Ukraine: Engage in Self-Defense or Do Good Service to the World?

"Ukraine never wanted this war. It is crucial to call things what they are. To call the aggressor an aggressor and help Ukraine defend lives."

"When deliveries of missiles for Ukraine's air defence are blocked while Russia is granted  relief or delays in sanctions, this is, unfortunately, a denial of reality on the part of our partners."

"This [Starshield malfunction] is slowing down our front-line logistics and limiting the use of various types of drones and interceptors of jet-powered 'shahed' [drones]."

"Delays in certain types of vital supplies [at the U.S. Defense Department] are also occurring."

"There are political agreements that have not been implemented at the working level."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy  UNN

 

Once again Ukrainian counteroffensive found itself in a bad place. Ukraine's reliance on the goodwill of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump has proven to be a rocky ride, one with all too many speedbumps that come complete with accusations and grudging accommodation with a side-helping of personal insults for the indomitable, dogged president of Ukraine who has become diplomatically adept at swallowing justified outrage and turning on the placatory mien of one who has little other choice. When this is all over and Ukraine is finally left in peace and security to continue its sovereign existence beside a brooding Russia, there should be a special medal of recognition bestowed on this man for perseverance.

 

Ukraine was faced with a true dilemma in its prosecution of existential defence against the violent predatory attacks from Moscow that continued -- against all international norms of warfare -- to target its cities, its civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, places of worship, shopping centers, apartment complexes and energy depots with the distinct purpose of demoralizing a vulnerable civilian population -- when it suddenly found itself without the early warning system it so depended upon. 

 

The frequent, powerful Russian missile and drone attacks that threaten Ukraine's population with waves of ballistic missiles and swift attack drones slammed into Kiev and other cities while the Ukrainian military discovered that suddenly the U.S. military-grade satellite it has been reliant on to enable it to warn citizens of incoming strikes and for the military to take evasive action in shooting them down left them unable to respond in their self-defense with air raid sirens. 

 

Musk said any limits on speed or usage of the Starshield system that Ukraine’s military relies on are “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS"  NurPhoto via Getty Images

 

Starlink's Starshield, indispensable to Ukraine's armed forces in their counteroffensive and defense had somehow failed, leaving the military in confusion at the sudden outage. "This is comparable to a nuclear strike against us. All operations are on hold", stated a military official. The interrupted connectivity abruptly cut off once Ukrainian drones and vehicles started moving faster than 100 miles an hour, rendering them useless for intercepting incoming Russian fire; Ukrainian defences were entirely hobbled.

 

Mysteriously, no one involved in providing that essential component in Ukraine's defense could explain what had gone wrong. The White House denied speculation that it was the source of the cut-off; Starlink's Elon Musk did likewise, attributing any possible loss of connectivity to a potential decision made by the U.S. War Department. Which also linked to the hold-up of European-paid missile interceptors whose delivery had been delayed at critical times of need in Ukraine, to Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of War failing to sign off on them. 

 

The United States was accused by President Zelenskyy of deliberately withholding vital intelligence by slowing the Starshield system speeds, so vital to the Ukrainian battlefield in launching counter-strikes. Washington denied any such orders on its part. Yet a direct link could be made from President Trump signing an agreement with Vladimir Putin for a diesel-supply agreement even as Mr. Trump angrily accused Mr. Zelenskyy for being a warmonger, by Ukraine forces attacking Russian oil refineries. 

 

Servicemen of the 68th Oleksa Dovbush Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine set up Starlink satellite internet system, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia

 

On its part, Russia's most recent strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities and cross-country civilian infrastructure, depriving over 500,000 civilian households of energy in approaching winter weather went unremarked, while  the country rallied to emergency repairs of its battered energy grid. "Once again, there was no early warning from our partners", observed President Zelenskyy in mourning over more deaths of his countrymen, women and children.

 

At accusations by President Trump that Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries were "seriously hurting" the global cost of diesel, accusing him of prolonging the war, Mr. Zelenskyy reminded his tormentor that it was not Ukraine that embarked on a war of aggressive territorial acquisition but it was President Vladimir Putin whose violently-expressed acquisitiveness and disregard for human life that was solely responsible. Ukraine, in case Mr. Trump had failed to notice, was doing what any other nation would do in such circumstances in defending itself. 

