Ottawa Financial News

Tamara Lich was led away from supporters in handcuffs on the snowy streets of Ottawa in 2022, she threw a single phrase over her shoulder.“Hold the line,” said the petite figurehead of the “Freedom Convoy” movement as the officers at each of her elbows walked her to the waiting cruiser.She was echoing the words shouted by of one of her supporters in a scene that was captured on video and circulated online the eve before hundreds of police moved in.Officers spent the next two days dislodging protesters from the streets around Parliament Hill.But that parting phrase, which would go on to become the title of Lich’s recently published book, is likely to be at the heart of her criminal trial.Lich and fellow convoy organizer Chris Barber are scheduled to stand trial in Ottawa starting Tuesday for their role in the three-week protest that overtook the streets around downtown and sparked a national emergency declaration.In the final days of the demonstration, as police began to order people to leave, organizers and supporters used “hold the line” as a rallying cry, as words of encouragement and as a salutation.Lich and Barber stand co-accused of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.Several of the charges hinge on whether Lich and Barber encouraged protesters to defy police orders by remaining in Ottawa after authorities ordered everyone to clear the streets and, if they did, whether that was a criminal act.“We do not expect this to be the trial of the ‘Freedom Convoy,”’ Lich and Barber’s lawyers said in a joint statement Friday.“The central issue will be whether the actions of two of the organizers of a peaceful protest should warrant criminal sanction.”Lich told a federal inquiry

A top White House official has proposed expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network as Donald Trump increases pressure on the country he talks about turning into the 51st U.S. state.

OTTAWA — While U.S. President Donald Trump‘s threat to impose tariffs on Canada is alarming enough, other measures he announced Monday after his inauguration could have their own implications for Canada.

Justin Trudeau said Saturday he had an «excellent conversation» with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after the president-elect's threat to impose significant tariffs on two of America's leading trade partners raised alarms in Ottawa and Mexico City. It was unclear, as Trudeau headed back to Canada from Florida, whether the conversation had alleviated Trump's concerns. A person familiar with the details of the leaders' hastily arranged meeting Friday night said it was a «positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.» The official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defence, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Mideast and pipelines, as well as the the Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Canada next year. The Republican president-elect has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don't stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January.

Canada is on a “clear path” to hit NATO’s defence spending target over the coming years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, as pressure ramps up on Ottawa in the wake of the U.S. election.

The Canadian foreign ministry last month alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in Modi's government, was behind a campaign of intimidation in Canada. Ottawa says it has evidence linking Indian government agents to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. This week, the Globe and Mail newspaper said Canadian security agencies believed Modi knew about the violent plots and said Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval were also in the loop.

Indo-Canadians and Ottawa, this time involving not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but the Leader of the Opposition, Pierre Poilievre. The office of Canada’s opposition leader has cancelled a Diwali celebration event scheduled to take place at Parliament Hill amid the ongoing diplomatic standoff with India without 'giving any explanation whatsoever', as claimed by the Overseas Friends of India Canada (OFIC). This comes following an going standoff between Ottawa and New Delhi. Canada in mid-October expelled Indian diplomats, linking them to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, post which India also ordered the expulsion of Canadian diplomats.

US indictment linking a former Indian agent to a foiled bid to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun paints a «compelling and detailed portrait» of «a single plot» emanating from Delhi to kill multiple targets across North America, especially in Canada and the US, Canada's most recent envoy to India Cameron MacKay has alleged. In an interview to CBC News, MacKay, who left India in August, said both Canada and the US are probing the matter, adding it was «a fiasco on the part of the Indian government» to think that it could carry out crimes in Canada and the US and get away with it. New Delhi expelled Canadian Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and five other diplomats following Ottawa's fresh allegations of the Indian government's involvement in the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil last year. The Canadian diplomats left New Delhi on Friday evening. India also recalled its High Commissioner and five more diplomats and they are also on their way back to India. The Canadian government had said the Indian diplomats were expelled from the country.

The federal government says it has reached a deal with Canadian National Railway Company to acquire the historic Quebec Bridge, following decades of political wrangling over what to do with the century-old span.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Vancouver, as per an AFP report. Amandeep Singh, aged 22, who was already under detention for unrelated gun charges, now faces charges of "first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder" in Nijjar's alleged "assassination", it added. This follows the recent arrests of three other Indian nationals in connection with the same case.

Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma has described the relationship between the two countries as having «decade-old issues» that have resurfaced, with unfortunate crimes, and threats emanating from the land of Canada. Speaking at an event in Montreal on Tuesday, the Indian envoy said that «Indians will decide what will happen to India» and not the foreigners. «A lot of discussions at the government level, both sides, is happening and through the diplomatic channels. These channels are not open to the public and they are trying to find solutions and resolutions to the issues of concern on both sides. And the way in which it is moving, I think it will come to both sides to see the virtue of resolving the issues, satisfying the concerns of both sides. My concern is national security, and threats emanating from the land of Canada, these threats are largely emanating from the Canadian citizens...we are ready to sit down on the table any day, and we are doing that. And, we are trying to resolve this issue,» Verma told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

Japanese automaker Honda is putting $15 billion into their Ontario operations with a new electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont. with a joint $5 billion coming from the federal and Ontario governments.

A billionaire trying to get off Canada’s Russia sanctions list denounced Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine war in a private statement to the government but it didn’t work, Global News has learned.

Mark Holland, delivered a powerful message on Wednesday to tobacco companies attempting to market nicotine pouches to children: “Stay the hell away from our kids.”Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Holland argued that flavoured nicotine pouches are attracting young Canadians into a dangerous addiction and emphasized the need for stringent regulations to protect the youth from the harmful effects of tobacco products.“I am seeking authority to restrict products so they are solely for the purposes of cessation,” he said. “We shouldn’t see flavours that are targeting kids, flavours like ‘Winter Berry Splash.’ We all see through it, we all what the intention is, and it’s over.“Whatever dark corner the tobacco industry crawls and creeps into to go after our children, whatever loophole they think they can find, they will meet me like an iron wall.”Nicotine pouches, positioned between the upper lip and gum, resemble Swedish-style snus but lack the tobacco leaf.

the scene of the city’s worst mass killing in recent memory says he did not know the accused killer lived there.Ottawa police allege 19-year-old Sri Lankan national Febrio De-Zoysa murdered a mother, and her four children along with a family acquaintance. The youngest victim was just a few months old.

The Federal Court has ruled the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that descended on Ottawa in 2022 violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

India-Canada Row: India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma has said that Delhi could assist in investigating the links to gangs operating in Canada, and conducting extortion targeting Indo-Canadians. However, the envoy set a ride – “if there is a formal request from Ottawa along with evidence".

NIA) scaled up its crackdown against terror networks this year, conducting over 1000 raids after registering 68 cases and arresting 625 accused across the country, an official said on Sunday. The anti-terror federal agency also achieved a stupendous 94.70 per cent conviction rate with 74 accused sentenced in various cases, the official said.

A digital real estate company has been analyzing the data across a good portion of the province and says prices and sales have dropped, with some underbidding now taking place in many areas.

Canada’s national police force has arrested a youth in Ottawa in relation to an alleged terrorism threat against the Jewish community, Global News has learned.

European Union’s $100-billion scientific research program, called Horizon Europe.Trudeau offered little detail about Canada’s participation in the pact this evening as he welcomed the top two heads of the EU to Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city of St. John’s for the 19th EU-Canada Summit.Trudeau also said during his opening speech that Canada has worked out a deal to build water bombers and ship them to the EU, after both regions faced devastating forest fires this past summer.European Council President Charles Michel says the two-day summit comes at a difficult geopolitical time, as war continues in Ukraine and Israel and Hamas fight in the Gaza Strip.He says the unrest underscores a need for Canada and the EU, two long-standing allies, to work together on issues from peace and security to fighting climate change.Trudeau is expected to hold formal meetings on Friday with Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.Ottawa and Brussels started negotiations a year ago on Canada joining the Horizon Europe scheme, with the initial goal of signing an agreement this past spring that would be in place this calendar year.The program has seen countries such as New Zealand and Israel sign up for research projects partially funded by the EU, involving themes like the digital industry, health care and climate innovation.Entrepreneurs from the St.

A line of people stretched outside the Multi-Educational Centre at Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, once known as the Spanish River Indian Reserve, on the north shore of Lake Huron between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., on June 29.