NOTED & FILED

Sept. 30/25: Yesterday, Postmedia daily newspapers from coast to coast including the Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, National Post, Montreal Gazette and Cape Breton Post, all featured the familiar photo of the Detroit skyline taken from Dieppe Gardens in Windsor. The photo was by Windsor Star photographer Dan Janisse. Ironically the Star doesn't publish a Monday edition. The photo accompanied a lengthy article about refugee cliamants and was datelined Washington. Windsor was nowhere mentioned in the article. And it wasn't even mentioned in the caption. Readers would have had to guess the location but locals living across the country of course would have recognized it easily.

Sept. 15/25: US authorities have arrested scores of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, in an employment situation similar to the NextStar Energy plant in Windsor. Local union officials have blamed the Windsor plant’s Korean management for employing numerous foreign workers, especially from South Korea. CBC Windsor reported this weekend that the workers have been spotted doing everything from “driving forklifts to standard electrical installation” rather than the “highly specialized” work management and the government have insisted they are doing. NextStar is a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, a South Korean company. The east Windsor plant is receiving up to $15 billion in federal and provincial incentives. Two years ago, as the plant was just starting construction, reports indicated that as many as 1600 South Koreans would temporarily work in Windsor to assemble, install and test specialized equipment. This led the Canadian Building Trades Council to denounce the hiring, calling it an “insult to Canadian taxpayers.” But in Georgia this month some 300 South Korean workers were arrested in a massive ICE raid and promptly put on a flight back to their native country. And, just like in Windsor, LG Energy Solution was also the co-owner of the still, under construction, factory. US Border czar Tom Homan said the workers were there illegally, accusing the companies of hiring them “because they work them harder, pay them less and undercut the competition that hires US citizen employees.” The raid earlier was the biggest so far at any one employer as the US cracks down on illegal immigration. But company officials said many of the staff had various visas or were there under a visa waiver program.

August 13/25: Maclean’s magazine - “Canada’s Magazine” - took a deep dive into the current Windsor social climate with a feature article entitled “Fear and loathing in Canada’s most American city.” It is of course about the Trump tariffs and how the city has become Ground Zero, due to our overly auto-dependent economy, as a result. Therefore, more than any other place in the Dominion, the tariffs pose an “existential threat” here. The article starts off describing how Windsor differs from other burgs because of the many longstanding connections between Windsor and Detroit. “Detroit is where many Windsorites have friends and romantic partners. It’s where their kids play in hockey tournaments. It’s where they go to dine or to watch major-league sports. It’s where more than 5,000 people from Windsor’s metropolitan area commute every day, including nearly 2,000 health-care professionals.” And it focusses on some prominent locals for comment. One is Elaine Weeks and her “Elbows Up” opposition group, which has staged demonstrations at the riverfront. She calls Trump “the orange maniac.” Writer Jason McBride states the auto industry of course has integrally linked the two cities and Windsor was experiencing a boom including with the new EV battery plant and Gordie Howe bridge - among the fastest growing economies in the country. “The White House’s tariffs—including 25 per cent levies on steel and aluminum, as well as passenger vehicles and light trucks—have put a sudden stop" to it, he says. And while Canada “has always grappled with its relationship to the U.S.: how similar we are, how different we are and how much we need one another. What is Canada without America? For Windsor, such speculation has always been sharper: without Detroit, would Windsor even exist?” McBride said that on a recent visit the city seemed quite normal - “the restaurants were bustling, the mall was busy” - but under the surface there existed “a pervasive sense of dread.” Minivan plant Local 444 President James Stewart is quoted: “We don’t sleep a whole bunch. The hardest part of this is that it’s out of our control.”

July 28/25: A Postmedia News article that ran in newspapers across Canada highlighted the city’s “Made in Windsor”: housing strategy, which last year rejected a federal offer of as much as $30M if it gave up planning control and allowed four-unit residential properties to be built anywhere in the city. The story also ran in the Windsor Star. The response to it from readers’ comments was generally laudatory for the city and especially Mayor Drew Dilkens, who was interviewed. We sampled the comments in the newspaper which had the biggest reader response, not surprisingly the National Post, distributed across the country. Here are some: “At least there is one Pol in Canada with cojones.” … “Drew was honest in not taking the money and reneging on the deal unlike Toronto’s (Mayor Olivia) Chow who took the money and then reneged. However, counting on pragmatism from (Housing Minister) Gregor Robertson is definitely meant to be a joke.”…”That's a gutsy move by Windsor's mayor. Re-zoning would threaten home values and that is a priority for Canadians (unlike Americans who value investments more than housing). Once again, Quebec gets a free ride.”…”Most municipalities seem to have accepted the bribe. A fourplex with a basement suite means five apartments. If each contains a couple, the chances are that each will have two vehicles. To our numerically challenged town councillors, that means 10 vehicles. Quiet residential streets will become increasingly crowded and dangerous.”…”We'd go a long way in solving our problems in Canada if more mayors premiers, and citizens would flatly reject the asinine ideas that emanate from Ottawa.”…”Sure wish we had that kind of mayor in Toronto.”…” Go Drew Dilkens! Fight back!”…Of the 17 comments only one was negative and likely from a Windsorite: “Windsor has an affordable rental shortage. Drew has given in to all the NIMBY whiners. As if a four-plex will ruin the whole neighborhood. We have hundreds of ugly, expensive condo units going up all over the place. I have seen very nicely designed, attractive fourplexes. Drew has fixed nothing in the city since being elected. (Except parks...I will give home (sic) that.).” The comment got 9 downvotes and 0 upvotes.

