In the News

St. John has shut down much of its information technology systems after the New Brunswick city experienced a “significant” cyber attack. Critical services such as 911 emergency are not affected, but many online services such as bill payments are. The city says it’s unclear whether customers’ personal information is at risk.

Three U.S. and one Japanese astronaut were launched to the International Space Station by SpaceX, the first full “taxi flight” by a private company. The capsule is due to dock with the ISS late Nov. 16 after needing some 27 hours to achieve the necessary orbit.

Ten CBSA and RCMP officers who were on duty at Vancouver International Airport when Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested 23 months ago at the request of the U.S., are on the witness list when a B.C Supreme Court extradition hearing resumes. Paused at the end of October, the hearing now is expected to continue at least into early December.

The aerospace and security sectors are among 17 chosen by the British government for tighter regulation which would block foreign direct investment by potentially hostile interests. The measure is part of a National Security and Investment Bill designed to review mergers, acquisitions and other considered a threat to national security.

Recent Russian military operations inside the U.S. economic management zone off Alaska were the latest in a series of escalated encounters across the North Pacific and the Arctic, where the retreat of polar ice continues to draw new commercial and military traffic. The local U.S. Coast Guard chief, RAdm Matthew T. Bell Jr., says that while Russian operations in the Bering Sea are not unusual, “the surprise was how aggressive they got on our side of the maritime boundary line.”

A western separatist movement, the Maverick Party, plans to model itself on the Bloc Québécois as it prepares for the next federal election. Its interim leader, former Reform and Conservative MP Jay Hill, says the BQ has been “very effective in representing the interests of their constituents.”

Switzerland says that effective in 2022, bribes paid by companies to private individuals and money spent to facilitate crimes will no longer be tax-deductible. The government says the move, which would comply with OECD recommendations, would “harmonize” its tax and criminal laws.

Two days after it was declared the winner of the latest U.S. elections, president-elect Joe Biden’s embryonic administration announced a COVID-19 advisory board stacked with infectious diseases research and former public health officers. The speed of the announcement has the scientific and medical communities hopeful that the incoming government can do a better job than President Donald Trump’s lameduck administration of handling the pandemic which has killed nearly a quarter of a million Americans.

Leaked recordings indicated that World Health Organization scientists have been frustrated by mistakes made by some of the organization’s main funding sources as the COVID-19 pandemic exploded. Central to the problem, and the scientists' unwillingness to go public, is that the WHO has no authority to investigate independently, relying instead on backchannelling and member states’ cooperation.

What appears to have been an accident during a routine helicopter flight in Egypt has resulted in the deaths of all but one of nine members of an international keeping mission. Six of seven U.S. members of the Multinational Force and Observers group died in the crash, as did French and Czech personnel.

Provincial and municipal leaders are being urged by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “do the right thing” to curb the spread COVID-19. Promising financial support if needed, he says he hopes no premiers or mayors were “easing public health vigilance because they feel pressure not to shut down businesses or slow down our economy” because “that’s how we end up with businesses going out of business and the economy damaged even more.”

It used to be that a “dry cell” was the type of battery used in many flashlights. Now it’s the name of a Correctional Service of Canada policy whereby prisoners suspected of having ingested or hidden contraband within their bodies are kept under constant supervision for days on end without access to a flushing toilet or running water. A former correctional investigator says the CSC should scrap the “demeaning, undignified and painful confinement.”

The government is launching talks on support for the airline industry but Transport Minister Marc Garneau suggests it will be conditional on passengers getting refunds for flights cancelled due to COVID-19. “We are ready to establish a process with major airlines regarding financial assistance which could include loans and potentially other support to secure important results for Canadians,” he says.

In a policy reversal from President Donald Trump's administration, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is imploring Americans to wear a mask as the best way to turn around the COVID-19 pandemic. Warning that the U.S. faces a “very dark winter" with the “worst wave” of the virus yet to come, he says Americans must rely on science.

President Donald Trump has fired Mark Esper as U.S. Secretary of Defense, replacing him in an acting capacity by Christopher Miller, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump offered no explanation in his social media announcement but Esper has been at odds with the President for several months on the proposed use of troops for law enforcement.

An EU economic blacklist of Belarus officials has been expanded to include President Alexander Lukashenko and his son Victor, a national security analyst, as well as the head of the secret police and the president’s chief of staff. The EU disputes Lukashenko’s claim to have fairly won reelection in August and deplores his crackdown on opponents.

