Canadian Immigration, Population Growth

"Immigration is really fuelling not just population growth, but also the economy, because immigrants are generally younger than the average Canadian. The average Canadian now is  41, and immigrants tend to be younger."

"Now, because the religious composition of immigrants is so different from the religious composition of native-born people, we're seeing really fast increases in the Muslim community, in the Sikh community and the Hindu community, and this has really big implications for everything."

"I think that's part of the story about how immigration is changing Canada and Canadian families."

"This is the first time that I feel like all of Canada's problems aren't economic problems. They're actually demographic problems."

"When more money goes to support older people, we have less money for things that go to younger people. Like our daycare programs, our primary schools, our secondary schools, our labour force training programs, our universities, etc." 

Demographer and sociologist Rachel Margolis, Professor, Western University

 

"Canada has always been a country of diversity. We've always been a country with multiple nations, multiple languages, multiple ethnicities, multiple sources of newcomers."

"I don't think it's a matter of saying, 'Who is Canada?' It's some kind of plural version of the question: Who are Canadians?"

"I'm very interested in the 2026 census, whether we see a bigger share of newcomers, not only from India, but also from some of the African countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana or Tanzania, that also have highly educated populations and would be viable economic migrants."

"In Canada, religion has become an important variable that's at the centre of a lot of debates. So, if you look at, for example, some of the secularization legislation in Quebec, it's front and centre to public debates there."

"When we look at some of the discrimination that's been experienced over the last five years [or] post-October 7, as well as longer than that, 9/11, we see that religion becomes quite important and it often intersects with newcomers from different parts of the world." 

Political sociologist Howard Ramos, Professor,Western University 

Older, 70% white, plunging fertility and lost faith: Who Canada is now, National Post

 

Canadian population growth is driven by immigration with close to one-quarter of the population being or having been a landed immigrant or permanent resident. This represents the highest intake of immigrants among the G7, as well as representing the largest share of immigrant intake since Confederation. Canada's 8.4 million immigrants are comprised thusly: India (10.7 percent), the Philippines (8.6 percent) and China (8.6 percent) as the top origins of birth. Immigration from Europe has declined in the last half-century (going from 61.6 percent in 1971 to 10.1 percent in 2021). 

 

New immigrants from Asia, on the other hand, inclusive of the Middle East has increased, with Asia now the leading continent of birth for new immigrants (62 percent), and India the top country of new immigrants; close to one in five (18.6 percent) having originated from India recently. India represents the lion's share of the 1.4 million South Asian immigrants, followed by Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Of one million immigrants from South-east Asia, the Philippines is first, Vietnam following, then Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand the top countries of origin.

 

749,415 immigrants born in West Central Asia and the Middle East headed by Iran, followed by Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, in that order as the top five countries of origin. Statistics Canada has recently released its latest report on the country's population and how it has been comprised with the immigration of global migrants. Canada now has 450-plus ethnic or cultural origins reporting for the latest census with the fastest population growth n the G7. What the statistics reveal is the shift in countries of origin with close to two-thirds of recent immigrants born in Asia, including the Middle East.

 

Over 95 percent of visible minorities domiciled in one of Canada's 41 large urban centres, with Toronto home to the largest populations of those of South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, West Asian Latin American, South-east Asian and Korean derivation. The country's largest share of its new Arab population, at 35.5 percent of the group, settled in Montreal. There has been an eight percent increase in people identifying as First Nations, Inuit of Metis between 2015 and 2021, in comparison with 5.4 percent growth for the non-Indigenous population. 

 

Against a backdrop of Canadians losing interest in religious devotion, doubling in the last 20 years, most Canadians who are religious reported they are Christian; the numbers shrinking from 77.1 percent in 2001. Those identifying as Muslim (Islam being the second-most reported religion), Hindu or Sikh more than doubled in the past two decades. There has been a steady growth in numbers of Canada's aging population, the result now being that there are more Canadian seniors 65-plus (8.2 million), than there are Canadian children 14 and under (6.3 million). 

 

More than two in five (42.3 percent) of newborns in 2024 were of a foreign-born mother, according to a 2025 Statistics Canada study which pointed out that without immigration, Canada would have had negative population growth since 2022. In the most recent Canadian census over 450 ethnic and cultural origins were reported, 200 places of birth, 100 religions , and 450 languages. The country, once 97 percent Protestant and Catholic, has changed enormously.