July 20/25: When it comes to auto investment history repeats itself. And just like Windsor is on the front lines of the current US-Canada tariff and trade war, so it has been before, also with an existential threat to its - and Canada's - auto sector. Business columnist Rod McQueen gave a history lesson in the Toronto Star about how the Essex Engine Plant off Lauzon Pkwy. came to be. It was 1978 and Ford Motor Co. had to decide whether to invest in a new V6 engine plant here or in Lima OH. It sought $30M in government aid to "offset a variety of higher Canadian costs compared with expanding an existing Ford engine plant" south of the border. The $500M plant would create 2600 jobs but "much more" was at stake, McQueen writes. "The future would surely bring more plants as North American automakers spent billions over the next few years making smaller, lighter vehicles to conserve energy and meet tough new environmental standards." Sure, there was the 1965 Auto Pact but "it had no real influence on where companies created jobs nor did it guarantee balanced trade." And there was an "uneasy feeling in Canada that if Ohio were selected for this plant, the whole momentum of auto industry investment could shift irreversibly toward the U.S. In Ontario, where the auto industry accounted for one job in every six, such southward movement mattered." So the federal and provincial governments went back and forth as to how much each would contribute. Ontario balked at first. "'It would be incredible to offer massive subsidies to the largest manufacturing corporations in the world,' declared Ontario Treasurer Darcy McKeough." Yet the province eventually anted up, with a decision culminating at, of all places, the 1978 Calgary Stampede. The feds put up $40M and Ontario $28M. Concludes McQueen: "Talks seem just as fraught today as they were back in 1978. Canada won in those days, but with Trump's almost hourly changes of heart, the past may not be prologue.

June 30/25: Windsor's Dan Brotman, executive director of the Windsor Jewish Federation and Community Centre, was detained in Lebanon in brutal conditions for six days in May while travelling in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities accused Brotman, a former Israeli citizen and member of the IDF, of being a spy, the Toronto Sun reported. "What was supposed to be the end of a groundbreaking eight-day excursion for a Windsor man turned into nearly a week in Lebanese custody," reporter Bryan Passifiume wrote. "Staring at feces-caked cells, witnessing torture and enduring endless interrogation, Dan Brotman was eventually released — and the seasoned world traveller said he'll be more judicious about future travels." The ordeal started when he first travelled to Syria to explore that country's Jewish history. Problems began when he tried to re-enter Lebanon. A guard seized his passport and he was asked if he'd been in the Israeli army. "Confiscating his watch, wallet and phone, Brotman was shackled and thrown in a dark, windowless cell," the Sun reported. "What followed was a six-day ordeal of filthy cells, little food and endless interrogations about his life in Israel and his military service." Brotman said there were continuous interrogations. He was told he'd be released. "'I was blindfolded, put in handcuffs, driven through Hezbollah territory near the Beirut airport,'” he said. He plans to file a complain with the United Nations "but says the mental and psychological scars will take a long time to heal," the Sun reports.

June 3/25: Yet another world newspaper is discovering Windsor and the symmetry that has long connected Canada's Motor City with Motown across the river. This time it's UK's Financial Times. With overhead shots of the Detroit skyline and Detroit River with Windsor on the other side, and pics of toll booths at the tunnel and a close-up of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, the weekend article was of a similar theme as numerous others in recent months - how President Trump's tariffs and talk of Canada becoming a 51st state has ruptured a once collegial – even familial – relationship. “Business leaders and elected officials are concerned that the White House's policies are forcing the sister cities into an unwanted 'break up,'” the article says. "It's a border that exists, but it's not anything that culturally has ever been an issue," Ryan Donally, chief executive of the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, told the paper. "This has damaged the cultural relationship between two best friends." Besides the interrelationship of auto parts and vehicles crisscrossing the border myriad times daily, some 6000 health care workers cross the border to work in Detroit hospitals and clinics. Trump’s rhetoric has taken its toll on crossings generally. "18 percent fewer people are arriving in the US via the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel compared to the same time last year,” according to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Corporation. "While commuting remains consistent, those traveling from Canada to Detroit to visit family or friends or for leisure has dipped." The article mentions Mayor Drew Dilkens cutting funding for the tunnel bus in the wake of Trump’s comments. And Windsor's Jahn Engineering reducing its 70-person staff by 20 percent after owner Louis Jahn’s orders from American carmakers “disappeared due to the cost of tariffs."

