In the News

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, played down their governments’ different approaches to a number of issues in their countries’ relationships with China, but are there deeper differences? Tom McTague, a London-based staff writer for The Atlantic, tries to come to grips with fundamental policy choices.

The World Health Organization has designated the new coronavirus outbreak, which began in China in December and continues to spread, a global emergency. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization’s director general, said 30 January that the main reason for the declaration is how it has spread elsewhere. At least 213 persons have died in China but there have been 98 confirmed cases in 18 other countries, including three in Canada.

The latest report from the federal Commissioner of Firearms, for 2018, shows there was an increase of nearly 24 per cent in the number of restricted firearms registered in the first three years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's administration. The total was 1.16 million compared with 978,347 in 2015 after tighter controls were signalled by the Liberals in that year’s election campaign. There also was a slight drop in the number of prohibited weapons registered nationally.

Canada can learn a lot from its allies about how to tackle the accelerating threats in the cyber domain, the main lesson being that governments working in isolation cannot deal effectively with the onslaught. This is according to a report published 30 January by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries. It says in The Cyber Collaboration Imperative that the attacking forces have a fundamental tactical advantage that requires new policies and decision-making processes as well as an integrated public and private response.

Canada’s approval now is the only element necessary to implement the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The leaders of the three federal governments signed to new trade pact in November 2018 on the sidelines of that year’s G20 economic summit in Argentina, leaving only legislative approval to complete the process. Mexico ratified it last June and U.S. President Donald Trump signed off 29 January on the package approved by Congress. That leaves on the Canadian Parliament to ratify it, a process which began the day before when most MPs voted on a motion to begin debate.

Charles Lieber, head of Harvard University’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, has been charged with lying about his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program and concealing payments he received for research. Authorities also announced that Yanqing Ye, described as a People’s Liberation Army officer doing research at Boston University, was charged for allegedly sending research-related documents and other information to Beijing.

The British government’s decision to allow limited use of Huawei 5G technology has prompted a group of Republicans in the U.S. Congress to introduce a bill designed to curtail intelligence sharing with the U.K. One says Britain’s decision gives China a “foothold” to conduct espionage as well as more economic and political leverage.

An 80-page plan for Israeli-Palestinian place was unveiled in Washington 28 January by U.S. President Donald Trump during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Among other things, it would recognize most Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land and would offer some sort of Palestinian statehood without an army and with overarching Israeli security control in some areas. Palestinian leaders had already rejected the proposal which Netanyahu lauded as “a great plan.

Cameron Ortis, the former director general of the RCMP’s national intelligence centre, faces three more charges under the Security of Information Act. Relating to unauthorized communication of special operational information, they are in addition to the original charge in September that he was preparing to share sensitive information with a foreign entity or terrorist organization.

Federal departments and agencies involved in national security have been wrestling with how to address growing right-wing extremism, according to redacted briefing notes prepared for deputy ministers last year but made public through the Access to Information Act. Among other things, the notes point out that hate crimes investigations are largely the remit of local law enforcement which, in many communities, is the RCMP.

Commercial air travel has never been safer and, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, the trend should continue. Based on a review of 2008-2017 flight data, it concluded that the risk of fatality was less than half the risk during the previous 10 years.

Ontario MP Erin O'Toole, a former Royal Canadian Air Force officer, confirmed 27 January that he would seek the Conservative Party of Canada leadership, to be decided at a June convention in Toronto. First elected in a 2012 byelection, he was Minister of Veterans Affairs for 10 months in 2015, and placed third in the 2017 leadership ballot won by Andrew Scheer.

Five Katyusha rockets were fired at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone 26 January but there were no reports of injury or serious damage. All were officially described as having impacted a riverbank but a source says one landed within the diplomatic compound. The source of the missiles was not known but Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi reiterated his country’s commitment to protecting “all diplomatic missions.”

A new analysis of U.S. involvement in Middle East affairs states that more than 60 years after it declared that it was willing to use military force to defend its “national interests” in the region, Washington’s policies seem to have come full circle.

The number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 81 with some 3,000 other cases diagnosed as Beijing maintains a broad quarantine to contain travel. At least 44 cases, none fatal, had been confirmed elsewhere as of 27 January.

The B.C. Supreme Court judge hearing the extradition case against detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has reserved her ruling. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes did not indicate when her decision would be announced.

Some three years after the fact, details are available on a major “real world” test of cyber  cooperation between the U.S. and coalition partners in their Daesh campaign. Operation Glowing Symphony in November 2016 was the largest exercise of its kind operations and the details show that U.S. Cyber Command considered sharing information typically held closely. The details are in documents released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University archives.

Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre, first elected to the House of Commons in 2004, announced 23 January that he would not seek the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. He had served in two cabinet portfolios in the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and most recently has been Opposition finance critic.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague has ordered measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Muslim Myanmar despite its military’s insistence that it was combatting extremists. Thousands of Rohingya have died and more than 700,000 have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown that began in 2017.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ metaphoric Doomsday Clock has ticked 20 seconds closer to midnight, to 100 seconds, the closest it has ever been to the prospect of a global catastrophe. Created in 1947, when it was set at seven minutes to midnight, the iconic marker has shifted back and forth 23 times and had been at two minutes since 2018. The latest shift, announced 23 January, reflects growing concern about the “existential” threats of nuclear war and climate change, which the group says are exacerbated by cyber-enabled information warfare.

A Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport owned by Coulson Aviation (USA) Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Columbia-based Coulson Group, crashed 23 January while fighting wildfires in Australia. The three-member crew of American residents died.

Former Alberta MP Ron Ambrose has announced that she will not seek the Conservative Party of Canada leadership. She said on Facebook 22 January that she “struggled” with the decision. Ambrose, who held portfolios in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, including the government's procurement arm, Public Works & Government Services, resigned from the House of Commons in 2017.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Services is being sued for racial and religious discrimination by a longtime employee who alleges that his Muslim faith marked him as a target. File last week in Federal Court, the action alleges a pattern of bullying and prejudice stretching back almost two decades.

The first case of the potentially deadly Wuhan coronavirus in the U.S. has been reported in Seattle. The federal Centers for Disease Control says the patient, in his 30s, had travelled from Wuhan in Hubei province, where the virus first was identified in December.

A lawyer for Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei telecom executive facing possible extradition to the U.S., has accused the U.S. of trying to use Canada to enforce its economic sanctions against Iran. Her counsel said at the beginning of a B.C. Supreme Court hearing that despite the Crown’s claims to the contrary, the case is all about the sanctions the U.S. alleges Meng has tried to circumvent. “We're being asked to impose on Canada an obligation to assist the U.S. in the enforcement of its sanctions — sanctions that we have expressly rejected.”

 

Draft legislation introduced by a group of senior U.S. Senators could require common operational standards for mobile networking equipment as a way to avoid Chinese providers which the U.S. considers a national security threat. The bipartisan bill has been welcomed by the domestic telecom sector.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is extending the use of facial recognition technology to its optional Global Entry program for frequent travellers. Until now, those “low risk” persons only had to have their passports and fingerprint scanned on entry but CBP says the use of facial biometrics eliminates the passport and fingerprint requirements.

Canadian legislation, which gives U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers the power to question, detain and even strip-search visitors while they are still in Canada, faces growing criticism. The rules permitting the CBP to position officers at Canadian airports ostensibly were designed to enhance border security and facilitate travel but have become increasingly problematic for some.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has used a mass prayer session in Tehran to defend the country’s Revolutionary Guard for having maintained Iran’s security by shooting down a Ukrainian airliner 08 January. Among other things, the cleric used his rare appearance to say that Iran’s “enemies” were “as happy about the plane crash as we were sad,” and called U.S. President Donald Trump a “clown.”

Nearly three years after Turkey blocked access to Wikipedia when the site refused to delete critical material, the country's Constitutional Court has ruled that the ban violated freedom of expression. The articles said, among other things, that Ankara had cooperated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda forces in Syria

U.S. adversaries’ evolving technological capabilities mean that the government needs cyberspace protection, says Glenn Gerstell, who is leaving his position as general counsel to the National Security Agency later this year. He shared his concerns at an American Bar Association event 15 January.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev resigned 15 January shortly after President Vladimir Putin proposed constitutional changes which could keep in him power after his current term expires in 2024. Medvedev said there could be “significant changes” in the balance between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

Ukraine is mounting a coordinated effort to facilitate its joining NATO and the European Union despite what its Dmygro Kuleba, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, sees as a “discouraging environment. He said during a visit to Washington last month that joining both alliances is vital as his country deals with Russia.

Britain, France and Germany say they do not accept Iran’s defence of its decision to remove all limits on its production of enriched uranium as provided for in a 2015 pact. The U.S. withdrew from the agreement last year and now the European partners, along with Russia and China, are trying to maintain the restrictions on a program Iran insists is for peaceful use.