September 13, 2026

Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. In this installment we have:

• CAMP’s submission to the Competition Bureau’s examination of the food supply chain
• Québec introduces new consumer protection laws as provinces step up for shoppers
• Trump Department of Justice antitrust team ends cooperation with Canada, or did they?

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Now let’s dive in.

Competition is Part of a Balanced Diet

In June 2026, the government released its National Food Security Strategy, which put addressing the issue of concentration and competition in the food supply chain at its core. Well-timed with the release of that strategy, the Competition Bureau kicked off a wide-ranging examination of competition in food system, seeking to better understand the issues in the markets that put food on our tables and what can be done about them. As part of that examination, the Bureau asked Canadians for their input in a consultation that wrapped last week. As readers of Letters will know, at CAMP we have a few ideas.

The Bureau must be a part of building a more competitive food system, but they have their work cut out for them. After decades of lax merger control, concentration is endemic to the food system. Big players dominate meat processing, grain handling and transportation, equipment manufacturing and dealing, and even seeds, fertilizer and chemicals. Concentration in distribution controls how farmers get products to market and who can compete in grocery, a point Prime Minster Carney made in a recent press conference in Thunder Bay. Opening these tangled markets will take cooperation across departments and across governments to deliver a fairer food system for Canadians.

CAMP has advocated for years for this kind of concerted effort, and it’s a positive development to see governments embracing competition as a key ingredient of food security. A frequent refrain is that for markets to work well, they need to be balanced. Decades of consolidation trading off competition for alleged efficiency has allowed chokepoints to emerge and tilt the system towards a handful of incumbents. If we want higher incomes for farmers, lower prices for shoppers, and a more dynamic food system, breaking open these chokepoints is a necessity. The gears in Ottawa are beginning to turn on this project

You can check out CAMP’s submission here.

Vive la Protection des Consommateurs

Did you know that in Québec, suggested tips must be calculated on the pre-tax price? Or that ticket resale platforms are about to be liable for “ghost tickets” where the reseller lists a ticket without owning it? As of September 12^th, a suite of new consumer protection provisions will come into effect in Québec, with more to follow in October. These cover everything from suggested tips, ticket resale, reservation cancellation fees, and the cancellation of subscription services. The goal of these new regulations? To make it easier for consumers to understand the prices they’re paying and protect them when they don’t get what they paid for.

Alongside these laws, Quebec is also an active source of pro-consumer class action suits. This month, a case was launched against air travel and vacation package providers like Air Canada Vacations, Sunwing Vacations and Air Transat Vacations for cancelling vacation packages after bookings had been made. Another lawsuit against Uber for undisclosed cancellation fees is moving forward, and a suit brought by the Consumers Union against Air Canada for drip pricing is going to the Supreme Court next month.

When it comes to provincial consumer protection, Quebec is a role model. The province has one of the most vigorous consumer protection regimes in Canada, owing to a mutually reinforcing ecosystem of strong consumer protection laws, active regulators, civil society groups, and specialized law firms. This ecosystem brings the mistreatment of consumers to light, provides restitution, and creates a systemic response to ensure all consumers are protected going forward. Canadians dealing with the rising cost of living need more resources in their corner. Quebec is showing us how it’s done.

📚 What We’re Reading 📚

• Slater, Antitrust in the Time(s) of Tariffs (Commonplace)
• Timmons, Private equity faces existential crisis in US as unsold companies pile up (The Guardian)
• Verdi, Colville and Wierzbicka, Exit Strategy: OMI's Position Paper on the Tech Sovereignty Package (Open Markets Institute)

DOJ Threatens End to Cross-Border Antitrust Collaboration

The U.S.-Canada partnership continues to find new ways to fray, and the latest iteration is particularly CAMP-y. Late last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that emails sent by the Trump Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust division chief ordered a “pause on Canada.” Supposedly this meant that the agency should “stop all cooperation on cases and engagement on policy issues with Canadian authorities.” The news has proven as definitive as other recent U.S. foreign policy, with the DOJ quickly denying that this was the intent of the message.

Whether it ends up being true or not, this break would threaten a truly beneficial form of coordination between countries. The global nature of monopoly means coordinating on antitrust issues is a mutually beneficial arrangement for citizens. Canada and the U.S. can coordinate on evaluating mergers, share evidence across agencies, and bust up cartels that cross borders. With effective coordination, everybody wins, except for the monopolies trying to use the international nature of their operations to hide their behaviour.

As we manage bilateral and multilateral relationships in an increasingly zero-sum world, the development is a reminder that while Canada should be ready to cooperate, we can’t rely on others to lead. Canada needs the powers and resources to look out for problems in our own backyard. Among other things, this means making sure our next Commissioner of Competition has the spine to take tough cases, pursue real solutions, and collaborate with peers when it means Canadians can be made better off as a result. In a future where we may be going it alone more often, Canada can’t sit back and hope someone else will clean up the mess for us.

If you have any monopoly tips or stories you'd like to share, drop us a line at hello@antimonopoly.ca

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