In the News

The World Health Organization says the COVID-19 variant first found in India last year is an issue of “global concern” because studies indicate it can be spread more easily than others. Variants from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil have been similarly designated.

Much of the Vancouver International Airport precinct and adjacent suburbs were essentially shut down for a while May 9 as police handled what was believed to be a gang-related killing outside the main terminal. The suspects in the shooting managed to evade police pursuit and their getaway vehicle was later found burned 28km from the crime scene.

A senior House of Representatives Democrat from New York state is pressing the Biden administration to come up with a detailed plan as soon as possible for the resumption of non-essential travel to and from Canada. Chuck Shumer also wants the definition of currently-exempt essential travellers amended to include vaccinated persons who have property, educational, medical or business reasons for crossing the border.

The common law spouse of the man responsible for killing 22 people in April 2020 in Nova Scotia is pleading not guilty to charges she illegally provided him ammunition.

Chinese President Xi Jinping would be making “a very serious mistake” if he ordered an invasion of Taiwan, says U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “We are committed to making sure that Taiwan has the means to defend itself,” he says. “That commitment is not going away. And at the same time, I think it would be a very serious mistake for anyone to try to disrupt by force the existing status quo.”

Assadolah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in Belgium for planning a bomb attack in France in 2018, has abandoned an appeal. Judges had ruled that diplomatic immunity as third counsellor at Iran's embassy in Austria did not protect him against charges of using the post for state-sponsored terrorism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unable to form a new government by a midnight May 4 deadline after the fourth general election in two year. His Likud Party was left well short of a parliamentary majority and his far-right allies evidently have refused to join a government supported by a small Islamist Arab party.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin could be meeting in a third country this summer. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says Biden “believes that such a summit would be valuable in establishing better understandings between our two countries and the possibility of getting this relationship on a more stable, predictable path.”

Having been officially designed a terrorist entity, right-wing Proud Boys Canada has dissolved while continuing to reject the government’s characterization. The decision was announced by its U.S. parent organization.

There is a growing body of complaints about Chinese Communist Party efforts to “influence” Canadian business, academic and political circles. “The threat from espionage and foreign interference is significant and continues to grow,” says the latest annual report by the Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), chaired by Ottawa Liberal MP David McGuinty. “Intelligence shows that China and Russia remain the primary culprits.”

Draft federal back-to-work legislation against striking Port of Montreal workers faces opposition from the Canadian Union of Public Employees. “The union will contest the validity” of Bill C-19, a spokesman said, explaining that it had lodged a complaint with the International Labour Organization. The Official Opposition voted with the government today, setting up for Senate consideration April 30.

More than 2000 travellers landing in Canada have tested positive for COVID-19 variants. Between 22 February and 22 April, 518 international air travellers tested positive for the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK. There are currently almost 95,000 confirmed cases of this variant in Canada.

A New York limit on carrying firearms in public is set to be tested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The court, now with a conservative majority, has refused several similar challenges since 2008 when it established individuals’ rights to keep guns at home for self-defence in the District of Columbia.

Israel’s government has been accused by Washington-based Human Rights Watch of apartheid-style persecution of Palestinians, displaying “an intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians across Israel and the occupied Palestinians territory.” Israel’s foreign ministry immediately slammed the report, says that HRW “is known to have a long-standing anti-Israeli agenda.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has disclosed in a recorded interview that his country’s diplomatic priorities have been “sacrificed” to the agenda of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The leaked portion of the lengthy interview has stirred debate ahead of the country’s presidential elections in June.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi says U.S. political rhetoric and policies will cause global chaos. Firing a diplomatic but politically one-sided broadside during a virtual Council on Foreign Relations, he insisted that his country “is committed to . . . peaceful coexistence.”

Two State Department nominees and four from the Pentagon have been named as the U.S. administration continues to flesh out its national security team.

Myanmar’s senior military commander has been told by other leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that his forces should stop killing protestors and should release political prisoners “Violence must be stopped, democracy, stability and peace in Myanmar must be returned immediately," host Indonesian President Joko Widodo said. More than 700 demonstrators have been killed since a Feb. 1 coup.

The federal government is suspending incoming passenger flights from India and Pakistan for the next month as cases of COVID-19 surge in both countries. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says because there are so many people arriving in Canada from India and Pakistan with COVID-19, all commercial and private passenger flights from both countries will be prohibited as of midnight tonight.

