Canada

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The Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and professional services firm MNP recently released the second edition of the Global Agri-Food Most Influential Nations Ranking report, which evaluates the competitiveness of G20 nations in the global food and beverage sector. Canada, which was placed 13th last year, has moved up to seventh position.

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Canada remains in tier two behind the E.U. (which wasn’t part of last year’s report), the U.S., and the U.K., but above Japan, China, and India. At the report release event in Mississauga, Ont., yesterday, Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, explained Canada’s position improved due to advancements in trade, infrastructure and innovation. However, food insecurity (one in four Canadians experience some form of food insecurity), commercialization, and sustainability (specifically lack of performance data) are ongoing concerns.

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During a panel discussion at the event, Chris Neal, co-owner, Neal Brothers Foods and CEO, Jonluca Neal, mentioned the Buy Canadian movement “allowed a lot of smaller brands to prosper,” both from a consumer perspective as well as uptick in retail. However, companies can’t rely on Canadian patriotism to grow in the long term.

As Matt MacDonald, national leader, Food & Beverage Processing, MNP, said, “We are underfunded as a country. We need more investment in infrastructure. We want to see more private capital going into the market.”

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According to the report, more than 300 agri-food tech start-ups have raised over US$3 billion to date. However, commercialization is a persistent bottleneck for Canadian companies.

The report found, “A 37 per cent drop in R&D investment since 2023, a lack of scale-up support, and limited access to innovation hubs have stalled the trajectory for early stage ventures and rural innovators alike. Technology adoption is strong overall but largely limited to large-scale operations.”

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Charlebois stressed that innovation and increased private capital investments is key to growing the Canadian economy. He also highlighted the need to build market currency and gain public trust.

“Canada is its worst enemy,” he said. “We need to learn to sell stuff. We need to be better at marketing ourselves.”

Additionally, he stressed on the need for Canada to make the food processing sector a strategic pillar of growth by increasing automation and helping companies scale up.

“We have a lot of GDP leakage when it relates to finished goods. We are a world-class primary producer, and we are, I would just say nicely, not a world-class food manufacturer,” explained MacDonald. “We sell our primary production to other countries for them to process it, and then they sell it back, right? I want to see more processing done in Canada.” Amen to that!

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In Canada, four companies control 72 per cent of national retail sales, which according to the report, is one of the highest levels of concentration in the G20. This level of consolidation limits competition, adds undue pressure on producers, and slows innovation. F&B manufacturing companies are often at the mercy of grocers. Neal highlighted the disappearance of independent stores, which has made it harder for young companies to break into the retail sector.

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The report suggests governments and industry can spark growth by “expanding support for independent retailers, encouraging innovation in restaurants, and addressing the digital gap in food retail, where the country trails behind global peers.”

Charlebois hopes the Grocery Code of Conduct will help create an equitable ecosystem that’s beneficial for all stakeholders.

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The annual reports from Communications Security Establishment Canada make for unexpectedly good reading. In recent years, the intelligence and cybersecurity agency has intercepted foreign espionage efforts, extremist networks, cybercriminal crews, and sprawling disinformation campaigns. The newest edition recounts how, in 2024, its units shut down a ransomware threat aimed at a Canadian industrial sector in only forty-eight hours.

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CSE origins stretch back to 1941, when Canada created the Examination Unit (XU), the country’s first civilian bureau devoted to breaking and protecting coded communications. During the war, the XU decrypted enemy messages and forged intelligence relationships that would later anchor today’s Five Eyes alliance. The bureau’s success convinced Ottawa that understanding foreign networks was strategically indispensable, and, in 1946, the Communications Branch of the National Research Council was established—what we now know as CSE.

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[That's a Q&A with CSE chief Caroline Xavier about the legacy and the challenges facing the agency today.]

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Question: What is the greatest cyber threat facing Canadians? What makes us uniquely vulnerable?

CSE chief Caroline Xavier: The most significant threats come from state-sponsored cyber actors who are growing more assertive. These adversaries target Canadian government institutions, critical infrastructure, and private sector organizations to steal sensitive data, disrupt services, and influence public discourse. Their attacks are becoming more sophisticated and persistent.

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Today, we block billions of malicious actions daily, respond to thousands of cyber incidents annually, and issue pre-ransomware alerts that save Canadian organizations millions of dollars.

