Last month, European countries began rolling out the new Entry/Exit System (EES) for travellers crossing European borders. It’s expected to be fully operational by April 10, 2026. Here’s what to know.

Who uses the EES?

The EES is for non-EU nationals (

including Canadians

) who are travelling for a short stay to one or more countries in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

What’s the Schengen area?

It’s a fancy term for the nations of the European Union, minus Ireland and Cyprus, but including Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Iceland.

Note that this doesn’t include the U.K., which has its own system, called Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), in place since January. That has a cost of 10 pounds, or about $18.

What does the system do?

The EES replaces the manual stamping of passports at border crossings. During the first six months of its use, border officers will continue to stamp passports in addition to registering entries and exits digitally. Countries may also revert to manual stamping if they experience technical problems. Once the system is fully in place, only the digital system will be used.

The system will also track overstays and denials of entry The government of Canada notes

on its website

that each country decides who can enter or exit through its borders, and Canada can’t intervene if someone doesn’t meet entry or exit requirements.

How does it work?

Non-EU travellers with an e-passport can use a self-serve kiosk to register when crossing the border, and then proceed to a passport control officer who will already have received that information and can ask further questions if necessary before granting or refusing entry.

Do Canadians have e-passports?

They almost certainly do if they’re current. Canada has been issuing

e-passports since 2013

, and they are good for 10 years before they need to be renewed.

What kind of data does it collect?

Biometric data, such as fingerprints and facial images, will also be collected at the point of entry, and stored for three years.

Why is Europe doing this?

A website for the European Union notes that automation will shorten wait times by replacing time-consuming manual checks.

It also notes that the new system provides precise information on the maximum duration of authorized stay by visitors, and makes it easier to identify those who have overstayed or are using fake passports.

Is there a cost?

No. The system is free for users.

Are there other changes coming?

Yes, and they will cost. Europe’s next border-control system is

called ETIAS

, for European Travel Information and Authorization System. It will

require Canadians

and other non-EU nationals to apply online for a permit to enter Europe.

Last summer, it was announced that the fee would be 20 euros (about $32),

almost triple

the previously announced price of 7 euros.

ETIAS is supposed to start operations in late 2026. However, the system has faced several delayed since its announcement, and was originally supposed to begin in 2021. And like the EES, it will take time to get fully up and running.

• What is biometric data and what countries require travellers to give it?
• Canadian citizens to be photographed when entering and exiting the U.S., new regulations state

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Well before U.S. President Donald Trump brought up the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, the proposition was already fermenting in the mind of best-selling Canadian fiction author Louise Penny.

The Black Wolf, her latest novel in which the threat of annexation by the U.S. is a central plotline, was recently released and Penny, who previously turned down an invite to launch her latest Chief Inspector Armand Gamache story at the Kennedy Center in Washington, is remaining steadfast in her commitment to not tour the book in the U.S.

Here’s what to know.

What is The Black Wolf about?

The 20th book of the award-winning series picks up where Penny’s last book, The Grey Wolf, left off, with Gamache and his team exposing and averting a plot to poison Montreal’s water supply and arresting a man called the Black Wolf.

In the weeks that follow, the Sûreté du Québec detective comes to realize the person they apprehended was merely a red herring and the foiled attack was a “deliberate misdirection” ahead of “something deeper and darker” to come.

“Gamache and his small team of supporters realize that for the Black Wolf to have gotten this far, they must have powerful allies, in law enforcement, in industry, in organized crime, in the halls of government,”

Macmillan Publishers said of the just-released novel.

Wary of those forces and going off a murdered scientist’s notebook and maps, they conduct a surreptitious investigation and uncover evidence of a cross-border scheme to leverage control of water systems and resources.

While the book doesn’t specifically refer Canada becoming the 51st state, Penny has said the notion is one of the book’s underlying themes.

“What happens when a nation that is losing a lot of these things, including water, sees how much we have? What’s it going to do?” she said to the

Montreal Gazette

in March.

“What would you do? Would you break into your neighbour’s home to save yourself and your family? Probably.”

Penny had maintained that the book was completed more than a year before Trump was elected and quickly began perpetuating the idea that Canada should become the 51st state for economic and security reasons to benefit both countries.

“I was afraid when I wrote it that I had taken it too far, that people simply wouldn’t follow me there, that it was unbelievable,” she told the

Express in the U.K.

last week.

“As it turns out, I may not have gone far enough!”

What is Penny’s connection to the Haskell Library and Opera House?

