Politics Briefing: MPs talk harassment in the House

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Good morning,

Parliament is back in session today, and one of the first orders of business is the Liberals' workplace harassment bill.

The debate may be a little more charged than one would have predicted back when it was introduced, given the events of the past week. Federal and provincial politicians have been taken to task for how they have treated staff and abused authority, and the allegations have flown straight across party lines.

Liberal MP Kent Hehr, who was forced to step down from cabinet last week, is facing a second complaint about his conduct after a first complaint surfaced last week. (For those who ask "why don't more women speak up?" it is worth noting that the Alberta public servant who went public with her concerns about Mr. Hehr says she is now facing threats to her personal safety. The Prime Minister's Office says those threats have been sent to police.) Accusations against another Liberal MP and a high-level staffer in the Prime Minister's Office are still being investigated.

The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are still grappling with what to do in the wake of Patrick Brown's resignation, after accusations against him came to light. Rick Dykstra, a friend of Mr. Brown's, resigned his post as PC party president on the weekend after being asked by Maclean's about allegations that he sexually abused a Conservative staffer during his time as an MP. (Mr. Dykstra denies the allegations and they have not been proven in court.)

And, though less serious in scope, even Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is facing complaints from three former employees allege that she created a hostile work environment. (Ms. May denies the allegations and the Green Party says she is being "held to a different standard than her male counterparts.")

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, who has been an MP for more than 20 years, had one suggestion for her Parliament Hill colleagues: Cut down on the alcohol.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

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CANADIAN HEADLINES

Today is the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to visit the site for a memorial tonight. "This was a terrorist attack against all Canadians, meant to test our resolve and weaken our values. It failed. In the wake of the shooting, a solidarity movement formed across the country as Canadians united to condemn the attack and counter hatred with hope," Mr. Trudeau said in a statement this morning. As Denise Balkissoon writes, it's important to remember these events to ensure they don't happen again.

North American free-trade agreement talks continue today. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland sits down with counterparts from the U.S. and Mexico, and will find out if the Trump administration will accept some of Canada's compromises. "We're moving in a slightly more positive direction. We'll take that encouragement where we can," Canada's chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, told reporters yesterday.

The federal government won't provide more details about how RT, a Kremlin-owned television station formerly called Russia Today, bought its way into TV broadcast packages.

The government does say it's looking into providing aid for print media – possibly in the upcoming budget – and a new Nanos poll conducted for The Globe shows Canadians in favour of that.

Scott Moe is set to become the new premier of Saskatchewan. He won the Saskatchewan Party leadership race, defeating Alanna Koch narrowly on the fifth ballot. He replaces the popular Brad Wall, who had had governed the province for a decade. The next provincial election is in 2020.

B.C.'s Crown-owned utility is poised to award a major contract for a massive hydroelectric dam to a construction firm under scrutiny due to a pending deal with a Chinese state-owned company. BC Hydro has selected the Aecon-Flatiron-Dragados-EBC partnership for a large civil-works contract. The federal government is currently reviewing the sale of one of the partners, Aecon Group Inc., to CCCC International Holding Limited.

Former B.C. premier Christy Clark wrote in a Facebook post that she witnessed plenty of "frat boy behaviour" as a politician and that politics is a "brutally sexist business." Her comments came in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and subsequent resignations in provincial and federal politics.

B.C.'s publicly owned auto insurer lost nearly $1-billion in the first nine months of the year, raising the possibility that the new NDP government could need to look at significant rates, despite election promises to freeze rates.

And Liberal MPs can rest a little easier – under new rules, they won't have to face any nomination challenges as long as they've kept up their fundraising and voter contact.

Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on Patrick Brown: "Political parties try to keep with the times, and many have dumped leaders who don't allow them to do so. Mr. Brown, not yet 40, already proved yesterday's man. Hopefully others aspiring to the same heights he reached are learning, that wielding power the way he did, along the way, can eventually make for a very lonely experience."

Chris Selley (National Post) on the Ontario Progressive Conservatives: "Say this for Ontario's Tories: they know how to dream up creative losing scenarios. Patrick Brown's sudden departure amidst sexual assault and coercion allegations last week made John Tory's religious schools funding and Tim Hudak's 100,000 public-sector job cut promise look like minor whoopsy-daisies."