 

As for an order to slow speeds on the U.S. government-owned and controlled Starshield, President Trump gave that accusation short shrift, even though its developer Elon Musk whose SpaceX developed it, stated that only the White House could have made such a decision. Front-line units had reported that the Starshield equipment "stops functioning at speeds of 130 to 160 kilometres an  hour in various sectors of the front". And nor were the advanced U.S. Patriot interceptor systems being delivered to aid in Ukraine's air defense.

 

Finally the 'mishap' attributed to a malfunction, was overcome, and the Starshield once again activated to its full use, to the great relief of the Ukrainian military and its tenacious leader. Once again a vital component in Ukraine's defense restored, the Ukrainian military re-commenced with confidence its own counterattacks against Russian assets delivering to Russia's economy the same kind of pain that Russia does to that of Ukraine.

 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU summit in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, Geert Vanden Wiingaert, AP    

 

"We are thankful that intelligence works. I'm speaking about early warning, what is very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic is coming."

"[It is] important that we keep the conversation going."

"If there are issues about Ukraine, our future, it can be acceptable only when we are at the table of negotiations. It's absolutely clear."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"If you tell me that Zelenskyy is again shooting at refineries, all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher…I think that’s a disgrace."

"[There are a lot of targets he could hit] But when you shoot at diesel refineries, when you make diesel oil, and we need that and the world needs that, then he’s not doing a good service for the world."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump  

A policeman helps an elderly woman to walk out from a residential building damaged by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. Kateryna Klochko / AP

 

 

Remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre

"In the very beginning when I arrived in Canada, I didn't think I could be a lawyer again. The worst case is I would not pass [the exams]."

"I told myself, if some young people sacrifice their future for Hong Kong, why could I not do this? So I was not afraid of being arrested or being injured ... or even dying or having my licence [to practice law] removed. That was my first concern."

"I was not afraid because I could not see. If you see the police, they are running toward you, your direct reaction is to leave. But I could not see."

Expatriate Chinese-Canadian Joy Luk

Lawyer Joy Luk at her Markham, Ont., offices, Oct. 14, 2026. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /National Post

 

Now 47 years of age, Joy Luk has been blind since birth. Believing while still young that the rights of the disabled should be protected under the law, she had visions of herself becoming a lawyer. In China, she passed law school, obtaining a master's degree in human-rights law. She became an advocate for the disabled while practising general law in Hong Kong. As a resident of Hong Kong she valued the special freedoms that made the city different from the mainland. 

 

Until Beijing decided to cut short the agreement China had made with Britain to retain that special status for Hong Kong reflective of British rule in the colony. Loyal to Beijing, the Hong Kong government of the day proposed a new law to permit extradition from Hong Kong to the mainland, a signal to dissidents and others who professed their loyalty to a democratic regime, becoming vulnerable to a system that would make them outcasts, ending up in China's oppressive system of justice.

 

It was that legislation that led to the 2019 historic protests when  up to a million Hong Kongers flooded the streets in protests. Despite the mostly peaceful nature of the protests, violent clashes with police ensued, leading to a crackdown that served to obliterate most of the traditional political freedoms customary in Hong Kong before it was handed back to China. Blind, or not, Joy Luk joined the maelstrom of dissent giving legal advice to demonstrators. 

 

Violent clashes broke out in Hong Kong on June 12 as police tried to stop protesters storming the city’s parliament, while tens of thousands of people blocked key arteries in a show of strength against government plans to allow extraditions to China. (Photo by ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP) 

 

 Joy Luk's involvement as a blind woman in the protests made her a recognized figure in the movement. "She stood out. Despite all the oppression and suppression by the police, she was willing to stand up front and be counted", narrated Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China. Finally, government forces and the police prevailed, the protesters dispersed, many had been arrested, and the protests came to an end.

 

The experience Joy Luk recalls was not pleasant in its immediate personal consequences, which saw her home undergoing repeated searches. She was arrested without charges being laid at a demonstration that had taken place in close proximity to a police station. She recalls standing in the street arguing with police to ensure that demonstrators were able to leave before being taken into custody on warrantless charges. On one occasion, police rushing toward the crowd crashed into the blind woman standing at the front, breaking her arm.  

