OTTAWA — Nearly six in 10 Canadians feel their country is more dangerous than five years ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine, India was linked to the murder of a Sikh-Canadian and Canada reckoned with the scourge of foreign interference.
 

In fact, only a paltry three per cent of Canadians believe Canada is a safer place now than it was five years, according to a January Ekos poll done on behalf of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and recently published online.
 

The poll suggests the number of Canadians who feel Canada is more dangerous now than five years ago also more than doubled since 2021, the last time CSIS put the question to the public.
 

The reasons cited are all tied to the spy agency’s national security mandate and include international conflict, religiously motivated terrorism as well as foreign interference and transnational repression.
 

“Not surprisingly, in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign interference in Canadian affairs, and an assassination on Canadian soil, tracking… indicates that Canadians are now significantly more likely to feel Canada has become more dangerous than they were in 2021,” reads the report.
 

Many of the findings are positive for CSIS, including “broad public confidence” in the spy agency, a large boost in awareness of its mandate as well as a strong majority (77 per cent) who believe its mission is “very important.”

But behind the numbers hides a more concerning trend for CSIS: Canadians’ trust in the agency’s ability to keep them safe from threats such as espionage, terrorism, violent extremism and foreign interference is dropping.
 

While three-quarters of respondents said they have confidence in CSIS to protect Canadians from national security threats, it’s a 10-point drop from 2021.
 

“Despite an increase in belief in the importance of CSIS, tracking… reveals a decrease in confidence in CSIS’ ability to keep Canadians safe,” the report reads.
 

Respondents were also torn on whether CSIS has enough independence from elected officials, with 36 per cent saying yes and 35 per cent saying no (and 29 per cent saying they’re unsure).
 

In a statement,
CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam celebrated the positive findings and recognized that the agency still has much room for improvement.
 

“We are pleased that three in four Canadians indicate confidence in CSIS. We recognize that there is more work to be done, and will continue working hard every day to earn that trust through robust transparency and accountability efforts,” Balsam said.
 

The survey results will likely also give the Liberal government pause as it prepares to push C-2, an omnibus security bill with sweeping new powers, through Parliament this fall.
 

Tabled in June, C-2 was sold
by the Liberals as a border safety bill and a response to concerns raised by U.S. President Donald Trump, but its impacts are far wider reaching.

The controversial legislation i
ncludes sweeping new powers to intercept or search communications including mail, increased powers for police and CSIS to access information without a warrant and increased intelligence collection and sharing across the federal government.
 

As the government prepares to move the bill in Parliament, poll results suggest fewer Canadian trust either CSIS or the government to strike a balance between Charter rights and national security since 2021.
 

“Tracking… reveals that the proportion of Canadians who say they trust the federal government to strike a balance between security and civil liberties has decreased somewhat over the past few years (from 56 per cent in 2021 to 49 per cent currently),” reads the report.
 

Furthermore, the survey suggests less than half (47 per cent) of respondents agree intelligence agencies such as CSIS should have more power while 52 per cent think they respect current laws when collecting information about Canadian.
 

In an interview, former national security analyst Stephanie Carvin said the results suggest a bumpy road ahead for the Liberals’ Bill C-2.
 

“I would say the government is fairly well positioned… on the basis of the survey to make arguments, but is going to have to justify these infringements on civil liberties,” said the Carleton University associate professor in national security.
 

“It’s not yet clear how the Canadian public is going to receive C-2 and the impact of the debate on (CSIS) going forward in terms of its perception in the public,” she added.
 

In his statement, Balsam suggested CSIS was aware of the concerns surrounding C-2 and was making efforts to assuage them.
 

“CSIS has met with a number of groups across all segments of society, to ensure that proposed changes to the CSIS Act are well understood. These amendments were carefully crafted to balance Charter rights,” Balsam wrote.
 

“The proposed amendments to the CSIS Act will ensure that CSIS can continue to collect the information it requires to advance investigations. The amendments would not change the type of information that CSIS can collect without a warrant, nor would it expand CSIS’ mandate,” he added.
 

The Ekos survey polled 2,045 Canadian adults, including 1,040 online respondents, between Jan. 9 and 22. The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/- 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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Two people were separately medically evacuated from a Princess Cruises ship off the coast of Washington and B.C. by the U.S. and Canadian coast guards on Sunday.

