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Canada Standard
14-07-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
How Eurostack could offer Canada a route to digital independence from the United States
The contemporary internet has been with us since roughly 1995. Its current underlying economic model - surveillance capitalism - began in the early 2000s, when Google and then Facebook realized how much our personal information and online behaviour revealed about us and claimed it for themselves to sell to advertisers. Perhaps because of Canada's proximity to the United States, coupled with its positive shared history with the U.S. and their highly integrated economies, Canada went along for that consumerist ride. The experience was different on the other side of the Atlantic. The Stasi in the former East Germany and the KGB under Josef Stalin maintained files on hundreds of thousands of citizens to identify and prosecute dissidents. Having witnessed this invasion of privacy and its weaponization first-hand, Europe has been far ahead of North America in developing protections. These include the General Data Protection Regulation and the Law Enforcement Directive, with protection of personal data also listed in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Canada clearly took too much for granted in its relationship with the U.S. Suddenly, Canada is being threatened with tariffs and President Donald Trump's expressed desire to make Canada the 51st American state. This has fuelled the motivation of Canada both internally and in co-operation with western European governments to seek greater independence in trade and military preparedness by diversifying its relationships. Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun promoting "nation-building projects," but little attention has been paid to Canada's digital infrastructure. Read more: How Canadian nationalism is evolving with the times - and will continue to do so Three recent developments suggest Canada would be well-advised to start paying close attention: 1. The current U.S. administration has raised concerns about its reliability as a partner and friend to Canada. Most of the concerns raised in Canada have been economic. However, Curtis McCord, a former national security and technology researcher for the Canadian government, has said the current situation has created vulnerabilities for national security as well: "With Washington becoming an increasingly unreliable ally, Mr. Carney is right to look for ways to diversify away from the U.S. But if Canada wants to maintain its sovereignty and be responsible for its national security, this desire to diversify must extend to the U.S. domination of Canada's digital infrastructure." 2. Silicon Valley is exhibiting a newfound loyalty to Trump. The photo of the "broligarchy" at Trump's inauguration spoke volumes, as their apparent eagerness to appease the president brings the data gathered by the internet's surveillance-based economy under state control. 3. Trump's recent executive order entitled "Stopping waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos" is alarming. The order became operational when the Trump administration contracted with Palantir, a company known for its surveillance software and data analytics in military contexts. Its job? To combine databases from both the state and federal levels into one massive database that includes every American citizen, and potentially any user of the internet. Combining multiple government databases is concerning. Combining them with all the personal data harvested by Silicon Valley and providing them to a government showing all the hallmarks of an authoritarian regime sounds like Big Brother has arrived. Civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Freedom Foundation, academics and even former Palantir employees have raised alarms about the possibilities for abuse, including the launch of all the vendettas Trump and his supporters have pledged to undertake. European governments have attempted to rein in Silicon Valley's excesses for years. Trump's re-election and his moves toward potentially weaponizing internet data have further boosted Europe's resolve to move away from the U.S.-led internet. One newer effort is Eurostack. A joint initiative involving academics, policymakers, companies and governments, it envisions an independent digital ecosystem that better reflects European values - democratic, sovereign, inclusive, transparent, respectful of personal privacy and innovation-driven. Spokesperson Francesca Bria explains the "stack" arises from the idea that a digitally sovereign internet needs to have European control from the ground up. That includes the acquisition of raw materials and manufacture and operation of the physical components that comprise computers and servers; the cloud infrastructure that has the processing power and storage to be operational at scale; the operating systems and applications that comprise the user interface; the AI models and algorithms that drive services and its policy and governance framework. Prospective gains to Europe are considerable. They include greater cybersecurity, promoting innovation, keeping high-end creative jobs in Europe, promoting collaboration on equitable terms and creating high-skilled employment opportunities. Canada receives no mention in the Eurostack proposal to date, but the project is still very much in the developmental phase. Investment so far is in the tens of millions instead of the billions it will require. Canada has a lot to offer and to gain from being part of the Eurostack initiative. With the project still taking shape, now is the perfect time to get on board.
