"And we're not taking the Russian threat seriously."

"We absolutely need to be clear-eyed that Russia considers us an enemy. This goes beyond Russia's desire to conquer Ukraine."

"It's waging this war on Western democracies as a whole. The idea is not just to be allowed to win in Ukraine. It would be a big mistake to draw the lesson that if we maybe stop helping Ukraine, things will be fine and we're going to go back to a normal relationship with Russia."

"I think what's much more likely are things getting blown up in countries that are closer to Russia in eastern Europe. [Russia wants to signal] that maybe it's not worth it for NATO to defend three small Baltic countries. It's definitely a test of NATO's resolve."

Maria Popova, associate professor of political science, McGill University

Associated Press

"[Western security officials] believe that two incendiary devices, shipped via DHL, were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the U.S. and Canada, as Moscow steps up a sabotage campaign against Washington and its allies."

"Investigators and spy agencies in Europe have figured out how the devices -- electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance -- were made and concluded that they were part of a wider Russian plot." 

"[Security officials are saying the devices] sent to the U.K. from Lithuania, appear to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America."

The Wall Street Journal

According to the Wall Street Journal, the devices in question alarmed authorities when they ignited at DHL logistics hubs in Leipzig, Germany and Birmingham England this past July: "The explosions set off a multinational race to find the culprits." Subsequently four people were arrested by Polish authorities in connection with the fires, and "charged them with participating in sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency".

 

Authorities in Poland have arrested four people in connection with an alleged plot to mail explosives to Canada and the United States. CBC still from video

 

"We have never heard any official accusations" of Russian involvement was the response by a Kremlin spokesman. As in: 'who ... us? ...' And according to Maria Popova, the Russia expert, the plot now revealed is meant to bring down aircraft on their way to Canada and the United States, but its purpose is not just related to Western opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but to completely erode Western democracies altogether, as inimical not only to the Kremlin's ambitions of territorial and influence expansion, but to remove the source of opposition entirely.

There will be, Ms. Popova predicts, an escalation of "hybrid attacks meant to chip away and erode NATO's unity". To that end, one possibility is that Canada will be confronted with "hostile moves" from Russia in the Arctic. "We're not fully aware that Russia is aggressive as opposed to insecure and defensive".  

"[The West keeps] hoping that restraint on our part will create goodwill in Russia, and I think that is just fundamentally mistaken. Only strength on our part can create respect and can contain Russia."

"They see that we're not, in fact, shoring up our capability to ... defend the Arctic. We're continuing to count on the NATO umbrella and count on the fact that the United States provides security for us."

"And we're not taking the Russian threat seriously."

Maria Popova, Russia expert

The DHL Air Hub, the air freight center at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany.   Heiko Rebsch / picture-alliance/dpa/AP file

RCMP Apprehend Lethal Doses of Fentanyl in British Columbia

"The precursor chemical in combination with the finished fentanyl products seized at this location could have amounted to 95 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, which have been prevented from entering Canadian communities and markets abroad."

"To put things into more context, the over 95 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl that have been seized could have taken the lives of every Canadian at least twice over."

"Investigators seized a total of 89 firearms, which included dozens of handguns, AR-style assault rifles and submachine guns, many of which were loaded and ready to use."

"The searches also yielded several explosive devices, a massive amount of ammunition, firearm silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armour, and $500,000 in cash."

Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, head, RCMP federal policing program, British Columbia

RCMP in Surrey, B.C.drug seizure,  David Teboul second from left. The Canadian Press via AP

 

The largest illicit drug lab ever discovered in Canada has been taken down by a specialized RCMP unit, which seized record amounts of drugs, precursor chemicals and firearms. A clandestine operation in Falkland, British Columbia, east of Kamloops was the venue that was raided. To this point one person only has had a number of drug and firearm charges lodged against him. More arrests are expected as the investigation continues, and it is anticipated that Gaganpreet Randhawa will not be long in his solitary charges before he is joined by others in the  group.

 

According to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Teboul, 54 kilograms of finished fentanyl was seized, 390 kilograms of methamphetamine, 35 kilograms of cocaine, 15 kilograms of MDMA, and six kilograms of cannabis. Tonnes of precursor chemicals used in the production of crystal meth "has not been seen in Western Canada until now". The dismantling and clean-up of the Falkland lab had a hefty price tag of over $1million. "These expenditures have a direct impact on our operating budgets, resources, and ultimately take away from funds that are provided by Canadians for police to do its work".

