Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has promised that help is on the way for Canada's beleaguered softwood lumber sector. She said cash will be provided through banks to keep firms "afloat," while in the meantime promised to "work on a buy-Canadian policy" that will use domestic resources for infrastructure projects. The minister added: "If one day Canada is not in a time of peace, we need to have steel plants, we need to have aluminum plants, we need to have lumber also."
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says financial relief is coming soon for Canada’s tariff-struck softwood lumber sector. https://t.co/98pCFAxWLd
— CityNews Vancouver (@CityNewsVAN) October 16, 2025
A prominent Canadian climate scientist, Damon Matthews of Concordia University, has warned that Canada must resist pressure to loosen emissions targets amid a need to cut global CO2 levels "in half and then keep decreasing them towards zero in order to keep levels stable." Matthews pointed to the World Meteorological Organization's annual greenhouse gas bulletin, which claims the CO2 growth rate has tripled since the 1960s. According to the International Energy Agency, however, Canada represents just a tiny fraction of the world's CO2 emissions (about 1.5 per cent), dwarfed by China, India and the US, which combined represent a majority of all emissions.
Surging CO2 levels a sign Canada must resist climate backsliding: scientist https://t.co/imrTl9CmSZ
— CP24 (@CP24) October 16, 2025
Canada has told a Bangladeshi asylum seeker he can't return to the country after he entered the United States illegally. Mahin Shahriar claims, however, that he entered the US by mistake after being told by a friend to travel along a rural road to get to his house.
Canadian refugee applicant in ICE custody says he crossed border accidentally https://t.co/QSJxmB4KCr
— insauga (@insauga) October 16, 2025
Seven Latin American drug cartels are operating in Canada, according to RCMP Chief Superintendent Mathieu Bertrand, who said the gangsters use Canada "as a trans-shipment point" to get their contraband to Australia and New Zealand. Among the groups active in Canada, according to Bertrand, are the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13, Tren de Aragua and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
As I have reported, and testified last week: Mexican cartels supplied by China, using Canada’s economy and institutions, and a resulting surge in lower level transnational and domestic gangs. Infiltration of transportation (trucking, airports, border crossings) makes this… https://t.co/80Aca2jKbW
— Sam Cooper (@scoopercooper) October 15, 2025
Some Christians in China are sounding the alarm after the country's communist authorities arrested dozens of people linked to the Zion Church network. There are estimated to be at least 44 million Christians in China – though some sources suggest there are many more – but the faithful have come under increasing scrutiny from the Communist Party, which is hostile to religion.
China's arrested 30 Christians. Some fear it's the start of a bigger crackdown https://t.co/EtXaANgTf8
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 15, 2025
