While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Steven Chase.
Canada would like to see NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission become permanent as part of a greater focus on the north for the Western alliance, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says. NATO announced Wednesday it has launched this mission to strengthen its presence in the Arctic as part of an agreement to defuse severe tensions within the alliance prompted by...
The German auto industry is keen on expanding its presence in Canada and is in the midst of discussions, Berlin’s economic minister says. Katherina Reiche, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, said the Canadian auto sector strategy laid out by Prime Minster Mark Carney last week “is very attractive” for Germany. “I can’t go into detail, but please take the...
The new submarines Canada plans to buy will not arrive with all the necessary equipment to operate under Arctic ice, meaning they will require modifications after delivery, the head of the navy says. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said Canada will need to add under-ice gear to the boats after they arrive, such as upward-facing sonar that can detect and map overhead...
Canada’s former top soldier says this country should keep its options open on the question of acquiring nuclear weapons. Retired general Wayne Eyre, who stepped down as chief of the defence staff in 2024, was speaking at a forum on Canada’s military readiness. He was asked by a moderator whether Canada in this age of geopolitical turmoil should develop a...
The departing Canadian ambassador to the United States said it’s unclear whether Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City will be able to conclude a scheduled review of the continental USMCA free-trade deal this year. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has already signalled it wants changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including for all three members to more closely align on external...
Ottawa and Seoul have signed a memorandum of understanding intended to bring South Korean auto manufacturing and investment to Canada, according to a document reviewed by The Globe and Mail. The MOU stems from the Asian country’s campaign to win a multibillion-dollar contract to build up to 12 submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy.
India has long viewed Canada as the “younger brother” of the United States, slow to approve foreign investment and major projects, but this perception is changing under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Indian high commissioner to Canada says. Ottawa and New Delhi are preparing to launch talks on a comprehensive trade deal as the Prime Minister makes plans for a...
Canada is planning to reserve preferential access to its domestic auto market for foreign automakers who build vehicles in this country under a new auto policy to be released in February, a senior Canadian official said Saturday. The official also said Canada gave advance notice to the United States of its Jan. 16 decision to part with Washington and slash...
Two Canadian MPs from the governing Liberal caucus have cut short a trip to Taiwan this week that would have overlapped with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing aimed at patching up relations with China. They say they are returning home early “informed by advice from” the Canadian government. Liberal members of Parliament Helena Jaczek and Marie-France Lalonde were...
Ottawa has asked the governments of South Korea and Germany, two countries with companies bidding to build the Canadian navy’s next submarine, to facilitate auto industry production pledges in Canada as part of the pitches, a source familiar with the matter said.
Donald Trump’s military strike on Venezuela, his designs on Greenland and his government’s declaration of ownership over the Western Hemisphere together represent an existential challenge to Canada, Bob Rae, this country’s former ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday. Mr. Rae said in an interview that Canadians would be mistaken in thinking they’re not “on the menu” too, meaning “the...
The Canadian government is in wait-and-see mode when it comes to Donald Trump’s military strike on Venezuela, a senior official says, as it tries to determine whether the U.S. President plans unilateral action in other countries. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Canada is in a particularly...
Canada and its allies must send a strong signal to the United States from a Paris summit on Ukraine this week that they do not support President Donald Trump’s flouting of international law through a military strike on Venezuela that seized its leader, foreign policy experts say. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday is gathering leaders of European countries as...
Mark Carney became Prime Minister on a promise to reduce Canadian dependence on the increasingly protectionist and unreliable United States under Donald Trump. “It’s clear the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner,” Mr. Carney said after taking office. “The old relationship” Canada had with the United States, he said, is over. Significant parts of his travel reflect this, with...
The arrest of a Canadian Armed Forces intelligence operator on espionage charges appears to have its origins in another murky episode that has vexed the country’s military establishment for more than a year. The operator, Master Warrant Officer Matthew Shawn Robar, was arrested and charged Dec. 10 with multiple offences related to passing highly sensitive government secrets to what court...
A Canadian Armed Forces intelligence operator charged with espionage exposed a fellow military member’s identity during unauthorized dealings with a foreign intelligence agency, according to documents filed in military court. Master Warrant Officer Matthew Shawn Robar was arrested last week and charged with passing highly sensitive government secrets to what court documents refer to as a “foreign entity.”
Senior Global Affairs leadership and a parliamentary aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney are in China now for talks that could pave the way for him to visit next year. Mr. Carney, looking for new export markets because of an increasingly protectionist United States under President Donald Trump, is trying to patch up relations with Beijing after a severe diplomatic...
Canada is providing another $50-million to furnish Ukraine with combat drones and drone parts as Kyiv nears the end of a fourth year of fighting a full-scale invasion by Russia. Defence Minister David McGuinty announced the funds Tuesday during the 32nd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), which co-ordinates military aid to Ukraine from more than 50 countries...
