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☆ A Bill to Limit Canada’s Trade Negotiators on Farm Goods Edges Nearer to Law
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

And perhaps even more surprising, it deals with a contentious issue: Canada’s supply management system, which controls production and sets minimum prices for dairy and poultry products as well as eggs. Many free-market economists and politicians cast supply management as a legalized price cartel that increases Canadians’ grocery bills. And in negotiations for every one of Canada’s major trade agreements in recent decades, the supply management system has emerged as one of the final sticking points.

☆ Nine People, Including an Airline Worker, Are Arrested in $14.5 Million Gold Heist
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was a brazen theft: thousands of gold bars and millions of dollars in bank notes stolen a year ago from Toronto’s international airport. On Wednesday, Canadian authorities announced the arrest of nine people, including an Air Canada employee, in connection with the theft of more than 20 million Canadian dollars, about $14.5 million, in gold bars and 2.5 million dollars, about $1.8 million, in bank notes that vanished from a warehouse at Toronto Pearson Airport in April 2023. Arrest warrants have also been issued for three other people, including a manager at the airline. “One we jokingly say belongs in a Netflix series.” The Peel police are responsible for law enforcement at Toronto’s airport. The gold, Chief Duraiappah said, was partly used to buy guns that were bound for Canada.

Persons: Nishan Duraiappah, Duraiappah Organizations: Air Canada, Toronto Pearson Airport, Peel Regional Police, Netflix, Peel Locations: Toronto, Toronto’s, Canada, Pennsylvania

He had planned to lead a team of 15 local journalists reporting on the eclipse. Journalists at The Democrat & Chronicle have worked without a contract since 2019, said Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York, the union that represents them. Workers also seek a policy regarding the ethical use of artificial intelligence in reporting and writing articles, Mr. Craig said. “We had this incredible story that would touch a lot of people in our community,” Mr. Craig said. “Hopefully we’ll be back at the negotiating table tomorrow morning,” Mr. Craig said.

Persons: “ I’m, I’m, ”, Gary Craig, Susan DeCarava, “ Gannett, Ms, DeCarava, Craig, ’ bylines, “, ” Amy Garrard, ” Mr, we’ll Organizations: Democrat, Chronicle, Gannett, Journalists, The Democrat, The New York Times, ” Gannett, USA, Workers Locations: Rochester , N.Y, New York, newsrooms, United States, Rochester

☆ 2 Scientists in Canada Passed On Secrets to China, Investigations Find
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two scientists who worked at Canada’s top microbiology lab passed on secret scientific information to China, and one of them was a “realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security,” documents from the national intelligence agency and a security investigation show. Canadian universities can now be disqualified from federal funding if they enter into partnerships with any of 100 institutions in China, Russia and Iran. The release of the documents was the subject of a prolonged debate in Parliament that began before the last federal election, in September 2021. Opposition parties asked to see the records at least four times and found the Liberal government to be in contempt of Parliament in 2021. The government filed a lawsuit in an attempt to keep the records hidden, but dropped it when the vote was called.

Persons: Xiangguo Qiu, Keding Cheng Organizations: Commons, Liberal Locations: China, Russia, Iran

☆ Canadian Ex-Intelligence Official Is Sentenced to 14 Years Over State Secrets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former civilian director of an elite intelligence unit in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday after his conviction last year of giving confidential operational information to four men who were targets of police investigations. Mr. Ortis will get credit for the six and a half years he had spent in jail while awaiting trial and following his conviction in November. The case was the first time that charges under Canada’s 1985 Security of Information Act had been brought to trial. The act’s provisions meant that Mr. Ortis was “permanently bound to secrecy,” therefore his testimony was conducted in secret with only censored transcripts made public. Other evidence has been kept secret.

