In the News

The European Court of Justice ruled today that EU member states can be blocked from receiving financial support if they are non-compliant with the bloc’s laws. Hungary and Poland, the countries most directly affected due to their drift away from democratic values, had filed suit against the initiative.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has effectively given truckers clogging the capital’s core until the weekend to leave the area as the protest against mandatory coronavirus vaccinations neared the end of its third week. “No one wants to see another weekend like the last three,” he said today. “And I'm assured by my discussions with the police that they fully appreciate that.” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said the Emergencies Act has given the government “the tools to do what needs to be done.”

The federal government plans to do away with pre-arrival coronavirus PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers at the end of the month. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Feb. 15 that travellers may opt for a rapid antigen test approved by their country of origin 24 hours before their scheduled flight or arrival in Canada. The government also is downgrading its advisory that Canadians avoid non-essential travel for the time being.

After it had been blocked for several days by protests against mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, the Pacific Highway border crossing between B.C. and Washington state was back in business today. During the protest, the RCMP, who arrested more than a dozen persons, had had diverted traffic to other crossings.

Russia said today that some of the 130,000 troops massed along its border with Ukraine would be returning to their bases after participating in exercises. There were no details but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said “we’ll believe . . . when we see troops pulling out.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that Canada is providing Ukraine with $7.8 million worth of weapons and ammunition as it faces the prospect of a Russian invasion. He also said the government is increasing its financial support with a new $500 million loan atop $120 million offered in January.

RCMP in Alberta today arrested 11 members of a “small organized group” of armed protesters participating in a blockade at the province’s border with Montana, a key crossing for trade in both directions. Executing a search warrant on three vehicles, officers found 13 long guns, several handguns, a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines, body armour and a machete. “The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade,” the RCMP said.

Although Ontario plans to end its coronavirus “passport” program March 1 and capacity limits on indoor public settings will be eliminated, current mask requirement would remain in effect. The government said today that it would “lift proof of vaccination requirements for all settings (but) businesses and other settings may choose to continue to require proof of vaccination."

Even though the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s main operational focus is abroad, two Democrat members of the Senate intelligence committee say it has conducted warrantless dometic surveillance through a newly disclosed program. They have called for declassifying details of the program which senior intelligence had denied under oath to Congress. The CIA released one declassified report last week but withheld another, citing the need to protect “sensitive tradecraft methods and operational sources.”

The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit was reopened late Feb. 13 after police, acting on a court injunction, ended a blockade by protesters objecting to mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. The bridge has a daily bilateral trade flow worth hundreds of millions of dollars daily and politicians on both sides of the border decried the economic impact of the protest.

The trade-disrupting blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit has prompted Elissa Slotkin, a member of the House of Representatives from Michigan, to call for less reliance on Canadian imports, particularly those within a tightly-integrated cross-border automobile industry. “When our manufacturing is outsourced too much, we end up paying the price,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if it's an adversary or an ally — we can't be this reliant on parts coming from foreign countries.”

The Canadian government was urged by the U.S. administration today to legislate an end to the trade-disrupting blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit by opponents of mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg proposed the measure and offered unspecified help in calls to their counterparts, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra.

Ottawa’s police service, international airport and a city council meeting evidently were targetted today by groups opposed to mandatory coronavirus vaccination. The police said their 911 and non-emergency lines were flooded with illegal calls. Meanwhile, protesters circled around the airport’s main access ring for two hours, causing ground traffic delays but not affecting aircraft departures or arrivals, and the council meeting was hacked briefly.

Even though many truck drivers are owner-operators, companies which employ many of them are unhappy with their corporate logos appearing in coronavirus protest rallies. They are reacting to their names and logos having been posted on an Ottawa-based website.

Fifty-five of the wealthiest countries are being pressed by the World Health Organization to come up with the equivalent of US$23 billion to support its efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in low- and middle-income countries. The WHO said Feb. 9 that the funds would go to its Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator program which develops and distributes tests and treatments.

The ongoing blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit by vaccine protesters forced Ford to shut down its engine plant in Windsor and reduce operations at its assembly plant in Oakville west of Toronto. The bridge carries 25 per cent of all trade and manufacturers on both sides of the border are reporting supply-chain issues.

The U.S. Justice Department has announced the seizure of more than $3.6 billion in stolen cryptocurrency and the arrest of a New York couple it accused of conspiring to launder the proceeds. Officials linked the recovered amount to a hack of a virtual currency exchange nearly six years ago. “The message to criminals is clear: cryptocurrency is not a safe haven,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. “We can, and we will, follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”

Nearly three months after Canada blocked shipments of Prince Edward Island potatoes to the U.S. due to concerns about a fungus found on a couple of farms, the U.S. is permitting shipments to Puerto Rico. The territory, which has no domestic potato farming, normally gets at least 80 per cent of its potatoes from PEI which, in turn, account for about a quarter of the province’s potato exports. Since the fungus can affect yields, the rest of the U.S. market remains closed for the time being.

