Many Canadians are furious about the US-Canada trade negotiations, now termed a ‘trade war’ by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. On August 22, after trade talks had collapsed, Carney told the media that when you are attacked, it is a war. “War” gives an excuse to be hostile, to walk away, to divorce, to look for other lovers, not to make up, and make a deal.What is curious to me is that climate policies have not been mentioned, because if they were, the public might know the US was attacked first. And they would know who one of the attackers was. Let us look at the US-Canada trade issues through a climate lens.In June of 2024, the US Republican House Judiciary Committee on anti-trust violations issued an interim report titled Climate Control: Exposing The Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing. In their June 11, 2024, press release, they say, “The report details new direct evidence of a ‘climate cartel’ consisting of left-wing activists and major financial institutions that collude to impose radical environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals on American companies.”In the summary of the report, they state: “The climate cartel has declared war on the American way of life. The climate cartel is waging ‘a Global World War’ for net zero against disfavored American companies, including those in the fossil fuel, aviation, and farming industries that allow Americans to drive, fly, and eat.”It was not a lightweight investigation, either. “In total, as part of the investigation into ESG collusion, the Committee has now received and reviewed 272,294 documents and 2,565,258 pages of non-public information.”Some “climate cartel” members were uncooperative. “The Committee was forced to issue document subpoenas to GFANZ, Ceres, As You Sow, Arjuna, BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, ISS, and Glass Lewis.”.GFANZ is the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and organization put together and led by Mark Carney and American billionaire, Michael Bloomberg. It launched in April 2021, when then-UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney introduced it at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. Many of the organizations named in the “Climate Control…” report have crumbled, disassembled, or radically reframed their organizations to avoid anti-trust allegations since the release of the report.Canada does not have similar antitrust violation laws like those in the USA.According to the US Federal Trade Commission, penalties can be severe, including civil or criminal enforcement. “The Sherman Act imposes criminal penalties of up to $100 million for a corporation and $1 million for an individual, along with up to 10 years in prison. Under federal law, the maximum fine may be increased to twice the amount the conspirators gained from the illegal acts or twice the money lost by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is over $100 million.”Several Attorneys General in the US have launched antitrust cases against various “climate cartel” participants. As I write this, similar action is being taken against the Big Four accounting firms.GFANZ and the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) had all major Canadian banks on board. On October 3, 2025, CBC reported that, “After exodus of major banks, Mark Carney-launched net-zero alliance shuts down.” On January 8, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) announced it was teaming up in a 3-year partnership with Eurasia Group to “reset the conversation on US-Canada trade relations.” Also, in RBC’s Climate Action document and webinar, the bank indicated that it was still gung-ho on requiring net zero transition plans for its customers, and those customers who did not comply might be dropped. .Eurasia Group is a strategy and geopolitical risk consulting firm based in the USA. It famously employs Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and has employed Diana Fox Carney, wife of the prime minister. It should be noted that as early as 2013, Fox-Carney was pushing carbon pricing in Canada through Canada 2020.RBC is Canada’s largest corporation, one of the largest banks in the world and it is well-integrated in the US, doing a great deal of business there. Net zero is still very much part of their operations and goals.Going back to the trade “war” (an unhelpful term, in my opinion), it is clear that Canada’s bid to be a “climate leader, not a laggard” and to decarbonize is at loggerheads with the climate policies of our largest trading partner. President Trump has withdrawn the USA from the Paris Agreement and all related international climate organizations and agreements.By contrast, Prime Minister Carney turns to France, and speaks French at every end and turn, even when not truly required. Perhaps this is because French President Emanuel Macron and then-prime minister Justin Trudeau declared in 2017 and 2018 that the Paris Agreement is “irreversible.” In 2018, people probably do not remember, but President Macron told President Trump, then in his first term, who had pulled out of the Paris Agreement, “France to Trump: No Paris Agreement, No EU Trade Agreement.”People are likely unaware that Canada co-founded a France-initiated organization called “La Francophonie” which claims to represent one billion people, 396 million of whom are French speakers.The point here is that in terms of geopolitics, France has lots of levers to pull internationally, but they say, “We have no oil, we have ideas.” .In 2018, Canada committed, under Justin Trudeau, to a France-Canada climate and environment agreement which includes accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuels, decarbonizing the economy, and pushing global carbon pricing.These are bad ideas.Through a climate lens, as long as Canada is aligned with France, it looks like we are shooting ourselves in the foot in trade negotiations with the US (2025 total trade value with Canada of $879.9 billion in goods and services). The US is the world’s largest market at $32 trillion.By comparison, in 2025, bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and France totalled $15.2 billion. France is a country thousands of kilometres away by sea, which is climate-addled and pushing for a global price on carbon through its climate puppet Canada and squawking anti-oil sock puppet, Quebec.The science and economic pillars that once underpinned the alleged climate emergency which drove the thesis of net zero and decarbonization have all fallen, as the Friends of Science Society explained in a new open letter to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. (Full disclosure: I am the Communications Manager for Friends of Science.)Ironically, it was France that sent America the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1885, a gift to celebrate friendship and freedom on the centennial of independence. Now, it seems the unseen hand of France is trying to shackle the US to carbon pricing and decarbonization madness through its partners in the climate cartel and its climate proxy, Canada.