U.S. Coast Guard Northwest District watchstanders were notified Sunday morning that two patients on board the Ruby Princess cruise ship, approximately 145 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery, Wash., required immediate medical evacuations. A 52-year-old woman had experienced cardiac arrest and was on life support, while a 99-year-old man experienced a complete esophageal obstruction.

The Coast Guard coordinated with the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to carry out the rescues. A CC-295 Kingfisher aircraft from RCAF 19 Wing Comox provided aerial oversight during the mission.

An MH-65 helicopter from USCG Air Station Port Angeles was launched to medevac the 99-year-old. He was hoisted to the helicopter, which conducted a wing-to-wing transfer with Life Flight Network at Neah Bay, Wash.

Canadian officials, meanwhile, launched a CH-149 Cormorant from 19 Wing Comox to evacuate the 52-year-old. She was successfully hoisted and transported to Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

“This case demonstrates how our specialized expertise and dedicated training allows us to rapidly respond to these types of time-sensitive medical evacuations at sea,“ said Cmdr. Kelly Higgins, commanding officer of U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles. “The expert coordination between the Canadian Coast Guard, the Life Flight Network, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard ensured this patient received the care they needed.”

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Next month’s world premiere of a documentary that follows an Israeli man’s attempt to save his family on October 7 is already sold out after it was pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival and eventually reinstated following an international uproar.

The film, The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, is

scheduled

to be shown at Roy Thompson Hall in downtown Toronto on Sept. 10. The venue has a

capacity

of nearly 1,800 seats, according to Ticketmaster.

The Road Between Us follows Noam Tibon, a retired Israel Defense Forces general, racing from Tel Aviv to save his son’s family who were sheltering in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a community near the Gaza border that was besieged by Hamas fighters. Noam’s son, Amir Tibon, is a prominent Israeli journalist who writes for Haaretz.

A member of the Facebook community “Everything Jewish Toronto,” posted a

screenshot

of his attempt to get tickets after they were released to the general public on Monday, showing a generic message from Ticketmaster noting, “Tickets are sold out now. Check back soon.” National Post saw an identical message when it checked on Tuesday morning.

The announcement triggered a discussion in the Facebook group. One user, claiming to be a TIFF member with early ticket access, said that all the tickets were sold out within hours last Wednesday, during an exclusive

early-bird

sale. Commenters encouraged one another to contact TIFF and request that another showing of the documentary be scheduled to meet the high demand. Members of a separate Facebook community, “TIFF Tickets,” also

bemoaned

the sold-out showing.

The Post contacted TIFF for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Earlier in August, an American entertainment magazine reported that TIFF organizers decided to pull the film from the festival’s lineup because some of its footage, which included atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, failed to meet the “legal clearance of all footage.”

The decision caused an

uproar

among Canadian politicians and prominent members of the entertainment community, including Howie Mandel and Mayim Bialik, to reinstate the film. The backlash prompted TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey to address the controversy.

I have learned that TIFF has reversed its decision and will screen ‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue’.

This is the right call. But this never should have happened – and it shouldn’t have taken a public outcry to reverse this mistake.

TIFF owes Barry Avrich a public… pic.twitter.com/dIBd09OW8Z

— Brad Bradford✌️ (@BradMBradford) August 14, 2025

“First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere apologies for any pain this situation may have caused,”

Bailey wrote

in mid-August. The following day, Bailey and the documentary’s director, Barry Avrich,

released a joint

statement
 

acknowledging that “a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal and programming concerns” had been reached.

Last Wednesday, Bailey said in his first public remarks about the incident, the festival remained committed “to challenging relevant screen storytelling,” expressing his desire to “repair relationships.” Bailey also acknowledged he regretted any prior “mischaracterizations” of the film.

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More electronic devices are being searched at the United States border than ever before, according to recent data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Between April and June this year, searches were conducted on

14,899 devices

— including phones, computers and cameras. That number has increased since the same time period last year, when 12,090 devices were inspected. According to CBP, last year’s searches affected less than 0.01 per cent of the more than 420 million international travellers who arrived.

The recent numbers have jumped since 2018, which is far back as the available data from the CBP goes online. During the same time that year, around 8,000 devices were searched.

The total number of searches has also been rising, for the most part, since 2018. That year, there were 33,296 searches. The fewest total searches were during the pandemic, at 32,038. Last year, there were 47,047 searches, but already in 2025, with one more quarter left in the fiscal year, there have already been 39,251.