While much of the novel is set in Three Pines, Penny said “some pivotal scenes” take place in The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, the real-life library straddling the border between Stanstead, Que. and Derby Line, VT.

The facility was in the headlines in March when U.S. Customs and Border Protection decreed that only Canadian library members and staff could use the front door. All other Canadian visitors would have to go through the nearest U.S. border point or use a back door on the Canadian side.

The library has been fundraising to help pay for the renovations to the Canadian side, with Penny contributing $50,000, as reported by

CBC

.

Speaking to the Express, Penny said it was a “petty” for the Trump administration to attack “a little village library that is symbolic of the friendship and the sacrifices that both countries have made for each other.”

The author ended her North American book tour at the venue on Nov. 1 and 2. A portion of ticket sales will go towards the entrance renovations, which Penny will reportedly match, according to

Vermont Public.

“If I had been writing this book now, I never would have gone there because it would have felt like I was ripping off a quite frightening political situation, certainly within Canada but also within the U.S.,” she told the Express.

Why won’t Louise Penny conduct book tours in the U.S.?

The Haskell show is technically Penny’s only U.S.-based promotional tour date for The Black Wolf, having announced in March that she was cancelling future dates in response to Trump’s statements and the nascent trade war between the nations.

Not visiting the states for the first time in 20 years, she said in

a Facebook post

, was not meant to punish her American readers, but “about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow Canadians.”

At the same time, she also announced said the book’s launch would take place at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, not the John F. Kennedy Center.

While it would have been “a real watermark” for her as an author, she changed her mind after Trump dismissed the national performing arts centre’s board of trustees and got himself appointed as the new chairman, along with a host of new board members.

“I don’t consider my stand to be political, although there’s certainly a political element to it,” she told

CBC

recently. “It’s a moral stand. If the Democrats had done the same thing, I would take the same stand. My not going isn’t going to change anything, but my going would be acquiescence.”

Who is Louise Penny?

The 67-year-old Canadian fictional crime-mystery author is best known for her international best-selling Gamache series set in a fictional Quebec small town called Three Pines.

The Toronto native spent 18 years as a radio host and journalist for CBC before embarking on her quest “to write the best book ever” in 1996, according to

Quill and Quire.

Almost 10 years later, her first novel, Still Life, won multiple literary awards and became a CBC movie in 2013. The Gamache series also found its way to the screen, with actor Alfred Polina portraying the protagonist in a short-lived Amazon Prime series titled Three Pines.

She is a recipient of the Order of Canada (2013) and the Order of Quebec (2017), where she lives in the Eastern Townships community of Knowlton.

• Trump says he pitched 51st state offer to Canada again in Golden Dome talks
• Donald Trump should apologize to Canada for 51st state comments, Louisiana Lt.-Gov. says

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OTTAWA — Conservatives are calling for the reversal of a military directive they say inappropriately censors religious speech at public commemorations.

New Brunswick Conservative MP Mike Dawson said it was an affront to the memory of the fallen that the Chaplain General’s 2023

Direction on Chaplain’s Spiritual Reflection in Public Settings

is still in place.

“I am ashamed that our government intends to restrict public expressions of faith in our military, or in plain terms, to ban prayer. It is cowardice to ask our sons and daughters to put themselves in harm’s way but refuse them the right to express their faith in God. To deny those who provide our freedom the right to openly pray is an insult to those who never came home,” Dawson

told the House of Commons

.

The directive, issued by then chaplain general J.L.G. “Guy” Bélisle in October 2023, compels chaplains to “carefully choose words that are inclusive” to all assembled, including atheists.

The order also restricts chaplains from wearing so-called “Faith Tradition” scarves, bearing religious symbols like crosses and crescent moons, at military ceremonies, mandating that all wear identical scarves adorned with the religiously neutral Royal Canadian Chaplain Service crest.

Bélisle said the changes were necessary following the

Supreme Court of Canada’s Saguenay decision in 2015

, which found that the state has a duty to uphold religious neutrality in public settings.

The then chaplain general tempered his own Remembrance Day address at Ottawa’s National War Memorial last year, prefacing his remarks as a “reflect(ion)” rather than a prayer.

Reverend Doctor Andrew Bennett, head of faith community engagement at faith-based think tank Cardus, says the directive misses the mark of religious neutrality by putting irreligion ahead of religiosity.

“To say that Canadian Armed Forces chaplains cannot speak about God or cannot pray at public ceremonies of remembrance is showing a lack of understanding of who is in the armed forces, men and women who serve this country, many of whom are religious and live out their faith,” said Bennett.

