NOTED & FILED

Our community as reflected in outside media

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."

Feb 12/25: The Globe and Mail applauded the "unique" team between Windsor police and Windsor Regional Hospital where ER staff and police patrol together the city's at times drug infested streets. The goal is to cut down on hospital admissions and police offer protection to nurses administering to addicts or those with mental health problems. "So far, the teams seem to be making a difference. In the first year of the pilot operation, nurse-police pairs handled 1,786 calls for service, treated 129 drug-use-related wounds in the community and diverted 608 potential visits to the ER." Other cities may have joint teams of cops and social workers "but adding ER nurses to the mix seems to be unique to Windsor," the Globe reports. There's no question the region has an illicit street drug problem. "The city and the surrounding County of Essex saw a record 115 opioid-related deaths last year (2023), up from 112 in 2022, 85 in 2021 and 71 in 2020. Until the pandemic, Windsor-Essex’s opioid-related death rate per 100,000 roughly tracked that of Ontario, but the trend lines have diverged since 2021. Provincial rates fell while Windsor-Essex’s rose." The Globe quoted Bill Marra, CEO of WRH subsidiary Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare: "what we're facing is really an evolving change with the social determinants of health. The needs are different. And what’s happened is service providers are catching up to where we need to be with providing support for patients or clients.” The Globe added that the mental-health and substance-use crisis was hampering the ability of police and emergency department staff to do their jobs.

Jan 29/25: The Financial Post put Windsor on its front page as the city on the “front lines” of the presumed tariff war between the United States and Canada. Reporter Joe O’Connor came to Canada’s auto capital to examine the potential fallout to the city’s manufacturing should the Trump 25 per cent tariff go ahead. But O’Connor used acclaimed Windsor pizza as a reference point throughout the story. “More than 42,000 area residents work so-called blue-collar jobs, giving the city its feisty and resilient sense of pride,” he wrote. In the 2008 financial crash the city’s unemployment topped 16 per cent and “families cut back on spending — some moved away altogether — and people stopped ordering pizza.” He quotes the CEO of Galati Cheese, which supplies cheese to the area’s pizzerias. “Those were hard times for our town,” Peter Piazza recalled. O’Connor adds context: “If you have ever found yourself in the Canadian border town directly across the river from Detroit and had a hankering for some Windsor-style pizza, which, as far as food items go, inspires near-religious devotion among the locals and has achieved a degree of national renown in foodie circles, the pizza was most assuredly topped by Galati’s mozzarella, famously made with pure milk sourced from nearby dairy farms.” Piazza says he is concerned about the fallout of tariffs on his city. “If people were to visit our town and see the Ambassador Bridge, with all those trucks going back and forth across it each day, I tell you, it is a parade,” Piazza said. “Any tariffs could mean job losses, and if people around town start losing their jobs, there is going to be a trickle-down effect. I sure hope Trump is bluffing.” O’Connor repeats the well repeated stat that a quarter of Canada-US trade passes over the bridge. And he throws in the wider cross-border relationships. “Mixed amongst those trucks are the human commuters, including an estimated 2,000 Canadian nurses who cross the bridge from their Canadian homes to work in Michigan hospitals and health-care centres. Stories of an American girl meeting a Canadian boy and the rest becoming history are common at supper tables on both sides of the border, further underscoring a bond through commerce, life and love, perhaps best captured by the well-tread line amongst Windsorites, proud Canadians though they are, that the city of 300,000 might fairly be mistaken for a suburb of Detroit.” As for Galati itself the firm could also be impacted. Cleveland’s Kirtland Capital invested in the company some time ago. O'Connor says executive Corrie Menary “is scratching her head over the wisdom of tariffs. By her math, targeting Canada with tariffs simply doesn’t add up, and it could produce a recessionary blowback for her American neighbours.”

Jan 13/25: The Globe and Mail is enamored of Windsor’s next phase in auto production, electrical vehicles. Headlined “On EV Revolution’s Front Lines” the article profiles the Dodge Charger Daytona, the first Canadian-made EV. “Millions of vehicles have rolled out of the Stellantis assembly plant in Windsor, Ont., during its 96-year history, but this car is different,” the article says. “It’s electric, and it marks the beginning of a new era for these workers, the city, the province, the country, the Canadian auto industry and, if all goes according to plan, our climate goals.” However, while decades of planning by the auto manufacturers and government have gone into this moment the industry, exemplified by the Charger, still faces “hurdles.” Not least because it’s a “niche vehicle” and Canada faces president-elect Donald Trump’s threatened 25% import tariff. Stellantis’s faith in the EV comes when “most automakers are scaling back their EV ambitions, affordable Chinese EVs are poised to undercut Western manufacturers and Stellantis in particular is in trouble. Its share price has fallen around 40 per cent this year on high inventories, slow sales and falling revenue, which recently prompted the sudden resignation of chief executive officer Carlos Tavares.” Before the Charger the plant was only producing the Chrysler Pacifica, which slow sales meant a cutback from three shifts to two. The Charger will also have a gas version. “’We were hoping to get [a new vehicle],’ said (plant manager David) Bellaire. ‘What [type of vehicle] it was, at the end of the day I don’t think we really cared, as long as it was another product to protect our jobs and the city. When they announced that we were getting [the new Charger], it was like we could have had a parade,’ said Mr. 9David) Bellaire, who explained that they’d had to compete with other Stellantis plants for the work.”