It was a turbulent and difficult year practically everywhere in the world. The inauguration of Donald Trump to his second term as U.S. president has brought with it a host of horrors, including another surge in racism and vicious anti-immigrant sentiment. Meanwhile, his trade war has given Canada’s Liberal government a new pretext to usher in right-wing economic policies.
In New Brunswick and across the country, the cost-of-living crisis has continued to affect poor and working-class people who struggle to afford rent, groceries, and pharmaceuticals. Against this backdrop, temporary foreign workers in the seafood processing sector and other industries face ongoing abuses.
Overseas, the U.S.-backed Israeli state has prolonged its genocidal assault on the Palestinian people. October’s ceasefire brought some badly-needed respite to people in the Gaza Strip, but Israel has killed hundreds more during its frequent violations of that truce, and conditions in the territory remain dire. As we approach the New Year, the American military is focusing its imperialist aggression on Venezuela.
These and other flashpoints have been met with resistance, and the NB Media Co-op has tried to document some of those movements. To mark the end of 2025, we have compiled the following list of news stories that reached the most people in a given month, based on our website analytics.
January: Crackdown at the Canada-U.S. border
In January, the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States was accompanied by harsher conditions at the Canada-U.S. border — along with a widespread crackdown on immigrants and people of colour.
Our top story that month detailed the experiences of University of New Brunswick sociology professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb (an editor for the NB Media Co-op), who was turned away by U.S. authorities at the Trudeau International Airport in Montreal on his way to a book launch stateside.
In March, after Kalman-Lamb obtained a travel visa, he once again attempted to travel to the United States. This time he was detained, searched and questioned over the course of three hours.
Kalman-Lamb has suggested that a website called Canary Mission might be to blame for his mistreatment at the border. The shadowy organization — which targets pro-Palestinian students, academics and activists, accusing them of antisemitism — listed him in 2024. The Trump administration has used the website to identify people for deportation.
February: Abortion misinformation ‘allowed to flourish’
Harmful misinformation about abortion has continued to circulate in New Brunswick, according to researchers. Our top story in February featured a presentation by UNB sociologist Tobin LeBlanc Haley (a member of the NB Media Co-op board of directors), who spoke about research that she co-authored with Christine Hughes.
Abortion misinformation includes myths about the “moral character” of abortion patients, health risks, pathways to access, and the motivations of clinic-based abortion providers.
LeBlanc Haley also discussed issues including the “great replacement theory,” a conspiracy theory which views abortions as displacing white people as the majority in countries like Canada and the United States.
This white supremacist conspiracy theory has resurged “especially in the period that we’re in now following the overturn of Roe v. Wade and amidst the very troubling rise of fascism that we are all currently witnessing and living through,” she said.
March: Poverty reduction plan stops short of universal income support
Our top story in March was a critical examination of New Brunswick’s latest poverty reduction plan, which aims to cut poverty in half by 2030.
The report states that emergency income support programs launched in response to COVID-19 caused poverty rates to “plummet” in New Brunswick, but those gains vanished after the programs ended.
Still, the report doesn’t call for a guaranteed livable income or universal basic income in its list of “priority actions.” However, the report calls for better income support for people with disabilities, which advocates say is badly needed.
Minister of Social Development Cindy Miles has instructions in her mandate letter from Premier Susan Holt to “explore a plan for basic income for New Brunswickers living with disabilities.”
April: Labour perspectives on the trade war, intimate partner violence, and more
In April, we presented a new edition of the NB Update, a collaboration between the NB Media Co-op and CHCO TV.
That episode — our top story for April — featured economist Jim Stanford, director of the Vancouver-based Centre for Future Work, who called for stronger employment benefits to help workers navigate Trump’s trade war.
He critiqued the country-wide push for faster development of oil, gas and mineral projects, and slammed calls for “cost-cutting” in the public service modeled on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
This edition of the show also featured trade unionists Tasha Salesse of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and Jennifer Murray of Unifor, who spoke about labour’s fight against domestic violence.
We also heard from Jonathan Guimond, president of CUPE 1190, which represents 2,200 general labour and trades workers in the provincial public service. He spoke about gains from a collective agreement signed with the province after members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.
May: Collective agreements signed with two New Brunswick public service unions
In May, two public service unions representing more than 14,000 workers in New Brunswick signed collective agreements. Our top story looked at some of the details of those agreements, which cover workers in the NB Council of Hospital Unions and the NB Council of Nursing Home Unions, both of them part of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Liberal Premier Susan Holt has taken steps to repair the relationship between unions and government, including the lifting of a Higgs-era edict that banned three union leaders from the Legislative Assembly.
However, there were already signs of strain in that relationship by summertime, when New Brunswick’s Labour and Employment Board ordered the provincial government to rescind layoff notices issued to school library workers, saying the province had bargained in bad faith. The provincial government’s planned spending cuts threaten to test that relationship further.