Tiffany Gooch (Toronto Star) on workplace harassment in politics: "I think often of the positive contributions to Canadians that are lost as women and men chose to leave politics because it was too painful to see their abuser carry on without repercussion."

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh: "The NDP Leader hasn't had a honeymoon in the polls or garnered a lot of headlines. Some New Democrats wonder where he's been. The engagement stunt grabbed a little attention in the media, but he needs a political identity. Mr. Trudeau inherited some of his. Mr. Singh faces a much harder slog."

Sandra Martin (The Globe and Mail) on assisted dying: "Charting the wobbly path from constitutional challenge to sensible legislation is the key to ensuring that medical assistance in dying is equitable to all of us, no matter the nature of our grievous illness, no matter where we live."

J.L. Granatstein (The Globe and Mail) on sovereignty: "Canada has national interests and they are very simple to state. We must advance the economic well-being of Canadians, help the advance of freedom and democracy everywhere, share in the defence of North America, and protect the territory, people and sovereignty of the country. We do the first two interests reasonably well. We fail miserably in achieving the last two."

Fiona Clement (The Globe and Mail) on Alberta and cannabis: "The friendly market takeover of CanniMed Therapeutics by Aurora Cannabis will have a significant impact on the cannabis production and distribution landscape in Alberta. And though predicting whether the development will be malignant or benign is difficult to do, the takeover is the largest deal in the budding sector to date and will have a tangible effect on provincial bureaucracy, government coffers and Alberta's economy, both as it affects Albertans and as it relates to Canada as a whole. As such, and for better or worse, it will at least marginally shape the social fabric of the province."

Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on supply management and CPTPP: "The supply-managed sectors are a regular target in trade talks because they are some of the few heavily protected sectors left in Canada. The system depends on steep tariff walls, tight production controls and fixed prices paid to farmers. For decades, other major agricultural exporters have put pressure on Canada to open its market. Defending farmers won't come cheap. Canadians could be writing large cheques, for years to come." (for subscribers)

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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

After years of effort to clean up its toxic atmosphere, China's capital has seen big improvements in air quality this winter. But some suspect the city has merely gotten better at exporting the pollution. The Globe's Nathan VanderKlippe reports from Beijing that as the skies clear up, smog descends elsewhere in China.

Steve Wynn, a Las Vegas Casino mogul, has resigned as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee, following a Wall Street Journal report that includes allegations that he "sexualized his workplace and pressured workers to perform sex acts."

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi Arabian royal, has been released from detention, more than two months after he was swept up in a corruption crackdown in the kingdom.

And if you're looking for a long read today, check out The Globe's Stephanie Nolen's report from the Amazon rainforest, whose fate has never been as uncertain as it is right now. To understand the forces that are shaping its future, she travelled 2,000-kilometres along a dusty, dangerous corridor through a fragile ecosystem on which the world depends. Highway BR-163, which she traveled along, cuts a brutal path through Brazil's conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change.

Elizabeth Renzetti (The Globe and Mail) on the Doomsday Clock: "So Stephen King thinks we should be scared, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists thinks we should be scared, George Shultz says we're not scared enough and in Hawaii a false missile alert has citizens sending weepy goodbye messages and stuffing their children in sewers for safekeeping. It's enough to send a body shrieking into the night (and no, I'm not sharing my Xanax)." (for subscribers)

Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay and Shuvaloy Majumdar (The Globe and Mail) on Iran: "It's hard not to be moved by the tremendous bravery that filled Iranian streets this month. Many Canadians have paid tribute to the efforts of the protesters with moving speeches and powerful essays. Canada's support for Iran's freedom movement need not remain symbolic, however. Ottawa has enough resources at its disposal to help tilt the scales in the protesters' favour. Iran's true reformers – as distinct from sham 'reformist' politicians – have a handful of clear, tangible goals: democratic liberty, economic development, an end to corruption and a respected rule of law. The West desires a stable, denuclearized Iran at peace with its neighbours. Both agendas are intertwined and Canada can offer tangible assistance on all fronts."