Canada

An Ontario woman who regularly shared her experiences as a sexual assault survivor at police training courses says she’s ending her relationship with the Ontario Police College and is raising concerns about what she and several experts say are harmful biases among some officers and a lack of accountability from the college.

It comes after she received anonymous comments from two officers last year that she says left her feeling "mortified" and "humiliated."

For several years, she has volunteered her time by speaking at training organized by the college for sexual assault investigators. CBC News is protecting her identity because she is a sexual assault survivor.

Experts say the comments, which include calling her “damaged,” accusing her of being too critical of police and presuming a mental illness diagnosis, are not only hurtful but also show a concerning bias that could affect the integrity of sexual assault investigations.

The woman wants to know if those officers are working as sexual assault investigators, but more than four months after taking her concerns to the college, she still has no answers.

Manitoba RCMP are investigating after a seven-year-old girl was coerced into sending nude photos to a man over Snapchat — an example of what experts and police warn is a growing trend of children under 13 being sexually exploited through social media.

The images and videos being sent through the online messaging app were discovered after the girl's mother went into the child's room. The girl quickly put down a cellphone when her mother came in, according to a production order document obtained by CBC.

When the mother became suspicious and took the phone, she learned the girl had been chatting with an older man.

The mother found pictures of a penis within those chats and contacted RCMP. She gave them the phone for analysis, according to the document.

Police say they found explicit conversations over Snapchat between a man from the United Kingdom and the seven-year-old, as well as images and video shared between the two.

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Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig — who was detained by China for more than 1,000 days between 2018 and 2021 — says Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tone and messaging during his trip to China were “worrisome.”

In a bid to reset relations with China and counter trade threats from the United States, Carney became the first Canadian prime minister to travel to the Asian country in eight years this week.

During the trip, Carney took meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and stated progress in Canada-China relations is “(setting) up well for the new world order,” comments which drew widespread reaction, including from Kovrig.

“Diplomacy is necessary, grinning is optional, and looking like a supplicant is undignified,” Kovrig said in an interview airing Sunday on CTV’s Question Period. “That’s not a good look. So, the optics could have been better.”

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Kovrig added he thought the prime minister’s statement about the “new world order” was a “very worrisome way to express things.”

He said Carney “standing and grinning” while shaking Xi’s hand made him uncomfortable, and that “intoning about a new world order,” surrounded by top Chinese officials, “really carries some very Orwellian overtones.”

“It’s a deeply unsettling message, and it’s a very dangerous game,” Kovrig told host Vassy Kapelos, adding it risks endorsing Chinese narratives that are “deeply problematic.”

During the English-language leaders’ debate ahead of last April’s federal election, Carney pointed to China as the biggest security threat facing Canada.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Friday, however, when asked whether he still believes that to be true, Carney answered that “the security landscape continues to change.”

“In a world that’s more dangerous and divided, we face many threats,” he said. “That’s the reality. And the job, my responsibilities as prime minister, the job of the government, is to manage those threats.”

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Kovrig has warned against lifting the tariffs on Chinese EVs in the past, calling it a “mistake,” and telling Kapelos last September that it could give China too much leverage in future negotiations and domestic policymaking.

Kovrig, who’s now a senior advisor with the International Crisis Group, said the deal sets a precedent in dealing with China that will have “huge implications for Canada’s industrial policy.”

“You need to free the hostages, and so there needed to be some way of releasing some of that pain. And that matters,” Kovrig said of the pressure from Canadian Prairie provinces for relief from China’s agriculture-sector tariffs. “Those tariffs were painful and politically targeted, but the relief is time-limited and reversible. Beijing kept the leverage.”

“What did Canada give up? Canada broke ranks with the U.S. on Chinese electric vehicles,” he added. “Even with quotas, the signal’s big: market access is negotiable under pressure. That teaches the Chinese Communist Party that pressure works, and it’s likely to test that again.”

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Original post below:

cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/31822192

You're free to let your community / instance know, to be prepared for when the event starts 🤗

Explanation:

Lemmyvision is an annual song contest that's held here on the threadiverse, with the name inspired by "Eurovision". Instances nominate and choose songs to send into the contest on behalf of their country/region/niche, and then there's another round of voting to choose the winner. We've participated twice so far, articles about those times here:

• https://fedecan.ca/en/announcements/2024-04-08_lemmyvision-2024
• https://fedecan.ca/en/announcements/2025-04-10_lemmyvision-2025

Here is what the contest community has in their sidebar:

Welcome to the Lemmyvision Song Contest where communities and instances of Lemmy submit a song and vote on their favourites!

The aim is to promote different languages and cultures from around the world, to share more between our online communities across Lemmy, and discover songs from lesser known artists.

The second edition of Lemmyvision ran from March 1st to April 8th, stay tuned for the next event ! 🎶

Canada’s federal government is facing fresh scrutiny over its handling of air passenger rights after internal records suggested ministers and senior officials delayed and undermined a plan that would have shifted the cost of processing passenger complaints from taxpayers to airlines.

The proposal, developed by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) following a 2023 directive from Parliament, would have required carriers to pay a fixed fee for each eligible complaint resolved, effectively funding a national reporting and redress system for disgruntled travelers.

Instead, nearly 100,000 passengers remain stuck in a growing backlog and taxpayers continue to shoulder an annual bill of about 30 million Canadian dollars for a system critics say is buckling under its own weight.