“They don’t put their faith aside when they join the armed forces. And so it is perfectly fitting that it’s ceremonies of remembrance when we remember the dead who are fallen for this country,” he added.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan echoed these sentiments in an email to the National Post.

”We should be encouraging Canadian Armed Forces chaplains of all faiths to offer benedictions and prayers, rather than order them to exclude faith-based prayers from their public remarks,” wrote Bezan.

Bennett said that faith has long been tied to military service, pointing to the old adage “there are no atheists in foxholes.”

“(The directive) dishonours those men and women who fell for this country in combat, when they were in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme or when they were fighting In the Pacific Theater at the fall of Hong Kong. You don’t think that they were praying that they would survive and see another day?” said Bennett.

Bennett said it’s “entirely in the power” of now Chaplain General Colonel Lisa Pacarynuk to reverse the directive.

Pacarynuk assumed the role in May, becoming Canada’s first female chaplain general.

Retired fifth-generation Canadian Forces veteran Bonnie Critchley, who ran as an independent candidate in the recent Battle River—Crowfoot byelection, said she felt the criticisms of the new directive were overblown, saying that it’s only natural for military protocol to change with the attitudes of those who serve.

“Your spirituality is your own thing. Religion tends to get messy. Yeah. And I am not a religious person person. I am a spiritual person. My own spirituality is my own … I absolutely do appreciate a spiritual tone versus a religious (one),” said Critchley, who recently retired after 22 years of military service.

Pacarynuk‘s office could not be reached for comment.

National Post

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Remembrance Day has been commemorated in Canada since Parliament

passed legislation

in 1931 to change the name of

Armistice Day

and establish Nov. 11 as the date to mark the occasion. Today, the government

describes

Remembrance Day as “the most unforgettable day” and

suggests

veterans are “passing the torch” to the Canadian population “so the memory of their sacrifices will continue.”

However, many veterans of the war in Afghanistan now feel their sacrifice in service to their country is forgotten. One main reason for this sentiment, according to retired corporal Bruce Moncur, is that no veterans of this conflict have ever been awarded Canada’s highest military decoration for valour.

Retired lieutenant-general Omer Lavoie told National Post that eight service members throughout the Commonwealth have received Victoria Cross medals for their service in Afghanistan. Four have been awarded by Australia, three by the U.K., and one by New Zealand.

That no Victoria Cross decorations were received throughout a 12-year commitment during which more than 40,000 Canadian military members deployed for the mission does not sit well with many Afghanistan veterans, Moncur said.

“Yes, we feel forgotten,” he said.

He is part of a campaign to have certain valour awards reviewed and potentially upgraded to the Victoria Cross in response to this prevalent sense of forgotten sacrifice.

Moncur, who deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, says he has advocated for military veterans for about 15 years. As founder of the non-profit

Valour in the Presence of the Enemy

, he has spearheaded a campaign since September 2021 to have Afghanistan veteran Private Jess Larochelle’s valour decoration upgraded to the Victoria Cross.

“Ever since I heard Jess’s story,” Moncur told National Post, the issue “has always been in the back of my mind.”

Then Lt.-Col. Lavoie commanded 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group in southern Afghanistan in 2006 when a substantial contingent of Taliban insurgents ambushed the strongpoint manned by Larochelle and his unit. Lavoie recalls that he happened to be in the area on battlefield circulation that day.

As he was writing the recommendation for Larochelle’s military valour decoration in Afghanistan after the incident, he remembers thinking to himself, “This may turn out to be the first Victoria Cross awarded in the Canadian military since the Second World War.”

But it was not to be. Instead, Larochelle was one of twenty recipients of Canada’s second-highest military decoration awarded for service in Afghanistan.

The

citation

for the Star of Military Valour Larochelle received recalls, “Although he was alone, severely injured, and under sustained enemy fire in his exposed position at the ruined observation post,” he “aggressively provided covering fire over the otherwise undefended flank of his company’s position.”

Moncur is adamant that Larochelle’s actions that day in October 2006 at Strong Point Centre in Kandahar warrant the Victoria Cross. He also believes the issue is about more than just one medal.

Upgrading Larochelle’s Star of Military Valour, he says, “would be for all of us.”

Lavoie echoed Moncur’s sentiment. He suggests upgrading select existing decorations, like Larochelle’s, would bring “a sense of accomplishment for all Afghanistan veterans.”

