Scotty

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11191067

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Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will keep any conversation with Vladimir Putin short if he comes face-to-face with the Russian president at the G20 summit later this year.

The U.S. is hosting the annual gathering in Miami and U.S. President Donald Trump has said he'd like Putin to join. The Kremlin indicated in the spring that it's possible Putin will take up the invitation.

During an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Carney was asked about what he might discuss with Putin should he attend the summit in December.

"The message will be simple: 'Get out of Ukraine, give back all of Ukraine to Ukraine, end this war which is killing more than 30,000 of your people every single month,' and I'd leave it at that to be honest," Carney said.

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Putin hasn't attended a G20 summit since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The International Criminal Court has an active arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted G20 finance ministers in Asheville, N.C., earlier this week with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in attendance.

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Archived link

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will keep any conversation with Vladimir Putin short if he comes face-to-face with the Russian president at the G20 summit later this year.

The U.S. is hosting the annual gathering in Miami and U.S. President Donald Trump has said he'd like Putin to join. The Kremlin indicated in the spring that it's possible Putin will take up the invitation.

During an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Carney was asked about what he might discuss with Putin should he attend the summit in December.

"The message will be simple: 'Get out of Ukraine, give back all of Ukraine to Ukraine, end this war which is killing more than 30,000 of your people every single month,' and I'd leave it at that to be honest," Carney said.

...

Putin hasn't attended a G20 summit since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The International Criminal Court has an active arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted G20 finance ministers in Asheville, N.C., earlier this week with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in attendance.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11159243

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11159169

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An Ontario university student is suspected of espionage after the FBI said he admitted to accessing airport facilities in Toronto and Chicago to take photos on behalf of a shadowy figure from China.

Weiheng Zeng, himself a Chinese citizen, was arrested in Michigan on Aug. 23 after crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor, Ont. He was charged with one count of making false statements.

Zeng appeared in a federal court in Detroit on Tuesday and agreed to remain in custody as he awaits his trial.

A University of Waterloo undergraduate student born in 2004, Zeng first raised U.S. authorities' suspicions in April, after an incident captured on security video at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by CBC News.

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At the time, FedEx employees spotted a man taking photos, climbing a forklift and attempting to open a locked delivery truck and a shipping container in the company's parking lot at the Chicago airport, the criminal complaint said.

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Border agents found numerous photos of military aircraft on his phone, Zeng purportedly said they were for a flight radar website. He said taking pictures of planes was his hobby.

"Zeng's phone was also found to contain pictures of him and other individuals in tactical clothing and in tactical formations, holding rifle-styled firearms," FBI special agent Robert Holbrook wrote in the complaint. Zeng purportedly said the weapon was an airsoft gun.

He denied having any military service or training.

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According to the criminal complaint, Zeng eventually said he was being paid by someone — identified in the U.S. court records only as "Chinese contact" — to photograph specific planes and their tail numbers.

Zeng believed his contact worked for a Chinese security service and that it was "cool," according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Zeng said they had met on a Chinese forum for aviation enthusiasts in 2024.

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Zeng, who lives in Cambridge, Ont., also outlined to investigators a convoluted system he purportedly used to communicate with the unnamed individual, who paid him via bank transfer in Chinese yuan.

The "Chinese contact" would mail Zeng a new SIM card every four to five months, which he was directed to use in his Huawei cell phone, according to the criminal complaint.

"Zeng, at the direction of 'Chinese Contact,' would subsequently destroy the SIM cards, delete the conversations, and delete the photos he took," wrote Holbrook, the FBI agent.

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It's unclear what undergraduate program Zeng was enrolled in, or when he first came to Canada.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11159084

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The Canadian intern charged with espionage at NATO headquarters in Belgium was found in April near the office of the alliance’s supreme commander after a fire alarm was pulled by a suspected accomplice, a Belgian source familiar with the case told The Globe and Mail.

The intern’s unexpected appearance there triggered an investigation into her activities by the counterintelligence service of NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE.

It reported its concerns to Belgian military intelligence. In July, she was arrested by Belgian police and faces espionage charges on suspicion of spying for a third country.

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Biwei Zhang (also known as Claire Zhang) is a former Canadian federal public servant who took an internship at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium, last year.

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On April 21 this year, the intern, an IT specialist, was found near the building of U.S. General Alexus Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as an evacuation of SHAPE’s personnel took place after the triggering of a fire alarm.

