Canada

The provincial government announced the tuition relief program for Ukrainian post-secondary students in 2023. It allows students who fled during the war to study at a Saskatchewan post-secondary institution without paying international fees.

Instead, the Ukrainian students are charged the same rate as domestic students, allowing them to avoid international-student fees that could reach an annual cost of $60,000, or even more for a few specialized programs.

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The tuition relief program, funded jointly by the province and federal government, was scheduled to expire on March 31.

But on Tuesday, the provincial government said the program is now being extended until 2030.

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In China, accounting for roughly 90 per cent of global rare earth refining capacity, a typical rare earth processing plant employs hundreds of workers moving through networks of large chemical tanks which is often hazardous work. In the Canadian facility, this process will instead be controlled by an AI-based operating system.

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Since 2020, the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), a government-supported research organisation, has been building a rare earth processing facility funded by the provincial government of Saskatchewan and the federal government of Canada.

The plant covers the entire chain from mineral concentrate to finished metal. It includes hydrometallurgy, chemical separation and metal smelting – all based on proprietary technologies developed in-house. The system was designed with a focus on operator safety and reduced environmental exposure to hazardous substances.

The facility is expected to be substantially completed in September 2026 and commissioned by December of the same year. After a ramp-up period, full operations are planned for 2027.

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One of the most technically demanding parts of rare earth production is separating up to 17 chemically similar elements.

In many Chinese plants, this work involves more than 200 workers manually adjusting valves and chemical flows across large separation systems.

At the Saskatchewan facility, much of the process will instead be controlled by an AI-based operating system. The system continuously analyses thousands of data points and adjusts the process in real time.

The goal is to reduce waste, limit worker exposure to hazardous chemicals, and improve metal purity.

The facility is intentionally smaller than major Chinese plants, with roughly 25 to 30 per cent of the capacity of a full-scale refinery. For now, it functions largely as a demonstration plant for new processing technology.

Despite its size, developers say it can already produce high-purity rare earth metals.

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Fuck fucking fuck

There is a way the U.S. could play hardball with Canada, if the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney decides it wants to limit its purchase of F-35s in favour of the Gripen.

Critics who favour the Lockheed-Martin stealth fighter have long argued that the Swedish-built Gripen would not be interoperable with American aircraft and the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).

That's not what you see at the NATO air policing mission in Iceland, where Danish-owned F-35s have been training and operating alongside Swedish JAS-39 Gripens-Cs.

Commanders of both the Swedish and Danish air forces, speaking at the airfield in Keflavik on Tuesday, said the aircraft have been performing well together.

Relatives of a prominent Alberta separatist who recently met with U.S. officials are upset that he has failed to pay back more than $1.3 million that a judge found he misappropriated from elderly relatives.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in March 2025 that Dennis Modry, co-founder and former CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, misappropriated the money from the joint bank account of his aunt and uncle who suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia, respectively, and ordered him to pay the money back with interest.

Verna Holmes, who filed the civil suit against Modry, told CBC News he has not paid back any money, despite the court order.

“You go through all of that and then for what? He still gets away with it,” Holmes said.

A Nova Scotia family is speaking out after two masked intruders entered a Halifax-area high school and violently attacked a Grade 9 student, prompting concerns about school safety and security.

On the afternoon of Jan. 16, Sylas Newcombe, 14, was walking between classes through the halls of Island View High School in Eastern Passage, N.S., when he was approached by two individuals wearing ski masks and hoods.

A video taken by another student shows a man confronting Newcombe, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground.

The masked man delivered about 10 punches to the boy’s head before kicking him multiple times as he lay on the ground protecting his face. The second person kicks him a few times, before the two assailants are seen escaping through the back door of the school and running away.

A class action lawsuit alleging Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program exploits the labour and Charter rights of agricultural workers can proceed, a judge decided last week.

The lawsuit, filed in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice, alleges that the federal government "enriched" itself by collecting employment insurance premiums (EI) from workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) despite not allowing them to collect EI. It also argues the program is inherently discriminatory to Mexican and Caribbean workers and has been since its inception.

"It's about trying to change the conditions where workers can actually get access to these benefits, change the conditions where workers have labour and social mobility and they have some ability for dignity and respect in the workplace," said Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer with Justice for Migrant Workers, a group supportive of the lawsuit filed by Goldblatt Partners.