Last year, the bulk of the searches — nearly 78 per cent of them — were conducted on devices owned by non-U.S. citizens.

“While reports show more phones are being searched at the U.S. border, we don’t anticipate any impact on cross-border business travel. Canadians are seasoned travellers who know how to prepare and adapt,” managing director for Flight Centre Travel Group Canada Chris Lynes said in an emailed statement to National Post.

“When it comes to leisure travel, the bigger factor is the dollar, not device checks.”

For those who are travelling for business, they should be proactive and treat their devices like a passport, “travelling light digitally, and having the right documentation,” he said.

The agency says that its ability to “lawfully inspect electronic devices crossing the border is integral to keeping America safe in an increasingly digital world.”

There are two types of searches described by the agency: basic and advanced. This year, between April and June, there were 13,824 basic searches and 1,075 advanced.

In general, a basic search involves an officer “reviewing the contents of the device manually without the assistance of any external equipment,” per CBP. In an advanced search, a person’s electronic device is connected to “external equipment” to “review, copy, and/or analyze its contents.”

For an advanced search to be conducted, it requires “reasonable suspicion of a violation of law enforced or administered by CBP or a national security concern.” It requires the approval of a senior manager before a search is conducted.

If non-American travellers do not provide their electronic device to be examined by an agent upon request, that in and of itself does not mean they’ll be barred from the country. The agency says admissibility is based on a “totality of the circumstances” and its “ability to inspect an electronic device alone does not determine” if a traveller can enter.

The searches are being done to enforce the law, the agency says, and to detect “digital contraband.” That could include child pornography, classified materials, terrorism-related information or any other information that would be relevant to a person’s admissibility.

“As permissible, border searches may also help detect other national security matters, as well as reveal information about transnational financial crimes, including bulk cash smuggling, and commercial crimes with a nexus to the border, such as those relating to copyright and trademark,” per the agency.

In the

CBP’s tear sheet

, the paper provided to travellers that indicates they’ve been selected for a search, it says that the device will be returned unless the agency determines the need to temporarily detain or seize it.

Some travellers who were previously turned away from entering the United States said it occurred after their electronics were searched. One such person, a French scientist, was denied entry in March after

he said “hateful” messages about U.S. President Donald Trump

were discovered on his phone.

A government

travel advisory

for Canadians going to the United States last updated on July 31 includes a section about electronics. It says that U.S. border agents are entitled to search through devices such as phones, computers or tablets.

“They don’t need to provide a reason when requesting a password to open your device,” according to the federal government. “If you refuse, they may seize your device. The border agent could also delay your travel or deny entry if you are not a U.S. citizen.”

It advises Canadians to put their devices in airplane mode “to ensure remote files don’t get downloaded accidentally” before crossing the border.

In June, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said that the device searches were not a pattern,

The Canadian Press reported

.

“If a Canadian has had a disappointing experience coming into the United States, I’m not denying that it happened, but I’m saying it’s an isolated event and it is not a pattern,” he said.

“Coming to the U.S., that’s a decision for the Canadians to make. Searching devices and all of that is not a well-founded fear. We don’t do that. America is a welcoming place.”

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A man in Denver, Colorado, lost US$17,000 (approx. $23,500 Canadian) after his phone call was transferred to a scammer by an operator in the customer service department of United Airlines.

Multiple news outlets

in the United States are reporting on the incident, which was first brought to light by

Steve Staeger

, a consumer investigative reporter at NBC’s 9News in Denver.

Dan Smoker had reportedly been planning an 18-day trip to Europe with his wife, their children and some friends. But the flight from Denver to London was cancelled. So the next day, he called the United Airlines customer service line for help.

Smoker said his own call log showed he was on the phone for more than three hours, but a United Airlines representative told him he’d only been talking to them for 12 minutes.

Somewhere between those two extremes he was transferred to another “customer service agent” who called himself David. David said he could get Smoker and his party on a Lufthansa flight to Europe. He said Smoker would have to pay US$17,000 on his credit card but that it would be reimbursed later.

Smoker never got those tickets. He never got his money back either. This was when

Staeger stepped in

.

He assumed at first that Smoker had fallen victim to a secondary scam in which Googling a customer service number brings up a fake number that, when called, connects you to a scammer. But in fact, that’s what had happened to the United customer service rep on the first call.

