‘Bogus tariffs’: Quebec senator challenges Donald Trump Jr. to boxing match

Senator Patrick Brazeau speaks to media as he returns to his Senate office in Ottawa on Thursday, July 14, 2016. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

As Canada and the U.S. are in the midst of a bitter trade war, one parliamentarian is hoping to take the fight to the boxing ring.

Patrick Brazeau, a non-affiliated senator for Quebec, is challenging President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to a boxing match but for a good cause.

Sen. Brazeau, who lost a boxing match to Justin Trudeau in 2012 before he became prime minister, wants to fight Trump’s son and raise money for charity.

“Dear @DonaldJTrumpJr, I once had a boxing match with @JustinTrudeau and lost. I know, I still can’t believe it myself. But I no longer smoke and have been sober for almost 5 years,” Brazeau wrote in a post on X on Thursday.

“In light of these bogus tariffs from President @realDonaldTrump from the [U.S.] onto [Canada], I challenge you to a fight to raise money for cancer research or an organization of your choosing.”

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Brazeau went on to say: “Our countries don’t need to be at war but we can fight to raise money. I’m in if you are.”

The president’s son has not yet responded to the senator on X.

The 2012 boxing event surprised some watchers when Trudeau defeated Brazeau, who had served in the Canadian Armed Forces and has a second-degree black belt in martial arts.

The televised match ended up raising more than $230,000 for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

• More coverage of Trump’s tariffs

President Trump’s tariffs have led to retaliatory tariffs from Canada, and a wave of national unity among Canadians who are upset with how the second Trump administration is treating its northern neighbour.

Hours after Brazeau posted on X about the proposed match, Reuters reported that Trump on Thursday exempted goods from both Canada and Mexico under a North American trade pact for a month from the 25 per cent tariffs in the U.S.‘s constantly-changing trade policy in recent days.

When he first announced the tariffs, Trump cited fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Canada as one of the reasons for imposing the economic measure.

Brazeau is one of many Canadians who argue the fentanyl seizures on the northern border do not justify the trade war Trump has unleashed, writing “tariffs have nothing to do with fentanyl.”

“It has to do with our oil, freshwater, minerals, resources and our Arctic,” he added.