DEPORTATION FROM CANADA

Transgender Irish teen given chance to argue risks of his deportation after family speaks out

Story by Yvette Brend • 


A transgender teen from Ireland who had been facing removal from Canada due to an immigration error made by his family has won a short stay in his case — he can apply for a risk assessment to explain the family's concerns he could face discrimination, bullying or violence in his home country.

Adam Tyrrell Haslam's small victory comes after the 19-year-old's family began a legal fight in September to try to stop Canada from deporting the young man.

Adam had been facing removal after the Irish family, while seeking assistance at the border with their passports, permanent residency paperwork and visas that had expired by one day, made a wrong turn and crossed into the U.S. — a mishap that led to orders that they leave Canada.

For the past 21 months, they've been trapped in immigration limbo, unable to work or go to school. But the other four family members had been given the opportunity to fill out a pre-removal risk assessment, a document that allows them to make a case to stay in the country.

It wasn't until Friday, a day after the family spoke to CBC, that Adam's parents received an email from the manager of intelligence and enforcement operations division for Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) pacific division.

In it, was an invitation to fill out an attached pre-removal risk assessment. It also explained that anyone ordered to leave Canada at a point of entry or border did not need to be notified they are eligible for a risk assessment — an issue that had caused confusion for the family as to why only four of them were given the opportunity initially.


Haslam hugs his son. Adam was recently invited send in a pre-removal risk assessment application, which will offer him a temporary stay of deportation as it's reviewed.© Padraig Mac Roibeaird

That said, John Haslam says he's relieved his son can now make a case to stay for his safety, but he's not sure how long it will take before the application is processed and a decision about the entire family's future is made.

"I felt excited but worried at the same time," Haslam told CBC in a phone interview on Tuesday night.

"They're offering us an opportunity. It's still not a guarantee. I mean, there's still the chance they will remove us from the country. And it's quite scary."

Padraig Mac Roibeaird, who acted as a legal agent for the family, says they will now drop their civil case.

"We got what we were asking for. I was surprised at the speed at which it came through," said Mac Roibeaird. For that speed he credits CBC's story last week.

But he also believes this stops details from emerging.

"Something bad happened at the border, and they did not want to have to go through the discovery process," he said.

Zool Suleman, an immigration lawyer who did not represent the family but did review the case for CBC, says Adam will likely not face removal until the process is over, which could take weeks or months.

"[Immediate removal] now is unlikely, partly because of the work [CBC] has been doing. The moment somebody like you reports, then people get very sensitive about the process," Suleman said. "Attention on this in the media is going to make them absolutely careful on how they deal with it."

'5 steps backward'

Adam says he's eager to fill out the risk review application, hoping it will make it possible for him to return to building a life here.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to stay [for now]. But as my dad said, it's not really a guarantee that we're going to stay here," Adam said in a phone interview from Vernon, B.C.

If after a hearing, Adam is ordered to leave Canada, he says he'll feel lost.

"I really don't know what I'd do," he said. "I have pretty much everything planned for this to go right and if it doesn't, it's just like five steps backwards."

The family filed a civil lawsuit against the Attorney General of Canada last September arguing that Adam faced discrimination, bullying and stigma back in Ireland — and they've been trying to become permanent residents of Canada since 2013. They are looking to make a life in Canada for economic and safety reasons, saying it's a better environment for Adam, their eldest son, who transitioned as a teen.

In recent years, hate crime targeting the LGBT community has been on the rise in Ireland, so much so that in October Ireland's Minister for Justice Helen McEntee introduced new legislation that criminalizes the incitement of acts of hate against transgender people and others.


Ireland's Minister of Justice Helen McEntee, shown here speaking in Dublin in 2019 when she was minister for European affairs.© Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Although Adam will be able to outline the risks to him in returning to Ireland, Suleman says these risk assessment hearings are a long shot.

Criteria are strict and the success rate of such a hearing is low; between five and seven per cent of claims are approved, he says.