May 16/25: Ironically, the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe Intl Bridge (GHIB) will be coming just months after the US declared a trade war on Canada, and which could be ongoing as the two nations try to sort out tit for tat tariffs. That was a focus of a front-page Detroit Free Press article today referencing Canada’s involvement in the construction of the bridge and at least one Windsorite’s response to the tariff conniption. The Freep points out the well-known fact the GHIB – “certainly of interest on both sides of the border” - is being fully financed by Canada. It quotes the Canadian consul general in Detroit, Colin Bird, saying this is an example of how Canada “steps up” in the interests of international trade and infrastructure. It also quotes Imran Abdool, a U Windsor business prof, who grew up in Windsor, saying the border now seems tighter. “’Growing up in Windsor the border didn’t really feel like a border,’ he said, describing trips to Red Wings games with his father.” Abdool said the demand for a new bridge had long been there with more than a quarter of $700M annual Canada-US trade coming through Windsor-Detroit. As well some 200,000 regional jobs depend on trade. “For a long time, everybody knew that there was a good economic and business case for it,” he said. The Freep concludes the recent tariff controversy “will likely affect Gordie Howe Bridge traffic, although Abdool doesn’t foresee a long-term change. ‘In the short run, the utilization won’t be what ... would have been envisioned, which is unfortunate, but I think in the longer term it will get back to that capacity,’” he said. The prof added that’s because a trade war would be too costly for both sides. “The only thing that would destroy the (case for the) Gordie Howe Bridge would be high tariffs for a long time. I don’t see that happening.”

April 24/25: The Globe and Mail’s headline was that Windsor “feels sense of betrayal” because of the Trump 25% auto tariffs. Noting the recent two-week “pause” in production by Windsor Assembly due to the tariffs, the Toronto newspaper said while Windsor and Detroit are “linked” by social and economic ties, the trade issue has “opened a gulf between the two motor cities, leaving Windsor on the wrong side of a bitter split.” Nowhere, it says, is this more evident that at WAP where 3500 were laid off plus 2000 in associated industries just before Easter. And while Trump has moved back and forth on other industry and country tariffs, “the car levies remain.” Meanwhile the president has said similar tariffs on auto parts could come May 3 which “experts predict will quickly lead to more shutdowns in an industry in which single-digit profit margins are the norm.” The article quotes a Stellantis workers. “This seems to be a man-made disaster,” Derek Gungle, 46, says, noting it’s different from previous layoffs for seasonal reasons or market variances. “We could be selling vehicles. We could be running the economy well and instead everyone’s holding their breath.” Gungle’s family now is watching their spending. The Globe says 500,000 people live in Windsor-Essex with 50,000 working in manufacturing. The area’s also home to Ford engine manufacturing and “dozens” of parts suppliers. “All the plants are linked to the Michigan auto industry across the river, and vice-versa,” it says. It quotes Unifor Local 195 President Emile Nabbout, who leads 4500 workers mainly at auto suppliers: “When the assembly plant goes down, the suppliers go down.” And, says Ryan Donally of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, “Any time there’s news related to Windsor Assembly it draws the attention of the whole community.”

April 10/25: In wake of Canada’s beefed-up border security in response to US President Donald Trump’s allegations of drugs and people illegally crossing the Canadian border into the US, the Toronto Sun interviewed RCMP officer Ian Smith of the Windsor-based border integrity unit. Until recently Smith never wore a uniform. But with the Trump allegations “that recently changed. Smith now dons a uniform and body armour as he drives a marked RCMP vehicle to help patrol roughly 800 km of Ontario's border with the United States, in addition to his usual investigative work,” the Sun says. It’s all part of Canada’s $1.3B response to upgrading security along the border. According to the Sun “Smith said he wants to do his part. ‘We're doing these 24-hour patrols now, which is new for us as well here,’ he said as he drove along Windsor's side of the Detroit River, which forms part of the border between Ontario and Michigan.” The Sun says that as part of the new approach “RCMP officers are increasingly engaging with people who live near the border to gather information and seek their help to stop the smuggling of drugs and people into and from Canada. On a recent cloudy day, Smith took short, slow steps across the frozen river to speak with a group of people who were ice-fishing, asking if they've seen anything suspicious.” But the six to eight officers have a huge territory to cover, from Tobermory on Lake Huron to Port Burwell on Lake Erie. The crew also relies on drones and just received its third one. It also has two boats and uses helicopters for surveillance.