Destined both for the domestic market and for export, the synthetic drugs are linked to the expansion of Canadian gangs in connection to smuggling tonnes of methamphetamine through the Port of Vancouver to waiting markets in Australia and New Zealand preying on populations in some Pacific Island nations. "Super labs" in B.C. make use of  sophisticated methods in evading prosecution. Reports identified groups such as Hell's Angels, Wolfpack and United Nations working alongside Mexican cartels, Asian triads and Middle East organized crime groups whose profits enable terrorism.

"[The British Columbia investigation and resulting seizures have] also served to deny this transnational organized crime group an estimated $485 million in profits."

"This enforcement action has neutralized a key production facility that is believed to have been responsible for the production, the distribution of unprecedented qualities of fentanyl and methamphetamine into Canada and abroad."

Assistant Commissioner, David Teboul, RCMP

The RCMP special unit has been working in tandem with "five eyes" partners; the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand. "Canada's Border Services Agency along with the RCMP also detected and interdicted 310 kilograms of methamphetamine prior to the international departure", stated Asst. Commissioner Teboul. Investigators linked the Falkland lab to a property nearby located in Enderby where a huge stash of precursor chemicals was found, long with a truck owned by Independent Soldiers gangster Donnie Lyons, assassinated in June.

"I think it's time for our justice system to catch up to the reality of the danger of these drugs."

"Investigators are working to determine the common source of these chemicals and all individuals involved."

"And I think it's time for a justice system to be increasingly stiff to this parasitic behaviour, whether it's by people that are operating in Canada or out of Canada."

Assistant Commissioner, David Teboul, RCMP

Firearms and illicit drugs seized last week. Canadian Press

Discovering new Mayan 'Lost City' Localities in Mexico

"Previous research has shown that a large part of the present-day state of Campeche is a landscape that was transformed by its ancient inhabitants."

"Now, this study shows that a little-known region was an urbanized landscape."

"This density is comparable to that of Mayan sites such as Calakmul, Oxpemul and Becán."

Adriana Velazquex Morlet, National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico

 

"We have always been able to talk about the ancient Maya especially in the lowland regions because of their hieroglyphic texts, because they left us such interesting record[s]."

"What we are now able to do is match that information with their settlement and the population and what they were fighting over, what they were ruling over, what they were trading."

"[The  extensive data being collected will] allow us to tell better stories of the ancient Mayan people [linking what is already known with newly revealed hints on how ancient civilizations developed]."

Tulane Professor Marcello Canuto 

"Scientists in ecology, forestry and civil engineering have been using lidar surveys to study some of these areas for totally separate purposes. So what if a lidar survey of this area already existed?" 

"I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organization for environmental monitoring."

"It does not reveal a different perspective on Maya urbanism and landscapes, it actually shows us that the perspective we already had is pretty accurate. [The] number of buildings present in the entire data set is high enough to speak of genuinely high regional scale population entities."

"[Archaeologists who know the region well were able to improve the team's analysis and provide] a really deep perspective on this region."

"The nature of the ruins, the archeological buildings that were there — they were big and they were instantly recognizable as the kind of things that mark political capitals of the Maya Classic period."

"That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that, no, we have not found everything, and yes, there's a lot more to be discovered."

"What I hope is that this encourages not only open data generally, but also collaboration between archeologists and environmental scientists going forward."

Luke Auld-Thomas, instructor, Northern Arizona University

There are no pictures of the city but it had pyramid temples similar to this one in nearby Calakmul  Getty Images

With the use of laser-sensing technology, archaeologists have been able to locate what they feel is an ancient Mayan city totally encroached upon and engulfed by jungle growth, in southern Mexico. The city has been named Valeriana by the researchers, as a geographic nod to a nearby lagoon named similarly. Thought of as another 'lost city', it is felt that the area may have been densely populated, as was the pre-Hispanic metropolis of Calakmul, in southern Yucatan peninsula.

The study, published in the journal Antiquity, leads to the belief that the seemingly vacant, jungle-dense area between known Mayan sites may in their day have been very heavily populated. Roughly 6,479 structures were detected in LiDAR imagining in an area of about 122 square kilometres. The laser technique maps out landscapes with the use of thousands of laser pulses emanating from a plane, able to detect variations in topography not evident to the human eye.

Structures, including what appear to be temple platforms, ceremonial ball courts, housing platforms, agricultural terraces and what appears to be a dam are revealed by the images. Mexico's National Institute felt the structures could date to between 250 and 900 A.D. The settlement might have been in existence, however, a century earlier.

