In the News

Barely ahead of a Dec. 21 midnight deadline and after months of political gridlock, the U.S. Congress approved a $900-billion pandemic relief package which, among other things, will deliver payments to businesses and individuals and fund vaccine procurement and delivery. The package now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature.

An Ontario provincial politician’s assertions about COVID-19 has resulted in a growing list of physicians who are publicly challenging what they say is deliberate disinformation. Randy Hillier, an Independent member of the legislature, has criticized government’s restrictions and attended protest rallies

The Canada Revenue Agency says self-employed taxpayers applying for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit when their incomes crumbled due to COVID-19 were given “unclear” advice. However, calling the instructions they had received simply “erroneous,” CRA staff said they were to advise applicants to base their claim on net rather than gross income. As a result, thousands of recipients recently were told they owed large repayments by the end of the month. 

Seventy-seven companies, mainly in China, have been added to a U.S. list of companies the Department of Commerce considers a threat. More than 275 Chinese companies were already on the list and two of the most prominent additions are drone manufacturer DJI and SMIC, a chip manufacturer the U.S. says has worked on military programs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that “it’s possible” that Canada will be able to accelerate its timeline for vaccinating Canadians against COVID-19. The government has a September-December target for vaccinating everyone who wants their shots, but the PM says that’s a conservative timeline. Canada has guaranteed access to 214 million doses with the option of an additional 200 million.

Days after it was confirmed that Russian hackers had exploited a software flaw to attack several U.S. agencies, the Government Accountability Office has released the results of an audit which showed that 23 agencies are failing to manage risks in their IT supply chains. However, the GAO’s team leader acknowledges that even with “robust” management, “most likely this particular attack would have happened because of the level of sophistication that was involved.”

Companies and organizations involved in supplying and distributing COVID-19 vaccines are being warned by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that foreign interests could target their employees. “The Canada supply chain in particular has been the interest of many foreign actors, and perhaps bad actors,” Pina Melchionna, president of the Canadian Institute of Traffic and Transportation, said in confirming the CSIS warning. “They are targeting people already working within companies who either have vulnerabilities or who may be sloppy because of the tight deadlines.”

Sweden’s reliance on guidelines rather that more rigorous action against COVID-19 is being criticized by King Carl XVI Gustaf. “We have failed,” he says in an annual televised message. “We have a large number who have died and that is terrible. . . One thinks of all the family members who have happened to be unable to say goodbye to their deceased family members. I think it is a tough and traumatic experience not to be able to say a warm goodbye.”

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Volkswagen illegally installed a device designed to cheat exhaust emissions tests and could not argue that it was merely protecting engines. The “dieselgate” scandal erupted five years ago when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that VW, which has been fined heavily, had installed software to rig U.S. emissions tests for its “clean diesel” vehicles.

Having successfully returned lunar rock samples to Earth with its Chang'e 5 robotic probe, China is preparing for missions which could lead to a manned base on the moon, retrieval of samples from Mars and exploration of the asteroid belt.

A Canadian Space Agency astronaut is scheduled to participate in a U.S. lunar orbital mission in 2023 with another to follow at an unspecified later date in a mission to a planned Lunar Gateway space station. Industry Navdeep Bains announced the plans during a news conference with astronauts Jeremy Hansen, David Saint-Jacques, Joshua Kutryk and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons. Canada also will contribute a new robotic arm for construction of the orbital station.

Fourteen persons have been found guilty of involvement in a series of attacks by Islamic militants in Paris in January 2015. Their attacks on a magazine’s office, a police officer and a Jewish supermarket resulted in 17 deaths.

The federal government’s use of polygraphs in security screenings has been questioned by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. It focuses in a new report on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment, flagging limited oversight of polygraph use and warning that the tests could have “profound negative impacts on an employee's mental health if not used appropriately.”

Former federal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, a special advisor to the Prime Minister on the Iran military’s downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 last January, says Iran should not be the lead investigator. “The party responsible for the situation is investigating itself, largely in secret,” he says in his report. “This undermines the investigation's credibility and enables a sense of impunity in avoiding essential questions.” A total of 157 crew and passengers, many with Canadian connections, were aboard the Boeing 737-800 when it was struck by two missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran International Airport.

More than a decade after then President Barack Obama said he would shut down the notorious Guantanamo prison at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba, it remains a headache for Washington. Deteriorating infrastructure at the complex, where 1,500 military personnel guard 40 prisoners, has become a serious issue. The fact that 14 are Central Intelligence Agency detainees evidently has been a significant complication. The facility is estimated cost $13 million per prisoner annually.

The U.S. Defense Department is looking for open-source software with access to at least 50 million websites and the ability to ingest social media data for real-time analysis. Its latest initiative is focused on Twitter archives and prospective suppliers are being asked to provide the capability of handling data in at least 150 languages.

Developing countries will be receiving $485 million in Canadian foreign aid through a number of relief agencies to support their COVID-19 efforts. “The faster we can get tests, treatments and vaccines out to people, the sooner this pandemic can be contained,” International Development Minister Karina Gould said in a statement. “Canada's support of global efforts to find successful medical solutions is a win for all.”

