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Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says Canada will temporarily ban the import of handguns into the country without the approval of Parliament, using a regulatory measure that comes into effect in two weeks.

The change will last until a permanent freeze is passed in Parliament and comes into force.

The government tabled gun-control legislation in May that includes a national freeze on the importation, purchase, sale and transfer of handguns in Canada.

The temporary ban will prevent businesses from importing handguns into Canada, with a few exceptions that mirror those in the legislation tabled in May.

Full story here.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. 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

DIPLOMAT SUMMONED – China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it summoned Beijing-based Canadian diplomat Jim Nickel over Canada’s participation in a statement issued by the foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries. Story here.

HISTORIC LOW UNEMPLOYMENT RATE – Canada’s unemployment rate stayed at a historic low of 4.9 per cent in July, remaining unchanged from June as the country continues to face a labour shortage. Story here.

HATE CRIMES SURGE – Canada has experienced a sharp rise in hate crimes targeting religion, sexual orientation and race since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released this week by Statistics Canada. Story here.

JOLY OPEN TO INVESTIGATION – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said she would welcome an investigation into whether Ottawa knew before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that locally hired staff at its Kyiv embassy might be on Russian target lists but didn’t inform them. Story here.

CANADA TO TRAIN UKRAINIAN ARMY RECRUITS – The Canadian government says it’s sending as many as 225 soldiers to help train Ukrainian army recruits for war with Russia, an escalation of Ottawa’s commitment even as a dispute with Kyiv over repairing Russian turbines was on full display on Parliament Hill Thursday. Story here.

CLARITY SOUGHT ON FERTILIZER POLICY – While Conservatives talk about the federal government’s fertilizer emissions goal as part of an “activist agenda,” farmers would like to know what’s being asked of them. Story here from the Regina Leader Post.

ALBERTA CRACKS DOWN ON EMPLOYEE BONUSES – The Alberta government is tightening the rules around employee bonuses in light of the six-figure payout to the chief medical officer of health during COVID-19. Story here.

SENATOR LEAVES CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS – A Quebec senator is leaving the Conservative caucus to join the Canadian Senators Group (CSG), but will remain a member of the Conservative Party. Story here from CBC.

CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE

CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is campaigning digitally. Roman Baber had two Prince Edward Island stops on Friday – Summerside and Charlottetown. Jean Charest was in Montreal. Leslyn Lewis was in Fredericton. Pierre Poilievre was in the Manitoba town of Morris.

POILIEVRE BRINGS FREEDOM PITCH TO MANITOBA – Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre was in Brandon, Man., Thursday, rallying supporters under a platform he says is centred on freedom. Story here from CBC.

OPPORTUNITY IN CPC MEMBERSHIP BOOM: SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES — Some social conservatives view the massive influx of new Conservative Party members as an “opportunity” to strengthen their movement’s influence within the party. Story here from Global News.

THIS AND THAT

The House of Commons is not sitting again until Sept. 19. The Senate is to resume sitting on Sept. 20.

JOLY AND MENDICINO IN TORONTO – Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, in Toronto, announced a temporary handgun import ban.

PETITPAS TAYLOR IN CHARLOTTETOWN – Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, also minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, in Charlottetown, made an announcement regarding support for the delivery of the 2023 Canada Games in Prince Edward Island

THE DECIBEL

New episodes of The Decibel are not being published on Fridays for the months of July and August. You can check previous episodes here.

PRIME MINISTER'S DAY

The Prime Minister is on a two-week vacation in Costa Rica.

LEADERS

No schedules provided for party leaders.

TRIBUTE

RUBY REMEMBERED – Eloquent civil-rights lawyer Clayton Ruby followed his powerful moral compass. An obituary here by Lisa Fitterman.

PUBLIC OPINION

HOCKEY CANADA SETTLEMENT APPROACH RANKLES CANADIANS – An overwhelming majority of Canadians are upset to learn that Hockey Canada used millions of dollars in registration fees from players across the country to pay out sexual-assault settlements without disclosing it, according to a new national poll. Story here.

OPINION

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on how parliamentary hearings on the turbine at the centre of gas dispute might tickle Vladimir Putin’s heart: “If you listened to the House of Commons hearings on the return of a turbine to Russia, you might have imagined you could hear President Vladimir Putin laughing. Here were the German ambassador and the Ukrainian ambassador appearing before a committee of Parliament to argue over Canada’s decision to bend its sanctions against Russia to send the turbine back. This was hours of hearing where MPs noted, among other things, that Western allies are funding Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, while Europe buys the latter’s energy with money that finances Moscow’s war machine.”

Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how the reality that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan annoyed China is all the more reason for her to go: “China may find it provocative that a political leader would visit Taiwan, just as Russia finds it provocative that Ukraine should be a member of NATO. But the provocation in each case resides entirely in their own aggressive designs on their neighbours. Nothing obliges the rest of us to concede the justness of these claims. Indeed, given that both involve a dictatorship threatening a democracy, we are obliged to resist them. If that upsets the delicate sensibilities of the dictators, so be it. That doesn’t mean we should go about randomly poking dictators in the eye, just to get a rise out of them. But neither can our foreign policy be guided entirely by fear of how they might react.”

Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on a dangerous rage sweeping the land: “Politicians have always lived with some level of harassment. But it feels different now. There is an element in our society that has ramped things up, and has become emboldened, feeling that they have almost been given permission to behave in this manner. People ask me about this phenomenon often. Why is this stuff happening with more frequency? Is the anger that’s being directed at politicians, and in particular those who identify as progressive, something we’ve imported from the U. S.? Something is afoot.”

Julia Zarankin (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Russia is destroying the Ukraine of the author’s memory: “I had been planning a trip to Ukraine with my parents when the war began – I’ve long wanted to walk along the Deribasovskaya with my mother and watch a soccer game at the Chernomorets Stadium in Odesa, in honour of my grandfather’s love for the sport, and visit the concert hall in Kharkiv’s State Music Lyceum, where my father played his first solo piano recital. The trip feels particularly urgent now, although I’m terrified of the scars that will greet us when we return. Once it’s safe.”

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