IN THE NEWS

After years of delays, the terrorism trial of Awso Peshdary has started in Ottawa. Peshdary has pleaded not guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating an activity for a terrorist group, and two counts of conspiring to participate or contribute to an activity of a terrorist group.

Specialized software helped to build the case against Alexandre Bissonnette, convicted of six charges of first-degree murder in the Quebec City mosque shooting. Sentencing arguments begin today.

A 2018 survey of 148,000 people in 142 countries asked people how safe they felt. Singapore was number one and Canada ranked eighth.

The American Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a new strategy for the US border with Canada. While the "most common threat to U.S. public safety along the Northern border continues to be the bi-directional flow of illicit drugs" the DHS noted the U.S. also faces "potential terror threats...primarily from homegrown violent extremists in Canada ..."

The hiring of a U.S. firm to advise the Department of National Defence on how to improve security at its installations across the country has sparked complaints that the job could have been done for cheaper by local firms or by the military’s own police force. Details of the almost $2-million contract to Watermark, a risk management firm in Virginia, were recently released under the Access to Information law.

Nearly 30 years after declaring Polio eradicated in Venezuela, the first case of the disease has been reported in the country as it reels from an economic crash crippling its healthcare system.

About 10,000 civil servants who work in or near the Quebec legislature will have Thursday afternoon and Friday off work, because G7 protestors are expected to make the area unsafe. The actual summit is being held 140 kilometres away but three protests are scheduled for Quebec City.

Bill C-211, a private member's bill passed unanimously by the House of Commons in June 2017, calls for a range of measures to assist Canadian frontline personnel with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The bill names first responders, fire fighters, military personnel, corrections officers and RCMP members but there are concerns that other professional groups should also qualify for PTSD treatment.

Legal marijuana is on the way in Canada but until federal legislation is enacted it is still against the law to possess, produce, import, export, or transport marijuana. Even before legalization, police in many areas are unable to control illegal sale and distribution networks due to lack of resources.

A report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the Chinese government has influenced every level of New Zealand society and the situation has reached a “critical” stage. Based on reports delivered to an academic workshop, the report does not reflect the agency's official views.

Ontario Provincial Police arrested three men in connection with the seizure of more $1.3-million in unstamped tobacco last week after one of two rental trucks in a convoy went off the 401 highway near Morrisburg.

As May turns into June, the B.C. Wildfire Service has already been in action on 227 fires in the current fire season. A fire about 20 square kilometres in size is near Allie Lake, about 55 kilometres northwest of Kamloops has forced more than a dozen of people to evacuate their properties.

A former official at the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service is alarmed at the involvement of Chinese telecommunications company  Huawei with Canadian universities to acquire 5G wireless technology.  The government is being asked to study the security threat and economic cost of transferring Canadian intellectual property.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says officials will attempt to correct misinformation being circulated in New York state offering instructions to asylum seekers on how to illegally cross the border into Canada.

Leaflets with the logo of an American organization called Plattsburgh Cares, a refugee support organization, tell asylum seekers that the Canadian border at Roxham Rd. in Quebec is an "irregular unofficial crossing.” The leaflet provides advice on how to enter Canada "irregularly."

A private jet broke in half as it crashed off the end of a runway as it came into land in Honduras. The Gulfstream jet, which was traveling from Austin, Texas, skidded out of control at the capital's international airport.

Canadian police officers need more time to prepare to detect drug use before marijuana is legalized. Sergeant David Caron with Guelph Police Traffic Services says training is costly and time-consuming but necessary.

White plumes of acid and extremely fine shards of glass billowed into the sky over Hawaii as molten rock from Kilauea volcano poured into the ocean, creating yet another hazard from an eruption that began more than two weeks ago: a toxic steam cloud. Authorities warned the public to stay away from the toxic steam cloud, which is formed by a chemical reaction when lava touches seawater.

Othman Hamdan, a British Columbia man facing deportation over allegations of promoting terrorism claims that false accusations have caused him post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Acquitted of terrorism-related charges last September, immigration authorities determined he poses a danger to the public.

Former Crown Prosecutor Scott Newark unpacks the "strange case of Professor Hassan Diab" and concludes that Canada has much work ahead to learn from its mistakes and make appropriate changes.

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a terror suspect's bid to stave off the federal government's effort to deport him on security grounds. The government is trying to remove Mohamed Mahjoub, 58, using a national security certificate, claiming he was a high-ranking member of an Islamic terrorist organization.

Canada is reforming its national security laws and institutions. The success of all the initiatives depends on the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act which clarifies how Canadian government departments exchange sensitive information.

Monday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war there, and was part of a high-stakes campaign by Gaza's Hamas rulers to break a decade-long border blockade. Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians, most by gunfire, and injured more than 2,700 on Monday, Gaza Health Ministry said.

The Canadian Armed Forces, in support of Public Safety Canada, is deploying approximately 60 members to assist the Province of New Brunswick following their request for federal assistance. Elements of 4 Engineer Support Regiment from 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown deployed to support Provincial authorities. This will enable those authorities to complete assessments and prioritize further relief work and repairs.

Canada will use its presidency of the G7 to try to persuade the world’s richest and most industrialized countries to adopt ambitious goals for plastics recycling and waste reduction. “We are looking at a zero-plastics-waste charter,” Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said from Cancun, Mexico.

The Conservative opposition wants to know why the government has not arrested a man in Toronto who claims to be a returned ISIS fighter. It is a crime to travel abroad to participate in terrorism, and the government admits about 60 people have returned to Canada after joining terrorist groups abroad.

Canada received over 50,000 asylum applications in 2017 – a 200% increase over the previous year. Nearly half of these claimants crossed illegally into Canada to make their claim. Or, as the Liberals like to say, they crossed “irregularly.” So far in 2018, things have gotten significantly worse.

Authorities resumed digging in a Michigan forest for the remains of as many as seven girls who have been missing for decades. Police began searching the site after speaking with a man serving life in prison for the slaying of another girl whose body was found nearby.

Last year, a Google’s Street View car photographed Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) employees and their vehicles in a parking lot at their Ottawa headquarters. Now offline since being available since 2017, the images allowed CSIS employees to be personally identified.

Police, not politicians, should decide what restrictions to place on specific kinds of guns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. His government’s firearms bill, which once passed would restore the authority of RCMP experts to classify firearms without political influence, repealing cabinet’s authority to overrule Mountie determinations.

Police have dropped the case against a young Halifax man alleged to have breached a Nova Scotia freedom-of-information website, shifting the issue squarely back to whether the province had basic measures in place to protect its citizens' private information. Halifax police say that after a thorough investigation, "the police have determined there to be no grounds to lay charges in the matter."

Almost half a million Canadians have marijuana-related offenses on their criminal records, but the government is preparing to legalize the drug this summer. Calls for a blanket amnesty are growing.

Shortly after Kilauea erupted Thursday, the ground split open on the east side of Leilani Estates, exposing an angry red beneath the lush landscape. As of Sunday night, at least 10 such fissure vents were reported in the neighbourhood — including two that had opened anew late Saturday night — and at least 26 homes had been destroyed, according to the county civil defense agency.

The Aboriginal peoples committee of the Senate wants legal marijuana legislation delayed for a year, to negotiate a revenue-sharing deal and to set aside licenses for cannabis producers for Indigenous peoples. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said cannabis will be legal in Canada by summer,