 

Since April 2019, up to 2 million people came out to protest in Hong Kong   Jimmy Lam/everydayaphoto

 

Seven years later she left Hong Kong, hoping to spare her parents any further notice from police. Living in Toronto, she still has nightmares of night-time knocking at her apartment door. In Canada, she speaks at commemoration vigils for the Tiananmen Square vigils, of the 'criminalization' of dissent. She has picketed outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto.

 

In the interim, she succeeded in obtaining a Global Professional Master of Laws degree at University of Toronto, passing bar-admission exams as a blind woman, and now set to practice law in Ontario. She expresses her gratitude at being accepted as an immigrant to Canada and the assistance given her as she settled in. What she finds it difficult to come to terms with is the current federal government's initiatives toward trade  relations with Beijing.   

"I guess they [Canadian Liberal government led by Mark Carney] are not eager to fight for freedom of the people in Hong Kong and other parts of China under that kind of tyranny."

"Because they want to sell some things to China ... "

"We are very disappointed by this."

Joy Luk 

She found help as a newly-arrived immigrant starting life over anew as a blind person with aspirations to practice law again in her new home, with a particular focus on human rights and support for the disabled, though the Toronto Association for Democracy in China. On her arrival in 2021, she was gifted with 18 months of free rent in a Toronto apartment by one of the association's members, while others helped with her living expenses and the legal costs associated with her immigration status. 

 

In 2024 she was accepted into the University of Toronto Masters program and finally sat for the exams for bar-admission. She made use of a computer program that converted the exam text to speech through an electronic voice. "I had to ask AI ... 'Using a blind person's perspective, describe this picture, this figure to me and let me know what it's showing'", as part of an exam question requiring an applicant to peruse an image.

 

She is now employed part-time at a Markham law firm, north of Toronto. Even with her attention focused on her new life in Canada, she is adamant that the world remember what she and thousands like her fought for seven years ago, in Hong Kong.  

"We believe that after several years, if we do not do anything, then people will forget what happened in 2019 [just like the 1989 Tiananmen massacre]."

"We have no choice but to do something."

Joy Luk 

Navi Pillay, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Navi Pillay speaks during a news conference in Geneva on Sept. 16, 2025, during her time as chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (Fabrince Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

 

"As I was sitting in Courtroom 600, I see that we are continuing the work that started here in Nuremberg, in such a way that we are delivering anew on the 'never again promise'."

"You interpret the law, you look at all the facts, so that it's impartial decision-making." 

Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay

 

"Navi Pillay's commitment to justice and human dignity is a source of hope and inspiration to all who seek to bring about a more peaceful world."

"The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack. We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice."

"Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence." 

Nobel Committee

 

"In her first two years Pillay] turned a blind eye to most of the world's worst abusers, being completely silent on abuses in Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Belarus, Syria, and 27 other countries rated 'Not Free' by Freedom House."

UN Watch

In Courtroom 600, at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, the post-WWII world powers of Britain, France, Russia and the United States oversaw the trials and prosecution that the Nuremberg Trials became famous for, holding to account the senior Nazi officials responsible for crimes against humanity, including the extermination of six million of Europe's Jewish population during the Holocaust years. Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Jew-baiter Julius Streicher, Austrian quisling and tyrant of the occupied Netherlands Seyss-Inquart, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Jodl, Frick, Keitel, Sauckel, and Rosenberg were sent to the gallows.

 

"The judges at their bench (left) in Room 600 at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, during proceedings against leading Nazi figures for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal (IMT), Germany, 1945. Left to right: Alexander F. Volchkov and Iona T. Nikitchenko of the USSR, Sir Norman Birkett and Sir Geoffrey Lawrence of Great Britain, Francis Biddle and John J. Parker of the USA, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres and Robert Falco of France." —Description from Getty Images

 

Seven of Hitler's trusted senior Nazis officials convicted of grave crimes against humanity were sentenced individually from life imprisonment to ten years in Germany's Spandau Prison, overseen by Britain, France, Russia and the United States. Between them, only Russia would have been satisfied to see them all hang; the other three opted for humane, albeit prison-secure conditions to be meted out to Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, Walthur Funk, Karl Donitz, Constantin von Neurath, and Erich Raeder. 

 

Despite that these were all Protestants by religion, their wives worked tirelessly, appealing to any authorities who would listen to them, for their husbands' sentences to be adjusted in favour of their earlier release by asking for private audiences with the-then-Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as with West Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Pope Pius XII, sympathetic to their plight, agreed to meet them at Castel Gandolfo. So much for the international tribunal for inhumane crimes.

