Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 27, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba TOP NEWS A3 MONDAY JANUARY 27, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS WINTER CARNIVAL FUN People enjoy a sleigh ride at the Roblin Park Winter Carnival Sunday. The annual carnival started Monday and wrapped up Sunday. It featured a hockey tournament, dance party, magic show, fireworks, broomball social and other family events. King Charles staying mum on Trump’s ‘51st state’ idea OTTAWA — Canada’s political leader- ship has found rare unanimity in recent weeks: nobody wants the country to be- come the “51st state,” as U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly pitched. The heads of all major political par- ties resoundingly reject the idea, but Canada’s head of state, King Charles, is not weighing in. A spokesperson for Buckingham Pal- ace said Trump’s takeover threat is “not something we would comment on.” Trump first made the suggestion to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate short- ly after winning the U.S. election and at the time, federal officials said it was clear Trump was joking. The apparent joke has taken on a different tone in the weeks since then, with Trump referring to the Canadian border as an “artificially drawn line” and saying he would use economic force to absorb Canada. He’s tied the suggestion to his threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Can- adian goods, saying the tariff could be avoided if Canada becomes a U.S. state. Trump told reporters on Air Force 1 on Saturday that Canada has been “taking advantage” of the United States for years. As a state, he said Canadians would “have no military problems, they’d be much more secure in every way,” adding he thinks “it’s a great thing for Canada.” “I view it as, honestly, a country that should be a state,” he said. “Then, they’ll get much better treat- ment, much better care and much lower taxes and they’ll be much more secure.” Trudeau has said there is “not a snow- ball’s chance in hell” of that happening. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, has said “Canada will never be the 51st state,” and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh warned Trump on social media that “there will be a price to pay” for picking a fight with his northern neighbour. As a constitutional monarchy, Can- ada’s head of state is King Charles, but he serves in a ceremonial and apolitical role. It would be highly unusual for the King to get involved in such matters, said Philippe Lagassé, an expert in the roles of Parliament and the Crown. “He won’t comment on issues fa- cing Canada of his own accord, nor should we want him to do so,” Lagassé said, who is an associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of Inter- national Affairs at Carleton University. If the King were to respond to Trump on his own, it could make him a target and “create a precedent of involving the Crown in matters that belong squarely with the government.” King Charles’s representative in Can- ada, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, also de- clined to comment, with a spokesperson citing her non-partisan role. The Canadian government could ask the King to get involved in limited ways, Lagassé said, by making a Roy- al tour, for example or making a state- ment highlighting the Crown’s close relationship with Canada. Trump’s comments have generated headlines around the world. He’s also said he wants to buy Greenland from Denmark, which insists the territory is not for sale. Canada, Denmark and the U.S. are fellow NATO allies. — The Canadian Press, with Associated Press files SARAH RITCHIE Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after tariff showdown with Trump B OGOTA, Colombia — The White House claimed victory in a show- down with Colombia over ac- cepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S. on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanc- tions on the longtime U.S. partner. Long close partners in anti-narcotics efforts, the U.S. and Colombia clashed Sunday over the deportation of mi- grants and imposed tariffs on each other’s goods in a show of what other countries could face if they intervene in the Trump administration’s crack- down on illegal immigration. The White House held up the episode as a warning to other nations who might seek to im- pede his plans. Earlier, the U.S. president had or- dered visa restrictions, 25 per cent tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would be raised to 50 per cent in one week, and other retalia- tory measures sparked by President Gustavo Petro’s decision to reject two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircraft carrying migrants after Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation. Petro also announced a retaliatory 25 per cent increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump said the measures were ne- cessary because Petro’s decision “jeop- ardized” national security in the U.S. by blocking the deportation flights. “These measures are just the be- ginning,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States.” Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a late Sunday statement that the “Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, in- cluding the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia re- turned from the United States, includ- ing on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.” Leavitt said the tariff orders will be “held in reserve, and not signed.” But Leavitt said Trump would maintain visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of goods from the country, “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.” There was no immediate reaction from the Colombian government. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was authorizing the visa restrictions on Colombian government officials and their families “who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.” They were being imposed on top of the State Department’s move to suspend the pro- cessing of visas at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia’s capital, Bogota. Earlier in the day, Petro said his government would not accept flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. until the Trump administration creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity.” Petro made the announce- ment in two X posts, one of which in- cluded a news video of migrants report- edly deported to Brazil walking on a tarmac with restraints on their hands and feet. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a hu- man being deserves,” Petro said. “That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants… In civilian planes, without being treated like criminals, we will re- ceive our fellow citizens.” After Trump’s earlier tariff threat, Petro said in a post on X that he had ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25 per cent.” Colombia has traditionally been the U.S.’s top ally in Latin America. But their relationship has strained since Petro, a former guerrilla, became Co- lombia’s first leftist president in 2022 and sought distance from the U.S. Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the U.S. from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Hondur- as, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. It ac- cepted 124 deportation flights in 2024. Colombia is also among the coun- tries that last year began accepting U.S.-funded deportation flights from Panama. The U.S. government didn’t immedi- ately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press regarding aircraft and protocols used in deporta- tions to Colombia. “This is a clear message we are send- ing that countries have an obligation to accept repatriation flights,” a senior administration official told AP. The of- ficial spoke on the condition of anonym- ity because they were not authorized to discuss issue publicly. Rubio in a statement said Petro “can- celled his authorization” for the flights when the aircraft were in the air. Colombians emerged in recent years as a major presence on the U.S. border with Mexico, aided in part by a visa re- gime that allows them to easily fly to Mexico and avoid trekking though the treacherous Darien Gap. They ranked fourth with 127,604 arrests for illegal crossings during a 12-month period through September, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans. Mexico hasn’t imposed visa restric- tions on Colombians, as they have on Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans and Peru- vians. Petro’s government in a statement later announced that the South Amer- ican country’s presidential aircraft had been made available to facilitate the return of migrants who were to arrive hours earlier on the U.S. military air- planes and guarantee them “dignified conditions.” As part of a flurry of actions to make good on Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, his government is using active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations. — The Associated Press REGINA GARCIA CANO AND ASTRID SUÁREZ ;