Canada

A half-hour doc on life in the West Bank by the CBC. Posting it here in case you need a doc from a Canadian source on the topic to show other fellow Canadians. Most of us here are likely already familiar with the material.

If you are living in Canada or are a Canadian citizen living anywhere in the world, is it a terribly bad idea to inform yourself about important issues that promise to significantly negatively impact you and your loved ones?

Too Long; Didn't Read: At stake are multiple issues regarding Canada's treatment of human rights, constitutional rights, and privacy rights. Help in signing 2 petitions against Bill C-2, one on the House of Commons website and another one from Greenpeace. Help in creating new petitions on the House of Commons website to address many of the same concerns from Bill C-2 that were simply repackaged as Bills C-12, C-8, and C-9. Use linked online tools to express concerns to your Members of Parliament. Use links to contact details for Parliamentary Committees to write directly to those who can make amendments.

Omnibus legislation skips the normal Parliamentary procedure in multiple ways:

1. It hastens the process, meaning that the typical time allotted is greatly reduced. The activities which get unduly rushed include listening to informed statements from expert witnesses, having healthy debate amongst Members of Parliament, proposing well-written amendments, and generally improving legislation to make it better for Canadians.

2. It also means grouping together many different parts of legislation together into one package. A suitable witness for one portion of the legislation may not get heard due to not having broad knowledge of all of the topics, meaning that valuable and relevant information does not get heard and considered.

3. It further means pressuring Members of Parliament to unduly vote the legislation through. Normally, there is much more time and effort allocated to improving legislation and normally, Members of Parliament have more of an opportunity to reject legislation if sufficient improvements cannot be made.

4. It also means that the knowledge and experience of many Members of Parliament who serve as experts on various Parliamentary Committees will not be properly employed. Instead of assigning each portion of the legislation to the corresponding experts amongst our Members of Parliament, one Parliamentary Committee will have to act as generalists on all of these combined issues.

"What does that mean for me?"

One piece of omnibus legislation, known as Bill C-2, attempts to make significant changes to a wide variety of topics--too many topics for any one person to be able to act as an expert on the entirety of the changes.

Bill C-2 makes significant changes to many of Canada's laws and procedures in various areas:

A] Adding the ability to revoke immigration status for entire groups of people without the normal legal hearing process

B] Disappearing doctor/lawyer/accountant privilege of your information

C] Women's rights

D] Authorizing other people to open and read our confidential letter mail, which Canada Post employees have faithfully protected against happening since the time of Confederation

E] Impacting the ability to protest against important issues, such as wars or environmental concerns

F] A disappearance of decades' worth of protections offered to Canadians by the wise jurisprudence of our Supreme Court

G] Information about Canadians that is stored safely and separately in various government departments will be amalgamated into comprehensive profiles about Canadians and made available to a much greater number of eyes

H] Sensitive data about Canadians being prepared to be shared with foreign entities

I] Multiple old pieces of legislation that had previously failed the Parliamentary process due to well-debated and well-supported reasons now becoming reintroduced as a part of this bill

J] Introducing the possibility to break encryption on our encrypted communications

K] Violating Canada's commitments to international human rights law

"That's way too complicated. Simplify it for me."

Okay, here it is: The legislation is too complicated! So, Canadians are asking the government to withdraw the legislation in its current form and break it up into its individual components. Members of Parliament would then be able to give those individual components the normal Parliamentary process, including having each of: relevant expert witnesses, sufficient time for informed debate, the proper expert Parliamentary Committees being assigned, and sufficient time to put in proper amendments.

In short, Canadians want the government to do things by the book, and follow the normal and proper Parliamentary procedures for all of these issues, one-at-a-time.

"Make it even simpler for me."

Some people have put together a petition. Other people have created tools for sending messages to our Members of Parliament. Provide your name and contact information, verify your email address, and that's it.

A petition exists on a Government of Canada website: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Sign/e-6627

a) You must be a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada.

b) You will need to provide your name, your email address, your phone number, and your partial address.

c) Your partial address consists of your postal code plus province or else just your country if you are living outside of Canada.

d) There is no minimum age requirement for anyone signing a petition, but each person must have a unique email address. Check out https://tuta.com/ if your family member needs a new email account.

e) Even "a Member [of Parliament] may sign a petition." https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_22_2-e.html

f) Do not submit fake information, since doing so "may be dealt with as a breach of privilege."

g) The prayer request of this Petition e-6627 is to withdraw Bill C-2, allowing the legislation to be properly broken down, so that each individual component may receive proper due diligence. If you agree with this goal, please sign the petition.

Open Media offers a tool for expressing your concerns: https://action.openmedia.org/page/173242/action/1

a) You must provide your name, your email address, and a Canadian mailing address.

The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group offers a tool for expressing your concerns: https://iclmg.ca/stop-bill-c-2/

a) You must provide your name, your email address, and your location.

