program attributed to bull to Canadian firms is between a few hundred million dollars per year and the low single digit billions. He said that's Trump change. Republican Senator Susan Collins who represents Maine posted on X that she had directly appealed to US trade representative Jameson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik for the tariff exemption for Canadian

16:50road salt and cement. She pointed out that Frenchville a small main town in the Canadian on the Canadian border will incur $10,000 in extra costs for road salt threatening the town's ability to provide municipal services. I also shared that I had heard from Maine Reddemic cement company owners one of whom told me his company would pay $150,000 each month because of these tariffs. Gabriel Brunei, a spokesperson for Canada US Trade Minister Dominic Leblanc, confirmed Canadian and American officials have maintained ongoing discussions on a range of issues although formal trade negotiations are not taking place at this stage. Leblanc's counterpart Greer said the Canadians have reached out to him via text in a podcast

17:53interview recorded last week with the financial times. Greer again pointed the finger squarely at the Canadian side for the collapse of talks calling Carnie's description of the dispute as a trade war unhinged. It is the Canadians that came out and said this is war. This is an economic attack. I mean again for us we're just putting additional fees on foreign goods made by foreign workers in foreign countries like that's all a tariff is. It's just business for us Greer told the financial times. And before I continue I have to pause to remind you that you are listening to a reading of articles and features from the Toronto Star. I'm the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. The next article I'm going to read from the front page is under a byline called Infrastructure. PM to pitch mines, energy projects and pipelines to investors, airports not on agenda for one

18:58trillion dollars summit files show. This is by Adam Redwanski. Oil pipelines, nuclear buildouts, mines and data centers will anchor Mark Carnie's pitch at next week's elite gathering of foreign investors in Toronto. But he may not be offering up Canada's airports at least for now based on a list of potential investments that the government began distributing to selected investment summit on attendees on Wednesday. The document a copy of which was obtained by the star offers a window into the aims of the much hyped summit that the Prime Minister has convened for September 14 and 15 as he seeks to kickstart one trillion dollars in domestic investment. Well decreasing economic

20:00reliance on the United States. It's list of 167 domestic projects for which the government will be courting global capital, skews heavily toward energy and natural resources. Approximately two thirds of its offerings involve fossil fuels, renewable energy and mining, renewable energy and mining. Excuse me. Among the largest opportunities being touted in those sectors are the planned new oil pipeline to the west coast, new liquid natural gas pipelines and terminals and a massive wind energy project under consideration in Nova Scotia. The rest of the list is comprised primarily of ports, data centers and advanced manufacturing projects largely in the defense sector. The heavy resource focus means that the pitch book is also considerably weighted toward Western

21:06Canada and to some extent Atlantic Canada with relatively few listed projects in Ontario. However, a couple of its biggest would be investments are in the expansion of the Bruce nuclear power station and the proposed new Wesley ville nuclear station. It also includes long touted ring of fire mining opportunities in northern Ontario. Although it dampens expectations by snick signaling, that would be a long-term investment requiring patient capital. Ontario is also well represented in the defense industrial opportunities and that section of the prospectus includes at least one would be project that has not previously been on the public radar. A pitch by the

22:08automotive parts manufacturers association whose members are under siege from US tariffs to leverage their manufacturing capacity to make land defense systems and specialty industrial vehicles. The document as a whole includes projects at a wide range of investment readiness. Some of them especially in the oil and gas space already have approvals in place and are at advanced stages of development. Others including many of the clean energy projects are for now much more notional. Across the board the government appears to be seeking equity or financing for projects to build new assets or expand existing ones. The prospectus does not signal any excuse me any intent sorry to simply

23:08sell existing assets to foreign owners. That could ease sovereignty concerns surrounding the summit which is expected to be attended by CEOs of leading leading sovereign wealth funds as well as private equity executives from both the United States and overseas. However, it does not necessarily preclude Karni using the summit to also announce next steps towards privatizing airports or other infrastructure that's currently owned publicly which remains a subject among Canadian finance leaders who have been tracking the summit's lead up. The document itself makes clear that potential investments are not limited to what's on the list stating up front that it highlights selected investment opportunities in Canada and is not intended to represent a comprehensive list of all ongoing projects nationwide. That scope is

