In the news: Jobs and tariffs one year later, Middle East conflict continues unabated

By Canadian Press on April 2, 2026.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …

Jobs market is ‘static’ after a year of tariffs

Thursday marks one year since U.S. President Donald Trump upended the global trading system with his “Liberation Day” duties — a major step in his wider tariff campaign that’s hammered critical sectors of Canada’s labour market.

With roughly a year of employment data now in hand showing the impact of Trump’s tariffs on Canadian jobs, economists say some of the early resilience to the trade disruption is giving way to a stalled labour market. A shrinking labour pool is also throttling job growth, experts warn.

And there are now risks that weakness could be spilling over from industries hard-hit by tariffs into services and sectors not directly exposed to the new trading order.

“The labour market over the past year has been pretty stable, and maybe even a better word for that is static,” said Brendon Bernard, senior economist at job search platform Indeed.

Anand set for talks on Strait of Hormuz

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will join talks Thursday with her counterparts from more than 30 other nations on finding diplomatic options to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz trade corridor.

Anand said all countries involved in the U.K.-hosted talks should know Canada will not hesitate to help secure the strait once there is a ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran’s foreign ministry have been at odds over whether Iran wants a ceasefire.

When Trump addressed Americans on the war late Wednesday evening, he said the U.S. will hit Iran hard over the next few weeks and send the country “back to the stone ages.”

Iran official dismisses Trump’s speech as ‘insane’

A spokesman for Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday dismissed a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump as “insane.”

Elias Hazrati made the comment on Iranian state television, insisting Trump’s remarks “boosted our nation’s integrity.”

“Trump is tangled with insane remarks,” he said. “Today, Iran is managing the Strait of Hormuz powerfully.”

Canadian astronaut on mission to the moon

Canadian Jeremy Hansen is one of four astronauts circling Earth in a historic lunar mission after Artemis II successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.

On board with Hansen are veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch.

The mission is expected to initially stay close to Earth in order to test systems before the astronauts fire the main engine to propel the spacecraft to the moon — marking humanity’s first return in more than 50 years.

The 10-day journey will make Hansen the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

Sentencing today in Quebec drive-by shooting trial

The man convicted of first-degree murder in the 2021 drive-by shooting death of a 15-year-old girl in Montreal will return to court today for sentencing.

A jury found Salim Touaibi guilty last week of murdering Meriem Boundaoui, and also convicted him of four counts of attempted murder.

Touaibi’s co-accused, Aymane Bouadi, was acquitted of all charges.

The Superior Court trial heard that Boundaoui was sitting in the passenger seat of a Volkswagen Jetta in Montreal’s St-Léonard borough on Feb. 7, 2021, when a white Mercedes with two men inside pulled up and one of them opened fire.

As copper thefts rise, some blame scrap yards

In early January, a bold telephone wire heist left about 135 people without phone services for about two weeks in Clarendon, a rural area of southern New Brunswick, between Fredericton and St. John.

Clarendon does not have reliable cell service and with no telephones, residents couldn’t call 911, said Sgt. Ben Comely with the local RCMP.

Police later found the wire split up in buckets at a nearby home, its black rubber coating melted away to reveal what the thieves were after: copper.

The officers seized 90 kilograms of copper wire and charged three people with theft of property over $5,000.

The case is just one example in a surge of telephone wire thefts across the country that have left people without phone or internet. Many are pointing fingers at scrap yard owners, including those who say they refuse to buy copper from thieves.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2026

The Canadian Press