No decisive winner in the U.S. presidential election is evident despite President Donald Trump’s insistence, while awaiting final counting of mailed ballots, that the incumbent Republicans had “already won it.” He also repeated his unsubstantiated claim that there would be “fraud” and that the Republican-dominated Supreme Court likely would have to intervene.

Sixteen U.S. departments and agencies, including the FBI and the Commerce Department, are the target of 16 freedom-in-information lawsuits filed by China's Huawei technology giant in a bid to force the release of documents the company believes could reveal political motivations behind the arrest in Vancouver of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, two years ago. The U.S. wants Meng extradicted.

Be sure to check out the Senate of Canada building during Remembrance Week. The old train station, which once welcomed soldiers returning from war, will be illuminated every night with images of red poppies to honour those who lost their lives in war. 

The Canadian Forces has spent more than $1 million to train its operatives on "behaviour modification" techniques for use in Canada. Examples include the mission to manage public perception surrounding Op Laser (COVID response) and the more bizarre mission that had our military creating and disseminating fake news and forged letters to warn the Nova Scotia public that wolves were causing problems in the province (which was untrue).

Criticism that government guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic has been confusing has prompted Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, to explain that the advice has had to evolve alongside the science. Meanwhile, she says, “public health has always had key messages that were exactly the same.” These included social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and wearing masks.

Citing “protests and demonstrations” in several U.S. cities, Australia is advising its citizens to avoid travelling to the U.S. However, if travel is necessary, it urges them to “avoid areas where protests are occurring due to the ongoing potential for violence” and to stay in touch with their embassy.

The U.S. is not ruling out further sanctions against Turkey if it makes its Russian anti-aircraft missile system fully operational. “Sanctions is very much something that is on the table,” says Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper. “Operationalizing such an asset . . . incurs further risk of sanctions and further risks of restrictions.”

During the televised news conference after a virtual EU-Canada Leaders Meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau condemned the recent terror attacks in France. "The criminals, terrorists, the cold-blooded murderers who perpetrated these attacks do not represent Islam. They do not get to define Muslims in Canada, in France, or anywhere around the world.

Three Brockville police officers have received a departmental commendation for their calm professionalism in coordinating a multi-point safety response while coaxing a suicidal woman down from her perch on a railway overpass.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says fiscal stimulus and deficit spending are necessary to sustain the economy through the “coronavirus recession” and would be cut back only after widespread vaccination reins in COVID-19. She says “we have a moral imperative, but also a hard economic imperative … to provide our people and our businesses with a bridge to get through to the other side.”

Australian research has identified 41 elections and seven referenda in which cyber-enabled foreign interference has been reported over the past decade, including an uptick since 2017. “Digitisation of election functions has dramatically widened the attack surface available to those who seek to disrupt democracy,” it says. “This has in large part been facilitated by the pervasive and persistent growth of social media and networking platforms.”

In a violation of U.S. election law, a member of the Canadian Senate, Lynn Beyak, donated to the Republican National Committee earlier this year, a move her office says was an “error”. Officially a resident of Dryden, Ont., she provided an address in New York on the donation form.

Veterinarians have started to detect leishmania in Canadian and U.S. dogs. This dangerous parasite can cause a flesh-eating disease in both animals and humans. Some forms of the disease can lead to severe disfigurement or even death. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are affected every year, but the parasite has largely remained out of North America, until now. The disease has been detected in dogs in 2 provinces and 18 states so far.

With NDP and Bloc Québécois support, the Conservatives succeeded in giving the House of Commons health committee a mandate to investigate the federal government's COVID-19 pandemic response. A motion approved by a vote of 176 to 152 authorizes the committee to call on the Liberals to disclose documents and to have key ministers testify.

Two Toronto federal constituencies remain in Liberal hands after Oct. 26 byelections. Toronto Centre candidate Marci Ien captured 42 per cent of the vote while, in York Centre, Ya'ara Saks won with 45.7 cent of the vote. The Liberals had captured more than 50 per cent of the vote in each riding in the 2019 general election.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has acknowledged that it uses a commercial database to track persons in the U.S. without legal warrants. Several Senators say the arm of the Department of Homeland Security has refused to provide legal justification.

A pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron to defend his country’s state secularism has prompted his Turkish counterpart, to call for a boycott of French products over what he considers “oppression against Muslims.” The interaction between the two NATO members follows the murder of a teacher in retaliation for his displaying contentious cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. 

A retired U.S. career diplomat says that Secretary of Statre mike Pompeo and his immediate predecessor, Rex Tillerson, have undermined and ultimately “weaponized the institution for the Trump administration’s domestic political objectives.”