 

Rendering of the ancient Maya city "Valeriana" which was built before 150 AD, researchers said. Tulane University

Luke Auld-Thomas a graduate student at Tulane University in 2014, made note of strange formations in the jungle survey. He had been studying a 2013 LiDAR survey carried out for the purpose of measuring deforestation. Software was used to re-examine the 2013 survey as an alternative to using the very expensive LiDAR technique, when it occurred to Auld-Thomas that making second use of the survey could work just as well.

The research suggests that when Maya civilizations collapsed around 800AD, part of the reason might have been because the region was too densely populated to survive problems encountered with the climate, and that often translates to too little potable water, impacting not only the irrigation of crops but water for everyday purposes in an urban setting. Inter-tribal war and the eventual arrival of Spanish conquistadors might well have contributed to the population's regional decline as well.

"It's suggesting that the landscape was just completely full of people at the onset of drought conditions and it didn't have a lot of flexibility left."

"And so maybe the entire system basically unravelled as people moved farther away."

Luke Auld-Thomas

Evidence of the ruins were found by a plane using laser remote sensing to map beneath the jungle canopy   Getty Images

Something is Fundamentally Wrong, Canada

"Approximately 90 percent of [the] firearms that we seize are directly traced back to the U.S."

"And I can say in reality the remaining 10 percent are likely also from the U.S." 

"The availability of firearms has just saturated the community."

Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah

"Our communities are experiencing a 45 percent increase in shootings and a 62 percent increase in gun-related homicides compared to this time last year."

"What difference does your [Trudeau government] handgun ban make when 85 percent of guns seized by our members can be sourced to the United States?"

Toronto Police Association

Seized firearms...Surrey, B.C.  The Canadian Press

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week marked the second anniversary of the 'handgun freeze', his sweeping crackdown on legal ownership of pistols which are classified as "restricted firearms". A restricted firearm must legally be: locked up at home, at a licensed gun range, or in the process of transport from one point to another. The handgun 'freeze' banned the "sale, purchase and transfer" of handguns. "We choose  your safety over the gun lobby -- every time", Trudeau declared.

Handguns have been placed in a category of stricter ownership rules than are "non-restricted" firearms like rifles and shotguns. Trudeau's statement let loose a cannonade of condemnation from police unions spurning a policy that Trudeau trumpets which in actual fact has no effect on gun crime. Police departments in Canada are fairly unanimous in stating that virtually all crime-related guns have their illegal genesis as imports from the United States.

A number of those illegal imports have been modified, their serial numbers removed, making them difficult to trace. Project Sledgehammer was the police investigation and dismantling of a gun smuggling ring. It led to the seizure of a shipment of "giggle switches"; black market devices that can transform an ordinary handgun into an automatic machine pistol.

Chief Duraiappah of the Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto including Mississauga and Brampton, stated that a decade earlier that if a criminal in the region wanted to acquire an illegal gun "it was doable, but it required a lot of work". Currently, Peel Police seize illegal guns every 30 hours; representing an 87 percent increase over the year previous. Even investigating an impaired driver might turn up one of these guns in his glove compartment.

Statistics Canada published 2022 data that "firearm-related violent crime" was currently at the highest rate on record since 2009. Recently, Statistics Canada published numbers indicating legal gun owners represented a small proportion of illegal firearms use. In their 2022 gun crime data analysis the agency recorded that the firearms used in homicides were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing.

 

Widespread handgun possession coincides with a countrywide rise in gun crime, inclusive of fatal shootings. Shootings went up 92 percent in the past year, according to York Regional Police covering an area east of Toronto. The Surrey Police Union in British Columbia working in the high crime municipality face similar problems. "The federal handgun freeze fails to address the real issue: the surge of illegal firearms coming across our borders and ending up in the hands of violent criminals."

 

Coupled with the tsunami of illegal guns entering Canada from the United States, leading to a spiked crime wave, Police forces across the country point to another contentious issue outstanding between police and the Trudeau government; the fact that violent recidivist criminals are given bail or early release through the Trudeau-government-mandated soft-on-crime justice system.

 

Toronto police say a spike in gun violence this year is a city-wide priority. Over the past six days, there have been seven shootings in the city — including two that were fatal. As youth firearm arrests in particular skyrocket, police say an escalating amount of the violence is coming from gangs recruiting children. CBC

"Something is fundamentally wrong ... when we keep putting citizens and police officers in harm's way because of bail, the revolving system of justice."

"Half the people that we pick up for a crime are known to us and have done another crime or are on bail."

Nando Iannicca, chair, Peel Police Service Board