June: Union delegates vote to refuse handling of Israeli arms shipments
Our top story in June examined the resolutions adopted by delegates at the 56th convention of the NB Federation of Labour. One of those resolutions calls on the central labour body to declare any arms shipments bound for Israel “hot cargo,” a term referencing goods that unionized workers refuse to handle based on principles of solidarity.
The resolution also calls for the NB Federation of Labour to push for a federal arms embargo on arms exports to Israel “whether they are direct shipments or through a third party.”
July: City of Moncton revokes permit for far-right singer’s performance in local park
Sean Feucht was scheduled to perform in Moncton’s Riverfront Park in July, but the gig was ultimately cancelled, part of a string of kiboshed events for the far-right American political agitator and entertainer during his Canadian tour.
The City of Moncton revoked his permit following the publication of an open letter demanding the cancellation by social justice movement organizations, as detailed in our top story that month.
The letter was issued by the Regroupement féministe du Nouveau-Brunswick and was endorsed by groups including River of Pride, Alter Acadie, GRIS-Acadie, QT Fatties in NB, and the Demand the Stars Collective, along with more than 100 individuals.
“In the context of rising hate against 2SLGBTQQIA+ people on a global and Canadian scale, and as reproductive rights are under attack in the United States as well as in Canada, it is very concerning to us that the City of Moncton is allowing a public performance by a person who displays such blatant bigotry,” the letter stated.
August: ‘Sears Sanctuary’ threatened by NB Power’s proposed 500 MW gas plant
NB Power’s proposed gas-burning power plant on the Chignecto Isthmus in southeast New Brunswick has provoked controversy. Our top story in August looked at some of the concerns of conservationists in the area.
Texas-based ProEnergy plans to build the plant about 1.5 kilometres from land set aside as a sanctuary for native wildlife and plants. The family of the late journalist Wallie Sears family donated the 160-acre property to the Atlantic Wildlife Institute in 2018.
The main 120-acre location of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute would be only 4.5 kilometres from the gas plant and directly downstream from it, if the plans go forward.
September: Moncton landlord accused of illegal renovictions, harassment
When an apartment building in Moncton changed hands earlier this year, the new owner stopped accepting rental subsidies. Soon, the remaining tenants received termination notices for renovations… to create subsidized units.
That bizarre sequence of events — our top story in September — raised new questions about subsidized housing in New Brunswick and loopholes in provincial legislation meant to protect renters.
The Tenant and Landlord Relations Office eventually overturned at least one of those evictions after finding that the landlord hadn’t received approval from the housing tribunal. Campaigners from NB ACORN called it an example of illegal renovictions and harassment.
October: Seafood company hit with record fine, banned from hiring migrant workers
New Brunswick made history this year when Ottawa issued a $1-million penalty to Bolero Shellfish Processing Inc., based on the Acadian Peninsula — the largest-ever fine issued to an employer under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The company was also banned from hiring temporary foreign workers for the next decade.
Our top story in October looked at the reasons listed by the federal government for the fine, which included “failing to provide proper wages and working conditions, failing to comply with federal and provincial labour laws, and failing to provide a workplace that was free of abuse.”
Migrant justice advocates later released details about working conditions at the site, alleging systemic abuses that included a “debt trap” scheme. The company has denied the government’s allegations and has challenged the penalty in court.
November: Ontario electricity supply costs jump 29 per cent as nuclear spending rises
Energy prices were a contentious issue throughout 2025 as families struggled to make ends meet.
Our top story in November looked at the situation in Ontario, where energy prices have spiked by nearly 30 per cent (a provincial rebate program is expected to shift some of those costs to taxpayers).
That price shock comes at a time when Premier Doug Ford’s government is investing billions to rebuild its existing nuclear reactors and planning new large nuclear units and small modular reactors to meet future demand.
Meanwhile, here in New Brunswick, the government and public utility are also planning to add more nuclear power to the grid, the most expensive way to generate electricity.
December: Fredericton raises Palestinian flag, joining other cities for the first time
The Palestinian flag was raised at Fredericton City Hall on December 1 at a joyful community gathering of around 50 people.
The ceremony was made possible by the efforts of Chantelle Paiu, a second-generation Palestinian and community organizer in Fredericton, as reported in our top story that month.
Paiu’s call to action for Fredericton is to seek out Palestinian stories “beyond the suffering,” and to learn about the culture, joy, and history of her people.
She urged the community not to stop there, but to also learn about the struggles in Sudan, Congo, Yemen, and local Indigenous communities, noting that “all liberation is connected.”
“Let this flag be more than a symbol,” Paiu said. “Let it be an opening and invitation to learn, to listen, and to expand how we understand one another.”
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