Belgrade, the Bay, and Joining the EU

Plus: Whatever happened to dorm rooms?

Adobe Stock / Brian Morgan

Nine in ten Canadians told pollsters they wouldn’t want to join the US. In a separate poll, nearly half of those surveyed said “oui” to Canada becoming part of the EU. Arthur Dennyson Hamdani looked at the possibilities of cozying up to our allies abroad in a Q&A with Mark Camilleri, president and CEO of the Canada EU Trade and Investment Association:

The EU is more than just an economic union. Joining the EU would be a political move as well. … At the end of the day, there’s lots that can be done between the two to enhance and grow. I think that Canada has looked to the EU for a long time as an alternative market—a balance against the US market. And I think there’s been a lot of progress since CETA, but still so much more to be done. I really think there’s so much potential here that hasn’t been fully tapped yet. [Read more]

Hudson’s Bay just filed for creditor protection as a last attempt to avoid bankruptcy—the iconic business is struggling with rising inflation and the popularity of online retail. Don Gillmor explored how the Bay’s flourishing past turned into a gloomy future, in “Why Hudson’s Bay Company’s Future Is in Question.”

Once a network of ninety-two stores across the country, HBC’s footprint has shrunk. … Bay stores have also closed, and a legacy location in Calgary is reducing the retail component in its building. HBC, which was hit hard by COVID-19 lockdowns, is a company in transition. “We’re not a department store chain,” Richard Baker, HBC’s governor and chairman, said in a 2020 interview with the Globe and Mail. “We’re a holding company that owns many billions of dollars of real estate.” Millions of Canadians grew up with the Hudson’s Bay Company as a place to buy towels and clothes, but land has always been at the heart of HBC. Canada’s oldest company began as a land deal (at least from the European perspective) during an outbreak of the bubonic plague and may end as a real estate deal in another plague. [Read more]

Halifax students were shocked after a university residence starkly increased monthly rent by 25 percent, despite Nova Scotia’s 5 percent rent increase cap. Students across Canada can’t seem to catch a break. Katrya Bolger recently investigated the grim state of campus housing and how it affects students’ everyday lives:

Student residences aren’t cheap, and waiting lists are longer than ever as universities and colleges have increased enrolment numbers but failed to keep up with housing demand. Many students have been forced to choose between the cut-throat off-campus rental market (in Toronto, a room in a house or apartment could cost as much as $1,500) and living at home and commuting for hours every day. In the process, the campus, once seen as a place to comfortably linger after class and where students could form lasting bonds, is becoming more of a transient and impersonal space. Canadian post-secondary institutions are rushing to keep up with demand. But is it too late? [Read more]

Student-led protests against the autocratic government have ramped up in Serbia, with a massive rally planned in Belgrade on Saturday. Filipa Pajevic was recently on the ground in the city, reporting on the massive scope of the the uprising:

Professors accompanied their students to the blockade. “I am not leaving you alone tonight,” my parents and I overheard one of them say, and my eyes stung. Cooks and caterers set up makeshift kitchens to make heaps of food, from pizzas to paprikash, that the students shared among themselves. Thousands filled the boulevard in support. I felt elated and slightly disoriented, because it was Belgrade in January 2025 but it could have just as easily been Belgrade in January 1997. [Read more]

Check out our books podcast, What Happened Next, hosted by Nathan Whitlock. This week’s conversation is with Amy Stuart about her most recent book, Home and Away, co-written with Mats Sundin.

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