 

In the last census about 335,000 people reported being ethnically Jewish, a smaller share of the population, as a result of population growth through immigration; their share in 2001 was 2.2 percent of the population, while in the two decades since it was reduced to 0.9 percent. The second-most common religion after Christianity -- one in 29 people reported being Muslim, at close to 1.8 million. Muslims rose from 2.0 to 4.9 percent of the population since 2001.  

"There's been a really big decline [in the fertility rate with a record low of 1.25 births per woman in 2024, as compared to a century earlier when Canadians on average had just over three children] just in the last 15 to 18 years."

"And the reason why that's important is that it took us from kind of low fertility to very, very low fertility. And the problem with very, very low fertility is that without large immigration, it leads to pretty rapid population decline and pretty rapid population aging, which changes the needs of where we put resources."

"[There's more freedom in how people choose to see their lives. Younger generations, they say they want few kids... They say it's less important for them to get married than it used to be. And I think that younger people feel more uncertain about what their path is."

Professor of sociology, Western University, Rachel Margolis  

The downside of this steady surge in population growth can be seen in Canada's universal health care system, hard pressed to provide timely and reliable health care to a growing population, with insufficient numbers of medical personnel, hospitals stressed to their coping limits and millions within the population without a primary health care provider. So too has the housing market been impacted; not enough houses and rentals to meet the demand, with rising prices for accommodation making it more difficult for young people to strike out on their own.

From within the large and still growing Muslim population a phenomenon of public protests against Israel and Jews has arisen, leading to an acute rise in antisemitism. Authorities at every level, while decrying rampant antisemitism have done little to uphold the law when 'pro-Palestinian' groups harass Canadian Jews, threaten their communities and vandalize Jewish businesses, synagogues and parochial schools. Mass Muslim public prayer sessions that block traffic and intersections have assaulted the Canadian social contract. 

The Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

The incidences of crime, youth crime, gun violence, car thefts, home break-ins has also increased, in part due to the formation of criminal gangs from within immigrant groups. The cost of living in Canada has also soared, making it difficult for many families to make ends meet. The use of Food Banks has increased exponentially, by foreign students, by economically stressed immigrant families, along with native-born in a depressed economy. Shelter use and homelessness has also been impacted by migrant groups arriving in Canada, awaiting the disposition of their claims for haven as refugees. 

 

Tainted, Self-Serving Advice : From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

"[There is danger when middle powers like Canada remain silent or close their economies while] hegemons [and superpowers tear away at the] rules-based international order."

"More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited."

"Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu."

"Apply the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window."

"A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable."

"When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating."

"This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination."

"[Canada is stable, democratic and] a pluralistic society that works".

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. (Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press)

 

At a plenary session of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Canada's prime minister delivered a speech that should have left listeners speechless at the level of its hypocrisy. This is a man who just visited Beijing, cap in hand, to grovel before Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, none other than one of the two hegemons that Mr. Carney spoke of, yet daintily bypassed naming, lest he raise the hackles of a man with whom he had just signed a trade agreement that would allow 50,000 Chinese-produced EVs into Canada for starters, in exchange for better tariff rates for Canadian canola and hogs.

 

Mark Carney — pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping — reached a 'landmark' trade deal with China on Friday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters)

 

The advanced electronics in those Chinese-made EVs will enter Canada at a new low tariff rate to undersell Canadian-produced gas-powered vehicles, the former more or less dumped as excess production hugely financed by the Chinese state to keep prices low. Each one of these vehicles also represents a listening device, immensely useful to a state known for its cyber-intrusion into other countries' affairs as well as its penchant for illegally lifting trade secrets in technical advances, military and political eavesdropping to keep Beijing up-to-date on everything from production assets to nation security.

 

"Today I will talk about the breakdown of the world order, about the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the superpowers is not subject to any constraints", he began his speech. Yet, on behalf of Canada, the Liberal government of which Mr. Carney is head, chose to strike a trade agreement with a clearly hostile-to-Canada hegemon, one which has over the years interfered in Canadian elections, harassed expatriate Chinese-Canadians to act on Beijing's behalf, and invested in universities in 'shared' research projects backed by the People's Liberation Army.