24:10seemingly reflected in the dollar figures listed in the report. Despite the $1 trillion figure being touted by Karni as the amount of investment being sought over the next five years all of the pitch books projects added up to less than $500 billion in projected capital expenditures. It's unlikely that investments adding up to anything approaching even that some will be announced at the summit itself. While the government did not offer comment on the prospectus itself a senior official speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told the star earlier this Wednesday that while there will definitely be announcements at the event it is not intended as a signing ceremony. The idea the official said is more to

25:11bring together potential project backers and connect them with proponents with the results best judged in the months that follow. The next article is under the byline of mayoral race 2026. Chao officially enters the ring. Mayor asks voters to build a city that invites us at rally to kick off campaign. Sorry this is by Madis. Habib Habibinia. A live it Chao officially kicked off her re-election campaign Wednesday at the Danforth music hall crammed with Tarantonians from downtown to Scarborough including a lineup that at one point stretched along the Danforth and down Broadview Avenue. Among the roughly 1000 people in attendance were representatives of various labor unions, elected officials from all levels of government, local advocates, candidates for

26:16ward races, a local comedian and a prominent Canadian singer songwriter. Taranto are you ready to choose hope over fear, unity over division to move forward not backward are you ready to win Chao said wearing the same yellow dress from the night she won the 2023 mayoral bylection. We can choose to work together support each other continue building the city we love a joyous city that invites us and welcomes us where we care for each other and stand up for each other. Chao continued to a roaring crowd or we can go backwards we can choose leaders who will starve our public spaces and cut our services divide us instead of bringing us together that is not what I want I do not believe it's what you want either draped across the wall of the music hall was a giant

27:18Canadian flag and attendees waved purple cards with Chao's campaign slogan words of caring affordable and safe a reference to the type of city she said she's built and wants to continue building on the two hour events started with a performance from pan fantasy steel band before the mic was passed to Scarborough born stand-up comedian Suntar V. Cumpanian I'm sorry Cumpanan we also had a lot of mayors go viral for very different reasons but finally we have a mayor who goes viral just because she cannot hear music without busting out the dance moves. V. Cumpan a fan said to a crowd to start off his set to a clapping crowd from the rage bait of six ix buzz to one weird loser friend from

28:24high school that racist one we all have one at least on Facebook whether they like it or not our dancing mayor lives rent-free in their heads at one point when by Cumpan a man asked those in all parts of the city to make some noise the crowds of volume reminiscent of Chao's geographic polling at Tobago and North York attendees gave modest cheers followed by the loudest screams from downtown and Scarborough residents the crowd also heard from Ontario's first poet laureate Randell ad J Laurel Rothman a social work leader and long time advocate who worked alongside Chao and Ryan endo attendant advocate and paralegal who lives at the embattled apartment building a five hundred daas wrote just before Chao took the stage rock band blue rodeos Jim cutie gave

29:27his endorsement to Chao before singing the lake Ontario song it could happen to you we just had our very first grandchild yesterday cutie said I want this city to get better and better for that child so I'm counting on this mayor our future mayor to keep improving this city Chao also talked about her record during her speech including introducing a universal school nutrition program freezing TTC fairs opening libraries seven days a week reducing 911 call weight times and cracking down on bad landlords attendee Julie Foley a 75 year old midtown resident said she likes the work Chao's done and her connection to different parts of the city I like her sensitivity to the range of fallener buildings that she is taken care of Foley said I like the fact that there's so many young people

30:30working with her that just makes me feel like we are handing off to the next generation men boo a 26 year old atobico resident and property owners said he supports Chao because he wants public transit to improve and that she wasn't afraid to raise taxes to support city services I think it makes sense to increase the tax to just at least match the inflation rate so that the city has the money to invest in different things boo said referencing Chao's recent property tax pledge shortly after Chao finished her speech a supporter climbed the stage with Chao's security nervously and she forward then handed her obo K.a. flowers the dazzled and lights and security move back within minutes of Chao's final word her highest profile challenger Brad Bradford released an email statement slamming her record and listing his endorsements among

31:36the latest being Chao's former ceremonial deputy mayor Jennifer McElvy and I need to pause once more just to remind you that you're listening to a reading of articles and features from the Toronto star on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service and the last article I have here from the first page is under the byline of road safety family sues province city after teens injury lawsuit alleges removal of speed camera partly to blame for traumatic car crash and this is by Raju Mudar the family of a 15 year old boy severely injured by a car outside his Toronto school is suing the driver the city and the province alleging the removal of a speed camera near the school contributed to the crash on March 25th the boy was leaving Saint Oscar Romero Catholic

