On the evening before Russian forces crossed the border into Ukraine, Igor Volzhanin met up with a friend at a coffee shop at the centre of Kyiv.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has weighed in on growing calls to declare Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, saying it is "absolutely right" that the term is being used given rampant allegations of war crimes and other human rights violations.

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces are set to depart from an Ontario military base today to help with the care, co-ordination and resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Officials also acknowledged that even with an additional $8 billion, Canada will remain far short of NATO’s spending target, even as other allies dramatically ramp up their own military investments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hinting that new investments are coming for Canada’s Arctic as tensions with Russia, and Moscow’s unpredictability, incite new fears of a potential attack from the north.

The Liberals and New Democrats have been dancing around the idea of a deal to work together since the 2019 election first reduced the Trudeau government to a minority.

The federal government says it has tightened rules for Russian aircraft after a commercial airliner was able to circumvent a ban on entering Canadian airspace late last month by falsely claiming to be a humanitarian flight.

The company overseeing the federal government’s $900-million settlement deal with military members who experienced sexual misconduct in uniform has admitted to more privacy breaches.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his country’s nuclear arsenal on high alert last weekend has sparked hope that Ottawa and Washington will finally act with urgency in upgrading North America’s defences.