Canada

The China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI), a global think tank, warns says Canada must urgently address what it describes as “strategic vulnerabilities” in the Arctic, involving areas such as surveillance, foreign investment screening, scientific cooperation, and influence over international narratives.

The report, “Closing Strategic Gaps in the Face of China’s Expanding Influence in the Canadian Arctic" (pdf), concludes with several recommendations to address the vulnerabilities identified in the gap analysis. It should be noted that none of these recommendations will find success without the Indigenous Communities in the Arctic being full partners:

- Strengthen Arctic surveillance and domain awareness, through establishing an interdepartmental Arctic surveillance coordination framework, led by the Department of National Defence in partnership with Transport Canada and RCMP; updating the 2022 NORAD modernization package to account for the evolving threat environment; differentiating Canadian Arctic sovereignty priorities from NORAD’s continental defence mandate by supplementing joint investments with Canada-only projects; accelerating vessel, aircraft, and satellite renewal to avoid capability gaps; expediting procurement and R&D of modernized surveillance technology tailored for Arctic conditions; and mandating a clearly defined share of defence spending for Arctic security as part of Canada’s 2% of GDP spend on defence. There are opportunities for synergies between engineers and scientists that have already been working in the Arctic to drive new military applications.

- Close Infrastructure and Investment Screening Gaps, by amending the Investment Canada Act to create Arctic-specific review triggers tailored for investment projects in strategically sensitive geographic regions and designate Arctic strategic infrastructure as a sensitive sector under national security provisions.

- Protect Indigenous Communities from Unvetted Foreign Engagement, by developing a security advisory mechanism that brings together federal, territorial, and Indigenous partners to the vetting process for foreign infrastructure and development proposals; amending the Investment Canada Act to explicitly include unsolicited subnational infrastructure offers as reviewable investments; expanding Indigenous infrastructure funding to reduce vulnerability to foreign offers; and reinforcing and expanding existing initiatives that provide national security training to Indigenous leadership and local development partners.

- Counter Foreign Narrative Influence; through building on Canada’s existing Arctic diplomacy strategy by launching and funding a dedicated public diplomacy component that proactively shapes narratives; conducting a regulatory review of Chinese state-controlled broadcasters in Canada; aligning scientific cooperation policies with security priorities; and tightening Canada’s policy on Arctic research collaboration by limiting partnerships to trusted allies.

- Enhance Allied Coordination and Arctic Presence; by expanding joint Arctic operational facilities with likeminded allies such as the US, Norway, Sweden, Finland, or Denmark and trilateral and multilateral exercises focused on northern domain awareness; negotiating critical mineral and rare earths supply agreements with allies to diversify Canada’s export markets and reduce strategic reliance on China; building on existing forums such as the Arctic Security Forces Roundtable (ASFR) to establish an Arctic-focused working group within NATO; augment Canada’s Arctic diplomacy beyond reliance on ‘soft power’ by incorporating enforceable mechanisms; and deepening Canada's involvement in allied technology-sharing platforms to accelerate the development and deployment of Arctic-tailored surveillance and dual-use detection systems.

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Abraham Toro homers against Cuba while James Paxton strikes out 6 in relief

Canada has advanced to the World Baseball Classic's playoff round for the first time in the international tournament's 20-year history.

Bo Naylor had an RBI double and Otto Lopez followed that with a two-run single as Canada scored three in the sixth inning to beat Cuba 7-2 on Wednesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico to reach the quarterfinals.

Although Canada has participated in all five WBCs (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023), it has never reached the knockout stage.

The Canadians finish the round-robin stage of the tournament in one of the top two spots in Pool A, but their playoff opponents are not yet known.

Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.

CBC News has learned two people — including a 22-year-old international student — died after giving plasma at Winnipeg collection centres that pay people for their donations.

The deaths are under review by Health Canada, which confirmed it received two reports of fatal adverse reactions in plasma donors — one in October of last year and another on Jan. 30, 2026.

The federal regulator says it is still assessing these reports and has not made a link between the plasma collection and deaths.

