It is nothing if not rich in irony, this latest dramatic plot twist in the ongoing “world stage” soap opera chronicling the embarrassing ups and downs of the Trudeau government’s unrequited affections for Chinese strongman Xi Jinping. Of all people, Taiwan’s heroic president, the 64-year-old feminist and liberal Tsai Ing-wen, has been forced to endure the misfortune of being dragged into the script for this week’s episode.
This year, the model that powers this report has evolved in response to a transformational year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cultural, economic, political, and technological influences remain important, and two new categories have been added: social purpose and agility. Together, this broad range of categories determines how the 78 countries studied are ranked on the world stage.
Foreign governments are looking to meddle in Canada’s democratic institutions and the government’s foreign interference warning system should alert Canadians to state actors’ “traditional” election tricks, says the chair of one of Canada’s national security committees.
Liberal MP David McGuinty, who has headed the secretive National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians since its inception, said the internal panel set up in 2019 to sound the alarm on election interference — the “critical election incident public protocol panel” — should have its mandate expanded to include old-school espionage techniques.
Canadian public health officials and physicians are particularly concerned about the rapid spread of both the B.1.1.7 and P.1 variants across the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.
“Because of the current situation in Canada, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to Canada,” the website now reads. “If you must travel to Canada, get fully vaccinated before travel. All travelers should wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands.”
Wait, what? What do vaccines do? And what about airlines? And what about Roxham Rd?
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s speech at the party’s policy convention was an opportunity to attract Canadians wanting change. Unfortunately, as John Ivison has reported, following the speech six in 10 Canadian voters remain politically homeless. Here is my version of a speech that would have resonated with many of those politically homeless:
My fellow Canadians, as I contemplate a new future for our country, I’m reminded of what the great British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said as she took over from a corrupt, deeply socialist party that had transformed the once strong and proud United Kingdom into an impotent, failing nation. She said, “We will stand on principle or we will not stand at all.”
Canada’s spy agency says 2020 saw the highest level of foreign espionage and foreign interference directed at Canadian targets since the end of the Cold War.
“The fluid and rapidly evolving environment caused by COVID-19 has created a situation ripe for exploitation by threat actors seeking to advance their own interests,” said Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director David Vigneault in his agency’s 2020 report, released today.
“In 2020, CSIS observed espionage and foreign interference activity at levels not seen since the Cold War.”
OTTAWA — Air Canada and the federal government have reached an agreement on a $5.9-billion aid package that the company says will speed up customer refunds, protect industry jobs and return service to some communities that were shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a news release, Air Canada said the $5.879-billion liquidity agreement is provided through the government’s Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF) program and includes $4 billion in loans, a $500-million investment in Air Canada stock and a separate $1.4-billion loan to help facilitate customer refunds.
Boy am I shocked.
In exchange for ~$6B in Canada govt financing, Air Canada agreed to, among other things, complete the purchase of 33 Airbus A220 aircraft, produced by Airbus's (formerly Bombardier) facility at Mirabel, Que.
— Paul Vieira (@paulvieira) April 12, 2021
Over the weekend, reporters were arrested, a man was violently detained by police and hundreds of people took to the streets of Montreal to protest the Quebec government’s mandatory COVID-19 curfew and stringent lockdown regime.
That decision comes as the Conservatives and NDP members of the committee argue no one has yet taken responsibility and the probe should continue, but as one prominent group of survivors says the meetings have become too partisan.
Top 10 resolutions at #LPC2021 You can see a few themes here, and big support for basic income. Full list and resolutions here: https://t.co/NlFdJbm6HL pic.twitter.com/bFuAeptpMa
— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) April 10, 2021
Facing growing scrutiny over its sharp power operations, the crackdown in Hong Kong and the ongoing cultural genocide in Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has launched an all-out propaganda campaign to rewrite the facts and discredit its critics. Recently, the CCP has also begun resorting to lawfare — the use or threat of legal action — to intimidate, silence and impose financial and psychological costs on researchers and journalists who are uncovering facts that Beijing doesn’t want us to know about.
In a Facebook group dedicated to McGill University students, many have recently taken to creating posts and polls about issuing student-led consequences for those that have defied Quebec’s Public Health decree.
The new chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has no plans to institute a blanket divestment of oil and gas assets during his tenure, in part because he believes science will find solutions to many of the issues that have made environmentalists and some investors question such holdings.
At this weekend’s convention my fellow social democrats in the NDP will be faced with a resolution to abolish the Canadian Armed Forces.
That’s right, resolution 04-42-20 states “BE IT RESOLVED THAT an NDP government will commit to phasing out the Canadian Armed Forces.”
