Canada

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/56654224

Ottawa added four new organizations to the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities:

Maniac Murder Cult.

Terrorgram Collective.

The Islamic State-Mozambique.

Captain Stephen Ye, commander of the defence and security platoon at the headquarters of the Labrie military base near Riga, is responsible for protecting the brigade headquarters. He says innovations in Russia’s war in Ukraine are continually reshaping his job.

“It has helped us understand that the battlefield we operate in is now almost completely transparent. It is very hard to hide when drones have become so widespread that perhaps there is no such thing as a safe zone anymore, so we must always think about security, no matter where we are operating,” Capt Ye tells LRT.lt.

At the base, troops from Canada’s lead multinational brigade train for a range of scenarios – from drone reconnaissance to enemy infiltration. Although they are trained to use various types of counter-drone weapons, NATO troops still lack their own unmanned aircraft to prepare effectively for modern drone warfare.

“As ground-based soldiers, we usually talk about the importance of overhead cover, but it has never been more important than it is now, with the proliferation of unmanned aerial systems all over the battlefield,” Capt Ye says.

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Canada began its mission in Latvia in 2014 after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The operation was named Reassurance, reflecting NATO allies’ intent to reassure eastern flank members that the Alliance would defend them.

More than a decade on, the operation has become the largest overseas mission of the Canadian Armed Forces. During a visit to Riga this August, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced its extension for another three years.

Canada now deploys ships to the Baltic region, contributing to NATO’s standing naval forces and other missions. The country also maintains an air force unit providing logistical support from the United Kingdom.

Canada’s land forces established their presence in Latvia in 2017, when the country agreed to lead the multinational NATO battlegroup. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the battlegroup was expanded to a brigade of several thousand troops.

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The European Union and Canada also announced last Monday an agreement that will allow Ottawa to join SAFE, the EU’s €150-billion defence financing programme. The scheme aims to offer favourable loans to participating states so they can purchase weapons jointly with other partners.

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As his six-month rotation draws to a close, Capt Ye is preparing to return to Canada. Reflecting on his service in Latvia, he says the sense of purpose and the experience gained outweigh all the challenges.

“Working with NATO allies is an opportunity I would not have had at home. Coming here and working with all these different countries has been challenging – because of language barriers, because of different command structures and so on. But that is also why I volunteered to come here: I wanted to get to know our NATO allies better and see what we can learn from them,” Capt Ye says.

Canadians tend to think of far-right extremism and white nationalism as a strictly American problem, adopting an “it couldn’t happen here” mindset, or seeing it as a lunatic fringe that should just be ignored. But these movements are gaining a foothold in mainstream culture, and the structure for that to happen has been in this country since its inception.

White supremacy arrived in Canada in the fifteenth century, with the first Europeans. Since then, Canada has waged a cultural and literal genocide against Indigenous peoples, including the horrors perpetrated as early as 1831 at Christian church- and government-sponsored residential schools, which were designed to strip children from their families and their culture, with the last federally run residential school closing in 1996. In 1911, the government passed an order-in-council to ban Black immigrants from entering Canada (it was never invoked). In 1921, the Ku Klux Klan formed its first Canadian chapter. In 1946, Viola Desmond was arrested for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a movie theatre. The last segregated school in Canada didn’t close until 1983.

The late 2010s brought with them the “alt-right” era, a term coined by white nationalist Richard Spencer to differentiate his views from traditional American conservatism. Originally characterized by online trolling, the “alt-right” was a random and reactionary series of chats, pages, memes, and shitposting accounts—mainly from the US—as well as a loose collection of more serious actors like the Proud Boys and Atomwaffen. Over the years, its membership has become increasingly public, participating in rallies and engaging in acts of violence in the real world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a new iteration has emerged in Canada: Diagolon.

IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUT when the attacks occurred. In just forty-five minutes, a slim, dark-haired man wearing a Jets jersey sexually assaulted three nurses and a teenager in and around Winnipeg’s largest hospital, the Health Sciences Centre (HSC), on July 2, according to police.

While officers searched for the suspect, hospital workers finished their shifts and walked back to their vehicles, unaware a predator was at large. Later, police would report that a third woman was assaulted that night in the area, by the same man. Staff didn’t learn what happened until the following day.

For HSC employees, these assaults weren’t an aberration. They were a tipping point after years of increasing violence against hospital staff. In a 2024 survey, one-third of physicians at HSC reported experiencing an average of eleven safety episodes in the previous year, almost double the provincial rate. A safety episode can include threats, violence, sexual assault, and harassment. HSC alone accounted for nearly half of all reported assaults on Manitoba doctors. Physicians described being punched, kicked, spat on, and bombarded with verbal abuse. The danger follows them outside the hospital into walkways and parking lots, where some have been chased and attacked coming to and from the job.

