Canada

Chris came back from his winter break feeling energized. Ubisoft’s Halifax studio, where he worked, had recently unionized with 74 percent support, joining CWA Canada. On January 5, employees returned from vacation eager to prove that unionization would make them stronger workers. But two days later, it all came crashing down.

Jean-Michel Detoc, chief mobile officer from the company’s France office, walked through the front door, unannounced. Dread descended upon the staff. By 10 a.m., all seventy-one employees were laid off. Some started crying. Others were furious. “You lose your job like that—it sounds dramatic, but it’s a traumatic experience,” says Chris (whose name has been changed to avoid professional repercussions).

The Halifax office closure was widely seen as union busting. Employees said there was no correspondence with them or the union before the layoffs. (“All impacted employees in Halifax were informed of the closure at the same time on January 7, 2026. Ubisoft immediately contacted the union on Jan. 7 to begin discussions, including negotiations regarding additional severance,” the Ubisoft spokesperson said in the response.)

Three more N.W.T. schools have been discovered to have elevated concentrations of lead in drinking water, amid ongoing testing of educational facilities across the territory.

Deh Gah School in Fort Providence, Mezi Community School in Whatì and Jean Wetrade School in Gamètì all had multiple fixtures which testing showed produced water with concentrations of lead above safe maximums, according to a Thursday night release from the territorial government.

At Deh Gah School, one elementary classroom fixture produced lead concentrations more than four times acceptable levels.

The school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where students were killed in a mass shooting in February will be torn down and rebuilt on a new site.

Premier David Eby said Thursday that the decision by the local school board came after it consulted survivors, victims' relatives and the broader community about the "right path" for Tumbler Ridge Secondary School students.

"The direction of the community is clear, they wanted to go with a new school on a new site," Eby told a news conference at the legislature in Victoria.

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney says he does not think it was an accident that his personal information was allegedly compromised after learning it may have been exposed during an online meeting hosted by a pro-separatist organization.

“Out of five million people in Alberta they chose me to publicize my personal information in the most explicit way, that wasn’t by accident. It’s borderline incitement,” he said in an interview with CBC News on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the Alberta NDP said it obtained a video of the meeting where, in front of Centurion Project supporters and some United Conservative Party caucus staff, Kenney’s name was searched and his private information was shown on screen. CBC News has not seen the video.

Trump admin seizes US$120,000,000 owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as stake in an offshore wind project, demands that it be invested in fossil fuel development instead.

• In 2021, the share of millennials aged 25 to 39 living in a census family with parents (16.3%) was around twice the share of baby boomers of the same age in 1991 (8.2%). This trend has occurred gradually over time and is common to the large cities studied.
• After accounting for those living with their parents, millennials had the lowest rate of homeownership (49.9%), compared with Gen-Xers (56.2%) and baby boomers (55.9%) when they were aged 25 to 39 years.
• Fewer millennials aged 25 to 39 were married with children (26.6%) compared with Gen-Xers (34.5%) and baby boomers (46.6%) when they were the same age―the household type with the highest rate of homeownership historically.
• Millennial homeowners, after accounting for those living with their parents, were less likely to live in single-detached houses relative to earlier generations, especially those living in Toronto and Vancouver.

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Canada ... is trying to create some kind of middle powers alliance, capable of standing up to the US as well as the more usual foes of China and Russia.

Canadian ministers are increasingly common sights in Europe, to the extent that one Nordic minister, only half jokingly, says: “They should join the EU.”

Nowhere has their attention been focused more than on the Nordic countries, owing to shared business links and a combined focus on the growing importance of the Arctic and security matters — alongside questions about the commitment of the US to all of them. That in turn raises the prospect of Canadian-Nordic tie-ups as a test case for other European companies and countries as they try to wean themselves off a more unpredictable US under President Donald Trump.

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There are already some links between the Nordics and [Canada]. Sweden’s Saab takes a Bombardier aircraft from Canada and adds its own defence radar, sensors and command and control systems to make the GlobalEye, currently the leading surveillance aircraft on the market. Canada is currently deciding between the GlobalEye and two American rival offerings in what could be a contract worth about C$5bn.

The Swedish defence company has also suggested that it could build its Gripen fighter jets in Canada, just as Ottawa debates its dependence on the rival US F-35s.

There are further defence possibilities. A joint German-Norwegian submarine — developed for both countries’ navies by Germany’s Thyssenkrupp and Norway’s Kongsberg — is under consideration by Canada. Space is another area of co-operation with the Nordics, with both Sweden and Norway trying to start commercial launches. Joly says other areas of mutual interest include advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, energy and AI.

The Arctic is also an important arena for more tie-ups across the Atlantic amid shared concern about Russia and China’s interests in the region. Joly and her Norwegian counterpart last month signed a statement backing an “ambitious plan to develop a joint research agenda to advance understanding of the Arctic”.

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For European companies ... Canada could be a tempting option.

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Around the world, governments are battling bad actors in this sphere, both foreign and domestic. These include Russia, China, Iran and most worryingly, the United States. Their goal is to weaken Canada’s societal bonds by sowing discord and amplifying divisions, particularly over hot-button issues like immigration, climate change, and religious tensions. Advancements in artificial intelligence have supercharged their propaganda arsenal.

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Canada could look at other jurisdictions for inspiration on how to fight propaganda. This includes Finland, which is one of the world’s most successful resisters in the face of a steady flow of Russian propaganda from next door. The Nordic country’s primary defence against disinformation and misinformation isn’t stopping its spread, but managing its effects. It primarily uses its education system to build resilience.

