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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top adviser will testify at a House of Commons committee on foreign election interference after the Liberals ended their obstruction and acquiesced to a narrow probe proposed by the NDP, over a sweeping study pushed by Conservatives.
Katie Telford, who has been Mr. Trudeau’s chief of staff since the Liberals formed government in 2015, attends most national-security briefings and would know how the Prime Minister responded over warnings from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about Chinese election intrusion.
The climbdown came Tuesday after Liberal MPs spent days filibustering an NDP motion that included calling Ms. Telford to answer questions at the procedure and House affairs committee. She is being asked to explain what she and the Prime Minister knew about Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections and what they did to stop it. She will testify the week of April 10.
- Campbell Clark: Trudeau retreats, and retreat is his best political strategy
- Doug Ford says his office received CSIS briefing about Toronto MPP Vincent Ke
Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, leaves after a meeting of the Liberal Caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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Supreme Court hears important federalism case without its only Indigenous member
The first Indigenous judge in the Supreme Court’s 148-year history has been left off a case with important consequences for Indigenous peoples, so the court could avoid the possibility of a tie vote.
With one of its nine members caught up in a disciplinary process, Chief Justice Richard Wagner chose to hear a major federalism case with seven judges, rather than eight, and designated Michelle O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki from Northern Ontario, to sit out the two-day hearing that began Tuesday.
The ninth judge, Justice Russell Brown, is the subject of a complaint to the Canadian Judicial Council over a physical altercation and alleged harassment of women at an Arizona hotel.
The importance of the case is reflected by the near-record 29 intervenors participating, including seven provinces. It focuses on a federal environmental law, the 2019 Impact Assessment Act and whether Ottawa exceeded its jurisdiction.
Putin props up China’s proposal for peace in Ukraine during state visit, despite lack of details
Russian President Vladimir Putin is hailing a vague Chinese plan as a potential template for peace in Ukraine, but he says Kyiv and its allies in the West aren’t yet ready to end the war along the lines of Beijing’s 12-point proposal.
Putin made the remarks yesterday at the conclusion of a second day of intensive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first foreign leader to visit Moscow since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest in connection with alleged war crimes.
The Chinese plan contains little in the way of specifics, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government believes the proposal works in Moscow’s favour by suggesting an immediate ceasefire that would leave Russian troops in control of 15 per cent of Ukraine’s territory. The plan also emphasizes the importance of “territorial integrity” without clarifying whether that applies to Ukraine’s borders before the invasion – that is, whether it accepts Putin’s claim to have annexed five regions in southern and eastern Ukraine.
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Also on our radar
Canada’s inflation rate eases: Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 5.2 per cent in February, the biggest drop since the early stages of the pandemic, although grocery prices are still climbing by more than 10 per cent.
- Opinion: Inflation, banking crisis – economic uncertainty abounds, but there is a way out
- Eric Reguly: The rescue of Credit Suisse and failure of three U.S. lenders may not mean the worst is over in the banking industry
Biden urged to raise Canadian streaming bill: President Joe Biden has been urged to escalate U.S. concerns about the impact of two Canadian bills on Google, Facebook and Netflix during his visit to Ottawa this week, after tensions grew between the tech giants and the federal government over the measures.
RBC tells employees to return to the office: Royal Bank of Canada has instructed its employees to return to their offices three to four days a week, as companies across the country struggle to persuade workers to leave their work-from-home setups behind.
Balkans’ polluted Drina River becomes one city’s mess: Late winter and early spring brings wet weather to the Balkans, swelling the Drina River and bringing thousands of cubic metres of waste to Visegrad, Bosnia. The river divides three countries that have long mistrusted one another, and have done little to work together to tackle this environmental catastrophe.
Morning markets
Markets await Fed: World stocks were cautiously higher on Wednesday as hopes that a banking crisis would be averted were tempered by uncertainty before a Federal Reserve meeting that sees the central bank caught between taming inflation and maintaining stability. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.14 per cent. Germany’s DAX edged up 0.45 per cent. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.16 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 1.93 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.73 per cent. New York futures were little changed. The Canadian dollar was steady at 72.96 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Editorial: “... as this space has argued before, the solution is simple: Ottawa needs to get out of the way and give premiers more fiscal room to raise revenue to pay for health care.”
John Ibbitson: “What matters is that the Conservative Leader has proposed an innovative solution to the worsening shortage of health care professionals. We need more such proposals from Mr. Poilievre. In fact, we need a Poilievre version of the Common Sense Revolution.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Editorial cartoon by Brian Gable, March 22, 2023.Illustration by Brian Gable
Living better
Nature-focused vacations a growing trend
When travellers opt for a Great Canadian Trails vacation, they know they’re signing up to spend lots of time outside. But this isn’t roughing it; Great Canadian Trails arranges for cozy accommodations at local bed and breakfasts, as well as most meals and even a driver who will transport you to the day’s hike and back again. It’s the ideal combination of outdoorsy adventure and relaxing holiday, and it’s a style of travel that’s increasingly popular.
Moment in time: March 22, 1877
Bison roam the plains in rural Saskatchewan, 1870s.Courtesy of Adrian K. Paton Collection
Bison becomes a protected species
It was one of Canada’s first pieces of environmental legislation – an attempt to save an iconic creature of the great plains. On this day in 1877, at the end of the first and only meeting of the North-West Territories Council at Fort Livingstone (near present-day Pelly, Sask.), Lieutenant-Governor David Laird proclaimed 10 ordinances, including No. 5, “An Ordinance for the Protection of the Buffalo.” It contained regulations about what bison could be hunted; how they were to be hunted; and when. From the beginning, there was uncertainty whether the ordinance could be enforced by the North-West Mounted Police, given their many other duties. There was also opposition to the regulations. Métis who lived by the hunt saw them as an attack on their livelihood. First Nations were equally alarmed. They had repeatedly asked that the bison be protected for their benefit – not that their hunting activities be controlled. In the end, the ordinance made no difference to the fate of the bison. Except for a few small herds that occasionally wandered north into Canadian territory, bison were essentially gone from the northern plains by 1879. Bill Waiser
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