The head of NATO is raising the prospect of hard targets for military spending which could put more pressure on Canada to invest billions more on defence.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg today urged the military alliance's 30 members to recommit to spending at least two per cent of their GDP on defence.He said they should set firm requirements and timelines for meeting the target, unlike when it was first set in 2014.Canada has long lagged most of its allies on spending as a share of GDP, and refused to fully commit to the target.Successive Canadian governments have instead insisted tha

StatCan numbers reveal the percentage of permanent residents who become Canadians has plummeted over the past 20 years.The Institute for Canadian Citizenship says Statistics Canada data points to a 40 per cent decline in citizenship uptake since 2001.The group's CEO, Daniel Bernhard, calls the drop alarming and says it should serve as a "wake up call" to improving the experience newcomers have in Canada.In 2021, nearly 45.7 per cent of permanent residents who'd been in Canada for less than 10 years became citizens.That's down from 60 per cent in 2016, and 75.1 per cent in 2001.The StatCan data

The federal government says it is tightening its policy on bankrolling research with foreign entities that might pose a risk to national security.The government says "a sensitive research area" will not be funded if a person on the project is affiliated with a university, research institute or laboratory connected to military, national defence or state security entities of foreign powers considered to be a risk.In a statement late Tuesday, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the new policy applies to the Canada Foundation for Innovation an

A day after Quebec confirmed that asylum seekers who cross the border irregularly are being sent to other provinces, Premier François Legault called on the prime minister to discourage migrants from coming to Canada.Legault told reporters he thinks many people are claiming asylum in Canada because of a 2017 Trudeau tweet saying the country would welcome people fleeing persecution.The premier, who has maintained the province doesn't have the capacity to welcome more people, says Trudeau should post a new tweet telling migrants not to come.Quebec's immigration minister said Tuesday that only ei

A new report says pandemic benefits rolled out to cushion the blow of COVID-19 lockdowns significantly reduced the child poverty rate.The analysis by the anti-poverty group Campaign 2000 says in 2020 13.5 per cent of Canadian children were living in poverty.That is down from 17.7 per cent in 2019, and 24.2 per cent 20 years earlier.It notes the decline is the largest drop since the federal government pledged to end child poverty in 1989, and accounts for nearly half of the decline in the poverty rate seen over two decades.Campaign 2000 is offering 50 recommendations to further reduce poverty,

Canada and the United States are eyeing the sky with suspicion these days, as well as the shared continental defence system that's supposed to be watching it for them.The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, appeared to lose track of the mysterious object that was eventually shot down Sunday over Lake Huron.Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University in Virginia, says that's just one example of why Norad needs an overhaul.Jaffer says it's unclear if the challenges posed by the recent flurry of overhead encounters represent a lac

A cross-section of MPs say Ottawa should cost-match donations to more organizations who are responding to devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.Officials from Global Affairs are testifying to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee about Canada's response to the massive earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks that have killed more than 35,000 people.The federal government has offered to match up to $10 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross for their partners on the ground to help people who are suddenly homeless.The officials say they are simply following a 2016 declaratio

Two backcountry skiers are dead after being caught in an avalanche in south central British Columbia.A report from Avalanche Canada says the skiers were on a slope called Potato Peak, south of Tatla Lake, about 750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.It says both victims were fully buried during the slide that happened Saturday.Search and rescue crews were notified when the victims were reported overdue and their bodies were later recovered from the scene of the avalanche.Avalanche Canada says the area of the slide was highly wind-affected, leaving some parts of the slope thin and rocky, while o

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May wants Canada to consider expanding access to psychedelics as medical treatments.May was among the MPs who joined a delegation of patients and health-care practitioners trying to lobby the federal government to make psilocybin, the psychedelic compound produced by magic mushrooms more readily available.The group is calling on lawmakers to advance clinical trials to better understand how it could be used for medical treatment of some mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.Psilocybin is listed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and its medical