Canada News.Net
14-07-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
How Eurostack could offer Canada a route to digital independence from the United States
The contemporary internet has been with us since roughly 1995. Its current underlying economic model - surveillance capitalism - began in the early 2000s, when Google and then Facebook realized how much our personal information and online behaviour revealed about us and claimed it for themselves to sell to advertisers. Perhaps because of Canada's proximity to the United States, coupled with its positive shared history with the U.S. and their highly integrated economies, Canada went along for that consumerist ride. The experience was different on the other side of the Atlantic. The Stasi in the former East Germany and the KGB under Josef Stalin maintained files on hundreds of thousands of citizens to identify and prosecute dissidents. Having witnessed this invasion of privacy and its weaponization first-hand, Europe has been far ahead of North America in developing protections. These include the General Data Protection Regulation and the Law Enforcement Directive, with protection of personal data also listed in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Canada clearly took too much for granted in its relationship with the U.S. Suddenly, Canada is being threatened with tariffs and President Donald Trump's expressed desire to make Canada the 51st American state. This has fuelled the motivation of Canada both internally and in co-operation with western European governments to seek greater independence in trade and military preparedness by diversifying its relationships. Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun promoting "nation-building projects," but little attention has been paid to Canada's digital infrastructure. Three recent developments suggest Canada would be well-advised to start paying close attention: 1. The current U.S. administration has raised concerns about its reliability as a partner and friend to Canada. Most of the concerns raised in Canada have been economic. However, Curtis McCord, a former national security and technology researcher for the Canadian government, has said the current situation has created vulnerabilities for national security as well: "With Washington becoming an increasingly unreliable ally, Mr. Carney is right to look for ways to diversify away from the U.S. But if Canada wants to maintain its sovereignty and be responsible for its national security, this desire to diversify must extend to the U.S. domination of Canada's digital infrastructure." 2. Silicon Valley is exhibiting a newfound loyalty to Trump. The photo of the "broligarchy" at Trump's inauguration spoke volumes, as their apparent eagerness to appease the president brings the data gathered by the internet's surveillance-based economy under state control. 3. Trump's recent executive order entitled " Stopping waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos" is alarming. The order became operational when the Trump administration contracted with Palantir, a company known for its surveillance software and data analytics in military contexts. Its job? To combine databases from both the state and federal levels into one massive database that includes every American citizen, and potentially any user of the internet. Combining multiple government databases is concerning. Combining them with all the personal data harvested by Silicon Valley and providing them to a government showing all the hallmarks of an authoritarian regime sounds like Big Brother has arrived. Civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Freedom Foundation, academics and even former Palantir employees have raised alarms about the possibilities for abuse, including the launch of all the vendettas Trump and his supporters have pledged to undertake. European governments have attempted to rein in Silicon Valley's excesses for years. Trump's re-election and his moves toward potentially weaponizing internet data have further boosted Europe's resolve to move away from the U.S.-led internet. One newer effort is Eurostack. A joint initiative involving academics, policymakers, companies and governments, it envisions an independent digital ecosystem that better reflects European values - democratic, sovereign, inclusive, transparent, respectful of personal privacy and innovation-driven. Spokesperson Francesca Bria explains the "stack" arises from the idea that a digitally sovereign internet needs to have European control from the ground up. That includes the acquisition of raw materials and manufacture and operation of the physical components that comprise computers and servers; the cloud infrastructure that has the processing power and storage to be operational at scale; the operating systems and applications that comprise the user interface; the AI models and algorithms that drive services and its policy and governance framework. Prospective gains to Europe are considerable. They include greater cybersecurity, promoting innovation, keeping high-end creative jobs in Europe, promoting collaboration on equitable terms and creating high-skilled employment opportunities. Canada receives no mention in the Eurostack proposal to date, but the project is still very much in the developmental phase. Investment so far is in the tens of millions instead of the billions it will require. Canada has a lot to offer and to gain from being part of the Eurostack initiative. With the project still taking shape, now is the perfect time to get on board.
