In the News

Cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Alberta was counting on to get crude oil to southern U.S. refineries, will cost the province approximately $1.3 billion, it was disclosed today. “We invested in Keystone XL because of the long-term economic benefits it would have provided Albertans and Canadians,” said Energy Minister Sonya Savage in a news release. The government agreed last year to a $1.5 equity position in the project as well as billions more in loan guarantees.

The U.S. is forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, Britain and the European Union to determine how best to restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions. A White House official says decisions on reopening borders “will be fully guided by the objective analysis and recommendations by public health and medical experts.”

More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an encrypted messaging app. Australian, British and U.S. law enforcement agencies were able to monitor exchanges about narcotics, money laundering and even murder plots before moving in to make arrests as well as seizing drugs, guns and money.

The Russian foreign ministry has banned visits by Canada’s Justice and Intergovernmental Affairs ministers, the Commissioner of the RCMP, the Deputy Minister of Defence and the commander of the Canadian Armed Forces Intelligence Command. They and other senior officials have been accused by the ministry of “inappropriate and counterproductive activity in support of the ultra-nationalist regime” in Ukraine and other “Russophobic forces” in the Baltic states.

Four members of a Muslim family in London., Ont., were killed in a June 6 hit-and-run attack which resulted in the 20-year-old driver of the vehicle being charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder, the latter involving a fifth member of the family. Police said the attack was a “premeditated act motivated by hate” and were consulting the RCMP on the possibility of laying terrorism-related charges as well.

Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Nigerian militant Boko Haram movement evidently has been killed in a battle with rival Islamic State West African Province forces. ISWAP leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi confirmed Shekau’s death in a verified audio recording.

Canada's border agency is urgently looking to hire a global technology firm to help develop a biometric strategy in response to rapidly evolving issues including COVID-19. The chosen contractor would help CBSA develop a plan to "manage, evolve and adapt" the use of biometrics to address issues flowing from the pandemic and other priorities.

A strategic intelligence report prepared by the Canada Border Service Agency warns that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive an increase in immigration fraud and human smuggling. It says that economic downturns and increased poverty abroad will prompt more people to resort to irregular methods to gain entry.

Canada and the other G7 countries countries plan to set common minimum corporate tax rates, a move Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says is the first step toward a global deal. She also says Canada will go ahead with a three per cent digital services tax next year, contingent on any international deals.

Investigations into misconduct by Canada Border Services Agency officers increased by nearly 27 per cent last year despite a dramatic drop in international travel. The CBSA said it conducted 215 “founded” investigations last year compared with 171 in 2019 and that 170 officers were reprimanded, mainly with temporary suspensions, but one was dismissed for interfering in the immigration process.

In a settlement with French authorities, the Internet giant Google said today that it will change its global advertising policy to ensure it does not abuse is dominant market position. This was after the California-headquartered company was fined €220million by the French competition bureau in a case with broad international ramifications.

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland lambasted them in Parliament, senior Air Canada executives confirmed June 6 that they would return their 2020 bonuses and stock options. The bonuses had been awarded as the carrier was negotiating pandemic-related financial support.

NAV CANADA has launched an app designed to enhance the safety of drone operations in controlled airspace. help drone pilots and operators safely and legally fly their remotely piloted aircraft systems. The air navigation service provider said it received nearly 16,000 flight authorization requests in the second half of last year, a 54 per cent jump from the same period in 2019.

Cristiana Chamorro, a prospective candidate for the presidency of Nicaragua, has been placed under house arrest, accused by Danial Ortega’s government of money laundering. Her arrest is the latest in a series of measures the opposition says is designed to ensure Ortega’s reelection.

A 41-year-old Chinese man from Jiangsu province has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with a rare bird flu strain. Officials did not give details on how the man got infected, but the H10N3 strain is thought to not easily spread from humans to humans. Contact tracing did not find any other cases of the virus.

The upper house of Russia’s parliament voted June 2 to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty which facilitated reciprocal military reconnaissance overflights with other signatories. The U.S. had already decided not to rejoint the agreement. The Duma’s decision now requires only President Vladimir Putin’s signature to become law.

Arriving air passengers who refuse to quarantine in a designated hotel face a $5,000 fine, beginning June 4. The $2,000 increase is in response to the findings of a government advisory panel which recommended that passengers arrange their own quarantine.

Since the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.617 was reported in India late last year, it has spread to dozens of other countries, including the U.S. and Britain, where investigators are trying to determine how this and other variants are driving the global pandemic.