Ms. Zhang, a naturalized Canadian of Chinese origin, had already come to the attention of SHAPE’s counterintelligence service after asking colleagues questions about the consequences of security protocol breaches.

The Belgian source told The Globe on Friday that the investigation into Ms. Zhang, who is in pretrial detention in Belgium, is probing whether she was aided by accomplices both inside and outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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The fire alarm is believed by investigators to have been triggered by someone other than Ms. Zhang, but they have not been identified, the source said. And on the day that it was triggered, according to the source, there was some suspicious activity in the access-control system of the building where the supreme NATO commander works.

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[The source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity] said that after she was arrested and incarcerated, a number of passwords to her social-media accounts were remotely changed. Her apartment in Mons was also broken into while she was behind bars, the source said, sparking questions about whether material that could relate to her case was being searched for.

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A Belgian judge on Monday denied her appeal for release from prison. The Chamber of Indictments decided to extend her pretrial detention by a month.

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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is working with Belgian authorities on the case.

In a statement, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam said, “as the Prime Minister has shared, we are directly supporting our Belgian counterparts in support of the ongoing legal process in Brussels.”

Some of those involved in the investigation were surprised, according to the source, that Ms. Zhang was given security clearance by the Canadian government before starting her internship at NATO headquarters in Mons, near the French border. They said her background would likely have raised a number of red flags with security experts in Belgium.

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In Canada’s Parliament last month, the Commons public safety and national security committee launched an inquiry into vetting of public officials, after MPs expressed concern about how Ms. Zhang was cleared by Ottawa to work at NATO headquarters.

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She had previously held a number of federal jobs including at Statistics Canada and the Canadian Space Agency.

But in 2023, Ms. Zhang was found to have committed fraud within the federal civil service when she wrote the same job exam twice for a single posting at the Canada Border Services Agency, applying under slightly different names and separate e-mail addresses.

The public-service watchdog, which investigated her conduct, ruled that if she joined the federal public service within a year, she would have to complete an ethics course.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa and advisory-board member of the China Strategic Risks Institute, said it is possible that Ms. Zhang, who had “been in numerous and increasingly responsible positions already, did not get the screening depth that she might otherwise have had.”

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Since Mark Carney took office, she added in an e-mail, Canada’s security agencies “have been spread thin with budget cuts and many demands to screen new employees into sensitive positions in the PM’s and ministers’ offices as well as staff of newly created agencies.”

Archived link

An Ontario university student is suspected of espionage after the FBI said he admitted to accessing airport facilities in Toronto and Chicago to take photos on behalf of a shadowy figure from China.

Weiheng Zeng, himself a Chinese citizen, was arrested in Michigan on Aug. 23 after crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor, Ont. He was charged with one count of making false statements.

Zeng appeared in a federal court in Detroit on Tuesday and agreed to remain in custody as he awaits his trial.

A University of Waterloo undergraduate student born in 2004, Zeng first raised U.S. authorities' suspicions in April, after an incident captured on security video at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by CBC News.

...

At the time, FedEx employees spotted a man taking photos, climbing a forklift and attempting to open a locked delivery truck and a shipping container in the company's parking lot at the Chicago airport, the criminal complaint said.

...

Border agents found numerous photos of military aircraft on his phone, Zeng purportedly said they were for a flight radar website. He said taking pictures of planes was his hobby.

"Zeng's phone was also found to contain pictures of him and other individuals in tactical clothing and in tactical formations, holding rifle-styled firearms," FBI special agent Robert Holbrook wrote in the complaint. Zeng purportedly said the weapon was an airsoft gun.

He denied having any military service or training.

...

According to the criminal complaint, Zeng eventually said he was being paid by someone — identified in the U.S. court records only as "Chinese contact" — to photograph specific planes and their tail numbers.

Zeng believed his contact worked for a Chinese security service and that it was "cool," according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Zeng said they had met on a Chinese forum for aviation enthusiasts in 2024.

...

Zeng, who lives in Cambridge, Ont., also outlined to investigators a convoluted system he purportedly used to communicate with the unnamed individual, who paid him via bank transfer in Chinese yuan.

The "Chinese contact" would mail Zeng a new SIM card every four to five months, which he was directed to use in his Huawei cell phone, according to the criminal complaint.