On Friday, United confirmed to 9News: “The customer was transferred to an external number and the agent was not using our internal tools to validate the number.”

Smoker said David told him the cost of a new flight — US$17,000 — would have to be charged to his credit card but that United Airlines would refund the money. He said David put him on hold for a long time, then came back and said he couldn’t book the flight, but repeated that the charge would be refunded.

In an odd twist, Smoker said David eventually did also manage to rebook his party on another United flight, which went off without a hitch. But when he got his credit card statement, there was a charge for the real flight from United Airlines, and a US$17,000 charge to a generic company called “AIRLINEFARE.”

Of course, since the original flight was cancelled, there should not have been a charge to rebook. This might have raised a red flight, but the customer thought he was still talking to the airline.

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OTTAWA — With ministers due to present their proposals for a 15 per cent spending review, deciding where to cut carries inescapable “political consequences,” according to the staff of Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin.

A rare glimpse into the internal deliberations was offered to National Post — when one of her staff accidentally added a reporter to a group chat.

“Who let her in??!” one of the staffers wrote, to which another reacted with “ha ha.”

The conversation took place last Thursday, exactly one week before the Aug. 28 deadline, when ministers were due to present their plans for achieving a 15 per cent spending reduction, starting with a 7.5 per cent cut next fiscal year. An additional 2.5 per cent reduction has been set for the following year, with an additional five per cent cut in 2028-29.

During the April federal election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to launch a “comprehensive review” of government spending, promising he would lead a more fiscally-disciplined government.

The reductions have been earmarked to help fund commitments Carney has made to boost defence spending to the tune of around $9 billion for Canada to meet its NATO defence spending target of 2 per cent of GDP, as well as finance other tax cuts.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to table the Carney government’s first budget in October.

As he and Carney prepare to receive proposals for spending cuts, political staff, as well as those across departments and agencies, have been weighing where the cuts could come from and what impacts such decisions would have on operations.

Such was the case last Thursday, when staff in Dabrusin’s office deliberated on options, including what to do regarding the Canada Water Agency, which has the mandate to help manage the protection of Canada’s freshwater lakes and river systems.

The agency itself is headquartered in Winnipeg and has its own president, Mark Fisher, but falls under the responsibility of the federal environment minister.

In the group text, part of which the reporter was added to before being removed, Dabrusin’s senior policy advisor wrote to three others, including the minister’s chief of staff, relaying information from a conversation she had with a “Mark” that, “Yes, this cut could lead to less algal bloom restoration work across the country (notably not the Great Lakes — that will be retained)”

The staffer added that no other departments do that kind of work. “Others only do science and monitoring.”

Dabrusin’s chief of staff then directs the staffer to update Dabrusin via text.

“Eek I don’t know how to help the (minister)” the senior policy advisor wrote back.

“There is nowhere else to cut … she could ask for steeper cuts in (Environment and Climate Change Canada) or accept these (Canada Water Agency) cuts and commit to raising her concerns at (Treasury Board)? Their annual budget is so small you can’t escape political consequences with a 15 per cent cut.”

Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for Dabrusin did not explain how a reporter, who discovered the text conversation upon returning from vacation on Monday, ended up added to the group chat, nor confirm specifics around the internal conversation.

Instead, Jenna Ghassabeh pointed to Carney’s promised spending review.

“As part of that mandate, we are comprehensively reviewing government spending to ensure programming is being delivered efficiently and effectively,” Ghassabeh said.

“While this process requires candid discussions on various options, no final funding decisions have been taken at this time.”

Earlier this year, the White House dealt with the fallout from a much higher-stakes leak after The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief was added to a Signal group text by U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, where he and other top administration officials discussed a strike against the Houthis in Yemen.

In Canada, Mohammad Kamal, a spokesman for the Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali, said that departments and agencies were still working on their savings plans, details of which he said would be kept secret, save for Carney’s cabinet, until decisions were finalized.

A spokesman for the Canada Water Agency did not answer direct questions about conversations between the agency’s president and Dabrusin’s office about proposed cuts.

“Organizations are being asked to bring forward ambitious savings proposals to spend less on the day-to-day running of government by targeting programs and activities that are underperforming, not core to the federal mandate, duplicative, or misaligned with government priorities,” wrote spokesman Joseph Peloquin-Hopfner.

Andrew Van Iterson, a spokesman for the Green Budget Coalition, which represents upwards of 20 different environmental and conservation organizations, said that broadly speaking, he sees value in the government undertaking a spending review.

