I originally thought it was an excessive amount of letters to describe those of us under the rainbow but no, it makes more sense in the context of the article I do not really agree with combining the two but to each their own I guess.

MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ stands for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual+. It's derived in part from the more commonly used initialisms MMIWG (missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls) and 2SLGBTQ+.

It's weaker than let's say Pound Sterling or the Euro for example. But, does a weak CAD affect international travel towards Canadian travelers? Since they'll be paying more whilst abroad requiring CAD in higher amounts to exchange for larger sums of cash (like if 1000€ = C$1617 that alone is a steep hike while C$1000 = 618€ see the difference?). Also, when you travel: do you bring CAD or exchange for USD first prior due to that having a better exchange rare?

Archive: [ https://archive.is/xCo10 ]

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Rushan Abbas, founder and President of the two time Nobel Peace Prize nominated Campaign for Uyghurs, published an open letter as Canadian MP Michael Ma's recently challenged Margaret McCuaig-Johnston of the China Strategic Risks Institute, asking if she has personally witnessed forced labour in China and disputing the legitimacy of China’s ongoing Uyghur genocide.

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Ms. Abbas writes,

The CCP’s ongoing Uyghur genocide is recognized by the independent London tribunal ruling and a dozen countries, including Canada. Uyghur forced labor is documented through credible reports, survivor testimonies, supply chain investigations, and even Chinese state media. UN experts stated in 2026 that the conditions may amount to enslavement. Calling these crimes anything else is ignorance at best and a defense of the CCP at worst.

I am a firsthand witness to this genocide. My sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, has been imprisoned for almost eight years in retaliation for my advocacy as an American citizen. If there is no genocide and forced labor, why does the CCP still hold her and try to silence me?

And, this is not only about Uyghurs. Tibetans and Hong Kongers are all suffering under the same authoritarian regime. These cases should not be treated as a partisan issue but as a global moral and security threat that demands urgent attention.

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Ms. Abbas adds that she will be in Ottawa on 22 and 23rd of April and "welcome a direct discussion with MP Ma on this matter and present the undeniable evidence of Uyghur atrocities and forced labor."

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For nearly four centuries, Canada lived in a rare, strategic luxury, without having to worry about the security of its borders.

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Canada shared its borders only with the friendly US, two oceans – the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, Greenland, and the Arctic’s ‘no-man land’.

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This geographic luxury meant that, for centuries, Canada never truly had to think like a hard military power. The Arctic was frozen, impassable, and largely irrelevant. The South was friendly. The threats were distant.

It enjoyed what is referred to as the “peace dividend”.

However, in 2026, this illusion is disappearing fast. The Arctic is melting, and the South is no longer friendly.

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Russia is expanding its Arctic footprint. China calls itself a ‘near Arctic power’. The US is showing renewed interest in dominating the Arctic, with Greenland serving as just one piece of the Arctic jigsaw puzzle.

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Climate change, [Chief of the Defense Staff General Jennie] Carignan said, has brought seismic changes, and it is crucial for Canada to “position itself differently” to “ensure that we are in control and taking responsibility for our defense.”

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At the same time, Canada needs to diversify its supply chains, as it has been too reliant on the US for procuring weapons ... While European countries are focusing on “buy European” under the “Rearm Europe” program, an over US$850 billion rearmament program to strengthen European defense, Canada is enhancing its defense partnerships with the EU.

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However, Carignan said that “sustained and stable investments over the next 10–15 years” are necessary to carry out these transformation and modernization efforts.

Canada aims to invest CAN $500 billion in defense over the next 10 years.

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Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Canada in March that Arctic militarization could lead to ‘unintentional incidents’ in the region.

The statement was Russia’s “signal” that it wants to be taken into account as other Arctic nations build up their military capacities in the North, says Alison LeClaire, Canada’s former ambassador to Russia.

In the meantime, Canada is continuing to “monitor developments and take steps to deter threats to allied security,” said Thida Ith, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, in an emailed response to Zakharova’s statement.

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Russia and China pose the most significant threat to Canada’s interests in the Arctic, says Canadian Armed Forces Maj.-Gen. Michael Wright.

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From 2014 to 2019, Russia established 14 airfields, six military bases, refurbished 16 Soviet-era deepwater ports, and established 10 border posts in the Arctic according to the Arctic Institute, a U.S.-based think tank.

