Keep your friends close

Good morning. We hope your first day back from the long weekend wasn’t too exhausting. Anyhow, we’d just like to give you one last chance to complete our 2026 reader survey, if you haven’t already. It only takes a few minutes and it helps us improve things wherever we can.

And don’t forget, you'll be entered to win a $100 booksellers.ca gift card upon completion! A better newsletter and a chance at getting free books? Sounds like a win-win to us. Click here to take it.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index fell yesterday, with Shopify shares dropping 7.8% and Bombardier shares falling 2.5% after Donald Trump’s threat to ban the sale of its products in the U.S. — the company retorted by pointing to its extensive U.S. manufacturing footprint.

Canada and the EU sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Driving the news: Canada and the EU are reportedly primed to unveil plans to form a new comprehensive partnership next week, sources told Bloomberg News. Per the report, the two are trying to get “as close as legally possible” without Canada formally joining the bloc.

Catch-up: Canada isn’t joining the EU — ministers aren’t interested and it would be nearly impossible anyway — but the feds have pulled all the levers at their disposal to cozy up over the past year-plus. This includes inking a new security partnership, joining a European defence fund, enhancing their trade deal, and even joining the Eurovision song contest. 

Why it matters: It’s not yet clear what this new partnership will entail, but it could involve the creation of new mechanisms and legal tools to achieve the integration the two sides desire. 

Bottom line: For as long as Trump is in office (and perhaps even beyond), the trade and defence relationship with the U.S. cannot be counted on. The EU presents a willing buyer for energy and minerals and a military partner that can provide much-needed stability.—QH

Trump bans Canadian booze and dairy. Ottawa’s dollar-for-dollar tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods took effect yesterday and, in retaliation, President Donald Trump signed five executive orders banning various Canadian imports and slapping 50% tariffs on more products. The headline bans are on some dairy products and most alcoholic drinks, including beer, wine, and liquor. Also banned are whey products, non-alcoholic beer, motorcycles, and molasses. The list of newly tariffed items includes mattresses, golf carts, bamboo furniture, and lamps. The import bans will take effect in three weeks. Buckle up, folks. (CBC News) 

Houthi attacks turn up the heat in the Middle East. Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels hit four Saudi Arabian cities with drone and missile strikes, targeting oil installations. The attack on the U.S. ally sent up oil prices and marked yet another escalation in the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. It appears the U.S. may have responded by resuming strikes in southern Iran after a two-day pause. (Reuters)

Instagram and Facebook are getting an AI agent. Meta unveiled Muse AI, a personal agentic AI assistant that works with Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp that can do tasks like make purchases and schedule appointments. U.S. users are the first to have access, with both free and paid tiers. Remember when Instagram was a photo-sharing app? We miss that. (TechCrunch)

📡 What else is on our radar:

Ten days. That's all you have left to register for the RBC Race for the Kids before race day arrives at Mel Lastman Square. And with youth mental health wait times stretching longer than ever, this one genuinely matters.

Since 2013, this community event has raised more than $29 million for Sunnybrook's Family Navigation Project (FNP), a program that connects youth aged 11 to 29 with clinically trained navigators who cut through the noise and get them to the right care, fast.

Here's what your participation means right now:

Don't sit this one out. Join the RBC Race for the Kids on September 19 at Mel Lastman Square. Register and make a self-donation today!

🤝Meet Jennifer Frees. She’s the chief business and marketing officer of the Toronto International Film Festival. Frees returned to the organization in 2023 after a few years away in order to revive its commercial strategy and evolve it from an annual celeb-filled week to a year-long destination for filmmakers, film lovers, and brands. We chatted about movies, work ethic, and keeping TIFF at the top of the festival circuit. 

Where did TIFF stand when you came into this role?

My role is similar to a chief commercial officer in that it spans quite broadly. When I came back, it felt like TIFF was getting back to being celebrated for that world-class 10-day festival. And all of those efforts that we were making to be this amazing year-round organization really suffered through the pandemic. We were still a premier September destination, but it was super concentrated. What I really focused on was evolving TIFF into more of a year-round brand universe that encompasses curated retail, year-round theatrical and community programming, digital channels, and these amazing, innovative brand partnerships.

It feels like we’re going through a really great time for film. There’s so much buzz. 

Oh, we're so back. Film is having such a massive year overall. The coolest thing is that it’s totally driven by Gen Z audiences who are watching more movies on a regular basis than any other demographic. And the movies that they're choosing to watch are cool. They're edgy. They're independent. They've got a point of view. They're pushing boundaries. They're being created and written by people who have no experience in professional movie making who come off YouTube and here they are being leaders in the industry. So it's actually a very cool time.

Do you feel the pressure to make every year better than the last? How do you do that?

Obviously we do. But what we try to do is measure success not just on annual attendee or revenue volume, but deeper cultural resonance. Last year for us was a really great example because we premiered Obsession in our Midnight Madness program and nobody had ever heard of this film. It was this tiny little film, no budget. And in typical TIFF fashion, our amazing programmer, Peter Kuplowsky, found this film and he was like, “This is going to be a big deal. This is so of the moment, this film's going places." And 10 months later, it was one of the biggest movies of the year. So that's how we measure that relevance.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Read the full Q&A here.

It turns out that doomscrolling for four hours a day isn’t exactly conducive to learning algebra. 

What happened: Canadian high school students’ math, reading, and science scores have drastically declined over the past two decades, according to a new OECD assessment that measured the performance of 15-year-old students across 91 countries last year. Across science, reading, and math, Canadian students' scores were the lowest ever measured by the assessment.

Zoom out: Globally, students are over a year behind where they were in 2018 (15-year-olds have essentially fallen to a 14-year-old’s academic level). Between 2018 and 2025, reading scores fell by 25 points while math scores declined by 22 points across OECD countries. 

Why it’s happening: It’s likely not a coincidence that the decline in academic performance accelerated around that time: a) COVID disrupted learning and shut down schools, and b) hyper-addictive short-form video platforms surged in popularity. 

Why it matters: Aside from the obvious problems created when a growing share of kids can’t manage to get through a book, poorer academic performance is also likely to drag on students’ future earnings. One study found that a single-point increase in high school GPA raises average annual earnings in adulthood by between 12% and 14%.—LA

✂️ 9,346. Canadian federal employees who have been approved for early retirement through the Early Retirement Incentive program, which allows them to stop working without losing pension benefits. The program is part of a broader push by Ottawa to reduce the size of the federal public service, with the goal of shedding 28,000 positions by 2029.

^{*This is sponsored content.}

Playtime isn’t just for kids! Play today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who.