Canada

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Nearly 30,000 Ukrainians arrived in Manitoba through the province’s reception and welcoming centre since February 2022, according to a provincial spokesperson. More than 27,600 health cards were issued.

Neither the province or organizations... are tracking how many people have started businesses here. But [some Ukrainian migrants like] Mila Shykota, who arrived in Winnipeg following the start of the war, created the Ukrainian Guide to Winnipeg.

It's an online directory of some businesses recently started by Ukrainian newcomers as well as others that sell Ukrainian items or food.

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Vitaliy Lebezun, vice-president of Warkentin Business Solutions — which offers accounting and business consulting services — said he's fielded questions from Ukrainians who have arrived in Manitoba around topics such as starting a business and self-employment requirements.

He expects that to continue as people become more settled.

"There’s a lot of people who came and they had their own businesses, and that’s why they want to start here again," said Lebezun, who is originally from Ukraine but moved to Manitoba more than 20 years ago.

"And there’s a lot of people who maybe did not have businesses but always wanted to, and they’re going to start."

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The two-day Group of Seven meeting in Toronto opened hours after US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed an extendable one-year deal on China’s supply of rare earths.

Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Katherina Reiche, told reporters the Trump-Xi deal marked “a good sign,” noting German reliance on Chinese critical mineral exports. But she stressed the agreement “can’t prevent us” from moving forward on broadening supply chains for the materials used in everything from solar panels and mobile phones to precision missiles. “We need diversification of our import routes on raw materials,” Reiche said.

With concern growing about China’s overwhelming dominance in rare earth refining and processing, G7 leaders announced a “Critical Minerals Action Plan” at a summit in western Canada in June.

Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said the Toronto meeting will aim to formally launch a new initiative designed to curb China’s market influence. The Critical Minerals Production Alliance will “secure transparent, democratic, and sustainable critical mineral supply chains across the G7,” he said. Under the alliance, the governments of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States would mobilize private investment to expand critical mineral production that bypasses China.

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The latest findings on the Westminster espionage scandal that has sent shockwaves through British politics — and this podcast (75 min) draws the lines connecting that case to Canada’s own national-security crisis.

In the case, President Xi Jinping’s powerful ally and reported spymaster, Cai Qi, is alleged to have overseen a covert Ministry of State Security operation inside the U.K. Parliament. According to British parliamentary records and corroborating media leaks, Cai’s network cultivated a young British teacher while he was living in China, recruiting him through a front company run by the MSS. The recruit allegedly secured access to Westminster through another young Brit — a researcher and adviser who was reportedly tasked with gathering real-time intelligence on Conservative MPs critical of Beijing’s human-rights abuses in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan.

The explosive Cash and Berry prosecution was pursued under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, but was later quietly abandoned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government. Documents and sources cited in London suggest that senior political advisers close to Starmer, including a former banker known for pro-China trade advocacy, may have influenced the decision to collapse the case — raising profound questions about ethical interference in Britain’s judicial process.

The transnational case is not just a scandal but a systemic warning: the same dynamic of political suppression, elite capture, and economic dependency that has compromised the United Kingdom’s response to CCP [Chinese Communist Party] influence has already unfolded in Ottawa.

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Similar patterns that troubled Justin Trudeau’s government on Chinese election interference could persist under Mark Carney’s leadership. And in the case of Starmer, the powerful U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP has directly lodged concerns with the British Ambassador, questioning whether the Cash and Berry case was cancelled due to pressure from China or trade and development considerations between Beijing and London.

[The podcast also discusses] the Bureau’s reporting from Vancouver and Toronto, where Chinese and Mexican cartel networks have built a global hub for synthetic-opioid production and shipment. These networks, operating through Canadian ports and logistics channels, are now targeting Australia and New Zealand, demonstrating how the same state-linked criminal and intelligence systems driving espionage in Westminster are simultaneously fueling a deadly global trade in fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Archive: [ https://archive.is/Z2vw9 ]

Danielle Smith trying to dumb down Alberta. Danielle Smith attempting to take away your charter rights.

While the wisdom of limiting power supply to data centres could be debated, the ban on cryptocurrency centres is a no-brainer. Cryptocurrency consumes massive amounts of electricity to run servers and water to cool them. In 2023, a study published in the journal Sustainability found crypto mines were consuming enough electricity to power the entire country of Argentina. Global water use was similarly off the dial

enough to supply basic drinking water and sanitation services for those who lack access.

And that's not to speak of carbon emissions associated with cryptocurrency. Every Bitcoin transaction generates carbon emissions "roughly equivalent to driving a gasoline-powered car between 1,600 and 2,600 kilometres," a paper in the London School of Economics Business Review found.

