Good morning,
The federal cabinet’s move to block the $1.5-billion takeover of Canadian construction giant Aecon by a Chinese state-owned firm will likely cause a rift with Beijing. The Liberal cabinet concurred with a national-security review that decided the takeover was not in Canada’s best interest. The Chinese government said this morning it was open to making reprisals.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam i n Toronto 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.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
MPs could decide today to finally hang a memorial to Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Sharpe in the halls of Parliament. Lt.-Col. Sharpe was one of two MPs who died as a result of his service during the First World War. The other, Lieutenant-Colonel George Baker, is already recognized on Parliament Hill. But Lt.-Col. Sharpe has been passed over, likely because he killed himself while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Friday will be 100 years to the day since he died.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank finally has a CEO: Pierre Lavallée, a former senior executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The bank is a cornerstone of the the Liberal government’s infrastructure spending plan, which has been slow to get all its money out the door. The search for a CEO took nearly a year, and sources tell The Globe other candidates for the job turned it down.
The government will commit $300-million to helping Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Patrick Brown, former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, has called for more oversight in candidate nominations by having Elections Ontario act as a watchdog for party nomination races. A raft of allegations about the Ontario Tories’ bitter nomination process have emerged, including some that touch directly on leader Doug Ford. A Globe and Mail investigation found widespread evidence of interference in the local democratic process for the Progressive Conservatives while Mr. Brown was leader. Allegations involve ballot-box stuffing, ineligible voters and fake memberships. Mr. Brown resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct by two women.
Canada’s cannabis industry is helping to grow marijuana cultivation as an emerging industry in Africa. Lesotho and Zimbabwe have legalized growing cannabis for medicinal and scientific uses and both are looking to turn it into an export crop.
The White House is taking aim at its NAFTA allies by threatening to impose tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imported vehicles. Earlier yesterday U.S. President Donald Trump said Canada had been “very difficult to deal with” and that it was “very spoiled.”
Yulia Skripal, who survived a nerve agent attack that authorities blame on Russia, has spoken out about her experience. Her father, Sergei, is a former Russian spy and was also poisoned. Britain and Russia have been engaged in a tense diplomatic standoff in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.
Jared Kushner, son-in-law of and senior adviser to the President, has seen his security clearance restored.
Sweden has outlawed sex without mutual consent, and activists are hoping that other European countries will follow suit by toughening legislation.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei laid out a series of conditions that must be met to ensure that Iran stays in the nuclear deal after the United States left. He said that Europe must protect trade and investment with Iran and guarantee oil sales.
Violence between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region escalated as soldiers from both sides shelled villages and border posts for the sixth straight day. Both countries blame each other for initiating the hostilities.
And it turns out that @realDonaldTrump can’t block you on Twitter. That’s according to a district judge in New York who ruled that blocking Twitter users from viewing the President’s tweets violates their right to free speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on Canada and China: “But with Wednesday’s cabinet decision to prohibit the sale of Canadian construction firm Aecon to a Chinese state-owned enterprise, Canada has said enough. Whatever the opportunities presented by China, the challenges of intellectual-property theft and compromised security are too great. If the Chinese want to rule the world, they must get there on their own, not by buying or stealing Western knowledge or innovation.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Conservatives in the Senate: “On the marijuana bill, the Conservatives’ goal is clear. They want a stage to highlight what they say are the flaws in the way cannabis will be legalized. Once passed, they will use it to pin problems that occur on the Liberal government. A good way to highlight those alleged flaws now is to force a debate on amendments.”
Amanda Carling (The Globe and Mail) on pleading guilty when innocent: “Every day innocent people – a disproportionate number of them First Nations, Inuit and Métis people – plead guilty to crimes they did not commit (and sometimes crimes that did not happen). A lucky few receive a remedy, but typically only after hundreds of hours of pro bono work and court time are spent fixing the problem. This is compounded by the money spent incarcerating the innocent and the harm that may be caused by the truly guilty party who has gone free.”
Stephen Aylward (The Globe and Mail) on your front lawn: “Lawn signs are an important form of political expression but they are also a source of conflict, pitting household occupants against each other in a battle for control of the front lawn. Single-family homes can usually sort out signage rights without too much friction, but things are trickier for landlords and tenants. Ontario tenants will be surprised to learn that the law protects their landlords’ anti-clutter aesthetic more than their right to political expression.”
Chantal Hébert (Toronto Star) on Liberals in Ontario and Quebec :“It is hard to sell voters on ambitious promises when one’s party has been in power for most of the past two decades. In hindsight, it may be that Wynne and Couillard were always going to live on borrowed time.”
Andrew Coyne (National Post) on the election reform bill: “Just because a policy is to the advantage or otherwise of a party doesn’t make it bad policy. We can surely agree that eliminating foreign influence from Canadian elections, for example, is a good thing: that this might benefit the Tories or disbenefit the Liberals is secondary. Neither is a bad policy saved merely because it is unclear which party might profit from it most.”
Colin Robertson (The Globe and Mail) on NAFTA: “The Trump approach is to divide and conquer. Ending our alignment with Mexico would play right into U.S. hands. There is still much more that unites Canada and Mexico and much more to be gained by working together.”
Zhiqun Zhu (The Globe and Mail) on China and the Trump-Kim meeting: “Mr. Xi’s support for North Korea’s shift to economic development suggests that China will likely ease sanctions against North Korea soon, despite Mr. Trump’s claim that he and Mr. Xi agreed to keep the sanctions on until North Korea denuclearizes.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Trump and Iran: “The Trump administration is rolling the dice by pulling out of the JCPOA. What comes next if Iran balks, as it will? Strategies can be overrated, but by having no strategy at all, Mr. Trump’s Iranian policy is an accident waiting to happen. All we can hope for is that it’s a happy one. What are the odds of that?” (for subscribers)
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Chris Hannay
Mayaz Alam
James Keller