Back in Vancouver after two months in Ottawa. Made it home a couple of days ago after a brief visit to New York City and an even quicker stop in Montreal.

The Rideau Canal at sunset in Ottawa. Photo by Elyse Fortin

Good to be home amongst our mountains and our fresh coastal pacific air. A nice reprieve after living in the perpetual steam of the Ottawa valley and tramping around in the concrete mega-sauna that is NYC—though the entire experience was wonderful and un-repeatable. Wonderful places, people and experiences.

I put up a few photos on flickr for those who are interested. (You can access the rest of the photos by clicking on one of the pictures on the side bar).

Now, time to get outside and enjoy this British Columbian summer.

This week two Russian bombers approached Canadian airspace about 450 km off the coast of Newfoundland. The bombers were spotted by NORAD and two Canadian CF-18s were dispatched to intercept the pair of TU-95 Bears, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

Nothing became of it, and the Russians claimed it was part of a training exercise and Canadian airspace was never breached.

This is the type of activity that former CF-18 pilot, Maj.-Gen. Tom Lawson, was telling me about last week. The saber-rattling is becoming less of a transparent choreography—as he put it—and more secretive on the part of the Russians.

Of course, we must ask how often these types of things happen, and how often the Canadian Forces decides to report on them. Curious to have the Canadian Air Force in the news at the very same time the government is trying to drum up support for the $16 billion-dollar strike fighter project.

*According to the Globe’s Daniel Leblanc it didn’t take long for the incident—one that occurs around a dozen times per year—to make it into the Conservatives Friday talking points as evidence supporting the highly contested F-35 procurement.

With their military having spent the better part of a decade amongst insurgents, improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers, Canadians have arguably become accustomed to the idea that future wars will largely consist of low-intensity counterinsurgency conflicts. As a result, many are questioning the government’s recent decision to purchase 65 stealth strike fighters—a fleet of planes that would not have been used by Canadians in Afghanistan, and instead conjures images of Cold War arms races.

The Canadian Forces expect to have 65 of the F-35 stealth strike fighters operational by 2016 at a cost potentially surpassing $16 billion. Credit: DND

Yet when he was appointed Canada’s most recent foreign minister in October 2008, Lawrence Cannon received a stack of briefing documents prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Tucked into one section was a page that discussed the global political and security environment. China figured prominently.

Click here to read the rest of this feature at Embassy magazine

Paul Stothart is excited.

Last year, iron ore and coal alone accounted for nearly $1.6 billion in Canadian exports to China. This represented $1 billion more than in 2008, continuing a trend that has become a major boon for Canada’s mining sector.

“Everything in our industry is driven by China,” said Mr. Stothart, vice-president of economic affairs at the Mining Association of Canada, explaining that world mineral prices for copper, nickel, zinc and uranium are largely set by—increasing—Chinese demand for raw minerals.

The Middle Kingdom looms just as large for Andrew Casey, vice-president of foreign affairs and international trade at the Forestry Producers Association of Canada.

“It’s been a brutal couple of years,” he said, adding that the ongoing downturn in the US housing industry has had a dramatic impact on Canada’s forestry industry. He predicts that long-term economic sustainability for the sector will ultimately arrive only from diversification. A comprehensive approach to selling Canadian forest products, he said, includes Asia.

Click here to read the rest of the story at Embassy magazine.

High fives to a group of University of British Columbia  J-schoolers who have been nominated for two Emmy awards for their documentary Ghana: A digital dumping ground that aired on PBS’s Frontline last year.

The ten students and their lead instructor—Peter Klein—are in contention for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Outstanding Research categories.

Well done.

After two hours of high intensity shelling by joint-party interrogators on Monday, Richard Fadden, Canada’s top spy, maintained a firm grasp on one particular message: the Canadian public needs to know.

“I would argue it is good public policy for Canadians to be attuned to the threats that the country faces,” Mr. Fadden told members of the Commons’ Public Safety committee in his opening remarks. “[The Canadian Security Intelligence Service] believe[s] there is merit in Canadians being more informed about the threats to our national security.”

On the surface, it appears that is the reason Mr. Fadden was in front of the CBC’s cameras last month: Canada’s spy agency, under increasing pressure to be more transparent and accountable, was simply trying to open itself to the public and offer a blunt assessment of the type of world Canadians live in.

Click here to read the rest of the story at Embassy magazine

Happy 143rd  birthday Canada.

Celebrating this day in Ottawa seems to come with its own set of responsibilities. Firstly, I must find something red to wear immediately. I came here quite unprepared.

Happy Canada Day. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons (ScottsPicks)

I think it might actually be a misdemeanor to leave the house on July 1 without the proper Canadian colour.

Secondly, I need to accept the mission of celebrating as enthusiastically as possible. I think the masses are already assembling in front of the centre block for what I hear is the party of the year.

Word is the Queen is joining us later on the hill for a little shout out.

Rather enjoyable.

I’m heading east to join the team at Embassy Newsweekly, one of Canada’s premier foreign policy reports.

Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons: bouche.

Should be an interesting experience monitoring and reporting on the complex political machine that is our foreign affairs. I’ll be interning at the mag for June and July and hopefully pumping out interesting stories about trade, diplomacy and international development.

Feel free to contact me at evan@evanduggan.com if you have any news tips related to Canada’s foreign policy.

I’m all ears.

The new land and food edition is up at The Thunderbird.ca

Check out some innovative multimedia reporting from some of Vancouver’s best up and coming journalists.

Enjoy!

What began with a single cow in her back yard has now erupted into a legal and personal headache for Home on the Range operator Alice Jongerden.

“I have nothing to hide,” said Jongerden, seated on a bale in her hayloft. “Our intent was never to be in the black market or to be under the table.”

Alice Jongerden finds herself caught in a battle over the control of raw milk

The Fraser Valley Health Authority initiated a cease and desist order after an inspection at the Chilliwack dairy farm two years ago. The authority concluded that Jongerden was violating the provincial Public Health Act by packaging and distributing a hazardous product: raw milk.

Provincial Supreme Court Justice Gropper upheld the injunction in March determining that the Public Health Act did not require proof of a specific health hazard.

“There is no dispute that Ms. Jongerden, doing business as Home on the Range, has breached the Public Health Act, and its regulations,” wrote the judge. “The remedy for the petitioners (Home on the Range) is to convince the government to change its legislation.”

Home on the Range “is community-supported agriculture” said Jongerden, pulling at straws of hay as she spoke. “It’s just a group of members that cooperatively come together, own these cows, pay me to take care of them, and they get the dividends (milk) from the cows.”

Jongerden continues to provide approximately 1,800 litres of raw milk to nearly 400 shareholders on a weekly basis. In order to respond to the health authority’s concerns, Home on the Range now marks its unpasteurized milk as “not for human consumption.”

Click here to read the rest of this feature at TheThunderbird.ca