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The world watches as Canada moves to seize a Russian cargo jet for Ukraine

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When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau briefed reporters in Kyiv last weekend on plans to seize a Russian cargo plane that has been stranded on the tarmac at Pearson International for over a year, he merely confirmed what trade lawyers and aviation industry watchers had been expecting for weeks.

When Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal got back from meetings in Canada with Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in April, he took to his Facebook page to point out how Canada’s latest sanctions targeted Volga-Dnepr — a Russian cargo airline a Ukrainian court had already grounded for alleged safety violations.

“Preparing for the confiscation of the [Antonov-124] plane and other assets of the aggressor in Canada and [transferring] them to the benefit of Ukraine,” Shmyhal wrote.

Canada added both the Volga-Dnepr Group and Volga-Dnepr Airlines to its list of sanctioned Russian entities on April 5. But officials said very little about seizing this cargo plane — until Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed Canada’s intentions as part of another assistance package for Ukraine announced during Trudeau’s recent surprise trip.

“Should the asset ultimately be forfeited to the Crown, Canada will work with the Government of Ukraine on options to redistribute this asset to compensate victims of human rights abuses, restore international peace and security, or rebuild Ukraine,” says a news release issued Saturday by Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Notwithstanding this apparent slow walk to an official announcement, Trudeau said his government’s plan is to make this forfeiture happen “as soon as possible.”

“We are one of the first countries to bring in specific legislation that allows us not just to ground this plane but to actually seize it and ensure that it is never used by Russia again in the war effort or any other efforts,” Trudeau told reporters.

“There is a process. This is one of the early processes we’re going through. I can tell you the Ukrainians are very pleased that the path is started, not just for Canada but hopefully for other countries as well.”

Budget bill used for sanctions law

The federal government gave itself the power to seize and sell Russian assets through budget implementation legislation a year ago.

At the time, Freeland was told the seizure powers could be risky for Canada.

Some warned that the new powers played a bit loose with international law. Some predicted that selling off or transferring Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine (or pursue other worthy causes) would open the door to hostile governments retaliating by liquidating Canadian-owned assets — putting the foreign investments of Canadian citizens and companies at increased risk whenever foreign relations turn sour.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a suit, shakes the hand of a more casually dressed Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in front of Canadian and Ukrainian flags.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, seen here meeting Justin Trudeau during the Canadian prime minister’s surprise visit to Kyiv Saturday, scooped the Canadian government by revealing on Facebook that Canada would seize a Russian cargo plane two months before the federal cabinet actually issued its order to do so. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Canada didn’t use its new powers immediately.

Its first move came last December 19, with an order-in-council to seize $26 million US in financial assets held by Granite Capital, a company believed to be owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Saturday’s order seizing Volga-Dnepr’s Antonov-124 is only Ottawa’s second use of this power.

Sanctions usually freeze assets as a (hopefully) temporary incentive to change behaviour. When assets are sold as punishment, they can’t be returned if and when the harm stops. Trade experts say that’s a significant departure from past practice.

“Canada is really being viewed as the test case,” said John Boscariol, a Toronto lawyer who represents individuals and businesses affected by sanctions regulations. To date, the U.S. has gone after Russian oligarch money only in connection with criminal activities.

“They’re going to be very careful to dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” Boscariol said. “The last thing they want is for this to be a failure.”

No court filing yet

Issuing an order-in-council to seize an asset is only the first step. Under Canada’s law, these assets remain the property of their Russian owners until a Canadian court orders a forfeiture.

At the time this article was published, the federal government had yet to confirm anything has been filed in an Ontario court on either the cargo plane or the seizure of Abramovich’s assets. Case watchers must diligently check and check again for progress.

Procedural fairness requires the Russian owners to be represented in court. But it’s not yet clear how that would work. A Canadian law firm might require special permission from Joly to act on behalf of a sanctioned entity or individual, as commercial dealings (like being paid for legal services) are otherwise prohibited.

