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Hackers working with Russia’s spy agency claimed earlier this year to have disrupted operations at a Canadian natural-gas pipeline company, inflicting costly damage on its infrastructure, leaked Pentagon documents say.
The Globe and Mail has been unable to independently verify the allegations in the U.S. intelligence documents, the contents of which have also been reported by U.S. media.
There is no evidence to date that a natural-gas pipeline company in Canada suffered such an attack, which the Pentagon documents suggest occurred earlier this year.
Timothy Egan, president and chief executive of the Canadian Gas Association, which represents the natural-gas delivery industry, said he’s following the matter closely – after being contacted by an American journalist on the same documents. However, he said he is not aware of any compromised gas distribution infrastructure in this country or of an attack on it by hackers.
Senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase reports.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, usually written by Ian Bailey, but today Janice Dickson is filling in. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
CANADA’S WATCHDOG FOR CORPORATE WRONGDOING ABROAD IS INEFFECTIVE, ACTIVISTS SAY: The watchdog set up by the federal government to probe corporate wrongdoing abroad is slow, ineffective and has created a process bogged down in bureaucracy, say two of the groups whose complaints sparked the office’s first active cases. Story here.
INTELLIGENCE LEAK HAS U.S. OFFICIALS BRACING FOR IMPACT AT HOME AND ABROAD: The U.S. national security community is grappling with fallout from the release of dozens of secret documents, including the impact on sensitive information-sharing within the government and ties with other countries, two U.S. officials said. Story here.
CHINA’S MILITARY SAYS IT IS ‘READY TO FIGHT’ AFTER CONDUCTING DRILLS NEAR TAIWAN: China’s military declared Monday it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese President’s trip to the U.S. last week. Story here.
INTERNAL DOCUMENTS REVEAL HOW MUCH CONSULTANTS SHAPED THE NATIONAL GALLERY: Consulting companies had profound influence on the National Gallery of Canada’s reimagining over the past few years, with senior management relying on hired guns to help craft the new identity of the country’s premier visual arts institution, documents released through access-to-information requests reveal. Story here.
BACK TO WORK: Companies turn to baristas, free food and socializing to lure employees back to the office. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
ON A BREAK – Both the House of Commons and the Senate are on breaks, with the Commons sitting again on April 17 and the Senate sitting again on April 18.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a personal trip to Montana.
ON THE ROAD – A delegation of Members of Parliament will travel to Taipei at the invitation of Taiwan for meetings with officials this week. The trip is part of the resumption of parliamentary exchanges between Taiwan and Canada now that COVID-19 restrictions have ended. Travel and accommodation for the delegation are being sponsored by the government of Taiwan.
POUTINE WAR – Victory in the poutine war goes to Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux. At least for now. There is a cheesy rivalry between Mr. Champoux and Independent MP (and former Conservative) Alain Rayes. Mr. Champoux claims poutine was invented in Drummondville. Mr. Rayes says Victoriaville. In March, Mr. Reyes issued a challenge to settle the matter with junior hockey. But the Drummondville Voltigeurs upset the Victoriaville Tigres in the playoffs, so Mr. Rayes had to go to Drummondville on Monday night to eat crow by eating poutine in the Drummondville restaurant where it was “invented.”
THE DECIBEL
On Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Kelly Grant tells the story of the world’s most premature twins to survive. Find The Decibel here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how the emerging left-right consensus on housing needs to build with a lot more urgency: “Tell us if you’ve heard this one: Doug Ford, Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau and David Eby walk into a bar …. One can imagine a few comedic punchlines – but in a more serious telling, this seemingly divided quartet of federal and provincial leaders sits down and … agrees on a major policy direction. Upon what difficult issue does this rare left-right consensus coalesce? Housing and the idea that municipalities are moving too slowly in expanding supply. All four leaders, to varying degrees, have slowly come to the obvious conclusion: Canada needs to build a lot more housing. Cities have failed, by leaving in place decades-old zoning rules that prevent needed homes from being built. It’s forced higher levels of government to intervene.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) writes the biggest thing in the budget was Ottawa subsidizing provincial power: “Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers fanned out across the country last week on a postbudget tour to sell a sham “grocery rebate” and tout subsidies to bring factory jobs to Canada. But the most important choice from this spring’s federal budget was a decision to subsidize provincial government corporations. That might sound like government on top of government, but in the end this will be the least-costly type of subsidy in the $80-billion package of industrial incentives unveiled by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in her March 28 budget.”
Bill Waiser (The Globe and Mail) on a curious photo from 1885 that captures what Indigenous reconciliation could have been: “The image of an Indigenous ceremony from the 1880s, discovered in the attic of an old home, was strange, given what it depicted. It proved to contain great symbolism for reconciliation.”
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Janice Dickson