Hindustan Times
15-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
The man who made us root for An assassin: A farewell to Forsyth
Dear Reader, The news of Frederick Forsyth's passing sends me upstairs to my grandfather's study. There, through the wood-panelled little room with its writer's leather-topped desk and well worn divan, I head for the bookshelf. Nestled among Wilbur Smith's adventures, Len Deighton thrillers and Desmond Bagley novels, I find what I am looking for—three yellowed paperbacks with crumbling pages. The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Devil's Alternative. Their author, the journalist-turned-novelist who redefined the geopolitical thriller, has died at 86. Looking at these paperbacks, I am back thirty years, to my summer holidays in this house, riveted by Frederick Forsyth. This master thriller writer got me to commit my first literary crime—rooting for a killer ! I followed the Jackal, watching him set up his sniper's nest in a Paris apartment, and actually hoped this assassin would manage to kill Charles de Gaulle. Such is the power of a fiction writer to create empathy for any character, and Forsyth does this superbly for his lone wolf killer in The Day of the Jackal. Little wonder it's sold over 10 million copies, inspiring generations of assassin-protagonist stories from The Manchurian Candidate to Killing Eve. So why should you read Frederick Forsyth? 1. To learn geopolitics - In The Dogs of War, a British mercenary overthrows an African dictator for mineral rights in a fictional Guinea-like nation; it's a pattern that repeats in pursuit of everything from petroleum to silicon chips. In The Odessa File, Nazi networks resurface just as far-right fascist networks today mutate and reappear—they never disappear. 2. For geography and history - This former journalist spent years reporting on the troubled hotspots of the world, from the Biafran War to the Cold War's front lines, and he sets his novels in these conflict zones, everywhere from Europe to Africa to Iraq and Afghanistan. 3. Real insights into military technology - This former RAF pilot-turned-journalist-turned-author features cutting-edge technology—military intelligence, espionage and drone warfare (The Kill List) and details their real-world ramifications. He was prescient about disinformation too (The Fourth Protocol). 4. An insider's view into unholy alliances - Forsyth's books reveal alliances between democratic governments, military contractors, dictators, intelligence agencies and opium smugglers (The Afghan). While this is fiction, much of it is based on real-world politics, making it both insightful and instructive. 5. The books make for great reading - Forsyth is a master storyteller. His books are perfectly paced with memorable characters (the assassin, the journalist, the spy) and non-stop action that keeps you turning pages . Forsyth's autobiography offers riveting insights from a reporter who knew too much. Forsyth was a correspondent in conflict zones, rumoured to be a spy for MI6, the British intelligence service. As he writes: 'The Stasi arrested me, the Israelis regaled me, the IRA prompted a quick move from Ireland to England, and a certain attractive Czech secret police agent—well, her actions were a bit more intimate. And that's just for starters.' A fascinating life, told with thriller-like prose, only everything here is true. Goodbye Frederick Forsyth, and thank you for the sleepless nights spent racing through your pages. Thank you for giving us geopolitics wrapped in pacy prose. Thank you for showing us the world in all its complexity—for investigating morality in the world's darkest corners. Above all, thank you for telling us uncomfortable truths in such an entertaining way that we couldn't look away. From Forsyth's Shadows to The Safekeep: 2024's Women's Prize Winner From the geopolitical shadows of Forsyth's fiction to the emotional shadows of post-war Europe, this year's Women's Prize winner, Dutch trans writer Yale van der Wouden exposes hidden histories through a Rebecca-like gothic tale of love and grief, set in post-war Netherlands, in the shadow of the Holocaust. Creepy and compelling, even if it reads a tad too 'arty'. And finally, as Father's Day approaches, these lines by Dylan Thomas, from Fatherhood: poems about Fathers, remind us of the fierceness of fatherly love and loss. Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light… And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. What are your favourite father and child poems ? (Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@ The views expressed are personal.)