"A risk assessment is not a refugee claim," Suleman said. "They need to be more specific."



Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser makes an announcement in Ottawa in October. Immigration lawyer Suleman suggested that ministerial intervention is the family's best chance at being able to stay in Canada now.© Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

A pre-removal risk assessment gives those facing a deportation or other removal order the chance to outline the risk they would face if they were returned to their home country. If the application is approved, then they may stay in Canada. Applications are assessed based on whether the applicant could face a danger, torture, a risk of death or cruel and unusual punishment, according to the federal criteria.

Applicants can also argue to stay if there is a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or being part of a particular social group.

But upon rejection, removal is swift and restarting a permanent residency application is very difficult, Suleman said.

"Their ability to restart the irregular immigration process is exceedingly low. Once you're on the enforcement track, there's a very high chance that they will be asked to leave Canada," he said.

Requests for interviews from CBSA and Immigration Canada were declined, despite the family signing consent agreements to deal with privacy concerns.

CBSA said in an email that the decision to remove people from Canada is "not taken lightly," adding that the pre-removal risk assessment applications act as a stay of removal until Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada makes a final decision.

The family, who are restricted from working or studying, have been living in a hotel for 15 months with help from charities as they are barred from working or going to school in Canada. Haslam said Adam and his two younger brothers spend their days at the library or tobogganing behind the hotel.

Adam says he's looking forward to the holidays, watching the movie Elf with his family and he hopes Christmas dinner will be chicken.

"We've got a little tree and just waiting for Christmas — it's all we can do," his father said.

Swedish self-driving truck start-up Einride raises more cash

Story by By Marie Mannes • 

Handout photo shows Einride's electric self-driving truck Einride Pod© Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - Swedish electric self-driving truck start-up Einride said on Wednesday it had agreed to raise capital of $500 million from debt, equity and the conversion of earlier loans, speeding up the company's ability to pursue new markets and customers.

A $300 million debt facility was signed with Barclays Europe, while $200 million in equity came from new and existing investors, including EQT and Northzone, Einride said in a statement.

Some $90 million of the equity came in the form of earlier debts being converted to shares. Einride declined to say how much the company was valued at following the latest share issue.

Some fast-growing tech companies have struggled to raise funds this year while others, such as Swedish payments firm Klarna Bank, have attracted investors by giving deep discounts compared to earlier valuations.

"The time is now to act on not only developing but accelerating the implementation of technology that will create a cleaner, safer and more efficient way to move goods," said Einride's founder and Chief Executive Robert Falck.

The company's business is based on self-driving technology for freight trucks, which has attracted investor attention in recent years as it is deemed to be cheaper as well as easier to roll out compared to self-driving cars.

Self-driving freight services require less mapping than other technology as they run on fixed routes between predefined points, mostly on major highways without intersections or pedestrians.

(Reporting by Marie Mannes, editing by Terje Solsvik and Louise Heavens)

Marie-Philip Poulin named Canadian athlete of the year

Story by Arun Srinivasan • 


Marie-Philip Poulin has been named the winner of the 2022 Northern Star Award, granted to the best Canadian athlete during the calendar year, as voted by a cohort of sports writers and broadcasters across the country.


Marie-Philip Poulin led Canada to a dominant year in women's hockey, claiming gold medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics and the women's world hockey championship. (Getty Images)

In the interest of transparency, we did not have an official ballot, but we selected Poulin as our winner, over Brooke Henderson and Cale Makar in a contested race. You can read Yahoo Sports Canada’s rationale here.

It’s the first time the award — formerly known as the Lou Marsh Award — was granted to a women’s hockey player. Poulin submitted another tour-de-force season, leading Canada to the gold medal at the 2022 Olympics, where she finished second in tournament scoring behind teammate Sarah Nurse with six goals and 17 points in seven games, while notching two goals in the gold medal game against the United States. Poulin became the first player — both men or women — to have scored in four consecutive Olympic finals.

