Canada

Some medical professionals say detaining highly intoxicated people for up to three days could put lives at risk if it's not accompanied by proper care.

On Wednesday, the Manitoba Legislature passed the NDP government's Bill 48, the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act, which will allow it to establish a "protective care centre," or detox facility.

But Dr. Jim Simm, the province's former chief psychiatrist, said there's little precedent backing it up.

"There's been several studies looking at involuntary treatment for substance use. The results are generally actually worse," he said.

"I am skeptical [the centre] would have positive results, and [it has] the added risk of medical complications without proper medical supervision."

Tuesday's federal budget offers a glimpse into how dozens of government departments plan to rein in spending following this summer's comprehensive expenditure review.

The review aimed to find "ambitious savings" of up to 15 per cent over three years. The results were included with the budget, which still needs to pass a confidence vote.

(Full department listing in the article.)

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an application for leave to appeal from the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal regarding Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. vs. Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

This means there is no longer any legal impediment to the cull of the ostriches.

The court made the announcement on its website without explanation, which is typical.

Tabled Tuesday, the budget says legislative changes will streamline approvals and reduce regulatory uncertainty for the planned high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in September that the government would speed up engineering and regulatory work on the project to get construction underway within four years.

"We always have to remember that if the federal government has a deficit, then it means some other sector has a surplus. We need to understand which sector that is and, more importantly, if it’s desirable. In this case, the surplus will likely be created for high-income households and large, foreign-owned companies benefiting from defence spending—they are on the other side of this deficit."

"This didn’t have to be the case. The government could have provided more support for unemployed workers through better Employment Insurance (EI) or beefed up one of the various low-income transfers. It could also have raised taxes on the rich in order to protect and improve public services."

The federal and provincial governments have been underfunding universities for decades. Recently, universities were able to start recruiting foreign students to make up for the shortfall, but it looks like that money tap will be turned down. It doesn't look like there's a plan to make up for it.

At the same time, the feds want to

recruit more than 1,000 top international researchers to Canada, with the budget injecting up to $1.7-billion into a suite of recruitment measures.

That'll be tough if universities see their income crater.

We call on Minister Joly, Minister Solomon, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (“ISED”) to do the following:

1. Extend the consultation deadline to February 2, 2026;
2. Reconstitute the Task Force into a more equitably representative one that is equipped to confront the ongoing threats of AI to people and communities; and
3. Rewrite the survey into a more legitimate and unbiased consultation instrument.

WHEN I BEGAN REPORTING on the Canadian military’s halting embrace of drone technology for The Walrus, one conversation impressed me. Lieutenant General Michael Wright spoke with a candour and urgency I don’t usually encounter in covering defence and intelligence. Appointed commander of the Canadian Army in 2024, Lieutenant General Wright has been a central voice on how the country’s military must modernize to remain credible. In our exchange, which occurred in June, he made a powerful case for drones as fundamental to that rebuild. There was a clarity to his proposals that felt too important to bury inside a longer piece: it deserved to appear on its own terms. What follows is that conversation, lightly edited for clarity and length.

Archived link

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Concerns about election interference, espionage, and economic coercion are not just theoretical. Intelligence officers, parliamentarians, and investigative journalists have repeatedly flagged incidents of the PRC [People's Republic of China] targeting Canadian Chinese diaspora communities, attempting to sway local elections, and even infiltrating institutions of higher learning.

But responses have been fragmented, and at times, politically muted. What’s needed now is a nationwide inquiry with subpoena power and full transparency alongside active criminal investigations, where warranted.

To understand the PRC’s strategy in Canada, we must also look globally at its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—a trillion-dollar geopolitical project that combines infrastructure investment, debt diplomacy, and soft power influence.

Under the BRI, China has secured critical infrastructure assets—including ports, energy grids, and telecommunications networks—in dozens of countries. As a result, many nations have found themselves economically beholden to Chinese state-owned enterprises, with strings quietly but firmly attached. This has compromised sovereignty, influenced policy-making, and increased susceptibility to authoritarianism.

Canada may not be an official BRI partner, but the tactics of economic leverage, academic espionage, and political manipulation are here nonetheless, dressed up as research partnerships, real estate investments, and threats to MPs and diaspora activists.

The implications for national security, civil liberties, and democratic integrity are immense.

That Canada’s smallest province—notably, the birthplace of Confederation—has had the foresight and courage to raise the alarm is both a credit to its leadership and an indictment of federal hesitation. Many islanders have also called for reforms of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission, the body that should have investigated the Buddhist organizations back in 2018.

P.E.I.’s call for an inquiry should be viewed as a national call to action—proof that even provinces removed from the country’s geopolitical epicentres are feeling the ripple effects of foreign influence.

Now it’s up to the federal government to act decisively.

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"Canada told the fossil fuel industry greenwashing was illegal, and its response was that having to be honest and transparent would make it too hard to do business. Apparently the threat worked, so now Canadians will be subjected to more false claims and have fewer ways to protect themselves against industrial disinformation, despite polling showing over 80% of Canadians want the country to do more on disinformation, not less," said Phil Newell, co-chair of Climate Action Against Disinformation.

The Temporary Residence Visa Program for Palestinians in Gaza with family ties in Canada was “seemingly designed to fail.”

The longtime Conservative, who served in provincial politics before being elected to the House of Commons in 2019, said Canada's challenges demand people lead "not with complaint" — a thinly veiled swipe at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — "but with confidence in a strong future."

The CSA Group — a not-for-profit standards organization — released for review a new draft standard on the “Selection, Use, and Care of Respirators” (CSA Z94.4:25) for workplaces, specifically including health care. This new standard is designed to ensure much better protection for health-care workers and for everyone seeking health care.

CSA Group is an independent not-for-profit standards organization with international accreditation, including from the Standards Council or Canada. Since it was founded 1919 as the Canadian Engineering Standards Association, it has helped keep Canadians safer by establishing standards for many products, including safety equipment.

From this page: https://whn.global/whn-response-to-canadas-csa-z94-4-25-respirator-standard/

Canada’s national standards body, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), has released a public draft of CSA Z94.4-25: Selection, Use, and Care of Respirators. This standard reflects decades of science and applies airborne transmission risk assessment consistently across all workplaces, including healthcare. WHN has released the following statements to support the standard and respond to the petition in opposition.

CSA Z94.4-25 represents a long-overdue shift toward protecting healthcare workers and other professionals from airborne hazards. It incorporates modern scientific understanding, including the Source-Pathway-Receiver model, and offers a practical, scalable approach to implementing respiratory protection programs.

The theme seems to be "reduce operating spending, increase capital spending". We'll see how that will blow over with the opposition.