Reports that Danish intelligence helped the U.S. to spy on European leaders several years ago are neither being denied nor commented on directly, but Prime Minister Mette Freederiksen said June 2 that her country has solid relations with its allies. “I do not think it is correctly presented that there is a need to restore relations with either France or Germany,” she said. “We have an ongoing dialogue.”

A 2017 decision by the former U.S. administration to permit oil and gas exploration in an ecologically-sensitive part of Alaska was overturned June 1, some five months after a moratorium was imposed. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been at the centre of a decades-long fight between environmentalists and indigenous peoples and the petroleum industry.

The Canadarm2 on the International Space Station suffered “limited” damage from debris last month. However, the Canadian Space Agency says “results of the ongoing analysis indicate that the arm's performance remains

NATO foreign and defence ministers began meeting today to prepare for the alliance’s first meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, set for June 14, after four fractious years with his predecessor. “This is a pivotal moment for our alliance, and our collective security,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said May 31. “In a more competitive and unpredictable world, we need transatlantic unity.”

The espionage trial of a former Polish intelligence agent and a former Huawei employee began today in Warsaw as some European countries consider whether to block the Chinese company’s involvement in upgrading their telecommunications networks. The two accused were arrested in January 2019.

Two days after the remains of 215 children were found buried near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., the federal has directed that flags on all federal buildings across the country be flown at half-mast. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the decision on social media May 30.

A group of Houston hospital workers have invoked the Nuremburg Code in suing their employer over mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. Implemented after WWII in response to Nazi atrocities, the code is designed to prevent experimentation on human subjects without their consent. The suit follows a statement by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that employers could mandate vaccinations.

A malware attack on a Canada Post supplier, Commport Communications, involved 44 of its largest customers and potentially nearly one million people. As a data interchange service, Commport manages manifest data for large-parcel shippers. Canada Post said in a May 26 statement that no personal financial information was accessed during the attack between July 2016 and March 2019.

Swiss legislators are discussing the need for more controls over their country’s secretive and essentially unregulated banking industry after a recent investment scandal. “Bank directors don’t take responsibility for their action because there is no need,” says Green Party parliamentarian Gerhard Andrey. “We have proposed a reform . . . that would mean if something goes wrong, then the manager is on the hook.”

Students at Western University and its affiliated colleges in Ontario must have at least one COVID-19 vaccination as part of the London-based campus’ plan to return to in-person classes this fall. It said May 26 that the preference is to get vaccinated before arriving but failing that, students would have two weeks after their scheduled move-in date to get shots on campus. However, students who cannot be vaccinated for medical or “other protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code” can request accommodation.

Australia's ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, was denied entry May 25 to a Beijing court which was hearing espionage charges against an Australian blogger. “The reason given was because of the pandemic situation but the foreign ministry has also told us it is because it is a national security case,” Fletcher said. “We have had longstanding concerns about this case, including lack of transparency, and therefore have concluded it is an instance of arbitrary detention.” The blogger, Yang Hengjun, is an Australian citizen born in China who was living in New York immediately before he was detained in China.

The Supreme Court of Canada agreed today to review the sentencing of a man who shot six persons to death at a Quebec City mosque in 2017. Alexandre Bissonnette, who pled guilty to six counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder in 2018, was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. Quebec’s appeal court ruled last November that he would be eligible to apply for parole after 25 years, saying that a Criminal Code provision for consecutive life sentences is unconstitutional.

The global pandemic has proven the value of international research cooperation but are geopolitical tensions, notably between the U.S. and China, undermining that process? It’s argued that all sides need to strike a balance that safeguards the rewards of cooperation because other global issues such as climate change, environmental degradation and disease require it.

In what is being described as a precedent-setting judgment, Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered by a court in The Netherlands to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions in that country by 45 per cent from 2019 levels by 2030. A spokesman for the petroleum giant said it expects to appeal the ruling in the case brought by Friends of the Earth along with six other organizations and thousands of Dutch citizens.

Alberta has ordered four universities to stop seeking research projects linked to the Chinese government. “I am deeply concerned about the potential theft of Canadian intellectual property and further concerned that research partnerships . . . may be used by Chinese military and intelligence agencies,” Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says. “More needs to be done to curb foreign state infiltration into our research and innovation centres.”

The Republican governor of Texas is preparing to sign off on a bill which would enable most residents to carry concealed handguns without a license, training or background checks. Texas already permits long-guns to be carried openly without a license.