The Irish Sun
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Frederick Forsyth – the reporter who turned his foreign adventures into best-selling thrillers
FROM RAF pilot to journalist with romantic links to a Hollywood star, Frederick Forsyth loved to travel the world and get up to mischief. It is no wonder the dashing former MI6 agent used his adventures to help him write more than 25 books, selling 75million copies in a half-century long literary career. 7 Frederick Forsyth at his typewriter in the Seventies Credit: Getty 7 1973 film The Day of the Jackal with Edward Fox Credit: Alamy 7 Frederick collecting his CBE with wife Sandy in 1997 Credit: PA:Press Association It was during his time as a journalist that The Day Of The Jackal, about an assassination attempt on then French president Charles de Gaulle, was formulated. And a year-long assignment in Soviet East Last year, the twice-married author, who was also romantically linked to Hollywood star Faye Dunaway told The Sun: 'I got a lot of attention from the secret police, the Stasi. I was followed all over the bloody place. 'I thought the only way to survive is to take the mickey. They had no sense of humour, so I would do stupid things. Read more on Frederick Forsyth 'Too stupid' 'I knew my apartment was bugged, so I would go into the bedroom and have an extremely passionate orgy with a non-existent female. 'Knowing every word was being recorded I used two or three voices and then there'd be a knock on the door. 'Mein Herr, your gas is leaking'. 'They would search the flat and discover I had an invisible mistress.' Forsyth, who died yesterday morning after a short illness, was born in Ashford in Kent in 1938. Most read in The Sun His mum ran a dress shop and his dad was a furrier. He attended a private school nearby in Tonbridge and wanted to leave home aged 17 to become a bullfighter in Spain. Trailer for new adaptation of The Day of the Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne Instead Frederick had to do national service and became one of the youngest RAF fighter pilots aged 19. Frustrated that he wasn't getting to travel the globe as much as he'd like, he joined the Eastern Daily Press as a trainee reporter. From there he went to Reuters, where his ability to speak French saw him posted in Paris during an anti-de Gaulle campaign by a far-right paramilitary organisation called the OAS. He said: 'There definitely was an OAS trying to assassinate President de Gaulle and I was there covering it as a Reuters reporter in 1962 to '63. 'I thought to myself that they probably would fail because they were so penetrated by French counter intelligence that it was hardly possible for four of them to sit around a table.' From there he went to East 7 Spy author Frederick talking to The Sun last year Credit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun 7 Former pilot Frederick in his RAF uniform aged 19 Credit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun He said: 'I was once picked up in Magdeburg by the Stasi and interrogated through the night. 'I was like the PG Wodehouse character Bertie Wooster. 'Eager to please, helpless, hopeless, hapless and therefore harmless. 'Having shouted at me all night, they took me down a long corridor to a door. 'I didn't know whether it was the execution chamber or what it could be. 'Turned out to be the car park. 'They were chucking me out. 'As I was getting in the car, I heard one of them say 'He's too stupid to be an agent'.' Frederick then covered the civil war between Biafra and Nigeria for the BBC but his contract was not renewed after six months. Every friend I had told me very, very clearly that I was absolutely insane. Frederick Forsyth He wanted to go back to tell the world what was going on because up to two million people died of starvation in the conflict. Finding himself unemployed at Christmas 1969, he set about writing The Day Of The Jackal. Freddie said: 'I was skint, out of a job and I thought I'll write a novel. 'Every friend I had told me very, very clearly that I was absolutely insane.' He turned out 350 pages in 35 days, not a word of which was changed on publication. Although he said he took the sex scene out because he didn't think he had written it well. The book proved to be a massive hit, with the publishers offering Frederick a then princely £75,000 for the rights forever. He regretted accepting the deal because the book sold 12million copies and was turned into two films and a ten-part Sky drama starring Eddie Redmayne. It probably would have earned him a million pounds in royalties. 7 Frederick at home in Herts in 1971 Credit: Getty 7 Eddie Redmayne in a modern adaptation of The Day of the Jackal Credit: Carnival Film & Television Limited There were plenty more novels including The Odessa File, The Dogs Of War and The Fourth Protocol. Frederick claimed his romantic life was untroubled even though he divorced his first wife Carole in 1989. Shortly afterwards he said: 'We have both been very determined indeed to keep it civilised.' Then, in 1994, he married one of his fans Sandy Molloy, who he was with until she died in October 2024. Frederick had to keep writing because he was swindled out of £2.2million by dodgy financial adviser Roger Levitt in 1990 and his final novel Revenge Of Odessa is due to be published later this year. 'Extraordinary life' In 1997 he was made a CBE for services to literature. His friend David Davis, the Conservative MP, paid a warm tribute, saying: 'Freddie believed in honour and patriotism and courage and directness and straightforwardness. 'We haven't got many authors like him and we will miss him greatly. 'James Bond was total fantasy but everything that Freddie wrote about was based in a real world.' The author, who died at home in Buckinghamshire, left behind two sons Stuart and Shane from his first marriage. His agent Jonathan Lloyd said: 'We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers. 'Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life, In My Own Words, to be released later this year on BBC One and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived. 'He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends, all of us at Curtis Brown and, of course, his millions of fans around the world. 'Though his books will, of course, live on forever.'
