Canada

Radioactive salmon due to Fukushima contamination has been discovered in British Columbia, Canada, by a team of research scientists from the University of Victoria.  Seaborne Cesium 123,  which is thought to be an indicator of nuclear contamination from Fukushima, was detected on the West coast of the US this month. Environews.tv reports: WHOI is a crowd-funded science seawater sampling project, that has been monitoring the radioactive plume making its way across the Pacific to America’s west coast, from the demolished Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in eastern Japan.

Leading up to the 2016 Presidential election, dozens of overconfident celebrities and political figures promised to flee to Canada if Trump emerged victorious (we noted them all here: "These Are The Celebrities Who Vowed To Leave America If Trump Wins").  Unfortunately, none of them have announced plans to follow through on those promises despite news from Canada's immigration officials that applications for political refugee status from Americans was up 5x YoY in November.

Submitted by Roddy Boyd of the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation

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Canadian National Railway Company Inc. is an icon of the Canadian economic firmament whose rapid growth and sector-leading efficiency have made it a money-manager darling. A lengthy SIRF investigation suggests that a fair chunk of that growth has come from price gouging and misleading a key, taxpayer-funded commuter rail customer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened Canada with “retaliation” over their quietly imposed sanctions imposed against Russian citizens.  New sanctions were passed on Nov. 28th by the Canadian government which will see various Russian nationals living in Canada having their assets frozen and their business dealings stopped. The harsh sanctions comes in response to the annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s ongoing support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Despite speculation over the past year that Canada may join Japan and Europe in the NIRP club and launch negative interest rates, so far the BOC has stood its ground. However, starting on December 22, for the broker dealer clients of one of Canada's most reputable financial institutions, BMO Nesbitt Burns, it will be as if the Canadian bank has cut its deposit rate on most currencies, to match the deposit rate of Switzerland.