Poulin wasn’t finished there. She captained Canada to another gold medal at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championships, where she recorded 10 points. During a time where women’s hockey has nearly unparalleled depth, she stands above them all as the best player in the sport. Poulin frankly should’ve won this award before and she now sits among Angela James, Hayley Wickenheiser, Cammi Granato and Geraldine Heaney as the best women’s players of all-time.

Other finalists included Henderson, Makar, cross-country skier Brian McKeever, swimmer Summer McIntosh and tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Poulin first female hockey player to win Canada's athlete of the year honour

TORONTO — Marie-Philip Poulin was surprised to hear she was the first female hockey player to win the Northern Star Award, but she expects to have some company soon.


Poulin first female hockey player to win Canada's athlete of the year honour© Provided by The Canadian Press

Poulin, the captain of Canada's women's team who led her team to Olympic and world championship gold in 2022, was named this year's recipient of the award given annually to Canada's athlete of the year.

"Honestly, I didn't think I was the first one," the 31-year-old from Beauceville, Que., said in a video conference on Wednesday when asked about being the first female hockey player honoured with the award.

"It's a real honour because the ladies have been there before us, before me, I've watched them on TV. They're my idols and my role models."

"Obviously I'm not going to be the only one," she added.

Poulin was instrumental in Canada's gold medal in Beijing. She scored twice in a 3-2 win over the U.S. in the championship game and finished the tournament second in scoring with 17 points, one behind teammate Sarah Nurse.

She had 10 points in seven games at the world championship in Denmark, including an assist on Brianne Jenner's opening goal in a 2-1 win over the U.S. in the gold-medal game.

Poulin's award comes a little over a week after she played in a Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association Dream Gap Tour event in Pittsburgh. She had a hat trick to lead Team Harvey's to a 5-2 win over Team Scotiabank on Nov. 27.

The PWHPA formed after the collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in 2019. Its members are working to build a sustainable women's professional league.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel and we truly believe that next year something is going to be in place," she said.

Poulin said the women's game is growing past something that only gets attention during an Olympic year.

"I think the more that little girls and boys come to see us, and having Sarah Nurse on the cover of NHL 23 (video game), the more you see that I think it creates so much more and you can see people are talking about it as a year-to-year thing."

Poulin is the 10th hockey player overall to win the award. Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was the last to win in 2015.

Media members from across Canada voted Wednesday on the annual Toronto Star award. Other contenders included tennis player Felix Auger-Aliassime, golfer Brooke Henderson, swimmer Summer McIntosh, speedskater Isabelle Weidemann, soccer player Alphonso Davies, Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar and B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke.

The Northern Star Award has been handed out annually since 1936.

Until this year it was named the Lou Marsh Award after a former football player and NHL referee who spent more than 40 years working in the Toronto Star's sports department.

The award was recently renamed after concerns surfaced in recent years over some of the racist language used in Marsh's writing.

Poulin is also a nominee for the The Canadian Press female athlete of the year award, which will be announced on Dec. 28.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2022.

'Why won't you search for us': Family of slain woman in Winnipeg take call to AFN


OTTAWA — Calls from the daughters of a slain Indigenous woman to bring her remains home from a landfill that police in Winnipeg won't search turned into a rallying cry Wednesday to end the violence against their women and girls.


Police call not to search for women's remains "a breach of human dignity," AFN hears© Provided by The Canadian Press

Cambria Harris, speaking before an Assembly of First Nations gathering in Ottawa, says her mother, Morgan, was a "bright and loving soul" who had her life stolen by a "monster."

The 39-year-old mother and grandmother is one of four victims police believe were killed by 35-year-old Jeremy Skibicki, now facing first-degree murder charges.

Despite police saying they believe Harris's remains and those of Marcedes Myran to be in a landfill outside the city, it says too much time has passed and garbage dumped at the site to make a search "feasible."