It’s reported that there was a sharp disconnect last year between the National Defence and Global Affairs departments on the issue of military cooperation with China. Alarmed by a decision by the Chief of the Defence Staff to cancel winter exercises with China, diplomats were concerned that it would annoy Beijing generally and, more specifically, could worsen things for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who Canadian detained in China for the last two years.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu says anyone who reacts adversely to COVID-19 vaccines will be eligible for compensation. “"Canadians can have confidence in the rigour of the vaccine approvals system,” she says. “In the rare event that a person experiences an adverse reaction, this program will help ensure they get the support they need.” Applicable to all vaccines, the program is similar to those already in effect in all other G7 countries.

The use of public geolocation data by the Canadian Security and Intelligence without a warrant may be illegal, according to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. In its first report to Parliament, the agency says Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, addressing unreasonable search and seizure, is a potential point of conflict.

The Chinese government insists that there has been no change in the legal status of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the Canadians arrested and detained two years ago. A foreign ministry official had said they had been prosecuted and tried on alleged espionage charges, but the government says that was “an inaccurate characterization” by the official.

RCMP officers investigating last April’s mass shooting in Nova Scotia, which resulted in 22 deaths, are reported to have been directed to stop destroying or altering evidence. A former officer familiar with the RCMP’s data management system is quoted as saying that “they have been doing everything they can to hide information.” The directive was in the form of a memorandum, “moratorium on the destruction of information,” which was circulated on an internal web page which is no longer functional.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the Canadians arrested and detained in China two years ago, are reported to have been prosecuted and tried on alleged espionage charges. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said Dec. 9 that they had been tried but the Canadian government was still seeking clarification the following day because an earlier statement to the same effect was retracted.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the Canadians nearing the second anniversary of their detention in China, have been described as “robust” and “impressive” by Canada’s ambassador to China. Dominic Barton reported from Beijing on their situation during a virtual parliamentary committee hearing. “They are robust,” he said. “You would be very impressed by seeing both of them.”

Taiwanese authorities fined a migrant worker from the Philippines 100,000 Taiwan dollars for breaching quarantine rules. Health authorities say the man stepped out of his hotel room for only eight seconds, but the penalty, which converts to C$566.59, reflects the country’s tight lockdown to control COVID-19.

A Brazilian airline has become the first in the world to resume scheduled service with its Boeing 737 Max fleet, which like others worldwide, was grounded two years ago after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. So far, only Brazil and the U.S. have approved the aircraft’s return to service after a series of upgrades.<

California-based FireEye Inc., which has helped governments and companies to deal with security issues for years, has recently been the target of hackers operating from a country “with top-tier offensive capabilities.” The theft of FireEye technology is being described as akin to stealing the FBI’s investigative tools.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences suggests that “directed radio frequency energy” attacks by unknown assailants likely caused brain injuries to American diplomats posted in Cuba but it stops short of saying that Canadians also were affected by so-called “Havana Syndrome”. Both countries’ diplomats and some family members experienced causing headaches, dizziness and cognitive problems in 2016. Five Canadian diplomats have sued the federal government, alleging that it had played down the situation and failed to protect them.

Provincial governments are being urged to adopt widespread surveillance testing as part of their response to COVID-19. The advice comes in an independent review commissioned by Revera, which operates seniors’ residences and long-term care facilities across the country. The review was led by Dr. Bob Bell, a former Ontario deputy health minister, and involved international and national public health experts who also volunteered their time.

Is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stated commitment to greater transparency not applicable to his government’s spending on its COVID-19 campaign? “The government has not been transparent about which of the big businesses, some of whom are extremely profitable during this pandemic, have actually been receiving these significant amounts of money,” says Peter Julian, the New Democratic Party’s finance critic in the House of Commons, commenting on a report that only a few departments have provided details.

A new cloud-based service designed to secure some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive workloads has been completed by Microsoft. A company executive calls Azure Government Top Secret a “natural extension” to the cloud-based services for the intelligence community.

Despite recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they stay home during last week’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, nearly as many Americans opted to travel as they have in the past despite the COVID-19 threat. The disclosure comes as hospitalizations and deaths continue to surge ahead of Christmas. A CDC official point that “if only a small percentage of those travelers were asymptomatically infected, this can translate into hundreds of thousands of additional infections moving from one community to another.”

Premier Brian Pallister of Manitoba says the federal government's proposal to reserve some portion of COVID-19 vaccine for the province’s large First Nations population would mean fewer doses for others. “They have to step up and protect our Indigenous communities first . . . but not punish everyone else,” he says. Arlen Dumas, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, says Pallister’s statements are potentially divisive.

The federal government is planning a dry run in every province next week of its proposed distribution of two COVID-19 vaccines as it prepares for actual distribution in “the coming weeks and months.” MGen Dany Fortin, tasked with overseeing logistics, says the aim of the “soft launch” is to ensure procedures are correct and that “people are comfortable with the very unique requirements of handling an ultra-low temperature vaccine.”