Special Features |
International News |
Business and Trade |
Canadian News |
Opinion/Editorial
In this issue:
and much more...
News from Connect2Canada
C2C Podcast: Foreign Service in Afghanistan
The Connect2Canada Team
What's it like to be a Canadian foreign service officer in Afghanistan? Two officers share their recent experiences. Listen.
Special Features
PM pleased with progress made at the 2009 Summit of the Americas
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Office of the Prime Minister
Canada is pleased with the progress made by participants in the 2009 Summit of the Americas to fight the impact of the global recession on the Western Hemisphere, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today.
Read the full story
Canada's Environment Minister Salutes Canadians for their Commitment to the Environment
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Environment Canada
The HonourableJim Prentice, Environment Minister, today issued the following statement to mark Earth Day:
“As Canada’s Environment Minister and an avid outdoorsman, I am committed to preserving and enhancing our environment for current and future generations.
Read the full story
Canada offers new support to the Inter-American Development Bank
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Office of the Prime Minister
This year's Summit of the Americas takes place in the context of the worst global economic crisis in generations. While the crisis began in developed countries, its effects are hitting emerging and developing economies with increasing severity. Canada's focus for the Summit is encouraging free trade and discouraging other countries from moving back to protectionist measures.
Read the full story
International News
Envoy rebukes U.S. for linking 9/11 terrorists to Canada
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sheldon Alberts, National Post
It is the 9/11 myth that stubbornly persists—and no amount of Canadian protesting seems sufficient to put it to rest.
Canada's ambassador to the United States on Tuesday publicly rebuked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for suggesting that the 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. from Canada, and has asked for a private meeting with her to set the record straight.
Read the full story
Obama opening 'new era' in Americas: Harper
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Campbell Clark, Globe and Mail
Stephen Harper credited Barack Obama with opening a “new era of dialogue” in the Americas as a hemispheric summit the Prime Minister feared would collapse in confrontation ended with surprising chords of harmony.
Instead of the barrage of attacks that George W. Bush faced at the last Summit of the Americas four years ago in Argentina, Mr. Obama engineered a warming with offers of a new “equal partnership” that seemed to turn famously anti-American firebrands like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez into pussycats asking to be his friend.
Read the full story
Cuba must embrace democracy, Harper says
Friday, April 17, 2009
Mike Blanchfield, National Post
Though he said the Castro regime in Cuba must embrace democracy and reject its outdated Cold War communist ethos, Prime Minster Stephen Harper added the U.S. embargo on the Caribbean nation has not worked.
Harper offered that candid assessment in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview Thursday with Canwest News Service from his residence at 24 Sussex Drive—on the eve of his departure for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Read the full story
Canadian, U.S. brass prepare for Afghan takeover
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Matthew Fisher, Edmonton Journal
With thousands of U.S. troops descending on Kandahar, Canadian and American diplomats, development experts and soldiers are involved in scores of meetings to try to ensure that the marriage of American and Canadian military and civil operations in the war-plagued province is successful.
Read the full story
Canada must align with U.S. on climate, adviser says
Friday, April 17, 2009
Bill Curry, Globe and Mail
Canada must brace for an unprecedented wave of American protectionism launched under the banner of environmental action, a federal adviser warns, urging Conservatives to quickly align their climate-change plans with Washington's.
Read the full story
Canadians foil pirates in dramatic night chase
Monday, April 20, 2009
Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star
A Canadian warship hunting pirates in the Gulf of Aden outsailed a boatload of bandits in the dark, foiling an attack on a Norwegian tanker.
Read the full story
Some rescuers were Canadian trained
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Jennifer Ditchburn, Telegraph-Journal
Weary and frustrated, the gunman pounded on the cockpit door one final time, desperate for the Canadian pilots inside to take him away.
The men on the other side of the door—not pilots at all, in fact, but Canadian-trained members of an elite Jamaican counter-terrorism squad—were only too happy to oblige.
Read the full story
Business and Trade
U.S. rejects reopening NAFTA
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Les Whittington, Toronto Star
A lingering irritant in Canada-United States relations was cleared up for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government yesterday when U.S. President Barack Obama let it be known he has no intention of trying to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Read the full story
Harper has strong ally in Jamaica
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Times & Transcript
Prime Minister Stephen Harper left the Caribbean yesterday with a new ally in his Jamaican counterpart, with both men promising to advance each others interests in their own international circles.
Harper has been pushing for a free trade deal with members of the Caribbean community, and Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has supported the efforts. Golding could be key to speeding up negotiations between Canada and the Caribbean community on a potential free trade deal.
Read the full story
Carney set to lay economic groundwork
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Kevin Carmichael, Globe and Mail
This is the week Mark Carney redefines Canadian monetary policy.
On Thursday, the 44-year-old Bank of Canada Governor is set to explain how he will go about guiding the economy now that he has cut the benchmark lending rate to about as low as it can go.
Read the full story
Obama won't ease restrictions at border
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
Canada-U.S. border slowdowns are mainly a result of aging infrastructure at crossings, not overly restrictive U.S. policy, says a senior American security official.
With a deadline looming that will require passports for entry into the U.S. by land as of June 1, deputy homeland secretary Jane Lute yesterday reinforced a key message: There is little difference between the Democrats' approach and the former Republican leadership when it comes to security on the 49th parallel.