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There is currently no parliamentary budget officer scrutinizing federal finances in Ottawa as the interim fiscal watchdog's term expired Monday without a successor in place.

The PBO is an independent agent of Parliament tasked with analyzing federal budgets, spending proposals and election campaign promises to raise the quality of public debate.

With no budget officer installed, the office itself cannot publish any reports or accept new work requests from parliamentarians. The budget office will continue to work on existing requests while waiting for a new officer to be named.

Interim PBO Jason Jacques was appointed to a six-month term in September that ended at 5 p.m. ET Monday.

Ottawa opened applications for a new permanent PBO in November and last week a Privy Council Office spokesman said information about the appointment of a permanent budget officer would be "made available in due course."

The appointment of a permanent budget officer to a seven-year term is decided by cabinet and must be approved by Parliament. Interim PBOs, like Jacques, can be appointed without parliamentary sign-off for six-month terms.

The federal government's "persistent delays" in appointing new fiscal watchdogs were highlighted as a shortcoming in an otherwise glowing review of Canada's parliamentary budget office published last week by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Jacques argued at the House of Commons standing committee on government operations and estimates Thursday that it would benefit Ottawa to shift the watchdog's mandate from the budget officer to the office itself to help with continuity between mandates.

Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau told the same committee in French that the federal government's failure to date to name a replacement PBO is "unacceptable" with Jacques' term coming to a close.

Jacques' tenure heading up the budget office started with a bang in September as he criticized the Liberal government's fiscal track as "unsustainable."

Later, when Liberals tabled their 2025 federal budget, Jacques said Ottawa's debt path was broadly sustainable in the long term but argued the feds had used up some of their ability to absorb future fiscal shocks.

He also pushed for a new independent body to clarify definitions of capital spending under the Liberals' new budget framework.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/48329632

• European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Government of Canada sign Letter of Intent to explore future cooperation on critical raw materials.
• Agreement opens the way for discussions on institutional arrangements that would enable the EIB to operate in Canada in line with the EU–Canada Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials.
• Potential EIB operations in Canada would support secure, sustainable and diversified supply chains essential for Europe’s green and digital transitions.

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Canada is a long‑standing, like‑minded partner for the European Union. As one of the world’s leading and most responsible producers of critical minerals, Canada brings large reserves, recognised mining expertise, and strong environmental and social standards," the EIB writes in a statement.

"This makes it a natural ally for the EU as it works to diversify and secure critical raw materials supply chains, reduce strategic dependencies, and strengthen economic security."

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THANK YOU

Canada is considering splitting a multibillion-dollar contract for 12 new submarines by buying an equal number from Europe and South Korea as Ottawa rearms to confront the challenges of a more dangerous world, two senior government sources say.

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, in partnership with the government of Norway, and Seoul-based Hanwha Ocean are shortlisted for the contract, which could cost Canada upward of $24-billion.

Final proposals for the contract to build 12 diesel-electric submarines were submitted to the federal government on Monday. A decision is expected to be made by April 4 at the earliest.

The new modern fleet of submarines would replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s current aging fleet of second-hand Victoria-class boats.

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Defence experts have raised concerns that splitting Ottawa’s submarine contract could complicate supply chains and parts inventories. In September, Prime Minister Mark Carney also raised doubts about a mixed fleet, saying you get “many efficiencies in economies of having one fleet.”

The two government sources said Ottawa will assess the bids, including whether to split the contract, on the basis of what best serves the country’s economic and military needs.

A final decision will involve more than just acquiring new submarines. Mr. Carney is looking for greater trade and economic ties with Europe and Asia as a way to reduce reliance on the United States.

The sources say the benefit of splitting the contract is that Canada would reap industrial benefits from both bidders, including possible investments in this country’s auto industry. Canada’s auto sector has been hit hard by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as have the country’s steel and aluminum industries.

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/48320144

[This is an opinion piece by Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer of Uyghur descent, an international law scholar at Harvard Law School and a senior legal and policy advisor at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project.]

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At Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney drew applause for his plea to middle powers to “build a new order that encompasses values.” ... It was also deeply painful to see Carney feted for his “principled pragmatism” only days after he visited China to forge a new strategic partnership, devoid of any mention of human rights concerns.