Their response is "vile," Harris said, who the day before spoke on Parliament Hill. Her sister, Kera Harris, added Wednesday if police won't search the landfill, then it should close.

"They deserve to have a final resting place that isn't a landfill. Why won't you search for us?" Cambria Harris said.

Harris told chiefs she was the same age as Tina Fontaine was when she disappeared in Winnipeg back in 2014.

Fontaine's death ignited calls for the federal government to launch an inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, following the discovery that her small body, wrapped in a duvet and weighed down by rocks, had been dumped into a river.

"I protested when she was found because it hurt me personally as a young Indigenous girl," Harris said.

"Why does this keep happening and why do we allow it happen?"

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau granted the request for an inquiry when he took office in 2015. By 2019, it concluded that the years of violence against Indigenous women and girls amounted to a genocide — a term Trudeau at first didn't use but has since adopted.

His government's action plan and spending on initiatives to try to better protect Indigenous women has been criticized as falling short of the actions outlined in the report's 231 calls to justice.

Related video: Slain woman's daughters demand Winnipeg police search landfill for remains (cbc.ca)
Duration 3:19
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The killing of four more Indigenous women and police decision not to search a landfill for their remains shone a fresh light on the issue of violence against Indigenous women at the chiefs' assembly and prompted widespread criticism of the service itself.

"We would ask every Canadian to consider how they would feel if it was their mother or daughter or sister or best friend whose body was lying at the bottom of a landfill. Would they not demand that she be found?" said Carol McBride, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, in a written statement Wednesday.

"We can’t help but wonder if the Winnipeg police would have continued to look for Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran if they had been white."

McBride added that if police in Winnipeg don't have the capacity to do this work, they should look to another investigative body.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said the decision not to search sends a "dark message."

"Human beings deserve the effort, no matter how dismal or difficult the task may seem. It is unnerving that the (Winnipeg Police Service) is creating unmarked graves in these landfill sites," Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said in a statement Wednesday.

Kimberly Murray, whom the government appointed to serve as a special interlocutor to help First Nations investigate unmarked graves, told the assembly on Tuesday the decision by police "is a breach of human dignity."

"Those families have a right to know," said Murray, a former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

"International convention says they have a right to know."

During question period Tuesday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told members of Parliament it is "very puzzling to hear the news that this landfill will not be searched," saying he hoped to get clear answers from the city.

"Clearly the federal government needs to play a role in an area where jurisdiction is a poisonous word and continues to kill Indigenous women and children in this country."

Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth also said he hadn't spoken to anyone in the federal government about the matter.

The force's head of forensics spoke to the media Tuesday to provide more details about the decision not to carry out a search.

Insp. Cam MacKid said police determined it wouldn't be feasible given how much time has passed and how much has been dumped at the site, which is regularly compacted using heavy equipment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2022.

— With files from Brittany Hobson and Steve Lambert in Winnipeg

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

From urinal mats to unicorns, cargo from 2021 spill still washes up on B.C. shores

When Jill Laviolette started picking debris off Cape Palmerston beach on Vancouver Island following the container spill from the MV Zim Kingston freighter, the inflatable dinosaur and unicorn toys she pulled from the sand looked nearly pristine.


More than a year later, consumer goods from some of the ship's 109 lost containers still wash up on British Columbia shores, the inflatable toys now torn to pieces by the elements to be picked up alongside vacuum cleaner parts, bike helmets, coolers and urinal mats.

"Gray urinal mats, they haunt our dreams. We found thousands of them on our initial cleanup and we're like, 'we hope we never see these again'," Laviolette said.

"We're still finding them. They're gonna be the bane of our existence for many, many years to come."

Even as the debris continues to wash ashore, people involved in the massive cleanup fear a repeat of the disaster, with Canada ill-prepared to deal with such large-scale cargo spills. They hope a recent parliamentary committee report into the incident will spur change, but solutions aren't yet in place.