“There is a lot we can learn from fellow middle powers that have made civic education part of their national security strategy,” says Sabreena Delhon, CEO of the Samara Centre for Democracy, a non-partisan organization focused on strengthening Canadian democracy.

Leo Pekkala, deputy director of the National Audiovisual Institute, which has been tasked with overseeing the media education of Finland’s 5.2 million people, says “education is key.”

While students are the primary focus, he notes that the younger generation also educates their elders on identifying propaganda, fostering a more informed and resilient society.

Media literacy has been part of Finland's school curriculum for decades. Policy makers there went a step further in 2012 by establishing a dedicated government office with a legal mandate to promote media literacy and civic engagement.

Over the last decade, Pekkala’s department has helped develop a broad-based, whole-of-society program. Critical thinking starts in kindergarten and continues through secondary school, promoting multiliteracy — the ability to obtain, process and verify information. It’s now considered a vital skill.

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But their recommendations are not prescriptive. Pekkala says while his team sets the objectives, it is up to various organization to implement them.

“We are not telling any organization what it is that they should be doing, but we provide the goals, the vision of where we want to be,” he says.

The guidelines(open pdf) are issued after extensive engagement with educators, NGOs, enterprises, and other civil society organizations. The next set is due out this month.

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The extent to which Canada could emulate Finland’s tactics is a matter of debate. Pekkala says Finland’s high trust in government, its small population, and a challenging language make it a difficult model to copy.

In Canada, education is a provincial responsibility, which makes it tough to formulate a national program. But some say Ottawa could help by working with provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments to incorporate media literacy into existing systems.

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“There needs to be a centralized policy [on education], and it should start in primary school,” says Ahmed Al-Rawi, an associate professor of news, social media, and public communication at Simon Fraser University.

“I urge the government to think harder about how to organize the work to help Canadians navigate these challenges.”

Part of the reason this country takes a decentralized approach to combating manipulation stems from concerns about government overreach and potential restrictions on freedom of expression. While the federal government acknowledges that more should be done to increase resiliency and points to the myriad regulations, government departments, and initiatives that form part of its fightback, there is no dedicated ministry.

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Canada's Fisheries Department says a grey whale that was hit at high speed by a Sea-Doo in front of a horrified Vancouver crowd on Monday appeared in "good condition" the next day.

The Fisheries Department says in an update that while assessing whale health can be difficult, the animal was seen feeding and "moving normally" on Tuesday before officials lost track of it as it swam out of English Bay, "making deeper dives along the way."

The government just introduced Bill C-22 — a sweeping surveillance proposal that would force collection of vast quantities of Canadians’ private data, on every digital service and device we use. Internet providers, messaging services, and other online services will be obligated to store a year’s worth of metadata about who we’re talking to and where we’re travelling, build surveillance backdoors to access that data into their services, and even hand foreign governments a faster path to that information. This isn't about catching criminals. It's a framework for mass surveillance that leaves every Canadian exposed.

Tell your MP: the surveillance state will not take root in Canada. Say NO to Bill C-22!

Costa Rica has become the thirteenth member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ... It becomes the second nation to accede to the CPTPP outside the original membership, following the United Kingdom.

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Along with , the other members of the agreement are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

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China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Uruguay, Ukraine, Indonesia, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Cambodia have all applied to join the agreement.

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I bought a ticket for Monday’s Alberta Christian Leadership Summit in Red Deer, keen to report on the event that promised a chance for religious leaders to talk about “faith, leadership and public policy in Alberta” with Premier Danielle Smith and other politicians.

But the night before, organizers called and told me, without providing a reason, that I was being deregistered and they were refunding my $200 fee. I wasn’t alone. A journalist from a major news outlet also got the call.

The summit’s website promises a “direct dialogue between Christian leadership and Alberta’s government [to help] shape the policies affecting our families, churches, and communities.”

A Canadian is fighting back in U.S. federal court over what he says is an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security, through Google, to seek "vast swaths of information" about his personal life following social media posts critical of Donald Trump's administration.

The Canadian John Doe plaintiff on Monday sued Markwayne Mullin, the current DHS secretary, in a lawsuit that contends DHS is engaged in "a transparent gambit to chill speech the government doesn't like." The suit was brought by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offices in D.C., where DHS is located, and in northern California, the jurisdiction where Google has its headquarters.

Foreign adversaries are meddling in the Alberta separatist debate in ways that threaten Canada’s sovereignty and national security, warns a report released Wednesday.

The study by leading information researchers said American and Russian actors were playing a dangerous role in the province’s dispute over seceding from Canada.

“While homegrown, the movement has become an attractive target for foreign exploitation,” said the study, “National Unity Under Threat: Foreign Interference, Cognitive Sovereignty and the Alberta Referendum.”

As they amplify separatist voices and normalize American annexation of Canada, these outside forces are posing a direct threat to Canada’s “democratic integrity,” it said.

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Moscow has a long history of peddling disinformation that aims to undermine Canada, but U.S. officials and influencers aligned with President Donald Trump have now joined in, it said.

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“The danger is not the existence of that debate,” said the study backed by five think tanks, including DisinfoWatch and the Global Centre for Democratic Resilience.

“The danger is that foreign governments, state-aligned media, ideological networks, and profit-driven manipulation systems are seeking to distort it.”

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The authors ... said Canada was vulnerable to such interference and urged Ottawa to act quickly. To “inoculate the public against manipulation,” the federal government needs to begin preparing before an Alberta referendum campaign gets underway, they said.

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