TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Canada intends to emerge from its trade war with the United States as a more resilient and independent economy, signaling that Ottawa is prepared to wait for the right conditions rather than rush into a deal with Washington.
“And to our American friends, let me say this. We will always be neighbors,” Carney told hundreds of global investors gathered in Toronto for his Canada Investment Summit. But he said the relationship works when the two countries engage as “true partners that respect each other’s traditions and sovereignty.”
“When those opportunities return, Canada will be an even better partner — stronger, more resilient, more independent,” he said.
Carney also announced that Ottawa will seek private investment through long-term concessions to operate Canada’s four largest airports, while retaining public ownership of the land and assets. He said the plan could raise tens of billions of dollars to reinvest in transportation and other infrastructure.
Without naming U.S. President Donald Trump, Carney then took aim at the increasingly transactional and zero-sum approach to international economic relationships that has characterized Trump’s trade policies.
“Our reputation — as a reliable, predictable partner — has rarely been more valuable in a world where transactions are replacing relationships, and zero-sum is favored over win-win,” Carney said.
Carney said economic integration and national sovereignty are increasingly in tension, arguing that countries seeking to preserve their independence need to work more closely with like-minded partners. He heads to Europe later Tuesday, where he is scheduled to address the European Parliament.
Trump has repeatedly used tariffs to pressure trading partners and pressed manufacturers to shift production and investment south of the Canadian border. He has also repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st U.S. state, comments that have further strained relations between the longtime allies.
But Carney noted that about 80% of the trade with the U.S. remains tariff-free.
“There is a mutually beneficial arrangement that can be had,” Carney said in a fireside chat after his speech. “When it is the right time to strike that deal, we’ll be ready to do that.”
Trade talks between Canada and the United States collapsed last month before Washington imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods, prompting retaliation from Ottawa. The United States has since announced additional restrictions on Canadian products.
Carney suggested Canada cannot build its strategy around a return to the old relationship. “We know that nostalgia is not a strategy,” he said.
Carney also joked about the uneasy state of the U.S.-Canada relationship, contrasting a ceremonial key he once received from his hometown of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, with a box of gold keys to the White House that Trump later gave him.
Carney said Trump told him that if he brought the key, “They’ll let you in,” before adding: “Maybe they’ll shoot you.”
“And that sort of sums up the relationship,” Carney said. “In Canada, you get the key. In the U.S., they might shoot you.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney receives a standing ovation after delivering his opening remarks during the start of the second day at the 2026 Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers opening remarks during the start of the second day at the 2026 Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a fireside chat with the Chief Executive Officer of PSP Investments, Deborah Orida, in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Nathan Denette /The Canadian Press via AP)
LONDON (AP) — An appeals court judge issued a scathing report Tuesday that found dysfunctional management and a “complete failure” to protect babies at the British hospital where neonatal nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven newborns.
The inquiry into baby deaths found the Countess of Chester Hospital, in northwestern England, could have saved some infants if staff had acted sooner when children began collapsing, Justice Kathryn Thirlwall said.
“Errors were made by nurses, doctors and managers,” Thirlwall said. “There was also complete failure at all levels to invoke safeguarding procedures at any point.”
Letby, 36, is serving a life sentence for the murders of seven babies and attempted killing of seven others. She has maintained her innocence, and a defense team backed by dozens of scientists who have questioned the evidence against her are seeking to clear her name.
Thirlwall’s inquiry didn't review Letby’s convictions, but looked at how institutional failures exposed babies to harm at the hospital, and how staff and management responded and treated parents.
“The anger some parents feel at the way they were treated by the Countess was palpable," she said. “They were kept in the dark for years about what was happening, about the fact that there were concerns that their babies may have been deliberately harmed.”
She focused on the failure of staff to take action when Letby was suspected of deliberately harming babies, saying it did not require certainty of her guilt to intervene.
“How many lives could have been saved had the hospital acted differently?” she said. “It is clear that some babies would have been saved and some attacks would have been prevented if action was taken earlier.”
Letby was convicted in 2023 of the murders of seven infants and attempted murders of six others — including two attempts on one child. A case in which jurors couldn’t reach a decision was retried and Letby was convicted of another attempted murder. She was sentenced to 15 life terms with no chance of release — only the fourth woman in the United Kingdom to receive such a term.
Prosecutors said that she harmed babies in ways that left little trace, including injecting air into their bloodstreams, administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes, poisoning them with insulin and interfering with breathing tubes.
She was the only employee on duty in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died between June 2015 and June 2016. Prosecutors described her as a “constant malevolent presence.”
Thirlwall’s report describes how numerous children were harmed, but concerns either weren't raised or suspicions weren't elevated to managers.
“The collapses and deaths continued," Thirlwall said.
Even once the hospital began to review a spike in infant mortality and connections to Letby's work shifts — and after the nurse had been placed on administrative duties in July 2016 — they didn't call police until May 2017.
Former CEO Tony Chambers denied stalling or obstructing a police investigation, but Thirlwall said, “that was precisely what he had done" for a year.
Letby remained at the hospital until her arrest in July 2018.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament she was disturbed by the “exercise in spin to steer away” police.
“That is an appalling finding,” Cooper said. "An exercise in spin instead of putting the safety of babies first.”
The government is reviewing the report's recommendations, though Cooper said officials are getting started on a suggestion to put cameras on cots in neonatal units.
Lawyers for Letby tried unsuccessfully last year to halt the inquiry. They claimed that if Letby is later found innocent, the inquiry would fail to fully understand what happened to the babies.
Defense attorney Mark McDonald said that the conclusions of the inquiry were tainted by errors made during the trial and by accepting that Letby intentionally killed the children.
“The alternative narrative identified by nearly 30 internationally renowned experts has not been properly considered,” McDonald said. “The inquiry would have been able to hear an alternative account — one that said that insulin results were unreliable, one that said the deaths did not stop when Lucy left the unit.”
Thirlwall said that she didn't consider the debate over Letby's guilt because the Court of Appeal had rejected her legal challenges “with a very clear result.” Thirlwall said the people challenging the evidence hadn't been at the trial and she said “all of this noise” caused additional distress to parents “who have already suffered far too much.”
McDonald has presented new evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, or CCRC, which looks into possible injustices and could trigger another court challenge.
A review of the medical evidence used at trial by a panel of experts convened by McDonald found no sign of a crime and concluded that natural causes or bad medical care led to the demise of each of the newborns.
The group of international experts in neonatology and pediatrics found there were inadequate staffing levels, and medical workers lacked proper skills, misdiagnosed ailments and acted slowly in treating acutely ill babies.
A view of Thirwall Inquiry reports displayed at Liverpool Town Hall ahead of the publication of the findings of a public inquiry into how Lucy Letby was able to repeatedly killed and harmed babies on a hospital neonatal unit in Liverpool, England, Tuesday Sept. 15, 2026. (Eleanor Barlow/PA via AP)
FILE - This undated handout photo issued by Cheshire Constabulary shows of nurse Lucy Letby. (Cheshire Constabulary via AP, File)