GAC declined to answer questions from CBC News on whether ministerial permits to allow for such legal representation have been granted or are in the works.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is wearing sunglasses, walk among heavy security on a sidewalk on their way to a memorial for Ukraine's war dead.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Ukraine’s Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv Saturday. Trudeau’s government has pledged to use the proceeds from selling off Russian assets in Canada to help fund Ukraine’s reconstruction. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Pool via Associated Press)

A certain amount of uncertainty and chaos comes with any unprecedented legal process. But the Trudeau government’s latest attempt to crack down on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s enablers imposes new burdens on a Canadian sanctions regime that practitioners like Boscariol have long claimed fails to provide effective guidance on how companies and individuals can avoid violations in their business dealings.

This spring’s budget bill — now in the Senate following passage by the House of Commons last week — includes attempts to clarify previous vague definitions of ownership that now become more critical if the government intends to begin seizing assets that may be partly, but not entirely, held or controlled by people or companies on Canada’s sanctions list.

COVID delivery landed plane in Toronto

The only reason this plane is even in Canada now is that it was contracted to deliver massive shipments of COVID tests for the federal government.

Its arrival at Pearson coincided, and then collided, with the swift and firm response of Western allies to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Within hours of offloading its pandemic procurement, Canada closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft.

That left one of the world’s biggest cargo planes stranded at Toronto’s busiest airport. Other Russian transport jets were also grounded in Germany by similar actions.

Parking a plane this size at Pearson carries a hefty price tag, reportedly north of $1,000 US a day.

That means the company may now owe the airport authority hundreds of thousands of dollars. Does Volga-Dnepr have any incentive to pay the bill for a plane it’s about to forfeit?

It’s also unclear whether the aircraft remains airworthy. Massive jets big enough to airlift Leopard tanks for the Canadian military aren’t intended to sit on the tarmac for months. It’s not clear it is even legal to be paid to conduct maintenance on a sanctioned asset.

This Anatov-124 — nicknamed the “T-Rex of heavy lift aviation” — takes 24 wheels to support its weight. Having that sinking into in the same pavement for months takes a toll on already-strained cargo infrastructure.

On Monday, Deborah Flint, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, thanked Transport Minister Omar Alghabra for his “leadership on this file” — without specifying exactly what will happen next. The airport authority punted those questions back to the federal government.

Nevertheless, Flint said, “this action will eventually allow us to begin using the parking space currently occupied by the aircraft for operations.”

“While the asset is seized, Public Services and Procurement Canada will take control of and manage the asset in accordance with that order,” GAC spokesperson Jason Kung said in response to questions from CBC News late Sunday. “Public Services and Procurement Canada manages seized property in accordance with federal regulations and disposes of it should the courts declare forfeiture.”

In its coverage of this announcement, Kremlin-friendly Russia Today referred to the plane as “stolen” by Canada.

“The world is watching,” Boscariol said. “Whenever you set a precedent like this, there’s going to be accusations that you’re not doing something in accordance with the international order.”

“I think they now need to be worried about Russia taking action against Canadian investments within the territory of Russia” or making claims under its bilateral investment treaty, he said.

“This won’t be without consequence,” he added.

“At the same time, from the Canadian government’s perspective, the optics of the government acting to seize assets of major Russian corporations in Canada is — they think, at least — very positive. I won’t be surprised to see more like this.”

 

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Australia plans a social media ban for children under 16

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as world-leading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media, and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The legislation will be introduced in Parliament during its final two weeks in session this year, which begin on Nov. 18. The age limit would take effect 12 months after the law is passed, Albanese told reporters.

The platforms including X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook would need to use that year to work out how to exclude Australian children younger than 16.

“I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online,” Albanese said.

The proposal comes as governments around the world are wrestling with how to supervise young people’s use of technologies like smartphones and social media.

Social media platforms would be penalized for breaching the age limit, but under-age children and their parents would not.

“The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people,” Albanese said.

Antigone Davis, head of safety at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company would respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce.

“However, what’s missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections, otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place,” Davis said in a statement.

She added that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a “simple and effective solution.”

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. TikTok declined to comment.

The Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia, described the age limit as a “20th Century response to 21st Century challenges.”

“Rather than blocking access through bans, we need to take a balanced approach to create age-appropriate spaces, build digital literacy and protect young people from online harm,” DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said in a statement.

