In the News

Two State Department nominees and four from the Pentagon have been named as the U.S. administration continues to flesh out its national security team.

Myanmar’s senior military commander has been told by other leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that his forces should stop killing protestors and should release political prisoners “Violence must be stopped, democracy, stability and peace in Myanmar must be returned immediately," host Indonesian President Joko Widodo said. More than 700 demonstrators have been killed since a Feb. 1 coup.

The federal government is suspending incoming passenger flights from India and Pakistan for the next month as cases of COVID-19 surge in both countries. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says because there are so many people arriving in Canada from India and Pakistan with COVID-19, all commercial and private passenger flights from both countries will be prohibited as of midnight tonight.

Russian police arrested nearly 1,800 persons involved in widespread protests April 21 over the alleged mistreatment of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny. The demonstrations across the country occurred only hour after President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation speech.

B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes has granted detained Huwei executive Meng Wanzhou’s defence team a three-and-a-half month adjournment in her extradition case. The extra time evidently is due to the need to obtain documents from a Hong Kong bank which her lawyers say could affect her U.S.-requested extradition. However, Holmes also has said she would accept no further delays.

New research suggests that the U.S. has been the source of more than half of the COVID-19 variants reported in Canada. Scientists in Ontario, B.C. and Arizona used an international DNA database to track the spread. They also say that viral imports slowed somewhat after international travel restrictions were imposed in March 2020.

Some “unacceptable” uses of artificial intelligence would be banned in Europe under proposed rules announced today by the European Commission's rules. The draft ban would target “AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people,” said the EC, which also has proposed stricter rules on law enforcement’s use of biometrics.

NATO officials have vowed to boost the alliance’s cyber defences. During an April 15 virtual conference, they added the commitment to an overarching decision to prevent catastrophic disruptions of member states. Host Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said “malicious” activities had increased as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved and that the alliance needed to “recognize that cyberspace is at the forefront of increased global competition, and democratic nations must stand together against deviations from acceptable behavior.”

The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Russia and formally blamed its SVR intelligence agency for last year’s massive SolarWinds breach of government and corporate systems. Designed to choke off lending to the Kremlin, the sanctions against 32 entities and individuals coincided with diplomatic expulsions in Washington. Also, in collaboration with allies, the U.S. has sanctioned eight individuals and entities associated with Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Services says last year saw the highest level of foreign espionage and interference directed at Canadian targets since the end of the Cold War. “The fluid and rapidly evolving environment caused by COVID-19 has created a situation ripe for exploitation,” CSIS Director David Vigneault says in his latest annual report. “Violent extremism, foreign interference, espionage and malicious cyber activity, accelerated, evolved and in many ways became much more serious.”

A Japanese-owned but Panamanian-registered container ship which blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in week in March is not free to leave the waterway pending resolution of claims for as much as $900 million in compensation.

China warned the U.S. April 12 to stop “playing with fire” in its relationship with Taiwan. It was responding to new State Department guidelines on deepening ties with the island republic which China considers a “rogue” province. “We urge the U.S. side to grasp the situation, earnestly abide by the one-China principle and . . . immediately stop official contact with Taiwan in any form,” a government spokesman said.

Lengthy negotiations between Air Canada and the federal government have yielded a financial support package which includes a total of $5.9 billion in low-interest loans in return for the carrier maintaining what’s left of its workforce, restoring most regional services, ordering new Airbus and Boeing jets and agreeing to refunds for passengers whose flights were cancelled last year over COVID-19 concerns. The government also is taking a small equity position in the airline. “We were determined to get a good deal for Canada and Canadians,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland replied April 12 when asked during a why negotiations had taken so long. “We wanted . . . not just any deal -- and getting a good deal can sometimes take a little time.”

The federal government has cancelled 29 export permits for Turkey after finding Canadian technology had been used in drones during the 2019 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “This use was not consistent with Canadian foreign policy, nor end-use assurances,” Foreign Minister Garneau said April 12. “Turkey is an important NATO ally and applications related to NATO cooperation programs will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”

Canada has signed on to a multinational accord aimed at improving the strategic implications of climate change in polar regions. The other parties are Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the U.S.

President Joe Biden’s first discretionary funding request to Congress sets a $1.5 trillion spending roadmap that includes cash funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a reserve for “information technology enhancements.” Other key elements include funding for two new research agencies focused on health and climate.

Seven Chinese supercomputing companies have been added to a U.S. list of entities restricted from buying U.S. technologies without a waiver. The Bureau of Industry and Security within the Commerce Department confirmed the move April 9, saying the companies “are involved in activities that support China’s military actors, its destabilizing military modernization efforts, and/or its weapons of mass destruction.”

