Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau congratulates then-Liberal MP Justin Trudeau after their charity boxing match on March 31, 2012, in Ottawa. Prime Minister Trudeau says he ‘regrets’ comments he made about Mr. Brazeau in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine: ‘I wanted someone who would be a good foil, and we stumbled upon the scrappy tough-guy senator from an Indigenous community. He fit the bill, and it was a very nice counterpoint. ... I saw it as the right kind of narrative, the right story to tell.’Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press
Good morning,
If you were hoping all talk of emails would stay in 2016, then 2017 has likely been a disappointing year. From the hack on then-candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails just days before the French election to Donald Trump Jr.'s email correspondence about meeting a Russian lawyer, emails have been a constant theme of 2017. The latest story, by CNN's Jake Tapper, might just take the cake. It describes how numerous White House officials were tricked into believing that emails sent by a prankster in the U.K. were from members of the administration. The prankster e-mailed since-fired communications director Anthony Scaramucci pretending to be since-fired chief of staff Reince Priebus, eliciting a very real response. Mr. Scaramucci was tricked another time — the prankster chose Russian Ambassador-designate Jon Huntsman — and wrote back that he thought both Mr. Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's heads should roll. The White House is investigating the situation.
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CANADIAN HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he "regrets" the comments he made to Rolling Stone magazine about Senator Patrick Brazeau. He has been criticized in recent days by Indigenous advocates for perpetuating negative stereotypes and making racist and demeaning comments about the charity boxing match between the two men. This is what the prime minister said about the matchup: "I wanted someone who would be a good foil, and we stumbled upon the scrappy tough-guy senator from an Indigenous community. He fit the bill, and it was a very nice counterpoint. I saw it as the right kind of narrative, the right story to tell."
Canadian farmers may see protections for dairy, eggs and poultry as a sacred cow, but a new survey suggests most Canadians would be willing to see them weakened. Canada's supply-management policy is expected to be a major target for U.S. negotiators in upcoming talks to reshape NAFTA, with President Donald Trump calling the system a "disgrace." The dairy industry has been fighting a public-relations campaign to maintain the current system, but a survey by the Angus Reid Institute found 29 per cent of respondents said the federal government should stand firm on the issue; another 26 per cent said supply management should be on the chopping block without any resistance, and 45 per cent say it should be used as a bargaining chip.
A year ago B.C. introduced a foreign-buyers tax to cool a frothy housing market. In the months that followed, governments across the country have grappled with how to cool Canada's real estate market and have introduced or discussed the implementation of a bevy of regulations to ensure the bubble does not burst. Have they succeeded? The Globe's real estate reporter Janet McFarland took a deeper look into the data from one of the most regulated sectors in the Canadian economy.
A former correctional official told a B.C. courtroom that solitary confinement has been overused in Canadian prisons. Bruce Somers was the first federal government witness in a trial examining the constitutionality of keeping inmates in solitary confinement, which advocates have compared to torture.
And CBC's The National has four new hosts. Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton, Andrew Chang and Ian Hanomansing will co-host a revamped program that is set to air live in all six of Canada's time zones. Ms. Barton, who is the host of Power & Politics will stop anchoring the show in the near future, but will continue to work from Ottawa.
Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on a $15 minimum wage: "A lot of well-meaning people argue that businesses that can't afford to pay a decent living wage shouldn't be in business at all. There's an intuitive appeal to that. But then I look around my small town, where so many local business owners – including the organic farms that sell us such tasty, wholesome, righteous food – are barely scraping by. They all want to reduce poverty and inequality. But raising the minimum wage won't do that. It will only make their lives that much more precarious."
Omar Allam (The Globe and Mail) on the Canada-Saudi Arabia relationship: "We face an important choice. We can lead and ensure that the global trading system reflects our shared values and our interests, or we can concede that role to others who don't play by the rules, which will inevitably create a less advantageous position for Canada. Some may think we need to pull back from Saudi Arabia, but there is too much at stake for Canada's global leadership and competitiveness. Now is the time to engage more, not less. The question, then, may not be 'should we take this approach,' but 'can we afford not to?'"