 

Navi Pillay's recognition as the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate in this context bespeaks a world of sanctimonious respect for human rights, yet one that fails spectacularly to distinguish the rights of victims as opposed to that of their victimizers. As a young lawyer Navi Pillay distinguished herself contesting apartheid. While on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, rape and sexual violence was recognized with her assistance as constituting a form of genocide.

 

In 2008 as UN Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Watch accused Navay Pillay of double standards for completely ignoring many of the world's excessive human rights abusers while at the same time holding Israel to account for putative human rights crimes. She saw nothing amiss in issuing 21 statements identifying countries in the Middle East and North Africa, nine of which specifically targeted Israel. A letter was sent by 100 members of the U.S. Congress in 2014 addressed to Pillay that the Human Rights Council "cannot be taken seriously as a human rights organization" when it constantly criticizes Israel, at the same time ignoring Hamas terrorism.

 

Eleven years later, leading the Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territories, a report was issued denouncing Israel for committing 'genocide' in Gaza. "On 7 October 2023 Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, which included airstrikes and ground operations." In point of fact it was not  until 27 October that Israel launched its ground invasion in search of Hamas terrorists who had led a broad invasion of southern Israel launching a systematic, planned assault of farming communities when mass rape, dismemberment, wholesale slaughter of 1,200 and kidnapping of over 200 took place on October 7.

 

No inconvenient mention of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists in their thousands who poured across from Gaza into Israel on October 7 that predated Israel's incursion into Gaza to track down the terrorists sheltering behind Palestinian civilians whom Israel had warned to leave the areas it meant to bomb, having identified those areas as Hamas weapons depots, headquarters, communications centers and military operations bases, some located in schools and hospitals. 

B'nai Brith International responded to the Pillay report with incredulity at its stark bias: "B'nai Brith International is appalled and dismayed by the selection of Navi Pillay for the Nobel Peace Prize. This choice is not only unwarranted but offensive and damaging."

"It cheapens the world's leading prize for peacemaking and further reinforces a sense of isolation by Jews facing a surge in global antisemitism."  

This woman's history is replete with shameful alliances. When some 20 nations took to boycotting the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2011 in recognition of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo whom China had repeatedly jailed as a political and human right activist for campaigning for democracy, Navi Pillay saw fit to align herself with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 

 

Prosecutor Robert Jackson over 80 years ago at Nuremberg identified the men on trial for "crimes against the peace of the world" who represented "sinister influences" as "living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence". A truly apt description in 2026 of Palestinian terrorists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, and the terrorist state of the Islamic Republic of Iran for whom the above are all proxies. 

 

This would be the very same Iran that has been elevated time and again at the United Nations to sit on its varying committees; the very exemplar of racial hatred, of terrorism and violence, the world's most terror-supporting state is treated with deference in the hallowed corridors of the United Nations, which Navi Pillay was a perfect fit for. Iran has sat on the UN's Economic and Social Council, as a member of the Committee for Programme and Coordination linked to programs related to human rights, women's rights, disarmament and terrorism prevention.

 

Both the United Nations and the Nobel Committee have surrendered their souls to the devil. 

UN Global Compact: UN General Assembly

  

"Navi Pillay oversaw the communication of names of over 50 dissidents to China."

"[She was] complicit [in handing over the names of Uhyghr dissidents to China]." 

"They testified, under oath, to their family members being intimidated, arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed in concentration camps."

"This is an absolutely travesty of 'peace'." 

Emma Reilly, human rights lawyer 

 

President Donald J. Trump's Wildly Popular Canada Tariffs

"A lot of the private conversation is trying to push to stop this war with Canada."

"A lot of them privately are putting pressure on this ... and are going to the Commerce Department, Treasury, White House and saying, 'Look you're really hurting Americans here. Knock it off'." 

"It does not seem like Trump seems to care ... whether tariffs are popular or not or whether people are being harmed or not." 

"You don't get very far in American politics by telling people, 'I've got your vote in the bag, and I don't care about you."

"What I would like voters ... to pull out of all this at the end of the day is to understand that tariffs are taxes."

"They're not taxes on foreigners; they're taxes on  your own people, your own industries, your own businesses, and that this is not the solution." 

Richard Stern, vice-president, Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise, Advancing American Freedom

 

"Canada buys about ... 82 percent of everything North Dakota sells abroad."

