Wall Street Journal: New migrant surge tests Canada’s welcoming stance. A small group of people from Nigeria and Mali stepped off a shuttle bus here on a recent evening and lugged suitcases and backpacks along a country road toward the border with Canada. A Canadian police officer was waiting there to arrest them. The group is part of a fresh wave of asylum seekers flooding into Canada in recent weeks, undeterred by the threat of arrest and posing the latest test for Canada’s immigration-friendly stance. Roughly 2,600 people used unofficial border crossings like this one to enter the country in April, according to Canadian police data. That marked the latest surge following the crossing last summer of some 8,500 asylum seekers.

Seattle Times: Microsoft and B.C. companies invest in Canadian tech cluster. Vancouver, B.C., officials and business leaders, including from Microsoft, unveiled details of their government-backed plan to make British Columbia into a digital-technology center. The effort in the province, called the Digital Technology Supercluster, is one of five consortia around Canada that were picked by the federal government this year to share in a $950 million Canadian ($742 million U.S.) investment designed to spark economic development. The digital-tech group will focus on data, especially helping companies that have been collecting massive amounts of data for years but haven’t been able to fully make sense of it or utilize it in the most effective ways.

Deutsche Welle: US air security ‘regrets’ telling Canadian minister to remove turban. A Canadian Cabinet minister and devout Sikh says he was subjected to a discriminatory security check at a US airport in 2017. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration lodged a formal complaint with US officials. Canadian Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said airport officials in Detroit subjected him to discriminatory screening for wearing a turban as required by Sikhism. US authorities have apologized for the incident, which occurred while Bains was returning to Canada after meeting Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other officials in 2017.

The Guardian: Sorry not sorry: is Canada apologising too much? Canada’s sorriest prime minister is getting on people’s nerves. “What else does he do, besides apologize for things that happened years and years ago?” Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu asked this week. The news that occasioned Gladu’s remark was Trudeau’s statement on Tuesday that he would be issuing a formal apology for Canada’s refusal to let the MS Saint Louis land in Halifax in 1939. The 907 Jewish men, women and children fleeing Germany had already been turned away by Cuba and the United States. But as an immigration official of the period remarked, when it came to Jews entering Canada, “None is too many.” The vessel was turned back to Europe, where 254 of the ship’s passengers died in concentration camps. By Linda Besner.

BBC: Toronto van attack suspect faces more attempted murder charges. The Canadian man accused of killing 10 people in a van attack in Toronto is facing three additional charges of attempted murder. Alek Minassian, 25, is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and now faces 16 counts of attempted murder in connection to the 23 April attack. He was arrested near the scene of the attack on Yonge Street, following a tense standoff with a police officer. Mr Minassian is said to have identified with the misogynistic “incel” movement.

BBC: Canada protects largest coniferous forest in the world. Canada will soon have the largest protected boreal forest – an area twice the size of Belgium – on the planet. Some 1.6m hectares of remote land in the province of Alberta are being made into new or extended provincial parks. A 6.7m hectare conservation zone will now be protected and free from logging or oil and gas exploration. Boreal (or coniferous) forests occur in northern climes with long, cold winters and short summers. They are among the world’s densest forests.

Le Monde: Canada wants to produce “green”, carbon-free aluminum. Supported by Apple and the governments of Quebec and Canada, Alcoa and Rio Tinto are counting on a new process that releases only oxygen into the atmosphere. On May 10, the Alcoa and Rio Tinto groups announced their desire to start a joint venture, Elysis, to operate a process that does not emit carbon dioxide at all, unlike traditional fusion technology. The plant will be the first of its kind in the world, in Jonquière, Northern Quebec considered the industrial centre of the Canadian aluminum production. The investment amounts to 558 million Canadian dollars (365 million euros). Ottawa and Quebec each put 39 million euros on the table, Apple 8.5 million, Alcoa and Rio Tinto 278 million.