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Carney’s embrace at Davos and his appeal to deal with the “world as it is, not as we wish it to be” left me with the question: Will the “new” world order he’s advertising protect everyone, or only those whose suffering is not inconvenient? The old order certainly didn’t. Treating human rights as separate from trade, as if mass atrocity can be compartmentalized to appease China, may have safeguarded commercial interests and avoided friction in the short-term—but it also helped normalize the intolerable.

It’s been 10 years since China began building a sprawling system of concentration camps—designed to bury atrocities behind bureaucracy and beyond tourists’ gaze.

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It’s been three years since the U.N.’s foremost human rights body determined China is committing crimes against humanity. Carney and his “middle power” peers can hardly claim that they didn’t know.

But what happens when China’s façade becomes useful? Even for leaders of the democratic world, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently visited China, it allows suffering to be acknowledged just enough to be set aside, framed as a difference in systems rather than a violation that demands consequence. Public pressure is muted, accountability deferred and appeals for justice quietly absorbed into diplomatic language.

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It's not just Uyghurs; there are Tibetans, Hong Kongers. International law has never protected Taiwan. Its security rests not on legal norms, but on strategic necessity—especially its dominance in advanced semiconductor chips.

Carney argued that middle powers need to unite to hedge against stronger countries, because what we’re living through is not a transition but a rupture in the rules-based order ... The deeper irony is that leaders of the Global South, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s advisor, argued that Brazil would continue working with Europe, China and others who champion multilateralism and international law. It’s unfathomable to square China's status as a champion with its promotion of what Professor Tom Ginsburg described as authoritarian international law.

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An international legal order worth its name is more than just policing borders and battlefields. It must serve as a shield for those hidden from sight, protecting them from the machinery of disappearance, torture, cultural erasure and similar threats.

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A former Prince George Mountie will avoid jail after being found to have obstructed justice by asking bystanders to delete cellphone footage of the arrest of Dale Culver, a First Nations man who later died in police custody.

Arthur Dalman was sentenced to 18 months’ probation on Monday, meaning he will avoid prison but not a criminal record. A B.C. provincial court judge rejected a request for a conditional discharge, saying Dalman’s actions deserved consequences, citing their impact on the public trust of police officers — especially in cases involving Indigenous people.

“His behaviour not only eroded confidence in the justice system but also contributed to deepened mistrust between Indigenous people and the RCMP at a time when efforts towards reconciliation must be an essential priority,” Judge Michael Fortino said.

Dalman was a junior RCMP officer with less than six months’ experience when he responded to another officer’s call for emergency support in downtown Prince George on the evening of July 18, 2017.

This month, the Surrey, B.C.-based website reported Vancouver politician William Azaroff had resigned from his role as executive director of a municipal party over a slew of scandalous resurfaced Tweets.

Surrey Speak didn’t say what Azaroff supposedly wrote, but reported it had to do with “issues of race, Indigenous identity and political ideology.”

Azaroff, Surrey Speak reported, had issued a regretful statement, and his party had promised to chart a new direction.

But none of that actually happened.

Azaroff never stepped down as the executive director of his party, OneCity. He couldn’t, because he has never held that position. He didn’t resign from anything. In fact, he had just been named the party’s mayoral nominee in an upcoming election.

When eight-year-old “Cole” arrived at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, he was in a state of extreme starvation and was suffering burns to his head and face from boiling water being poured over him — punishment for eating without permission.

Court heard that most of the abuse was committed by Stephanie Alisha Baker, the victim’s stepmother. But Scott was aware, witnessed the assaults, starvation and neglect and sometimes participated, according to an agreed statement of facts (ASF).

Two neighbours, mothers of children who played with Cole, noticed the starving, abused boy and tried to help.

Both women called police and child and family services in May 2023 but Cole was not removed from Baker and Scott’s care until his hospitalization four months later.

The growing white nationalist "active club" movement poses a risk for "extreme violence" in Canada, according to an internal Public Safety Canada brief obtained by CBC News.

The report appears to reveal, for the first time, that the federal department that oversees the RCMP is addressing this movement directly. In previous reporting, the RCMP would not specifically comment on the rapid rise of active clubs — white nationalist groups that operate under the guise of getting fit through training and combat sports.

Of the more than 200 known active club chapters globally, a “disproportionate” number, more than 30, operate in Canada, according to the report. Second Sons Canada — a similar far-right group — has more than 15 chapters.

These fascist fight clubs have increasingly moved from online forums to real-world training and public demonstrations.