32:37secondary school when he was struck at the crosswalk by a vehicle at the intersection of Humber Boulevard and Louvain Street the boy was transported to hospital with life altering injuries according to the statement of claim the boy suffered multiple injuries including a traumatic brain injury vision loss in his right eye multiple skull slash facial fractures carotid artery injury colonic injury and ongoing cognitive psychological and behavioral effects the speed camera which was near the crosswalk where the teen was hit had been removed as part of a provincial government directive that road safety advocates and municipal leaders warned would lead to more injuries and death on city roads the boy's parents Ty Wo and edibola edibayo are suing on his behalf the suit is

33:43seeking three million dollars in special damages 12 million dollars in general damages and one million dollars in punitive damages the star is not naming the child because he is a minor none of the allegations have been tested in court and none of the defendants have filed a statement of defense lawyers Patrick Brown and Nick Todorovic of McLeish Orlando LLP are representing the family the filing ledges the crash was due to the negligence of the driver who they alleged was speeding impaired and may have been distracted by texting or using his phone as well as having some prior vision issues the driver offman Omar Mahmoud 71 remained on the scene Toronto police confirmed he was charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle and careless driving the filing

34:49alleges the city and province were also negligent the suit alleges the city is responsible for faulty intersection design and maintenance and known visibility issues due to high fencing around a waterway in the middle of the road the city designated it a community safety zone in 2020 reducing the speed limits but the suit says area residents requested safety audits that never happened the province is liable the filing alleges because the intersection is the location of one of Toronto's former 150 speed cameras until it was removed on November 14, 2025 the provincial government banned the cameras derided as municipal tax grabs by premier Doug Ford the province knew the danger of removing speed cameras but

35:52was negligent in taking no steps to add additional safety measures such as the large signs or roundabouts that Ford touted as replacements the suit alleges the speed camera was located by the TTC stop directly across from the school steps away from the end of the crosswalk where the boy was hit in the 10-month period it was in place the top speed ticket it was 107 kilometers per hour among the top 10 were two drivers ticketed for traveling at 82 kilometers per hour the limit in the school zone is 40 kilometers per hour we are unable to comment at this stage but the statement of claim has been filed and the allegations are quite detailed said Brown the lawyer representing the family we can state on

36:54their behalf that this young man has sustained serious and lifelong injuries and will require a lot of help the matter is now before the courts the star contacted the ministry of transportation and received a response from the ministry of the attorney general Ontario was served with the statement of claim on September 8th 2026 as this matter is before the court it would be inappropriate to comment set a spokesperson for the attorney general a city of Toronto spokesperson said they have not yet been served with the statement of claim but expressed sympathy for the injured victim and his family our hearts are with the team and his family while speed cameras helped reduce speeding the city of Toronto continues to prioritize the safety of all road users through other measures in the vision zero program some of these tools include community

37:59and school safety zones safety signage pavement markings pedestrian head start signals and red light cameras said Russell Baker director of communications many safe street advocates warned that the removal of speed cameras which multiple studies have shown are effective at reducing speeds would result in more injuries and deaths across the city several mayor mayors and municipalities pleaded with Ford and the ministry of transportation to adjust the program as opposed to completely removing the cameras six months after the removal of the speed cameras safe park side a residence group that have some trying to slow speeders on park side drive for years found that speeding had increased by 235 percent since the removal of the camera on that road this lawsuit raises

39:07broader questions about government accountability when an existing road safety measure automated speed enforcement cameras were removed from a location that was previously identified as requiring some enhanced safety so it's not merely a case of alleged negligence against the driver but it really raises issues about pedestrian protection and government decision making said rather than a lawyer with personal injury firm Thompson Rogers who is not involved in the case and I have a star exclusive here Ontario adds 40,000 post-secondary spots schools worked with communities to target programs and this is by Kristen Rishoe Georgian College in Berry had the support of a high voltage transformer manufacturer for its trades program an aerospace company liked the aviation

40:13offerings at Mohawk in Hamilton and a tech innovator was behind Carlton University's bids for funding for more STEM degree spots in what was akin to a post-secondary version of dragons den in a new process to allocate 40,000 new spaces in high needs areas such as science technology health education and the trades the province put out a call for proposals from universities and colleges that saw them collaborate with communities before submitting plans to be evaluated by a 40 person ministry team although concerns have been raised about the focus on science and technology over the humanities the transferable skills taught in those programs that many employers especially in AI have said they value the government says the new priority growth plans are to address

