Good morning,
Is the end of NAFTA renegotiations in sight?
The Trump administration is pushing for a deal on the North American free-trade agreement to be signed late next week, sources tell The Globe, a development that gives Canada more leverage to demand concessions -- or at least to demand that the U.S. drop some of its harshest proposals.
Both Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and a Mexican counterpart are planning to visit Washington this week for high-level talks.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Catherine Tait is the new president of CBC/Radio-Canada. Heritage Minister Melanie Joly made the announcement yesterday, naming the 30-year veteran of film and television to the position. She becomes the first woman to hold the role.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is reportedly thinking about running for Tom Mulcair’s Montreal seat when the ex-leader resigns and a by-election is called. (Link is in French.)
The kerfuffle that the Conservatives kicked up over a briefing the Prime Minister’s national security adviser gave reporters appears to have settled down, with leader Andrew Scheer saying he will now accept a briefing of his own.
Internal government documents obtained by The Globe show Finance Minister Bill Morneau was given fair warning that his changes to small-business taxes wouldn’t go down well with the public.
Don’t bother inviting Justin Trudeau to your birthday party.
Relatives of a mother and daughter who were killed in Calgary nearly two years ago are warning that court delays could jeopardize the case. They’ve launched a petition calling on Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to appoint judges to fill vacancies.
Ottawa and Alberta are looking for ways to exempt oil sands projects from new environmental reviews amid fears that tougher regulations could hurt the industry. No decisions have been finalized, but the Trudeau government is seeking to reassure the oil and gas industry, particularly as the fight over the Trans Mountain pipeline continues to drag on.
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal is gaining steam as an alternative route for sexual assault and harassment cases that is faster, less formal and can be friendlier to complainants than the court system.
City councillors in Calgary are considering strict rules around recreational marijuana that would ban its use in all public spaces. Exceptions would be made for people with medical marijuana licences, as well as for festivals where people could consume cannabis in areas similar to beer gardens.
Nova Scotia’s proposed cannabis legislation sets fines as high as $10,000 for illegal marijuana sales or distribution and enacts stiff penalties on impaired drivers. It also synchronizes penalties between alcohol and cannabis.
Bob Rae, the government’s special envoy to Myanmar, says Canada can do more to target human-rights abusers in the country who were involved with atrocities against Rohingya people.
Brazil’s attorney-general urged the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s top court, to reject former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s effort to avoid prison.
German prosecutors have filed for the extradition of Carles Puigdemont, the former regional president of Catalonia.
The first person has been sentenced in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who lied to federal agents, will face 30 days in prison and was also ordered to pay a US$20,000 fine.
And an examination of how far women have come in the ranks of Canada’s foreign service – and how much further they have to go. “I came into the foreign service 25 years ago, with an intake that was roughly 50 percent women – so you’d think by now that the pig would have moved through the python, so to speak,” one female director-general said.
Simon Houpt (The Globe and Mail) on the new CBC president: “ Public broadcasters across the world are being battered by critics who believe the private marketplace provides all we need. And while two years ago the Liberal government pledged an additional $675-million in funding over five years, it has still not given the CBC the ability to plan for the long run by promising stable, long-term funding. In the meantime, a wholesale rewriting of the Broadcasting Act – which gives the CBC its mandate – is in the offing.”
David Pritchard and Lisa Taylor (The Globe and Mail) on public-interest speech: “Courts in a free and democratic society should not permit legal action to be initiated when its principal goal is to stifle constitutionally protected expression. Specifically, criminal-libel charges should never be brought against critics of the official actions of public employees. Instead, those who hold public positions of power should accept that criticism – including commentary that is crude and hyperbolic – comes with the territory, and simply grow a thick skin.”
Michael Geist (The Globe and Mail) on Quebec’s ‘Netflix’ tax: “As governments race to catch up to the growth of e-commerce, there has long been a seeming inevitability to the imposition of digital sales tax. However, Quebec’s decision to move ahead without a clear international standard and federal government participation demonstrates that for the moment shifting sales tax to a global internet environment remains easier said than done.”
Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on Fox, and its most important friend: “Presidents have a limitless base of expertise on which to draw: the giant bureaucracy, expert reports and studies, think tanks and universities. This President doesn’t need them. The Fox bloviators are good enough. Some of its talking heads graduate to major White House jobs, the latest two being national security adviser John Bolton and chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow. With White House officials and Congressional lawmakers, the Trudeau government has waged a strong lobbying effort, particularly on the trade issue. If it wants to be more effective it should focus on where the real power lies – at TTN, the Trump Television Network.”
Lisa Shymko (Maclean’s) on digital warfare: “Whether we like it or not, social media platforms and digitized news services now comprise part of our national security assets. The time for complacency is over: Lawmakers must face the challenges head on, by passing the legislation needed to prevent foreign adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea from securing the digital tools that allow them to suppress the flow of truth in our democracy.”
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