The Greek-owned ship was hit by high seas on Oct. 21 last year, sending dozens of containers packed with cargo from Asia tumbling overboard into Juan de Fuca Strait off the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

It became a multi-faceted environmental disaster when a toxic fire erupted on the ship, taking several days to extinguish.

Laviolette, co-founder of the environmental group Epic Exeo, was among the early volunteers to hit the beaches as an array of flotsam began to wash up.

She said the magnitude of what she saw in the early days of the cleanup "shook me to my core."

"It was horrific. Just seeing fridges on the beach, and Styrofoam broken apart absolutely everywhere, and plastic everywhere," she said.

Only four of the containers that went overboard have been recovered.

A recent House of Commons standing committee report on the incident warns of ongoing risks.

"The federal government, provinces, and coastal communities are currently not operationally prepared to effectively manage marine cargo container spills," the report published in October concludes.

It made 29 recommendations for improvements.

Alys Hoyland, with the Surfrider Foundation’s Pacific Rim chapter in Tofino, said similar spills, including the loss of 35 containers from the Hanjin Seattle freighter in 2016, led to no significant policy changes.

"(After the Kingston spill), we were pretty much in exactly the same position as we had been in after the Hanjin spill," she said.

"There's no formalized mechanism for responding to that in a timely and efficient way and because of that, the spill was worse than it potentially could have been if we did have these mechanisms in place to respond rapidly and efficiently."

The standing committee report includes recommendations related to tracking and monitoring of containers, planning for spills and for Canada to push for similar improvements internationally.

Hoyland said the political response to the Zim Kingston spill has been better than for previous spills, with the federal government now listening to those who were involved, while it considers policy changes.

"Obviously, the next step is ensuring that those recommendations are actually implemented," she said.


Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray did not respond to requests for an interview.

In a statement, her ministry said it was working with Transport Canada and other partners to prepare a response to the committee's report.

Clean up from container spills can go on for decades. Millions of Lego pieces lost off the United Kingdom in 1997 are still being found on shore.

The standing committee recommends Canada implement a formal marine debris monitoring and management plan "that adequately addresses all forms of marine debris impacting coastlines."

Hoyland, who spoke at the committee's hearings,said in addition to working to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the water overall, Canada needs better knowledge about how factors like coastlines, weather and currents create catchment areas for debris.

"Understanding the problem in order to address it upstream is fundamentally what we need here," she said.

She also advocated for increasing training and resources in coastal communities, including for First Nations, to respond quickly to container spills.

"What we were seeing was a lot of stuff hit the beach but then it stayed there for a week (or) 10 days before anybody was asked to clean it up. Which meant that at every high tide, these items were being pulled back out into the ocean, where they were recirculating and drifting over a broader geographic area," she said.

The committee also recommends that Canada establish and fund a joint spill response task force including federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governing bodies.

It would recruit, train and equip teams to respond to spills, create specific geographic plans and "develop the human and social capital infrastructure required to respond to cargo container spills in a timely manner."

Hoyland said there also needs to be more transparency when a spill takes place. Shipping companies, including Zim Kingston's owners, are not required to publicly release complete details of what they were carrying when there is a spill.

Though some details are given to various enforcement agencies, Hoyland said having a public list of exactly what's on board would make it easier to demonstrate the extent of the pollution and prove where debris came from.

The committee recommended Canada work with the International Maritime Organization to require ships’ manifests to more accurately identify cargo and require the details to be made available to port authorities and any joint spill response task force.

The Chamber of Shipping, which represents the interests of international ship owners and Canadian exporters and importers, told the committee that it was planning to launch a pilot project with Transport Canada and five B.C. Coastal First Nations aimed at sharing manifest information in a timely manner.

Under Canadian law, it is the responsibility of a ship's owner to cover the cost of cleanup, but the same law puts either a three- or a six-year statutory limit in place depending on whether the contents are considered hazardous.

