Good morning,
When U.S. President Donald Trump fired James Comey last May he made the former FBI director a central player in his presidency. It was the ouster that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller and it has cast Mr. Comey as a foil in some ways for Mr. Trump. Mr. Comey has been the subject of many of Mr. Trump’s Twitter tirades and, although he is a Republican, he has been targeted by conservatives since leaving the FBI and speaking out against the man in the Oval Office, who happens to think he should be in jail. “My reaction is a shrug, which is ‘What are you going to do?’ And then I realize there’s a danger in that shrug, because if everyone shrugs like that ‘Oh, the President just called for the jailing of a private citizen,’ then we’ve normalized that behaviour,” Mr. Comey said in an interview with The Globe’s Washington correspondent Adrian Morrow. “It reminds me that we all have to talk about it and not become numb to it.”
Mr. Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty, which hit stands this week, fires back at Mr. Trump, who has long launched invectives at the former G-Man. In the book, he compares Mr. Trump to a mob boss and details the president’s fixation with Russia and Mr. Mueller’s investigation. “My experience as a prosecutor tells me that sometimes people bring things up defensively when there’s nothing to it, but very often people bring it up when you’re not asking them about it because they have a sense of a guilty conscience,” he said. “I don’t know which it is with President Trump. But it was often enough and odd enough that it stuck with me.”
The full interview delves into Mr. Trump, the future of America and Canadian musician Jann Arden, whose lyrics made their way into his book.
Lawrence Martin writes in a column that Comey’s God complex has hindered his impact: “James Comey has an image problem. He’s being depicted as wearing a halo, as having a God complex. He can’t get enough of the limelight. He paints Donald Trump – and who can doubt it? – as a florid narcissist. But it takes one to know one, critics say. The comely Mr. Comey is a mirror-lover himself.”
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam i n 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.
CANADIAN HEADLINES
The National Gallery of Canada's director says concerns about a 1779 French painting moving from Quebec to Ottawa are overblown. “ It’s not as if it’s going to Saudi Arabia or Russia, it’s going to Ottawa, for heaven’s sake. I don’t really understand what the big deal is,” Marc Mayer said.
The head of the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank says Canadian firms should get involved with its projects. “The general public of your country understands how important it is for Canada, as on open country, to maintain very good relationships with other countries,” Jin Liqun said.
Opposition parties say they are worried a $7-billion item in the Liberal government’s main estimates could be used as a slush fund.
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says there is a significant gap in understanding how political parties use all of the information about voters that they collect.
Asked about the threats from Alberta and Saskatchewan to interfere with inter-provincial energy trade, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said only Ottawa can represent the national interest. However, he gave no indication the federal government would intervene to stop them from carrying out their plans.
Colten Boushie’s family and friends want the young man’s death to become a rallying point for change to Canada’s criminal justice system — and they headed to the United Nations to help make that happen. A side event at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York focused Mr. Boushie’s case, with his cousin Jade Tootoosis saying he hopes something comes out of the tragedy. Farmer Gerald Stanley was acquitted of killing Boushie earlier this year.
And defence lawyers in Alberta are demanding increased funding for legal aid, saying the system is “neglected and degraded,” which robs poor Albertans of their futures.
Globe and Mail Editorial Board on the Ontario NDP platform: “Even if businesses benefit from healthier workers who have affordable daycare, this is not a platform for Bay Street, or for this page. It would hurt Ontario’s competitiveness and continue its spiral into deeper debt. But it is true to what the NDP stands for. In an election featuring a scandal-ridden governing party that is spending billions of borrowed dollars on new programs in a blatant effort to save itself, and a PC Party that was taken over in a moment of crisis by a populist sloganeer, Ms. Horwath is gambling that there is merit in sticking to your principles.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Quebec and pipelines: “Still, pro-independence or not, no party has a credible plan for weaning Quebec off of oil. Indeed, the province’s overall consumption of the commodity once known as black gold, but now mostly denounced for its role in global warming, has been growing. And almost all of it arrives by pipeline or tanker to supply the province’s two refineries.” (for subscribers)
Nura Jabagi (The Globe and Mail) on the gig economy: “The first step in this journey is recognizing that while the traditional model of work has been shelved for many, gig workers are not so different from regular nine-to-fivers in what they need to thrive: a sense of purpose in what they do, and a feeling of belonging and importance. While strong employee-employer relationships can support this engagement, building these relationships will undoubtedly take some creativity in this new world of work. ”
Monica Gattinger and Nik Nanos (The Globe and Mail) on public opinion and energy projects “The key for Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Horgan and Ms. Notley, is to resolve the current impasse on the Trans Mountain pipeline in a way that demonstrates governments can strike the kind of balance Canadians are looking for on energy projects. Perhaps for Canadians who are in a dour mood when it comes to the country’s ability to balance local concerns with a broader public interest, the current pipeline firestorm could be an opportunity to find a pragmatic balanced path forward where Canadians can reconcile their environmental aspirations with economic priorities.”
Martha Hall Findlay (The Globe and Mail) on federal funding for Trans Mountain: “We didn’t give the proponents compensation when Canada denied the previously approved Northern Gateway. We didn’t offer financial help to get Energy East built. And where was the Canadian government when Petronas decided to pull out of their LNG project? Money to “help” Kinder Morgan’s shareholders is a short-term Band-Aid answer to a much more fundamental problem that we are not addressing. Key, either way, is assurance that TMX will happen. The big question is: How?”
Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on Ford vs. Wynne: “Here in Ontario, it’s a contest between fear and loathing. No wonder people don’t want to discuss it at the dinner table. They just get indigestion. ”
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in France and became the first Canadian head of government to address the National Assembly. He was greeted with applause but when his speech turned to the subject of the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement, the Canada-EU trade deal, he was subjected to a smattering of boos and jeers. Two of the most notable voices of dissent were far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the latter of whom left the ornate chamber before Mr. Trudeau finished.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is also Mr. Trump’s nominee to be the next Secretary of State, secretly met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over Easter weekend. The meeting was intended to lay the foundation for direct meetings between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim.
Former first lady Barbara Bush, wife of George H.W. Bush and mother of George W. Bush, died yesterday at the age of 92. David Shribman writes that she will be remembered as an enforcer with an indomitable spirit.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says that more international pressure is needed on Myanmar to take back displaced Rohingya, 700,000 of whom have crossed the border into Bangladesh fleeing religious persecution.
British Tories are taking aim at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over what they say is growing anti-Semitism within Labour. Jewish Labour MPs have been on the receiving end of social media abuse. Mr. Corbyn has apologized and is working on tackling what he describes as “pockets” of anti-Semitism.
The nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was delivered in a liquid form, according to British officials. Russia has been blamed for the attack but the Kremlin continues to deny the allegations.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won’t hold a vote on a bipartisan bill that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.
And if you’re wandering what happens now, after the air strikes in Syria, we’ve updated our running guide on the issue by casting forward on what could come next.
Rashid Husain Syed (The Globe and Mail) on the Middle East: “Two major, interconnected, events are driving geopolitics in the Middle East. The Saudi heir-apparent, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has been on a charm offensive, visiting key Western capitals and signing deals worth billions of dollars at each stopover. And in the immediate aftermath, Washington, in co-ordination with London and Paris, lobbed 100-plus missiles at Syria, meeting a long-standing Saudi demand. Saudi Arabia has long been arguing for an active military involvement of Western powers in Syria to get their foe, Bashar al-Assad. In 2013 too, they pressed the Obama regime to go after the al-Assad regime. Barack Obama didn’t take the bait. Donald Trump did.”
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