 

Mr. Carney's previous life as a global banker and his executive-level work as vice-chairman with Brookfield Asset Management which has billions in investment in Chinese real estate also means he has a vested interest in trade relations with China, since his contacts there will remember  how he steered Canada back into China's trade orbit, and when he leaves government he can just pick up where he left off, with Brookfield Management. His shares in the massive real estate giant stand to gain value with the decisive trade moves he engages in -- in 'Canada's interest'.

 

Carney, with Brookfield Asset Management, in business with China. March 2024, The Telegraph

 

Speaking in Davis to an estimated several hundred politicians, business leaders and journalists on the first day of the annual gathering, he appears to have impressed his audience. An audience which, like Canada itself, has most recently witnessed the president of the United States of America's whimsical decision-making in imposing stiff tariffs on goods and services from allies and foes alike, aggressively declaring that America will no longer financially support other nations' economies at the cost of its own. For them, his speech resonated.

 

The lack of conscience and immorality of responding to the aggression of one hegemon who has roiled world markets, by choosing to do business with another one that seeks to control world markets after having destroyed production in those markets through the use of their own techniques upgrading China's to produce lower-cost consumer goods isn't being questioned at Davos. Nor that in choosing China as a trade partner its human rights abuses must be overlooked in favour of making deals. 

 

At one time, this former central banker was on the World Economic Forum's top governing body; he knows to whom he speaks. Cautioning his audience against negotiating with superpowers, Mr. Carney revealed the extent of his hypocrisy in his craven submission to Beijing's grasping rules. Other countries, he said, should follow Canada's example to forge new international relations to boost their economies and diversify trading partners. In this way they will be seen as an investment destination. This, from a man and a political party that has closed off Canada's vast natural resources in gas and oil, leading to investment leaving Canada. 

 

Carney inspecting the honour guard. It's the first visit by a Canadian PM since China detained two Canadians for nearly three years starting in 2019, in retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

 

Truckers Convoy ... Liberal Government Overreach

"We are therefore of the view [like the Federal Court] that, on the basis of the record, Cabinet could not reasonably come to the conclusion that existing provincial capacity and authority could not effectively address the situation."

"We are of the view that Cabinet did not have reasonable grounds to believe that a national emergency existed, taking into account the wording of the Act, its constitutional underpinning and the record that was before it at the time the decision was made."

Chief Justice de Montigny, Federal Court of Appeal

 

"This is an affirmation from the court that these are fundamental freedoms that Canadians have that were violated by the freezing of bank accounts, by the invocation of this act, by the banning of assemblies."

"We're thrilled with the decision, and we think the court got this right."

Christine Van Geyn, litigation director, Canadian Constitution Foundation

 

"To claim that the threshold for declaring a public order emergency ... could be lower than the threshold for using the surveillance powers ... under the CSIS Act would make little sense. If anything, it should be the reverse. [Emergency powers demand more justification, not less -- particularly when they authorize] a vast array of draconian powers without any prior authorization."

"When properly understood as requiring bodily harm, the evidence is quite simply lacking. As disturbing and disruptive as the blockades and protests could be, they fell well short of a threat to national security."

Federal Court of Appeal

Protesters gathered around Parliament Hill and the downtown core for the Freedom Convoy protest, some making their way from various locations across Canada, Sunday January 30, 2022. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

 

A ruling by the Federal Court in 2024 that the invocation of the Emergencies Act in 2022 as a federal government response to a convoy of truckers that drove from across Canada to Ottawa in a planned protest against the Liberal government's COVID lockdown procedures which required truckers to be masked at all times, mandating that immunization against COVID be an accepted protocol, struck this group as radical. In refusing to comply with the government's demands they risked losing their licenses to operate which drove them to mount their protest. 

 

The national capital police and the municipality itself reacted in a confused manner in response to complaints from people living within the vicinity where the truckers congregated for a month, complaining of restraints to their daily routines, difficulty in accessing markets, disruptions to work schedules and day-and-night noise from incessant blaring of truck horns. When judicial stop orders to the noise were brought to play, the truckers complied, but their ongoing presence became a major local irritant. They were, nonetheless, practising their right to free assembly and citizen protest.