"[And] 88 percent of everything Montana buys from abroad comes from Canada."

Kat Miller, policy analyst, Advancing American Freedom 

 

"Canada is not China. It is our neighbour, our friend, our closest ally, and our biggest trading partner."

"I have been strongly voting against the tariffs with Canada, but I've also been working behind the scenes."

Senator Susan Collins, Maine

“They’ll end up being the 51st state, because that’s the only way it works,” Trump told the crowd. “We don’t need them, but they need us.”  NTV

 

Along the Canada-U.S. border the states neighbouring Canada are deeply unhappy about their president's tariff war with Canada, according to a new analysis by Advancing American Freedom. Canada, it points out, plays a vital economic role even in deeply red Republican states like Montana and North Dakota, and not only in Maine with its lumber trade, and Michigan's heavily integrated automotive manufacturing.

 

According to the AAF analytics, 62 and 55 percent of Maine and Vermont's international goods trade is accounted for by Canada. As for North Dakota and Montana, states that President Trump carried by 36 and 20 percentage points respectively in 2024, trade with Canada accounted for 77 percent in both of those Republican states. Mineral fuels account for 80 percent of North Dakota's exports to Canada, exempt from Canadian countertariffs. 

 

The disruption in trade between signal American states and Canada has had a deleterious impact not only in Canada, but in the United States as well, and a rising tide of anger over their imposition is impinging on the prospects of the upcoming midterm elections. In deep-red states the impact of the tariffs has made for some pressure points for the White House to consider; whether party loyalty will carry through to election day or whether those Republicans speaking out against the tariffs will express their frustration at the ballot box. 

 

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a recent podcast appearance that American officials are 'closely watching' for election interference by Canadians. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

 

The Trump administration's representative in Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, as far from a diplomat as anyone can imagine, has issued a stark warning to Canada that the U.S. is 'watching closely' and Canada had better keep its 'nose out of' American politics. "We're monitoring it, we're evaluating it and if some of it becomes election interference then America will respond to it", warned Hoekstra darkly, accusing Canada of making trouble for the Trump administration.

 

Analysts have pointed out that this president works to bypass Congress; the tariffs have been imposed by presidential policy without Congressional involvement, leaving trade watchers skeptical that the disruptive disagreements between Republican senators and representatives uncomfortable with the tariff war and how it has impacted their states as well as voting patterns, will result in any notice by President Trump whose mercurial impulsiveness that fails to understand repercussions, no one can control. 

 

"In terms of trade policy, it's very executive-driven these days", points out trade policy analyst Alfred Carillo at the Cato Institute. "Even if Congress did [push back], it probably wouldn't have made a difference."  John Hopkins' Sands expressed his dismay with the apparent indifference to the electoral costs by President Trump who is immovable on his tariff file, indifferent to how his personal animosity to Canada may eventually play out.

 

The pure fact of the matter is that after several years of back-and-forth tariff threats that have proven to impact industry and consumers on both sides of the border, a majority of Americans are known, in a current atmosphere of a crisis of affordability to oppose the tariffs. At the same time it is believed by those who have a stake in this game of one-upshmanship, that Mr. Trump plans to continue his tariff agenda, whether or not it costs the GOP.

 

Voting outcomes on November 3 will demonstrate whether that opposition will ultimately transcribe to votes. 

Canadian steelmakers offset some U.S. tariff pain with domestic demand

Stelco's Hamilton operations steel production facility is pictured from across the Hamilton Harbour in Burlington, Ont., on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn

 

"In a normal presidency, yes, because it means there's somebody who the president knows who can pick up the phone and have a conversation ... and say 'We really need to do this for my voters who are  your voters too."

"This president hasn't worked Capitol Hill that much ... [Trump] seems to write off the whole institution as irrelevant."

"His indifference to the fate of his party in Congress is ... pretty unusual."

Christopher Sands, director, Center for Canadian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington 

 

"I think it does matter. In fact, this has always been part of Canada's playbook, which is to lobby with state and local governments that are Republican that are trade dependent with Canada."

"Whether it's sufficient to ... nudge the president is another matter altogether."

"[It] doesn't necessarily mean that the president is gonna change his tune." 

Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director/senior fellow, Americas Program, CSIS, Washington 

Canadian UVG Production Partnership with Ukraine

"The need and demand for UGVs [uncrewed ground vehicles] in Ukraine is massive."

