A new paper from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute explores the financial cost of war using links between taxation and defence spending and drawing on data from 100 countries, including Ukraine. It offers evidence to understand how increases in military spending may affect tax structures, but also how low-income, autocratic and conflict-affected countries fund their military spending.
KEN POLE
(FrontLine News)
Canada’s international reputation in question as Cameron Ortis, former head of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre, is again free on bail pending his trial on security violations in late 2023.
On December 6th, a 26-hour long moment of silence will begin. Beginning on Finland's Independence Day, the conflict resolution organization CMI - Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation will hold a 26-hour long moment of silence in Helsinki, Finland to honour people who have lost their homes due to a conflict.
CHRIS MacLEAN
Interference is typically an extremely valid and indisputable concern, but in the case of the NS shooting spree, that argument is being used to obfuscate the real issue of communication negligence which resulted in deaths that could have been avoided.
CHRIS MacLEAN
Alberta awarded third prize of “Her Vision Inspires” contest to an essayist who argues that women should pick babies over careers, writing that importing "foreigners to replace ourselves is a sickly mentality that amounts to a drive for cultural suicide.”
Feb 03
(CP)
Citing “legitimate concerns” about the need for more consultations, the federal government today withdrew a much-criticized amendment to draft firearms controls in Bill C-21. Introduced late last year, the technically-detailed amendment would have effictively outlawed some long guns routinely used for sports shooting.
Feb 03
(CTV)
A parliamentary committee was told February 2 that staff in at least two federal departments have been fired for claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit while they were employed during the pandemic. Forty-nine were at Employment and Social Development Canada, which managed the CERB program. While the Canada Revenue Agency Comissioner acknowledged some cases in that department, there “not very many.”
Feb 03
(Globe & Mail)
Confirmation that Canadian university researchers have collaborated with military scientists in China has prompted Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne to promise tighter national-security requirements “shortly.” He also noted, however, that universities are a provincial jurisdiction.
Jan 31
(Globe & Mail)
Amira Elghawaby, recently appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a special representative on combatting Islamophobia, co-authored a 2019 article which critical of Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans some public servants from wearing “religious symbols” such as traditional head-coverings. Pushback in the National Assembly and Parliament prompted the PM to seek clarification of her comment after which said he said he is satisfied and prepared to move on.
 EZ Raider |
 Accenture |
 DRDC Valcartier Research |
Aug 18 –
Interference is typically an extremely valid and indisputable concern, but in the case of the NS shooting spree, that argument is being used to obfuscate the real issue of communication negligence which resulted in deaths that could have been avoided.
Aug 10 –
Alberta awarded third prize of “Her Vision Inspires” contest to an essayist who argues that women should pick babies over careers, writing that importing "foreigners to replace ourselves is a sickly mentality that amounts to a drive for cultural suicide.”
Jun 27 –
Keeping Russia "at bay" is not a solution to the carnage happening in Ukraine. With Russia firing 10 times the amount of ammunition than Ukraine, Putin knows he will win, unless something changes.
Jun 20 –
It is now 11 years since I served in Afghanistan, and almost a year since those who helped us were abandoned to the increasing brutality of Taliban rule, it's time the govt cut the red tape and made good on its promises.
TBD July/Aug 2023
St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
6 February 2023
(EuroNews)
The European Union’s ban on imports of Russian refined oil products, notably diesel and jet fuel, went into effect February 5. The EU used to be the largest buyer of Russian products, amount to some €70 million daily and while EU industry has built up stocks of diesel in recent months, the long-term outlook is uncertain.
6 February 2023
(Al Jazeera)
The Brazilian navy scuttled a decommissioned aircraft carrier, which it acquired from France in 2000, in a five-kilometres deep area of the Atlantic 350 kilometres off Brazil’s east coast February 3. The navy had said two days earlier that it had little choice despite a last-minute legal challenge because the ship was at risk of sinking.
6 February 2023
(Al Jazeera)
At least 2,600 persons are reported dead and rescue efforts continue today after two earthquakes in an area of southeastern Turkey which borders on Syria. Turkish authorities have confirmed 1,651 victims while at least 968 are reported in Syria.
6 February 2023
(Toronto Sun)
New York City is paying for bus tickets to the Canadian border for migrants who want to flee the Big Apple. The New York Post not only reported on the issue Sunday night, but they also confirmed it with top government officials.
6 February 2023
(CP)
The federal and B.C. governments, in cooperation with 15 coastal First Nations, have officially endorsed a planned network of marine protected areas along the Pacific Coast. Announced February 5, the agreement would protect the waters from the north end of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border.
6 February 2023
(BBC)
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake centred in southeastern Turkey February 5 has killed at least 100 persons in that country and at least 50 in Syrian border regions
6 February 2023
(BBC)
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pardoned “tens of thousands” of prisoners, including many linked to anti-government protests in recent months, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Persons charged with offences such as espionage, murder or destruction of state property, some of whom face the death penalty, are not being pardoned.
5 February 2023
(CTV)
The U.S. Coast Guard’s rescue of a Canadian at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon took a strange twist on the weekend. A massive wave had rolled the trawler yacht which he was aboard, which turned out to be stolen. He was not only arrested in connection with another incident in Oregon but also is wanted in B.C. on a variety of other outstanding charges
4 February 2023
(CBC)
A Japanese-owned Montreal pharmaceutical plant is being shut down after receiving $173 million in federal funding for coronavirus vaccine development. Innovation, Science & Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said February 3 that while Ottawa has legal recourse to recover the investment, the “main focus” is finding partners to preserve Medicago’s intellectual property, technology and workforce.
4 February 2023
(CP)
Defence Minister Anita Anand said today that the federal “unequivocally” supports the U.S decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon off the Carolinas after it had transited the continent. She said the balloons’ trajectory over several days “violated U.S. and Canadian airspace and international law.”
4 February 2023
(Global)
The federal government is facing resistance to a request that the RCMP stop using sponge rounds and CS gas for crown control. Brian Sauvé, a former RCMP officer and now President of the National Police Federation, says “removing less lethal options from our members’ available options raises real concerns for public and police officer safety.”
4 February 2023
(AP)
A balloon described by the U.S. as a “surveillance” platform and by China as a meteorological “airship” was shot down today off the Carolinas by a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor. Spotted north of the Aleutian Islands near Alaska January 28, it transited North American airspace at the edge of the stratosphere, well above commercial air traffic corridors. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were attempting to cover debris in shallow coastal waters.
