Canada news moved this week when the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division was directed to pause work with the Canadian government. Lynda Marshall, who leads the division's international section, ordered officials on Wednesday to halt cooperation on cases and policy issues with Canadian authorities.
The instruction landed just as the United States and Canada were already locked in a trade dispute. Canada said it would begin retaliatory tariffs on Sept. 8 after the Trump administration's new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.
Lynda Marshall's Wednesday directive
Marshall's order reached officials in the antitrust division on Wednesday, telling them to stop cooperation on cases and policy engagement with Canadian authorities. By Friday, section chiefs were told to provide lists of areas where the division had been working with Canada by the end of the day, showing the scope of the review inside the Justice Department.
For companies and lawyers that rely on cross-border antitrust coordination, the practical issue is not abstract diplomacy. When cooperation pauses, routine information-sharing and policy discussions can slow, even if only a specific investigation or meeting is affected. The division's own internal review therefore matters most for any matter that touches both U.S. and Canada enforcement priorities.
DOJ rejects the reported order
The Justice Department disputed the report and said the alleged direction was never given to anyone. The department said the division was asked only to temporarily hold off on a scheduled meeting on a specific investigation until the DOJ antitrust team had more time to prepare.
That difference is substantial. A pause on a single meeting would be narrow and procedural; a pause on all work with Canada would suggest a broader break in cross-border coordination. The dispute leaves the immediate question inside the department: whether the instruction changed day-to-day work or only delayed one scheduled discussion.
Trump tariffs and Carney response
The trade backdrop is already putting pressure on the relationship. The United States and Canada have continued to spar over President Donald Trump's trade war against Ottawa, and the article says the tensions described here arose after Trump's return to the White House in January 2025. President Donald Trump also issued an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, and the renaming applies only to the U.S. federal government.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will match Washington's new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses. That response keeps the focus on the tariff fight while the DOJ dispute raises a separate question about how far institutional cooperation between the two countries is being pulled into the trade war.
The immediate open question is whether the antitrust division actually stopped broader cooperation with Canada or whether the reported pause was limited to one scheduled meeting. Either answer will shape how quickly the division can resume the cross-border case and policy work that Marshall ordered staff to review by Friday.