He said this is especially the case because the highest award for valour has

never been awarded

since this decoration was

redesignated

as the Canadian Victoria Cross in 1993. Its predecessor, the British Victoria Cross, was

awarded

to 81 Canadians for acts of valour in combat from the South African (Boer) War (1899-1902) to the Second World War (1939-45).

The most recent recipient for Canada was Lieutenant Robert (Hammy) Hampton Gray, who was

awarded

the British Victoria Cross posthumously for combat action that occurred in August 1945. The Canadian version of the highest military award for valour has never been awarded — including for nearly 15 years of combat action in Afghanistan.

Master Warrant Officer William “Willy” MacDonald said that many veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan still grapple with the abrupt end to coalition operations due to the

disastrous withdrawal

from the country by the U.S. in 2021.

With the Taliban

reestablishing

its rule and meeting little resistance as it

chased away

security forces the NATO coalition spent years training, many veterans of the conflict in Canada and beyond now struggle with doubts regarding what was accomplished after nearly two decades of service and sacrifice.

Those emotional “wounds are still healing for many of us,” said MacDonald. He suggests that upgrading one or more valour awards to the Victoria Cross would “would do a lot to bring the Afghanistan mission back to the public spotlight.”

Moncur agrees. He highlighted the experience of Victoria Cross recipients in other Commonwealth countries as well as more than a dozen recipients of the Medal of Honor in the United States.

“What we’re asking for is the respect and honour that other countries give to their soldiers,” Moncur said. “Victoria Cross and Medal of Honor recipients are revered in their countries. But that hasn’t happened in Canada for Afghanistan veterans.”

This is why Larochelle’s Star of Military Valour has become a particular point of emphasis for the organization Moncur founded as well as the broader movement to upgrade certain decorations. “If what Jess did doesn’t merit the Victoria Cross,” Moncur said, “it’s hard to know what does.”

Although Larochelle

died in August 2023

due to medical complications from injuries he sustained on deployment, reevaluating and upgrading his award is, according to Moncur, “one thing the government can do” to honour his memory and the service of thousands of other Canadian military members who served in Afghanistan.

Despite widespread support for the movement to have certain individual decorations reconsidered and potentially upgraded, some veterans remain concerned about attempts to override determinations that were made long ago by senior military officials.

Col. Ryan Jurkowski retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in 2023 after 30 years of service, including multiple deployments to Afghanistan. Now a PhD war studies candidate at the Royal Military College, focusing on civilian-military relations, he said, “you can’t rewrite history” when evaluating decisions from the past.

Jurkowski is also concerned about setting a precedent that could lead to more red tape that ultimately distracts from the warfighting mission of the military. This movement to upgrade certain awards might be “for all the right reasons,” Jurkowski said, but we should be concerned about the possibility of “increasing the bureaucracy of the (Canadian Armed Forces).”

Even so, Jurkowski wonders whether factors not directly related to individual citations and decorations impacted decisions by honours and awards committees and caused the sacrifice of some to be undervalued.

Canada’s overall mission in Afghanistan, which lasted from 2001 to 2014, was divided into

three main operations

: Apollo (2001-03), Athena (2003-11), and Attention (2011-14). The first was marked by intense but sporadic combat operations, while the last focused primarily on training Afghan security forces in Kabul.

The bulk of the heavy and sustained fighting occurred during Operation Athena, including 2006 when Larochelle deployed as part of the battle group commanded by Lavoie.

According to Jurkowski, troops encountered “completely different perspectives and completely different experiences in different phases” of the mission in Afghanistan. Both his combat deployments were during Operation Athena, with the renowned

Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry

.

“There has never been anything like the intensity of combat operations” during early in Operation Athena since Korea, according to Jurkowski. Heroic actions such as Larochelle’s solo stand at Strong Point Centre were relatively early in the Afghanistan mission.

This may have led senior leaders to be reluctant to approve a Victoria Cross, even if it was warranted on an individual basis, since it was impossible to know then what would happen in theatre later.

Lavoie also expressed concern regarding revisiting past decisions for valour decorations. He said at first, he felt “conflicted.” He served on honours and awards committees during his time as a military officer and said that “no one believes in the sanctity of the chain of command” more than he does.

An internal committee appointed by Department of National Defence

has already determined

that none of the 20 awards reviewed from the Afghanistan mission “should have received a different decoration, and that all awards respected the intent and criteria for the Star of Military Valour.”

Although deference to previous determinations is certainly warranted, Lavoie now supports the idea of appointing a commission. This is, at least in part, because he believes “there was a bit of reticence” to approve a Victoria Cross among senior leaders within the ranks during the early phase of combat operations.