More than 140 Australian and international academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”

Jackie Hallan, a director at the youth mental health service ReachOut, opposed the ban. She said 73% of young people across Australia accessing mental health support did so through social media.

“We’re uncomfortable with the ban. We think young people are likely to circumvent a ban and our concern is that it really drives the behavior underground and then if things go wrong, young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because they’re worried about getting in trouble,” Hallan said.

Child psychologist Philip Tam said a minimum age of 12 or 13 would have been more enforceable.

“My real fear honestly is that the problem of social media will simply be driven underground,” Tam said.

Australian National University lawyer Associate Prof. Faith Gordon feared separating children from there platforms could create pressures within families.

Albanese said there would be exclusions and exemptions in circumstances such as a need to continue access to educational services.

But parental consent would not entitle a child under 16 to access social media.

Earlier this year, the government began a trial of age-restriciton technologies. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the online watchdog that will police compliance, will use the results of that trial to provide platforms with guidance on what reasonable steps they can take.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the year-long lead-in would ensure the age limit could be implemented in a “very practical way.”

“There does need to be enhanced penalties to ensure compliance,” Rowland said.

“Every company that operates in Australia, whether domiciled here or otherwise, is expected and must comply with Australian law or face the consequences,” she added.

The main opposition party has given in-principle support for an age limit at 16.

Opposition lawmaker Paul Fletcher said the platforms already had the technology to enforce such an age ban.

“It’s not really a technical viability question, it’s a question of their readiness to do it and will they incur the cost to do it,” Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“The platforms say: ’It’s all too hard, we can’t do it, Australia will become a backwater, it won’t possibly work.’ But if you have well-drafted legislation and you stick to your guns, you can get the outcomes,” Fletcher added.



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A tiny grain of nuclear fuel is pulled from ruined Japanese nuclear plant, in a step toward cleanup

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TOKYO (AP) — A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris.

The sample, the size of a grain of rice, was placed into a secure container, marking the end of the mission, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant. It is being transported to a glove box for size and weight measurements before being sent to outside laboratories for detailed analyses over the coming months.

Plant chief Akira Ono has said it will provide key data to plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and learn how the accident had developed.

The first sample alone is not enough and additional small-scale sampling missions will be necessary in order to obtain more data, TEPCO spokesperson Kenichi Takahara told reporters Thursday. “It may take time, but we will steadily tackle decommissioning,” Takahara said.

Despite multiple probes in the years since the 2011 disaster that wrecked the. plant and forced thousands of nearby residents to leave their homes, much about the site’s highly radioactive interior remains a mystery.

The sample, the first to be retrieved from inside a reactor, was significantly less radioactive than expected. Officials had been concerned that it might be too radioactive to be safely tested even with heavy protective gear, and set an upper limit for removal out of the reactor. The sample came in well under the limit.

That’s led some to question whether the robot extracted the nuclear fuel it was looking for from an area in which previous probes have detected much higher levels of radioactive contamination, but TEPCO officials insist they believe the sample is melted fuel.

The extendable robot, nicknamed Telesco, first began its mission August with a plan for a two-week round trip, after previous missions had been delayed since 2021. But progress was suspended twice due to mishaps — the first involving an assembly error that took nearly three weeks to fix, and the second a camera failure.

On Oct. 30, it clipped a sample weighting less than 3 grams (.01 ounces) from the surface of a mound of melted fuel debris sitting on the bottom of the primary containment vessel of the Unit 2 reactor, TEPCO said.

Three days later, the robot returned to an enclosed container, as workers in full hazmat gear slowly pulled it out.

On Thursday, the gravel, whose radioactivity earlier this week recorded far below the upper limit set for its environmental and health safety, was placed into a safe container for removal out of the compartment.

The sample return marks the first time the melted fuel is retrieved out of the containment vessel.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its key cooling systems during a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in its three reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive melted fuel remains in them.

The government and TEPCO have set a 30-to-40-year target to finish the cleanup by 2051, which experts say is overly optimistic and should be updated. Some say it would take for a century or longer.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said there have been some delays but “there will be no impact on the entire decommissioning process.”

No specific plans for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal have been decided.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

AP NBA:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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