An anonymous veteran federal public servant was identified today as the source for a series of internationally embarrassing disclosures about foreign interference in Canadian affairs and about seeming government indifference or reluctance to act over the years. Acknowledging the prospect of eventual prosecution if identified, the whistleblower explains the reasons for sharing concerns about an evolving threat.
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.
ALEXANDER LANDRY and CONNOR HUNERFAUTH
All future activities in the Northwest Passage should be assessed through an Environmental, Social, and Governance lens, advise Hunerfauth and Landry as they provide an overview of key considerations.
(National Post)
As the Army officer who oversaw Canada’s refugee verification mission in Kosovo some three decades, retired Lieutenant-General J.O. Michel Maisonneuve is asking why the internationally-respected Disaster Assistance Response Team hasn’t been deployed to help in the aftermath of the earthquakes that have killed more than 25,000 persons in Turkey and Syria. “In truth,” Maisonneuve says, the CAF have “very little capability to help” due to shrinking ranks and mostly outdated equipment.
(National Post)
As the Army officer who oversaw Canada’s refugee verification mission in Kosovo some three decades, retired Lieutenant-General J.O. Michel Maisonneuve is asking why the internationally-respected Disaster Assistance Response Team hasn’t been deployed to help in the aftermath of the earthquakes that have killed more than 25,000 persons in Turkey and Syria. “In truth,” Maisonneuve says, the CAF have “very little capability to help” due to shrinking ranks and mostly outdated equipment.
Mar 27
(CTV)
The multi-billion-dollar renovation of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, which is not expected to be finished until at least the end of this decade, is being managed effectively, Auditor General Karen Hogan said today. However, she cautioned, “rigorous” cost management will be needed “as the program moves more into the construction phase, where making changes to elements that are built or in the process of being built becomes more difficult.”
Mar 27
(National Post)
Auditor General Karen Hogan reported today that 1.4 million Canadian households in rural and remote areas do not have access to the level of Internet services promised by the federal government. “When services are of poor quality, unaffordable or unavailable, people are effectively excluded from participating fully and equally in the digital economy, accessing online education, banking, medical care and government services or working remotely,” she said.
Mar 25
(CTV)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden used a day of talks in Ottawa March 24 to tackle a range of shared issues, including defence and security, third-country refugees, Haiti, clean energy and trade in what Trudeau said was a demonstration of how their countries’ interests are “interwoven.” Biden, on his first visit to Canada as President, agreed, saying, “I can't think of a challenge we haven’t met together.”
Mar 23
(CP)
The Transportation Safety Board says that the capsize of a Nova Scotia fishing boat with the loss of six crewmembers during a gale in December 2020 can be linked to federal inaction on recommended stability standards. Modifications by the vessel’s owners, Yarmouth Sea Products, had raised its centre of gravity but the TSB said in its March 22 report that Transport Canada inspectors had had not told the company about the heightened risk of instability.
 Accenture |
 Polar Knowledge Canada |
 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
23 March 2023
(BBC)
The Bank of England today raised its key lending rate by a quarter of a point to 4.25 per cent, its highest in 14 years, after inflation spiked unexpectedly in February. “We were really a bit on a knife edge as to whether there would be a recession, Bank Governor Andrew Bailey said. “But I’m a bit more optimistic now” even though the economy was “not off to the races.”
23 March 2023
(Al Jazeera)
On the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to Moscow for talks with Russia President Vladimir Putin U.S. Secretary of State is dismissing the relationship as a “marriage of convenience.” Describing Russia March 22 as “very much the junior partner” in the relationship, Blinken noted that China had so far declined to provide weapons to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
23 March 2023
(Reuters)
Police fired tear gas at violent black-clad anarchists in Paris today as hundreds of thousands of otherwise mainly peaceful protesters marched across France against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the national pension age to 64 from 62 this year. In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while professionals walked off the job.
23 March 2023
(CP)
The Transportation Safety Board says that the capsize of a Nova Scotia fishing boat with the loss of six crewmembers during a gale in December 2020 can be linked to federal inaction on recommended stability standards. Modifications by the vessel’s owners, Yarmouth Sea Products, had raised its centre of gravity but the TSB said in its March 22 report that Transport Canada inspectors had had not told the company about the heightened risk of instability.
23 March 2023
(CTV)
Toronto MP Han Dong, first elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal candidate in 2019, has decided to sit as an Independent while denying “unverified and anonymous” claims that he had lobbied to stall repatriation of the Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig from China in 2021. Dong admits speaking with a Chinese official but said March 22 that the allegation of interference is “absolutely untrue.”
23 March 2023
(CP)
The largest recorded earthquake in Alberta’s history is being attributed to geologic disposal of oilsands wastewater, according to newly-published research. Canadian seismologist Ryan Schultz says the 5.6-magnitude quake near the northwestern town of Peace River last November occurred near a well used to inject more than a million cubic metres of wastewater at a depth of some two kilometres.
22 March 2023
(Thomson Reuters)
Driven mainly by the federal government’s aggressive immigration policies since 2015, Canada’s population increased by a record annual 1.05 million in 2022, Statistics Canada reported today. It meant that the population at year’s end was 39.57 million as the country retained its position as the fastest-growing G7 state.
22 March 2023
(CTV)
Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser announced today that Ukrainians and their families now have until July 15 to apply for a free visitor visa which enables them to work and study for up to three years. The previous deadline was March 31.
22 March 2023
(USA Today)
The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key short-term interest rate by a quarter of a point today to a range of 4.75-5.0 per cent, the ninth consecutive hike in its fight against inflation.
22 March 2023
(Al Jazeera)
The UN marked World Water Day by warning that supplies are increasingly at risk around the world because of increased urban demand. On average, it said today, “10 per cent of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress” as the world is “blindly travelling a dangerous path” toward unsustainability.
22 March 2023
(CBC)
Prime Minister Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, has agreed to testify next month before a House committee investigating the extent of Chinese meddling in Canada’s electoral processes. However, the PM’s office noted March 21 that Telford, a Trudeau advisor since at least 2015, is under “serious constraints on what can be said in public about sensitive intelligence matters.”
22 March 2023
(Breaking Defense)
Defence spending across NATO rose 2.2 per cent in 2022, topping an estimated US$ $1 trillion but only seven members met the alliance’s target of two per cent of their national gross domestic product. A report today shows that Britain, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the U.S. met the target with Croatia and France falling just short. Others were further behind.