He also points out there is precedent for revaluating military decorations among Canada’s closest allies. According to Lavoie, awarding a Victoria Cross to Larochelle or other potential recipients would bring “a sense of pride and accomplishment for all Afghanistan veterans.”

Moncur also emphasized during an interview the precedent of allied militaries appointing review commissions like the one he is currently proposing here in Canada. A

petition

he initiated in July calls on the government to establish an independent board “to review Afghanistan veterans’ cases where evidence suggests Victoria Cross criteria were met.”

The parliamentary petition, which is sponsored by Liberal MP Pauline Rochefort and closes for signatures on Nov. 20, states that “Afghanistan veterans feel their sacrifice has been forgotten, despite Canada’s significant commitment and casualties.”

With so many Afghanistan veterans expressing a sense that their service and sacrifice to Canada has been forgotten, Moncur believes the government must establish an independent review to consider whether certain valour decorations should be upgraded to the Victorica Cross.

“If you can’t do this” for Afghanistan veterans, Moncur said, “then you can’t do anything for us.”

• Unbelievable stories of Canada’s Victoria Cross winners
• Who will be first? The Canadian Victoria Cross has never been awarded

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The families of Canadians killed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, are urging Ottawa to leverage its diplomatic and economic weight to lead a global campaign to sanction and dismantle the terrorist organization and to pursue justice against Iranian officials accused of sponsoring it.

In a statement released after a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and family members from the Association of Canadian Families of the Victims of October 7th, the group described its two proposals as steps “not only toward justice, but toward preventing future atrocities.”

The first call to action asks Canada to spearhead an international effort at the United Nations to formally sanction Hamas, similar to the blacklisting of ISIS and al-Qaeda. The Association said Carney’s experience “as an international economic authority” positions him to coordinate sanctions disrupting the terrorists’ financial and logistical networks and to rally “like-minded nations” to join the effort.

The second request urges Ottawa to launch a structural investigation into Iranian officials involved in arming, training, and funding Hamas, and to prosecute them under Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act. Such action, the families said, would “demonstrate Canada’s leadership in the global fight against impunity.”

Beyond foreign policy, the families connected their demands to growing domestic concern about antisemitism and foreign-inspired hate. Statistics Canada data show hate crimes have doubled in the past five years, with Jewish Canadians remaining the most targeted religious group.

The families said action equals memory.

“We honour those we lost by working together to combat antisemitism, hold perpetrators accountable, and build a safer, more just world.”

Seated with Carney last week were Raquel Look and Alain Haim, the mother and father of Alexandre Look, a 33-year-old Montrealer killed while defending others at the Nova music festival, and Jacqui Rivers-Vital, the mother of Adi Vital-Kaploun, a 33-year-old Canadian-Israeli murdered in her home while protecting her two small sons. After she was slain in front of them, her children — four-year-old Negev and six-month-old Eshel — were kidnapped but later released.

Look and Vital-Kaploun were among eight Canadians murdered that day.

The group thanked Carney for meeting with the families and for his “clear and unequivocal statement of solidarity with victims of Hamas terrorism.”

“We are grateful to the Prime Minister for taking the time to listen to our stories and for recognizing the humanity and heroism of our loved ones,” the group said.

Following the meeting, Carney shared an image of himself and the parents on X, writing:

“Their remarkable strength in the face of unimaginable grief is a testament to the resilience of the Jewish people,” he wrote. “My message to Jacqui, Raquel, and Alain: Adi and Alexandre will not be forgotten. Not by me, not by our government, and not by our country.”

Today I met with the parents of two Canadians murdered by the terrorist organisation Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
 
Their remarkable strength in the face of unimaginable grief is a testament to the resilience of the Jewish people. My message to Jacqui, Raquel, and Alain: Adi and… pic.twitter.com/YNhpaWYcpF

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) November 7, 2025

The meeting comes as Carney’s government adjusts its approach in the Middle East, balancing firm condemnations of Hamas with support for humanitarian efforts in Gaza and criticism of Israeli leadership. In July, Carney said Canada would formally recognize the State of Palestine, conditional on democratic reforms, a move

opposed by the families at the time. 

Carney has also been critical of Iran’s destabilizing role

in the region by sponsoring terrorism.

• Iris Weinstein Haggai: Canada disgraces the memories of Hamas’s Canadian victims, including my mother
• Hamas victims’ families ask Canadians to oppose recognition of Palestinian state

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