Indian citizens and students have been advised by their government to “exercise extreme caution” amid “growing anti-India activities” in Canada. It’s the latest development in rising tensions after Prime Minister Trudeau said Indian agents may have been involved in the murder of a Sikh activist in B.C. last June. [node:read-more:link]
British police confirmed today that they are investigating the deaths of 88 British residents who bought products from Canada-based websites allegedly offering lethal substances to people at risk of self-harm. It’s one several international inquiries sparked by the arrest in Canada earlier this year of Kenneth Law, charged with two counts of counseling and aiding suicide by offering potentially deadly sodium nitrite for sale. [node:read-more:link]
Khaled Hussein, 28, of Edmonton, was charged today under British terrorism legislation along with Anjem Choudary, 56, whom Crown prosecutors is a radical preacher previously convicted of aiding the Islamic State. Arrested last week on arrival at Heathrow Airport, Hussein is charged with membership in a proscribed organization. [node:read-more:link]
Patrick Gordon Macdonald, 26, of Ottawa is the first in Canada to be charged with terrorism and hate propaganda offences for advocating violent neo-Nazi ideology. RCMP announced today that they had arrested him because he had helped to develop material for the U.S.-based but international Atomwaffen Division. [node:read-more:link]
Confirmation that 3,314 foreign nationals considered security risks were permitted entry into Canada between 2014 and 2019 erodes trust in the immigration system, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said today. She was responding to a report that they were among 7,141 brought to the attention of Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship Canada by the CBSA and CSIS. [node:read-more:link]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed that the government is considering more protection for cabinet members and other MPs as threats against them increase. “We are looking into real measures,” he replied May 31 when a Quebec MP pointed out in the House of Commons that ministers in his province have bodyguards. [node:read-more:link]
National Security and Intelligence Advisor Jody Thomas told a parliamentary committee March 1 that while concerns about Chinese interference in Canada’s electoral processes are understandable, “the last two federal elections were fair and legitimate.” Amidst calls for a public inquiry, she also said the government is taking “concrete steps” to address the concerns. [node:read-more:link]
A report commissioned by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization says that a Hindu nationalist paramilitary movement, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is entrenched in influential circles within the Indian diaspora in Canada. Co-author Steven Zhou, who works for the Ottawa-based National Council of Canadian Muslims, says RSS “is supremacist at its root and relegates the minorities of India into second-class citizens.” [node:read-more:link]
Anderson Torres, formerly the public security chief in Brasília, has been arrested by Brazil’s federal police. Torres ostensibly was in charge when thousands of rioters stormed key government buildings in the capital January 8. He is accused of failing to act against the rioters and beind in collusion with them. [node:read-more:link]
The federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with “freedom” protests in Ottawa and at two border crossings last February was supported by Canadian Security Intelligence Director David Vigneault. Testifying today before commission of inquiry into the decision, he said that while the blockades did not meet the agency’s technical definition of a national security threat, he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the evolving situation “required” action. [node:read-more:link]
The Canada Border Services Agency received a death threat against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and inquiries about how to import bullets during last winter's “Freedom Convoy.” Former CBSA President John Ossowski told the Emergencies Act inquiry November 16 that the threats showed up on its online “contact us” form. [node:read-more:link]
The RCMP is investigating Chinese “police stations” in Canada after a human rights group reported that three in the Greater Toronto Area were among more than 50 worldwide supposed set up to help expatriates with issues in Canada but which also have convinced some to repatriate. “It's completely illegal under international law,” a Safeguard Defenders official said. “It's a severe violation of territorial sovereignty.” [node:read-more:link]
An Ontario man who pled guilty to uttering a threat against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a 2021 federal election campaign stop was sentenced today to a two-month conditional sentence, a year’s probation and 100 hours of community service. [node:read-more:link]
Intelligence officers warned the government that if police were used to disperse the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa earlier this year, according to a redacted memorandum made public through an Access to Information request. The February 24 “threat highlight” advised that extremist “influencers” would leverage the outcome of the protests for recruitment and propaganda and that ideologs likely would “encourage violent revenge or as further evidence of government ‘tyranny’.” [node:read-more:link]
Microsoft reports that state-backed Russian hackers have engaged in “strategic espionage” against governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries which have sided with Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s so-called “special military operation.” Nearly two-thirds of the targets have been NATO members, notably the U.S. and Poland, and the hackers’ activities have included unrelenting cyberattacks against Ukraine. [node:read-more:link]
