Good morning,
On Sunday, Lebanon will go to the polls for the first time in nine years. Even though the country only has six million people, it is an important actor in a region in flux. Beyond the conflict in Syria, Iran and Israel find themselves at odds and Iran and Saudi Arabia wage a proxy war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia also was able organize the Arab Gulf in a ploy to isolate Qatar last year. Lebanon, which has found itself wedged between the regional power struggle of Iran and Saudi Arabia, is also the only Arab democracy in the Middle East, making it an important ally for the West. Indeed, both countries are backing different parties in the election. Hezbollah, which Canada and several other countries see as a terrorist organization, is being supported by Iran while Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s coalition is backed by Saudi Arabia.
The election will also see a record number of female candidates. Two women, Kholoud Wattar Kassem and Fatme Mouchref Hamasni, have been leading the efforts in a country where women have faced immense obstacles to holding elected office and where even the women’s affairs minister is a man. There are no women in cabinet and only four MPs in the 128-member parliament are women. Sunday’s election will see 84 women on the ballot.
Because of the varied and complicated political landscape, as well as the proportional representation system, some sort of power-sharing agreement will be needed. Almost certainly, however, current Mr. Hariri will emerge as the person in charge once again as the safe choice. The Globe’s Eric Reguly is in Beirut this weekend and will be covering the election, if you’re interested in following along.
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.
CANADIAN HEADLINES
The federal government plans to intervene in a B.C. court case examining who has jurisdiction over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. B.C. launched the constitutional reference case amid an escalated trade war with Alberta.
Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir has been kicked out of the NDP caucus. Leader Jagmeet Singh says Mr. Weir failed to take “appropriate responsibility” after an independent investigation found harassment and sexual-harassment claims against him were substantiated. Mr. Weir says he had no idea he had done anything unwelcome, but he apologized.
The number of people coming into Canada from the United States at “unofficial” parts of the border continues to rise. Government officials estimate 2,500 people came across in April, far more than the 859 who crossed last April.
Conservative MP Bob Saroya took a trip to China paid for by the foreign-affairs arm of the ruling Communist Party.
B.C.’s NDP government says it has no plans to change a new tax on high-valued homes despite growing backlash. The tax is aimed at homes worth above $3-million, but critics say it unfairly targets seniors with fixed incomes who have lived in their homes for decades.
And a group of teenagers from First Nations near Thunder Bay are asking Ottawa for help funding a residence for their high school.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Jagmeet Singh’s handling of Erin Weir: “But how will the NDP act if it’s someone else? The problem is the NDP left the public guessing about what Mr. Weir did and what its standards are.”
Robyn Urback (CBC) on Erin Weir: “ Perhaps Weir just lacks the capacity to pick up on subtle nonverbal cues, which is an unfortunate reality in some social situations. Yes, men (and women) should try harder to understand when their presence is unwanted, but it does no one any benefit to assume that all are equally capable of doing so, and simply resort to waiting for the other person to catch on. Sometimes we have to say something, even if we’d rather not.”
Don Martin (CTV) on Erin Weir: “To smear Erin Weir’s reputation over a physical proximity issue, if that’s indeed all that happened, is to demean the definition of real life sexual harassment and elevate NDP political correctness to the level of paranoia.”
Nobel Peace prize winners Shirin Ebadi and Tawakkol Karman (The Globe and Mail) on the Rohingya: “Rohingya women and their families need a strong and committed champion on the international scene. As a host to the Group of Seven Summit, Canada should be unafraid to step into that role and explore all international avenues to ensure that the ongoing violence stops and crimes committed against the Rohingya do not go unpunished. Ending the genocide against the Rohingya is a global imperative, and urgently requires robust, concrete leadership from Canada. ”
Margaret Atwood and Calvin Sandborn (The Globe and Mail) on the plastic economy: “Canada can lead this reform. Just as the 1987 Montreal Protocol saved the ozone layer, Canada can now act to save the world’s oceans. The G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Que., in June is our chance – Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has already called for the G7 to develop a ‘zero plastics waste charter,’ and there is talk of a global treaty.“
Nathaniel Lipkus (The Globe and Mail) on intellectual property: “It may be that the IP strategy announced this week is just the beginning. That, as ISED puts meat on the bones of their skeletal policy announcements, more help will be provided to innovators. But for now, Canada’s innovator class will continue with business as usual — with IP on the back burner.”
Craig Alexander and Kareem El-Assal (The Globe and Mail) on immigration: “As we have seen in other countries, the approach of labelling immigration skeptics as racist and xenophobic is counterproductive and could lead to anti-immigrant backlash. Cultivating dialogue and understanding will better ensure that Canada remains ahead of its international peers in reaping immigration’s many rewards.”
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
Damian Collins, the British Tory MP who chairs a parliamentary committee probing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, says the two Canadians leading Victoria-based AggregateIQ were “completely disingenuous” when they said they were co-operating with investigators. Mr. Collins made the comments to Canada’s parliamentary ethics committee, in a show of co-operation between MPs in Canada and the U.K. AggregateIQ was an actor during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, performing advertising work for Vote Leave. They were referred to as “SCL Canada,” in the records of SCL Elections Ltd, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Mr. Collins told the committee that the way SCL and its subsidiaries had been formed made tracking their activities and sources of funding difficult. “It’s like the hydra of Greek mythology, a sort of multiheaded beast, and when you cut one head off, another one springs up,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he repaid his personal Michael Cohen for the US$130,000 paid in hush money to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her allegations of an affair from coming to light. Mr. Trump previously said he didn’t know anything about the payments, which he now says were covered by his monthly retainer to Mr. Cohen.
Speaking of Michael Cohen, U.S. investigators say they kept logs of his phone lines. The monitoring of his phone lines, called a “pen register,” was in place before the FBI raided his office, hotel room and home early last month.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has told a visiting Chinese diplomat that he is committed to denuclearization, the latest step since North and South Korea held a historic summit on the border a week ago. China has traditionally been North Korea’s most important economic and diplomatic ally.
The Canadian man who was allegedly lynched in Peru is believed to have shot and killed an Indigenous woman who was a leader and healer several days before, a prosecutor says.
Police and protesters clashed on the Greek island of Lesbos during a demonstration against a European Union migration policy. Thousands of asylum seekers have been stranded on Lesbos following an agreement between Turkey and the EU.
Armenia, an ex-Soviet Republic that is a close ally of Russia, will get a new prime minister next week, the leader of the ruling party said. The opposition leader had led demonstrations fueled by anger against cronyism and corruption prompting the prime minister to resign recently.
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