COVID, commerce, climate, conflict: PM Trudeau enters G7 summit like no other
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will on Friday begin to meet with counterparts from the world's most powerful democracies at the G7 Leaders' Summit to discuss overcoming COVID-19 and its economic reverberations.
Chief among the decisions Canada faces is how it will help poorer countries secure vaccines, the life-saving elixir that promises to subdue the global health crisis, which has shaken national economies and left millions sick and more isolated.
"The first thing I think (Trudeau's) going to have to roll the dice on is whether Canada wants to be on the right side or stay on the wrong side on COVID," said John Kirton, director of the University of Toronto's G7 Research Group.
"At the core is: will we give our doses to the folks who are dying 700 times as much as we are in Canada?"
The pandemic and absence of Donald Trump from the international table sets the tone for the first summit held since 2019 between Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, which together comprise the G7, along with the European Union.
Shaping the leaders' agenda is what Kirton calls the four c's: COVID-19 and its affects on commerce, climate change and competition from anti-democratic actors, like China.
"Never before has a G7 summit confronted such a severe, swift, widespread and sustained set of shocks that really have shown them the vulnerability of their countries," he said, having watched these gatherings since 1988.
The international trip marks Trudeau's first since early 2020, before the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic. While in Europe, he will also travel to Brussels for the NATO Leaders' Summit, which experts say will be where alliance members discuss concerns around Russia, cybersecurity and ongoing modernization efforts -- also the first in several years without Trump.
As host of the G7 gathering in Cornwall, U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson made clear in a statement what he wants the leaders to pack for England: "Concrete commitments to vaccinate the entire world against coronavirus by the end of 2022."
One way wealthy nations can help is through sharing their doses directly with other nations or through COVAX, the global initiative established to provide shots to 92 low and-middle income countries.
Canada has yet to announce that it will donate any of the 122 million doses it has in guaranteed deliveries for the year. To ensure every resident gets their two shots, the country needs 76 million.
Officials with the World Health Organization and other vaccine-sharing programs ask that Canada send shots now instead of waiting, as the virus threatens less vaccinated parts of the world.
Sen. Peter Boehm, who served as a representative for Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper at past summits, believes there is likely to be agreement among G7 countries on the general thrust of initiatives to stop COVID-19.
"Where there may be some disagreement and some negotiation that has to take place is on the how," he says.
One area that could happen is on the question of supporting a temporary waiver from the World Trade Organization on COVID-19 vaccine patents.
Advocates of waiving intellectual property rules say doing so would allow these shots to be more easily manufactured in developing countries.
U.S. President Joe Biden supports the move, while the U.K. and Germany are against. Somewhere in the middle sits Canada, which Trudeau confirms is in on the WTO talks, but hasn't specified on which side.
Boehm says next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trudeau enters the summit as having been in power the second-longest.
But the world will be watching Biden, who is making his first trip abroad as president to attend.
He too comes in experienced, having served for eight years as the right-hand to former U.S. president Barack Obama.
Most significantly, Biden's presidential debut internationally follows Trump's, at times, turbulent appearances.
Perhaps most memorable was in 2018 when Trudeau hosted the G7 leaders. After reaching agreement on that summit's issues, Trump tweeted from his plane that he wouldn't endorse their statement because he had become incensed by comments the prime minister made during a news conference.
"All eyes will be on (Biden) in terms of the tone that he sets and the collegiality that he might want to project," said Boehm.
With Biden in the White House, he says there is more harmony between G7 leaders on tackling climate change -- all countries pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, for example -- which may make reaching consensus easier on the message they want to send to the world about the planet.
Observers say what gets discussed at these summits often carries influence for agendas at future international talks and with global institutions.
Kirton adds the act of world leaders meeting at all in the flesh communicates a powerful statement: the fight against COVID-19 is being won.
On a more practical level, Boehm says, it provides a rare chance for heads of state to have frank, informal conversations face-to-face and one-on-one under a blanket of confidentiality not achievable online.
"In international diplomacy, there is no substitute for that."
The leaders' summit comes after a string of earlier meetings between the G7 ministers of foreign affairs, environment, health and most recently finance.
The finance ministers say they agreed "in principle" to a tax reform that would set a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15 per cent to deter multinational companies from avoiding taxes by slashing profits in low-rate countries.
The reform also includes a call to make some of the world's richest companies, like the U.S.-based tech giants, pay taxes in countries where they operate, not only where their offices are located.
Their counterparts in health also committed to improving global health security, pandemic preparedness and better international collaboration for vaccination trials.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
Kamala Harris tells Oprah any intruder to her home is 'getting shot'
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
On the trail of the mystery woman whose company licensed exploding pagers
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
Top Hezbollah commander among 14 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border.
11-year-old boy dies after subway surfing in NYC
An 11-year-old boy died Monday after subway surfing in New York City. He's the fourth person to die from subway surfing in the city this year.
Local Spotlight
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.