"The Ukrainian government has asked for 20,000 alone. We're also thinking about this in terms of the broader [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] alliance, as there is a clear need for autonomous systems in the Arctic."

"We definitely have the parts available in Canada and for those that we don't, we will endeavour to invest in. But sourcing entirely from Canada is the intention."

Eliot Pence, founder, CEO, Dominion Dynamics, Ottawa

AuraNet, Dominion’s Arctic-hardened autonomy stack, will serve as the onboard intelligence layer for TENCORE’s TerMIT, with companies targeting 2027 production  CDR  

 

There are firm plans underway for a production partnership in producing materiel for Ukraine's defence against its neighbour Russia's 'special military operation', now into its fifth year of conflict. Canadian defence technology company Dominion Dynamics Inc. has been in discussion with Ukraine's Tencore LLC to jointly agree to manufacture uncrewed ground vehicles in Canada for ultimate shipment to the Ukrainian military.

 

At the Association of the United States Army's annual conference that takes place in Washington, D.C., the two companies signed a memorandum (MOU) of understanding, and both are now looking forward to finalizing the agreement toward the first few months of 2027. According to Eliot Pence of Dominion Dynamics, "tens of millions" of dollars will result from the partnership.

 

Tencore, which makes UGVs and is based in Kyiv, produces them for defence and civilian use alternatives and has to date delivered some 5,000 of the units, sometimes called ground robots or land drones, since 2004 to the Ukrainian military, "We aim to scale that number up dramatically", stated Pence. Tencore's drone-making experience and Dominion's AuraNet -- a software system designed for Arctic operations -- will form a partnership to combine their assets in the production of the vehicles. 

"We were very interested in Stellantis [acquiring the soon-to-be-abandoned plant], but the reality is there are other facilities that are not in the middle of a union dispute or negotiations."

"Our timeline is much quicker and more rapid, so we just need to get moving."

"There's no reason why we shouldn't be ... aligning the defence industrial strategy with this kind of critical asset that we've built up over the last 60 years."

Eliot Pence

Ukrainian serviceman examining an uncrewed ground vehicle at a military training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region on March 13, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by ANDRIY ANDRIYENKO/65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP via Getty Images files

 

The plan is for Tencore to assign a team to lead the initial technology transfer and train Canadian technicians by early 2027, to build the UGVs. Dominion's Kanata facility is where the assembly and testing is to take place. Components needed in construction of the vehicles -- from drivetrains to robotic and propulsion system parts -- will be acquired where possible from Canadian suppliers. As well, Dominion has advocated for idle automotive and electric vehicle plants in Canada to be converted for manufacturing in the defence sector. 

 

There are three such facilities in Onario and Quebec that Dominion is assessing, to boost its manufacturing footprint to 450,000 square feet from its current 3,000 square feet facility; an aerospace and defence site in Toronto may provide the solution to the search. In Germany, as an example, Volkswagen AG converted one former auto factory into a defence manufacturing hub and Rheimetall AG is turning former auto and industrial plants into military and munitions factories. "I strongly believe that we should be doing the same", said Mr. Pence.

 

None of this has slipped by the notice of Russia. Both Canada and Germany have given dedicated assistance to Ukraine in its counteroffensive campaign against Russia's territorial ambitions to annex as much Ukrainian geography into a Greater Russia that Vladimir Putin plans to resemble the long-dissolved Soviet Union. Under his direction, Russian operatives have infiltrated the West and a type of asymmetric shadow conflict is ongoing.

 

Western intelligence has uncovered plots to have the corporate heads of weapons manufacturers whose products go toward the Ukrainian military countermeasures that strike Russian oil depots and military installations within Russia become assassination targets. A message to the West that Russia will not tolerate Western aid to Ukraine. Just as the Russian military is doing in Ukraine with its internationally illegal and human rights defying targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities, hitting power plants and apartment buildings with predictable human casualties, it infuriates Moscow that Kyiv has the impertinence to hit back, calling such strikes 'terrorism'.  

 

TERMIT. Image: TENCOR

 

"There's a contribution by Ukraine in terms of intellectual property and demand, from Dominion in terms of productive capacity and from the Canadian government to actually acquire those assets and send them over there."