41:16what students want as well as workforce needs we wanted to ensure the institutions really understood that we want this to be driven by the local economy of the communities that these institutions serve colleges and university minister Nolan Quinn said in an interview on Wednesday in advance of his Thursday morning announcement in Hamilton about the new post-secondary spaces it was a process of back and forth there was a lot of engagement with different chambers of commerce to ensure that the institutions are meeting the needs not only for today but for years ahead we really wanted to make sure that the schools were focusing on local economic needs Quinn first announced the new process last spring with the 40,000 spots coming on top of another 30,000 in

42:18the same areas but without the same competitive process of the total 70,000 funded spaces about 40,200 are in STEM that's science technology engineering math 16,100 in health care 7,900 in education 38,00 in trades and 3,000 in other areas about 27,000 of the 40,000 spots have opened up for this fall and another 13,000 are coming next fall the change is part of the government 6.4 billion dollars in funding for the post-secondary sector over four years announced in February that also ended a tuition freeze and controversially reversed student aid to pay I'm sorry to refavor repayable loans instead of non-repayable grants

43:22although schools often confer with industry the new process formalized it and was the first time consultations were required in the end the ministry received about 1000 letters of support from local chambers of commerce and businesses at the time he announced the new process Quinn had said it would mean more mechanical engineers for North Bay more teachers for Windsor more welders for Ottawa and more nurses for Toronto Steve or Cine president and CEO of the Council of Ontario universities said schools have multiple industry partnerships that proved to be instrumental in supporting their applications but also tied to industries need for labor especially given the huge need for university grads in the coming years he noted that the spaces come amid a trade and tariff dispute

44:23between Canada and the U.S. and said these priority fields will strengthen Ontario's talent pipeline and economic competitiveness at a crucial time or Cine said universities already do a lot of work to support several sectors through research they have wind tunnels they have a lot of experimental technology the nuclear energy industry has partnerships with a number of universities to train the engineers needed he added those partnerships are vital Maureen Adamson president and CEO of colleges Ontario called the process very focused on the major areas where we need graduates and that will support the economy but it's really prioritizing that's what's important here prioritizing the extra 40,000 seats in a way to move the economy and before I carry on I need

45:26to pause one more time and remind you you're listening to a reading of articles and features from the Toronto Star on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service the next article is under the byline Canada U.S. trade war booze ban most likely to burn Americans experts say Trump's order will hit distribution sales division south of the border the hardest and this is by Josh Rubin Donald Trump's bands on Canadian booze could cost some people their jobs but industry analysts say many of those losses could actually come in the U.S. Tuesday night the U.S. president signed a series of executive orders as he ramped up his trade war against Canada one of them was a ban on the vast majority of spirits imported from Canada including whiskey vodka and gin roughly half of the two billion dollar worth of spirits produced in Canada each

46:27year goes to the U.S. according to industry estimates that alone means jobs will be lost depending on how long the ban lasts said author and consultant Stephen Beaumann it would be foolish to suggest if this goes on much longer than a month or two that there won't be layoffs there will be layoffs said Beaumann co-author of Canadian spirits still added Beaumann many of the resulting job losses will likely be south of the border despite Trump's claim in his presidential proclamation that he was acting in the U.S.'s best interest there aren't actually that many jobs on the production side of distilling where the people are going to be laid off is in sales and marketing and a lot of those people are going to be in the U.S. said Beaumann he clearly hasn't thought this

47:28out it's going to impact distributed distributors ships marketing and sales people smaller independent Canadian distilleries said Beaumann are far less likely to take a hit from the import ban because most weren't exporting to the U.S. anyway he noted most well-known Canadian whiskey brands are owned by international booze conglomerates crown royal is owned by UK based Diaschio Canadian Club Diaschio I'm excuse me Canadian Club is owned by French giant pernode record and Seagrum's B.O. is owned by Kentucky based Cezarek company this isn't harming Canadian companies as much as it is harming the Canadian divisions of major international corporations Beaumann argued if the presidential proclamation Trump cited what he called a Canadian import ban on

48:31American products as justification for his move the proclamation was titled excluding certain Canadian products from importation into the United States and in response to continued discrimination against the commerce of the United States with respect to alcoholic beverages in my judgment the action in this proclamation is consistent with the public interests and the interests of the United States Trump said in the full text of the proclamation in trade talks U.S. officials have repeatedly brought up the ongoing 18 month boycott of U.S. beverages by most provincial liquor monopolies in Canada including the LC B.O. The latest move will also hurt some American companies that now own or distribute Canadian whiskey brands said Canadian whiskey author Blair Phillips I