A Canadian military counter-intelligence officer who is facing charges of espionage was allegedly sharing special operational secrets with Ukraine without the approval of his superiors, The Globe and Mail has learned. Master Warrant Officer Matthew Robar was arrested last week and charged with multiple offences related to passing highly sensitive government secrets to a foreign entity. But the military has...
Opposition MPs, national-security experts and human-rights activists are accusing the federal government of dragging its feet on setting up a foreign agent registry. The last Liberal government, under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, passed enabling legislation in June, 2024, to set up a registry and name a commissioner to oversee it. But the new government of Prime Minister Mark Carney...
Before trade talks abruptly ended in October, Ottawa and Washington were discussing a U.S. proposal that would have lowered tariffs on most Canadian steel exports to the United States while effectively capping the amount of steel heading south across the border. U.S. trade negotiators proposed a tariff-rate quota system that would introduce two tiers of levies based on historical levels...
Canada is expected to buy close to $4-billion in air strike munitions from the United States government in a sale disclosed Thursday on the eve of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s next meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington. These are the type of bombs that can be carried by fighter jets such as Canada’s aging CF-18s or the new U.S.-made...
Canada needs to be prepared for the risk the United States may announce its withdrawal from the trilateral USMCA trade deal as a negotiating tactic, according to a legal expert who is testifying on the agreement at public hearings in Washington this week. Barry Appleton, a Toronto lawyer who is co-director of the Center for International Law at New York...
A former air force commander says Ottawa should buy its full order of 88 U.S.-made F-35s to fill an imminent gap in fighter capacity but switch to European warplanes for future purchases to provide more independence from the United States. Retired lieutenant-general Yvan Blondin, who was commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 2012 until 2015, said the possibility...
Canada and India are putting the finishing touches on a deal to supply New Delhi with uranium in another signal of warming relations after a two-year diplomatic rupture. The export deal would be worth about US$2.8-billion, two sources familiar with the negotiations say, and its term could run for 10 years, according to one of the same sources.
The Royal Canadian Navy is considering expanding its training-ship operations to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, a move that would enable it to assist in patrolling the maritime border between Canada and the United States. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said as part of its modernization effort, it is weighing increasing its fleet of...
Tuesday’s federal budget will announce a $50-billion fund for local infrastructure, including housing, transportation and a specific stream for health infrastructure such as hospitals and emergency services, a senior government official told The Globe and Mail. The source said the budget will also lay out a plan to retire aging military fleets as a way to save money on maintenance...
Millions of dollars of Canadian technology has been shipped through a sprawling network of Hong Kong-based shell companies to feed Russia’s war machine, according to an investigation by a human-rights watchdog. The Washington-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, combed through Ukrainian battlefield forensics, Hong Kong public records...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he stands ready to resume trade negotiations with the U.S. and tried to reassure Canadians that he is taking steps to shore up the country’s economy after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs by another 10 per cent. Mr. Trump said this weekend he’s hiking tariffs on Canadian imports after an Ontario government...
Beijing’s biggest fish bazaar is a briny-smelling maze of stalls stocked with massive crabs from Russia, purple lobster from Australia and yellow croaker fish from China’s southeastern coast. What’s increasingly hard to find at Jingshen Seafood Market, however, are products from Canada: the casualties of a punishing trade war between Ottawa and Beijing. This lost business is becoming harder for...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, in Beijing to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Xi Jinping, says the two countries have reopened a communication channel that will enable them to stabilize ruptured relations and, hopefully, resolve a punishing trade dispute. Ms. Anand spent two hours talking to her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will visit China this week, part of an effort to mend fences as a painful trade war with Beijing grinds on. The Anand visit, announced Friday, may end up being a prelude to a leader-level meeting later this fall between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two have not met since...
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his tariff policy and said it has been effective at persuading companies to leave Canada for the United States, a day ahead of a White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney where the two leaders are expected to discuss trade. Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, celebrated his protectionist...
Mark Carney heads to Washington Monday, with his government setting expectations low for talks on tariffs and security with Donald Trump, even as damage mounts from the U.S. President’s protectionist levies. Two senior government officials said not to expect any breakthroughs at the Tuesday White House meeting and emphasized that this will just be a working visit. One U.S. industry...
NATO is losing ground in an arms and innovation race with Russia and China and needs “bridging technologies” from countries, including Canada, to quickly close the gap, a senior official with the military alliance said Wednesday. James Appathurai said Canada’s recent commitment to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product − tens of billions of dollars...
A prominent advocate for a Sikh homeland in India was arrested on firearm charges in Ontario earlier this month, more than two years after his predecessor’s killing led to a significant rift in Canadian-Indian relations. The arrest happened a day after Canada’s national security adviser met with her Indian counterpart in New Delhi as part of an effort to reset...