"Where's the news on this topic? I like to read news!"

Here you go: https://www.redreview.ca/p/bill-c-2-would-align-canadas-security

https://amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/bill-c-2-canada-attack-right-to-seek-asylum/

https://migrantrights.ca/actionslist/stopc2/

https://ccla.org/privacy/ccla-joins-calls-for-withdrawal-of-bill-c-2/

https://www.osler.com/en/insights/updates/beyond-borders-government-grants-itself-powerful-access-to-data-reduced-oversight/

https://act.greenpeace.ca/en-ca/stop-strong-borders-act

https://citizenlab.ca/2025/06/a-preliminary-analysis-of-bill-c-2/

"What else can I do?"

You can send a link to this message to anyone else on your list of contacts who is living in Canada or who is a Canadian citizen living anywhere in the world.

C-2's omnibus legislation builds atop of 2024's C-70 omnibus legislation. If you have a group of friends who care about saving Canada, would it be really difficult to take over the task of raising a new corresponding petition for 2024's C-70 omnibus legislation? For the proposed text to use, see https://mander.xyz/post/26444218

Archived link

This is a Q&A session with Charles Burton, senior fellow at Sinopsis.cz and former diplomat at Canada’s embassy in Beijing. It's podacst with a transcript available at the linked site.

• China is using economic coercion to pressure Canada on trade policy: Burton says Beijing has imposed arbitrary tariffs on Canadian canola exports—a $12 billion annual industry—in retaliation for Canada’s 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs (electric vehicles).

• Chinese EVs pose potential national security risks beyond just economic competition: These vehicles could serve as surveillance tools and contain software that could be remotely disabled during conflicts, similar to concerns raised about Huawei telecommunications equipment.

• Any trade concessions to China will likely require sacrifices: Beijing expects Canada to “set aside differences” on issues like espionage investigations, a promised foreign agent registry, and support for Taiwan in exchange for market access.

• China views Canada primarily as a raw materials supplier within its global strategy: Beijing’s approach aligns with Xi Jinping’s vision of remaking the world order, with China as the dominant civilizational force by 2050.

• In the case of Canola, clearly Canada put too many, too much of our Canola into one market: Canada should be trying to diversify so that when China engages in arbitrary tariff measures to leverage on other issues, the country would be able take the hit more readily.

• Xi Jinping now faces irregular internal challenges from China’s military leadership: Nine top military officials have been removed this month, suggesting potential concerns about China’s economic decline under Xi’s policies.

...

Charles Burton: ... [Imposing tariffs on Canadian canola is a significant] move by China to leverage us by using economic coercion because there are 40,000 prairie farmers involved in the production of canola seeds. And it’s a $12 billion a year business. And last year, before China imposed these punitive tariffs, we sold over 4 billion to China. So it’s a big, big market. The Chinese did this in retaliation for our imposing 100% tariff on electric vehicles. The reason that we did that was that China heavily subsidizes these things, and so they would devastate our own market if they came into Canada. It’s a superior product, better battery technology, much cheaper. But the other concern which I expressed in Parliament is the potential for espionage by these machines. They’re similar to Huawei Telecoms.

...

China won’t let the Teslas go anywhere near sensitive sites. I mean, they gather terrific amount of information of where they go and on the people who are driving them. And there’s also like the neptech technology that we decided not to use for scanners in Canadian embassies and consulates around the world, they have software updates which come from the manufacturer. So if there was conflict between Canada and China, it’s possible that, conceivable under current conditions, that China could cripple them. So we’d really have to address those serious issues before it would be a good idea to bring them in

...

If we do get them to take off the tariffs on the canola, it doesn’t solve the problem, because next time China wants to leverage us to prevent us from, say, expelling agents of espionage or other concerns over Taiwan or the South China Sea or, you know, any number of things that, that we have going on with China, they can simply engage in this economic coercion on something else. They could declare our pulp and paper products are dumped, for example. So when you have a country that doesn’t respect the agreements and, and falsifies some reasons for barring Canadian products from the Chinese market, it’s sort of like whack a mole. You saw one, it’s quite likely that they would use another.

...

And what they want back [in exchange for reducing tariffs on canola] is what they refer to as some seek common ground while setting aside differences. So they don’t want us to pursue Chinese espionage, you know, the transfer of dual use military technologies to the Chinese state. They definitely don’t want us to enact the Foreign Influence Registry that came into law in Canada in June 2024 with Bill C70.

...

China I think would like us to be a supplier of raw materials for China. They’d like access to our northern resources Their, you know, their idea of China being a near Arctic state and more and more present in the Northwest Passage, I think is a concern to us overall.

...