Rodiyat Alabede died on Oct. 25 after friends say the 22-year-old went to an appointment at the Grifols Plasma Donation Centre on Taylor Avenue to give plasma.

“We think it’s a bit strange that this labour-focused consultation is being run by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.”

The online voting process is simple:

1. Navigate to https://vote.ndp.ca/
2. Enter the ID and password from the NDP letter in the mail
3. Rank candidates from 1 through 5
4. Continue
5. Check selection
6. Confirm

The voting ends on Saturday, March 28, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. ET.

A new investigation by animal rights advocates shows horses being flown for slaughter in Japan continue to suffer injuries, illness and even death, reigniting the call for Canada to ban the shipments.

"Horses are still dying. Horses are still collapsing on the flights," said Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice, which wrote the report with documents provided by Japan-based Life Investigation Agency (LIA) and the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC).

"You cannot bulk-ship horses from rural Manitoba and rural Alberta to Japan for slaughter and do it in a humane way."

Retired Conservative senator Donald Plett opposes banning shipments but says Ottawa should demand more rigorous reporting requirements and accountability when horses are injured or die.

When Trump readied the 11th Airborne Division out of Alaska for potential deployment to Minneapolis to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in their immigration crackdown, I posted the big scoop: the operations leader for that unit was none other than Canadian Brigadier-General Robert McBride. I subsequently wrote about the intertwined nature of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the US military for The Economist.

The ties detailed involved exchanges, secondments, embeds, task forces, and other joint operations, including training. At any time, there are hundreds of our service members sprinkled across the vast US military, with several more in the North American Aerospace Defense Command or overseas serving with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States Central Command, and others.

That story rattled both Ottawa and Washington. The Department of National Defence was keen to separate themselves from the idea of a Canadian military member partaking in the brutality visited upon civilians in Minneapolis. They assured the public that there are safeguards in place to prevent a Canadian being “deployed” with an American unit, including that any such actions would have to be approved at the highest levels (but it does happen: see my previous coverage about the Iraq invasion).

But the DND was extremely skittish when it came to answering questions about intelligence sharing between Canada and the US and potential CAF involvement in Operation Southern Spear. Weeks of plugging away at sources in the US military, CAF, Ottawa, Washington, and the Open Source community brought me to the tipping point.

Here’s what I found out: by nature of our military relationship with the US, Canada is implicated in Operation Southern Spear. The question is to what degree.

The prime minister’s seat was empty in the House of Commons during the marathon four-hour debate on the Iran war on the evening of March 9. Mark Carney blamed scheduling issues, but it was a notable absence, jumped on by the Conservatives, who claimed he was in hiding.

The foreign minister, Anita Anand, got the first chance at the empty hot seat instead to try to defend the government’s inconsistencies in its approach to the American and Israeli attack on Iran. Anand did her best with a weak hand, suggesting the core principle at stake for the Liberals was to ensure that Iran never acquired nuclear weapons and stopped acting as a terrorist agent of disruption in the region and the world.

The defence minister, David McGuinty, also got his time in the hot seat. He spoke to emphasize the need for de-escalation of the Iran war, without even sketching a starting point or a plan. He also suggested an optimistic outlook for the Iran war, arguing that the weakening of a repressive regime would open the door to a better future. Note weakening, not all-out regime change.

The Canadian position on the Iran war is now incoherent. If the original, allegedly “realpolitik,” decision to go all in with the United States and Israel was based on winning favour with the Donald Trump administration, or at least avoiding disfavour, any such win, doubtful in the first place, has now been lost, and we are back in a position where we can join the list of those countries who Secretary of War (truly) Pete Hegseth will say are “clutching their pearls.”

lol

Two men fired multiple shots at the US consulate in Toronto early on Tuesday in what police described as a “national security incident”, prompting beefed-up protection for US and Israeli diplomatic buildings in the city.

Hot diggity

There is a union of sex workers in Montreal and they're calling for a strike on the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend in May.

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While living under Russian control, children have faced physical and psychological constraints. This includes “Russification” through forced assimilation, changes to their citizenship and names, and being banned from speaking Ukrainian. Some are sent to cadet schools and exposed to military propaganda, while others have been subjected to military training and forced conscription for Russian military service. In addition to being exposed to sexual violence, girls describe being denied access to contraception and abortion care.

