Skip to main content
politics newsletter

Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks in the House of Commons in Ottawa on June 6, 2017.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Good morning,
 

Get ready for a week of NAFTA news. Negotiators from Canada, the United States and Mexico gather in Washington, D.C., starting on Wednesday, to begin talks on reopening the North American free trade agreement.

But before that, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is priming Canadians for what to expect. She begins today with a speech at the University of Ottawa before taking part in a rare summer sitting of the House of Commons international trade committee. Ms. Freeland is expected to make the case for Canada pushing more environmental and labour protections in the deal. (U.S. President Donald Trump remains fixated on the trade deficit.)

Want to know the foreign minister a bit better? Before Ms. Freeland got into politics, she was a globe-trotting journalist, editor and author. The Globe's Adam Radwanski spent time with Ms. Freeland, and learned more about the woman tasked with saving Canada's most important economic relationship.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and Eleanor Davidson in Toronto. 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. Let us know what you think.
 

NEW Get the new Evening Update newsletter, a roundup of the important stories of the day put together by Globe editors, or the new Real Estate newsletter, covering the housing market, mortgages, deal closing, design and more. Sign up for them here.
 

CANADIAN HEADLINES
 

Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim was back at his home church this weekend, after being released from a North Korean labour camp last week. "It's a miracle for me to be here today. I always knew Canada was a very warm and compassionate nation, but through my ordeal I really began to grasp that very deeply," he told congregants Sunday morning.

Three former heads of the Native Women's Association of Canada offer some ideas about how to fix the federal inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

And how the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is employing an atypical media strategy. "This is the most image-conscious Prime Minister's Office in Canadian history," one consultant said.

Elizabeth Renzetti (The Globe and Mail) on the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls inquiry: "The inquiry, which is vitally important and well-intentioned, has had an undeniably rocky start. There is division over the nature and severity of the inquiry's flaws, but there's no doubt that many families of missing and murdered women, as well as activists, say that the process no longer has their trust. And trust and good faith from Indigenous communities are vital to this process, otherwise why even bother? You could just reprint various reports and commissions that have been held over the years, which now sit dusty on shelves."

Shenaz Kermalli (The Globe and Mail) on the Saudi arms deal: "It's easy to forget amid all the political wrangling that real people are being impacted by Ottawa's callousness. Three-year-old Sajaad Mohamed Abu Abdallah died on Wednesday after spending two months in hospital after he was shot on June 12. Eyewitnesses said there were no clashes in the Awamiya area when an armoured vehicle shot live ammunition at his family's car in Saudi Arabia's eastern province. Also injured was Mohamed al-Nimr, the brother of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr – the prominent Shia cleric executed by the Saudi regime last year after being convicted of terrorism offences. Mohamed's 21-year-old son, Ali, faces the same fate. He is currently on death row after being sentenced to death by crucifixion and beheading. His crime, our allies in Riyadh say, was to publicly demand an end to discrimination against minority Shia citizens."

The National Post editorial board on Canadian missile defence: "Through NATO, we have already endorsed the importance of effective defences against ballistic missile attacks. The United States has worked with our European-based NATO allies to establish a limited BMD system, capable of blunting an attack from Iran while not materially threatening Russia's missile force. As a NATO member, Canada supports this program, and plays a contributing role. And yet we have chosen not to involve ourselves in a similar system at home. We embrace missile defence for the French and Romanians, but not, oddly, for Canadians."

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on NAFTA: "Now, as NAFTA renegotiation talks kick off this week, Canadians might well be wondering if Mr. Trump will be unpredictable again. Lots of folks have opinions about Mr. Trump's mental state, but the question is whether he will use madman tactics in a bid to make Canada and Mexico so nervous that they are willing to make concessions." (for subscribers)

John Geddes (Maclean's) on NAFTA: "The outcomes of the talks that begin this week are as unpredictable as the president who demanded them. In Canada, though, this much is already clear: Confronted with a challenge that hardly figured in their plan for getting elected, Trudeau and his strategists have displayed an ability to react—marshalling resources, assembling a coalition, even creating a cabinet heavyweight—that cannot be denied. Now all that's left is the hard bargaining."

