Weekly civic intelligence report · v2.2
Trump administration tariffs caused significant damage to a long-running Canadian e-commerce couple's business, illustrating economic impacts of trade policy.
This event scores very low on constitutional damage (A=2.76) as tariffs are legitimate executive trade policy tools with minimal constitutional implications. One Canadian couple's business difficulties, while unfortunate, represent anecdotal evidence of trade policy impacts rather than systemic constitutional harm. The rule_of_law score (1) reflects only that tariffs operate through established legal frameworks. Capture (1) acknowledges potential industry influence on trade policy. The B-score (16.17) is moderate, driven by human-interest framing (outrage_bait:6, media_friendliness:7) and strategic mismatch between personal hardship story and constitutional significance (mismatch:8). The narrative personalizes complex trade policy through sympathetic victims. However, this falls short of List B threshold (25+) because the story lacks viral potential and represents routine trade policy coverage rather than manufactured distraction. Classification: Noise. This is human-interest journalism about trade policy impacts—legitimate reporting but constitutionally insignificant and using personal anecdote to frame systemic policy debates.
Monitor for pattern: Are trade policy impacts being systematically reported through individual hardship stories rather than structural economic analysis? Track whether tariff coverage focuses on anecdotal victims versus institutional trade framework changes or constitutional commerce clause implications.