Mark Carney heads to Mexico this Thursday as part of his push to expand trade with countries beyond the United States, a visit that will also serve to patch up strained ties with Canada’s third largest export market. The Prime Minister’s two-day trip is the latest effort, after three visits to Europe, to diversify trade away from the increasingly protectionist...
Canada’s spy agency is warning Canadian tech entrepreneurs about showcasing their wares at international pitch competitions organized by China, events it cautions pose a serious risk to their intellectual property. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has issued a bulletin in tandem with U.S. partners, such as the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, that lays out steps tech players should take...
Tom Pitfield, a top lieutenant to Prime Minister Mark Carney and long-time Liberal Party campaign strategist, is one of the largest shareholders in a marketing and analytics company that has for years been working on behalf of Big Tobacco in Canada and globally, two sources say. The sources told The Globe and Mail that Mr. Pitfield, who shares principal-secretary duties...
A Trump administration decision to suspend the participation of U.S. defence officials in events staged by think tanks, including the annual Halifax International Security Forum, represents a retreat of American leadership that makes the country look weak, the president of the Canadian summit says. Peter Van Praagh says U.S. officials have confirmed to him that a recent Pentagon ban on...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s top aide has joined Canada-U.S. negotiations in Washington as the two countries try to strike a deal to end a five-month trade war. The Prime Minister’s Office said Marc-André Blanchard, chief of staff to Mr. Carney, has headed to the U.S. Capitol with officials, including Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has travelled there to talk...
Submarines to prowl Canada’s coasts, surface-to-air missiles to protect its cities and billions of dollars for aging military-base infrastructure that in many cases dates back to the Second World War. For years, the Canadian military has drawn up lists of what it needs to bolster its readiness and capabilities. Now, it may have the cash to change how Canada defends...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says securing a truce in the long-running Canada-United States softwood lumber dispute is a top priority as Canadian producers brace for even heftier U.S. tariffs as early as September. The U.S. Commerce Department said this spring that it plans to more than double the combined anti-dumping and countervailing duties against most Canadian softwood producers to 34.4...
A steep new military spending commitment for Canada – the biggest increase in more than 70 years – has handed Mark Carney’s government a fresh challenge: how to pay for it. At the June, 2025, NATO leaders’ summit, the Prime Minister pledged that Canada will spend as much as $150-billion annually on defence within a decade: equivalent to 5 per...
Election promises and massive defence spending increases promised by Prime Minister Mark Carney at a NATO summit last month will fuel huge annual federal budget deficits averaging more than $77-billion a year, a new report predicts. A fiscal forecast released by the C.D. Howe Institute Thursday said the combined cost of Liberal Party election platform pledges, plus a June 2...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to announce what his government is billing as the largest increase in defence spending since the Second World War, measures that sources say would enable Canada to meet NATO’s 2-per-cent military expenditure target this fiscal year, well ahead of any previously announced schedule. Two senior government sources told The Globe and Mail that Mr...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will unveil his defence and security priorities Monday and tour a Toronto Armed Forces facility as he prepares for the late June NATO Leaders Summit where countries including Canada are expected to commit to higher military spending. Mr. Carney’s agenda was released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Chinese counterpart agreed Thursday to “regularize channels of communication” in Canada’s estranged relationship with China and hold talks to resolve a trade war affecting billions of dollars of trade between the two countries. Mr. Carney and Chinese Premier Li Qiang also agreed to further cooperate on fighting illegal production of the opioid fentanyl. It...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is holding direct talks with U.S. President Donald Trump to iron out a framework for a trade and security agreement, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada says. Pete Hoekstra told The Globe and Mail that talks between the leaders and top cabinet ministers are being held under a cone of silence to ensure a positive outcome. The...
The U.S. envoy to Canada held out hope Tuesday for the Canadian auto sector despite Donald Trump’s talk of cutting it out of the American market. Pete Hoekstra told a Toronto audience that Canada may still be able to work together with U.S. automakers under an industrial strategy focused on the threat from Chinese vehicle makers.
A former MP who was barred from running in the federal election for the Liberal Party because of alleged ties to India has formed a lobby group for Hindu Canadians. Chandra Arya, who served as a member of Parliament for the Ottawa riding of Nepean for more than nine years, was removed as the Liberal candidate for the district shortly...
U.S. President Donald Trump says it’s “highly unlikely” he would resort to military force to annex Canada but is adamant that the border separating it from the United States is “an artificial line” that prevents the two territories from forming a “beautiful country.” Speaking to NBC just days before his first in-person meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mr. Trump...
The federal government says a reconsideration of its $19-billion purchase of U.S.-made warplanes is under way, a review that defence analysts warn could antagonize U.S. President Donald Trump as Ottawa and Washington prepare for talks on a new economic and security relationship. Shortly after Mark Carney took office as Prime Minister in March, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced that the...
