The Justice Department accidentally stopped working with Canada after a division chief misunderstood instructions to reschedule a meeting, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to a Friday article, the DOJ's antitrust division was instructed to halt all work with the Canadian government after an email was sent out with the subject line, "Pause on Canada." The chief of the antitrust division's international section, Lynda Marshall, sent out the email after she was told to reschedule a meeting.
The email ordered DOJ officials in the division to stop all cooperation on cases and engagement on policy issues with Canadian authorities, according to The Journal. Marshall didn't offer any reasoning in her email for why the division had to stop working with Canada, but she wrote that she would "circle back if the guidance changes," The Journal reported.
A follow-up email was sent on Friday to section chiefs within the division demanding lists detailing areas of cooperation with Canada by the end of the day, according to The Journal. In yet another email from Marshall that came later that day, she told staff in the division that she had been mistaken and cooperation with Canada could continue.
Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Covington told The Journal that the directive to stop cooperation came after Marshall misunderstood a directive. Covington explained that Marshall had been told to push back a scheduled meeting, The Journal reported.
The mix-up came as the Trump administration and Canada are in a dispute after trade talks broke down last month, with both the U.S. and Canada imposing tariffs on each other.
According to The Journal, the DOJ division has resumed working with Canada. Representatives from Canada or its Competition Bureau didn't respond to The Journal's request for comment.
The Journal noted that Canadian and U.S. antitrust authorities have multiple agreements in place to increase cooperation and have collaborated on major investigations since the 2000s. The two countries worked together on investigations into price-fixing in the auto parts and air cargo industries as well as on cases about mergers in tech, aerospace, and other industries.