cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7298204

Archived link

People said he was crazy to start a farm based in African foods. ‘It’s good to be crazy in a good way,’ Canadian Black Farmers Association founder Toyin Kayo-Ajayi says.

...

Toyin Kayo-Ajayi’s favourite meal is pounded yam, with cassava and egusi — protein-rich African melon seeds, roasted in oil with spices and blended into a paste (pumpkin seeds will do if that’s all you can find). You can add turkey, chicken, fish, shrimp, kpomo (cow-skin) — any meat you want, with some broth and African spinach or amaranth — to turn it into a stew.

Cassava and yam are central foods in his Nigerian culture and other Black cuisines across Africa, South America and India. He’s growing the tropical produce in greenhouses in Miracle Valley just outside Mission, B.C., about a 90-minute drive east from Vancouver.

Kayo-Ajayi was told again and again that farming in Canada would be out of reach — it would be too expensive, the climate too unforgiving for the tropical crops he dreamed of growing. It wouldn’t last.

But he says enthusiasm for his five-acre farm has only grown since he got started in 2020. For five months of the year, he can grow tropical produce in greenhouses. His soil, which he makes himself, consists of clean silt, sand and goat manure. It’s working so well, he says, he is now selling it online and trying to get it stocked in stores. He’s still experimenting at a small scale, but the food he grows, like cassava and yam, he mostly supplies to the African Foods Food Bank, an organization he launched to provide healthy food to Black families.

...

Donating to the food bank helps more people access African produce that may be out of reach in Canada. Imported cultural food, like cassava, can face extreme mark-ups by the time they get to the grocery store. On top of rising grocery prices and systemic income inequality, those mark-ups can put these foods out of reach. “If it’s somebody that is still low-income, now, he’s struggling to afford the cultural food,” Kayo-Ajayi explains.

...

Food growers are the roots of the entire agricultural sector, which generates $149.2 billion annually, or seven per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.

...

While Kayo-Ajayi’s priority is getting cultural foods into Black homes at reasonable prices, he says supporting food growers stands to benefit all Canadians as the United States imposes tariffs and threatens annexation.

...

“It’s something that is beneficial for our community and for Canada,” he says. “Everybody wins.”

...

Kayo-Ajayi says he invested a lot of money personally before he started getting funding. “You have to prove that you can do something before you can get support,” he says.

Since then, the Canadian Black Farmers Association has received funding from organizations like Agriculture Canada, the Vancouver Foundation and the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative. But he says he needs a lot more funding to get the farm going at a bigger scale and get to the point of selling soil.

“This is my passion,” Kayo-Ajayi says. “To me, somebody has to do it. It costs a lot, but guess what? The reason why you have a little is to be able to use the resources you have to make a difference in somebody’s life. To me, investing in another human being is my best investment, and I’m doing it this way.”

Archived link

People said he was crazy to start a farm based in African foods. ‘It’s good to be crazy in a good way,’ Canadian Black Farmers Association founder Toyin Kayo-Ajayi says.

...

Toyin Kayo-Ajayi’s favourite meal is pounded yam, with cassava and egusi — protein-rich African melon seeds, roasted in oil with spices and blended into a paste (pumpkin seeds will do if that’s all you can find). You can add turkey, chicken, fish, shrimp, kpomo (cow-skin) — any meat you want, with some broth and African spinach or amaranth — to turn it into a stew.

Cassava and yam are central foods in his Nigerian culture and other Black cuisines across Africa, South America and India. He’s growing the tropical produce in greenhouses in Miracle Valley just outside Mission, B.C., about a 90-minute drive east from Vancouver.

Kayo-Ajayi was told again and again that farming in Canada would be out of reach — it would be too expensive, the climate too unforgiving for the tropical crops he dreamed of growing. It wouldn’t last.

But he says enthusiasm for his five-acre farm has only grown since he got started in 2020. For five months of the year, he can grow tropical produce in greenhouses. His soil, which he makes himself, consists of clean silt, sand and goat manure. It’s working so well, he says, he is now selling it online and trying to get it stocked in stores. He’s still experimenting at a small scale, but the food he grows, like cassava and yam, he mostly supplies to the African Foods Food Bank, an organization he launched to provide healthy food to Black families.

...