China is an integrated party state, industrial military complex ... it’s all dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, which some people say is like God invisible, but everywhere present. And so, you know, when we look at how China relates with Africa, countries that they’ve been investing in in the Belt and Road and supporting enabling dictators with surveillance technologies and so on, are typically countries that have favorable port facilities that China could use for future blue water, navy and submarines.

...

Within Canada, you see a similar process of China gradually attempting to achieve a comprehensive influence in our country.

Not just the elections, but, you know, the attempts to subvert policymakers and to have investment in Canada that they can then leverage for their geostrategic purposes. You know, would we continue to deny China access to mining resources in the north if they would respond by punishing us economically? So I think the key here is that we shouldn’t be too dependent on the Chinese export market. So in the case of Canola, clearly we put too many, too much of our Canola into one market. And we should be trying to diversify so that when China engages in arbitrary tariff measures to leverage on other issues, that we can take the hit more readily.

...

One of the wildest things I've read in a while. I've heard of people fighting off cougars, which is crazy but a goddamn Grizzly Bear?!? It even had his head in its mouth!

I figured this was too groovy not to share, apologies if this isn't quite the right community for it.

The fallout over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's comments about the RCMP and its leadership continued Wednesday as he sought to recast his assertion that some people deserved jail time for the last Liberal government's missteps.

"Many of the scandals of the Trudeau era should have involved jail time. I mean, Trudeau broke the Criminal Code," Poilievre said.

Poilievre said Trudeau would have been charged criminally for accepting a vacation from the Aga Khan, a family friend who had dealings with the federal government, "if the RCMP had been doing its job."

A Conservative source told CBC News that there was "tension" inside the party's caucus room Wednesday morning over what some MPs feel was a step too far by Poilievre.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6498963

About 100 people packed into the Smithers courthouse on Friday to show support for three Indigenous land defenders being sentenced for attempting to halt work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline in 2021 in defiance of a court-ordered injunction.

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jocko will avoid jail time after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen handed the three suspended sentences, rejecting a Crown submission that they spend time in jail.

The trio were arrested, along with several others, along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route on Nov. 19, 2021.

The sentencing closes a chapter in the years-long conflict over construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through northern B.C., which sparked solidarity protests that shut down transportation corridors across Canada and made international headlines.

Construction on the 670-kilometre gas pipeline was completed in late 2023 after years of opposition by Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and several high-profile police actions. Earlier this year, the LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat began shipping gas transported through the pipeline.

Inside the courtroom, some supporters became emotional as Tammen acknowledged the Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders’ decades-long fight to affirm the nation’s rights and title — and the B.C. and Canadian governments’ failure to engage meaningfully in negotiations over the outstanding claims.

But instead of sending the three to jail, Tammen suspended the sentences on the condition that they complete 150 hours of community service work, abide by a court injunction issued to the pipeline company and be on good behaviour.

After the decision, Sleydo’ — a member of the Wet’suwet’en Gidimt’en Clan — thanked the Dini ze’ and Ts’ako ze’ (Hereditary Chiefs) who have stood up for the nation’s land rights.

“What they did and how hard they fought and the fact that we still have lands and territories... today, that really showed,” she said outside the courthouse.

“It feels really good today to not be going to jail,” Sleydo’ added, to cheers from those gathered.

Full Article

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48392149

The study, published Tuesday in Nature Mental Health, randomly surveyed more than 2,400 Canadians aged 13 or older and categorized them using a climate change anxiety scale developed in the U.S. It asks the extent to which people agree with statements such as "Thinking about climate change makes it difficult for me to sleep" or "I find myself crying because of climate change."

It found that 90 per cent of respondents were concerned about climate change and 68 per cent felt some level of anxiety — something the researchers thought was a normal, healthy response, given the impacts of climate change such as wildfires and extreme heat.

But 2.35 per cent had "clinically relevant" symptoms.

Archived link

...

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Norway's Tore Sandvik are accompanied by the chief executive officer of TKMS as Canada weighs joining a German-Norwegian submarine partnership. It would involve the procurement of the shipbuilder’s U212CD submarines, six of which Germany is expected to receive by 2037.

TKMS was just spun off from parent company Thyssenkrupp AG and held its initial public offering in Frankfurt on Monday, where CEO Oliver Burkhard told attendees he’s traveling to Ottawa with Pistorius to discuss the potential submarine order.

...

Canada is becoming increasingly important for Germany as a transatlantic ally, as the US pulls back from traditional partnerships with Europe. Canada, in turn, wants its industry to benefit from a booming European market.

Germany, Norway and Canada entered into a maritime security partnership in 2024, with Denmark also joining this year. The countries want to jointly protect critical underwater infrastructure and strengthen their anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Canada also forged a security partnership with the European Union in June, which moves the country closer to being able to access the EU’s SAFE defense procurement financing mechanism if it partners with at least one EU member state.

...