Russia’s intelligence services have engaged in “foreign interference activities” in Canada’s Arctic, according to a 2024 report from CSIS, Canada’s spy agency.

The report didn’t specify what those activities are, but said the agency is working to “counter threats posed by the Russian Federation towards Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.”

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Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) welcomed Canadian Senator Leo Housakos to Taiwan on Wednesday.

The two sides exchanged views on deepening Taiwan-Canada economic and trade ties, healthcare cooperation, Indigenous exchanges, and countering foreign information manipulation and interference, according to the foreign ministry.

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Taiwan and Canada have highly complementary industries and could explore cooperation in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, communications resilience, and energy security.

Housakos said Taiwan and Canada share values such as democracy and human rights, making them important partners. He expressed hope that his trip would provide a deeper understanding of Taiwan’s soft power and its efforts to counter disinformation.

"While some chase fleeting ties with authoritarian regimes, our focus must remain on long-term stability with democratic allies," Housakos posted on social media.

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Taiwan is Canada’s second-largest investment partner in Asia and its sixth-largest trading partner. It added that Taiwan would continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with Canada to promote shared economic prosperity and regional peace.

As part of its pitch to lure Canada to buy Gripen-E fighter jets, Saab has offered to establish a secure, sovereign data centre in Montreal to house critical, top-secret mission data and intelligence, CBC News has learned.

The company is framing it as a "unique advantage" in the battle to convince the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney to limit the purchase of U.S.-manufactured F-35s, which have all of their data stored at a Lockheed Martin centre in Fort Worth, Texas.

The purpose-built Saab data centre "will host all work on the fighter mission system," Saab spokesperson Sierra Fullerton confirmed in a recent statement to CBC News.

The centre would be staffed by Canadians who possess "Canada/U.S. security clearance," presumably to handle data related to the defence of North America through the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).

The RCMP is asking the Federal Court to overturn a finding that its officers discriminated against Indigenous people when they investigated historical abuse allegations at two northern B.C. schools.

The force says the decision infringes on police independence — and that police investigations are not a “service” under Canadian human rights law.

Jessica Buffalo, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, said the RCMP’s appeal fits a pattern of resistance within the force to changes in policing.

“This is something that is happening over and over again,” said Buffalo, who disagrees with the argument that police aren’t serving individuals in the course of investigations. “You are providing a service that requires people to come and talk to you, to trust you and be very vulnerable with you.”

She said practices that are discriminatory and make victims feel disbelieved erode trust between Indigenous communities and police.

Not even sitting in a luxury suite either

Hundreds of high school students in Waterloo region have been temporarily suspended from school for having out-of-date vaccination records.

Region of Waterloo Public Health said in a release Thursday morning that 704 secondary school students were suspended effective immediately. The move comes after public health mailed suspension orders to more than 3,200 students whose records were out of date in early March.

"Vaccines are one of the most effective ways to protect your child from serious illness," Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's medical officer of health, said in the release.

"Reporting your child's vaccines and keeping them up to date helps to protect your child and the community from preventable illnesses."

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Since the early 1970s, Canada has encouraged academic exchanges with the PRC [People's Republic of China], particularly in science and technology ... This policy was initially framed as a goodwill initiative that allowed Chinese students to access advanced training in Canada while Canadian students studied language, culture, and politics in China. For many years, these exchanges were widely viewed as mutually beneficial. By the early 2000s, however, observers began to note a shift in how some of these academic pathways were being used.

An October 30, 2018 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), titled “Picking flowers, making honey,” described a covert program under which engineers and scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) concealed their military affiliations in order to gain access to postgraduate research programs abroad, including in Canada. According to ASPI, this strategy involved individuals affiliated with the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and other military-linked institutions. What had once appeared to be conventional academic collaboration increasingly raised concerns about state-directed intelligence gathering.

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A 2018 paper by the International Cyber Policy Centre in Australia identified Canada as the third most targeted country by PLA military scientists, after the United States and the United Kingdom. A study by U.S.-based intelligence firm Strider Technologies ... found that researchers linked to the Chinese military had successfully targeted approximately 50 Canadian universities. The University of Waterloo reportedly had the highest number of collaborations with NUDT, followed by institutions such as the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, McMaster University, Concordia University, and the University of Calgary. Over a five-year period, researchers from Canada’s top ten universities co-authored 240 papers with Chinese military scientists.