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[The CSE grew] from sixty-two employees in 1946 to over 3,800 today. We publish reports and advisories like the National Cyber Threat Assessment and Threats to Canada’s Democratic Processes. Our latest annual report highlights our work across foreign signals intelligence, cyber operations, Arctic security, and critical infrastructure protection. In it you will read about how, last year alone, we produced over 3,000 foreign intelligence reports, responded to more than 2,000 cyber incidents, and issued 336 pre-ransomware notifications—preventing up to 148 incidents and saving an estimated $6 to $18 million.

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Ransomware ... remains the most pervasive cybercrime affecting Canadians. The attacks are not just costly; they can cripple essential services like health care, energy, and transportation, putting lives and livelihoods at risk.

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As ... a vocal advocate of democratic values, Canada is a high-value target for adversaries seeking to undermine Western institutions. The strategic value of our private sector and world-class universities further increases our exposure to cyber threats.

That exposure is compounded by vulnerabilities closer to home. Our critical infrastructure is often decentralized, managed at provincial and municipal levels, which can result in inconsistent cybersecurity standards and coordination challenges. The cybercrime ecosystem is highly interconnected and often knows no borders.

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We emphasize the importance of public–private collaboration, threat intelligence sharing, and proactive risk management. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and our collective defence depends on coordinated action across government, industry, and civil society. We encourage all Canadians to explore our latest National Cyber Threat Assessment to better understand the trends we’re seeing and the steps we can all take to stay secure.

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CSE plays a vital role [in combating disinformation], but we want to be clear: CSE does not monitor domestic communications or social media. Our mandate is strictly focused on foreign signals intelligence and protecting government systems from cyber threats.

Our contribution is more visible through the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, alongside Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Global Affairs Canada. Together, we identify and reduce threats to Canada’s democratic institutions, including foreign interference and disinformation campaigns targeting voters, political parties, and media.

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One of the most significant actions was the designation of Ukraine and Latvia’s electronic networks as “Systems of Importance” to the Government of Canada in March 2022. This designation ... marked the first time such powers were used for entities outside Canada. It enabled CSE to provide direct cybersecurity assistance to both countries.

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While CSE maintains deep and long-standing partnerships with the Five Eyes, these relationships operate within clearly defined mandates and operational frameworks. But partnership is only one side of the equation. Protecting sovereignty also means securing not only our borders but also our digital frontiers and the homeland. It’s fundamental to Canada’s national security, economic resilience, and democratic integrity.

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Archive: [ https://archive.is/9G6GP ]

A city contractor who drove a snowplow through protesters last week had posts of Islamophobic and anti-protest content on her social media account in the weeks leading up to the incident.

The Star has learned that the name the driver gave to police is Athena Niggenaber, a Scarborough resident.

He hopes his laser focus on corporate greed, which he says is driving Canada’s cost-of-living crisis, will help set him apart from other front-runners, including Edmonton Member of Parliament Heather McPherson and British Columbia union leader Rob Ashton.

“It’s a moral outrage that so many people in Canada can’t afford the basics of a dignified life at a time when corporate profits are only skyrocketing,” Lewis said as he unveiled an array of new proposals Monday. “When people are being gouged at the checkout aisle, on their phone bills, and in their rents, it’s clear that the market is failing.”

Lewis called for the creation of a public not-for-profit grocery store chain that would operate coast to coast to combat the growing crisis of food insecurity.

According to data published earlier this year by the Canadian Income Survey, approximately 10 million Canadians—over 25%—lived in food-insecure households in 2024, nearly doubling since 2021 amid skyrocketing food prices.

Lewis described it as a “market failure” that so many Canadians could struggle to pay for food while Galen Weston, the owner of Canada’s largest grocery chain, Loblaw, has a net worth of over $18 billion.

REGINA - This year's Saskatchewan budget is sinking deeper into the red, mainly due to the cost of fighting the summer's wildfires.

Finance Minister Jim Reiter, in a midterm update on the budget, says the projected year-end deficit is expected to be $427 million.

It's a major swing from when the budget was introduced in the spring.

At that time, Premier Scott Moe's government was projecting a $12-million surplus, but in August the bottom line was revised to a $349-million deficit before sinking further in the latest update.