"Zeng, at the direction of 'Chinese Contact,' would subsequently destroy the SIM cards, delete the conversations, and delete the photos he took," wrote Holbrook, the FBI agent.

...

It's unclear what undergraduate program Zeng was enrolled in, or when he first came to Canada.

...

Archived link

The Canadian intern charged with espionage at NATO headquarters in Belgium was found in April near the office of the alliance’s supreme commander after a fire alarm was pulled by a suspected accomplice, a Belgian source familiar with the case told The Globe and Mail.

The intern’s unexpected appearance there triggered an investigation into her activities by the counterintelligence service of NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE.

It reported its concerns to Belgian military intelligence. In July, she was arrested by Belgian police and faces espionage charges on suspicion of spying for a third country.

...

Biwei Zhang (also known as Claire Zhang) is a former Canadian federal public servant who took an internship at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium, last year.

...

On April 21 this year, the intern, an IT specialist, was found near the building of U.S. General Alexus Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as an evacuation of SHAPE’s personnel took place after the triggering of a fire alarm.

Ms. Zhang, a naturalized Canadian of Chinese origin, had already come to the attention of SHAPE’s counterintelligence service after asking colleagues questions about the consequences of security protocol breaches.

The Belgian source told The Globe on Friday that the investigation into Ms. Zhang, who is in pretrial detention in Belgium, is probing whether she was aided by accomplices both inside and outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

...

The fire alarm is believed by investigators to have been triggered by someone other than Ms. Zhang, but they have not been identified, the source said. And on the day that it was triggered, according to the source, there was some suspicious activity in the access-control system of the building where the supreme NATO commander works.

...

[The source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity] said that after she was arrested and incarcerated, a number of passwords to her social-media accounts were remotely changed. Her apartment in Mons was also broken into while she was behind bars, the source said, sparking questions about whether material that could relate to her case was being searched for.

...

A Belgian judge on Monday denied her appeal for release from prison. The Chamber of Indictments decided to extend her pretrial detention by a month.

...

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is working with Belgian authorities on the case.

In a statement, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam said, “as the Prime Minister has shared, we are directly supporting our Belgian counterparts in support of the ongoing legal process in Brussels.”

Some of those involved in the investigation were surprised, according to the source, that Ms. Zhang was given security clearance by the Canadian government before starting her internship at NATO headquarters in Mons, near the French border. They said her background would likely have raised a number of red flags with security experts in Belgium.

...

In Canada’s Parliament last month, the Commons public safety and national security committee launched an inquiry into vetting of public officials, after MPs expressed concern about how Ms. Zhang was cleared by Ottawa to work at NATO headquarters.

...

She had previously held a number of federal jobs including at Statistics Canada and the Canadian Space Agency.

But in 2023, Ms. Zhang was found to have committed fraud within the federal civil service when she wrote the same job exam twice for a single posting at the Canada Border Services Agency, applying under slightly different names and separate e-mail addresses.

The public-service watchdog, which investigated her conduct, ruled that if she joined the federal public service within a year, she would have to complete an ethics course.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa and advisory-board member of the China Strategic Risks Institute, said it is possible that Ms. Zhang, who had “been in numerous and increasingly responsible positions already, did not get the screening depth that she might otherwise have had.”

...

Since Mark Carney took office, she added in an e-mail, Canada’s security agencies “have been spread thin with budget cuts and many demands to screen new employees into sensitive positions in the PM’s and ministers’ offices as well as staff of newly created agencies.”

Canada recognizes foreign interference as a national security threat. But the people targeted by it often receive little practical support.

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When an authoritarian government reaches into Canada to silence a critic, the person it targets is often left to absorb the costs alone: a new phone after theirs is compromised, a locksmith after a break-in, a therapist.

These expenses may look small, but they fall on some of the most vulnerable residents of this country.

Transnational repression is commonly used to describe the targeting of individuals by foreign actors. It includes the harassment, surveillance and intimidation of specific people, rather than the targeting of institutions or elections. It refers to the ways authoritarian states reach across borders to stalk, threaten and sometimes assault the dissidents, journalists and diaspora members who have fled their own jurisdictions.

The targets live here. The governments pursuing them do not.

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In 2023, Human Rights Action Group interviewed 18 victims of transnational repression across seven Canadian cities. A consistent theme emerged: many had come to Canada as refugees or asylum seekers, arrived with limited means, and then faced surveillance and intimidation from the same regimes they had escaped.