At the heart of the uproar is a letter sent by then-transport minister Anita Anand, who assumed the portfolio after the initial design of the cost-recovery plan. In that letter, Anand asked the CTA to delay any decision on imposing the airline fee until she had been formally consulted, arguing that she had not been adequately brought into the loop on the details of the proposal. The agency had previously briefed her predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez, during the plan’s development, but Anand insisted that was not sufficient.

“Notification to the previous minister is insufficient,” Anand wrote, according to excerpts reported by Canadian outlets. She requested that the CTA “refrain from implementing any decision on the fee” until she could review and provide input, effectively putting the brakes on a process that had been advancing in line with Parliament’s instructions. For a regulator already struggling with skyrocketing complaint volumes, the pause added further delay to a reform intended to stabilize its resources and clear the queue.

Additional emails from senior Transport Canada officials amplified the pushback. Officials raised concerns about the potential impact of the 790 dollar fee and its uniform application across all eligible complaints. Industry stakeholders had already warned that such a structure could be punitive and might encourage what airline executives described as frivolous or opportunistic claims. As these concerns filtered through the department, the CTA found itself navigating not only external lobbying but also internal pressure that appeared to conflict with its statutory duty to implement Parliament’s will.

Several White House officials revealed to NBC News that President Donald Trump is growing increasingly “worried” over Canada regarding its ability to defend its borders, with one official saying that Trump’s concern stems from his “vision of ‘solidifying’ the Western Hemisphere,” the outlet reported Sunday.

Cowichan businesswoman Kristi Koons said she’s alarmed and concerned over the fact that she and another two women were asked to leave a town hall featuring federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on June 10 because of the T-shirts they were wearing.

Koons said she was quiet and respectful at the town hall, which was held at Mellor Hall at the Cowichan Exhibition grounds and attracted more than 1,000 people, before a group of men and RCMP officers approached her and said she was not welcome at the event because of her T-shirt.

Koons’s T-shirt featured half a rainbow pie, with the slogan: “Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It’s not pie.”

She said after some discussion, the RCMP respectfully asked her to leave the town hall, as well as two other women at the event that were also wearing T-shirts with slogans that some at the event didn’t like.

“I found it alarming,” Koons said.

“I’m an engaged community member and I often sit at (discussion) tables with people that have many points of view. I work hard to try to bridge the gaps and I have big worries these days about where we’re heading, particularly with what’s going on south of the border.”

A consortium of international researchers has called for a new alliance of mid-sized nations to challenge the overwhelming dominance of the United States and China in artificial intelligence.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) released a policy report Sunday titled "A Blueprint for Multinational Advanced AI Development." The document, co-authored with scholars from the University of Oxford, Canada's Mila institute, and Germany's RWTH Aachen University, argues that countries like South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada must pool their resources to secure technological independence.

The report paints a stark picture of the current landscape, noting that approximately 90 percent of the world's AI computing capacity is concentrated in the United States and China. The authors warn that this imbalance effectively blocks other nations from developing "frontier" AI models on their own, forcing them into a state of technological dependency on a handful of superpowers and Big Tech firms.

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The blueprint suggests modeling this cooperation after CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Instead of particle physics, the proposed body would focus on sharing the heavy burden of AI infrastructure. Member nations would pool computing resources, establish protocols for cross-border data training, and create a shared system for research talent to move freely between countries.

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The report notes that approximately 90% of global AI computing capacity is concentrated in the United States (75%) and China (15%), warning that technological dependence on specific nations or global big tech companies could intensify. It proposes that "AI bridge power nations" including Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Singapore form a new cooperative bloc to lead norms for AI collaboration. These countries possess world-class AI research influence and technological capabilities but face practical constraints in independently building hyperscale AI and power infrastructure.

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Archived link

A Twitter/X post on Russian state platform RT, twists Canadian PM Mark Carney’s remarks about supporting Danish/Greenland sovereignty within NATO into a false war declaration. Multiple independent records show Carney did not threaten war; he affirmed that Greenland’s future is for Denmark/Greenland to decide and underscored allied defense commitments—nothing more. Given RT’s track record and EU sanctions, this is a textbook Kremlin tactical narrative injection to create panic and divide the US and Canada.

RT has been identified by Canada and its allies as an important component of Kremlin intelligence operations.

THE CLAIM

RT’s X post reads: “CANADA WILL DECLARE WAR ON USA FOR GREENLAND — CARNEY.” The exact wording is mirrored by third-party captures discussing the RT post.

THE FACTS

Mark Carney did not declare war or threaten it. He stated the future of Greenland is for Greenland and Denmark and reaffirmed support for Danish/Greenland sovereignty, consistent with NATO commitments, not a call to war.

NARRATIVE CONTEXT & STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE

Match to playbook: Inflate allied differences, cast NATO as fracturing, and push Western publics toward cynicism (“allies on brink of war”). Strategic objective: Incite conflict between allies. Corrode NATO cohesion and distract from Russia’s aggression elsewhere by manufacturing an intra-alliance crisis.

Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Doha on Saturday as part of a push to attract foreign investment and deepen Canada’s economic partnerships beyond its traditional allies.

Carney’s visit comes on the heels of his visit to China and follows the recent presentation of a new federal investment budget aimed at positioning Canada as a stable, attractive destination for global capital.

In a news conference on Saturday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is working to broaden its economic relationships as global trade patterns shift.

“We are one of the G7s with very big industries. We build cars, planes, ships, we have an abundance of energy, and we are the only one with free trade with all G7,” Champagne said. “With the way the world is changing, you better diversify, supply chain is changing and we need to adapt.”

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53601457