Along with forest fire costs, the province is spending more on health care.

Total exports have also fallen by $1.4 billion because of lower oil and gas prices while tariffs from China and the United States have had marginal effects.

The idea by the National Farmers Union came from its annual convention, held last week in New Brunswick.

Farmers want Ottawa to set up a 10-year pilot project that would ensure they receive an annual income of at least $50,000, a rate that would rise by inflation every year.

David Thompson, executive director of the union, says a guaranteed income would help stabilize farmers' incomes, which are often unstable.

Members also voted to lobby Ottawa for a cap on the profits of major grocery chains, such as Sobeys or Loblaws, that control the lion's share of the market.

The theme of the convention in Moncton, N.B., was food sovereignty, with panellists speaking about access to Canadian food amid the trade war with the United States.

On November 21, Mark Carney landed in Abu Dhabi, becoming the first Canadian leader in more than 40 years to visit the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Ottawa portrayed the trip as a move toward trade diversification—a strategy cast as urgent after Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats against Canadian sovereignty—but the visit also brought Canada into direct contact with a Gulf power implicated in some of the world’s deadliest conflicts.

Not only did the official talks in Abu Dhabi deliberately bypass any mention of the UAE’s funding of war crimes and possibly genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, but the subsequent media coverage in Canada also conspicuously failed to address the Canadian government’s own entanglement and complicity in these atrocities.

Aljazeera brings a disturbing report that wealthy Canadians and Americans paid to hunt people during the tragic conflict of Sarajevo.

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On November 22, Australia, Canada, and India unveiled a new trilateral partnership. The Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership, announced during the G-20 Summit in Johannesburg, commits the three countries to collaborate on emerging technologies, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and green energy innovation.

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The announcement comes at a time when middle powers are steadily experimenting with specialized, issue-focused groupings. Minilateralism has become a preferred way for states to pursue targeted cooperation without the burdens of alliances or the paralysis of large multilateral organizations.

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First, until now, India, Australia, and Canada have not operated within a dedicated institutional framework focused on high technology and innovation. Their interactions have remained bilateral, episodic, or embedded within broader platforms, such as the G-20 or the Commonwealth. ACITI introduces a structured, issue-based mechanism that ties the three together in a way that neither geography nor formal alliances previously did.

Second, the geography of the grouping is particularly distinctive. Most minilaterals cluster within a single strategic theater. By contrast, ACITI stretches across Asia, Oceania, and North America. It links three regions whose engagements have historically been mediated through larger Western institutions or broader Indo-Pacific strategies. By forming a triangle that spans oceans rather than strengthening an existing regional silo, the partnership implicitly advocates for a different approach to strategy that is not region-bound.

Third, equally significant is the language in which this partnership has been framed. References to net-zero transitions, responsible technology, democratic innovation, and critical supply-chain resilience indicate that ACITI is based on normative convergence. Each country – Australia, Canada, and India – sees technology governance and the green transition as arenas where political identity is expressed. For this reason, the formation of ACITI is also a symbolic articulation of shared democratic values. This introduces a layer of uncertainty that is unusual for new minilaterals.

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ACITI arrives at a time of uneven political alignment among its members. The success of trilaterals depends on the stability of all three bilateral legs. For now, the Canada-India leg is visibly weaker. While Australia-India ties are robust and expanding, the Canada-India relationship has experienced deep turbulence over the past few years. Diplomatic tensions, political accusations, and diaspora driven flashpoints have created moments of severe strain.

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There is another challenge as well: the geopolitical environment in which ACITI has emerged. Technology partnerships increasingly operate under the shadow of major power competition. China is likely to interpret ACITI as another democratic arrangement designed to complicate its technological and industrial dominance. The United States may welcome it, but Washington’s tendency to fold every initiative into its own strategic logic could place unforeseen pressure on the triangle. Managing these cross-pressures while maintaining autonomy will be a key test of ACITI’s strategic maturity.

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ACITI captures the possibilities of new minilateral thinking, but also exposes the vulnerabilities that come with untested diplomatic geometry. Whether it endures will depend on institutional follow-through, political steadiness, and the ability to deliver early. If it succeeds, it could serve as a template for a new class of ... partnerships defined by innovation rather than geography.