 

Police patrol downtown Ottawa as a protest against COVID-19 public health measures enters its 11th day, with trucks and other vehicles blocking several streets on February 7, 2022. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

 

The federal government under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau was less than enamoured at the crude and rude truckers' messages in their disdain and disregard for his and his Cabinet's decision making. Which led to the decision to evoke the past when Mr. Trudeau's father as prime minister well before him, brought in the War Measures Act during the October Crisis emergency in Quebec when the Quebec nationalist group Front de libération du Québec began placing explosives in mailboxes, then turned to kidnapping politicians. Because of the stringent nature of the Act it was replaced by the Emergencies Act.

 

However, in resorting to the Emergencies Act, the Trudeau Cabinet overstepped its authority. The provinces did not support its use, the first time such an act was invoked since that of the War Measures Act in 1970 when its invocation was supported by the provincial premiers in the face of a violently dangerous situation which led to the murder of a Quebec politician. Once the Act was in motion, police stepped in to do essentially what they had already initiated in bringing order to the city center. Towing companies which refused to tow any of the trucks of the convoy were then forced to do so. Bank accounts of people who had written cheques to help fund the protest had their bank accounts frozen. The federal government began a campaign of legal intimidation against the convoy organizers. 

 

It has taken three years for the courts to settle the case brought against the federal government by the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as well as a few individuals affected by the emergency measures, but the court in its wisdom accepted the CCF's position that the use of the Emergencies Act in this situation was unneeded and hugely overreactive. The court's judgment was unanimous, upholding the lower court's 2024 decision: the federal government cannot invoke emergency powers in a domestic protest.

 

Trucks were coming and going at the Coutts border crossing in this protest file photo. Photo by Darren Makowichuk /POSTMEDIA NETWORK

 

The court pointed out that the federal Cabinet would have to believe Canada was facing a "threat to the security of Canada" before it would attempt to respond through the use of the Emergencies Act. In this instance, the government obviously felt that the truckers had no right to criticize and deride a decision impacting the entire population as overdone and an assault on individual liberties, where in Canada citizens have the right to express themselves freely, through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantee freedom of assembly and free speech. 

 

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service itself assessed that no threat to national security was involved. The emergency powers act was brought into play even before a requested alternative threat assessment had been completed. The protests in question were cleared within the Criminal Code, with the RCMP commissioner advising the government that existing powers had not been exhausted by police. 

 

"In a federation, provinces should be left to determine for themselves how best to deal with a critical situation, especially when it largely calls for the application of the Criminal Code by police forces." Should the situation not exceed capacity or provincial authority   The court noted that privacy of individuals was invaded based on "potentially unfounded, subjective beliefs", which violated the protection of the Charter against unreasonable search, and was unjustifiable. 

 

The Liberal government thought otherwise, and when the Federal Court issued its 2024 ruling that the government had erred in calling the Emergencies Act into play, they appealed that decision. Now the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the earlier Court ruling and in the process chastised the government for its decision-making. A federal government that went on to charge two of the convoy's organizers with criminal offences, putting them through years-long persecution in the courts.

 

'Freedom Convoy' leaders Tamara Lich, Chris Barber given conditional sentences. Found guilty of mischief, both will spend a year at home with limited freedom.

"There's a long history of courts in Canada and elsewhere in the common law world, being very deferential to politicians when they make decisions about emergency powers, and that can be very dangerous, and it's heartening to see the courts taking a rigorous approach and not just accepting what the executive says at face value."

"It requires governments, no matter how high in the apex of the country's government you sit, that you have to be able to justify your exercised authority in reasons that are convincing to the courts and ultimately to ordinary citizens."

Paul Daly, chair of administrative law and governance, faculty of law, University of Ottawa 

"An Era of Barbarism"

"Humanity is experiencing something very complex, and [the U.S.] is governed by a president who considers himself an emperor."

"We must show him that ideas are worth more than weapons."

"This march is a message of our unity. Independence is sacred, and we will defend it tooth and nail, if necessary."

Rene Gonzalez, 64, Cuban protester, Havana demonstration

 

"The current U.S. administration has opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism."

"No one here surrenders."

"The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven't stopped threatening me."

"Cuba does not have to make any political concessions, and that will never be on the table for negotiations aimed at reaching an understanding between Cuba and the United States."