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
 

Fear, violence and hatred took over the streets of Charlottesville, Va., this weekend. On Friday night, torch-carrying white supremacists rallied at the University of Virginia. The group shouted racist slogans, and surrounded a small group of counter-protesters, yelling at them "we will not be replaced." On Saturday, Virginia declared a local emergency as a rally held by the same group turned violent. A 20-year-old man drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, an activist who was "outspoken in her views against racism." More than a dozen people were injured in the protests. But U.S. President Donald Trump did not explicitly condemn the actions of the white supremacist groups. On Saturday, he tweeted "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!" The tweet drew praise from a neo-Nazi website, which described the president's words as "good...He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us. No condemnation at all."

After days of violence over the contested result of Kenya's election, opposition leader Raila Odinga is urging his supporters to go on strike today. At a talk on Sunday, Mr. Odinga called the government of President Uhuru Kenyattta "a failed regime that is resorting to killing people instead of addressing the real issue." He said the vote was "stolen" from the opposition. At least 24 people have died since last week's election, including a nine-year-old girl.

And, in lighter news, let your Twitter feed rejoice -- "the Mooch" is back. After a brief hiatus from the public spotlight, former White House Communications Director (for 10 whole days) Anthony Scaramucci spoke to ABC News and took live questions on Facebook on Sunday. The former communications director hinted that "elements" in the White House are trying to get rid of U.S. President Donald Trump, and are "not necessarily abetting the president's interests or his agenda." Mr. Scaramucci was fired from the White House after launching a profanity-laced tirade to a New Yorker correspondent that insulting key members of the West Wing.

H.A. Hellyer (The Globe and Mail) on Charlottesville: "The United States was built on the back of the notion that the white male was the most worthy; in terms of political power, material wealth, language and so forth. Generations of struggle by the civil rights movement pushed back against that, but make no mistake – the norms established are still fundamentally slanted, biased and skewed toward white, rich, men. That is where the power lies – and success in American society has hitherto, in large part, depended on approximating that norm as much as possible."

Sarah Kendzior (The Globe and Mail) on Trump's reaction to Charlottesville: "There are not many sides to Charlottesville. There is the anti-racist activist who was killed, and the white supremacist who killed her. There is the mob chanting the Nazi cry of "blood and soil," and the citizens demanding equality and respect. There is the confederacy, and there is the United States. There are the torches of neo-Nazis and the torch of the Statue of Liberty. There is Donald Trump and there is patriotism. There is one right side, and the President is not on it."

Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Syria: "In the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring, the Syrian conflict pitted the politically moderate Free Syrian Army against Mr. al-Assad's repressive regime. If the West was going to intervene on the right side of history, this was the moment to do it. But a dithering Mr. Obama, reluctant to repeat real or imagined U.S. errors in Iraq and Libya, let the conflict and the voids it created allow multiple terrorist groups to take root. The Islamic State and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front squeezed out the anti-Assad moderates, leaving the West no good options as Russian President Vladimir Putin's army came to the aid of Mr. al-Assad."

Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on Trump's wage problem: "The U.S. President is embracing a major policy shift rooted in wonky economics. The United States, like most aging developed nations, needs more workers, not fewer. So does Canada, for that matter. Unless the United States can fill the gap with new immigrants, it will face a shrinking labour force, and ultimately weaker economic growth. And yet Mr. Trump has embraced a Senate bill that would cut legal immigration in half within a decade. The so-called RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy) would cut the overall number of people the country takes in and boost the proportion of highly educated, skilled and English-speaking immigrants. That would mean lowering the annual intake from about one million to as little as 500,000 within a decade." (for subscribers)

John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on President Trump: "The struggle to contain this President is not the struggle between progressives and conservatives, between the left and the right. It has become a struggle between those who wish to preserve the republic as a constitutional democracy and those who want to Make America White Again."

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe