Canada has a multibillion-dollar defence deal with the U.S. on the table. What now?
Ottawa soon will have a $74-billion decision to make.
That's the estimated cost of buying 88 American-made F-35 Lightning II fighter jets and maintaining them over the next several decades, as calculated by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
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Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
New crime novels feature a locked-room mystery, a Scarborough stabbing and a Jan. 6 insurrectionist
Fever Beach Carl Hiaasen Alfred A. Knopf, 384 pages, $39.99 It's a weird time in American politics, which means it's a perfect time for Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to plumb the satirical depths of corruption and malfeasance in his home state. His last novel, 2020's 'Squeeze Me,' suffered from a subplot that attempted to satirize the once-and-current occupant of the White House, a Falstaffian spray-tanned figure so outrageous as to be almost impervious to satire. For 'Fever Beach,' Hiaasen wisely steers clear of POTUS and his inept administration, preferring instead to focus on wanton corruption at a lower level. 'Fever Beach,' by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, $34.99. The new novel begins with a meet-cute on an airplane between Twilly Spree and Viva Morales. Twilly is a stock Hiaasen character: an independently wealthy Florida do-gooder who spends his time making life miserable for folks who litter, antagonize the local wildlife or otherwise cause environmental or social havoc. Viva's job is administering the foundation of a couple of rich right-wing octogenarians whose fundraising operates as a money-laundering front to finance the campaign of far-right (and profoundly stupid) congressman Clure Boyette, in hot water with his obstreperous father over a scandal involving an underage prostitute named Galaxy. Add in Viva's landlord — a Jan. 6 insurrectionist named Dale Figgo who heads the Strokers for Freedom (a white nationalist militia whose name is a rebuke to the Proud Boys' insistence on refraining from masturbation) — and his cohort, the violent and reckless Jonas Onus, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Hiaasen caper. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Big Bad Wool: A Sheep Detective Mystery Leonie Swann; translated by Amy Bojang Soho Crime, 384 pages, $38.95 Twenty years ago, German-born author Leonie Swann debuted one of the most delightful detective teams in genre history: a flock of sheep on the trail of the person responsible for killing their shepherd with a spade through the chest. After a two-decade absence, Miss Maple, Othello, Mopple the Whale, and the other woolly sleuths are back on the case, this time on behalf of their new herder, Rebecca, the daughter of the early book's victim. 'Big Bad Wool,' by Leonie Swann, Soho Crime, $38.95. Rebecca, her intrusive Mum, and the sheep are overwintering in the lee of a French chateau where there are rumours of a marauding Garou — a werewolf — that is responsible for mutilating deer in the nearby woods. Among other strange occurrences, Rebecca's red clothing is found torn to pieces and some sheep go missing — and soon enough there's a dead human for the flock, in the uncomfortable company of a group of local goats, to deal with. 'Big Bad Wool' is a charming romp, whose pleasure comes largely from the ironic distance between the sheep's understanding of the world and that of the people who surround them. ('The humans in the stories did plenty of ridiculous things. Spring cleaning, revenge and diets.') Their enthusiasm and excitement results in prose that is a bit too reliant on exclamation points, and some of the more heavy-handed puns (like the sheep's insistence on 'woolpower') seem forced, but this is nevertheless a fun variation on the traditional country cosy. Detective Aunty Uzma Jalaluddin HarperCollins, 336 pages, $25.99 Romance novelist Uzma Jalaluddin takes a turn into mystery with this new book about amateur sleuth Kausar Khan. A widow in her late 50s, Kausar returns to Toronto from North Bay to help her daughter, Sana, who has been accused of stabbing her landlord to death in her Scarborough mall boutique. The police — including Sana's old flame, Ilyas — are convinced Sana is the prime suspect, but Kausar is determined to prove her daughter innocent. 'Detective Aunty,' by Uzma Jalaluddin, HarperCollins, $25.99. Her investigation involves a couple of competing developers, both of whom want to purchase the land on which the mall stands, along with members of the dead man's family and fellow shopkeepers. On the domestic front, Kausar finds herself concerned with Sana's deteriorating marriage to her husband, Hamza, and her teenage granddaughter's sullenness and mysterious nighttime disappearances. Jalaluddin does a good job integrating the various elements of her plot, and the familial relationships are nicely calibrated. The momentum is impeded, however, by a preponderance of clichés ('Playing devil's advocate, Kausar asked …'; 'Kausar's blood ran cold') and a tendency to hold the reader's hand by defining every easily Googleable Urdu word or greeting too programmatically. More attention to the writing on the line level would have helped move this one along. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Labyrinth House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji; translated by Ho-Ling Wong Pushkin Vertigo, 272 pages, $24.95 Yukito Ayatsuji's clever postmodern locked-room mystery was first published in Japanese in 2009; it appears for the first time in English translation, which is good news for genre fans. 'The Labyrinth House Murders,' by Yukito Ayatsuji, Pushkin Vertigo, $24.95. Ayatsuji's narrative is framed by Shimada, a mystery aficionado, who is presented with a novelization about murders that took place at the home of famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro, found dead by his own hand soon after the manuscript opens. Miyagaki has left a bizarre challenge for the writers gathered at his Byzantine Labyrinth House: each must write a story featuring a murder, and the victim must be the writer him- or herself. The winning author, as adjudicated by a group of critics also convened at Labyrinth House, will inherit Miyagaki's sizable fortune. As the writers compete for the reward, bodies start falling in real life and Ayatsuji has a grand time playing metafictional games with his readers, challenging them to figure out who the culprit is in the context of a story that owes more than a small debt to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None.' But Ayatsuji does Christie one better; it is only once the afterword, which closes the framed narrative, has unfolded that the reader fully understands how cleverly the author has conceived his multi-layered fictional trap.
Winnipeg Free Press
9 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump's new travel ban set to take effect amid escalating tension over immigration enforcement
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries is set to take effect Monday amid escalating tension over the president's unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement. The new proclamation, which Trump signed on Wednesday, applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don't hold a valid visa. The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, according to guidance issued Friday to all U.S. diplomatic missions. However, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting Monday. Travelers with previously issued visas should still be able to enter the U.S. even after the ban takes effect. Haitian-American Elvanise Louis-Juste, who was at the airport Sunday in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a flight to her home state of Florida, said many Haitians wanting to come to the U.S. are simply seeking to escape violence and unrest in their country. 'I have family in Haiti, so it's pretty upsetting to see and hear,' Louis-Juste, 23, said of the travel ban. 'I don't think it's a good thing. I think it's very upsetting.' Many immigration experts say the new ban is designed to beat any court challenge by focusing on the visa application process and appears more carefully crafted than a hastily written executive order during Trump's first term that denied entry to citizens of mainly Muslim countries. In a video posted Wednesday on social media, Trump said nationals of countries included in the ban pose 'terrorism-related' and 'public-safety' risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas. He also said some of these countries had 'deficient' screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their citizens. His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report about tourists, businesspeople and students who overstay U.S. visas and arrive by air or sea, singling out countries with high percentages of nationals who remain after their visas expired. Trump also tied the new ban to a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The man charged in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump's restricted list. U.S. officials say he overstayed a tourist visa. The ban was quickly denounced by groups that provide aid and resettlement help to refugees. 'This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,' said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, a nonprofit international relief organization. Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro's government condemned the travel ban, characterizing it in a statement as a 'stigmatization and criminalization campaign' against Venezuelans.
Global News
10 hours ago
- Global News
U.S. envoy closely eyes Canada defence spending; says NATO about collective defence
The American ambassador to Canada is closely watching as Ottawa shapes its defence budget, but says the U.S. will not dictate what the Canadian government must spend. 'We're not expecting anything; that's not our job to make those expectations,' Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said in an interview with The Canadian Press this past Friday, a day after NATO defence ministers endorsed new spending targets. Hoekstra also said the point of the NATO military alliance is to defend each other when under attack. He noted Americans haven't forgotten the 'investment and the sacrifice' Canadian troops made in Afghanistan when the U.S. invoked the NATO treaty's article on collective defence. 'They were fulfilling the commitment that they made to NATO — that when one of us is attacked we are all attacked, and we will defend each other,' Hoekstra said of Canadian soldiers. Story continues below advertisement Hoekstra was not directly commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump's statement in March that Washington would not necessarily come to the aid of countries that don't pay their fair share on defence and that Canada has been freeloading on American defence of the continent. He did acknowledge Canada's defence spending has been an 'irritant' in the relationship with the U.S. This past week, defence ministers from NATO countries met in Brussels to discuss raising the member spending target on defence to as much as five per cent of GDP. Canada has never met NATO's existing spending target of two per cent since it was established in 2006. Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney are engaged in what both sides have characterized as 'intensive' discussions toward the new economic and security deal the two leaders agreed to work on once the Canadian election concluded in April. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy NATO figures suggest Canada's defence spending rose from about one per cent in 2014 to 1.33 per cent in 2023. The NATO secretary-general's annual report, released in April, said Canada's defence spending would hit 1.45 per cent for 2024. In terms of absolute dollars, a Canadian Global Affairs Institute analysis last year said Canada ranks as the seventh largest spender in NATO, and the 14th largest in the world. Story continues below advertisement Carney promised during the recent election campaign to move up Canada's deadline for meeting the 2 per cent threshold from 2032 to 2030 or sooner but has not yet shown a plan for how to do that. It will require Canada to add billions of new dollars annually. The prime minister is set to join other heads of government from NATO countries for an annual summit starting June 24 in the Netherlands. They are expected to approve a new defence investment plan that defence ministers hammered out this week, which would have member nations invest 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence spending, and 1.5 per cent on defence and security-related investment such as infrastructure and resilience. That proposal is coming amid waning American commitments and a revanchist Russia. In recent years, both Democrats and Republicans have urged Canada to boost its Arctic defence, and the previous Biden administration praised much of what Ottawa outlined in an Arctic foreign policy last year. Trump has suggested defence of the Arctic is part of his 'Golden Dome' plan for a continental missile-defence shield. On May 27, the president said he told Ottawa it would cost US$61 billion to be part of the project. Hoekstra said he hasn't seen a breakdown of the costs, but said the 'really awesome technology' is likely estimated at 'proportionally what we think the Canadian share should be.' Story continues below advertisement Defence Minister David McGuinty said Canada was reviewing its defence spending from 'top to bottom' and would have more to say about its plans soon, though the government isn't planning to table a budget until the fall. Hoekstra framed NATO as part of the wide partnership the U.S. has with Canada in security, which also includes secure energy flows and stopping illicit drugs. 'We need to do the things that will keep our citizens safe,' Hoekstra said. 'There are a lot of things that Americans and Canadians have in common, and we're looking forward to great days.' Hoekstra said Trump is trying to take the U.S. off an unsustainable trajectory, which he framed as millions of people crossing the U.S. border undocumented, spending way beyond government revenue and large trade deficits. 'The president is transforming that, because we need to,' he said. Trump's discussions with Carney will likely include the sweeping reform of border security that the Liberals tabled in Parliament last week. Hoekstra had yet to go through the legislation as of Friday. The ambassador said he's focused on win-win policies for both countries and not the prospect of Canada becoming an American state, despite Trump raising the notion as a way for Canadians to save on the cost of joining his Golden Dome project. Story continues below advertisement Former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson has said Hoekstra is limited in how much he can diverge from Trump's comments. But he said the ambassador has great access to the president, and his public messaging likely reveals how he has been advising Trump.
