DEVELOPING 120 active fires burning across Canada, 30 are 'out of control'
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
With the Republican primary in New Hampshire underway, candidates are turning their attention to border security concerns – this time at the Canadian border.
"What I have found out from New Hampshire is we don't talk enough about the northern border," presidential candidate and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday during a town hall. "The southern border is in terrible shape, but 500 people on the terrorist list, terrorist watchlist, have come through the northern border."
According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), 484 individuals on the Terrorist Screening Dataset, also known as the "terrorist watchlist" were apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border in 2023 compared to just 80 at the border with Mexico. Encounters with people on the terrorist watchlist have been falling at the Mexican border, but have been on the rise at the Canadian border.
Meanwhile, front-runner and former president Donald Trump, who oversaw the expansion of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has mostly focused his rhetoric at tightening security at the southern border. But during a campaign rally in Iowa earlier this month, he remarked, "We also have a northern border that's not exactly doing too well."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, prior to dropping out of the race on Sunday and endorsing Trump, campaigned on increasing security at the northern border. Vivek Ramaswamy, who also suspended his campaign and later backed Trump, went as far as promising to build a wall between Canada and the U.S., citing the increase in fentanyl crossing the border.
In 2023, the U.S. CBP intercepted more than 239,000 doses of fentanyl at the northern border. That represents just 0.02 per cent of the 1.2 billion doses seized by the U.S. CBP last year.
Even at the state level, Republicans have been sounding the alarm about security at the Canadian border. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who is backing Haley, announced in October his state would increase state patrols along its sparsely populated 97-kilometre-long border with Canada.
However, polling suggests most New Hampshire residents don't seem to share these concerns. In a poll conducted earlier this month by the Boston Globe, USA Today and Suffolk University, only 36 per cent of respondents said they were concerned about the security of New Hampshire's border with Canada, while 61 per cent said they are "not at all concerned" or "not very concerned."
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden has taken steps to reduce irregular crossings at the Canadian border. Last March, Biden came to Ottawa and signed a deal with Canada to tighten the Safe Third Country Agreement to prevent migrants from making asylum claims if they've crossed via an irregular crossing like Roxham Road in Quebec.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
Apple users are experiencing an iMessage outage, reporting issues with sending and receiving messages, Downdetector shows.
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.