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The high-stakes competition between Korea and Germany for a 60 trillion won ($40 billion) submarine contract with the Canadian Navy has become more complicated.

The bid to build 12 submarines is also turning more multinational as Britain is backing Hanwha Ocean through a strategic partnership with Babcock International — the British defense giant currently responsible for maintaining Canada’s submarine fleet. Germany’s bid, meanwhile, is being aided by Norway, which has already purchased German Type 212CD submarines.

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Canada and Australia are tying together two of the world’s largest retirement systems through a new investment pact that aims to push more pension capital into both markets.

More than a dozen Canadian and Australian pension giants have entered a first-of-its-kind memorandum of understanding (MOU) under the Canadian-Australian Pension Funds Investment Initiative (CAP Invest Initiative).

CPP Investments said the initiative asks leading pension investors to make a voluntary commitment “to facilitate dialogue on investment environments and policy barriers to generate solutions that unlock greater opportunities for value creation.”

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Under the arrangement, funds will cooperate to channel more pension capital into opportunities in both markets.

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Signatories include AustralianSuper, which manages A$410bn (US$289bn), and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, with $781bn (US$571bn) in assets, along with eight other major Canadian funds.

Canada operates the world’s second-largest pension system, while Australia’s A$4.5tn pool is No. 4, and Canada’s system is forecast to reach $8tn while Australia’s is projected to swell to A$11tn by 2040.

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https://archive.ph/G15G1

The EU and Canada have begun to negotiate a so-called ‘Digital Trade Agreement’ (DTA), alongside Europe’s clash with the US on digital regulation.

The DTA is to boost legal certainty and fair digital trade across the Atlantic Ocean.

Negotiations for the new deal were announced on Friday (6 March) and will build on the 2017 EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

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The aim of the collaboration is to create digital consumer protection, add legal certainty for businesses operating digitally (for example, clarifying the legality of electronic signatures, contracts, and invoices), and to achieve fair digital trade, shielded from protectionist data or digital practices.

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Digital trade is growing in size and importance, with over 60% of global GDP linked to digital transactions. The EU is the world's leading exporter and importer of digitally deliverable services. As of 2023, 54 % of the EU's service trade was conducted digitally, amounting to €670 billion in imports and €661 billion in exports from outside the EU. This includes, for example, telecommunication services, computer and information services, and other services that are typically delivered digitally (financial services, insurance and pension services, etc).

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Mark Carney’s Canberra address and the Geelong Treaty reveal the architecture of a powerful middle-power bloc ready to be assembled.

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Aukus delivers hard power: nuclear-powered submarines, quantum technologies, AI-enabled defence systems, hypersonic weapons, and directed-energy capabilities. But hard power without economic depth is brittle. Canzuk supplies the missing dimension – trade diversification, skilled labour mobility, critical minerals coordination, and a diplomatic network that spans every major ocean and time zone. Together they form something greater than the sum of their parts: a full-spectrum alliance that can deter adversaries, withstand economic coercion, and provide mutual resilience when the global order fractures.

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Australia and Canada together possess the largest mineral reserves held by democratic nations. In an era of accelerating decoupling from Chinese supply chains, this is an asset of extraordinary and growing strategic value.

The polling data confirms the political feasibility. A February 2026 survey by Canzuk International found 68 per cent support in Australia, 72 per cent in Canada, 75 per cent in New Zealand, and 70 per cent in the United Kingdom for a multilateral free trade and mobility agreement. These are not marginal numbers. They represent a democratic mandate waiting to be exercised.

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The institutional scaffolding is more advanced than most commentators acknowledge. The four Canzuk nations share King Charles III as head of state, Westminster parliamentary systems, common law traditions, and deeply interoperable intelligence services through Five Eyes. The ABCANZ Armies program – encompassing all four Canzuk nations plus the United States – already facilitates military interoperability across the Anglosphere. Workforce mobility initiatives are being pursued to facilitate movement of skilled defence personnel between Australia and the United Kingdom, including reciprocal recognition of security clearances. Add Canada and New Zealand to this framework and you have a defence-industrial ecosystem that spans the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean – with Arctic reach thrown in for good measure.

New Zealand, often treated as the quiet partner, brings its own distinctive value. Its Pillar II potential under Aukus – advanced cyber capabilities, undersea sensing, and Antarctic logistics – complements the submarine focus of Pillar I. And its extraordinary 75 per cent public support for Canzuk suggests a population ready for deeper integration than its cautious political class has yet been willing to deliver.

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Canada will invest more than $900 million for defence innovation in Canada, including money for drone technology and a new Bombardier aircraft, managed through the National Research Council (NRC), according to an announcement by Industry Minister Melanie Joly, National Defence Minister David McGuinty and Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr.

The National Research Council of Canada’s (NRC) new programs in support of Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy reinforce its long-standing partnership with the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces. This enduring collaboration represents the single largest client relationship of the NRC today.

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• Initial investments under the Defence Industrial Strategy contribute to Canada spending 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2025–2026.

• Increasing investments in core military capabilities, building up Canadian industry and investing in dual-use technologies are putting Canada on a pathway to meet the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Investment Pledge to invest 5% of GDP by 2035.

• The Canadian defence industry contributes nearly $10 billion to Canada’s GDP and supports over 81,000 jobs.

• Since 2021, the NRC has delivered more than 975 joint projects with DND, advancing aerospace, sensors, marine and biosecurity technologies.

• The NRC’s Challenge programs have provided more than $240 million in joint research and development funding since 2018. They have produced 2,600 technologies and tools and nine spin-off companies.

The claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday on behalf of Gebala by her mother, Cia Edmonds.

