Good morning and happy Friday,
Today is set to be a big day for NAFTA talks. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is meeting with high-level Mexican and American officials in the White House to hammer out a deal, which all three countries have been pushing for. Expectations are rising for an agreement to be reached late next week so that all three leaders can sign a deal at the Summit of the Americas in Peru. There will still be much work left to do for negotiators even after the fact, if a deal is indeed announced next week. (for subscribers)
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CANADIAN HEADLINES
Conservative senators are warning that the imminent legalization of recreational marijuana could lead to more Canadians being barred from entering the United States. They argue the Trudeau government has been playing down the risk to Canadians who travel across the border.
B.C.’s NDP government plans to crack down on private health-care clinics, which have proliferated in the province, by using a law that was passed more than a decade ago but never used. The BC Liberal health minister who brought in the law, Colin Hansen, says he was convinced at the time that the legislation was flawed, and he warned that the changes made this week cannot be effectively implemented.
A new report from B.C.’s coroner shows that most victims of fatal opioid overdoses in the province have spent at least some time in prison, underscoring the need for addictions treatment for inmates. Advocates have been calling for better access to treatment for years and complained of delays or worse.
Fish farms in waters off B.C. could soon be required to reach agreements with First Nations before receiving provincial licences.
Kevin O’Leary’s fundraiser to pay off his campaign debt didn’t go as well as he hoped.
And the National Gallery is selling off a Marc Chagall painting that could be worth more than $10-million, so it can raise funds to buy an unidentified work of “national heritage” before it leaves Canada forever. As Kate Taylor writes, the mystery piece could be art from a Group of Seven artist like Lawren Harris – or it might not even be from a Canadian artist at all.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on how old is new: “The party that railed against Stephen Harper’s omnibus budget bills now pushes through its own. ”
J.D.M. Stewart (The Globe and Mail) on golf and politics: “Mr. Trudeau, who is very athletic, is not a golfer, while his American counterpart is on his way to setting records for rounds played by a sitting president. Taking a few lessons this summer may be a wise investment for the Prime Minister, as he looks for any advantage when dealing with a mercurial president. Whether Mr. Trump actually uses that time away from the golf cart for reflection is admittedly an open question. But starting a conversation with some small talk about this weekend’s Masters would be smart politics.”
Dorothy Bakker (The Globe and Mail) on opioids: “The police appear to lack the crime-scene technologies and resources to find the perpetrators who infect the drug supply with fentanyl. Maybe some police even lack the will −a similar lethargy that I have seen in doctors, politicians and the public to recognize addicts as real people and fentanyl overdoses as a crime. A lethargy that allows drug dealers to cover their tracks and to find new victims. I don’t have faith that police will find my son’s killer. It is manslaughter in my books. Stephen didn’t want to die. He was given a deadly concoction, not what he had ordered. Something needs to be done. Thousands more will die.”
Globe and Mail editorial board on carbon pricing: “More than anything, what Canada needs is for politicians who understand and believe in carbon pricing to defend it vigorously and fearlessly. It’s tough to do battle with populists who sloganize about ‘job-killing’ carbon taxes. But they are wrong, and this is a fight worth winning.”
Don Martin (CTV) on the politics of carbon pricing: “The problem with the current regimes of carbon pricing is that they’re insufficiently harsh to induce real behavioral change and increasingly used as slush funding for governments to squander in their own whimsical way.”
Craig Alexander (The Globe and Mail) on deficits: “Canada is not on the brink of fiscal crisis. However, history has clearly demonstrated that governments should be striving to be fiscally prudent. Economists and policy wonks can argue for balancing the books, but Canadian voters also need to reflect on and be convinced that it is the right thing to do.”
Greg Evans and Brian Frank (The Globe and Mail) on the future of work: “When faced with new challenges, today’s graduates will not tackle them with knowledge they already have – they will need to recognize what more they need to know, how to learn it, how to apply it, how to assess their progress, and how to change their strategy as needed. Career success will become less about what people know and more about how easily they can acquire new knowledge. Providing an enabling educational foundation to support this life-long learning requires a major fundamental shift that must be guided and supported by research.”
Toronto Star editorial board on the future of the CBC: “The CBC needs to figure out what it can do best as a public broadcaster and, just as important, what no other organization can do well. In a world saturated by media of all types, simply duplicating what others are already doing and competing with private producers isn’t the best use of taxpayers’ money.”
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
The trade war between the U.S. and China is escalating. U.S. President Donald Trump is instructing trade officials to consider adding another US$100-billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, a day after China announced its plan to add duties on US$50-billion in American products. The world’s two biggest economies are trading blows, sending ripples through financial markets. The New York Times broke down each step in the escalation in this handy graphic.
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to go to jail, striking a blow at the perceived impunity of the powerful in South America’s largest country. Brazil remains divided after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in a 6-5 decision that Lula, as he is commonly known, should go to jail on corruption and money-laundering charges.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma is in court today, where he faces 16 charges linked to a $2.5-billion arms deal. Thousands are expected to march in support of the former leader, who was ousted from his role in February. The court appearance comes after a a new World Bank report was released that highlighted the ruling African National Congress Party’s failure to reduce poverty and inequality. Mr. Zuma was leader of the party for several years. Inequality is passed on over generations “implying little change in inequality over time and perhaps even a worsening of the situation,” the World Bank reported. “Current levels of inequality are likely to persist in the future.”
South Korea and North Korea have been holding preparatory talks ahead of the summit between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, set for the end of the month.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Slovakia to demand the resignation of a police chief after the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. The deaths have already prompted Robert Fico to step down as prime minister to save the government.
“We have told our British colleagues that ‘you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry’,” said Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations at a Security Council meeting. Russia is casting suspicions on Britain’s investigation into the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in England, which investigators have pinned on the Kremlin. Moscow finds itself in a diplomatic standoff with London, a situation that has involved several countries across the world, including Canada, which expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain.
And one of the Russian diplomats expelled by Canada says the move was “very un-Canadian.” “Trying to silence an official spokesman of the embassy doesn’t mean you are right,” Russian embassy spokesman Kirill Kalinin said.
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