Zawya – United Arab Emirates: Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts launch novel training program in partnership with McGill University’s Faculty of Law. The innovative program aims to train future jurists across multiple legal systems, including civil and common law. Students admitted to the program will undergo intensive training in both systems to prepare them to adjudicate in ever-increasing complex disputes of international scope. The program was announced in a session organized by the Canadian Business Council in Dubai and hosted by DIFC Courts. The session was attended by representatives of the Dubai Investment Development Agency and the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE, in which they discussed the role of Canada-UAE trade relations in boosting trade across various global hubs. Canada’s Consul General to the UAE, Emmanuel Kamarianakis, said that he’s pleased with the Consulate’s support for such program, which reflects Canadian long-standing diversity in legal traditions of over 150 years, and that education institutions in Canada are most suited for qualifying attorneys of law to practice within different legal frameworks and reconcile between them.

Al Khaleej – United Arab Emirates: Canadian University Dubai graduates 360 students. The 8th graduation ceremony, held at Dubai Opera, was attended by Masud Husain, the Ambassador of Canada to the United Arab Emirates, and members of the University’s Board of Trustees, Sheila Copps, former Minister of Environment, Dalton McGuinty, former Premier of Ontario province, and Aldea Landry, former Deputy Premier of New Brunswick province.

Al Riyadh – Saudi Arabia: Saudi Ambassador meets with the President of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Ambassador Al-Sudairy has met with Roseann O’Reilly and discussed cooperation in innovation and technology. O’Reilly lauded the investments the Kingdom has made in research infrastructure, and the plans outlined in Vision 2030 to transform Saudi Arabia from oil- to knowledge-based economy.

Kuwait News Agency: Kuwait’s Petrochemicals Industries Company (PIC) awarded marketing rights to Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation’s (CKPC) Alberta polypropylene facility. PIC announced that it has signed an agreement with CKPC to be the exclusive marketing agent for the latter’s proposed production facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta, with capacity to produce 550 thousand metric tons of polypropylene. The Company will sell homopolymers and random and high impact copolymers to global markets, with focus on North America. Senior VP Marketing of CKPC, Stuart Tylor, said that PIC, with its large production capacity and global marketing capabilities, offers an ideal platform for his company to add value and select its clients.

Al Rai – Jordan: $100 million is Canada’s aid to Jordan. In a meeting with the Director of the Karak office of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, the Canadian Ambassador to Jordan, Peter MacDougall, said that Canada’s development aid to Jordan shot up to $80 million, up from $8 million in 2012, which brings the total to $100 million when accounting for additional humanitarian aid. The Government of Canada has at its priorities expanding cooperation with Jordan by providing material support to help with accommodating the influx of Syrian refugees, who’ve added pressure to an already challenged local economy. Meanwhile, the embassy of Canada to Jordan is working closely with the Jordanian Ministry of Education to maintain the quality of local education by taking pressure off public schools, and by offering suitable education to refugee children. Another priority in Jordan is enabling the participation of women in economic development, specially when the current rate is as low as 13%. The Ambassador pointed out to the financial support provided by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives which promote democracy, human rights, and sustainable social development. Finally, the Ambassador acknowledged the importance of the youth in driving community development and noted his embassy’s efforts in that regard by training more than 600 young men and women via entrepreneurship programs.

Youm 7 – Egypt: Canada’s embassy and the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies launch the Egyptian Women in Entrepreneurship Guide. The Guide aims to define the barriers to economic empowerment of Egyptian women and the factors to accelerate change, as well as to provide necessary assistance – both preliminary and later-stage – to existing and potential entrepreneurs. During the launch ceremony, the Ambassador of Canada to Egypt, Jess Dutton, said in his speech that enabling women, both economically and politically, is a priority to Canada’s development efforts worldwide, and that it lies at the heart of Canada’s development aid to Egypt as well. Dutton added that supporting women’s entrepreneurship initiatives shall promote commerce and create jobs for both genders.

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