The committee called that limit "insufficient given the potential long-term environmental impact affecting communities."

It recommends the federal government examine alternative polluter-pays or industry-pays models that would ensure enough money is available to deal with damage caused by spills.

The committee heard proposals including that Canada establish a levy per container shipped through Canadian ports so there would be money available to communities affected by spills.

Industry representatives pushed back against that idea, suggesting additional fees would be detrimental to Canada’s competitiveness and undermine current international conventions.

The Ministry of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed in a statement that the Zim Kingston's owner contracted a sonar scan survey covering approximately one square kilometre of the ocean floor near where the spill happened to try to find some of the missing containers.

None were found.

"The Canadian Coast Guard continues to ensure the ship's owner is fulfilling its responsibilities, which may include additional requirements to conduct expanded underwater surveys," the statement says.

When the Zim Kingston spill happened, much of the early public attention was focused on two missing containers that carried the hazardous chemicals potassium amyl xanthate and thiourea dioxide. Those containers have not been located.

Both Hoyland and Laviolette say the amount of plastic that went into the water can be hazardous in its own way, polluting the environment and the food chain or injuring animals before eventually making landfall.

"We see more animals that are suffering because their stomachs are full of plastic," Laviolette said.

"We have to change our mentality, we have to change our thinking … The ocean is not an infinite resource. It is dying because of our choices."

Laviolette said the report's recommendations include items that advocates have been seeking for years. She said she's hopefully they'll lead to change but worries they could still be ignored.

"We now know the findings, it's now time for action. The longer that we sit, the more sick that our oceans are going to get," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2022

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

Liberals aim to secure long-term role for feds in national child-care system


OTTAWA — Families Minister Karina Gould introduced legislation Thursday in an attempt to secure a long-term role for Ottawa in the new national daycare system.


Liberals aim to secure long-term role for feds in national child-care system© Provided by The Canadian Press

The proposed legislation, known as Bill C-35, sets out the federal government's commitment to long-term funding for provinces and Indigenous Peoples, as well as the principles that will guide those funds. It does not make any specific financial promises.

The Liberal government brought in a national child-care plan that would cut daycare fees by an average of 50 per cent by the end of this year — and down to an average of $10 per day by 2026.

The 2021 federal budget pledged $30 billion in new spending on the national child-care system over five years, with another $9.2 billion annually coming after that.

Enshrining the role of the federal government in the national child-care system could be one way to make it harder to dismantle should another party win the next election.

Related video: Mothers praise Indigenous program reducing the number of kids in care (cbc.ca)
Duration 2:02
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The Liberal government of former prime minister Paul Martin signed child-care deals with the provinces with the goal of creating a national daycare system in 2005, but Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cancelled the agreements after he came to power the next year.

Federal officials, who briefed the media on Thursday on the condition they not be named, said if future governments wish to renege on the long-term commitments proposed in the bill, they would have to take the step of repealing or amending the legislation.

The officials said the bill was drafted to respect provincial and territorial jurisdiction and Indigenous rights. They said it also does not impose conditions on other levels of government, which was the top concern of other of those governments during the consultation process.

Any provisions to hold provinces accountable would be part of the individual bilateral agreements signed with each province and territory, which will need to be renegotiated every five years.

The Liberals had promised to introduce the legislation by the end of this year in the confidence-and-supply agreement that would see the New Democrats support the minority government on key votes in the House of Commons to avoid triggering an election before 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

Tens of thousands of families have applied for federal child dental benefit: Gould

OTTAWA — Social Development Minister Karina Gould says 35,000 people have applied for the new child dental benefit since the program opened a week ago.

Tens of thousands of families have applied for federal child dental benefit: Gould© Provided by The Canadian Press

Gould was responding to an opposition question in the House of Commons about Canadians who are struggling with the rising cost of living.

