Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Trudeau on Trans Mountain: Don’t expect short-term fixes to get it back on track
Ottawa needs to fully address environmental and First Nations issues raised in the recent court decision, the Prime Minister said (for subscribers). He did, however, present an optimistic view: “I think when you look at the heart of the decision, the court actually gives a path forward.” Trudeau said his government is weighing a number of options, including an appeal to the Supreme Court; a legislative approach that would shorten the review process; or simply complying with the ruling. But he appeared to rule out a bill that would override the court ruling, saying a “legislative trick” would likely land the government back in court.
Meanwhile, just as it’s forced to reckon with the ruling’s call to address concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the endangered killer whale population, Ottawa has extended the protected area for the species. But environmental groups have filed a lawsuit arguing that the government needs to do more, including protecting the whales’ food source.
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NAFTA needs a dispute mechanism because Trump ‘doesn’t always follow the rules,’ Trudeau says
The Prime Minister said Canada will continue to demand the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism stays in place in a renegotiated trade deal: “We need to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution because that ensures that the rules are actually followed. I mean, we have a President who doesn’t always follow the rules as they’re laid out,” he said. His remarks come as Mexico’s chief NAFTA negotiator said he expects talks between Canada and the U.S. to wrap up by this weekend, with the goal of a trilateral deal next week. (for subscribers)
Britain has named two Russians in the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter
British Prime Minister Theresa May is accusing two Russian intelligence officers of carrying out a “barbaric” nerve-agent attack on Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter, Yulia (both survived the attack in England last March). “This was not a rogue operation,” May said, adding that it was “almost certainly” approved at a senior level of Russia’s government. Vladimir Putin has denied any involvement in the attacks; the Skripal poisoning is one of a string of incidents, and sometimes deaths, among Russians on British soil. While May didn’t call for further diplomatic expulsions, she did talk about toughening existing European Union sanctions against Russia in addition to issuing new ones.
Ottawa is urging the Ontario government to keep supervised drug-use sites running
Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor vowed to work with her provincial counterpart so that Ontario can make “an informed, evidence-based decision that these supervised consumption sites work – that they save lives.” Her remarks come as Premier Doug Ford’s government said it’s reviewing whether to keep the drug-use sites in place. More than 850 health-care providers have sent an open letter to the province urging it to call off the freeze on new sites and to also expand funding for temporary sites.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
A senior Trump administration official said there is a ‘resistance’ from within to counter Trump’s actions
In an anonymous New York Times opinion piece, a senior official claimed to be part of a group “working diligently from within” to impede Trump’s “worst inclinations.” The writer added: “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.” Trump called the piece a “gutless editorial” and later tweeted, “TREASON?” The piece has prompted speculation as to the identity of the author. The Times said it made the rare decision to publish the anonymous piece because of public interest.
MORNING MARKETS
Markets mixed
World shares fell for a fifth straight day on Thursday as investors braced for another escalation in a trade war between the United States and China, while emerging-market currencies paused near 15-month lows. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.5 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.1 and 0.4 by about 5:50 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar was just shy of 76 US cents. Oil prices dipped as emerging market turbulence weighed on sentiment.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
The New Yorker, The Economist and Steve Bannon’s squad of useful idiots
“Steve Bannon is going on tour, and venerable institutions are lining up to host him. This week, the 93-year-old New Yorker and the 175-year-old Economist announced plans to have their editors-in-chief interview Bannon at separate live events this month. Organizers of the Munk Debates revealed that their first decade will be celebrated by having him debate ‘the rise of populism’ with David Frum at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall in November. … despite the big brains inside these institutions, they've become, in this instance, useful idiots. The term refers to someone whose hubris prevents them from seeing they’re being used to spread the message of a nefarious actor. That’s always been Bannon’s goal – in February, he told Bloomberg News that he was never fighting the Democrats in the 2016 election. ‘The real opposition is the media,’ he’s quoted as saying. ‘And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.’ It's a dark plan, and it's worked.” – Denise Balkissoon
The costs of Venezuela’s collapse have spread far and wide
“As Venezuela’s great experiment with Bolivarian socialism implodes, it is creating a humanitarian and refugee crisis comparable to Europe in 2015. Traveling by bus, boat, and even on foot through treacherous terrain, around one million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia alone, and another two million are estimated to be in other, mostly neighbouring, countries. There, they often live in desperately unsafe conditions with little food and no medicine, sleeping anywhere they can. So far, there are no United Nations refugee camps, only modest aid from religious organizations and other NGOs. Hunger and disease are rampant.” – Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University
Not so long ago, gun control was a bipartisan issue
“Partisan politics has been deeply entwined in the gun-control debate in the last 25 years. This was not always the case. The federal government recently announced that Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, is mandated with leading an ‘examination of a full ban on handguns and assault weapons in Canada, while not impeding the lawful use of firearms by Canadians.’ The federal Conservative Party immediately condemned the idea of a handgun ban. … But this strict polarization over handguns is historically unusual in Canada. The availability of cheap, mass-produced revolvers first sparked calls in the late 19th century for federal action to limit the possession or use of pistols. For decades, both the Conservative and Liberal parties passed laws to reduce handgun violence.” – R. Blake Brown, author of Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada
LIVING BETTER
My farmers’ market is filled with honey. How can I make the most of it?
While honey has the same properties as sugar, Lucy Waverman writes that it is more suitable in some recipes since it is a liquid. It can often be found in Moroccan and Middle Eastern cooking, and also balances flavours in salad dressing. Honey can even be a great little addition as a glaze for your meat.
MOMENT IN TIME
First television station CBFT begins transmitting in Montreal
Sept. 6, 1952: Canada experimented with home-grown television broadcasting starting in the 1930s, around the time the BBC pioneered its own public TV, but went nearly two decades without a permanent channel. By 1952, thousands of Canadians mostly in southern Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia were tuning into American broadcasts beamed northward. Under the government of Louis St. Laurent, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation finally went ahead with a Canadian station. The first to air was CBFT-TV in Montreal, which began its first broadcast day with an American movie – Aladdin and his Lamp. Toronto’s CBC station would launch two days later. (The station ID was accidentally broadcast upside down and backwards.) The most popular offerings in the early days reflected a distinctly Canadian broadcasting mix: Foreign Intrigue, an American spy show; Holiday Ranch, a Canadian English-language variety show; and the locally produced French-language musical program, Roi Dagobert. The CBC operation in Montreal would be split into separate French and English language channels in 1954. Canadians were pleased to have their own televisions: They owned 146,000 TV sets when CBFT launched. By 1955, they owned 2.3 million. Two networks, CTV and the French-language TVA, expanded the dial to private television in 1961. – Les Perreaux
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Arik Ligeti