Canada’s Veterans Ombud is challenging Veterans Affairs Canada’s arbitrary reduction in the pensions of some retired RCMP officers and civilian employees because they received a one-time lump sum compensation for many years of “horrific” on-the-job abuse and harassment which drove many into early retirement. [node:read-more:link]
A project led by Alexander McClelland, a criminology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa shows that 704 persons have died in incidents involving police use of force in Canada since 2000 and that the annual average has gradually risen. “We're hoping that this data sparks conversations and gets people looking further into why there has been a potential increase, what that means, and brings more scrutiny to the issue,” McClellan says. [node:read-more:link]
Shamima Begum, who travelled to Syria from Britain as a teenager in 2015 to join the Islamic State in Syria has failed in her latest bid to regain citizenship. A special tribunal dismissed the 23-year-old’s appeal February 22 despite arguments that she was trafficked to be a child bride, but her case is still subject to further challenges of Britain’s appellate and supreme courts. [node:read-more:link]
The federal government today confirmed more than $32 million to bolster “security and stabilization” in Ukraine, including some $9.7 million previously announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The total includes $7.5 million for de-mining, $12 million to “counter chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats” and some $13 million for “accountability efforts” including addressing conflict-related sexual violence. [node:read-more:link]
After four decades if teaching high school in B.C., Jim McMurtry has been fired for departing from the school board’s official stance on the deaths of children at church residential schools. When a student said priests had murdered and tortured the children, he said most had died from disease, mainly tuberculosis, a long-documented epidemiology. One complaint to the board resulted in McMurtry being escorted out of the school in Abbotsford. [node:read-more:link]
At least 11 Palestinians, including three militants targeted by Israel, were killed today during a rare daytime raid in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. More than 100 residents also were injured in what the local Red Crescent director called a “massacre.” [node:read-more:link]
Negotiations with the U.S. and Palestinian officials evidently have persuaded Italy to pause new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank for “the coming months.” The announcement follows on the heels of Israel’s declaration last week that nine unauthorised outposts would be “legalized” and that nearly 10,000 new housing units in existing settlements are planned. [node:read-more:link]
Draft legislation introduced in the House of Commons today as Bill C-40 would make it easier and faster for people who may have been wrongfully convicted to have their cases reviewed by an independent commission. “We need a system that moves more quickly, both for people applying as well as for victims and the process needs to be independent,” said Justice Minister David Lametti. Reviews currently take years to complete. [node:read-more:link]
Amber Bracken, an Edmonton freelance photographer arrested in B.C. while covering protests against a pipeline project for a national on-line environmental publication in 2021, is suing the RCMP for wrongful detention and violation of her Charter rights. Her Victoria-based client, The Narwal, has joined the lawsuit. [node:read-more:link]
Civilians deemed “loyal to the state” are being permitted by Myanmar’s ruling junta to apply for licences to carry weapons. The move comes two years after a military coup plunged the country into what’s effectively a civil war with ongoing public protests and harsh government responses. [node:read-more:link]
The federal government is appealing a Federal Court order to repatriate four Canadians held by Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria since at least 2019. One was a dual British-Canadian citizen whose British citizenship was revoked on grounds that he had joined ISIS. The Crown presented no evidence of terrorist activities in the earlier trial but says in its appeal that Justice Henry Brown misinterpreted the Charter’s protection of Canadians’ right to freedom of movement. [node:read-more:link]
An RCAF CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft headed back to base in Atlantic Canada today after intelligence gathering flights over Haiti. The aircraft was retasked from a U.S.-led counter-narcotics mission and a Canadian Armed Forces official said the data collected over two days would be used by the government “to further assess the situation in Haiti,” which has requested military help in dealing with endemic gang violence. [node:read-more:link]
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a parliamentary committee February 6 that implementing a registry of foreign agents should be culturally sensitive. “There is a historical context when it comes to some communities within this country and their relationship with agencies and the law-enforcement community,” he said. “We need to be diligent and thoughtful and inclusive when it comes to bringing all Canadians along in the modernization of the tools and the arsenal that we create for our national security and intelligence communities.” [node:read-more:link]
Two former Canadian diplomats in China say the lack of a registry of foreign agents in Canada facilitates meddling. David Mulroney, ambassador from 2009 to 2012, told a parliamentary committee that a key concern is foreign agents threatening expatriates’ families and meddling in Canadian politics. Charles Burton, who served twice as a political affairs counsellor in Beijing, added that the registry should be directed at the broad issue of interference, not just one country [node:read-more:link]
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told a parliamentary committee February 6 that officers were deployed as a disruption at three Chinese “police stations” in Toronto and one in Vancouver. “We did a disruption by going in uniform, with marked police cars, to speak with the people involved,” she said. Meanwhile, the RCMP is continuing its investigation into what has been condemned as a global initiative by China against expatriates. [node:read-more:link]