Donating to the food bank helps more people access African produce that may be out of reach in Canada. Imported cultural food, like cassava, can face extreme mark-ups by the time they get to the grocery store. On top of rising grocery prices and systemic income inequality, those mark-ups can put these foods out of reach. “If it’s somebody that is still low-income, now, he’s struggling to afford the cultural food,” Kayo-Ajayi explains.

...

Food growers are the roots of the entire agricultural sector, which generates $149.2 billion annually, or seven per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.

...

While Kayo-Ajayi’s priority is getting cultural foods into Black homes at reasonable prices, he says supporting food growers stands to benefit all Canadians as the United States imposes tariffs and threatens annexation.

...

“It’s something that is beneficial for our community and for Canada,” he says. “Everybody wins.”

...

Kayo-Ajayi says he invested a lot of money personally before he started getting funding. “You have to prove that you can do something before you can get support,” he says.

Since then, the Canadian Black Farmers Association has received funding from organizations like Agriculture Canada, the Vancouver Foundation and the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative. But he says he needs a lot more funding to get the farm going at a bigger scale and get to the point of selling soil.

“This is my passion,” Kayo-Ajayi says. “To me, somebody has to do it. It costs a lot, but guess what? The reason why you have a little is to be able to use the resources you have to make a difference in somebody’s life. To me, investing in another human being is my best investment, and I’m doing it this way.”

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7297964

• Canada expands support for Ukraine's energy sector and security
• Russian strikes severely damage Ukraine’s power grid
• New partnership targets investment, non‑Russian energy supplies

Canada will step up support to Ukraine's energy sector, working with industry to supply oil and gas equipment on favourable terms and boost renewable energy investments, the two governments said on Wednesday.

Russia has targeted power stations, electricity transmission lines and gas facilities as part of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Russian strikes this week on Ukrainian power infrastructure killed three people and left tens of thousands without power and heat.

...

On Wednesday, Ukraine and Canada agreed on a strategic energy partnership at a meeting in Paris, where Canada's government said it would work with industry to transfer oil and gas sector equipment to Ukraine on concessional terms, and promote investments in Ukraine's energy security.

Canada will also alert domestic industries to opportunities to invest in Ukrainian renewable energy projects and reconstruction of hydropower plants, according to the published agreement.

"This is not simply reconstruction. It is modernization under pressure," Canadian energy minister Tim Hodgson told reporters.

...

The two sides will carry out risk assessments and exercises to counter hybrid threats to energy infrastructure, and strengthen commercial relations on nuclear fuel supply.

The deal, which includes sharing technical advice on developing infrastructure for non-Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, is not legally binding and planned investments would need to be followed up with companies.

...

• Canada expands support for Ukraine's energy sector and security
• Russian strikes severely damage Ukraine’s power grid
• New partnership targets investment, non‑Russian energy supplies

Canada will step up support to Ukraine's energy sector, working with industry to supply oil and gas equipment on favourable terms and boost renewable energy investments, the two governments said on Wednesday.

Russia has targeted power stations, electricity transmission lines and gas facilities as part of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Russian strikes this week on Ukrainian power infrastructure killed three people and left tens of thousands without power and heat.

...

On Wednesday, Ukraine and Canada agreed on a strategic energy partnership at a meeting in Paris, where Canada's government said it would work with industry to transfer oil and gas sector equipment to Ukraine on concessional terms, and promote investments in Ukraine's energy security.

Canada will also alert domestic industries to opportunities to invest in Ukrainian renewable energy projects and reconstruction of hydropower plants, according to the published agreement.

"This is not simply reconstruction. It is modernization under pressure," Canadian energy minister Tim Hodgson told reporters.

...

The two sides will carry out risk assessments and exercises to counter hybrid threats to energy infrastructure, and strengthen commercial relations on nuclear fuel supply.

The deal, which includes sharing technical advice on developing infrastructure for non-Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, is not legally binding and planned investments would need to be followed up with companies.

...

[This is an op-ed by Lihsin Liu, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, Taiwan’s de facto consul general in Vancouver, Canada.]

...

As Canada strengthens trade ties with China, it must also maintain firm guardrails to defend Indo-Pacific security and peace in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing’s growing military pressure, economic coercion, and alignment with Russia threaten global supply chains and stability, making a balance between engagement and deterrence essential for Canada’s interests.

