Shadowing Practice: How Canada’s payment systems are under increasing control from the U.S. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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It's something most of us do every day.
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Tap our credit cards, grab our goods, and go about our business.
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But what happens after you tap represents a glaring vulnerability in our financial system.
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Your morning producer, Mike Hiscock, looks at the control the United States has over our ability to move money.
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Every morning, the bell rings, the markets open, and billions start moving.
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It's the engine of our daily lives, a financial system we rarely question.
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But Canada's vulnerabilities here are growing.
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The last set of numbers that I saw suggested about 93 % of the market for credit is between
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Visa and MasterCard.
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Vas Bednar is the managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute, a think tank with a focus on digital sovereignty.
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We are extremely reliant on foreign companies, and in that case, two very dominant American companies.
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So that speaks to the power they can exert when it comes to the fees and the percentages that they charge,
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but also the intelligence that they can gather.
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It's a very rich data set to understand who people are, their demographics and their habits and their consumptive habits.
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But I think the real kind of risk and portion of intrigue is
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that reliance and that interdependence and how that interdependence can be weaponized.
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Places like the UK and the EU have sort of signaled
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that they're starting to look at building an alternative to Visa MasterCard.
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And I think it raises some interesting kind of questions and opportunities.
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You know, are we willing to confront the Visa card duopoly?
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Credit card transactions are only the beginning.
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I spoke to Carl Shimoda, who analyzes shifts in the global economy.
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He explains how tight the American stranglehold of our payment systems really is.
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so our credit transactions safe to say go through the united
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states what about our debit transactions our debit transactions are relatively sovereign
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they are mostly handled on the internet interact network here in canada
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and that is that is a separate entity that's held here within canada what i'm noticing more
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and more with debit cards though is frequently banks are now issuing visa debit
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or mastercard debit the transactions themselves are being conducted on the visa
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and MasterCard networks and
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so you know there is definitely a point of vulnerability
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there that's not the only thread to our debit transactions tying your card to digital wallets like Google Wallet
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or Apple Pay gives foreign companies increasing control over those payments as well the US dollar is the language
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that we all speak in global trade virtually every train trade transaction is done in US dollars
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and so that means that when we're making a payment
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when we're settling you know a payable
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or receivable in the global payment system
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it has to go through u .s banks how much control
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does what you just described give the united states over the transactions
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we make here in canada an enormous amount of control they can stop a payment
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that is going through the u .s financial system
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and prevent you know two parties from dealing with each other they can also put on secondary sanctions
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and it sounds really extreme this idea of us being cut out of the u .s financial system
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but is this something they've done before
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Yes, we've seen some of these tools being deployed against countries like
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North Korea, Iran, Russia in recent years.
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We've also seen more recently the targeting of individuals, for example, an international criminal court judge.
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To some breaking news, the Trump administration has slapped a Canadian judge on the international criminal court with sanctions.
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Kimberly Prost was sanctioned for, quote, ruling to authorize the ICC's investigation into U .S personnel in Afghanistan.
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It does look very much as if U .S regulators and U .S.
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politicians are realizing the power that this gives them, and they're increasing the use over time.
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So if the United States could ice us out of its payment systems, why doesn't it?
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If we were to see a cutoff like this, this would blow back on the value of the U .S dollar.
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It would blow back on the integrity and the liquidity of the U .S financial system,
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and it would ultimately impact the U .S economy as well.
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Buying Canadian is one thing.
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Paying Canadian is another.
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And while companies like
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Visa, MasterCard, Google, and Apple are pulling control of our own transactions away from us,
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the payment systems of the future could pose an even larger threat.
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The number of Canadians who reported owning cryptocurrency more than doubled in two years, rising from 10 % in 2023 to 25 % in 2025.
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And there's a saying that's been going, everything that can be tokenized will be tokenized.
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Ali Aboudaya is the CEO of Transactics, the company behind a Canadian -made stablecoin known as Caddx.
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A stablecoin is a digital dollar, and typically its value is kept constant to a national currency.
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So a Canadian digital dollar, a stablecoin, is $1 Canadian in real world as well.
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The main advantages of stablecoins is that they can settle transactions in seconds instead of days.
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They also come with lower transaction costs.
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But right now, about 99 % of them are denominated in U .S.
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And so if 98 % to 99 % of stablecoins are denominated in U .S dollars, if I go out and buy a bunch of stablecoin,
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what happens to the loony?
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What happens to the Canadian dollar that I bought those stablecoins with?
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Where does it go?
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When you take one dollar from the Canadian market or you buy one U .S dollar stablecoin,
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1 .45 Canadian dollars leave the Canadian economy and they live in basically the U .S economy.
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So could we run into a situation where if stablecoins catch on and everybody starts to buy stablecoins,
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could we start to displace our own currency? That risk is real.