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Just last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney met with the government of India to launch new trade negotiations. This is the same government former prime minister Justin Trudeau accused of involvement in killing a Canadian citizen on our own soil. Moreover, the RCMP claims to have evidence of Indian government “agents” engaging in extortion, intimidation, coercion and harassment.

Foreign actors have also targeted sensitive Canadian information and technological services we rely upon. At Ontario Power Generation, an employee was charged under the Security of Information Act for allegedly attempting to share safeguarded information with a foreign entity. At Hydro-Québec, a researcher was charged with obtaining trade secrets for the benefit of a foreign state. We must not become numb to persistent hacking attempts by hostile foreign states.

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As Canadians, we know the identities of individuals accused of compromising our energy grid, yet we do not know the names of lawmakers alleged to have been accomplices to foreign interference in our democracy. Some may have been re-elected to the House or remain in the Senate. Most likely continue to shape national policy.

Meanwhile, the core protections Canadians were promised to defend against future influence activities — particularly, a foreign agent registry and foreign influence commissioner — remain undelivered. Both were described as essential tools to safeguard our democratic institutions and rebuild public confidence, but neither has materialized.

This is the contradiction at the heart of Canada’s foreign policy moment. We are seeking to expand our partnerships while failing to implement the very protections we said were necessary to safeguard the country from many of those foreign actors.

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Canada should engage globally. And there are legitimate debates to be had about who we align ourselves with. But whoever we choose, we must do so from a position of strength, not vulnerability. That means delivering on the commitments for a registry and commissioner, and ensuring transparency and accountability for those implicated in foreign interference.

Until then, our citizens, secrets and democracy are left vulnerable — while we protect foreign states, and those who collude with them, from scrutiny.

Canada cannot lead internationally while leaving itself exposed at home. And the countries exploiting our vulnerabilities know it — even if we pretend not to.

Jordan Peterson, the popular and polarizing psychologist, is held in high esteem by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has twice appeared on Peterson’s podcast, which draws millions of listeners worldwide.

A Tyee investigation has found that Smith’s admiration for Peterson went well beyond her affinity for him as a fellow conservative culture warrior.

Documents obtained through freedom of information request show that Smith, and her chief of staff, Rob Anderson, directly intervened with Alberta’s Advanced Education Ministry in an attempt to help Peterson’s higher-education business venture.

On Aug. 1, 2024, Smith met with Peterson “to discuss how his organization can work with the province to have their online training platform accredited.”

Darwin knows what cameras look like – and how to avoid them. From inside his enclosure, the monkey of Toronto Ikea parking lot fame spots us out of the corner of his eye and bolts under the table.

The now 13-year-old Japanese macaque has seen enough of the spotlight to last a lifetime.

Darwin was just a baby when he was found in a North York Ikea parking lot in 2012, wearing a diaper and shearling coat, and seized by animal services. He’s been living at Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont., ever since.

The Department of National Defence is scrambling to figure out how it will clothe, equip and train hundreds of thousands of new reservists envisioned under an ambitious mobilization proposal that Canada’s top military commander describes as a work in progress.

Similarly, in what may be an ominous sign of the times, the department has established a key position dedicated solely to growing the military in the event of a major crisis.

Internal documents obtained by CBC News show the military buildup will, at the moment, proceed slowly because the defence industry is either overwhelmed — or not equipped for the ramp-up.

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Why do we care about the Arctic? That’s the next major battleground as Russia, Denmark (through Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. all claim territory. Canada claims approximately 1.2 million square kilometres of the region. As a result of the climate crisis, the Arctic glaciers are melting at an increasingly rapid rate. This provides an incentive for countries that have maritime borders in the North to open up to potential resource extraction, new trade routes, and military capabilities. The federal government explains: “With the Arctic warming at an unprecedented rate, new maritime routes are becoming accessible. The Canadian Armed Forces … must recognize and fulfil its collaborative role in ensuring Canadian Arctic sovereignty.” Sovereignty is primarily established through occupation of the disputed lands, hence military expansion. With increased access to strategic trade and resources, Carney’s government is ostensibly investing in the future of Canada’s economy. Basically, Carney is turning Canada into Canada, Inc.—a global energy superpower for which the Arctic is imperative to the future of resource extraction.

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Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada. Its June 2025 document regarding Arctic sovereignty within a security and defence framework states: “As Canada turns toward the Arctic, governments must prioritize Inuit prosperity and perspectives as the foundation of Arctic security, sovereignty and defence.” In other words, Canada’s success in claiming Arctic waters cannot be established until Inuit communities are properly resourced: “Securing the Arctic requires Canada to invest in the people that live here and the services and supports needed to develop the economy.”