...

China has allied with Russia on the frontline of Ukrainian war. China and Russia have grown more closely aligned through forums such as BRICS and expanded strategic cooperation, including China’s increased investment under its “Polar Silk Road” to support trade and access in the Arctic. They have also engaged in intensive grey-zone tactics toward Taiwan, including media infiltration, economic coercion, transnational repression, and the sabotage of undersea cables that are critical to communications across the Western Pacific Rim.

China is attempting to weaken Taiwan’s democracy and undermine the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. While over half of the global container traffic passes through this international waterway each year, the magnitude of any fallout should not be underestimated. Any conflict that arises from the Taiwan Strait will impact the world including Canada.

...

The issue of Taiwan is not an isolated bilateral talking point, but an overwhelming concern on international security for stakeholders in the region. Besides, China has weaponized trade with Canada in the past, and may very well do so again. If Canada undertakes future actions to safeguard Canadian citizens’ human rights from China’s transnational repression, address overcapacity and non-market behaviours originating in China, or defend the rules-based international order in ways that do not align with the PRC’s purported “core interests,” it should expect political and diplomatic pushback.

...

As Prime Minister Carney has entered into a new partnership with his PRC counterpart on trade and re-engagement, Taiwan hopes he could also have firm guardrails and express Canada’s support for a peaceful status quo in the Taiwan Strait after he returns home. Taiwan, like so many other stakeholders in the region, is ready to deepen its partnership with Canada to establish reliable, resilient, and predictable supply chains defined by strong protections on intellectual property and rigorous protocols on fair trade. From critical minerals to liquefied natural gas and carbon capture to artificial intelligence, we can advance the frontiers of innovation and open new pathways to prosperity.

...

Here is the original report: Transnational Repression in Canada (pdf)

Researchers behind a new report on transnational repression are warning Canada must not be “naïve” as it seeks better relations with China, which remains a top perpetrator in intimidating and harassing dissidents abroad.

The report by the Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS) called transnational repression “one of the most serious yet least understood threats to security and democracy in Canada,” and said China remains a leader in such efforts.

It cited several examples, including so-called “police stations” and online influence campaigns targeting Chinese Canadian diaspora communities. Families still living in China have been threatened, the report adds, and women have been targeted with sexual AI deepfakes.

...

They acknowledged India, with which Ottawa is also seeking to repair trade and diplomatic ties, as another example.

“We must not put ourselves in agreements that could put our citizens in danger,” said Kyle Matthews, executive director of MIGS.

“We have to keep our eyes open, and we can’t close our eyes to the authoritarian threat that China represents, and still is. As many of the countries around the world that deal with transnational repression will tell you, China is one of the biggest players, if not the biggest player.”

The report comes a month after Prime Minister Mark Carney travelled to China and struck agreements on trade, business and travel that he said would forge a “recalibrated” relationship after years of diplomatic strain.

...

On Sunday, China announced it was dropping its visa requirement for Canadian tourists and business visitors, a move that those behind the report said must be met with caution.

“We should not for a moment think that Canadian citizens travelling to China are not under threat of being monitored,” Matthews said.

...

Marie Lamensch, MIGS’ global affairs director and the report’s co-author, said it will be important for Canada to maintain its own visa requirement for Chinese travellers in order to ensure agents of the Chinese Communist Party aren’t coming to intimidate Canadians.

Co-author Phil Gurski, a former analyst for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said the agency’s security screening branch should play a role as well.

...

“If there are visitors coming from the People’s Republic of China, they should be vetted through CSIS, which has its own intelligence sources, has alliances with its counterparts around the world,” he said. “And if CSIS comes up against information that indicates somebody is not being truthful or forthcoming in their background or their intentions on coming to Canada, they should be denied entry.

...

Hundreds of delegates representing businesses and key sectors from across Canada are taking part in this country’s biggest trade mission to Mexico in decades this week, and it’s a trip those on the ground say is long overdue.

“We’re in a continent that we share. We have two trading agreements with Mexico, both the (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA) and the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). This is an opportunity to go well beyond where we have been,” said Business Council of Canada CEO Goldy Hyder from Mexico City. “It’s a long time coming.”

