Emergencies Act concern, Ottawa protest could benefit Russia: In The News for Feb. 15

Executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv warns that normalizing emergency legislation “threatens our democracy and our civil liberties.”

This is the first time the Emergencies Act has been invoked since it came into force in 1988, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday it is necessary to protect critical infrastructure such as borders and airports from the blockades, and create time-limited powers that do not already exist.

The government will use the act to force towing companies to remove big rigs and other vehicles that are blocking highways and other critical infrastructure.

It will also be used establish zones where public assembly is not allowed, and require banks to suspend or freeze accounts suspected of supporting the blockades, including those belonging to companies whose trucks are part of the convoy.

One of the main organizers behind the truckers’ protest in Ottawa, now in its third week, said members are not going anywhere, and will “hold the line” in the face of the act.

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Also this …

Experts say Canada’s COVID-19 protests may be providing Russian President Vladimir Putin with a welcome distraction.

The White House believes if Putin intends to invade Ukraine, it could happen before week’s end.

Bessma Momani, a University of Waterloo professor and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, says she’s convinced Russian hackers played a role in stoking the anger behind the protests.

Momani says Russia wants to exploit cultural tensions in the U.S. and Canada to undermine public faith in democracy.

Media reports say several prominent Facebook groups used to promote the protests were administered by a stolen account.

Fake accounts have also been linked with so-called “content mills” in Bangladesh, Romania, Vietnam and elsewhere.

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And this …

The committee of MPs and senators which oversees federal security policy has uncovered gaps in Canada’s cyberdefences that could leave many agencies vulnerable to state-sponsored hackers from countries like China and Russia.

In a new report, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians says cyberthreats to government systems and networks are a significant risk to Canada’s security and government operations.

It points to Beijing and Moscow as the most sophisticated cyberthreat actors targeting the government, while Iran and North Korea have moderately advanced capabilities and pose less of a danger.

The committee says although nation states represent the most highly developed threats, any player with malicious intent and sophisticated capabilities puts the government’s data and the integrity of its electronic infrastructure at risk.

The report concludes the federal government has built a strong cyberdefence system to counter this threat over the last decade.

However, it is weakened by the inconsistent application of policies and use of cyberdefence services across government.

The report, tabled in Parliament late Monday, is a redacted version of a classified document submitted to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last August.

In responses included in the report, the government agreed with the committee’s various recommendations to address the deficiencies.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

BRUNSWICK, Ga. _ Prosecutors are to begin calling witnesses today in the federal hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

On the trial’s first day in the port city of Brunswick on Monday, prosecutors told the jury they have evidence that each of the defendants had a history of making racist comments. To win convictions on the hate crime charges, they must prove to the jury that Arbery was chased and fatally shot because he was Black.

In their opening statements, defence attorneys called their clients’ use of racist slurs offensive and indefensible. But they insisted that their deadly pursuit of Arbery was motivated by an earnest, though erroneous, suspicion that the 25-year-old Black man had committed crimes _ not by racial hostility.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting him running in their coastal Georgia neighbourhood on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbour, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.

No arrests were made until the video leaked online two months later.

Both McMichaels and Bryan were convicted of murder last fall in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison.

All three are now standing trial in a separate case in U.S. District Court, where they are charged with violating Arbery’s civil rights and with targeting him because he was Black. They have pleaded not guilty.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

MOSCOW _ While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don’t expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbour.

The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as “hysteria” and “absurdity,” and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Putin’s angry rhetoric about NATO’s plans to expand to Russia’s “doorstep” and its refusal to hear Moscow’s concerns has struck a chord with the public, tapping into a sense of betrayal by the West after the end of the Cold War and widespread suspicion about Western designs.

The U.S. says that Russia has concentrated over 130,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine and has the necessary firepower to launch an attack at any moment.

Russian officials have angrily denied any plans to attack Ukraine and dismissed Western concerns about the buildup near the country, arguing that Moscow is free to deploy its troops wherever it likes on its national territory.

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula following the ouster of the country’s Moscow-friendly president and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Donbas, where more than 14,000 people have been killed in fighting.

An attack on Ukraine would be certain to trigger draconian Western sanctions that would further cripple Russia’s stagnant economy, dent people’s incomes and erode Putin’s support. And while the Russian military could be expected to rout the much weaker Ukrainian army, it will inevitably face massive resistance later, resulting in a protracted conflict that would drain Moscow’s scarce resources.

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On this day in 1965 …

The very first Canadian Maple Leaf flag was unfurled at an Ottawa ceremony. Days later it was given to Lucien Lamoureux, who served as Speaker of the House of Commons and in several diplomatic posts before retiring to Belgium in the 1980s. The historic flag stayed in Belgium in possession of Lamoureux’s widow until 2005, when she turned it over to Canadian officials in time for Canada Day ceremonies at Parliament Hill on July 1, 2005.

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In entertainment …

Ivan Reitman’s body of work, which ranged from frathouse antics in “Animal House” to the supernatural laughs of “Ghostbusters,” reshaped big screen comedy with a distinctly Canadian inflection, say colleagues and contemporaries.

The Toronto-raised filmmaker and producer died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., his family told The Associated Press. He was 75.

News of his death sparked an outpouring of tributes on Monday, including from his son, director Jason Reitman, who mourned the loss of his “hero.”

“All I want is the chance to tell my father one more story,” tweeted the younger Reitman, who inherited his father’s supernatural comedy franchise as the director of 2021’s “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

A director and producer of screen and stage, Reitman first made his mark on the big screen as a producer of two films by Canadian horror master David Cronenberg, 1975’s “Shivers” and 1977’s “Rabid.” But his impact was most pronounced in producing Hollywood comedy classics. He rose to prominence producing 1978’s “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and then directing a string of other comedies, including “Meatballs,” “Stripes,” the first two “Ghostbusters” films, and “Kindergarten Cop.”

Canadian actor-comedian Dan Aykroyd, one of the original “Ghostbusters,” called Reitman a “friend, collaborator, champion and one of the last great creative talents of the big screen era.”

“Now on Thursdays who am I gonna call?” Aykroyd said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

Kumail Nanjiani, Mindy Kaling, Rainn Wilson, Judd Apatow, Paul Feig and Ron Howard were among the celebrities who paid their respects on social media, many citing Reitman as a formative influence on their own comedic stylings.

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ICYMI …

LONDON _ Novak Djokovic said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he is prepared to skip the French Open and Wimbledon if vaccination against the coronavirus is required for him to play.

Speaking to the BBC, the 20-time Grand Slam champion said he is not vaccinated and added that missing the next two majors, where he is the defending champion, and other tournaments is “the price that I am willing to pay.”

“I understand the consequences of my decision,” Djokovic said. “I understand that not being vaccinated today, you know, I am unable to travel to most of the tournaments at the moment.”

The 34-year-old Serb said he is not opposed to vaccinations but believes in “the freedom to choose what you put into your body. And, for me, that is essential.”

“I am trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can,” he said, adding that he has always been careful about everything he ingests. “Based on all the information that I got, I decided not to take the vaccine, as of today.”

Asked if he would be prepared to miss the French Open in May, he said: “That is the price that I am willing to pay.”

Also asked if would be ready to skip Wimbledon, he added: “Yes. Because the principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title or anything else,” he said.

Djokovic has won the French Open twice, including in 2021, and has six Wimbledon titles, including the last three.

He was deported from Australia in January following his losing bid to stay in the country to defend his Australian Open title despite not being vaccinated against COVID-19.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Emergencies Act concern, Ottawa protest could benefit Russia: In The News for Feb. 15

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