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel 

Members of the Cuban military honour guard carry urns containing the remains of soldiers killed in the U.S. strike and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas on January 3, during the funeral for Cuban soldiers at Colon Cemetery in Havana, Cuba, January 16, 2026. Adalberto Roque/Pool via REUTERS 

 

On Friday, tens of thousands of Cuban citizens demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana, furious over the death of 32 Cuban officers, killed during the U.S. military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro two weeks before. The open-air Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist plaza across from the embassy was crowded in the rally the Cuban government organized during high tensions between Cuba and the United States, following the attack on Venezuela of January 3.

 

Cuban officers, part of President Maduro's security detail, were killed when the raid on his Caracas residence took place. The show of popular strength was Cuba's answer to U.S. President Trump's demand that Cuba 'make a deal' with him before it is "too late". Cuba, Trump crowed, could no longer depend on Venezuela's oil and money to buoy its fractured economy.  The 1960s-forward U.S. sanctions imposed on Cuba as punishment for its communist government has strained the island mercilessly.

 

The crowd of protesters transitioned their demonstration into a "combatant march" parade, a custom hearking back to the late Fidel Castro, where a line of people led the crowd, holding up photographs of the 32 officers that were killed in Venezuela. "Down with imperialism! Cuba with prevail!", shouted the crowd. 

 

A glimpse of a coffee being made by candlelight during a power outage in Havana in March. The disruptions are often blamed on Cuba's aging power generation system, which has been stressed by fuel shortages, natural disasters and economic crisis. (Norlys Perez/Reuters)

 

Cubans have faced shortages of the basic needs of daily life. The economy is now in worse shape than it has ever been. Up to the present the government had supplied the population with a monthly allotment of rice, beans and other staples through distributed ration cards. Although the rations lasted a mere ten days, now, because of food scarcity, government ration stores can barely stock the essentials, rendering the ration cards fairly worthless.

 

There is an app available where people must sign up for an appointment to buy gas, three weeks in advance of prospective purchase. Latterly the waiting queue has been three months. With scant fuel available for municipal purposes, trucks have been unable to collect trash. Pickups of domestic garbage have been faulted, and the result is outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and chikungunya. Treatment drugs are no longer locally available.

 

Venezuela once provided 90,000 barrels of oil daily to Cuba although the last quarter of  2025 saw oil deliveries dwindle to 35,000 barrels. Now, with the U.S. in control, there will be none. Private enterprises were legalized in 2021 where private stores stock consumer goods comparable to those of U.S. supermarkets, but demand exorbitant prices. In Cuba a typical monthly pension is less than $7; a carton of 30 eggs is priced at $8.

 

"The domestic economy is in a free fall", said Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist, now a fellow at American University in Washington. People now do their cooking over firewood. Cuba now produces 25 percent less power than in 2018.  

 

Cuban military personnel carry portraits of soldiers killed in the U.S. strike on Venezuela and the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a march outside the U.S. Embassy to protest against what they denounce as U.S. aggression in the region, in Havana, Cuba, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Norlys Perez (Norlys Perez)

 

 

"I, who was born there, I, who lives there, and I'll tell you."

"It's never been as bad as it is now, because many factors have come together."

"It's dark [severe lack of energy], people are sick and they don't have medicine [adequate food and medical drugs in acutely short supply]."

"There is food, and plenty of it [at MiPyMEs private enterprises] but the prices are incredible."

"Nobody with a salary, not even a doctor can hardly buy in those stores."

Omar Everleny Perez, economist, Havana resident 

Controlling The Arctic

"In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Denmark's claim to sovereignty over Greenland is far stronger than Canada's claim to sovereignty up to the North Pole for the entire archipelago."

"Whether it's enough [$1B in funding over 4 yrs to improve military transportation infrastructure in the Arctic and a partnership with Australia to develop Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar] to offset American desire to own territory in the north? I don't know." 

Former chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson

 

"If they were to acquire Greenland, it would be the first step in eventually acquiring control over all of northern North America."

"It's such a bizarre distortion of the Monroe Doctrine, which was about not allowing non-North American powers to assert and control North America."

"It's telling that the Trump White House has not come back with any specific asks. And that, to me, points to the fact that this is smoke and mirrors and this is about America wanting to grow."

Whitney Lackenbauer, research chair, study of Canadian North, Trent University

 

"The first part that we've always been concerned with is that the Americans would say we're not pulling our weight, and they would go to systems that don't need Canadian territory."

