Maple Express | November 2, 2026 — Trump says Canada, U.S. 'very close' to a trade deal

1. Trump says Canada-U.S. 'very close' to a deal after Carney calls talk 'good conversation'

Source: CP24

Prime Minister Mark Carney said in an X post on Sunday, Nov. 1 that he had a "good conversation" with U.S. President Donald Trump on trade, building on "recent constructive discussions" about a prospective Canada-U.S. trade deal. The Prime Minister's Office told CTV News the call took place Saturday. Carney described the deal as one that would "create jobs for our workers, boost affordability for families, and fully respect Canada's languages, culture, and sovereignty."

Trump told reporters Sunday afternoon that the two sides had "a concept of a very good deal with Canada," adding: "We've been losing money for many years with Canada ... 70-75 years. So, we are now very close to having a deal." A White House statement said the administration "welcomes continued engagement with Canada" as details are finalized. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged Carney to "get a great deal," saying Canadians cannot afford to wait.

The office of International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Sunday he was not in Washington and had nothing to share about travel plans. Talks collapsed in August, after which Trump hit an array of Canadian goods with 50 per cent tariffs, banned imports of other Canadian products and signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America.

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2. Toronto father finds sewing needles and pins inside five Halloween treats

Source: CP24

A Toronto father is warning parents to inspect Halloween candy carefully after finding sewing needles and pins hidden inside five different treats collected while trick-or-treating. The family went out at about 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 in the Upper Beaches area. Barry Horn, 53, told CP24 on Sunday that he first found objects inside a KitKat bar and a Tunnock's caramel wafer, then found three more affected treats later that evening, including Cadbury and Snickers products.

Horn said his son broke open a KitKat and found a sewing needle inside, and his daughter noticed a magnet sticking to the Tunnock's wafer before a pin was found. The family then checked every piece one at a time. The other affected products were a Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo bar, a Cadbury Mini Toffee Crunch and a Snickers bar. The objects were concealed inside the chocolate and not visible from outside the packaging.

Toronto police said officers are investigating one report of needles in candy but have not confirmed a broader public safety concern. "This is clearly from somebody putting it in. This isn't a manufacturing thing because it's a sewing needle," Horn said. Durham regional police are investigating a similar incident in Oshawa near Ritson Road North and Taunton Road, and Quebec provincial police are investigating two reports of needles and pins in chocolate in Drummondville and Saint-Marcel. No injuries have been reported.

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3. New U.S. flight-delay rules take effect in February. Will Canadian travellers be affected?

Source: CP24

New U.S. Department of Transportation rules published in the Federal Register in September reclassify 10 types of events that cause flight delays and cancellations as outside the airline's control, including a passenger's death, unscheduled mechanical issues, severe weather, cybersecurity attacks and potential tech outages. The rule was due to take effect Oct. 19 but was postponed to Feb. 1, 2027. The department acknowledged that "the total value of amenities and compensation currently provided by air carriers to consumers will be reduced under this final rule."

Travel industry expert Katy Nastro said travellers may no longer be entitled to the same protections. "If you are impacted due to an unscheduled maintenance event, this is outside of the airline's control, meaning that they're not now forced, or really obliged, to provide a hotel voucher or a meal voucher," she told CTVNews.ca. Passenger advocacy group FlyersRights is suing the DOT; president Paul Hudson said the rule "sneakily transfers costs from airlines back to passengers."

Nastro said the change affects anyone "travelling within the U.S., to the U.S., or from the U.S." Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, said the impact on Canadian travellers should be "minimal" because they retain rights under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations, though he called those rules "weak," "unnecessarily complex" and "very difficult to enforce," describing the U.S. change as "primarily administrative."

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4. Canada-U.S. tariffs loom over Michigan midterms

Source: CP24

Nowhere in the U.S. will tariffs be more top of mind for midterm voters than in Michigan, which votes Tuesday, Nov. 3. According to a website launched by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, tariffs cost Michigan households more than in any other state, at more than US$5,600 per household. Twenty-five per cent auto tariffs imposed by Trump in 2025 have contributed, and the state's highly integrated supply chain with Canada makes it more painful. If there is no trade deal with Canada by January 2027, auto tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles and parts will double to 50 per cent.

Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, described the relationship as "two countries, one region." He told CTV News that since Section 232 tariffs were imposed on Canadian steel, aluminum and autos, most businesses are holding off on major cross-border investment. "Right now, they're still a little frozen because they don't know what the long-term trajectory is," he said.

Importers bringing goods into Michigan have paid more than $23 billion in tariffs over the last 22 months, according to the NTUF. The issue has bled into the Senate race: Republican candidate Mike Rogers released a video ad in October saying "Canada is not our enemy" and calling for an end to the tariff war, while Democrat Abdul El-Sayed called Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods "dumb." Polls show Trump's approval in Michigan in the 30 per cent range, down from his 49.7 per cent share there in 2024.

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5. A DNA test led a Toronto performer to 35 half-siblings

Source: CP24

A DNA test bought on sale changed one Toronto performer's understanding of his family and eventually inspired a musical. At 31, Noam Tomaschoff learned the man he grew up calling his father was not his biological father and that he had been conceived using a sperm donor. He later discovered he had at least 35 half-siblings around the world. "Absolutely nothing other than the fact that it was on sale," he told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday, explaining why he took the test.

Tomaschoff said his parents initially questioned the idea, then decided to tell him the truth before results arrived. "They sat me down together, and we all held hands, and this is when I knew something was wrong," he recalled, describing his reaction as "total surprise." He said his parents had followed clinical guidance of the time that encouraged some families not to disclose donor conception, and they were concerned about preserving his sense of connection to them.