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We designed CadEx to be one of the most easily exchangeable assets on this blockchain.
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And it's Canadian sovereign, fully Canadian controlled, Canadian reserves, Canadian technology stack, sovereign to the nth degree.
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I view it as a very strong opportunity for us to own our future.
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And producer Mike Hiscox, join us in studio now.
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There was a lot in that piece, but the big takeaway I had is the risk is in the reliance.
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So if we can build an interact network for our debit cards, why can't we develop one for our credit?
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So for a credit card to be successful, it needs to be accepted pretty much everywhere.
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And in order for stores to get on board with accepting it,
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they have to know that their average customer is going to have a credit card and also want to use it.
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And so Visa and MasterCard have done a very good job of making this a reality by offering their customers lucrative rewards.
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But if you dig a little deeper, their business strategy is actually even more clever than that.
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Because just like McDonald's is more of a real estate empire than a fast food business,
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the same is a little bit true of Visa and MasterCard in that they don't issue credit cards themselves.
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What they do is they go around the world signing agreements with banks to issue the cards for them.
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What they give the banks in return is access to this network they've built, this network of banks and merchants and accounts.
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And banks want in on this network because it's fast, it's safe, it's reliable.
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If you tap your Visa or MasterCard pretty much anywhere in the world, chances are it's going to work.
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So they've cultivated that network over years and in a landscape where they didn't face all that much competition.
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And so for Canada to now enter that from scratch and launch our own credit card,
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it would mean at least initially that we'd be launching one
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that isn't accepted in as many places or doesn't offer the same rewards or the fees are higher.
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It just wouldn't be as competitive.
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Interesting.
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So where does that leave us then?
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Well, if for anybody who's been following the news this week, you might have heard of the launch of the real -time rail system
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and so this is a bit of an oversimplified explanation
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but what that is is it's basically an upgrade to the interact e -transfer function
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and so it allows for instant transfers from from one person's account to another
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and it also allows for the transfer of higher sums of money
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and so canada's already in talks with the european union about linking our real -time rail system with their equivalent
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which is known as the tip system and if
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that were to happen then some of the money
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that flows between canada and Europe could be done on rails that we control jointly with our allies in Europe.
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The other thing to keep an eye on is crypto, because America is dominant there as well,
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but that dominance isn't as firmly as entrenched as it is with the credit card sector.
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And what we're starting to see is earlier this year, we passed the Stablecoin Act.
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So we're starting to veer into the regulation of cryptocurrency.
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And we're starting to see more and more Canadian businesses pop up
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that are offering stable coins denominated in Canadian dollars so that now if someone goes online and buys cryptocurrency,
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they at least have the option of keeping the money here instead of almost by default, letting it flow across the border.
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So it's like sovereignty in crypto world.
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That's exactly right.
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This was fascinating.
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Mike, thanks so much for the story and for coming in.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How Canada’s payment systems are under increasing control from the U.S”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Canadian, card, stablecoin, transaction, dollar. This video has 120 sentences and 1617 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:25. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| transaction noun | /tɹænˈzækʃən/ | The act of conducting or carrying out (business, negotiations, plans). |
| visa noun | /ˈviːzə/ | A permit to enter and leave a country, normally issued by the authorities of the country to be visited. |
| debit noun | /ˈdɛb.ɪt/ | In bookkeeping, an entry in the left hand column of an account. |
| rail noun | /ɹeɪ(ə)l/ | A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing. |
| interact verb | /ɪn.təˈɹækt/ | To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone). |
| sovereign noun | /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹɪn/ | A monarch: a supreme ruler of a country in a monarchical system. |
| vulnerability noun | /ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/ | The state of being vulnerable; susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended. |
| producer noun | /pɹəˈdjuːsə/ | An individual or organization that creates goods and services. |
| currency noun | /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/ | Money or other items used to facilitate transactions. |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| dominant adjective | /ˈdɑmənənt/ | Ruling; governing; prevailing |
| sovereignty noun | /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹənti/ | Of a ruler (especially a monarch): supreme authority or dominion over something. |
| reliance noun | /ɹɪˈlaɪ.əns/ | The act of relying (on or in someone or something); trust. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| go around verb | To move or spread from person to person. |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. |
| pop up verb | To come up with a "pop" sound. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | that's been going · who's been following |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be weaponized · are mostly handled · being conducted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | they've done · we've seen · We've also seen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 22 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, they've, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, authorize /ˈɔθəɹaɪz/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: transaction /tɹænˈzækʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, sanction /ˈsæŋkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: vulnerability /ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/, sovereignty /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹənti/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, virtually /ˈvɚ.t͡ʃə.wə.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like transaction, visa, debit.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.