Good morning,
An exchange of missiles overnight between Israel and Iran is fueling concerns of a flare-up of conflicts in the region. Iranian forces in Syria launched an attack against Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel says the 20 rockets either did not reach their targets or were intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome air defence system. In return, Israel launched an attack against “dozens” of Iran’s military sites in Syria.
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.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
The national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women is apologizing to families for not paying for counselling as promised after the family members gave emotional testimonies. The Native Women’s Association of Canada flagged earlier this week that the inquiry was not providing enough health and aftercare support for witnesses.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard are set to make an announcement today with aluminum producer Rio Tinto, in a region that is about to be subject to a federal by-election.
The Liberal government is under increasing pressure to tax Netflix.
Kinder Morgan shareholders have adopted a proposal presented to the company’s AGM by a B.C. Indigenous leader: that the company conduct audits of its environmental and legal risks. The audit proposal was led by New York state’s pension manager, which delegated its standing at the meeting to Neskonlith Chief Judy Wilson of B.C.’s Secwépemc Nation, one of the many First Nations leaders who oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Conservatives say the ethics commissioner should investigate a contract Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc awarded to a group with federal Liberal ties.
NDP MP Christine Moore says she has a “totally” different view of the incidents that led to a sexual harassment complaint against her.
A proposed law that would protect abortion clinics from protesters has become a flashpoint in the Alberta legislature, where the Opposition United Conservatives walked out en masse to voice their displeasure. The law would establish no-protest zones around clinics and protect staff from harassment, and would be similar to one recently passed in Ontario.
And three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea are now on U.S. soil, which President Donald Trump says is indications an upcoming peace summit will go well.
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on private health-care: “There is a reason France and other enlightened countries that have better-performing health-care systems than Canada allow a hybrid, private-public health-care model to persist: It works. It’s more beneficial for patients.”
Emma Teitel (Toronto Star) on formal apologies: “All of this is to say that while I agree with Trudeau’s critics that formal apologies are sometimes silly and performative — and perhaps lacking in meaning for some victims and their families — they are also factual and newsworthy. They breathe new life into old wrongs and in doing so they bring awareness to those wrongs.”
Robyn Urback (CBC) on the promises of political leaders: “The first mistake on the part of leadership hopefuls — from an ethical perspective, if perhaps not a strategic one — is making unattainable promises about listening to the grassroots. The second mistake, and third, and fourth, is party members believing it over and over again.”
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail) on predicting recessions: “A recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) – a highly respected source of independent U.S. economic research, and the recognized authority on the U.S. business cycle – did find that the growth rate of conceptions fell significantly several quarters in advance of each of the past three U.S. recessions. Indeed, the researchers found, the rate of conceptions did at least as well as, if not better than, other prominent forward-looking economic indicators – the consumer confidence index, housing prices and purchases of durable goods – in anticipating recessions.” (subscribers only)
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