Martin Patriquin (iPolitics) on the Saudi arms deal: "The Canadian government, regardless of stripe, has been willing to permit arms sales to a country with an altogether dodgy human rights record, as well as a documented propensity to attack, murder and otherwise snuff out the democratic expressions of its Shia minority. And to understand exactly why the government would do such business with a psychopathic world actor, one need look only as far as London, Ontario, the key political district where General Dynamics builds the LAV-25."
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
Two Venezuelan opposition leaders were jailed after being seized from their homes on Tuesday. Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma had been under house arrest, but continued encouraging protests in response to Sunday's highly-contested vote to create a new constituent assembly, which will allow Venezuela's government to rewrite the constitution. Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ledezma are vocal critics of President Nicolás Maduro. Mr. Lopez has called for early elections to replace Mr. Maduro, and is known as the international face of Venezuela's opposition. His wife posted a video that appears to show the opposition leader being dragged into a vehicle bearing the name of Venezuela's intelligence agency.
Brazilian president Michel Temer is facing a vote in the country's lower house today on whether he should be suspended and put on trial over a bribery charge filed against him by Brazil's attorney general. The vote will require each member to publicly declare "yes" or "no" to Mr. Temer's suspension. The voting platform is expected to be risky for Mr. Temer, since support for the highly unpopular leader could hurt Brazilian lawmakers in next year's election. In order for Mr. Temer's bribery charges to be suspended, two-thirds of deputies would have to vote against his suspension. If two-thirds vote in favour of his suspension, Mr. Temer could be suspended for up to 180 days while a trial is conducted by the country's highest court. A conviction by that court -- the Supreme Federal Tribunal -- could result in a prison sentence of up to 12 years.
A line of 41 suspects was marched into a Turkish courthouse on Tuesday. Each suspect was handcuffed and escorted by paramilitary police officers. The men in this foreboding line were only a fraction of the 500 people who were put on trial yesterday on charges of leading Turkey's failed July 2016 coup. Since the attempted coup, the Turkish government has imprisoned over 50,000 people, and another 110,000 have been fired from government jobs. The case's main defendant, Fethullah Gülen, will be tried in absentia from the United States. Mr. Gülen and his followers have been blamed for carrying out the coup -- an accusation Mr. Gülen has firmly denied.
Former Pakistani petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected Tuesday to replace ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Mr. Abbasi, a close ally of Mr. Sharif, was confirmed with 221 votes in the 342-seat National Assembly. Officials in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party said Mr. Sharif will continue to wield huge influence in the party through a behind-the-scenes role. Mr. Abbasi is expected to serve as interim leader, until Mr. Sharif's brother Shahbaz Sharif becomes eligible to run in a parliamentary by-election and take over as prime minister. However, Mr. Abbasi told The New York Times in an interview Tuesday that he is "no bench warmer."
And although the Anthony Scaramucci era only lasted 10 days, they may have been some of the most jaw-dropping days in an administration that has been anything but normal. For those of you looking to re-live everything that happened, from the Boy Scouts and transgender troops to Trumpcare failing and the infamous New Yorker interview, the Washington Post has an oral history chronicling Mr. Scaramucci's tenure in D.C.
Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on life after the Mooch: "In the scattershot, morally bankrupt Trump world, there will now be, for the first time, a chain of command. Things should get better not only because the bar is so low they can't get much worse, but because adolescence has been derailed."
Ricardo Hausmann (The Globe and Mail) on Venezuela: "The Maduro government's all-out attack on liberty and democracy is deservedly attracting greater international attention. The Organization of American States and the European Union have issued scathing reports, and the U.S. recently announced new sanctions. But Venezuela's problems are not just political. Addressing the unprecedented economic catastrophe that the government has caused will also require the concerted support of the international community."
The New York Times editorial board on North Korea: "There is no getting away from the fact that China can and should do more to pressure the North to curb its nuclear program. The Chinese don't want Pyongyang to have nuclear weapons. But their greater fear is that North Korea's government could collapse, sending millions of refugees fleeing across the border and effectively handing power over the peninsula to South Korea, which in turn means putting an American ally on China's border."