Russian police arrested nearly 1,800 persons involved in widespread protests April 21 over the alleged mistreatment of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny. The demonstrations across the country occurred only hour after President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation speech.

B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes has granted detained Huwei executive Meng Wanzhou’s defence team a three-and-a-half month adjournment in her extradition case. The extra time evidently is due to the need to obtain documents from a Hong Kong bank which her lawyers say could affect her U.S.-requested extradition. However, Holmes also has said she would accept no further delays.

New research suggests that the U.S. has been the source of more than half of the COVID-19 variants reported in Canada. Scientists in Ontario, B.C. and Arizona used an international DNA database to track the spread. They also say that viral imports slowed somewhat after international travel restrictions were imposed in March 2020.

Some “unacceptable” uses of artificial intelligence would be banned in Europe under proposed rules announced today by the European Commission's rules. The draft ban would target “AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people,” said the EC, which also has proposed stricter rules on law enforcement’s use of biometrics.

NATO officials have vowed to boost the alliance’s cyber defences. During an April 15 virtual conference, they added the commitment to an overarching decision to prevent catastrophic disruptions of member states. Host Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said “malicious” activities had increased as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved and that the alliance needed to “recognize that cyberspace is at the forefront of increased global competition, and democratic nations must stand together against deviations from acceptable behavior.”

The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Russia and formally blamed its SVR intelligence agency for last year’s massive SolarWinds breach of government and corporate systems. Designed to choke off lending to the Kremlin, the sanctions against 32 entities and individuals coincided with diplomatic expulsions in Washington. Also, in collaboration with allies, the U.S. has sanctioned eight individuals and entities associated with Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Services says last year saw the highest level of foreign espionage and interference directed at Canadian targets since the end of the Cold War. “The fluid and rapidly evolving environment caused by COVID-19 has created a situation ripe for exploitation,” CSIS Director David Vigneault says in his latest annual report. “Violent extremism, foreign interference, espionage and malicious cyber activity, accelerated, evolved and in many ways became much more serious.”

A Japanese-owned but Panamanian-registered container ship which blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in week in March is not free to leave the waterway pending resolution of claims for as much as $900 million in compensation.

China warned the U.S. April 12 to stop “playing with fire” in its relationship with Taiwan. It was responding to new State Department guidelines on deepening ties with the island republic which China considers a “rogue” province. “We urge the U.S. side to grasp the situation, earnestly abide by the one-China principle and . . . immediately stop official contact with Taiwan in any form,” a government spokesman said.

Lengthy negotiations between Air Canada and the federal government have yielded a financial support package which includes a total of $5.9 billion in low-interest loans in return for the carrier maintaining what’s left of its workforce, restoring most regional services, ordering new Airbus and Boeing jets and agreeing to refunds for passengers whose flights were cancelled last year over COVID-19 concerns. The government also is taking a small equity position in the airline. “We were determined to get a good deal for Canada and Canadians,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland replied April 12 when asked during a why negotiations had taken so long. “We wanted . . . not just any deal -- and getting a good deal can sometimes take a little time.”

The federal government has cancelled 29 export permits for Turkey after finding Canadian technology had been used in drones during the 2019 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “This use was not consistent with Canadian foreign policy, nor end-use assurances,” Foreign Minister Garneau said April 12. “Turkey is an important NATO ally and applications related to NATO cooperation programs will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”

Canada has signed on to a multinational accord aimed at improving the strategic implications of climate change in polar regions. The other parties are Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the U.S.

President Joe Biden’s first discretionary funding request to Congress sets a $1.5 trillion spending roadmap that includes cash funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a reserve for “information technology enhancements.” Other key elements include funding for two new research agencies focused on health and climate.

Seven Chinese supercomputing companies have been added to a U.S. list of entities restricted from buying U.S. technologies without a waiver. The Bureau of Industry and Security within the Commerce Department confirmed the move April 9, saying the companies “are involved in activities that support China’s military actors, its destabilizing military modernization efforts, and/or its weapons of mass destruction.”

Iran is reported to have had “constructive” talks April 6 with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on a response to the possible easing of U.S. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. European intermediaries have started shuttling between Iranian and U.S. officials in Vienna in a bid to restore a 2015 accord which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its program. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.