The “Team Canada” trade mission has two main objectives: strategizing ahead of this year’s mandatory review of CUSMA, as well as trying to forge new bilateral relationships.

...

Archive link

TL;DR:

• CSIS documented that Chinese-language media in Canada are systematically controlled and used for election interference targeting the Conservative Party.
• In January 2025, Paul Chiang threatened Conservative candidate Joe Tay at a Chinese-language media event.
• In January 2026, Prime Minister Carney signed an agreement facilitating Chinese journalist access to the very media apparatus CSIS documented as targeting Conservatives and that enabled the threats against Tay.

...

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January agreement to facilitate Chinese journalist access to Canada represents one of the most reckless national security decisions in recent Canadian history. The deal commits Canada to “provide mutual support and convenience for media to work in each other’s countries” through a formal agreement with China Media Group, the Communist Party’s state propaganda apparatus.

Canada is an open society. That is our strength—and, increasingly, our vulnerability.

In the current threat environment—where Canadian police have warned a federal candidate it was unsafe to campaign, where Chinese-language ecosystems have been tied to intimidation campaigns, and where Canadian intelligence reporting describes Chinese media as a central tool in Beijing’s election interference—the proposal is not merely naïve. By enlarging the very channels through which coercion, censorship, and Beijing’s vote-fixing schemes already operate, it may be recklessly dangerous.

...

As Prime Minister, Carney has access to classified intelligence including a June 2019 NSICOP report and a 2022 CSIS assessment that The Bureau has obtained. The Bureau has also reported on these documents during Justin Trudeau’s tenure, in reports that were not contested, and in some cases, filed as exhibits in the Hogue Inquiry into Chinese election interference.

The most dramatic illustration of the danger sits in recent parliamentary testimony and documented threats against Conservative candidate Joseph Tay. In December 2024, Hong Kong police issued a $184,000 bounty for Tay, a pro-democracy activist and Canadian citizen, under charges of “inciting secession” and “colluding with foreign forces.” What happened next should have stopped Carney’s China “reset” deal—particularly the state-level media agreements—dead in its tracks.

In January 2025, Liberal MP Paul Chiang stood before a Chinese-language media news conference and told attendees they could claim the bounty “if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese consulate.” Chiang also warned that Tay’s election to Parliament would cause “great controversy” for Canada. When confronted, Chiang claimed he was joking and issued a perfunctory apology.

In January 2025, Liberal MP Paul Chiang stood before a Chinese-language media news conference and told attendees they could claim the bounty “if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese consulate.” Chiang also warned that Tay’s election to Parliament would cause “great controversy” for Canada. When confronted, Chiang claimed he was joking and issued a perfunctory apology.

Tay rejected it, stating publicly: “Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada. They are not just aimed at me; they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community to force compliance with Beijing’s political goals. This situation has left me fearing for my safety.”

Carney’s response was to defend Chiang. The Prime Minister called the incident a “teachable moment,” praised Chiang’s “integrity,” and refused to remove him as the Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville. Only after the RCMP announced it was reviewing the matter—and international Hong Kong diaspora groups mounted a pressure campaign—did Chiang resign.

But Chiang’s comments at a Chinese-language media event were not an isolated incident.

...

Did Mark Carney prioritize trade deals over the safety of diaspora communities and the integrity of Canadian elections? Or is his judgment so catastrophically flawed that he cannot be trusted to protect Canadian sovereignty?

What is certain is that Carney signed an agreement facilitating access for Chinese “media” operatives that Canadian intelligence has explicitly documented as threats to Canadian democracy and Canadian lives.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7272872

The glaring fundamental barrier between Beijing and the West remains the incompatibility between the absolute authority of China’s Communist Party and the societal accountability of democratic institutions — including Canada’s.

Archived link

A purge of senior generals and deepening concern about China’s wobbling economy have had global Beijing-watchers sniffing for hints of regime fragility.

Skepticism about President Xi Jinping’s hold on power only intensified this month after China resorted to a 20-year prison sentence to silence 78-year-old democracy advocate Jimmy Lai.

Was that a message of deterrence or desperation?

The swirling dramas are noticed here in Canada.

Mark Carney’s description of our new rapport with China as a “strategic partnership” was already causing unease among Canada’s intelligence community and Canadians of Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese background.