The new benefit is aimed at children under the age of 12 from low- and middle-income families who do not have private insurance.

Related video: Canada Dental Care Benefit launches (CityNews)
Duration 1:48 View on Watch

Children's dental benefit now available for parents

Eligible families can get up to $650 per child per year to help with the cost of dental care.

It's a cornerstone of the supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the New Democrats, which will see the NDP support the minority government on key votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities.

The government expects to receive about 500,000 applications for the nearly billion-dollar benefit program.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

'It'll wipe out every dollar in the world' - new crash fears as $80trillion 'goes missing'

Story by Harvey Jones • Yesterday

 
This warning does not come from some headline-grabbing doomsayer but arguably the most respectable financial body of all, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). This is a body of central bankers based in Basle, Switzerland.


Financial-crisis© Getty

BIS is know as "the central banker's banker", an umbrella body for august institutions such as the Bank of England, US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank.

Its researchers can predict financial crises three years in advance using machine learning to aggregate predictions from different models.

Now they are warning of a crash the scale of which we have never seen before, with a staggering $80trillion (£65trillion) at stake.

To put that into perspective, the global financial crisis was triggered by the collapse of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

That was the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history but its debts totalled "just" $619billion. That is less than one percent of the sums at stake today.

One global financial expert contacted by Express.co.uk said a hidden corner of the finance world has been stretched to an "unsustainable" point, leaving the world in a "dangerous position".

It is yet another sign that global finance has got far too big for its boots, leaving the world at its mercy.

READ MORE: Crypto reputation takes 'blow' after FTX collapse

Millions of pensioners could miss out on this cash boost worth £400 as they do not know they are eligible. As the cost of living crisis continues, Britons on low incomes are urged to claim all the benefits they are entitled to as it could be vital in the upcoming months.

Who is eligible and how can the money be claimed? Find out HERE.

The threat is lurking in the foreign exchange debt swap market, which is so complex few understand it and there is little control over its workings.

Reuters reports that pension funds and other "non-bank" financial firms have more than $80trillion of hidden, off-balance sheet dollar debt in FX swaps.

BIS described as the FX swap debt market as a "blind spot" that risks leaving policymakers in a total "fog", the latest BIS quarterly report said.

A Dutch pension fund or Japanese insurer could use borrow dollars then lend them as euros or Japanese yen, before later repaying them.

The FX swap market has a history of problems, including funding squeezes during both the global financial crisis and again in the early days of the Covid pandemic, before the Federal Reserve raced to the rescue.

Terrifyingly, the $80trillion-plus "hidden" debt estimate is greater than the total stocks of US dollar Treasury bills, repo and commercial paper in circulation combined, BIS said.

In other words, it's bigger than the mighty dollar.

It has grown from $55trillion to $80trillion in a decade, with daily FX swap deals totalling a massive $5 trillion a day.

Non-US banks and pensions funds have twice as much FX swap dollar obligations as the amount of dollar debt that is listed on their balance sheets.

"The missing dollar debt from FX swaps/forwards and currency swaps is huge," BIS said.

Yet nobody knows where this debt is and how much it is worth in total.

Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at Century Financial, said this $80trillion market is a massive concern since it does not appear on balance sheets and is absent from statistics. Effectively, it has gone missing.

"The sheer scale of it raises worrisome questions as a debt load this high is frequently regarded as unsustainable."

Investors have been "aggressively" borrowing US dollars to invest, a risky strategy known as leverage designed to generate high returns at a time when interest rates were extremely low, he said.

"Now, rising rates and volatile asset prices make high leverage dangerous, even more so because it is hidden."

The safe haven greenback dollar has rocketed by up to 18 percent this year making dollar debt more expensive. Dollar shortages would force foreign owners of dollar assets to offload them in a global fire sale if short of cash, contributing to downward price spirals, Valecha warned.

The world would be helpless in the face of a meltdown on this scale, yet nobody has any control over the market.