Since 2020, the country's average electricity rate has increased by more than 30 per cent. But the increases are wildly higher in communities near data centre developments. A September Bloomberg investigation found monthly electricity costs in some of those locations had risen by as much as 267 per cent over what they were five years ago.

When Trump talks about the 51st state or 'jokes' about a merger, most people think of a territorial invasion. Meanwhile, what we've missed is the ongoing erosion of our economic sovereignty that's been happening under our noses.

Without re-litigating NAFTA and the USMCA

simultaneously the best and worst trade deals ever, depending on when you're asking the man who spearheaded it

these choices and the neoliberal political order that created them are part of the trend that brought us here. Deep integration with the U.S., the takeover of Canadian firms by American corporations, and the outsized influence of American multinationals on Canada's economy and government may feel like new problems in this moment, but they have been growing for years.

South Korea put political weight behind its bold, high-stakes bid to sell submarines to Canada on Thursday as Prime Minister Mark Carney got a look at one of the country’s new boats and toured the shipyard that would do the construction.

South Korea Prime Minister Kim Min-seok accompanied Carney during the visit to the Hanwha Ocean Ltd. facility in Geoje, 96 kilometres from Gyeongju, where the Asia Pacific Cooperation (APEC) summit is being held. Earlier in the day, Carney also met with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung.

Hanwha Ocean and its partner Hyundai Heavy Industries have been fairly aggressive in pitching the KSS-III (Batch 2) submarine to Canada, delivering an unsolicited, detailed proposal to the federal government last winter — just ahead of the last election.

The submarine Carney got to see was only recently launched and built for the South Korean navy. Yet, in a bold marketing move, it flew a Canadian flag from its mast, while a second boat under construction nearby had Korean and Canadian banners draped across it.

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Cargojet Inc., Canada’s leading provider of time-sensitive premium air cargo services, announces a scheduled direct air cargo service connecting Canada and expanding into Europe, effective November 1, 2025. The service will link Liege Airport (LGG), Europe’s leading cargo gateway, with Canada’s major cargo hubs.

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This weekly service marks a significant expansion of Cargojet’s global network, providing customers with dependable, time-sensitive capacity and enhanced connectivity across continents. Integrated within Cargojet’s domestic overnight network, the route will offer streamlined connections across Canada, improving overall transit times and providing greater flexibility for freight forwarders, logistics providers, and shippers.

Operating on an initial once-weekly schedule, the route enhances access to one of Europe’s most strategic cargo hubs, with plans to increase frequency as demand and opportunities continue to grow. This integration supports Cargojet’s long-term expansion strategy and reinforces its position as a reliable partner in the global logistics market.

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Any scan of global markets with a reliable defence product and supply chain in mind should take Canada to the Nordics. The Nordic countries are all solid NATO partners and share our northern operating environment. Canadian cabinet ministers have recently travelled to Sweden and Finland to explore new defence deals, including a visit by the Industry Minister Mélanie Joly to the Saab firm. Foreign Minister Anita Anand, meanwhile, travelled to Finland to talk about Arctic security.

The Nordics are trying to ramp up production of drone systems and innovate, while also holding out cautionary lessons about a seemingly red-hot market. A leading Norwegian drone company, Nordic Unmanned, founded in 2014, has just declared bankruptcy, citing cash flow issues. Its leading-edge drones were deployed as far afield as Brazil, and were a key element of maritime surveillance for the European Union’s European Maritime Safety Agency. One of their operational tasks was to keep an eye on the Russian shadow tanker fleet used to circumvent Western sanctions. As startling as this outcome appears, other drone companies in Northern Europe are ramping up.

We [Canada] must develop our own drone manufacturing sector, just as we look for new partnership opportunities. We can follow the Nordic and U.K. leads here.

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The Nordics and the U.K. offer both markets and lessons for Canadian defence procurement. Their firms produce advanced drone and counter-drones systems that could be incorporated into the Canadian arsenal. They also remind us that the build-up of a military drone capacity requires market capitalization, the ability to scale for start-up companies, and significant government investment and backing to avoid the fate of a company like Nordic Unmanned. All of these lessons should be incorporated into Canada’s forthcoming defence industrial strategy.

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The Swedish defence firm Saab is considering Canada as a place to assemble Gripen fighter jets as it moves to quickly ramp up production to meet demand from Ukraine.

Saab's CEO Micael Johansson said in recent interviews with financial news publications that Kyiv's interest in purchasing more than 100 Gripen fighter jets would double the defence company's production requirements.

The Financial Times and the Reuters news agency reported Johansson said the company is searching for ways to expand production capacity, possibly in Canada or elsewhere in Europe.

On the sidelines of the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told The Canadian Press Wednesday this is "good news" and that she spoke with Johansson earlier in the day.