The Sun
31-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Sun
The bin incident at my flat that made me realise Bossy Britain is everywhere and why it's only likely to get much worse
WHEN did Britain get so bossy? We are meant to be the land of freedom and liberty. 5 Our Parliament is the oldest in the world. We chopped the head off our king when he got too big for his boots and ruled as an autocrat. And we fought and won two world wars against tyranny. But now we have become a nation oppressed by the tentacles of the nanny state. You cannot walk down the street without being confronted by some hi-vis-wearing sergeant major of officialdom barking orders at you. David Hockney, Britain's greatest living artist, has a campaign to End Bossiness Soon. He was going to name it End Bossiness Now, but thought that was too bossy. I applaud his mission — it is one we should all take up. Recently, bossy Britain came to my doorstep. The company that manages my block of flats sent us all a letter. It showed CCTV photos of people caught red-handed accidentally putting the wrong rubbish into the wrong bins. Keir says 'woman is an adult female' & insists he's 'pleased' by court trans ruling after years of woke dithering The implication was clear: They should be hanged, drawn and quartered for their terrible crime. Hot on its heels was another email containing incriminating photos of doggy paw prints on the communal stairs. The guilty culprit should immediately fetch a bucket of soapy water, get on their hands and knees and scrub, the memo suggested. This level of intrusive curtain-twitching would make the Stasi wince. Bossy Britain is everywhere. The other day, I was getting my train into work when a furious-sounding man began shouting through the station Tannoy. 'Stand clear of the brushes at the edge of the escalator . . . for your own safety!', he thundered, with such alarm that he could have been announcing a nuclear warhead was about to hit us in the next 60 seconds. Fierce and terrifying Is this really necessary? I mean, how many lives have been tragically cut short because an ankle has been gently tickled by a few escalator brushes? Bossy Britain is in the Covid-era signs still telling us to stick to 'social distance' rules four years after lockdowns ended. It is in the stomach-churning calorie counts that are now on every menu at restaurants. It is in the notices that tell kids they cannot play with balls in the communal gardens of their own blocks of flats. Bossy Britain hectors, intimidates and tries to make us feel bad. And it has already claimed victims. The sugar tax on soft drinks ruined Irn-Bru and mango Rubicon by forcing makers to change their once-delicious recipes. And I doubt it has led a single obese child to lose a pound of weight. Now the Treasury is threatening to expand the foul-tasting levy to milkshakes, too. Plans for a smoking ban outdoors only went up in flames after a national outcry (thank goodness). But now there are rumours Sir Keir Starmer is considering a tax on gambling to pay for higher welfare spending. Yet more bossy taxes designed not just to raise money — but to make us feel bad about the little joys in life. They are a tax on fun. Britain's nanny state is like the many-headed hydra of Ancient Greece, a terrifying sea serpent which Hercules had to slay as one of his seven labours. Each time Hercules lopped off one of the monster's heads, another grew back, just as fierce and terrifying. The hydra was finally defeated only when its one immortal head was killed, leading the others to wither like tomatoes on a vine. Sir Keir should heed Hockney's cry and hurry up and slay the hydra of the nanny state. Or does that sound too bossy? Spice up the lives of modern teens HOORAY, the Spice Girls are finally reuniting. Well, their holograms might be, anyway. Their old manager Simon Fuller is in talks for their avatars to perform live concerts, like the Abba Voyage experience. This is music to the ears of girls like me who grew up in the 1990s, squabbling with our mates over who got to be