A Tembec softwood lumber operation in Quebec is seen in this file photo.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
Ottawa to back softwood industry with $860-million aid package
Amidst a softwood dispute with the U.S., Justin Trudeau's Liberals are set to announce an $860-million aid package for the lumber industry – but don't call it a bailout. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently slapped duties of as much as 24 per cent on Canadian softwood exports. Now, Ottawa is unveiling a series of measures, including a boost to employment insurance for workers who lose their jobs. (One report estimates the duties will cost the Canadian softwood industry 2,200 jobs.) The Liberals are being careful with the language of the aid package in an effort to prevent the U.S. lumber industry from filing a complaint with trade regulators.
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Heads up to those in Toronto: On June 7, The Globe and Mail is holding a live panel discussion on NAFTA, where we'll examine the future of trade with Canada's biggest partner. Globe journalists Barrie McKenna and Joanna Slater will be joined by experts Dan Ciuriak, Laura Dawson and Michael Kergin. Go here for details and tickets.
Ontario PCs amass record $16-million war chest
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives raised more than $16.1-million last year, compared to just $6.5-million for the governing Liberals. PC Leader Patrick Brown attended hundreds of fundraising events in a bid to bolster his party's finances ahead of next year's election. The big drive for cash also came just ahead of new campaign finance rules, which include a ban on corporate and union donations, that took effect on Jan. 1, 2017. It's the first time the PCs have raised more than the Liberals since 2011. For its part, the provincial NDP raised just over $4.1-million.
Scores killed, Canadian embassy damaged in Kabul bombing
At least 80 people are dead and hundreds more injured after a bombing in the Afghan capital of Kabul yesterday. The bomb, which was hidden in a sewage tanker, exploded during morning rush hour near the German embassy. Several embassies, including Canada's, were damaged in the bombing.
The attack comes at a tense time for Afghanistan's unity government, with its army controlling just 60 per cent of the country's territory. That's down from 70 per cent a year ago, as the Taliban regains ground. The country has also seen an increase in Islamic State fighters. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombing. "The aim was to strike in a big way in a high-security area to amplify that the state is helpless to stop these attacks, and that no one is safe anywhere at any time," said Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
Ottawa police to implement external reviews for sex-assault cases
Ottawa police are committing to an external review system for sexual assault cases, a year-and-a-half after rejecting a proposal to do just that. Ottawa police plan to model their program after one in Philadelphia that dramatically reduced the number of complaints dismissed as unfounded, a designation applied when an investigator believes no crime has occurred. Ottawa police are still working out the details, but will likely work with front-line advocates, an academic and a legal expert to review past cases. A Globe and Mail investigation revealed that one in five cases in Canada are labelled unfounded, twice the rate of other physical assault cases.
THE LOOKAHEAD
A U.S. decision on the Paris climate deal
Donald Trump will announce today whether he's pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. He's widely expected to fulfill a campaign promise and back out of the agreement.
MORNING MARKETS
Oil prices rose on Thursday, lifting energy company shares, on expectations the United States will withdraw from a global pact to fight climate change, while China's yuan shrugged off weak factory data to hit a seven-month high against the U.S. dollar. Tokyo's Nikkei gained 1.1 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.6 per cent, though the Shanghai composite lost 0.5 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.4 and 0.7 per cent by about 4:30 a.m. (ET). New York futures were also up, and the Canadian dollar was just above 74 cents (U.S.).
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
From Paris to pariah: Trump set to exit climate deal
"In a leaked e-mail last year, former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell called President Donald Trump an 'international pariah.' Outlier is a more common descriptive for the President. But the Powell view will find more validation should Mr. Trump, as is being reported, pull out of the Paris climate accord that was accepted by 195 nations, or almost every country on the planet. If the reports are true – and let's hope they're not – down go the hopes for climate control. Given that the United States is the world's largest economy and second-largest greenhouse-gas polluter, the accord will be undermined." – Lawrence Martin
What oil shock? Suddenly, Canada leads G7 in economic growth
"After languishing below the G7 average for the better part of two years as the economy struggled to rebuild from the collapse in oil prices that decimated one of its biggest industries, Canada has emerged as a growth leader among major advanced economies. This no longer looks like a mere bounce-back from a rough first-half of 2015, and the severe but temporary impact of the Fort McMurray wildfires. This looks like an economy that has quite definitively turned the corner." – David Parkinson (for subscribers)
Our kids should be protected from junk-food ads
"We shield our children and young teenagers from many things: Kids 16 and under are protected from overt portrayals of sex and violence on TV and in movies, and from drinking alcohol, smoking, owning guns and signing contracts, to name a few. The reasons we do this are sound. We hope to keep our youth from physical and psychological harm, prevent them from falling into bad habits or taking actions with long-term consequences they may not fully understand. We protect them so they can have the best possible future. Yet we let them down in one vital area: a healthy relationship with food. In this we leave our youth alone and exposed to find their own way in a brutal marketplace." Tom Warshawski, expert with EvidenceNetwork.ca, and Mary Lewis, vice-president of research, advocacy and health promotion at the Heart and Stroke Foundation
HEALTH PRIMER
New guidelines released on screen time for young children
How much time should you let your children spend in front of screens? None if they're under the age of two, according to new guidelines released by the Canadian Paediatric Society. Less than an hour a day is the recommendation or those between ages two and five. That's because infants and toddlers aren't developed enough to learn anything from screens. The main concern is that time spent in front of an iPad or TV is time not spent exercising, talking and exploring.
MOMENT IN TIME
Helen Keller dies in Westport, Conn.
June 1, 1968: The passing of Helen Keller at 87 was front-page news on newspapers worldwide. For the better part of a century, the deaf-blind Alabama native fairly personified human determination. Although born healthy, Keller contracted an illness in infancy that left her blind, deaf and lacking in speech ability. At the age of 7, her parents hired 20-year-old Anne Sullivan, herself blind, to be their daughter's instructor. In agonizing steps, Keller learned to communicate, courtesy of Sullivan's methods. Their relationship later provided fodder for the 1959 play The Miracle Worker and 1962 film, which earned Oscars for Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. During her remarkable lifetime, Keller wrote a dozen books, campaigned for multiple causes and became the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree. In the end, she left this world a soul at peace. "She drifted off in her sleep," said Winifred Corbally, her last companion. "She died gently." – Andrew Ryan
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti.
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