"Those are the three [pillars] that need to actually get operationalized before we have UGVs with AuraNet on the battlefield in Ukraine." 

Eliot Pence 

Forewarned Is Forearmed -- Or Is It?

"[Threats to such facilities mark a] major shift [in] Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets like military sites."

"[The suspected plot against the Royal Air Force Fairford base, on September 27 was] not unique. [There have] been other examples [of similar threats to installations] not just in the U.K. but around the world -- most particularly in Iran's own region." 

"[Iran has been forced to rely on] hiring criminals to do their bidding [in Britain and Europe]." 

"Given what we've seen in practise, [Iran has not demonstrated] anywhere near the level of capability [to launch a sophisticated attack on British military bases or other installations]."

"Since I started in this role in 2020, there has been another generational shift. We have again entered a new era of national security – requiring a new response."  

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum 

 

"[We will] keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we've avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations." 

"[People should] stay away from Zionist and American interests." 

Iran proxy group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — or The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous (IMCR)

Director General of MI5 Ken McCallum speaks at Thames House, the headquarters of the U.K.'s Security Service in London, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP, Pool)

 

In its yearly update to dangers facing the United Kingdom and its allies, MI-5's director-general laid out his agency's most pressing concerns among which was the plot uncovered a month earlier as an example, against a British airbase, as forming a scheme plotted by the Islamic Republic of Iran to mount unattributed attacks by in situ groups infiltrating the U.K. and acting as agents for Iran. The attacks have struck high-security targets such as military sites and intelligence facilities. 

 

"The intensity and scale and shape" of the threat emanating from Iran is "shifting at the moment". The linkage reflects fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran seven months earlier, motivating Iran and its Republican Islamic Guard Corps to focus on threatening and attacking American allies. The annual address on security threats included Mr. McCallum's security assessment that Russia "remains aggressor No. 1" against Britain and its allies which links to European support for Ukraine during Russia's now-five-year 'special military operation'. 

 

In recognition of the prevalence of the threats and the nature of the attacks, MI-5 saw the necessity of forming a dedicated new intelligence group linked to the agency meant to focus on potential threats that may in time become a more dire threat not only to the region, but beyond. Advances in artificial intelligence that take into account the possibility of chemical or biological weapons manufacturing guided by AI, and their potential use as instruments of warfare. 

 

Police patrol the perimeter of RAF Fairford as a U.S. Air Force Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber lands Sept. 28.  Ben Birchall / Press Association via Getty

 

"[Iran has demonstrated that it is] keen on subcontracting its U.K. violence … using criminal proxies to try to intimidate oppositionists, Iranian media organizations, and Israeli sites."

"Sadly, much of this aggression has been aimed at British Jewish communities, with whom I want to express solidarity." 

The interrupted plot against the Fairford airbase is still under investigation by British counterterrorism police. Its occurrence saw the United States evacuate the dozen B-1 bombers it had stationed at the airbase. Recent weeks saw some seven suspects arrested, including five British citizens who were detained soon after midnight on September 27 and subsequently released on bail. The five were in three vans travelling toward the base perimeter, used by U.S. bombers in their strikes on Iran. A nearby farmer was alerted to their suspicious presence and informed police.

 

This was an apprehended incident marking a departure from more recent years' pattern where Iran has been linked to lower-level proxy attacks recruited online to engage in sabotage, arson or stabbings, many of which targeted Jewish communities. Over 50 arrests have been made in the past year in "Iran-linked operations", stated Mr. McCallum. These activities are known to have taken place as well in Canada where Iranian-linked criminals were hired to disrupt life and target Jewish institutions.   

"Many terrorists would dearly love to have some kind of capability with bio, chem or radiological weaponry."

"[If guardrails meant to safeguard the spread of AI fail to gain complete control, a risk presents that] AI could generate novel pathogens not previously seen."

"[A new MI-5] threat centre [was created this year with an aim to focus on such dangers]."

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  

It seems clear enough that what cannot be predicted and what has become a publicly-aired dilemma over increasingly alarming news being released from among the Artificial Intelligence community that bots are striking out on their own -- deliberately taking steps to shield their activities from the notice of their human trainers to plot among themselves and act in swarms disrupting communications while managing to escape the guardrails meant to confine them -- is becoming an entirely new threat on its own. 