"In other words, cut us out, so that NORAD either becomes hollow or doesn't even become functioning."

Robert Huebert, director, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic studies, University of Calgary 

A new settlement was established near the present-day capital, Nuuk, after Danish colonization in the 18th Century. Reuters

 

A precedent is on the verge of being set, with U.S. President Donald Trump rumbling about taking Greenland from Denmark, and in the consternation over his belligerent assertions that the U.S. will, one way or another achieve that goal, in the process alienating his European allies and risking the dissolution of NATO, while other nations will likely begin to feel the pressure of the president's territorial acquisition aggression.

 

Mette Frederiksen in Paris last week during a bilateral meeting, met the not-unexpected support of Canada's prime minister with Mark Carney stating the position that the future of Greenland should be a matter between Denmark and Greenland with the exclusion of any others. Recent investments by the Carney government under pressure by Trump to meet NATO's minimum GDP investment in military preparedness doesn't equate to Canada being let off the hook of Trump's gimlet eye.

 

The initial investment in developing next-generation military satellite communications for Arctic operations may not insulate Canada to the extent it hopes for, from President Trump's continued gibes about Canada's irrelevance. Canada -- like Greenland, an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark's protection is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as an island of strategic importance in the Atlantic Ocean -- faces similar challenges from Mr. Trump..

 

 

"One way or another, we will have Greenland", President Trump stated yet again, accelerating his threats in recent weeks to take over the largest island in the world. Ostensibly to prevent Russia and China from attempting to do the same, he cautions. Under the rationale of the imperative to ensure American security interests in the Western Hemisphere a repurposing of the Monroe Doctrine has been cited as the security instrument motivating and legitimizing a Greenland takeover.

 

That Denmark's Frederiksen vehemently opposes the proposed encroachment by the U.S., spurning its sovereignty in Greenland, and that Greenlanders themselves have no wish to become a U.S. protectorate is of no moment to Mr. Trump. The U.S. has an established military presence in Greenland through a 1951 agreement with Denmark, in the presence of a  remote airbase. Speculation over the manner in which the U.S. might assert its claims on the North abound.

 

The U.S. military raid in Venezuela that resulted in the scooping up of the country's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and taking them to the U.S. to stand trial for narcotics trafficking appears to have put the U.S. President in the mood to flex his military muscles and exert pressure on both enemies and allies alike.  While Cuba and Colombia are in his crosshairs, so too are Denmark/Greenland and Canada, Trump's fanciful '51st State'. 

 

Trump is reportedly taking aim at Canada and expressing concern about its 'vulnerability' to adversaries after his previous threats to make the country the ‘51st state’   Getty Images 

 

"I think the EU and Canada, all of us are tiptoeing around Trump because we know he is very volatile." 

"We are all economically very dependent on the U.S. and militarily dependent on the U.S."

"[A potential rupture in NATO and Trump's] Donroe Doctrine [runs the risk of creating] strong men [spheres of influence across the world]."

"This then gives the nod to Russia to continue to control its sphere of influence and perhaps continue to try and annex Ukraine. And China is going to take this as a licence to be able to dominate its area of the world."

"We've seen in history when you have this multipolarity and these multiple spheres of influence, there's the greatest likelihood of conflict because of this increased great power competition."

"And then accidents and incidents are more likely to be interpreted as nefarious, and everybody comes out swinging."

Andrea Charron, director, Centre for Defence and Security Studies, University of Manitoba

Russian Imperialist Ambitions : Encirclement Paranoia

"I think people need to know Russia is not this benign thing. They want to dominate Europe, they want the United States to not be a great power any more ... America can't survive losing its allies in Europe."

"People need to understand what this means."

"[The MAGA movement Trump leads is] obviously penetrated by the Russians."

Jeff Nyquist, writer, geopolitics blogger 

 

"[The group's analysis is] pretty good." 

"Their work is extremely, extremely useful if it gets published because it's a way of telling the Russians 'We see you. And whenever you move, we know where you're going."

"NATO does not pose a military threat to Moscow but] you cannot express this to a Russian, who has an ingrained paranoia about encirclement. This is not new."

"This is centuries old, this fear of being encircled."

