It’s ridiculous that we find out about Canadian military deployments from foreign press versus regular briefings from DND/CA.

The operation runs since 2018 and has been announced back then: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/operations/military-operations/current-operations/operation-neon.html

Are Iranian ‘sleeper cells’ a threat to Canadians? Here’s what intelligence experts say

… Anxiety around sleeper cells tends to resurface whenever tensions escalate between the U.S. and Iran. But one Canadian security expert says their deployment is not the modus operandi of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Canada … [diirector of the national security program at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute Dan] Stanton, who worked with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for more than 30 years, says the actual threat lies in Tehran’s use of local criminal networks for targeted intimidation and violence.

“They don’t use sleeper cells in that sense of deep cover agents. They use what we would call criminal proxies. These are people that would do surveillance, harass people or try to kill people.”

… Thomas Juneau, who teaches at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, says the IRGC targets the families of Iranian dissidents as a way to punish or silence them. “There have been multiple documented cases … parents, siblings, close friends, other family members who are still in Iran who will be aggressively interrogated by intelligence services,” said Juneau.

“And in more extreme cases, [they] will be physically beaten, tortured or [suffer] other kinds of negative consequences, such as financial assets frozen, careers suspended, jobs lost.”

The only thing that is weirder than the linked source and the topic are the .ml comments in this thread.

Addition of a somewhat related news: N Korea’s Kim welcomes fellow Putin ally Lukashenko with fanfare

What would be an appropriate path for Canada to data sovereignty then?

@HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works

As an interesting addition: Canadian Cloud Infrastructure: Who Actually Controls Your Stack?

A wumao accuses others of being unable to cope with different views.

You are spreading authoritarian pro-China, anti-Canada propaganda exclusively, while trying to insult everyone with an opposing opinion (and this isn’t not the worst you’re doing). Your comments are, again, ridiculous.

I have never been there, but I understand why Reddit eventually banned the tankie community.

This comment makes no economic sense, very much as the linked article.

I am not the mod here, but I would very much welcome if Substack would be banned. Not everything there is necessarily bad, but most articles are imo.

Canada is by far not the only country to face a population decline. Only a few states (mainly in South America and particularly in Africa) will see population growth.

Among the larger economies, China is the country with the most severe decrease in population according to researchers, while the country is less prepared than many others. In most Western countries and other democratic states like Japan and South Korea, societies that underwent fertility decline benefited from a so-called ‘demographic dividend’ - driven by a long period of economic growth with a relatively large working population compared to smaller numbers of dependents younger than 15 and older than 65. China’s dividend period started later (in the 1980s) than in other countries, and their fertility rate is now declining faster. This left China with a relatively low per capita income and, therefore, fewer resources to tackle the issues of an aging population.

Simply speaking, China got old before it got rich. This and the fact that China has a far less developed social welfare and pension system than we in the West will be an issue that is going to share the Chinese economy in the long run, but so far there are no clear signal how the country is addressing this.

So Canada and most (all?) democratic states are much better prepared for this demographic challenges ahead of us.

The MoU also says it will be,

… improving regulatory and governance frameworks, promoting environmental and social best practices …

Having said that, it is better if Canada does this with a partner where it can co-create the rules rather than relying on China or other countries where social and environmental rights are broken almost by default while supply chains remain a black box.

I hope, at least this is what they say.

… improving regulatory and governance frameworks, promoting environmental and social best practices …

No, all fine. Sorry if my comment was misleading.

There is ample evidence that inequality is on the rise in China.

According to the World Inequality Index, between 1999 and 2024, the top-1% in Canada grew their wealth from 26% to 29%.

In the same period in other countries, the top-1% changed their wealth:

• in Australia and New Zealand, more or less unchanged at around 23%
• in Europe, more or less unchanged around 25%
• in the USA, grew from 31% to 35%
• in China, grew from 19% to 30%
• in Russia, grew from 40% to 49%
• in Latin America, unchanged at around 36%
• Oceania, grew from 24% to 27%
• Sub-Saharan Africa, shrank from 38% to 34%

Worldwide, the top-1% share was stable at around 37%.

In the same period 1999-2024, the wealth of the bottom-50% in Canada slightly shrank from 15% to 14%. In other countries:

• in Australia and New Zealand, more or less unchanged at around 5%
• in Europe, more or less unchanged around 3%
• in the USA, grew from 0.6% to 1%
• in China, shrank from 14% to 6%
• in Russia, shrank from almost 7% to less than 3%
• in Latin America, unchanged at 2%
• Oceania, decreased from 3% to 2%
• Sub-Saharan Africa, slightly increased from below 2% to 2.1%

Worldwide, the bottom-50% grew their share of the total wealth slightly from 7% to 8%.

Source for the top 1%, here for the bottom 50%.

You can play around in the linked diagrams for other countries and regions.

A more comprehensive report proposes measures to address this issue:

… While Canada forced Chinese divestment from lithium projects in 2022 following national security reviews, Beaver Brook antimony operations remain under Chinese control despite similar strategic importance …

Enhanced foreign investment screening mechanisms should evaluate ongoing operational control rather than limiting reviews to acquisition transactions. Strategic assets under foreign ownership require continuous monitoring to ensure operations align with national security interests …

Policy recommendations include:

Apply uniform foreign ownership criteria across all critical minerals regardless of current market attention levels … Coordinate with allied nations to develop alternative supply chains and shared strategic reserves … Government procurement policies could prioritise suppliers with diversified, ally-based supply chains even at premium costs …

Source

Let’s hope the best.

He said that, though out of context it has a different spin.

Also, the original title is different from the one in this post here. It seems OP was looking for a sentence or two that supports a desired narrative, and the only thing they found was a video published by a right-wing media outlet.

I don’t support the Israel/US attack and don’t like Rutte to say the least, but this here is another piece of OP’s eternal anti-democratic, pro-China, pro-Russia propaganda stream.

I posted this in another thread, but it fits also here.

Russia has been restoring its military presence in the Arctic. In the past decade, it has revitalized Soviet-era bases, deployed missile defense systems, invested in domain awareness capabilities, increased aerial and maritime patrols, and stepped up its exercise schedule.

In response, NATO members and (the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland) increased their own regional military capabilities with a commensurate uptick in exercises, deployments, patrols, and capability investments.

You can see some information in the Arctic Military Activity Tracker.

Russia has been restoring its military presence in the Arctic. In the past decade, it has revitalized Soviet-era bases, deployed missile defense systems, invested in domain awareness capabilities, increased aerial and maritime patrols, and stepped up its exercise schedule.

In response, NATO members and (the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland) increased their own regional military capabilities with a commensurate uptick in exercises, deployments, patrols, and capability investments.

You can see some information in the Arctic Military Activity Tracker.

I am just wondering why they don’t do it in China where hundreds of workers in each plant are exposed to hazardous substances while manually adjusting valves and chemical flows, while the Canadian plant makes the process safer the workers and the environment.

Seems Canada makes a major step in the right direction.