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Canada must expose the cynicism of Russia’s territorial claims [against Ukraine] by exposing the treatment of abducted children as well as the situation facing residents in occupied territories. As co-chairs of an international coalition, Canada and Ukraine have been rallying support globally to help return and reintegrate these children to their families. This coalition now includes the U.S. government, which has called on Russia to return these children and, to that end, in December passed a bipartisan law in Congress — signed by President Donald Trump.

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Beyond diplomacy, Canada must continue to wield its sanctions laws. Multiple countries have used sanctions to hamper Russia’s ability to fund the war. The government should work with the U.S., U.K. and EU to apply further sanctions as Ukrainian authorities continue to identify those responsible — including officials in the Russian welfare, justice and security sectors — for the forcible transfer and deportation of children.

Amidst multiple international crises and with future rounds of peace talks pending, it is imperative that Canada keeps the world’s focus on the immediate and unconditional safe return of abducted children, as well as galvanize international partners and push for a just peace that does not include Ukraine giving up its eastern regions. Russia has violated all international rules on the treatment of children and the wider populations it occupies. Ukraine ceding more territory would only legitimize these crimes and encourage more in the future.

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A provincial court judge in Newfoundland and Labrador is speaking up on what he views as dissonance between the bail reform movement and reality.

Judge Andrew Wadden dedicated a significant portion of a bail decision in Harbour Grace on Tuesday to addressing the movement, saying it doesn't fit with what courts are seeing across Canada.

He said more people are in pre-trial custody than ever before, and that opinions are likely shaped by media coverage of releases gone wrong.

"It is those such events that inspire what I view to be inflammatory rhetoric such as ‘jail not bail,’ or ‘catch and release,'" Wadden said.

“The percentage of people in Canada in pre-trial detention continues to go up, yet the demand for bail reform continues to grow louder. These two things are obviously at odds."

Archived link

NATO nations are sending troops to Norway for a cold-weather exercise this week, as alliance officials kick off a yearslong analysis into causes for conflict in the Arctic.

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“The region faces rapid militarization of allied and threatening interests – NATO and nations are making procurement decisions that will field the force of 2030 and set the conditions for success and adaptation out to 2040,” a NATO technical activity proposal viewed by Defense News said.

Defense officials on both sides of the Atlantic have warned that the prospect of a war in the region is rising, with the expectation of Russia turning its attention to the region if and when the Ukraine conflict ends.

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The EU and Canada have begun to negotiate a so-called ‘Digital Trade Agreement’ (DTA), alongside Europe’s clash with the US on digital regulation.

The DTA is to boost legal certainty and fair digital trade across the Atlantic Ocean.

Negotiations for the new deal were announced on Friday (6 March) and will build on the 2017 EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

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The aim of the collaboration is to create digital consumer protection, add legal certainty for businesses operating digitally (for example, clarifying the legality of electronic signatures, contracts, and invoices), and to achieve fair digital trade, shielded from protectionist data or digital practices.

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Digital trade is growing in size and importance, with over 60% of global GDP linked to digital transactions. The EU is the world's leading exporter and importer of digitally deliverable services. As of 2023, 54 % of the EU's service trade was conducted digitally, amounting to €670 billion in imports and €661 billion in exports from outside the EU. This includes, for example, telecommunication services, computer and information services, and other services that are typically delivered digitally (financial services, insurance and pension services, etc).

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The province will be taking over control of Billy Bishop airport on Toronto Island, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.

"This is a crown jewel," said Ford, adding the City of Toronto, which currently has jurisdiction of the airport, will be compensated for the value and for any lost revenue, which Ford said was about $5 million a year.

"This is an economic driver," the premier said.

The airport is currently governed by a tripartite agreement with the City of Toronto, Toronto Port Authority and the federal government. The city owns about 20 per cent of the land the airport sits on, according to its site.

Ford told reporters that he'd told Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow about the plan when she visited his home "in the last week or so."