Raise the stakes

Good morning. Italian pedestrians will soon have to pay up if they keep their faces glued to their phones. Under proposed changes to the country’s highway code, distracted walkers could face fines of € 75 or more for scrolling while they cross the street. 

This definitely isn’t a rare occurrence, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t guilty of doing it in the past. Perhaps Italy’s new rule will encourage other jurisdictions to follow suit. Fun fact: Toronto asked Ontario to pass a similar law all the way back in 2016 to no avail. 

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Gold hit a three-month high yesterday, which boosted materials and mining stocks, lifting Canada’s main stock index. As one strategist put it to Reuters, “This is not a tariff-sensitive index, it is a global economic-sensitive ‌index ⁠and commodity-sensitive index."

It doesn’t look like the Canada-U.S. trade war will be wrapping up any time soon.

What happened: In the wake of collapsed trade talks and upcoming retaliatory tariffs from Canada, President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on Canadian shipments of “all cars, trucks, both large and small, automotive parts, and steel” to 50% starting in January.

Why it matters: Obviously, these levies would further brutalize the Canadian economy if enacted. Beyond that, the longer implementation timeline here signals that the White House is ready and willing to drag the trade war into the new year with the same tactics and talking points. 

Zoom out: More details have emerged about why the trade talks failed, with a source telling the Globe and Mail that a major factor in talks falling apart was a last-minute demand to axe rules requiring U.S. streamers like Netflix to promote Canadian content on their platforms. 

What’s next: The feds are expected to detail tariff relief plans later this week that will likely tap the Business Development Bank of Canada for funding. Desjardins’ deputy chief economist estimated that upwards of $1 billion could be set aside for the programs.—QH

Ottawa will spend $11 billion on new icebreakers. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Quebec shipbuilder Chantier Davie has been awarded a contract to build six new icebreaking ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, using Canadian materials from Algoma Steel. Carney said the deal marked the largest shipbuilding contract in Quebec’s history and that the first icebreaker will be delivered in five years. (The Canadian Press)

The U.S. government takes another crack at a US$100,000 H-1B visa. The Trump administration is proposing a new six-figure fee for the popular visa program that applies to most applicants, including those already in the U.S. An earlier version of this policy was struck down by a federal judge in June. The $103,265 fee, which has to be paid before the government decides whether to accept the applicant, would handcuff many of the U.S.’s top employers, which rely on H-1Bs to hire top international students. (Wall Street Journal)

Iran threatens dozens of ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which was set up by Tehran, threatened at least 45 ships with fines or confiscation of goods for moving through the crucial waterway. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought new sanctions on Iran and threatened sanctions on any nations doing business with the country. (Reuters)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

Sixty-one percent of Canadians say online advertising annoys them. As media consumption becomes more fragmented, that raises an important question: where are brands earning attention and trust?

Vistar Media's new Canadian consumer research reveals a sharper picture of where attention actually lives.

The findings are hard to ignore:

For marketers and agency leaders planning omnichannel campaigns, the research offers new insights into how trusted environments can strengthen performance across the customer journey.

View the report.

What they’re saying: “I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference yesterday in reference to Donald Trump. It was the second time that day that Ford made a comment about the president planting one on his derriere. Trump shot back in a Truth Social post, calling Ford “the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford.”

Why it matters: Ford was once a big Trump fan, but Ontario has been the most hard hit province thus far in the trade war (and this isn’t even factoring in the havoc the threatened auto tariffs we talked about earlier might bring). While these comments are more vulgar than what other Canadian leaders might say, they capture the tonal shift in cross-border relations. Also reflective of that: Ford’s new threat to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the U.S.

Lawyers, start your laptops. A new custom AI tool has arrived that (hopefully) won’t hallucinate and make up legal cases. 

Driving the news: Toronto-based software provider Thomson Reuters launched its own custom AI model yesterday that will cater directly to legal and accounting customers. The new model, which bears the uber-creative name Thomson, was built in-house with Alibaba’s open-source model Qwen for just US$40 million. 

Why it matters: For the past couple of years, it seemed as though every business was willing to pay any price for access to the newest, most advanced AI model (mostly out of fear of falling behind competitors). Now, staring down mounting token costs, more companies are realizing that cheaper, customized AI models can be just as effective.

Our take: For many businesses, products like Fable are overkill; a boutique law firm doesn’t necessarily need to be able to vibe code. If cheaper, custom models can master specific use cases for businesses, frontier labs could see an exodus of enterprise customers.—LA

🎰 10%. Share of eighth graders in Ontario who say that they are online gamblers, more than double the rate from 2023, according to a new survey from Toronto’s CAMH. Overall, online gambling rates have skyrocketed among teens (who aren’t legally allowed to gamble), with one in eight students in Ontario between Grades 7 and 12 gambling online last school year.

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