March 26/25: A native of Essex County writing in The London Free Press reminisces about the more carefree days of youth, driving back and forth with his parents across the Windsor-Detroit border. "If my mother needed sewing materials, Detroit's fabric shops were much closer than Hespeler's textile district. When Christmas approached, we'd visit Santaland at J.L. Hudson, one of the biggest department stores in the world," writes Larry Cornies, one of the newspaper's columnists. "One morning in May, when the fields were too soggy for planting, our family hopped into the car and made an impromptu trip to the Detroit Zoo (Channel 4 weather personality Sonny Eliot hosted a regular show from that spot). Lazy Sunday afternoons were sometimes spent at Michigan and Trumbull avenues, watching the Detroit Tigers." This leads Cornies to say that Americans were considered "some of the nicest people" solidified by "cross-border commerce, relationships and family connections." But, he says, all that has changed under President Trump. "As Donald Trump continues bending the U.S. toward authoritarianism and isolation (Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman says America is already becoming a 'rogue nation'), Canada will need to seek friends elsewhere, not only with Great Britain and France, but with the European Union more generally, as well as Asian and Australasian countries." The columnist doubles down, arguing the Trump regime "sidelines Congress, punishes dissenters, ignores court orders and crushes the constitution under its Muscovite jackboots." In response, he says, Canada "must quickly and dramatically ratchet up its response." As for those historic personal ties, it will be a challenge "not harming the personal friendships, respect and familial relationships."

March 12/25: The august Washington Post featured Windsor on its front page as the city has increasingly attracted international attention as a ground zero location for the US-Canada trade war. In a lengthy piece reporter Amanda Coletta touches all the bases with interviews with local business and political leaders, as well as giving a history of the two cities' business and social interconnectedness. "Each day, 8,000 trucks carrying $323 million worth of goods cross the aquamarine Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit, making it the busiest land border crossing in North America." As well, "Personal cross-border ties run deep here. Some 1,600 Windsor nurses cross the border each day to work in Detroit. Families and friendships span the frontier. Windsorites cheer for Detroit sports teams. Some Michiganders have their first legal drink in Windsor, where the drinking age is 19." The Trump 25 per cent tariff would hit the city "especially hard," the article says. "Few places in Canada are more dependent on trade with the United States than Windsor, Ontario, where prosperity has long been tied to the automotive industry." Laval auto parts president Jonathon Azzopardi said "it feels like a funeral." Narmco's Don Rodzik says “The industry will completely grind to a halt within days." Saylo Lam, president of Circle 5, an injection mold manufacturer, said the business climate is "probably more worrisome now than it was during the pandemic.” Flex-n-Gate chairman Damian Bryce worries tariffs "will force Flex-N-Gate’s Michigan operations to absorb the Windsor plant," writes the reporter. Mayor Drew Dilkens said it's ironic this is happening when the city is at an "inflection point" with a surge of growth related to investments like the new NextStar Energy battery plant. Warden Hilda MacDonald called it a "betrayal...We thought we were best friends, and we find out that that didn’t run as deep on the other side.”

Feb 26/25: The Toronto Star ventured to suburban Detroit to gauge the impact that Trump's tariffs might have ironically on Michigan auto workers. "Sterling Heights helped deliver the White House to Donald Trump. Yet few communities in America will be more devastated if Trump goes ahead with his plan to impose tariffs on Canadian goods," the Star writes. But the report reads like an opinion piece by Richard Warnica who described Trump as "lizardlike", having "animal cunning" and "not very smart." Warnica goes on, "Like a virus or a stone shank, he isn't complicated, but he is dangerous, and he has no capacity to care about anyone or anything but himself." But back to the suburbs; Warnica writes, "It was impossible not to conclude from my conversations, in places like Sterling Heights, Detroit, East Lansing and more, that there is no grand strategy behind Trump's tariff plan." What really struck the reporter is "in Michigan car country at least, Trump's tariffs plans are almost as terrifying and controversial as they are (in Canada)." The reason? The cross-border interconnectedness of the auto industry. Even a Republican strategist told him: “We're going to see the auto industry grind (to) a halt ..... and that is a huge tax base of the state of Michigan.” Quoting stats, Warnica stated 42% of Michigan's trade goes north. "The low rise, blue collar suburbs of Detroit I spent those days driving through aren't competing with Ontario communities like Oshawa and Windsor so much as they are cooperating with them as part of a single, unified industry."