IN THE NEWS

A House of Commons committee is studying Bill C-59, the Liberal government’s updated national security legislation. Some opponents say it gives “extraordinarily permissive” powers to Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE). C-59 would see the CSE become more proactive, able to launch cyber attacks abroad and engage in covert operations.

Canadian officials worked with their Turkish counterparts to secure the safe passage of two Canadian citizens across the Syrian border. Jolly Bimbachi and Sean Allen Moore had been working together in recent months to try to reclaim her two Canadian sons from their father, who allegedly abducted the children and took them to Lebanon.

The New York Police Department is giving each officer an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus. Eventually every officer will be able to use their mobile telephone for background checks, monitor 911 calls, and fill out paperwork.

Luke Stewart is suing Toronto police for confiscating his swimming goggles before the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, an event which led to many legal actions, officer disciplinary hearings and criminal proceedings. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says this may be the only civil suit from those protests to actually go to trial.

Two students were shot and wounded, one critically, inside a Los Angeles middle school classroom. Police arrested a female student believed to be 12 years old, authorities said.

A Toronto man has been arrested and charged after police found 71 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Toronto police began the investigation in January after receiving a report about a man who was allegedly "in possession of an illegal firearm."

A Montreal man has pleaded guilty to using a public library that straddles the Quebec-Vermont border to smuggle guns. Purchased in the US, the weapons were exchanged in the binational building's washroom.

The Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence held multiple mental health awareness events across Canada today, in support of the Bell Let’s Talk campaign against stigma surrounding mental illness.

Today is Bell Let’s Talk day. Bell donates five cents for every social interaction facilitated by its network to a mental health initiative in Canada. The campaign is meant both to raise money and to spark the conversation about mental health in general. What happens after a person has taken the brave step of asking for help?

In one of Tehran’s busiest squares, an Iranian woman risked arrest by removed her head scarf, tied it to a stick and waved it for all to see. Police, who maintain a booth in the square, either did not see her or decided not to intervene. According to social media accounts, she was one of six women on Monday to make the symbolic gesture.

A recent Sun newspaper series looked at the threat of terrorism in Canada, based on documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). One CSIS memo stated “the Service has never before faced a terrorist threat of the scope, scale and complexity of Sunni Islamist-inspired terrorism”.

Media are invited to attend a Canadian Armed Forces panel discussion on mental health for Bell Let’s Talk Day. The eighth annual Bell Let’s Talk Day is on Wednesday, January 31, 2018. The CAF is a longstanding partner with Bell in this initiative to continue the conversation around mental health and stigma.

The attacker, driving an ambulance filled with explosives, was able to race through a security checkpoint by saying he was transferring a patient to a hospital. The explosion damaged or destroyed dozens of shops and vehicles in the heart of the city, near government buildings.

Sentencing is expected today in the RCMP's trial for Labour Code violations related to the 2014 murders of three Mounties in Moncton, New Brunswick. The case involved the force's failure to equip officers properly to face heavily armed criminals.

Two students were killed Tuesday and 18 other people were wounded when a 15-year-old boy armed with a handgun opened fire inside a Kentucky high school, authorities said.

Accused of involvement in a terrorist bombing, Hassan Diab was arrested by Canadian police at the request of French authorities in 2008 and extradited. Released without trial and back in Canada, Dian wants a public inquiry into Canada's extradition law.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada announced an investment of $1.3 million over five years for the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and the University of British Columbia's Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education.

Impaired driving is a crime, but charges are rarely laid against drugged drivers. Right now, there is no limit on the amount of cannabis found in blood, as there is for alcohol. Drugs are now more often found than alcohol in the blood of drivers killed in crashes.

Bell Canada is alerting customers after hackers illegally accessed the information of fewer than 100,000 customers, the telecom giant told CBC News. The breach comes just eight months after 1.9 million customer emails were stolen from Bell's database by an anonymous hacker.

An Ohio man who admitted receiving training in Syria to kill members of the U.S. military and then plotting to carry out an attack has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) updates internal tracking of Canadian jihadists abroad as often as once a week. Weekly reports from 2016 and early 2017 track those “currently in Turkey/Syria/Iraq” and those “returned to Canada from Turkey/Syria/Iraq”. The Liberal government has put the number of returnees at 60 for over two years.

The solution ordered by Brazil is very similar to that of Canada. Brazil’s first C295 SAR aircraft toured three of Canada’s search and rescue bases in 2017. Accessing the contractual option for additional SAR-configured aircraft will bring its C295 fleet to 15 aircraft, with 12 transport-configured and 3 SAR-configured.

An avalanche hit Turkish soldiers conducting military operations against Kurdish rebels in Turkey's southeast on Sunday, killing five of them and injuring 12 others, officials said.

A briefing note from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in October 2016 states, “The Service has never before faced a terrorist threat of the scope, scale and complexity of Sunni Islamist-inspired terrorism...” The document seems to conflict with public statements by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Police in Nigeria say two Canadians and two Americans kidnapped on Tuesday are in “good spirits”. The officials say they are being held by bandits, not terrorists, and a ransom has been demanded.

An oil spill from an Iranian oil tanker that sank in the East China Sea is now the size of Paris. The slick covers an area of 101 square kilometers, after almost doubling in size from the start of the week, according to figures released Wednesday by the Chinese State Oceanic Administration.

Ottawa Police Const. Marcel Allen was arrested Tuesday. Police allege that Allen entered a teen’s home with a knife looking to settle a dispute between the teen and one of his own children. Police also allege that Allen flashed his badge during the altercation.

Reports from Nigeria say gunmen have kidnapped two Canadians and two Americans on a road known for abductions. Local media say two security personnel were shot and killed during the attack.

Kangni Fiowole-Kouevi, 36, had made it across the border near Emerson, Manitoba. He is the latest African asylum-seeker to face the possibility of losing his fingers to frostbite.

Venezuelan special forces captured five members of a band led by a rebellious police officer who have been on the run since stealing a helicopter and launching grenades at government buildings in the capital last year, officials said.

A Vancouver-area teen was with his family when he ran into the deadly crossfire of the region's intermittent gang war. Police say the 15-year-old boy was shot just after 9 p.m. on one of Vancouver's busiest streets, and died on Monday afternoon after his family took him off of life support.

On Friday, news outlets around the world carried the story of an 11 year old Muslim schoolgirl in Toronto whose hijab had been cut by a man on her way to school. Yesterday Toronto police said the attack never happened. Toronto police said the investigation has concluded.

A Pegasus Airlines flight skidded off the runway of a Turkish coastal airport and plunged down a steep slope on the edge of the Black Sea, ending up only metres from the water's edge. None of the 168 people on board was hurt.

A draft discussion paper prepared for the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) explores how "mega trends" will transform the economy, society and security.  The document was created for a November 2016 meeting of senior officials.