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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his first Asian swing right now, attending multilateral meetings such the APEC Leaders’ Summit in South Korea.

This trip, in which he also hit Malaysia and Singapore, comes after 16 other foreign trips that were mostly concentrated in Europe. From the get-go, Carney has pushed for diversification for the Canadian economy away from our truculent, traditional United States partner, and has been fairly focused on showcasing to our European allies that Canada is one of them.

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These discussions are all crucial for Canada, which needs to take advantage of the markets that want our goods and services. But let’s not forget that the Indo-Pacific Strategy was initially launched in the wake of increased tension with the major players of China and India as Canada sought to find non-traditional avenues in the region of which it hadn’t yet fully taken advantage.

But now, India and China are back on the table. Canada Foreign Minister Anita Anand broke the seal earlier this month, stopping in both countries for high-level meetings. Carney will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC.

“Relationships rebuild over time … when they have changed, when they've changed for the worse. And so we have a lot of areas on which we can build,” Carney told reporters in Malaysia earlier this week.

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But back at home, Canadians who have suffered at the hands of foreign interference and transnational repression are still left waiting and wondering how their interests will be protected amid all of this relationship rebuilding.

[The liberal government has] yet to name a candidate to oversee the promised foreign interference registry, which is something Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree had previously said would happen in September.

As NDP MP Jenny Kwan highlighted, transnational repression can be “a matter of life and death” for those being targeted.

People need to feel safe at home. What good is economic growth and trade diversification if it allows diaspora communities to feel as though foreign governments have licence to harass—and even kill—them on Canadian soil?

Carney said he was going to be “laser focused” on the economy. But the people part of the equation is too commonly left behind. As Kwan said: “The Carney government needs to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time; they need to address both with the level of seriousness and attention they require.”

Canada and its allies have blacklisted more than 400 unregistered ships – known as shadow vessels – in just six months.

The effort aims to starve Russia of funding for its war on Ukraine while preventing leaky ships from one day compromising Canada’s Arctic environment.

“The idea of illegal, substandard, uninsured vessels transiting through High North and Arctic waters was, is, and remains a terrifying prospect,” said David Angell, a foreign and defence policy adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney, during a panel hosted by the Polish Embassy in Ottawa on Oct. 10.

The issue is becoming more pertinent to Canada due to climate change in the Arctic, he said.

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Russia has sought for years to evade sanctions western countries put in place after its initial 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its full-scale invasion in 2022.

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Earlier this month, a group called the Nordic-Baltic Eight met in Ottawa alongside most G7 members – except for the U.S.

In a joint statement, the group called out “the use of older, underinsured, and poorly maintained ships that routinely disable or manipulate their automatic identification systems, and the use of stateless or falsely flagged vessels.”

It has pledged to continue maritime surveillance and intelligence sharing to pursue sanctions evasion.

Finland’s Ambassador in Ottawa Hanna-Leena Korteniemi said Finns are “very grateful” to Canada for pushing forward the issue at the G7 because Russian tankers can contaminate European ecosystems and encourage Moscow to make war beyond Ukraine.

The shadow fleet’s use of GPS jamming is a particular concern for Finland, because tankers trying to evade detection can accidentally collide with passenger or commercial ships. Russian tankers leaving St. Petersburg can come close to Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

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Indonesia Trade Minister Budi Santoso expressed hope that negotiations for the ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will be completed in 2026 to expand market access, drive innovation, and strengthen supply chain connectivity.

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According to him, moving forward, ASEAN should also explore new partnerships with strategic partners such as the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to strengthen regional economic diversification.

He emphasized the importance of deepening and expanding economic partnerships through accession processes to complement the benefits of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

RCEP is a milestone in strengthening regional economic integration while providing opportunities for inclusive, sustainable, and highly competitive growth in the Asia-Pacific, he added.

Santoso also stressed the need to encourage the utilization and modernization of ASEAN Plus One FTAs and the importance of strengthening cross-pillar coordination between economic and security sectors to address global geoeconomic and geopolitical dynamics.

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The Maple has recorded cases where pages linked to on the Find IDF Soldiers website have been deleted, modified or made private.

It's time to send this fascist bootlicker home.

Canada will focus on securing supplies of critical minerals when it hosts its Group of Seven partners this week at a meeting of energy and environment ministers in Toronto, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said in an interview on Tuesday.

G7 countries, except Japan, are heavily or exclusively reliant on China for a range of materials from rare earth magnets to battery metals.

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"We will see this week many examples of us moving beyond talks to firm commitments to fund several types of tools (to secure critical minerals)," Hodgson said. The G7 meeting will be held from October 30 to October 31.

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He said Canada intended to be a leader in securing supply chains for all of its key allies, to reduce reliance on China. Canada produces several critical metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt.

Some of the announcements expected this week from the G7 meeting will be on stockpiling of critical minerals and investments in new mining and processing operations, Hodgson said.

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