Persons: Cameron Ortis, Ortis, ” Organizations: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

☆ As Canadian Hockey Players Face Assault Charges, Officials Are on Defensive
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Ian Austen | Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the Leon’s Centre arena, home to the junior hockey team in Kingston, Ontario, a sense of outrage mixed with anticipation as fans who had gathered for a game grappled with the news that five former Canadian junior hockey players — four of whom played in the National Hockey League — had been charged last week with sexual assault. There the police, who first investigated but didn’t bring charges in 2018, plan to hold their first news conference about the case on Monday afternoon. The allegations have touched a nerve with fans, leading many to question how Hockey Canada, the nation’s governing body for the sport, has responded. The case came to light in May 2022 after TSN, a sports channel that broadcasts the world junior championship, reported that Hockey Canada had paid 3.5 million Canadian dollars, or $2.6 million, to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by eight junior league players. At the time of the assault is said to have occurred, all of the players were members of Canada’s national junior team.

Persons: National Hockey League — Organizations: Canadian, —, National Hockey League, Ontario, Justice, Hockey Canada, TSN Locations: Kingston , Ontario, London , Ontario

☆ Canada Delays Plan to Offer Medically Assisted Death to the Mentally Ill
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Canada is postponing a plan to offer people suffering from mental illnesses the option of a medically assisted death, two cabinet ministers said on Monday. The announcement by Mark Holland, the health minister, and Arif Virani, the justice minister, came after a special parliamentary committee looking into the plan concluded that there are not enough doctors, particularly psychiatrists, in the country to assess patients with mental illnesses who want to end their lives and to help them do so. “The system needs to be ready, and we need to get it right,” Mr. Holland told reporters. “It’s clear from the conversations we’ve had that the system is not ready, and we need more time.”Neither minister offered any timeline for the latest extension. Following an earlier delay, the expansion had been scheduled to come into effect on March 17.

Persons: Mark Holland, Arif Virani, Mr, Holland, “, we’ve, ” Locations: Canada

☆ Court Finds Trudeau Overreached by Using Emergency Law to End Blockade
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ian Austen | Vjosa Isai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Canadian court found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the country’s Emergencies Act to end a truck convoy protest that had paralyzed the capital, Ottawa, two years ago was an unjustified infringement of civil rights, including the protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and, in some instances, the freedom of expression as well. The Federal Court of Canada decision also found that the freezing of bank accounts of people linked to the protest was similarly unjustified, but it dismissed arguments that the government had violated a variety of other rights, including those linked to peaceful assembly. The protests in Ottawa, which were initially incited by a Covid vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, rendered most of the city’s downtown streets impassable, clogging them with parked trucks. Six days after Mr. Trudeau’s government introduced the emergency powers, an enormous force of police officers from across the country finished clearing the streets. About 230 people were arrested during the protest.

Persons: Justin Trudeau’s, Mr, Trudeau Organizations: Federal Locations: Ottawa, Alberta, British Columbia, France

☆ What’s in Our Queue? ‘High and Low’ and More
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-03 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In 1970s New York, the streets are filled with trash, the police department filled with corruption, but Colson Whitehead’s depiction of the city’s nadir is filled with humor. Since people have asked: It wasn’t a problem that I hadn’t first read “Harlem Shuffle,” which includes many of the same characters during the ’60s. But I am doing so now.

Persons: Colson Locations: New York

☆ Canada Fast-Tracks 10.4 Billion Dollar Military Purchase
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The estimated program cost is 10.4 billion Canadian dollars, of which just under 6 billion dollars is the purchase price of the planes. (The program cost includes weapons, training simulators, spare parts and renovations at the Air Force bases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia where the planes will be stationed.) As with the 1980s vintage CP-140 Aurora planes they will replace, the main duty of the newcomers will be tracking submarines. But, as is the case now, they will most likely perform a number of other tasks ranging from tracking drug smuggling in the Caribbean to monitoring pollution in Canada. In particular, they wanted it to consider a proposed marine surveillance plane from Montreal-based Bombardier.

