Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A major UN conference on biodiversity will get underway in Montreal Tuesday with a lofty goal to get every country to agree to protect almost one-third of the world's land and oceans before the end of this decade.
But the environment may be the easy part of a meeting that is being co-hosted by Canada and China amid growing diplomatic tensions between the two -- and without the political heft of world leaders, who weren't invited to attend.
"I would say that it will be very interesting and very important to watch how the COP15 unfolds," said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China.
China is the president of this year's biodiversity meeting, which means it helps set the agenda and guides the negotiations. It would normally play host, too, and delayed the meeting four times because of COVID-19.
Because China still hasn't opened its borders to international travellers, the Chinese government agreed in June that the meeting could be moved to Montreal, which is home to the offices of the UN biodiversity secretariat.
Officially, Canada's role is mainly one of logistics. But the arrangement will increase Canada's influence over the negotiations and could add more diplomatic unrest to the equation.
To say diplomatic relations between Canada and China are strained is akin to suggesting the Pacific Ocean is just a wee body of water.
The relationship went off the rails in 2018 when Canada arrested a Chinese tech executive on behalf of the United States, and China swiftly detained two Canadians in apparent retaliation. While more than a year has passed since all three were released, tensions haven't really eased.
In recent weeks, new allegations have emerged about Chinese attempts to exert influence within Canada, including in recent elections. And in November, Canada forced some Chinese state-owned companies to sell their stakes in Canadian critical-mineral projects in a bid to tamp down China's dominance in the battery-electric industry.
COP15 will also start just nine days after Canada issued a new Indo-Pacific strategy that seeks stronger trade ties in Asia to counterbalance China's influence. Beijing made clear that it was not happy about the strategy.
Saint-Jacques said China should be grateful that "Canada came to its rescue" when the country couldn't host the biodiversity summit. But he said China has a tendency to push Canada around.
"It's the old proverb that you kill the chicken to scare the monkey," he said. "So they beat Canada up and they tell the other countries that, 'you dare to criticize us, here's what will be happening to you.' So we have to be conscious of that."
Saint-Jacques said China probably won't want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to attend the conference, since Chinese President Xi Jinping won't be there. Xi would have attended if the summit had taken place on his home turf, and he did give a speech at the virtual event a year ago.
But Trudeau is going, and he's slated to speak at the opening ceremonies along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
No other world leaders are expected. China only invited environment ministers, a move some nature groups say is designed to underplay the importance of the meeting.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said it's not typical for nature talks to feature a leaders' summit, and he noted that Canada had only four months to organize this event. He said that inviting leaders was "something we contemplated," but by the time organizers were pondering the idea, it was too late.
"Leaders' schedules around the world were already very packed and we didn't get a super good response to it," he said.
Former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna said there is a lot of concern that a deal is less likely to be reached without world leaders being on site to add pressure.
"It's a challenge, because what you want is leaders to come and say we need to get a deal and say that clearly to their negotiators," she said.
"Often negotiators just continue negotiating forever," McKenna said, and a push from the top can be important.
"I don't know how it is going to play out," she said. "I know people are very concerned right now."
She added that there is no doubt the strains between Canada and China will add to the difficulty of getting a deal. But she said they have to set aside the friction because the planet cannot wait.
"There is no solution to the climate crisis, to the biodiversity crisis, without working with China," she said. "And that's challenging. But I think you can work on those issues while still ... standing firm on other issues like human rights and trade."
Both McKenna and Saint-Jacques said Canada and China have had close ties on environmental issues for decades.
Saint-Jacques said Canadian development assistance in China helped lead to the creation of its environment ministry. The two countries have had an environmental framework agreement in place since 1998, and Parks Canada has helped China develop its new network of national parks.
"I would say that if China is honest, they will recognize that Canada has been very helpful," Saint-Jacques said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.