49:31think there's a potential for a big trickle-down effect there are millions of cases of Canadian whiskey sold in the U.S. every year said Phillips he pointed to popular brands like Black Velvet or Seagrams V.O. both produced in Canada but owned or distributed south of the border by American spirits companies look at Black Velvet that's owned by heaven Hill now and Caesarek distribute Seagrams V.O. said Phillips the U.S. spirits industry has already taken a hit partly because of the boycott from the provincial monopolies and partly because of changing alcohol consumption patterns in younger consumers last year Jim Beam announced it was halting production at its flagship distillery and Claremont Kentucky for all of 2026 brown foreman which makes several U.S.

50:33whiskey's including Jack Daniels permanently closed its barrel-making facility in Louisville Kentucky last year and next week a major barrel-making facility in Alabama which was previously owned by the brown foreman is closing permanently the head of the Association representing Canadian distilleries decried the import ban obviously this is very concerning for the Canadian spirits industry said Cal Bricker CEO of spirits Canada we urge both sides to return to the table as soon as possible to resolve the dispute so we can return to free trade in spirits in North America. The next article is titled AI Minister Touts Federal Investments in Safety Measures Solomon responds to warnings from current former anthropic workers this is by Racer Patel Ottawa Canada's Artificial Intelligence Minister says Ottawa is monitoring the

51:40risks posed by AI as researchers at tech giant anthropic warn that the increasingly powerful technology could potentially eradicate all human life within years we're in touch with all the big companies on this Evan Solomon told reporters in Edmonton on Wednesday we have followed the situation since this ministry started with the number one goal of protecting Canadians first protecting our kids our privacy our personal data protecting our critical infrastructure protecting our sovereignty and making sure that we have the defenses that we need the minister was responding to a series of social media posts written by current and former anthropic employees late Tuesday all of whom acknowledged the potentially catastrophic effects of superintelligence

52:41future AI systems that will evolve rapidly operate autonomously and far exceed human reasoning Jacob Coxson a researcher who has also worked for open AI announced he was leaving his AI pre-training role at Anthropic because neither company was acting responsibly accusing them of racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives these will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything revolutionize any field overnight and acquire real power and resources Coxson warned the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade Coxson alleged that while some company executives couched their phrasing in the press to sound sensible they expressed their fears privately and that anthropic is

53:46seeking to champion the technology because they believe no one else will act responsibility responsibly anthropic did not respond to the stars request for common on Wednesday the post prompt prompted two current anthropic employees to concur with Coxson's conclusion that advanced forms of AI could wipe out humanity within the next 10 years Evan Huffinger andthropics alignment science lead said the company does not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to referring to assurances that AI is bound to the intentions and values of its creators another anthropic lead Samuel Marx wrote that developers are alive to those concerns and are desperately trying to slow AI

54:51evolution and build it more safely Solomon's office said conversations are ongoing with the tech Titan and other frontier AI companies regarding the opportunities and risks associated with advanced AI systems Canada's approach is grounded in evidence and responsible policy making we are focused on both the risks Canadians face today including cyber security misuse bias and accountability and the emerging risks that may accompany increasingly capable AI systems Solomon spokesman Lila pollution wrote in a statement at a news conference where he was announcing three new AI literacy courses Solomon cited several commitments the liberal government is undertaking to ensure AI

55:52safety Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a 2.3 billion dollar AI strategy this spring that touted trust and protecting democracy among its key pillars shortly after Solomon introduced a bill that would create a digital regulator and impose safety standards on AI companies and another that aims to protect Canadians data and privacy these stories that come out and these warnings are not new Solomon said Wednesday that's why we invested 50 million dollars in our Canadian AI safety institute and we were closely with the Canadian Cyber Security Center and our agencies to make sure that we have access to the models that allow for what's called patching to make sure our critical infrastructure our banks and our financial system has the ability to protect themselves the minister added that said the frontier is moving Solomon confirmed this year that Canada had joined an anthropic initiative

56:55that gives some government and organizations access to its powerful Claude Malthos model for cyber security purposes and I need to end here with you've been listening to a reading of articles and features from the September 10 issue of the Toronto Star your reader has been Jane thank you for listening