Persons: —, François, Doug Ford of, François Blanchet Organizations: Boeing, Air Force, Titan, Yves, Bloc, Bombardier Locations: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Caribbean, Canada, United States, Britain, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, Doug Ford of Ontario, Montreal

☆ Once a Homeless Addict, a Mayor Takes On Housing and Drug Crises
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

There are politicians — almost all of them — who try to put the best possible shine on their professional résumés and past lives. Then there is Dan Carter. “For 17 years, I was an absolutely horrible individual,” said Mr. Carter, the mayor of Oshawa, Ontario. “Horrible individual. Or at least his story positioned him as someone who could bring his personal experience to bear on the city’s most pressing problems.

Persons: —, Dan Carter, “, ”, Carter Locations: Oshawa , Ontario, Oshawa

☆ For an N.B.A. Star, a Dream House Became a Nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The six bedroom, 10,000 square-foot house on Lake Ontario that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a star player with the Oklahoma City Thunder, bought for just over 8.4 million Canadian dollars, or $6.1 million, should have been a dream home. But in May, two days after Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, moved into the house, near Toronto, with his partner, it became a nightmare, according to a lawsuit seeking to nullify the sale. A menacing visitor appeared looking for a previous occupant. player’s house, described in the real estate listing as an “elegant, resort-like estate,” had been the home of Aiden Pleterski, a self-styled “crypto king” who declared bankruptcy in 2022, while owing just under 13 million Canadian dollars to more than 150 investment clients. Court records show that the home received a steady stream of angry visitors seeking to talk to Mr. Pleterski while he was living there and after he moved out.

Persons: Shai Gilgeous, Alexander, Gilgeous, haven’t, ”, Aiden Pleterski, Pleterski Organizations: Oklahoma City Thunder Locations: Lake Ontario, Toronto

☆ Nazis in Canada? A Secret List With Answers May Soon Be Released.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For 37 years, Canada has kept close guard on an explosive roster of names. Canada’s strong privacy laws and government secrecy have kept the report confidential, but a recent political blunder may crack it open. Now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is discussing whether the time has come to unseal the report. The deliberations began before the celebration of Mr. Hunka, said Anthony Housefather, a member of Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party caucus who has been the primary political proponent of declassification. But the episode has increased pressure on the government to finally act.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Yaroslav Hunka, Justin Trudeau’s, Hunka, Anthony Housefather Organizations: Nazi Waffen, Trudeau’s Liberal Party Locations: Canada, Ukraine, Ukrainian Canadian

☆ Canada Pulls 41 Diplomats as India Threatens to Revoke Their Immunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Canada has withdrawn two-thirds of its diplomats based in India after that country said it would revoke their diplomatic immunity this Friday, further ratcheting up tension between the two countries. India and Canada have been at increasingly bitter odds since the assertion last month by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Indian government agents had played a role in the killing in British Columbia of a Sikh separatist who was a Canadian citizen. Mélanie Joly, the Canadian foreign minister, told reporters on Thursday that India had offered “no good reason” for revoking the diplomats’ immunity, which she called a violation of international law. Canada had been in talks with India to avert the effective expulsion. Ms. Joly declined to discuss the status of those negotiations as she condemned India’s decision as a blow to the global agreement that ensures the safety of diplomats.

Persons: Justin Trudeau, Mélanie Joly, Ms, Joly, India’s Locations: Canada, India, Indian, British Columbia, Canadian

The Sikh temple leader wanted as a terrorist by India walked toward his pickup truck late one Sunday last June after a long day at his place of worship. He and an associate discussed some upcoming programs while making their way across the large parking lot behind the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple near Vancouver. It was Father’s Day and, once inside his gray Dodge Ram, the leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, called his family and said he was heading right home. Then, witnesses say, they heard a burst of automatic gunfire and saw two hooded men running away from Mr. Nijjar’s immobilized pickup. Running, Mr. Singh was the first to reach the Dodge Ram, where he found a still-buckled Mr. Nijjar slumped over the center console, his right arm stretched out toward the passenger seat.

