New federal security bill, end to dispute over Arctic island: In The News for June 14

At the time, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the Liberals would table legislation that goes further, taking additional steps to protect infrastructure in the telecommunications, finance, energy and transport sectors.

He said it would establish a framework to better shield systems vital to national security and give the government a new tool to respond to emerging dangers in cyberspace.

Attacks on companies, universities and even hospitals by cybercriminals who hold data hostage in return for a ransom have become alarmingly common.

Some targeted organizations have preferred to pay the fee demanded to try to make the problem go away quietly, making it difficult for officials to get a full picture of the phenomenon.

Mendicino signalled at a recent House of Commons committee meeting that the government was looking at making it obligatory to report such attacks.

The anticipated measures also include amendments to the Telecommunications Act that would allow the government to prohibit the use of equipment and services from designated suppliers where necessary.

The federal policy outlined in May forbids the use of new 5G equipment and managed services from Huawei and ZTE. Existing 5G gear or services must be removed or terminated by June 28, 2024. Any use of new 4G equipment and managed services from the two companies will also be prohibited, with existing gear to be pulled out by Dec. 31, 2027.

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Also this …

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal says Canada has struck a deal with Denmark, settling a dispute over which country owns a tiny island in the Arctic.

He says a deal will be signed today over Hans Island after lengthy discussions over the uninhabited rock near Ellesmere Island.

The 1.3-square-kilometre island sits in the territorial waters of both Canada and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

It’s been the subject of decades of diplomatic disputes, and negotiations for this deal have been going on since 2005.

Both countries have planted their flags on the island. In 1984, Canada planted its flag along with a bottle of whisky — only for the Danish minister of Greenland affairs to visit, leaving his country’s flag and a bottle of a Danish spirit.

The deal is expected involve drawing a territorial line drawn across the island, which is traditional hunting territory for Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit.

That will mean Canada shares a land border with Denmark for the first time.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. _ The northern Arizona city of Flagstaff is synonymous with mountains _ lush with ponderosa pines, meadows and hiking trails that are a respite from the desert heat.

Now, parts of them are burning yet again this year, fuelled by winds that grounded air resources Monday. Fire crews were anticipating more moderate winds Tuesday and throughout the week, which could help them get a better handle on the blaze that has largely spared homes but made a run into a wilderness area and toward a lava dome volcano.

Residents around the city looked toward the mountains as smoke billowed through the air and winds howled, some scared, some nervous _ most hoping that moisture in the forecast late this week brings some relief.

Roughly 2,500 homes have been evacuated because of two wildfires burning on the outskirts of Flagstaff. One home and a secondary structure burned, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said. Hundreds of other people in California and New Mexico have also been forced to flee homes threatened by wildfires.

In northern Arizona, Coconino County declared an emergency because of the wildfire.

Fire incident Cmdr. Aaron Graeser said the Flagstaff-area blaze is one of the top priorities in the country for firefighting resources. It was estimated at 20 square kilometres late Monday, but fire managers haven’t been able to do aerial mapping.

Two other smaller wildfires northeast of the blaze merged, forcing evacuations in a more remote area Monday.

Wildfires broke out early this spring in multiple states in the Western U.S., where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires. A springtime fire outside Flagstaff destroyed more than two dozen homes. Most of the residents who evacuated then are out of their homes again because of this latest wildfire.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

TEHRAN, Iran _ An explosion at a chemical factory in southern Iran injured scores of people, most of them lightly, the country’s state TV reported Tuesday.

The report said a leak from an ammonium tank caused the blast on Monday evening in the southern city of Firouzabad in Fars province, located about 770 kilometres south of the capital, Tehran. Firemen were able to quickly extinguish the blaze, the report added.

According to the chief of the provincial health department, Vahid Hosseini, out of 133 injured who were taken to local hospitals, mostly factory workers, 114 were later released after treatment.

Authorities on Tuesday reopened a nearby major road that they had closed after the explosion. The factory went online in 2020.

Iran occasionally reports incidents of fires or explosions at industrial sites affecting the country’s infrastructure that are mainly blamed on technical failures. Years of economic sanctions by the West have blocked Iran’s access to original spare parts and new equipment.

Sensitive military and nuclear sites in Iran have also been the target of attacks over the past years, which Iran has blamed on Israel.

In February, a fire broke out at a warehouse full of engine oil and flammable materials at a base belonging to Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the western province of Kemranshah, damaging a shed but causing no casualties. A day earlier, unconfirmed reports proliferated online about several explosions heard in northern Kermanshah, a strategic location in Iran with various missile and military sites.

The reports come as Iran remains on edge about its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Negotiations in Vienna to revive the accord have stalled for months.

The 2015 deal that granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program collapsed four years ago when former president Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord and re-imposed crushing sanctions.

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On this day in 1919 …

British pilots John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown took off from St. John’s, Nfld., for the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They landed in a peat bog at Galway, Ireland, after flying about 3,100 kilometres in just over 16 hours. The flight won them a $10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail, and both were awarded knighthoods.

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In entertainment …

VENTURA, Calif. _ A man once briefly married to Britney Spears who showed up uninvited at the pop star’s wedding to longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari was charged Monday with felony stalking.

Jason Alexander, 40, pleaded not guilty in Ventura County court to the charge, along with misdemeanour counts of trespassing, vandalism and battery.

The three misdemeanour charges stemmed directly from Alexander’s attempt to get into the wedding, which he livestreamed on Instagram. The stalking charge involved repeated incidents over time, Spears attorney Mathew Rosengart said.

“He’s going to _ I hope, and I pledged my support _ be very vigorously prosecuted,” Rosengart said outside the hearing. “It’s a very serious matter. This was more than just a quote `wedding crash.’ This was an intrusion.”

A judge issued a restraining order requiring Alexander, who appeared in court via video conference from jail, to stay at least 100 yards from Spears for three years. The judge set his bail at $100,000 and scheduled a Wednesday hearing on the issue.

Alexander was Spears’ first husband. The two were married for less than three days in 2004 before an annulment.

Spears, 40, and Asghari, 28, were married Thursday at her home in Thousand Oaks, California, in front of several dozen guests including Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and Madonna.

Alexander, who was a childhood friend of Spears, was streaming live on Instagram when he approached house. He appeared in a mostly empty but decorated room, telling security Spears had invited him. Deputies responding to a trespassing call detained him, and he was arrested when they learned he had a warrant for his arrest in another county, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said.

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Did you see this?

OTTAWA _ Passport offices are still dealing with a surge of applications, the minister responsible says, and wait times are “far from acceptable.”

Karina Gould says those long wait times are her top priority, but she cannot say when things may return to normal.

The federal government says 72 per cent of Canadians who apply for a passport in any manner will get it within 40 business days, while 96 per cent of people who submit their application in person will get their passport within 10 business days.

The government’s website now includes estimated wait times for visits to passport offices, updated three times a day, to help people plan.

On Monday afternoon you could expect to wait four hours and 45 minutes at the Ottawa location, three hours in Toronto, and six hours and 45 minutes in Vancouver.

Gould says her department is considering further changes, including moving the application process online.

She also says her department is working with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to determine if there’s a way to issue passports to people as they get their citizenship instead of requiring a separate application. Both examples will take time to implement.

There are typically between two million and five million passport applications per year in Canada. During the pandemic, only about 1.5 million passports were issued over two years.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

New federal security bill, end to dispute over Arctic island: In The News for June 14

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