Michael Byers 🇨🇦

© CBC/Radio-Canada 2025. All rights reserved.

I started my day talking with CBC radio host Stephen Quinn about developments in the Middle East.

Nobel Peace Prize 2025 The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maria Corina Machado "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transi...

"Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination."

Posting on X feeds X.

Canada’s new warships could be obsolete by delivery time This country needs a navy that can adapt, survive and fight in the age of artificial intelligence

AI-driven killer-submersibles will change naval warfare.
Yet Canada is planning to spend more than $100 billion on 15 large surface ships.
My latest op-ed, as a gift article:

Thanks for both the oped and the recommendation. I'll watch The Good Canadian now.

Netanyahu says he did not agree to Palestinian state as part of Trump Gaza plan, and IDF will remain ‘in most of territory’ – live Israeli PM says ‘we turned the tables and isolated Hamas’, while Qatar says it will hold talks on the proposals with Hamas and Turkey later on Tuesday

Donald Trump gets played, again:

Canada Post is losing money!
But so is the Canadian military.
Most Canadians don't use the post or the military very much, but they're both still essential services.

Le Collège de France, where I'm speaking at a conference on property rights (or not!) in Outer Space.

Shaping Space Governance: Strategic Reflections on Multilateralism, International Law, and the Role of Emerging States This series brings together experts from space agencies, international organizations, and academia to explore the evolving dynamics of space governance.

Check out the timely and important contributions from Steven Freeland, Robin J. Frank, Kiran Mohan Vazhapully and Ashna Lazatin in this new co-publication by the Outer Space Institute and Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

1. Just so we’re clear, this is the clip that got Jimmy Kimmel’s show shelved by ABC.

If I’m missing any other clips please let me know.

My commute comes with a view.

I'm flying home after a wonderful conference with the @esil-sedi.bsky.social (European Society of International Law).

With many thanks to hosts @heikekrieger.bsky.social and Helmut Aust and their amazing team at the Free University of Berlin.

MDA chief executive made $35.7-million on company stock options before shares fell Satellite manufacturer says CEO’s sale of shares was made in accordance with its insider trading policy

No comment.

Indigenous leader Gosnell-Myers at next Forum - Gulf Islands Driftwood One of Canada’s most influential and action-oriented Indigenous leaders is the next guest of the Salt Spring Forum. Ginger Gosnell-Myers is a member of the Nisga’a and Kwakwaka’wakw nations and […]

Next up at the Salt Spring Forum: Ginger Gosnell-Myers, Chair of Greenpeace Canada!

NordSpace | NMBU | NMBU What consequences does the development of space infrastructures in the High North have for the Arctic region?

I was delighted to speak with Katharina Glaab, @jfmorin.bsky.social , Adam Bower, Xiao-Shan Yap and the rest of the NordSpace research team at their workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, this morning!

Police make arrests at London Palestine Action ban protest More than 1,000 people have pledged to risk arrest in demonstration billed as largest since group was proscribed

"Judith Gradwell, 80, who ... held a sign that read, 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action', is unafraid of being arrested. 'It doesn’t matter, I’ve got my sandwiches in my backpack,' she said."

Liberal MPs form environmental caucus as some want stronger climate focus from Carney | CBC News As Liberal MPs prepare for a national caucus meeting in Edmonton next week, some are aiming to bring climate change to the forefront of the political agenda by creating a formal caucus to discuss the ...

"People don't understand how someone who has championed climate issues for 15 years can suddenly become prime minister of a G7 country and stop talking about climate change. Not a word about it. What's going on?"

Tagging a military institution, "Department of War," doesn't sound very Nobel Peace Prize'ish...

I can't decide which is worse: either our government doesn't understand that these guys are Nazis, or they think it's a good idea to invite Nazis to their cabinet retreat.

Drug trafficking is not a capital crime; it doesn’t carry a death sentence. I genuinely cannot think of anything under U.S. law that would permit premeditated government assassination of people suspected of drug trafficking.

I'll be in Ottawa next month, speaking at this timely conference.

Registration is free for both on-line and in-person attendees.

The Salt Spring Forum The Salt Spring Forum Unforgettable Discussions Learn More

The Salt Spring Forum welcomes John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce and Fire Weather, tomorrow night at ArtSpring.

The event is sold-out, but please check our website for other events this Fall! www.saltspringforum.com

Zip lines stretch on hot days.
This results in more people being stranded halfway, leading to fear, panic and, ultimately, an embarrassing rescue.
So, you ask, how do I know?

As your fragile post-imperial ego requires!

Europe Is Finally Saying No to the F-35 Why are Spain & Switzerland ditching the F-35? It's not just cost. It's a revolt against the U.S. 'sustainment monopoly' over the jet.

Will Canada be next?

Faculty locked out at Dalhousie University in Halifax over contract dispute Union says wages and school’s reliance on limited-term contracts are the main issues

Dalhousie, the Air Canada of Canadian universities.

Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for a security guarantee - provided by Russia, the US and UK in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, and violated by Vladimir Putin in 2014 and 2022.

CANADA’S LABOUR MOVEMENT STANDS UNITED AGAINST GOVERNMENT VIOLATION OF WORKERS' RIGHTS | Canadian Labour Congress Statement from Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, following an emergency meeting of Canada’s Unions on the Air Canada Flight Attendants Strike  ‘’Tonight, the heads of Canada’s uni...

Canadian Labour Congress throws its support behind the striking Air Canada flight attendents, putting Prime Minister Mark Carney in a very tough spot.

Air Canada suspends plans to resume operations as flight attendants defy back-to-work order | CBC News Air Canada says it has suspended plans to resume limited operations after the union representing the airline's flight attendants said Sunday it will defy a federal back-to-work order for binding arbit...

It is as if Canada was asked if the right to strike extended to a largely female workforce, and answered not really. Good for CUPE for holding fast on this one. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/air-canada-flights-sunday-1.7611078

Ottawa orders binding arbitration after Air Canada flight attendant strike grounds fleet Airline said Saturday it had been reducing its 700 daily flights since Wednesday strike notice, anticipating 130,000 customers affected

The Carney government should make payment for all work, including during boarding and deplaning, a necessary outcome of the binding abitration.