Persons: Nanak, Dodge Ram, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, ”, Bhupinder Jit Singh, Singh, Nijjar Locations: India, Vancouver

☆ Ukrainian Attack Hits Headquarters of Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Video Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea. Russia’s defense ministry said that air defenses had shot down five missiles but that the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in the city of Sevastopol had sustained damage. Ukraine’s military said in a brief statement that its forces had struck the Black Sea Fleet headquarters. He noted that, in addition to the Black Sea Fleet, the peninsula also houses attack planes and helicopters, as well as infantry bases. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said its missiles took out a command post for the Black Sea Fleet in the village of Verkhnesadovoye, a few miles north of Sevastopol’s city center.

Persons: “, ” Samuel Bendett, Mikhail Razvozhayev, Razvozhayev, Oleg Kryuchkov, Arijeta Lajka Organizations: Ukraine, Agence France, Tass, Ukrainian, Center for Naval, Black, Fleet, The New York Times Locations: Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, Russian, Moscow, Bakhchysarai, Verkhnesadovoye, Sevastopol’s

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Tuesday firmly rejected the Indian government’s denial of any involvement in the assassination of a Sikh dissident in Canada, calling on India to take his country’s allegations seriously. “We are not looking to provoke or escalate,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the government of India.”On Monday, the prime minister stunned Canadians when he told the House of Commons that “agents of the Indian government” had been behind the shooting in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader and a Canadian citizen, near a Sikh temple in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia.

Persons: Justin Trudeau of, Mr, Trudeau, ”, Hardeep Singh Nijjar Organizations: Justin Trudeau of Canada, of Locations: Canada, India, Ottawa, Canadian, Vancouver, British Columbia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia last June. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Trudeau said that he raised India’s involvement in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 summit meeting earlier this month “in no uncertain terms.” He said the allegation was based on intelligence gathered by the Canadian government. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Trudeau told lawmakers. He said Canada would pressure India to cooperate with the investigation into the killing. Mélanie Joly, the foreign minister, later announced that Canada had expelled an Indian diplomat whom she described as “the head” of Indian intelligence in Canada.

Persons: Justin Trudeau, ”, Trudeau, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Narendra Modi, ” Mr, Mélanie Joly Organizations: British Columbia, Group, Canadian Locations: British, Canada, India, Indian

☆ After 3 Weeks of Wildfire Exile, a City of 20,000 Returns
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Twenty-two days after they were evacuated from the capital of the Northwest Territories in the face of a racing wildfire, the roughly 20,000 residents of Yellowknife began returning home on Wednesday to refrigerators filled with spoiled food to restart their lives in a city that averted disaster. Cars and trucks bearing the territory’s distinctive polar-bear-shaped license plate took to the road after officials declared on Monday that it would most likely be safe to return on Wednesday. The last highway roadblock impeding access was lifted at 11 a.m. local time, earlier than expected, and scheduled airline flights resumed on Wednesday. The first two of a series of evacuee flights on chartered and military aircraft from the Alberta cities of Edmonton and Calgary, which both hosted thousands of Yellowknife residents, arrived on Wednesday. (To drive from Edmonton, the closest major city, takes about 24 hours.)

Organizations: Northwest Locations: Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, Alberta, Edmonton, Calgary

☆ Canada Tries Leaders of Anti-Vaccine Protest That Jammed Ottawa
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A criminal trial opened on Tuesday for two Canadians who were key organizers of the trucker convoy that paralyzed the country’s capital, Ottawa, for nearly a month in early 2022, upturning the lives of many residents and creating economic hardship for local businesses and workers. The 22-day protest, which began in response to mandatory vaccinations for cross-border truck drivers, blocked major roads around the Canadian Parliament and was among the longest and most costly anti-vaccine protests in the world. It prompted copycat demonstrations along Canada’s border with the United States, including a blockade that disrupted billions of dollars in trade, and inspired similar protests in France and around the world. The Canadian protests expanded to include a wide range of grievances, sharply dividing the country over whether it was permissible speech or unlawful assembly. In order to clear the streets, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked federal emergency laws for the first time in over 50 years, a step his critics charged was excessive and unjustified.