The next financial crisis threatens to be even bigger than the last one.

5G could contribute $120 billion to Canada’s GDP growth by 2036: report

Story by MobileSyrup • Monday

5G’s performance upgrades over 4G will lead to economic growth and improved quality of life in Canada, a review from Deetken Insight found.


5G could contribute $120 billion to Canada’s GDP growth by 2036: report© 5G smart mobile telephone radio network antenna base station on the telecommunication mast radiating signal

Commissioned by Telus, the review found 5G will grow gross domestic product (GDP) by 16 percent ($120 billion) by 2036.

5G fixed wireless access (FWA) will also increase the productive capacity of rural communities by allowing operators to deliver high-speed broadband intent in places fibre can’t get to. “5G FWA eliminates the need for costly deployment of deep-fiber fixed access infrastructure while also offering peak rates that few fixed technologies can match,” the review states.

However, Canada needs to take several steps to realize the full benefits of 5G. Spectrum allocations for mid and high-band frequencies are between one and five years behind compared to Germany, Japan, Italy, Australia, and South Korea. Deployment has been limited to low-band networks as these are cheaper to deploy on a non-standalone basis.

The public sector, mobile network operators and various industry stakeholders can take steps to speed up the deployment of 5G, including releasing spectrum quickly and developing an infrastructure strategy that helps with deployment. It’s a must-need for a country expected to see its 5G subscriber count grow by 4 million over the next 12-15 months.


“An ambitious yet coordinated approach to the rollout of 5G is critical to ensuring the benefits are achieved while also ensuring Canada’s 5G networks and the applications that run on them are reliable and resilient,” the review states.

The approach needs to touch on several factors, the review states, including:
timely access to relevant spectrum
network infrastructure through government investments that support coverage, bandwidth and latency
having connected devices and software updates available
defining and implementing a “performance management framework” to track 5G performance and contributions

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Deetken Insight

A PIECE OF THE ACTION

Google, Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft awarded $9 billion Pentagon cloud deals

Story by Jordan Novet • 

Of the four companies receiving cloud-computing contracts from the Pentagon, all of them had received requests for bids from the U.S. federal agency last year.

At that time, the General Services Administration didn't expect that Oracle, a lesser player in the cloud-infrastructure business, would be able to meet the Pentagon's needs. But its contract could turn out to be just as big as those Amazon, Google and Microsoft are getting.


The Pentagon building in Washington, D.C.© Provided by CNBC

The Pentagon said Wednesday that Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle each received a cloud-computing contract that can reach as high as $9 billion each through 2028.

The outcome of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, effort is in line with the U.S. Defense Department's effort to rely on multiple providers of remotely operated infrastructure technology, as opposed to relying on a single company, a strategy promoted during the Trump Administration.

Originally, the Pentagon had awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, to Microsoft in 2019. A legal battle ensued as Amazon, the top player in the cloud infrastructure market, challenged the Pentagon's decision.

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In 2020, the Pentagon's watchdog conducted a review and ruled that there was no evidence to conclude that the Trump Administration had intervened in the process of awarding the contract. Months later the Pentagon announced it would stick with Microsoft for the JEDI deal.

Last year the Pentagon changed its approach, asking for bids from Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle to address cloud needs. But the General Services Administration stated at the time that only Amazon and Microsoft seemed to be able to meet the Pentagon's requirements.

Wednesday's result is a boon in particular for Oracle, which analysts don't see in the top tier of companies offering cloud-based computing services. Oracle generated $900 million in cloud infrastructure revenue in the quarter that ended Aug. 31, a small fraction of the $20.5 billion total for Amazon's cloud subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, in the third quarter.

All four of the technology companies have won indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, or IDIQ, contracts, meaning that they can involve an indefinite amount of services for a specific period of time.

"The purpose of this contract is to provide the Department of Defense with enterprise-wide globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge," the Defense Department said.