Several said they could not afford professional help, such as therapy. One woman described replacing a cell phone — a routine expense for most Canadians — as a cost she struggled to shoulder.

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But the harm goes beyond money.

Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor at Carleton University, notes that one of the most successful intimidation tactics used by foreign governments is to make people feel isolated, which leaves them more vulnerable. And because the threats originate abroad, there is often little domestic enforcement that can be brought to bear.

Canada has systems to support victims of crime, but they were not designed for this specific problem. Most provinces and territories operate victim compensation funds, but their coverage varies widely.

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People targeted on Canadian soil by foreign states, often as a direct consequence of their political activity, have no reliable source of support for the practical harms they incur. Many also cannot prove a crime in the conventional sense, because the perpetrators are beyond the reach of Canadian courts.

The fix is affordable and specific.

Canada should create a dedicated federal fund for victims of transnational repression. Impacted communities themselves have called for one. In its concluding submissions to the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, the Human Rights Coalition said that a specialized fund should cover expenses such as “emergency housing, personal security, new phones or laptops, and physical and mental health treatment.”

That recommendation was made in 2024. It is time for Canada to act on it.

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Anita Anand, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that she will travel to Dublin, Ireland, to participate in the informal meeting of European Union foreign affairs ministers (Gymnich) in Wicklow, Ireland, from September 1 to 2, 2026. This will be the first time a Canadian minister of foreign affairs has participated in a Gymnich meeting.

The informal meeting will be co-hosted by Helen McEntee Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence, and Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission. It will provide an opportunity for ministers to exchange views on current geopolitical developments and shared priorities, including developments in the Middle East and support for Ukraine.

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Minister Anand’s participation will help advance implementation of the New Canada-EU Strategic Partnership of the Future and deepen cooperation with European partners on shared priorities, including economic security, trade diversification as well as defence and security. It will also help set the stage for the upcoming Canada-EU Leaders’ Summit on October 29 to 30, 2026, in Canada.

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The meeting will enable ministers to further discuss Russia’s full-scale unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. Minister Anand will underscore Canada’s steadfast support for Ukraine and engage with partners on shared efforts related to military assistance, energy security, reconstruction and accountability.

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The Canadian suspected of spying on the NATO military headquarters in Belgium is expected to remain in detention until her trial, which could be a year or more away.

Biwei Zhang, 33, will remain in custody after a Belgian judge on Monday denied the former NATO intern’s appeal for release.

"Today, the Chamber of Indictments decided to extend the suspect’s pretrial detention by one month," the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Zhang must appear before a judge at regular intervals — once a month for the first three months and every two months thereafter — to determine whether pretrial detention remains appropriate.

Because of the seriousness of the allegations and the risk that the suspect may abscond, it is "rather unlikely" that Zhang will be released before the trial, one Belgian legal expert told CBC News.

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The Canadian woman was arrested on July 24, a day after her home and workplace were searched, and was subsequently charged by Belgian authorities with "spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization."

Sources have told Reuters and other media that the suspected third country is China.

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Archived link

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When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western nations banned exports of vehicles valued above $50,000 to Russia and prompted every major automaker — Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, BMW, Audi, Porsche — to shutter Russian factories and end shipments. The vehicles that Russian elites and connected officials still wanted were suddenly illegal to obtain through any licit channel. Organized crime built a supply chain to fill that absence, and Canada — with one of the world's largest per-capita inventories of high-value SUVs and pickup trucks and a major container port handling enormous export volumes — found itself at the center of it.

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The criminal supply chain is neither chaotic nor improvised. According to Canadian intelligence reporting and Interpol analysis, vehicles are typically stolen to fulfill pre-existing orders — functioning less like opportunistic theft and more like a bespoke procurement operation. Thieves do not steal what is convenient; they steal what was requested.

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Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic have documented clear targeting patterns. The most commonly stolen vehicles in Canada include the Toyota RAV4, Toyota Tundra, Ford F-150, Dodge Ram, Lexus RX, Toyota Highlander, and Honda CR-V, according to Équité Association's annual most-stolen vehicles rankings.