Frederic Labarre, expert on NATO-Russia relations, professor, Royal Military College 

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies and taken on Nov. 1, 2021, shows tanks, armored personnel carriers and support equipment amid the presence of a large ground forces deployment on the northern edge of the town of Yelnya, Smolensk Oblast, Russia.

 

Using commercial satellite images, a group of private intelligence analysts has assembled a graphic illustration of the Russian military buildup on NATO's Eastern flank. Training sites, oil storage areas, anti-aircraft missile launchers, amphibious vehicle testing ponds. And nuclear-tipped missiles that in mere minutes could reach the capitals of Western Europe. Sobering at the very least.

 

Last month in Toronto, the group presented a video illustrating the evidence they discovered, to the Mackenzie Institute think tank, providing an overview of the heavily armed Russian presence close by the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Finland in the hopes that their research might impress authorities in North America whose focus has been on the Russian conflict in Ukraine, while missing what Vladimir Putin is scheming more generally in eastern Europe.

 

In scrutinizing the evidence presented, Professor Labarre of Royal Military College was not impressed with the military equipment Russia has stationed close to NATO member countries considering it to be of poor quality; not the kind of preparations consonant with an imminent invasion. He interprets the presence there of the Russian military to be preparatory for a vigorous defense based on Russian misconceptions relating to their presumed intentions of countries to its West.

 

For his part, Nyquist is concerned with what he interprets as a troubling new direction by American conservatives, once hawkish on the Russian threat; the MAGA movement, he is convinced, has been infiltrated by Russian agents. A perception perhaps linked to PresidentTrump's having been seen to court his Russian counterpart while attempting to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, as well as halting U.S. military aid to Kyiv directly from the U.S.

 

Russian military buildup on NATO’s Eastern flank revealed through satellite images

 

The group's impression of Trump accommodating himself to Russia and China consolidating their near geographic dominance, giving impetus to his own intentions as laid out in the recently published National Security Strategy to gain complete control of the Western Hemisphere, and to that end capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for starters, leaving the impression that others like Colombia and Cuba may be next -- setting aside his intense interests in Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada's Arctic. 

"We are Russia's next target."

"Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe."

"And we must be prepared."

Mark Rutte, NATO secretary general 

"Some military historians even believe we have already had our last summer of peace", stated German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius as he warned of Russia's preparations to invade other European countries. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk blamed a rail-line sabotage, drone incursions and the torching of a shopping mall, on Russia: "We will accelerate the building of the strongest army in Europe", he said in preparation for ongoing aggression. A number of other European countries were faced with mysterious drone activities around their airports, all attributable to  Moscow.

 

Within the investigative group, Lee Wheelbarger, a one-time senior technologist with the U.S. Army, has been studying Russian military movements for over a decade, his results posted on his KLW News online video channels, collecting publicly available images from commercial satellites. Images from ground cameras are also accessed by Wheelbarger and his group colleagues. Another video method helps him glean information from sources globally. 

 

Photo taken by bystanders of Iskander intermediate-range ballistic missiles on a highway 19 kilometres from the Polish border during a Russian military exercise in Kaliningrad last year. The Iskander is capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads. The photo was obtained by a group of private analysts documenting Russian military buildup in Eastern Europe.

 

The group has ascertained evidence enabling them to reach certain conclusions:

•  A major expansion of military installations in Kaliningrad with an enlarged command centre, new missile storage facilities and a reconstructed nuclear-weapons depot;
• A  recent lengthening of a runway at a Kaliningrad airfield lined with fighter jets and supersonic bombers where a storage facility for SS-27s, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles is located;
•  Numerous trips by airliners into Kaliningrad from the Russian far east, night and day, suggesting an influx of troops;
• In Belarus, scores of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles and launchers are stationed. A train from China delivered military hardware to a Russian base in Belarus...SS-27s stored 64 kilometres from the Latvian border.

Poland, they observed, has recently-added defences along its Kaliningrad border of concrete 'dragon's teeth' and tank ditches to thwart armoured vehicles. The capture of the Suwalki Gap along the Polish-Lithuania border to cut the Baltic states off  from the rest of NATO is arguably the most likely move by Russia were it to  invade NATO territory, Nyquist posited.

 

For his part, Professor Labarre, characterizing Russia as a "very nasty neighbour" with imperialist ambitions, downplayed the significance of its military hardware positioned adjacent to NATO-member borders. 

