Stories written by Paul Weinberg
Paul Weinberg is a Toronto-based freelancer writer who has written for IPS since 1996. He is also a regular contributor to local weekly magazine NOW and specializes in Canadian politics, in particular foreign, security and defence policy. Paul is currently writing a book on the RCMP’s spying on academics in Canada during the 1960s. | Web

CANADA: Harper Courts Religious Right, But Quietly

Stephen Harper's ruling Conservative government has managed to muddy the ideological right-wing aspects of his political agenda to stay in power in Canada without alienating his western and rural base of moral and social conservatives.

CANADA: Afghanistan Exit Could Bring Escalated Air War

Amid reports that the Barack Obama administration is quietly lobbying the Conservative government in Ottawa to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan's Kandahar province beyond 2011, Stephen Harper is finding himself in an increasingly awkward dilemma.

US-CANADA: Shared Border, Unilateral Policy?

Canada and the United States are on different wavelengths when it comes to a shared and increasingly hardening of what had been a sleepy border within North America.

POLITICS: Cleared of Terrorism, Canadian Stranded in Khartoum

The murky post-9/11 sharing of information between western security and intelligence agencies and Sudan's notorious human rights-abusing regime appear to be at the heart of a year-long marooning of Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik at his country's embassy in Khartoum.

ECONOMY: Entwined with U.S., Canada Tries to Minimise Exposure

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no choice but to project optimism about his nation's ability to pull out of the economic recession by next year, although various economists and a former central bank chairman have all offered grimmer forecasts that the downturn will persist for a longer period.

ECONOMY-CANADA: Conservatives’ Budget Skimps on Stimulus

Canada's reluctance to institute a full stimulus package in the recent federal government budget has international parallels, says Armine Yalnizyan, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

A UGM-96 Trident missile clears the water during an October 1984 demonstration launch from the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine USS Mariano G. Vallejo. Credit: U.S. Navy

POLITICS: Will U.S. Soften Stance on Nuclear Arsenal?

A rollercoaster ride of spurned treaties, efforts to fund new weapons and the expansion of potential targets for nuclear strikes under the George W. Bush administration to include Iran and North Korea may be drawing to a close after eight years.

CANADA: Jewish Defence League Energised by Israel’s Far Right

Like an aging group of retro rocker musicians, the Jewish Defence League (JDL) resurfaced in Toronto recently after a decade of dormancy, trying to look a little more mainstream.

CANADA: Some Say Afghan Mission Is in the Wrong Hands

As Canada's parliament debates whether to extend the country's mission in Afghanistan beyond next year's withdrawal deadline, some peace advocates and conflict resolution experts say a U.N.-led mission is the best bet to negotiate a peace settlement involving all of the major parties in the ongoing civil war.

Canadian forces on patrol in Afghanistan. Credit: Canadian Department of National Defence

POLITICS: Canada Ponders its Future in Afghanistan

As the Conservative government of Stephen Harper awaits a panel report on Canada's military role in Afghanistan beyond February 2009, when the current mandate expires, there is widespread unease among analysts on both sides of the North American border that operational decisions are deep-sixing political goals and about the possibility of a widening conflict.

Afghan boys watch Canadian soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group conduct a patrol in the mountains near Kabul. Credit: Canadian Department of National Defence

CANADA: Afghan Strategy Sharpens Ideological Divide

United Nations-style peacekeeping is getting a bad rap these days within Canada's military, 60 years after then Prime Minister Lester Pearson came up with the idea of mediating the Suez Crisis following the British-French-Israel attack on Egypt.

CANADA: Peace Scholars See Shrinking Space for Dissent

Can Canadians have a fair debate on their military mission in southern Afghanistan when so many of the sources quoted in the domestic press are bankrolled by the Department of National Defence (DND)?

POLITICS-US/CANADA: Could Arar Blunder Happen Again?

Washington's pre-emptive war, in which Muslims are picked up, labeled as Islamic terrorists and then sent to a foreign state where under torture they confess wrongly to membership in al Qaeda, is at the heart of what happened to an innocent Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, says Maureen Webb, an Ottawa lawyer and author of the forthcoming book, "Illusions of Security".

CANADA/AFGHANISTAN-9/11: An Increasingly Muddy Mission

One of the lasting legacies of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on Canada's southern neighbour is the involvement of 2,300 Canadian troops as part of a NATO contingent in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: From Search-and-Destroy to Reconciliation?

A day before the spectacular arrests of 17 Muslim men under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, a McMaster University professor now working in Afghanistan was in Ottawa to tell Canadian officials that their war against the Taliban is ill-advised.

AFGHANISTAN: From Search-and-Destroy to Reconciliation?

A day before the spectacular arrests of 17 Muslim men under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, a McMaster University professor now working in Afghanistan was in Ottawa to tell Canadian officials that their war against the Taliban is ill-advised.

POLITICS-CANADA: The Stealth Man Cometh

Canadian political scientist Daniel Drache has dubbed Prime Minister Stephen Harper "the stealth man" for his ability, so far, to play down his conservative political instincts while steering a minority government among hostile parties on the centre and left.

AFGHANISTAN: Canadian Forces Stray Further From Peace Mission

In a bid to boost support for Canada's military mission in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently made a surprise two-day visit to his country's troops in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

CANADA: Gov’t Talks Tough on (Falling) Crime

Law and order has emerged as one area where a shaky minority government led by the right-wing Conservative party in Canada could reach an agreement with the country's three centre- and centre-left opposition parties.

POLITICS-CANADA: A Kinder, Gentler Conservative Party?

After its Jan. 23 election, Canada may be headed by a right-wing politician who has successfully sold himself as a nice, friendly and non-ideological individual in an effort to defeat the ruling Liberal party.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Canadians Imagine an Army of Peacemakers

Canadian peace activists are trying to head off the usual calls for increased military spending by the two major political parties that tend to coincide with the country's national elections, now set for Jan. 23.

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