Business
Taxpayers call on Trudeau to scrap Digital Services Tax as US threatens trade action
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Jay Goldberg
“Trudeau is determined to make Canadians’ lives more expensive and he’s willing to risk a trade war with the United States to do it”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the Trudeau government to scrap its Digital Services Tax in the wake of warnings from the United States Trade Representative that the United States will “do what’s necessary” to respond to the Trudeau government’s new tax.
“Canadian consumers know that Trudeau’s Digital Services Tax is nothing more than a tax grab, plain and simple,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “With providers virtually certain to pass along increased costs to consumers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is sticking Canadians with higher taxes and risking the possibility of a trade conflict with the United States.”
The DST targets large foreign companies operating online marketplaces, social media platforms and earning revenue from online advertising, such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and VRBO. It is a three per cent tax on all online revenue these companies generate in Canada.
The Trudeau government pushed its new DST through Parliament last month and plans to apply it retroactively to as far back as 2022.
Since the Trudeau government first explored the idea of imposing a Digital Services Tax three years ago, the USTR has repeatedly warned the United States would retaliate.
“Should Canada adopt a DST, USTR would examine all options, including under our trade agreements and domestic statutes,” said the USTR in 2022.
USTR Katherine Tai is now warning that the U.S. is looking at “all available tools” to respond to Trudeau’s new tax.
“Trudeau is determined to make Canadians’ lives more expensive and he’s willing to risk a trade war with the United States to do it,” said Goldberg. “It’s clear the Digital Services Tax must go.”
By Ken Macon
Digital ID systems risk becoming massive vulnerabilities in the face of modern cyber threats.
Ukraine’s reliance on its new digital identity systems has become a warning about the dangers of digital ID, as a recent cyberattack exposed critical vulnerabilities in the country’s digital infrastructure.
Last month, several key government databases were taken offline, disrupting essential services like legal filings and marriage registrations. Officials assured citizens that the controversial Diia, the government’s widely used e-governance app, would soon be restored, but the incident laid bare significant risks within the app’s centralized backend platform, Trembita.
This breach, the most serious since Trembita’s launch in 2020, raises urgent questions about the security of Ukraine’s growing dependence on digital IDs and is a clear warning to other countries that are rushing to embrace the controversial tech.
Trembita, the platform enabling Diia’s operations, functions as a digital network connecting government databases. While officials insisted it operated as designed during the breach, cybersecurity experts are sounding alarms.
Mykyta Knysh, a former Ukrainian security official, described the platform’s centralized architecture as a dangerous “single point of failure.” Warnings about these risks had surfaced before — security analysts cautioned in 2021 that consolidating sensitive personal and administrative data under Diia would leave Ukraine exposed to large-scale attacks.
The Russian hacking group XakNet has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This highlights a broader danger inherent in Ukraine’s ambitious digitalization efforts, spearheaded by the Ministry of Digital Transformation under the Zelensky administration.
While consolidating government services into the smartphone-based Diia app has streamlined access for millions of citizens, the breakneck pace of implementation has left little time to address critical security gaps.
The compromised registries contained highly sensitive data, including personal addresses, family connections, and financial assets.
Beyond military implications, the breach exposes the inherent risks of digital ID systems. Security analysts have pointed out that a central repository of personal data, as seen in Ukraine’s system, creates lucrative targets for hackers. If exploited, such data could fuel identity theft, phishing campaigns, or even more devastating cyberattacks, undermining public trust in digital governance.
If you’re tired of censorship and surveillance, subscribe to Reclaim The Net.
By Rick Findlay
The executive order marks a decisive pivot in US digital asset policy.
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