Read the full story
Canada's patience with U.S. running out in meat dispute
Friday, April 17, 2009
Paul Vieira, National Post
International Trade Minister Stockwell Day suggested Thursday that Canada's patience with Washington is running thin over a U.S. meat-labelling law that is "dissuading" the purchase of Canadian-bred livestock, and he plans to be "aggressive" in defending the country's interests.
Read the full story
Barack Obama fait rêver le Québec
Lundi 20 avril 2009
Violaine Ballivy, La Presse
Le nouveau plan de transport dévoilé jeudi par Washington pourrait avoir un impact considérable sur le Québec. Barack Obama a livré sur un plateau d'argent de nouveaux arguments aux politiciens et aux écologistes en faveur de l'établissement d'un train à grande vitesse (TGV) entre Québec et Windsor ou Montréal et New York.
Lire en détail
Canada prepared to offer auto giants $6-billion in financing
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Jacquie Mcnish, Greeg Keenan and Karen Howlett, Globe and Mail
The governments of Canada and Ontario are in advanced negotiations to provide unprecedented bankruptcy financing for the Canadian operations of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.
Read the full story
EnCana shifts focus to U.S.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Dina O Meara, Edmonton Journal
EnCana Corp. expects to produce at least half of its natural gas in the U.S. in the near future.
Canada's largest independent natural gas producer, which released strong first-quarter results Wednesday, said this year it will redirect $290 million US from other areas toward its promising Haynesville leases on the Texas-Louisiana border.
Read the full story
Canadian News
How to avoid the passport crunch
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Canadians won’t be skipping across into the U.S. by land or sea come June 1 without a passport or one of those fancy high-tech identification cards such as NEXUS or FAST or an enhanced driver’s licence.
On that date, the U.S. government’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative comes into effect, and one of those documents will be required from all travellers presenting themselves at border points.
Read the full story
Clinton, Bush booked for joint Toronto appearance
Monday, April 20, 2009
John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail
Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will appear together in Toronto next month on a public stage for the first time since Mr. Bush ended his presidency, in a remarkable twist on the cultural cold war that Barack Obama and others are trying to lay to rest.
The two will be appearing at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on May 29 for a moderated "conversation" that is expected to last about two hours.
Read the full story
Les immigrés de deuxième génération obtiendront la citoyenneté canadienne
Vendredi 17 avril 2009
Bruce Cheadle, La Presse
Des milliers de personnes verront leur statut changer, vendredi, lorsqu'un amendement à la Loi sur la citoyenneté entrera en vigueur, accordant de facto la citoyenneté canadienne aux immigrés de deuxième génération.
Communément appelés des «Canadiens perdus», ces individus vont «se réveiller Canadien», comme l'explique le ministère de la Citoyenneté et de l'Immigration, grâce à la loi C-37, qui est un amendement à la Loi sur la citoyenneté.
Lire en détail
B.C. snags top spot in green report card; Alberta gets high marks
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Richard Blackwell, Globe and Mail
British Columbia gets the top ranking in a comprehensive "green" report card being issued today that evaluates the environmental performance of Canadian provinces and territories.
The comparison, calculated by Toronto-based Corporate Knights magazine, rates Ontario and the three sparsely populated territories just behind British Columbia. But the next best ranking is more of a surprise: Alberta beats out Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and all the Atlantic provinces.
Read the full story
Climate change could mean a walk in the Arctic woods
Friday, April 17, 2009
Martin Mittelstaedt, Globe and Mail
Baffin Island is covered with an austere, Arctic tundra now, but some time later this century it will be capable of sprouting something unusual: a verdant coniferous forest.
The idea that trees might some day spread to many parts of Canada's Far North may seem unlikely, but it is being touted as a realistic possibility in one of the most extensive looks at how the world's forests will cope with further global warming.
Read the full story
After Boston success, amputee to take run at Games
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
James Christie, Globe and Mail
A Canadian amputee runner won his personal challenge yesterday—and with it a division of the Boston Marathon.
Rick Ball of Orillia, Ont., won't get the publicity that has engulfed Ethiopia's Deriba Merga, who finished first among the male runners, or Kenya's Salina Kosgei, who won the women's race.
Read the full story
Du sirop d'érable à 10$
Mercredi 22 avril 2009
Pierre Jury, La Presse
Les érables à sucre sont tout autour de nous mais nous ne réalisons pas vraiment tout ce qui se profile derrière. Le sirop d'érable est une deuxième nature culinaire pour nous, au point où nous avons tendance à le tenir pour acquis. Les arbres se voient partout et une majorité de Québécois achètent leur sirop non pas au magasin mais auprès d'une connaissance: nul besoin d'aller en forêt pour trouver, dans son entourage, quelqu'un qui produit du sirop d'érable.
Lire en détail
Opinion/Editorial
When President and PM are on the same page
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Norman Spector, Globe and Mail
Whether it is Cuba or the United Nations racism summit in Geneva that crash-landed on takeoff yesterday, Stephen Harper and Barack Obama increasingly find themselves on the same page. That this is so can be attributed to bold leadership on the parts of both the Prime Minister and the President. Whether it will continue will depend on how others respond and on domestic political constraints. Mostly, however, it will depend on whether the two leaders continue to pursue pragmatic, non-ideological solutions to the great problems they face.
Read the full story
Job as top spy not for the shy
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Jim Travers, Chronicle Herald
A couple of days after 9-11, with the world waiting for al-Qaida to land another deadly blow, the man then heading Canada’s spy agency emerged from the shadows. With only a petite female driver covering his back, Ward Elcock wandered Ottawa’s trendy Byward Market shopping for late summer vegetables.
Read the full story