Iran is reported to have had “constructive” talks April 6 with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on a response to the possible easing of U.S. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. European intermediaries have started shuttling between Iranian and U.S. officials in Vienna in a bid to restore a 2015 accord which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its program. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.

The city of Saint John, N.B. faced a ransom demand of nearly $17 million worth of bitcoin last November in return for cyberattackers not releasing encrypted information. City Manager John Collin, recently confirming the attack, says it shut down all IT services and refused to pay the ransom.

Despite personal misgivings, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has asked incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forming a new government after a recent election, the country’s fourth in two years, failed to produce a clear winner. Rivlin’s request comes as Netanyahu goes on trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law designed to keep him in power until possibly 2036. Currently 68 and serving his fourth term, Putin could serve two more six-year terms when his current orchestrated mandate expires in 2024.

In an attempt to reduce crime in rural areas and improve law enforcement’s emergency response times, the Alberta government has authorized its fish and wildlife officers and sheriffs to assist with high-priority RCMP situations.

The U.S. has lifted “inappropriate and ineffective” sanctions imposed by the previous administration on International Criminal Court officials investigating alleged war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “We maintain our long-standing objection to the court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-states parties such as the United States and Israel,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed through engagement with all stakeholders.”

Christine Schraner Burgener, a Swiss diplomat and UN special envoy on Myanmar, has told the Security Council that “a bloodbath is imminent” in Myanmar as its military intensifies its crackdown on anti-coup protesters. She said March 31 that the UN must consider “potentially significant action” to turn the situation around. At least 521 civilians have been killed in protests against the Feb. 1 overthrow of the elected government.

A new Parliamentary Budget Office report says the government’s COVID-19 response should see the current year’s deficit balloon to $363.4 billion. However, PBO Yves Giroux also says the red ink should sink as emergency spending measures wind down and that financing will eventually become sustainable.

The Philippines wants China to remove a flotilla of militia-operate ships from six islands and reefs claimed by Manila in the South China. The ships and four naval vessels are described as a threat to sovereignty and the marine environment and Manila says that “neither the Philippines nor the international community will ever accept China’s assertion of its so-called ‘indisputable integrated sovereignty’ over almost all of the South China Sea.”

A Federal Court judge has certified a class-action lawsuit against the RCMP over accusations that physicians who routinely screen applicants had sexually abused them. “It's rewarding to be able to move this forward and know that some folks will get resolution,” the lead plaintiff says.

The Polish government is being taken to court by the European Commission, which accuses its member state of undermining judicial independence. “Polish judges . . . apply EU law and contribute to the mutual trust on which Europe is built,” EC Vice-President Věra Jourová, a Czech politician and lawyer, explained today. “National governments are free to reform the judiciary, but while doing so they have to respect the EU treaties.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that although new analysis points to a wildlife vector for COVID-19, the organization still needs to confirm that the coronavirus did not originate in a Chinese laboratory. China has dismissed the possibility but Tedros, noting that his team had difficulty getting raw data during a recent visit, called for “more timely and comprehensive data sharing.”

Too many Americans are declaring victory in the COVID-19 too early, say President Joe Biden and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is deadly serious,” Biden said, urging state governors to reinstate restrictions shortly after Walenksy admitted that she is “scared” by the prospect of continued waves.

A new law limiting the right of Hong Kong residents to run for local election has been enacted by the China's rubber-stamp parliament. Previously, the former British colony’s legislature was divided between elected officials and representatives of Beijing-oriented trade and industry bodies, theoretically enabling opposition parties to win a majority. Now the elected seats will be filled by government appointees.

Conservative MP Michael Chong, vice-chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and its international human rights subcommittee is one of several persons sanctioned by China in a dispute over Beijing’s treatment of its minorities. Chong says he will consider China’s response to Canadian sanctions “a badge of honour.”

Traffic through the Suez Canal resumed today after a salvage company headquartered in The Netherlands coordinated the removal of a 200,000-tonne container ship which had blocked passage for six days. Assisted by a high tide, tugs pulled the Japanese-owned and Panamian-registered Ever Given from the waterway’s banks where it had lodged after being blown off-course.

More than 25 million residents of the Philippines capital of Manila and nearby provinces, nearly a quarter of the mostly Catholic country’s population, face a strict Easter lockdown against COVID-19. It was announced March 27 after the country reported 9,838 new cases, its highest single-day jump.