 

 Satellite images taken from areas near to Finland's eastern border. Image: Eeva Sarlin / Yle, Planet Labs PBC

 

Iran At A Crossroad

"We are very frightened because of these sounds [of gunfire] and protests."

"We have heard many are killed and many are injured."

"Now peace has been restored, but schools are closed, and I'm scared to send my children to school again." 

Iranian mother of two

 

"[Protesters are the] butlers [of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and] Trump’s soldiers."

"[Netanyahu and Trump should await] hard revenge from the system."

"Americans and Zionists should not expect peace."

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council

 

"I believe the president [Trump] is a man of his word."

"Regardless of whether action [U.S. military intervention] is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice to carry on the fight."

"I will return to Iran."

Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi  

Iranian senior cleric Ahmad Khatami delivers his sermon during Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

 

Demonstrations in Iran were initiated by Iranians frustrated with the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, an economic collapse that has wrung Iranians' disposable income for the acquisition of ordinary household items and food dry of  purchasing power. But that frustration was piled upon years of government exploitation, coercion, theocratic decrees and punishment meted out harshly by a totalitarian government reliant on the threat potential of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps and the volunteer Basij militia to keep the population in check any time Iranians grew restive and demanded changes that would more closely reflect the values of ordinary people in the country.

 

Iranians knew that international sanctions levied on their nation resulted from its nuclear program. They were aware that their government was using its vast natural energy resources to fund terrorist groups while the population suffered deprivation of heating oil, medicine, and basic food staples. When the protests grew exponentially day after day for two weeks, with ever larger numbers of people and merchants participating to express their anger and rejection, the regime responded with force to control the crowds, arresting thousands.

 

Soon the methods of policing control accelerated to the use of lethal force and bodies began to pile up in morgues, while hospitals were overwhelmed with the wounded. Expatriate Iranians living in the West did their utmost to give emotional support to their families back in Iran, and begged their governments to intervene to stop the carnage. Israel and the United States both responded to the unfolding national chaos of protests breaking out everywhere across the country and the theocratic regime's hard response, by championing the protesters and applauding their courage against the savage response of their totalitarian government. 

Iranian protesters demonstrate against the regime in Tehran on January 10, 2026. (Social Media via ZUMA Press Wire)

 

President Trump repeatedly made statements in support of the protests, urging the people of Iran to continue to express their grievances. He has also on numerous occasions warned the regime of the potential of American military action in response to the wanton slaughter of civilians. The memory of last summer's 12-day war alongside Israel when Tehran was aerial-bombed, nuclear and rocket sites targeted, and key military personnel were assassinated, no doubt alarmed the Ayatollahs while heartening the populace. 

 

The head of the Iranian judiciary spoke of fast trials and hanging executions in store for those detained in the nationwide protests, despite repeated warning from the American President of military action over peaceful demonstrators being killed. Iranian authorities warned of its intention to commit a pre-emptive strike, alleging that Israel and the United States had orchestrated the protests. 

 

During the demonstrations an estimated 100 security force members were killed which led to a mass state funeral where tens of thousands of mourners attended, holding Iranian flags and photographs of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Draped in Iranian flags the caskets were stacked three high and covered with red and white roses and framed photographs of the dead. 

 

In contrast, human rights groups estimate that between 12,000 and 20,000 Iranian protesters had been killed. When grieving families attempted to claim the bodies of their loved ones, they were only able to take possession of the cherished bodies if they paid the government levy of an immense sum of thousands of dollars which few among them could afford. As ransom for the corpses of their 'terrorist' family members.

 

Plainclothes security forces milled about some neighbourhoods leaving people in the streets fearful of the regime's promise that any who defied the regime, insulted it and rallied against it would be in line for the death penalty. Anti-riot police and members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force returned to their  barracks. The protests have been subdued.

 

The governments of Qatar, Turkey, Oman (allies of Iran) and Egypt have persuaded President Trump that he should seriously second-think his stated goal of intervening militarily on behalf of the beleaguered population of the Islamic Republic. To do so, they warned  would pose a real risk of wider regional disturbances that had the potential of beginning an all-out war. "Unprecedented consequences" would result in the region that could explode to a "full-blown war".  

 

People gather during protest on January 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.

(photo credit: Anonymous/Getty Images)