Geri in the dance routines, but never got to see the Fab Five perform live. I remember when Wannabe burst on to the scene. Suddenly pop was fun again. Angst-ridden blokes strumming their guitars were now out. Leopard print-wearing gobby girls were in. Me and my mates dashed over to Walthamstow Market to pick out our crop tops, moon rings and platform trainers. It was all about Girl Power and having fun. Girls today have it harder than I did. All that Instagram pressure and doom-scrolling can't be healthy. A trip round a virtual Spice World would spice up their lives. TOUGH LUCK FOR ED ED MILIBAND once famously declared, 'Hell yes, I'm tough enough' to be PM when he was asked if he was just too much of a geek to lead Britain. And it seems that he has been trying to act the hardman again – this time over how much cash his Net Zero department will get. 5 Red Ed stormed out of showdown talks with Treasury minister Darren Jones after just NINE minutes, top government sources tell me. He was in such a huff that he slammed the door behind him. But it seems his Danny Dyer impersonation is not leaving his colleagues quaking in their boots. One told me: 'Ed is playing the tough guy and being very aggressive. 'Maybe it would look swaggering if he didn't look like the kind of guy who got his head shoved down the toilet at school.' It seems Ed is not tough enough after all. BEEB IS DYING BEAST THE BBC has brought back its Walking With Dinosaurs show – and I could not be happier. It is fun, educational and heart-warming. In the first episode, we meet an orphaned baby triceratops, Clover, looking for bigger pals to protect her from a fearsome T-Rex. The show follows palaeontologists as they dig up fossils, then uses CGI to reimagine the lives dinosaurs led on Earth. It is the sort of TV show Auntie should be making. The BBC's Charter Review is looming, and politicians will again debate whether we scrap the licence fee for a subscription service. With viewer numbers crashing, particularly among Gen Z, the dated model of the licence fee is hard to defend. One thing the Government should do is decriminalise non-payment of the fee. It is outrageous you can get a criminal record for this. The BBC must modernise to survive – or like the dinosaurs, it will become extinct. DOWN THE TUBES THREE cheers for Robert Jenrick, the Tory frontbencher who has been out catching fare dodgers in London's lawless Tube stations. The video of the Shadow Justice Secretary confronting blokes who brazenly jump the barriers in the capital's Underground has been watched 11million times. In one particularly outrageous scene, a fare dodger even threatens to pull a knife on Jenrick after being challenged about his behaviour. Sorry mate, you've been caught on camera! This video has struck a chord with the country because it shows what we already know is true – lawlessness has taken over many of our streets. Thuggish criminals are dodging fares, nicking Greggs sausage rolls and generally sticking two fingers up at the Old Bill. The scenes Jenrick filmed will be only too familiar to anyone who has caught a train or Tube in London in the past few years. Train station staff lazily chat to their mates or stare blankly ahead as yobs vault over the station barriers. They don't bother to even challenge these fare cheats. They just aren't bovvered. And what is London Mayor Sadiq Khan doing while thugs run amok on his Tube system? Calling for the decriminalising of cannabis, a topic high up on absolutely nobody's agenda. Mr Khan should stop grandstanding on vanity issues, take a leaf out of Jenrick's book and actually start challenging the lawlessness gripping our streets. THE Royal Family have announced the haul of pressies they have received in 2023. King Charles was the big winner – bagging a free Rolls-Royce and a fragment of the cross Jesus was said to be crucified on. She was given a bottle of hand sanitiser and a model of a slurry tanker – used for transporting animal manure. No offence to the well-meaning gift givers, but those presents sound a bit s**t.
