Canada

"Exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws."

"Our ability to provide consular assistance in China is limited due to the level of transparency in China’s judicial system. It may also impact your ability to obtain effective legal assistance."

In China, you may also be subject to:

• severe punishments, even for non-violent acts such as financial crimes. Chinese authorities may also apply the death penalty for crimes deemed serious, including drug offences
• an exit ban, which you may only learn about as you go through customs and immigration controls when trying to leave China. An exit ban may prevent you from leaving the country if you, your family or your employer and/or business associates are involved in any open civil or criminal investigations, including business disputes

If you are a dual citizen, you should always travel using your valid Canadian passport and present yourself as Canadian to Chinese authorities. If you enter China on a Chinese passport or identity card, the Chinese government may consider you a citizen of China, and refuse to grant you access to Canadian consular services.

[...]

https://www.desmog.com/canada-proud/

"Canada Proud is part of a network of conservative groups and social media pages initially founded by conservative activist Jeff Ballingall"

Anyone who follows these pages on social medias should know. They are literally propaganda pages, and are loaded with disinformation and misinformation. And if you know people who uses social medias, they should know.

some exemples of sheer lies, source here https://www.desmog.com/canada-proud/

"In 2020, PressProgress reported that Canada Proud was falsely claiming that the federal government had banned Remembrance Day ceremonies.

In 2021, PressProgress reported of Canada Proud claimed that COVID-19 vaccines were being distributed according to “skin colour.”

From Facebook: Meanwhile in Canada

Trump's Lies About Canada Vs. Reality Subsidies/Trade Deficit Trump Lie: Trump said March 13: "In the case of Canada, we're spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada." Reality: Trump has repeatedly exaggerated the U.S.-Canada trade deficit which is closer to $35.7 billion, according to the latest trade data released from the U.S. Census Bureau on March 6. The overwhelming driver of the deficit with Canada is that the U.S. buys a lot of unrefined oil from Canada. If you take out energy (that the USA desperately needs AND gets from us at a discount!), Canada is running a small deficit with the United States.

Dairy Trump Lie: Trump said on March 7: "In Canada, we find that they're charging us over 200% for dairy products" Reality: The over 200% tariffs on U.S. dairy products are only triggered if U.S. dairy exports exceed certain yearly duty-free limits, and U.S. dairy manufacturers say they have never been close to exceeding these limits. These tariffs were negotiated during the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Mr. Trump signed during his first term.

Fentanyl Trump Lie: March 4: "They have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens." Reality: Trump cited Canada's failure to halt the flow of illicit drugs as a reason for imposing tariffs, saying that fentanyl has been coming from the country "at levels never seen before." He claimed, "The fentanyl coming through Canada is massive." In 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Canada border, accounting for roughly 0.2% of all fentanyl seized by CBP that year. By contrast, approximately 21,100 pounds — about 96.6% of the total — was seized at U.S.-Mexico border.

Former senior Canadian intelligence officials say Canada needs to be on the lookout for campaigns aimed at destabilizing the country amid U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating 51st state threats.

And they told CBC News that the most potent weapon wielded by the Trump administration to advance the cause of annexation would likely not be the intelligence agencies directed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.#

lol

Lorne Thurston and Joseph McIntyre were planning to get an up-close look at the Wayne Gretzky statue in downtown Edmonton on Friday, when they realized it had been smeared with what appeared to be – and strongly smelled like – feces.

...

“Disappointing,” he said. “It shouldn’t have been done.”

...

The pair were part of a group of friends who stopped to watch as an employee walked out of Rogers Place and wiped Gretzky’s face with a towel doused in cleaning product.

...

“Why would someone want to do that?” said Taylor, standing with the group of friends at the statue.

“[The statue] might not mean much to some people, but it means something to other people.”

That's the point.

The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.

“This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.

The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario The remaining three span Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Point-Claire, Quebec.

The US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. It was built deliberately to straddle the frontier between the two countries – a symbol of cooperation and friendship between Canada and the US.

The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side. Previously, Canadian visitors were able to enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side but were encouraged to bring documentation, according to the library’s website.

Inside, a line of electrical tape demarcates the international boundary. About 60% of the building, including the books, is located in Canada. Upstairs, in the opera house, the audience sits in the US while the performers are in Canada.

MBFC
Archive

“ direct access from Canada will be closed, starting in October.”

Well, I guess now we know when the invasion is coming.

Canadian government announcement:

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2025/03/government-of-canada-announces-the-organization-to-establish-and-lead-the-national-autism-network.html

Good to see this was launched prior to the upcoming election.

Authors:

• Paul T. Mitchell | Professor of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College

• Barbara J. Falk | Professor, Department of Defence Studies, Royal Military College of Canada

Scenario planning isn’t about predicting the future — it’s about highlighting potential futures and the demands they’re likely to present to our current way of life.

Along two axes, we can chart the degree of American commitment to anti-Canadian animus, versus Canadian commitment to its own survival. This mix generates four possible outcomes.

In the first quadrant, where the commitment of both states is low, the result is “business as usual.” Canada continues to commercially serve the U.S market, while the U.S. extracts the best possible trade deals from Canada.