Archived version

As Prime Minister Mark Carney attempts a diplomatic reset with China and India, his government has yet to name its candidate to oversee the promised foreign interference registry to address the threat of political meddling and transnational repression.

But as public attention shifts toward economic concerns over human rights, NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.) says the federal government must “walk and chew gum at the same time,” and remain focused on protecting Canadians caught in the crosshairs of foreign influence.

“The federal government can’t take its eyes off the need to protect Canadians and our democratic institutions,” said Kwan, her party’s public safety and national security critic, in an interview with The Hill Times. Her comments came as Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand (Oakville East, Ont.) wrapped up travel to India and China for talks with government officials.

...

While Hogue noted that the previous Trudeau government had “taken too long to act” and “proven to be a poor communicator and insufficiently transparent,” she acknowledged signs the government had begun “prioritizing” the issue over the course of the inquiry and in the previous two years.

Since then, however, Kwan said it has been “mystifying” how quickly Carney’s team had seemingly forgotten those lessons.

...

“It’s mystifying to me why the Liberals have taken so long and still have yet to fully put in place the commissioner and the registry. This should have been done before the last election,” Kwan said. She called the government’s attempt to reset relations with China while “paying lip service” to the threat of foreign interference “deeply concerning.”

While the issue may not be a top concerns for many Canadians, for those being targeted, it can be “a matter of life and death,” Kwan said.

In 2023, Kwan was briefed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which warned her she remains an “evergreen target” for Beijing due to her advocacy on Chinese human rights. Chong and his family have also faced alleged interference and intimidation by the Chinese government for his condemnation of Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a genocide.

...

Kwan said that while Canadians may be more focused on the financial pressures in their daily lives to the exclusion of everything else, the federal government can’t afford to lose focus.

...

[Dan] Stanton, a former CSIS executive manager, said that “someone in government” had clearly decided to hold off on the naming of a new commissioner as it would have made things “awkward” for Anand.

“Even though the registry is technically country agnostic, let’s not kid ourselves: most of the calls for it were about China and India,” said Stanton, now director of national security at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute. “The Chinese would have been very sensitive to the move if Anand was visiting Beijing while Ottawa was launching the registry.”

...

“Chinese-Canadian communities continue to face transnational repression, and we’re still dealing with Uyghur issues and the crackdown in Hong Kong,” Stanton added. “These concerns won’t just fade into the sunset as we attempt to repair our relationships China or India.”

...

Stanton said that regardless of what politicians say publicly, “economic interests almost always outweigh concerns about human rights or the rule of law.” Still, as Canada resets its relationships with China and India, there needs to be some attempt at a counterbalance, he said.

“Our sovereignty has been violated by China, just as it has been with India, and part of that rebalancing is the registry,” Stanton said. “Canada does need to re-engage, but we need to go into this with eyes wide open, and communicate to Canadians that we value human rights with concrete action.”

Archived

...

China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, says the solution is simple: if Canada drops the EV tariff, China will remove its agricultural tariffs. But Canada may not need to go that far.

China cannot easily replace millions of tonnes of high-quality Canadian seed. Imports from India and Australia don’t match the volume or quality, and Chinese futures markets are already showing strain. If farmers can weather the chill, Canada may have more leverage than expected.

...

Canadians can’t ignore China’s human rights abuses, from the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang to the crackdown in Hong Kong. And trading dependence on Washington for reliance on Beijing is hardly a cure-all. Any deal must be negotiated from a position of strength, with safeguards to protect Canadian workers and sovereignty.

Which brings us back to canola. China needs it. We’re willing to sell it. But we don’t have to—nor should we—give away the farm.

An interview with historian Bryan Palmer about his trilogy of books on the continuing legacy of colonialism in Canada.

Liberal House leader Steve MacKinnon signalled Tuesday that he’s concerned the government’s budget might not get support from the opposition benches, while at the same time dismissing some demands other parties have laid out.

On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney saying he wants to see an “affordable budget” that includes broad tax cuts and keeping the deficit under $42 billion.

Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois has said they have six key priorities for the budget including: an increase to the federal health transfer to the provinces, new infrastructure investments, an expansion of the rapid housing initiative, interest-free loans for first-time homebuyers and boosting Old Age Security (OAS) payments for those ages 65 to 75.

Canada’s auditor general found serious problems with the military’s aging living quarters, including deteriorating exterior walls, toilets that don't flush and a lack of safe drinking water.

There are 227 high-priority repairs needed across 32 buildings, according to Karen Hogan’s latest report released Tuesday. But out of a sample audited, only five per cent of repairs had been completed.

The auditor general’s team found the average age of the buildings housing military members is 60 years old, and most required at least one high-priority repair.

Her audit found there were 3,706 military members on a waitlist for residential housing units at bases this spring, but only 205 units available.

Company doesn't answer questions about use of zip ties, but says it offered to pay for repairs

Paywall free: https://archive.is/hGJwq