In the News

The U.S. territory of Guam in the Western Pacific has been cleared by the Supreme Court to pursue a $160-million lawsuit against Washington over the cost of cleaning up a landfill dating to the 1940s. The court was unanimous in its May 24 ruling, which overturned a lower court’s decision that Guam had waited too long to pursue the claim.

The decades-long dispute over Canadian softwood lumber exports to the U.S. is heating up yet again as a protectionist lobby there insist that imports are unfairly subsidized. The U.S. has repeatedly lost when the issue is presented for arbitration and the B.C. Lumber Trade Council points out that the latest move to more than double duties affects U.S. housing costs.

A Ryanair flight to Lithuania from Greece was forced to divert to Belarus ostensibly because of a bomb threat. However, the fact that no device was found and a prominent critic of Belarus’ authoritarian president was arrested on arrival suggest that it was strictly a political ploy.

Two Canadian researchers warn that new constellations of thousands of small communications satellites pose a growing hazard in low earth orbit, threatening other satellites, astronauts and possibly even the planet’s climate.

A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas militant group went into effect early today after 11 days of intense cross-border attacks which left more than 250 dead, mostly Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Both sides have claimed victory.

The U.S. has lifted sanctions imposed by the previous administration on a company building a natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany as well as parallel sanctions imposed on the company’s chief executive officer, a former East German intelligence operative allied with President Vladimir Putin. The State Department confirmed the decision in a report to Congress, explaining that it is in the U.S. national interest.

A day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the West against making territorial claims in the Arctic, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said May 18 that the global community should avoid militarizing the region. “We've seen Russia advance unlawful maritime claims . . . which are inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said ahead of an Arctic Council ministerial meeting. Lavrov had said “it has been absolutely clear for everyone for a long time that this is our territory, this is our land” and “we are responsible for ensuring our Arctic coast is safe.”

Despite having to abandon its prosecution of University of Ottawa professor Hassan Diab last January due to a demonstrable lack of evidence, the French court system is trying again to put him on trial on for his alleged involvement of a synagogue bombing in Paris in 1980. The court of cassation, France’s highest court of appeal, overturned the lower court’s ruling today in a ruling his Ottawa lawyer called a “travesty of justice” due to political pressure. Arrested by the RCMP in November 2008 and held until his extradition in 2014, he spent more than three years in prison in France before the case collapsed.

A $200-million investment in enhanced vaccine production in Ontario was announced today by the federal government. Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Mississauga-based Resilience Biotechnologies will use the funding to expand its current facility to provide “made-in-Canada solutions such as vaccines and treatments for future pandemics.”

Army logistics expert BGen Krista Brodie is the Public Health Agency of Canada’s new head of COVID-19 vaccine distribution. A veteran of deployments to Croatia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, she initially was seconded to PHAC last November as part of a 30-member military team. Brodie replaces MGen Deny Fortin, who has been sidelined pending an investigation into unproven sexual assault allegations.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to participate in many outdoors and indoor activities, albeit with specific exemptions, but Canada’s deputy public health officer, Dr. Howafd Njoo, says Canada is not about to follow suit for now. “We have more of what I'd call a collective or community approach,” he said May 13. “It's not about what an individual should be able to do with one or two doses.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says his country is ready to play a role in “stability and development in Afghanistan once foreign troops from have been withdrawn. This was after one of his officials had said the “abrupt” U.S. announcement of U.S troops withdrawals had “led to a succession of explosive attacks throughout the country, worsening the security situation and threatening peace and stability as well as people's life and safety.”

More than four decades after it legislated contentious French-language requirements, the Quebec government is proposing more reforms which would affect businesses, students, immigrants and others. “This bill affirms that the only official language in Quebec is French,” said the minister responsible for languages when tabling Bill 96 May 14.

Proposed reforms of federal law governing private sector privacy, ostensibly to give Canadians more control over how companies handle their personal information online, have received a failing grade from Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. He says that the current draft “would be a step back overall because the provisions meant to give individuals more control give them less.”

Shortly after ransomware prompted a precautionary shutdown of Colonial Pipeline operations in the eastern U.S., the White House issued an executive order designed to change how companies manage and report cybersecurity incidents. A senior official said May 12 that the status quo was “unacceptable.” The order also invalidates contractual obligations that can make IT providers hesitant to share information about network breaches with the government.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service had recommended revocation of two researchers’ security clearances long before they were fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. The agency’s concerned related to communications that Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, had with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, including the transfer of intellectual property.

Finland’s military attaché at its embassy in Washington, Col Petteri Seppala, says the Arctic Forum established by Canada and seven other northern nations in 1996 is “too limited” in scope to address defence concerns, and is constrained by its historical focus on science, environmental issues and economic development. He aired his concerns at a May 7 online forum on Arctic security organized by the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think-tank in Washington.

A report requested by the World Health Organization has concluded that a “toxic cocktail” of dithering and poor coordination meant early COVID-19 pandemic indications were not acted on. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said today that early responses “lacked urgency,” institutions “failed to protect people” and science-denying leaders eroded public trust.

The National Rifle Association’s attempt to use bankruptcy as protection against a New York regulatory action involving alleged corruption within the organization was dismissed today by a federal court judge in Texas. The judge did not believe the bankruptcy courts were meant to be used in such cases and was troubled in the secretive nature of the bankruptcy filing.

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.