IN THE NEWS

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is urging Canadians to pay attention to the government's travel warnings amid a spate of high-profile cases of the killing, kidnapping and detention of Canadians abroad.

Canada's minister for public safety says right-wing, white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups are an increasing concern and threat to Canadians. Ralph Goodale said the groups promote hate, which manifests itself in violent anti-Semitism or in other crimes.

A person of "national security concern" was granted permanent residency "due to a series of failures" by the Canadian border agency and immigration department. In light of the incident, both departments have had to introduce changes in what the public safety minister's office is calling a "completely unacceptable" mistake.

The bitter debate about American security prompted Canada’s emissaries in Washington to prepare for another round of defending the world’s longest undefended border on Monday, as the longest government shutdown in U.S. history lurched into its fourth week.

A year ago, the Correctional Service of Canada issued a directive requiring volunteers to obtain “reliability status.” Now, volunteers are subject to the same screening and scrutiny as staff. This includes fingerprinting and a credit check, in addition to the prior requirements of a criminal record check, application and orientation class.

Wildfires that scorched vast tracts of southern British Columbia and led to forced evacuations in the summer of 2017 were stoked by climate change and are likely to become more common as global temperatures edge up, federal scientists warn in a new study.

Britain will extend a drone exclusion zone five-fold and give police new powers against lawbreaking operators, the government said on Monday, after sightings last month paralyzed the nation's second busiest airport.

New legislation has been proposed to protect the United States’ “technological supremacy” over emerging defence markets, and suppress a rise in the transfer of dual-use technology, through the establishment of an Office of Critical Technologies & Security.

The federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work during the partial government shutdown. TSA employees are expected to work without pay during the shutdown because their jobs are considered essential.

The recommendations of a parliamentary committee looking into the criminal record pardon system is a microcosm of a government that has come up short on their promises for criminal justice reform, say criminal defence lawyers.

Calgary police shot more people this year than their counterparts in many other big Canadian cities, according to a CBC News analysis. Officers shot nine people, killing five, coming close to the record they set two years ago with 10 shootings.

In a year-end interview with the West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said while there are a number of threats that are evolving and taking shape, one of the most concrete ones the military is facing right now comes from Mother Nature herself.

After a year of high-profile data breaches that have shaken the public’s trust in companies’ collection of personal data, Canada’s privacy watchdog is issuing new guidelines for private-sector companies to obtain “meaningful consent” from their users and customers.

After three days in which flights were severely disrupted by unauthorized drone activity near the runway, services at the Gatwick Airport in the UK are close to normal. Since the first sightings of a drone at 9 pm on Wednesday, upwards of 150,000 passengers have had their flights cancelled.

An eruption of one of the world’s most infamous volcanic islands is believed to have triggered a tsunami that killed at least 281 people in Indonesia during a busy holiday weekend.

The RCMP are taking a radical look at their recruitment strategy to convince more women and visible minorities to don the red serge. The Mounties have been plagued by staffing challenges in recent years and are looking at how to make a job in policing more attractive.

Mounties are marking a historic moment today in their fight to unionize for the first time in the institution's 145-year history. RCMP members have until noon today to vote on whether they want the National Police Federation to represent them, but it could be months yet before they learn the results.

Russia has deployed its newest chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance vehicle to Syria to operate with military police units patrolling the Idlib de-escalation zone.

Global Affairs Canada confirmed on Tuesday that a third Canadian citizen has been detained by Chinese authorities, but did not connect the incident to Canada’s high-profile arrest last month of a Chinese tech executive.

Spy chiefs from the Five Eyes intelligence network briefed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on two occasions this year about the national-security risk from Chinese high-tech giant Huawei – meetings that took place months before Canada’s arrest of a top Huawei executive severely strained relations with Beijing.

Dozens of bomb threats – all believed to be unfounded – were reported in major cities across Canada and the United States on Thursday. Officials from both countries said they believe the threats – clumsily written emails demanding $20,000 US payments of bitcoin – may have all come from the same source.

A new Senate Standing Committee report, entitled "Responding to Russian aggression against Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in the Black Sea" has just been released.

National security "comes first" in deciding whether to allow Huawei Technologies to take part in developing Canada's 5G telecommunications network, Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says.

Quebec’s National Assembly has unanimously adopted a motion in support of the federal government re-examining the National Shipbuilding Strategy and how work on that strategy is allocated. The motion on Friday calls for more work to be directed to Quebec-based Davie Shipbuilding.

A recent Deloitte study found that Canadian companies will be hiring over 8,000 cybersecurity experts over the next two years. And this isn’t just a Canadian problem: the website Cyberseek reports that there are currently 313,000 open jobs in cybersecurity in the U.S.

Chinese officials are demanding that Canada release Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer, who was arrested in Vancouver over the weekend and faces possible extradition to the United States.

Canada’s top spy used his first public speech to warn of increasing state-sponsored espionage through technology such as next-generation 5G mobile networks.

After a fierce winter storm cut residents of Iles de la Madeleine off from the rest of the province, up to 250 CAF personnel are conducting health and welfare patrols and provide assistance to officials in the evacuation of residents if required, according to Public Safety Minister Goodale.

Managing the influx of asylum seekers at unauthorized points along Canada’s border with the United States is on pace to cost Ottawa more than $1-billion over three years, a new analysis from Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux says.

The findings of a special security review into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's much-maligned trip to India early this year will be released Monday. Copies of the classified report are in the hands of the Prime Minister's Office and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

New Zealand is barring China’s Huawei on national-security grounds from supplying equipment for next-generation mobile networks, and in doing so has become the third member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance to take action against the huge Shenzen-based telecom-gear maker.

The Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are continuing their annual joint search-and-destroy mission against illegal outdoor cannabis grows — another example of how the war against the plant is still alive and well, despite legalization last month.

I take the liberty of urging anyone who cares about justice in this country, and especially those who wish also to honour our armed forces, to contribute to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman’s defence fund, says Conrad Black.

RCMP officers were given permission to break the law 73 times on the job last year – the highest number on record – according to a new report.