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The federal government should implement Article 3 from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states: “Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” The implication is that Indigenous sovereignty is key to Canadian authority in the Arctic, and the vision for this country’s economic future.

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Canada will invest up to $1.7 billion over 12 years to attract and support more than 1,000 leading international and expatriate researchers, including Francophone researchers. Recruitment will target individuals who are advancing world-leading research in critical fields that will deliver direct economic, societal and health benefits for Canadians.

This initiative has four streams:

• The Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program offers $1 billion over 12 years to support institutions in attracting world-leading researchers. New chairs and their teams will advance transformational research projects that can be applied and/or commercialized by connecting with receptors in industry, government and society, while also developing the next generation of highly qualified personnel. Importantly, the program funds both researcher salaries and supporting infrastructure, ensuring comprehensive support for recruited researchers.
• $120 million over 12 years is being provided for institutions to attract international early career researchers (ECRs) through the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program. This program will add more global talent to the Canadian research ecosystem, bringing in fresh ideas, diverse perspectives and significant potential.
• Another $400 million will be used to create the Canada Impact+ Research Infrastructure Fund over six years to establish a complementary stream of research infrastructure support to ensure the recruited research chairs and ECRs have the world-class facilities they need to achieve their research goals.
• The Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards will invest $133.6 million over three years to enable top international doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers to relocate to Canada.

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Sara Seager, a Canadian astrophysicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is among those leaving - she will join the University of Toronto in September, as reported by Reuters.

“There (are) many reasons why I’m returning to Canada, and one of them is the budget cuts and also the huge uncertainty in science funding in the U.S.,” Seager told Reuters.

Four of Canada’s leading universities told Reuters they are stepping up efforts to recruit top academic talent from abroad in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney's budget plan to attract over a thousand highly qualified international researchers over the next decade or so to make the country more competitive.

Canada’s political and media class has spent years chasing convenient villains to blame for the housing crisis, pointing the finger at foreign buyers, immigrants, supply shortages, zoning rules, or an overheated market.

From the bill ^[1]^:

[…] It amends the Criminal Code to, among other things, […] (g) criminalize the distribution of visual representations of bestiality; […] ^[1.3]^

(3.‍1) Every person commits an offence who knowingly publishes, distributes, transmits, sells, makes available or advertises any visual representation that is or is likely to be mistaken for a photographic, film, video or other visual recording of a person committing bestiality. ^[1.1]^

(3.‍4) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (3.‍1)

(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; or

(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. ^[1.2]^

For context, from the Criminal Code:

(7) In this section, bestiality means any contact, for a sexual purpose, with an animal. ^[3]^

The Department of Justice's rationale is that it is "online sextortion" ^[2]^, and that it is known to be used to manipulate children for sexual purposes ^[2]^.

The bill also expands limits on demonstrations by banning protests around community, cultural, and religious centres, regardless of the activities taking place inside. Critics warn that creating “bubble zones” around such places restricts freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, and could effectively criminalize lawful protest that is not hate-motivated—for example, when Palestine solidarity protesters (many of them Jewish) protested outside synagogues hosting non-religious events promoting the illegal sale of Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The federal government says these new restrictions aim to make Canada safer and better able to fight hate crimes. But, in a joint letter, 37 diverse civil society organisations stressed their opposition to the bill. The signatories demanded that Parliament withdraw the bill, saying it would worsen systemic inequities and undermine Canada's commitments to freedom of expression.

Some legal infrastructure defining criticisms of Israel as hate speech is already in place. In 2019, the federal government adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which broadens the definition of antisemitism to include some criticisms of Israel. According to the federal government's document on the subject, referring to "the existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavor" is anti-semitism. The document's list of examples of hate-speech includes phrases such as "you can't be antiracist and Zionist" and that "Zionism is a racist & violent settler-colonial project." Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) criticized the definition, saying it was being used to "suppress and even criminalize pro-Palestine speech and activism."

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Canada signed a partnership to develop a multibillion dollar military satellite system with the country’s biggest satellite operator, Telesat Corp., and its biggest space technology manufacturer, MDA Space Ltd.

Both Ontario-based companies said Tuesday they would create a multi-frequency Arctic military satellite network for the Canadian Armed Forces. Procurement for the project will be led by a defense investment agency started by Prime Minister Mark Carney in October and led by former Royal Bank of Canada executive Doug Guzman.

The system is called Enhanced Satellite Communications Project – Polar. The exact amount of the investment was not disclosed.