“At the same time,” he said in an interview, “Environment Canada is one of the smallest, least funded departments.”

He said that comes as Canada and the rest of the world are trying to address climate and biodiversity issues.

“So broadly, we understand the drive to review … spending. But we’re also really nervous about what that could mean, because in the broader government budget, environmental spending is relatively small, and there’s a lot of really critical pieces there.”

National Post

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The Halifax, N.S., gravesite of the British general who burned down the White House 211 years ago this week was a busy place Monday.

Larry and Connie Tremain, of Arizona, had just disembarked from their cruise ship when they visited the city’s Old Burying Ground, at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street. The national historic site is the final resting place of British Major General Robert Ross, who led his troops to burn the White House and other public buildings in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, in retaliation for the American attack on Fort York, now known as Toronto.

“We’ve been looking for him,” deadpanned Larry Tremain, a retired special agent with the U.S. Treasury Department.

While he hadn’t been sure until Monday where Ross was buried, Tremain knew the particulars of when the Brits torched the residence of then U.S. president James Madison

“I’m certainly familiar with the Madisons fleeing the White House and the British general burned it down and actually ate the Madison’s last meal in the White House,” he said.

“But I did not know the general was from Canada.”

Of course, Canada didn’t exist at the time and Ross was never stationed in Halifax. But he was buried in the Nova Scotia capital after being killed at the Battle of North Point by an American sniper on Sept. 12, 1814, near Baltimore, Maryland. His body was preserved in rum aboard the HMS Royal Oak, to be returned to his native Ireland. But the British warship was diverted to Halifax to prepare for the Battle of New Orleans, and Ross was interred here with full military honours.

With the United States and Canada now embroiled in a trade war, Tremain suspects many of his fellow countrymen do not know the history of the general who once torched the official workplace and home of their presidents.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “My son’s a history teacher, but they don’t teach much history in grade school and high schools anymore. Most Americans now under the age of 20 don’t know the difference between (George) Washington and (Abraham) Lincoln, let alone (the history of the War of 1812).”

He says the same of U.S. President Donald Trump, who made headlines multiple times this year with loose talk of turning Canada into the 51st state.

“He has no understanding, and we are bumbling through,” Tremain said.

Tremain apologized for Trump’s repeated threats to use economic force to annex Canada, and believes the president is hurting the relationship between the two countries.

Trump’s supporters are only interested in one thing, Tremain said. “It’s America first. It’s unbridled nationalism.”

While the couple had just stepped ashore in Canada on their sea voyage that started in Boston, Tremain said he would “be amazed” if Canadians weren’t friendly for the remainder of their cruise, which includes a stop in Saint John, N.B. “I would be stunned; they’re good people.”

During his career, Tremain had to travel through a lot of checkpoints in the Middle East. “I always told the driver, ‘Tell them we’re Canadian,’” he said. “Because nobody is mad at Canada.”

That a general buried here burned down the White House often surprises Americans, said Jo-Ann Heikkila, who was using an iPhone app Monday to tour the Old Burying Ground.

“I’ve got friends in the U.S. and when you raise that, they look at us like we have three heads,” Heikkila said. “They think we’re too nice.”

Both Heikkila and her friend, Jo-Anne Wilcox, were visiting Halifax from Toronto. Wilcox was quick to chime in on recent friction with our neighbours to the south.

“They need to learn about our country,” Wilcox said. “They know nothing about Canada.”

Americans should visit sites like the general’s grave to gain some perspective on recent events, Wilcox said. “Maybe they would respect us more because I don’t think the Americans respect Canada at all.”

Joe Blixt, a former Winnipeg high school history teacher now studying law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, knew the White House had been torched during the War of 1812.

“But I didn’t know the general was buried here,” Blixt said during a visit to the cemetery. “That’s really cool.”

During his time in Manitoba classrooms, there was an emphasis on how Ross and his troops burned the White House down. “The one thing we have over America, military victory wise, is that.”

Most Americans, he said, likely don’t know about the general’s exploits 211 years ago this week.

“I feel like American exceptionalism makes them blind to all that stuff,” Blixt said. “It’s a history of victory for the Americans. I think they like to wash that away a little bit.”

He doubts schooling Americans on the role Ross played in burning down the White House would change much.

“They like to win,” Blixt said. “They don’t like a losing history.”

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