They worry there is now an understanding that Ottawa will consciously ignore Beijing’s espionage and influence operations in Canada, its repression of Chinese expats, and its flouting of justice both in China and internationally.

...

This is on top of doubts about claims that Canada will expand the meagre four-per-cent of our commodity exports that go to China. Based on experience dating back to Jean Chretien, who despite his best efforts failed to grow our market share in China, it is unlikely that China represents economic inroads for Canada. Beijing will never allow imports to compete fairly against its own domestic goods, especially with China’s economy languishing under Xi Jinping’s anti-market statist policies.

...

Another factor is that any agreements signed by China’s political institutions — including the very ministries with whom Ottawa is negotiating MOUs — are routinely overruled by powerful officials in the military and security agencies. As Chairman Mao once put it, “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.

China’s People’s Liberation Army, Navy, and Air Force do not answer to the state or its constitution, but to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) masters. President Xi Jinping’s most powerful role is probably chairmanship of the Central Military Commission.

...

This is not simply a case of divergent opinions over human rights or the role of sovereignty in relations between nations. Before we even begin negotiating the details of diplomatic or trade agreements, seeing the Canada-China relationship as a “strategic partnership” first requires us to believe that we can have reciprocal, fair state-to-state relations.

And that requires buying into a myth, not reality.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7251912

Canada’s defence minister has signed an agreement at an international security forum to strengthen co-operation with Denmark on defence matters.

A news release from the Department of National Defence says David McGuinty, along with defence ministers for Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have signed a memorandum of understanding for Canada-Denmark defence cooperation.

The release says the MOU covers areas including defence innovation, industrial cooperation, mutual logistics support, as well as personnel, training, exercises and education.

...

Canada opened a consulate in Greenland’s capital Nuuk earlier this month, and while the consulate was planned before Trump’s return to the White House, it has since become a show of solidarity with Denmark.

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“Today, we send a clear message: the Arctic is secure, and we will keep it that way,” McGuinty said in the news release.

The release notes Canada shares a 3,000-kilometre maritime border with Denmark, as well as historic and cultural ties between its Inuit populations.

It says Denmark also joined Canada’s Maritime Security Partnership at the NATO summit in June.

Canada’s defence minister has signed an agreement at an international security forum to strengthen co-operation with Denmark on defence matters.

A news release from the Department of National Defence says David McGuinty, along with defence ministers for Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have signed a memorandum of understanding for Canada-Denmark defence cooperation.

The release says the MOU covers areas including defence innovation, industrial cooperation, mutual logistics support, as well as personnel, training, exercises and education.

...

Canada opened a consulate in Greenland’s capital Nuuk earlier this month, and while the consulate was planned before Trump’s return to the White House, it has since become a show of solidarity with Denmark.

...

“Today, we send a clear message: the Arctic is secure, and we will keep it that way,” McGuinty said in the news release.

The release notes Canada shares a 3,000-kilometre maritime border with Denmark, as well as historic and cultural ties between its Inuit populations.

It says Denmark also joined Canada’s Maritime Security Partnership at the NATO summit in June.

‘Buy Canadian’ strategy will raise military spending to 5 per cent of GDP and boost economy, new plan says.

Archived

Canada aims to create 125,000 jobs by increasing military spending to 5 per cent of GDP over the next decade and shifting away from US arms manufacturers, according to a new strategy paper.

The paper, which is to be published on Tuesday, will set out Ottawa’s plan to bring production onshore in the latest step in the country’s “Buy Canadian” campaign.

Ottawa’s biggest military push since the second world war will aim to award Canadian firms 70 per cent of the country’s defence spending, up from about 50 per cent, boosting revenues for local businesses by more than C$5.1bn (US$3,7bn) annually.

[...]

Canada and the US have long co-operated on the procurement of military goods and services. But the latest strategy states that Ottawa will be able to make “use of the national security exception to direct work to Canadian firms” instead.

Ottawa is already reviewing a 2023 contract to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from the US. It is also seeking to buy 12 submarines capable of operating in Arctic conditions with competing South Korean and German bids due to be submitted next month.

[...]

“Prioritising Canadian-owned and controlled firms and using procurement to deliberately scale them is needed,” says Eliot Pence, founder of Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics, which develops high-tech military equipment that works in inhospitable environments like the Arctic.

[...]