Brad Trost joined a couple hundred parents gathered outside the provincial legislature to protest Liberal changes to the way sex education is taught in the province.Liam Richards/The Canadian Press
CANADIAN POLITICS
One of the largest annual demonstrations on Parliament Hill is happening today: the March for Life, which calls for an end to legalized abortion. Two Conservative leadership candidates, Pierre Lemieux and Brad Trost, will address the crowds.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will spend the morning away from the Hill, first surveying flood damage in Quebec, then talking about technology in Toronto.
A report by auditing firm KPMG that was commissioned by the government (and obtained by The Globe) warns that the Canada Infrastructure Bank should be studied carefully. "The government needs to be extremely careful of policy and financial considerations when trying to incorporate user fees into Canadian infrastructure projects," the report says. The Liberals have allotted about two hours of parliamentary study to the bank.
The inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women is facing further delays and is expected to only begin talking to most families this fall. The inquiry must file its first report by Nov. 1.
CBC reports that the Department of National Defence has not been forthcoming with information about misfired airstrikes in Iraq.
Andy Ellis, a top Canadian Security Intelligence Service official until last year, says Canada's no-ransom policy for kidnapping victims needs to be rethought.
And Pierre Beaudoin is stepping down from his executive role at Bombardier, though he will continue as a non-executive chairman. The manufacturer reported a $31-million quarterly loss this morning. Major institutional investors were concerned that the company was giving executives large bonuses, while receiving new injections of public money and laying off workers.
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Bombardier: "Bombardier's defenders insist it has turned the corner since Mr. Bellemare's hiring. But the company still faces such enormous challenges – a massive debt load, no recent C Series sales, a looming trade war with Boeing, executives at its Swedish division facing bribery allegations – that taxpayers and minority shareholders need assurance that he can actually do his job free of unhelpful family meddling."
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Question Period: "Take a peek at the newly established Prime Minister's Question Period. In this special weekly event, one person, the PM, faces all queries. On Wednesday, it was mainly one question, over and over again, 18 times. But there was no answer. Every time, Justin Trudeau delivered a rote non-answer. Sometimes, he blathered on about something else."
Laura Colella and Marnie Mitchel (Ottawa Citizen) on the anti-abortion rally: "Given the very real and very recent concerns about safety, security and respect – including respect for client's rights to safely access sexual and reproductive health services – [Ottawa Mayor Jim] Watson's support for the Campaign Life Coalition and their intolerant, anti-choice agenda is even more troubling."
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U.S. POLITICS
Days before being fired, FBI Director James Comey had requested more resources to probe the connections between the Republican presidential campaign and Russian officials.
President Donald Trump met with Russia's foreign minister in the Oval Office yesterday, and some security experts are concerned about the level of access given to a Russian state-agency photographer -- such as the possibility that a surveillance device could be planted.
Mr. Trump will welcome Turkey's autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Washington next week.
And the Economist talks to President Trump:
It sounds like you're imagining a pretty big renegotiation of NAFTA. What would a fair NAFTA look like?
Big isn't a good enough word. Massive.
Huge?
It's got to be. It's got to be.
What would it look like? What would a fair NAFTA look like?
No, it's gotta be. Otherwise we're terminating NAFTA.
What would a fair NAFTA look like?
I was all set to terminate, you know?
Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on Trump: "At worst, if Mr. Trump tilts further into demagoguery, Mr. Trudeau risks appearing to have sided against the American people by empowering a leader that the vast majority of them are opposed to and offended by. It could put Mr. Trudeau in a bloc of world leaders who are contributing to the problem, not the solution."
Dana Milbank (Washington Post) on Senate Republicans: "[Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell's small-mindedness would be funny if the situation weren't so grave. This is a serious threat, not to Republicans but to America. A leading adversary successfully intervened in a presidential election — possibly with the collusion of the victor. And the man leading the investigation, who just last week asked for more resources for the probe, was instead fired by the man he asked (new deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein), quite likely on the president's instructions."
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NHL PLAYOFFS
The Edmonton Oilers were eliminated by the Ducks in Game 7 in Anaheim, Calif., last night. As teams move into the conference finals, there is just one Canadian squad left: the Ottawa Senators, who begin their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins this weekend.
Written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa.
Chris Hannay