"I've been actively working with Saab to see what can be done to do more partnerships with Canada, and it starts with the GlobalEye [surveillance plane], but also we're willing to see what we can do to help support Ukraine," she said.

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Archived link

The Globe and Mail column, “Let’s free ourselves of the U.S. and forge closer ties with China”, by Julian Karaguesian and Robin Shaban, reveals a troubling lack of historical awareness and strategic judgment.

Marketed as a call for Canadian economic independence, it amounts to an argument for deeper dependence on an authoritarian regime that uses coercive diplomacy, illicit finance and political interference to erode democratic sovereignty.

Canadians should reject the notion that closer alignment with Beijing strengthens our independence. The opposite is demonstrably true.

The authors praise China’s economic dynamism and technological progress but ignore the context in which these gains were made. They are not the result of fair-market innovation, but of systematic intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers and vast state subsidies that distort global competition.

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Proposing deeper technological engagement with a regime known for embedding backdoors in products like Huawei hardware, which Canadian security agencies have flagged as a national security risk, and for weaponizing supply chains is dangerously naïve. This isn’t innovation; it’s strategic infiltration that introduces unacceptable risks into Canada’s economic infrastructure.

Equating Canada’s alliance with the U.S. to strategic subservience misrepresents the nature of cooperation in a rules-based international order.

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Beijing has made clear it does not operate as a predictable or principled partner. Its use of retaliatory diplomacy — such as the politically motivated detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, bans on Canadian agricultural exports and the expansion of United Front influence operations (covert and overt efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to sway public opinion and policy abroad)—demonstrates a pattern of intimidation.

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Replacing that [U.S.] alliance with exposure to a regime that jails dissidents, manipulates international institutions and conducts cyberespionage on Canadian citizens is not diversification. It’s submission.

Canada should not trade the open architecture of the Atlantic alliance for Beijing’s authoritarian opacity. Strategic autonomy cannot be built on intimidation and coercion. We must engage the world, but with eyes open and principles intact.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48882721

The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday that would nullify U.S. tariffs on Canada, just as U.S. President Donald Trump is engaged in trade talks in Asia as well as an increasingly bitter trade spat with U.S.’s northern neighbour that is one of its largest economic partners.

The 50-46 tally was the latest in a series of votes this week to terminate the national emergencies that Trump has used to impose tariffs. While the resolutions won’t ultimately take effect, they have proven to be an effective way for Democrats to expose cracks between the president’s trade policy and Republican senators who have traditionally supported free trade arguments.

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Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research cohosted the Next Generation Frontiers Symposia Oct. 27-29 in Alberta, Canada, underscoring bilateral commitment to advancing technological exchange.

NSTC Deputy Minister Chen Bing-yu led a delegation of outstanding young academics specializing in artificial intelligence to the forum, the council said, adding that he expressed hope the meeting would inspire domestic participants to deliver even more influential research outcomes.

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Véronique Dault, executive director of government and public sector partnerships at Canada-based global research organization CIFAR, pointed out that this was the first collaborative event between the two parties. She said she hoped early-career researchers from both sides could brainstorm together to create new opportunities for cooperation.

Discussions centered on AI and sustainability, Indigenous AI and culture, responsible and trustworthy AI, and sovereign AI. According to the NSTC, participants engaged in in-depth dialogue about the roles such technologies could play in culture, environmental sustainability, ethics and social responsibility.

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Archived link

Here is the original warning by the Centre for Cyber Security.

Canada’s cyber authorities are warning that hacktivists are increasingly targeting internet-connected industrial systems after several recent incidents disrupted operations at utilities and small businesses across the country.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security said this week that, together with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it has investigated multiple cases involving compromised industrial control systems (ICS).

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The Canadian authorities did not specify why they labeled the attackers “hacktivists” — a term for threat actors who hack for publicity rather than toward geopolitical or financial goals. The alert did not attribute the incidents to a specific group.

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Canada’s warning follows a global uptick in hacktivist activity against critical infrastructure.

In late 2023, the Russian government-aligned group known as the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (CARR) claimed to have attacked the industrial control systems of multiple U.S. and European critical infrastructure targets.

In January 2024, the group took responsibility for overflowing water storage tanks in Texas, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of gallons of water. CARR also claimed to have compromised the SCADA system of a U.S. energy company, gaining control over alarms and pumps for its tanks.

In June, the U.S. State Department accused Iranians allegedly affiliated with a group known as CyberAv3ngers of targeting critical infrastructure with malware designed to compromise industrial control systems.

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Canada’s cyber agency warned that many smaller utilities, farms, and manufacturers continue to run poorly secured internet-connected systems, leaving them vulnerable to opportunistic attacks.

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