Persons: Justin Trudeau Locations: Ottawa, United States, France

☆ Canada Cautions L.G.B.T.Q. Citizens Visiting U.S. Over State Laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Canadian government is warning L.G.B.T.Q. travelers to the United States that they may be affected by a series of recently enacted state laws that restrict transgender and other gay people. Global Affairs Canada, the foreign affairs department, added a brief notice on Tuesday to a long list of travel warnings involving the United States that had already included cautions about gun violence and terrorism. “Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons,” the notice reads. “Check relevant state and local laws.” (The beginning of the Canadian government’s acronym, “2S,” represents two-spirit, an Indigenous term for someone with a masculine and a feminine spirit.)

Persons: Jérémie Organizations: Global Affairs Canada Locations: United States, U.S

☆ At Least 50 Buildings Have Burned in British Columbia Wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At least 50 buildings were consumed by wildfires in and around Kelowna, British Columbia, over the past few days, officials said on Monday, warning that the final tally will be higher as their survey of the damage continues. “We’re not done yet, and the most damaged neighborhoods are still to come,” Jason Brolund, the chief of the fire service in West Kelowna, the suburban community most ravaged by fire, said at a news conference on Monday. Attempts by crews to assess the extent of the destruction have been slowed by melted street signs, destroyed address markers on houses and impassable roads, as well as by felled power lines and trees, Chief Brolund said. But since Saturday, he said, a variety of factors have lessened the intensity of the fire, making it easier for fire crews to keep the flames away from buildings. None have been destroyed by the fire for the past 24 hours.

Persons: “ We’re, Jason Brolund, Brolund Locations: Kelowna, British Columbia, West Kelowna

☆ British Columbia Wildfire in Photos: ‘A Long-Lasting Scar’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The fire-ravaged Canadian province of British Columbia was under a state of emergency for the second day, as a wildfire in and around the resort city of Kelowna continued to consume houses. The fire is one of two in Canada that have led thousands to evacuate their homes in the last week. Hundreds of miles away from Kelowna, a wildfire converging on the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, led officials to order a mass evacuation of the entire town. Officials rated the risk of that wildfire to be extreme on Saturday and Sunday and high on Monday. Rebecca Alty, the mayor of Yellowknife, a city of about 20,000, said an estimated 1,600 residents were defying evacuation orders and remained in the city.

Persons: Rebecca Alty Organizations: British Columbia, Firefighters Locations: Canadian, British, Kelowna, Canada, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Canada’s wildfire plague widened on Friday, with Yellowknife’s 20,000 residents rushing to meet a deadline to evacuate, while blazes hundreds of miles away threatened Kelowna, a much larger city in British Columbia. The mass migration from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, was the biggest mandatory evacuation so far in Canada’s summer of wildfire disasters. By midday, it remained unclear how many of Yellowknife’s residents had heeded the order as an encroaching fire loomed, but parts of the city appeared empty and most stores appeared closed. In Kelowna, a major resort area, homes on its suburban fringes were on fire and orders to evacuate were decreed in a community where several homes were destroyed on Thursday night and others were burning on Friday.

Locations: Kelowna, British Columbia, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

☆ As Wildfire Nears, Entire Canadian City Is Ordered to Evacuate
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Ian Austen | More About Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The remarkable order was yet another reminder of the disruption wrought by Canada’s worst wildfire season on record. So far this year, the fires have burned an area 91 times as large as last year’s entire fire season. At times, smoke has traveled as far south as Georgia and as far east as Europe. Evacuation flights on commercial airlines and Royal Canadian Air Force planes are scheduled to begin on Thursday. An official notice posted by the territorial government on Wednesday said that no reception centers had been set up for evacuees.

Organizations: Escort, Officials, Royal Canadian Air Force Locations: Georgia, Europe, Alberta, Yellowknife

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