Joel Lightbound, a Liberal MP from the Quebec City region since 2015, broke rank in his caucus this week by criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial governments for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic and a spate of protests against mandatory vaccinations. “I fear that this politicization of the pandemic risks undermining the public's trust in our public health institutions,” he said. “This is not a risk we ought to be taking lightly.”

Traffic entering and leaving Canada across the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich., was blocked Feb. 7 by Canadian demonstrators opposed to mandatory coronavirus vaccination. Organizers said they had no plans to leave.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called on the organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” to wind up their protest which has paralyzed downtown Ottawa for more than a week. They were “trying to blockade our economy, our democracy and our fellow citizens' daily lives,” he said during an emergency parliamentary debate Feb. 7. “The people of Ottawa don't deserve to be harassed in their own neighbourhoods.”

Christians tread where GoFundMe won’t After GoFundMe announced that it had frozen at least $8 million in donations to the “Freedom Convoy” that has paralyzed downtown Ottawa for 11 days, a U.S.-based Christian crowdfunding organization has raised more than $3.5 million as of today. The development is raising concerns about possible foreign interference, among other things.

Candice Bergen, the Manitoba MP who is interim leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, advised senior caucus members last week not to tell members of the anti-vaccination convoy to leave Ottawa. She said in an email that because the mood of the protest “may shift soon,” the Official Opposition should “make the protests the prime minister’s problem” in seeking a peaceful solution to the blockade.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pressing the government to prohibit Nazi, Ku Klux Klan and Confederate symbols. “It’s very clear what they stand for and it’s very clear they should not have any place in Canada,” he said Feb. 7 “Hate is very much like a fire; once it’s allowed to take hold, it spreads and it starts consuming everything.”

The entire North American supply chain is being frustrated by a lack of U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking assets on the Great Lakes, according to a coalition of shipping interests. “The men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard do the best they can with the resources they are provided, says Jim Weakley, President of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force and the Lake Carriers’ Association. “Unfortunately, they do not have enough icebreakers to keep the system operating efficiently.”

The Quebec legislature is essentially surrounded by provincial police in anticipation of the arrival of a weekend “freedom convoy” opposed to mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. A convoy organizer said Feb. 3 that the weekend protest is not designed “to jam up the city” but simply to be “heard.” Premier François Legault said protests are acceptable but that the capital’s residents must not be prevented from “functioning normally.”

California-based GoFundMe has been asked to explain “as soon as possible” to a House of Commons committee how it would manage releasing more than $10 million donated to the antivaccination protest which has shut down central Ottawa for more than a week. Among other things, the committee said Feb. 3 that it wants reassurance that donations are “not being used to promote extremism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, which have been expressed among prominent organizers for the truck convoy.”

A proposed European Commission plan to designate nuclear and natural gas power plants as “green energy” sources if they meet “sustainable investment” targets is proving politically divisive. “I cannot understand the decision,” says Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, supporting a proposed challenge in the European Court of Justice. Luxembourg has said it would join the lawsuit.

The deaths of at least 19 migrants due to exposure this week in a Turkish town near the Greek border as a winter storm blanketed the region has each counry blaming the other. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Feb. 2 that the migrants from an undetermined third country were stripped of their shoes and clothing before they were turned away by Greek border officials.

A fund-raising initiative which has generated more than $10 million on behalf of trucker protests against mandatory coronavirus vaccinations was suspended Feb. 2 by the GoFundMe platform, which generates its own operation with transaction fees. There have been concerns about foreign contributions, prompting California-based GFM to ensure the support “complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.”

More RCMP officers were called up today to help deal with a blockaded southern Alberta crossing into Montana cause by truckers protesting mandatory coronavirus vaccination. RCMP were prepared to make arrests Feb. 1 as the protest began its fourth day but backed off due to safety concerns as vehicles sped through roadblocks to join the blockade.

Quebec Premier François Legault has abandoned a tax he proposed a month ago on people not vaccinated against the coronavirus. “I understand that this divides Quebecers and right now we need to build bridges,” he said today. “My role is to try to bring Quebecers together to stay united as a people.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole says he welcomes a vote on his leadership after 17 months on the job. “I'm not going anywhere and I'm not turning back,” he said in a Jan. 31 statement. “It’s time for a reckoning. To settle this in caucus . . . once and for all.” He challenged two particularly strident Eastern Ontario MPs, saying “there are two roads open to the Conservative Party of Canada. One is the road of Randy Hillier and Derek Sloan. It is angry, negative, and extreme. It is a dead end.”

A new law making coronavirus vaccination mandatory for Austrians over the age of 18 goes into effect Feb. 3, a first in Europe where several countries have introduced mandates for the elderly or medical staff. EU and Constitution Minister Karoline Edtstadler says it is “justifiable . . . interference with human rights” because vaccination is the only way back to “a normal life.”