Category: Canada

The fighter jet deal represents the most significant investment in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in more than 30 years, according to a statement issued by Public Services and Procurement Canada….reports Asian Lite News

Canada is entering into the finalisation phase to purchase 88 F-35 fighter jets from the US government and Lockheed Martin, Defence Minister Anita Anand announced.

The fleet will enhance Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, better defend North America and make their NATO and NORAD obligations be met well into the future, Xinhua news agency quoted Anand as saying at a press conference.

The fighter jet deal represents the most significant investment in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in more than 30 years, according to a statement issued by Public Services and Procurement Canada.

According to the statement, Canada will work toward the delivery of aircraft as early as 2025.

Canada has been preparing for the two main operating bases for the fighter aircraft, 4 Wing Cold Lake and 3 Wing Bagotville, by awarding two contracts to undertake infrastructure upgrades to support the delivery of these future fighters, it said, adding that this infrastructure will support the long-term maintenance and operation of these new aircraft.

Since 1997, Canada has been investing in the Joint Strike Fighter Program, which has provided Canadian industry with the opportunity to become a part of the F-35 supply chain, and which provides for guaranteed access to the F-35.

The Joint Strike Fighter Program is the largest fighter aircraft program internationally, and Canada is one of eight original countries, along with the US, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Australia.

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The partnership arrangement allows four budgets from 2022 to 2025 to be presented by the government during this time, meaning that the NDP agrees to support the government on confidence and budgetary matters. …reports Asian Lite News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced an agreement reached by his Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Parliament to ensure the ruling party to govern through 2025.

“It’s a minority government, so parties need to work together,” Trudeau said on Tuesday at a press conference. The parties agree to partner from March 22, 2022 until the next election when Parliament rises in June 2025, Xinhua news agency reported.

The partnership arrangement allows four budgets from 2022 to 2025 to be presented by the government during this time, meaning that the NDP agrees to support the government on confidence and budgetary matters. The NDP would not move a vote of non-confidence, nor vote for a non-confidence motion during the term of the arrangement.

The parties have identified key policy areas where there is a desire for a similar medium-term outcome, focusing on growing the economy by creating green jobs that fight the climate crisis, making people’s lives more affordable with housing and childcare, expanding and protecting the healthcare as well as advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“It is about ensuring those differences do not stand in the way of delivering on shared goals for the benefit of each and every Canadian,” a statement from the prime minister office said. “No one benefits when increasing polarisation and parliamentary dysfunction stand in the way of delivering these results for Canadians.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said later in his virtual press conference that he’s not concerned if his party gets credit for enacting these programmes and that his party is simply “using our power to get help to people.”

On average, minority governments in Canada survive for about 18 months before falling and having to return to the polls. Currently the House of Commons has 338 members. The Liberals have 159 seats, Conservatives 119, Bloc Quebecois 32, NDP 25, Green Party two, and Independent one.

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Several reports suggest that some members of the convoy have regrouped outside the city. The police are concerned with these reports and are alert so that no fresh protests may start in the city….reports Asian Lite News

Canadian police have fenced off the area surrounding Parliament Hill on Wellington Street, where protesters had been entrenched for more than three weeks and are working to ensure protesters do not return.

Police officers and City of Ottawa cleanup crews are the only ones who remain in front of the Parliament where thousands of demonstrators were rallying to protest the vaccine mandates, reported CBC News.

“We are deeply committed to the community healing that we know now needs to take place,” interim Ottawa police Chief Steve Bell said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

He said that police will decide on how to maintain its presence in downtown core “to make sure that nobody returns to occupy our streets again.”

However, several reports suggest that some members of the convoy have regrouped outside the city. The police are concerned with these reports and are alert so that no fresh protests may start in the city.

As per the reports, more than 50 vehicles were seen this weekend at Herb’s Truck Stop in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, less than 100 kilometres from downtown Ottawa.

Furthermore, the police chief did not say when downtown roads would reopen to residents or whether vehicle traffic would be barred from Wellington Street indefinitely.

Police continue to tell people to avoid the downtown core and warn residents who have vehicles parked between Metcalfe and Bay streets and Albert and Gloucester streets to move their vehicles or risk being towed. Only parliamentary staffers are currently allowed north of Sparks Street, reported the Canadian public broadcaster.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 14 invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in 50 years to give the federal government extra powers to handle the ongoing truckers blockades and protests against the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

The state of emergency will last for 30 days. At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Trudeau said, “It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement’s ability to effectively enforce the law.”

Trudeau said the measures will be geographically targeted and “reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.”

The unprecedented deployment of the Emergencies Act gives police more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies constitute illegal and dangerous activities, such as blockades and occupations, he said.

The Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the 1980s, defines a national emergency as a temporary “urgent and critical situation” that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it.”

The wave of protests across Canada began in January, with thousands of truckers and hundreds of other demonstrators converging on Ottawa to express strong opposition to vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the US-Canada border. Protesters demanded that the authorities remove COVID-19 restrictions. (ANI)

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