In the news today: StatCan to release GDP data for June and Q2 today

By Canadian Press on August 29, 2025.

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

StatCan to release GDP data for June and Q2 today

Statistics Canada is set to release gross domestic product data for the month of June and the second quarter as a whole today.

The agency’s early estimates for GDP in the second quarter had been for zero growth as trade uncertainty and tariffs weigh on business and consumer sentiment.

It would mark a sharp slowdown from the 2.2 per cent annualized increase reported for the first quarter, when firms rushed to get ahead of looming tariff deadlines, heightening business activity.

Meanwhile, growth for the month of June is expected to have ticked higher by 0.1 per cent, snapping a two-month streak of monthly contractions.

Economists at RBC said in a recent note that while tariff uncertainty will continue to put a damper on businesses, CUSMA-exemptions have spared the Canadian economy from the worst-case scenarios.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Air Canada strike may change Ottawa’s strategy

Flight attendants’ defiance in the face of federal intervention meant to halt a recent strike at Air Canada could set a new precedent for work stoppages, some labour movement-watchers say.

The workers’ move disrupted a growing pattern that has been eroding the right to strike in Canada, said Barry Eidlin, an associate professor of sociology at McGill University, referring to the federal Liberal government’s repeated use of Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, a relatively recent mechanism.

The regulation gives the minister power to take actions that “promote conditions favourable to the settlement of industrial disputes,” including by referring the matter to the labour board.

But Eidlin called the Liberal government’s repeated use of the regulation — including to end separate strikes since 2023 by rail and port workers — a “novel interpretation” of its powers. He noted there are ongoing constitutional challenges of the tool’s usage in those cases, which have yet to be decided by the courts.

“There’s a valid argument to be made that … the legal standing of our constitutional right to strike far exceeds this novel interpretation of this obscure part of the Canada Labour Code and so we are within our rights to defy this order because it’s not a legitimate order.”

Ottawa accidentally deletes privacy provision

The federal government says it’s “looking into” what appears to be the accidental removal of a privacy provision in its Online Streaming Act.

Earlier this week, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist outlined in a blog post that a privacy provision in the legislation was removed only two months after the bill became law, through an amendment contained in another bill.

The heritage department said it is now aware of the issue.

“We have recently been made aware of what appears to be an inadvertent oversight in a coordinating amendment and are looking into it,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Geist said that statement “appears to confirm that this was a mistake on the government’s part.”

TIFF’s red carpets increasingly corporatized

When Sandi Leung visited a Toronto International Film Festival red carpet for the first time in 2015, she realized she could walk up to almost any part of the red carpet and — if she spent a few hours waiting — finagle a selfie with the likes of Eddie Redmayne or Kevin Bacon.

Lately, that feat has become increasingly difficult. Each year, Leung notices more of the once-open space surrounding the annual film festival’s red carpets is taken up by fan zones and corporate watch areas that are competitive to access or require you to be a customer of sponsor brands.

“It’s a lot of obstacles and variables nowadays compared to where it used to be,” said Leung, who commutes daily during the festival to the red carpets from Markham, Ont., in hopes of snagging snaps with the stars.

Leung’s observations come as TIFF, long considered the people’s festival because screenings are open to the public, is preparing to host its 50th edition next week. This year’s festival will see the world premieres of buzzy films like Guillermo del Toro’s rendition of “Frankenstein” and the third instalment of the “Knives Out” series, and welcome stars as prolific as Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson.

But as regulars know, getting the chance to meet them will take more perseverance and patience. That’s because the free-for-all nature that used to exist around the carpet perimeters has been diluted by TIFF’s constantly changing policies and its need to appease sponsors.

Strategy needed to save monarch butterflies: study

Researchers are urging Canada, United States and Mexico to take immediate action to save the monarch butterfly as the migratory insect faces a growing risk of extinction amid habitat loss.

The iconic butterfly’s population has decreased by around 80 per cent in the past two decades, says the paper published in the journal Current Biology, with the loss of breeding habitat cited as the main reason behind the sharp decline.

Migrating monarch butterflies fly thousands of kilometres between Central Mexico, where they spend the winter, the United States and Canada every year. It’s a unique and miraculous journey for a creature that weighs less than a gram.

Experts estimate the population of the eastern North American monarch butterfly by measuring the area of forest they occupy in their overwintering period. The ideal conservation target for the species is around 132 million butterflies but the estimate from last winter shows there were fewer than 40 million butterflies — a big drop from the average of 300 million in the early 1990s, said one of the study’s co-authors.

Ryan Norris, a professor at the University of Guelph’s department of integrative biology, said that number is “alarmingly” low.