The results first connected him with 15 close relatives, and the number grew as he found more siblings through other platforms. Many are part of a Facebook group, and one lives close enough that they see each other regularly. He shared the story with high school friends Ryan Peters and Russell Citron, and Citron said: "This should be a musical." A lottery spot at the Toronto Fringe Festival gave them a July 2023 deadline. Our Little Secret: A True New Musical runs Nov. 3 to 22 at Toronto's CAA Theatre.

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6. Field of Crosses opens for 18th year, honouring the Wainwright tragedy

Source: CP24

For the 18th year, thousands of crosses line Memorial Drive in Calgary for the annual Field of Crosses project, which opened Sunday, Nov. 1 with a sunrise ceremony honouring all who died serving their country. "It's an opportunity to make sure that everyone remembers. And for me, in my two minutes of silence, I remember those that I actually knew that are no longer in our lives," said Maj. (Retired) Kent Griffiths. Board chair Sean Libin called remembrance "a duty."

The Wainwright tragedy remains fresh for many. Libin said the soldiers were suiting up and training to deploy to Latvia when they lost their lives. "We have to remember the sacrifices of all of our service people," he said. Griffiths said thousands more were killed in training and that including them expands the scope of remembrance. Some 3,700 crosses populate the field, many decorated with photos and biographies researched by students; Libin said the project has grown from 300 crosses and is run entirely by volunteers, not by any government body or the military.

Terri Stirling attended the sunrise ceremony to remember her son T.J., a veteran who served in Afghanistan. She said he survived an IED explosion that killed two comrades, did another full tour in 2006, retired in 2008, and died on Aug. 18, 2009 as a victim of PTSD. "There are no words to say how proud I am of him," she said. "They gave everything, and they left families behind, which affected so many people."

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7. Business jet nosedives and erupts in fireball in South Florida, killing all 9 aboard

Source: CP24

A business jet carrying nine people nosedived into a South Florida neighbourhood Sunday, Nov. 1 and erupted into a giant fireball that appeared to just miss homes near a busy roadway. Everyone on board was killed, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. He posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County at 12:50 p.m., calling it a "horrific tragedy"; the FAA is sending a team to support the NTSB investigation. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed.

"It was a cataclysmic plane crash," DeSantis told reporters at the scene. "It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road." Rain pounded the region and a flood watch was in effect through Monday afternoon. The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the FAA.

The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb another 2,000 feet. It then entered a steep dive, from 10,000 feet per minute to 20,000 and up to 30,000, exceeding its design limits. "We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute," the pilot radioed, before saying: "We're going to crash into the ground." The crash occurred in Greenacres, about 7 miles southwest of West Palm Beach; authorities were evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community.

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8. Ukraine and Russia report fake emergency alerts after cyberattack on alert apps

Source: CP24

Authorities in Ukraine and Russia say their emergency alert mobile apps were targeted by cyberattacks late Sunday, Nov. 1, with users in Ukraine receiving false warnings of dangerously high radiation levels in Kyiv. Ukraine's air raid alert channel said on Telegram that "unauthorized parties" had interfered with the app and that the service was temporarily suspended; it was restored overnight. The false alerts — claiming high radiation, a chemical threat and public disturbances in Kyiv — were written in English with spelling and grammatical errors, as well as in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian.

One false post mentioned the hacking group Hitcore; the Russian Telegram channel Mash, which has links to the security services, said Hitcore claimed responsibility, a claim that could not be independently verified. Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation urged users to monitor emergency channels on social media and rely on physical alerts. Air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the attack had no impact on security and defence operations because the app is separate from military command systems.

In Russia, officials said Monday that hackers sent fake emergency alerts after gaining access to the Emergency Ministry's mobile app, without naming the attackers, and stressed the wider public alert system was working normally. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all state agencies face constant cyber threats, increasingly involving artificial intelligence. Ukraine also reported Russian drone attacks in the Kherson region early Monday, hours after a humanitarian ceasefire that began Oct. 27 expired at midnight; a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were hospitalized with blast injuries.

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9. Antonelli, 20, becomes youngest F1 champion in history

Source: CP24

Twenty-year-old Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli became the youngest champion in Formula 1 history on Sunday, Nov. 1, with four races still left in the season. The first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953 took an unassailable lead over teammate George Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton after the Mexico City Grand Prix, where he finished third.

Sebastian Vettel was the previous youngest champion at 23 in 2010. Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Mexico City GP for the sixth time. The race was stopped on lap 46 with a red flag after Valtteri Bottas crashed into the wall at the first corner following issues with his right-side suspension; Cadillac said he was given further medical assessments as a precaution, and he got out of the car unaided.

At the restart Verstappen led from Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli, Norris and Russell, and held on for the win. After Mexico, F1 heads to Brazil and then Las Vegas; it remains uncertain whether the final two scheduled Grands Prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will take place, given instability in the region.

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10. Canadian judoka Mati Anes wins Canada's first Youth Olympics medal in Dakar

Source: CP24

Mati Anes has won Canada's first medal of the 2026 Youth Olympics. The product of Anjou, Que., earned silver in judo on the first full day of competition, losing to Ukraine's Khazar Heydarov by ippon in the men's 66-kilogram final.

Argentina's Thiago Carvallo and Senegal's Matar Diop each earned bronze in the weight class. Canada sent just 28 athletes to this year's Youth Olympics, and the opening ceremony was held Saturday, Oct. 31.

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