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Chinese spy balloon flight path over Canada: Defence officials reveal route

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2 years ago

February 17, 2023

A Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by American forces earlier this month flew over a Canadian territory and province before re-entering U.S. airspace, defence officials say.

The surveillance balloon unlawfully entered Canadian airspace between Jan. 30 and 31 – just a few days before its discovery was announced by the Pentagon on Feb. 2 while it hovered over the U.S. Midwest, eventually resulting in its takedown off the coast of the Carolinas on Feb. 4.

NORAD – the continental air defence network – began tracking the balloon as it approached U.S. airspace in late January, the Pentagon said earlier this month. It passed north of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across Alaska and then into Canadian airspace before crossing back into the U.S. over northern Idaho on Jan. 31.

For the first time since its discovery, Canadian defence officials have now revealed its flight path.

“It came down pretty much from Alaska down into Yukon and into central B.C., so pretty much between the border of Alberta and the coast,” Maj. Gen. Paul Prévost, director of staff with Strategic Joint Staff, told MPs sitting on the House of Commons National Defence committee on Friday.

Canadian Armed Forces infrastructure is in the area, but there was no “infrastructure of significance” along the balloon’s flight path, Prévost added.

The U.S. navy and coast guard have been working to recover pieces of the balloon, which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina after flying across the U.S., for analysis. They’re working to determine if it collected any intelligence from either country.

The public announcement of the balloon’s discovery earlier this month sparked outrage in both countries and prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to China.

U.S. officials have said China operates a fleet of such balloons, which are a relatively inexpensive and difficult-to-detect method of gathering intelligence. China has claimed responsibility for the balloon but said it was a weather aircraft, not one tied to surveillance or espionage.

The balloon’s discovery also resulted in NORAD adjusting its radar to find similar objects, which led to the shootdown of three unidentified objects over U.S. and Canadian airspace a week later.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that those objects do not appear to have come from China or any other country, and did not have surveillance capabilities. The search for two of them remains ongoing, while the search for an object that landed in Lake Huron has been called off for now due to poor weather.

Lt. Gen. Alain Pelletier, deputy commander of NORAD, told MPs on Friday the detection, tracking and monitoring of those objects has highlighted some challenges for the defence network.

Due to their small size and slow speed, it has been difficult to detect and track them on radar, and has been challenging to locate them with airborne assets, Pelletier said, adding that NORAD experienced “radar gaps” while tracking the Chinese spy balloon.

“NORAD works every day to improve domain awareness by integrating intelligence and sensor data and reviewing previous data to improve and help us see more,” he said.

“While these objects may not have showcased hostile intent, their proximity to aviation routes, populated areas and sensitive defence infrastructure have raised concerns.”

Pelletier added that the recent events show that the threat to North America has evolved from a northern, long-range aviation approach to a “360-degree threat and from all domains.”

“I believe this is the first time in the history of NORAD that Canada or the U.S. have actually taken kinetic actions against an airborne object in Canadian and American airspace, and it is important that we maintain the necessary capabilities to continue to do so,” he said.

Defence Minister Anita Anand has said the recent developments are an example of the need to modernize NORAD. Over the summer, she announced the federal government would be investing $40 billion over the next 20 years to beef up continental defence.

The financing will focus on five specific areas, Anand said at the time.

Those will include a new northern approaches surveillance system, an Arctic over-the-horizon radar system for early warning radar coverage from the Canada-U.S. border to the Arctic Circle, as well as a polar over-the-horizon radar system to provide early radar coverage.

A new system called “Crossbow” will also see early warning sensors deployed across the country to identify incoming threats, and the modernization of NORAD will also launch a space-based surveillance project to use satellites to probe for threats approaching from around the world.

Jedidiah Royal, the U.S. assistant defence secretary for the Indo-Pacific, told a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee last week that the military has “some very good guesses” about what intelligence China was seeking.

When pressed on what information the balloon was specifically trying to gather, Royal said U.S. officials “are learning more as we exploit the contents of the balloon and the payload itself.”

“We understand that this is part of a broader suite of operations that China is undertaking to try to get a better understanding of the U.S.,” Royal said.

The balloon was spotted over Montana on Feb. 2, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information at the time.

Canadian relations with China have been uneasy for several years, intensifying in recent months over allegations of attempts to influence and interfere in Canadian affairs.

— with files from Amanda Connolly

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

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2 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.

Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.

Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.

The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.

Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.

The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.

Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

Published

2 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.

Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.

Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.

Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.

Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.

Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.

The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.

Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).

Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.

Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.

The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

Published

2 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.

The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.

“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.

“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”

The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.

“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.

“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”

Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.

Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.

“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.

Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.

The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.

Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”

Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”

The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.

Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.

The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.

Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.

“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”

A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.

Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.

“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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