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These findings appear to have had limited impact on how Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) assesses study permit applications.

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Other Western countries have taken more assertive steps. In 2020, the United States expanded visa restrictions on individuals linked to NUDT. A December 21, 2021 report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) noted that, following these restrictions, some Chinese scholarship recipients began concealing military ties and reframing their research interests to appear less sensitive while still offering potential military value. These findings suggest a level of sophistication that challenges traditional immigration screening methods.

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In a May 2025 interview, China analyst Gordon G. Chang warned that Chinese diplomatic and intelligence operatives have allegedly coerced students abroad into sharing research data, sometimes by threatening family members in China. A May 2025 investigation by The Stanford Review described an alleged intelligence-gathering operation involving an individual posing as a student to access sensitive research and assess political loyalty among Chinese nationals on campus. According to that investigation, platforms such as WeChat were used to monitor and direct activities, and students faced pressure to comply.

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One factor amplifying these concerns is the PRC’s legal framework. Under China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, all Chinese citizens and organizations are required to support and cooperate with state intelligence work upon request, regardless of where they reside.

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Allied countries have responded to similar concerns by adopting targeted legislative and policy measures. Australia’s Foreign Relations Act 2020 allows the federal government to review and cancel certain foreign agreements involving universities. The United States has imposed visa restrictions on individuals associated with specific PRC-linked institutions. The United Kingdom’s National Security and Investment Act empowers the government to block or unwind investments in sensitive sectors on national security grounds. These measures aim to manage risk while preserving academic freedom and due process.

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At present, Canada’s immigration system does not appear to apply sufficiently tailored safeguards to prevent study permits from being misused for activities inconsistent with their stated purpose, or to address the risk that some students may be compelled to cooperate with foreign intelligence services. Balancing national security with Canada’s longstanding openness to international students requires a more nuanced approach.

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Canada’s challenge is not whether to remain open to international students, but how to ensure that openness does not unintentionally expose critical research and infrastructure to misuse. A more integrated approach between immigration screening and research security would better align Canada’s immigration policies with its national security objectives.

What if the key to preventing the next global pandemic was discovered on an ostrich farm in a remote town in British Columbia, but the federal government ordered all its birds dead?

That was the message that made national and international headlines last year when Universal Ostrich Farms launched a 10-month legal battle and social media campaign to stop a government-ordered cull in response to an avian flu outbreak on the farm.

However, a months-long fifth estate investigation reveals the campaign by Universal Ostrich Farms to save its ostriches was built on a foundation of exaggerated and false claims about their birds, business and scientific findings.

Angela Rasmussen, an avian flu virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, reviewed journalists' findings and dismissed claims the farm was engaged in any groundbreaking research.

"I think calling it scientific work is quite generous," she told fifth estate co-host Mark Kelley. "I call it a scam."

A state of emergency has been declared in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, where an ongoing power outage is expected to continue into Friday.

Meantime, a blizzard warning was in effect for the community Thursday night and overnight temperatures were expected to drop below –40 C with wind chill.

A public notice from the hamlet on Thursday afternoon said the local warming centre would close at 9 p.m., and reopen at 9 a.m. The hamlet is offering money to anybody who has heat at home and can host others overnight.

People who host others can receive up to $50 per person, per night, the hamlet says. It's asking people to use social media to let others know if they have space for guests.

Prairie Harm Reduction is ceasing all operations as of 5 p.m. Thursday, after board members said they learned its financial shortfall is "more dire" than they thought.

The non-profit organization doesn't have the funds to pay staff or continue operations, board vice-chair Brady Knight said.

"The board spent significant time and effort attempting to find alternate financing and operational supports, and weighing the risks associated with the limited options we had available," Knight said at a news conference on Thursday.

Services that the organization was providing include a drop-in centre, support services, education services, family support and two youth homes. Its supervised consumption site was already closed late last month.

Archive link: https://archive.is/MtWjq

OpenAI should be held accountable for this.

While using ChatGPT last June, Van Rootselaar described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days, according to people familiar with the matter.
Her posts, flagged by an automated review system, alarmed employees at OpenAI. Internally, about a dozen staffers debated whether to take action on Van Rootselaar’s posts. Some employees interpreted Van Rootselaar’s writings as an indication of potential real-world violence, and urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about her behavior, the people familiar with the matter said.