The real goal of Trump's mass detention centres? Unlimited power
Opinion
If the administration can establish arbitrary overseas detention for one group – such as those declared to be Venezuelan gang members – history shows it will likely keep going
U.S. military personnel at El Salvador International Airport on April 12 escort one of the alleged gang members the U.S. deported to be imprisoned at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via REUTERS
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CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Canadian with ties to Osama bin Laden arrested in Montreal
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CTV News
8 hours ago
- CTV News
Trump announces travel ban and restrictions on 19 countries set to go into effect Monday
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a summer soiree on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions. The ban takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m., a cushion that may avoid the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when a similar measure took effect with virtually no notice in 2017. Trump, who signalled plans for a new ban upon taking office in January, appears to be on firmer ground this time after the Supreme Court sided with him. Some, but not all, 12 countries also appeared on the list of banned countries in Trump's first term. The new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. There will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. In a video released on social media, Trump tied the new ban to Sunday's terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump's restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a tourist visa. Trump said some countries had 'deficient' screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of visa overstays of tourists, business visitors and students who arrive by air and sea, singling out countries with high percentages of remaining after their visas expired. 'We don't want them,' Trump said. The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, generally people who worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade-long war there. Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement his first day in office. 'To include Afghanistan -- a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years -- is a moral disgrace. It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold,' said Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of AfghanEvac. Trump wrote that Afghanistan 'lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures.' 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National Post
10 hours ago
- National Post
Mike Fegelman: Mark Carney is committed to rewarding Hamas terrorism with statehood
It is taken as a central tenet in responsible governance that terrorism is not an acceptable method of statecraft. Deliberately murdering innocent people for political ends is to be condemned and not rewarded. Article content But not anymore. Article content Article content On May, 19, the Carney government released a joint statement with the leaders of the United Kingdom and France saying that he is 'committed to recognizing a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.' This begs the question: after decades of not doing so, what materially has changed? Article content Article content Over the last 20 months, following the Hamas terror invasion of southern Israel and subsequent mass murder, rape, torture and kidnapping of Israeli and other civilians, much has changed. Hamas surely knew that its attacks on October 7, 2023 would not destroy Israel (and could very well lead to its overthrow by the Jewish state, the destruction of Gaza and deaths of countless innocent Palestinians), yet it pursued this invasion, knowing that there was a potential for tangible benefit. Article content Article content Hamas knew exactly what it was doing. After all, Hamas is not just a genocidal terrorist organization dedicated to Israel's destruction, but a savvy media operator, disseminating manipulated casualty figures that have been widely and uncritically embraced around the world, leading to international condemnation of Israel and for the world to refocus its attention to the plight of the Palestinians, a cause that at the time was receding from the headlines. Article content Hamas knew that condemnations of its attack would be short-lived, and that Israel would almost instantly be seen as the villain, which was part of its goal while also seeking to obstruct Saudi Arabia's making peace and normalizing relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords. Article content Article content There is a direct line between Hamas' October 7 massacres and the proposed recognition of a Palestinian state by the Carney government. If there had been no invasion 20 months ago, there likely would not be any such recognition. Those attacks may not have guaranteed such a recognition, but a recognition would not have taken place without them. Article content What, exactly, would Canada be recognizing? Gaza has been under the despotic rule of Hamas for nearly 20 years; is that the regime which Ottawa would be granting with formal recognition, even though Hamas remains a banned terrorist organization in Canada? If not Hamas, then whom, since there is no other Palestinian governance in place in that territory. Article content Hamas is a terrorist organization that murders its political opponents, while the Palestinian Authority is a corrupt kleptocracy that continues to funnel money to the families of dead terrorists through its pay-to-slay program. Its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is a dictator who this past January started his twenty-first year of his first four-year term.
