Tag: Region Canada

Residents across parts of the northwestern United States are under air quality alerts this weekend after smoke from a spate of Canadian wildfires drifted south across the border. Thick plumes of smoke from blazes in the Canadian province of Alberta crossed into multiple states including Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Utah. But a Pacific cold front moving into the area toward…

The international community will not fall in line with the pro-Western rules pushed by the G7 and not allow the US-led group to dominate world affairs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.  “China will never accept the so-called rules imposed by the few. The international community does not and will not accept the G7-dominated Western rules…

A cache of classified US documents online last month has shed light on American intelligence gathered about other countries. The documents consist of an elaborate timeline, dozens of military acronyms, including some items marked “top secret,” which give a detailed picture of the conflict in Ukraine, raging since February 24, 2022. “Top secret” is the highest level of classification. Some…

Canada must become the “best of friends” with South Korea, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told lawmakers in Seoul on Wednesday, as the two countries seek to counter China’s growing regional influence. Trudeau is on his first official visit to South Korea, where he will meet President Yoon Suk Yeol. “I’m here to tell you that it’s no longer enough to…

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, said last week that it would stop servicing Canadian customers due to “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges.” But while the exchange said it will return to the country “someday,” its exit leaves behind a huge gap that its competitors are aiming to fill. Coinbase is one of…

There may be more “Chinese police stations” operating in Canada, the Public Safety Minister told a Canadian TV station on Sunday, months after police said they were investigating whether two community centers in Montreal were being used to intimidate or harass Canadians of Chinese origin.

“I am confident that the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] have taken concrete action to disrupt any foreign interference in relationship to those so-called police stations, and that if new police stations are popping up and so on, that they will continue to take decisive action going forward,” Marco Mendicino told CTV’s Question Period in an interview.

(Bloomberg) — Canada is assessing the consequences of potentially expelling a Chinese diplomat accused in media reports of targeting a Canadian lawmaker’s family for sanctions as political punishment. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department summoned China’s Canadian ambassador to Canada to discuss the matter Thursday morning. “We’re assessing the consequences that we’ll be facing in case of diplomatic expulsion,…

The Chinese government has significantly increased the use of exit bans to stop people – Chinese and foreign nationals alike – from leaving the country since top leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, according to a new report describing how a web of vague laws are being expanded for political reasons.

The report comes amid growing concern about the environment for foreign businesses in China, after the wide-ranging overhaul last week of the country’s espionage law and raids on corporate consultancies Mintz Group and Bain & Co.

A new law that seeks to give Canadian artists a leg up online has left many influencers and tech giants alike seeing red.

They took out subway ads, they posted TikToks, but in the end, the score was Silicon Valley-0, Ottawa-1.

After many twists and turns, and over two-and-a-half years of review, the Canadian government has passed a new law that makes tech giants like YouTube and TikTok support Canadian cultural content.

The law, dubbed Bill C-11, gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) broad authority to regulate these platforms, much like they already do with radio and television.

The government says it is necessary to stop streaming giants from getting a free ride, and to promote local artists.

Although it’s still unclear what those final regulations will look like, the law has raised the ire of everyone from TikTokers to esteemed author Margaret Atwood.

Defendants Are New York City Residents Who Allegedly Operated the Police Station in Lower Manhattan and Destroyed Evidence When Confronted by the FBI A complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging two defendants in connection with opening and operating an illegal overseas police station, located in lower Manhattan, New York, for a provincial branch of…

Canada’s public broadcaster CBC and its French-language version Radio-Canada said Monday they were effectively quitting Twitter over a new “government-funded” label it says questions its editorial independence.

The exit follows that of National Public Radio in the United States over the same tag, which had also been applied to the BBC before the British broadcaster successfully petitioned to have it changed to “publicly-funded.”

When Member of Parliament Kenny Chiu was contacted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) ahead of Canada’s federal election in 2021, he was puzzled. He had never expected to be part of a CSIS investigation, let alone one that required an in-person talk at the height of Canada’s COVID-19 pandemic. “At that time, everything had moved online, so it was…

Four women and 10 children have been repatriated by Canada from detention camps for foreign fighters and their families in northeastern Syria. It was the fourth repatriation operation conducted by the Canadian government of its nationals held in camps in Syria for foreigners accused of being associated with the armed group ISIL (ISIS). Three of the women were arrested in Montreal at the airport before appearing in court on a “terrorism peace bond application” – a type of restraining order, Canadian police said in a statement on Friday.

One, an unidentified 38-year-old woman, was transported to Alberta province in western Canada and released on bail pending a hearing on the conditions of her status. “This is not a criminal charge,” her lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told AFP news agency, adding the prosecutor will want to “ensure that the person follows the conditions for a period of up to one year.”

The other two, Ammara Amjad and Dure Ahmed, “will remain in custody until their next hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday”, police said. “Everything was good” regarding the fourth woman, said Greenspon, who is representing all four women. She faces neither criminal charges nor a request for a peace bond.

“The 10 children are repatriated and are with their families here in Canada,” said Greenspon. It remains unclear whether any of those being repatriated could face prosecution for alleged involvement with the armed group.

(Reuters) -A Johnson & Johnson company cannot delay a court order dismissing its bankruptcy, a U.S. court said on Friday, despite the company’s planned Supreme Court appeal to use bankruptcy to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products. J&J sought to use the bankruptcy of its subsidiary company, LTL Management, to halt more than 38,000 lawsuits alleging…

Office of the Spokesperson
The United States continues to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy.  The Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative  – launched at the first Summit for Democracy as part of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal – is a multilateral effort intended to counter state and non-state actors’ misuse of goods and technology that violate human rights.  During the Year of Action following the first Summit, the United States led an effort to establish a voluntary, nonbinding written code of conduct outlining political commitments by Subscribing States to apply export control tools to prevent the proliferation of goods, software, and technologies that enable serious human rights abuses.  Written with the input of partner countries, the Code of Conduct complements existing multilateral commitments and will contribute to regional and international security and stability.
In addition to the United States, the governments that have endorsed the voluntary Code of Conduct are: Albania, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.   The Code of Conduct is open for all Summit for Democracy participants to join.
The Code of Conduct calls for Subscribing States to:

Take human rights into account when reviewing potential exports of dual-use goods, software, or technologies that could be misused for the purposes of serious violations or abuses of human rights.
Consult with the private sector, academia, and civil society representatives on human rights concerns and effective implementation of export control measures.
Share information with each other on emerging threats and risks associated with the trade of goods, software, and technologies that pose human rights concerns.
Share best practices in developing and implementing export controls of dual-use goods and technologies that could be misused, reexported, or transferred in a manner that could result in serious violations or abuses of human rights.
Encourage their respective private sectors to conduct due diligence in line with national law and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights or other complementing international instruments, while enabling non-subscribing states to do the same.
Aim to improve the capacity of States that have not subscribed to the Code of Conduct to do the same in accordance with national programs and procedures.

We will build on the initial endorsements of the ECHRI Code of Conduct by States at the Summit for Democracy and seek additional endorsements from other States.  We will convene a meeting later this year with Subscribing States to begin discussions on implementing the commitments in the Code of Conduct.  We will also continue discussions with relevant stakeholders including in the private sector, civil society, academia, and the technical community.
Find the text of the full code of conduct .