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Opinion piece by Scott E. Simon, chair of Taiwan studies at the University of Ottawa.

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China has co-ordinated an all-of-society attack against Japan ever since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answered a question in the National Diet on Nov. 7 to clarify that Chinese military action in a Taiwan conflict would be a “survival-threatening situation.” This classification could justify mobilization of Japan’s Self-defence Forces in certain contingencies.

The immediately shocking response was that China’s Consul General in Osaka, Xue Jian, seemed to threaten decapitation of Takaichi in a since-deleted X post. Rather than apologize for the consul’s inappropriate remarks, China doubled down in a domestic and international campaign against Japan.

In a PLA Daily editorial, translated and published by Global Times, China’s military characterized Takaichi’s remarks as the most aggressive act against China in 80 years, raised the spectre of Japanese militarism and warned that Japan will suffer consequences if Takaichi does not retract her “wrong remarks.”

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Takaichi’s remarks echoed the words of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who warned that “a Taiwan contingency is a contingency for Japan.” These observations are based on undeniable geographical reality. Taiwan is only 110 kilometres from the Japanese island of Yonaguni, yet 180 kilometres from China across the Taiwan Strait. Proximity means that any Chinese military action to encircle Taiwan would inevitably encroach upon Japanese territorial waters and airspace.

Moreover, the fact remains that the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan. Since the Taiwanese people are unlikely to willingly accept occupation from a foreign authoritarian state, China is preparing for military aggression.

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China also escalated its military threats to Japan. On Nov. 16, China sent Coast Guard ships through the uninhabited Senkaku Islands. China’s actions disregard the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Treaty, which explicitly transferred the island from U.S. occupation to Japan. Just as China sent forces to Senkaku, its foreign ministry posted on X a historical document declaring that Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and minor islands.

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China also singled out Japan at precisely the moment when the G7 foreign ministers met in the Niagara Region of Canada and issued a joint statement about the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific. The statement emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, opposed unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion, encouraged resolution of issues by dialogue and supported Taiwan’s meaningful participation in appropriate international organizations.

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China is pressuring G7 states to abandon the collective goal of upholding the status quo in the Taiwan Straits. In an October rebuke to Germany, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun argued that talk of maintaining the status quo while refusing to oppose “Taiwan independence” amounts to “condoning and supporting separatist activities.” China’s actions toward Japan and Germany are clearly part of a strategy to undermine unity in the G7, even if Chinese officials seem superficially to differ in their approach to Canada.

The op-ed published by China’s Ambassador Wang Di in the Globe and Mail recently, following a meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, must be read in light of these developments. While promising a new era of China-Canada relations, Xi and Wang reiterated that “China and Canada should develop an objective and rational perception of each other, view each other in the correct way.”

As Michael Kovrig argued last month, vocabulary of perception encompasses a set of political demands. China’s demands about perception are requests to acquiesce to China’s position on Taiwan and other “core” issues, abandon much of Canada’s own Indo-Pacific Strategy and stop framing China as a security threat.

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Mounting tensions between China and Japan should be a warning sign. Canada, like Japan, has a long-standing policy of taking note of China’s claims to Taiwan without publicly challenging or endorsing them. China, impatient with this approach, is trying to drive a wedge between G7 allies — sweet-talking Canada while rebuking Germany and threatening Japan. The temptation for Canada may be to remain silent about Chinese sable-rattling.

But, a free and open Indo-Pacific, including the resilience of Taiwan, undergirds Canadian prosperity.

Carney should oppose all Chinese threats toward Japan before the situation escalates further. This is the time for G7 unity, rather than subservience to a third authoritarian power.

Archive link: https://archive.is/2NfW7

Excerpt:

A new report has found that nearly 40 per cent of Canadian teens who say they have been sexually victimized online say it happened on the private messaging platform Snapchat.

The findings, released by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP) on Tuesday, were collected through a survey based on responses from nearly 1,300 teens themselves.

It comes as calls grow from child safety advocates for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to present new legislation to better protect children online, including by introducing new regulations for tech platforms.

The report from the child protection centre, a national charity which runs a tip line for child sex abuse and exploitation online, calls on platforms to enhance their safety regimes, particularly when it comes to private messaging, citing that it has been where a majority of the teens surveyed reported experiencing some form of online sexual violence.