It alleges that the company designed its chat tool, ChatGPT, in such a way that there were risks users "would become psychologically and socially dependent" upon it.

The lawsuit states that the company "had specific knowledge of the shooter's long-range planning of a mass casualty event," but "took no steps to act upon this knowledge."

CBC News has reached out to OpenAI for a response to the lawsuit. None of the claims have been proven in court.

I also note that Alberta-style tar mining is associated with a huge increase in risk of cancer for surrounding communities

Marion Penner wants to die.

"You spend your days sitting in bed doing nothing, wondering why am I still here," said Penner, who spent her 94th birthday in Steinbach's Bethesda Regional Health Centre after a fall at home in December broke her pelvis.

Penner, who also suffers from chronic heart and kidney diseases, has been bedridden there since.

"What's the point, just to exist because of painkillers?" said Penner, with photographs of captured family memories lining the windowsill of her hospital room.

So, she applied for medically assisted dying (MAID).

In a letter sent to Shared Health, Steinbach doctor Monty Singh said he felt her conditions were incurable and serious, both necessary to qualify for MAID.

However, Penner says, she was quickly informed by doctors at BRHC in person, and over the phone by a nurse at Shared Health, that she did not qualify because she was too healthy.

The B.C. government is trying to weaken access to information with a bill that’s now before the legislature, say opposition parties and advocates.

Citizens’ Services Minister Diana Gibson says the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, 2026, makes minor changes that will make the system work better.

But MLAs with both the Conservative Party of BC and the BC Greens say the bill is part of a long-term erosion of access rights and will make it even harder for people trying to get information from the government.

B.C. Conservative MLA for Langley-Willowbrook Jody Toor said during debate that at first glance the bill seems to make small administrative amendments.

The approval is subject to new legally binding undertakings provided by TikTok Canada, Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.

"Further, this decision will ​protect Canadian jobs, ensuring that TikTok Canada maintains a physical presence in ​Canada, with commitments to invest in its cultural sector," the Canadian ⁠government said.

Oh yes please YES. Like they haven't learned Montreal's lessons.

One of the clearest effects of slowing population growth has been in real estate on the rental market, said Shelly Kaushik, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in an interview.

Newcomers, such as temporary foreign workers and international students, show up in very specific areas of the economy, she explained, and this is one of them.

“One of the fastest effects we’ve seen is deceleration in rental prices across the country, but especially in places like Ontario and (British Columbia), where there is and was certainly a larger share of international students coming into the country,” she said.

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A drop in demand for rental units has also begun trickling into the overall housing market.

Smaller properties, such as condos, are now seeing a glut of inventory of new builds, but there are hardly any buyers, because renting out the units is a riskier proposition than it was a few years ago.

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There has also been a slowdown in investor activity in the housing market, which would be a drag on home building this year, he said.

“You’re getting this period of a real stagnation in the housing market through this year and into next year, in part driven by population,” Ercolao said.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. last month reported the agency’s six-month moving average for annual starts declined 3.5 per cent for the fourth consecutive month.

But the effects of slowing population growth haven’t been the same across all housing types.

“Detached (housing) market isn’t seeing as much of an effect since a very small share of newcomers to Canada aren’t really engaged in that part of the market,” Ercolao said.

We are finally talking about this now eh? I lost a cousin over 12 years ago, vanished into thin air. Nobody cared. Especially the RCMP. Much like all these guys. A few posters and a lazy facebook post was all my beloved cousin ever got.

My favourite part of the article is this:

National statistics reflect a severe and often overlooked reality regarding violence against Indigenous men:

Between 1980 and 2012, Statistics Canada documented 1,750 Indigenous male homicide victims, compared to 745 Indigenous female homicide victims.

In this timeframe, 71% of all murdered and missing Indigenous people were men and boys.

According to 2020 Statistics Canada data, Indigenous men are seven times more likely to die by homicide than non-Indigenous people, and four times more likely than Indigenous women.

We hear so much about missing indigenous women. I had no idea the stat for men was 4 times higher. Why doesn't anyone care?

There is almost certainly an active serial killer operating on the mid island for years now, and I hear random people saying this more and more. Sadly we are on our own over here it seems.

In January, Alberta premier Danielle Smith issued an extraordinary threat. Unless Prime Minister Mark Carney gave Alberta more influence over judicial appointments, her government would withhold funding from the courts. In an open letter, Smith argued she wanted judges who reflected Alberta’s “distinct legal traditions”—though what those traditions are is unclear. Canada’s system is straightforward: provinces run the courts, Ottawa appoints the judges. This left many observers wondering, “Can she even do that?”

Smith is no stranger to that line of questioning nor to the idea that Alberta should play by different rules. Since becoming premier in 2022, Smith has made it her mission to carve out greater independence for the province, and her demands are only getting bolder. Her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, passed in December 2022, allows the province to refuse to enforce certain federal laws it considers harmful to Alberta. Critics have widely condemned the measure—unprecedented in Canadian politics—as unconstitutional.

On February 19, Smith unveiled a slate of referendum questions for an October vote aimed at expanding provincial autonomy. She proposes unilaterally tightening immigration and access to services in Alberta—restricting benefits for temporary residents and requiring proof of citizenship to vote. These powers aren’t exclusively within the purview of the province, but immigration lawyer Randy Hahn told the Globe and Mail Smith’s position should be understood as a “negotiating tactic.” She also proposes sweeping constitutional changes that would shift power from Parliament to the provinces, including scrapping the Senate, opting out of federal programs with funding intact, and giving provincial laws priority over federal ones. To be sure, these changes require consent from other provinces to implement and could very well set up a showdown with the federal government.