In the second quadrant, the commitment of both states is high. Here, the U.S. would go beyond tariffs and target the ability of Canadian banks to do business with American ones, and pressure SWIFT to cut off Canadian access to international banking.

A Canadian unwillingness to “bend the knee” to the U.S. creates a status not unlike that faced by Cuba, where the Americans have maintained a comprehensive trade embargo since 1958. In this scenario, Canada becomes internationally isolated and impoverished due to its resistance to American demands, seeking allies abroad while stemming capital flight through draconian measures.

In the third quadrant, Canada’s resilience is low and American animus is high. At best, the Canadian situation would be analogous to that of Belarus’s relationship with Russia.

Russia is Belarus’s largest economic and political partner; they share a long water and land boundary. In some respects, Belarus still has a seat at the United Nations, but minuscule manoeuvrability on foreign or defence policy.

Canada becoming a 51st state is highly unlikely. The electoral consequences of admitting 40 million voters much more progressive than most Americans would skew electoral outcomes unsuited to Republican tastes.

Of course, this is accepting the fantasy that Canadians would be admitted with equal rights to “real Americans.” The effort to dispossess Gazans of their rights and land is illustrative here.

Finally, there are complicated issues at stake, such as differences over political rights, gun control, universal health care and state-supported education. A more probable outcome would involve Canada becoming a type of vassal state, not unlike Belarus.

In the last quadrant, Canadian resistance is high, but the U.S. is willing to tolerate at least a modicum of independence. Here Finland’s relationship with the former Soviet Union is relevant.

Canada would be permitted the ability to maintain independent diplomatic relations. But it would have to tread carefully by never entering alliances or agreements that would upset the Americans. Any thought of Canada joining the European Union would be dead.

These four models don’t capture all possible outcomes.

They don’t take into consideration how military force might be deployed against Canada.

Outright invasion is unlikely. But “freedom of navigation” operations in the Northwest Passage are highly likely.

In the context of a new push to secure North America’s Arctic security, the seizure of one or more islands in the Arctic Archipelago is also imaginable.

Initially I ended up quoting most of the article, so I removed some of it

It can often seem as if phone and online scammers are beyond accountability. Often operating from abroad, where illegal activity is either tolerated or ignored, the organized criminal groups behind the scams that annoy and frustrate so many of us, have reaped billions in stolen gains from some of society's most vulnerable.

But there is a small army of good guys fighting back.

Three of the world's most popular "scambusters" — who have a combined following of more than 10 million across their social media platforms — joined forces with CBC's Marketplace to create a fraud-fighting centre, using their unique skills to infiltrate criminal networks overseas, reroute 62 active scam call centres back to their operation and intercept fraudulent calls to stop scammers from accessing money from Canadian victims.

As for why Marketplace is involved in this:

Marketplace has helped bring some of those scams to light, through travels to Mumbai, exposing where many of the overseas criminal operations are based. The team has also taken hidden cameras inside tech support scam centre operations to reveal what's happening and the victims scammers usually target. In 2022, the team exposed some of the Canadians with alleged financial connections to the overseas criminal operations running scam call centres.

So I'm looking forward to this crossover episode 😄

The episode should be available on this playlist within a day or so, considering the last one was uploaded 6 days ago: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeyJPHbRnGaZmzkCwy3-8ykUZm_8B9kKM

CBC Gem is also free with ads, relatively cheap without, if you want to support the CBC that way

It can often seem as if phone and online scammers are beyond accountability. Often operating from abroad, where illegal activity is either tolerated or ignored, the organized criminal groups behind the scams that annoy and frustrate so many of us, have reaped billions in stolen gains from some of society's most vulnerable.

But there is a small army of good guys fighting back.

Three of the world's most popular "scambusters" — who have a combined following of more than 10 million across their social media platforms — joined forces with CBC's Marketplace to create a fraud-fighting centre, using their unique skills to infiltrate criminal networks overseas, reroute 62 active scam call centres back to their operation and intercept fraudulent calls to stop scammers from accessing money from Canadian victims.

As for why Marketplace is involved in this:

Marketplace has helped bring some of those scams to light, through travels to Mumbai, exposing where many of the overseas criminal operations are based. The team has also taken hidden cameras inside tech support scam centre operations to reveal what's happening and the victims scammers usually target. In 2022, the team exposed some of the Canadians with alleged financial connections to the overseas criminal operations running scam call centres.

So I'm looking forward to this crossover episode 😄

The episode is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeyJPHbRnGaZmzkCwy3-8ykUZm_8B9kKM

CBC Gem is also free with ads, relatively cheap without, if you want to support the CBC that way

For the first time in its history, Canada has unveiled a comprehensive Africa strategy, marking a significant milestone in the Canadian approach to engaging with the African continent.

Launched on March 6 by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, the strategy represents a crucial step towards a more coherent and intentional relationship with Africa.

Authors:

• David J Hornsby | Professor of International Affairs and the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic), Carleton University
• David Black | Professor of International Relations and Development, Dalhousie University
• Edward Akuffo | Associate Professor and Department Head, Political Science, University of The Fraser Valley
• Thomas Kwasi Tieku | Professor of Politics and International Relations, King's University College, Western University