The companies said the new capability would boost the country’s sovereignty over its vast Arctic, enhancing the air force and wider armed forces’ abilities. It bolsters Canada’s commitments to North American Aerospace Defense Command, Norad — the joint military command with the US — and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Telesat said.

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"Flint And Feather" is a book of poems that I picked up when visiting the author's birthplace and childhood home on the Six Nations Reserve, near Hamilton, Ontario. The house, Chiefswood, still stands as a National Historical Site which gives excellent tours during the summer.

Johnson was born in 1861 to Mohawk Head Chief Onwanonsyshon (G.H.M. Johnson) of the Six Nations, and Emily S. Howells a British woman from an established family.

Her poems reflect this mixing of worlds. She was a prolific author, having published almost 300 poems from 1883 to 1913. She wrote about both her heritages, and about Canada, having travelled extensively across the country. Her writing is fierce about her indigenous roots, and evocative about the lands she visited. Though of course, her language is a product of the time, and her Christian upbringing features in some of her work.

Tekahionwake succumbed to breast cancer in 1913 at the age of 51, in Vancouver. Her public funeral was the largest in Vancouver history at the time. Her ashes were placed in Stanley Park, where a memorial still stands.

The poetry is now in the public domain, and available online: https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/flintandfeather/

Her acrostic "Canada" still rings true.

"Canada" - Tekahionwake
Crown of her, young Vancouver; crest of her, old Quebec;
Atlantic and far Pacific sweeping her, keel to deck.
North of her, ice and arctics; southward a rival's stealth;
Aloft, her Empire's pennant; below, her nation's wealth.
Daughter of men and markets, bearing with her hold,
Appraised at highest value, cargoes of grain and gold.

Op-ed by Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the University of British Columbia’s 17th president and vice-chancellor.

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Across the country, collaborations ... are showing how universities can contribute to both economic resilience and social progress. But our innovation system remains fragmented. Partnerships between universities, industry, and government are often too ad hoc, funding cycles are short, and incentives are often misaligned. Thanks to support from provincial and federal governments, Canada’s research universities have built world-class capacity in discovery and innovation. The next step is to better align these strengths with national priorities. That means sustained public investment in research, stronger pathways to move discoveries into practice, and policies that foster long-term collaboration across sectors rather than short-term competition.

The next decade will test this country’s capacity to adapt. Whether we succeed will depend on how boldly governments and industry choose to partner with Canada’s universities, which generate the knowledge, talent, and innovation on which our prosperity and sovereignty depend.

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[Op-ed by Maria Popova and Anastasia Leshchyshyn, both researchers at McGill University.]

When Canadians think about our neighbours, we generally think only of one: the United States. But we also have a neighbour to the North: Russia, whose proximity has only been enhanced by the effects of climate change on the Arctic.

And we need to shift our assumptions quickly. With the terms of Ukraine’s future now being determined, the kind of Russia that emerges from the Russo-Ukrainian war is the one Canada will meet in the Arctic.

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However, despite our mental maps fooling us otherwise, the North does not end with us; the Russian neighbour just across the Arctic Circle is much closer than we tend to realize.

Last week’s speech by CSIS Director Daniel Rogers should jolt Canadians from their North American preoccupations and reorient our attention to Canada’s Arctic with warnings that Russia and China have “significant intelligence interests” in the region.

Word of Russian prowling in the Arctic is far from revelatory, and it has been suggested that Rogers’ address was a timely effort to shore up public support for the Carney government’s recent increases in defence spending. Yet “significant” was also the adjective selected by Rogers to describe Russia’s military presence in the Arctic, and the state itself was notably characterized as remaining “unpredictable and aggressive.”

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In a speech delivered in Kyiv on Ukraine’s Independence Day in August 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney offered an assessment of Russia’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine: “We see this war clearly, as a horrific act of aggression, a maniacal quest to recreate a history that itself was filled with injustice, and we know that peace will only come through strength.”

Canadians are perhaps not as clearsighted in comprehending their own country’s proximity to this same aggressor, and even less so in their ability to predict or imagine how exactly Russian aggression might manifest to undermine Canadian interests.

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To call Russia our neighbour would be to recognize that the outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian war has direct implications for Canadian security, and that support for Ukraine is a direct investment in our own defence, rather than a donation to a distant cause.

To call Russia our neighbour would be to induce a shift in Canada’s broader political calculus, by illuminating the scope of our susceptibilities and expanding our understanding of what the defence of our interests entails.

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If Ukraine is defeated, Canada risks dealing with an emboldened, expansionist neighbour — and not just the one to our south.

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