Canada

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) announced on Friday that permanent residents will now be allowed to enlist, as the military struggles with low recruitment levels.

Permanent residents were previously only eligible under the Skilled Military Foreign Applicant (SMFA) entry program, which was “open for individuals … that would reduce training costs or fill a special need … such as a trained pilot or a doctor,” according to the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia, a not-for-profit association of retired and serving members of the CAF.

I got a feeling they’ll be setting up shop at Roxham Road by spring.

8 Reasons Why Rome Fell

For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, the makeup of the once mighty legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Roman citizenry, emperors like Diocletian and Constantine began hiring foreign mercenaries to prop up their armies. The ranks of the legions eventually swelled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so much so that Romans began using the Latin word “barbarus” in place of “soldier.”

The only passport office in Ottawa lives in a dingy strip mall that seems ready to collapse from low self-esteem. A sign posted on the exterior doors commands, ominously, “FORM ONE LINE HERE. DOOR UNLOCKS AUTOMATICALLY AT 0700.” The mall now seems to exist only for the unfortunate souls who come to wait. There’s a tiny photo lab that rapidly prints passport photos for people found to be wearing the wrong facial expression or shirt colour, and a dentist office with a large, futile sign asking people not to block the entrance.

Thank you Shortcake for getting our passports renewed for ten years.

Ontario is a peculiar place.

There have been two full years of school closures—of dubious necessity—and now that the COVID regime has finally been lifted, just as children are getting settled back into regular class time, what happens?

Opposition parties are criticizing the Liberal government’s fall economic statement released yesterday, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre calling it an “inflationary scheme.”

“We had two demands: no new taxes on workers and seniors and no new spending unless matched by equal savings,” said Poilievre in the House on Nov. 3.

“Today, this inflationary scheme, triples, triples, triples the tax on home heat, gas, and groceries, and adds $20 billion of inflationary spending that will drive up the cost of living.”

Why was Singh even asked what he thought? He’s just a doorstop.

After a national security review, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne is ordering three Chinese resource companies to sell their interests in Canadian critical mineral firms.

Champagne’s order comes less than a week after he said Canada would be limiting the involvement of foreign state-owned companies in the industry.

… Chengze Lithium International Ltd. is required to divest its interests in Lithium Chile Inc., a company headquartered in Calgary with more than a dozen lithium projects underway in Chile.

And Zangge Mining Investment is ordered to sell its investment in Ultra Lithium Inc., a Vancouver-based resource development firm with lithium and gold projects in both Canada and Argentina.

How successful can they be against mining interests physically located in foreign countries?