Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The National Security Strategy issued by the Trump administration last Friday isn’t merely a restatement of “America First” principles; it is a codified assertion of unilateral American power within the Western Hemisphere, carrying serious implications for Canada. The strategic heart of this declaration lies in the commitment to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine ” in the Western Hemisphere. Although the doctrine’s historical association is with Latin American stability and stemming unwanted migration, its “Trump Corollary” expands the scope to explicitly include preventing “non-Hemispheric competitors” from controlling “strategically vital assets” and, crucially, ensuring America’s “continued access to key strategic locations.” To execute this mandate in the North American Arctic—an area of rapidly intensifying geopolitical and economic competition—the Trump administration is creating the national security justification to take another step towards formalizing C...

Fentanyl overdoses. Dirty money flooding real estate. Election interference. Foreign-backed antisemitism igniting across Canadian campuses. These are not isolated crises, warns Calvin Chrustie, a veteran RCMP national security and transnational crime investigator. They are interlinked weapons in an accelerating campaign of hybrid warfare targeting Canada—one that is hollowing out state institutions, fracturing social cohesion, and damaging our alliances. In the view of Chrustie, like other North American experts recently interviewed by The Bureau, adversarial regimes are exploiting Canada's systemic vulnerabilities to destabilize the country from within, with consequences extending into the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and beyond. In a sweeping interview with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Chrustie laid out a sobering account of how foreign states—chiefly China and Iran—are combining their intelligence capabilities with organized crime networks and...

Over the past two years, China’s interference in Canada has dominated national headlines, fueled by groundbreaking reports from Global News and The Globe and Mail. Journalist Sam Cooper’s revelations, based on classified intelligence, shocked the nation, prompting political upheaval and forcing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act. In response to mounting public and political pressure, Trudeau’s government appointed former Governor General David Johnston (who later resigned) to investigate, then launched a public inquiry led by Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, and passed Bill C-70 to strengthen national security laws and create a foreign influence registry. After months of public hearings conducted in two phases, Commissioner Hogue is expected to submit her report to the government by the end of January. One of the key declassified intelligence documents, submitted by Canada’s intelligence agency to the Public Safety Minister in 2023, describes China’s interference as follows ... CLICK HERE f...

Decades of government neglect and underfunding have left the Canadian Armed Forces a depleted, demoralized and nearly shattered force. The country is increasingly being ignored or even shunned by its traditional allies at a time when an increasingly dangerous world poses escalating national security risks. Canada must urgently rethink and rebuild its military to meet these challenges, safeguard its sovereignty and fulfill its obligations on the world stage, writes David Redman. In this clear-eyed assessment, the CAF veteran and crisis management expert sets out a pathway to renewal, explaining what the armed forces need to rebuild and how Canada’s political leaders – if they have the will and the intelligence – can make it happen ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is defending the Liberal’s plans to overhaul critical infrastructure protection in Canada amid continued concerns Bill C-26 could undermine both Canadians’ privacy and government transparency. Bill C-26 would give Champagne and his successors the ability to order private companies, such as banks and telecoms, in five critical sectors tied to national security to hand over potentially sensitive information about Canadians. It would also enable the ability to share that information with intelligence agencies, domestic governments and foreign allies . . . . CLICK HERE for the full story

Prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentence allowed in Canadian law against former RCMP intelligence boss Cameron Ortis, who was convicted of a national security compromise that has endangered Canadians and betrayed the nation’s closest allies, a court in Ottawa heard Thursday. Ortis, looking haggard, wearing a grey suit, with white-collared shirt open at the neck, sat in a glass-walled cage, guarded by two police officers wearing bullet-proof vests. “We're talking about someone who is at the highest level of trust in the RCMP" ... CLICK HERE for the full story

... Brian McAdam, a diplomat and immigration control officer, died in December 2022, almost 30 years after he was recalled from Canada’s Hong Kong High Commission. From 1991 to 1993 in Hong Kong, McAdam uncovered a gaping hole in Canada’s national security. He found the consulate’s computerized immigration-vetting system was compromised. Canadian passports were up for sale, while immigration investment scams and corruption enabled Hong Kong Triad leaders and Chinese intelligence fronts to flood into Canada, investing in real estate and critical infrastructure, infiltrating politics, and doing business with Canadian officials ... CLICK HERE for the full story