 

According to Mr. McCallum, the technology is "supercharging the cybersecurity contest between attackers and defenders". His concern and that of his agency is that AI could enable terrorist networks or state adversaries in the acquisition of  unconventional and extremely toxic and potent weapons that the world must now contemplate contending with. Much, much simpler to deal with challenges posed by state actors in their supercharged yet hard-to-pin-down efforts at world domination.

 

The world is faced with the trifecta of China's and Russia's ambitions on the world stage to prove themselves contenders for the position of superpowers, and the theist-motivated fundamentalism of Islamist conquest exemplified by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy terrorist groups to fundamentally alter the world's religious, cultural, social, judicial, academic and human rights normalcy from the contemporary struggling against the worldwide threat of infiltration and Muslim population density power of institutional alteration of Western democracy.  

"[Russian military and intelligence services] are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare, [while being careful not to trigger NATO’s Article 5 threshold, in which other countries would be expected to defend their allies]."

"We see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding. The whole aim of hybrid tactics is to try to intimidate us."

"[Within the U.K.’s] multifaceted relationship with China [— Beijing is a major trading partner to London — MI5 has been focused on efforts by the Chinese government] to conduct espionage, coercion or democratic interference."

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  

Police officers at Leipzig Airport in Saxony, Germany, search for a drone Aug. 7. Sebastian Willnow / dpa via AP

 

Senagalese Criminalizes of the LGBTQ Community

"In many African languages, including Wolof [the local language in Senegal], terms have long existed to describe realities related to homosexuality, proof that it is neither new nor imported."

"On the other hand, the laws that repress them are, for the most part, a legacy of colonisation. Whether it be the French-inspired penal codes or the 'sodomy laws' introduced by the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria, these provisions were imposed from outside. And the foreign forces pushing Senegal to prosecute homosexual and transgender people, and even to ban any calm debate on the issue, are very diverse." 

"Furthermore, several African countries have recently moved towards greater recognition of rights: Botswana, Mozambique, Gabon and Angola have decriminalised homosexuality in recent years. These choices show that, within Africa itself, there are diverse paths forward, and that no inevitability condemns the continent to repression." 

Open letter sent last May to President Faye of Senegal

Senegal will host the first-ever Olympic sporting event on African soil – the fourth edition of the Youth Olympic Games from Oct 31 to Nov 13.  PHOTO: REUTERS

 

"The Olympic Charter prohibits discrimination on any grounds and commits host countries to respect human rights and human dignity."

"The ongoing government crackdown on LGBT people raises serious concerns about Senegal's compliance with international law, the Olympic charter, and Senegal's own laws."

HRW/ Larissa Kojoue, HRW rights researcher 

The West African nation of Senegal adopted new legislation in March that would widen the penalties already on its books for same-sex relations up to a ten-year prison sentence. Recent months have seen the predominantly Muslim country experiencing a wave of homophobia -- with dozens of people arrested on suspicion of same-sex relations.

 

In August, 71 men were referred to trial for "acts against nature", a quaint term referring to same-sex relations. This, at a time when the country is set to be the first African country to host the first Olympic sporting event, set to welcome 2,700 young athletes for the fourth edition of the October 31 to November 13 Youth Olympic Games. 

 

Senegal is set to host Dakar 2026 amid allegations of human rights violations towards its LGBT+ community.    Seyllou/GETTY IMAGES

 

Criticism of Senegal's move to double its punishment for those caught, or assumed to be engaging in same-sex acts that the population views as religiously reprehensible, has questioned its commitment to upholding the requisite standards in human rights spelled out in the code of the Olympic charter. Human Rights Watch came right to the point: that in Senegal, "rights causing increasing fear and stigma are being violated, and should be ended immediately". 

 

Fear of arrest and stigma, stressed the rights group, drives individuals into hiding. The targeted 'criminals' avoid being tested for HIV and much-needed treatment, a situation serving as well to deter the legal community from engaging in legal representational relations with members of the LGBTQ community. They are left in abandonment, to defend themselves in a country that denies them defence.

 

The law abridging their human rights was passed in the National Assembly by an overwhelming majority. A law which establishes criminal penalties for anyone found guilty of promoting or financing same-sex relationships. Senegal also denounces LGBTQ rights advocacy as a method the West uses to impose their own nihilistic values on other countries.

 

IOC says it has 'full confidence' in Senegal authorities, as report lays out scale of the Youth Olympics host nation’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.   outsports.com