Politics Briefing newsletter: Sources reveal Canadian strategy for NAFTA

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Good morning,

Last week in Vietnam, Canada showed itself to be a hard bargainer at the Trans Pacific Partnership talks. Now it will have to repeat the feat, but with a tougher audience: the United States. North American free trade agreement talks resume in Mexico City later this week and sources tell The Globe that Canada plans to stand firm against U.S. protectionism. It may give, however, on matters of red tape, e-commerce and coveted access to the dairy market.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

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TODAY'S HEADLINES

In the Philippines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised the issue of human rights abuses in a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte -- something Donald Trump did not do the day before. Mr. Trudeau was not, however, able to solve the problem of thousands of pounds of Canadian household waste that is sitting floating at a Philippine port.

AGF Management, a seller of mutual funds, has reached a settlement with the Canada Revenue Agency for tens of millions of dollars based on how the company handled its money with overseas subsidiaries during a time when Finance Minister Bill Morneau sat on the board.

More than 50 criminal defence lawyers are urging Ottawa to rethink how it approaches impaired driving when recreational marijuana is legal next year. The government is rushing toward a self-imposed deadline of July, but there is still considerable debate about how much THC – the main psychoactive component of cannabis – would make someone impaired, or even how to test for it. The group of lawyers say in their letter that the proposed limit of two nanograms is too low and would unfairly sweep up medical users, who they argue are affected differently.

The tenure of former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell is the subject of a new book, with more than a dozen academics evaluating his time in office. Mr. Campbell was elected in 2001 when the BC Liberal Party came to power, serving until Christy Clark succeeded him in 2011. The book's editors begin by describing him as an accomplished leader who had a vision for the province, but also one who was "obstinate, impulsive, and even detached." Mr. Campbell says the authors are entitled to their opinion. He just wishes they had contacted him for the project.

Calgary's city council is considering spending another $2-million to study a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The city's Calgary Bid Exploration Committee has put the eventual cost of hosting the games at $4.6-billion, but warned of potential debt and didn't take a position on whether it would be worth it.

Britain's Conservative minority government says it will allow Members of Parliament to vote and debate legislation setting the terms for the country's withdrawal from the European Union. The move is a concession to backbenchers who are wary about Brexit's terms.

Over 15,000 scientists have signed a letter saying that because humans have made such little headway in addressing climate change and other environmental problems, the Earth is on the road to mass extinction.

Saudi Arabia appears to be trying to walk back some of its moves in the region as tensions escalate.

Hackers who work for the United States' National Security Agency say a series of leaks -- or successful cyberattacks -- has lowered morale and seriously impeded operations.

The White House is wondering if it can give Attorney-General Jeff Sessions his old job back in light of accusations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct.

And an American expert on North Korea, who routinely meets with representatives of the regime, says the North Koreans have one overriding question about U.S. President Donald Trump: "They want to know if he's crazy or if this is just an act."

Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on free speech: "Today, university campuses are where free speech goes to die. Undesirable speakers are cancelled or shut down and unpopular opinions are suppressed. The inheritors of the counterculture believe that free expression is like kryptonite – so deadly that it will cause lethal damage unless it is contained or neutralized."

Debra Soh (The Globe and Mail) on free speech: "Like many, I believed this would be a passing phase, but instead I now see how ideology has mutated not just policy and education, but scientific inquiry. Studies in the hard sciences – including neuroscience, biology and sexology – now tout findings that are politically driven. Academic researchers actively choose to play along because they know that doing so will be lucrative for them; others are terrified of the public backlash they will endure if they don't."

Allison Hanes (Montreal Gazette) on Quebec's face-covering law: "The longer it takes for the Supreme Court to shed light on this question of minority rights, the longer the toxic societal debate will drag on. It has been raging for over a decade now in Quebec and purported solutions have only exacerbated, rather than allayed, divisions."

Anne Applebaum (Washington Post) on Poland's far-right march: "Polish police, once trained to protect the public against neo-fascists, this time arrested 50 members of a pro-democracy group that staged a counter-protest, though they did nothing to stop 'patriots' from beating up another group of counter-protesters. State media, which is now a mouthpiece for the ruling party, covered the march extensively and positively. As of this writing, no senior government politicians have clearly condemned the slogans or the organizers."