(02-21-2026, 01:07 PM)robkelk Wrote: His Orangeness falls asleep during the first "Board of Peace" meeting

Considering he dozed during a meeting he wanted to attend, one wonders how well he'll handle the State of the Onion speech on Monday.

(02-22-2026, 05:00 AM)Labster Wrote: @RK: Actually the State of the Onion was the annual speech given by Larry Wall at Perl conventions -- or it was until he gave up primary maintainership to other community members.

Quote:Prior to Bill C-3, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act (2025), citizenship by descent for those born abroad was limited to the first generation.

But now, Canadian citizenship is being retroactively granted to people born before the new law came into effect on Dec. 15, 2025, who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit.

...

The change in law came following a 2023 Supreme Court of Canada decision that found the first-generation limit was unconstitutional, making the certificate “the hottest ticket in 2026,” according to Cassandra Fultz, a regulated Canadian immigration consultant.

Quote:Officers searched 55,318 computers, cellphones and other devices in 2025, up 17.6 per cent from the 47,047 devices searched in 2024 and up 32.4 per cent from the 41,767 devices searched in 2023, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

...

While searches of devices for non-U.S. citizens has been gradually rising, the number of searches of devices belonging to American citizens has risen sharply — from 8,657 in 2023 to 13,590 in 2025.

Last year, the Canadian government updated its travel advisory for the United States to warn that U.S. customs officers have the power to search phones and laptops at the border. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra pushed back, saying searches of electronic devices were isolated events.

On the Canadian side of the border, the number of searches and the percentage of passengers whose electronic devices have been searched by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) while entering Canada is much lower and has been declining in recent years.

Quote:Although U.S. President Donald Trump's interest in taking over Greenland appears to have faded — at least publicly — Canada's Governor General says concern remains that the fight over the semi-autonomous territory isn't over yet.

"Even though the threat has kind of gone to the wayside … People are still very worried it could come back," Gov. Gen. Mary Simon said in an interview airing Sunday morning on Rosemary Barton Live.

"It creates a lot of anxiety. It creates a lot of turmoil," she added.

Simon, Canada’s first ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs and a former ambassador to Denmark, said she's told Greenlanders that Canada supports them and the Danes, who control the territory's foreign policy and defence.

Quote:Marc Abrahams, founder, emcee of the ceremony, and the magazine's editor, said: "During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country. We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year."

Quote:Wendy Gilmour, a former NATO assistant secretary general for defence investment, said many countries may be reluctant to join a U.S.-led coalition and become a belligerent in a conflict with Iran.

"The NATO allies in particular, are going to be incredibly cautious before coming in behind the United States, frankly," Gilmour told CBC News on Monday.

"The U.S. and Israel have launched a war of choice by attacking Iran. The aftermath of that does not seem to have been particularly well thought through."

Jim Townsend, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence for European and NATO policy, said that while it is in Europe's economic interests to keep traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, many countries are "stung" by how Trump has treated them.

"There's not a lot of good feelings [from European countries] towards the United States right now, particularly because they were not part of the process in the run up to this war," Townsend told CNN on Monday.

Quote:Trump appeared to realize — at least implicitly — that his call for help against Iran could be in vain by contradicting himself on the issue several times during his comments Monday at the White House.

Despite insisting that countries need to get involved, he also said: "We don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them."