For the Russia-bound segment of the pipeline specifically, high-end pickup trucks and Land Rover SUVs are particularly targeted, reflecting a preference for powerful, status-signaling Western vehicles that Chinese manufacturers have not yet replicated. That overlap — between what organized crime can profitably steal in Canada and what Russian buyers will pay a premium for abroad — is not accidental. It is the engine of the entire operation.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10991135

For all of the confusion about where the Ottawa-Washington meltdown will lead, one thing seems certain. The big winners of this diplomatic collapse will be China and other repressive dictatorships eager to become our new “strategic” partners and further undermine the world’s stabilizing democracy bloc.

Opinion piece by Charles Burton, former diplomat at Canada’s embassy in Beijing, senior fellow at Sinopsis.cz, a China-focused think tank based in Prague, Czech Republic. He is and author of 'The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security and Sovereignty'.

Archived link

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Beijing in particular wants to inherit Canada’s economic dependence. Establishing such a broader North American beachhead will only further President Xi Jinping’s resolute goal of displacing the U.S. as a global hegemon, and cementing a China-dominated world order whose very foundation is the rejection of democratic freedoms and human rights.

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If Canada ever reaches a point where attacks on our economy put families’ livelihoods at stake, then standing firm on our moral principles will give way to tolerating – or at least ignoring – human rights abuses in exchange for restoring Canadian prosperity through trade and investment with the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. As someone who has been sanctioned by both Beijing and Moscow for standing up for Canadian democratic and civil values in global affairs, this prospect is deeply troubling.

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When Mr. Xi makes a landmark trip to North America next month, it is expected he will add a Canadian stop, the first time in 16 years a Chinese head of state has visited this country. And this at a time when there have been calls for Ottawa to scrap restrictions on importing Chinese-made EVs, to locate Chinese auto factories here, and to even encourage Canadians to buy “Great Wall wine” instead of Californian.

In contrast to the belligerent threats that Canadians have been conditioned to expect from Washington, the Chinese President will project dignity and a tone of respect and goodwill toward Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Canadian business associates, who will be offering a warm welcome to the Chinese delegation.

But like Howitt’s “Spider and the Fly,” in which a cunning spider uses seduction and manipulation to lure a fly into its web, Canada should be wary of those who wield flattery and charm to disguise other intentions. Rushing to embrace China’s expansionist and calculating totalitarian regime will never work out well for Canada’s overall interest.

In the current hostile landscape, Canada could find itself deeply regretting coming out of an American frying pan into a Chinese fire.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10991135

For all of the confusion about where the Ottawa-Washington meltdown will lead, one thing seems certain. The big winners of this diplomatic collapse will be China and other repressive dictatorships eager to become our new “strategic” partners and further undermine the world’s stabilizing democracy bloc.

Opinion piece by Charles Burton, former diplomat at Canada’s embassy in Beijing, senior fellow at Sinopsis.cz, a China-focused think tank based in Prague, Czech Republic. He is and author of 'The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security and Sovereignty'.

Archived link

...

Beijing in particular wants to inherit Canada’s economic dependence. Establishing such a broader North American beachhead will only further President Xi Jinping’s resolute goal of displacing the U.S. as a global hegemon, and cementing a China-dominated world order whose very foundation is the rejection of democratic freedoms and human rights.

...

If Canada ever reaches a point where attacks on our economy put families’ livelihoods at stake, then standing firm on our moral principles will give way to tolerating – or at least ignoring – human rights abuses in exchange for restoring Canadian prosperity through trade and investment with the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. As someone who has been sanctioned by both Beijing and Moscow for standing up for Canadian democratic and civil values in global affairs, this prospect is deeply troubling.

...

When Mr. Xi makes a landmark trip to North America next month, it is expected he will add a Canadian stop, the first time in 16 years a Chinese head of state has visited this country. And this at a time when there have been calls for Ottawa to scrap restrictions on importing Chinese-made EVs, to locate Chinese auto factories here, and to even encourage Canadians to buy “Great Wall wine” instead of Californian.

In contrast to the belligerent threats that Canadians have been conditioned to expect from Washington, the Chinese President will project dignity and a tone of respect and goodwill toward Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Canadian business associates, who will be offering a warm welcome to the Chinese delegation.

But like Howitt’s “Spider and the Fly,” in which a cunning spider uses seduction and manipulation to lure a fly into its web, Canada should be wary of those who wield flattery and charm to disguise other intentions. Rushing to embrace China’s expansionist and calculating totalitarian regime will never work out well for Canada’s overall interest.

In the current hostile landscape, Canada could find itself deeply regretting coming out of an American frying pan into a Chinese fire.

...